The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Volume V Part 50

In what way was his death cowardly? You must answer these questions, and give your proof, or all honest men will hold you in abhorrence. You have made these charges. The man against whom you

Vindication of thomas paine.

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make them is dead. He cannot answer you. I can. He cannot compel you to produce your testi- mony, or admit by your silence that you have cruelly slandered the defenceless dead. I can and I will. You say that his death was cowardly. In what respect? Was it cowardly in him to hold the Thirty-Nine Articles in contempt? Was it cowardly not to call on your Lord? Was it cowardly not to be afraid? You say that his death was beastly.

Again I ask, in what respect? Was it beastly to submit to the inevitable with tranquillity? Was it beastly to look with composure upon the approach of death? Was it beastly to die without a com- plaint, without a murmur--to pa.s.s from life without a fear?

Did Thomas Paine Recant?

Mr. Paine had prophesied that fanatics would crawl and cringe around him during his last mo- ments. He believed that they would put a lie in the mouth of Death.

When the shadow of the coming dissolution was upon him, two clergymen, Messrs. Milledollar and Cunningham, called to annoy the dying man. Mr.

Cunningham had the politeness to say, "You have now a full view of death you cannot live long, and whosoever does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ

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will asuredly be d.a.m.ned." Mr. Paine replied, "Let me have none of your popish stuff. Get away with you. Good morning."

On another occasion a Methodist minister ob- truded himself when Willet Hicks was present.

This minister declared to Mr. Paine "that unless he repented of his unbelief he would be d.a.m.ned."

Paine, although at the door of death, rose in his bed and indignantly requested the clergyman to leave his room. On another occasion, two brothers by the name of Pigott, sought to convert him. He was displeased and requested their departure. After- ward Thomas Nixon and Captain Daniel Pelton visited him for the express purpose of ascertaining whether he had, in any manner, changed his relig- ious opinions. They were a.s.sured by the dying man that he still held the principles he had expressed in his writings.

Afterward, these gentlemen hearing that William Cobbett was about to write a life of Paine, sent him the following note:

New York, April 24, 1818.

"Sir: We have been informed that you have a de- sign to write a history of the life and writings of Thomas Paine. If you have been furnished with materials in respect to his religious opinions, or

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rather of his recantation of his former opinions before his death, all you have heard of his recanting is false.

Being aware that such reports would be raised after his death by fanatics who infested his house at the time it was expected he would die, we, the subscrib- ers, intimate acquaintances of Thomas Paine since the year 1776, went to his house. He was sitting up in a chair, and apparently in full vigor and use of all his mental faculties. We interrogated him upon his religious opinions, and if he had changed his mind, or repented of anything he had said or wrote on that subject. He answered, "Not at all," and appeared rather offended at our supposition that any change should take place in his mind. We took down in writing the questions put to him and his answers thereto before a number of persons then in his room, among whom were his doctor, Mrs.

Bonneville, &c. This paper is mislaid and cannot be found at present, but the above is the substance which can be attested by many living witnesses."

Thomas Nixon.

Daniel Pelton.

Mr. Jarvis, the artist, saw Mr. Paine one or two days before his death. To Mr. Jarvis he expressed his belief in his written opinions upon the subject of religion. B. F. Haskin, an attorney of the city of

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New York, also visited him and inquired as to his religious opinions. Paine was then upon the thresh- old of death, but he did not tremble. He was not a coward. He expressed his firm and unshaken belief in the religious ideas he had given to the world.

Dr. Manley was with him when he spoke his last words. Dr. Manley asked the dying man if he did not wish to believe that Jesus was the Son of G.o.d, and the dying philosopher answered: "I have no wish to believe on that subject." Amasa Woodsworth

sat up with Thomas Paine the night before his death. In 1839 Gilbert Vale hearing that Mr.

Woodsworth was living in or near Boston, visited him for the purpose of getting his statement. The statement was published in the Beacon of June 5, 1839, while thousands who had been acquainted with Mr. Paine were living.

The following is the article referred to.

"We have just returned from Boston. One ob- ject of our visit to that city, was to see a Mr. Amasa Woodsworth, an engineer, now retired in a hand- some cottage and garden at East Cambridge, Boston.

This gentleman owned the house occupied by Paine at his death--while he lived next door. As an act of kindness Mr. Woodsworth visited Mr. Paine every day for six weeks before his death. He frequently

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sat up with him, and did so on the last two nights of his life. He was always there with Dr. Manley, the physician, and a.s.sisted in removing Mr. Paine while his bed was prepared. He was present when Dr.

Manley asked Mr. Paine "if he wished to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of G.o.d," and he de- scribes Mr. Paine's answer as animated. He says that lying on his back he used some action and with much emphasis, replied, "I have no wish to believe on that subject." He lived some time after this, but was not known to speak, for he died tranquilly. He accounts for the insinuating style of Dr. Manley's letter, by stating that that gentleman just after its publication joined a church. He informs us that he has openly reproved the doctor for the falsity con- tained in the spirit of that letter, boldly declaring be- fore Dr. Manley, who is yet living, that nothing which he saw justified the insinuations. Mr. Woods- worth a.s.sures us that he neither heard nor saw any- thing to justify the belief of any mental change in the opinions of Mr. Paine previous to his death; but that being very ill and in pain chiefly arising from the skin being removed in some parts by long lying, he was generally too uneasy to enjoy conversation on abstract subjects. This, then, is the best evidence that can be procured on this subject, and we publish

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it while the contravening parties are yet alive, and with the authority of Mr. Woodsworth.

Gilbert Vale.

A few weeks ago I received the following letter which confirms the statement of Mr. Vale:

Near Stockton, Cal., Green- wood Cottage, July 9, 1877.

Col. Ingersoll: In 1842 I talked with a gentle- man in Boston. I have forgotten his name; but he was then an engineer of the Charleston navy yard. I am thus particular so that you can find his name on the books. He told me that he nursed Thomas Paine in his last illness, and closed his eyes when dead. I asked him if he recanted and called upon G.o.d to save him. He replied, "No. He died as he had taught. He had a sore upon his side and when we turned him it was very painful and he would cry out 'O G.o.d!' or something like that." "But," said the narrator, "that was nothing, for he believed in a G.o.d." I told him that I had often heard it a.s.serted from the pulpit that Mr. Paine had recanted in his last moments. The gentleman said that it was not true, and he appeared to be an intelligent, truthful man. With respect, I remain, &c.,

Philip Graves, M. D.

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The next witness is Willet Hicks, a Quaker preacher. He says that during the last illness of Mr. Paine he visited him almost daily, and that Paine died firmly convinced of the truth of the relig- ious opinions he had given to his fellow-men. It was to this same Willet Hicks that Paine applied for permission to be buried in the cemetery of the Quakers. Permission was refused. This refusal settles the question of recantation. If he had re- canted, of course there could have been no objection to his body being buried by the side of the best hypocrites on the earth.

If Paine recanted why should he be denied "a little earth for charity"? Had he recanted, it would have been regarded as a vast and splendid triumph for the gospel. It would with much noise and pomp and ostentation have been heralded about the world.

I received the following letter to-day. The writer is well know in this city, and is a man of high character:

Peoria, Oct. 8th, 1877.

Robert G. Ingersoll, Esteemed Friend: My parents were Friends (Quakers). My father died when I was very young. The elderly and middle- aged Friends visited at my mother's house. We

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lived in the city of New York. Among the number I distinctly remember Elias Hicks, Willet Hicks,

and a Mr.-Day, who was a bookseller in Pearl

street. There were many others, whose names I do not now remember. The subject of the recanta- tion by Thomas Paine of his views about the Bible in his last illness, or at any other time, was dis- cussed by them in my presence at different times.

I learned from them that some of them had attended upon Thomas Paine in his last sickness and minis- tered to his wants up to the time of his death.

And upon the question of whether he did recant there was but one expression. They all said that he did not recant in any manner. I often heard them say they wished he had recanted. In fact, according to them, the nearer he approached death the more positive he appeared to be in his con- victions.

These conversations were from 1820 to 1822. I was at that time from ten to twelve years old, but these conversations impressed themselves upon me because many thoughtless people then blamed the Society of Friends for their kindness to that "arch Infidel," Thomas Paine..

Truly yours,