Part 3

"Leaders in the New York Provincial Congress considered the advisability of answering it but came to the conclusion that it was unanswerable."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._

An Unknown Writer of Charleston, S. C. (Feb. 14, 1776): "Who is the author of 'Common Sense'? I can hardly refrain from adoring him. He deserves a statue of gold."

Abigail Adams: "I am charmed with the sentiments of 'Common Sense,' and wonder how an honest heart, one who wishes the welfare of his country and the happiness of posterity, can hesitate one moment at adopting them."

"'Common Sense,' like a ray of revelation, has come in season to clear our doubts and fix our choice."

John Winthrop: "If Congress should adopt its sentiments it would satisfy the people."

"The public mind was now fully educated to accept the doctrine of Independence.... Thomas Paine's celebrated pamphlet 'Common Sense' had sapped the foundation of any remaining loyalty to the British Crown."--_John Clark Ridpath, LL. D_.

Prof. Alexander Johnston: "Thomas Paine turned the scale by the publication of his pamphlet 'Common Sense'."

Richard Frothingham: "The great question which it treated was now discussed at every fireside; and the favorite toast at every dinner table was; 'May the independent principles of 'Common Sense' be confirmed throughout the United Colonies.'"

Henry Clay Watson: "'Common Sense' effected a complete revolution in the feelings and sentiments of the great mass of the people."

Rev. Jedediah Morse. "The change of the public mind on this occasion is without a parallel."

Dr. Benjamin Rush: "'Common Sense' burst from the press with an effect which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or country."

Hon. Salma Hale: "The effect of the pamphlet in making converts was astonishing, and is probably without precedent in the annals of literature."

James Cheetham (Paine's basest calumniator): "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."

General Charles Lee: "Have you [Washington] seen the pamphlet 'Common Sense'? I never saw such a masterly irresistible performance."

"He burst forth on the world like Jove in thunder."

Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History: "Its trumpet tones awakened the continent, and made every patriot's heart beat with intense emotion."

J. Dorman Steele, Ph. D.: "Every line glowed with the spirit of liberty, and men's hearts were thrilled as they read."

Larned's Ready Reference History: "A more effective popular appeal never went to the bosoms of a nation.... Its effect was instantaneous and tremendous."

Henry Cabot Lodge: "The pamphlet marked an epoch, was a very memorable production; from the time of its publication the tide flowing in the direction of independence began to race with devouring swiftness to high water mark."

Encyclopedia Britannica (10th Ed.)--"There is a complete concurrence of testimony that Paine's pamphlet issued on the first of January, 1776, was a turning point in the struggle, that it roused and consolidated public feeling, and swept waverers along with the tide."

Prof. Goldwin Smith: "Colonial resolution had been screwed to the sticking point by Tom Paine, the stormy petrel of three countries, with his pamphlet 'Common Sense.'"

Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews: "Most potent of all as a cause of the resolution to separate was Thomas Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense'."

"No writing ever more instantly swung men to its humor."--_Woodrow Wilson_.

Mary L. Booth: "This eloquent production severed the last link that bound the Colonies to the mother country."

Mary Howitt: "The cause of Independence took as it were a definite form from this moment."

Guilliam Tell Poussin: "It rendered the sentiment of Independence national."

"The notion of a new State, wholly free from Great Britain, first found full and convincing expression in Paine's 'Common Sense'."--_London Times_.

Gen. William A. Stokes: "When 'Common Sense' was published a great blow was struck. It was felt from New England to the Carolinas; it resounded throughout the world."

The sympathy and assistance of liberty-loving Europeans contributed much to the success of the Revolution, and this was due largely to the influence of Paine's "Common Sense," which was printed in nearly every tongue and read in nearly every country of Continental Europe. Even in England thousands of copies were circulated, and the American party, the party of Chatham, Fox and Burke, was greatly strengthened, while the influence of the king and his ministry was correspondingly weakened by the effect of its masterly arguments.

Lord Erskine: "In that great and calamitous conflict, Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine fought in the same field together, but with very different success. Mr. Burke spoke to a Parliament in England, such as Sir George Saville describes it, having no ears but for sounds that flattered its corruptions. Mr. Paine, on the other hand, spoke to the people, reasoned with them, told them they were bound by no subjection to any sovereignty further than their own benefit connected them, and, by these powerful arguments, prepared the minds of the American people for that glorious, just, and happy Revolution."

Marquis de Chastelleaux: "Since my arrival in America I had not yet seen Mr. Paine, that author so celebrated in America and throughout Europe by his excellent work entitled 'Common Sense.' Lafayette and myself had asked the permission of an interview, and we waited on him accordingly with Col. Laurens.... His patriotism and his talents are unquestionable."

W. E. H. Lecky: "Paine's 'Common Sense'... was translated into French, and was, if possible, even more popular in France than in America."

"The work ran through innumerable editions in America and France. The world rang with it."--_Hon. Henry S. Randall_.

Silas DeAne: "'Common Sense' has been translated, and has had a greater run here [in France] than in America. A person of distinction, writing to his noble friend in office, has these words: 'I think, with you, my dear Count, that "Common Sense" is an excellent work, and that its author is one of the greatest legislators among the million writers that we know.'"

Sir George Trevelyan: "It would be difficult to name any human composition which has had an effect at once so instant, so extended, and so lasting. It flew through numberless editions. It was pirated, and parodied, and imitated, and translated into the language of every country where the new Republic had well-wishers, and could hope to procure allies.... It was reprinted in all the Colonies with a frequency surprising at a time when Colonial printing houses were very few. Three months from its first appearance, a hundred and twenty thousand copies had been sold in America alone; and, before the demand ceased, it was calculated that half a million had seen the light."

"Paine saw beyond precedents and statutes, and constitutional facts or fictions, into the depths of human nature; and he knew that, if men are to fight to the death, it must be for reasons which all can understand."

John Adams: "'Common Sense' was received in France and in all Europe with rapture."

"History is to ascribe the Revolution to Thomas Paine." (Letter to Thomas Jefferson).

John Quincy Adams: "Paine's 'Common Sense' crystalized public opinion and was the first factor in bringing about the Revolution."

Samuel Adams: "Your 'Common Sense'... unquestionably awakened the public mind, and led the people loudly to call for a Declaration of our National Independence."

Parker Pillsbury: "Without his 'Common Sense,' written in 1775, we should not have had the Declaration of Independence in 1776."

Samuel Bryan: "This book, 'Common Sense,' may be called the Book of Genesis, for it was the beginning. From this book spread the Declaration of Independence, that not only laid the foundation of liberty in our own country, but the good of mankind throughout the world."

"The open movement to Independence dates from its publication."--_Encyclopedia Britannica_ (11th Ed.)

Elkanah Watson (one of Paine's calumniators): "It everywhere flashed conviction, and aroused a determined spirit which resulted in the Declaration of Independence."

Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL. D.: "This spark was sufficient to rouse the Americans, who at once signed the Declaration of Independence."

William Howitt: "It at once seized on the imagination of the public, cast all other writers into the shades and flew in thousands and tens of thousands all over the Colonies.... The common fire blazed up in Congress, and the thing was done."

"He became the great oracle on the subject of governments and constitutions."

Thomas Gaspey: "He was treated with great consideration by the members of the Revolutionary government, who took no steps of importance without consulting him."

Grand Dictionary Universel: "He became the political catechism of the movement."

Dictionary of National Biography (America): "Joined the Provincial army in the autumn [1776] and became a volunteer aid-de-camp to General Nathaniel Greene, animating the troops by his writings [the 'Crisis']."

"The pamphlets that stirred like a trumpet call the flagging energies of a desponding people."--_Rev. John Snyder_.

"General Greene made him one of his aides-de-camp; but an appointment on that staff, during those weeks, carried with it very little, either of privilege or luxury. In the flight from Fort Lee Paine lost his baggage and his private papers; but he had kept or borrowed a pen. He began to write at Newark, the first stage in the calamitous retreat; and he worked all night at every halting place until his new pamphlet was completed. It was published in Philadelphia on the 19th of December, under the title of 'The Crisis,' and at once flew like wildfire through all the towns and villages of the Confederacy."--_Sir George Trevelyan_.

This, the first number of the "Crisis," opens with these words: "These 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."

Samuel Eliot: "His later pamphlets, issued during the war under the name of the 'Crisis,' were of equal power [to 'Common Sense']."

Encyclopedia of Social Reform: "The 'Crisis' exerted wide influence for Independence and Republicanism."

Albert Bushnell Hart, LL.D.: "The 'Crisis' [sixteen numbers], written by Paine between 1776 and 1783, exercised an enormous influence over men and events during the Revolution."

Albert Payson Terhune: "He plunged, heart and soul, into the struggle for freedom. His 'Common Sense' and other pamphlets [the 'Crisis'] were such strong and eloquent pleas for liberty that Washington ordered some of them read aloud to the patriot armies."

National Cyclopedia of American Biography: "Its [the 'Crisis'] initial number was, by the order of General Washington, read aloud to each regiment and to each detachment."

William S. Stryker: "The effect of its strong patriotic sentences was apparent upon the spirits of the army."

George T. Cram: "The whole patriot army was inspirited by it."

Werner's Encyclopedia (Ed. 1899): "Its opening words, 'These are the times that try men's souls,' became a battle cry."

Norman Hapgood, LL.B.: "The last sentence [of the first 'Crisis'] sounds like a prophecy and the first sentence, 'These are the times that try men's souls,' was the watchword [at the battle of Trenton]."

George Lippard: "In the full prime of early manhood, he joins the army of the Revolution; he shares the crust and the cold with Washington and his men; he is with those brave soldiers on the toilsome march, with them by the camp fire, with them in the hour of battle.

"Is the day dark? Has the battle been bloody? Do the American soldiers despair? Hark! that printing press yonder, which moves with the American camp in all its wanderings, is scattering pamphlets through the ranks of the army--pamphlets written by the author-soldier; written sometimes on the head of a drum, or by the midnight fire, or amid the corpses of the dead."

"Such words as these stirred up the starved Continentals to the attack on Trenton, and there in the dawn of that glorious morning, George Washington, standing sword in hand over the dead body of the Hessian Rhol, confessed the magic influence of the author-hero's pen."

"Under that cloud, by Washington's side, was silently at work the force that lifted it. Marching by day, listening to the consultations of Washington and his generals, Paine wrote by the camp fires; the winter storms, the Delaware waves, were mingled with his ink; the half-naked soldiers in their troubled sleep dreaming of their distant homes, the skulking deserter creeping off in the dusk, the pallid face of the heavy-hearted commander, made the awful shadows beneath which was written that leaflet."--_Dr. Conway_.

Of this work Sir George Trevelyan writes: "The 'Crisis' was an impassioned appeal to arms. That circumstance endowed Paine's glowing rhetoric with a special value in the estimation of Americans. To their mind's eye the little work was adorned by an imaginary frontispiece of a soldier, writing by the watch-fire's light, with his comrades slumbering round him; and it was among those comrades that the author found his warmest admirers and his most convinced disciples."

"These words were fire and warmed the soldiers; they were meat and drink for the famishing; they were clothes for the naked. The soldiers were filled with a courage new and unknown. The battle of Trenton came, and as the soldiers entered that conflict, all down the ranks rang the battle cry, 'These are the times that try men's souls.' The battle was fought and won. The army of the patriots had entered upon a new career. And thus he wrote and wrought to the end of the immortal struggle."--_Dr. John E. Roberts_.

"In the midnight of Valley Forge the 'Crisis' was the only star that glittered in the broad horizon of despair."--_Col. Ingersoll_.

"Paine was the real founder of our Republic. Without his 'Common Sense' the independence of the American Colonies never would have been declared; without his 'Crisis' it never could have been won. Without his services this country, like Canada, India, Australia and South Africa, today would be a part of the British Empire.

"We would undoubtedly be under British rule today but for the wise and wonderful efforts of Thomas Paine.''--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox_.

"Paine's title as the discoverer and inventor of the United States is just as plain as Watt's invention of the steam engine, and everything that has taken place as a result of organizing the United States of America is the result of Thomas Paine's labors."--_Rev. Thomas R. Slicer, D.D_.

Timothy Matlack (Oct. 10, 1777): "The Honorable House of Assembly has proposed and Council has adopted a plan of obtaining more regular and constant intelligence of the proceedings of General Washington's army than has hitherto been had. Every one agrees that you [Paine] are the proper person for the purpose, and I am directed by his Excellency, the President, to write to you.... Proper expresses will be engaged in this business. If the expresses which pass from headquarters to Congress can be made use of so much the better,--of this you must be the judge."

Col. Asa Bird Gardener, LL.D.: "The entire British fleet was then brought up opposite Fort Mifflin, and the most furious cannonade and most desperate but finally unsuccessful defense of the place was made. The entire works were demolished, and the most of the garrison killed and wounded. Major General Greene being anxious for the garrison and desirous of knowing its ability to resist sent Mr. Paine to ascertain. He accordingly went to Fort Mercer, and from thence, on Nov. 9, (1777), went with Col. Christopher Greene commanding Fort Mercer, in an open boat to Fort Mifflin, during the cannonade, and was there when the enemy opened with two gun batteries and a mortar battery. This _very_ gallant act shows what a fearless man Mr. Paine was."

Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary: "He was secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs in Congress from April, 1777, to January, 1779."

It has been asserted by Mr. Roosevelt and others that Paine, because of his action in the Deane affair, was discharged from his position as secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was not discharged, nor was he even asked to resign. He resigned of his own volition.

Franklin Steiner: "In 1778 a fraud was about to be committed upon the infant republic.... Paine wrote several articles for the press, exposing the entire corrupt transaction, and of course made enemies of all involved in the dishonest affair, who at once made attempts to have him discharged from his position, in which they failed."

"A motion for his dismission was lost."--_Dr. Conway_.

"Congress refused to vote that it was 'an abuse of office,' or to discharge him."--_Ibid_.

It was Paine's honesty and patriotism, a desire to protect the interests of his adopted country, that caused him to make his exposure. His "indiscretion," as some diplomats characterized it, saved the Colonies a million livres. Pennsylvania applauded the act and rebuked his censors by appointing him clerk of the Assembly. His whole subsequent career--his continued labors in behalf of the Colonies--the confidence reposed in him by all the people--show that his ability, his integrity, and his patriotism were never questioned.

In less than three years after the Deane affair the members of Congress who had honestly espoused Deane's cause acknowledged the justice and wisdom of Paine's exposure.

John Jay Knox: "In 1780 occurred the darkest days of the Revolutionary War. The army was in great distress.... Thomas Paine, the Clerk in the Pennsylvania Assembly, in a letter to Blair McClenaghan, suggested a subscription for relief of the army and enclosed a contribution of $500.

American Cyclopedia: "A letter [dated May 28, 1780] was received by the Assembly of Pennsylvania from Gen. Washington, saying that, notwithstanding his confidence in the attachment of the army to the cause of the country, he feared their distresses would soon cause mutiny in the ranks. This letter was read by Paine as clerk. A despairing silence pervaded the hall, and the Assembly soon adjourned. Paine wrote to Blair McClenaghan, a merchant of Philadelphia, explaining the urgency of affairs, and enclosed in the letter $500, the amount of salary due him as clerk, as his contribution toward a relief fund. McClenaghan called a meeting next day and read Paine's letter; a subscription list was immediately circulated, and in a short time £300,000 [nearly $1,500,000] Pennsylvania currency was collected. With this as a capital, the Pennsylvania Bank, afterwards expanded into the Bank of North America, was established for the relief of the army."

Cassell's Dictionary of Religion: "In 1781 Paine was sent to France with Col. Laurens to negotiate a loan in which he was more than successful, for the French granted a subsidy of six million livres, and became a guarantor of ten millions advanced by Holland."

Lamartine says the King "loaded Paine with favors." His gift of six millions was "confided to Franklin and Paine."

Robert Morris (Feb. 10, 1782): "They [Morris, Minister of Finance, Livingston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Washington, Commander-in-Chief] are agreed that it will be much for the interest of the United States that Mr. Paine be retained in their [the United States'] service."

Charles Wilson Peale: "Personal acquaintance with him gives me an opportunity of knowing that he had done more for our cause than the world who had only seen his publications could know."

"America is indebted to few characters more than to you."--_Gen. Nathaniel Greene_.

Calvin Blanchard: "He stood the acknowledged leader of American statesmanship, and the soul of the Revolution, by the proclamation of the legislatures of all the states and that of the Congress of the United States."

Pennsylvania Council (Dec. 6, 1784): "So important were his services during the late contest that those persons whose own merits in the course of it have been the most distinguished concur with a highly honorable unanimity in entertaining sentiments of esteem for him."

"The attention of Pennsylvania is drawn toward Mr. Paine by motives equally grateful to the human heart and reputable to the Republic."

Pennsylvania Assembly: "Thomas Paine did, during the progress of the Revolution, voluntarily devote himself to the service of the public, without accepting recompense therefor, and, moreover, did decline taking or receiving the profits which authors are entitled to on the sale of their literary works, but relinquished them for the better accommodation of the country and the honor of the public cause."

Rev. Dr. M. J. Savage: "He wrote the book which caused the Declaration of Independence, a book in such great demand that the presses groaned for months in endeavoring to supply the demand; a book, the income from the circulation of which, to-day would make a man rich, and yet he steadfastly refused to receive a cent for it."

More than fifty years ago, the Rev. Moncure D. Conway, then pastor of a church in Cincinnati, in a eulogy on Paine, said: "So disinterested was he, that, when his works were printed by the ten thousand, and as fast as one edition was out another was demanded, he, a poor and pinched author, who might very easily have grown rich, would not accept one cent for them, declared that he would not coin his principles, and made to the States a present of the copyrights. His brain was his fortune,--nay his living; he gave it all to American Independence." Paine also gave the copyrights of the several numbers of his "Crisis" to the States. The close of the Revolution found him, to quote from Dr. Conway's biography of Paine, "a penniless patriot who might easily have had fifty thousand pounds in his pocket."

(I shall quote freely from Dr. Conway. For all time this biographer will be the standard authority on Thomas Paine. He was a life-long student of Paine. In each of the three countries which Paine served, America, France and England, he had full access to the national archives of Paine's time. He was a distinguished pulpit orator in both hemispheres, and had a world-wide reputation as a literary man. Above all his love of truth and justice and His rugged honesty and candor make him a witness whose testimony is unimpeachable. To him Andrew Carnegie pays this tribute: "He has passed, but he has left behind him a precious legacy to all who were so fortunate as to be able to call him friend. They are better men and women because Moncure Conway lived and entered into their lives.")

United States Congress (Aug. 26, 1785): "_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."

This resolution was passed by a unanimous vote.

Allibone's Dictionary of Authors: "He was rewarded by a donation from Congress of $3,000."

"In 1782, at the suggestion of Washington, Congress granted $800 to Paine.... In 1784 the State of New York presented him with 277 acres of land at New Rochelle, and Pennsylvania with £500; and in 1785 Congress gave him $3,000."--_International Encyclopedia_.