The Life Of Thomas Paine Volume II Part 34

* The breaking of the original gravestone has been traditionally ascribed to pious hatred. A fragment of it, now in New York, is sometimes shown at celebrations of Paine's birthday as a witness of the ferocity vented on Paine's grave. It is satisfactory to find another interpretation.

** Paine's friends, as we have said, were too poor to leave their work in the city, which had refused Paine a grave. The Rev. Robert Bolton, in his History of Westchester County, introduces Cheetham's slanders of Paine with the words: "as his own biographer remarks." His own! But even Cheetham does not lie enough for Bolton, who says: "His [Paine's]

body was brought up from New York in a hea.r.s.e used for carrying the dead, to Potter's Field; a white man drove the vehicle, accompanied by a negro to dig the grave." The whole Judas legend is in that allusion to Potter's Field. Such is history, where Paine is concerned!

The eighty-eight acres of the north part were sold at 25 dollars an acre. The half of the south (the share of Thomas de Bonneville) has been sold for the total sum of 1425 dollars. The other part of the south, which was left to Benjamin de Bonneville, has just (1819) been sold in lots, reserving the spot in which Thomas Paine was buried, being a piece of land 45 feet square.

_Thomas Paine's posthumous works_. He left the ma.n.u.script of his answer to Bishop Watson; the Third Part of his Age of Reason; several pieces on Religious subjects, prose and verse. The great part of his posthumous political works will be found in the Appendix. Some correspondences cannot be, as yet, published.*

In _Mechanics_ he has left two models of wheels for carriages, and of a machine to plane boards. Of the two models of bridges, left at the Philadelphia Museum, only one has been preserved, and that in great disorder, one side being taken entirely off. But, I must say here, that it was then out of the hands of Mr. Peale.'

Though it is difficult, at present, to make some people believe that, instead of being looked on as a deist and a drunkard, Paine ought to be viewed as a philosopher and a truly benevolent man, future generations will make amends for the errors of their forefathers, by regarding him as a most worthy man, and by estimating his talents and character according to their real worth.

Thomas Paine was about five feet nine inches high, English measure, and about five feet six French measure. His bust was well proportioned; and his face oblong. Reflexion was the great expression of his face; in which was always seen the calm proceeding from a conscience void of reproach. His eye, which was black, was lively and piercing, and told us that he saw into the very heart of hearts [of any one who wished to deceive him].***

* All except the first two MSS., of which fragments exist, and some poems, were no doubt consumed at St. Louis, as stated in the Introduction to this work.

** I have vainly searched in Philadelphia for some relic of Paine's bridges.

*** Bracketed words marked out. In this paragraph and some that follow the hand of Nicolas Bonneville is, I think, discernible.

A most benignant smile expressed what he felt upon receiving an affectionate salutation, or praise delicately conveyed. His leg and foot were elegant, and he stood and walked upright, without stiffness or affectation. [He never wore a sword nor cane], but often walked with his hat in one hand and with his other hand behind his back. His countenance, when walking, was generally thoughtful. In receiving salutations he bowed very gracefully, and, if from an acquaintance, he did not begin with "how d' ye do?" but, with a "what news?" If they had none, he gave them his. His beard, his lips, his head, the motion of his eye-brow, all aided in developing his mind.

Was he where he got at the English or American newspapers, he hastened to over-run them all, like those who read to make extracts for their paper. His first glance was for the funds, which, in spite of jobbing and the tricks of government, he always looked on as the sure thermometer of public affairs. Parliamentary Debates, the Bills, concealing a true or sham opposition of such or such orators, the secret pay and violent theatrical declamation, or the revelations of public or private meetings at the taverns; these interested him so much that he longed for an ear and a heart to pour forth all his soul. When he added that he knew the Republican or the hypocrite, he would affirm, beforehand, that such or such a bill, such or such a measure, would take place; and very seldom, in such a case, the cunning politic or the clear-sighted observer was mistaken in his a.s.sertions; for they were not for him mere conjectures. He spoke of a future event as of a thing past and consummated. In a country where the slightest steps are expanded to open day, where the feeblest connexions are known from their beginning, and with all the views of ambition, of interest or rivalship, it is almost impossible to escape the eye of such an observer as Thomas Paine, whom no private interest could blind or bewitch, as was said by the clear-sighted Michael Montaigne.

His writings are generally perspicuous and full of light, and often they discover the sardonic and sharp smile of Voltaire. One may see that he wishes to wound to the quick; and that he hugs himself in his success.

But Voltaire all at once overruns an immense s.p.a.ce and resumes his vehement and dramatic step: Paine stops you, and points to the place where you ought to smile with him at the ingenious traits; a gift to envy and stupidity.

Thomas Paine did not like to be questioned. He used to say, that he thought nothing more impertinent, than to say to any body: "What do you think of that?" On his arrival at New York, he went to see General Gates. After the usual words of salutation, the General said: "I have always had it in mind, if I ever saw you again, to ask you whether you were married, as people have said." Paine not answering, the General went on: "Tell me how it is." "I never," said Paine, "answer impertinent questions."

Seemingly insensible and hard to himself, he was not so to the just wailings of the unhappy. Without any vehement expression of his sorrow, you might see him calling up all his powers, walking silently, thinking of the best means of consoling the unfortunate applicant; and never did they go from him without some rays of hope. And as his will was firm and settled, his efforts were always successful. The man hardened in vice and in courts [of law], yields more easily than one imagines to the manly entreaties of a disinterested benefactor.

* At this point are the words: "Barlow's letter [i. e. to Cheetham] we agreed to suppress."

Thomas Paine loved his friends with sincere and tender affection.

His simplicity of heart and that happy kind of openness, or rather, carelessness, which charms our hearts in reading the fables of the good Lafontaine, made him extremely amiable. If little children were near him he patted them, searched his pockets for the store of cakes, biscuits, sugarplums, pieces of sugar, of which he used to take possession as of a treasure belonging to them, and the distribution of which belonged to him.* His conversation was unaffectedly simple and frank; his language natural; always abounding in curious anecdotes. He justly and fully seized the characters of all those of whom he related any singular traits. For his conversation was satyrick, instructive, full of witticisms. If he related an anecdote a second time, it was always in the same words and the same tone, like a comic actor who knows the place where he is to be applauded. He neither cut the tale short nor told it too circ.u.mstantially. It was real conversation, enlivened by digressions well brought in. The vivacity of his mind, and the numerous scenes of which he had been a spectator, or in which he had been an actor, rendered his narrations the more animated, his conversation more endearing. His memory was admirable. Politics were his favorite subject He never spoke on religious subjects, unless pressed to it, and never disputed about such matters. He could not speak French: he could understand it tolerably well when spoken to him, and he understood it when on paper perfectly well. He never went to the theatre: never spoke on dramatic subjects. He rather delighted in ridiculing poetry. He did not like it: he said it was not a serious thing, but a sport of the mind, which often had not common sense. His common reading was the affairs of the day; not a single newspaper escaped him; not a political discussion: he knew how to strike while the iron was hot; and, as he was always on the watch, he was always ready to write. Hence all his pamphlets have been popular and powerful. He wrote with composure and steadiness, as if under the guidance of a tutelary genius. If, for an instant, he stopped, it was always in the att.i.tude of a man who listens. The Saint Jerome of Raphael would give a perfect idea of his contemplative recollection, to listen to the voice from on high which makes itself heard in the heart.

[It will be proper, I believe, to say here, that shortly after the Death of Thomas Paine a book appeared, under the t.i.tle of: The Life of Thomas Paine, by Cheethatn. In this libel my character was calumniated. I cited the Author before the Criminal Court of New York, He was tried and in spite of all his man?uvres, he was found guilty.--M. B. de Bonneville.]

This last paragraph, in brackets, is in the writing of Madame Bonneville.

I am indebted to Mr. Robert Waters, of Jersey City, a biographer of Cobbett, for the suggestion, made through a friend, and so amply justified, that information concerning Paine might be derived from the Cobbett papers.

APPENDIX B. THE HALL Ma.n.u.sCRIPTS

In 1785, John Hall, an able mechanician and admirable man, emigrated from Leicester, England, to Philadelphia, He carried letters to Paine, who found him a man after his own heart I am indebted to his relatives, Dr. Dutton Steele of Philadelphia and the Misses Steele, for Hall's journals, which extend over many years. It will be seen that the papers are of historical importance apart from their records concerning Paine.

Hall's entries of his daily intercourse with Paine, which he never dreamed would see the light, represent a portraiture such as has rarely been secured of any character in history. The extent already reached by this work compels me to omit much that would impress the reader with the excellent work of John Hall himself, who largely advanced ironwork in New Jersey, and whose grave at Flemmington, surrounded by those of the relatives that followed him, and near the library and workshop he left, merits a n.o.ble monument.

* Letter. Philadelphia, August 30, 1785.

"I went a day or two past with the Captain and his lady to see the exhibition of patriotic paintings. Paine the author of Common Sense is amongst them. He went from England (had been usher to a school) on board the same vessel that our Captain [Coltman] went in last time; their acquaintance then commenced and has continued ever since. He resides now in Bordentown in the Jerseys, and it is probable that I may see him before it be long as when he comes to town the Captain says he is sure to call on him. It is supposed the various States have made his circ.u.mstances easy--General Washington, said if they did not provide for him he would himself. I think his services were as useful as the sword."

Journal, 1785.

Nov. 16th. Received a Letter from Mr. Pain by his Boy, informing us of his coming this day. Between 3 and 4 Mr. Pain, Col. Kerbright [Kirkbride], and another gentleman came to our door in a waggon.

17th. At dinner Mr. Pain told us a tale of the Indians, he being at a meeting of them with others to settle some affairs in 1776. The Doctor visited Mr. Pain.

19th. Performed a trifling operation for Mr. Pain.

22d. A remark of Mr. Pain's--not to give a deciding opinion between two persons you are in friendship with, lest you lose one by it; whilst doing that between two persons, your supposed enemies, may make one your friend.

24th. This evening pulled Mr. Pain's Boy a tooth out.

Dec, 12. With much pain drawd the Board in at Hanna's chamber window to work Mr. Pain's bridge on. I pinned 6 more arches together which makes the whole 9. I sweat at it; Mr. Pain gives me some wine and water as I was very dry. Past 9 o'clock Dr. Hutchinson called in on Mr. Paine.

[The December journal is mainly occupied with mention of Paine's visitors Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Dr. Rush, Tench Francis, Robert Morris, Rittenhouse, Redman. A rubber of whist in which Paine won is mentioned.]

Sunday Jan. 1st 1786. Mr. Paine went to dine with Dr. Franklin today; staid till after tea in the evening. They tried the burning of our candles by blowing a gentle current through them. It greatly improved the light. The draught of air is prevented by pa.s.sing through a cold tube of tallow. The tin of the new lamp by internal reflections is heated and causes a constant current This is the Doctor's conjecture.

[Concerning Paine's candle see i., p. 214.]

Feb. 25th. Mr. Paine not returned. We sent to all the places we could suppose him to be at and no tidings of him. We became very unhappy fearing his political enemies should have shown him foul play. Went to bed at 10 o.c, and about 2 o.c. a knocking at the door proves Mr. Paine.

March 10th. Before 7 o'c a brother saint-maker came with a model of machine to drive boats against stream.* He had communicated his scheme to H. who had made alterations and a company had taken it and refused saint-maker partnership. He would fain have given it to Mr. Paine or me, but I a stranger refused and Mr. Paine had enough hobbys of his own. Mr.

Paine pointed out a mode to simplify his apparatus greatly. He gave him 5s. to send him one of his maps.

* Hall calls inventions "saints." This saint-maker is John Fitch, the "H." being Henry of Lancaster. This entry is of much interest. (See ii. p. 281.) The first steamer seems to have gone begging!

April 15th. Mr. Paine asked me to go and see Indian Chiefs of Sennaka Nation, I gladly a.s.sented. They have an interpreter. Mr. Paine wished to see him and made himself known to him by past remembrance as Common Sense, and was introduced into the room, addressed them as "brothers"

and shook hands cordially Mr. Paine treated them with 2s. bowl of punch.

Bordentown Letter, May 28. Colonel Kirkbride is the gentleman in whose family I am. My patron [Paine] is likewise a boarder and makes his home here I am diligently employed in Saint making, now in Iron that I had before finished in wood, with some improvements, but you may come and see what it is.

Letter, June 4. Skepticism and Credulity are as general here as elsewhere, for what I see. In this town is a Quaker meeting and one of another cla.s.s--I suppose of the Baptist cast--And a person in town a Tailor by trade that goes about a-soulmending on Sundays to various places, as most necessary, or I suppose advantageous, to himself; for by one trade or the other he has built himself a very elegant frame house in this town. This man's way to Heaven is somewhat different to the other. I am informed he makes publick dippings &c. My Employer has _Common Sense enough_ to disbelieve most of the Common Systematic Theories of Divinity but does not seem to establish any for himself. The Colonel [Kirkbride] is as Free as John Coltman.

[Under date of New York, July 31st, Hall writes an account of a journey with Paine to Morrisania, to visit Gen. Morris, and afterwards to the farm at New Roch.e.l.le, of which he gives particulars already known to my reader.]

Letter of Paine to John Hall, at Capt. Coltman's, in Let.i.tia Court, Market St, between Front and Second St. Philadelphia:

"Bordentown, Sep. 22, 1786.--Old Friend: In the first place I have settled with Mr. Gordon for the time he has been in the house--in the second I have put Mrs. Read who, you know has part of our house Col.

Kirkbride's but is at this time at Lancaster, in possession by putting part of her goods into it.* By this means we shall have room at our house (Col. Kirkbride) for carrying on our operations. As Philadelphia is so injurious to your health and as apartments at Wm. Foulke's would not be convenient to you, we can now conveniently make room for you here. Mrs. Kirkbride mentioned this to me herself and it is by the choice of both her and Col. K. that I write it to you. I wish you could come up to-morrow (Sunday) and bring the iron with you. I shall be backward and forward between here and Philadelphia pretty often until the elections are over, but we can make a beginning here and what more iron we may want we can get at the Delaware Works, and if you should want to go to Mount hope you can more conveniently go from here than from Philadelphia--thus you see I have done your business since I have been up. The enclosed letter is for Mr. Henry who is member for Lancaster County. I do not know where he lodges, but if William will be so good as to give it to the door keeper or Clerk of the a.s.sembly it will be safe. Bring up the walnut strips with you.

* Mrs. Read was thus transferred to Paine's own house. Her husband died next year and Paine declined to receive any rent.

Your coming here will give an opportunity to Joseph to get acquainted with Col. K. who will very freely give any information in his power.

Compts. in the family. Your friend and Hbl. servt"