WORSHIP AND CHURCH BELLS, A LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN Philip Foner’s introduction: This pamphlet, published in the summer of 1797 in Paris and London, was Paine’s reply to a Report made to the French Convention by Camille Jordan, a royalist lawyer and member of the Council of Five Hundred, recommending the restoration of certain Catholic […]
Worship and Church Bells Read Post »
From the original letter at the Library of Congress. Harve May 14th – 97 Dear Sir I wrote to you by the ship Dublin Packet – Capt. Clay, mentioning my intention to have returned to America by that Vessel, and to have suggested to some Member of the house of representatives the propriety of calling
To Thomas Jefferson May 14, 1797 Read Post »
I. AN ANSWER TO A FRIEND PARIS, May 12, 1797 IN your letter of the 20th of March, you give me several quotations from the Bible, which you call the ‘word of God,’ to shew me that my opinions on religion are wrong, and I could give you as many, from the same book to
Age of Reason Letters Read Post »
From the original letter at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Harve 6th Florial 5 year HAVRE My dear Friend As the Paris papers and some private letters from thence mention your arrival, I take it for granted, and congratulate you upon it; but at the same time I cannot flatter you with much hopes of
To James Madison April 27, 1797 Read Post »
From the original letter at the Library of Congress. Harve de Grace April 1 1797 Dear Friend I left Paris about ten days ago and came to this place intending to take passage in the Dublin Packet for New York, but the vessel being crowded I shall wait another opportunity. Mr. Monroe, whom I left
To Thomas Jefferson April 1, 1797 Read Post »
To Anonymous March 4, 1797 PARIS, MY DEAR FRIEND: I just write you a line to tell you that I am in existence after a thousand dangers. I am always intending to return to America, and something is always happening to prevent me; the case I believe is that, as I have embarked in this
To Anonymous March 4, 1797 Read Post »
To Colonel John Fellows January 20, 1797 PARIS, SIR: Your friend Mr. Caritat being on the point of his departure for America, I make it the opportunity of writing to you. I received two letters from you with some pamphlets a considerable time past, in which you inform me of your entering a copyright of
To Colonel John Fellows January 20, 1797 Read Post »
To James Monroe August 15, 1796 Versailles, 28 Thermidor 4 year DEAR SIR: I am spending some days at. the house of a friend at this place with whom I shall make an arrangement to stay some weeks. But I am out of cash and I know no method of supplying myself, but by having
To James Monroe August 15, 1796 Read Post »
To a French Minister August 13, 1796 VERSAILLES, CITIZEN MINISTER: The citizen Robert Smith, a very particular friend of mine, wishes to obtain a passport to go to Hamburg, and I will be obliged to you to do him that favor. Himself and family have lived several years in France, for he likes neither the
To a French Minister August 13, 1796 Read Post »
This poem was addressed to Mrs. Joel Barlow, the wife of the liberal American poet, Joel Barlow, who was living in Paris in 1796 when these verses were written. Accompanying the poem, Paine sent the following note: “To Mrs. Barlow, on her pleasantly telling the author that, after writing against the superstition of the Scripture
LETTER TO GEORGE WASHINGTON From the original Philadelphia Aurora pamphlet in 1796. DATED PARIS, JULY 30, AS censure is but awkwardly softened by apology, I shall offer to you no apology for this letter. The eventful crisis to which your double politics have conducted the affairs of your country, requires an investigation uncramped by ceremony.
Letter to George Washington Read Post »
From the 1796 Paris edition. NOTHING, they say, is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying; yet we can always fix a period beyond which man cannot live, and within some moment of which he will die. We are enabled to do this, not by any spirit of prophecy
The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance Read Post »
