280

INFLUENCE OF PAINE'S POLITICAL WRITINGS.

trious physician proposed to him to write a work to prepare the American mind for independence. This was towards the close of 1774. After reading the manuscript, he advised the author to show it to Franklin and Samuel Adams, since,' said he, 'they hold the same views and principles.'

Franklin approved of it heartily, and it soon appeared as it came from Paine's pen, with only one passage struck out, for some reason which Doctor Rush could not explain ;—' since,' he says, 'it was one of the most striking passages in the essay':-'a greater absurdity cannot be conceived of, than three millions of people running to their sea-coast, every time a ship arrives from London, to know what portion of liberty they should enjoy.' It was agreed that the paper would help America, and make trouble for England.' 'What shall be the title ?' inquired Rush. 'Call it Plain Truth,' answered Paine. 'I think,' said the Doctor, 'I have a better title: why not call it Common Sense?' Thus christened, Robert Bell, 'an intelligent Scotch bookseller and printer in Philadelphia, whom I knew,' said Dr. Rush, 'to be as high toned as Mr. Paine upon the subject of American independence,' and bold enough withal to risk its publication, brought it out. He continues :- Common Sense bursted from the press in a few days with an effect which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or country.'

2

This pamphlet of forty octavo pages, holding out relief by proposing INDEPENDENCE to an oppressed and despairing people, was published in January, 1776. Speaking the language which the Colonists had felt, but not thought, its popularity, terrible in its consequences to the parent country, was unexampled in the history of the press. At first, involving the Colonists, it was thought, in the crime of rebellion, and pointing to a road leading inevitably to ruin, it was read with indignation and alarm: but when the reader-and everybody read it—recovering from the first shock, reperused it, its arguments nourishing his feelings, and appealing to his pride, reanimated his hopes, and satisfied his understanding, that COMMON SENSE, backed by the resources and force of the Colonies, poor and feeble as they were, could alone rescue them from the unqualified oppression with which they were threatened. The unknown author, in the moments of enthusiasm which succeeded, was hailed as an angel sent from heaven to save from all the horrors of slavery, by his timely, powerful, and unerring counsels, a faithful, but abused, a brave, but a misrepresented people.3

1 Alluding to the predominant wishes of the Colonists soon after his arrival, Paine says in the Seventh number of the Crisis:- I found the disposition of the people such that they might have been led by a thread, and governed by a reed. Their attachment to Britain was obstinate, and it was at that time a kind of treason to speak against it; they disliked the ministry, but they esteemed the nation. Their idea of grievance operated without resentment, and their single object was reconciliation.'

Also in the Crisis number Three :-Independence was a doctrine scarce and rare, even towards the conclusion of the year 1775. All our politics had been founded on the hope or expectation of making the matter up-a hope which, though general on the side of America, had never entered the head or heart of the

British Court.'

Nothing could be better timed than the performance. In union with the feelings and sentiments

of the people, it produced surprising effects. Many thousands were convinced, and were led to approve and long for a separation from the mother country; though that measure, a few months before, was not only foreign from their wishes, but the object of their abhorrence, the current suddenly became so strong in its favor, that it bore down all before it.-Ramsay's Revo lution, vol. i. pp. 336-37, London, 1793.

The publications which have appeared have greatly promoted the spirit of independency, but no one so much as the pamphlet, under the signature of Common Sense, written by Mr. Thomas Paine, an Englishman. Nothing could have been better timed than this performance. It has produced most astonishing effects.Gordon's Revolution, vol. ii. p. 78, New York, 1794 The Life of Thomas Paine, by James Cheetham. New York. 1809.

COMMON SENSE AND THE CRISIS.

281

He

No man of his day wrote with so much power as Thomas Paine. was the boldest political thinker living. He was a stranger to elegance of dic. tion, which he was indisposed to cultivate. But he thought clearly, and wrote in sound, plain, forcible language. Every sentence was struck off with the strength and heat, and went with the ring of the blacksmith's anvil. From the pen of an Irving, or Chesterfield, those terrible leaves would have fallen upon the popular mind, as gently as the downiest feathers, and as cold as the gauziest snow-flakes. From the heated laboratory of Paine, they struck like the thunderbolts of Jove. The pamphlet set the national heart on fire. The country was ready for it, as the prairie is inade ready by a long drought for the first kindling spark. Since the days of Peter the wondrous Hermit, no such words had been uttered in the ears of men. All glory to the man who uttered them.' Whatever excesses Paine may have been guilty of in later life, he is universally believed to have indulged in none at this period. Those were the days of a higher inspiration in the soul of the author of Common Sense, and THE CRISIS, than ever springs from the fitful excitement of alcohol. To state that large editions of Paine's Common Sense' followed each other in quick succession from the press, gives us but a faint idea of its circulation. The principal newspapers of the country reprinted the most striking portions; extracts were made in all the correspondence of the times; it was read in every family, in every group, in every assembly, and in the legislatures and conventions of all the Colonies. In fact, it formed the chief subject of conversation and debate for many months together.'

In his Rights of Man,' Part Second, adverting to the beginning of his Revolutionary labors in America, Paine says: I saw an opportunity in which I thought I could do some good, and I followed exactly what my heart dictated. I neither read books, nor studied other people's opinions.' A more prejudiced or ill-tempered biography could hardly be written than Cheetham's

1 It reminds us of what Abraham Lincoln said about the hero of Vicksburg, when somebody told him he drank hard; Won't you then, my dear fellow,' said he, tell me what brand he uses, and I will order a supply for every general in the army.'

2 After a fruitless search for a printed copy of a grand oration on the 4th July, 1832, at Hartford, by Mr. Gillett, I throw myself on my recollection for one scathing passage on the curse of rum. 'Neither were the dauntless sons of Carthage, under its fitful excitement when they followed the consummate Hannibal over the Alps, routed the enemy on the field of Cannae, and carried consternation to the gates of the seven-hilled city.'

In his Rise of the Republic, Mr. Frothingham cites the following extracts from the newspapers of the period:- New England Chronicle' of March 28th, 1776, copies the appendix to Common Sense,' writ ten by Paine, with the following remarks: The pub lic in general having read, and (excepting a few timid Whigs and disguised Tories), loudly applauded that truly excellent pamphlet entitled "Common Sense," our readers will doubtless be pierced with the following appendix,' etc. The Boston Gazette. April 29, 1776, has the following: Had the spirit of prophecy directed the birth of a publication, it could not have fallen upon a more fortunate period than the time in which "Common Sense" inade its appearance. The minds of men are now swallowed up in attention to an object the most momentous and important that ever yet employed the deliberations of a people.'

31.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post' of Feb. 13, 1776, contains a letter from Maryland, dated Feb. 6, which says: If you know the author of "Common Sense," tell him he has done wonders and worked miracles, made Tories Whigs, and made blackamores white. He has made a great number of converts here.' The same paper, March 26, contains a letter, dated Charleston, Feb. 14, which says: Who is the author of "Common Sense"? I cannot refrain from adoring him. He deserves a statue of gold.' A letter dated Georgetown, South Carolina, March 17, 1776, says: "Common Sense' bath made independents of the majority of the country, and Gadsden is as mad with it as he ever was without it. -Proceedings of Massachusetts Historical Society, 1869, 1870, 254.-Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, pp. 479-480.

1

282

INFLUENCE OF THE CRISIS ON THE ARMY.

'Life of Paine.'' But there is something sweet in praise from such a quarter, for it is flavored with the odor which emanates from the extortion of justice. The CRISIS, Paine's next work, soon began to come out in numbers. Of the effect of the first, Cheetham says :-'Paine now accompanied the army of independence as a sort of itinerant writer, of which his pen was an appendage almost as necessary and formidable as its cannon. Having no property, he fared as the army fared, and at the same expense; but to what mess he was attached I have not been able to learn, although from what I hear and know, it must, I think, though he was sometimes admitted into higher company, have been a subaltern one. When the colonists drooped he revived them with a CRISIS.' The first of these numbers he published early in December, 1776. The object of it was good, the method excellent, and the language suited to the depressed spirits of the army, of public bodies, and to private citizens, cheering. WASHINGTON defeated on Long Island, had retreated to New York, and been driven with great loss from Forts Washington and Lee. The gallant little army, overwhelmed with a rapid succession of misfortunes, was dwindling away, and all seemed to be over with the cause, when scarcely a blow had been struck. 'These,' said the CRISIS, 'are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph; what we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly!'

'The number was read in the camp to every corporal's guard, and in the army and out of it, had more than the intended effect. The Convention of New York, reduced by dispersion occasioned by alarm, to nine members, was rallied and reanimated. Militiamen who, already tired of the war, were straggling from the army, returned. Hope succeeded despair, cheerfulness to gloom, and firmness to irresolution. To the confidence which it inspired. may be attributed much of the brilliant little affair which in the same month followed at Trenton.''

The publication of the serial 'Crisis' continued until April 19th, 1783, when peace had been substantially concluded. During this long period, the seventeen numbers had been issued, each adapted to the exigency as it arose,

1 Cheetham had been an enthusiastic admirer and disciple of Paine, and a noisy advocate of his political and religious opinions. Vale, who subsequently wrote a fairer life of Paine, overthrows many of his statements, showing that he became the libeller of the author of Common Sense, only after he had deserted the cause of Republicanism, and had sold himself out to the British party.

Immediately after the death of Paine, Cheetham wrote his life in 1809. Cheetham was an Englishman, and had been a zealous disciple of Paine, both in politics and religion; but he had retrograded in politics, and deserted the principles of the democratic party; Paine had attacked him with his accustomed force, and thus converted him into a personal enemy. Mr. Cheetham at this time edited a party paper (the Citizen) in New York, and while he was yet smarting under the lash of Paine, heated by party politics, and fired with revenge, like the ass in the fable, he kicked, not indeed

the dying, but the dead lion, by writing the life of his adversary. Cheetham, however, connected this with a scheme of interest; for becoming the deadly enemy of democracy, and losing the support of his old friends (for he was turned out of the Tammany Society), he was preparing to go to Europe, and enlist in support of the Tory government in England, by publishing a paper opposed to Cobbett, who had just come out in opposition to the government; and Cheetham apparently meant this life of Paine as a passport to the British treasury favor: at least, such was the opinion of the intimate friend of Cheetham, Mr. Charles Christian, who gave this relation to Mr. John Fellows and others, whom we have seen, and from whom we have learned this fact. This life of Paine, the only one published in the United States, abounds in calumnies.' Vale's Life of Thomas Paine, p. 4.

2 Cheetham's Life of Paine, pp. 55-56.

NATIONAL GRATITUDE TO PAINE.

283

and each producing the effect designed-some with less, others with greater power. Of this performance Cheetham remarks: He, who, if not the sug gester, was the ablest literary advocate of independence, could do no less, when independence was acquired, than salute the nation on the great event. He is not, however, content with proudly reflecting on past, and triumphantly revelling in present circumstances. He still looks forward, still suggests, still advises. He points to the formation of a national character-that broad and solid foundation of national safety, happiness, greatness and glory-and sternly recommends an union of the States.'

1

At the close of the war, Washington proposed to Congress to make some permanent provision for Paine; for in addition to his great services as a writer, he had for nearly two years acted as Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and been influential in assisting Laurens, who had been sent on a mission to France, to obtain a loan in 1781. 'It would be pleasing to me,' said Washington to a member of the Congress, and perhaps obviate charges of ingratitude, if Congress should place him in a state of ease. I have offered Paine a seat at my own table, but he would doubtless prefer something more independent.' The following resolution was ultimately passed :- Resolved, That the early, unsolicited, and continued labors of Mr. Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late Revolution, by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of liberty and civil government, have been well received by the citizens of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress; and that in consideration of these services and the benefits produced thereby, Mr. Paine is entitled to a liberal gratification from the United States.' The sum of three thousand dollars was thus presented to him. The Legislature of Pennsylvania voted him five hundred pounds. But New York, in a more munificent spirit, gave him the confiscated estate of Frederick Davoe, an obnoxious Tory. This beautiful estate of upwards of three hundred acres, in high cultivation, with a fine, spacious, stone mansion of one hundred and twenty feet in length, and corresponding outbuildings, lying at New Rochelle, in the County of Westchester, was a fitting home for the greatest of all democratic writers.

1 Washington's Invitation to Paine.

'Rocky Hill, Sept. 10, 1783. 'I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are at Bordentown. Whether for the sake of retirement, or economy, I know not. Be it for either, for both, or whatever it may, if you will come to this place and partake with me, shall be exceedingly happy to see you at it.

'Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this country; and if it is in my power to im press them, command my best exertions with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who enter. tains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, with much pleasure, subscribes himself, Your sin cere friend, G. WASHINGTON.'-Vale's Life of Thos. Paine, P, 70.

284

CONSOLIDATION AND STATESMANSHIP.

SECOND PERIOD.

1776-1815.

CONSOLIDATION AND STATESMANSHIP.

FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, TO THE CLOSE OF THE SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND.

SECTION FIRST.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

THE hour had at last come for the final step to be taken, which was to rend forever the Thirteen Colonies from the throne of Great Britain. Scarcely three months had passed since the English troops had been driven out of Boston, and the shadow of great war was spreading over the whole country. Nearly every provincial Assembly had spoken in favor of Independence. But still the Colonial Congress hesitated on the verge of the abyss which a single act would lay open at their feet, while the nation itself seemed ready for the last decisive movement.

For many days a feeling of dread had been coming over the minds of the delegates. A murky gloom pervaded the Hall where their deliberations were held. Richard Henry Lee had already displayed the high qualities of a statesman, and his soul glowed with patriotic fervor. He rose in his place, and in the rich tones which gave so magical a charm to his eloquence, read in a clear deliberate voice, the great Resolution which so far transcended the action of Congress on the 10th of May, recommending the establishment of independent State governments in all the Colonies, that it was rather the expression of the popular will of the country-could it have been heard that day—than the will of Congress itself. It embraced the three great subjects -a Declaration of Independence, a Confederation of the States, and Treaties with Foreign Powers-and was in the following words :-'That the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and Great Britain is, and ought to be totally dissolved.

'That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign alliances.