THOMAS PAINE. ECCLESIASTES, Ix. 14, 15. THERE was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. TO-DAY is the 123d anniversary of the birth-day of THOMAS PAINE, a man who was the leading spirit of three Revolutions, one in America, one in France, and one in the Church. I do not propose to give you a biography of this man: it is doubtless familiar to many of you; and those who desire to know the details of his life can easily procure the true, and the only true, record of it by Mr. Vale. But the day, and the man, and the assemblies of honest men throughout the land which will pay homage to his memory, and the annual shudder with which their enthusiasm will be met, these are living facts, representative facts, which no philosopher can pass by, and no friend of man can fail to be interested in. THOMAS PAINE's life up to 1809, when he died, is interesting; but THOMAS PAINE's life from that time to 1860 is more than interesting-it is thrilling! It is freighted with the revolutions of thought; it is the realm where are waging the Crimeas and Solferinos of Reason and Knowledge. I may touch on points, here and there, of his life, but it will only be that I may more fairly approach and estimate the living PAINE,- for all classes, either to their cost or joy, must know how real and vital is the impress that he stamps on the popular heart and mind at this present time. Every one at all familiar with the beginnings of the war of American Independence knows, that the idea of forming an independent Republic did not for a long time enter into the question. The adherence to the mother country was so obstinate, that those who talked of separation were abused very much as a disunionist is now in these States. Nothing further was contemplated by the agitations and dissatisfactions of our colonies, than a change in the British ministry, and the consequent removal of an unjust tax. Washington, Franklin, Rush, and Adams regarded themselves as protesting against a special and practical wrong, which being redressed, they expected matters to go on as usual. They had no idea of fighting for any abstract principle of government. Men never take up arms for abstractions. The word Independence was only the muttering of a few radicals, frowned on as Garrisonians are now; and, within one month of the battle of Lexington, a man might easily have been hung on Boston Common for uttering it too loudly. When the dawn of the Revolution was flashing upon the sky its blood-red glow, mingled with the smoke of Lexington and Bunker Hill, four men gathered into a room in Philadelphia, -a Boston lawyer, a Philadelphia doctor, a printer of the same. city, and a Virginia farmer. Care and apprehension were deeply marked upon their faces; the shadows of forthcoming destinies and inevitable storms were forecast upon them. Those men were John Adams, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. These sit together and read the terrible dispatches they have received. Then they pause in gloom and silence. Presently Franklin speaks: What," he asks, "is to be the end of all this? Is it to obtain justice of Great Britain, to change the ministry, to soften a tax? Or is it for " He paused; the word independence yet choked the bravest throat that sought to utter it. 66 There was no response; and at this still, momentous moment a visitor enters. A young Quaker he seems, clad in faded brown coat. A CELEBRATION. He takes his seat, introduced by Franklin, who had met him, as a poor staymaker, with a strong head and face, in London. He breaks the deep silence with these words: "These States of America must be independent of England. That is the only solution of this question!" They all rise to their feet at this political blasphemy. But he goes on; his eye lights up with patriotic fire; his voice rises to prophecy as he paints before them the glorious Destiny of America, her resources and power, and the magnificent Future to which he adjures them to entrust and dedicate the Western Continent. Then these four men, so shocked at first, arose and grasped the stranger's hand; George Washington leaped forward, and taking both of his hands, besought him to publish these views in a book which should send its thunder-peal throughout the world; and then and there, out of the heart and upon the lips of THOMAS PAINE, was born the theory and aim of American Independence. PAINE went to his room, seized his pen, lost sight of every other object, toiled terribly, and on the New-Year's day of 1776 the work entitled Common Sense, which first brought both people and their leaders face to face with the work they had to accomplish, broke sun-like on the land. "That book," says Dr. Rush, "burst from the press with an effect which has been rarely produced by types or paper, in any age or country." The historians Ramsay, Gordon, and others are unanimous in their opinion that this book was the primary cause of the aim and result to which the Revolution was guided. That idea of Independence the pen of PAINE fed with fuel from his brain when it was growing dim. At this distance, we can scarcely appreciate the electric power of that pen. The battle of Trenton was Keystone of the Arch of Revolution; and it was on its verge that cold and starvation coiled about the ranks of Washington, and their courage was fast failing. At one time Washington thought that his troops would be entirely dismembered. But the Author-Hero of the Revolution was tracking their march and writing by the light of camp-fires the essay called The Crisis. And when the half-clad troops were called together, these words broke forth upon them: "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. What we obtain too cheap we estimate too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated." The opening sentence, These are the times that try men's souls, became the watchword of the battle of Trenton, and Washington himself set the pen of PAINE above any sword wielded that day. Of how many battles since, for national, individual, civil and religious freedom, has that sentence been the watchword! But we need not dwell on the fact of PAINE's services and power in this eventful period. He stood the acknowledged leader of American statesmanship by the proclamations of the Legislatures of all the States, and that of the Congress of the United States; the tribute of his greatest enemy was in these words: "The cannon of Washington was not more formidable to the British than the pen of the author of Common Sense." A little less independence, a little more preference of himself to humanity, and he would have been the first President of the United States; as it was, when victory perched upon the American standard he went to France, where man was preparing to struggle with his oppressor, and became to America the poor wise man who had saved her, and who was forgotten in her prosperity. The other day, a portrait of THOMAS PAINE was offered to the city of Philadelphia, to be hung up in the hall where American Independence was born, along with the portraits of men who, in those times which tried men's souls, looked to PAINE for the watchwords which should inspire victories. The city council refused admission to the portrait; the poor wise man who had saved the city was ungratefully scorned. Now, friends, this means something. It is a more vital thing than at first it seems to be, that this particular star should be struck from our national galaxy. What is the meaning of it? It can not hurt "Tom Paine" now, but it may be deadly to us; therefore, why can not we honor the man whose patriotism and heroism bear the official seal of the country and every State in the country, and are signed with the signatures of every good and great man who lived and labored by his side? Jefferson could send a government ship to France to bring him to our shores, Washington could invite him to share Mt. Vernon with him, Barlow could describe him as most benevolent and disinterested of mankind,”his portrait a place of honor, nor hear his name without a shudder. Now, what is the cause of this? What great crime has he committed? 66 one of the we can not give All efforts to stain the good name of THOMAS PAINE have recoiled on those who made them, like poisoned arrows shot against a strong wind. In the name of priests and tract-societies, miserable men have come forward to cast mire upon him; but their retributions have been swift and terrible. Grant Thorburn, who was set up to prove PAINE's intemperance, has only succeeded in uncovering a mean theft of his own early life; and Mr. Cheetham, who lifted his fang to strike the whiteness of his purity, was, even in the godly city of Philadelphia, before a judge and jury who hated PAINE, convicted and sentenced for slander and libel against the dead hero and a living and noble woman. PAINE's old friend, Elizabeth Ryder, at whose house he boarded during all the period in which he is said to have been dissipated, and whose honesty is as unimpeached as her means of knowledge, comes forward to a Justice, and, with nearly her last word on earth, brands the pious falsehood. The Hero's fame has run the gauntlet of every slander which priestcraft and bigotry could spawn, and has come forth |