“Paine’s Birth Day.” Literary Cadet and Rhode-Island Statesman, vol. II, no. 86, 9 Feb. 1828, p. [2]. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers. Accessed 15 Aug. 2026.
PAINE’S BIRTH DAY. An assemblage of gentlemen was collected at Washington Hall, New York, on the 29th ult, to celebrate the birth day of Thomas Paine. There would not have been any thing in this, strictly objectionable, had the gentlemen in their toasts and sentiments, confined themselves to Mr. Paine’s political opinions. We are sorry however, to say, that they thought proper, to applaud his theological writings. Among the toasts we find the following:
“THOMAS PAINE. We meet to respect his memory, and to extend his principles.”
We would ask what principles they alluded to. If they meant his political principles, we go with them hand in hand, for Paine, probably did more by his political writings, to establish the American Independence, than any other man that ever existed. But if the gentlemen, meant his theological principles, we offer our unqualified dissent, and regret that they should have thought proper to draw them from “their drear abode.”