The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Volume V Part 52

_Did Thomas Paine live the life of a drunken beast, and did he die a drunken, cowardly and beastly death?_

Upon you rests the burden of substantiating these infamous charges.

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You have, I suppose, produced the best evidence in your possession, and that evidence I will now pro- ceed to examine. Your first witness is Grant Thor- burn. He makes three charges against Thomas Paine, 1st. That his wife obtained a divorce from him in England for cruelty and neglect. 2d. That he was a defaulter and fled from England to Amer- ica. 3d. That he was a drunkard.

These three charges stand upon the same evidence --the word of Grant Thorburn. If they are not all true Mr. Thorburn stands impeached.

The charge that Mrs. Paine obtained a divorce on account of the cruelty and neglect of her husband is utterly false. There is no such record in the world, and never was. Paine and his wife separated by mutual consent. Each respected the other. They remained friends. This charge is without any foun- dation in fact. I challenge the Christian world to produce the record of this decree of divorce. Accord- ing to Mr. Thorburn it was granted in England. In that country public records are kept of all such de- crees. Have the kindness to produce this decree showing that it was given on account of cruelty or admit that Mr. Thorburn was mistaken.

Thomas Paine was a just man. Although sepa- rated from his wife, he always spoke of her with

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tenderness and respect, and frequently sent her money without letting her know the source from whence it came. Was this the conduct of a drunken beast?

The second charge, that Paine was a defaulter in England and fled to America, is equally false. He did not flee from England. He came to America, not as a fugitive, but as a free man. He came with a letter of introduction signed by another Infidel, Benjamin Franklin. He came as a soldier of Free- dom--an apostle of Liberty.

In this second charge there is not one word of truth.

He held a small office in England. If he was a defaulter the records of that country will show that fact.

Mr. Thorburn, unless the record can be produced to substantiate him, stands convicted of at least two mistakes.

Now, as to the third: He says that in 1802 Paine was an "old remnant of mortality, drunk, bloated and half asleep."

Can any one believe this to be a true account of the personal appearance of Mr. Paine in 1802? He had just returned from France. He had been wel- comed home by Thomas Jefferson, who had said that he was ent.i.tled to the hospitality of every American.

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In 1802 Mr. Paine was honored with a public din- ner in the city of New York. He was called upon and treated with kindness and respect by such men as DeWitt Clinton.

In 1806 Mr. Paine wrote a letter to Andrew A.

Dean upon the subject of religion. Read that letter and then say that the writer of it was an "old rem- nant of mortality, drunk, bloated and half asleep."

Search the files of the New York Observer from the first issue to the last, and you will find nothing supe- rior to this letter.

In 1803 Mr. Paine wrote a letter of considerable length, and of great force, to his friend Samuel Adams. Such letters are not written by drunken beasts, nor by remnants of old mortality, nor by drunkards. It was about the same time that he wrote his "Remarks on Robert Hall's Sermons."

These "Remarks" were not written by a drunken beast, but by a clear-headed and thoughtful man.

In 1804 he published an essay on the invasion of England, and a treatise on gunboats, full of valuable maritime information:--in 1805, a treatise on yellow fever, suggesting modes of prevention. In short, he was an industrious and thoughtful man. He sympa- thized with the poor and oppressed of all lands. He looked upon monarchy as a species of physical

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slavery. He had the goodness to attack that form of government. He regarded the religion of his day as a kind of mental slavery. He had the courage to give his reasons for his opinion. His reasons filled the churches with hatred. Instead of answering his arguments they attacked him. Men who were not fit to blacken his shoes, blackened his character.

There is too much religious cant in the statement of Mr. Thorburn. He exhibited too much anxiety to tell what Grant Thorburn said to Thomas Paine.

He names Thomas Jefferson as one of the disreputa- ble men who welcomed Paine with open arms. The testimony of a man who regarded Thomas Jefferson as a disreputable person, as to the character of any- body, is utterly without value. In my judgment, the testimony of Mr. Thorburn should be thrown aside as wholly unworthy of belief.

Your next witness is the Rev. J. D. Wickham, D.

D., who tells what an elder in his church said. This elder said that Paine pa.s.sed his last days on his farm at New Roch.e.l.le with a solitary female attendant.

This is not true. He did not pa.s.s his last days at New Roch.e.l.le. Consequently this pious elder did not see him during his last days at that place. Upon this elder we prove an alibi. Mr. Paine pa.s.sed his last days in the city of New York, in a house upon

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Columbia street. The story of the Rev. J. D. Wick- ham, D.D., is simply false.

The next competent false witness is the Rev.

Charles Hawley, D.D., who proceeds to state that the story of the Rev. J. D. Wickham, D.D., is cor- roborated by older citizens of New Roch.e.l.le. The names of these ancient residents are withheld. Ac- cording to these unknown witnesses, the account given by the deceased elder was entirely correct.

But as the particulars of Mr. Paine's conduct "were too loathsome to be described in print," we are left entirely in the dark as to what he really did.

While at New Roch.e.l.le Mr. Paine lived with Mr.

Purdy--with Mr. Dean--with Captain Pelton, and with Mr. Staple. It is worthy of note that all of these gentlemen give the lie direct to the statements of "older residents" and ancient citizens spoken of by the Rev. Charles Hawley, D.D., and leave him with his "loathsome particulars" existing only in his own mind.

The next gentleman you bring upon the stand is W. H. Ladd, who quotes from the memoirs of Stephen Grellet. This gentleman also has the mis- fortune to be dead. According to his account, Mr.

Paine made his recantation to a servant girl of his by the name of Mary Roscoe. To this girl, accord-

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ing to the account, Mr. Paine uttered the wish that all who read his book had burned it. I believe there is a mistake in the name of this girl. Her name was probably Mary Hinsdale, as it was once claimed that Paine made the same remark to her, but this point I shall notice hereafter. These are your witnesses, and the only ones you bring forward, to support your charge that Thomas Paine lived a drunken and beastly life and died a drunken, cowardly and beastly death. All these calumnies are found in a life of Paine by a Mr. Cheetham, the convicted libeler already referred to. Mr. Cheetham was an enemy of the man whose life he pretended to write.

In order to show you the estimation in which Mr.

Cheetham was held by Mr. Paine, I will give you a copy of a letter that throws light upon this point:

October 28, 1807.

"Mr. Cheetham: Unless you make a public apol- ogy for the abuse and falsehood in your paper of Tuesday, October 27th, respecting me, I will prose- cute you for lying."

Thomas Paine.

In another letter, speaking of this same man, Mr.

Paine says: "If an unprincipled bully cannot be re- formed, he can be punished." "Cheetham has been so long in the habit of giving false information, that truth is to him like a foreign language."

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Mr. Cheetham wrote the life of Paine to gratify his malice and to support religion. He was prose- cuted for libel--was convicted and fined.

Yet the life of Paine written by this man is referred to by the Christian world as the highest authority.

As to the personal habits of Mr. Paine, we have the testimony of William Carver, with whom he lived; of Mr. Jarvis, the artist, with whom he lived; of Mr. Staple, with whom he lived; of Mr. Purdy, who was a tenant of Paine's; of Mr. Burger, with whom he was intimate; of Thomas Nixon and Captain Daniel Pelton, both of whom knew him well; of Amasa Woodsworth, who was with him when he died; of John Fellows, who boarded at the same house; of James Wilburn, with whom he boarded; of B. F. Haskin, a lawyer, who was well acquainted with him and called upon him during his last illness; of Walter Morton, a friend; of Clio Rickman, who had known him for many years; of Willet and Elias Hicks, Quakers, who knew him in- timately and well; of Judge Herttell, H. Margary, Elihu Palmer, and many others. All these testified to the fact that Mr. Paine was a temperate man. In those days nearly everybody used spirituous liquors.

Paine was not an exception; but he did not drink to excess. Mr. Lovett, who kept the City Hotel where

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Paine stopped, in a note to Caleb Bingham, declared that Paine drank less than any boarder he had.

Against all this evidence you produce the story of Grant Thorburn--the story of the Rev. J. D. Wick- ham that an elder in his church told him that Paine was a drunkard, corroborated by the Rev. Charles Hawley, and an extract from Lossing's history to the same effect. The evidence is overwhelmingly against you. Will you have the fairness to admit it?

Your witnesses are merely the repeaters of the false- hoods of James Cheetham, the convicted libeler.