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PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.

HE object of the present work is to place before the public, at a low price, a concise and impartial his

tory of the life of Thomas Paine; so that the people who have been so grossly misled in regard to his real character, and so greatly benefited by his services, may learn to respect and honor the memory of their great benefactor.

But few, who have not specially examined the subject, realize the great and beneficent influence which Paine's writings have exerted and are still destined to exert. He was, as is well known, one of the chief instigators and promoters of the American Revolution, and also one of the most earnest and zealous workers in the brave struggle of the Colonies for Freedom and Independence.

His success and popularity in America insured him an enthusiastic welcome in France, where he was elected a deputy to the National Convention from two different departments. The revolution in France, after many excesses and reverses, has at length proved successful, and the Republic there, as in America, is permanently established. In England, the revolutionary spirit was also invoked;

but, unfortunately, suppressed by the strong hand of power, aided by bribery and treachery.*

"The French Revolution," says James Cheetham, † "that terrible concussion which had perniciously affected all Europe, and particularly England, had prepared the Clubs for the unhinging doctrines of the Rights of Man. Never did the parched earth receive refreshing rain with more welcome, than that with which the revolutionary people of England admitted amongst them the tumultuous writings of Paine. To that which was his object; to commotion, to the overthrow of the government, and to bloodshed, in all its horrid forms, they were rapidly hastening. Thus predisposed, the cordiality and enthusiasm with which the first part of the Rights of Man was greeted, although flattering to the vanity and encouraging to the hopes of the author, were not surprising. The Clubs, zealous to a degree of frenzy; always vigilant, always alert, published a groat‡ edition of thirty thousand copies of the work, which was distributed amongst the poor, who could not afford to purchase. In the great manufacturing towns, Paine was considered by the ignorant as an apostle of freedom. A song was privately circulated, beginning with—

"The government, alarmed, knew not how to meet the evil. Burke did, however, by his successive and

*The government purchased the venal at any price. Paine refused 1,000 for the copyright of the Rights of Man, but freely permitted all to publish his works who desired. He could not be bribed nor corrupted. Edmund Burke, one of Paine's intimate correspondents, suddenly changed his political views, under Pitt's baneful influence, and wrote his Reflections on the Revolution in France. When bribery did not succeed and publishers could not be intimidated, they were arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned.

† See Preface to Cheetham's Life of Paine, pages xvii and xviii.

I An English coin of the value of four pence.

impressive appeals, animate them to precautionary

measures."

This is the language of James Cheetham, the enemy of Paine, and the convicted libeller of Madame Bonneville. But Cheetham, whose writings cannot always be relied upon, may be believed when he is forced, as in the present instance, to admit, most unwillingly, the great influence of Paine's writings upon the masses.

Before Paine announced in the Age of Reason his belief in "One God and no more," no writer in Europe or America was more popular and respected; but when Christians realized that the great author's religion was Deisin and not Trinitarianism nor Catholicism, their former friendship was turned to enmity, and their admiration changed to hatred. His patriotic services were ungratefully ignored, his motives misrepresented, his character basely slandered, and his memory maligned.

Still, there were many members of the community who believed in the religious views of Thomas Paine, and who also upheld his political doctrines. These formed a brave and gallant band who sturdily defended his memory from clerical assaults, and refuted many of the wicked slanders of his enemies. Their efforts to vindicate Paine's character were ably seconded by reformers of every kind-by Theists, Pantheists, Materialists, Agnostics and Atheists-that is to say, by that numerous and worthy class of citizens whom Paine styled Infidels!

*

In the twenty-first chapter and twenty-fifth verse of the Gospel of St. John, we are told that if the many things which Jesus did "should be written every one, I suppose even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written."

This romantic and apostolic statement, even if inspired, may not be absolutely true; but it is an indisputable

*See "Discourse to the Society of Theophilanthropists," Paine's Theological Works, pp. 300-306.

fact that if all the libels which have been written and published against Thomas Paine, were printed in one book, that book would form a volume much larger than both the Old and New Testaments combined.

Touchstone speaks of a lie seven times removed. * That is, first, the retort courteous; second, the quip modest; third, the reply churlish; fourth, the reproof valiant; fifth, the countercheck quarrelsome; sixth, the lie circumstantial; seventh, the lie direct;- but it would require a greater genius than even the famed bard of Avon to describe and define all the various grades and varieties of misrepresentations, untruths, and absolute falsehoods with which Christian rancor has assailed the character of Thomas Paine.

The friend and companion of three presidents,Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe, the friend of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, De Witt Clinton, Joel Barlow, Benjamin Rush, and the most prominent patriots of the American Revolution, the associate of Count Volney, Marquis de La Fayette, Condorcet, Brissot, Madame Roland, and the leaders of the Revolution in France, the companion of Clio Rickman, Mary Wollstonecraft, Horne Tooke, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Towers, Romney, the painter, Sharp, the engraver, Col. Oswald, &c., &c., in England, has been described by Christian writers as a drunkard, a debauchee, and an outcast, while the plain truth is, that he was temperate, unselfish, patriotic, and the devoted friend of mankind.

At the present day the number of Paine's friends has become so great and their influence so potent, that only the most reckless and audacious of romancers now venture to repeat the stale, well-worn, and oft-refuted slanders of former years, and, as a consequence, more tolerant and rational views in regard to his character are becoming prevalent in the community.

*Shakspeare: As You Like It, Act 5, Scene 4.