Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.), April 26, 1908
PRACTICAL WORK OF THOMAS PAINE
Synopsis of an Address Delivered Before the Paine Memorial Association
By J. C. Hannon
Practice is the better part of every precept, and no individual is qualified to preach what he is unwilling to practice. Paine’s work may be divided under three heads: Religious, Philosophical, and Humanitarian.
His religious work is seen in the liberalizing of dogmatic Christianity as expressed by the Higher Criticism of our time, making deeds a substitute for creeds, epitomizing his well-expressed sentiment:
“THE WORLD IS MY COUNTRY—TO DO GOOD IS MY RELIGION.”
As a philosopher he shares with Robert Fulton and John Fitch the honor of first utilizing steam for the purposes of navigation, while constructing the first iron bridge in existence. As a humanitarian, his first introduction was an article against slavery, written in 1775 and embodied in the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, which was stricken out as a concession to the Southern delegates.
“The religion of Thomas Paine,” says Moncure D. Conway, “was practical, not theoretical. No human being has been born in any civilized country within the last century without some moral tincture of that noble soul whose every pulse-beat was for humanity.”
When old age had laid its palsied hand on that philosophic mind, and death had stilled the beating of that tired heart, the thread of his genius was not broken, but lived and fructified in the lives of such eminent minds as Theodore Parker, Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, William Lloyd Garrison, and Robert G. Ingersoll.
In the field of practical philanthropy, toward which his heart yearned, yet from whose precinct the cruel mandates of poverty excluded him, was by the inscrutable fortuity of subsequent events realized by the services of two of his eminent disciples, Stephen Girard and James Lick.
The Lick Observatory in California and the Paine Memorial Building in Boston are the testimonials. Of the observatory it may be said with fidelity to truth that whatever discoveries are made in the field of astronomical science will add another star to the diadem of James Lick, whose generous endowment facilitates the enterprise; while Girard College in Philadelphia emphasizes the second.
This college contains 1,600 boys, who are clothed, fed, and educated in the highest principles of morality, mechanical skill, and commercial integrity; free from the clashing doctrines of decaying creeds, and fitted according to their natural abilities for the highest duties in life.
That this college is the direct outcome of the moral philosophy of the Age of Reason was shown by Daniel Webster, the great constitutional lawyer, who was employed by the clergy to break the will of Stephen Girard some fifty years ago.
In the midst of an oration teeming with vindictive denunciation of Girard’s irreligious opinions, Webster drew a small pamphlet from his desk, from which he read the following extract:
“Let us devise means to establish schools of instruction, free from the clashing doctrines of sectarian controversies; let us endeavor to propagate morality instead of religion.”
Pausing here, Webster surveyed his attentive listeners, noting the effect on the Court.
Mr. Binney, the opposing counsel, rising to a question of privilege, asked:
“Where did you get such information, and what is the purpose of its quotation here?”
Daniel Webster, realizing that the moment of his triumph had come, raised himself to his full stature, and, pointing significantly to the pamphlet he still held in his hand, exclaimed:
“I got it, Sir, from the same source that Mr. Girard got the provisions of his will, and I repeat it, not only for the information of the Court, but, I hope, also for the edification of my worthy opponent. I got it, Sir, from Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason.”
Webster’s ostensible purpose was to break the will of Stephen Girard by playing on the religious prejudice of the Court, but he not only defeated his own purpose, but added a halo of glory to the genius of Thomas Paine, and we see that Girard College was the direct outcome of the moral philosophy of the Age of Reason.
I am aware that this is ancient history, but lest we forget.