Part 6

In a letter to Washington, Paine thus narrates the inhuman slaughter of his fellow-prisoners, from whose fate he so narrowly escaped: "The state of things in the prisons [for over four months] was a continued scene of horror. No man could count upon life for twenty-four hours. To such a pitch of rage and suspicion were Robespierre and his committee arrived, that it seemed as if they feared to leave a man to live. Scarcely a night passed in which ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more were not taken out of the prison, carried before a pretended tribunal in the morning, and guillotined before night. One hundred and sixty-nine were taken out of the Luxembourg one night in July, and one hundred and sixty of them guillotined, of whom I know I was to have been one. A list of two hundred more, according to the report in the prison, was preparing a few days before Robespierre fell. In this last list I have good reason to believe I was included."

Concerning this reign of terror Guizot says: "Two thousand four hundred prisoners were registered in Paris on the books of the prison, at the moment of the deaths of the Girondins; three [four] months later, on the 1st of March, 1794, the number reached six thousand; on the 2d of May, eight thousand unfortunate persons waited for death. From June 10th to July 27th, two thousand, two hundred and eighty-five perished on the scaffold." (_History of France, Vol. VI, pp. 178, 196_.) Menzies says: "The queen, Marie Antoinette, her sister, Madame Elizabeth, Bailly, the Girondin chiefs, the Duke of Orleans, General Custine, Madame Roland, Lavoisier, Malesherbes, and a thousand other illustrious heads fell by the guillotine."

"The light of burning rafters flashed luridly over scenes of blood; soon all that is grotesque, or terrible, or loathsome in murder, was enacted in the streets of Paris. The lantern posts bore their ghastly fruit; the streets flowed with crimson rivers, the life-blood of ten thousand hearts, down even to the waters of the Seine. Lafayette and Paine and all the heroes were gone from the councils of France, but in their place, aye, in the place of poetry, enthusiasm and eloquence, spoke a mighty orator--King Guillotine."--_George Lippard_.

With Danton died another of Paine's cherished friends--Hérault de Sechelles. Hérault, president of the National Assembly, and, for a time, president of the National Convention, was the first to welcome Paine to Paris when he came to take his seat in the convention. He was physically and intellectually one of France's most magnificent men. He was a ripe scholar and a superb orator. He possessed great wealth and a most fascinating address. He and Paine and Danton had from the first been members of the Convention; they had served together on the Committee of the Constitution, Hérault as Paine's suppliant, and they had occupied the same prison, the prison set apart for the most illustrious victims of the Revolution. I quote from Washburne. I desire to present one of the ten thousand tragic and pathetic scenes which compose this mighty and immortal drama. "Tragedy walks hand in hand with History and the eyes of Glory are wet with tears:"

"More victims were now demanded, and, at this time, the oldest children of the Revolution were claimed. They were the 'Dantonists,' among whom was included Hérault.... Hérault was unmarried. When imprisoned at the Luxembourg awaiting his trial he appeared sad and preoccupied. On arriving at the guillotine, on the Place de la Revolution on the day of his execution, all his looks were turned toward the hotel of the Garde-Meuble, hoping evidently to exchange glances with one with whom were all his thoughts at that supreme moment. Behind the shutters, half closed, was a beautiful woman who sent to the condemned a last adieu and waved a last sigh of tenderness to the dying man: _Je t'aime_ (I love thee). It was a beautiful day of the springtime, and the crowd that had assembled to witness the execution of Danton, the great Apostle of the Revolution, and his associates was enormous. The splendid figure of Hérault de Sechelles seemed to take new life, and the serenity of courage replaced the inquietude and sadness which had settled upon him. The first one to mount the scaffold, he showed himself calm, resolute and unmoved. As he was about to lay his head under the knife, he wished to present his cheek to the cheek of Danton [their hands were bound], as a last farewell. The aids of Samson, the executioner, prevented it. 'Imbeciles!' indignantly exclaimed Danton, 'it will be but a moment before our heads will meet in the basket in spite of you.'"

"Declared an outlaw by the same Convention which he had so long used as an instrument of his private vengeance, Robespierre was killed like a dog.... The death of Paine's mortal enemy saved his life."--_Ibid._

Madame Lafayette: "The news of your being set at liberty,... has given me a moment's consolation in the midst of this abyss of misery."

Madame Lafayette, like Thomas Paine, was a prisoner, daily expecting death. Her mother, grandmother and sister, prominent members of the French nobility, all died together on the scaffold. Lafayette himself was at this time confined in an Austrian dungeon.

Glorious was the freedom born of the French Revolution, but terrible was the travail.

Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D.: "His [Minister Monroe's] effort to secure the release of Thomas Paine from imprisonment was a noteworthy transaction."

"Released from prison at Monroe's intercession."--_Richard Hildreth._

Stanislaus Murray Hamilton: "Paine was liberated by the Committee of General Surety in consequence of Monroe's assertion of his American citizenship, and demand for his release; but he had suffered an imprisonment of ten months and nine days before Monroe's generous and manly aid reached him."

We owe a debt of gratitude to James Monroe.

He rescued Paine from prison and from death. When Paine was thought to be dying, as a result of his imprisonment, the Monroes tenderly cared for him in their own home and nursed him back to life and health. Washington's apparent neglect of Paine, which for nearly a century rested as a deep stain upon an otherwise fair name, filled Paine with astonishment and grief and caused him to write that bitter letter of reproach. It is now known that this seeming indifference of Washington was due to the treachery of Monroe's predecessor, Gouverneur Morris.

A. Outram Sherman: "It is a long story, how his secret instructions conflicted with Paine's hearty and open love for America's ally, how Morris virtually acquiesced in his imprisonment by Robespierre as a foreigner, how Morris misled Washington to believe he had demanded Paine's release as an American, and how he misled Paine to believe that Washington had given no directions that Paine be so reclaimed."

Nelson's Encyclopedia, in its article on Paine, says: "It seems clear that his imprisonment was in part the result of a discreditable intrigue to which Gouverneur Morris, the American minister, was a party."

Madison, in a letter to Jefferson, dated January 10, 1796, referring to Paine's letter to Washington, says: "It appears that the neglect to claim him as an American citizen when confined by Robespierre, or even to interfere in any way whatever in his favor, has filled him with an indelible rancor against the President, to whom it appears he has written on the subject. His letter to me is in the style of a dying one, and we hear that he is since dead of the abscess in his side, brought on by his imprisonment."

Referring to his letter to Washington, Dr. Conway says: "It was the natural outcry of an ill and betrayed man to one whom we now know to have been also betrayed. Its bitterness and wrath measure the greatness of the love that was wounded."

Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen: "That he was estranged from Washington through the malicious representations of others is one of the sad episodes of our national life."

M. Thibaudeau: "It yet remains for the Convention to perform an act of justice. I reclaim one of the most zealous defenders of liberty--Thomas Paine. My reclamation is for a man who has honored his age by his energy in defense of the rights of humanity, and who is so gloriously distinguished by his part in the American Revolution....I demand that he be recalled to the bosom of this Convention."

"He was unanimously restored to his seat in the Convention."--_International Encyclopedia._

Samuel P. Putnam: "Paine was self-centered. He could stand alone, like a mighty rock, with seas and storms breaking upon him. Not Mirabeau, not Danton, shone with a more brilliant genius, nor towered with more rugged strength and grandeur.

"Paine represented the immortal part of the Revolution.... Voltaire emphasized justice, Rousseau emphasized liberty; Paine emphasized both liberty and justice."

One of the strongest proofs of Paine's transcendent greatness is the fact that while nearly all the leaders of the Revolution--even Danton--were swept from their moorings by this volcanic upheaval, Paine's career throughout was characterized by wisdom, moderation, and a moral courage that was truly sublime.

Thomas Curtis:

"When France shall lift her banners fair, And brighter hopes shall dawn once more, In counting up her jewels rare She'll not forget the days of yore. For when the name of Lafayette Shall summon others in its train, There's one she never will forget-- The author-hero, Thomas Paine."

Prof. Isaac F. Russell, LL.D.: "Paine was one of the immortals who worked for liberty in three countries, America, France and England."

Frederick May Holland: "He sought to establish the rights of man in France and England as well as in America. In two of these three countries his work seemed almost fruitless a hundred years ago; but the nineteenth century has given him as complete a victory in England and France as he achieved in the United States. These three great nations now stand side by side as the bulwarks of freedom."

Hon. George W. Julian: "If any man among the illustrious characters' of 'the times that tried men's souls' is to be singled out as the real father of American Democracy, it is Thomas Paine."

Lord Beaconsfield (to Gladstone): "How does your reform government differ from that of Thomas Paine, except that the sovereign is left in name?"

"Today the student of political history may find... in Paine's ['Rights of Man'] the living Constitution of Great Britain."--Dr. Conway.

Alexander Dumas: "It is not the liberty of France alone that I [Dr. Gilbert, i. e., Paine] dream of; it is the liberty of the whole world."

Alice Hubbard: "England, France and America were made more noble, more intelligent, more civilized, by the work Thomas Paine did for each country and for all countries."

T. B. Wakeman: "The Father of Republics." "All these glories of three great peoples were obtained by revolutions that were fought by a war of feelings and thoughts before they came to arms; and in that primal war of thoughts and words Thomas Paine was the most known of men and the actual leader--the Author Hero."

"The republic--as we now all use that word--the true modern republic, in and by which government based upon the consent of all, and administered by the cooperation of all, for the protection and benefit of all, was not known among men until it was originated by Thomas Paine."

"The so-called 'republics' of antiquity and the Middle Ages were only oligarchies resting upon the slavery or serfdom of the masses, and in fact the reverse of republics."

National Encyclopedia (England): "Paine, from his first starting in public life, was a Republican, uniformly consistent and apparently sincere."

"The Democratic movement of the last eighty years, be it a finality or only a phase of progress toward a more perfect state, is the grand historic fact of modern times, and Paine's name is intimately connected with it."--_Atlantic Monthly, July, 1859_.

"After contributing by one publication to the establishment of a transatlantic republic in North America, he introduced, with astonishing effect the doctrines of democratic government into the first states of Europe."--_Edward Baines, LL.D._

"'Invent printing,' wrote Carlyle, 'and you invent democracy.' Not quite so! Invent a sort of writing which when printed shall be understood by the people, then you invent democracy. And this, earlier and better than any other man, is what Thomas Paine did."--_The Nation, London_.

"As the champion of popular power in opposition to the abuses of monarchical government, Paine will always stand pre-eminent in the world."--_William Cobbett._

Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker: "Thomas Paine dreamed the most glorious dream of human freedom that ever enchanted the mind of man; fairer and sweeter than lay under the broken marbles of Greece, brighter and better than was buried with the dead eagles of Rome."

"Paine stands between two epochs: the epoch of Kings and the epoch of Man. To the King he said, 'The night is coming'; to Man he said, 'The day is dawning.'"

"AGE OF REASON" AND RECANTATION CALUMNY.

L. K. Washburn: "Paine knew that he was marked for death. What did he do? Did he try to escape? No! He sat down and wrote the 'Age of Reason.'"

Paine found the world cursed with two great evils, kingcraft and priestcraft, twin vultures that from the earliest ages have fed upon the vitals of humanity. In his "Common Sense" and "Rights of Man" kingcraft was dealt the deadliest blows that it has yet received. He had resolved to strike a blow at priestcraft before he died. Seeing imprisonment and death approaching he hurried to his task. The first part of his immortal work was finished six hours before the summons came.

The second part, it is generally believed, was written during his confinement in the Luxembourg. And here, undoubtedly, it was planned and at least a part of it composed. It was probably finished, and it was published, while he lived with James Monroe, after his release from prison. This, briefly, is the history of the conception and birth of this, the last and greatest of Paine's three great intellectual children.

"Just before his arrest he had finished the first part of the 'Age of Reason.'... While in prison he worked upon the second part."--_International Encyclopedia._

Encyclopedia Americana: "It [first part] was published in London and in Paris in 1794. On the fall of Robespierre he was released, and in 1795 published at Paris the second part of the 'Age of Reason.'"

Dr. Francois Lanthenas: "I delivered to Merlin de Thionville a copy of the last work of T. Paine, formerly our colleague.... I undertook its translation before the Revolution [Reign of Terror] against priests, and it was published in French about the same time."

People's Cyclopedia: "During his imprisonment he wrote the 'Age of Reason' (second part) against Atheism and against Christianity, and in favor of Deism."

"A second part, written during his ten months' imprisonment, which was published after his release, represents the Deism of the 18th century."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._

McClintock and Strong's Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Cyclopedia: "The religion which Paine [in his 'Age of Reason'] proposed to substitute for Christianity was the belief in one God as revealed by science; in immortality as the continuance of conscious existence; in the natural equality of man; and in the obligation of justice and mercy to one's neighbor."

Rufus Rockwell Wilson: "Of all epoch-making books the one most persistently misrepresented and misunderstood."

W. M. van der Weyde: "The total knowledge possessed by many persons concerning Paine is that 'he was an Atheist'--which he was not."

Hon. William J. Gaynor: "What a strange thing it is that that extraordinary man was so long set down as an Atheist. Some people still think that he was an Atheist. And yet no man ever had a fuller belief in the existence of God, or a greater reliance upon him."

Washington Times: "It is not at all difficult to find out whether or not Thomas Paine was an Atheist. All one has to do to discover his opinion on the subject is to go to any bookstore or circulating library, ask for his best known work, the 'Age of Reason,' and read the first page:"'I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.'"

"He was, in fact, no more an Atheist than William Penn, Roger Williams or Ralph Waldo Emerson."--_New York World._

In his "Age of Reason" the recognition of a Supreme Being is made more than two hundred times.

Rev. Daniel Freeman: "There has never been a believer in God if Thomas Paine was not a believer in God."

Rev. Charles Alfred Martin (Roman Catholic): "Thomas Paine while not a Christian, was not an Atheist. His biographers declare that he penned his most famous book to stem with its Deism the tide of Atheism which flooded France at the time of the Revolution."

Major J. Weed Cory: "Thomas Paine was not an Atheist. He wrote against Atheism, and Trinitarians will soon be appealing to his works to prove the existence of a God."

Henry C. Wright: "Thomas Paine had a clear idea of God. This Being embodied his highest conception of truth, love, wisdom, mercy, liberty and power."

"Paine was accursed as an Atheist and hunted and maligned by institutional religion for writing a book in defense of God."--_W. M. van der Weyde._

Henry Rowley: "His 'Age of Reason' was written as much in defense of God as in opposition to the church. He could not believe that God was guilty of the cruelties and crimes which the writers of the Bible attributed to him."

"The 'Age of Reason' was the protest of a highly moral man against the doings of a deeply immoral God."

Lucy N. Colman: "Thomas Paine's God was justice."

Bishop Watson: "There is a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas when speaking of the Creator of the universe."

The work of orthodox religious teachers, unwittingly to many, is confined chiefly to the propagation of fictions and the suppression of facts. The Christian who has been surprised to learn that Paine was not an Atheist, may be equally surprised to learn that his great compeers, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, were not Christians, but like him, Deists.

Washington, who has been claimed by the Episcopal church, was like Paine a Deist: His wife was a communicant of this church. During his eight years incumbency of the Presidency, and during the Revolution, and at other times when Mrs. Washington was with him in Philadelphia, he attended, but not regularly, the Episcopal churches of which Bishop White, father of the Episcopal church of America, and the Rev. Dr. Abercrombie were rectors. When Bishop White was asked if Washington had ever communed he replied: "Truth requires me to say that Gen. Washington never received the communion in the churches of which I am the parochial minister"--_Memoir of Bishop White,_ pp. 196, 197. The _Western Christian Advocate_ accepts this testimony as conclusive. It says: "Bishop White seems to have had more intimate relations with Washington than any clergyman of his time. His testimony outweighs any amount of influential argumentation on the question."

Dr. Abercrombie says: "On sacramental Sundays, Gen. Washington, immediately after the desk and pulpit services went out with the greater part of the congregation--always leaving Mrs. Washington with the other communicants."--_Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit_, vol. v., p. 394.

Fearing the effect of Washington's example Dr. Abercrombie administered a mild reproof. Washington, he says, "never afterwards came on the morning of sacramental Sunday."--_Ibid_.

Regarding Washington's conduct in Virginia, the Rev. Beverly Tucker, D.D., of the Episcopal church, says: "The General was accustomed on Communion Sundays to leave the church with her [Nellie Custis, his step-granddaughter], sending back the carriage for Mrs. Washington."

The Rev. William Jackson, who was at a later, period, rector of this church, conducted an exhaustive search to discover if possible some evidence of Washington once having communed. His search was futile. He says: "I find no one who ever communed with him."

Early in the last century the Rev. E. D. Neill, a prominent clergyman of the Episcopal church, contributed to the Episcopal _Recorder_, the organ of the Episcopal church, an article on Washington's religion. Regarding Washington's church membership he says: "The President was not a communicant, notwithstanding all the pretty stories to the contrary, and after the close of the sermon on Sacramental Sundays, had fallen into the habit of retiring from the church while his wife remained and communed."

The foregoing testimony in disproof of the claim that Washington was a communicant, conclusive as it is, is not needed. His own testimony is sufficient. To Dr. Abercrombie he declared that "_he had never been a communicant._"--Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. v., p. 394.

During the presidential campaign of 1880, the Christian Union, at that time the leading church paper of this country, made the frank admission that of the nineteen men who up to that time had held the office of President of the United States, not one, with the possible exception of Washington, had been a member of a Christian church. And Washington, as we have seen, cannot be made an exception.

"There is nothing to show that he [Washington] was ever a member of the church."--_St. Louis Globe._

"He [Washington] belonged to no church."--_Western Christian Advocate._

"In all the voluminous writings of General Washington, the Holy name of Jesus Christ is never once written."--_Catholic World_.

"In several thousand letters the name of Jesus Christ never appears, and it is notably absent from his last will."--_General A. W. Greeley in Ladies' Home Journal for April, 1896._

"It has been confidently stated to me that he actually refused spiritual aid when it was proposed to send for a clergyman."--_Robert Dale Owen_.

The Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, president of Princeton College, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of Congress, and chaplain to Congress during Washington's administration, says: "Like nearly all the founders of the Republic, he [Washington] was not a Christian, but a Deist." "He had no belief at all in the divine origin of the Bible."

During Jackson's administration the Rev. Dr. Wilson, a noted Presbyterian divine of Albany, preached a famous sermon on "The Religion of the Presidents," which was published and had a wide circulation. Dr. Wilson showed that of the seven men who up to that time had been elected president, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Jackson, not one had professed a belief in Christianity. In his search for evidence he visited the Washingtons' old pastor, Dr. Abercrombie. In answer to Dr. Wilson's inquiry concerning Washington's religious belief Dr. Abercrombie's emphatic answer was, "Sir, Washington was a Deist." As a result of his investigation Dr. Wilson says: "I think anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion that he [Washington] was a Deist and nothing more."

Everyone is familiar with the story of Washington's praying at Valley Forge. This is a pure fiction. Intelligent Christians reject it. The Rev. E. D. Neill, of the Episcopal church, whose father's uncle owned the building occupied by Washington at Valley Forge, says: "With the capacious and comfortable house at his disposal, it is hardly possible that the shy, silent, cautious Washington should leave such retirement and enter the leafless woods, in the vicinity of the winter encampment of an army and engage in audible prayer."--_Episcopal Recorder_.