The following interesting bit of history has found its way into the county press. The Statesman of Wednesday, of last week under the heading, “An Offensive Monument,” published the following, which has been credited to the pen of Mr. D. O. Bradley. It is of special interest to the readers of the Chronicle:

There stands on the highway, leading from the south into the village of New Rochelle, a monument erected, as its inscription shows, to commemorate “Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense.” The repeated assaults made upon the monuments which have been erected to mark the spot where the spy, Andre, was executed at Tappan, seem in strange contrast with the fact that this monument, which is in every respect as large and as conspicuous, has remained undisturbed and without criticism for nearly seventy-five years. Both Paine and Andre were buried outside of established cemeteries upon farm lands, which had been identified with their career, and the remains of both were subsequently carried back to England, their native country, with marked display of honorable tributes by their admirers.

Thomas Paine was born in 1737, nearly 150 years ago. He early showed an aptitude for public affairs, and also an inability which characterized every office of the many which he subsequently held, to perform the duties trustworthily. He obtained places in the excise of his native town and was twice expelled from them for malpractices. He then emigrated to this country; became Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs in our Colonial Congress and was dismissed from that office in 1779 “for a scandalous breach of trust.” He then emigrated to France, became a companion of the blood-thirsty Robespierre and took an active part in the execution of King Louis. He subsequently escaped almost miraculously from a French prison and returned to this country. He announced his second advent by publishing a virulent assault on Gen. Washington, then serving his second term as President. He subsequently ended his life in extreme poverty and complete social ostracism, a natural and just retribution.

It would be utterly impossible to find anything in such a tempestuous life worth honoring. Paine won his only notoriety by the fact that he was always at war with established society. He was under all circumstances personally unreliable and dishonorable. He was an active agent of ungodliness, of trouble, of discord, and of anarchy. That a monument to honor the memory of such a man should be erected, passeth understanding. The inscription “Author of Common Sense,” was intended to be, and was in fact, offensive in the highest degree. The little book “Common Sense” taught and advocated rebellion against both the governments of man and God. It defied, in most offensive form, the holiest sentiments of a vast majority of our countrymen. It ridiculed, and treated with levity, those things which were everywhere taught in our households, and in our churches, as of fundamental importance, at the base of our social and religious structure. An inscription honoring a man for thus outraging the religious and the refined sentiments of all his neighbors, must necessarily have been very annoying and tantalizing.

It is greatly to our credit that for three quarters of a century this detestable monument has been allowed to stand to bear its false testimony in its own way. It has attempted to honor a dishonored life, and it has attempted to vitalize utterly abhorrent and obnoxious sentiments. We have not appealed to dynamite for protection. The shaft, in its purposes and in its inscription, has wounded nearly every intelligent person who has ever passed by it; yet law, order and the truth have been vindicated by allowing it to stand. Cowardly vandalism and midnight assaults with dynamite have thus been shown not to be outcomes of American character.

It indicates a curious state of the public mind however, which tolerates a monument in honor of atheism and anarchy, but doubts the good policy of an inscription “not to perpetuate the record of strife, but in token of those better feelings, which have since united two nations, one in race, one in language, and one in religion.”

The Dobbs Ferry Record takes up the subject, and after quoting the Statesman’s article, charges the pen of the Tory with having maliciously endeavored to fasten upon the pages of history all possible obloquy upon the name of Thomas Paine. Not among the least of these, as a reward for his incalculable services to the cause of American independence is the cry of “Atheist” and “Infidel.” Thomas Paine’s “Religious Creed” silences one and all of these calumnies. In his “Age of Reason,” 1794, he says:

“It has been my intention, for several years past, to publish my thoughts upon religion. I intended it to be the last offering I should make to my fellow-citizens of all nations, and that at a time when the purity of the motive that induced me to it, could not admit of a question even by those who might disapprove the work.
“I believe in one God and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
“I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.”

The Record then in reply to the Statesman writers, efforts to belie the memory of Thomas Paine, publishes the following brief historical resume of Paine’s eventful life:

Thomas Paine was born at Thetford, England, 29th January, 1737. He came to America at the request of Franklin in 1764. In the fall of 1775 he began his immortal pamphlet, “Common Sense.” In it he first, and before all others, proposed the Independence of the American Colonies. The boldness of his language alarmed those timid, conventional souls, who in all great struggles for human liberty have clogged the wheels of progress. They thought the people were not prepared to either demand their liberties or fight for them. All but the Tories agreed with the sentiments of the pamphlet, but thought them premature. It was too soon for such declarations. It was at this time that the courage and genius of Paine rose equal to the emergencies of the hour. His book had already taken hold of the public mind, and produced the very results he sought. He asked for a Declaration of Independence. He created a desire for it. “Common Sense” had an enormous sale, and Paine might have realized almost a fortune for it, but he refused all offers and gave the right to each state, and afterwards joined the army.

By his writings, enthusiasm and patriotism he won the friendship of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and all the other great spirits of the day. His pamphlet revolutionized public sentiment entirely. It gave confidence and nerve to the army, and taught the masses that Independence was not only a possible, but a probable condition. He showed the Tories and the armies of the Mother Country the impossibility of conquering the colonies. He ridiculed the claimed rights of the King of Great Britain, and maintained the universal justice of self-government. His words were as necessary to the army as its cannon, and almost as formidable.

In 1776, the States, in Congress assembled, declared their Independence, and that very declaration, as well as those written the year before, were all echoes of the doctrines set forth in Paine’s pamphlet, “Common Sense.”

He began his first number of the “Crisis” in December, ’76, and when our army was defeated on Long Island, and Washington was driven with great loss from Forts Washington and Lee—when they were retreating through New-Jersey, overwhelmed with a series of unexpected misfortunes, and the patriots looked their starving, half-clad comrades in the face, and were about to give up, the dauntless patriot, the courageous author appeared with another number of the “Crisis.”

It commenced with that immortal passage, “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.”

The effect of this last number was marvelous. It was read to the companies of soldiers, and re-read to squads through the whole army. It electrified the whole army, and effected more than was hoped for by the most sanguine.

The convention in New York, by desertion and fright reduced to nine members, the absentees now returned re-animated restored—stragglers returned to duty, hope succeeded despair, cheerfulness arose from gloom, and to crown all, Washington crossed the Delaware, attacked the hordes of Hessians, and gained the battle of Trenton. So far as human eye can see, the Liberties of America were, at this crisis in her fate, preserved by Thomas Paine, for it is incredible that the drooping courage of the country could have been re-animated by any pen less powerful. Has he received the full measure of his country’s gratitude?

Greater labors were in store for Paine. During the last winter that followed the battle of Princeton, the soldiers threatened to leave the army unless they got part of their pay and the Tories by every means which rascality and endless scheming could devise, were making raids upon the impoverished treasury and depreciated notes of the government. In these trying times Paine’s genius came to the rescue. He proposed to make a loan from France. The French ambassador gave him no encouragement, but even rebuffed him. But Paine was not the man to be driven from his purpose. He looked beyond the ken of ordinary men. He laid his project before Congress, and that body sent Paine and Col. Laurens of South Carolina to France, and they returned with two and a half millions in silver and a ship load of provisions for the army. Paine never ceased his exertions throughout the seven years contest, and toward the last, when Washington feared the immediate dissolution of the army, Paine started a private subscription and headed it with $500 (his entire salary) and the list was soon increased to a million and a half. The immediate wants of the government were supplied and the wants of the army were relieved and Washington was enabled soon after to encompass and subdue Cornwallis, and bring the war to a successful close.

No man was more popular at the close of the war than Paine. He was a universal favorite, a tried patriot and a successful author, powerful and convincing in discussion, honest and pure in his love of liberty and American institutions.

That Thomas Paine contributed as much towards the Independence of the United States of America, and to gain the liberties we now enjoy, as any other human being, there never was, nor is there a shadow of doubt in the mind of any intelligent or just man or woman.

In the French Assembly, where nearly all were demanding the death of the king—where to differ from the majority was to be suspected, and, where to be suspected was almost certain death, Thomas Paine had the courage, the goodness and the justice to vote against the king’s death. For this he was arrested, imprisoned and doomed to death. A genuine love for the right found himself imprisoned by the very people he had striven to save. He spent his life in destroying the power of kings. His enemies did not succeed in bringing his head on the block.

A few more years, a few more brave men, and mankind will venerate the memory of him who said. “The world is my country, and to do good my religion.”

For Andre’s record and the massacre at Tappan by the British cohorts, see Hinton’s History, pages 272 and 273.

The New York World says: “Where one man in the United States can be found to condemn Thomas Paine ten thousand can be found who believe that John Andre was a spy, and that when he was found disguised inside the American lines seeking an interview with a traitor engaged in betraying the sacred cause of Liberty he deserved the death that George Washington permitted him to die.”

Related Posts