The Life Of Thomas Paine Volume I Part 5

* Notes and Queries (Eng.), series 3 and 5. See also in Lippincotts Maga-rine, May, 1889, my paper embodying the correspondence of Washington and Boucher.

But on April 19th came the "ma.s.sacre at Lexington," as it was commonly called. How great a matter is kindled by a small fire! A man whose name remains unknown, forgetful of Captain Parker's order to his minute-men not to fire until fired on, drew his trigger on the English force advancing to Concord; the gun missed fire, but the little flash was answered by a volley; seven men lay dead. In the blood of those patriots at Lexington the Declaration of Independence was really written. From town-meetings throughout the country burning resolutions were hurled on General Gage in Boston, who had warned Major Pitcairn, commander of the expedition, not to a.s.sume the offensive. From one county, Mecklenburg, North Carolina, were sent to Congress twenty resolutions pa.s.sed by its committee, May 31st, declaring "all laws and commissions confirmed by or derived from the authority of the King and Parliament are anulled and vacated," and that, "whatever person shall hereafter receive a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country."*

* These resolutions further organized a provisional government to be in force until "the legislative body of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions with respect to America." In 1819 a number of witnesses stated that so early as May 20th Mecklenburg pa.s.sed an absolute Declaration of Independence, and it is possible that, on receipt of the tidings from Lexington, some popular meeting at Charlottetown gave vent to its indignation in expressions, or even resolutions, which were tempered by the County Committee eleven days later. The resolutions embodying the supposit.i.tious "Declaration," written out (1800) from memory by the alleged secretary of the meeting (Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander), are believed by Dr. Welling to be "an honest effort to reproduce, according to the best of his recollection, the facts and declarations contained in the genuine ma.n.u.scripts of May 31, after that manifesto had been forgotten."--(North American Review, April, 1874.) But the testimony is very strong in favor of two sets of resolutions.

Many years after the independence of America had been achieved, William Cobbett, on his return to England after a long sojourn in the United States, wrote as follows:

"As my Lord Grenville introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord, to introduce that of a man who put this Burke to shame, who drove him off the public stage to seek shelter in the pension list, and who is now named fifty million times where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once. The cause of the American colonies was the cause of the English Const.i.tution, which says that no man shall be taxed without his own consent.... A little thing sometimes produces a great effect; an insult offered to a man of great talent and unconquerable perseverance has in many instances produced, in the long run, most tremendous effects; and it appears to me very clear that some beastly insults, offered to Mr. Paine while he was in the Excise in England, was the real cause of the Revolution in America; for, though the nature of the cause of America was such as I have before described it; though the principles were firm in the minds of the people of that country; still, it was Mr.

Paine, and Mr. Paine alone, who brought those principles into action."

In this pa.s.sage Cobbett was more epigrammatic than exact. Paine, though not fairly treated, as we have seen, in his final dismissal from the excise, was not insulted. But there is more truth in what Cobbett suggests as to Paine's part than he fully realized. Paine's unique service in the work of independence may now be more clearly defined.

It was that he raised the Revolution into an evolution. After the "Lexington ma.s.sacre" separation was talked of by many, but had it then occurred America might have been another kingdom. The members of Congress were of the rich conservative "gentry," and royalists. Had he not been a patriot, Peyton Randolph, our first president, would probably have borne a t.i.tle like his father, and Washington would certainly have been knighted. Paine was in the position of the abolitionists when the secession war began. They also held peace principles, and would have scorned a war for the old slave-holding union, as Paine would have scorned a separation from England preserving its political inst.i.tutions.

The war having begun, and separation become probable, Paine hastened to connect it with humanity and with republicanism. As the abolitionists resolved that the secession war should sweep slavery out of the country, Paine made a brave effort that the Revolution should clear away both slavery and monarchy. It was to be in every respect a new departure for humanity. So he antic.i.p.ated the Declaration of Independence by more than eight months with one of his own, which was discovered by Moreau in the file of the _Pennsylvania Journal_, October 18th.*

* Mr. Moreau mentions it as Paine's in his MS. notes in a copy of Cheetham's book, now owned by the Pennsylvania Historical Society. No one familiar with Paine's style at the time can doubt its authorship.

"A SERIOUS THOUGHT.

"When I reflect on the horrid cruelties exercised by Britain in the East Indies--How thousands perished by artificial famine--How religion and every manly principle of honor and honesty were sacrificed to luxury and pride--When I read of the wretched natives being blown away, for no other crime than because, sickened with the miserable scene, they refused to fight--When I reflect on these and a thousand instances of similar barbarity, I firmly believe that the Almighty, in compa.s.sion to mankind, will curtail the power of Britain.

"And when I reflect on the use she hath made of the discovery of this new world--that the little paltry dignity of earthly kings hath been set up in preference to the great cause of the King of kings--That instead of Christian examples to the Indians, she hath basely tampered with their pa.s.sions, imposed on their ignorance, and made them the tools of treachery and murder--And when to these and many other melancholy reflections I add this sad remark, that ever since the discovery of America she hath employed herself in the most horrid of all traffics, that of human flesh, unknown to the most savage nations, hath yearly (without provocation and in cold blood) ravaged the hapless sh.o.r.es of Africa, robbing it of its unoffending inhabitants to cultivate her stolen dominions in the West--When I reflect on these, I hesitate not for a moment to believe that the Almighty will finally separate America from Britain. Call it Independancy or what you will, if it is the cause of G.o.d and humanity it will go on.

"And when the Almighty shall have blest us, and made us a people _dependent only upon him_, then may our first grat.i.tude be shown by an act of continental legislation, which shall put a stop to the importation of Negroes for sale, soften the hard fate of those already here, and in time procure their freedom.

"Huma.n.u.s."

{1776}

CHAPTER VI. "COMMON SENSE"

In furrows ploughed deep by lawless despotism, watered with blood of patriots, the Thetford Quaker sowed his seed--true English seed. Even while he did so he was suspected of being a British spy, and might have been roughly handled in Philadelphia had it not been for Franklin.

Possibly this suspicion may have arisen from his having, in the antislavery letter, asked the Americans "to consider with what consistency or decency they complain so loudly of attempts to enslave them, while they hold so many thousands in slavery." Perfectly indifferent to this, Paine devoted the autumn of 1775 to his pamphlet "Common Sense," which with the new year "burst from the press with an effect which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or country." So says Dr. Benjamin Rush, and his a.s.sertion, often quoted, has as often been confirmed.

Of the paramount influence of Paine's "Common Sense" there can indeed be no question.* It reached Washington soon after tidings that Norfolk, Virginia, had been burned (Jan. 1st) by Lord Dunmore, as Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, had been, Oct 17, 1775, by ships under Admiral Graves.

* "This day was published, and is now selling by Robert Bell, in Third Street, [Phil.] price two shillings, 'Common Sense,' addressed to the inhabitants of North America."-- Pennsylvania Journal, Jan. 10, 1776.

The General wrote to Joseph Reed, from Cambridge, Jan. 31st: "A few more of such flaming arguments as were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk, added to the sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning contained in the pamphlet 'Common Sense,' will not leave numbers at a loss to decide upon the propriety of separation."*

Henry Wisner, a New York delegate in Congress, sent the pamphlet to John McKesson, Secretary of the Provincial Congress sitting in New York City, with the following note: "Sir, I have only to ask the favour of you to read this pamphlet, consulting Mr. Scott and such of the Committee of Safety as you think proper, particularly Orange and Ulster, and let me know their and your opinion of the general spirit of it. I would have wrote a letter on the subject, but the bearer is waiting." In pursuance of this General Scott suggested a private meeting, and McKesson read the pamphlet aloud. New York, the last State to agree to separation, was alarmed by the pamphlet, and these leaders at first thought of answering it, but found themselves without the necessary arguments. Henry Wisner, however, required arguments rather than orders, and despite the instructions of his State gave New York the honor of having one name among those who, on July 4th, voted for independence.** Joel Barlow, a student in Yale College at the beginning of the Revolution, has borne testimony to the great effect of Paine's pamphlet, as may be seen in his biography by Mr. Todd.

* "The Writings of George Washington." Collected and edited by Wotthington Chauncey Ford, vol. iii., p. 396.

** Mag. Am. Hist., July, 1880, p. 62, and Dec., 1888, p.

479. The Declaration pa.s.sed on July 4th was not signed until Aug. 2d, the postponement being for the purpose of removing the restrictions placed by New York and Maryland on their delegates. Wisner, the only New York delegate who had voted for the Declaration, did not return until after the recess.

In Trumbull's picture at the Capitol Thomas Stone, a signer for Maryland, is left out, and Robert Livingston of New York is included, though he did not sign it.

An original copy of Paine's excise pamphlet (1792) in my possession contains a note in pencil, apparently contemporary, suggesting that the introduction was written by Barlow. In this introduction--probably by Barlow, certainly by a competent observer of events in America--it is said:

"On this celebrated publication ['Common Sense'], which has received the testimony of praise from the wise and learned of different nations, we need only remark (for the merit of every work should be judged by its effect) that it gave spirit and resolution to the Americans, who were then wavering and undetermined, to a.s.sert their rights, and inspired a decisive energy into their counsels: we may therefore venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that the great American cause owed as much to the pen of Paine as to the sword of Washington."*

* And yet--such was the power of theological intimidation-- even heretical Barlow could find no place for Paine in his _Columbiad_(1807).

Edmund Randolph, our first Attorney-General, who had been on Washington's staff in the beginning of the war, and conducted much of his correspondence, ascribed independence primarily to George III., but next to "Thomas Paine, an Englishman by birth, and possessing an imagination which happily combined political topics, poured forth in a style hitherto unknown on this side of the Atlantic, from the ease with which it insinuated itself into the hearts of the people who were unlearned, or of the learned."* This is from a devout churchman, writing after Paine's death. Paine's malignant biographer, Cheetham (1809), is constrained to say of "Common Sense": "Speaking a 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."**

* Randolph's "History" (MS.), a possession of the Virginia Historical Society, has been confided to my editorial care for publication.

** See also the historians, Ramsay (Rev., i., p. 336, London, 1793), Gordon (Rev., ii., p. 78, New York, 1794), Bryant and Gay (U. S., iii., p. 471, New York, 1879).

Let it not be supposed that Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Randolph, and the rest, were carried away by a meteor. Deep answers only unto deep. Paine's ideas went far because they came far. He was the authentic commoner, representing English freedom in the new world. There was no dreg in the poverty of his people that he had not tasted, no humiliation in their dependence, no outlook of their hopelessness, he had not known, and with the addition of intellectual hungers which made his old-world despair conscious. The squalor and abjectness of Thetford, its corporation held in the hollow of Grafton's hand, its members of Parliament also, the innumerable villages equally helpless, the unspeakable corruptions of the government, the repeated and always baffled efforts of the outraged people for some redress,--these had been brought home to Paine in many ways, had finally driven him to America, where he arrived on the hour for which none had been so exactly and thoroughly trained. He had thrown off the old world, and that America had virtually done the same, const.i.tuted its attraction for him. In the opening essay in his magazine, written within a month of his arrival in the country (Nov. 30, 1774), Paine speaks of America as a "nation," and his pregnant sentences prove how mature the principles of independence had become in his mind long before the outbreak of hostilities.

"America has now outgrown the state of infancy. Her strength and commerce make large advances to manhood; and science in all its branches has not only blossomed, but even ripened upon the soil. The cottages as it were of yesterday have grown to villages, and the villages to cities; and while proud antiquity, like a skeleton in rags, parades the streets of other nations, their genius, as if sickened and disgusted with the phantom, comes. .h.i.ther for recovery.... America yet inherits a large portion of her first-imported virtue. Degeneracy is here almost a useless word. Those who are conversant with Europe would be tempted to believe that even the air of the Atlantic disagrees with the const.i.tution of foreign vices; if they survive the voyage they either expire on their arrival, or linger away in an incurable consumption.

There is a happy something in the climate of America which disarms them of all their power both of infection and attraction."

In presently raising the standard of republican independence, Paine speaks of separation from England as a foregone conclusion. "I have always considered the independency of this continent as an event which sooner or later must arrive." Great Britain having forced a collision, the very least that America can demand is separation.

"The object contended for ought always to bear some just proportion to the expence. The removal of North, or the whole detestable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an inconvenience which would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all the acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained; but if the whole Continent must take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, 't is scarcely worth our while to fight against a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly do we pay for the repeal of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for, in a just estimation, 't is as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price for law as for land.... It would be policy in the king, at this time, to repeal the acts for the sake of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces, in order that he may accomplish by craft and subtlety, in the long run, what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related."

Starting with the lowest demand, separation, Paine shows the justice and necessity of it lying fundamentally in the nature of monarchy as represented by Great Britain, and the potential republicanism of colonies composed of people from all countries. The keynote of this is struck in the introduction. The author withholds his name "because the object of attention is the Doctrine itself, not the Man "; and he affirms, "the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind."

No other pamphlet published during the Revolution is comparable with "Common Sense" for interest to the reader of to-day, or for value as an historical doc.u.ment. Therein as in a mirror is beheld the almost incredible England, against which the colonies contended. And therein is reflected the moral, even religious, enthusiasm which raised the struggle above the paltriness of a rebellion against taxation to a great human movement,--a war for an idea. The art with which every sentence is feathered for its aim is consummate.

The work was for a time generally attributed to Franklin. It is said the Doctor was reproached by a loyal lady for using in it such an epithet as "the royal brute of Britain." He a.s.sured her that he had not written the pamphlet, and would never so dishonor the brute creation.

In his letter to Cheetham (1809) already referred to, Dr. Rush claims to have suggested the work to Paine, who read the sheets to him and also to Dr. Franklin. This letter, however, gives so many indications of an enfeebled memory, that it cannot be accepted against Paine's own a.s.sertion, made in the year following the publication of "Common Sense,"

when Dr. Rush and Dr. Franklin might have denied it.

"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as were in his hands towards completing a history of the present transactions, and seemed desirous of having the first volume out the next spring. I had then formed the outlines of 'Common Sense,' and finished nearly the first part; and as I supposed the doctor's design in getting out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he thought of; and without informing him of what I was doing, got it ready for the press as fast as I conveniently could, and sent him the first pamphlet that was printed off."

On the other hand, Paine's memory was at fault when he wrote (December 3, 1802): "In my publications, I follow the rule I began with in 'Common Sense.' that is, to consult n.o.body, nor to let anybody see what I write till it appears publicly." This was certainly his rule, but in the case of "Common Sense" he himself mentions (_Penn. Jour_., April 10, 1776) having shown parts of the MS. to a "very few." Dr. Rush is correct in his statement that Paine had difficulty in finding "a printer who had boldness enough to publish it," and that he (Rush) mentioned the pamphlet to the Scotch bookseller, Robert Bell. For Bell says, in a contemporary leaflet: "When the work was at a stand for want of a courageous Typographer, I was then recommended by a gentleman nearly in the following words: 'There is Bell, he is a Republican printer, give it to him, and I will answer for his courage to print it.'" Dr. Rush probably required some knowledge of the contents of the pamphlet before he made this recommendation.

That Dr. Rush is mistaken in saying the ma.n.u.script was submitted to Franklin, and a sentence modified by him, is proved by the fact that on February 19th, more than a month after the pamphlet appeared, Franklin introduced Paine to Gen. Charles Lee with a letter containing the words, "He is the reputed and, I think, the real author of 'Common sense.'"

Franklin could not have thus hesitated had there been in the work anything of his own, or anything he had seen. Beyond such disclosures to Dr. Rush, and one or two others, as were necessary to secure publication, Paine kept the secret of his authorship as long as he could. His recent arrival in the country might have impaired the force of his pamphlet.

The authorship of "Common Sense" was guessed by the "Tory" President of the University of Philadelphia, the Rev. William Smith, D.D., who knew pretty well the previous intellectual resources of that city. Writing under the name of "Cato" he spoke of "the foul pages of interested writers, and strangers intermeddling in our affairs." To which "The Forester" (Paine) answers: "A freeman, Cato, is a stranger nowhere,--a slave, everywhere."*

* "The writer of 'Common Sense' and 'The Forester' is the same person. His name is Paine, a gentleman about two years ago from England,--a man who, General Lee says, has genius in his eyes."--John Adams to his wife.

The publication of "Common Sense" had been followed by a number of applauding pamphlets, some of them crude or extravagant, from Bell's press. "Cato" was anxious to affiliate these "additional doses" on the author of "Common Sense," who replies:

"Perhaps there never was a pamphlet, since the use of letters were known, about which so little pains were taken, and of which so great a number went off in so short a time. I am certain that I am within compa.s.s when I say one hundred and twenty thousand. The book was turned upon the world like an orphan to shift for itself; no plan was formed to support it, neither hath the author ever published a syllable on the subject from that time till after the appearance of Cato's fourth letter."