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PI65 
1908 


v..  <^^^^< 


■^ 


A 


s>^~- 


BOOK  320.81.P165  1908  v/.8  c 
PAINE  #  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 
THOMAS    PAINE 


3    T153    0007"lbbD    T 


m-A  j>4.< 


<v^co: 


THE  INDEPENDENCE   EDITION 

OF  THE 

WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

is  limited  to  five  hundred  numbered 
copies,  of  which  this  is 


No. 


r 


TT  T 


■H 


AND 


M 


CONTAIN'ING   A  -BIOGRAPHY    BY    THOMAS 

CLIO  ^4W^^^  4^  ^'E^^^^^^^^«NS    BY 
(Napoleon  rc^oit  au  Louvre  les  Deputes  de  I'Armee) 

Photogravure  from  an  Original  Painting 

LL^LKi    hUliBAKD  AMU  Aw\.<;LL 


.V\„  ;. 


EDITED  AND 

OANIFI.   FH" 


VINCENT  PARKE  AND  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK 


-J^JVi  ' 


. ,  li 


CONTAINING  A  BIOGRAPHY  BY  THOMAS 
CLIO  RICKMAN  AND  APPRECIATIONS  BY 
LESLIE  STEPHEN,  LORD  ERSKINE,  PAUL 
DESJARDINS,  ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL, 
ELBERT  HUBBARD  AND  MARILLA  M.  RICKER 


EDITED  AND  ANNOTATED  BY 

DANIEL  EDWIN  WHEELER 


VINCENT  PARKE  AND  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK 


COPYRIGHT,  1908,  BY 
VINCENT  PARKE  AND  COMPANY 


ESSAYS,  LETTERS, 
AND  ADDRESSES 


CONTENTS 

Essays,  Letters,  and  Addresses  page 

To  the  Public  on  Mr.  Deane's  Affair  -         -  1 

Autobiographical  Sketch     -          -          -          -  50 

Messrs.  Deane,  Jay  and  Gerard            -          -  59 

(1)  Peace,  and  the  Newfoundland  Fisheries  71 

(2)  Peace,  and  the  Newfoundland  Fisheries  81 

(3)  Peace,  and  the  Newfoundland  Fisheries  93 

The  American  Philosophical  Society  -         -  113 

Emancipation  of  Slaves     -         -         -         -  117 

Public  Good       - 120 

Letter  to  the  Abbe  Raynal,  1782         -         -  180 

Dissertations  on  Government;  the  Affairs  of 

the  Bank ;  and  Paper  Money   -         -         -  287 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Napoleon  at  Versailles         -         -  Frontispiece 

Photogravure  from  an  Original  Painting 

His  Majesty  George  III         -         -         -         -       70 
Photogravure  from  the  Original  Painting  by 
Sir    Joshua    Reynolds,    presented    to    the 
Royal  Academy  of  Arts,  London 

Thomas  Jefferson  -         -         -         -         -116 

Photogravure  from  the  Original  Painting  by 
Gilbert  Stuart  in  Bowdoin  College 

James  Monroe         ------     g86 

Photogravure  from  an  Original  Painting 


Vll 


ESSAYS,  LETTERS,  AND 
ADDRESSES 


TO   THE   PUBLIC   ON   MR.  DEANE'S 
AFFAIR 

From  the  Pennsylvania  Packet  of  December 
31,  1778,  and  January  2,  5,  7,  and  9,  1779. 

HOPING  this  to  be  my  last  on  the  subject  of 
Mr.  Deane's  conduct  and  address,  I  shall 
therefore  make  a  few  remarks  on  what  has  al- 
ready appeared  in  the  papers,  and  furnish  you 
with  some  interesting  and  explanatory  facts ;  and 
whatever  I  may  conceive  necessary  to  say  of 
myself  will  conclude  the  piece.  As  it  is  my  de- 
sign to  make  those  that  can  scarcely  read  under- 
stand, I  shall  therefore  avoid  every  literary 
ornament,  and  put  it  in  language  as  plain  as  the 
alphabet. 

I  desire  the  public  to  understand  that  this  is 
not  a  personal  dispute  between  Mr.  Deane  and 
me,  but  is  a  matter  of  business  in  which  they  are 
more  interested  than  they  seemed  at  first  to  be 
apprised  of.  I  rather  wonder  that  no  person  was 
curious  enough  to  ask  in  the  papers  how  affairs 

1 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

stood  between  Congress  and  Mr.  Deane  as  to 
money  matters.  And  likewise,  what  it  was  that 
Mr.  Deane  has  so  repeatedly  applied  to  the  Con- 
gress for  without  success. 

Perhaps  those  two  questions,  properly  asked, 
and  justly  answered,  would  have  unraveled  a 
great  part  of  the  mystery,  and  explained  the  rea- 
son why  he  threw  out,  at  such  a  particular  time, 
such  a  strange  address.  They  might  likewise  have 
asked,  whether  there  had  been  any  former  dis- 
pute between  Mr.  Deane  and  Arthur  or  WiUiam 
Lee,  and  what  it  was  about.  Mr.  Deane's  round- 
about charges  against  the  Lees,  are  accompanied 
with  a  kind  of  rancor,  that  differs  exceedingly 
from  public-spirited  zeal.  For  my  part,  I  have 
but  a  very  slender  opinion  of  those  patriots,  if 
they  can  be  called  such,  who  never  appear  till  pro- 
voked to  it  by  a  personal  quarrel,  and  then  blaze 
away,  the  hero  of  their  own  tale,  and  in  a  whirl- 
wind of  their  own  raising ;  such  men  are  very  sel- 
dom what  the  populace  mean  by  the  word 
"stanch,"  and  it  is  only  by  a  continuance  of  serv- 
ice that  any  public  can  become  a  judge  of  a  man's 
principles. 

When  I  first  took  up  this  matter,  I  expected 
at  least  to  be  abused,  and  I  have  not  been  disap- 
pointed. It  was  the  last  and  only  refuge  they 
2 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

had,  and,  thank  God,  I  had  nothing  to  dread 
from  it.  I  might  have  escaped  it  if  I  would, 
either  by  being  silent,  or  by  joining  in  the  tumult. 
A  gentleman,  a  member  of  Congress,  an  asso- 
ciate, I  believe,  of  Mr.  Deane's,  and  one  whom 
I  would  wish  had  not  a  hand  in  the  piece  signed 
Plain  Truth,  very  politely  asked  me,  a  few  days 
before  Common  Sense  to  Mr.  Deane  came  out, 
whether  on  that  subject  I  was  pro  or  con?  I  re- 
plied, I  knew  no  pro  or  con,  nor  any  other  sides 
than  right  or  wrong. 

Mr.  Deane  had  objected  to  my  putting  the 
signature  of  Common  Sense  to  my  address  to 
him,  and  the  gentleman  who  came  to  my  lodgings 
urged  the  same  objections;  their  reasons  for  so 
doing  may,  I  think,  be  easily  guessed  at.  The 
signature  has,  I  believe,  an  extensive  reputation, 
and  which,  I  trust,  will  never  be  forfeited  while 
in  my  possession.  As  I  do  not  choose  to  comply 
with  the  proposal  that  was  made  to  me  for  chang- 
ing it,  therefore  Mr.  Plain  Truth,  as  he  calls 
himself,  and  his  connections,  may  endeavor  to 
take  off  from  the  credit  of  the  signature,  by  a 
torrent  of  low-toned  abuse,  without  wit,  matter 
or  sentiment.  t 

Had  Mr.  Deane  confined  himself  to  his 
proper  line  of  conduct,  he  would  never  have  been 

3 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

interrupted  by  me,  or  exposed  himself  to  suspi- 
cious criticism.  But  departing  from  this,  he  has 
thrown  himself  on  the  ocean  of  the  public,  where 
nothing  but  the  firmest  integrity  can  preserve 
him  from  becoming  a  wreck.  A  smooth  and  flat- 
tering tale  may  do  for  a  while,  but  unless  it  can 
be  supported  with  facts,  and  maintained  by  the 
most  incontestible  proof,  it  wiU  fall  to  the 
ground,  and  leave  the  inventor  in  the  lurch. 

On  the  first  view  of  things,  there  is  something 
in  Mr.  Deane's  conduct  which  must  appear  mys- 
terious to  every  disinterested  man,  if  he  will  but 
give  himself  time  to  reflect.  Mr.  Deane  has  been 
arrived  in  America,  and  in  this  city,  upwards  of 
five  months,  and  had  he  been  possessed  of  any 
secrets  which  aff'ected,  or  seemed  to  afl*ect,  the 
interest  of  America,  or  known  any  kind  of 
treachery,  misconduct,  or  neglect  of  duty  in  any 
of  the  other  commissioners,  or  in  any  other  per- 
son, he  ought,  as  an  honest  man,  to  have  disclosed 
it  immediately  on  his  arrival,  either  to  the  Com- 
mittee for  Foreign  Afl*airs,  of  which  I  have  the 
honor  to  be  secretary,  or  to  Congress.  Mr. 
Deane  has  done  neither,  notwithstanding  he  has 
had  two  audiences  with  Congress  in  August  last, 
and  might  at  any  time  have  laid  his  written  in- 
formation before  them,  or  before  the  Committee, 
4 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

through  whom  all  his  foreign  concerns  Had 
passed,  and  in  whose  hands,  or  rather  in  mine,  are 
lodged  all  his  political  correspondence,  and  those 
of  other  commissioners. 

From  an  unwillingness  to  expose  Mr.  Deane 
and  his  adherents  too  much,  I  contented  myself 
in  my  first  piece  with  showing  their  inconsist- 
ency rather  than  their  intentions,  and  gave  them 
room  to  retract  by  concealing  their  discredit.  It 
is  necessary  that  I  should  now  speak  a  plainer 
language. 

The  public  have  totally  mistaken  this  matter, 
and  when  they  come  to  understand  it  rightly,  they 
will  see  it  in  a  very  different  light  to  what  they 
at  first  supposed  it.  They  seemed  to  conceive, 
and  great  pains  have  been  taken  to  make  them 
believe,  that  Mr.  Deane  had  repeatedly  applied  to 
Congress  to  obtain  an  audience,  in  order  to  lay 
before  them  some  great  and  important  discov- 
eries, and  that  the  Congress  had  refused  to  hear 
such  information.  It  is.  Gentlemen,  no  such 
thing.  If  Mr.  Deane  or  any  one  else  had  told 
you  so,  they  have  imposed  upon  you. 

If  you  attend  to  a  part  of  Mr.  Deane*s  Ad- 
dress to  you,  you  will  find  there,  even  from  his 
own  account,  what  it  was  that  he  wanted  an  in- 
terview with  Congress  for,  viz.  to  get  some  how 

5 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

or  other  through  his  own  perplexed  affairs,  and 
obtain  an  audience  of  leave  and  departure  that  he 
might  embark  for  France,  and  which  if  he  could 
have  obtained,  there  is  every  reason  to  beheve,  he 
would  have  quitted  America  in  silence,  and  that 
the  public  would  never  have  been  favored  with 
his  address,  nor  I  plagued  with  the  trouble  of 
putting  it  to  rights.  The  part  which  I  allude  to 
is  this,  "and  having  placed  my  papers  and  yours 
in  safety,  I  left  Paris,  in  full  confidence  that 
I  should  not  be  detained  in  America,"  to  which 
he  adds  this  curious  expression,  "  on  the  business 
I  was  sent  for."  To  be  "  detained  "  at  home  is 
a  new  transposition  of  ideas,  especially  in  a  man 
who  has  been  absent  from  it  two  years  and  a  half, 
and  serves  to  show  that  Mr.  Deane  was  become 
so  wonderfully  f oreignized  that  he  had  quite  for- 
gotten poor  Connecticut. 

As  I  shall  have  frequent  occasions  to  make 
use  of  the  name  of  Congress,  I  request  you  to 
suspend  all  kinds  of  opinions  on  any  supposed  ob- 
ligations which  I  am  said  to  lie  under  to  that 
body,  till  you  hear  what  I  have  to  say  in  the  con- 
clusion of  this  address,  for  if  Mr.  Deane's  ac- 
counts stand  as  clear  with  them  as  mine  do,  he 
might  very  easily  have  brought  his  papers  from 
France.  I  have  several  times  repeated,  and  I 
6 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

again  repeat  it,  that  my  whole  design  in  taking 
this  matter  up,  was  and  is,  to  prevent  the  pubHc 
being  imposed  upon,  and  the  event  must  and  wiU 
convince  them  of  it. 

I  now  proceed  to  put  the  affair  into  such  a 
straight  Hne  that  you  cannot  misunderstand  it. 

Mr.  Deane  wrote  his  address  to  you  some 
time  in  November,  and  kept  it  by  him  in  order  to 
pubHsh  or  not  as  it  might  suit  his  purpose.* 

*  This  is  fully  proved  by  the  address  itself  which  is  dated 
November,  but  without  any  day  of  the  month,  and  the  same  is 
likewise  acknowledged  by  his  blundering  friend  Mr.  Plain  Truth. 
His  words  are,  "Mr.  Deane,  it  is  true,  wrote  his  address"  (dated 
November)  "previous  to  his  application  to  Congress,  of  the  thirtieth 
of  November."  He  certainly  could  not  write  it  after,  there  being, 
unfortunately  for  him,  but  thirty  days  in  that  month;  "but,"  con- 
tinues Mr.  Plaik  Truth,  "he  was  determined  notwithstanding 
some  forceable  reasons,  which  the  vigilant  part  of  the  public  are  at 
no  loss  to  guess,  not  to  publish  it  if  he  could  be  assured  of  an 
early  audience  with  Congress."  Mr.  Deane  was  in  a  confounded 
hurry,  sure  that  he  could  not  submit  to  be  detained  in  America 
tiU  the  next  day,  for  on  that  very  next  day,  December  first,  in 
consequence  of  his  letter  the  Congress,  "Resolved  to  spend  two 
hours  each  day,  beginning  at  six  in  the  evening,  till  the  state  of 
their  foreign  affairs  should  be  fully  ascertained."  This  naturally 
included  all  and  every  part  of  Mr.  Deane's  affairs,  information 
and  everything  else,  and  it  is  impossible  but  he  (connected  as  he 
is  with  some  late  and  present  members  of  Congress)  should  know 
immediately  about  it. 

I  should  be  glad  to  be  informed  what  those  "forceable  reasons" 
are  at  which  the  vigilant  part  of  the  public  "guess"  and  likewise 
how  early  Mr.  Deane  expected  an  audience,  since  the  resolution 
of  the  next  day  appears  to  have  been  too  late,  I  am  suspicious 
that  it  was  too  soon,  and  that  Mr.  Deane  and  his  connections  were 
not  prepared  for  such  an  early  examination  notwithstanding  he 
had  been  here  upwards  of  five  months,  and  if  the  thing  is  to  be 
"guessed"  at  at  last,  and  that  by  the  vigilant  part  of  the  publiC; 

7 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

On  the  thirtieth  day  of  the  same  month  he  applied 
by  letter  to  Congress,  and  what  do  you  think  it 
was  for?  To  give  them  any  important  informa- 
tion? No.  To  "tell  them  what  he  has  wrote  to 
you?"  No,  it  was  to  acquaint  them  that  he  had 
missed  agreeable  opportunities  of  returning  to 
France;  dismal  misfortune  indeed !  And  that  the 
season  (of  the  year)  is  now  becoming  as  pressing 
as  the  business  which  calls  him  bach,  and  therefore 
he  earnestly  entreated  the  attention  of  Congress, 
to  what?  To  his  great  information?  No,  to  his 
important  discoveries?  No,  but  to  his  own  situa- 
tion and  requests.  These  are,  I  believe,  his  own 
words. 

Now  it  only  remains  to  know  whether  Mr. 
Deane's  official  affairs  were  in  a  fit  position  for 

I  think  I  have  as  great  a  right  to  guess  as  most  men,  and  Mr. 
Plain  Truth,  if  he  pleases,  may  guess  what  I  mean;  but  lest  he 
should  mistake  I  will  tell  him  my  guess,  it  is,  that  the  whole 
afiFair  is  a  juggle  to  amuse  the  people  with,  in  order  to  prevent 
the  state  of  foreign  affairs  being  inquired  into,  and  Mr.  Deane's 
accounts,  and  those  he  is  connected  with  in  America  settled 
as  they  ought  to  be;  and  were  I  to  go  on  guessing,  I  should  like- 
wise guess  that  this  is  the  reason  why  his  accounts  are  left  behind, 
though  I  know  many  people  inclined  to  guess  that  he  has  them 
with  him  but  has  forgot  them;  for  my  part  I  don't  choose  at 
present  to  go  so  far.  If  any  one  can  give  a  better  guess  than  I 
have  done  I  shall  give  mine  up,  but  as  the  gentlemen  choose  to 
submit  it  to  a  guess,  I  choose  therefore  to  take  them  upon  their 
own  terms,  and  put  in  for  the  honor  of  being  right.  It  was,  I 
think,  an  injudicious  word  for  them  to  use,  especially  at  Christmas 
time. 

8 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

him  to  be  permitted  to  quit  America  or  not ;  and 
I  trust,  that  when  I  tell  you,  I  have  been  secre- 
tary for  foreign  affairs  almost  two  years,  you 
will  allow  that  I  must  be  some  judge  of  the 
matter. 

You  have  already  heard  what  Mr.  Deane's 
application  to  Congress  was  for.  And  as  one  of 
the  public,  under  the  well  known  signature  of 
Common  Sense^  I  humbly  conceive,  that  the 
Congress  have  done  that  which  as  a  faithful  body 
of  representatives  they  ought  to  do,  that  is,  they 
ordered  an  inquiry  into  the  state  of  foreign 
affairs  and  accounts  which  Mr.  Deane  had  been 
intrusted  with,  before  they  could,  with  justice  to 
you,  grant  the  request  he  asked.  And  this  was 
the  more  necessary  to  be  done,  because  Mr. 
Deane  says  he  has  left  his  papers  and  accounts 
behind  him.  Did  ever  any  steward,  when  called 
upon  to  surrender  up  his  stewardship,  make  such 
a  weak  and  frivolous  excuse?  Mr.  Deane  saw 
himself  not  only  recalled  but  superseded  in  his 
office  by  another  person,  and  he  could  have  no 
right  to  think  he  should  return^  nor  any  pretense 
to  come  away  without  the  necessary  credentials. 

His  friend  and  associate,  and  perhaps  part- 
ner too,  Mr.  Plain  Truth,  says,  that  I  have  en- 
deavored in  my  address,  to  "  throw  out  a  sugges- 

9 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tion  that  Mr.  Deane  is  considered  by  Congress  as 
a  defaulter  of  public  money."  The  gentlemen 
seem  to  wince  before  they  are  touched.  I  have 
nowhere  said  so,  but  this  I  will  say,  that  his  ac- 
counts are  not  satisfactory.  Mr.  Plain  Truth 
endeavors  to  palliate  what  he  cannot  contradict, 
and  with  a  seeming  triumph  assures  the  pubHc 
"  that  Mr.  Deane  not  long  after  his  arrival  laid 
before  Congress  a  general  statement  of  the  re- 
ceipts and  expenditures  of  the  monies  which 
passed  thro'  his  hands";  to  which  Mr.  Plain 
Truth  subjoins  the  following  extraordinary 
apology: 

"It  is  true  the  account  was  not  accompanied 
with  all  the  vouchers  for  the  particular  expendi- 
tures." And  why  not  I  ask?  for  without  those  it 
was  no  account  at  all ;  it  was  what  the  sailors  call 
a  boot  account,  so  much  money  gone  and  the 
Lord  knows  for  what.  Mr.  Deane  had  secre- 
taries and  clerks,  and  ought  to  have  known  better 
than  to  produce  such  an  account  to  Congress, 
especially  as  his  colleague  Arthur  Lee  had  de- 
clared in  an  office  letter,  which  is  in  my  posses- 
sion, that  he  had  no  concern  in  Mr.  Deane's  con- 
tracts. 

Neither  does  the  excuse,  which  his  whirligig 
friend  Mr.  Plain  Truth  makes  for  him,  apply 
10 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

to  his  case ;  this  random  shot  gentleman,  in  order 
to  bring  him  as  easily  off  as  possible,  says,  "that 
any  person  in  the  least  conversant  with  business, 
knows  the  time  which  is  requisite  for  calhng  in 
manufacturers  and  tradesmen's  bills,  and  prepare 
accounts  and  vouchers  for  a  final  settlement " ; 
and  this  he  mentions  because  Mr.  Deane  received 
his  order  of  recall  the  fourth  of  March,  and  left 
Paris  the  thirty-first:  here  is,  however,  four 
weeks  within  a  day.  I  shall  make  three  remarks 
upon  this  curious  excuse. 

First,  it  is  contradictory.  Mr.  Deane  could 
not  obtain  the  total  or  general  expenditure  with- 
out having  the  particulars,  therefore  he  must  be 
in  the  possession  of  the  particulars.  He  surely 
did  not  pass  away  money  without  taking  receipts, 
and  what  was  due  upon  credit,  he  could  only 
know  from  the  bills  delivered  in. 

Secondly,  Mr.  Deane's  contracts  did  not  lay 
in  the  retail  way,  and  therefore  were  easily  col- 
lected. 

Thirdly,  The  accounts  which  it  was  Mr. 
Deane's  particular  duty  to  settle,  were  those, 
which  he  contracted  in  the  time  of  being  only  a 
comotnercial  agent  in  1776,  before  the  arrival  of 
Dr.  Franklin  and  Arthur  Lee,  which  separate 
agency  of  his  expired  upwards  of  fifteen  months 

VIII-8  11 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

before  he  left  France — and  surely  that  was  time 
enough — and  in  which  period  of  his  agency, 
there  happened  an  unexplained  contract  of  about 
two  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling.  But 
more  of  this  when  I  come  to  remark  on  the  ridic- 
ulous puffs  with  which  Mr.  Plain  Truth  has  set 
off  Mr.  Deane's  pretended  services  in  France. 
Mr.  Deane  has  not  only  left  the  public  papers 
and  accounts  behind  him,  but  he  has  given  no 
information  to  Congress,  where  or  in  whose 
hands  they  are ;  he  says  in  his  address  to  you,  that 
he  has  left  them  in  a  safe  place,  and  this  is  all 
which  is  known  of  the  matter.  Does  this  look 
like  business?  Has  it  an  open  and  candid  or  a 
mysterious  and  suspicious  appearance?  Or  would 
it  have  been  right  in  Congress  to  have  granted 
Mr.  Deane  an  audience  of  leave  and  departure  in 
this  embarrassed  state  of  his  affairs?  And  be- 
cause they  have  not,  his  ready  written  November 
address  has  been  thrown  out  to  abuse  them  and 
amuse  you  by  directing  you  to  another  object; 
and  myself,  for  endeavoring  to  unriddle  confu- 
sion, have  been  loaded  with  reproach  by  his  parti- 
sans and  partners,  and  represented  as  a  writer, 
who  like  an  unprincipled  lawyer  had  let  himself 
out  for  pay.  Charges  which  the  propagators  of 
them  know  to  be  false,  because  some,  who  have 
12 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

encouraged  the  report,  are  members  of  Congress 
themselves,  and  know  my  situation  to  be  directly 
the  reverse. 

But  this  I  shall  explain  in  the  conclusion ;  and 
I  give  the  gentlemen  notice  of  it,  that  if  they  can 
make  out  anything  against  me,  or  prove  that  I 
ever  received  a  single  farthing,  public  or  private, 
for  anything  I  ever  wrote,  they  may  convict  me 
publicly,  and  if  they  do  not,  I  hope  they  will  be 
honest  enough  to  take  shame  to  themselves,  for 
the  falsehood  they  have  supported.  And  I  Hke- 
wise  request  that  they  would  inform  the  public 
what  my  salary  as  secretary  for  foreign  affairs  is, 
otherwise  I  shall  be  obliged  to  do  it  myself.  I 
shall  not  spare  them  and  I  beg  they  would  not 
spare  me.    But  to  return — 

There  is  something  in  this  concealment  of 
papers  that  looks  like  an  embezzlement.  Mr. 
Deane  came  so  privately  from  France,  that  he 
even  concealed  his  departure  from  his  colleague 
Arthur  Lee,  of  which  he  complains  by  a  letter  in 
my  office,  and  consequently  the  papers  are  not  in 
his  hands ;  and  had  he  left  them  with  Dr.  Frank- 
lin he  would  undoubtedly  have  taken  the  Doc- 
tor's receipt  for  them,  and  left  nobody  to 
"guess"  at  what  Mr.  Deane  meant  by  a  safe 
place.    A  man  may  leave  his  own  private  affairs 

13 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

in  the  hands  of  a  friend,  but  the  papers  of  a  na- 
tion are  of  another  nature,  and  ought  never  to  be 
trusted  with  any  person  whatever  out  of  the 
direct  line  of  business.  This  I  conceive  to  be 
another  reason  which  justifies  Congress  in  not 
granting  Mr.  Deane  an  audience  of  leave  and 
departure  till  they  are  assured  where  those  papers 
are. 

Mr.  Deane  might  have  been  taken  at  sea,  he 
might  have  died  or  been  cast  away  on  his  pas- 
sage back  from  France,  or  he  might  have  been 
settled  there,  as  Madame  D'Eon  did  in  England, 
and  quarreled  afterwards  as  she  did  with  the 
power  that  employed  him.  Many  accidents 
might  have  happened  by  which  those  papers  and 
accounts  might  have  been  totally  lost,  the  secrets 
got  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  and  the  possi- 
bihty  of  settling  the  expenditure  of  public  money 
forever  prevented.  No  apology  can  be  made 
for  Mr.  Deane,  as  to  the  danger  of  the  seas,  or 
their  being  taken  by  the  enemy,  in  his  attempt 
to  bring  them  over  himself,  because  it  ought  al- 
ways to  be  remembered  that  he  came  in  a  fleet  of 
twelve  sail  of  the  line. 

I  shall  now  quit  this  part  of  the  subject  to 
take  notice  of  a  paragraph  in  Mr.  Plain  Teuth. 

In  my  piece  to  Mr.  Deane  I  said,  that  his  ad- 
14 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

dress  was  dated  in  November,  without  any  day 
of  the  month,  that  on  the  last  day  of  that  month 
he  applied  to  Congress,  that  on  the  first  of  De- 
cember the  Congress  resolved  to  investigate  the 
state  of  their  foreign  affairs,  of  which  Mr.  Deane 
had  notice,  and  that  on  the  fourth  he  informed 
them  of  his  receiving  that  notification  and  ex- 
pressed his  thanks,  yet  that  on  the  fifth  he 
published  his  extraordinary  address. 

Mr.  Plain  Truth^  in  commenting  upon  this 
arrangement  of  facts  has  helped  me  to  a  new  dis- 
covery. He  says,  that  Mr.  Deane's  thanks  of 
the  fourth  of  December  were  only  expressed  to 
the  president,  Henry  Laurens,  Esq.,  for  per- 
sonally informing  him  of  the  resolution  and  other 
attention  to  his  affairs,  and  not^  as  I  had  said,  to 
Congress  for  the  resolution  itself.  I  give  him 
credit  for  this,  and  believe  it  to  be  true;  for  my 
opinion  of  the  matter  is,  that  Mr.  Deane's  views 
were  to  get  off  without  any  inquiry,  and  that  the 
resolution  referred  to  was  his  great  disappoint- 
ment. By  all  accounts  which  have  been  given 
both  by  Mr.  Deane's  friends  and  myself,  we  all 
agree  in  this,  that  Mr.  Deane  knew  of  the  reso- 
lution of  Congress  before  he  published  his  ad- 
dress, and  situated  as  he  is  he  could  not  help 
knowing  it  two  or  three  days  before  his  address 

15 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

came  out.  Why  then  did  he  pubhsh  it,  s  nee  the 
very  thing  which  he  ought  to  have  asked  for,  viz. 
an  inquiry  into  his  affairs,  was  ordered  to  be 
immediately  gone  into? 

I  wish  in  this  place  to  step  for  a  moment  from 
the  floor  of  office,  and  press  it  on  every  state,  to 
inquire  what  mercantile  connections  any  of  their 
late  or  present  delegates  have  had  or  now  have 
with  Mr.  Deane,  and  that  a  precedent  might  not 
be  wanting,  it  is  important  that  this  State,  Penn- 
sylvania, should  begin. 

The  uncommon  fury  which  has  been  spread 
to  support  Mr.  Deane  cannot  be  altogether  for 
his  sake.  Those  who  were  the  original  propa- 
gators of  it,  are  not  remarkable  for  gratitude. 
If  they  excel  in  anything  it  is  in  the  contrary 
principle  and  a  selfish  attachment  to  their  own 
interest.  It  would  suit  their  plan  exceedingly 
well  to  have  Mr.  Deane  appointed  ambassador 
to  Holland,  because  so  situated,  he  would  make  a 
very  convenient  partner  in  trade,  or  a  useful 
factor. 

In  order  to  rest  Mr.  Deane  on  the  shoulders 
of  the  public,  he  has  been  set  off  with  the  most 
pompous  puffs — the  Savior  of  his  Country — 
the  Patriot  of  America — the  True  Friend  of  the 
Public — the  Great  Supporter  of  the  cause  in 
16 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Europe — and  a  thousand  other  full-blown  bub- 
bles, equally  ridiculous  and  equally  untrue. 
Never  were  the  public  more  wretchedly  imposed 
upon.  An  attempt  was  made  to  call  a  town 
meeting  to  return  him  thanks  and  to  march  in  a 
body  to  Congress  to  demand  justice  for  Mr. 
Deane.  And  this  brings  me  to  a  part  in  Mr. 
Plain  Truth's  address  to  me,  in  which  he 
speaks  of  Mr.  Deane's  services  in  France,  and 
defies  me  to  disprove  them. 

If  any  late  or  present  member  of  Congress 
has  been  concerned  in  writing  that  piece,  I  think 
it  necessary  to  tell  him,  that  he  either  knows  very 
little  of  the  state  of  foreign  affairs,  or  ought  to 
blush  in  thus  attempting  to  rob  a  friendly  nation, 
France,  of  her  honors,  to  bestow  them  on  a  man 
who  so  little  deserves  them. 

Mr.  Deane  was  sent  to  France  in  the  spring, 
1776,  as  a  commercial  agent,  under  the  author- 
ity of  the  committee  which  is  now  styled  the 
Committee  for  Foreign  Affairs.  He  had  no 
commission  of  any  kind  from  Congress;  and  his 
instructions  were  to  assume  no  other  character 
but  that  of  a  merchant;  yet  in  this  line  of  action 
Mr.  Plain  Truth  has  the  ignorance  to  dub  him 
a  "public  minister"  and  likewise  says. 
That  before  the  first  of  December,  after  his  arrival  he 

17 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

had  formed  and  cultivated  the  esteem  of  a  valuable 
political  and  commercial  connection,  not  only  in 
France  but  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  a  public  loan,  procured  thirty  thousand  stand 
of  arms,  thirty  thousand  suits  of  clothes,  more  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of  brass  cannon,  and  a 
great  amount  of  tents  and  mihtary  stores,  provided 
vessels  to  transport  them,  and  in  spite  of  various  and 
almost  inconceivable  obstructions  great  part  of  these 
articles  were  shipped  and  arrived  in  America  before  the 
operations  of  the  campaign  in  1777.  To  which  Mr. 
Plain  Truth  adds.  That  he  has  had  the  means  of 
being  acquainted  with  all  these  circumstances,  avows 
them  to  be  facts,  and  defies  Common  Sense  or  any 
other  person  to  disprove  them. 

Poor  Mr.  Plain  Truth,  and  his  avower  Mr. 
Clarkson,  have  most  unfortunately  for  them 
challenged  the  wrong  person,  and  fallen  into  the 
right  hands  when  they  fell  into  mine,  for  without 
stirring  a  step  from  the  room  I  am  writing  in,  or 
asking  a  single  question  of  any  one,  I  have  it  in 
my  power,  not  only  to  contradict  but  disprove  it. 

It  is,  I  confess,  a  nice  point  to  touch  upon, 
but  the  necessity  of  undeceiving  the  public  with 
respect  to  Mr.  Deane,  and  the  right  they  have  to 
know  the  early  friendship  of  the  French  nation 
toward  them  at  the  time  of  their  greatest  wants, 
wiU  justify  my  doing  it.  I  feel  likewise  the  less 
difficulty  in  it,  because  the  whole  affair  respect- 
ing those  supplies  has  been  in  the  hands  of  the 
18 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

enemy  at  least  twelve  months,  and  consequently 
the  necessity  for  concealing  it  is  superseded: 
Besides  which,  the  two  nations,  viz.  France  and 
England,  being  now  come  to  an  open  rupture 
makes  the  secret  unnecessary. 

It  was  immediately  on  the  discovery  of  this 
affair  by  the  enemy  fifteen  months  ago,  that  the 
British  INIinistry  began  to  change  their  ground 
and  planned  what  they  called  their  Conciliatory 
Bills.  They  got  possession  of  this  secret  by  steal- 
ing the  dispatches  of  October,  1777,  which  should 
have  come  over  by  Captain  Folger,  and  this  like- 
wise explains  the  controversy  which  the  British 
commissioners  carried  on  with  Congress,  in  at- 
tempting to  prove  that  England  had  planned 
what  they  called  her  Conciliatory  Bills,  before 
France  moved  toward  a  treaty;  for  even  admit- 
ting that  assertion  to  be  true,  the  case  is,  that  they 
planned  those  bills  in  consequence  of  the  knowl- 
edge they  had  stolen.* 

*  When  Capt.  Folger  arrived  at  York  Towti  [Pa.]  he  delivered 
a  packet  which  contained  nothing  but  blank  paper,  that  had  been 
put  under  the  cover  of  the  dispatches  which  were  taken  out.  This 
fraud  was  acted  by  the  person  to  whom  they  were  first  intrusted 
to  be  brought  to  America,  and  who  afterward  absconded,  having 
given  by  way  of  deception  the  blank  packet  to  Capt.  Folger.  The 
Congress  were  by  this  means  left  without  any  information  of 
European  affairs.  It  happened  that  a  private  letter  from  Dr. 
Franklin  to  myself,  in  which  he  wrote  to  me  respecting  my  under- 
taking the  history  of  the  present  Revolution  and  engaged  to  fur- 
nish me  with  all  his  materials  toward  the  completion  of  that  work, 

19 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  supplies  here  alluded  to,  are  those  which 
were  sent  from  France  in  the  Amphitrite,  Seine 
and  Mercury  about  two  years  ago.  They  had  at 
first  the  appearance  of  a  present,  but  whether  so, 
or  on  credit,  the  service  was  nevertheless  a  great 
and  friendly  one,  and  though  only  part  of  them 
arrived  the  kindness  is  the  same.  A  considerable 
time  afterwards  the  same  supplies  appeared 
under  the  head  of  a  charge  amounting  to  about 
two  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  and  it  is 
the  unexplained  contract  I  alluded  to  when  I 
spoke  of  the  pompous  puffs  made  use  of  to  sup- 
port Mr.  Deane. 

On  the  appearance  of  this  charge  the  Con- 
gress were  exceedingly  embarrassed  as  to  what 

escaped  the  pilfering  by  not  being  inclosed  in  the  packet  with 
the  dispatches.  I  received  this  letter  at  Lancaster  through  the 
favor  of  the  president,  Henry  Laurens,  Esq.,  and  as  it  was  the 
only  letter  which  contained  any  authentic  intelligence  of  the  gen- 
eral state  of  our  afiFairs  in  France,  I  transmitted  it  again  to  him 
to  be  communicated  to  Congress.  This  likewise  was  the  only 
intelligence  which  was  received  from  France  from  May,  1777, 
to  May  2,  1778,  when  the  treaty  arrived;  wherefore,  laying  aside 
the  point  controverted  by  the  British  commissioners  as  to  which 
moved  first,  France  or  England,  it  is  evident  that  the  resolutions 
of  Congress  of  April  22,  1778,  for  totally  rejecting  the  British 
bills,  were  grounded  entirely  on  the  determination  of  America  to 
support  her  cause — a  circumstance  which  gives  the  highest  honor 
to  the  resolutions  alluded  to,  and  at  the  same  time  gives  such 
a  character  of  her  fortitude  as  heightens  her  value,  when  con- 
sidered as  an  ally,  which  though  it  had  at  that  time  taken  place, 
was,  to  her,  perfectly  unknown. 

20 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

line  of  conduct  to  pursue.  To  be  insensible  of  a 
favor,  which  has  before  now  been  practised  be- 
tween nations,  would  have  implied  a  want  of  just 
conceptions;  and  to  have  refused  it  would  have 
been  a  species  of  proud  rusticity.  To  have  asked 
the  question  was  both  difficult  and  awkward;  to 
take  no  notice  of  it  would  have  been  insensibility 
itself;  and  to  have  seemed  backward  in  payment, 
if  they  were  to  be  paid  for,  would  have  impeached 
both  the  justice  and  the  credit  of  America. 

In  this  state  of  difficulties  such  inquiries  were 
made  as  were  judged  necessary,  in  order  that 
Congress  might  know  how  to  proceed.  Still 
nothing  satisfactory  could  be  obtained.  The  an- 
swer which  Mr.  Deane  signed  so  lately  as  Feb- 
ruary sixteenth  last  past  (and  who  ought  to  know 
most  of  the  matter,  because  the  shipping  the  sup- 
plies was  while  he  acted  alone)  is  as  ambiguous 
as  the  rest  of  his  conduct.  I  wiU  venture  to  give 
it,  as  there  is  no  political  secret  in  it  and  the  mat- 
ter wants  explanation. 

Hear  that  Mr.  B[eaumarchais]  has  sent  over  a 
person  to  demand  a  large  sum  of  you  on  account  of 
arms,  ammunition,  etc., — think  it  will  be  best  for  you 
to  leave  that  matter  to  be  settled  here  (France),  as 
there  Is  a  mixture  in  it  of  public  and  private  concern 
which  you  cannot  so  well  develop. 

Why  did  not  Mr.  Deane  complete  the  con- 

21 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tract  so  as  it  might  be  developed,  or  at  least  state 
to  Congress  any  difficulties  that  had  arisen? 
When  Mr.  Deane  had  his  two  audiences  with 
Congress  in  August  last,  he  objected,  or  his 
friends  for  him,  against  his  answering  the  ques- 
tions that  might  be  asked  him,  and  the  ground 
upon  which  the  objection  was  made,  was,  because 
a  man  could  not  legally  be  compelled  to  answer 
questions  that  might  tend  to  criminate  himself. — 
Yet  this  is  the  same  Mr.  Deane  whose  address 
you  saw  in  the  Pennsylvania  Packet  of  Decem- 
ber fifth  signed  Silas  Deane. 

Having  thus  shown  the  loose  manner  of  Mr. 
Deane's  doing  business  in  France,  which  is  ren- 
dered the  more  intricate  by  his  leaving  his  papers 
behind,  or  his  not  producing  them,  I  come  now  to 
inquire  into  what  degree  of  merit  or  credit  Mr. 
Deane  is  entitled  to  as  to  the  procuring  these 
supplies,  either  as  a  present  or  a  purchase. 

Mr.  Plain  Truth  has  given  him  the  whole. 
Mr.  Plain  Truth  therefore  knows  nothing  of 
the  matter,  or  something  worse.  If  Mr.  Deane  or 
any  other  gentleman  will  procure  an  order  from 
Congress  to  inspect  an  account  in  my  office,  or 
any  of  Mr.  Deane's  friends  in  Congress  will  take 
the  trouble  of  coming  themselves,  I  will  give  him 
or  them  my  attendance  and  show  them  in  a  hand- 
22 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

writing  which  ]VIr.  Deane  is  well  acquainted  with, 
that  the  supplies,  he  so  pompously  plumes  him- 
self upon,  were  promised  and  engaged,  and  that 
as  a  present,  before  he  ever  arrived  in  France, 
and  the  part  that  fell  to  JNIr.  Deane  was  only  to 
see  it  done,  and  how  he  has  performed  that  serv- 
ice, the  public  are  now  acquainted  with.  The  last 
paragraph  in  the  account  is,  "^  Upon  Mr.  Deane*s 
arrival  in  France  the  business  went  into  his  hands 
and  the  aids  were  at  length  embarked  in  the  Am- 
phitrite.  Mercury  and  Seine" 

What  will  Mr.  Deane  or  his  aide  de  camp 
say  to  this,  or  what  excuse  will  they  make  now? 
If  they  have  met  with  any  cutting  truths  from 
me,  they  must  thank  themselves  for  it.  My  ad- 
dress to  IMr.  Deane  was  not  only  moderate  but 
civil,  and  he  and  his  adherents  had  much  better 
have  submitted  to  it  quietly,  than  provoked  more 
material  matter  to  appear  against  them.  I  had 
at  that  time  all  the  facts  in  my  hands  which  I 
have  related  since,  or  shall  yet  relate  in  my  reply. 
The  only  thing  I  aimed  at  in  the  address,  was,  to 
give  out  just  as  much  as  might  prevent  the  pub- 
lic from  being  so  grossly  imposed  upon  by  them, 
and  yet  save  Mr.  Deane  and  his  adherents  from 
appearing  too  wretched  and  despicable.  My 
fault  was  a  misplaced  tenderness,  which  they 

23 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

must  now  be  fully  sensible  of,  and  the  misfor- 
tune to  them,  is,  that  I  have  not  yet  done. 

Had  Mr.  Plain  Teuth  only  informed  the 
public  that  Mr.  Deane  had  been  industrious  in 
promoting  and  forwarding  the  sending  of  sup- 
plies, his  assertion  would  have  passed  uncontra- 
dicted by  me,  because  I  must  naturally  suppose 
that  Mr.  Deane  would  do  no  otherwise;  but  to 
give  him  the  whole  and  sole  honor  of  procuring 
them,  and  that,  without  yielding  any  part  of  the 
honor  to  the  public  spirit  and  good  disposition 
of  those  who  furnished  them,  and  who  likewise 
must  in  every  shape  have  put  up  with  the  total 
loss  of  them  had  America  been  overpowered  by 
her  enemies,  is,  in  my  opinion,  placing  the  repu- 
tation and  affection  of  our  allies  not  only  in  a 
disadvantageous,  but  in  an  unjust  point  of  view, 
and  concealing  from  the  pubHc  what  they  ought 
to  know. 

Mr.  Plain  Truth  declares  that  he  knows  all 
the  circumstances,  why  then  did  he  not  place 
them  in  a  proper  line,  and  give  the  public  a  clear 
information  how  they  arose?  The  proposal  for 
sending  over  those  supplies,  appears  to  have  been 
originally  made  by  some  public  spirited  gentle- 
man in  France,  before  ever  Mr.  Deane  arrived 
there,  or  was  known  or  heard  of  in  that  country, 
24 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  to  have  been  communicated  (personally  by 
Mr.  Beaumarchais,  the  gentleman  mentioned  in 
the  letter  signed  J.  L.  which  letter  is  given  at 
length  by  Mr.  Plain  Truth)  to  Mr.  Arthur  Lee 
while  resident  in  London  about  three  years  ago. 

From  Mr.  B's  manner  of  expression,  Mr.  Lee 
understood  the  supplies  to  be  a  present,  and  has 
signified  it  in  that  light.  It  is  very  easy  to  see 
that  if  America  had  miscarried,  they  must  have 
been  a  present,  which  probably  adds  explanation 
to  the  matter.  But  Mr.  Deane  is  spoken  of  by 
Mr.  Plain  Truth^  as  having  an  importance  of 
his  owfij  and  procuring  those  supplies  through 
that  importance;  whereas  he  could  only  rise  and 
fall  with  the  country  that  empowered  him  to  act, 
and  be  in  or  out  of  credit,  as  to  money  matters, 
from  the  same  cause  and  in  the  same  proportion ; 
and  everybody  must  suppose,  that  there  were 
greater  and  more  original  wheels  at  work  than  he 
was  capable  of  setting  in  motion.  Exclusive 
of  the  matter  being  begun  before  Mr.  Deane's  ar- 
rival, Mr.  Plain  Truth  has  given  him  the  whole 
merit  of  every  part  of  the  transaction. 

America  and  France  are  wholly  left  out  of 
the  question,  the  former  as  to  her  growing  im- 
portance and  credit,  from  which  all  Mr.  Deane's 
consequence  was  derived  and  the  latter,  as  to  her 

25 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

generosity  in  furnishing  those  supplies,  at  a  time, 
when  the  risk  of  losing  them  appears  to  have  been 
as  great  as  our  want  of  them. 

I  have  always  understood  thus  much  of  the 
matter,  that  if  we  did  not  succeed  no  payment 
would  be  required,  and  I  think  myself  fully  en- 
titled to  believe,  and  to  publish  my  belief,  that 
whether  Mr.  Deane  had  arrived  in  France  or  not, 
or  any  other  gentleman  in  his  stead,  those  same 
suppMes  would  have  found  their  way  to  America. 
But  as  the  nature  of  the  contract  has  not  been 
explained  by  any  of  Mr.  Deane's  letters  and  is 
left  in  obscurity  by  the  account  he  signed  the  six- 
teenth of  February  last,  which  I  have  already 
quoted,  therefore  the  full  explanation  must  rest 
upon  other  authority. 

I  have  been  the  more  explicit  on  this  subject, 
not  so  much  on  Mr.  Deane's  account,  as  from  a 
principle  of  public  justice.  It  shows,  in  the  first 
instance,  that  the  greatness  of  the  American 
cause  drew,  at  its  first  beginning,  the  attention  of 
Europe,  and  that  the  justness  of  it  was  such  as 
appeared  to  merit  support ;  and  in  the  second  in- 
stance, that  those  who  are  now  her  allies,  prefaced 
that  alliance  by  an  early  and  generous  friend- 
ship ;  yet,  that  we  might  not  attribute  too  much  to 
human  or  auxiliary  aid,  so  unfortunate  were 
26 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

those  supplies,  that  only  one  ship  out  of  the  three 
arrived.  The  Mercury  and  Seine  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy. 

Mr.  Deane,  in  his  address,  speaks  of  himself 
as  "sacrificed  for  the  aggrandizement  of  others" 
and  promises  to  inform  the  public  of  ''  what  he 
has  done  and  what  he  has  suffered."  What  Mr. 
Deane  means  by  being  sacrificed  the  Lord  knows, 
and  what  he  has  suffered  is  equally  as  mysterious. 
It  was  his  good  fortune  to  be  situated  in  an  ele- 
gant country  and  at  a  public  charge,  while  we 
were  driven  about  from  pillar  to  post.  He  ap- 
pears to  know  but  little  of  the  hardships  and 
losses  which  his  countrymen  underwent  in  the 
period  of  his  fortunate  absence.  It  fell  not  to  his 
lot  to  turn  out  to  a  winter's  campaign,  and  sleep 
without  tent  or  blanket.  He  returned  to  Amer- 
ica when  the  danger  was  over,  and  has  since  that 
time  suffered  no  personal  hardship.  What  then 
are  Mr.  Deane's  sufferings  and  what  the  sacri- 
fices he  complains  of?  Has  he  lost  money  in  the 
public  service?  I  believe  not.  Has  he  got  any? 
That  I  cannot  tell.  I  can  assure  him  that  I  have 
not,  and  he,  if  he  pleases,  may  make  the  same 
declaration. 

Surely  the  Congress  might  recall  Mr.  Deane 
if  they  thought  proper,  v^dthout  an  insinuated 

VIII-4  27 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

charge  of  injustice  for  so  doing.  The  authority 
of  America  must  be  little  indeed  when  she  cannot 
change  a  commissioner  without  being  insulted 
by  him.  And  I  conceive  Mr.  Deane  as  speaking 
in  the  most  disrespectful  language  of  the  Au- 
thority of  America  when  he  says  in  his  address, 
that  in  December  1776  he  was  "honored  with  one 
colleague,  and  saddled  with  another."  Was  Mr. 
Deane  to  dictate  who  should  be  commissioner,  and 
who  should  not?  It  was  time,  however,  to  saddle 
him,  as  he  calls  it,  with  somebody,  as  I  shall  show 
before  I  conclude. 

When  we  have  elected  our  representatives, 
either  in  Congress  or  in  the  Assembly,  it  is  for 
our  own  good  that  we  support  them  in  the  execu- 
tion of  that  authority  they  derive  from  us.  If 
Congress  is  to  be  abused  by  everyone  whom  they 
may  appoint  or  remove,  there  is  an  end  to  all  use- 
ful delegation  of  power,  and  the  public  accounts 
in  the  hands  of  individuals  will  never  be  settled. 
There  has,  I  believe,  been  too  much  of  this  work 
practised  already,  and  it  is  time  that  the  public 
should  now  make  those  matters  a  point  of  con- 
sideration. But  who  will  begin  the  disagreeable 
talk? 

I  look  on  the  independence  of  America  to  be 
as  firmly  established  as  that  of  any  country  which 
28 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

is  at  war.  Length  of  time  is  no  guarantee  when 
arms  are  to  decide  the  fate  of  a  nation.  Hitherto 
our  whole  anxiety  has  been  absorbed  in  the  means 
for  supporting  our  independence,  and  we  have 
paid  but  little  attention  to  the  expenditure  of 
money ;  yet  we  see  it  daily  depreciating,  and  how 
should  it  be  otherwise  when  so  few  public  ac- 
counts are  settled,  and  new  emissions  continually 
going  on? — I  will  venture  to  mention  one  circum- 
stance which  I  hope  will  be  sufficient  to  awaken 
the  attention  of  the  public  to  this  subject.  In 
October,  1777,  some  books  of  the  Commercial 
Committee,  in  which,  among  other  things,  were 
kept  the  accounts  of  Mr.  Thomas  Morris,  ap- 
pointed a  conMnercial  agent  in  France,  were  by 
Mr.  Robert  ^Morris's  request  taken  into  his  pos- 
session to  be  settled,  he  having  obtained  from  the 
Council  of  this  State  six  months'  leave  of  ab- 
sence from  Congress  to  settle  his  affairs. 

In  February  following  those  books  were 
called  for  by  Congress,  but  not  being  completed 
were  not  delivered.  In  September,  1778,  Mr. 
Morris  returned  them  to  Congress,  in,  or  nearly 
in,  the  same  unsettled  state  he  took  them,  M^hich, 
with  the  death  of  Mr.  Thomas  Morris,  may  prob- 
ably involve  those  accounts  in  further  embarrass- 
ment.    The  amount  of  expenditure  on  those 

29 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

books  is  considerably  above  two  millions  of  dol- 
lars.* 

I  now  quit  this  subject  to  take  notice  of  a 
paragraph  in  Mr.  Plain  Truth^  relative  to  my- 
self. It  never  fell  to  my  lot  to  have  to  do  with  a 
more  illiberal  set  of  men  than  those  of  Mr. 
Deane's  advocates  who  were  concerned  in  writing 
that  piece.  They  have  neither  wit,  manners  nor 
honesty;  an  instance  of  which  I  shall  now  pro- 
duce. In  speaking  of  Mr.  Deane's  contracts  with 
individuals  in  France  I  said  in  my  address  "We 
are  all  fully  sensible,  that  the  gentlemen  who 
have  come  from  France  since  the  arrival  of  Dr. 
Franklin  and  Mr.  Lee  in  that  country  are  of  a 

*  There  is  an  article  in  the  Constitution  of  this  State,  which, 
were  it  at  this  time  introduced  as  a  Continental  regulation,  might 
be  of  infinite  service;  I  mean  a  Council  of  Censors  to  inspect  into 
the  expenditure  of  public  money  and  call  defaulters  to  an  account. 
It  is,  in  my  opinion,  one  of  the  best  things  in  the  Constitution, 
and  that  which  the  people  ought  never  to  give  up,  and  whenever 
they  do  they  will  deserve  to  be  cheated.  It  has  not  the  most 
favorable  look  that  those  who  are  hoping  to  succeed  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  this  State,  by  a  change  in  the  Constitution,  are  so 
anxious  to  get  that  article  abolished.  Let  expenses  be  ever  so 
great,  only  let  them  be  fair  and  necessary,  and  no  good  citizen 
will  grumble. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said.  Why  do  not  the  Congress  do  those 
things?  To  which  I  might,  by  another  question  reply,  Why  don't 
you  support  them  when  they  attempt  it?  It  is  not  quite  so  easy  a 
matter  to  accomplish  that  point  in  Congress  as  perhaps  many 
conceive;  men  will  always  find  friends  and  connections  among 
the  body  that  appoints  them,  which  will  render  all  such  inquiries 
difficult. 

30 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

different  rank  from  the  generality  of  those 
with  whom  Mr.  Deane  contracted  when  alone." 
These  are  the  exact  words  I  used  in  my  address. 

Mr.  Plain  Truth  has  misquoted  the  above 
paragraph  into  his  piece,  and  that  in  a  manner, 
which  shows  him  to  be  a  man  of  httle  reading  and 
less  principle.  The  method  in  which  he  has 
quoted  it  is  as  follows:  "All  are  fully  sensible 
that  the  gentlemen  who  came  from  France  since 
the  arrival  of  Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Lee  in  that 
country,  are  of  a  diff'erent  rank  from  those 
with  whom  ISlr.  Deane  contracted  when  acting 
separately."  Thus  by  leaving  out  the  words 
"the  generality  of"  Mr.  Plain  Truth  has  al- 
tered the  sense  of  my  expression,  so  as  to  suit  a 
most  malicious  purpose  in  his  own,  which  could  be 
no  other,  than  that  of  embroiling  me  with  the 
French  gentlemen  that  have  remained ;  whereas  it 
is  evident,  that  my  mode  of  expression  was  in- 
tended to  do  justice  to  such  characters  as  Fleury 
and  Touzard,  by  making  a  distinction  they  are 
clearly  entitled  to. 

Mr.  Plain  Truth  not  content  with  unjustly 
subjecting  me  to  the  misconceptions  of  those  gen- 
tlemen, with  whom  even  explanation  was  difficult 
on  account  of  the  language,  but  in  addition  to  his 
injustice,  endeavored  to  provoke  them  to  it  by 

31 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

calling  on  them,  and  reminding  them  that  they 
were  the  "Guardians  of  their  own  honor."  And 
I  have  reason  to  believe,  that  either  Mr.  Plain 
Teuth  or  some  of  the  party  did  not  even  stop 
here,  but  went  so  far  as  personally  to  excite 
them  on.  Mr.  Fleury  came  to  my  lodgings  and 
complained  that  I  had  done  him  great  injustice, 
but  that  he  was  sure  I  did  not  intend  it,  because 
he  was  certain  that  I  knew  him  better.  He  con- 
fessed to  me  that  he  was  pointed  at  and  told  that 
I  meant  him,  and  he  withal  desired,  that  as  I 
knew  his  services  and  character,  that  I  would  put 
the  matter  right  in  the  next  paper.  I  endeavored 
to  explain  to  him  that  the  mistake  was  not  mine, 
and  we  parted. 

I  do  not  remember  that  in  the  course  of  my 
reading  I  ever  met  with  a  more  illiberal  and 
mahcious  mis-quotation,  and  the  more  so  when 
all  the  circumstances  are  taken  with  it.  Yet  this 
same  Mr.  Plain  Truth^  whom  nobody  knows, 
has  the  impertinence  to  give  himself  out  to  be  a 
man  of  "education"  and  to  inform  the  public  that 
"he  is  not  a  writer  from  inclination,  much  less  by 
profession"  to  which  he  might  safely  have  added, 
still  less  by  capacity j  and  least  of  all  by  principle. 
As  Mr.  Clarkson  has  undertaken  to  avow  the 
piece  signed  Plain  Truth^  I  shall  therefore  con- 
32 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

sider  him  as  legally  accountable  for  the  apparent 
mahcious  intention  of  this  mis-quotation,  and  he 
may  get  whom  he  pleases  to  speak  or  write  a  de- 
fense of  him. 

I  conceive  that  the  general  distinction  I  re- 
ferred to  between  those  with  whom  Mr.  Deane 
contracted  when  alone,  and  those  who  have  come 
from  France  since  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Franklin 
and  Mr.  Lee  in  that  country,  is  sufficiently  war- 
ranted. That  gallant  and  amiable  officer  and 
volunteer  the  Marquis  de  la  Fayette,  and  some 
others  whom  Mr.  Plain  Truth  mentions,  did 
not  come  from  France  till  after  the  arrival  of  the 
additional  commissioners,  and  proves  my  asser- 
tion to  be  true. 

My  remark  is  confined  to  the  many  and  un- 
necessary ones  with  which  Mr.  Deane  burdened 
and  distracted  the  army.  If  he  acquired  any  part 
of  his  popularity  in  France  by  this  means  he 
made  the  continent  pay  smartly  for  it.  Many 
thousand  pounds  it  cost  America,  and  that  in 
money  totally  sunk,  on  account  of  Mr.  Deane's 
injudicious  contracts,  and  what  renders  it  the 
more  unpardonable  is,  that  by  the  instructions  he 
took  with  him,  he  was  restricted  from  making 
them,  and  consequently  by  having  no  authority 
had  an  easy  answer  to  give  to  solicitations.    It 

83 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

was  Dr.  Franklin's  answer  as  soon  as  he  ar- 
rived and  might  have  been  Mr.  Deane's.  Gen- 
tlemen of  science  or  hterature  or  conversant  with 
the  polite  or  useful  arts,  will,  I  presume,  always 
find  a  welcome  reception  in  America,  at  least  with 
persons  of  a  hberal  cast,  and  with  the  bulk  of  the 
people. 

In  speaking  of  Mr.  Deane's  contracts  with 
foreign  officers,  I  concealed  out  of  pity  to  him  a 
circumstance  that  must  have  sufficiently  shown 
the  necessitj^  of  recalling  him,  and,  either  his 
great  want  of  judgment,  or  the  danger  of  trust- 
ing him  with  discretionary  power.  It  is  no  less 
than  that  of  his  throwing  out  a  proposal,  in  one 
of  his  last  foreign  letters,  for  contracting  with  a 
German  prince  to  command  the  American  Army. 
For  my  own  part  I  was  no  ways  surprised  when 
I  read  it,  though  I  presume  almost  everybody 
else  will  be  so  when  they  hear  it,  and  I  think 
when  he  got  to  this  length,  it  was  time  to  saddle 
him. 

Mr.  Deane  was  directed  by  the  committee 
which  employed  him  to  engage  four  able  en- 
gineers in  France,  and  beyond  this  he  had  neither 
authority  nor  commission.  But  disregarding  his 
instructions  (a  fault  criminal  in  a  negotiator) 
he  proceeded  through  the  several  degrees  of 
34 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

subalterns,  to  captains,  majors,  lieutenant-col- 
onels, colonels,  brigadier-generals  and  at  last 
to  major-generals;  he  fixed  their  rank,  regulated 
their  command,  and  on  some,  I  beheve,  he  be- 
stowed a  pension.  At  this  stage,  I  set  him  down 
for  a  commander-in-chief,  and  his  next  letter 
proved  me  prophetic.  Mr.  Plain  Truth^  in  the 
course  of  his  numerous  encomiums  on  Mr.  Deane, 
says,  that — 

The  letter  of  the  Count  de  Vergennes,  written  by 
order  of  his  Most  Christian  Majesty  to  Congress, 
speaking  of  Mr.  Deane  in  the  most  honorable  manner, 
and  the  letter  from  that  Minister  in  his  own  character, 
written  not  In  the  language  of  a  courtier,  but  In  that  of 
a  person  who  felt  what  he  expressed,  would  be  sufficient 
to  counterbalance,  not  only  the  opinions  of  the  writer 
of  the  address  to  Mr.  Deane,  but  even  of  characters  of 
more  influence,  who  may  vainly  endeavor  to  circulate 
notions  of  his  insignificancy  and  unfitness  for  a  public 
minister. 

The  supreme  authority  of  one  country,  how- 
ever different  may  be  its  mode,  will  ever  pay  a 
just  regard  to  that  of  another,  more  especially 
when  in  alliance.  But  those  letters  can  extend 
no  further  than  to  such  parts  of  Mr.  Deane's 
conduct  as  came  under  the  immediate  notice  of 
the  Court  as  a  public  minister  or  a  political  agent ; 
and  cannot  be  supposed  to  interfere  with  such 
other  parts  as  might  be  disapproved  in  him  here 

35 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

as  a  contractor  or  a  commercial  agent,  and  can 
in  no  place  be  applied  as  an  extenuation  of  any 
imprudence  of  his  either  there  or  since  his  return; 
besides  which,  letters  of  this  kind,  are  as  much 
intended  to  compliment  the  power  that  employs, 
as  the  person  employed;  and  upon  the  whole,  I 
fear  Mr.  Deane  has  presumed  too  much  upon  the 
polite  friendship  of  that  nation,  and  engrossed  to 
himself,  a  regard,  that  was  partly  intended  to 
express,  through  him,  an  affection  to  the  con- 
tinent. 

Mr.  Deane  should  likewise  recollect  that  the 
early  appearance  of  any  gentleman  from  Amer- 
ica, was  a  circumstance,  so  agreeable  to  the 
nation  he  had  the  honor  of  appearing  at,  that  he 
must  have  managed  unwisely  indeed  to  have 
avoided  popularity.    For  as  the  poet  says. 

Fame  then  was  cheap,  and  the  first  comers  sped. 

The  last  Hne  of  the  couplet  is  not  applicable. 

Which  they  have  since  preserved  by  being  dead. 

From  the  pathetic  manner  in  which  Mr. 
Deane  speaks  of  his  "sufferings"  and  the  little 
concern  he  seems  to  have  of  ours,  it  may  not  be 
improper  to  inform  him,  that  there  is  kept  in  this 
city  a  "Booh  of  Sufferings"  into  which,  by  the 
assistance  of  some  of  his  connections,  he  may 
36 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

probably  get  them  registered.  I  have  not  interest 
enough  myself  to  afford  him  any  service  in  this 
particular,  though  I  am  a  friend  to  all  rehgions, 
and  no  personal  enemy  to  those  who  may,  in  this 
place,  suppose  themselves  alluded  to. 

I  can  likewise  explain  to  Mr.  Deane,  the  rea- 
son of  one  of  his  sufferings  which  I  know  he 
has  complained  of.  After  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence was  passed,  ^Ir.  Deane  thought  it  a 
great  hardship  that  he  was  not  authorized  to  an- 
nounce it  in  form  to  the  Court  of  France,  and  this 
circumstance  has  been  mentioned  as  a  seeming  in- 
attention in  Congress.  The  reason  of  it  was  this, 
and  I  mention  it  from  my  own  knowledge. 

Mr.  Deane  was  at  that  time  only  a  commer- 
cial agent,  without  any  commission  from  Con- 
gress, and  consequently  could  not  appear  at 
Court  with  the  rank  suitable  to  the  formality  of 
such  an  occasion.  A  new  commission  was  there- 
fore necessar}^  to  be  issued  by  Congress,  and  that 
honor  was  purposely  reserved  for  Dr.  Frank- 
lin, whose  long  services  in  the  world,  and  estab- 
lished reputation  in  Europe,  rendered  him  the 
fittest  person  in  America  to  execute  such  a  great 
and  original  design ;  and  it  was  likewise  paying  a 
just  attention  to  the  honor  of  France  by  send- 

37 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Ing  so  able  and  extraordinary  a  character  to  an- 
nounce the  Declaration. 

Mr.  Plain  Truth^  who  sticks  at  nothing  to 
carry  Mr.  Deane  through  everything,  thick  or 
thin,  says: 

It  may  not  be  improper  to  remark  that  when  he 
(Mr.  Deane)  arrived  in  France,  the  opinion  of  people 
there,  and  in  the  different  parts  of  Europe,  not  only 
with  respect  to  the  merits,  but  the  probable  issue  of 
the  contest,  had  by  no  means  acquired  that  consistency 
which  they  had  at  the  time  of  Dr.  Franklin's  and  Mr. 
Arthur  Lee's  arrival  in  that  kingdom. 

Mr.  Plain  Truth  is  not  a  bad  historian.  For 
it  was  the  fate  of  Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Lee  to 
arrive  in  France  at  the  very  worst  of  times.  Their 
first  appearance  there  was  followed  by  a  long 
series  of  ill  fortune  on  our  side.  Dr.  Frank- 
lin went  from  America  in  October,  1776,  at  which 
time  our  affairs  were  taking  a  wrong  turn.  The 
loss  on  Long  Island,  and  the  evacuation  of  New 
York  happened  before  he  went,  and  all  the  suc- 
ceeding retreats  and  misfortunes  through  the 
course  of  that  year,  till  the  scale  was  again  turned 
by  taking  the  Hessians  at  Trenton  on  the  twenty- 
sixth  day  of  December,  followed  day  by  day 
after  him.  And  I  have  been  informed  by  a  gen- 
tleman from  France,  that  the  philosophical  ease 
and  cheerful  fortitude,  with  which  Dr.  Franklin 
38 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

heard  of  or  announced  those  tidings,  contributed 
greatly  toward  lessening  the  real  weight  of  them 
on  the  minds  of  the  Europeans. 

Mr.  Deane  speaking  of  himself  in  his  address 
says,  "While  it  was  safe  to  be  silent  my  lips  were 
closed.  Necessity  hath  opened  them  and  neces- 
sity must  excuse  this  effort  to  serve,  by  informing 
you."  After  which  he  goes  on  with  his  address. 
In  this  paragraph  there  is  an  insinuation  thrown 
out  by  Mr.  Deane  that  some  treason  was  on  foot, 
which  he  had  happily  discovered,  and  which  his 
duty  to  his  country  compelled  him  to  reveal.  The 
public  had  a  right  to  be  alarmed,  and  the  alarm 
was  carefully  kept  by  those  who  at  first  contrived 
it.  Now,  if  after  this,  Mr.  Deane  has  nothing  to 
inform  them  of,  he  must  sink  into  nothing. 
When  a  public  man  stakes  his  reputation  in  this 
manner,  he  likewise  stakes  all  his  future  credit 
on  the  performance  of  his  obligation. 

I  am  not  writing  to  defend  Mr.  Arthur  or 
Mr.  Wilham  Lee.  I  leave  their  conduct  to  de- 
fend itself;  and  I  would  with  as  much  freedom 
make  an  attack  on  either  of  these  gentlemen,  if 
there  was  a  public  necessity  for  it,  as  on  Mr. 
Deane.  In  my  address  I  mentioned  Colonel  R. 
H.  Lee  with  some  testimony  of  honorable  re- 
spect, because  I  am  personally  acquainted  with 

39 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

that  gentleman's  integrity  and  abilities  as  a  pub- 
lic man,  and  in  the  circle  of  my  acquaintance  I 
know  but  few  that  have  equaled,  and  none  that 
have  exceeded  him,  particularly  in  his  ardor  to 
bring  foreign  affairs,  and  more  especially  the 
present  happy  alliance,  to  an  issue. 

I  heard  it  mentioned  of  this  gentleman,  that 
he  was  among  those,  whose  impatience  for  vic- 
tory led  them  into  some  kind  of  discontent  at  the 
operations  of  last  winter.  The  event  has,  I 
think,  fully  proved  those  gentlemen  wrong,  and 
must  convince  them  of  it;  but  I  can  see  no  rea- 
son why  a  misgrounded  opinion,  produced  by  an 
overheated  anxiety  for  success,  should  be  mixed 
up  with  other  matters  it  has  no  concern  with.  A 
man's  political  abilities  may  be  exceedingly  good, 
though  at  the  same  time  he  may  differ,  and  even 
be  wrong,  in  his  notions  of  some  mihtary  par- 
ticulars. 

Mr.  Deane  says  that  Mr.  Arthur  Lee  was 
dragged  into  a  treaty  with  the  utmost  reluc- 
tance, a  charge  which  if  he  cannot  support,  he 
must  expect  to  answer  for.  I  am  acquainted  that 
Mr.  Lee  had  some  objection  against  the  con- 
structions of  a  particular  article  [12th],  which,  I 
think,  shows  his  judgment,  and  whenever  they 
can  be  known  will  do  him  honor;  but  his  general 
40 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

opinion  of  that  valuable  transaction  I  shall  give 
in  his  own  words  from  a  letter  in  my  hands. 

France  has  done  us  substantial  benefits,  Great 
Britain  substantial  injuries.  France  offers  to  guar- 
antee our  sovereignty,  and  universal  freedom  of  com- 
merce. Great  Britain  condescends  to  accept  our  sub- 
mission and  to  monopolize  our  commerce.  France  de- 
mands of  us  to  be  independent,  Great  Britain,  tributary. 
I  do  not  conceive  how  there  can  be  a  mind  so  debased,  or 
an  understanding  so  perverted,  as  to  balance  between 
them. 

The  journeys  I  have  made  North  and  South  in  the 
public  service,  have  given  me  opportunities  of  knowing 
the  general  disposition  of  Europe  on  our  question. 
There  never  was  one  in  which  the  harmony  of  opinion 
was  so  universal.  From  the  prince  to  the  peasant  there 
is  but  one  voice,  one  wish,  the  Hberty  of  America  and 
the  humiliation  of  Great  Britain. 

If  Mr.  Deane  was  industrious  to  spread  re- 
ports to  the  injury  of  these  gentlemen  in  Europe, 
as  he  has  been  in  America,  no  wonder  that  their 
real  characters  have  been  misunderstood.  The 
pecuhar  talent  which  Mr.  Deane  possesses  of  at- 
tacking persons  behind  their  backs,  has  so  near  a 
resemblance  to  the  author  of  "Plain  Truth,"  who 
after  promising  his  name  to  the  pubhc  has  de- 
clined to  give  it,  and  some  other  proceedings  I  am 
not  unacquainted  with,  particularly  an  attempt 
to  prevent  my  publications,  that  it  looks  as  if  one 
spirit  of  private  malevolence  governed  the  whole. 

41 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Mr.  Plain  Truth  has  renewed  the  story  of 
Dr.  Berkenhout,  to  which  I  have  but  one  reply  to 
make:  why  did  not  Mr.  Deane  appear  against 
him  while  he  was  here?  He  was  the  only  person 
who  knew  anything  of  him,  and  his  neglecting 
to  give  information,  and  thereby  suffering  a  sus- 
picious person  to  escape  for  want  of  proof,  is  a 
story  very  much  against  Mr.  Deane ;  and  his  com- 
plaining after  the  man  was  gone  corresponds  with 
the  rest  of  his  conduct. 

When  little  circumstances  are  so  easily  dwelt 
upon,  it  is  a  sign,  not  only  of  the  want  of  great 
ones,  but  of  weakness  and  ill  will.  The  crime 
against  Mr.  William  Lee  is,  that  some  years  ago 
he  was  elected  an  alderman  of  one  of  the  wards 
in  London,  and  the  English  calendar  has  yet 
printed  him  with  the  same  title.  Is  that  any 
fault  of  his?  Or  can  he  be  made  accountable 
for  what  the  people  of  London  may  do? 

Let  us  distinguish  between  Whiggishness  and 
waspishness,  between  patriotism  and  peevishness, 
otherwise  we  shall  become  the  laughing  stock  of 
every  sensible  and  candid  mind.  Suppose  the 
Londoners  should  take  it  into  their  heads  to  elect 
the  president  of  Congress  or  General  Washing- 
ton an  alderman,  is  that  a  reason  why  we  should 
displace  them?  But  Mr.  Lee,  say  they,  has  not 
42 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

resigned.  These  men  have  no  judgment,  or  they 
would  not  advance  such  positions.  Mr.  Lee  has 
nothing  to  resign.  He  has  vacated  his  alderman- 
ship by  accepting  an  appointment  under  Con- 
gress, and  can  know  nothing  further  of  the  mat- 
ter. Were  he  to  make  a  formal  resignation  it 
would  imply  his  being  a  subject  of  Great  Brit- 
ain; besides  which,  the  character  of  being  an  am- 
bassador from  the  States  of  America,  is  so  supe- 
rior to  that  of  any  alderman  of  London,  that  I 
conceive  Mr.  Deane,  or  Mr.  Plain  Truth,  or 
any  other  person,  as  doing  a  great  injustice  to  the 
dignity  of  America  by  attempting  to  put  the  two 
in  any  disreputable  competition.  Let  us  be  hon- 
est lest  we  be  despised,  and  generous  lest  we  be 
laughed  at. 

Mr.  Deane  in  his  address  of  the  fifth  of  De- 
cember, says,  "having  thus  introduced  you  to  your 
great  servants,  I  now  proceed  to  make  you  ac- 
quainted with  some  other  personages,  which  it 
may  be  of  consequence  for  you  to  know.  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  that  Arthur  Lee,  Esq.,  was  sus- 
pected by  some  of  the  best  friends  you  had 
abroad,  and  those  in  important  characters  and 
stations."  To  which  I  reply,  that  I  firmly  be- 
lieve Mr.  Deane  will  likewise  be  sorry  he  has  said 
it.     INIr.  Deane  after  thus  advancing  a  charge 

VIII-5  43 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

endeavors  to  palliate  it  by  saying,  "these  sus- 
picions, whether  well  or  ill  founded,  were  fre- 
quently urged  to  Dr.  Franklin  and  myself."  But 
Mr.  Deane  ought  to  have  been  certain  that  they 
were  well  founded,  before  he  made  such  a  pub- 
lication, for  if  they  are  not  well  founded  he  must 
appear  with  great  discredit,  and  it  is  now  his 
duty  to  accuse  Mr.  Arthur  Lee  legally,  and 
support  the  accusation  with  sufficient  proofs. 

Characters  are  tender  and  valuable  things; 
they  are  more  than  life  to  a  man  of  sensibiUty, 
and  are  not  to  be  made  the  sport  of  interest,  or 
the  sacrifice  of  incendiary  malice.  Mr.  Lee  is  an 
absent  gentleman,  I  believe,  too,  an  honest  one, 
and  my  motive  for  publishing  this,  is  not  to 
gratify  any  party,  or  any  person,  but  as  an  act 
of  social  duty  which  one  man  owes  to  another, 
and  which,  I  hope,  will  be  done  to  me  whenever 
I  shall  be  accused  ungenerously  behind  my  back. 

Mr.  Lee  to  my  knowledge  has  far  excelled 
Mr.  Deane  in  the  usefulness  of  his  information, 
respecting  the  political  and  military  designs  of 
the  Court  of  London.  While  in  London  he  con- 
veyed intelligence  that  was  dangerous  to  his  per- 
sonal safety.  Many  will  remember  the  instance 
of  the  rifleman  who  had  been  carried  prisoner 
to  England  alone  three  years  ago,  and  who  after- 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

wards  returned  from  thence  to  America,  and 
brought  with  him  a  letter  concealed  in  a  button. 
That  letter  was  from  this  gentleman,  and  the 
public  will,  I  believe,  conclude,  that  the  hazard 
Mr.  Lee  exposed  himself  to,  in  giving  informa- 
tion while  so  situated,  and  by  such  means,  deserves 
their  regard  and  thanks. 

The  detail  of  the  number  of  the  foreign  and 
British  troops  for  the  campaign  of  1776,  came 
first  from  him,  as  did  likewise  the  expedition 
against  South  Carolina  and  Canada,  and  among 
other  accounts  of  his,  that  the  English  emissaries 
at  Paris  had  boasted  that  the  British  Ministry 
had  sent  over  half  a  million  of  guineas  to  corrupt 
the  Congress.  This  money,  should  they  be  fools 
enough  to  send  it,  will  be  very  ineffectually  at- 
tempted or  bestowed,  for  repeated  instances  have 
shown  that  the  moment  any  man  steps  aside  from 
the  public  interest  of  America,  he  becomes  de- 
spised, and  if  in  office,  superseded. 

Mr.  Deane  says,  "that  Dr.  Berkenhout,  when 
he  returned  to  New  York,  ventured  to  assure  the 
British  commissioners,  that  by  the  alliance  with 
France,  America  was  at  liberty  to  make  peace 
without  consulting  her  ally,  unless  England  de- 
clared war."  What  is  it  to  us  what  Dr.  Berken- 
hout said,  or  how  came  Mr.  Deane  to  know 

45 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

what  passed  between  him  and  the  British  com- 
missioners? But  I  ask  Mr.  Deane's  pardon,  he 
has  told  us  how.  "Providence,  (says  he)  in  whom 
we  put  our  trust,  unfolded  it  to  me."  But  Mr. 
Deane  says,  that  Colonel  R.  H.  Lee,  pertina- 
ciously maintained  the  same  doctrine. 

The  treaty  of  alliance  will  neither  admit  of 
debate  nor  any  equivocal  explanation.  Had  war 
not  broke  out,  or  had  not  Great  Britain,  in  re- 
sentment to  that  alliance  or  connection,  and  of 
the  good  correspondence  which  is  the  object  of  the 
said  treaty,  broke  the  peace  with  France,  either 
by  direct  hostilities  or  by  hindering  her  commerce 
and  navigation  in  a  manner  contrary  to  the  rights 
of  nations,  and  the  peace  subsisting  at  that  time, 
between  the  two  Crowns — in  this  case  I  likewise 
say,  that  America,  as  a  matter  of  right,  could 
have  made  a  peace  without  consulting  her  ally, 
though  the  civil  obligations  of  mutual  esteem  and 
friendship  would  have  required  such  a  consulta- 
tion. 

But  war  has  broke  out,  though  not  declared, 
for  the  first  article  in  the  treaty  of  alliance  is 
confined  to  the  breaking  out  of  war,  and  not  to 
its  declaration.  Hostilities  have  been  com- 
menced ;  therefore  the  first  case  is  superseded,  and 
the  eighth  article  of  the  treaty  of  alliance  has  its 
46 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

full  intentional  force:  ''Article  8. — Neither  of 
the  two  parties  shall  conclude  either  truce  or 
peace  without  the  formal  consent  of  the  other 
first  obtained,  and  they  mutually  engage  not  to 
lay  down  their  arms  until  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  shall  have  been  formally  or  tacitly 
assured,  by  the  treaty  or  treaties  that  shall  ter- 
minate that  war." 

What  Mr.  Deane  means  by  this  affected  ap- 
pearance of  his,  both  personally  and  in  print,  I 
am  quite  at  a  loss  to  understand.  He  seems  to 
conduct  himself  here  in  a  style,  that  would  more 
properly  become  the  secretary  to  a  foreign  em- 
bassy, than  that  of  an  American  minister  re- 
turned from  his  charge.  He  appears  to  be 
everybody's  servant  but  ours,  and  for  that  reason 
can  never  be  the  proper  person  to  execute  any 
commission,  or  possess  our  confidence.  Among 
the  number  of  his  "sufferings"  I  am  told  that  he 
returned  burdened  with  forty  changes  of  silk, 
velvet,  and  other  dresses.  Perhaps  this  was  the 
reason  he  could  not  bring  his  papers. 

Mr.  Deane  says,  that  William  Lee,  Esq.,  gives 
five  per  cent  commission  and  receives  a  share  of 
it,  for  what  was  formerly  done  for  two  per  cent. 
The  matter  requires  to  be  cleared  up  and  ex- 
plained; for  it  is  not  the  quantity  per  cent,  but 

47 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  purposes  to  which  it  is  applied  that  makes  it 
right  or  wrong;  besides  which,  the  whole  matter, 
like  many  other  of  Mr.  Deane's  charges,  may  be 
groundless. 

I  here  take  my  leave  of  this  gentleman,  wish- 
ing him  more  discretion,  candor  and  generosity. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  address  I  informed 
the  pubhc,  that  "  whatever  I  should  conceive 
necessary  to  say  of  myself,  would  appear  in  the 
conclusion."  I  chose  that  mode  of  arrangement, 
lest  by  explaining  my  own  situation  first,  the 
public  might  be  induced  to  pay  a  greater  regard 
to  what  I  had  to  say  against  Mr.  Deane,  than 
was  necessary  they  should;  whereas  it  was  my 
wish  to  give  Mr.  Deane  every  advantage,  by  let- 
ting what  I  had  to  advance  come  from  me,  while 
I  laid  under  the  disadvantage  of  having  the 
motives  of  my  conduct  mistaken  by  the  public. 
Mr.  Deane  and  his  adherents  have  apparently 
deserted  the  field  they  first  took  possession  of 
and  seemed  to  triumph  in.  They  made  their  ap- 
peal to  you,  yet  have  suffered  me  to  accuse  and 
expose  them  for  almost  three  weeks  past,  with- 
out a  denial  or  a  reply. 

I  do  not  blame  the  public  for  censuring  me 
while  they,  though  wrongfully,  supposed  I  de- 
served it.    When  they  see  their  mistake,  I  have 
48 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

no  doubt,  but  they  will  honor  me  with  that  regard 
of  theirs  which  I  before  enjoyed.  And  consider- 
ing how  much  I  have  been  misrepresented,  I  hope 
it  will  not  now  appear  ostentatious  in  me,  if  I  set 
forth  what  has  been  my  conduct,  ever  since  the 
first  publication  of  the  pamphlet  "Common 
Sense"  down  to  this  day,  on  which,  and  on  account 
of  my  reply  to  Mr.  Deane,  and  in  order  to  import 
the  liberty  of  the  press,  and  my  right  as  a  free- 
man, I  have  been  obliged  to  resign  my  office  of 
secretary  for  foreign  affairs,  which  I  held  under 
Congress.  But  this,  in  order  to  be  complete,  will 
be  published  in  the  "Crisis"  VIII,  of  which 
notice  will  be  given  in  the  papers. 

Common  Sense. 
Philadelphia,  January  8, 1779, 


49 


AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 
JANUARY  14,  1779 

TO  HON.  HENRY  LAUEENS 

O  IR:  My  anxiety  for  your  personal  safety  has 
^^  not  only  fixed  a  profound  silence  upon  me, 
but  prevents  my  asking  you  a  great  many  ques- 
tions, lest  I  should  be  the  unwilling,  unfortunate 
cause  of  new  diificulties  or  fatal  consequences  to 
you,  and  in  such  a  case  I  might  indeed  say,  "  'T  is 
the  survivor  dies/* 

I  omitted  sending  the  inclosed  in  the  morning 
as  I  intended.  It  will  serve  you  to  parry  ill 
nature  and  ingratitude  with,  when  undeserved 
reflections  are  cast  upon  me. 

I  certainly  have  some  awkward  natural  feel- 
ing, which  I  never  shall  get  rid  of.  I  was  sen- 
sible of  a  kind  of  shame  at  the  Minister's  door 
to-day,  lest  anyone  should  think  I  was  going 
to  solicit  a  pardon  or  a  pension.  When  I  come 
to  you  I  feel  only  an  unwillingness  to  be  seen,  on 
your  account.  I  shall  never  make  a  courtier,  I 
see  that. 

I  am  your  obedient  humble  servant, 

Thomas  Paine. 

January  14,  1779. 
50 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Sir:  —  For  your  amusement  I  give  you  a 
short  history  of  my  conduct  since  I  have  been  in 
America. 

I  brought  with  me  letters  of  introduction 
from  Dr.  Franklin.  These  letters  were  with  a 
flying  seal,  that  I  might,  if  I  thought  proper, 
close  them  with  a  wafer.  One  was  to  Mr.  Bache 
of  this  city.  The  terms  of  Dr.  Franklin's  recom- 
mendation were  "  a  worthy,  ingenious,  etc."  My 
particular  design  was  to  establish  an  academy 
on  the  plan  they  are  conducted  in  and  about 
London,  which  I  was  well  acquainted  with.  I 
came  some  months  before  Dr.  Franklin,  and 
waited  here  for  his  arrival.  In  the  meantime  a 
person  of  this  city  desired  me  to  give  him  some 
assistance  in  conducting  a  magazine,  which  I  did 
without  making  any  bargain.  The  work  turned 
out  very  profitable.  Dr.  Witherspoon  had  like- 
wise a  concern  [in]  it.  At  the  end  of  six  months 
I  thought  it  necessary  to  come  to  some  contract. 
I  agreed  to  leave  the  matters  to  arbitration.  The 
bookseller  mentioned  two  on  his  own  part — Mr. 
Duche,  your  late  chaplain,  and  Mr.  Hopkinson. 
I  agreed  to  them  and  declined  mentioning  any 
on  my  part.  But  the  bookseller  getting  infor- 
mation of  what  Mr.  Duche's  private  opinion  was, 
withdrew  from  the  arbitration,  or  rather  refused 

51 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

to  go  into  it,  as  our  agreement  to  abide  by  it  was 
only  verbal.  I  was  requested  by  several  literary 
gentlemen  in  this  city  to  undertake  such  a  work 
on  my  own  account,  and  I  could  have  rendered  it 
very  profitable. 

As  I  always  had  a  taste  to  science,  I  naturally 
had  friends  of  that  cast  in  England ;  and  among 
the  rest  George  Lewis  Scott,  Esq.,  through  whose 
formal  introduction  my  first  acquaintance  with 
Dr.  Frankhn  commenced.  I  esteem  Mr.  Scott 
as  one  of  the  most  amiable  characters  I  know  of, 
but  his  particular  situation  had  been,  that  in  the 
minority  of  the  present  King  he  was  his  sub-pre- 
ceptor, and  from  the  occasional  traditionary  ac- 
counts yet  remaining  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Scott, 
I  obtained  the  true  character  of  the  present  King 
from  his  childhood  upward,  and,  you  may  natur- 
ally suppose,  of  the  present  Ministry.  I  saw  the 
people  of  this  country  were  all  wrong,  by  an  ill- 
placed  confidence. 

After  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities  I  was 
confident  their  design  was  a  total  conquest.  I 
wrote  to  Mr.  Scott  in  May,  1775,  by  Captain 
James  Josiah,  now  in  this  city.  I  read  the  letter 
to  him  before  I  closed  it.  I  used  in  it  this  free 
expression:  "Surely  the  Ministry  are  all  mad; 
they  never  will  be  able  to  conquer  America." 
52 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  reception  which  the  last  petition  of  Congress 
met  with  put  it  past  a  doubt  that  such  was  their 
design,  on  which  I  determined  with  myself  to 
write  the  pamphlet  "[Common]  Sense."  As  I 
knew  the  time  of  the  Parliament  meeting,  and 
had  no  doubt  what  sort  of  King's  speech  it 
would  produce,  my  contrivance  was  to  have  the 
pamphlet  come  out  just  at  the  time  the  speech 
might  arrive  in  America,  and  so  fortunate  was  I 
in  this  cast  of  pohcy  that  both  of  them  made 
their  appearance  in  this  city  on  the  same  day. 
The  first  edition  was  printed  by  Bell  on  the  rec- 
ommendation of  Dr.  Rush.  I  gave  him  the 
pamphlet  on  the  following  conditions:  That  if 
any  loss  should  arise  I  would  pay  it — and  in 
order  to  make  him  industrious  in  circulating  it, 
I  gave  him  one-half  the  profits,  if  it  should  pro- 
duce any.  I  gave  a  written  order  to  Colonel 
Joseph  Dean  and  Captain  Thomas  Prior,  both  of 
this  city,  to  receive  the  other  half,  and  lay  it  out 
for  mittens  for  the  troops  that  were  going  to 
Quebec.  I  did  this  to  do  honor  to  the  cause. 
Bell  kept  the  whole,  and  abused  me  into  the  bar- 
gain. The  price  he  set  upon  them  was  two 
shillings. 

I  then  enlarged  the  pamphlet  with  an  appen- 
dix and  an  address  to  the  Quakers,  which  made 

58 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

it  one-third  bigger  than  before,  printed  6,000  at 
my  own  expense,  3,000  by  B.  Towne,  3,000  by 
Cist  &  Steyner,  and  delivered  them  ready  stitched 
and  fit  for  sale  to  Mr.  Bradford  at  the  Coffee- 
house; and  though  the  work  was  thus  increased, 
and  consequently  should  have  borne  a  higher 
price,  yet,  in  order  that  it  might  produce  the 
general  service  I  wished,  I  confined  Mr.  Brad- 
ford to  sell  them  at  only  one  shilHng  each,  or  ten- 
pence  by  the  dozen,  and  to  enable  him  to  do  this, 
with  sufficient  advantage  to  himself,  I  let  him 
have  the  pamphlets  at  8^d.  Pennsylvania  cur- 
rency each. 

The  sum  of  8%d.  each  was  reserved  to  defray 
the  expense  of  printing,  paper,  advertising,  etc., 
and  such  as  might  be  given  away.  The  state  of 
the  account  at  present  is  that  I  am  £39  lis.  out 
of  pocket,  being  the  difference  between  what  I 
have  paid  for  printing,  etc.,  and  what  I  have  re- 
ceived from  Bradford.  He  has  a  sufficiency  in 
his  hands  to  balance  with  and  clear  me,  which  is 
all  I  aimed  at,  but  by  his  unaccountable  dila- 
toriness  and  unwillingness  to  settle  accounts,  I 
fear  I  shall  be  obliged  to  sustain  a  real  loss 
exclusive  of  my  trouble. 

I  think  the  importance  of  that  pamphlet  was 
such  that  if  it  had  not  appeared,  and  that  at  the 
54 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

exact  time  it  did,  the  Congress  would  not  now 
have  been  sitting  where  they  are.  The  light  which 
that  performance  threw  upon  the  subject  gave  a 
turn  to  the  politics  of  America  which  enabled  her 
to  stand  her  ground.  Independence  followed  in 
six  months  after  it,  although  before  it  was  pub- 
lished it  was  a  dangerous  doctrine  to  speak  of, 
and  that  because  it  was  not  understood. 

In  order  to  accommodate  that  pamphlet  to 
every  man's  purchase  and  to  do  honor  to  the 
cause,  I  gave  up  the  profits  I  was  justly  entitled 
to,  which  in  this  city  only  would  at  the  usual 
price  of  books  [have]  produced  me  £1,000  at 
that  time  a  day,  besides  what  I  might  have  made 
by  extending  it  to  other  states.  I  gave  permis- 
sion to  the  printers  in  other  parts  of  this  State 
[Pennsylvania]  to  print  it  on  their  own  account. 
I  believe  the  number  of  copies  printed  and  sold 
in  America  was  not  short  of  150,000 — and  is  the 
greatest  sale  that  any  performance  ever  had 
since  the  use  of  letters, — exclusive  of  the  great 
run  it  had  in  England  and  Ireland. 

The  doctrine  of  that  book  was  opposed  in  the 
public  newspapers  under  the  signature  of  Cato, 
who,  I  believe,  was  Dr.  Smith,  and  I  was  sent  for 
from  New  York  to  reply  to  him,  which  I  did, 
and  happily  with  success.    My  letters  are  under 

55 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  signature  of  The  Forester.  It  was  like- 
wise opposed  in  a  pamphlet  signed  Plain 
TrutHj  but  the  performance  was  too  weak  to  do 
any  hurt  or  deserve  any  answer.  In  July  follow- 
ing the  publication  of  "Common  Sense"  the  As- 
sociators  of  this  State  marched  to  Amboy  under 
the  command  of  General  Roberdeau.  The  com- 
mand was  large,  yet  there  was  no  allowance  for 
a  secretary.  I  offered  my  service  voluntarily, 
only  that  my  expenses  should  be  paid,  all  the 
charges  I  put  General  Roberdeau  to  was  $48; 
although  he  frequently  pressed  me  to  make  free 
with  his  private  assistance.  After  the  Asso- 
ciators  returned  I  went  to  Fort  Lee,  and  con- 
tinued with  General  [Nathanael]  Greene  till  the 
evacuation. 

A  few  days  after  our  army  had  crossed  the 
Delaware  on  the  eighth  of  December,  1776,  I 
came  to  Philadelphia  on  public  service,  and,  see- 
ing the  deplorable  and  melancholy  condition  the 
people  were  in,  afraid  to  speak  and  almost  to 
think,  the  public  presses  stopped,  and  nothing  in 
circulation  but  fears  and  falsehoods,  I  sat  down, 
and  in  what  I  may  call  a  passion  of  patriotism, 
wrote  the  first  number  of  the  "Crisis."  It  was 
published  on  the  nineteenth  of  December,  which 
was  the  very  blackest  of  times,  being  before  the 
56 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

taking  of  the  Hessians  at  Trenton.  I  gave  that 
piece  to  the  printer  gratis,  and  confined  him  to 
the  price  of  two  coppers,  which  was  sufficient  to 
defray  his  charge. 

I  then  published  the  second  number,  which 
being  as  large  again  as  the  first  number,  I  gave 
it  to  him  on  the  condition  of  his  taking  only  four 
coppers  each.    It  contained  sixteen  pages. 

I  then  published  the  third  number,  containing 
thirty-two  pages,  and  gave  it  to  the  printer,  con- 
fining him  to  ninepence. 

When  the  account  of  the  battle  of  Brandy- 
wine  got  to  this  city,  the  people  were  again  in  a 
state  of  fear  and  dread.  I  immediately  wrote  the 
fourth  number  [of  the  "Crisis"].  It  contained 
only  four  pages,  and  as  there  was  no  less  money 
than  the  sixth  of  dollars  in  general  circulation, 
which  would  have  been  too  great  a  price,  I 
ordered  4,000  to  be  printed  at  my  own  private 
charge  and  given  away. 

The  fifth  number  I  gave  Mr.  Dunlap  at  Lan- 
caster. He,  very  much  against  my  consent,  set 
half  a  crown  upon  it ;  he  might  have  done  it  for  a 
great  deal  less.  The  sixth  and  seventh  numbers 
I  gave  in  the  papers.  The  seventh  number 
would  have  made  a  pamphlet  of  twenty-four 

57 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

pages,  and  brought  me  in  $3,000  or  $4,000  in  a 
very  few  days,  at  the  price  which  it  ought  to  have 
borne. 

Moneys  received  since  I  have  been  in  America : 

Salary  for  17  months  at  70  dollars 

per  month 1,190  dollars 

For  rations  and  occasional  assist- 
ance at  Fort  Lee 141  ditto 

For  defraying  the  expense  of  a 
journey  from  East  Town  round 
by  Morris  when  secretary  to  the 
Indian  Commission,  and  some 
other  matters,  about  140  or  145 
dollars  145  ditto 


Total  of  public  money 1,476 

In  the  spring,  1776,  some  private  gentleman, 
thinking  that  it  was  too  hard  that  I  should,  after 
giving  away  my  profits  for  a  public  good,  be 
money  out  of  pocket  on  account  of  some  expense 
I  was  put  to — sent  me  by  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Christopher  Marshall  108  dollars. 

You  have  here.  Sir,  a  faithful  history  of  my 
services  and  my  rewards. 


58 


MESSRS.  DEANE,  JAY,  AND  GERARD 

From  the  Pennsylvania  Packet  of 
September  14,  1779. 

Mr.  Dunlap: 

TN  your  paper  of  August  thirty-first  was  pub- 
-*-  lished  an  extract  of  a  letter  from  Paris,  dated 
May  the  twenty-first,  in  which  the  writer,  among 
other  things,  says: 

It  is  long  since  I  felt  in  common  with  every  other 
well-wisher  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and  truth,  the  obli- 
gations I  was  under  to  the  author  of  "Common  Sense," 
for  the  able  and  unanswerable  manner  in  which  he  has 
defended  those  principles.  The  same  public  motives,  I 
am  persuaded,  induced  him  to  address  the  public  against 
Mr.  Deane  and  his  associates.  The  countenance  and 
support  which  Deane  has  received  is  a  melancholy  pre- 
sage of  the  future.  Vain,  assuming,  avaricious  and 
unprincipled,  he  will  stick  at  no  crime  to  cover  what 
he  has  committed  and  continue  his  career. 

The  impunity  with  which  Deane  has  traduced  and 
calumniated  Congress  to  their  face,  the  indulgence  and 
even  countenance  he  has  received,  the  acrimonious  and 
uncandid  spirit  of  a  letter  containing  Mr.  Paine's  pub- 
lications which  accompanied  a  resolve  sent  to  Mr. 
Gerard,  are  matters  of  deep  concern  here  to  every 
friend  to  America. 

By  way  of  explaining  the  particular  letter 
referred  to  in  the  above,  the  following  note  was 
added: 

viii-Hj  59 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  letter  here  alluded  to  can  be  no  other  than 
that  signed  John  Jay,  dated  January  thirteenth,  and 
published  in  Mr.  Dunlap's  paper  of  January  sixteenth. 
It  is  very  extraordinary  that  Mr.  Jay  should  write  such 
a  letter,  because  it  contains  the  same  illiberal  reflections 
which  Congress,  as  a  body,  had  rejected  from  their  re- 
solve of  January  twelfth,  as  may  be  seen  by  anyone 
who  will  peruse  the  proceedings  of  January  last.  Con- 
gress has  since  declined  to  give  countenance  to  Mr.  Jay's 
letter;  for  tho'  he  had  a  public  authority  for  writing  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Gerard,  he  had  no  authority  for  the  reflec- 
tions he  used;  besides  which,  the  letter  would  be  per- 
fectly laughable  were  every  circumstance  known  which 
happened  at  that  particular  time,  and  would  likewise 
show  how  exceedingly  delicate  and  cautious  a  President 
ought  to  be  when  he  means  to  act  officially  in  cases  he  is 
not  suflBciently  acquainted  with. 

Every  person  will  perceive  that  the  note 
which  explains  the  letter  referred  to,  is  not  a  part 
of  the  letter  from  Paris,  but  is  added  by  an- 
other person;  and  Mr.  Jay,  or  any  other  gentle- 
man, is  welcome  to  know  that  the  note  is  in  my 
writing,  and  that  the  original  letter  from  Paris 
is  now  in  my  possession.  I  had  sufficient  author- 
ity for  the  expressions  used  in  the  note.  Mr. 
Jay  did  not  lay  his  letter  to  Mr.  Gerard  before 
Congress  previous  to  his  sending  it,  and  there- 
fore, tho'  he  had  their  order,  he  had  not  their  ap- 
probation. They,  it  is  true,  ordered  it  to  be  pub- 
lished, but  there  is  no  vote  for  approving  it, 
neither  have  they  given  it  a  place  in  their  jour- 
60 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

nals,  nor  was  it  published  in  any  more  than  one 
paper  in  this  city  (Benjamin  Towne's),  tho' 
there  were  at  that  time  two  others. 

Some  time  after  Mr.  Jay's  letter  appeared 
in  the  paper,  I  addressed  another  to  Congress, 
complaining  of  the  unjust  liberty  he  had  taken, 
and  desired  to  know  whether  I  was  to  consider 
the  expressions  used  in  his  letter  as  containing 
their  sentiments,  at  the  same  time  informing 
them,  that  if  they  declined  to  prove  what  he  had 
written,  I  should  consider  their  silence  as  a  dis- 
approbation of  it.  Congress  chose  to  be  silent; 
and  consequently,  have  left  Mr.  Jay  to  father 
his  own  expressions. 

I  took  no  other  notice  of  Mr.  Jay's  letter  at 
the  time  it  was  published,  being  fully  persuaded 
that  when  any  man  recollected  the  part  I  had 
acted,  not  only  at  the  first  but  in  the  worst  of 
times,  he  could  but  look  on  Mr.  Jay's  letter  to 
be  groundless  and  ungrateful,  and  the  more  so, 
because  if  America  had  had  no  better  friends 
than  himself  to  bring  about  independence,  I 
fully  believe  she  would  never  have  succeeded  in 
it,  and  in  all  probability  been  a  ruined,  conquered 
and  tributary  country. 

Let  any  man  look  at  the  position  America 
was  in  at  the  time  I  first  took  up  the  subject,  and 

61 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

published  "Common  Sense,"  which  was  but  a  few 
months  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence; 
an  army  of  thirty  thousand  men  coming  out 
against  her,  besides  those  which  were  already 
here,  and  she  without  either  an  object  or  a  sys- 
tem, fighting,  she  scarcely  knew  for  what,  and 
which,  if  she  could  have  obtained,  would  have 
done  her  no  good.  She  had  not  a  day  to  spare 
in  bringing  about  the  only  thing  which  could 
save  her,  a  Revolution^  yet  no  one  measure 
was  taken  to  promote  it,  and  many  were  used  to 
prevent  it;  and  had  independence  not  been  de- 
clared at  the  time  it  was,  I  cannot  see  any  time 
in  which  it  could  have  been  declared,  as  the  train 
of  ill-successes  which  followed  the  affair  of  Long 
Island  left  no  future  opportunity. 

Had  I  been  disposed  to  have  made  money,  I 
undoubtedly  had  many  opportunities  for  it. 
The  single  pamphlet,  "Common  Sense,"  would  at 
that  time  of  day,  have  produced  a  tolerable  for- 
tune, had  I  only  taken  the  same  profits  from  the 
publication  which  all  writers  had  ever  done, 
because  the  sale  was  the  most  rapid  and  exten- 
sive of  anything  that  was  ever  published  in  this 
country,  or  perhaps  any  other.  Instead  of 
which  I  reduced  the  price  so  low,  that  instead  of 
(getting,  I  yet  stand  thirty-nine  pounds  eleven 
62 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

shillings  out  of  pocket  on  Mr.  Bradford's  books, 
exclusive  of  my  time  and  trouble,  and  I  have 
acted  the  same  disinterested  part  by  every  pub- 
lication I  have  made.  I  could  have  mentioned 
those  things  long  ago,  had  I  chosen,  but  I  men- 
tion them  now  to  make  Mr.  Jay  feel  his  ingrati- 
tude. 

In  the  Pennsylvania  Packet  of  last  Tuesday 
some  person  has  republished  Mr.  Jay's  letter, 
and  Mr.  Gerard's  answer  of  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  January  last,  and  though  I  was  pa- 
tiently silent  upon  their  first  publication,  I  now 
think  it  necessary,  since  they  are  republished,  to 
give  some  circumstances  which  ought  to  go  with 
them. 

At  the  time  the  dispute  arose,  respecting  Mr. 
Deane's  affairs,  I  had  a  conference  with  Mr. 
Gerard  at  his  own  request,  and  some  matters  on 
that  subject  were  freely  talked  over,  which  it  is 
here  unnecessary  to  mention.  This  was  on  the 
second  of  January. 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  or  the  next, 
Mr.  Gerard,  thro'  the  mediation  of  another  gen- 
tleman, made  me  a  very  genteel  and  profitable 
offer.  I  felt  at  once  the  respect  due  to  his 
friendship,  and  the  difficulties  which  my  accept- 
ance would  subject  me  to.    My  whole  credit  was 

63 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

staked  upon  going  through  with  Deane's  affairs, 
and  could  I  afterwards  have  written  with  the 
pen  of  an  angel,  on  any  subject  whatever,  it 
would  have  had  no  effect,  had  I  failed  in  that  or 
dechned  proceeding  in  it.  Mr.  Deane's  name 
was  not  mentioned  at  the  time  the  offer  was 
made,  but  from  some  conversation  which  passed 
at  the  time  of  the  interview,  I  had  sufficient  rea- 
son to  believe  that  some  restraint  had  been  laid 
on  that  subject.  Besides  which  I  have  a  natural, 
inflexible  objection  to  anything  which  may  be 
construed  into  a  private  pension,  because  a  man 
after  that  is  no  longer  truly  free. 

My  answer  to  the  offer  was  precisely  in  these 
words — "  Any  service  I  can  render  to  either  of 
the  countries  in  alliance,  or  to  both,  I  ever  have 
done  and  shall  readily  do,  and  Mr.  Gerard's 
esteem  will  be  the  only  recompense  I  shall  de- 
sire." I  particularly  chose  the  word  esteem  be- 
cause it  admitted  no  misunderstanding.  ' 

On  the  fifth  of  January  I  published  a  con- 
tinuation of  my  remarks  on  Mr.  Deane's  affairs, 
and  I  have  ever  felt  the  highest  respect  for  a 
nation  which  has  in  every  stage  of  our  affairs 
been  our  firm  and  invariable  friend.  I  spoke  of 
France  under  that  general  description.  It  is 
true  I  prosecuted  the  point  against  JNIr.  Deane, 
6i 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

but  what  was  Mr.  Deane  to  France,  or  to  the 
Minister  of  France? 

On  the  appearance  of  this  publication  Mr. 
Gerard  presented  a  Memorial  to  Congress  re- 
specting some  expressions  used  therein,  and  on 
the  sixth  and  seventh  I  requested  of  Congress  to 
be  admitted  to  explain  any  passages  which  Mr. 
Gerard  had  referred  to;  but  this  request  not  be- 
ing complied  with,  I,  on  the  eighth,  sent  in  my 
resignations  of  the  office  of  Secretary  to  the 
Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

In  the  evening  I  received  an  invitation  to 
sup  with  a  gentleman,  and  Mr.  Gerard's  offer 
was,  by  his  own  authority,  again  renewed  with 
considerable  additions  of  advantage.  I  gave  the 
same  answer  as  before.  I  was  then  told  that  Mr. 
Gerard  was  very  ill,  and  desired  to  see  me.  I  re- 
plied, "  That  as  a  matter  was  then  depending  in 
Congress  upon  a  representation  of  Mr.  Gerard 
against  some  parts  of  my  publications,  I  thought 
it  indelicate  to  wait  on  him  till  that  was  deter- 
mined." 

In  a  few  days  after  I  received  a  second  in^a- 
tation,  and  likew^ise  a  third,  to  sup  at  the  same 
place,  in  both  of  which  the  same  offer  and  the 
same  invitation  were  renewed  and  the  same  an- 
swers on  my  part  were  given :  But  being  repeat- 

65 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

edly  pressed  to  make  Mr.  Gerard  a  visit,  I  en- 
gaged to  do  it  the  next  morning  at  ten  o'clock: 
but  as  I  considered  myself  standing  on  a  nice 
and  critical  ground,  and  lest  my  reputation 
should  be  afterward  called  in  question,  I  judged 
it  best  to  communicate  the  whole  matter  to  an 
honorable  friend  before  I  went,  which  was  on 
the  fourteenth  of  January,  the  very  day  on  which 
Mr.  Gerard's  answer  to  Mr.  Jay's  letter  is  dated. 

While  with  Mr.  Gerard  I  avoided  as  much 
as  possible  every  occasion  that  might  give  rise 
to  the  subject.  Himself  once  or  twice  hinted  at 
the  publications  and  added  that,  "  he  hoped  no 
more  would  be  said  on  the  subject,"  which  I 
immediately  waived  by  entering  on  the  loss  of 
the  dispatches.  I  knew  my  own  resolution  re- 
specting the  offer,  had  communicated  that  reso- 
lution to  a  friend,  and  did  not  wish  to  give  the 
least  pain  to  Mr.  Gerard,  by  personally  refusing 
that,  which,  from  him  might  be  friendship,  but 
to  me  would  have  been  the  ruin  of  my  credit. 
At  a  convenient  opportunity  I  rose  to  take  my 
leave,  on  which  Mr.  Gerard  said  "  Mr.  Paine,  I 
have  always  had  a  great  respect  for  you,  and 
should  be  glad  of  some  opportunity  of  showing 
you  more  solid  marks  of  my  friendship." 

I  confess  I  felt  myself  hurt  and  exceedingly 
66 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

concerned  that  the  injustice  and  indiscretion  of 
a  party  in  Congress  should  drive  matters  to  such 
an  extremity  that  one  side  or  other  must  go  to 
the  bottom,  and  in  its  consequences  embarrass 
those  whom  they  had  drawn  in  to  support  them. 
I  am  conscious  that  America  had  not  in  France 
a  more  strenuous  friend  than  Mr.  Gerard,  and  I 
sincerely  wish  he  had  found  a  way  to  avoid  an 
affair  which  has  been  much  trouble  to  him.  As 
for  Deane,  I  believe  him  to  be  a  man  who  cares 
not  who  he  involves  to  screen  himself.  He  has 
forfeited  all  reputation  in  this  country,  first  by 
promising  to  give  an  'liistory  of  matters  impor- 
tant for  the  people  to  know  "  and  then  not  only 
failing  to  perform  that  promise,  but  neglecting 
to  clear  his  own  suspected  reputation,  though  he 
is  now  on  the  spot  and  can  any  day  demand  an 
hearing  of  Congress,  and  call  me  before  them 
for  the  truth  of  what  I  have  pubHshed  respecting 
him. 

Two  days  after  my  visit  to  Mr.  Gerard,  Mr. 
Jay's  letter  and  the  answer  to  it  was  published, 
and  I  would  candidly  ask  any  man  how  it  is  pos- 
sible to  reconcile  such  letters  to  such  offers  both 
done  at  one  and  the  same  time,  and  whether  I 
had  not  sufficient  authority  to  say  that  Mr.  Jay's 
letter  would  be  truly  laughable,  were  all  the  cir- 

67 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

cumstances  known  which  happened  at  the  time 
of  his  writing. 

Whoever  published  those  letters  in  last  Tues- 
day's paper,  must  be  an  idiot  or  worse.  I  had  let 
them  pass  over  without  any  other  public  notice 
than  what  was  contained  in  the  note  of  the  pre- 
ceding week,  but  the  republishing  them  was  put- 
ting me  to  defiance,  and  forcing  me  either  to 
submit  to  them  afresh,  or  to  give  the  circum- 
stances which  accompanied  them.  Whoever  will 
look  back  to  last  winter,  must  see  I  had  my 
hands  full,  and  that  without  any  person  giving 
the  least  assistance. 

It  was  first  given  out  that  I  was  paid  by 
Congress  for  vindicating  their  reputation  against 
Mr.  Deane's  charges,  yet  a  majority  in  that 
House  were  every  day  pelting  me  for  what 
I  was  doing.  Then  Mr.  Gerard  was  unfortunate- 
ly brought  in,  and  ]Mr.  Jay's  letter  to  him  and 
his  answer  were  published  to  effect  some  purpose 
or  other.  Yet  ^Ir.  Gerard  was  at  the  same  time 
making  the  warmest  professions  of  friendship 
to  me,  and  proposing  to  take  me  into  his  confi- 
dence with  very  liberal  offers.  In  short  I  had 
but  one  way  to  get  thro',  which  was  to  keep 
close  to  the  point  and  principle  I  set  out  upon, 
and  that  alone  has  rendered  me  successful.  By 
68 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

making  this  my  guide  I  have  kept  my  ground, 
and  I  have  yet  ground  to  spare,  for  among  other 
things  I  have  authentic  copies  of  the  dispatches 
that  were  lost. 

I  am  certain  no  man  set  out  with  a  warmer 
heart  or  a  better  disposition  to  render  public  ser- 
vice than  myself,  in  everything  which  laid  in  my 
power.  My  first  endeavor  was  to  put  the  poli- 
tics of  the  country  right,  and  to  show  the  advan- 
tages as  well  as  the  necessity  of  independence: 
and  until  this  was  done,  independence  never 
could  have  succeeded.  America  did  not  at  that 
time  understand  her  own  situation;  and  though 
the  country  was  then  full  of  writers,  no  one 
reached  the  mark ;  neither  did  I  abate  in  my  ser- 
vice, when  hmidreds  were  afterwards  deserting 
her  interests  and  thousands  afraid  to  speak,  for 
the  first  number  of  the  "Crisis"  was  published  in 
the  blackest  stage  of  affairs,  six  days  before  the 
taking  of  the  Hessians  at  Trenton. 

When  this  State  was  distracted  by  parties  on 
account  of  her  Constitution,  I  endeavored  in  the 
most  disinterested  manner  to  bring  it  to  a  conclu- 
sion; and  when  Deane's  impositions  broke  out, 
and  threw  the  whole  States  into  confusion,  I 
readily  took  up  the  subject,  for  no  one  else  un- 
derstood it,  and  the  countrj'^  now  see  that  I  was 

69 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

right.  And  if  Mr.  Jay  thinks  he  derives  any 
credit  from  his  letter  to  Mr.  Gerard,  he  will  find 
himself  deceived,  and  that  the  ingratitude  of  the 
composition  will  be  his  reproach  not  mine. 

Common  Sense. 


70 


any 


HIS  MAJESTY  GEORGE  III 

Photogravure  from  the  Original  Painting  by  Sir  Joshua 

Reynolds  presented  to  the  Royal  Academy 

of  Arts,  London 


PEACE  AND  THE  NEWFOUNDLAND 
FISHERIES 

From  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette, 
June  30,  1779 

messieurs  hall  and  sellers 

Gentlemen  : 

A  PIECE  of  very  extraordinary  complexion 
-^  ^  made  it  appearance  in  your  last  paper, 
under  the  signature  of  Americanus^  and  what 
is  equally  as  extraordinary,  I  have  not  yet  met 
with  one  advocate  in  its  favor.  To  write  under 
the  curse  of  universal  reprobation  is  hard  indeed, 
and  proves  that  either  the  writer  is  too  honest  for 
the  world  he  lives  in,  or  the  world,  bad  as  it  is, 
too  honest  for  him  to  write  in. 

Some  time  last  winter  a  worthy  member  of 
the  Assembly  of  this  State  put  into  my  hands, 
with  some  expressions  of  surprise,  a  motion 
which  he  had  copied  from  an  original  shown  to 
him  by  another  member,  who  intended  to  move  it 
in  the  House.  The  purport  of  that,  and  the  doc- 
trine of  Americanus^  bear  such  strong  resem- 
blance to  each  other  that  I  make  no  hesitation  in 
believing  them  both  generated  from  the  same 

71 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

parents.  The  intended  motion,  however,  with- 
ered without  being  put,  and  Americanus^  by 
venturing  into  being,  has  exposed  himself  to  a  less 
tranquil  exit. 

Whether  Americanus  sits  in  Congress  or  not, 
may  be  the  subject  of  future  inquiry;  at  present 
I  shall  content  myself  with  making  some  stric- 
tures on  what  he  advances. 

He  takes  it  for  granted  that  hints  toward 
a  negotiation  for  peace  have  been  made  to  Con- 
gress, and  that  a  debate  has  taken  place  in  that 
House  respecting  the  terms  on  which  such  a 
negotiation  shall  be  opened. 

It  is  reported,  says  he,  that  Congress  are  still 
debating  what  the  terms  shall  be,  and  that  some  men 
strenuously  insist  on  such  as  others  fear  will  not  be 
agreed  to,  and  as  they  apprehend  may  prevent  any 
treaty  at  all,  and  such  as  our  ally  [France],  by  his 
treaties  with  us,  is  by  no  means  bound  to  support  us 
in  demanding. 

AmericanuSj  after  running  through  a  variety 
of  introductory  matter,  comes  at  last  to  the 
point,  and  intimates,  or  rather  informs,  that  the 
particular  subject  of  debate  in  Congress  has 
been  respecting  the  fisheries  on  the  Banks  of 
Newfoundland,  some  insisting  thereon  as  a  mat- 
ter of  right  and  urging  it  as  a  matter  of  absolute 
necessity,  others  doubting,  or  appearing  to  doubt 
■72 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

whether  we  have  any  right  at  all,  and  indifferent 
whether  the  fisheries  be  claimed  or  not.  Among 
the  latter  of  which  Americanus  appears  to  be 
one. 

Either  Americanus  does  not  know  how  to 
make  a  bargain,  or  he  has  already  made  one,  and 
his  affectation  of  modesty  is  the  dress  of  design. 
How,  I  ask,  can  Americanus^  or  any  other  per- 
son, know  what  claims  or  proposals  will  be  re- 
jected or  what  agreed  to,  till  they  be  made, 
offered  or  demanded?  To  suppose  a  rejection 
is  to  invite  it,  and  to  publish  our  "  apprehen- 
sions" as  a  reason  for  declining  the  claim,  is  en- 
couraging the  enemy  to  fulfil  the  prediction. 
Americanus  may  think  what  he  pleases,  but  for 
my  own  part,  I  hate  a  prophesier  of  ill-luck,  be- 
cause the  pride  of  being  thought  wise  often  car- 
ries him  to  the  wrong  side. 

That  an  inhabitant  of  America  or  a  member 
of  Congress  should  become  an  advocate  for  the 
exclusive  right  of  Britain  to  the  fisheries,  and 
signify,  as  his  opinion,  that  an  American  has  not 
a  right  to  fish  in  the  American  seas,  is  something 
very  extraordinary. 

It  is  a  question,  says  he,  whether  the  subjects  of 
these  states  had  any  other  right  to  fishing  than  what 
tliey  derived  from  their  being  subjects  of  Great  Britain; 

73 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  as  it  cannot  he  pretended  that  they  were  in  the  pos- 
session and  enjoyment  of  the  right  either  at  the  time 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  or  of  signing  the 
Treaties  of  Paris,  nor  that  it  was  ever  included  in  any 
one  of  the  charters  of  the  United  States,  it  cannot  be 
surprising  that  many,  who  judge  a  peace  necessary  for 
the  happiness  of  these  states,  should  be  afraid  of  the 
consequences  which  may  follow  from  making  this  an  ul- 
timatum in  a  negotiation. 

I  should  be  glad  to  know  what  ideas  Ameri- 
CANUS  affixes  to  the  words  peace  and  ijidepen- 
dence;  they  frequently  occur  in  his  publication, 
but  he  uses  them  in  such  a  neutral  manner,  that 
they  have  neither  energy  nor  signification. 
Peace,  it  is  true,  has  a  pleasant  sound,  but  he  has 
nibbled  it  round,  like  Dr.  Franklin's  description 
of  a  gingerbread  cake,  till  scarcely  enough  is  left 
to  guess  at  the  composition.  To  be  at  peace  cer- 
tainly implies  something  more  than  barely  a  ces- 
sation of  war.  It  is  supposed  to  be  accompanied 
with  advantages  adequate  to  the  toils  of  obtain- 
ing it.  It  is  a  state  of  prosperity  as  well  as 
safety,  and  of  honor  as  well  as  rest.  His  inde- 
pendence, too,  is  made  up  of  the  same  letters 
which  compose  the  independence  of  other  na- 
tions, but  it  has  something  so  sickly  and  so  con- 
sumptive in  its  constitution,  so  limping  and  lin- 
gering in  its  manner,  that  at  best  it  is  but  in 
74 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

leading  strings,  and  fit  rather  for  the  cradle  than 
the  cabinet.    But  to  return  to  his  argument : 

Americanus  has  placed  aU  his  reasons  the 
wrong  M^ay,  and  drawn  the  contrary  conclusions 
to  what  he  ought  to  have  done.  He  doubts  the 
rights  of  the  States  to  fish,  because  it  is  not  men- 
tioned in  any  of  the  charters.  Whereas,  had  it 
been  mentioned,  it  might  have  been  contended 
that  the  right  in  America  was  only  derivative; 
and  been  given  as  an  argument  that  the  original 
right  lay  in  Britain.  Therefore  the  silence  of 
the  charters,  added  to  the  undisturbed  practise 
of  fishing,  admit  the  right  to  exist  in  America 
naturally,  and  not  by  grant,  and  in  Britain  only 
consequentially ;  for  Britain  did  not  possess  the 
fisheries  independent  of  America,  but  in  conse- 
quence of  her  dominions  in  America.  Her 
claiming  territory  here  was  her  title  deed  to  the 
fisheries,  in  the  same  manner  that  Spain  claims 
Faulkland's  Island,  by  possessing  the  Spanish 
continent;  and  therefore  her  right  to  those  fish- 
eries was  derived  through  America,  and  not  the 
right  of  America  through  Britain.  Wedded  to 
the  continent,  she  inherited  its  fortunes  of  islands 
and  fisheries,  but  divorced  therefrom,  she  ceases 
her  pretensions. 

What  Americanus  means  by  saying,  that  it 
viii-7  75 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

cannot  be  pretended  we  were  in  the  possession 
and  enjoyment  of  the  right  either  at  the  time  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  or  of  signing 
the  Treaty  of  Paris,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive; 
for  the  right  being  natural  in  America,  and  not 
derivative,  could  never  cease,  and  though  by  the 
events  of  war  she  was  at  that  time  dispossessed 
of  the  immediate  enjoyment,  she  could  not  be 
dispossessed  of  the  right,  and  needed  no  other 
proofs  of  her  title  than  custom  and  situation. 

Americanus  has  quoted  the  second  and  elev- 
enth articles  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  by  way  of 
showing  that  the  right  to  the  fisheries  is  not  one 
of  those  rights  which  France  has  undertaken  to 
guarantee. 

To  which  I  answer,  that  he  may  say  the  same 
by  any  particular  right,  because  those  articles  de- 
scribe no  particular  rights,  but  are  comprehen- 
sive of  every  right  which  appertains  to  sover- 
eignty, of  which  fishing  in  the  American  seas 
must  to  us  be  one. 

Will  Americanus  undertake  to  persuade, 
that  it  is  not  the  interest  of  France  to  endeavor  to 
secure  to  her  ally  a  branch  of  trade  which  re- 
dounds to  the  mutual  interest  of  both,  and  with- 
out which  the  alhance  will  lose  half  its  worth? 
Were  we  to  propose  to  surrender  the  right  and 
76 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

practise  of  fishing  to  Britain,  we  might  reason- 
ably conclude  that  France  would  object  to  such 
a  surrender  on  our  part,  because  it  would  not 
only  render  us  a  less  valuable  ally  in  point  of 
commerce  as  well  as  power,  but  furnish  the 
enemy  of  both  with  a  new  acquisition  of  naval 
strength;  the  sure  and  natural  consequence  of 
possessing  the  fisheries. 

Americanus  admits  the  fisheries  to  be  an 
"  object  of  great  consequence  to  the  United 
States,  to  two  or  three  of  them  more  especially." 

Whatever  is  of  consequence  to  any,  is  so  to 
all;  for  wealth  like  water  soon  spreads  over  the 
surface,  let  the  place  of  entrance  be  ever  so  re- 
mote; and  in  like  manner,  any  portion  of 
strength  which  is  lost  or  gained  to  any  one  or 
more  states,  is  lost  or  gained  to  the  whole;  but 
this  is  more  particularly  true  of  naval  strength, 
because,  when  on  the  seas  it  acts  immediately  for 
the  benefit  of  all,  and  the  ease  with  which  it  trans- 
ports itself  takes  in  the  whole  coast  of  America, 
as  expeditiously  as  the  land  forces  of  any  partic- 
ular state  can  be  arranged  for  its  own  immediate 
defense. 

But  of  all  the  States  of  America,  New  York 
ought  to  be  the  most  anxious  to  secure  the  fish- 
eries as  a  nursery  for  a  navy; — because  the  par- 

77 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ticular  situation  of  that  State,  on  account  of  its 
deep  waters,  is  such,  that  it  will  ever  be  exposed 
to  the  approaches  of  an  enemy,  unless  it  be  de- 
fended by  a  navy ;  and  if  any  of  the  delegates  of 
that  State  has  acted  a  contrary  part,  he  or  they 
have  either  designedly  or  ignorantly  betrayed 
the  interest  of  their  constituents,  and  deserve 
their  severest  censure. 

Through  the  whole  of  this  curious  and  equiv- 
ocal piece,  the  premises  and  arguments  have,  in 
themselves,  a  suspicious  appearance  of  being  un- 
fairly if  not  unjustly  stated,  in  order  to  admit 
of,  and  countenance,  wrong  conclusions ;  for  tak- 
ing it  for  granted  that  Congress  have  been  de- 
bating upwards  of  four  months  what  the  terms 
shall  be  on  which  they  shall  open  a  negotiation, 
and  that  the  House  are  divided  respecting  their 
opinion  of  those  terms,  it  does  not  follow  from 
thence  that  the  "^ public  have  been  deceived''  with 
regard  to  the  news  said  to  have  arrived  last  Feb- 
ruary; and  if  they  are  deceived,  the  question  is 
who  deceived  them?  Neither  do  several  other 
conclusions  follow  which  he  has  attempted  to 
draw,  of  which  the  two  I  shall  now  quote  are 
sufficient  instances. 

If,  says  Americanus,  the  inusting  on  terms  which 
neither  the  Declaration  of  Independence  nor  the  Treaties 

78 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  Paris  authorized  us  to  challenge  as  our  rights,  have 
caused  the  late,  otherwise  unaccountable  delays,  and 
prevented  a  peace,  or  at  least  a  negotiation  being 
open  for  one,  those  who  have  challenged  and  in- 
sisted on  these  claims  are  justly  responsible  for  tJie  con- 
sequences." 

This  I  look  on  to  be  truly  Jesuitical;  for  the 
delay  cannot  be  occasioned  by  those  who  propose, 
but  by  those  who  oppose^  and  therefore  the  con- 
struction should  stand  thus: 

If  the  objecting  to  rights  and  claims,  which 
are  neither  inconsistent  with  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  or  the  Treaties  of  Paris,  and  nat- 
urally included  and  understood  in  both,  has 
caused  the  late,  otherwise  unaccountable  delays, 
and  prevented  a  peace,  or  at  least  a  negotiation 
for  one,  those  who  made  such  objections,  and 
thereby  caused  such  delays  and  prevented  such 
negotiations  being  gone  into,  are  justly  respon- 
sible for  the  consequences. 

His  next  position  is  of  the  same  cast,  and  ad- 
mits of  the  same  reversion. 

Governor  Johnstone,  says  he,  in  the  House  of 
Commons  freely  declared  he  had  made  use,  while  in 
America,  of  other  means  to  effect  the  purpose  of  his 
commission  than  those  of  reason  and  argument ;  have 
we  not,  continues  Americanus,  good  right  from  pres- 
ent appearances  to  believe  that  in  this  instance  he  de- 
clared the  truth. 

79 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

To  this  wonderful  supposition  I  shall  apply 
another,  viz.  That  if  Governor  Johnstone  did 
declare  the  truth,  who  have  we  most  right  to  sus- 
pectj  those  who  are  for  relinquishing  the  fisheries 
to  Britain,  or  those  who  are  for  retaining  them? 

Upon  the  whole,  I  consider  the  fisheries  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  America,  and  her  nat- 
ural right  thereto  so  clear  and  evident,  that  it 
does  not  admit  of  a  debate,  and  to  surrender 
them  is  a  species  of  treason  for  which  no  punish- 
ment is  too  severe. 

I  have  not  stepped  out  of  my  way  to  fetch  in 
either  an  argument  or  a  fact,  but  have  confined 
my  reply  to  the  piece,  without  regard  to  who 
the  author  is,  or  whether  any  such  debates  have 
taken  place  or  not,  or  how  far  it  may  or  [may] 
not  have  been  carried  on  one  side  or  the  other. 

Common  Sense. 
Philadelphia,  June  26,  1779, 


80 


PEACE,  AND  THE  NEWFOUNDLAND 
FISHERIES 

From  the    Pennsylvania  Gazette. 
July  14,  1779 

A  MERICANUS,  in  your  last,  has  favored 
-^  ^  the  public  with  a  description  of  himself  as 
a  preface  to  his  piece.  "I  am,"  says  he,  "neither 
a  member  of  Congress  or  of  the  Assembly  of  this 
State,  or  of  any  other,  but  a  private  citizen,  in 
moderate  circumstances  in  point  of  fortune,  and 
tcJiose  political  principles  have  never  been  ques- 
tioned/' All  this  may  be  very  true,  and  yet 
nothing  to  the  purpose ;  neither  can  the  declara- 
tion be  admitted  either  as  a  positive  or  negative 
proof  of  what  his  principles  are.  They  may  be 
good,  or  they  may  not,  and  yet  be  so  well  known 
as  not  to  be  doubted  by  those  who  know  the 
writer. 

Joseph  Galloway  formerly  wrote  under  the 
signature  of  Americanus^  and  tho'  every  honest 
man  condemns  his  principles,  yet  nobody  pre- 
tends to  question  them.  When  a  writer,  and  es- 
pecially an  anonymous  one,  readily  means  to 
declare  his  political  principles  as  a  reinforcement 
to  his  arguments,  he  ought  to  be  full,  clear,  and 

81 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

decisive,  but  this  declaration  is  so  ambiguously 
constructed  and  so  unmeaningly  applied,  that  it 
may  be  used  by  any  and  every  person  either 
within  or  without  the  enemy's  lines,  for  it  does 
not  declare  what  his  principles  are,  but  that,  be 
they  what  they  may,  they  are  not  questioned. 

Before  I  proceed,  I  cannot  help  taking  notice 
of  another  inconsistency  in  his  publication  of  last 
week.  "  In  my  last,"  says  he,  "  I  said  that  it  was 
very  unhappy  that  this  question  has  been  touched 
on  or  agitated  at  all  at  this  time,  to  which,"  con- 
tinues he,  "  I  will  now  add,  it  is  particularly  so, 
that  it  is  become  a  subject  of  discussion  in  the 
public  'papers."  This  is  very  extraordinary  from 
the  very  man  who  first  brought  it  into  the  public 
papers. 

A  short  piece  or  two,  on  the  importance  of 
fisheries  in  general,  were  anonymously  published 
some  time  ago;  but  as  a  matter  of  treaty  debate 
in  Congress,  or  as  a  matter  of  right  in  itself,  with 
the  arguments  and  grounds  on  which  they  pro- 
ceeded, Americanus  is  originally  chargeable 
with  the  inconvenience  he  pretends  to  lament.  I 
with  some  others  had  heard,  or  perhaps  knew, 
that  such  a  subject  was  in  debate,  and  tho'  I 
always  laid  myself  out  to  give  it  a  meeting  in  the 
82 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

papers  whenever  it  should  appear,  I  never  hhited 
a  thought  that  might  tend  to  start  it. 

"  To  permit  the  pubHc,"  says  Americanus, 
"to  be  made  acquainted  with  what  are  to  be  the 
ultimate  demands  in  a  proposed  treaty  is  really 
something  new  and  extraordinary,  if  not  impo- 
litic and  absurd."  There  is  a  compound  of  folly 
and  arrogance  in  this  declaration,  which  deserves 
to  be  severely  censured.  Had  he  said,  that  to 
publish  all  the  arguments  of  Congress,  on  which 
any  claim  in  a  proposed  treaty  are  founded  or 
objected  to,  might  be  inconvenient  and  in  some 
cases  impolitic,  he  would  have  been  nearly  right ; 
but  the  ultimate  demand  itself  ought  to  be  made 
known,  together  with  the  rights  and  reasons  on 
which  that  demand  is  founded. 

But  who  is  this  gentleman  who  undertakes  to 
say,  that  to  permit  the  public  to  be  made  ac- 
quainted is  really  impolitic  and  absurd?  And  to 
this  question  I  will  add,  that  if  he  distinguishes 
Congress  into  one  body,  and  the  pubHc  into  an- 
other, I  should  be  glad  to  know  in  what  situation 
he  places  himself,  so  as  not  to  be  subject  to  his 
own  charge  of  absurdity.  If  he  belongs  to  the 
former,  he  has,  according  to  his  own  position,  a 
right  to  know  but  not  to  tell,  and  if  to  the  latter, 
he  has  neither  a  right  to  know  nor  to  tell,  and  yet 

83 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

in  some  character  or  other  he  has  done  both.  If 
this  gentleman's  political  principles  were  never 
questioned  before,  I  think  they  ought  to  be  ques- 
tioned now ;  for  a  man  must  be  a  strange  charac- 
ter indeed,  whom  no  known  character  can  suit. 

I  am  the  more  inclined  to  suspect  Ameri- 
CANUSj  because  he  most  illiberally,  and  in  contra- 
diction to  everything  sensible  and  reasonable,  en- 
deavored, in  his  former  piece,  to  insinuate  that 
Governor  Johnstone  had  bribed  a  party  in  Con- 
gress to  insist  on  the  right  of  the  United  States 
to  fish  on  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland.  An  in- 
sinuation so  impolitic  and  absurd,  so  wide  and 
foreign  to  the  purpose  of  Governor  Johnstone's 
commission,  can  only  be  understood  the  contrary 
way;  namely,  that  he  had  bribed  somebody  or 
other  to  insist  that  the  right  should  not  be  in- 
sisted on. 

The  expression  of  Governor  Johnstone,  as 
printed  in  the  English  papers,  is  literally  this. 
"  I  do  not,"  says  he,  "  mean  to  disavow  I  have 
had  transactions,  where  other  means  have  been 
used  besides  persuasion."  Governor  Johnstone 
was  in  no  places  in  America  but  Philadelphia 
and  New  York,  and  these  other  means  must  have 
been  used  in  one  or  other,  or  both  of  these  places. 
We  have  had  evidence  of  one  application  of  his, 
S4i 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

with  an  offer  of  ten  thousand  guineas,  which 
was  refused,  and  treated  with  the  disdain  it  de- 
served; for  the  offer  of  a  bribe  contains  in  it,  to 
all  men  of  spirit,  the  substance  of  an  affront. 
But  it  is  strange  indeed,  if  the  one  that  was  re- 
fused was  the  onli/  one  that  was  offered.  Let 
any  person  read  Americanus  in  your  paper  of 
June  twenty-third,  and  if  he  can  after  that  accjuit 
him  of  all  suspicion,  he  must  be  charitable  indeed. 

But  why  does  not  Americanus  declare  who 
he  is?  This  is  no  time  for  concealment,  neither 
are  the  presses,  tho'  free,  to  become  the  vehicles 
of  disguised  poison.  I  have  had  my  eye  on  that 
signature  these  two  months  past,  and  to  what 
lengths  the  gentleman  meant  to  go  himself  can 
best  decide. 

In  his  first  piece  he  loosely  introduced  his  in- 
tended politics,  and  put  himself  in  a  situation  to 
make  further  advances.  His  second  was  a  rapid 
progress,  and  his  last  a  retreat.  The  difference 
between  the  second  and  last  is  visible.  In  the 
former  of  those  two  he  endeavors  to  invalidate 
the  right  of  the  United  States  to  fish  on  the 
Banks  of  Newfoundland,  because,  forsooth,  it 
was  not  mentioned  in  any  of  the  former  charters. 
It  is  very  extraordinary  that  these  same  charters, 
which  marked  out  and  were  the  instruments  of 

85 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

our  dependence^  should  now  be  introduced  as  de- 
scribing the  line  of  our  independence. 

In  the  same  piece  Americanus  likewise  says, 
"it  is  a  question  whether  the  subjects  of  these 
states  had  any  other  right  to  that  fishery,  than 
what  they  derived  from  being  the  subjects  of 
Great  Britain."  If  this  be  not  advocating  the 
cause  of  the  enemy,  I  know  not  what  is.  It  is 
newspaper  advice  to  them  to  insist  on  an  exclu- 
sive right  to  the  fisheries,  by  insinuating  ours  to 
be  only  a  derivative  one  from  them;  which,  had 
it  been  the  case,  as  it  is  not,  would  have  been 
very  improper  doctrine  to  preach  at  the  first  in- 
stance of  a  negotiation.  If  they  have  any  right, 
let  them  find  those  rights  out  themselves.  We 
shall  have  enough  to  do  to  look  to  our  own  side 
of  the  question,  and  ought  not  to  admit  persons 
among  us  to  join  force  with  the  enemy  either  in 
arms  or  argument. 

Whether  Ameeicanus  found  himself  ap- 
proaching a  stormy  latitude,  and  fearing  for  the 
safety  of  his  bark,  thought  proper  to  tack  about 
in  time,  or  whether  he  has  changed  his  appetite, 
and  become  an  epicure  in  fish,  or  liis  principles, 
and  become  an  advocate  for  America,  must  be 
left  for  his  own  decision;  but  in  his  last  week's 
publication  he  has  surrendered  the  grounds  of 
86 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

his  former  one,  and  changed  the  argument  from 
a  matter  of  right  to  a  matter  of  supposed  conven- 
ience only.  He  no  more  speaks  of  our  right  to 
the  fisheries  as  a  derivative  right  from  Britain, 
in  consequence  of  our  formerly  being  subjects. 
Not  a  syllable  of  the  charters,  whose  silence  he 
had  produced  as  invalidating  or  negativing  our 
independent  right.  Neither  has  he  endeavored 
to  support,  or  offered  to  renew,  what  he  had  be- 
fore asserted — namely,  that  we  were  not  in  pos- 
session of  the  right  of  fishing  at  the  time  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  or  of  the  signing 
the  Treaties  of  Paris;  but  he  has  admitted  a 
theorem  which  I  had  advanced  in  opposition  to 
his  suggestions,  and  which  no  man  can  contra- 
dict, viz.  that  our  right  to  fish  on  the  banks  of 
Newfoundland  is  a  natural  right. 

Now  if  our  right  is  natural,  it  could  not  be 
derived  from  subjection,  and  as  we  never  can  but 
by  our  own  voluntary  consent  be  put  out  of  the 
possession  of  a  natural  national  right,  tho'  by  the 
temporary  events  of  war  we  may  be  put  out  of 
the  enjoyment  of  such  a  right,  and  as  the  British 
Fishery  Act  of  Parliament  in  Seventy-six  to  ex- 
clude us  was  no  act  of  ours,  and  universally  de- 
nied by  us,  therefore,  from  his  own  admission,  he 
has  contradicted  himself,  and  allowed  that  we 

87 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

were  as  fully  in  possession  of  the  right  of  fishing 
on  those  banks,  both  at  the  time  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  and  at  the  time  of  signing 
the  Treaties  of  Paris,  as  at  any  period  preceding 
them. 

That  he  has  admitted  the  natural  right  in  his 
last  piece,  in  contradiction  to  his  supposed  deriv- 
ative right  in  his  former  one,  will  appear  from 
two  or  three  quotations  I  shaU  make. 

1st.  He  says,  The  giving  up  of  our  right  to  this 
object  (the  fisheries)  and  the  making  an  express  de- 
mand to  have  it  guaranteed  to  us,  or  the  passing  it 
over  in  silence  in  negotiation,  are  distinct  things. 

2d.     I    am    well    assured,    he    says,    that    there    is 
not  a  member  in  Congress  any  ways  disposed  to  give 
up    or    relinquish    our    right    to    the     Newfoundland- 
-fishery. 

The  "  right  "  here  admitted  cannot  be  a  right 
derived  from  subjection,  because  we  are  no 
longer  British  subjects;  neither  can  it  be  a  right 
conveyed  by  charters,  because  we  not  only  know 
no  charters  now,  but  those  charters  we  used  to 
know  are  silent  on  the  matter  in  question.  It 
must  therefore  be  a  natural  right.  Neither  does 
the  situation  of  America  and  Britain  admit  of 
any  other  explanation,  because  they  are,  with  re- 
spect to  each  other,  in  a  state  of  nature,  not  being 
even  within  the  law  of  nations;  for  the  law  of 
88 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

nations  is  the  law  of  treaties,  compounded  with 
customary  usage,  and  between  America  and  Brit- 
ain there  is  yet  no  treaty,  nor  any  national  custom 
established. 

But  the  third  quotation  I  shall  make  from  his 
last  piece  will  prove,  from  his  own  words,  his 
assent  to  the  natural  right  which  I  contended  for 
in  behalf  of  these  states,  and  which  he,  in  his 
former  piece,  impliedly  disowned,  by  putting  our 
whole  right  on  a  question,  and  making  our  for- 
mer subjection  the  grounds  on  which  that  ques- 
tion stood. 

I  drew  no  conclusion,  he  says,  to  exclude  these 
states,  or  bar  them  from  the  right  which  hy  nature  they 
are  entitled  to  with  others,  as  well  to  the  fishery  on  the 
Banks  of  Newfoundland  as  to  those  in  the  ocean  at 
large. 

As  he  now  admits  a  natural  right ,  and  ap- 
pears to  contend  for  it,  I  ask,  why  then  was  his 
former  piece  published,  and  why  was  our  right 
there  put  in  the  lowest  terms  possible?  He  does 
not  in  that  piece  even  hint,  or  appear  to  think  of, 
or  suppose  such  a  thing  as  a  natural  right,  but 
stakes  the  issue  on  a  question  which  does  not  ap- 
ply to  the  case,  and  went  as  far  as  a  man  dared  to 
go,  in  saying  we  had  no  right  at  all.  From  all 
this  twisting  and  turning,  this  advancing  and 

89 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

retreating,  and  appearing  to  own  at  last  what  he 
impliedly  disowned  at  first,  I  think  myself  justi- 
fied in  drawing  this  conclusion,  that  either  Amer- 
ICANUS  does  not  know  how  to  conduct  an  argu- 
ment, or  he  intended  to  be  a  traitor  if  he  dared. 

The  natural  right  of  the  United  States  in 
those  fisheries  is  either  whole  or  in  part.  If  to 
the  whole,  she  can  admit  a  participation  to  other 
nations.  If  to  a  part,  she,  in  consequence  of  her 
natural  right  to  partake,  claims  her  share  therein, 
which  is  for  as  much  as  she  can  catch  and  carry 
away.  Nature,  in  her  distribution  of  favors, 
seems  to  have  appointed  these  fisheries  as  a  prop- 
erty to  the  northern  division  of  America,  from 
Florida  upwards,  and  therefore  our  claim  of  an 
exclusive  right  seems  to  be  rationally  and  con- 
sistently founded;  but  our  natural  right  to  what 
we  can  catch  is  clear,  absolute  and  positive. 

Had  Americanus  intended  no  more  than  to 
consider  our  claim,  whether  it  should  be  made  or 
not,  as  a  matter  of  convenience  only,  which  is  the 
stage  he  has  now  brought  it  to,  he  ought  by  no 
means  to  have  made  even  the  slightest  stroke  at 
the  right  itself;  because  to  omit  making  the 
claim  in  the  treaty,  and  to  assign  the  doubtful- 
ness of  the  right  as  a  reason  for  the  omission,  is 
to  surrender  the  fisheries  upon  the  insufficiency 
90 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  the  pretension,  and  of  consequence  to  exclude 
ourselves  from  the  practise  by  the  silence  of  the 
treaty,  and  from  the  right  by  the  reasons  upon 
record. 

Had  I  time  to  laugh  over  my  fisJi^  I  could  in 
this  place  set  Americanus  up  to  a  very  agreeable 
ridicule.  He  has  all  this  while  been  angling 
without  a  bait,  and  endeavoring  to  deceive  with 
an  empty  hook,  and  yet  this  man  says  he  under- 
stands fishing  as  well  as  any  man  in  America. 
"  Very  few,"  says  he,  "  and  I  speak  it  without 
vanity^  are  better  acquainted  with  the  fisheries 
than  myself."  If  this  be  true,  which  I  hope  it  is 
not,  it  is  the  best  reason  that  can  be  given  for  re- 
linquishing them,  and  if  made  known  would,  on 
the  other  hand,  be  a  great  inducement  to  Britain 
to  cede  the  whole  right,  because  by  our  being 
possessed  of  a  right  without  knowing  how  to  use 
it,  she  would  be  under  no  apprehensions  of  our 
thimiing  the  ocean,  and  we  should  only  go  out 
with  our  vessels  to  buy,  and  not  to  catch. 

If  Americanus  wished  to  persuade  the  Amer- 
icans to  say  nothing  about  the  fisheries  in  a  treaty 
with  Britain,  he  ought,  as  a  politician  of  some 
kind  or  other,  to  have  baited  his  hook  with  a 
plausible  something,  and,  instead  of  telling  them 
that  their  right  was  doubtful,  he  should  have 

VIIl-8  ^I 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

assured  them  it  was  indisputable,  that  Britain 
never  meant  to  question  it,  that  it  was  needless  to 
say  an3rthing  about  it,  that  all  nations  knew  our 
rights,  and  naturally  meant  to  acknowledge 
them.  But  he,  like  a  wiseacre,  has  run  against 
the  post  instead  of  running  past  it,  and  has,  by 
the  arguments  he  has  used,  produced  a  necessity 
for  doing  the  very  thing  he  was  writing  to  pre- 
vent; and  yet  this  man  says  he  understands  fish- 
ing as  well  as  any  man  in  America — It  must  be 
a  cod  indeed  that  should  be  catched  by  him. 

Common  Sense. 
Philadelphia,  July  12,  1779, 


92 


PEACE,  AND  THE  NEWFOUNDLAND 
FISHERIES 

From  the    Pennsylvania  Gazette, 
July  21,  1779. 

'THHE  importance  of  the  fisheries,  Ameri- 
-■-  CANUS  has  kept  almost  totally  out  of  sight. 
Why  he  has  done  so,  his  readers  will  contrive  to 
guess  at,  or  himself  may  explain.  A  bare  confes- 
sion, loosely  scattered  here  and  there,  and  marked 
with  the  countenance  of  reluctance,  is  all  he  gives 
on  the  subject.  Surely,  the  public  might  have  ex- 
pected more  from  a  man,  who  declares  "he  can, 
without  vanity  say,  that  very  few  are  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  Amer- 
ican fisheries  than  himself." 

If  he  really  possesses  the  knowledge  he 
affirms,  he  ought  to  have  been  as  prolific  on  the 
subject  as  the  fish  he  was  treating  of:  And  as  he 
has  not,  I  am  obliged  to  suspect  either  the  reality 
of  his  knowledge,  or  the  sincerity  of  his  inten- 
tions. If  the  declaration  be  not  true,  there  are 
enough  to  fix  his  title;  and  if  true,  it  shows  that  a 
man  may  keep  company  all  his  life-time  with 
cod,  and  be  little  wiser.    But  to  the  point — 

There  are  but  two  natural  sources  of  wealth 

93 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  strength — the  earth  and  the  ocean — and  to 
lose  the  right  to  either  is,  in  our  situation,  to  put 
up  the  other  to  sale.  Without  the  fisheries,  inde- 
pendence would  be  a  bubble.  It  would  not  de- 
serve the  name ;  and  however  we  might,  in  such  a 
condition,  please  ourselves  with  the  jingle  of  a 
word,  the  consequences  that  would  follow  would 
soon  deprive  us  even  of  the  title  and  the  music. 

I  shall  arrange  the  fisheries  under  the  three 
following  heads : 

First.     As  an  emploj^ment. 

Secondly.  As  producing  national  supply 
and  commerce,  and  a  means  of  national  wealth. 

Thirdly.     As  a  nursery  for  seamen. 

As  an  employment,  by  which  a  living  is  pro- 
cured, it  more  immediately  concerns  those  who 
make  it  their  business;  and  in  this  view,  which  is 
the  least  of  the  three,  such  of  the  states,  or  parts 
thereof,  which  do  not  follow  fishing,  are  not  so 
directly  interested  as  those  which  do.  I  call  it 
the  least  of  the  three,  because  as  no  man  needs 
want  employment  in  America,  so  the  change 
from  one  employment  to  another,  if  that  be  all, 
is  but  little  to  him,  and  less  to  anybody  else.  And 
this  is  the  narrow,  impolitic  light  in  which  some 
persons  have  understood  the  fisheries. 

But  when  we  view  them  as  producing  national 
94 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

supply  and  commerce,  and  a  means  of  national 
wealth,  we  then  consider  the  fish,  not  the  fisher- 
men, and  regard  the  consequences  of  the  employ- 
ment more  than  the  employment  itself;  in  the 
same  manner  that  I  distinguish  the  coat  that 
clothes  me,  from  the  man  that  made  it.  In  this 
view,  we  neither  inquire  (unless  for  curiosity) 
who  catch  the  fish,  or  whether  they  catched 
themselves — how  they  were  catched,  or  where? 
The  same  supply  would  be  produced,  the  same 
commerce  occasioned,  and  the  same  wealth  cre- 
ated, were  they,  by  a  natural  impulse,  to  throw 
themselves  annually  on  the  shore,  or  be  driven 
there  by  a  periodical  current  or  storm.  And  tak- 
ing it  in  this  point,  it  is  no  more  to  us,  than  it 
was  to  the  Israelites  whether  the  manna  that  fed 
them  was  brought  there  by  an  angel  or  an  insect, 
an  eastern  or  a  western  breeze,  or  whether  it  was 
congealed  dew,  or  a  concretion  of  vegetable 
juices.  It  is  sufficient  that  they  had  manna,  and 
we  have  fish. 

I  imagine  myself  within  compass,  when  I  sup- 
pose the  fisheries  to  constitute  a  fourth  part  of 
the  staple  commerce  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  with  this  extraordinary  advantage,  it  is  a 
commerce  which  interferes  with  none,  and  pro- 
motes others.    Take  away  a  fourth  from  any  part 

95 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  the  whole  United  States  suffers,  in  the  same 
manner  that  the  blood  taken  from  the  arm  is 
drained  from  the  whole  man;  and  if,  by  the  un- 
skilfulness  of  the  operation,  the  wounded  arm 
should  lose  its  use,  the  whole  body  would  want  its 
service.  It  is  to  no  purpose  for  a  man  to  say,  I 
am  not  a  fisherman,  an  indigo  planter,  a  rice 
planter,  a  tobacco  planter,  or  a  corn  planter,  any 
more  than  for  the  leg  to  say,  I  am  not  an  arm; 
for  as,  in  the  latter  instance  the  same  blood  in- 
vigorates both  and  all  by  circulation,  so,  in  the 
former,  each  is  enriched  by  the  wealth  which  the 
other  creates,  and  fed  by  the  supply  the  other 
raises. 

Were  it  proposed  that  no  town  should  have  a 
market,  are  none  concerned  therein  but  butchers? 

And  in  like  manner  it  may  be  asked,  that  if 
we  lose  the  market  for  fish,  are  none  affected 
thereby  but  those  who  catch  them?  He  who  digs 
the  mine,  or  tills  the  earth,  or  fishes  in  the  ocean, 
digs,  tills  and  fishes  for  the  world.  The  employ- 
ment and  the  pittance  it  procures  him  are  his ;  but 
the  produce  itself  creates  a  traffic  for  thousands, 
a  supply  for  millions. 

The  Eastern  States  by  quitting  agriculture 
for  fishing  become  customers  to  the  rest,  partly 
by  exchange  and  partly  by  the  wealth  they  im- 
96 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

port.  Of  the  IVIiddle  States,  they  purchase  grain 
and  flour;  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  tobacco, 
the  food  and  pastime  of  the  fisherman ;  of  North 
and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  rice  and  in- 
digo. They  may  not  happen  to  become  the  client 
of  a  lawyer  in  either  of  these  states,  but  is  it  any 
reason  that  we  are  to  be  deprived  of  fish,  one  of 
the  instruments  of  commerce,  because  it  comes  to 
him  without  a  case? 

The  loss  of  the  fisheries  being  at  this  time 
blended  with  other  losses,  which  all  nations  at  war 
are  more  or  less  subject  to,  is  not  particularly  felt 
or  distinguished  in  the  general  suspension:  And 
the  men  who  were  employed  therein  being  now 
called  off  into  other  departments,  and  supported 
by  other  means,  feel  not  the  want  of  the  employ- 
ment. War,  in  this  view,  contains  a  temporary 
relief  for  its  own  misfortunes,  by  creating  a  trade 
in  lieu  of  the  suspended  one.  But  when,  with 
the  restoration  of  peace,  trade  shall  open,  the  case 
will  be  very  and  widely  different,  and  the  fisher- 
man like  the  farmer  will  expect  to  return  to  his 
occupation  in  quietude. 

As  my  limits  will  not  allow  me  to  range, 
neither  have  I  time  if  I  had  room,  I  shall  close 
this  second  head,  and  proceed  to  the  third,  and 

97 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

finish  with  some  remarks  on  the  state  the  question 
is  now  said  to  stand  in  in  Congress. 

If  as  an  employment  one  fourth  of  the  United 
States  are  immediately  affected,  and  if  as  a 
source  of  national  supply  and  commerce  and  a 
means  of  national  wealth  all  are  deeply  interested, 
what  shall  we  say  when  we  consider  it  as  a  nur- 
sery for  seamen?  Here  the  question  seems  to 
take  almost  a  reversed  turn,  for  the  states  which 
do  not  fish  are  herein  more  concerned  than  those 
which  do.  It  happens,  hy  some  disposition  of 
Providence  or  ourselves,  that  those  particular 
states  whose  employment  is  to  fish  are  thickly 
settled,  and  secured  by  their  internal  strength 
from  any  extensive  ravages  of  an  enemy.  The 
states,  all  the  way  from  thence  to  the  southward, 
beginning  at  New  York,  are  less  populous,  and 
have  less  of  that  ability  in  proportion  to  their 
extent.  Their  security,  therefore,  will  hereafter 
be  in  a  navy,  and  without  a  fishery  there  can 
be  no  navy  worthy  of  the  name. 

Has  nature  given  us  timber  and  iron,  pitch 
and  tar,  and  cordage  if  we  please,  for  nothing  but 
to  sell  or  burn?  Has  experience  taught  us  the 
art  of  ship-building  equal  to  any  people  on  earth 
to  become  the  workmen  of  other  nations?  Has 
she  surrounded  our  coast  with  fisheries  to  create 
98 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

strength  to  our  enemies,  and  make  us  the  pur- 
chasers of  our  own  property?  Has  she  brought 
those  fisheries  almost  to  our  own  doors,  to  insult 
us  with  the  prospect,  and  at  the  same  time  that 
she  bar  us  from  the  enjoyment  to  threaten  us 
with  the  constant  approach  of  an  enemy?  Or 
has  she  given  these  things  for  our  use,  and  in- 
structed us  to  combine  them  for  our  own  pro- 
tection? Who,  I  ask,  will  undertake  to  answer 
me,  Americanus  or  myself? 

What  would  we  now  give  for  thirteen  ships 
of  the  line  to  guard  and  protect  the  remote  or 
weaker  parts?  How  would  Carolina  feel  deliv- 
erance from  danger,  and  Georgia  from  despair, 
and  assisted  by  such  a  fleet  become  the  prison  of 
their  invaders?  How  would  the  Whigs  of  New 
York  look  up  and  smile  with  inward  satisfaction 
at  the  display  of  an  admiral's  command,  open- 
ing, like  a  "hey,"  the  door  of  their  confinement? 
How  would  France  solace  herself  at  such  a  union 
of  force,  and  reciprocally  assisting  and  assisted 
traverse  the  ocean  in  safety?  Yet  all  these,  or 
their  similar  consequences,  are  staked  upon  the 
fisheries. 

Americanus  may  understand  the  "nature  of 
fisheries,"  as  to  season,  catching  and  curing,  or 
their  "extent"  as  to  latitude  and  longitude;  but 

99 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

as  a  great  political  question,  involving  with  it  the 
means  and  channels  of  commerce,  and  the  prob- 
ability of  empire,  he  is  wholly  unequal  to  the 
subject,  or  he  would  not  have,  as  he  has  done, 
hmited  their  effects  to  "two  or  three  states  espe- 
cially/' By  a  judgment  acquired  from  long  ac- 
quaintance, he  may  be  able  to  know  a  cod  when 
he  sees  it,  or  describe  the  inconveniences  or  pleas- 
ures of  a  fishing  voyage.  Or,  "born  and  edu- 
cated'"* among  them,  he  may  entertain  us  with 
the  growling  memories  of  a  Newfoundland  bear, 
or  amuse  us  with  the  history  of  a  foggy  climate 
or  a  smoky  hut,  with  all  the  winter  chit-chat  of 
fatigue  and  hardship;  and  this,  in  his  idea,  may 
be  to  "understand  the  fisheries" 

I  will  venture  to  predict  that  America,  even 
with  the  assistance  of  all  the  fisheries,  will  never 
be  a  greats  much  less  a  dangerous  naval  power, 
and  without  them  she  will  be  scarcely  any.  I  am 
established  in  this  opinion  from  the  known  cast 
and  order  of  things.  No  country  of  a  large  ex- 
tent ever  yet,  I  believe,  was  powerful  at  sea,  or 
ever  will  be.  The  natural  reason  of  this  appears 
to  be  that  men  do  not,  in  any  great  numbers, 
turn  their  thoughts  to  the  ocean,  till  either  the 
country  gets  filled,  or  some  peculiar  advantage  or 

*  King  of  England's  first  speech  to  the  British  Parliament. 

100 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

necessity  tempts  them  out.  A  maritime  life  is  a 
kind  of  partial  emigration,  produced  from  a  por- 
tion of  the  same  causes  with  emigrations  in  gen- 
eral. The  ocean  becomes  covered  and  the  supply 
kept  up  from  the  constant  swarmings  of  the 
landed  hive;  and  as  we  shall  never  be  able  to  fill 
the  whole  dominion  of  the  Thirteen  States,  and 
there  will  ever  be  new  land  to  cultivate,  the 
necessity  can  never  take  place  in  America,  and  of 
course  the  consequences  can  never  happen. 

Paradoxical  as  it  may  appear,  greatness  at 
sea  is  the  effect  of  littleness  by  land.  Want  of 
room  and  want  of  employ  are  the  generating 
causes.  Holland  has  the  most  powerful  navy  in 
the  world,  compared  with  the  small  extent  of 
her  crowded  country.  France  and  Spain  have 
too  much  room,  and  the  soil  too  luxuriant  and 
tempting,  to  be  quitted  for  the  ocean.  Were  not 
this  the  case,  and  did  the  abilities  for  a  navy  like 
those  for  land  service  rise  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  inhabitants  only,  France  would  rival 
more  than  any  two  powers  in  Europe,  which  is 
not  the  case. 

Had  not  nature  thrown  the  fisheries  in  our 
way  and  inflicted  a  degree  of  natural  sterility  on 
such  parts  of  the  continent  as  lie  contiguous 
thereto,  by  way  both  of  forcing  and  tempting 

101 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

their  inhabitants  to  the  ocean,  America,  consider- 
ing the  present  cast  of  the  world,  would  have 
wanted  the  means  of  defense,  for  the  far  greater 
part  of  our  seamen,  except  those  produced  by  the 
fisheries,  are  natives  of  other  countries.  And 
shall  we  unwisely  trifle  with  what  we  ought  to 
hug  as  a  treasure,  and  nourish  with  the  utmost 
care  as  a  protector?  And  must  the  W.  H.  D. 
forever  mean  that  We  Have  Dunces? 

We  seek  not  a  fleet  to  insult  the  world,  or 
range  in  foreign  regions  for  conquests.  We  have 
more  land  than  we  can  cultivate;  more  extent 
than  we  can  fill.  Our  natural  situation  frees  us 
from  the  distress  of  crowded  countries,  and  from 
the  thirst  of  ambitious  ones.  We  covet  not  do- 
minion, for  we  already  possess  a  world;  we  want 
not  to  export  our  laboring  poor,  for  where  can 
they  live  better,  or  where  can  they  be  more  useful? 
But  we  want  just  such  a  fleet  as  the  fisheries 
will  enable  us  to  keep  up,  and  without  which  we 
shall  be  for  ever  exposed,  a  burden  to  our  allies, 
and  incapable  of  the  necessary  defense.  The 
strength  of  America,  on  account  of  her  vast 
extent,  cannot  be  collected  by  land;  but  since 
experience  has  taught  us  to  sail,  and  nature  has 
put  the  means  in  our  power,  we  ought  in  time  to 
make  provision  for  a  navy,  as  the  cheapest,  safest, 
102 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

best,  and  most  effectual  security  we  can  hereafter 
depend  on. 

Having  in  my  first  and  second  publications 
endeavored  to  establish  the  right  of  America  to 
the  fisheries,  and  in  this  treated  of  their  vast  im- 
portance, I  shall  conclude  with  some  remarks  on 
the  subject,  as  it  is  now  said  to  stand  in  Con- 
gress, or  rather  the  form  in  which  it  is  thrown 
out  to  the  public. 

Americanus  says  (and  I  ask  not  how  he  came 
by  his  knowledge)  that  the  question  is,  "Whether 
the  insisting  on  an  explicit  acknowledgment  of 
that  right  (meaning  the  right  of  fishing  on  the 
Banks  of  Newfoundland)  is  either  safe^  prudent 
or  politic/^ 

Before  I  enter  on  the  discussion  of  this  point, 
it  may  not  be  improper  to  remark,  that  some  inti- 
mations were  made  to  Congress  in  February  by 
the  JNIinister  of  France,  Mr.  Gerard,  respecting 
what  the  claims  of  America  might  be,  in  case  any 
treaty  of  peace  should  be  entered  on  with  the 
enemy.  And  from  this,  with  some  account  of  the 
general  disposition  of  the  powers  of  Europe,  the 
mighty  buzz  of  peace  took  its  rise,  and  several 
who  ought  to  have  known  better,  were  whispering 
wonderful  secrets  at  almost  every  tea  table. 

It  was  a  matter  very  earli/  supposed  by  those 

103 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

who  had  any  clear  judgment,  that  Spain  would 
not  immediately  join  in  the  war,  but  would  he  by 
as  a  mediatorial  power.  If  she  succeeded  therein, 
the  consequence  would  be  peace ;  if  she  failed,  she 
would  then  be  perfectly  at  Hberty  to  fulfil  her  en- 
gagements with  France,  etc. 

Now  in  order  to  enable  Spain  to  act  this  part, 
it  was  necessary  that  the  claims  of  Congress  in 
behalf  of  America  should  be  made  known  to  their 
own  Plenipotentiary  at  Paris,  Dr.  Franklin,  with 
such  instructions,  pubhc  or  private,  as  might  be 
proper  to  give  thereon.  But  I  observe  several 
members,  either  so  little  acquainted  with  political 
arrangements,  or  supposing  their  constituents  to 
be  so,  that  they  treat  with  Mr.  Gerard  as  if  that 
gentleman  was  our  Minister,  instead  of  the  Min- 
ister of  his  Most  Christian  Majesty,  and  Ms  name 
is  brought  in  to  a  variety  of  business  to  which  it 
has  no  proper  reference.  This  remark  may  to 
some  appear  rather  severe,  but  it  is  a  necessary 
one.  It  is  not  every  member  of  Congress  who 
acts  as  if  he  felt  the  true  importance  of  his  char- 
acter, or  the  dignity  of  the  country  he  acts  for. 
And  we  seem  in  some  instances  to  forget,  that  as 
France  is  the  great  ally  of  America,  so  America 
is  the  great  ally  of  France. 

It  may  now  be  necessary  to  mention,  that  no 
104 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

instructions  are  yet  gone  to  Dr.  Franklin  as  a 
line  for  negotiation,  and  the  reason  is  because 
none  are  agreed  on.  The  reason  why  they  are 
not  agreed  on  is  another  point.  But  had  the  gen- 
tlemen who  are  for  leaving  the  fisheries  out 
agreed  to  have  had  them  put  in,  instructions 
might  have  been  sent  more  than  four  months  ago ; 
and  if  not  exactly  convenient,  might  by  this  time 
have  been  returned  and  reconsidered.  On  whose 
side  then  does  the  fault  lie? 

I  profess  myself  an  advocate,  out  of  doors, 
for  clearly,  absolutely,  and  unequivocally  ascer- 
taining the  right  of  the  states  to  fish  on  the  Banks 
of  Newfoundland,  as  one  of  the  first  and  most 
necessary  articles.  The  right  and  title  of  the 
states  thereto  I  have  endeavored  to  show.  The 
importance  of  these  fisheries  I  have  endeavored  to 
prove.  What  reason  then  can  be  given  why  they 
should  be  omitted? 

The  seeds  of  almost  every  former  war  have 
been  sown  in  the  injudicious  or  defective  terms  of 
the  preceding  peace.  Either  the  conqueror  has 
insisted  on  too  much,  and  thereby  held  the  con- 
quered, hke  an  over-bent  bow,  in  a  continual 
struggle  to  snap  the  cord,  or  the  latter  has  art- 
fully introduced  an  equivocal  article,  to  take  such 
advantages  under  as  the  turn  of  future  affairs 

105 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

might  afford.  We  have  only  to  consult  our  own 
feelings,  and  each  man  may  from  thence  learn 
the  spring  of  all  national  policy.  And  he,  who 
does  not  this,  may  be  fortunate  enough  to  effect 
a  temporary  measure,  but  never  will,  unless  by 
accident,  accomplish  a  lasting  one. 

Perhaps  the  fittest  condition  any  countries  can 
be  in  to  make  a  peace,  calculated  for  duration,  is 
when  neither  is  conquered,  and  both  are  tired. 
The  first  of  these  suits  England  and  America. 
I  put  England  first  in  this  case,  because  she  be- 
gan the  war.  And  as  she  must  be  and  is  con- 
vinced of  the  impossibility  of  conquering  Amer- 
ica, and  as  America  has  no  romantic  ideas  of 
extending  her  conquests  to  England,  the  object 
on  the  part  of  England  is  lost,  and  on  the  part 
of  America  is  so  far  secure,  that,  unless  she  un- 
wisely conquers  herself,  she  is  certain  of  not  being 
conquered;  and  this  being  the  case,  there  is  no 
visible  object  to  prevent  the  opening  a  negotia- 
tion. But  how  far  England  is  disposed  thereto 
is  a  matter  wholly  unknown,  and  much  to  be 
doubted. 

A  movement  toward  a  negotiation,  and  a 
disposition  to  enter  into  it,  are  very  distinct 
things.  The  fii'st  is  often  made,  as  an  army  af- 
fects to  retreat,  in  order  to  throw  an  enemy  off 
106 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

his  guard.  To  prevent  which,  the  most  vigorous 
preparations  ought  to  be  made  for  war  at  the 
very  instant  of  negotiating  for  a  peace. 

Let  America  make  these  preparations,  and 
she  may  send  her  terms  and  claims  whenever  she 
pleases,  without  any  apprehension  of  appearing 
or  acting  out  of  character.  Those  preparations 
relate  now  more  to  revenue  than  to  force,  and 
that  being  wholly  and  immediately  within  the 
compass  of  our  own  abilities,  requires  nothing  but 
our  consent  to  accomplish.* 

To  leave  the  fisheries  wholly  out,  on  any  pre- 
tense whatever,  is  to  sow  the  seeds  of  another  war ; 
and  I  will  be  content  to  have  the  name  of  an  idiot 
engraven  for  an  epitaph,  if  it  does  not  produce 
that  effect.  The  difficulties  which  are  now  given 
will  become  a  soil  for  those  seeds  to  grow  in,  and 
future  circumstances  will  quicken  their  vegeta- 

*A  plan  has  been  proposed,  and  all  who  are  judges  have  ap- 
proved it,  for  stopping  the  emissions  [of  paper  money]  and  raising 
a  revenue,  by  subscription  for  three  years  without  interest,  and 
in  lieu  thereof  to  take  every  subscriber's  taxes  out  of  his  sub- 
scription, and  the  balance  at  the  expiration  of  that  time  to  be 
returned.  If  the  states  universally  go  into  this  measure,  they 
will  acquire  a  degree  of  strength  and  ability  fitted  either  for 
peace  or  war.  It  is,  I  am  clearly  convinced,  the  best  measure 
they  can  adopt,  the  best  interest  they  can  have,  and  the  best 
security  they  can  hold.  In  short,  it  is  carrying  on  or  providing 
against  war  without  expense,  because  the  remaining  money  in 
the  country,  after  the  subscriptions  are  made,  will  be  equal  in 
value  to  the  whole  they  now  hold.  Boston  has  proposed  the 
same  measure. 

VIII-9  10* 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tion.  Nations  are  very  fond  of  appealing  to 
treaties  when  it  suits  their  purpose,  and  tho' 
America  might  afterwards  assign  her  unques- 
tioned right  as  a  reason  for  her  silence,  yet  all 
must  know  that  treaties  are  never  to  be  explained 
by  presumption,  but  wholly  by  what  is  put  in, 
and  never  by  what  is  left  out. 

There  has  not  yet  been  an  argument  given  for 
omitting  the  fisheries,  but  what  might  have  been 
given  as  a  stronger  reason  to  the  contrary.  All 
which  has  been  advanced  rests  only  on  supposi- 
tion, and  that  failing,  leaves  them  no  foundation. 
They  suppose  Britain  will  not  hereafter  interrupt 
the  right;  but  the  case  is,  they  have  no  right  to 
that  supposition;  and  it  may  likewise  be  parried 
by  saying — suppose  she  should?  Now  the  mat- 
ter, as  I  conceive  it,  stands  thus — 

If  the  right  to  the  states  to  fish  on  the  Banks 
of  Newfoundland  be  made  and  consented  to  as 
an  article  in  a  treaty  with  Britain,  it  of  conse- 
quence becomes  expressly  guaranteed  by  the 
eleventh  article  of  the  present  treaty  of  aUiance 
with  France ;  but  if  it  be  left  out  in  a  treaty  with 
the  former,  it  is  not  then  guaranteed  in  the  pres- 
ent treaty  with  the  latter,  because  the  guaran- 
teeing is  hmited  to  "the  whole  of  their  (our)  pos- 
sessions, as  the  same  shall  be  fixed  and  assured 
108 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

to  the  said  states  at  the  moment  of  the  cessation 
of  their  present  war  with  England."    Ai't.  II. 

Were  the  states  to  claim,  as  a  memorial  to 
be  recorded  with  themselves,  an  exclusive  right  to 
those  fisheries,  as  a  matter  of  right  only,  derived 
from  natural  situation,  and  to  propose  to  their 
allies  to  guarantee  to  them  expressly  so  much  of 
that  right  as  we  may  have  occasion  to  use,  and  the 
states  to  guarantee  to  such  allies  such  portions  of 
the  fisheries  as  they  possessed  by  the  last  treaty  of 
peace,  there  might  be  some  pretense  for  not 
touching  on  the  subject  in  a  treaty  with  Britain; 
because,  after  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  she 
would  hardly  venture  to  interrupt  the  states  in  a 
right,  which,  tho'  not  described  in  a  treaty  with 
her,  should  be  powerfully  guaranteed  in  a  treaty 
with  others.  But  to  omit  it  wholly  in  one  treaty, 
and  to  leave  it  unguaranteed  in  another,  and  to 
trust  it  entirely,  as  the  phrase  is,  to  the  chapter 
of  accidents,  is  too  loose,  too  impolitic  a  mode  of 
conducting  national  business. 

Had  nothing,  says  Ameeicanus,  been  said  on  the 
subject  of  the  fisheries,  our  fishermen,  on  the  peace, 
might  have  returned  to  their  old  stations  without  in- 
terruption. 

Is  this  talking  like  an  American  politician,  or 
a  seducing  emissary?    Who  authorized  Ameri- 

109 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

CANUS  to  intimate  such  an  assurance ;  or  how  came 
he  to  know  what  the  British  Ministry  would  or 
would  not  hereafter  do ;  or  how  can  he  be  certain 
they  have  told  him  truth?  If  it  be  supposition 
only,  he  has,  as  I  before  remarked,  no  right  to 
make  it;  and  if  it  be  more  than  supposition,  it 
must  be  the  effect  of  secret  correspondence.  In 
the  first  of  these  cases  he  is  foolish ;  in  the  second 
worse.  Does  he  not  see  that  the  fisheries  are  not 
expressly  and  only  conditionally  guaranteed,  and 
that  if  in  such  a  situation  they  be  omitted  in  a 
treaty  with  Britain,  and  she  should  afterwards 
interrupt  our  right,  that  the  states  stand  single  in 
the  question,  and  have  no  right  on  the  face  of  the 
present  treaties  to  call  on  their  allies  for  assist- 
ance? And  yet  this  man  is  persuading  us  to  say 
nothing  about  them. 

Americanus  like  some  others  is  mightily  fond 
of  amusing  his  readers  with  "the  law  of  nations" 
just  as  if  there  really  was  such  a  law,  fixed  and 
known  like  the  law  of  the  ten  commandments. 
Whereas  the  law  of  nations  is  in  theory  the  law  of 
treaties  compounded  with  customary  usage,  and 
in  practise  just  what  they  can  get  and  keep  till  it 
be  taken  from  them.  It  is  a  term  without  any 
regular  defined  meaning,  and  as  in  some  instances 
we  have  invented  the  thing  first  and  given  the 
110 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

name  afterwards,  so  in  this  we  have  invented  the 
name  and  the  thing  is  yet  to  be  made. 

Some  gentlemen  say,  leave  the  fisheries  to  be 
settled  afterwards  in  a  treaty  of  commerce.  This 
is  really  beginning  business  at  the  wrong  end. 
For  a  treaty  of  peace  cannot  precede  the  settle- 
ment of  disputes,  but  proceeds  in  consequence  of 
all  controverted  points  respecting  right  and  do- 
minion being  adjusted  and  agreed  on.  There  is 
one  kind  of  treaty  of  commerce  which  may  follow 
a  treaty  of  peace,  but  that  respects  such  articles 
only  and  the  mode  of  trafficking  with  them  as  are 
produced  within,  or  imported  into  the  known  and 
described  dominions  of  the  parties ;  or  to  the  rules 
of  exchange,  or  paying  or  recovering  debts,  but 
never  to  the  dominion  itself;  and  comes  more 
properly  within  the  province  of  a  consul  than  the 
superior  contracting  powers. 

With  these  remarks  I  shall,  for  the  present, 
close  the  subject.  It  is  a  new  one,  and  I  have 
endeavored  to  give  it  as  systematical  an  investiga- 
tion as  the  short  time  allowed  and  the  other  busi- 
ness I  have  on  hand  will  admit  of.  How  the  af- 
fair stands  in  Congress,  or  how  the  cast  of  the 
House  is  on  the  question,  I  have,  for  several  rea- 
sons, not  inquired  into ;  neither  have  I  conversed 
with  any  gentleman  of  that  body  on  the  subject. 

Ill 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

They  have  their  opinion  and  I  mine;  and  as  I 
choose  to  think  my  own  reasons  and  write  my  own 
thoughts,  I  feel  the  more  free  the  less  I  consult. 

Who  the  writer  of  Americanus  is  I  am  not 
informed.  I  never  said  or  ever  beheved  it  to  be 
Mr.  Gouverneur  Morris,  or  replied  to  it  upon 
that  supposition.  The  manner  is  not  his,  neither 
do  I  know  that  the  principles  are,  and  as  that  gen- 
tleman has  disavowed  it,  the  assurance  is  suffi- 
cient. I  have  likewise  heard  it  supposed  that  Mr. 
Deane  is  the  author,  and  that  his  friend  Mr. 
Langworthy  carried  it  to  the  press.  But  I 
know  not  who  the  author  is.  I  have  replied  to 
the  piece  rather  than  to  the  man;  tho'  for  the 
sake  of  relief  to  the  reader  and  amusement  to 
myself,  he  now  and  then  comes  in  for  a  stroke. 

Common  Sense. 

Philadelphia,  July  17,  1779. 


112 


THE    AMERICAN    PHILOSOPHICAL 
SOCIETY 

An  Act  for  incorporating  the  American  Phil- 
osophical Society,  held  at  Philadelphia  for  pro- 
moting useful  knowledge,  February  14,  1780 

WHEREAS  the  cultivation  of  useful 
knowledge,  and  the  advancement  of  the 
liberal  Arts  and  Sciences  in  any  country,  have 
the  most  direct  tendency  toward  the  improve- 
ment of  agriculture,  the  enlargement  of  trade, 
the  ease  and  comfort  of  life,  the  ornament  of 
society,  and  the  ease  and  happiness  of  mankind. 
And  whereas  this  country  of  North  America, 
which  the  goodness  of  Providence  hath  given  us 
to  inherit,  from  the  vastness  of  its  extent,  the  va- 
riety of  its  climate,  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  the  yet 
unexplored  treasures  of  its  bowels,  the  multitude 
of  its  rivers,  lakes,  bays,  inlets,  and  other  con- 
veniences of  navigation,  offers  to  these  United 
States  one  of  the  richest  subjects  of  cultivation, 
ever  presented  to  any  people  upon  earth.  And 
whereas  the  experience  of  ages  shows  that  im- 
provements of  a  public  nature  are  best  carried  on 
zy  societies  of  liberal  and  ingenious  men,  uniting 
their  labors  without  regard  to  nation,  sect,  or 

113 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

party,  in  one  grand  pursuit,  alike  interesting  to 
all,  whereby  mutual  prejudices  are  worn  off,  a 
humane  and  philosophical  Spirit  is  cherished,  and 
youth  is  stimulated  to  a  laudable  diligence  and 
emulation  in  the  pursuit  of  Wisdom. 

And  whereas,  upon  these  Principles,  divers 
public-spirited  gentlemen  of  Pennsylvania  and 
other  American  States  did  heretofore  Unite 
Themselves,  under  certain  regulations  into  one 
voluntary  Society,  by  the  name  of  "The  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Societ}^  held  at  Philadelphia 
for  Promoting  Useful  Knowledge,"  and  by  their 
successful  labors  and  investigations,  to  the  great 
credit  of  America,  have  extended  their  reputation 
so  far,  that  men  of  the  first  eminence  in  the  re- 
public of  letters  in  the  most  civilized  nations  of 
Europe  have  done  honor  to  their  publications, 
and  desired  to  be  enrolled  among  their  Members : 
And  whereas  the  said  Society,  after  having  been 
long  interrupted  in  their  laudable  pursuits  by 
the  calamities  of  war,  and  the  distresses  of  our 
country,  have  found  means  to  revive  their  de- 
sign, in  hopes  of  being  able  to  prosecute  the  same 
with  their  former  success,  and  of  being  further 
encouraged  therein  by  the  public,  for  which  pur- 
pose they  have  prayed  us,  "the  Representatives 
of  the  Freemen  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Penn- 
114 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

sylvania,  that  they  may  be  created  One  Body 
Politic  and  Corporate  forever,  with  such  powers, 
and  privileges,  and  immunities  as  may  be  neces- 
sary for  answering  the  valuable  purposes  which 
the  said  Society  had  originally  in  view." 

Wherefore,  in  order  to  encourage  the  said 
Society  in  the  prosecution  and  advancement  of 
all  useful  branches  of  knowledge,  for  the  benefit 
of  their  Country  and  Mankind,  Be  it  enacted, 
and  it  is  hereby  enacted  by  the  Representatives  of 
the  Freemen  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  General  Assembly  met,  and  by  the 
authority  of  the  same.  That  the  members  of  the 
said  Philosophical  Society,  heretofore  volun-tarity 
associated  for  promoting  useful  knowledge,  and 
such  other  persons  as  have  been  duly  elected 
Members  and  Officers  of  the  same,  agreeably  to 
the  fundamental  laws  and  regulations  of  the  said 
Society,  comprised  in  twelve  sections,  prefixed 
to  their  first  Volume  of  Transactions,  published 
in  Philadelphia,  and  such  other  laws  and  regula- 
tions as  shall  hereafter  be  duly  made  and  enacted 
by  the  Society,  according  to  the  tenor  hereof,  be 
and  for  ever  hereafter  shall  be,  One  Body  Cor- 
porate and  Politic  in  Deed,  by  the  name  and  style 
of  "The  American  Philosophical  Society  held  at 
Philadelphia,  for  promoting  useful  knowledge." 

115 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

And  whereas — Nations  truly  civilized  (how- 
ever unhappily  at  variance  on  other  accounts) 
will  never  wage  war  with  the  Arts  and  Sciences, 
and  the  Common  Interests  of  Humanity;  Be  it 
further  enacted  by  the  authority  aforesaid,  That 
it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  for  the  said  Society, 
by  their  proper  officers,  at  all  times,  whether  in 
peace  or  war,  to  correspond  with  learned  societies, 
as  well  as  individual  learned  men,  of  any  nation 
or  country;  upon  matters  merely  belonging  to 
the  business  of  the  said  Societies,  such  as  the  mu- 
tual communication  of  their  discoveries  and  pro- 
ceedings in  philosophy  and  science ;  the  procuring 
Books,  Apparatus,  Natural  Curiosities,  and  such 
other  articles  and  intelligence  as  are  usually  ex- 
changed between  learned  bodies,  for  furthering 
their  common  pursuits:  Provided  always.  That 
such  correspondence  of  the  said  Society  be  at  all 
times  open  to  the  inspection  of  the  supreme  Exec- 
utive Council  of  this  Commonwealth,  etc. 


116 


MAS  PAINE 

:\iitions  truly  civiJUited  (how- 

at  variance  on  other  accounts) 

^  war  with  the  ^  '     'Tid  Sciences, 

)n  Interests  r^■  '  'H^;  Be  it 

1  by  the  ail  ■  l  That 

uall  and  may  be  lawful  1  *c'ty, 

by  their  proper  officers,  at  a  r  in 

e  or  war,  to  correspond  with  >  ties, 

as  well  as  individual  learned  men,  ot  m  m 

or  country;  upon  matters  merely  belongirig  to 

.,     ,      .  THOMAS  JEFFERSON         ., 

the  busmess  oi  me  said:  Societies,  such  as  the  mu- 
tual cSft^*^^;^^^*^*^  fr(^  i^^rOrhginal  Painting  ^jb^j.^, 

Gilbert  Stuart  in  Boiedoin  College 
ceedings  m  T^tMiu^iuyihiy  an<i  >i.:irMcc,  Uin  jjn^oanng 

Books,  '*-  ^' >^ -'t  V  5 (  '  '  ariosities,  and  such 
other  aiu <jn  arc  usually  ex- 
changed between  ^>?rthering 
their  c'  s,  That 
such  (rf'  ty  be  at  all 
times  open  to  the  insp«  supreme  Exec- 
utive Council  of  this  Commonwealth,  etc. 


116 


EMANCIPATION  OF  SLAVES 

PREAMBLE  TO  THE  ACT  PASSED  BY  THE  PENNSYL- 
VANIA ASSEMBLY  MARCH  1,  1780 

"t  WHEN  we  contemplate  our  abhorrence  of 
-■-  that  condition,  to  which  the  arms  and  ty- 
ranny of  Great  Britain  were  exerted  to  reduce  us, 
when  we  look  back  on  the  variety  of  dangers  to 
which  we  have  been  exposed,  and  how  miraculous- 
ly our  wants  in  many  instances  have  been  sup- 
plied, and  our  deliverances  wrought,  when  even 
hope  and  human  fortitude  have  become  unequal 
to  the  conflict,  we  are  unavoidably  led  to  a  serious 
and  grateful  sense  of  the  manifold  blessings, 
which  we  have  undeservedly  received  from  the 
hand  of  that  Being,  from  whom  every  good  and 
perfect  gift  cometh. 

Impressed  with  these  ideas,  we  conceive  that 
it  is  our  duty,  and  we  rejoice  that  it  is  in  our 
power,  to  extend  a  portion  of  that  freedom  to 
others,  which  hath  been  extended  to  us,  and  re- 
lease them  from  the  state  of  thralldom,  to  which 
we  ourselves  were  tyrannically  doomed,  and  from 
which  we  have  now  every  prospect  of  being  deliv- 
ered. It  is  not  for  us  to  inquire  why,  in  the  cre- 
ation of  mankind,  the  inhabitants  of  the  several 

117 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAIXE 

parts  of  the  earth  were  distinguished  by  a  differ- 
ence in  feature  or  complexion.  It  is  sufficient  to 
know  that  all  are  the  work  of  the  Almighty 
Hand.  We  find  in  the  distribution  of  the  hu- 
man species,  that  the  most  fertile  as  well  as  the 
most  barren  parts  of  the  earth  are  inhabited  by 
men  of  complexions  different  from  ours,  and 
from  each  other ;  from  w  hence  we  may  reasonably 
as  well  as  religiously  infer,  that  He,  who  placed 
them  in  their  various  situations,  hath  extended 
equally  His  care  and  protection  to  all,  and  that  it 
becometh  not  us  to  counteract  His  mercies. 

We  esteem  it  a  peculiar  blessing  granted  to 
us,  that  we  are  enabled  this  day  to  add  one  more 
step  to  universal  civilization,  by  removing,  as 
much  as  possible,  the  sorrows  of  those  who  have 
lived  in  undeserved  bondage,  and  from  which,  by 
the  assumed  authority  of  the  Kings  of  Great 
Britain,  no  effectual  legal  relief  could  be  ob- 
tained. Weaned,  by  a  long  course  of  experience, 
from  those  narrow  prejudices  and  partialities  we 
had  imbibed,  we  find  our  hearts  enlarged  with 
kindness  and  benevolence  toward  men  of  all  con- 
ditions and  nations ;  and  we  conceive  ourselves  at 
this  particular  period  particularly  called  upon  by 
the  blessings  which  we  have  received,  to  manifest 
118 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  sincerity  of  our  profession,  and  to  give  a  sub- 
stantial proof  of  our  gratitude. 

2.  And  whereas  the  condition  of  those  per- 
sons, who  have  heretofore  been  denominated 
negro  and  mulatto  slaves,  has  been  attended 
with  circumstances,  which  not  only  deprived  them 
of  the  common  blessings  that  they  were  by  nature 
entitled  to,  but  has  cast  them  into  the  deepest 
afflictions,  by  an  unnatural  separation  and  sale  of 
husband  and  wife  from  each  other  and  from  their 
children,  an  injury,  the  greatness  of  which  can 
only  be  conceived  by  supposing  that  we  were  in 
the  same  unhappy  case.  In  justice,  therefore,  to 
persons  so  unhappily  circumstanced,  and  who, 
having  no  prospect  before  them  whereon  they 
may  rest  their  sorrows  and  their  hopes,  have  no 
reasonable  inducement  to  render  their  services  to 
society,  which  they  otherwise  might,  and  also  in 
grateful  commemoration  of  our  own  happy  de- 
liverance from  that  state  of  unconditional  sub- 
mission to  which  we  were  doomed  by  the  tyranny 
of  Britain, 

3.  Be  it  enacted,  etc. 


119 


PUBLIC  GOOD* 

(Philadelphia,  December  30,  1780) 

PREFACE 

'nr^HE  following  pages  are  on  a  subject 
-^  hitherto  little  understood  but  highly  inter- 
esting to  the  United  States. 

They  contain  an  investigation  of  the  claims  of 
Virginia  to  the  vacant  western  territory,  and  of 
the  right  of  the  United  States  to  the  same;  with 
some  outlines  of  a  plan  for  laying  out  a  new 
state,  to  be  applied  as  a  fund,  for  carrying  on 
the  war,  or  redeeming  the  national  debt. 

The  reader,  in  the  course  of  this  publication, 
will  find  it  studiously  plain,  and,  as  far  as  I  can 
judge,  perfectly  candid.  What  materials  I  could 
get  at  I  have  endeavored  to  place  in  a  clear  line, 
and  deduce  such  arguments  therefrom  as  the  sub- 
ject required.  In  the  prosecution  of  it,  I  have 
considered  myself  as  an  advocate  for  the  right  of 
the  states,  and  taken  no  other  liberty  with  the  sub- 

*  This  pamphlet  was  published  with  the  following  title :  "Pub- 
lic Good:  Being  an  Examination  into  the  Claims  of  Virginia 
to  the  Vacant  Western  Territory,  and  of  the  Right  of  the  United 
States  to  the  Same:  to  Which  is  Added  Proposals  for  Laying  off 
a  New  State,  to  be  Applied  as  a  Fund  for  Carrying  on  the  War, 
or  Redeeming  the  National  Debt." — Ed. 

120 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ject  than  what  a  counsel  would,  and  ought  to  do, 
in  behalf  of  a  chent. 

I  freely  confess  that  the  respect  I  had  con- 
ceived, and  still  preserve,  for  the  character  of 
Virginia,  was  a  constant  check  upon  those  sallies 
of  imagination,  which  are  fairly  and  advantage- 
ously indulged  against  an  enemy,  but  ungenerous 
when  against  a  friend. 

If  there  is  anything  I  have  omitted  or  mis- 
taken, to  the  injury  of  the  intentions  of  Virginia 
or  her  claims,  I  shall  gladly  rectify  it,  or  if  there 
is  anything  yet  to  add,  should  the  subject  require 
it,  I  shall  as  cheerfully  undertake  it ;  being  fully 
convinced,  that  to  have  matters  fairly  discussed, 
and  properly  understood,  is  a  principal  means  of 
preserving  harmony  and  perpetuating  friendship. 

The  Author. 


121 


PUBLIC  GOOD 

When  we  take  into  view  the  mutual  happi- 
ness and  united  interests  of  the  states  of  America, 
and  consider  the  vast  consequences  to  arise  from 
a  strict  attention  of  each,  and  of  all,  to  every- 
thing which  is  just,  reasonable,  and  honorable; 
or  the  evils  that  will  follow  from  an  inattention 
to  those  principles;  there  cannot,  and  ought  not, 
to  remain  a  doubt  but  the  governing  rule  of  right 
and  of  mutual  good  must  in  all  public  cases 
finally  preside. 

The  hand  of  Providence  has  cast  us  into  one 
common  lot,  and  accomplished  the  independence 
of  America,  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the 
several  parts,  concurring  at  once  in  time,  manner 
and  circumstances.  No  superiority  of  interest, 
at  the  expense  of  the  rest,  induced  the  one,  more 
than  the  other,  into  the  measure.  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  it  is  true,  might  foresee  that  their 
staple  commodity,  tobacco,  by  being  no  longer 
monopolized  by  Britain,  would  bring  them  a  bet- 
ter price  abroad:  for  as  the  tax  on  it  in  England 
was  treble  its  first  purchase  from  the  planter, 
and  they  being  now  no  longer  compelled  to  send 
it  under  that  obligation,  and  in  the  restricted 
122 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

manner  they  formerly  were,  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
the  article,  from  the  alteration  of  the  circum- 
stances of  trade,  will,  and  daily  does,  turn  out 
to  them  with  additional  advantages. 

But  this  being  a  natural  consequence,  pro- 
duced by  that  common  freedom  and  indepen- 
dence of  which  all  are  partakers,  is  therefore  an 
advantage  they  are  entitled  to,  and  on  which  the 
rest  of  the  states  can  congratulate  them  without 
feeling  a  wish  to  lessen,  but  rather  to  extend  it. 
To  contribute  to  the  increased  prosperity  of  an- 
other, by  the  same  means  which  occasion  our 
own,  is  an  agreeable  reflection;  and  the  more 
valuable  any  article  of  export  becomes,  the  more 
riches  will  be  introduced  into  and  spread  over 
the  continent. 

Yet  this  is  an  advantage  which  those  two 
states  derive  from  the  independence  of  America, 
superior  to  the  local  circumstances  of  the  rest; 
and  of  the  two  it  more  particularly  belongs  to 
Virginia  than  Maryland,  because  the  staple  com- 
modity of  a  considerable  part  of  Maryland  is 
flour,  which,  as  it  is  an  article  that  is  the  growth 
of  Europe  as  well  as  of  America,  cannot  obtain 
a  foreign  market  but  by  underselling,  or  at  least 
by  limiting  it  to  the  current  price  abroad.  But 
tobacco  commands  its  own  price.  It  is  not  a 
viii-io  123 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

plant  of  almost  universal  growth,  like  wheat. 
There  are  but  few  soils  and  climes  that  produce 
it  to  advantage,  and  before  the  cultivation  of  it 
in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  the  price  was  from 
four  to  sixteen  shilUngs  sterling  a  pound  in 
England.* 

But  the  condition  of  the  vacant  western  ter- 
ritory of  America  makes  a  very  different  case  to 
that  of  the  circumstances  of  trade  in  any  of  the 
states.  Those  very  lands,  formed,  in  contempla- 
tion, the  fund  by  which  the  debt  of  America 
would  in  the  course  of  years  be  redeemed.  They 
were  considered  as  the  common  right  of  all;  and 
it  is  only  till  lately  that  any  pretension  of  claim 
has  been  made  to  the  contrary. 

That  difficulties  and  differences  will  arise  in 
communities,  ought  always  to  be  looked  for. 
The  opposition  of  interests,  real  or  supposed,  the 
variety  of  judgments,  the  contrariety  of  temper, 
and,  in  short,  the  whole  composition  of  man,  in 
his  individual  capacity,  is  tinctured  with  a  dispo- 
sition to  contend;  but  in  his  social  capacity  there 
is  either  a  right,  which,  being  proved,  terminates 
the  dispute,  or  a  reasonableness  in  the  measure, 

*  See  Sir  Dalby  Thomas's  "Historical  Accoxint  of  the  rise  and 
growth  of  the  West  India  CJolonies." 

124 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

where  no  direct  right  can  be  made  out,  which  de- 
cides or  compromises  the  matter. 

As  I  shall  have  frequent  occasion  to  mention 
the  word  right ,  I  wish  to  be  clearly  understood  in 
my  definition  of  it.  There  are  various  senses  in 
which  this  term  is  used,  and  custom  has,  in  many 
of  them,  afforded  it  an  introduction  contrary  to 
its  true  meaning.  We  are  so  naturally  inclined 
to  give  the  utmost  degree  of  force  to  our  own 
case,  that  we  call  every  pretension,  however 
founded,  a  right;  and  by  this  means  the  term  fre- 
quently stands  opposed  to  justice  and  reason. 

After  Theodore  was  elected  King  of  Corsica, 
not  many  years  ago,  by  the  mere  choice  of  the 
natives,  for  their  own  convenience  in  opposing 
the  Genoese,  he  went  over  to  England,  run  him- 
self in  debt,  got  himself  into  jail,  and  on  his 
release  therefrom,  by  the  benefit  of  an  act  of  in- 
solvency, he  surrendered  up  what  he  called  his 
kingdom  of  Corsica,  as  a  part  of  his  personal 
property,  for  the  use  of  his  creditors;  some  of 
whom  may  hereafter  call  this  a  charter,  or  by 
any  other  name  more  fashionable,  and  ground 
thereon  what  they  may  term  a  right  to  the  sov- 
ereignty and  property  of  Corsica.  But  does  not 
justice  abhor  such  an  action  both  in  him  and 

125 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

them,  under  the  prostituted  name  of  a  rightj  and 
must  not  laughter  be  excited  wherever  it  is  told? 

A  right,  to  be  truly  so,  must  be  right  within 
itself:  yet  many  things  have  obtained  the  name 
of  rights,  which  are  originally  founded  in  wrong. 
Of  this  kind  are  all  rights  by  mere  conquest, 
power  or  violence.  In  the  cool  moments  of  re- 
flection we  are  obliged  to  allow,  that  the  mode  by 
which  such  a  right  is  obtained,  is  not  the  best 
suited  to  that  spirit  of  universal  justice  which 
ought  to  preside  equally  over  all  mankind. 
There  is  something  in  the  establishment  of  such 
a  right,  that  we  wish  to  slip  over  as  easily  as  pos- 
sible, and  say  as  little  about  as  can  be.  But  in 
the  case  of  a  right  founded  in  right,  the  mind  is 
carried  cheerfully  into  the  subject,  feels  no  com- 
punction, suffers  no  distress,  subjects  its  sensa- 
tions to  no  violence,  nor  sees  an3rthing  in  its  way 
which  requires  an  artificial  smoothing. 

From  this  introduction  I  proceed  to  examine 
into  the  claims  of  Virginia;  first,  as  to  the  right, 
secondly  as  to  the  reasonableness,  and  lastly,  as 
to  the  consequences. 

The  name,  Virginia,  originally  bore  a  differ- 
ent meaning  to  what  it  does  now.  It  stood  in  the 
place  of  the  word  North  America,  and  seems  to 
have  been  a  name  comprehensive  of  all  the  Eng- 
126 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

lish  settlements  or  colonies  on  the  continent,  and 
not  descriptive  of  any  one  as  distinguished  from 
the  rest.  All  to  the  southward  of  the  Chesa- 
peake, as  low  as  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  called 
South  Virginia,  and  all  to  the  northward,  North 
Virginia,  in  a  similar  line  of  distinction,  as  we 
now  call  the  whole  continent  North  and  South 
America.* 

The  first  charter,  or  patent,  was  to  Sir  W^al- 
ter  Raleigh  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  of  England,  in 
the  year  1583,  and  had  neither  name  nor  bounds. 
Upon  Sir  Walter's  return,  the  name  Virginia 
was  given  to  the  whole  country,  including  the 
now  United  States.  Consequently  the  present 
Virginia,  either  as  a  province  or  state,  can  set  up 
no  exclusive  claim  to  the  western  territory  under 
this  patent,  and  that  for  two  reasons:  first,  be- 
cause the  words  of  the  patent  run  to  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  and  such  persons  as  he  should  nominate, 
themselves  and  their  successors;  which  is  a  line 
of  succession  Virginia  does  not  pretend  to  stand 
in;  and  secondly,  because  a  prior  question  would 
arise,  namely,  who  are  to  be  understood  by  Vir- 
ginians under  this  patent?  and  the  answer  would 
be,  all  the  inhabitants  of  America,  from  New- 
England  to  Florida. 

*  Oldmixon's  "History  of  Virginia." 

127 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

This  patent,  therefore,  would  destroy  their 
exclusive  claim,  and  invest  the  right  collectively 
in  the  thirteen  states. 

But  it  unfortunately  happened,  that  the  set- 
tlers under  this  patent,  partly  from  misconduct, 
the  opposition  of  the  Indians,  and  other  calam- 
ities, discontinued  the  process,  and  the  patent 
became  extinct. 

After  this,  James  I,  who,  in  the  year 
1602,  succeeded  Elizabeth,  issued  a  new  patent, 
which  I  come  next  to  describe. 

This  patent  differed  from  the  former  in  this 
essential  point,  that  it  had  limits,  whereas  the 
other  had  none:  the  former  was  intended  to  pro- 
mote discoveries  wherever  they  could  be  made, 
which  accounts  why  no  limits  were  affixed,  and 
this  to  settle  discoveries  already  made,  which  like- 
wise assigns  a  reason  why  limits  should  be  de- 
scribed. 

In  this  patent  were  incorporated  two  com- 
panies, called  the  South  Virginia  Company,  and 
the  North  Virginia  Company,  and  sometimes  the 
London  Company,  and  the  Plymouth  Company. 

The   South  Virginia  or  London   Company 

was  composed  chiefly  of  London  adventurers; 

the  North  Virginia  or  Plymouth  Company  was 

made  up  of  adventurers  from  Plymouth  in  Dev- 

128 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

onshire  and  other  persons  of  the  western  part  of 
England. 

Though  they  were  not  to  fix  together,  yet 
they  were  allowed  to  choose  their  places  of  settle- 
ment anywhere  on  the  coast  of  America,  then 
called  Virginia,  between  the  latitudes  of  34  and 
45  degrees,  which  was  a  range  of  760  miles:  the 
South  Company  was  not  to  go  below  34  degrees, 
nor  the  North  Company  above  45  degrees.  But 
the  patent  expressed,  that  as  soon  as  they  had 
made  their  choice,  each  was  to  become  hmited  to 
50  miles  each  way  on  the  coast,  and  100  up  the 
country;  so  that  the  grant  to  each  country  was 
a  square  of  100  miles,  and  no  more.  The  North 
Virginia  or  Plymouth  Company  settled  to  the 
eastward,  and  in  the  year  1614,  changed  the 
name,  and  called  that  part  New  England.  The 
South  Virginia  or  London  Company  settled  near 
Cape  Henry. 

This  then  cannot  be  the  patent  of  boundless 
extent,  and  that  for  two  reasons:  first,  because 
the  limits  are  described,  namely,  a  square  of  100 
miles ;  and  secondly,  because  there  were  two  com- 
panies of  equal  rights  included  in  the  same 
patent. 

Three  years  after  this,  that  is,  in  the  year 
1609,  the  South  Virginia  Company  applied  for 

129 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

new  powers  from  the  Crown  of  England,  which 
were  granted  them  in  a  new  patent,  and  the 
boundaries  of  the  grant  enlarged;  and  this  is  the 
charter,  or  patent,  on  which  some  of  the  present 
Virginians  ground  their  pretension  to  boundless 
territory. 

The  first  reflection  that  presents  itself  on  this 
enlargement  of  the  grant  is,  that  it  must  be  sup- 
posed to  bear  some  intended  degree  of  reasonable 
comparison  to  that  which  it  superseded.  The 
former  could  not  be  greater  than  a  square  of  one 
hundred  miles ;  and  this  new  one  being  granted  in 
lieu  of  that,  and  that  within  the  space  of  three 
years,  and  by  the  same  person,  James  I, 
who  was  never  famed  either  for  profusion  or 
generosity,  cannot,  on  a  review  of  the  time  and 
circumstances  of  the  grant,  be  supposed  a  very 
extravagant  or  very  extraordinary  one.  If  a 
square  of  one  hundred  miles  was  not  sufficiently 
large,  twice  that  quantity  was  as  much  as  could 
well  be  expected  or  solicited ;  but  to  suppose  that 
he,  who  had  caution  enough  to  confine  the  first 
grant  within  moderate  bounds,  should,  in  so  short 
a  space  as  three  years,  supersede  it  by  another 
grant  of  many  million  times  greater  extent,  is 
on  the  face  of  the  affair,  a  circumstantial  nullity. 

Whether  this  patent,  or  charter,  was  in  exist- 
130 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ence  or  not  at  the  time  the  Revolution  commenced, 
is  a  matter  I  shall  hereafter  speak  to,  and  con- 
fine myself  in  this  place  to  the  limits  which  the 
said  patent  or  charter  lays  down.  The  words  are 
as  follow: 

Beginning  at  the  cape  or  point  of  land  called 
Cape  or  Point  Comfort,  thence  all  along  the  seacoast 
to  the  NOETHWARD  200  miles,  and  from  the  said  Point 
or  Cape  Comfort,  all  along  the  seacoast  to  the  south- 
ward, 200  miles ;  and  all  that  space  or  circuit  of  land 
lying  from  the  seacoast  of  the  precinct  aforesaid  up 
into  the  land  throughout,  from  sea  to  sea,  west  and 
northwest. 

The  first  remark  I  shall  offer  on  the  words  of 
this  grant  is,  that  they  are  uncertain,  obscure, 
and  unintelligible,  and  may  be  construed  into 
such  a  variety  of  contradictory  meanings  as  to 
leave  at  last  no  meaning  at  all. 

Whether  the  two  hundred  miles  each  way 
from  Cape  Comfort,  were  to  be  on  a  straight  line, 
or  ascertained  by  following  the  indented  line  of 
the  coasts  that  is,  ^^all  along  the  seacoast/'  in  and 
out  as  the  coast  lay,  cannot  now  be  fulty  deter- 
mined; because,  as  either  will  admit  of  supposi- 
tion, and  nothing  but  supposition  can  be  pro- 
duced, therefore  neither  can  be  taken  as  positive. 
Thus  far  may  be  said,  that  had  it  been  intended 
to  be  a  straight  line,  the  word  straight  ought  to 

131 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

have  been  inserted,  which  would  have  made  the 
matter  clear;  but  as  no  inference  can  be  well 
drawn  to  the  advantage  of  that  which  does  not 
appear^,  against  that  which  does,  therefore  the 
omission  implies  negatively  in  favor  of  the  coast- 
indented  line,  or  that  the  400  miles  were  to  be 
traced  on  the  windings  of  the  coast,  that  is  ^^all 
along  the  seacoast" 

But  what  is  meant  by  the  words  ''west  and 
northwest"  is  still  more  unintelligible.  Whether 
they  mean  a  west  line  and  a  northwest  hne,  or 
whether  they  apply  to  the  general  lying  of  the 
land  from  the  Atlantic,  without  regard  to  lines, 
cannot  again  be  determined.  But  if  they  are 
supposed  to  mean  lines  to  be  run,  then  a  new 
difficulty  of  more  magnitude  than  all  the  rest 
arises;  namely,  from  which  end  of  the  extent  on 
the  coast  is  the  west  line  and  the  northwest  hne 
to  be  set  off?  As  the  difference  in  the  contents 
of  the  grant,  occasioned  by  transposing  them,  is 
many  hundred  millions  of  acres;  and  either  in- 
cludes or  excludes  a  far  greater  quantity  of  land 
than  the  whole  thirteen  United  States  contain. 
In  short,  there  is  not  a  boundary  in  this  grant 
that  is  clear,  fixed  and  defined.  The  coast  line  is 
uncertain,  and  that  being  the  base  on  which  the 
others  are  to  be  formed,  renders  the  whole  un- 
132 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

certain.  But  even  if  this  line  was  admitted,  in 
either  shape,  the  other  boundaries  would  still  be 
on  supposition,  till  it  might  be  said  there  is  no 
boundary  at  all,  and  consequently  no  charter; 
for  words  which  describe  nothing  can  give 
nothing. 

The  advocates  for  the  Virginia  claim,  laying 
hold  of  these  ambiguities,  have  explained  the 
grant  thus : 

Four  hundred  miles  on  the  sea-coast,  and 
from  the  south  point  a  w^est  line  to  the  great 
South  Sea,  and  from  the  north  point  a  northwest 
line  to  the  said  South  Sea.  The  figure  which 
these  lines  produce  will  be  thus: 


I 

S,  /      New-  New- 

^  /       York  England. 


^  200  S.  I  200  N. 


But  why,  I  ask,  must  the  west  land  hne  be 
set  off  from  the  south  point,  any  more  than  the 
north  point?    The  grant  or  patent  does  not  say 

133 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

from  which  it  shall  be,  neither  is  it  clear  that  a 
line  is  the  thing  intended  by  the  words:  but  ad- 
mitting that  it  is,  on  what  grounds  do  the  claim- 
ants proceed  in  making  this  choice?  The  answer, 
I  presume,  is  easily  given,  namely,  because  it  is 
the  most  beneficial  explanation  to  themselves 
they  can  possibly  make ;  as  it  takes  in  many  thou- 
sand times  more  extent  of  country  than  any  other 
explanation  would.  But  this,  though  it  be  a 
very  good  reason  to  them,  is  a  very  bad  reason  to 
us;  and  though  it  may  do  for  the  claimants  to 
hope  upon,  will  not  answer  to  plead  upon; 
especially  to  the  very  people,  who,  to  confirm 
the  partiality  of  the  claimants'  choice,  must  re- 
linquish their  own  right  and  interest. 

Why  not  set  off  the  west  land  line  from  the 
north  end  of  the  coast  line,  and  the  northwest 
line  from  the  south  end  of  the  same?  There  is 
some  reason  why  this  should  be  the  construction, 
and  none  why  the  other  should. 

1st,  Because  if  the  line  of  two  hundred  miles 
each  way  from  Cape  Comfort,  be  traced  by  fol- 
lowing the  indented  line  of  the  coast,  which  seems 
to  be  the  imphed  intention  of  the  words,  and  a 
west  line  set  oif  from  the  north  end,  and  a  north- 
west line  from  the  south  end,  these  lines  will  all 
unite  (which  the  other  construction  never  can) 
134 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  form  a  complete  triangle,  the  contents  of 
which  will  be  about  twenty-nine  or  thirty  millions 
of  acres,  or  something  larger  than  Pennsylvania ; 
and 

2d,  Because  this  construction  is  following 
the  order  of  the  lines  expressed  in  the  grant ;  for 
the  first  mentioned  coast  line,  which  is  to  the 
northward  of  Cape  Comfort,  and  the  first  men- 
tioned land  hne,  which  is  the  west  line,  have  a 
numerical  relation,  being  the  first  mentioned  of 
each;  and  implies,  that  the  west  line  was  to  be 
set  off  from  the  north  point  and  not  from  the 
south  point;  and  consequently  the  two  last  men- 
tioned of  each  have  the  same  numerical  relation, 
and  again  implies  that  the  northwest  hne  was  to 
be  set  off  from  the  south  point,  and  not  from  the 
north  point.  But  why  the  claimants  should  break 
through  the  order  of  the  lines,  and  contrary  to 
imphcation,  join  the  first  mentioned  of  the  one, 
to  the  last  mentioned  of  the  other,  and  thereby 
produce  a  shapeless  monster,  for  which  there  is 
no  name  nor  any  parallel  in  the  world,  either  as 
to  extent  of  soil  and  sovereignty,  is  a  construc- 
tion that  cannot  be  supported. 

The  figure  produced  by  following  the  order 
of  the  lines  is  as  follows  *  : 

*  N.  B.    If  the  reader  will  cast  his  tje.  again  over  the  words  of 

135 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 


I  presume  that  if  400  miles  be  traced  by  fol- 
lowing the  inflexes  of  any  seashore,  that  the  two 
extremes  will  not  be  more  than  300  miles  distant 
from  each  other,  on  a  straight  line.  Therefore, 
to  find  the  contents  of  a  triangle,  whose  base  is 
300  miles,  multiply  the  length  of  the  base  into 
half  the  perpendicular,  which,  in  this  case,  is  the 
west  line,  and  the  product  will  be  the  answer: 

300  miles,  length  of  the  base. 

150  half  the  perpendicular  (supposing  it  a  right-angled 
triangle). 


15000 
SOO 


45,000  contents  of  the  grant  in  square  miles. 
640  acres  in  a  square  mile. 


1800000 
270000 


28,800,000  contents  in  square  acres. 

the  patent  on  p.  38,  [pamphlet  edition]  he  will  perceive  the  numer- 
ical relation  alluded  to,  by  observing,  that  the  first  mentioned 
coast  line  and  the  first  mentioned  land  line  are  distinguished  by 
CAPITALS.  And  the  last  mentioned  of  each  by  italics,  which  I  have 
chosen  to  do  to  illustrate  the  explanation. 

136 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Nor  will  anyone  undertake  to  say,  that  this 
explanation  is  not  as  fairly  drawn  (if  not  more 
so)  from  the  words  themselves,  as  any  other  that 
can  be  offered?  Because  it  is  not  only  justified 
by  the  exact  words  of  the  patent,  grant,  or  char- 
ter, or  any  other  name  by  which  it  may  be  called, 
but  by  their  implied  meaning;  and  is  likewise  of 
such  contents  as  may  be  supposed  to  have  been 
intended;  whereas  the  claimants'  explanation  is 
without  bounds,  and  beyond  everything  that  is 
reasonable.  Yet,  after  all,  who  can  say  what  was 
the  precise  meaning  of  terms  and  expressions  so 
loosely  formed,  and  capable  of  such  a  variety 
of  contradictory  interpretations? 

Had  the  order  of  the  lines  been  otherwise 
than  they  are  in  the  patent,  the  reasonableness 
of  the  thing  must  have  directed  the  manner  in 
which  they  should  be  connected:  but  as  the  claim 
is  founded  in  unreasonableness,  and  that  unrea- 
sonableness endeavored  to  be  supported  by  a 
transposition  of  the  lines,  there  remains  no  pre- 
tense for  the  claim  to  stand  on. 

Perhaps  those  who  are  interested  in  the  claim- 
ants' explanation  will  say  that  as  the  South  Sea 
is  spoken  of,  the  lines  must  be  as  they  explain 
them,  in  order  to  reach  it. 

To  this  I  reply ;  first,  that  no  man  then  knew 

137 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

how  far  it  was  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  South 
Sea,  as  I  shall  presently  show,  but  believed  it  to 
be  but  a  short  distance:  and, 

Secondly,  that  the  uncertain  and  ambiguous 
manner  in  which  the  South  Sea  is  alluded  to  (for 
it  is  not  mentioned  by  name,  but  only  "from  sea 
to  sea")  serves  to  perplex  the  patent,  and  not  to 
explain  it ;  and  as  no  right  can  be  founded  on  an 
ambiguity,  but  on  some  proof  cleared  of  am- 
biguity, therefore  the  allusive  introduction  of 
"from  sea  to  sea"  can  yield  no  service  to  the 
claim. 

There  is  likewise  an  ambiguous  mention 
made  of  two  lands  in  this  patent,  as  well  as  of  two 
seas;  viz.  and  all  that  "space  or  circuit  of  land 
lying  from  the  seacoast  of  the  precinct  aforesaid 
up  into  the  land  throughout  from  sea  to  sea" 

On  which  I  remark,  that  the  two  lands  here 
mentioned  have  the  appearance  of  a  major  and 
a  minor,  or  the  greater  out  of  which  the  less  is 
to  be  taken :  and  the  term  from  "sea  to  sea"  may 
be  said  to  apply  descriptively  to  the  land  through- 
out and  not  to  the  space  or  circuit  of  land  pat- 
ented to  the  company" ;  in  a  similar  manner  that 
a  former  patent  described  a  major  of  706  miles 
in  extent,  out  of  which  the  minor,  or  square  of 
one  hundred  miles,  was  to  be  chosen. 
138 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  to  suppose  that  because  the  South  Sea  is 
darkly  alluded  to,  it  must  therefore  ( at  whatever 
distance  it  might  be,  which  then  nobody  knew, 
or  for  whatever  purpose  it  might  be  introduced) 
be  made  a  certain  boundary,  and  that  without 
regard  to  the  reasonableness  of  the  matter,  or  the 
order  in  which  the  Hues  are  arranged,  which  is  the 
only  implication  the  patent  gives  for  setting  off 
the  land  lines,  is  a  supposition  that  contradicts 
everything  which  is  reasonable. 

The  figure  produced  by  following  the  order 
of  the  lines  will  be  complete  in  itself,  let  the  dis- 
tance to  the  South  Sea  be  more  or  less;  because, 
if  the  land  througJiout  from  sea  to  sea  had  not 
been  sufficiently  extensive  to  admit  the  west  land 
line  and  the  northwest  land  line  to  close,  the 
South  Sea,  in  that  case,  would  have  eventually 
become  a  boundary ;  but  if  the  extent  of  the  land 
throughout  from  sea  to  sea^  was  so  great  that  the 
lines  closed  without  reaching  the  said  South  Sea, 
the  figure  was  complete  without  it. 

Wherefore,  as  the  order  of  the  fines,  when 
raised  on  the  indented  coast  line,  produces  a  reg- 
ular figure  of  reasonable  dimensions,  and  of 
about  the  same  contents,  though  not  of  the  same 
shape,  which  Virginia  now  holds  within  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountains ;  and  by  transposing  them,  an- 
viii-n  139 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

other  figure  is  produced,  for  which  there  is  no 
name,  and  cannot  be  completed,  as  I  shall  pres- 
ently explain,  and  of  an  extent  greater  than  one 
half  of  Europe,  it  is  needless  to  offer  any  other 
arguments  to  show  that  the  order  of  the  lines 
must  be  the  rule,  if  any  rule  can  be  drawn  from 
the  words,  for  ascertaining  from  which  point  the 
west  line  and  northwest  line  were  to  be  set  off. 

Neither  is  it  possible  to  suppose  any  other  rule 
could  be  followed;  because  a  northwest  line  set 
off  two  hundred  miles  above  Cape  Comfort, 
would  not  only  never  touch  the  South  Sea,  but 
would  form  a  spiral  Hne  of  infinite  windings 
round  the  globe,  and  after  passing  over  the 
northern  parts  of  America  and  the  frozen  ocean, 
and  then  into  the  northern  parts  of  Asia,  would, 
when  eternity  should  end,  and  not  before,  ter- 
minate in  the  North  Pole. 

This  is  the  only  manner  in  which  I  can  ex- 
press the  effect  of  a  northwest  line,  set  off  as 
above;  because  as  its  direction  must  always  be 
between  the  North  and  the  West,  it  consequently 
can  never  get  into  the  Pole  nor  yet  come  to  a 
rest,  and  on  the  principle  that  matter  or  space  is 
capable  of  being  eternally  divided,  must  proceed 
on  forever. 

But  it  was  a  prevailing  opinion,  at  the  time 
140 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

this  patent  was  obtained,  that  the  South  Sea 
was  at  no  great  distance  from  the  Atlantic,  and 
therefore  it  was  needless,  under  that  supposition, 
to  regard  which  way  the  lines  should  be  run; 
neither  need  we  wonder  at  this  error  in  the  Eng- 
lish Government  respecting  America  then,  when 
we  see  so  many  and  such  glaring  ones  now,  for 
which  there  is  much  less  excuse. 

Some  circumstances  favored  this  mistake. 
Admiral  Sir  Francis  Drake,  not  long  before  this, 
had,  from  the  top  of  a  mountain  in  the  Isthmus 
of  Darien,  which  is  the  center  of  North  and 
South  America,  seen  both  the  South  Sea  and  the 
Atlantic,  the  width  of  the  part  of  the  continent 
where  he  then  was,  not  being  above  70  miles; 
whereas  its  width  opposite  Chesapeake  Bay  is  as 
great,  if  not  greater,  than  in  any  other  part, 
being  from  sea  to  sea  about  the  distance  it  is  from 
America  to  England.  But  this  could  not  then 
be  known,  because  only  two  voyages  had  been 
made  across  the  South  Sea;  the  one  by  the  ship 
in  which  Magellan  sailed,  who  died  on  his  pas- 
sage, and  which  was  the  first  ship  which  sailed 
around  the  world,  and  the  other  by  Sir  Francis 
Drake ;  but  as  neither  of  these  sailed  into  a  north- 
ern latitude  in  that  ocean,  high  enough  to  fix  the 
longitude  of  the  Western  coast  of  America  from 

141 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  Eastern,  the  distance  across  was  entirely  on 
supposition,  and  the  errors  they  then  ran  into  ap- 
pear laughable  to  us  who  now  know  what  the  dis- 
tance is. 

That  the  Company  expected  to  come  at  the 
South  Sea  without  much  trouble  or  traveling, 
and  that  the  great  body  of  land  which  intervened, 
so  far  from  being  their  view  in  obtaining  the 
charter,  became  their  disappointment,  may  be 
collected  from  a  circumstance  mentioned  in 
Stith's  "History  of  Virginia." 

He  relates,  that  in  the  year  1608,  which  was 
at  the  time  the  Company  were  soliciting  this  pat- 
ent, they  fitted  up  in  England  "a  barge  for  Cap- 
tain Newport,  (who  was  afterwards  one  of  the 
joint  deputy  governors  under  the  very  charter 
we  are  now  treating  of) ,  which,  for  convenience 
of  carriage,  might  be  taken  into  five  pieces,  and 
with  which  he  and  his  company  were  instructed 
to  go  up  James  River  as  far  as  the  falls  thereof, 
to  discover  the  country  of  the  Monakins,  and 
from  thence  they  were  to  proceed,  carrying  their 
barge  beyond  the  falls  to  convey  them  to  the 
South  Sea;  being  ordered  not  to  return  without 
a  lump  of  gold,  or  a  certainty  of  the  said  sea." 
And  Hutchinson,  in  his  history  of  New  Eng- 
land, which  was  called  North  Virginia  at  the  time 
142 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

this  patent  was  obtained,  says  "the  geography  of 
this  part  of  America  was  less  understood  than 
at  present.  A  Hne  to  the  Spanish  settlements 
was  imagined  to  be  much  shorter  than  it  really 
was.  Some  of  Champlain's  people  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  last  century,  who  had  been  but  a 
few  days'  march  from  Quebec,  returned  with 
great  joy,  supposing  that  from  the  top  of  a  high 
mountain,  they  had  discovered  the  South  Sea." 

From  these  matters,  which  are  evidences  on 
record,  it  appears  that  the  adventurers  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  distance  it  was  to  the  South 
Sea,  but  supposed  it  to  be  no  great  way  from  the 
Atlantic;  and  also  that  great  extent  of  territory 
was  not  their  object,  but  a  short  communication 
with  the  southern  ocean,  by  which  they  might 
get  into  the  neighborhood  of  the  Gold  Coast,  and 
likewise  carry  on  a  commerce  with  the  East 
Indies. 

Having  thus  shown  the  confused  and  various 
interpretations  this  charter  is  subject  to,  and  that 
it  may  be  made  to  mean  anything  and  nothing; 
I  proceed  to  show,  that,  let  the  limits  of  it  be 
more  or  less,  the  present  state  of  Virginia  does 
not,  and  cannot,  as  a  matter  of  right,  inherit 
under  it. 

143 


.WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

I  shall  open  this  part  of  the  subject  by  put- 
ting the  following  case: 

Either  Virginia  stands  in  succession  to  the 
London  Company,  to  whom  the  charter  was 
granted,  or  to  the  Crown  of  England.  If  to  the 
London  Company,  then  it  becomes  her,  as  an  out- 
set in  the  matter,  to  show  who  they  were,  and 
likewise  that  they  were  in  possession  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Revolution.  If  to  the  Crown, 
then  the  charter  is  of  consequence  superseded; 
because  the  Crown  did  not  possess  territories  by 
charter,  but  by  prerogative  without  charter. 
The  notion  of  the  Crown  chartering  to  itself  is  a 
nullity;  and  in  this  case,  the  unpossessed  lands, 
be  they  little  or  much,  are  in  the  same  condition 
as  if  they  had  never  been  chartered  at  all;  and 
the  sovereignty  of  them  devolves  to  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  United  States. 

The  charter  or  patent  of  1609,  as  well  as  that 
of  1606,  was  to  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Sir  George 
Summers,  the  Rev.  Richard  Hacluit,  Prebend  of 
Westminster,  and  others;  and  the  government 
was  then  proprietary.  These  proprietors,  by  vir- 
tue of  the  charter  of  1609,  chose  Lord  Delaware 
for  their  governor,  and  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Sir 
George  Summers,  and  Captain  Newport,  (the 
person  who  was  to  go  with  a  boat  to  the  South 
144 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Sea) ,  joint  deputy  governors.  Was  this  the 
form  of  government  either  as  to  soil  or  constitu- 
tion at  the  time  the  present  Revolution  com- 
menced? If  not,  the  charter  was  not  in  being; 
for  it  matters  not  to  us  how  it  came  to  be  out  of 
beings  so  long  as  the  present  Virginians,  or  their 
ancestors,  neither  are,  nor  were  sufferers  by  the 
change  then  made. 

But  suppose  it  could  not  be  proved  to  be  in 
being,  which  it  cannot,  because  being,  in  a  charter, 
is  power,  it  would  only  prove  a  right  in  behalf 
of  the  London  Company  of  adventurers ;  but  how 
that  right  is  to  be  disposed  of  is  another  question. 
We  are  not  defending  the  right  of  the  London 
Company,  deceased  150  years  ago,  but  taking  up 
the  matter  at  the  place  where  we  found  it,  and 
so  far  as  the  authority  of  the  Crown  of  England 
was  exercised  when  the  Revolution  commenced. 
The  charter  was  a  contract  between  the  Crown  of 
England  and  those  adventurers  for  their  own 
emolument,  and  not  between  the  Crown  and  the 
people  of  Virginia;  and  whatever  was  the  occa- 
sion of  the  contract  becoming  void,  or  surren- 
dered up,  or  superseded,  makes  no  part  of  the 
question  now. 

It  is  sufficient  that  when  the  United  States 

succeeded  to  sovereignty  they  found  no  such  con- 

145 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tract  in  existence,  or  even  in  litigation.  They 
found  Virginia  under  the  authority  of  the  Crown 
of  England  both  as  to  soil  and  government,  sub- 
ject to  quit-rents  to  the  Crown  and  not  to  the 
Company,  and  had  been  so  for  upwards  of  150 
years :  and  that  an  instrument  or  deed  of  writing, 
of  a  private  nature,  as  all  proprietary  contracts 
are,  so  far  as  land  is  concerned,  and  which  is  now 
historically  known,  and  in  which  Virginia  was 
no  party,  and  to  which  no  succession  in  any  line 
can  be  proved,  and  has  ceased  for  150  years, 
should  now  be  raked  from  oblivion  and  held  up 
as  a  charter  whereon  to  assume  a  right  to  bound- 
less territory,  and  that  by  a  perversion  of  the 
order  of  it,  is  something  very  singular  and  ex- 
traordinary. 

If  there  was  any  innovation  on  the  part  of 
the  Crown,  the  contest  rested  between  the  Crown 
and  the  proprietors,  the  London  Company,  and 
not  between  Virginia  and  the  said  Crown.  It 
was  not  her  charter;  it  was  the  Company's  char- 
ter, and  the  only  parties  in  the  case  were  the 
Crown  and  the  Company. 

But  why,  if  Virginia  contends  for  the  immu- 
tability of  charters,  has  she  selected  this  in  prefer- 
ence to  the  two  former  ones  ?  All  her  arguments, 
arising  from  this  principle,  must  go  to  the  first 
146 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

charter  and  not  to  the  last;  but  by  placing  them 
to  the  last,  instead  of  the  first,  she  admits  a  fact 
against  her  principle;  because,  in  order  to  es.tab- 
lish  the  last,  she  proves  the  first  to  be  vacated  by 
the  second  in  the  space  of  twenty -three  years,  the 
second  to  be  vacated  by  the  third  in  the  space  of 
three  years;  and  why  the  third  should  not  be  va- 
cated by  the  fourth  form  of  government,  issuing 
from  the  same  power  with  the  former  two,  and 
which  took  place  about  twenty-five  years  after, 
and  continued  in  being  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  since,  and  under  which  all  her  public  and 
private  business  was  transacted,  her  purchases 
made,  her  warrants  for  survey  and  patents  for 
land  obtained,  is  too  mysterious  to  account  for. 
Either  the  re-assumption  of  the  London  Com- 
pany's charter  into  the  hands  of  the  Crown  was 
an  usurpation,  or  it  was  not.  If  it  was,  then, 
strictly  speaking,  is  everything  which  Virginia 
has  done  under  that  usurpation  illegal,  and  she 
may  be  said  to  have  lived  in  the  most  curious 
species  of  rebellion  ever  known ;  rebellion  against 
the  London  Company  of  adventurers.  For  if 
the  charter  to  the  Company  ( for  it  was  not  to  the 
Virginians)  ought  to  be  in  being  now,  it  ought 
to  have  been  in  being  then;  and  why  she  should 

admit  its  vacation  then  and  reject  it  now,  is  un- 

147 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

accountable;  or  why  she  should  esteem  her  pur- 
chases of  land  good  which  were  then  made  con- 
trary to  this  charter,  and  now  contend  for  the 
operation  of  the  same  charter  to  possess  new  ter- 
ritory by,  are  circumstances  which  cannot  be 
reconciled. 

But  whether  the  charter,  as  it  is  called,  ought 
to  be  extinct  or  not,  cannot  make  a  question  with 
us.  All  the  parties  concerned  in  it  are  deceased, 
and  no  successors,  in  any  regular  line  of  succes- 
sion, appear  to  claim.  Neither  the  London  Com- 
pany of  adventurers,  their  heirs  or  assigns,  were 
in  possession  of  the  exercise  of  this  charter  at 
the  commencement  of  the  Revolution ;  and  there- 
fore the  state  of  Virginia  does  not,  in  point  of 
fact,  succeed  to  and  inherit  from  the  Company. 

But,  say  they,  we  succeed  to  and  inherit  from 
the  Crown  of  England,  which  was  the  immediate 
possessor  of  the  sovereignty  at  the  time  we  en- 
tered, and  had  been  so  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years. 

To  say  this,  is  to  say  there  is  no  charter  at 
all.  A  charter  is  an  assurance  from  one  party  to 
another,  and  cannot  be  from  the  same  party  to 
itself. 

But  before  I  enter  further  on  this  case,  I 
shall  concisely  state  how  this  charter  came  to  be 
148 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

re-assumed  by  the  power  which  granted  it,  the 
Crown  of  England. 

I  have  abeady  stated  that  it  was  a  proprietary 
charter,  or  grant,  to  Sir  Thomas  Gates  and 
others,  who  were  called  the  London  Company, 
and  sometimes  the  South  Virginia  Company,  to 
distinguish  them  from  those  who  settled  to  the 
eastward  (now  New  England)  and  were  then 
called  the  North  Virginia  or  Plymouth  Com- 
pany. 

Oldmixon's  "History  of  Virginia"  (in  his  ac- 
count of  the  British  Empire  in  America)  pub- 
lished in  the  year  1708,  gives  a  concise  progress 
of  the  affair.  He  attributes  it  to  the  misconduct, 
contentions  and  mismanagements  of  the  proprie- 
tors, and  their  innovations  upon  the  Indians, 
which  had  so  exasperated  them,  that  they  fell  on 
the  settlers,  and  destroyed  at  one  time  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-four  men,  women  and  children. 

Some  time  after  this  massacre,  (says  he),  several 
gentlemen  in  England  procured  grants  of  land  from 
the  Company,  and  others  came  over  on  their  private 
accounts  to  make  settlements ;  among  the  former  was 
one  Captain  Martin,  who  was  named  to  be  of  the  coun- 
cil. This  man  raised  so  many  differences  among  them, 
that  new  distractions  followed,  which  the  Indians  ob- 
serving, took  heart,  and  once  more  fell  upon  the  set- 
tlers on  the  borders,  destroying,  without  pitying  either 
age,  sex,  or  condition. 

\  149 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

These  and  other  calamities  being  chiefly  imputed 
to  the  mismanagement  of  the  proprietors,  whose  losses 
had  so  discouraged  most  of  their  best  members,  that 
they  sold  their  shares,  and  Charles  I.,  on  his  accession 
to  the  throne,  dissolved  the  Company,  and  took  the 
colony  into  his  own  immediate  direction.  He  appointed 
the  governor  and  council  himself,  ordered  all  patents 
and  processes  to  issue  in  his  own  name,  and  reserved 
a  quit-rent  of  two  shillings  sterling  for  every  hundred 
acres. 

Thus  far  our  author.  Now  it  is  impossible 
for  us  at  this  distance  of  time  to  say  what  were  all 
the  exact  causes  of  the  change;  neither  have  we 
any  business  with  it.  The  Company  might  sur- 
render it,  or  they  might  not,  or  they  might  for- 
feit it  by  not  fulfilling  conditions,  or  they  might 
sell  it,  or  the  Crown  might,  as  far  as  we  know, 
take  it  from  them.  But  what  are  either  of  these 
cases  to  Virginia,  or  any  other  which  can  be  pro- 
duced? She  was  not  a  party  in  the  matter.  It 
was  not  her  charter,  neither  can  she  ingraft  any 
right  upon  it,  or  suffer  any  injury  under  it. 

If  the  charter  was  vacated,  it  must  have  been 
by  the  London  Company ;  if  it  was  surrendered, 
it  must  be  by  the  same ;  and  if  it  was  sold,  nobody 
else  could  sell  it ;  and  if  it  was  taken  from  them, 
nobody  else  could  lose  it;  and  yet  Virginia  calls 
this  her  charter,  which  it  was  not  within  her  power 
to  hold,  to  sell,  to  vacate,  or  to  lose. 
150 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  if  she  puts  her  right  upon  the  ground 
that  it  never  was  sold,  surrendered,  lost,  or 
vacated,  by  the  London  Company,  she  admits 
that  if  they  had  sold,  surrendered,  lost,  or  vacated 
it,  it  would  have  become  extinct,  and  to  her  no 
charter  at  all.  And  in  this  case,  the  only  thing  to 
prove  is  the  fact,  which  is,  has  this  charter  been 
the  rule  of  government,  and  of  purchasing  or 
procuring  unappropriated  lands  in  Virginia, 
from  the  time  it  was  granted  to  the  time  of  the 
Revolution?  Answer — the  charter  has  not  been 
the  rule  of  government,  nor  of  purchasing  and 
procuring  lands,  neither  have  any  lands  been  pur- 
chased or  procured  under  its  sanction  or  authority 
for  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

But  if  she  goes  a  step  further,  and  says,  that 
they  could  not  vacate,  surrender,  sell,  or  lose 
it,  by  any  act  they  could  do,  so  neither  could 
they  vacate,  surrender,  sell  or  lose  that  of 
1606,  which  was  three  years  prior  to  this:  and 
this  argument,  so  far  from  estabhshing  the 
charter  of  1609,  would  destroy  it;  and  in  its  stead 
confirm  the  preceding  one,  which  limited  the 
Company  to  a  square  of  one  hundred  miles.  And 
if  she  still  goes  back  to  that  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  that  only  places  her  in  the  light  of 
Americans  common  with  all. 

151 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  only  fact  that  can  be  clearly  proved  is, 
that  the  Crown  of  England  exercised  the  power 
of  dominion  and  government  in  Virginia,  and  of 
the  disposal  of  the  lands,  and  that  the  charter 
had  neither  been  the  rule  of  government  or  pur- 
chasing land  for  upwards  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  and  this  places  Virginia  in  succession 
to  the  Crown,  and  not  to  the  Company.  Conse- 
quently it  proves  a  lapse  of  the  charter  into  the 
hands  of  the  Crown  by  some  means  or  other. 

Now  to  suppose  that  the  charter  could  return 
into  the  hands  of  the  Crown  and  yet  remain  in 
force,  is  to  suppose  that  a  man  could  be  bound 
by  a  bond  of  obligation  to  himself. 

Its  very  being  in  the  hands  of  the  Crown,  from 
which  it  issued,  is  a  cessation  of  its  existence ;  and 
an  effectual  unchartering  all  that  part  of  the 
grant  which  was  not  before  disposed  of.  And 
consequently  the  state  of  Virginia,  standing  thus 
in  succession  to  the  Crown,  can  be  entitled  to  no 
more  extent  of  country  as  a  state  under  the 
Union,  than  what  it  possessed  as  a  province  under 
the  Crown.  And  all  lands  exterior  to  these 
bounds,  as  well  of  Virginia  as  the  rest  of  the 
states,  devolve,  in  the  order  of  succession,  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  United  States  for  the  benefit 

of  aU. 

152 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

And  this  brings  the  case  to  what  were  the 
limits  of  Virginia  as  a  province  under  the  Crown 
of  England. 

Charter  it  had  none.  Its  limits  then  rested 
at  the  discretion  of  the  authority  to  which  it  was 
subject.  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  became  its 
boundary  to  the  eastward  and  northward,  and 
North  Carolina  to  the  southward,  therefore  the 
boundary  to  the  westward  was  the  only  principal 
line  to  be  ascertained. 

As  Virginia,  from  a  proprietary  soil  and  gov- 
ernment was  become  what  then  bore  the  name  of 
a  royal  one,  the  extent  of  the  province,  as  the 
order  of  things  then  stood  (for  something  must 
always  be  admitted  whereon  to  form  a  begin- 
ning) was  wholly  at  the  disposal  of  the  Crown 
of  England,  who  might  enlarge  or  diminish,  or 
erect  new  governments  to  the  westward,  by  the 
same  authoritative  right  that  Virginia  now  can 
divide  a  county  into  two,  if  too  large,  or  too  in- 
convenient. 

To  say,  as  has  been  said,  that  Pennsylvania, 

Maryland,  and  North  Carolina,  were  taken  out 

of  Virginia,  is  no  more  than  to  say,  they  were 

taken  out  of  America;  because  Virginia  was  the 

common  name  of  all  the  country.  North  and 

South ;  and  to  say  they  were  taken  out  of  the  char- 

153 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tered  limits  of  Virginia,  is  likewise  to  say  noth- 
ing; because,  after  the  dissolution  or  extinction 
of  the  proprietary  company,  there  was  nobody  to 
whom  any  provincial  limits  became  chartered. 
The  extinction  of  the  Company  was  the  extinction 
of  the  chartered  limits.  The  patent  could  not 
survive  the  Company,  because  it  was  to  them  a 
right,  which,  when  they  expired,  ceased  to  be  any- 
body's else  in  their  stead. 

But  to  return  to  the  western  boundary  of 
Virginia  at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolution. 

Charters,  like  proclamations,  were  the  sole  act 
of  the  Crown,  and  if  the  former  were  adequate 
to  fix  limits  to  the  lands  which  it  gave  away,  sold, 
or  otherwise  disposed  of,  the  latter  were  equally 
adequate  to  fix  limits  or  divisions  to  those  which 
it  retained;  and  therefore,  the  western  limits  of 
Virginia,  as  the  proprietary  Company  was  ex- 
tinct and  consequently  the  patent  with  it,  must 
be  looked  for  in  the  line  of  proclamations. 

I  am  not  fond  of  quoting  these  old  remains 
of  former  arrogance,  but  as  we  must  begin  some- 
where, and  as  the  states  have  agreed  to  regulate 
the  right  of  each  state  to  territory,  by  the  con- 
dition each  stood  in  with  the  Crown  of  England 
at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolution,  we  have 
154 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

no  other  rule  to  go  by;  and  any  rule  which  can 
be  agreed  on  is  better  than  none. 

From  the  proclamation  then  of  1763,  the 
western  limits  of  Virginia,  as  a  province  under 
the  Crown  of  England  are  described  so  as  not  to 
extend  beyond  the  heads  of  any  of  the  rivers 
which  empty  themselves  into  the  Atlantic,  and 
consequently  the  limits  did  not  pass  over  the  Alle- 
ghany Mountains. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  proc- 
lamation of  1763,  so  far  as  respects  boundary: 

And  whereas,  it  is  just  and  reasonable  and  essential 
to  our  interest,  and  the  security  of  our  colonies,  that  the 
several  nations  or  tribes  of  Indians,  with  whom  we  are 
connected,  and  who  live  under  our  protection,  should 
not  be  molested  or  disturbed  in  the  possession  of  such 
parts  of  our  dominions  and  territories,  as,  not  having 
been  ceded  to,  or  purchased  by  us,  are  reserved  to  them 
or  any  of  them  as  their  hunting  grounds;  we  do  there- 
fore, with  the  advice  of  our  privy  council,  declare  it 
to  be  our  royal  will  and  pleasure  that  no  governor,  or 
commander-in-chief,  in  any  of  our  colonies  of  Quebec, 
East  Florida,  or  West  Florida,  do  presume  upon  any 
pretense  whatever,  to  grant  warrants  of  survey,  or 
pass  any  patents  for  lands  beyond  the  bounds  of  their 
respective  governments,  as  described  in  their  commis- 
sions: as  ALSO  that  no  governor  or  commander-in-chief 
of  our  colonies  or  plantations  in  America,  do  presume, 
for  the  present,  and  until  our  further  pleasure  be 
known,  to  grant  warrants  of  survey  or  pass  patents 
for  any  lands  beyond  the  heads  or  sources  of  any  of  the 
rivers  which  fall  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  from  the  west 

VIII-18  155 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

or  northwest^  or  upon  any  lands  whatever,  which  not 
having  been  ceded  to  or  purchased  by  us,  as  aforesaid, 
are  reserved  unto  the  said  Indians,  or  any  of  them. 

And  we  do  further  declare  it  to  be  our  royal  will 
and  pleasure,  for  the  present,  as  aforesaid,  to  reserve 
under  our  sovereignty,  protection,  and  dominion,  for 
the  use  of  the  said  Indians,  all  lands  and  territories,  not 
included  within  the  hmits  of  our  said  three  new  gov- 
ernments, or  within  the  limits  of  the  territory  granted 
to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company ;  as  also,  all  the  lands  and 
territories  lying  to  the  westward  of  the  sources  of  the 
rivers,  which  fall  into  the  sea  from  the  west  and  north- 
west, as  aforesaid;  and  we  do  hereby  strictly  forbid  on 
pain  of  our  displeasure,  all  our  loving  subjects  from 
making  any  purchases  or  settlements  whatever,  or  tak- 
ing possession  of  any  of  the  lands  above  reserved,  with- 
out our  especial  leave  and  license  for  that  purpose  first 
obtained. 

And  we  do  further  strictly  enjoin  and  require  all 
persons  whatever,  who  have  either  wilfully  or  inad- 
vertently seated  themselves  upon  any  lands  within  the 
countries  above  described,  or  upon  any  other  lands, 
which,  not  having  been  ceded  to,  or  purchased  by  us, 
are  still  reserved  to  the  said  Indians,  as  aforesaid,  forth- 
with to  remove  themselves  from  such  settlements. 

It  is  easy  for  us  to  understand,  that  the  fre- 
quent and  plausible  mention  of  the  Indians  was 
only  a  pretext  to  create  an  idea  of  the  humanity 
of  government.  The  object  and  intention  of  the 
proclamation  was  the  western  boundary,  which  is 
here  signified  not  to  extend  beyond  the  heads  of 
the  rivers:  and  these,  then,  are  the  western  Kmits 
156 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

which   Virginia   had   as   a   province  under   the 
Crown  of  Britain. 

And  agreeable  to  the  intention  of  this  proc- 
lamation, and  the  limits  described  thereby,  Lord 
Hillsborough,  then  Secretary  of  State  in  Eng- 
land, addressed  an  official  letter,  of  the  thirty-first 
of  July,  1770,  to  Lord  Bottetourt,  at  that  time 
Governor  of  Virginia,  which  letter  was  laid  be- 
fore the  Council  of  Virginia  by  Mr.  President 
Nelson,  and  by  him  answered  on  the  eighteenth 
of  October,  in  the  same  year,  of  which  the  follow- 
ing are  extracts: 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  Your  Lordship's  letter 
to  the  governor  was  delivered  to  me  (as  it  contains  mat- 
ters of  great  variety  and  importance)  it  was  read  in 
council,  and,  together  with  the  several  papers  inclosed, 
it  hath  been  maturely  considered,  and  I  now  trouble 
Your  Lordship  with  theirs  as  well  as  my  own  opinion 
upon  the  subject  of  them. 

We  do  not  presume  to  say  to  whom  our  gracious 
sovereign  shall  grant  the  vacant  lands,  and  with 
regard  to  the  establishment  of  a  new  colony  on  the  back 
of  Virginia,  it  is  a  subject  of  too  great  political  im- 
portance for  me  to  presume  to  give  an  opinion  upon ; 
however,  permit  me,  My  Lord,  to  observe,  that  when  that 
part  of  the  country  shall  become  sufficiently  populated 
it  may  be  a  wise  and  prudent  measure. 

On  the  death  of  Lord  Bottetourt,  Lord  Dun- 
more  was  appointed  to  the  government,  and  he, 
either  from  ignorance  of  the  subject  or  other 

157 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

motives,  made  a  grant  of  some  lands  on  the  Ohio 
to  certain  of  his  friends  and  favorites,  which 
produced  the  following  letter  from  Lord  Dart- 
mouth, who  succeeded  Lord  Hillsborough  as  Sec- 
retary of  State: 

I  think  fit  to  inclose  Your  Lordship  a  copy  of  Lord 
Hillsborough's  letter  to  Lord  Bottetourt,  of  the  thirty- 
first  of  July,  1770,  the  receipt  of  which  was  acknowl- 
edged by  Mr.  President  Nelson,  a  few  days  before  Lord 
Bottetourt's  death,  and  appears  by  his  answer  to  it,  to 
have  been  laid  before  the  council.  That  board,  therefore, 
could  not  be  ignorant  of  what  has  passed  here  upon 
Mr.  Walpole's  application,  nor  of  the  King's  express 
command,  contained  in  Lord  Hillsborough's  letter,  that 
no  lands  should  be  granted  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
royal  proclamation  of  1763,  until  the  King's  further 
pleasure  was  signified ;  and  I  have  only  to  observe,  that 
it  must  have  been  a  very  extraordinary  neglect  in  them 
not  to  have  informed  Your  Lordship  of  that  letter  and 
those  orders. 

On  these  documents  I  shall  make  no  remarks. 
They  are  their  own  evidence,  and  show  what  the 
limits  of  Virginia  were  while  a  British  province; 
and  as  there  was  then  no  other  authority  by  which 
they  could  be  fixed,  and  as  the  grant  to  the  Lon- 
don Company  could  not  be  a  grant  to  any  but 
themselves,  and  of  consequence  ceased  to  be  when 
they  ceased  to  exist,  it  remained  a  matter  of 
choice  in  the  Crown,  on  its  re-assumption  of  the 
lands,  to  limit  or  divide  them  into  separate 
governments,  as  it  judged  best,  and  from  which 
158 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

there  was  not,  and  could  not,  in  the  order  of  gov- 
ernment, be  any  appeal.  Neither  was  Vii'ginia, 
as  a  province,  affected  by  it,  because  the  moneys, 
in  any  case,  arising  from  the  sale  of  lands,  did 
not  go  into  her  treasury;  and  whether  to  the 
Crown  or  to  the  proprietors  was  to  her  indiffer- 
ent. And  it  is  likewise  evident,  from  the  secre- 
tary's letter,  and  the  president's  answer,  that  it 
was  in  contemplation  to  lay  out  a  new  colony  on 
the  back  of  Virginia,  between  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  and  the  Ohio. 

Having  thus  gone  through  the  several  char- 
ters, or  grants,  and  their  relation  to  each  other, 
and  shown  that  Virginia  cannot  stand  in  succes- 
sion to  a  private  grant,  which  has  been  extinct 
for  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years — and 
that  the  western  limits  of  Virginia,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Revolution,  were  at  the  heads 
of  the  rivers  emptying  themselves  into  the  At- 
lantic, none  of  which  are  beyond  the  Alleghany 
Mountains;  I  now  proceed  to  the  second  part, 
namely, 

The  reasonableness  of  her  claims. 

Virginia,  as  a  British  province,  stood  in  a  dif- 
ferent situation  with  the  Crown  of  England  to 
any  of  the  other  provinces,  because  she  had  no 
ascertained  hmits,  but  such  as  arose  from  laying 

159 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

off  new  provinces  and  the  proclamation  of  1763. 
For  the  same  name,  Virginia,  as  I  have  before 
mentioned,  was  the  general  name  of  all  the  coun- 
try, and  the  dominion  out  of  which  the  several 
governments  were  laid  off:  and,  in  strict  pro- 
priety, conformable  to  the  origin  of  names,  the 
province  of  Virginia  was  taken  out  of  the  domin- 
ion of  Virginia.  For  the  term,  dominion,  could 
not  appertain  to  the  province,  which  retained  the 
name  of  Virginia,  but  the  Crown,  and  from 
thence  was  applied  to  the  whole  country,  and  sig- 
nified its  being  an  appendage  to  the  Crown  of 
England,  as  they  say  now,  "our  dominion  of 
Walesr 

It  is  not  possible  to  suppose  there  could  exist 
an  idea  that  Virginia,  as  a  British  province,  was 
to  be  extended  to  the  South  Sea,  at  the  distance 
of  three  thousand  miles.  The  dominion,  as  ap- 
pertaining at  that  time  to  the  Crown,  might  be 
claimed  to  extend  so  far,  but  as  a  province  the 
thought  was  not  conceivable,  nor  the  practise  pos- 
sible. 

And  it  is  more  than  probable,  that  the  de- 
ception made  use  of  to  obtain  the  patent  of  1609, 
by  representing  the  South  Sea  to  be  near  where 
the  Alleghany  Mountains  are,  was  one  cause  of 
its  becoming  extinct ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark- 
160 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ing,  that  no  history  (at  least  that  I  have  met 
with)  mentions  any  dispute  or  litigation,  between 
the  Crown  and  the  Company,  in  consequence  of 
the  extinction  of  the  patent,  and  the  re-assump- 
tion of  the  lands ;  and,  therefore,  the  negative  evi- 
dence corroborating  with  the  positive,  makes  it  as 
certain  as  such  a  case  can  possibly  be,  that  either 
the  Company  received  a  compensation  for  the 
patent,  or  quitted  it  quietly,  ashamed  of  the  im- 
position they  had  practised,  and  their  subsequent 
maladministration. 

Men  are  not  inclined  to  give  up  a  claim  where 
there  is  any  ground  to  contend  upon,  and  the 
silence  in  which  the  patent  expired  is  a  pre- 
sumptive proof  that  its  fate,  from  whatever 
cause,  was  just. 

There  is  one  general  policy  which  seems  to 
have  prevailed  with  the  English  in  laying  off  new 
governments,  which  was,  not  to  make  them  larger 
than  their  own  country,  that  they  might  the  easier 
hold  them  manageable:  this  was  the  case  with 
everyone  except  Canada,  the  extension  of  whose 
limits  was  for  the  politic  purpose  of  recognizing 
new  acquisitions  of  territory,  not  immediately 
convenient  for  colonization. 

But,  in  order  to  give  this  matter  a  chance 
through  all  its  cases,  I  will  admit  what  no  man 

161 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

can  suppose,  which  is,  that  there  is  an  Enghsh 
charter  that  fixes  Virginia  to  extend  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  South  Sea,  and  contained  within 
a  due  west  hne,  set  off  two  hundred  miles  below 
Cape  Comfort,  and  a  northwest  line,  set  off  two 
hundred  miles  above  it.  Her  side,  then,  on  the 
Atlantic  (according  to  an  explanation  given  in 
Mr.  Bradford's  paper  of  Sept.  29,  1779,  by  an 
advocate  for  the  Virginia  claims)  will  be  four 
hundred  miles;  her  side  to  the  south  three  thou- 
sand; her  side  to  the  west  four  thousand;  and  her 
northwest  line  about  five  thousand ;  and  the  quan- 
tity of  land  contained  within  these  dimensions  will 
be  almost  four  thousand  millions  of  acres,  which 
is  more  than  ten  times  the  quantity  contained 
within  the  present  United  States,  and  above  an 
hundred  times  greater  than  the  Kingdom  of  Eng- 
land. 

To  reason  on  a  case  like  this,  is  such  a  waste 
of  time,  and  such  an  excess  of  folly,  that  it  ought 
not  to  be  reasoned  upon.  It  is  impossible  to  sup- 
pose that  any  patent  to  private  persons  could  be 
so  intentionally  absurd,  and  the  claim  grounded 
thereon,  is  as  wild  as  anything  the  imagination  of 
man  ever  conceived. 

But  if,  as  I  before  mentioned,  there  was  a 
charter  which  bore  such  an  explanation,  and  Vir- 
162 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ginia  stood  in  succession  to  it,  what  would  that 
be  to  us,  any  more  than  the  will  of  Alexander,  had 
he  taken  it  into  his  head  to  have  bequeathed  away 
the  world?  Such  a  charter,  or  grant,  must  have 
been  obtained  by  imposition  and  a  false  repre- 
sentation of  the  country,  or  granted  in  error,  or 
both ;  and  in  any  of,  or  all  these  cases,  the  United 
States  must  reject  the  matter  as  something  they 
cannot  know,  for  the  merits  wiU  not  bear  an  argu- 
ment, and  the  pretension  of  right  stands  upon  no 
better  ground. 

Our  case  is  an  original  one;  and  many  mat- 
ters attending  it  must  be  determined  on  their 
own  merits  and  reasonableness.  The  territory  of 
the  rest  of  the  states  is,  in  general,  within  known 
bounds  of  moderate  extent,  and  the  quota  which 
each  state  is  to  furnish  toward  the  expense  and 
service  of  the  war,  must  be  ascertained  upon  some 
rule  of  comparison.  The  number  of  inhabitants 
of  each  state  formed  the  first  rule;  and  it  was 
naturally  supposed  that  those  numbers  bore 
nearly  the  same  proportion  to  each  other,  which 
the  territory  of  each  state  did.  Virginia  on  this 
scale,  would  be  about  one  fifth  larger  than  Penn- 
sylvania, which  would  be  as  much  dominion  as 
any  state  could  manage  with  happiness  and  con- 
venience. 

163 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

When  I  first  began  this  subject,  my  intention 
was  to  be  extensive  on  the  merits,  and  concise  on 
the  matter  of  the  right;  instead  of  which,  I  have 
been  extensive  on  the  matter  of  right,  and  concise 
on  the  merits  of  reasonableness:  and  this  altera- 
tion in  my  design  arose,  consequentially,  from 
the  nature  of  the  subject;  for  as  a  reasonable 
thing  the  claim  can  be  supported  by  no  argu- 
ment, and  therefore,  needs  none  to  refute  it;  but 
as  there  is  a  strange  propensity  in  mankind  to 
shelter  themselves  under  the  sanction  of  right, 
however  unreasonable  that  supposed  right  may 
be,  I  found  it  most  conducive  to  the  interest  of 
the  case,  to  show,  that  the  right  stands  upon  no 
better  grounds  than  the  reason.  And  shall  there- 
fore proceed  to  make  some  observations  on  the 
consequences  of  the  claim. 

The  claim  being  unreasonable  in  itself,  and 
standing  on  no  ground  of  right,  but  such 
as,  if  true,  must,  from  the  quarter  it  is  drawn, 
be  offensive,  has  a  tendency  to  create  disgust, 
and  sour  the  minds  of  the  rest  of  the  states. 
Those  lands  are  capable,  under  the  management 
of  the  United  States,  of  repaying  the  charges  of 
the  war,  and  some  of  them,  as  I  shall  hereafter 
show,  may,  I  presume,  be  made  an  immediate 
advantage  of. 
164 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

I  distinguish  three  different  descriptions  of 
land  in  America  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Revolution.  Proprietary  or  chartered  lands,  as 
was  the  case  in  Pennsylvania;  crown  lands, 
within  the  described  limits  of  any  of  the  Crown 
governments;  and  crown  residuary  lands,  that 
were  wdthout  or  beyond  the  limits  of  any  prov- 
ince; and  those  last  were  held  in  reserve  whereon 
to  erect  new  governments,  and  lay  out  new 
provinces ;  as  appears  to  have  been  the  design  by 
Lord  Hillsborough's  letter,  and  the  president's 
answer,  wherein  he  says,  "with  respect  to  the 
establishment  of  a  new  colony  on  the  back  of 
Virginia,  it  is  a  subject  of  too  great  political 
importance  for  me  to  presume  to  give  an  opinion 
upon ;  however,  permit  me.  My  Lord,  to  observe, 
that  when  that  part  of  the  country  shall  become 
populated,  it  may  be  a  wise  and  prudent 
measure." 

The  expression  is,  a  '"^  new  colony  on  the  hack 
of  Virginia;  "  and  referred  to  lands  between  the 
heads  of  the  rivers  and  the  Ohio.  This  is  a  proof 
that  those  lands  were  not  considered  within,  but 
beyond  the  limits  of  Virginia,  as  a  colony;  and 
the  other  expression  in  the  letter  is  equally  de- 
scriptive, namely,  "  We  do  not  presume  to  say, 
to  whom  our  Gracious  Sovereign  shall  grant  his 

165 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

vacant  lands."  Certainly  then,  the  same  right, 
which,  at  that  time  rested  in  the  Crown,  rests  now 
in  the  more  supreme  authority  of  the  United 
States;  and  therefore,  addressing  the  president's 
letter  to  the  circumstances  of  the  Revolution,  it 
will  run  thus: 

"  We  do  not  presume  to  say  to  whom  the 
sovereign  United  States  shall  grant  their  vacant 
lands,  and  with  respect  to  the  settlement  of  a 
new  colony  on  the  hack  of  Virginia,  it  is  a  matter 
of  too  much  political  importance  for  me  to  give 
an  opinion  upon ;  however,  permit  me  to  observe, 
that  when  that  part  of  the  country  shall  become 
populated  it  may  be  a  wise  and  prudent  meas- 
ure." 

It  must  occur  to  every  person,  on  reflection, 
that  those  lands  are  too  distant  to  be  within  the 
government  of  any  of  the  present  states;  and,  I 
may  presimie  to  suppose,  that  were  a  calculation 
justly  made,  Virginia  has  lost  more  by  the  de- 
crease of  taxables,  than  she  has  gained  by  what 
lands  she  has  made  sale  of;  therefore,  she  is  not 
only  doing  the  rest  of  the  states  wrong  in  point 
of  equity,  but  herself  and  them  an  injury  in 
point  of  strength,  service,  and  revenue. 

It  is  only  the  United  States,  and  not  any 
single  state,  that  can  lay  off  new  states,  and  in- 
166 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

corporate  them  In  the  Union  by  representation; 
therefore,  the  situation  which  the  settlers  on 
those  lands  will  be  in,  under  the  assumed  right 
of  Virginia,  will  be  hazardous  and  distressing, 
and  they  will  feel  themselves  at  last  like  the  aliens 
to  the  Commonwealth  of  Israel,  their  habitations 
unsafe  and  their  title  precarious. 

And  when  men  reflect  on  that  peace,  har- 
mony, quietude,  and  security,  which  are  neces- 
sary to  prosperity,  especially  in  making  new  set- 
tlements, and  think  that  when  the  war  shall  be 
ended,  their  happiness  and  safety  will  depend 
on  a  union  with  the  states,  and  not  a  scattered 
people,  unconnected  with,  and  pohtically  un- 
known to  the  rest,  they  will  feel  but  little  inclina- 
tion to  put  themselves  in  a  situation,  which,  how- 
ever sohtary  and  recluse  it  may  appear  at  pres- 
ent, will  then  be  uncertain  and  unsafe,  and  their 
troubles  will  have  to  begin  where  those  of  the 
United  States  shall  end. 

It  is  probable  that  some  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Virginia  may  be  inclined  to  suppose  that  the 
writer  of  this,  by  taking  up  the  subject  in  the 
manner  he  has  done,  is  arguing  unfriendly 
against  their  interest.  To  which  he  wishes  to 
reply: 

That  the  most  extraordinary  part   of  the 

167 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

whole  is,  that  Virginia  should  countenance  such 
a  claim.  For  it  is  worthy  of  observing,  that, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  contest  with  Britain, 
and  long  after,  there  was  not  a  people  in  Amer- 
ica who  discovered,  through  all  the  variety  and 
multiphcity  of  public  business,  a  greater  fund 
of  true  wisdom,  fortitude,  and  disinterestedness, 
than  the  then  colony  of  Virginia.  They  were 
loved — they  were  reverenced.  Their  investiga- 
tion of  the  assumed  rights  of  Britain  had  a 
sagacity  which  was  uncommon.  Their  reason- 
ings were  piercing,  difficult  to  be  equaled  and 
impossible  to  be  refuted,  and  their  public  spirit 
was  exceeded  by  none.  But  since  this  unfortu- 
nate land  scheme  has  taken  place,  their  powers 
seem  to  be  absorbed;  a  torpor  has  overshaded 
them,  and  everyone  asks.  What  is  become  of 
Virginia? 

It  seldom  happens  that  the  romantic  schemes 
of  extensive  dominion  are  of  any  service  to  a 
government,  and  never  to  a  people.  They  assur- 
edly end  at  last  in  loss,  trouble,  division  and  dis- 
appointment. And  was  even  the  title  of  Vir- 
ginia good,  and  the  claim  admissible,  she  would 
derive  more  lasting  and  real  benefit  by  partici- 
pating in  it,  than  by  attempting  the  manage- 
ment of  an  object  so  infinitely  beyond  her  reach. 
168 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Her  share  with  the  rest,  under  the  supremacy  of 
the  United  States,  which  is  the  only  authority 
adequate  to  the  purpose,  would  be  worth  more 
to  her  than  what  the  whole  would  produce  under 
the  management  of  herself  alone.  And  that  for 
several  reasons : 

1st,  Because  her  claim  not  being  admissible 
nor  yet  manageable,  she  cannot  make  a  good  title 
to  the  purchasers,  and  consequently  can  get  but 
little  for  the  lands. 

2d,  Because  the  distance  the  settlers  wiU  be 
from  her,  will  immediately  put  them  out  of  all 
government  and  protection,  so  far,  at  least  as 
relates  to  Virginia:  and  by  this  means  she  will 
render  her  frontiers  a  refuge  to  desperadoes,  and 
a  hiding  place  from  justice;  and  the  consequence 
will  be  perpetual  unsafety  to  her  own  peace,  and 
that  of  the  neighboring  states. 

3d,  Because  her  quota  of  expense  for  carry- 
ing on  the  war,  admitting  her  to  engross  such  an 
immensity  of  territory,  would  be  greater  than 
she  can  either  support  or  supply,  and  could  not 
be  less,  upon  a  reasonable  rule  of  proportion, 
than  nine-tenths  of  the  whole.    And, 

4th,  Because  she  must  sooner  or  later  relin- 
quish them;  therefore  to  see  her  own  interest 

169 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

wisely  at  first,  is  preferable  to  the  alternative  of 
finding  it  out  by  misfortune  at  last. 

I  have  now  gone  through  my  examination  of 
the  claim  of  Virginia,  in  every  case  which  I  pro- 
posed; and  for  several  reasons,  wish  the  lot  had 
fallen  to  another  person.  But  as  this  is  a  most 
important  matter,  in  which  all  are  interested,  and 
the  substantial  good  of  Virginia  not  injured  but 
promoted,  and  as  few  men  have  leisure,  and  still 
fewer  have  inclination,  to  go  into  intricate  in- 
vestigation, I  have  at  last  ventured  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

The  succession  of  the  United  States  to  the 
vacant  western  territory  is  a  right  they  origin- 
ally set  out  upon;  and  in  the  pamphlet  "  Com- 
mon Sense,"  I  frequently  mentioned  those  lands 
as  a  national  fund  for  the  benefit  of  all;  there- 
fore, resuming  the  subject  where  I  then  left  off", 
I  shall  conclude  with  concisely  reducing  to  sys- 
tem what  I  then  only  hinted. 

In  my  last  piece,  the  "  Crisis  Extraordinary," 
I  estimated  the  annual  amount  of  the  charge  of 
war  and  the  support  of  the  several  governments 
at  two  million  pounds  sterling,  and  the  peace 
establishment  at  three  quarters  of  a  million,  and, 
by  a  comparison  of  the  taxes  of  this  country 
with  those  of  England,  proved  that  the  whole 
170 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

yearly  expense  to  us,  to  defend  the  country,  is 
but  a  third  of  what  Britain  would  have  drawn 
from  us  by  taxes,  had  she  succeeded  in  her  at- 
tempt to  conquer;  and  our  peace  establishment 
only  an  eighth  part ;  and  likewise  showed,  that  it 
was  within  the  abihty  of  the  states  to  carry  on 
the  whole  of  the  war  by  taxation,  without  having 
recourse  to  any  other  modes  or  funds.  To  have 
a  clear  idea  of  taxation  is  necessary  to  every 
country,  and  the  more  funds  we  can  discover  and 
organize,  the  less  will  be  the  hope  of  the  enemy, 
and  the  readier  their  disposition  to  peace,  which 
it  is  now  their  interest  more  than  ours  to  promote. 

I  have  already  remarked  that  only  the  United 
States,  and  not  any  particular  state,  can  lay  off 
new  states  and  incorporate  them  into  the  Union 
by  representation;  keeping,  therefore,  this  idea 
in  view,  I  ask,  might  not  a  substantial  fund  be 
quickly  created  by  laying  off  a  new  state,  so  as 
to  contain  between  twenty  and  thirty  millions  of 
acres,  and  opening  a  land  office  in  all  countries 
in  Europe  for  hard  money,  and  in  this  country 
for  supplies  in  kind,  at  a  certain  price? 

The  tract  of  land  that  seems  best  adapted 
to  answer  this  purpose  is  contained  between  the 
Alleghany  IVIountains  and  the  river  Ohio,  as  far 
north  as  the  Pennsylvania  line,  thence  extend- 

VII 1-18  171 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ing  down  the  said  river  to  the  falls  thereof, 
thence  due  south  into  the  latitude  of  the  North- 
Carolina  line,  and  thence  east  to  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  aforesaid.  I  the  more  readily  men- 
tion this  tract,  because  it  is  fighting  the  enemy 
with  their  own  weapons,  as  it  includes  the  same 
ground  on  which  a  new  colony  would  have  been 
erected,  for  the  emolument  of  the  Crown  of  Eng- 
land, as  appears  by  the  letters  of  Lords  Hillsbor- 
ough and  Dartmouth,  had  not  the  Revolution 
prevented  its  being  carried  into  effect. 

It  is  probable  that  there  may  be  some  spots 
of  private  property  within  this  tract,  but  to  in- 
corporate them  into  some  government  will  render 
them  more  profitable  to  the  owners,  and  the  con- 
dition of  the  scattered  settlers  more  eligible  and 
happy  than  at  present. 

If  twenty  millions  of  acres  of  this  new  state 
be  patented  and  sold  at  twenty  pounds  sterling 
per  hundred  acres,  they  will  produce  four  million 
pounds  sterling,  which,  if  applied  to  Continental 
expenses  only,  will  support  the  war  for  three 
years,  should  Britain  be  so  unwise  as  to  prosecute 
it  against  her  own  direct  interest  and  against  the 
interest  and  policy  of  all  Europe.  The  several 
states  will  then  have  to  raise  taxes  for  their  in- 
ternal government  only,  and  the  Continental 
172 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

taxes,  as  soon  as  the  fund  begins  to  operate,  will 
lessen,  and  if  sufficiently  productive,  will  cease. 

Lands  are  the  real  riches  of  the  habitable 
world,  and  the  natural  funds  of  America.  The 
funds  of  other  countries  are,  in  general,  artifi- 
cially constructed;  the  creatures  of  necessity  and 
contrivance  dependent  upon  credit,  and  always 
exposed  to  hazard  and  uncertainty.  But  lands 
can  neither  be  annihilated  nor  lose  their  value; 
on  the  contrary,  they  universally  rise  with 
population,  and  rapidly  so,  when  under  the  se- 
curity of  effectual  government.  But  this  it  is 
impossible  for  Virginia  to  give,  and  therefore, 
that  which  is  capable  of  defraying  the  expenses 
of  the  empire,  will,  under  the  management  of 
any  single  state,  produce  only  a  fugitive  support 
to  wandering  individuals. 

I  shall  now  inquire  into  the  effects  which  the 
laying  out  of  a  new  state,  under  the  authority  of 
the  United  States,  will  have  upon  Virginia.  It 
is  the  very  circumstance  she  ought  to,  and  must, 
wish  for,  when  she  examines  the  matter  in  all 
its  bearings  and  consequences. 

The  present  settlers  beyond  her  reach,  and 
her  supposed  authority  over  them  remaining  in 
herself,  they  will  appear  to  her  as  revolters,  and 
she  to  them  as  oppressors;  and  this  will  produce 

173 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

such  a  spirit  of  mutual  dislike,  that  in  a  little  time 
a  total  disagreement  will  take  place,  to  the  disad- 
vantage of  both.  But  under  the  authority  of  the 
United  States  the  matter  is  manageable,  and 
Virginia  will  be  eased  of  a  disagreeable  conse- 
quence. 

Besides  this,  a  sale  of  the  lands,  continentally, 
for  the  purpose  of  supporting  the  expense  of  the 
war,  will  save  her  a  greater  share  of  taxes,  than 
the  small  sale  which  she  could  make  herself,  and 
the  small  price  she  could  get  for  them  would 
produce. 

She  would  likewise  have  two  advantages 
which  no  other  state  in  the  Union  enjoys;  first,  a 
frontier  state  for  her  defense  against  the  incur- 
sions of  the  Indians;  and  the  second  is,  that  the 
laying  out  and  peopling  a  new  state  on  the  back 
of  an  old  one,  situated  as  she  is,  is  doubling  the 
quantity  of  its  trade. 

The  new  state  which  is  here  proposed  to  be 
laid  out,  may  send  its  exports  down  the  Missis- 
sippi, but  its  imports  must  come  through  Chesa- 
peake Bay,  and  consequently  Virginia  will  be- 
come the  market  for  the  new  state;  because, 
though  there  is  a  navigation  from  it,  there  is  none 
into  it,  on  account  of  the  rapidity  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. 

1741 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

There  are  certain  circumstances  that  will  pro- 
duce certain  events  whether  men  think  of  them 
or  not.  The  events  do  not  depend  upon  think- 
ing, but  are  the  natural  consequence  of  acting; 
and  according  to  the  system  w^hich  Virginia  has 
gone  upon,  the  issue  will  be,  that  she  will  get  in- 
volved with  the  back  settlers  in  a  contention 
about  rights  J  till  they  dispute  with  their  own 
claims;  and,  soured  by  the  contention,  will  go  to 
any  other  state  for  their  commerce ;  both  of  which 
may  be  prevented,  a  perfect  harmony  established, 
the  strength  of  the  states  increased,  and  the  ex- 
penses of  the  war  defrayed,  by  settling  the  mat- 
ter now  on  the  plan  of  a  general  right ;  and  every 
day  it  is  delayed,  the  difficulty  will  be  increased 
and  the  advantages  lessened. 

But  if  it  should  happen,  as  it  possibly  may, 
that  the  war  should  end  before  the  money,  which 
the  new  state  may  produce,  be  expended,  the 
remainder  of  the  lands  therein  may  be  set  apart 
to  reimburse  those  whose  houses  have  been  burned 
by  the  enemy,  as  this  is  a  species  of  suffering 
which  it  was  impossible  to  prevent,  because 
houses  are  not  movable  property;  and  it  ought 
not  to  be  that  because  we  cannot  do  everything, 
that  we  ought  not  to  do  what  we  can. 

Having  said  this  much  on  the  subject,  I  think 

175 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

it  necessary  to  remark,  that  the  prospect  of  a  new 
fund,  so  far  from  abating  our  endeavors  in 
making  every  immediate  provision  for  the  army, 
ought  to  quicken  us  therein ;  for  should  the  states 
see  it  expedient  to  go  upon  the  measure,  it  will 
be  at  least  a  year  before  it  can  be  productive.  I 
the  more  freely  mention  this,  because  there  is  a 
dangerous  species  of  popularity,  which,  I  fear, 
some  men  are  seeking  from  their  constituents  by 
giving  them  grounds  to  believe,  that  if  they  are 
elected  they  will  lighten  the  taxes;  a  measure 
which,  in  the  present  state  of  things,  cannot  be 
done  without  exposing  the  country  to  the  rav- 
ages of  the  enemy  by  disabling  the  army  from 
defending  it. 

Where  knowledge  is  a  duty,  ignorance  is  a 
crime ;  and  if  any  man  whose  duty  it  was  to  know 
better,  has  encouraged  such  an  expectation,  he 
has  either  deceived  himself  or  them:  besides,  no 
country  can  be  defended  without  expense,  and 
let  any  man  compare  his  portion  of  temporary 
inconveniences  arising  from  taxation  with  the 
real  distresses  of  the  army  for  want  of  supplies, 
and  the  difference  is  not  only  sufficient  to  strike 
him  dumb,  but  make  him  thankful  that  worse 
consequences  have  not  followed. 

In  advancing  this  doctrine,  I  speak  with  an 
176 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

honest  freedom  to  the  country;  for  as  it  is  their 
good  to  be  defended,  so  it  is  their  interest  to  pro- 
vide that  defense,  at  least  tiU  other  funds  can  be 
organized. 

As  the  laying  out  new  states  will  some  time 
or  other  be  the  business  of  the  country,  and  as  it 
is  yet  a  new  business  to  us,  and  as  the  influence  of 
the  war  has  scarcely  afforded  leisure  for  reflect- 
ing on  distant  circumstances,  I  shall  thi'ow  to- 
gether a  few  hints  for  facilitating  that  measure 
whenever  it  may  be  proper  for  adopting  it. 

The  United  States  now  standing  on  the  line 
of  sovereignty,  the  vacant  territory  is  their  prop- 
erty collectively,  but  the  persons  by  whom  it  may 
hereafter  be  peopled  will  also  have  an  equal  right 
with  om'selves ;  and  therefore,  as  new  states  shall 
be  laid  off  and  incorporated  with  the  present, 
they  will  become  partakers  of  the  remaining  ter- 
ritory with  us  who  are  already  in  possession. 
And  this  consideration  ought  to  heighten  the 
value  of  lands  to  new  emigrants:  because,  in 
making  the  purchases,  they  not  only  gain  an  im- 
mediate property,  but  become  initiated  into  the 
right  and  heirship  of  the  states  to  a  property  in 
reserve,  which  is  an  additional  advantage  to  what 
any  purchasers  under  the  late  Government  of 
England  enjoyed. 

177 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  setting  off  the  boundary  of  any  new 
state  will  naturally  be  the  first  step,  and  as  it 
must  be  supposed  not  to  be  peopled  at  the  time 
it  is  laid  off,  a  constitution  must  be  formed  by 
the  United  States,  as  the  rule  of  government  in 
any  new  state,  for  a  certain  term  of  years  (per- 
haps ten)  or  until  the  state  becomes  peopled  to 
a  certain  number  of  inhabitants ;  after  which,  the 
whole  and  sole  right  of  modeling  their  govern- 
ment to  rest  with  themselves. 

A  question  may  arise,  whether  a  new  state 
should  immediately  possess  an  equal  right  with 
the  present  ones  in  all  cases  which  may  come  be- 
fore Congress. 

This,  experience  will  best  determine;  but  at 
a  first  view  of  the  matter  it  appears  thus:  that  it 
ought  to  be  immediately  incorporated  into  the 
Union  on  the  ground  of  a  family  right,  such  a 
state  standing  in  the  line  of  a  younger  child  of 
the  same  stock;  but  as  new  emigrants  will  have 
something  to  learn  when  they  first  come  to 
America,  and  a  new  state  requiring  aid  rather 
than  capable  of  giving  it,  it  might  be  most  con- 
venient to  admit  its  immediate  representation 
into  Congress,  there  to  sit,  hear  and  debate  on  all 
questions  and  matters,  but  not  to  vote  on  any  till 
after  the  expiration  of  seven  years. 
178 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

I  shall  in  this  place  take  the  opportunity  of 
renewing  a  hint  which  I  formerly  threw  out  in 
the  pamphlet  "  Common  Sense,"  and  which  the 
several  states  will,  sooner  or  later,  see  the  con- 
venience if  not  the  necessity  of  adopting;  which 
is,  that  of  electing  a  Continental  convention,  for 
the  purpose  of  forming  a  Continental  constitu- 
tion, defining  and  describing  the  powers  and 
authority  of  Congress. 

Those  of  entering  into  treaties,  and  making 
peace,  they  naturally  possess,  in  behalf  of  the 
states,  for  their  separate  as  well  as  their  united 
good,  but  the  internal  control  and  dictatorial 
powers  of  Congress  are  not  sufficiently  defined, 
and  appear  to  be  too  much  in  some  cases  and  too 
little  in  others;  and  therefore,  to  have  them 
marked  out  legally  will  give  additional  energy 
to  the  whole,  and  a  new  confidence  to  the  several 
parts. 


179 


LETTER  TO  THE  ABBE  RAYNAL 

1782* 

INTRODUCTION 

A  LONDON  translation  of  an  original  work 
-^  ^  in  French,  by  the  Abbe  Raynal,  which 
treats  of  the  Revolution  of  North  America,  hav- 
ing been  re-printed  in  Philadelphia  and  other 
parts  of  the  continent,  and  as  the  distance  at 
which  the  Abbe  is  placed  from  the  American 
theater  of  war  and  politics,  has  occasioned  him  to 
mistake  several  facts,  or  misconceive  the  causes  or 
principles  by  which  they  were  produced,  the  fol- 
lowing tract,  therefore,  is  published  with  a  view 
to  rectify  them,  and  prevent  even  accidental  er- 
rors from  intermixing  with  history,  under  the 
sanction  of  time  and  silence. 

The  editor  of  the  London  edition  has  entitled 
it,  "The  Revolution  of  America,  by  the  Abbe 
Raynal/''  and  the  American  printers  have  fol- 
lowed the  example.  But  I  have  understood, 
and  I  believe  my  information  just,  that  the  piece, 
which  is  more  properly  reflections  on  the  Revolu- 
tion, was  unfairly  purloined  from  the  printer 

*  "Letter  to  the  Abb6  Raynal,  on  the  Affairs  of  North  Amer- 
ica: in  which  the  Mistakes  in  the  Abba's  account  of  the  Revolu- 
tion of  America  are  Corrected  and  Cleared  up." — Ed. 

180 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

whom  the  Abbe  employed,  or  from  the  manu- 
script copy,  and  is  only  part  of  a  larger  work 
then  in  the  press,  or  preparing  for  it.  The  per- 
son who  procured  it,  appears  to  have  been  an 
Enghsliman,  and  though,  in  an  advertisement 
prefixed  to  the  London  edition,  he  has  endeav- 
ored to  gloss  over  the  embezzlement  with  pro- 
fessions of  patriotism,  and  to  soften  it  with  high 
encomiums  on  the  author,  yet  the  action  in  any 
view  in  which  it  can  be  placed,  is  illiberal  and 
unpardonable. 

In  the  course  of  his  travels,  (says  he),  the  trans- 
lator happily  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  copy  of  this 
exquisite  Httle  piece  which  has  not  made  its  appearance 
from  any  press.  He  pubHshes  a  French  edition,  in  favor 
of  those  who  feel  its  eloquent  reasoning  more  forcibly 
in  its  native  language,  at  the  same  time  with  the 
following  translation  of  it:  in  which  he  has  been  de- 
sirous, perhaps  in  vain,  that  all  the  warmth,  the 
grace,  the  strength,  the  dignity  of  the  original,  should 
not  be  lost.  And  he  flatters  himself,  that  the  indul- 
gence of  the  illustrious  historian  will  not  be  wanting 
to  a  man,  who,  of  his  own  motion,  has  taken  the  liberty 
to  give  this  composition  to  the  public,  only  from  a 
strong  persuasion,  that  its  momentous  argument  will 
be  useful  in  a  critical  conjuncture,  to  that  country 
which  he  loves  with  an  ardor  that  can  be  exceeded  only 
by  the  nobler  flame,  which  burns  in  the  bosom  of  the 
philanthropic  author,  for  the  freedom  and  happiness 
of  all  the  countries  upon  earth. 

This  plausibility  of  setting  off  a  dishonor- 

181 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

able  action,  may  pass  for  patriotism  and  sound 
principles  with  those  who  do  not  enter  into  its 
demerits,  and  whose  interest  is  not  injured  nor 
their  happiness  affected  thereby.  But  it  is  more 
than  probable,  notwithstanding  the  declarations 
it  contains,  that  the  copy  was  obtained  for  the 
sake  of  profiting  by  the  sale  of  a  new  and  popu- 
lar work,  and  that  the  professions  are  but  a  garb 
to  the  fraud. 

It  may  with  propriety  be  marked,  that  in  all 
countries  where  literature  is  protected,  and  it 
never  can  flourish  where  it  is  not,  the  works  of  an 
author  are  his  legal  property ;  and  to  treat  letters 
in  any  other  light  than  this,  is  to  banish  them 
from  the  country,  or  strangle  them  in  the  birth. 
— The  embezzlement  from  the  Abbe  Raynal,  was, 
it  is  true,  conmiitted  by  one  country  upon  an- 
other, and  therefore  shows  no  defect  in  the  laws 
of  either.  But  it  is  nevertheless  a  breach  of  civil 
manners  and  literary  justice:  neither  can  it  be 
any  apology,  that  because  the  countries  are  at 
war,  literature  shall  be  entitled  to  depredation.* 

*  The  state  of  literature  in  America  must  one  day  become  a 
subject  of  legislative  consideration.  Hitherto  it  hath  been  a  dis- 
interested volunteer  in  the  service  of  the  Revolution,  and  no  man 
thought  of  profits:  but  when  peace  shall  give  time  and  opportimity 
for  study,  the  country  will  deprive  itself  of  the  honor  and  service 
of  letters  and  the  improvement  of  science,  unless  sufficient  laws 
are  made  to  prevent  depredations  on  literary  property.    It  is  well 

182 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  the  forestalling  the  Abbe's  publication  by 
liOndon  editions,  both  in  French  and  English, 
and  thereby  not  only  defrauding  him  and  throw- 
ing an  expensive  publication  on  his  hands  by  an- 
ticipating the  sale,  are  only  the  smaller  injuries 
which  such  conduct  may  occasion.  A  man's 
opinions,  whether  written  or  in  thought,  are  his 
own,  until  he  pleases  to  publish  them  himself; 
and  it  is  adding  cruelty  to  injustice,  to  make 
him  the  author  of  what  future  reflection,  or  bet- 
ter information,  might  occasion  him  to  suppress 
or  amend.  There  are  declarations  and  senti- 
ments in  the  Abbe's  piece  which,  for  my  own 
part,  I  did  not  expect  to  find,  and  such  as  him- 
self, on  a  re\dsal,  might  have  seen  occasion  to 
change;  but  the  anticipated  piracy  efl'ectually 
prevented  his  having  the  opportunity,  and  pre- 
cipitated him  into  difficulties,  which,  had  it  not 
been  for  such  ungenerous  fraud,  might  not  have 
happened. 

This  mode  of  making  an  author  appear  be- 
fore his  time,  will  appear  still  more  ungenerous, 
when  we  consider  how  very  few  men  there  are  in 

worth  remarking,  that  Russia,  who  but  a  few  years  ago  was 
scarcely  known  in  Europe,  owes  a  large  share  of  her  present 
greatness  to  the  close  attention  she  has  paid,  and  the  wise  encour- 
agement she  has  given,  to  every  branch  of  science  and  learning: 
and  we  have  almost  the  same  instance  in  France,  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV. 

188 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

any  country,  who  can  at  once,  and  without  the 
aid  of  reflection  and  revisal,  combine  warm  pas- 
sions with  a  cool  temper,  and  the  full  expansion 
of  the  imagination  with  the  natural  and  neces- 
sary gravity  of  judgment,  so  as  to  be  rightly 
balanced  within  themselves,  and  to  make  a 
reader  feel,  fancy,  and  understand  justly  at  the 
same  time.  To  call  three  powers  of  the  mind 
into  action  at  once,  in  a  manner  that  neither  shall 
interrupt,  and  that  each  shall  aid  and  invigorate 
the  other,  is  a  talent  very  rarely  possessed. 

It  often  happens  that  the  weight  of  an  argu- 
ment is  lost  by  the  wit  of  setting  it  oiF;  or  the 
judgment  disordered  by  an  intemperate  irrita- 
tion of  the  passions:  yet  a  certain  degree  of  ani- 
mation must  be  felt  by  the  writer,  and  raised  in 
the  reader,  in  order  to  interest  the  attention ;  and 
a  sufficient  scope  given  to  the  imagination,  to 
enable  it  to  create  in  the  mind  a  sight  of  the  per- 
sons, characters  and  circumstances  of  the  sub- 
ject: for  without  these,  the  judgment  will  feel 
little  or  no  excitement  to  office,  and  its  determin- 
ations will  be  cold,  sluggish,  and  imperfect. 

But  if  either  or  both  of  the  two  former  are 
raised  too  high,  or  heated  too  much,  the  judgment 
will  be  jostled  from  its  seat,  and  the  whole  mat- 
ter, however  important  in  itself,  will  diminish 
184 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

into  a  pantomime  of  the  mind,  in  which  we  create 
images  that  promote  no  other  purpose  than 
amusement. 

The  Abbe's  writings  bear  evident  marks  of 
that  extension  and  rapidness  of  thinking  and 
quickness  of  sensation,  which  of  all  others  require 
revisal,  and  the  more  particularly  so,  when  ap- 
plied to  the  Hving  characters  of  nations  or  indi- 
viduals in  a  state  of  war.  The  least  misinforma- 
tion or  misconception  leads  to  some  wrong  con- 
clusion, and  an  error  believed,  becomes  the  pro- 
genitor of  others.  And,  as  the  Abbe  has  suffered 
some  inconveniences  in  France,  by  mistaking  cer- 
tain circumstances  of  the  war,  and  the  characters 
of  the  parties  therein,  it  becomes  some  apology 
for  him  that  those  errors  were  precipitated  into 
the  world  by  the  avarice  of  an  ungenerous 
enemy. 


185 


LETTER  TO  THE  ABBE  RAYNAL 

'T^O  an  author  of  such  distinguished  reputa- 
-^  tion  as  the  Abbe  Raynal,  it  might  very  well 
become  me  to  apologize  for  the  present  under- 
taking; but,  as  to  he  right  is  the  first  wish  of 
philosophy,  and  the  first  principle  of  history,  he 
will,  I  presume,  accept  from  me  a  declaration  of 
my  motives,  which  are  those  of  doing  justice,  in 
preference  to  any  complimental  apology  I  might 
otherwise  make.  The  Abbe,  in  the  course  of  his 
work,  has,  in  some  instances,  extolled  without  a 
reason,  and  wounded  without  a  cause.  He  has 
given  fame  where  it  was  not  deserved,  and  with- 
held it  where  it  was  justly  due;  and  appears  to 
be  so  frequently  in  and  out  of  temper  with  his 
subjects  and  parties,  that  few  or  none  of  them 
are  decisively  and  uniformly  marked. 

It  is  yet  too  soon  to  write  the  history  of  the 
Revolution,  and  whoever  attempts  it  precipi- 
tately, will  unavoidably  mistake  characters  and 
circumstances,  and  involve  himself  in  error  and 
difficulty.  Things,  like  men,  are  seldom  under- 
stood rightly  at  first  sight.  But  the  Abbe  is 
wrong  even  in  the  foundation  of  his  work;  that 
is,  he  has  misconceived  and  mis-stated  the  causes 
186 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

which  produced  the  rupture  between  England 
and  her  then  colonies,  and  which  led  on,  step  by 
step,  unstudied  and  uncontrived  on  the  part  of 
America,  to  a  revolution,  which  has  engaged  the 
attention,  and  aifected  the  interest  of  Europe. 
To  prove  this,  I  shall  bring  forward  a  pas- 
sage, which,  though  placed  towards  the  latter 
part  of  the  Abbe's  work,  is  more  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  beginning;  and  in  which,  speak- 
ing of  the  original  cause  of  the  dispute,  he  de- 
clares himself  in  the  following  manner: 

None,  (says  he),  of  those  energetic  causes,  which 
have  produced  so  many  revolutions  upon  the  globe,  ex- 
isted in  North  America.  Neither  religion  nor  laws  had 
there  been  outraged.  The  blood  of  martyrs  or  patriots 
had  not  there  streamed  from  scaffolds.  Morals  had  not 
there  been  insulted.  Manners,  customs,  habits,  no 
object  dear  to  nations,  had  there  been  the  sport  of 
ridicule.  Arbitrary  power  had  not  there  torn  any  in- 
habitant from  the  arms  of  his  family  and  friends,  to 
drag  him  to  a  dreary  dungeon.  Public  order  had  not 
been  there  inverted.  The  principles  of  administration 
had  not  been  changed  there ;  and  the  maxims  of  govern- 
ment had  there  always  remained  the  same.  The  whole 
question  was  reduced  to  the  knowing  whether  the 
mother  country  had,  or  had  not,  a  right  to  lay,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  a  slight  tax  upon  the  colonies. 

On  this  extraordinary  passage,  it  may  not  be 

improper,  in  general  terms,  to  remark,  that  none 

can  feel  like  those  who  suffer ;  and  that  for  a  man 

VITT-I4  187 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

to  be  a  competent  judge  of  the  provocatives,  or 
as  the  Abbe  styles  them,  the  energetic  causes  of 
the  Revolution,  he  must  have  resided  at  the  time 
in  America. 

The  Abbe,  in  saying  that  the  several  particu- 
lars he  has  enumerated,  did  not  exist  in  America, 
and  neglecting  to  point  out  the  particular  period, 
in  which  he  means  they  did  not  exist,  reduces 
thereby  his  declaration  to  a  nullity,  by  taking 
away  all  meaning  from  the  passage. 

They  did  not  exist  in  1763,  and  they  all 
existed  before  1776 ;  consequently  as  there  was  a 
time  when  they  did  notj  and  another,  when  they 
did  exist,  the  time  when  constitutes  the  essence  of 
the  fact,  and  not  to  give  it  is  to  withhold  the 
only  evidence  which  proves  the  declaration  right 
or  wrong,  and  on  which  it  must  stand  or  fall. 
But  the  declaration  as  it  now  appears,  unaccom- 
panied by  time,  has  an  effect  in  holding  out  to 
the  world,  that  there  was  no  real  cause  for  the 
Revolution,  because  it  denies  the  existence  of  all 
those  causes,  which  are  supposed  to  be  justifiable, 
and  which  the  Abbe  styles  energetic. 

I  confess  myself  exceedingly  at  a  loss  to  find 

out  the  time  to  which  the  Abbe  alludes ;  because, 

in  another  part  of  the  work,  in  speaking  of  the 

Stamp  Act,  which  was  passed  in  1764,  he  styles  it 

188 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

"  an  usurpation  of  the  Americans'  most  precious 
and  sacred  rights/'  Consequently  he  here  ad- 
mits the  most  energetic  of  all  causes,  that  is,  an 
usurpation  of  their  most  precious  and  sacred 
rights,  to  have  existed  in  America  twelve  years 
before  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  ten 
years  before  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities.  The 
time,  therefore,  in  which  the  paragraph  is  true, 
must  be  antecedent  to  the  Stamp  Act,  but  as  at 
that  time  there  was  no  revolution,  nor  any  idea 
of  one,  it  consequently  applies  without  a  mean- 
ing ;  and  as  it  cannot,  on  the  Abbe's  own  principle, 
be  applied  to  any  time  after  the  Stamp  Act,  it  is 
therefore  a  wandering,  solitary  paragraph,  con- 
nected with  nothing  and  at  variance  with  every- 
thing. 

The  Stamp  Act,  it  is  true,  was  repealed  in  two 
years  after  it  was  passed,  but  it  was  immediately 
followed  by  one  of  infinitely  more  mischievous 
magnitude;  I  mean  the  Declaratory  Act,  which 
asserted  the  right,  as  it  was  styled,  of  the  British 
Parliament,  "to  hind  America  in  all  cases  what- 
soever/' 

If  then  the  Stamp  Act  was  an  usurpation  of 
the  Americans'  most  precious  and  sacred  rights, 
the  Declaratory  Act  left  them  no  rights  at  all; 
and  contained  the  full  grown  seeds  of  the  most 

189 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

despotic  government  ever  exercised  in  the  world. 
It  placed  America  not  only  in  the  lowest,  but  in 
the  basest  state  of  vassalage;  because  it  de- 
manded an  unconditional  submission  in  every- 
thing, or  as  the  act  expressed  it,  in  all  cases  what- 
soever: and  what  renders  this  act  the  more  offen- 
sive, is,  that  it  appears  to  have  been  passed  as  an 
act  of  mercy ;  truly  then  may  it  be  said,  that  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  wicked  are  cruel. 

All  the  original  charters  from  the  Crown  of 
England,  under  the  faith  of  which  the  adventur- 
ers from  the  Old  World  settled  in  the  New,  were 
by  this  act  displaced  from  their  foundations;  be- 
cause, contrary  to  the  nature  of  them,  which  was 
that  of  a  compact,  they  were  now  made  subject 
to  repeal  or  alteration  at  the  mere  will  of  one 
party  only.  The  whole  condition  of  America 
was  thus  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Parliament  or 
Ministry,  without  leaving  to  her  the  least  right 
in  any  case  whatsoever. 

There  is  no  despotism  to  which  this  iniqui- 
tous law  did  not  extend;  and  though  it  might 
have  been  convenient  in  the  execution  of  it,  to 
have  consulted  manners  and  habits,  the  principle 
of  the  act  made  all  tyranny  legal.  It  stopped 
nowhere.  It  went  to  everything.  It  took  in 
with  it  the  whole  life  of  a  man,  or  if  I  may  so 
190 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

express  it,  an  eternity  of  circumstances.  It  is 
the  nature  of  law  to  require  obedience,  but  this 
demanded  servitude;  and  the  condition  of  an 
American,  under  the  operation  of  it,  was  not 
that  of  a  subject,  but  a  vassal.  Tyranny  has 
often  been  established  witJiout  law  and  some- 
times against  it,  but  the  history  of  mankind  does 
not  produce  another  instance,  in  which  it  has 
been  established  by  law.  It  is  an  audacious  out- 
rage upon  civil  government,  and  cannot  be  too 
much  exposed,  in  order  to  be  sufficiently  de- 
tested. 

Neither  could  it  be  said  after  this,  that  the 
legislature  of  that  country  any  longer  made  laws 
for  this,  but  that  it  gave  out  commands;  for 
wherein  differed  an  act  of  Parliament  con- 
structed on  this  principle,  and  operating  in  this 
manner,  over  an  unrepresented  people,  from  the 
orders  of  a  military  establishment? 

The  Parliament  of  England,  with  respect  to 
America,  was  not  septennial  but  perpetual.  It 
appeared  to  the  latter  a  body  always  in  being. 
Its  election  or  expiration  were  to  her  the  same 
as  if  its  members  succeeded  by  inheritance,  or 
went  out  by  death,  or  lived  forever,  or  were 
appointed  to  it  as  a  matter  of  office.  Therefore, 
for  the  people  of  England  to  have  any  just  con- 

191 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ception  of  the  mind  of  America,  respecting  this 
extraordinary  act,  they  must  suppose  all  election 
and  expiration  in  that  country  to  cease  forever, 
and  the  present  Parliament,  its  heirs,  etc.  to  be 
perpetual;  in  this  case,  I  ask,  what  would  the 
most  clamorous  of  them  think,  were  an  act  to  be 
passed,  declaring  the  right  of  such  a  Parliament 
to  bind  them  in  all  cases  whatsoever?  For  this 
word  whatsoever  would  go  as  effectually  to  their 
Magna  Charta,  Bill  of  Rights,  trial  by  juries,  etc. 
as  it  went  to  the  charters  and  forms  of  govern- 
ment in  America. 

I  am  persuaded,  that  the  gentleman  to  whom 
I  address  these  remarks,  will  not,  after  the  pass- 
ing of  this  act,  say,  "  that  the  principles  of  ad- 
ministration had  not  been  changed  in  America, 
and  that  the  maxims  of  government  had  there 
been  always  the  same"  For  here  is,  in  principle, 
a  total  overthrow  of  the  whole ;  and  not  a  subver- 
sion only,  but  an  anniliilation  of  the  foundation 
of  liberty  and  absolute  domination  established 
in  its  stead. 

The  Abbe  likewise  states  the  case  exceedingly 
wrong  and  injuriously,  when  he  says,  that  "  the 
whole  question  was  reduced  to  the  knowing 
whether  the  mother  country  had,  or  had  not,  a 
right  to  lay,  directly  or  indirectly,  a  slight  tax 
192 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

upon  the  colonies."  This  was  not  the  whole  of 
the  question ;  neither  was  the  quantity  of  the  tax 
the  object  either  to  the  Ministry  or  to  the  Ameri- 
cans. It  was  the  principle,  of  which  the  tax 
made  but  a  part,  and  the  quantity  still  less,  that 
formed  the  ground  on  which  America  resisted. 

The  tax  on  tea,  which  is  the  tax  here  alluded 
to,  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  an  experiment 
to  establish  the  practise  of  a  declaratory  law 
upon;  modeled  into  the  more  fashionable  phrase 
of  the  universal  supremacy  of  Parliament.  For 
until  this  time  the  declaratory  law  had  lain  dor- 
mant, and  the  framers  of  it  had  contented  them- 
selves with  barely  declaring  an  opinion. 

Therefore  the  whole  question  with  America, 
in  the  opening  of  the  dispute,  was,  shall  we  be 
bound  in  all  cases  whatsoever  by  the  British  Par- 
liament, or  shall  we  not?  For  submission  to  the 
tea  or  tax  act  implied  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  Declaratory  Act,  or,  in  other  words,  of  the 
universal  supremacy  of  Parliament,  which  as 
they  never  intended  to  do,  it  was  necessary  they 
should  oppose  it,  in  its  first  stage  of  execution. 

It  is  probable  the  Abbe  has  been  led  into  this 
mistake  by  perusing  detached  pieces  in  some  of 
the  American  newspapers;  for,  in  a  case  where 
all  were  interested,  everyone  had  a  right  to  give 

193 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

his  opinion;  and  there  were  many,  who,  with  the 
best  intentions,  did  not  choose  the  best,  nor  in- 
deed the  true  ground,  to  defend  their  cause  upon. 
They  felt  themselves  right  by  a  general  impulse, 
without  being  able  to  separate,  analyze,  and  ar- 
range the  parts. 

I  am  somewhat  unwilUng  to  examine  too 
minutely  into  the  whole  of  this  extraordinary 
passage  of  the  Abbe,  lest  I  should  appear  to 
treat  it  with  severity ;  otherwise  I  could  show  that 
not  a  single  declaration  is  justly  founded:  for  in- 
stance, the  reviving  an  obsolete  act  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII  and  fitting  it  to  the  Americans, 
by  authority  of  which  they  were  to  be  seized  and 
brought  from  America  to  England,  and  there 
imprisoned  and  tried  for  any  supposed  offenses, 
was,  in  the  worst  sense  of  the  words,  to  tear  them, 
by  the  arbitrary  power  of  Parliament^  from  the 
arms  of  their  families  and  friends^  and  drag 
them  not  only  to  dreary  but  distant  dungeons. 
Yet  this  act  was  contrived  some  years  before  the 
breaking  out  of  hostilities.  And  again,  though 
the  blood  of  martyrs  and  patriots  had  not 
streamed  on  the  scaiFolds,  it  streamed  in  the 
streets,  in  the  massacre  of  the  inhabitants  of  Bos- 
ton, by  the  British  soldiery  in  the  year  1770. 

Had  the  Abbe  said  that  the  causes  which  pro- 
194 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

duced  the  Revolution  in  America  were  originally 
different  from  those  which  produced  revolu- 
tions in  other  parts  of  the  globe,  he  had  been 
right.  Here  the  value  and  quality  of  liberty,  the 
nature  of  government,  and  the  dignity  of  man, 
were  known  and  understood,  and  the  attachment 
of  the  Americans  to  these  principles  produced  the 
Revolution,  as  a  natural  and  almost  unavoidable 
consequence.  They  had  no  particular  family  to 
set  up  or  pull  down.  Nothing  of  personality  was 
incorporated  with  their  cause.  They  started 
even-handed  with  each  other,  and  went  no  faster 
into  the  several  stages  of  it,  than  they  were  driven 
by  the  unrelenting  and  imperious  conduct  of 
Britain.  Nay,  in  the  last  act,  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  they  had  nearly  been  too  late ;  for 
had  it  not  been  declared  at  the  exact  time  it  was, 
I  see  no  period  in  their  affairs  since,  in  which 
it  could  have  been  declared  with  the  same  effect, 
and  probably  not  at  all. 

But  the  object  being  formed  before  the  re- 
verse of  fortune  took  place,  that  is,  before  the 
operations  of  the  gloomy  campaign  of  1776, 
their  honor,  their  interest,  their  everything, 
called  loudly  on  them  to  maintain  it;  and  that 
glow  of  thought  and  energy  of  heart,  which 
even  a  distant  prospect  of  independence  inspires, 

195 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

gave  confidence  to  their  hopes,  and  resolution  to 
their  conduct,  which  a  state  of  dependence  could 
never  have  reached.  They  looked  forward  to 
happier  days  and  scenes  of  rest,  and  qualified 
the  hardships  of  the  campaign  by  contemplating 
the  establishment  of  their  new-born  system. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  take  a  review  of 
what  part  Britain  has  acted,  we  shall  find  every- 
thing which  ought  to  make  a  nation  blush — the 
most  vulgar  abuse,  accompanied  by  that  species 
of  haughtiness  which  distinguishes  the  hero  of  a 
mob  from  the  character  of  a  gentleman.  It  was 
equally  as  much  from  her  manners  as  from  her 
injustice  that  she  lost  the  colonies.  By  the  lat- 
ter she  provoked  their  principles,  by  the  former 
she  wore  out  their  temper;  and  it  ought  to  be 
held  out  as  an  example  to  the  world,  to  show 
how  necessary  it  is  to  conduct  the  business  of 
government  with  civility.  In  short,  other  revo- 
lutions may  have  originated  in  caprice,  or  gen- 
erated in  ambition ;  but  here,  the  most  unoffend- 
ing humility  was  tortured  into  rage,  and  the 
infancy  of  existence  made  to  weep. 

A  union  so  extensive,  continued  and  deter- 
mined, suffering  with  patience  and  never  in  de- 
spair, could  not  have  been  produced  by  common 
causes.    It  must  be  something  capable  of  reach- 
196 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ing  the  whole  soul  of  man  and  arming  it  with 
perpetual  energy.  It  is  in  vain  to  look  for 
precedents  among  the  revolutions  of  former 
ages,  to  find  out,  by  comparison,  the  causes  of 
this. 

The  spring,  the  progress,  the  object,  the  con- 
sequences, nay,  the  men,  their  habits  of  thinking, 
and  all  the  circumstances  of  the  country,  are 
different.  Those  of  other  nations  are,  in  general, 
little  more  than  the  history  of  their  quarrels. 
They  are  marked  by  no  important  character  in 
the  annals  of  events;  mixed  in  the  mass  of  gen- 
eral matters,  they  occupy  but  a  common  page; 
and  while  the  chief  of  the  successful  partisans 
stepped  into  power,  the  plundered  multitude  sat 
down  and  sorrowed.  Few,  very  few  of  them  are 
accompanied  with  reformation,  either  in  govern- 
ment or  manners;  many  of  them  with  the  most 
consummate  profligacy.  Triumph  on  the  one 
side  and  misery  on  the  other  were  the  only  events. 
Pains,  punishments,  torture,  and  death  were 
made  the  business  of  mankind,  until  compassion, 
the  fairest  associate  of  the  heart,  was  driven  from 
its  place,  and  the  eye,  accustomed  to  continual 
cruelty,  could  behold  it  without  offense. 

But  as  the  principles  of  the  present  Revolu- 
tion differed  from  those  which  preceded  it,  so 

197 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

likewise  did  the  conduct  of  America  both  in  gov- 
ernment and  war.  Neither  the  foul  finger  of 
disgrace  nor  the  bloody  hand  of  vengeance  has 
hitherto  put  a  blot  upon  her  fame.  Her  victories 
have  received  lustre  from  a  greatness  of  lenity; 
and  her  laws  have  been  permitted  to  slumber, 
where  they  might  justly  be  awakened  to  punish. 
War,  so  much  the  trade  of  the  world,  has  here 
been  only  the  business  of  necessity;  and  when 
the  necessity  shall  cease,  her  very  enemies  must 
confess,  that  as  she  drew  the  sword  in  her  just 
defense,  she  used  it  without  cruelty,  and  sheathed 
it  without  revenge. 

As  it  is  not  my  design  to  extend  these  remarks 
to  a  history,  I  shall  now  take  my  leave  of  this 
passage  of  the  Abbe,  with  an  observation,  which, 
until  something  unfolds  itself  to  convince  me 
otherwise,  I  cannot  avoid  believing  to  be  true; — 
which  is,  that  it  was  the  fixed  determination  of 
the  British  Cabinet  to  quarrel  with  America  at 
all  events. 

They  (the  members  who  composed  the  Cab- 
inet) had  no  doubt  of  success,  if  they  could  once 
bring  it  to  the  issue  of  a  battle,  and  they  expected 
from  a  conquest,  what  they  could  neither  propose 
with  decency,  nor  hope  for  by  negotiation.  The 
charters  and  constitutions  of  the  colonies  were 
198 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

become  to  them  matters  of  offense,  and  their 
rapid  progress  in  property  and  population  were 
disgustingly  beheld  as  the  growing  and  natural 
means  of  independence.  They  saw  no  way  to 
retain  them  long  but  by  reducing  them  in  time. 
A  conquest  would  at  once  have  made  them  both 
lords  and  landlords ;  and  put  them  in  the  posses- 
sion both  of  the  revenue  and  the  rental.  The 
whole  trouble  of  government  would  have  ceased 
in  a  victory,  and  a  final  end  put  to  remonstrance 
and  debate. 

The  experience  of  the  Stamp  Act  had  taught 
them  how  to  quarrel  with  the  advantages  of 
cover  and  convenience,  and  they  had  nothing  to 
do  but  to  renew  the  scene,  and  put  contention 
into  motion.  They  hoped  for  a  rebelhon,  and 
they  made  one.  They  expected  a  declaration  of 
independence,  and  they  were  not  disappointed. 
But  after  this,  they  looked  for  victory,  and  they 
obtained  a  defeat. 

If  this  be  taken  as  the  generating  cause  of 
the  contest,  then  is  every  part  of  the  conduct 
of  the  British  Ministry  consistent  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  dispute,  until  the  signing  the 
Treaty  of  Paris,  after  which,  conquest  becoming 
doubtful,  they  retreated  to  negotiation,  and  were 
again  defeated. 

199 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Though  the  Abbe  possesses  and  displays 
great  powers  of  genius,  and  is  a  master  of  style 
and  language,  he  seems  not  to  pay  equal  atten- 
tion to  the  office  of  an  historian.  His  facts  are 
coldly  and  carelessly  stated.  They  neither  in- 
form the  reader  nor  interest  him.  Many  of  them 
are  erroneous,  and  most  of  them  are  defective  and 
obscure.  It  is  undoubtedly  both  an  ornament 
and  a  useful  addition  to  history,  to  accompany 
it  with  maxims  and  reflections.  They  afford  hke- 
wise  an  agreeable  change  to  the  style,  and  a  more 
diversified  manner  of  expression;  but  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  the  root  from  whence  they 
spring,  or  the  foundation  on  which  they  are 
raised,  should  be  well  attended  to,  which  in  this 
work  is  not.  The  Abbe  hastens  through  his  nar- 
rations as  if  he  was  glad  to  get  from  them,  that 
he  may  enter  the  more  copious  field  of  eloquence 
and  imagination. 

The  actions  of  Trenton  and  Princeton,  in 
New  Jersey,  in  December  1776,  and  January 
f oUovnng,  on  which  the  fate  of  America  stood  for 
a  while  tremblmg  on  the  point  of  suspense,  and 
from  which  the  most  important  consequences  fol- 
lowed, are  comprised  within  a  single  paragraph, 
faintly  conceived,  and  barren  of  character,  cir- 
cumstance and  description. 
200 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  December,  (says  the  Abbe), 
they  (the  Americans)  crossed  the  Delaware,  and  fell  ac- 
cidentally upon  Trenton,  which  was  occupied  by  fifteen 
hundred  of  the  twelve  thousand  Hessians,  sold  in  so 
base  a  manner  by  their  avaricious  master,  to  the  King 
of  Great  Britain.  This  corps  was  massacred,  taken, 
or  dispersed.  Eight  days  after,  three  English  regi- 
ments were,  in  like  manner,  driven  from  Princeton,  but 
after  having  better  supported  their  reputation  than 
the  foreign  troops  in  their  pay. 

This  is  all  the  account  which  is  given  of  these 
interesting  events.  The  Abbe  has  preceded  them 
by  two  or  three  pages  on  the  military  operations 
of  both  armies,  from  the  time  of  General  Howe's 
arriving  before  New  York  from  Halifax,  and 
the  vast  reinforcements  of  British  and  foreign 
troops  with  Lord  Howe  from  England.  But  in 
these,  there  is  so  much  mistake,  and  so  many 
omissions,  that,  to  set  them  right,  must  be  the 
business  of  a  history  and  not  of  a  letter. 

The  action  of  Long  Island  is  but  barely 
hinted  at,  and  the  operations  at  the  White  Plains 
wholly  omitted;  as  are  likewise  the  attack  and 
loss  of  Fort  Washington,  with  a  garrison  of  about 
two  thousand  five  hundred  men,  and  the  precipi- 
tate evacuation  of  Fort  Lee,  in  consequence 
thereof:  which  losses  were  in  a  great  measure 
the  cause  of  the  retreat  through  the  Jerseys  to 
the  Delaware,  a  distance  of  about  ninety  miles. 

201 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Neither  is  the  manner  of  the  retreat  described; 
which,  from  the  season  of  the  year,  the  nature  of 
the  country,  the  nearness  of  the  two  armies 
(sometimes  within  sight  and  shot  of  each  other, 
for  such  a  length  of  way)  the  rear  of  the  one 
employed  in  pulling  down  bridges,  and  the  van 
of  the  other  in  building  them  up,  must  necessarily 
be  accompanied  with  many  interesting  circum- 
stances. 

It  was  a  period  of  distresses.  A  crisis  rather 
of  danger  than  of  hope.  There  is  no  description 
can  do  it  justice;  and  even  the  actors  in  it,  look- 
ing back  upon  the  scene,  are  surprised  how  they 
got  through;  and  at  a  loss  to  account  for  those 
powers  of  the  mind,  and  springs  of  animation, 
by  which  they  withstood  the  force  of  accumulated 
misfortune. 

It  was  expected,  that  the  time  for  which  the 
army  was  enlisted,  would  carry  the  campaign  so 
far  into  the  winter,  that  the  severity  of  the  sea- 
son, and  the  consequent  condition  of  the  roads, 
would  prevent  any  material  operation  of  the 
enemy,  until  the  new  army  could  be  raised  for 
the  next  year.  And  I  mention  it,  as  a  matter 
worthy  of  attention,  by  all  future  historians,  that 
the  movements  of  the  American  Army,  until  the 
attack  of  the  Hessian  post  at  Trenton,  the 
202 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

twenty-sixth  of  December,  are  to  be  considered 
as  operating  to  effect  no  other  principal  purpose 
than  delay,  and  to  wear  away  the  campaign 
under  all  the  disadvantages  of  an  unequal  force, 
with  as  little  misfortune  as  possible. 

But  the  loss  of  the  garrison  at  Fort  Washing- 
ton on  the  sixteenth  of  November,  and  the  ex- 
piration of  the  time  of  a  considerable  part  of  the 
army,  so  early  as  the  thirtieth  of  the  same  month, 
and  which  was  to  be  followed  by  almost  daily 
expirations  afterwards,  made  retreat  the  only 
final  expedient.  To  these  circumstances  may  be 
added  the  forlorn  and  destitute  condition  of  the 
few  that  remained ;  for  the  garrison  of  Fort  Lee, 
which  composed  almost  the  whole  of  the  retreat, 
had  been  obliged  to  abandon  it  so  instantaneous- 
ly that  every  article  of  stores  and  baggage  was 
left  behind,  and  in  this  destitute  condition,  with- 
out tent  or  blanket,  and  without  any  other  uten- 
sils to  dress  their  provision  than  what  they 
procured  by  the  way,  they  performed  a  march  of 
about  ninety  miles,  and  had  the  address  and 
management  to  prolong  it  to  the  space  of 
nineteen  days. 

By  this  unexpected  or  rather  unthought-of 
turn  of  affairs,  the  country  was  in  an  instant 
surprised  into  confusion,  and  found  an  enemy 
viii-is  203 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

within  its  bowels,  without  an  army  to  oppose  him. 
There  were  no  succors  to  be  had,  but  from  the 
free-will  offering  of  the  inhabitants.  All  was 
choice,  and  every  man  reasoned  for  himself. 

It  was  in  this  situation  of  affairs,  equally  cal- 
culated to  confound  or  to  inspire,  that  the  gentle- 
man, the  merchant,  the  farmer,  the  tradesman 
and  the  laborer  mutually  turned  from  all  the 
conveniences  of  home,  to  perform  the  duties  of 
private  soldiers,  and  undergo  the  severities  of 
a  winter  campaign.  The  delay  so  judiciously 
contrived  on  the  retreat,  afforded  time  for  the 
volunteer  reinforcements  to  join  General  Wash- 
ington on  the  Delaware. 

The  Abbe  is  likewise  wrong  in  saying,  that 
the  American  Army  fell  accidentally  on  Trenton. 
It  was  the  very  object  for  which  General  Wash- 
ington crossed  the  Delaware  in  the  dead  of  the 
night  and  in  the  midst  of  snow,  storms,  and  ice; 
and  which  he  immediately  re-crossed  with  his 
prisoners,  as  soon  as  he  had  accomplished  his 
purpose.  Neither  was  the  intended  enterprise  a 
secret  to  the  enemy,  information  having  been  sent 
of  it  by  letter,  from  a  British  officer  at  Princeton, 
to  Colonel  Rolle  [Rahl,  or  Rail],  who  com- 
manded the  Hessians  at  Trenton,  which  letter 
was  afterwards  found  by  the  Americans.  Never- 
204. 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

theless  the  post  was  completely  surprised.  A 
small  circmnstance,  which  had  the  appearance  of 
mistake  on  the  part  of  the  Americans,  led  to  a 
more  capital  and  real  mistake  on  the  part  of 
Rolle. 

The  case  was  this.  A  detachment  of  twenty 
or  thirty  Americans  had  been  sent  across  the 
river,  from  a  post  a  few  miles  above,  by  an  officer 
unacquainted  with  the  intended  attack;  these 
were  met  by  a  body  of  Hessians  on  the  night  to 
which  the  information  pointed,  which  was  Christ- 
mas night,  and  repulsed.  Nothing  further  ap- 
pearing, and  the  Hessians  mistaking  this  for  the 
advanced  party,  supposed  the  enterprise  discon- 
certed, which  at  that  time  was  not  begun,  and 
under  this  idea  returned  to  their  quarters;  so 
that,  what  might  have  raised  an  alarm,  and 
brought  the  Americans  into  an  ambuscade,  served 
to  take  off  the  force  of  an  information,  and  pro- 
mote the  success  of  the  enterprise.  Soon  after 
daylight,  General  Washington  entered  the  town, 
and  after  a  little  opposition,  made  himself  master 
of  it,  with  upwards  of  nine  hundred  prisoners. 

This  combination  of  equivocal  circumstances, 
falling  within  what  the  Abbe  styles,  ^Hhe  wide 
empire  of  chance"  would  have  afforded  a  fine 
field  for  thought,  and  I  wish,  for  the  sake  of 

205 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

that  elegance  of  reflection  he  is  so  capable  of 
using,  that  he  had  known  it. 

But  the  action  at  Princeton  was  accompanied 
by  a  still  greater  embarrassment  of  matters,  and 
followed  by  more  extraordinary  consequences. 
The  Americans,  by  a  happy  stroke  of  general- 
ship, in  this  instance,  not  only  deranged  and  de- 
feated all  the  plans  of  the  British,  in  the  intended 
moment  of  execution,  but  drew  from  their  posts 
the  enemy  they  were  not  able  to  drive,  and 
obliged  them  to  close  the  campaign.  As  the 
circumstance  is  a  curiosity  in  war,  and  not  well 
understood  in  Europe,  I  shall,  as  concisely  as  I 
can,  relate  the  principal  parts;  they  may  serve 
to  prevent  future  historians  from  error,  and  re- 
cover from  f orgetfulness  a  scene  of  magnificent 
fortitude. 

Immediately  after  the  surprise  of  the  Hes- 
sians at  Trenton,  General  Washington  re-crossed 
the  Delaware,  which  at  this  place  is  about  three 
quarters  of  a  mile  over,  and  reassumed  his  former 
post  on  the  Pennsylvania  side.  Trenton  re- 
mained unoccupied,  and  the  enemy  were  posted 
at  Princeton,  twelve  miles  distant,  on  the  road 
toward  New  York.  The  weather  was  now 
growing  very  severe,  and  as  there  were  very  few 
houses  near  the  shore  where  General  Washington 
206 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

had  taken  his  station,  the  greatest  part  of  his 
army  remained  out  in  the  woods  and  fields. 
These,  with  some  other  circumstances,  induced 
the  re-crossing  the  Delaware  and  taking  posses- 
sion of  Trenton.  It  was  undoubtedly  a  bold  ad- 
venture, and  carried  with  it  the  appearance  of 
defiance,  especially  when  we  consider  the  panic- 
struck  condition  of  the  enemy  on  the  loss  of  the 
Hessian  post.  But  in  order  to  give  a  just  idea 
of  the  affair,  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  describe 
the  place. 

Trenton  is  situated  on  a  rising  ground,  about 
three  quarters  of  a  mile  distant  from  the  Dela- 
ware, on  the  eastern  or  Jersey  side;  and  is  cut 
into  two  divisions  by  a  small  creek  or  ri\Tilet,  suffi- 
cient to  turn  a  mill  which  is  on  it,  after  which 
it  empties  itself  at  nearly  right  angles  into  the 
Delaware.  The  upper  division,  which  is  that  to 
the  northeast,  contains  about  seventy  or  eighty 
houses,  and  the  lower  about  forty  or  fifty.  The 
ground  on  each  side  this  creek,  and  on  which  the 
houses  are,  is  likewise  rising,  and  the  two  divisions 
present  an  agreeable  prospect  to  each  other,  with 
the  creek  between,  on  which  there  is  a  small  stone 
bridge  of  one  arch. 

Scarcely  had  General  Washington  taken  post 
here,  and  before  the  several  parties  of  militia,  out 

207 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

on  detachments,  or  on  their  way,  could  be  col- 
lected, than  the  British,  leaving  behind  them  a 
strong  garrison  at  Princeton,  marched  suddenly 
and  entered  Trenton  at  the  upper  or  northeast 
quarter.  A  party  of  the  Americans  skirmished 
with  the  advanced  party  of  the  British,  to  afford 
time  for  removing  the  store  and  baggage,  and 
withdrawing  over  the  bridge. 

In  a  little  time  the  British  had  possession  of 
one  half  of  the  town.  General  Washington  of 
the  other;  and  the  creek  only  separated  the  two 
armies.  Nothing  could  be  a  more  critical  situa- 
tion than  this,  and  if  ever  the  fate  of  America 
depended  upon  the  event  of  a  day,  it  was  now. 
The  Delaware  was  filling  fast  with  large  sheets 
of  driving  ice,  and  was  impassable;  of  course  no 
retreat  into  Pennsylvania  could  be  effected, 
neither  is  it  possible,  in  the  face  of  an  enemy, 
to  pass  a  river  of  such  extent.  The  roads  were 
broken  and  rugged  with  the  frost,  and  the  main 
road  was  occupied  by  the  enemy. 

About  four  o'clock  a  party  of  the  British  ap- 
proached the  bridge,  with  a  design  to  gain  it,  but 
were  repulsed.  They  made  no  more  attempts, 
though  the  creek  itself  is  passable  anywhere 
between  the  bridge  and  the  Delaware.  It  runs 
in  a  rugged,  natural  made  ditch,  over  which  a 
208 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

person  may  pass  with  little  difficulty,  the  stream 
being  rapid  and  shallow.  Evening  was  now  com- 
ing on,  and  the  British,  believing  they  had  all  the 
advantages  they  could  wish  for,  and  that  they 
could  use  them  when  they  pleased,  discontinued 
all  further  operations,  and  held  themselves  pre- 
pared to  make  the  attack  next  morning. 

But  the  next  morning  produced  a  scene  as 
elegant  as  it  was  unexpected.  The  British  were 
under  arms  and  ready  to  march  to  action,  when 
one  of  their  light-horse  from  Princeton  came  fu- 
riously down  the  street,  with  an  account  that  Gen- 
eral Washington  had  that  morning  attacked  and 
carried  the  British  post  at  that  place,  and  was 
proceeding  on  to  seize  the  magazine  at  Bruns- 
wick ;  on  which  the  British,  who  were  then  on  the 
point  of  making  an  assault  on  the  evacuated 
camp  of  the  Americans,  wheeled  about,  and  in  a 
fit  of  consternation  marched  for  Princeton. 

This  retreat  is  one  of  those  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances, that  in  future  ages  may  probably 
pass  for  fable.  For  it  will  with  difficulty  be  be- 
lieved, that  two  armies,  on  which  such  important 
consequences  depended,  should  be  crowded  mto 
so  small  a  space  as  Trenton ;  and  that  the  one,  on 
the  eve  of  an  engagement,  when  every  ear  is  sup- 
posed to  be  open,  and  every  degree  of  watchful- 

209 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ness  employed,  should  move  completely  from  the 
ground,  with  all  its  stores,  baggage  and  artillery, 
unknown  and  even  unsuspected  by  the  other. 
And  so  entirely  were  the  British  deceived,  that 
when  they  heard  the  report  of  the  cannon  and 
small  arms  at  Princeton,  they  supposed  it  to  be 
thunder,  though  in  the  depth  of  winter. 

General  Washington,  the  better  to  cover  and 
disguise  his  retreat  from  Trenton,  had  ordered 
a  line  of  fires  to  be  lighted  up  in  front  of  his 
camp.  These  not  only  served  to  give  an  appear- 
ance of  going  to  rest,  and  continuing  that  decep- 
tion, but  they  effectually  concealed  from  the 
British  whatever  was  acting  behind  them,  for 
flame  can  no  more  be  seen  through  than  a  wall, 
and  in  this  situation,  it  may  with  propriety  be 
said,  they  became  a  pillar  of  fire  to  one  army, 
and  a  pillar  of  cloud  to  the  other.  After  this, 
by  a  circuitous  march  of  about  eighteen  miles, 
the  Americans  reached  Princeton  early  in  the 
morning. 

The  number  of  prisoners  taken  was  between 
two  and  three  hundred,  with  which  General 
Washington  inmiediately  set  off.  The  van  of  the 
British  Army  from  Trenton  entered  Princeton 
about  an  hour  after  the  Americans  had  left  it, 
who,  continuing  their  march  for  the  remainder 
210 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  the  day,  arrived  in  the  evening  at  a  convenient 
situation,  wide  of  the  main  road  to  Brunswick, 
and  about  sixteen  miles  distant  from  Princeton. 
But  so  wearied  and  exhausted  were  they,  with  the 
continual  and  unabated  service  and  fatigue  of 
two  days  and  a  night,  from  action  to  action,  with- 
out shelter,  and  almost  without  refreshment,  that 
the  bare  and  frozen  ground,  with  no  other  cover- 
ing than  the  sky,  became  to  them  a  place  of  com- 
fortable rest. 

By  these  two  events,  and  with  but  a  little 
comparative  force  to  accomplish  them,  the  Amer- 
icans closed  with  advantage  a  campaign,  which, 
but  a  few  days  before,  threatened  the  country 
with  destruction.  The  British  Army,  apprehen- 
sive for  the  safety  of  their  magazines  at  Bruns- 
wick, eighteen  miles  distant,  marched  imme- 
diately for  that  place,  where  they  arrived  late 
in  the  evening,  and  from  which  they  made  no 
attempts  to  move,  for  nearly  five  months. 

Having  thus  stated  the  principal  outlines  of 
these  two  most  interesting  actions,  I  shall  now 
quit  them,  to  put  the  Abbe  right  in  his  mis-stated 
account  of  the  debt  and  paper  money  of  America, 
wherein,  speaking  of  these  matters,  he  says: 

These  ideal  riches  were  rejected.  The  more  the 
multiplication  of  them  was  urged  by  want,  the  greater 

211 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

did  their  depreciation  grow.  The  Congress  was  indig- 
nant at  the  affront  given  to  its  money,  and  declared 
all  those  to  be  traitors  to  their  country,  who  should 
not  receive  it  as  they  would  have  received  gold  itself. 

Did  not  this  body  know,  that  prepossessions  are 
no  more  to  be  controlled  than  feelings  are?  Did  it  not 
perceive  that,  in  the  present  crisis,  every  rational  man 
would  be  afraid  of  exposing  his  fortune?  Did  it  not 
see,  that  at  the  beginning  of  a  republic,  it  permitted 
to  itself  the  exercise  of  such  acts  of  despotism  as  are 
unknown  even  in  the  countries  which  are  molded  to, 
and  become  familiar  with,  servitude  and  oppression? 
Could  it  pretend  that  it  did  not  punish  a  want  of  con- 
fidence with  the  pains  which  would  have  been  scarcely 
merited  by  revolt  and  treason?  Of  all  this  was  the 
Congress  well  aware.  But  it  had  no  choice  of  means. 
Its  despised  and  despicable  scraps  of  paper  were  act- 
ually thirty  times  below  their  original  value,  when  more 
of  them  were  ordered  to  be  made.  On  the  thirteenth  of 
September,  1779,  there  was  of  this  paper  among  the 
public,  to  the  amount  of  £35,544,155.  The  State  owed 
moreover  £8,385,356,  without  reckoning  the  particular 
debts  of  single  provinces. 

In  the  above  recited  passages,  the  Abbe 
speaks  as  if  the  United  States  had  contracted  a 
debt  of  upwards  of  forty  milhon  pounds  sterling, 
besides  the  debts  of  the  individual  states.  After 
which,  speaking  of  foreign  trade  with  America, 
he  says,  that  "those  countries  in  Europe,  which 
are  truly  commercial  ones,  knowing  that  North 
America  had  been  reduced  to  contract  debts,  at 
the  epoch  even  of  her  greatest  prosperity,  wisely 
212 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

thought  that,  in  her  present  distress,  she  would 
be  able  to  pay  but  very  little,  for  what  might  be 
carried  to  her." 

I  know  it  must  be  extremely  difficult  to  make 
foreigners  understand  the  nature  and  circum- 
stances of  our  paper  money,  because  there  are 
natives,  who  do  not  understand  it  themselves. 
But  with  us  its  fate  is  now  determined.  Com- 
mon consent  has  consigned  it  to  rest  with  that 
kind  of  regard,  which  the  long  service  of  inan- 
imate things  insensibly  obtains  from  mankind. 
Every  stone  in  the  bridge,  that  has  carried  us 
over,  seems  to  have  a  claim  upon  our  esteem. 
But  this  was  a  corner-stone,  and  its  usefulness 
cannot  be  forgotten.  There  is  something  in  a 
grateful  mind,  which  extends  itself  even  to 
things  that  can  neither  be  benefited  by  regard, 
nor  suffer  by  neglect;  but  so  it  is;  and  almost 
every  man  is  sensible  of  the  effect. 

But  to  return.  The  paper  money,  though 
issued  from  Congress  under  the  name  of  dollars, 
did  not  come  from  that  body  always  at  that 
value.  Those  which  were  issued  the  first  year, 
were  equal  to  gold  and  silver.  The  second  year 
less,  the  third  still  less,  and  so  on,  for  nearly  the 
space  of  five  years:  at  the  end  of  which,  I 
imagine,  that  the  whole  value,  at  which  Congress 

213 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

might  pay  away  the  several  emissions,  taking 
them  together,  was  about  ten  or  twelve  million 
pounds  sterUng. 

Now  as  it  would  have  taken  ten  or  twelve 
millions  sterling  of  taxes  to  carry  on  the  war  for 
five  years,  and,  as  while  this  money  was  issuing, 
and  likewise  depreciating  down  to  nothing,  there 
were  none,  or  few  valuable  taxes  paid;  conse- 
quently the  event  to  the  public  was  the  same, 
whether  they  sunk  ten  or  twelve  millions  of  ex- 
pended money,  by  depreciation,  or  paid  ten  or 
twelve  millions  by  taxation;  for  as  they  did  not 
do  both,  and  chose  to  do  one,  the  matter  which, 
in  a  general  view,  was  indifferent.  And  there- 
fore, what  the  Abbe  supposes  to  be  a  debt,  has 
now  no  existence;  it  having  been  paid,  by  every- 
body consenting  to  reduce,  at  his  own  expense, 
from  the  value  of  the  bills  continually  passing 
among  themselves,  a  sum,  equal,  nearly,  to  what 
the  expense  of  the  war  was  for  five  years. 

Again.  The  paper  money  having  now  ceased, 
and  the  depreciation  with  it,  and  gold  and  silver 
supphed  its  place,  the  war  will  now  be  carried 
on  by  taxation,  which  will  draw  from  the  pubHc 
a  considerable  less  sum  than  what  the  deprecia- 
tion drew ;  but  as  while  they  pay  the  former,  they 
do  not  suffer  the  latter,  and  as  when  they  suffered 
214 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  latter,  they  did  not  pay  the  former,  the  thing 
will  be  nearly  equal,  with  this  moral  advantage, 
that  taxation  occasions  frugality  and  thought, 
and  depreciation  produces  dissipation  and  care- 
lessness. 

And  again.  If  a  man's  portion  of  taxes 
comes  to  less  than  what  he  lost  by  the  deprecia- 
tion, it  proves  that  the  alteration  is  in  his  favor. 
If  it  comes  to  more  and  he  is  justly  assessed,  it 
shows  that  he  did  not  sustain  his  proper  share  of 
depreciation,  because  the  one  was  as  operatively 
his  tax  as  the  other. 

It  is  true,  that  it  never  was  intended,  neither 
was  it  foreseen,  that  the  debt  contained  in  the 
paper  currency  should  sink  itself  in  this  manner ; 
but  as,  by  the  voluntary  conduct  of  all  and  of 
everj^one,  it  has  arrived  at  this  fate,  the  debt  is 
paid  by  those  who  owed  it. 

Perhaps  nothing  was  ever  so  universally  the 
act  of  a  country  as  this.  Government  had  no 
hand  in  it.  Every  man  depreciated  his  own 
money  by  his  own  consent,  for  such  was  the  ef- 
fect, which  the  raising  the  nominal  value  of  goods 
produced.  But  as  by  such  reduction  he  sustained 
a  loss  equal  to  what  he  must  have  paid  to  sink  it 
by  taxation,  therefore  the  hne  of  justice  is  to 
consider  his  loss  by  the  depreciation  as  his  tax 

215 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

for  that  time,  and  not  to  tax  him  when  the  war 
is  over,  to  make  that  money  good  in  any  other 
person's  hands,  which  became  nothing  in  his  own. 

Again.  The  paper  currency  was  issued  for 
the  express  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  war.  It 
has  performed  that  service,  without  any  other 
material  charge  to  the  pubHc,  while  it  lasted. 
But  to  suppose,  as  some  did,  that,  at  the  end  of 
the  war,  it  was  to  grow  into  gold  or  silver,  or 
become  equal  thereto,  was  to  suppose  that  we 
were  to  get  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  by 
going  to  war,  instead  of  paying  the  cost  of  car- 
rying it  on. 

But  if  anything  in  the  situation  of  America, 
as  to  her  currency  or  her  circumstances,  yet  re- 
mains not  understood,  then  let  it  be  remembered, 
that  this  war  is  the  public's  war — the  country's 
war.  It  is  their  independence  that  is  to  be  sup- 
ported ;  their  property  that  is  to  be  secured ;  their 
country  that  is  to  be  saved.  Here,  Government, 
the  army,  and  the  people,  are  mutually  and 
reciprocally  one.  In  other  wars,  kings  may  lose 
their  thrones,  and  their  dominions;  but  here,  the 
loss  must  fall  on  the  majesty  of  the  multitude, 
and  the  property  they  are  contending  to  save. 
Every  man  being  sensible  of  this,  he  goes  to  the 
field,  or  pays  his  portion  of  the  charge,  as  the 
216 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

sovereign  of  his  own  possessions;  and  when  he 
is  conquered  a  monarch  falls. 

The  remark,  which  the  Abbe  in  the  conclusion 
of  the  passage  has  made,  respecting  America's 
contracting  debts  in  the  time  of  her  prosperity, 
(by  which  he  means,  before  the  breaking  out  of 
hostilities),  serves  to  show,  though  he  has  not 
made  the  application,  the  very  great  commercial 
difference  between  a  dependent  and  an  independ- 
ent country.  In  a  state  of  dependence,  and  with 
a  fettered  commerce,  though  with  all  the  advan- 
tages of  peace,  her  trade  could  not  balance  itself, 
and  she  annually  run  into  debt.  But  now,  in  a 
state  of  independence,  though  involved  in  war, 
she  requires  no  credit:  her  stores  are  full  of  mer- 
chandize, and  gold  and  silver  are  become  the  cur- 
rency of  the  country.  How  these  things  have 
established  themselves  is  difficult  to  account  for: 
but  they  are  facts,  and  facts  are  more  powerful 
than  arguments. 

As  it  is  probable  this  letter  will  undergo  a  re- 
publication in  Europe,  the  remarks  here  thrown 
together  will  serve  to  show  the  extreme  folly  of 
Britain  in  resting  her  hopes  of  success  on  the  ex- 
tinction of  our  paper  currency.  The  expecta- 
tion is  at  once  so  childish  and  forlorn,  that  it 

217 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

places  her  in  the  laughable  condition  of  a  fam- 
ished lion  watching  for  prey  at  a  spider's  web. 

From  this  account  of  the  currency,  the  Abbe 
proceeds  to  state  the  condition  of  America  in  the 
winter  of  1777,  and  the  spring  following;  and 
closes  his  observations  with  mentioning  the 
Treaty  of  Alliance,  which  was  signed  in  France, 
and  the  propositions  of  the  British  Ministry, 
which  were  rejected  in  America.  But  in  the 
manner  in  which  the  Abbe  has  arranged  his  facts, 
there  is  a  very  material  error,  that  not  only  he, 
but  other  European  historians  have  fallen  into; 
none  of  them  having  assigned  the  true  cause  why 
the  British  proposals  were  rejected,  and  all  of 
them  have  assigned  a  wrong  one. 

In  the  winter  of  1778,  and  spring  following. 
Congress  were  assembled  at  York  Town,  in 
Pennsylvania,  the  British  were  in  possession  of 
Philadelphia,  and  General  Washington  with  the 
army  was  encamped  in  huts  at  Valley  Forge 
twenty-five  miles  distant  therefrom.  To  all,  who 
can  remember,  it  was  a  season  of  hardship,  but 
not  despair;  and  the  Abbe,  speaking  of  this 
period  and  its  inconveniences,  says : 

A  multitude  of  privations,  added  to  so  many  other 
misfortunes,  might  make  the  Americans  regret  their 
former  tranquillity,  and  incline  them  to  an  accommoda- 

218 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tion  with  England.  In  vain  had  the  people  been  bound 
to  the  new  government  by  the  sacredness  of  oaths  and 
the  influence  of  religion.  In  vain  had  endeavors  been 
used  to  convince  them  that  it  was  impossible  to  treat 
safely  with  a  countr}',  in  which  one  Parliament  might 
overturn  what  should  have  been  established  by  another. 
In  vain  had  they  been  threatened  with  the  eternal  re- 
sentment of  an  exasperated  and  vindictive  enemy.  It 
was  possible  that  these  distant  troubles  might  not  be 
balanced  by  the  weight  of  present  evils. 

So  thought  the  British  Ministry,  when  they  sent  to 
the  new  world  public  agents,  authorized  to  offer  every- 
thing except  independence  to  these  very  Americans, 
from  whom  they  had  two  years  before  exacted  an  un- 
conditional submission.  It  is  not  improbable  but,  that 
by  this  plan  of  conciliation,  a  few  months  sooner,  some 
effect  might  have  been  produced.  But  at  the  period, 
at  which  it  was  proposed  by  the  Court  of  London,  it 
was  rejected  with  disdain,  because  this  measure  ap- 
peared but  as  an  argument  of  fear  and  weakness.  The 
people  were  already  reassured.  The  Congress,  the  gen- 
erals, the  troops,  the  bold  and  skilful  men,  in  each  col- 
ony had  possessed  themselves  of  the  authority ;  every 
thing  had  recovered  its  first  spirit.  This  was  the  effect 
of  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  commerce  between  the 
United  States  and  the  Court  of  Versailles,  signed  the 
sixth  of  February,  1778. 

On  this  passage  of  the  Abbe's  I  cannot  help 
remarking,  that,  to  unite  time  with  circumstance, 
is  a  material  nicety  in  history;  the  want  of  which 
frequently  throws  it  into  endless  confusion  and 
mistake,  occasions  a  total  separation  between 
causes  and  consequences  and  connects  them  with 
yiii-io  219 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

others  they  are  not  immediately,  and  sometimes 
not  at  all,  related  to. 

The  Abbe,  in  saying  that  the  offers  of  the 
British  Ministry  "were  rejected  with  disdain,"  is 
right,  as  to  the  fact,  but  wrong  as  to  the  time; 
and  this  error  in  the  time,  has  occasioned  him  to 
be  mistaken  in  the  cause. 

The  signing  the  Treaty  of  Paris  the  sixth  of 
February,  1778,  could  have  no  eiFect  on  the  mind 
or  politics  of  America,  until  it  was  known  in 
America:  and  therefore,  when  the  Abbe  says,  that 
the  rejection  of  the  British  offers  was  in  conse- 
quence of  the  alliance,  he  must  mean,  that  it  was 
in  consequence  of  the  alliance  being  known  in 
America ;  which  was  not  the  case :  and  by  this  mis- 
take he  not  only  takes  from  her  the  reputation, 
which  her  unshaken  fortitude  in  that  trying  situ- 
ation deserves,  but  is  likewise  led  very  injuriously 
to  suppose,  that  had  she  not  known  of  the  treaty, 
the  offers  would  probably  have  been  accepted; 
whereas  she  knew  nothing  of  the  treaty  at  the 
time  of  the  rejection,  and  consequently  did  not  re- 
ject them  on  that  ground. 

The  propositions  or  offers  above  mentioned, 
were  contained  in  two  bills  brought  into  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament  by  Lord  North,  on  the  seven- 
teenth of  February,  1778.    Those  biUs  were  hur- 
220 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ried  through  both  houses  with  unusual  haste,  and 
before  they  had  gone  through  all  the  customary 
forms  of  Parliament,  copies  of  them  were  sent 
over  to  Lord  Howe  and  General  Howe,  then  in 
Philadelphia,  who  were  likewise  commissioners. 
General  Howe  ordered  them  to  be  printed  in 
Philadelphia,  and  sent  copies  of  them  by  a  flag 
to  General  Washington,  to  be  forwarded  to  Con- 
gress at  York  Town,  where  they  arrived  the 
twenty-first  of  April,  1778.  Thus  much  for  the 
arrival  of  the  bills  in  America. 

Congress,  as  is  their  usual  mode,  appointed  a 
committee  from  their  own  body,  to  examine  them 
and  report  thereon.  The  report  was  brought  in 
the  next  day,  (the  twenty-second),  was  read, 
and  unanimously  agreed  to,  entered  on  their 
journals,  and  pubHshed  for  the  information  of 
the  country.  Now  this  report  must  be  the  re- 
jection to  which  the  Abbe  alludes,  because  Con- 
gress gave  no  other  formal  opinion  on  those  bills 
and  propositions:  and  on  a  subsequent  apphca- 
tion  from  the  British  commissioners,  dated  the 
twenty-seventh  of  May,  and  received  at  York 
Town  [Pa.]  the  sixth  of  June,  Congress  imme- 
diately referred  them  for  an  answer,  to  their 
printed  resolves  of  the  twenty-second  of  April. 
Thus  much  for  the  rejection  of  the  offers. 

221 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

On  the  second  of  May,  that  is,  eleven  days 
after  the  above  rejection  was  made,  the  treaty  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  France  arrived  at 
York  Town ;  and  until  this  moment  Congress  had 
not  the  least  notice  or  idea,  that  such  a  measure 
was  in  any  train  of  execution.  But  lest  this 
declaration  of  mine  should  pass  only  for  assertion, 
I  shall  support  it  by  proof,  for  it  is  material  to 
the  character  and  principle  of  the  Revolution  to 
show,  that  no  condition  of  America,  since  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  however  trying  and 
severe,  ever  operated  to  produce  the  most  distant 
idea  of  yielding  it  up  either  by  force,  distress, 
artifice  or  persuasion.  And  this  proof  is  the 
more  necessary,  because  it  was  the  system  of  the 
British  Ministry  at  this  time,  as  well  as  before 
and  since,  to  hold  out  to  the  European  powers 
that  America  was  unfixed  in  her  resolutions  and 
policy;  hoping  by  this  artifice  to  lessen  her  repu- 
tation in  Europe,  and  weaken  the  confidence 
which  those  powers  or  any  of  them  might  be 
inclined  to  place  in  her. 

At  the  time  these  matters  were  transacting,  I 
was  secretary  in  the  Foreign  Department  of  Con- 
gress. All  the  political  letters  from  the  Amer- 
ican commissioners  rested  in  my  hands,  and  all 
that  were  officially  written  went  from  my  office; 
222 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  so  far  from  Congress  knowing  anything  of 
the  signing  the  treaty,  at  the  time  they  rejected 
the  British  offers,  they  had  not  received  a  hne  of 
information  from  their  commissioners  at  Paris, 
on  any  subject  whatever,  for  upwards  of  a 
twelve-month.  Probably  the  loss  of  the  port  of 
Philadelphia  and  the  navigation  of  the  Delaware, 
together  with  the  danger  of  the  seas,  covered  at 
this  time  with  British  cruisers,  contributed  to  the 
disappointment. 

One  packet,  it  is  true,  arrived  at  York  Town 
in  January  preceding,  which  was  about  three 
months  before  the  arrival  of  the  treaty;  but, 
strange  as  it  may  appear,  every  letter  had  been 
taken  out,  before  it  was  put  on  board  the  vessel 
which  brought  it  from  France,  and  blank  white 
paper  put  in  their  stead. 

Having  thus  stated  the  time  when  the  propos- 
als from  the  British  commissioners  were  first  re- 
ceived, and  likewise  the  time  when  the  Treaty  of 
Alliance  arrived,  and  shown  that  the  rejection  of 
the  former  was  eleven  days  prior  to  the  arrival 
of  the  latter,  and  without  the  least  knowledge  of 
such  circumstance  having  taken  place  or  being 
about  to  take  place;  the  rejection,  therefore, 
must,  and  ought  to  be  attributed  to  the  fixed,  un- 
varied  sentiments   of   America   respecting   the 

223 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

enemy  she  is  at  war  with,  and  her  determina- 
tion to  support  her  independence  to  the  last  pub- 
lic effort,  and  not  to  any  new  circumstance  which 
had  taken  place  in  her  favor,  which  at  that  time 
she  did  not  and  could  not  know  of. 

Besides,  there  is  a  vigor  of  determination  and 
spirit  of  defiance  in  the  language  of  the  rejec- 
tion, (which  I  here  subjoin),  which  derive  their 
greatest  glory  by  appearing  before  the  treaty 
was  known;  for  that  which  is  bravery  in  dis- 
tress, becomes  insult  in  prosperity :  and  the  treaty 
placed  America  on  such  a  strong  foundation,  that 
had  she  then  known  it,  the  answer  which  she  gave, 
would  have  appeared  rather  as  an  air  of  triumph, 
than  as  the  glowing  serenity  of  fortitude. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  Abbe  appears  to  have 
entirely  mistaken  the  matter;  for  instead  of  at- 
tributing the  rejection  of  the  propositions  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  Treaty  of  Alliance;  he  should 
have  attributed  the  origin  of  them  in  the  British 
Cabinet,  to  their  knowledge  of  that  event.  And 
then  the  reason  why  they  were  hurried  over  to 
America  in  the  state  of  bills,  that  is,  before  they 
were  passed  into  acts,  is  easily  accounted  for, 
which  is  that  they  might  have  the  chance  of  reach- 
ing America  before  any  knowledge  of  the  treaty 
should  arrive,  which  they  were  lucky  enough  to 
224 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

do,  and  there  met  the  fate  they  so  riclily  merited. 
That  these  bills  were  brought  into  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament  after  the  treaty  with  France  was 
signed,  is  proved  from  the  dates :  the  treaty  being 
on  the  sixth,  and  the  bills  on  the  seventeenth  of 
February.  And  that  the  signing  the  treaty  was 
known  in  Parliament,  when  the  bills  were  brought 
in,  is  likewise  proved  by  a  speech  of  Mr.  Fox,  on 
the  said  seventeenth  of  February,  who,  in  reply 
to  Lord  North,  informed  the  House  of  the  treaty 
being  signed,  and  challenged  the  Minister's 
knowledge  of  the  same  fact.* 

*  In  Congress,  April  22,  1788. 

The  committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  General's  letter  of 
the  eighteenth,  containing  a  certain  printed  paper  sent  from  Phila- 
delphia, purporting  to  be  the  draft  of  a  bill  for  declaring  the 
intentions  of  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  as  to  the  exercise 
of  what  they  are  pleased  to  term  their  right  of  imposing  taxes 
within  these  United  States:  and  also  the  draft  of  a  biU  to  en- 
able the  King  of  Great  Britain  to  appoint  commissioners,  with 
powers  to  treat,  consult,  and  agree  upon  the  means  of  quieting 
certain  disorders  within  the  said  states,  beg  leave  to  observe, 

That  the  said  paper  being  industriously  circulated  by  emis- 
saries of  the  enemy,  in  a  partial  and  secret  manner,  the  same 
ought  to  be  forthwith  printed  for  the  public  information. 

The  committee  cannot  ascertain  whether  the  contents  of  the  said 
paper  have  been  framed  in  Philadelphia,  or  in  Great  Britain,  much 
less  whether  the  same  are  really  and  truly  intended  to  be  brought 
into  the  Parliament  of  that  Kingdom,  or  whether  the  said  Parlia- 
ment will  confer  thereon  the  usual  solemnities  of  their  laws.  But 
are  inclined  to  believe  this  will  happen,  for  the  following  reasons: 

1st,  Because  their  General  hath  made  divers  feeble  efforts  to 
set  on  foot  some  kind  of  treaty  during  the  last  winter,  though, 
either  from  a  mistaken  idea  of  his  own  dignity  and  importance, 
the  want  of  information,  or  some  other  cause,  he  hath  not  made 
application  to  those  who  are  invested  with  a  proper  authority. 

225 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Though  I  am  not  surprised  to  see  the  Abbe 
mistaken  in  matters  of  history,  acted  at  such  a 
distance  from  his  sphere  of  immediate  observa- 
tion, yet  I  am  more  than  surprised  to  find  him 

2d,  Because  they  suppose  that  the  fallacious  idea  of  a  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities  will  render  these  states  remiss  in  their  prepara- 
tions for  war. 

3d,  Because  believing  the  Americans  wearied  with  war,  they 
suppose  we  will  accede  to  their  terms  for  the  sake  of  peace. 

4th,  Because  they  suppose  our  negotiations  may  be  subject 
to  a  like  corrupt  influence  with  their  debates. 

5th,  Because  they  expect  from  this  step  the  same  effects 
they  did  from  what  one  of  their  ministers  thought  proper  to  call 
his  conciliatory  motion,  viz.,  that  it  will  prevent  foreign  powers 
from  giving  aid  to  these  states;  that  it  will  lead  their  own  sub- 
jects to  continue  a  little  longer  the  present  war:  and  that  it  will 
detach  some  weak  men  in  America,  from  the  cause  of  freedom 
and  virtue. 

6th,  Because  their  King,  from  his  own  showing,  hath  reason 
to  apprehend  that  his  fleets  and  armies,  instead  of  being  em- 
ployed against  the  territories  of  these  states,  will  be  necessary  for 
the  defense  of  his  own  dominions.    And, 

7th,  Because  the  impracticability  of  subjugating  this  country 
being  every  day  more  and  more  manifest,  it  is  their  interest  to 
extricate  themselves  from  the  war  upon  any  terms. 

The  committee  beg  leave  further  to  observe,  that  upon  a 
supposition  the  matters  contained  in  the  said  paper  will  really  go 
into  the  British  statute  books,  they  serve  to  show,  in  a  clear  point 
of  view,  the  weakness  and  wickedness  of  the  enemy. 

Their  weakness. 

1st,  Because  they  formerly  declared,  not  only  that  they  had  a 
right  to  bind  the  inhabitants  of  these  states  in  all  cases  whatso- 
ever, but  also  that  the  said  inhabitants  should  absolutely  and 
unconditionally  submit  to  the  exercise  of  that  right.  And  this 
submission  they  have  endeavored  to  exact  by  the  sword.  Receding 
from  this  claim,  therefore,  imder  the  present  circumstances,  shows 
their  inability  to  enforce  it. 

2d,  Because  their  Prince  hath  heretofore  rejected  the 
humblest  petitions  of  the  representatives  of  America,  praying  to 
be  considered   as  subjects,   and   protected   in   the   enjoyment  of 

226 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

wrong"  (or  at  least  what  appears  so  to  me)  in 
the  well  enlightened  field  of  philosophical  reflec- 
tion. Here  the  materials  are  his  own ;  created  b}' 
himself;  and  the  error,  therefore,  is  an  act  of  the 
mind. 

peace,  liberty  and  safety:  and  hath  waged  a  most  cruel  war 
against  them,  and  employed  the  savages  to  butcher  innocent 
women  and  children.  But  now  the  same  Prince  pretends  to  treat 
with  those  very  representatives,  and  grant  to  the  arms  of  America 
what  he  refused  to  her  prayers. 

3d,  Because  they  have  uniformly  labored  to  conquer  this  con- 
tinent, rejecting  every  idea  of  accommodation  proposed  to  them, 
from  a  confidence  in  their  own  strength.  Wherefore  it  is  evident, 
from  the  change  in  their  mode  of  attack,  that  they  have  lost  this 
confidence.    And, 

4th,  Because  the  constant  language,  spoken,  not  only  by 
their  ministers,  but  by  the  most  public  and  authentic  acts  of  the 
nation,  hath  been,  that  it  is  incompatible  with  their  dignity  to 
treat  with  the  Americans  while  they  have  arms  in  their  hands. 
Notwithstanding  which,  an  offer  is  now  about  to  be  made  for 
treaty. 

The  vnckedness  and  insincerity  of  the  enemy  appear  from 
the  following  considerations: 

1st,  Either  the  hills  now  to  be  passed  contain  a  direct  or  in- 
direct cession  of  a  part  of  their  former  claims,  or  they  do  not. 
If  they  do,  then  it  is  acknowledged  that  they  have  sacrificed  many 
brave  men  in  an  uunjust  quarrel.  If  they  do  not,  then  they  are  cal- 
culated to  deceive  America  into  terms,  to  which  neither  argument 
before  the  war,  nor  force  since,  could  procure  her  assent. 

2d,  The  first  of  these  hills  appears,  from  the  title,  to  be  a 
declaration  of  the  intentions  of  the  British  Parliament  concerning 
the  exercise  of  the  right  of  imposing  taxes  within  these  states. 
Wherefore,  should  these  states  treat  under  the  said  bill,  they 
would  indirectly  acknowledge  that  right,  to  obtain  which  ac- 
knowledgment the  present  war  hath  been  avowedly  undertaken 
and  prosecuted  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain. 

3d,  Should  such  pretended  right  be  so  acquiesced  in,  then,  of 
consequence  the  same  right  might  be  exercised  whenever  the 
British  Parliament  should  find  themselves  in  a  different  temper 
and  dispositions  since  it  must  depend  upon  those,  and  such  like 

227 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Hitherto  my  remarks  have  been  confined  to 
circumstance;  the  order  in  which  they  arose,  and 
the  events  they  produced.  In  these,  my  informa- 
tion being  better  than  the  Abbe's,  my  task  was 

contingencies,  how  far  men  will  act  according  to  their  former 
intentions. 

4th,  The  said  first  bill,  in  the  bodj  thereof,  containeth  no 
new  matter,  but  is  precisely  the  same  with  the  motion  before- 
mentioned,  and  liable  to  all  the  objections  which  lay  against  the 
said  motion,  excepting  the  following  particular,  viz.,  that  by  the 
motion  actual  taxation  was  to  be  suspended,  so  long  as  America 
should  give  as  much  as  the  said  Parliament  might  think  proper: 
whereas,  by  the  proposed  bill,  it  is  to  be  suspended,  as  long  as 
future  parliaments  continue  of  the  same  mind  with  the  present. 

5th,  From  the  second  bill  it  appears,  that  the  British  King 
may,  if  he  pleases,  appoint  commissioners  to  treat  and  agree  with 
those,  whom  they  please,  about  a  variety  of  things  therein  men- 
tioned. But  such  treaties  and  agreements  are  to  be  of  no  validity 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  said  Parliament,  except  so  far  as 
they  relate  to  the  suspension  of  hostilities,  and  of  certain  of  their 
acts,  the  granting  of  pardons,  and  the  appointing  of  governors 
to  these  sovereign,  free  and  independent  states.  Wherefore,  the 
said  Parliament  have  reserved  to  themselves,  in  express  words,  the 
power  of  setting  aside  any  such  treaty,  and  taking  the  advantage 
of  any  circumstances  which  may  arise  to  subject  this  continent  to 
their  usurpations. 

6th,  The  said  bill,  by  holding  forth  a  tender  of  pardon,  im- 
plies a  criminality  in  our  justifiable  resistance,  and  consequently, 
to  treat  under  it  would  be  an  implied  acknowledgment  that  the 
inhabitants  of  these  states  were  what  Britain  has  declared  them 
to  be.  Rebels. 

7th,  The  inhabitants  of  these  states  being  claimed  by  them 
as  subjects,  they  may  infer,  from  the  nature  of  the  negotiation 
now  pretended  to  be  set  on  foot,  that  the  said  inhabitants  would 
of  right  be  afterwards  bound  by  such  laws  as  they  should  make. 
Wherefore,  any  agreement  entered  into  on  such  negotiation  might 
at  any  future  time  be  repealed.    And, 

8th,  Because  the  said  bill  purports,  that  the  commissioners 
therein  mentioned  may  treat  with  private  individuals:  a  measure 
highly  derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  national  character. 

228 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

easy.  How  I  may  succeed  in  controverting  mat- 
ters of  sentiment  and  opinion,  with  one  whom 
years,  experience,  and  long  estabhshed  reputa- 
tion have  placed  in  a  superior  line,  I  am  less  con- 

From  all  which  it  appears  evident  to  your  committee,  that 
the  said  bills  are  intended  to  operate  upon  the  hopes  and  fears 
of  the  good  people  of  these  states,  so  as  to  create  divisions  among 
them,  and  a  defection  from  the  common  cause,  now  by  the  bless- 
ing of  Divine  Providence  drawing  near  to  a  favorable  issue.  That 
they  are  the  sequel  of  that  insidious  plan,  which  from  the  days  of 
the  Stamp  Act  down  to  the  present  time,  hath  involved  this  country 
in  contention  and  bloodshed.  And  that,  as  in  other  cases  so  in 
this,  although  circumstances  may  force  them  at  times  to  recede 
from  the  unjustifiable  claims,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  they  will 
as  heretofore,  upon  the  first  favorable  occasion,  again  display  that 
lust  of  domination,  which  hath  rent  in  twain  the  mighty  empire 
of  Britain. 

Upon  the  whole  matter,  the  committee  beg  leave  to  report  it 
as  their  opinion,  that  as  the  Americans  imited  in  this  arduous 
contest  upon  principles  of  common  interest,  for  the  defense  of 
common  rights  and  privileges,  which  union  hath  been  cemented 
by  common  calamities  and  by  mutual  good  offices  and  affection, 
so  the  great  cause  for  which  they  contend,  and  in  which  all  man- 
kind are  interested,  must  derive  its  success  from  the  continuance 
of  that  union.  Wherefore,  any  man,  or  body  of  men,  who  should 
presume  to  make  any  separate  or  partial  convention  or  agreement 
with  commissioners  under  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  or  any  of 
them,  ought  to  be  considered  and  treated  as  open  and  avowed 
enemies  of  the  United  States. 

And  further  your  committee  beg  leave  to  report  it  as  their 
opinion,  that  these  United  States  cannot  with  propriety,  hold  any 
conference  or  treaty  with  any  commissioners  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain,  unless  they  shall,  as  a  preliminary  thereto,  either  with- 
draw their  fleets  and  armies,  or  else,  in  positive  and  express 
terms,  acknowledge  the  independence  of  the  said  states. 

And  inasmuch  as  it  appears  to  be  the  design  of  the  enemies 
of  these  states  to  lull  them  into  a  fatal  security — to  the  end  that 
they  may  act  with  becoming  weight  and  importance,  it  is  the 
opinion  of  your  committee,  that  the  several  states  be  called  upon 
to  use  the   utmost  strenuous  exertions  to  have   their   respective 

229 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

fident  in;  but  as  they  fall  within  the  scope  of 
my  observations  it  would  be  improper  to  pass 
them  over. 

From  this  part  of  the  Abbe's  work  to  the  lat- 
ter end,  I  find  several  expressions,  which  appear 
to  me  to  start,  with  cynical  complexion,  from  the 
path  of  liberal  thinking,  or  at  least  they  are  so 
involved  as  to  lose  many  of  the  beauties  which 
distinguish  other  parts  of  the  performance. 

The  Abbe  having  brought  his  work  to  the 

quotas  of  Continental  troops  in  the  field  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
that  all  the  militia  of  the  said  states  be  held  in  readiness,  to  act 
as  occasion  may  require. 

The  following  is  the  answer  of  Congress  to  the  second  application 
of  the  commissioners: 

"Sir:  York  Town,  June  6,  1778, 

"  I  have  had  the  honor  of  laying  your  letter  of  the  third  instant, 
with  the  acts  of  the  British  Parliament  which  came  inclosed, 
before  Congress:  and  I  am  instructed  to  acquaint  you,  Sir,  that 
they  have  already  expressed  their  sentiments  upon  bills,  not  essen- 
tially different  from  those  acts,  in  a  publication  of  the  twenty- 
second  of  April  last. 

"  Be  assured,  Sir,  when  the  King  of  Great  Britain  shall  be 
seriously  disposed  to  put  an  end  to  the  unprovoked  and  cruel 
war  waged  against  these  United  States,  Congress  will  readUy 
attend  to  such  terms  of  peace,  as  may  consist  with  the  honor 
of  independent  nations,  the  interest  of  their  constituents  and  the 
sacred  regard  they  mean  to  pay  to  treaties.  I  have  the  honor  to 
be,  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient,  and 

most  humble  servant. 
HENRY  LAURENS, 

President  of  Congress." 
His  Excellency, 
Sir  Henry  Clinton,  K.  B.  Philadelphia. 

230 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

period  when  the  Treaty  of  Alliance  between 
France  and  the  United  States  commenced,  pro- 
ceeds to  make  some  remarks  thereon. 

In  short,  (says  he),  philosophy,  whose  first  senti- 
ment is  the  desire  to  see  all  governments  just  and  all 
people  happy,  in  casting  her  eyes  upon  this  alliance  of 
a  monarchy,  with  a  people  who  are  defending  their 
liberty,  is  curious  to  know  its  motive.  She  sees  at  once 
too  clearly,  that  the  happiness  of  mankind  has  no  part 
in  it. 

Whatever  train  of  thinking  or  of  temper  the 
Abbe  might  be  in,  when  he  penned  this  expres- 
sion, matters  not.  They  will  neither  qualify  the 
sentiment,  nor  add  to  its  defect.  If  right,  it 
needs  no  apology ;  if  wrong,  it  merits  no  excuse. 
It  is  sent  into  the  world  as  an  opinion  of  philos- 
ophy, and  may  be  examined  without  regard  to 
the  author. 

It  seems  to  be  a  defect,  connected  with  in- 
genuity, that  it  often  employs  itself  more  in  mat- 
ters of  curiosity,  than  usefulness.  Man  must 
be  the  privy  councillor  of  fate,  or  something  is 
not  right.  He  must  know  the  springs,  the  whys 
and  wherefores  of  everything,  or  he  sits  down 
unsatisfied.  Whether  this  be  a  crime,  or  only 
a  caprice  of  humanity,  I  am  not  inquiring  into. 
I  shall  take  the  passage  as  I  find  it,  and  place 
my  objections  against  it. 

231 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

It  is  not  so  properly  the  motives  which  pro- 
duced the  alliance,  as  the  consequences  which  are 
to  be  produced  from  it,  that  mark  out  the  field  of 
philosophical  reflection.  In  the  one  we  only  pen- 
etrate into  the  barren  cave  of  secrecy,  where  lit- 
tle can  be  known,  and  everything  may  be  mis- 
conceived ;  in  the  other,  the  mind  is  presented  with 
a  wide  extended  prospect  of  vegetative  good,  and 
sees  a  thousand  blessings  budding  into  existence. 

But  the  expression,  even  within  the  compass 
of  the  Abbe's  meaning,  sets  out  with  an  error, 
because  it  is  made  to  declare  that  which  no  man 
has  authority  to  declare.  Who  can  say  that  the 
happiness  of  mankind  made  no  part  of  the 
motives  which  produced  the  alliance?  To  be  able 
to  declare  this,  a  man  must  be  possessed  of  the 
mind  of  all  the  parties  concerned,  and  know  that 
their  motives  were  something  else. 

In  proportion  as  the  independence  of  Amer- 
ica became  contemplated  and  understood,  the 
local  advantages  of  it  to  the  immediate  actors, 
and  the  numerous  benefits  it  promised  mankind, 
appeared  to  be  every  day  increasing ;  and  we  saw 
not  a  temporary  good  for  the  present  race  only, 
but  a  continued  good  to  all  posterity;  these  mo- 
tives, therefore,  added  to  those  which  preceded 
them,  became  the  motives  on  the  part  of  Amer- 
232 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ica,  which  led  her  to  propose  and  agree  to  the 
Treaty  of  Alliance,  as  the  best  effectual  method 
of  extending  and  securing  happiness ;  and  there- 
fore, with  respect  to  us,  the  Abbe  is  wrong. 

France,  on  the  other  hand,  was  situated  very 
differently.  She  was  not  acted  upon  by  neces- 
sity to  seek  a  friend,  and  therefore  her  motive  in 
becoming  one,  has  the  strongest  evidence  of  being 
good,  and  that  which  is  so,  must  have  some  hap- 
piness for  its  object.  With  regard  to  herself, 
she  saw  a  train  of  conveniences  worthy  her  at- 
tention. By  lessening  the  power  of  an  enemy, 
whom  at  the  same  time  she  sought  neither  to  de- 
stroy nor  distress,  she  gained  an  advantage  with- 
out doing  an  evil,  and  created  to  herself  a  new 
friend  by  associating  with  a  country  in  misfor- 
tune. 

The  springs  of  thought  that  lead  to  actions  of 
this  kind,  however  poHtical  they  may  be,  are 
nevertheless  naturally  beneficent;  for  in  all 
causes,  good  or  bad,  it  is  necessary  there  should 
be  a  fitness  in  the  mind,  to  enable  it  to  act  in  char- 
acter with  the  object:  therefore,  as  a  bad  cause 
cannot  be  prosecuted  with  a  good  motive,  so 
neither  can  a  good  cause  be  long  supported  by 
a  bad  one:  and  as  no  man  acts  without  a  motive, 
therefore  in  the  present  instance,  as  they  cannot 

233 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

be  bad,  they  must  be  admitted  to  be  good.  But 
the  Abbe  sets  out  upon  such  an  extended  scale, 
that  he  overlooks  the  degrees  by  which  it  is  meas- 
ured, and  rejects  the  beginning  of  good,  because 
the  end  comes  not  out  at  once. 

It  is  true  that  bad  motives  may  in  some  de- 
gree be  brought  to  support  a  good  cause  or  pro- 
secute a  good  object;  but  it  never  continues  long, 
which  is  not  the  case  with  France;  for  either  the 
object  will  reform  the  mind,  or  the  mind  corrupt 
the  object,  or  else  not  being  able,  either  way,  to 
get  into  unison,  they  will  separate  in  disgust :  and 
this  natural,  though  unperceived  progress  of  as- 
sociation or  contention  between  the  mind  and  the 
object,  is  the  secret  cause  of  fidehty  or  defection. 
Every  object  a  man  pursues,  is,  for  the  time,  a 
kind  of  mistress  to  his  mind:  if  both  are  good 
or  bad,  the  union  is  natural;  but  if  they  are  in 
reverse,  and  neither  can  seduce  nor  yet  reform 
the  other,  the  opposition  grows  into  dislike,  and 
a  separation  follows. 

When  the  cause  of  America  first  made  its  ap- 
pearance on  the  stage  of  the  universe,  there  were 
many,  who,  in  the  style  of  adventurers  and  for- 
tune-hunters, were  dangling  in  its  train,  and 
making  their  court  to  it  with  every  profession  of 
honor  and  attachment.  They  were  loud  in  its 
234 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

praise  and  ostentatious  in  its  service.  Every 
place  echoed  with  their  ardor  or  their  anger, 
and  they  seemed  like  men  in  love.  But,  alas! 
they  were  fortune-hunters.  Their  expectations 
were  excited,  but  their  minds  were  unimpressed; 
and  finding  it  not  to  their  purpose,  nor  them- 
selves reformed  by  its  influence,  they  ceased  their 
suit,  and  in  some  instances  deserted  and  be- 
trayed it. 

There  were  others,  who  at  first  beheld  Amer- 
ica with  indifference,  and  unacquainted  with  her 
character  were  cautious  of  her  company.  They 
treated  her  as  one  who,  under  the  fair  name  of 
liberty,  might  conceal  the  hideous  figure  of  an- 
archy, or  the  gloomy  monster  of  tyranny.  They 
knew  not  what  she  was.  If  fair,  she  was  fair  in- 
deed. But  still  she  was  suspected  and  though 
born  among  us  appeared  to  be  a  stranger. 

Accident  with  some,  and  curiosity  with  others, 
brought  on  a  distant  acquaintance.  They  ven- 
tured to  look  at  her.  They  felt  an  inclination  to 
speak  to  her.  One  intimacy  led  to  another,  till 
the  suspicion  wore  away,  and  a  change  of  sen- 
timent gradually  stole  upon  the  mind;  and  hav- 
ing no  self-interest  to  serve,  no  passion  of  dis- 
honor to  gratify,  they  became  enamored  of  her 
innocence,  and,  unaltered  by  misfortune  or  unin- 
viii-n  235 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

fluenced  by  success,  shared  with  fidelity  in  the 
varieties  of  her  fate. 

This  declaration  of  the  Abbe's  respecting  mo- 
tives, has  led  me  unintentionally  into  a  train  of 
metaphysical  reasoning;  but  there  was  no  other 
avenue  by  which  it  could  properly  be  approached. 
To  place  presumption  against  presumption,  as- 
sertion against  assertion,  is  a  mode  of  opposition 
that  has  no  effect ;  and  therefore  the  more  eligible 
method  was  to  show  that  the  declaration  does  not 
correspond  with  the  natural  progress  of  the  mind, 
and  the  influence  it  has  upon  our  conduct.  I 
shall  now  quit  this  part  and  proceed  to  what  I 
have  before  stated,  namely,  that  it  is  not  so 
properly  the  motives  which  produced  the  alliance, 
as  the  consequences  to  be  procured  from  it,  that 
mark  out  the  field  of  philosophical  reflection. 

It  is  an  observation  I  have  already  made  in 
some  former  publications,  that  the  circle  of  civ- 
ilization is  yet  incomplete.  Mutual  wants  have 
formed  the  individuals  of  each  country  into  a 
kind  of  national  society,  and  here  the  progress  of 
civilization  has  stopped.  For  it  is  easy  to  see, 
that  nations  with  regard  to  each  other  (notwith- 
standing the  ideal  civil  law,  which  every  one  ex- 
plains as  it  suits  him)  are  like  individuals  in  a 
state  of  nature.  They  are  regulated  by  no  fixed 
236 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

principle,  governed  by  no  compulsive  law,  and 
each  does  independently  what  it  pleases  or  what 
it  can. 

Were  it  possible  we  could  have  known  the 
world  when  in  a  state  of  barbarism,  we  might 
have  concluded  that  it  never  could  be  brought  into 
the  order  we  now  see  it.  The  untamed  mind  was 
then  as  hard,  if  not  harder,  to  work  upon  in  its 
individual  state,  than  the  national  mind  is  in  its 
present  one.  Yet  we  have  seen  the  accomplish- 
ment of  one,  why  then  should  we  doubt  that  of 
the  other? 

There  is  a  greater  fitness  in  mankind  to  ex- 
tend and  complete  the  civilization  of  nations 
with  each  other  at  this  day,  than  there  was  to 
begin  it  with  the  unconnected  individuals  at  first ; 
in  the  same  manner  that  it  is  somewhat  easier  to 
put  together  the  materials  of  a  machine  after 
they  are  formed,  than  it  was  to  form  them  from 
original  matter.  The  present  condition  of  the 
world,  differing  so  exceedingly  from  what  it  for- 
merly was,  has  given  a  new  cast  to  the  mind  of 
man,  more  than  what  he  appears  to  be  sensible  of. 
The  wants  of  the  individual,  which  first  pro- 
duced the  idea  of  society,  are  now  augmented 
into  the  wants  of  the  nation,  and  he  is  obliged  to 

237 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

seek  from  another  country  what  before  he  sought 
from  the  next  person. 

Letters,  the  tongue  of  the  world,  have  in 
some  measure  brought  all  mankind  acquainted, 
and  by  an  extension  of  their  uses  are  every  day 
promoting  some  new  friendship.  Through  them 
distant  nations  become  capable  of  conversation, 
and  losing  by  degrees  the  awkwardness  of 
strangers,  and  the  moroseness  of  suspicion,  they 
learn  to  know  and  understand  each  other.  Sci- 
ence, the  partisan  of  no  country,  but  the  bene- 
ficent patroness  of  all,  has  liberally  opened  a  tem- 
ple where  all  may  meet.  Her  influence  on  the 
mind,  like  the  sun  on  the  chilled  earth,  has  long 
been  preparing  it  for  higher  cultivation  and  fur- 
ther improvement.  The  philosopher  of  one  coun- 
try sees  not  an  enemy  in  the  philosopher  of  an- 
other: he  takes  his  seat  in  the  temple  of  science, 
and  asks  not  who  sits  beside  him. 

This  was  not  the  condition  of  the  barbarian 
world.  Then  the  wants  of  men  were  few  and 
the  objects  within  his  reach.  While  he  could  ac- 
quire these,  he  lived  in  a  state  of  individual  inde- 
pendence; the  consequence  of  which  was,  there 
were  as  many  nations  as  persons,  each  contending 
with  the  other,  to  secure  something  which  he  had, 
or  to  obtain  something  which  he  had  not.  The 
238 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

world  had  then  no  business  to  follow,  no  studies 
to  exercise  the  mind.  Their  time  was  divided  be- 
tween sloth  and  fatigue.  Hunting  and  war  were 
their  chief  occupations ;  sleep  and  food  their  prin- 
cipal enjoyments. 

Now  it  is  otherwise.  A  change  in  the  mode 
of  life  has  made  it  necessary  to  be  busy ;  and  man 
finds  a  thousand  things  to  do  now  which  before 
lie  did  not.  Instead  of  placing  his  ideas  of  great- 
ness in  the  rude  achievements  of  the  savage,  he 
studies  arts,  sciences,  agriculture  and  commerce, 
the  refinements  of  the  gentleman,  the  principles 
of  society,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  philosopher. 

There  are  many  things  which  in  themselves 
are  neither  morally  good  nor  bad,  but  they  are 
productive  of  consequences,  which  are  strongly 
marked  with  one  or  other  of  these  characters. 
Thus  commerce,  though  in  itself  a  moral  nullity, 
has  had  a  considerable  influence  in  tempering  the 
human  mind.  It  was  the  want  of  objects  in  the 
ancient  world,  which  occasioned  in  them  such  a 
rude  and  perpetual  turn  for  war.  Their  time 
hung  on  their  hands  without  the  means  of  em- 
ployment. The  indolence  they  lived  in  afforded 
leisure  for  mischief,  and  being  all  idle  at  once, 
and  equal  in  their  circumstances,  they  were  easily 
provoked  or  induced  to  action. 

239 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  the  introduction  of  commerce  furnished 
the  world  with  objects,  which,  in  their  extent, 
reach  every  man,  and  give  him  something  to 
think  about  and  something  to  do;  by  these  his 
attention  is  mechanically  drawn  from  the  pur- 
suits which  a  state  of  indolence  and  an  unem- 
ployed mind  occasioned,  and  he  trades  with  the 
same  countries,  which  in  former  ages,  tempted 
by  their  productions,  and  too  indolent  to  pur- 
chase them,  he  would  have  gone  to  war  with. 

Thus,  as  I  have  already  observed,  the  con- 
dition of  the  world  being  materially  changed  by 
the  influence  of  science  and  commerce,  it  is  put 
into  a  fitness  not  only  to  admit  of,  but  to  desire, 
an  extension  of  civilization.  The  principal  and 
almost  only  remaining  enemy,  it  now  has  to  en- 
counter, is  prejudice;  for  it  is  evidently  the  inter- 
est of  mankind  to  agree  and  make  the  best  of 
life.  The  world  has  undergone  its  divisions  of 
empire,  the  several  boundaries  of  which  are 
known  and  settled.  The  idea  of  conquering 
countries,  like  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  does  not 
now  exist;  and  experience  has  exploded  the 
notion  of  going  to  war  for  the  sake  of  profit. 
In  short,  the  objects  for  war  are  exceedingly 
diminished,  and  there  is  now  left  scarcely  any- 
thing to  quarrel  about,  but  what  arises  from  that 
240 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

demon  of  society,  prejudice,  and  the  consequent 
suUenness  and  untractableness  of  the  temper. 

There  is  something  exceedingly  curious  in  the 
constitution  and  operation  of  prejudice.  It  has 
the  singular  ability  of  accommodating  itself  to 
all  the  possible  varieties  of  the  human  mind. 
Some  passions  and  vices  are  but  thinly  scattered 
among  mankind,  and  find  only  here  and  there  a 
fitness  of  reception.  But  prejudice,  hke  the 
spider,  makes  every  place  its  home.  It  has 
neither  taste  nor  choice  of  situation,  and  all  that 
it  requires  is  room.  Everywhere,  except  in  fire 
or  water,  a  spider  will  live. 

So,  let  the  mind  be  as  naked  as  the  walls  of 
an  empty  and  forsaken  tenement,  gloomy  as  a 
dungeon,  or  ornamented  with  the  richest  abili- 
ties of  thinking,  let  it  be  hot,  cold,  dark  or  hght, 
lonely  or  inhabited,  still  prejudice,  if  undis- 
turbed, will  fill  it  with  cobwebs,  and  live,  hke  the 
spider,  where  there  seems  nothing  to  live  on.  If 
the  one  prepares  her  food  by  poisoning  it  to  her 
palate  and  her  use,  the  other  does  the  same;  and 
as  several  of  our  passions  are  strongly  character- 
ized by  the  animal  world,  prejudice  may  be  de- 
nominated the  spider  of  the  mind. 

Perhaps  no  two  events  ever  united  so  inti- 
mately and  forcibly  to  combat  and  expel  preju- 

241 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

dice,  as  the  Revolution  of  America  and  the  alH- 
ance  with  France.  Their  effects  are  felt,  and 
their  influence  already  extends  as  well  to  the  Old 
World  as  the  New.  Our  style  and  manner  of 
thinking  have  undergone  a  revolution  more  ex- 
traordinary than  the  political  revolution  of  the 
country.  We  see  with  other  eyes;  we  hear  with 
other  ears;  and  think  with  other  thoughts,  than 
those  we  formerly  used.  We  can  look  back  on 
our  own  prejudices,  as  if  they  had  been  the 
prejudices  of  other  people. 

We  now  see  and  know  they  were  prejudices 
and  nothing  else;  and,  relieved  from  their 
shackles,  enjoy  a  freedom  of  mind,  we  felt  not 
before.  It  was  not  all  the  argument,  however 
powerful,  nor  the  reasoning,  however  eloquent, 
that  could  have  produced  this  change,  so  neces- 
sary to  the  extension  of  the  mind,  and  the  cor- 
diahty  of  the  world,  without  the  two  circum- 
stances of  the  Revolution  and  the  alliance. 

Had  America  dropped  quietly  from  Britain, 
no  material  change  in  sentiment  had  taken  place. 
The  same  notions,  prejudices,  and  conceits  would 
have  governed  in  both  countries,  as  governed 
them  before,  and,  still  the  slaves  of  error  and 
education,  they  would  have  traveled  on  in  the 
beaten  track  of  vulgar  and  habitual  thinking. 
242 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  brought  about  by  the  means  it  has  been,  both 
with  regard  to  ourselves,  to  France  and  England, 
every  corner  of  the  mind  is  swept  of  its  cobwebs, 
poison  and  dust,  and  made  fit  for  the  reception  of 
generous  happiness. 

Perhaps  there  never  was  an  alliance  on  a 
broader  basis,  than  that  between  America  and 
France,  and  the  progress  of  it  is  worth  attending 
to.  The  countries  had  been  enemies,  not  proper- 
ly of  themselves,  but  through  the  medium  of 
England.  They  originally  had  no  quarrel  with 
each  other,  nor  any  cause  for  one,  but  what  arose 
from  the  interest  of  England,  and  her  arming 
America  against  France.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Americans  at  a  distance  from,  and  unacquainted 
with,  the  world,  and  tutored  in  all  the  prejudices 
which  governed  those  who  governed  them,  con- 
ceived it  their  duty  to  act  as  they  were  taught. 
In  doing  this,  they  expended  their  substance  to 
make  conquests,  not  for  themselves,  but  for  their 
masters,  who  in  return  treated  them  as  slaves. 

A  long  succession  of  insolent  severity,  and  the 
separation  finally  occasioned  by  the  commence- 
ment of  hostilities  at  Lexington,  on  the  nineteenth 
of  April,  1775,  naturally  produced  a  new  disposi- 
tion of  thinking.  As  the  mind  closed  itself 
toward   England,   it   opened  itself  toward  the 

243 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

world,  and  our  prejudices  like  our  oppressions, 
underwent,  though  less  observed,  a  mental  ex- 
amination; until  we  found  the  former  as  incon- 
sistent with  reason  and  benevolence,  as  the  latter 
were  repugnant  to  our  civil  and  political  rights. 

While  we  were  thus  advancing  by  degrees 
into  the  wide  field  of  extended  humanity,  the  alli- 
ance with  France  was  concluded.  An  alliance 
not  formed  for  the  mere  purpose  of  a  day,  but  on 
just  and  generous  grounds,  and  with  equal  and 
mutual  advantages;  and  the  easy,  affectionate 
manner  in  which  the  parties  have  since  communi- 
cated has  made  it  an  alliance  not  of  courts  only, 
but  of  countries.  There  is  now  an  union  of  mind 
as  well  as  of  interest;  and  our  hearts  as  well  as 
our  prosperity  call  on  us  to  support  it. 

The  people  of  England  not  having  expe- 
rienced this  change,  had  likewise  no  ideas  of  it. 
They  were  hugging  to  their  bosoms  the  same 
prejudices  we  were  trampling  beneath  our  feet; 
and  they  expected  to  keep  a  hold  upon  America, 
by  that  narrowness  of  thinking  which  America 
disdained.  What  they  were  proud  of,  we  de- 
spised ;  and  this  is  a  principal  cause  why  all  their 
negotiations,  constructed  on  this  ground,  have 
failed.  We  are  now  really  another  people,  and 
cannot  again  go  back  to  ignorance  and  prejudice. 
244 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  mind  once  enlightened  cannot  again  become 
dark.  There  is  no  possibility,  neither  is  there  any 
term  to  express  the  supposition  by,  of  the  mind 
unknowing  anything  it  already  knows;  and 
therefore  all  attempts  on  the  part  of  England, 
fitted  to  the  former  habit  of  America,  and  on  the 
expectation  of  their  applying  now,  will  be  like 
persuading  a  seeing  man  to  become  blind,  and  a 
sensible  one  to  turn  an  idiot.  The  first  of  which 
is  unnatural  and  the  other  impossible. 

As  to  the  remark  which  the  Abbe  makes  on 
the  one  country  being  a  monarchy  and  the  other 
a  republic,  it  can  have  no  essential  meaning. 
Forms  of  goverimient  have  nothing  to  do  with 
treaties.  The  former  are  the  internal  police  of 
the  countries  severally;  the  latter  their  external 
police  jointly:  and  so  long  as  each  performs  its 
part,  we  have  no  more  right  or  business  to  know 
how  the  one  or  the  other  conducts  its  domestic 
affairs,  than  we  have  to  inquire  into  the  private 
concerns  of  a  family. 

But  had  the  Abbe  reflected  for  a  moment,  he 
would  have  seen,  that  courts,  or  the  governing 
powers  of  all  countries,  be  their  forms  what  they 
may,  are  relatively  republics  with  each  other.  It 
is  the  first  and  true  principle  of  alliance.  An- 
tiquity may  have  given  precedence,  and  power 

245 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

will  naturally  create  importance,  but  their  equal 
right  is  never  disputed.  It  may  likewise  be 
worthy  of  remarking,  that  a  monarchical  country 
can  suffer  nothing  in  its  popular  happiness  by 
an  alliance  with  a  republican  one ;  and  republican 
governments  have  never  been  destroyed  by  their 
external  connections,  but  by  some  internal  con- 
vulsion or  contrivance.  France  has  been  in  al- 
liance with  the  Republic  of  Switzerland  for  more 
than  two  hundred  years,  and  still  Switzerland 
retains  her  original  form  of  government  as  en- 
tire as  if  she  had  been  allied  with  a  republic  like 
herself ;  therefore  this  remark  of  the  Abbe  should 
go  for  nothing.  Besides  it  is  best  mankind  should 
mix.  There  is  ever  something  to  learn,  either 
of  manners  or  principle ;  and  it  is  by  a  free  com- 
munication, without  regard  to  domestic  matters, 
that  friendship  is  to  be  extended  and  prejudice 
destroyed  all  over  the  world. 

But  notwithstanding  the  Abbe's  high  profes- 
sion in  favor  of  liberty,  he  appears  sometimes  to 
forget  himself,  or  that  his  theory  is  rather  the 
child  of  his  fancy  than  of  his  judgment:  for  in 
almost  the  same  instant  that  he  censures  the  alli- 
ance, as  not  originally  or  sufficiently  calculated 
for  the  happiness  of  mankind,  he,  by  a  figure  of 
implication,  accuses  France  for  having  acted  so 
246 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

generously  and  unreservedly  in  concluding  it. 
"  Why  did  they  (says  he,  meaning  the  Court  of 
France)  tie  themselves  down  by  an  inconsiderate 
treaty  to  conditions  with  the  Congress,  which 
they  might  themselves  have  held  in  dependence 
by  ample  and  regular  supplies?  " 

When  an  author  undertakes  to  treat  of  pub- 
lic happiness  he  ought  to  be  certain  that  he  does 
not  mistake  passion  for  right,  nor  imagination 
for  principle.  Principle,  like  truth,  needs  no 
contrivance.  It  will  ever  tell  its  own  tale,  and 
tell  it  the  same  way.  But  where  this  is  not  the 
case,  every  page  must  be  watched,  recollected, 
and  compared  like  an  invented  story. 

I  am  surprised  at  this  passage  of  the  Abbe's. 
It  means  nothing  or  it  means  ill;  and  in  any 
case  it  shows  the  great  difference  between  spec- 
ulative and  practical  knowledge.  A  treaty  ac- 
cording to  the  Abbe's  language  would  have 
neither  duration  nor  affection:  it  might  have 
lasted  to  the  end  of  the  war,  and  then  expired 
with  it.  But  France,  by  acting  in  a  style  superior 
to  the  little  politics  of  narrow  thinking,  has  es- 
tablished a  generous  fame  and  won  the  love  of 
a  country  she  was  before  a  stranger  to.  She  had 
to  treat  with  a  people  who  thought  as  nature 
taught  them;  and,  on  her  own  part,  she  wisely 

247 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

saw  there  was  no  present  advantage  to  be  ob- 
tained by  unequal  terms,  which  could  balance  the 
more  lasting  ones  that  might  flow  from  a  kind 
and  generous  beginning. 

From  this  part  the  Abbe  advances  into  the 
secret  transactions  of  the  two  cabinets  of  Ver- 
sailles and  Madrid  respecting  the  independence 
of  America;  through  which  I  mean  not  to  follow 
him.  It  is  a  circumstance  sufficiently  striking 
without  being  commented  on,  that  the  former 
union  of  America  with  Britain  produced  a  power 
which,  in  her  hands,  was  becoming  dangerous  to 
the  world:  and  there  is  no  improbabihty  in  sup- 
posing, that  had  the  latter  known  as  much  of 
the  strength  of  the  former,  before  she  began  the 
quarrel,  as  she  has  known  since,  that  instead  of 
attempting  to  reduce  her  to  imconditional  sub- 
mission, she  would  have  proposed  to  her  the  con- 
quest of  Mexico.  But  from  the  countries  sep- 
arately, Spain  has  nothing  to  apprehend,  though 
from  their  union  she  had  more  to  fear  than  any 
other  power  in  Europe. 

The  part  which  I  shall  more  particularly  con- 
fine myself  to,  is  that  wherein  the  Abbe  takes  an 
opportunity  of  complimenting  the  British  Minis- 
try with  high  encomiums  of  admiration,  on  their 
248 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

rejecting  the  offered  mediation  of  the  Court  of 
Madrid,  in  1779. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  before  Spain 
joined  France  in  the  war,  she  undertook  the  office 
of  a  mediator,  and  made  proposals  to  the  British 
King  and  Ministry  so  exceedingly  favorable  to 
their  interest,  that  had  they  been  accepted,  would 
have  become  inconvenient,  if  not  inadmissible,  to 
America.  These  proposals  were  nevertheless  re- 
jected by  the  British  Cabinet;  on  which  the  Abbe 
says — 

It  is  m  such  a  circumstance  as  this;  it  is  In  the 
time  when  noble  pride  elevates  the  soul  superior  to  all 
terror ;  when  nothing  is  seen  more  dreadful  than  the 
shame  of  receiving  the  law,  and  when  there  is  no  doubt 
or  hesitation  which  to  choose,  between  ruin  and  dis- 
honor; It  is  then,  that  the  greatness  of  a  nation  is 
displayed.  I  acknowledge,  however,  that  men,  accus- 
tomed to  judge  of  things  by  the  event,  call  great  and 
perilous  resolutions  heroism  or  madness,  according  to 
the  good  or  bad  success  with  which  they  have  been  at- 
tended. If  then,  I  should  be  asked,  what  Is  the  name 
which  shall  In  years  to  come  be  given  to  the  firmness, 
which  was  In  this  moment  exhibited  by  the  English, 
I  shall  answer  that  I  do  not  know.  But  that  which 
it  deserves  I  know.  I  know  that  the  annals  of  the  world 
hold  out  to  us  but  rarely,  the  august  and  majestic 
spectacle  of  a  nation,  which  chooses  rather  to  renounce 
its  duration  than  Its  glory. 

In  this  paragraph  the  conception  is  lofty  and 
the  expression  elegant,  but  the  coloring  is  too 

249 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

high  for  the  original,  and  the  likeness  fails 
tlirough  an  excess  of  graces.  To  fit  the  powers 
of  thinking  and  the  turn  of  language  to  the  sub- 
ject, so  as  to  bring  out  a  clear  conclusion  that 
shall  hit  the  point  in  question  and  nothing  else, 
is  the  true  criterion  of  writing.  But  the  greater 
part  of  the  Abbe's  writings  (if  he  will  pardon  me 
the  remark)  appear  to  me  uncentral  and  bur- 
dened with  variety.  They  represent  a  beautiful 
wilderness  without  paths;  in  which  the  eye  is  di- 
verted by  everything  without  being  particularly 
directed  to  anything ;  and  in  which  it  is  agreeable 
to  be  lost,  and  difficult  to  find  the  way  out. 

Before  I  offer  any  other  remark  on  the  spirit 
and  composition  of  the  above  passage,  I  shall 
compare  it  with  the  circumstance  it  alludes  to. 

The  circumstance  then  does  not  deserve  the 
encomium.  The  rejection  was  not  prompted  by 
her  fortitude  but  her  vanity.  She  did  not  view  it 
as  a  case  of  despair  or  even  of  extreme  danger, 
and  consequently  the  determination  to  renounce 
her  duration  rather  than  her  glory,  cannot  apply 
to  the  condition  of  her  mind.  She  had  then  high 
expectations  of  subjugating  America,  and  had 
no  other  naval  force  against  her  than  France; 
neither  was  she  certain  that  rejecting  the  media- 
tion of  Spain  would  combine  that  power  with 
250 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

France.  New  meditations  might  arise  more  fa- 
vorable than  those  she  had  refused.  But  if  they 
should  not,  and  Spain  should  join,  she  still  saw 
that  it  would  only  bring  out  her  naval  force 
against  France  and  Spain,  which  was  not  wanted 
and  could  not  be  employed  against  America,  and 
habits  of  thinking  had  taught  her  to  believe  her- 
self superior  to  both. 

But  in  any  case  to  which  the  consequence 
might  point,  there  was  nothing  to  impress  her 
with  the  idea  of  renouncing  her  duration.  It  is 
not  the  policy  of  Europe  to  suffer  the  extinction 
of  any  power,  but  only  to  lop  off  or  prevent  its 
dangerous  increase.  She  was  likewise  freed  by 
situation  from  the  internal  and  immediate  hor- 
rors of  invasion;  was  rolling  in  dissipation  and 
looking  for  conquests;  and  though  she  suffered 
nothing  but  the  expense  of  war,  she  still  had  a 
greedy  eye  to  magnificent  reimbursement. 

But  if  the  Abbe  is  delighted  with  high  and 
striking  singularities  of  character,  he  might,  in 
America,  have  found  ample  field  for  encomium. 
Here  was  a  people,  who  could  not  know  what 
part  the  world  would  take  for,  or  against  them; 
and  who  were  venturing  on  an  untried  scheme,  in 
opposition  to  a  power,  against  which  more  for- 
midable nations  had  failed.  They  had  every- 
viii-18  251 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

thing  to  learn  but  the  principles  which  supported 
them,  and  everything  to  procure  that  was  neces- 
sary for  their  defense.  They  have  at  times  seen 
themselves  as  low  as  distress  could  make  them, 
without  showing  the  least  decrease  of  forti- 
tude; and  been  raised  again  by  the  most  unex- 
pected events,  without  discovering  an  unmanly 
discomposure  of  joy.  To  hesitate  or  to  despair 
are  conditions  equally  unknown  in  America. 
Her  mind  was  prepared  for  everj^thing;  because 
her  original  and  final  resolution  of  succeeding  or 
perishing  included  all  possible  circumstances. 

The  rejection  of  the  British  propositions  in 
the  year  1778,  circumstanced  as  America  was  at 
that  time,  is  a  far  greater  instance  of  unshaken 
fortitude  than  the  refusal  of  the  Spanish  media- 
tion by  the  Court  of  London:  and  other  histori- 
ans, besides  the  Abbe,  struck  with  the  vastness  of 
her  conduct  therein,  have,  hke  liimself ,  attributed 
it  to  a  circumstance  which  was  then  unknown, 
the  alHance  with  France.  Their  error  shows  their 
idea  of  its  greatness ;  because  in  order  to  account 
for  it,  they  have  sought  a  cause  suited  to  its  mag- 
nitude, without  knowing  that  the  cause  existed 
in  the  principles  of  the  country.* 

*  Extract  from  "A  short  Review  of  the  present  Reign,"  in 
England,  p.  45,  in  the  new  "Annual  Register,"  for  the  year  1780. 

252 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  this  passionate  encomium  of  the  Abbe  is 
deservedly  subject  to  moral  and  philosophical 
objections.  It  is  the  effusion  of  wild  thinking, 
and  has  a  tendency  to  prevent  that  humanity  of 
reflection  which  the  criminal  conduct  of  Britain 
enjoins  on  her  as  a  duty.  It  is  a  laudanum  to 
courtly  iniquity.  It  keeps  in  intoxicated  sleep 
the  conscience  of  a  nation;  and  more  mischief  is 
effected  by  wrapping  up  guilt  in  splendid  ex- 
cuse, than  by  directly  patronizing  it. 

Britain  is  now  the  only  country  which  holds 
the  world  in  disturbance  and  war ;  and  instead  of 
paying  compliments  to  the  excess  of  her  crimes, 
the  Abbe  would  have  appeared  much  more  in 
character,  had  he  put  to  her,  or  to  her  monarch, 
this  serious  question — 

Are  there  not  miseries  enough  in  the  world, 
too  difficult  to  be  encountered  and  too  pointed  to 
be  born,  without  studying  to  enlarge  the  list 
and  arming  it  with  new  destruction?    Is  life  so 

"  The  commissioners,  who,  in  consequence  of  Lord  North's  con- 
ciliatory bills,  went  over  to  America,  to  propose  terms  of  peace 
to  the  colonies,  were  wholly  unsuccessful.  The  concessions  which 
formerly  would  have  been  received  with  the  utmost  gratitude, 
were  rejected  with  disdain.  Now  was  the  time  of  American  pride 
and  haughtiness.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  it  was  not  pride 
and  haughtiness  alone  that  dictated  the  resolutions  of  Congress, 
but  a  distrust  of  the  sincerity  of  the  offers  of  Britain,  a  determin- 
ation not  to  give  up  their  independence,  and,  above  all,  the  en- 
gagements into  which  they  had  entered  by  their  late  treaty  with 
France." 

253 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

very  long  that  it  is  necessary,  nay  even  a  duty, 
to  shake  the  sand  and  hasten  out  the  period  of 
duration?  Is  the  path  so  elegantly  smooth,  so 
decked  on  every  side  and  carpeted  with  joys,  that 
wretchedness  is  wanted  to  enrich  it  as  a  soil  ?  Go 
ask  thine  acliing  heart,  when  sorrow  from  a  thou- 
sand causes  wounds  it,  go  ask  thy  sickened  self, 
when  every  medicine  fails,  whether  this  be  the 
case  or  not? 

Quitting  my  remarks  on  this  head,  I  proceed 
to  another,  in  which  the  Abbe  has  let  loose  a  vein 
of  ill-nature,  and,  what  is  still  worse,  of  injustice. 

After  cavilling  at  the  treaty,  he  goes  on  to 
characterize  the  several  parties  combined  in  the 
war. 

Is  it  possible,  (says  the  Abbe),  that  a  strict  union 
should  long  subsist  amongst  confederates,  of  characters 
so  opposite  as  the  hasty,  light,  disdainful  Frenchman, 
the  jealous,  haughty,  sly,  slow,  circumspect  Spaniard, 
and  the  American,  who  is  secretly  snatching  a  look  at 
the  mother  country,  and  would  rejoice,  were  they  com- 
patible with  his  independence,  at  the  disasters  of  his 
allies  ? 

To  draw  foolish  portraits  of  each  other,  is  a 
mode  of  attack  and  reprisal,  which  the  greater 
part  of  mankind  are  fond  of  indulging.  The 
serious  philosopher  should  be  above  it,  more  espe- 
cially in  cases  from  which  no  good  can  arise,  and 
254 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

mischief  may,  and  where  no  received  provocation 
can  palliate  the  offense.  The  Abbe  might  have 
invented  a  diff'erence  of  character  for  every 
country  in  the  world,  and  they  in  return  might 
find  others  for  him,  till  in  the  war  of  wit  all  real 
character  is  lost.  The  pleasantry  of  one  nation 
or  the  gravity  of  another  may,  by  a  little  pencil- 
ling, be  distorted  into  whimsical  features,  and 
the  painter  becomes  as  much  laughed  at  as  the 
painting. 

But  why  did  not  the  Abbe  look  a  little  deeper, 
and  bring  forth  the  excellencies  of  the  several 
parties? — Why  did  he  not  dwell  with  pleasure 
on  that  greatness  of  character,  that  superiority 
of  heart,  which  has  marked  the  conduct  of 
France  in  her  conquests,  and  which  has  forced  an 
acknowledgment  even  from  Britain? 

There  is  one  line,  at  least,  (and  many  others 
might  be  discovered,)  in  which  the  confederates 
unite;  which  is,  that  of  a  rival  eminence  in  their 
treatment  of  their  enemies.  Spain,  in  her  con- 
quest of  Minorca  and  the  Bahama  Islands,  con- 
firms this  remark.  America  has  been  invariable 
in  her  lenity  from  the  beginning  of  the  war,  not- 
withstanding the  high  provocations  she  has  ex- 
perienced. It  is  England  only  who  has  been 
insolent  and  cruel. 

255 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  why  must  America  be  charged  with  a 
crime  undeserved  by  her  conduct,  more  so  by  her 
principles,  and  which,  if  a  fact,  would  be  fatal  to 
her  honor?  I  mean  the  want  of  attachment  to 
her  alhes,  or  rejoicing  in  their  disasters.  She, 
it  is  true,  has  been  assiduous  in  showing  to  the 
world  that  she  was  not  the  aggressor  toward 
England,  and  that  the  quarrel  was  not  of  her 
seeking,  or,  at  that  time,  even  of  her  wishing. 
But  to  draw  inferences  from  her  candor,  and 
even  from  her  justification,  to  stab  her  character 
by,  (and  I  see  nothing  else  from  which  they  can 
be  supposed  to  be  drawn,)  is  unkind  and  unjust. 

Does  her  rejection  of  the  British  propositions 
in  1778,  before  she  knew  of  any  alliance  with 
France,  correspond  with  the  Abbe's  description 
of  her  mind?  Does  a  single  instance  of  her  con- 
duct since  that  time  justify  it? — But  there  is  a 
still  better  evidence  to  apply  to,  which  is,  that  of 
all  the  mails  which,  at  different  times,  have  been 
waylaid  on  the  road,  in  divers  parts  of  America, 
and  taken  and  carried  into  New  York,  and  from 
which  the  most  secret  and  confidential  private 
letters,  as  well  as  those  from  authority,  have  been 
published,  not  one  of  them,  I  repeat  it,  not  a 
single  one  of  them,  gave  countenance  to  such  a 
charge. 

256 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

This  is  not  a  country  where  men  are  under 
government  restraint  in  speaking ;  and  if  there  is 
any  kind  of  restraint,  it  arises  from  a  fear  of 
popular  resentment.  Now  if  nothing  in  her 
private  or  pubhc  correspondence  favors  such  a 
suggestion,  and  if  the  general  disposition  of  the 
country  is  such  as  to  make  it  unsafe  for  a  man  to 
show  an  appearance  of  joy  at  any  disaster  to  her 
ally,  on  what  grounds,  I  ask,  can  the  accusation 
stand  ?  What  company  the  Abbe  may  have  kept 
in  France,  we  cannot  know;  but  this  we  know, 
that  the  account  he  gives  does  not  apply  to 
America. 

Had  the  Abbe  been  in  America  at  the  time  the 
news  arrived  of  the  disaster  of  the  fleet  under 
Count  de  Grasse,  in  the  West  Indies,  he  would 
have  seen  his  vast  mistake.  Neither  do  I  remem- 
ber any  instance,  except  the  loss  of  Charleston, 
in  which  the  public  mind  suffered  more  severe 
and  pungent  concern,  or  underwent  more  agita- 
tions of  hope  and  apprehension  as  to  the  truth  or 
falsehood  of  the  report.  Had  the  loss  been  aU 
our  own,  it  could  not  have  had  a  deeper  effect; 
yet  it  was  not  one  of  those  cases  which  reached 
to  the  independence  of  America. 

In  the  geographical  account  which  the  Abbe 
gives  of  the  thirteen  states,  he  is  so  exceedingly 

257 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

erroneous,  that  to  attempt  a  particular  refuta- 
tion, would  exceed  the  limits  I  have  prescribed  to 
myself.  And  as  it  is  a  matter  neither  pohtical, 
historical,  or  sentimental,  and  which  can  always 
be  contradicted  by  the  extent  and  natural  circum- 
stances of  the  country,  I  shall  pass  it  over;  with 
this  additional  remark,  that  I  never  yet  saw  an 
European  description  of  America  that  was  true, 
neither  can  any  person  gain  a  just  idea  of  it,  but 
by  coming  to  it. 

Though  I  have  already  extended  this  letter 
beyond  what  I  at  first  proposed,  I  am,  neverthe- 
less, obliged  to  omit  many  observations,  I  orig- 
inally designed  to  have  made.  I  wish  there  had 
been  no  occasion  for  making  any.  But  the 
wrong  ideas  which  the  Abbe's  work  had  a  ten- 
dency to  excite,  and  the  prejudicial  impressions 
they  might  make,  must  be  an  apology  for  my 
remarks,  and  the  freedom  with  which  they  are 
made. 

I  observe  the  Abbe  has  made  a  sort  of  epitome 
of  a  considerable  part  of  the  pamphlet  "  Com- 
mon Sense,"  and  introduced  it  in  that  form  into 
his  publication.  But  there  are  other  places  where 
the  Abbe  has  borrowed  freely  from  the  said 
pamphlet  without  acknowledging  it.  The  differ- 
ence between  society  and  government,  with  which 
258 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 


the  pamphlet  opens,  is  taken  from  it,  and  in 
some  expressions  almost  literally,  into  the  Abbe's 
work,  as  if  originally  his  own;  and  through  the 
whole  of  the  Abbe's  remarks  on  this  head,  the 
idea  in  "  Common  Sense  "  is  so  closely  copied 
and  pursued,  that  the  difference  is  only  in  words, 
and  in  the  arrangement  of  the  thoughts,  and  not 
in  the  thoughts  themselves.* 


*  Common  Sense. 

"  Some  writers  have  so  con- 
founded society  with  govern- 
ment, as  to  leave  little  or  no 
distinction  between  them ; 
whereas  they  are  not  only  dif- 
ferent, but  have  different  ori- 
gins." 

"  Society  is  produced  by  our 
wants  and  governments  by  our 
wickedness;  the  former  pro- 
motes our  happiness  positively, 
by  uniting  our  affections  —  the 
latter  negatively,  by  restraining 
our  vices." 

In  the  following  paragraphs  there  is  less  likeness  in  the  language, 
but  the  ideas  in  the  one  are  evidently  copied  from  the  other. 


Abbe  Ratnal. 

"  Care  must  be  taken  not  to 
confound  together  society  with 
government.  That  they  may  be 
known  distinctly,  their  origin 
should  be  considered." 

"  Society  originates  in  the 
wants  of  men,  government  in 
their  vices.  Society  tends  al- 
ways to  good  —  government 
ought  always  to  tend  to  the  re- 
pression of  evil." 


"  In  order  to  gain  a  clear 
and  just  idea  of  the  design 
and  end  of  government,  let  us 
suppose  a  small  number  of  per- 
sons, meeting  in  some  seques- 
tered part  of  the  earth,  uncon- 
nected with  the  rest;  they  will 
then  represent  the  peopling  of 
any  country  or  of  the  world. 
In  this  state  of  natural  liberty, 
society  will  be  their  first 
thought.      A    thousand    motives 


"  Man,  throwTi,  as  it  were, 
by  chance  upon  the  globe,  sur- 
rounded by  all  the  evils  of 
nature,  obliged  continually  to 
defend  and  protect  his  life 
against  the  storms  and  tem- 
pests of  the  air,  against  the  in- 
undations of  water,  against  the 
fire  of  volcanoes,  against  the 
intemperance  of  frigid  and  tor- 
rid zones,  against  the  sterility 
of  the  earth  which  refuses  him 

259 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 


But  as  it  is  time  that  I  should  come  to  the  end 
of  my  letter,  I  shall  forbear  all  future  observa- 
tions on  the  Abbe's  work,  and  take  a  concise  view 


will  excite  them  thereto.  The 
strength  of  one  man  is  so  un- 
equal to  his  wants,  and  his 
mind  so  unfitted  for  perpetual 
solitude,  that  he  is  soon  obliged 
to  seek  assistance  of  another, 
who,  in  his  turn,  requires  the 
same.  Four  or  five  united 
would  be  able  to  raise  a  toler- 
able dwelling  in  the  midst  of  a 
wilderness;  but  one  man  might 
labor  out  the  common  period 
of  life,  without  accomplishing 
anything;  after  he  has  felled 
his  timber,  he  could  not  remove 
it,  nor  erect  it  after  it  was  re- 
moved —  hunger,  in  the  mean 
time  would  urge  him  from  his 
work,  and  every  different  want 
call  him  a  different  way, 

"  Disease,  nay,  even  misfor- 
tune would  be  death — for  al- 
though neither  might  be  imme- 
diately mortal,  yet  either  of  them 
would  disable  him  from  living, 
and  reduce  him  to  a  state  in 
which  he  might  rather  be  said 
to  perish  than  to  die.  Thus 
necessity,  like  a  gravitating 
power,  would  form  our  newly 
arrived  emigrants  into  society, 
the  reciprocal  benefits  of  which 
would  supersede  and  render 
the  obligations  of  law  and  gov- 
ernment unnecessary,  while  they 
remained  perfectly  just  to  each 
other.  But  as  nothing  but 
heaven  is  impregnable  to  vice, 

260 


aliment,  or  its  baneful  fecun- 
dity, which  makes  poison  spring 
up  beneath  his  feet — in  short 
against  the  teeth  and  claws  of 
savage  beasts,  who  dispute  with 
him  his  habitation  and  his  prey, 
and,  attacking  his  person,  seem 
resolved  to  render  themselves 
rulers  of  this  globe,  of  which 
he  thinks  himself  to  be  the 
master:  Man,  in  this  state, 
alone  and  abandoned  to  him- 
self, could  do  nothing  for  his 
preservation.  It  was  necessary, 
therefore,  that  he  should  unite 
himself,  and  associate  with  his 
like,  in  order  to  bring  together 
their  strength  and  intelligence 
in  common  stock. 

"  It  is  by  this  union  that  he 
has  triumphed  over  so  many 
evils,  that  he  has  fashioned  this 
globe  to  his  use,  restrained  the 
rivers,  subjugated  the  seas,  in- 
sured his  subsistence,  conquered 
a  part  of  the  animals  in  obliging 
them  to  serve  him,  and  driven 
others  far  from  his  empire,  to  the 
depths  of  deserts  or  of  woods, 
where  their  number  diminishes 
from  age  to  age.  What  a  man 
alone  would  not  have  been  able 
to  effect,  men  have  executed  in 
concert:  and  altogether  they 
preserve  their  work.  Such  is 
the  origin,  such  the  advantages, 
and  the  end  of  society.  Gov- 
ernment owes  its  birth  to  the 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  the  state  of  public  affairs  since  the  time  in 
which  that  performance  was  published. 

A  mind  habituated  to  actions  of  meanness 
and  injustice,  commits  them  without  reflection, 
or  with  a  very  partial  one;  for  on  what  other 
ground  than  this,  can  we  account  for  the  declara- 
tion of  war  against  the  Dutch?  To  gain  an  idea 
of  the  politics  which  actuated  the  British  Minis- 
try to  this  measure,  we  must  enter  into  the  opin- 
ion which  they,  and  the  English  in  general,  had 
formed  of  the  temper  of  the  Dutch  nation;  and 
from  thence  infer  what  their  expectation  of  the 
consequences  would  be. 

Could  they  have  imagined  that  Holland 
would  have  seriously  made  a  common  cause  with 
France,  Spain  and  America,  the  British  Minis- 
try would  never  have  dared  to  provoke  them.  It 
would  have  been  a  madness  in  politics  to  have 
done  so,  unless  their  views  were  to  hasten  on  a 

it  unavoidably  happens,  that  in      necessity  of  preventing  and  re- 
proportion    as    they    surmount       pressing  the  injuries  which  the 
the  first  diflBculties  of  emigra-      associated    individuals    had    to 
tion,     which    bound     them     to-       fear   from   one   another.     It   is 
gether  in  a  common  cause,  they       the    sentinel    who    watches,    in 
will    begin    to    relax    in    their       order  that   the   common   labor- 
duty    and    attachment    to    each       ers  be  not  disturbed." 
other,  and  this  remissness  will 
point  out  the  necessity  of  es- 
tablishing  some    form    of   gov- 
ernment  to   supply   the   defect 
of  moral  virtue." 

261 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

period  of  such  emphatic  distress,  as  should  jus- 
tify the  concessions  which  they  saw  they  must 
one  day  or  other  make  to  the  world,  and  for 
which  they  wanted  an  apology  to  themselves. 
There  is  a  temper  in  some  men  which  seeks  a 
pretense  for  submission.  Like  a  ship  disabled  in 
action,  and  unfitted  to  continue  it,  it  waits  the 
approach  of  a  still  larger  one  to  strike  to,  and 
feels  relief  at  the  opportunity.  Whether  this  is 
greatness  or  httleness  of  mind,  I  am  not  inquir- 
ing into.  I  should  suppose  it  to  be  the  latter, 
because  it  proceeds  from  the  want  of  knowing 
how  to  bear  misfortune  in  its  original  state. 

But  the  subsequent  conduct  of  the  British 
Cabinet  has  shown  that  this  was  not  their  plan 
of  pontics,  and  consequently  their  motives  must 
be  sought  for  in  another  line. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  British  had  formed  a 
very  humble  opinion  of  the  Dutch  nation.  They 
looked  on  them  as  a  people  who  would  submit 
to  anything ;  that  they  might  insult  them  as  they 
hked,  plunder  them  as  they  pleased,  and  still  the 
Dutch  dared  not  to  be  provoked. 

If  this  be  taken  as  the  opinion  of  the  British 
Cabinet,  the  measure  is  easily  accounted  for;  be- 
cause it  goes  on  the  supposition,  that  when,  by  a 
declaration  of  hostilities,  they  had  robbed  the 
262 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Dutch  of  some  millions  sterling,  (and  to  rob 
them  was  popular,)  they  could  make  peace  with 
them  again  whenever  they  pleased,  and  on  almost 
any  terms  the  British  Ministry  should  propose. 
And  no  sooner  was  the  plundering  committed, 
than  the  accommodation  was  set  on  foot  and 
failed. 

When  once  the  mind  loses  the  sense  of  its 
own  dignity,  it  loses,  likewise,  the  ability  of 
judging  of  it  in  another.  And  the  American  war 
has  thrown  Britain  into  such  a  variety  of  absurd 
situations,  that,  arguing  from  herself,  she  sees 
not  in  what  conduct  national  dignity  consists  in 
other  countries.  From  Holland  she  expected 
duplicity  and  submission,  and  this  mistake  arose 
from  her  having  acted,  in  a  number  of  instances 
during  the  present  war,  the  same  character  her- 
self. 

To  be  allied  to,  or  connected  with,  Britain 
seems  to  be  an  unsafe  and  impolitic  situation. 
Holland  and  America  are  instances  of  the  reality 
of  this  remark.  Make  those  countries  the  allies 
of  France  or  Spain,  and  Britain  will  court  them 
with  civility  and  treat  them  with  respect;  make 
them  her  own  allies,  and  she  will  insult  and  plun- 
der them.  In  the  first  case,  she  feels  some  appre- 
hensions at  offending  them  because  they  have 

263 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

support  at  hand;  in  the  latter,  those  apprehen- 
sions do  not  exist.  Such,  however,  has  hitherto 
been  her  conduct. 

Another  measure  which  has  taken  place  since 
the  publication  of  the  Abbe's  work,  and  likewise 
since  the  time  of  my  beginning  this  letter,  is  the 
change  in  the  British  Ministry.  What  line  the 
new  Cabinet  will  pursue  respecting  America,  is, 
at  this  time,  unknown ;  neither  is  it  very  material, 
unless  they  are  seriously  disposed  to  a  general 
and  honorable  peace. 

Repeated  experience  has  shown,  not  only  the 
impracticability  of  conquering  America,  but 
the  still  higher  impossibility  of  conquering  her 
mind,  or  recalling  her  back  to  her  former  con- 
dition of  thinking.  Since  the  commencement  of 
the  war,  which  is  now  approaching  to  eight  years, 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  have  advanced, 
and  are  daily  advancing  into  the  first  state  of 
manhood,  who  know  nothing  of  Britain  but  as  a 
barbarous  enemy,  and  to  whom  the  independence 
of  America  appears  as  much  the  natural  and  es- 
tablished government  of  the  country,  as  that  of 
England  does  to  an  Englishman. 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  thousands  of  the 
aged,  who  had  British  ideas,  have  dropped,  and 
are  daily  dropping,  from  the  stage  of  business 
264 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  life.  The  natural  progress  of  generation 
and  decay  operates  every  hour  to  the  disadvan- 
tage of  Britain.  Time  and  death,  hard  enemies 
to  contend  with,  fight  constantly  against  her  in- 
terest; and  the  bills  of  mortality,  in  every  part 
of  America,  are  the  thermometers  of  her  decline. 
The  children  in  the  streets  are  from  their  cradle 
bred  to  consider  her  as  their  only  foe.  They  hear 
of  her  cruelties ;  of  their  fathers,  uncles,  and  kin- 
dred killed;  they  see  the  remains  of  burned  and 
destroyed  houses,  and  the  common  tradition  of 
the  school  they  go  to,  tells  them,  those  things 
were  done  by  the  British. 

These  are  circumstances  which  the  mere  Eng- 
lish state  politician,  w^ho  considers  man  only  in  a 
state  of  manhood,  does  not  attend  to.  He  gets 
entangled  with  parties  coeval  or  equal  with  him- 
self at  home,  and  thinks  not  how  fast  the  rising 
generation  in  America  is  growing  beyond  knowl- 
edge of  them,  or  they  of  him.  In  a  few  years 
all  personal  remembrances  will  be  lost,  and  who 
is  king  or  minister  in  England,  wall  be  httle 
known  and  scarcely  inquired  after. 

The  new  British  Administration  is  composed 
of  persons  who  have  ever  been  against  the  war, 
and  who  have  constantly  reprobated  all  the  vio- 
lent measures  of  the  former  one.    They  consid- 

265 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ered  the  American  war  as  destructive  to  them- 
selves, and  opposed  it  on  that  ground.  But  what 
are  these  things  to  America?  She  has  nothing  to 
do  with  EngHsh  parties.  The  ins  and  the  outs  are 
nothing  to  her.  It  is  the  whole  country  she  is  at 
war  with,  or  must  be  at  peace  with. 

Were  every  minister  in  England  a  Chatham, 
it  would  now  weigh  little  or  nothing  in  the  scale 
of  American  politics.  Death  has  preserved  to 
the  memory  of  this  statesman,  that  fame,  which 
he,  by  living,  would  have  lost.  His  plans  and 
opinions,  toward  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  would 
have  been  attended  with  as  many  evil  conse- 
quences, and  as  much  reprobated  here  as  those  of 
Lord  North;  and  considering  him  a  wise  man, 
they  abound  with  inconsistencies  amounting  to 
absurdities. 

It  has  apparently  been  the  fault  of  many  in 
the  late  minority  to  suppose  that  America  would 
agree  to  certain  terms  with  them,  were  they  in 
place,  which  she  would  not  even  listen  to,  from 
the  then  Administration.  This  idea  can  answer 
no  other  purpose  than  to  prolong  the  war;  and 
Britain  may,  at  the  expense  of  many  more  mil- 
lions, learn  the  fatality  of  such  mistakes.  If  the 
new  Ministry  wisely  avoid  this  hopeless  policy, 
they  will  prove  themselves  better  pilots  and  wiser 
266 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

men  than  they  are  conceived  to  be ;  for  it  is  every 
day  expected  to  see  their  bark  strike  upon  some 
hidden  rock  and  go  to  pieces. 

But  there  is  a  line  in  which  they  may  be  great. 
A  more  briUiant  opening  needs  not  to  present 
itself;  and  it  is  such  an  one  as  true  magnanimity 
would  improve,  and  humanity  rejoice  in. 

A  total  reformation  is  wanted  in  England. 
She  wants  an  expanded  mind — a  heart  which 
embraces  the  universe.  Instead  of  shutting  her- 
self up  in  an  island,  and  quarreling  with  the 
world,  she  would  derive  more  lasting  happiness, 
and  acquire  more  real  riches,  by  generously  mix- 
ing with  it,  and  bravely  saying,  I  am  the  enemy 
of  none.  It  is  not  now  a  time  for  little  contriv- 
ances or  artful  politics.  The  European  world  is 
too  experienced  to  be  imposed  upon,  and  America 
too  wise  to  be  duped.  It  must  be  something  new 
and  masterly  that  can  succeed.  The  idea  of 
seducing  America  from  her  independence,  or  cor- 
rupting her  from  her  alliance,  is  a  thought  too 
little  for  a  great  mind,  and  impossible  for  any 
honest  one,  to  attempt.  Whenever  politics  are 
applied  to  debauch  mankind  from  their  integrity, 
and  dissolve  the  virtue  of  human  nature,  they  be- 
come detestable;  and  to  be  a  statesman  on  this 
plan,  is  to  be  a  commissioned  villain.  He  who 
viii-19  267 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

aims  at  it,  leaves  a  vacancy  in  his  character,  v/hich 
may  be  filled  up  with  the  worst  of  epithets. 

If  the  disposition  of  England  should  be  such, 
as  not  to  agree  to  a  general  and  honorable  peace, 
and  the  war  must,  at  all  events,  continue  longer, 
I  cannot  help  wishing  that  the  alliances  which 
America  has  or  may  enter  into,  may  become  the 
only  objects  of  the  war.  She  wants  an  oppor- 
tunity of  showing  to  the  world  that  she  holds  her 
honor  as  dear  and  sacred  as  her  independence, 
and  that  she  will  in  no  situation  forsake  those 
whom  no  negotiations  could  induce  to  forsake 
her.  Peace,  to  every  reflecting  mind,  is  a  de- 
sirable object;  but  that  peace  which  is  accom- 
panied with  a  ruined  character,  becomes  a  crime 
to  the  seducer,  and  a  curse  upon  the  seduced. 

But  where  is  the  impossibility  or  even  the 
great  difficulty  of  England's  forming  a  friend- 
ship with  France  and  Spain,  and  making  it  a 
national  virtue  to  renounce  forever  those  preju- 
diced inveteracies  it  has  been  her  custom  to 
cherish;  and  which,  while  they  serve  to  sink  her 
with  an  increasing  enormity  of  debt,  by  involving 
her  in  fruitless  wars,  become  likewise  the  bane  of 
her  repose,  and  the  destruction  of  her  manners? 
We  had  once  the  fetters  that  she  has  now,  but 
268 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

experience  has  shown  us  the  mistake,  and  think- 
ing justly,  has  set  us  right. 

The  true  idea  of  a  great  nation,  is  that  which 
extends  and  promotes  the  principles  of  universal 
society;  whose  mind  rises  above  the  atmosphere 
of  local  thoughts,  and  considers  mankind,  of 
whatever  nation  or  profession  they  may  be,  as  the 
work  of  one  Creator.  The  rage  for  conquest  has 
had  its  fashion,  and  its  day.  Why  may  not  the 
amiable  virtues  have  the  same?  The  Alexanders 
and  Cffisars  of  antiquity  have  left  behind  them 
their  monuments  of  destruction,  and  are  remem- 
bered with  hatred ;  while  those  more  exalted  char- 
acters, who  first  taught  society  and  science,  are 
blessed  with  the  gratitude  of  every  age  and  coun- 
try. Of  more  use  was  one  philosopher,  though 
a  heathen,  to  the  world,  than  all  the  heathen  con- 
querors that  ever  existed. 

Should  the  present  Revolution  be  distin- 
guished by  opening  a  new  system  of  extended 
civilization,  it  will  receive  from  heaven  the  highest 
evidence  of  approbation;  and  as  this  is  a  subject 
to  which  the  Abbe's  powers  are  so  eminently 
suited,  I  recommend  it  to  his  attention  with  the 
affection  of  a  friend,  and  the  ardor  of  a  universal 
citizen. 


269 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Postscript 

Since  closing  the  foregoing  letter,  some  inti- 
mations respecting  a  general  peace  have  made 
their  way  to  America.  On  what  authority  or 
foundation  they  stand,  or  how  near  or  remote 
such  an  event  may  be,  are  circumstances  I  am 
not  inquiring  into.  But  as  the  subject  must 
sooner  or  later  become  a  matter  of  serious  atten- 
tion, it  may  not  be  improper,  even  at  this  early 
period,  candidly  to  investigate  some  points  that 
are  connected  with  it,  or  lead  toward  it. 

The  independence  of  America  is  at  this  mo- 
ment as  firmly  established  as  that  of  any  other 
country  in  a  state  of  war.  It  is  not  length  of 
time,  but  power  that  gives  stability.  Nations 
at  war,  know  nothing  of  each  other  on  the  score 
of  antiquity.  It  is  their  present  and  immediate 
strength,  together  with  their  connections,  that 
must  support  them.  To  which  we  may  add,  that 
a  right  which  originated  to-day,  is  as  much  a 
right,  as  if  it  had  the  sanction  of  a  thousand 
years;  and  therefore  the  independence  and  pres- 
ent governments  of  America  are  in  no  more  dan- 
ger of  being  subverted,  because  they  are  modern, 
than  that  of  England  is  secure,  because  it  is 
ancient. 

270 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  politics  of  Britain,  so  far  as  respects 
America,  were  originally  conceived  in  idiotism, 
and  acted  in  madness.  There  is  not  a  step  which 
bears  the  smallest  trace  of  rationality.  In  her 
management  of  the  war,  she  has  labored  to  be 
wretched,  and  studied  to  be  hated ;  and  in  all  her 
former  propositions  for  accommodation,  she  has 
discovered  a  total  ignorance  of  mankind,  and  of 
those  natural  and  unalterable  sensations  by 
which  they  are  so  generally  governed.  How 
she  may  conduct  herself  in  the  present  or  future 
business  of  negotiating  a  peace,  is  yet  to  be 
proved. 

He  is  a  weak  politician  who  does  not  under- 
stand human  nature,  and  penetrate  into  the  effect 
which  measures  of  government  will  have  upon 
the  mind.  All  the  miscarriages  of  Britain  have 
arisen  from  this  defect.  The  former  Ministry 
acted  as  if  they  supposed  mankind  to  be  without 
a  mind;  and  the  present  Ministry,  as  if  America 
was  without  a  memory.  The  one  must  have  sup- 
posed we  were  incapable  of  feeling ;  and  the  other 
that  we  could  not  remember  injuries. 

There  is  likewise  another  line  in  which  poli- 
ticians mistake,  which  is,  that  of  not  rightly  cal- 
culating, or  rather  of  misjudging,  the  conse- 
quences which  any  given  circumstance  will  pro- 

271 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

duce.  Nothing  is  more  frequent,  as  well  in  com- 
mon as  in  political  life,  than  to  hear  people  com- 
plain, that  such  or  such  means  produced  an  event 
directly  contrary  to  their  intentions.  But  the 
fault  lies  in  their  not  judging  rightly  what  the 
event  would  be ;  for  the  means  produced  only  its 
proper  and  natural  consequences. 

It  is  very  probable  that,  in  a  treaty  of  peace, 
Britain  will  contend  for  some  post  or  other  in 
North  America,  perhaps  Canada  or  Halifax,  or 
both :  and  I  infer  this  from  the  known  deficiency 
of  her  poHtics,  which  have  ever  yet  made  use  of 
means  whose  natural  event  was  against  both  her 
interest  and  her  expectation.  But  the  question 
with  her  ought  to  be,  whether  it  is  worth  her  while 
to  hold  them,  and  what  will  be  the  consequences. 

Respecting  Canada,  one  or  other  of  the  two 
following  will  take  place,  viz. :  If  Canada  should 
become  populous,  it  will  revolt ;  and  if  it  does  not 
become  so,  it  wiU  not  be  worth  the  expense  of 
holding.  And  the  same  may  be  said  of  Hahf  ax, 
and  the  country  round  it.  But  Canada  never  will 
be  populous ;  neither  is  there  any  occasion  for  con- 
trivances on  one  side  or  the  other,  for  nature  alone 
will  do  the  whole. 

Britain  may  put  herself  to  great  expenses  in 
sending  settlers  to  Canada;  but  the  descendants 
272 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  those  settlers  will  be  Americans,  as  other  de- 
scendants have  been  before  them.  They  will 
look  round  and  see  the  neighboring  states  sov- 
ereign and  free,  respected  abroad  and  trading  at 
large  with  the  world ;  and  the  natural  love  of  lib- 
erty, the  advantages  of  commerce,  the  blessings 
of  independence,  and  of  a  happier  climate,  and  a 
richer  soil,  will  draw  them  southward;  and  the 
effect  will  be,  that  Britain  will  sustain  the  ex- 
pense, and  America  reap  the  advantage. 

One  would  think  that  the  experience  which 
Britain  has  had  of  America,  would  entirely  sicken 
her  of  all  thoughts  of  continental  colonization, 
and  any  part  she  might  retain  will  only  become 
to  her  a  field  of  jealousy  and  thorns,  of  debate 
and  contention,  forever  struggling  for  privi- 
leges, and  meditating  revolt.  She  may  form  new 
settlements,  but  they  will  be  for  us ;  they  will  be- 
come part  of  the  United  States  of  America ;  and 
that  against  all  her  contrivances  to  prevent  it,  or 
without  any  endeavors  of  ours  to  promote  it. 
In  the  first  place  she  cannot  draw  from  them  a 
revenue,  until  they  are  able  to  pay  one,  and  when 
they  are  so  they  will  be  above  subjection.  Men 
soon  become  attached  to  the  soil  they  live  upon, 
and  incorporated^with  the  prosperity  of  the  place : 

and  it  signifies^but  little  what  opinions  they  come 

273 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

over  with,  for  time,  interest,  and  new  connections 
will  render  them  obsolete,  and  the  next  genera- 
tion know  nothing  of  them. 

Were  Britain  truly  wise,  she  would  lay  hold 
of  the  present  opportunity  to  disentangle  herself 
from  all  continental  embarrassments  in  North 
America,  and  that  not  only  to  avoid  future  broils 
and  troubles,  but  to  save  expenses.  To  speak 
explicitly  on  the  matter,  I  would  not,  were  I  an 
European  power,  have  Canada,  under  the  con- 
ditions that  Britain  must  retain  it,  could  it  be 
given  to  me.  It  is  one  of  those  kind  of  dominions 
that  is,  and  ever  will  be,  a  constant  charge  upon 
any  foreign  holder. 

As  to  Halifax,  it  will  become  useless  to  Eng- 
land after  the  present  war,  and  the  loss  of  the 
United  States.  A  harbor,  when  the  dominion  is 
gone,  for  the  purpose  of  which  only  it  was 
wanted,  can  be  attended  only  with  expense. 
There  are,  I  doubt  not,  thousands  of  people  in 
England,  who  suppose,  that  these  places  are  a 
profit  to  the  nation,  whereas  they  are  directly  the 
contrary,  and  instead  of  producing  any  revenue, 
a  considerable  part  of  the  revenue  of  England 
is  annually  drawn  off,  to  support  the  expense  of 
holding  them. 

Gibraltar  is  another  instance  of  national  ill- 
274 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

policy.  A  post  which  in  time  of  peace  is  not 
wanted,  and  in  time  of  war  is  of  no  use,  must  at 
all  times  be  useless.  Instead  of  affording  pro- 
tection to  a  navy,  it  requires  the  aid  of  one  to 
maintain  it.  To  suppose  that  Gibraltar  com- 
mands the  Mediterranean,  or  the  pass  into  it,  or 
the  trade  of  it,  is  to  suppose  a  detected  falsehood ; 
because  though  Britain  holds  the  post  she  has  lost 
the  other  three,  and  every  benefit  she  expected 
from  it.  And  to  say  that  all  this  happens  because 
it  is  besieged  by  land  and  water,  is  to  say  nothing, 
for  this  will  always  be  the  case  in  time  of  war, 
while  France  and  Spain  keep  up  superior  fleets, 
and  Britain  holds  the  place.  So  that,  though,  as 
an  impenetrable,  inaccessible  rock,  it  may  be  held 
by  the  one,  it  is  always  in  the  power  of  the  other 
to  render  it  useless  and  excessively  chargeable. 

I  should  suppose  that  one  of  the  principal 
objects  of  Spain  in  besieging  it,  is  to  show  to 
Britain,  that  though  she  may  not  take  it,  she  can 
command  it,  that  is  she  can  shut  it  up,  and  prevent 
its  being  used  as  a  harbor,  though  not  as  a  garri- 
son. But  the  short  way  to  reduce  Gibraltar  is  to 
attack  the  British  fleet;  for  Gibraltar  is  as  de- 
pendent on  a  fleet  for  support,  as  a  bird  is  on  its 
wing  for  food,  and  when  wounded  there  it  starves. 

There  is  another  circumstance  which  the  peo- 

275 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

pie  of  England  have  not  only  not  attended  to, 
but  seem  to  be  utterly  ignorant  of,  and  that  is, 
the  difference  between  permanent  power  and  ac- 
cidental power,  considered  in  a  national  sense. 

By  permanent  power,  I  mean,  a  natural,  in- 
herent, and  perpetual  ability  in  a  nation,  which 
though  always  in  being,  may  not  be  always  in 
action,  or  not  advantageously  directed;  and  by 
accidental  power,  I  mean,  a  fortunate  or  acci- 
dental disposition  or  exercise  of  national  strength, 
in  whole  or  in  part. 

There  undoubtedly  was  a  time  when  any  one 
European  nation,  with  only  eight  or  ten  ships  of 
war,  equal  to  the  present  ships  of  the  line,  could 
have  carried  terror  to  all  others,  who  had  not  be- 
gun to  build  a  navy,  however  great  their  natural 
ability  might  be  for  that  purpose:  but  this  can 
be  considered  only  as  accidental,  and  not  as  a 
standard  to  compare  permanent  power  by,  and 
could  last  no  longer  than  until  those  powers  built 
as  many  or  more  ships  than  the  former.  After 
this  a  larger  fleet  was  necessary,  in  order  to  be 
superior;  and  a  still  larger  would  again  super- 
sede it.  And  thus  mankind  have  gone  on  build- 
ing fleet  upon  fleet,  as  occasion  or  situation  dic- 
tated. And  this  reduces  it  to  an  original  ques- 
tion, which  is:  Which  power  can  build  and  man 
276 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

the  largest  number  of  ships?  The  natural  ans- 
wer to  which  is,  that  power  which  has  the  largest 
revenue  and  the  greatest  number  of  inhabitants, 
provided  its  situation  of  coast  affords  sufficient 
conveniences. 

France  being  a  nation  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  and  Britain  an  island  in  its  neighbor- 
hood, each  of  them  derived  different  ideas  from 
their  different  situations.  The  inhabitants  of 
Britain  could  carry  on  no  foreign  trade,  nor  stir 
from  the  spot  they  dwelt  upon,  without  the  assist- 
ance of  shipping;  but  this  was  not  the  case  with 
France.  The  idea  therefore  of  a  navy  did  not 
arise  to  France  from  the  same  original  and  imme- 
diate necessity  which  produced  it  to  England. 
But  the  question  is,  that  when  both  of  them  turn 
their  attention,  and  employ  their  revenues  the 
same  way,  which  can  be  superior? 

The  annual  revenue  of  France  is  nearly  dou- 
ble that  of  England,  and  her  number  of  inhab- 
itants more  than  twice  as  many.  Each  of  them 
has  the  same  length  of  coast  on  the  Channel,  be- 
sides which,  France  has  several  hundred  miles 
extent  on  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  an  opening  on 
the  Mediterranean:  and  every  day  proves  that 
practise  and  exercise  make  sailors,  as  well  as  sol- 
diers, in  one  country  as  well  as  another. 

277 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

If,  then,  Britain  can  maintain  a  hundred  ships 
of  the  hne,  France  can  as  well  support  a  hundi'ed 
and  fifty,  because  her  revenue  and  her  popula- 
tion are  as  equal  to  the  one,  as  those  of  England 
are  to  the  other.  And  the  only  reason  why  she 
has  not  done  it,  is  because  she  has  not  till  very 
lately  attended  to  it.  But  when  she  sees,  as  she 
now  does,  that  a  navy  is  the  first  engine  of 
power,  she  can  easily  accomplish  it. 

England,  very  falsely,  and  ruinously  for  her- 
self, infers,  that  because  she  had  the  advantage 
of  France,  while  France  had  the  smaller  navy, 
that  for  that  reason  it  is  always  to  be  so.  Where- 
as it  may  be  clearly  seen,  that  the  strength  of 
France  has  never  yet  been  tried  on  a  navy,  and 
that  she  is  able  to  be  as  superior  to  England  in 
the  extent  of  a  navy,  as  she  is  in  the  extent  of 
her  revenues  and  her  population.  And  England 
may  lament  the  day,  when,  by  her  insolence  and 
injustice,  she  provoked  in  France  a  maritime 
disposition. 

It  is  in  the  power  of  the  combined  fleets  to 
conquer  every  island  in  the  West  Indies,  and  re- 
duce all  the  British  Navy  in  those  places.  For 
were  France  and  Spain  to  send  their  whole  naval 
force  in  Europe  to  those  islands,  it  would  not  be 
in  the  power  of  Britain  to  follow  them  with  an 
278 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

equal  force.  She  would  still  be  twenty  or  thirty 
ships  inferior,  were  she  to  send  every  vessel  she 
had,  and  in  the  meantime  all  the  foreign  trade  of 
England  would  lay  exposed  to  the  Dutch. 

It  is  a  maxim  which,  I  am  persuaded,  will  ever 
hold  good,  and  more  especially  in  naval  opera- 
tions, that  a  great  power  ought  never  to  move  in 
detachments,  if  it  can  possibly  be  avoided ;  but  to 
go  with  its  whole  force  to  some  important  object, 
the  reduction  of  which  shall  have  a  decisive  effect 
upon  the  war.  Had  the  whole  of  the  French 
and  Spanish  fleets  in  Europe  come  last  spring  to 
the  West  Indies,  every  island  had  been  their  own, 
Rodney  their  prisoner,  and  his  fleet  their  prize. 
From  the  United  States  the  combined  fleets  can 
be  supplied  with  provisions,  without  the  necessity 
of  drawing  them  from  Europe,  which  is  not  the 
case  with  England. 

Accident  has  thrown  some  advantages  in  the 
way  of  England,  which,  from  the  inferiority  of 
her  navy,  she  had  not  a  right  to  expect.  For 
though  she  had  been  obliged  to  fly  before  the 
combined  fleets,  yet  Rodney  has  twice  had  the 
fortune  to  fall  in  with  detached  squadrons,  to 
which  he  was  superior  in  numbers:  the  first  off 
Cape  St.  Vincent,  where  he  had  nearly  two  to 
one,  and  the  other  in  the  West  Indies,  where  he 

279 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

had  a  majority  of  six  ships.  Victories  of  this 
kind  almost  produce  themselves.  They  are  won 
without  honor,  and  suffered  without  disgrace: 
and  are  ascribable  to  the  chance  of  meeting,  not 
to  the  superiority  of  fighting.  For  the  same  ad- 
miral, under  whom  they  were  obtained,  was  un- 
able, in  three  former  engagements,  to  make  the 
least  impression  on  a  fleet  consisting  of  an  equal 
number  of  ships  with  his  own,  and  compounded 
for  the  events  by  declining  the  actions.* 

To  conclude:  if  it  may  be  said  that  Britain 
has  numerous  enemies,  it  likewise  proves  that 
she  has  given  numerous  offenses.  Insolence  is 
sure  to  provoke  hatred,  whether  in  a  nation  or 
an  individual.  That  want  of  manners  in  the 
British  Court  may  be  seen  even  in  its  birthdays' 
and  New  Year's  odes,  which  are  calculated  to  in- 
fatuate the  vulgar,  and  disgust  the  man  of  re- 
finement: and  her  former  overbearing  rudeness, 
and  insufferable  injustice  on  the  seas,  have  made 
every  commercial  nation  her  foe.  Her  fleets 
were  employed  as  engines  of  prey,  and  acted  on 
the  surface  of  the  deep  the  character  which  the 
shark  does  beneath  it.     On  the  other  hand,  the 

*  See  the  accounts,  either  English  or  French,  of  three  actions, 
in  the  West  Indies,  between  Count  de  Guichen  and  Admiral  Rod- 
ney, in  1780. 

280 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

combined  powers  are  taking  a  popular  part,  and 
will  render  their  reputation  immortal,  by  estab- 
lishing the  perfect  freedom  of  the  ocean,  to 
which  all  countries  have  a  right,  and  are  inter- 
ested in  accomplishing.  The  sea  is  the  world's 
highway;  and  he  who  arrogates  a  prerogative 
over  it,  transgresses  the  right,  and  justly  brings 
on  himself  the  chastisement  of  nations. 

Perhaps  it  might  be  of  some  service  to  the 
future  tranquillity  of  mankind,  were  an  article 
introduced  into  the  next  general  peace,  that  no 
one  nation  should,  in  time  of  peace,  exceed  a 
certain  number  of  ships  of  war.  Something  of 
this  kind  seems  necessary;  for  according  to  the 
present  fashion,  half  of  the  world  will  get  upon 
the  water,  and  there  appears  to  be  no  end  to  the 
extent  to  which  navies  may  be  carried.  Another 
reason  is,  that  navies  add  nothing  to  the  manners 
or  morals  of  a  people.  The  sequestered  life  which 
attends  the  service,  prevents  the  opportunities  of 
society,  and  is  too  apt  to  occasion  a  coarseness  of 
ideas  and  of  language,  and  that  more  in  ships 
of  war  than  in  the  commercial  employ;  because 
in  the  latter  they  mix  more  with  the  world,  and 
are  nearer  related  to  it.  I  mention  this  remark 
as  a  general  one:  and  not  applied  to  any  one 
country  more  than  to  another. 

281 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Britain  has  now  had  the  trial  of  above  seven 
years,  with  an  expense  of  nearly  an  hundred  mil- 
lion pounds  sterling;  and  every  month  in  which 
she  delays  to  conclude  a  peace  costs  her  another 
million  sterling,  over  and  above  her  ordinary  ex- 
penses of  government,  which  are  a  million  more ; 
so  that  her  total  monthly  expense  is  two  million 
pounds  sterling,  which  is  equal  to  the  whole 
yearly  expenses  of  America,  all  charges  included. 
Judge  then  who  is  best  able  to  continue  it. 

She  has  likewise  many  atonements  to  make  to 
an  injured  world,  as  well  in  one  quarter  as  in 
another.  And  instead  of  pursuing  that  temper 
of  arrogance,  which  serves  only  to  sink  her  in  the 
esteem,  and  entail  on  her  the  dislike  of  all  nations, 
she  would  do  well  to  reform  her  manners,  re- 
trench her  expenses,  live  peaceably  with  her 
neighbors,  and  think  of  war  no  more. 

Philadelphia,  August  21, 1782, 


282 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  following  correspondence  took  place  at 
this  time  between  Paine  and  Wasliington. 

g  BoRDENTOw^N^  Sept.  7,  1782. 

I  have  the  honor  of  presenting  you  with 
fifty  copies  of  my  Letter  to  the  Abbe  Raynal, 
for  the  use  of  the  army,  and  to  repeat  to  you  my 
acknowledgments  for  your  friendship. 

I  fully  believe  we  have  seen  our  worst  days 
over.  The  spirit  of  the  war,  on  the  part  of  the 
enemy,  is  certainly  on  the  decline,  full  as  much  as 
we  think  for.  I  draw  this  opinion  not  only  from 
the  present  promising  appearance  of  things,  and 
the  difficulties  we  know  the  British  Cabinet  is  in ; 
but  I  add  to  it  the  peculiar  effect  which  certain 
periods  of  time  have,  more  or  less,  upon  all  men. 

The  British  have  accustomed  themselves  to 
think  of  seven  years  in  a  manner  different  to 
other  portions  of  time.  They  acquire  this  partly 
by  habit,  by  reason,  by  religion,  and  by  super- 
stition. They  serve  seven  years  apprenticeship 
— they  elect  their  Parliament  for  seven  years — 
they  punish  by  seven  years  transportation,  or  the 
duplicate  or  triplicate  of  that  term — they  let  their 
leases  in  the  same  manner,  and  they  read  that 
Jacob  served  seven  years  for  one  wife,  and  after 
that  seven  years  for  another;  and  this  particular 
viii-20  283 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

period  of  time,  by  a  variety  of  concurrences,  has 
obtained  an  influence  in  their  minds. 

They  have  now  had  seven  years  of  war,  and 
are  no  further  on  the  continent  than  when  they 
began.  The  superstitious  and  populous  parts 
will  therefore  conclude  that  it  is  not  to  be,  and  the 
rational  part  of  them  will  think  they  have  tried 
an  unsuccessful  and  expensive  project  long 
enough,  and  by  these  two  joining  issue  in  the 
same  eventful  opinion,  the  obstinate  part  among 
them  will  be  beaten  out;  unless,  consistent  with 
their  former  sagacity,  they  should  get  over  the 
matter  by  an  act  of  Parliament,  ^Ho  bind  time 
in  all  cases  whatsoever"  or  declare  him  a  rebel. 

1  observe  the  aff*air  of  Captain  Asgill  seems 
to  die  away: — very  probably  it  has  been  pro- 
tracted on  the  part  of  Clinton  and  Carleton,  to 
gain  time,  to  state  the  case  to  the  British  Ministry, 
where  following  close  on  that  of  Colonel  Haynes, 
it  will  create  new  embarrassment  to  them.  For 
my  own  part,  I  am  fully  persuaded  that  a  suspen- 
sion of  his  fate,  still  holding  it  in  terrorem,  will 
operate  on  a  greater  quantity  of  their  passions 
and  vices,  and  restrain  them  more  than  his  execu- 
tion would  do.  However,  the  change  of  meas- 
ures which  seems  now  to  be  taking  place,  gives 
somewhat  of  a  new  cast  to  former  designs;  and 
284 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

if  the  case,  without  the  execution,  can  be  so  man- 
aged as  to  answer  all  the  purposes  of  the  latter, 
it  will  look  much  better  hereafter,  when  the  sen- 
sations that  now  provoke,  and  the  circumstances 
that  would  justify  his  exit,  shall  be  forgotten. 

I  am  your  Excellency's  obliged  and  obed- 
ient humble  servant, 

Thomas  Paine. 

His  Excellency  General  Washington. 

Headquarters^  Verplanck's  Point, 
gj^.  Sept.  18,  1782. 

I  have  the  pleasure  to  acknowledge  your 
favor  of  the  seventh  inst.,  informing  me  of  your 
proposal  to  present  me  with  fifty  copies  of  your 
last  publication,  for  the  amusement  of  the  army. 

For  this  intention  you  have  my  sincere  thanks, 
no  only  on  my  own  account,  but  for  the  pleasure, 
I  doubt  not,  the  gentlemen  of  the  army  will  re- 
ceive from  the  perusal  of  your  pamphlets. 

Your  observations  on  the  period  of  seven 
years,  as  it  applies  itself  to,  and  affects  British 
minds,  are  ingenious,  and  I  wish  it  may  not  fail 
of  its  effects  in  the  present  instance.  The  meas- 
ures, and  the  policy  of  the  enemy,  are  at  present 
in  great  perplexity  and  embarrassment — but  I 

285 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

have  my  fears,  whether  their  necessities  (which 
are  the  only  operative  motive  with  them)  are 
yet  arrived  to  that  point,  which  must  drive  them 
unavoidably  into  what  they  will  esteem  disagree- 
able and  dishonorable  terms  of  peace — such,  for 
instance,  as  an  absolute,  unequivocal  admission  of 
American  Independence,  upon  the  terms  on 
which  she  can  alone  accept  it. 

For  this  reason,  added  to  the  obstinacy  of  the 
king — and  the  probable  consonant  principles  of 
some  of  his  principal  ministers,  I  have  not  so  full 
a  confidence  in  the  success  of  the  present  negotia- 
tion for  peace  as  some  gentlemen  entertain. 

Should  events  prove  my  jealousies  to  be  iU 
founded,  I  shall  make  myself  happy  under  the 
mistake — consoHng  myself  with  the  idea  of  hav- 
ing erred  on  the  safest  side,  and  enjoying  with 
as  much  satisfaction  as  any  of  my  countrymen, 
the  pleasing  issue  of  our  severe  contest. 

The  case  of  Captain  Asgill  has  indeed  been 
spun  out  to  a  great  length — but,  with  you,  I 
hope  that  its  termination  will  not  be  unfavor- 
able to  this  country. 

I  am.  Sir,  with  great  esteem  and  regard. 
Your  most  obedient  servant, 

G.  Washington. 

Thomas  Paine^  Esq. 
286 


\^  =  AS  PAINE 

!>  •>,  whether  til  'ties  (which 

a;-    >  .    .  ..ly  operative  mc  i'>^^m)    are 

'  t  Tirrived  to  that  point,  v  i  ^  them 

idably  into  what  thev  -as^ree- 

nd  dishonorable  terms  o  for 

ce,  as  an  absolute,  unequ  '  f 

Vmerican    Independence,   upon    the   t^rw.s   on 

which  she  can  alone  accept  it. 

For  this  reason,  added  to  the  obstinacy  ot  the 
king — and  the  probable  consonant  principles  of 
some  of  his  principal  ministers,  I  have  not  so  full 
a  confidence  in'^ttl¥J(Pc(?&^Wftfe  present  negotia- 
tion ^^&imm  i6m  ^^^^meh  M^Um. 

Should  events  prove  my  jealousies  to  be  ill 
founded,  I  shall  make  myself  happy  under  the 

with  the  idea  of  hav- 
ing erred  on  the  safest  side,  and  enjoying  with 
as  much  satisfaction  as  any  of  my  countrymen, 
the  pleasing  issue  of  our  severe  contest. 

The  case  of  Captain  Asgill  has  indeea  CKren 
spun  out  to  a  great  length — but,  v- *'  ^  -,  I 
hope  that  its  termination  ^^  *^'      >'  or- 

p.h]f'  to  this  country. 

I  am.  Sir,  with  pr  'v.  nnd  regard. 

Your  most  < 


G.  V  JTON. 


IAS  Paink.  Esq. 
286 


DISSERTATIONS 

On  Government;  the  Affairs  of  the  Bank; 
AND  Paper  Money 

PREFACE 

1HERE  present  the  public  with  a  new  per- 
formance. Some  parts  of  it  are  more  par- 
ticularly adapted  to  the  state  of  Pennsylvania, 
on  the  present  state  of  its  affairs;  but  there  are 
others  which  are  on  a  larger  scale.  The  time 
bestowed  on  this  work  has  not  been  long,  the 
whole  of  it  being  written  and  printed  during  the 
short  recess  of  the  Assembly.* 

As  to  parties,  merely  considered  as  such,  I 
am  attached  to  no  particular  one.  There  are 
such  things  as  right  and  wrong  in  the  world,  and 
so  far  as  these  are  parties  against  each  other, 
the  signature  of  Common  Sense  is  properly  em- 
ployed. 

Thomas  Paine. 

Philadelphia,  Feb.  18,  1786. 

*From  December  22,  1785  to  February  18,  1786. 


287 


DISSERTATIONS  ON  GOVERNMENT 
ETC. 

in^VERY  government,  let  its  form  be  what 
-■--'  it  may,  contains  within  itself  a  principle 
common  to  all,  which  is,  that  of  a  sovereign 
power,  or  a  power  over  which  there  is  no  con- 
trol, and  which  controls  all  others;  and  as  it  is 
impossible  to  construct  a  form  of  government 
in  which  this  power  does  not  exist,  so  there  must 
of  necessity  be  a  place,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  for 
it  to  exist  in. 

In  despotic  monarchies  this  power  is  lodged 
in  a  single  person,  or  sovereign.  His  will  is  law ; 
which  he  declares,  alters  or  revokes  as  he  pleases, 
without  being  accountable  to  any  power  for  so 
doing.  Therefore,  the  only  modes  of  redress, 
in  countries  so  governed,  are  by  petition  or  in- 
surrection. And  this  is  the  reason  we  so  fre- 
quently hear  of  insurrections  in  despotic  govern- 
ments ;  for  as  there  are  but  two  modes  of  redress, 
this  is  one  of  them. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  as  the  united  re- 
sistance of  the  people  is  able,  by  force,  to  con- 
trol the  will  of  the  sovereign,  that  therefore, 
the  controlling  power  lodges  in  them;  but  it 
288 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

must  be  understood  that  I  am  speaking  of  such 
powers  only  as  are  constituent  parts  of  the  gov- 
ernment, not  of  those  powers  which  are  external- 
ly applied  to  resist  and  overturn  it. 

In  republics,  such  as  those  established  in 
America,  the  sovereign  power,  or  the  power  over 
which  there  is  no  control,  and  which  controls  all 
others,  remains  where  nature  placed  it — in  the 
people;  for  the  people  in  America  are  the  foun- 
tain of  power.  It  remains  there  as  a  matter  of 
right,  recognized  in  the  constitutions  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  exercise  of  it  is  constitutional  and 
legal.  This  sovereignty  is  exercised  in  electing 
and  deputing  a  certain  number  of  persons  to  rep- 
resent and  act  for  the  whole,  and  who,  if  they  do 
not  act  right,  may  be  displaced  by  the  same  pow- 
er that  placed  them  there,  and  others  elected  and 
deputed  in  their  stead,  and  the  wrong  measures 
of  former  representatives  corrected  and  brought 
right  by  this  means.  Therefore,  the  republican 
form  and  principle  leaves  no  room  for  insurrec- 
tion, because  it  provides  and  establishes  a  right- 
ful means  in  its  stead. 

In  countries  under  a  despotic  form  of  govern- 
ment, the  exercise  of  this  power  is  an  assumption 
of  sovereignty;  a  wresting  it  from  the  person  in 
whose  hand  their  form  of  government  has  placed 

289 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

it,  and  the  exercise  of  it  is  there  styled  rebelHon. 
Therefore  the  despotic  form  of  government 
knows  no  intermediate  space  between  being 
slaves  and  being  rebels. 

I  shall  in  this  place  offer  an  observation  which, 
though  not  immediately  connected  with  my  sub- 
ject, is  very  naturally  deduced  from  it,  which  is 
that  the  nature,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  of  a  govern- 
ment over  any  people,  may  be  ascertained  from 
the  modes  which  the  people  pursue  to  obtain  re- 
dress of  grievances;  for  like  causes  will  produce 
like  effects.  And  therefore  the  government 
which  Britain  attempted  to  erect  over  America 
could  be  no  other  than  a  despotism,  because  it 
left  to  the  Americans  no  other  modes  of  redress 
than  those  which  are  left  to  people  under  despotic 
governments,  petition  and  resistance:  and  the 
Americans,  without  ever  attending  to  a  compari- 
son on  the  case,  went  into  the  same  steps  which 
such  people  go  into,  because  no  other  could  be 
pursued:  and  this  similarity  of  effects  leads  up 
to,  and  ascertains  the  similarity  of  the  causes  or 
governments  which  produced  them. 

But  to  return.     The  repository  where  the 

sovereign  power  is  placed  is  the  first  criterion  of 

distinction  between  a  country  under  a  despotic 

form  of  government  and  a  free  country.     In  a 

290 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

country  under  a  despotic  government,  the  sov- 
ereign is  the  only  free  man  in  it.  In  a  repubhc, 
the  people,  retaining  the  sovereignty  themselves, 
naturally  and  necessarily  retain  their  freedom 
with  it:  for  wherever  the  sovereignty  is,  there 
must  the  freedom  be. 

As  the  repository  where  the  sovereign  power 
is  lodged  is  the  first  criterion  of  distinction,  so 
the  second  is  the  principles  on  which  it  is  ad- 
ministered. 

A  despotic  government  knows  no  principle 
but  will.  Whatever  the  sovereign  wills  to  do,  the 
government  admits  him  the  inherent  right,  and 
the  uncontrolled  power  of  doing.  He  is  restrain- 
ed by  no  fixed  rule  of  right  and  wrong,  for  he 
makes  the  right  and  wrong  himself,  and  as  he 
pleases.  If  he  happens  (for  a  miracle  may  hap- 
pen) to  be  a  man  of  consummate  wisdom,  justice 
and  moderation,  of  a  mild  affectionate  disposi- 
tion, disposed  to  business,  and  understanding  and 
promoting  the  general  good,  all  the  beneficial 
purposes  of  government  will  be  answered  under 
his  administration,  and  the  people  so  governed, 
may,  while  this  is  the  case,  be  prosperous  and 
easy. 

But  as  there  can  be  no  security  that  this  dis- 
position will  last,  and  this  administration  con- 

291 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tinue,  and  still  less  security  that  his  successor 
shall  have  the  same  quahties  and  pursue  the  same 
measures;  therefore,  no  people  exercising  their 
reason,  and  understanding  their  rights,  would,  of 
their  own  choice,  invest  any  one  man  with  such  a 
power. 

Neither  is  it  consistent  to  suppose  the  knowl- 
edge of  any  one  man  competent  to  the  exercise 
of  such  a  power.  A  sovereign  of  this  sort,  is 
brought  up  in  such  a  distant  line  of  life ;  lives  so 
remote  from  the  people,  and  from  a  knowledge 
of  everything  which  relates  to  their  local  situa- 
tions and  interests,  that  he  can  know  nothing 
from  experience  and  observation,  and  all  which 
he  does  know,  he  must  be  told. 

Sovereign  power  without  sovereign  knowl- 
edge, that  is,  a  full  knowledge  of  all  the  matters 
over  which  that  power  is  to  be  exercised,  is  a 
something  which  contradicts  itself. 

There  is  a  species  of  sovereign  power  in  a 
single  person,  which  is  very  proper  when  ap- 
plied to  a  commander-in-chief  over  an  army,  so 
far  as  relates  to  the  military  government  of  an 
army,  and  the  condition  and  purpose  of  an  army 
constitute  the  reason  why  it  is  so.  In  an  army 
every  man  is  of  the  same  profession;  that  is,  he 
is  a  soldier,  and  the  commander-in-chief  is  a  sol- 
292 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

dier  too;  therefore,  the  knowledge  necessary  to 
the  exercise  of  the  power  is  within  himself.  By 
understanding  what  a  soldier  is,  he  comprehends 
the  local  situation,  interest  and  duty  of  every  man 
within  what  may  be  called  the  dominion  of  his 
command;  and,  therefore,  the  condition  and  cir- 
cumstances of  an  army  make  a  fitness  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  power. 

The  purpose,  likewise,  or  object  of  an  army, 
is  another  reason :  for  this  power  in  a  commander- 
in-chief,  though  exercised  over  the  army,  is  not 
exercised  against  it;  but  is  exercised  through  or 
over  the  army  against  the  enemy.  Therefore, 
the  enemy,  and  not  the  people,  is  the  object  it  is 
directed  to.  Neither  is  it  exercised  over  an  army 
for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue  from  it,  but 
to  promote  its  combined  interest,  condense  its 
powers,  and  give  it  capacity  for  action. 

But  all  these  reasons  cease  when  sovereign 
power  is  transferred  from  the  commander  of  an 
army  to  the  commander  of  a  nation,  and  entirely 
loses  its  fitness  when  applied  to  govern  subjects 
following  occupations,  as  it  governs  soldiers  fol- 
lowing arms. 

A  nation  is  quite  another  element,  and  every- 
thing in  it  differs  not  only  from  each  other,  but 
all  of  them  differ  from  those  of  an  army.    A  na- 

293 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tion  is  composed  of  distinct,  unconnected  in- 
dividuals, following  various  trades,  employments 
and  pursuits;  continually  meeting,  crossing,  uni- 
ting, opposing  and  separating  from  each  other, 
as  accident,  interest  and  circumstance  shall  direct. 
An  army  has  but  one  occupation  and  but  one 
interest. 

Another  very  material  matter  in  which  an 
army  and  a  nation  differ,  is  that  of  temper.  An 
army  may  be  said  to  have  but  one  temper;  for 
however  the  natural  temper  of  the  persons  com- 
posing the  army  may  differ  from  each  other, 
there  is  a  second  temper  takes  place  of  the  first: 
a  temper  formed  by  discipline,  mutuality  of  hab- 
its, union  of  objects  and  pursuits,  and  the  style 
of  military  manners:  but  this  can  never  be  the 
case  among  all  the  individuals  of  a  nation. 
Therefore,  the  fitness,  arising  from  those  circum- 
stances, which  disposes  an  army  to  the  command 
of  a  single  person,  and  the  fitness  of  a  single  per- 
son for  that  command,  is  not  to  be  found  either 
in  one  or  the  other,  when  we  come  to  consider 
them  as  a  sovereign  and  a  nation. 

Having  already  shown  what  a  despotic  gov- 
ernment is,  and  how  it  is  administered,  I  now 
come  to  show  what  the  administration  of  a  re- 
public is. 
294 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  administration  of  a  republic  is  supposed 
to  be  directed  by  certain  fundamental  principles 
of  right  and  j  ustice,  from  which  there  cannot,  be- 
cause there  ought  not  to,  be  any  deviation;  and 
whenever  any  deviation  appears,  there  is  a  kind 
of  stepping  out  of  the  republican  principle,  and 
an  approach  toward  the  despotic  one.  This  ad- 
ministration is  executed  by  a  select  number  of 
persons,  periodically  chosen  by  the  people,  who 
act  as  representatives  and  in  behalf  of  the  whole, 
and  who  are  supposed  to  enact  the  same  laws 
and  to  pursue  the  same  line  of  administration, 
as  the  people  would  do  were  they  all  assembled 
together. 

The  public  good  is  to  be  their  object.  It  is 
therefore  necessary  to  understand  what  public 
good  is. 

Public  good  is  not  a  term  opposed  to  the  good 
of  individuals;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  good  of 
every  individual  collected.  It  is  the  good  of  all, 
because  it  is  the  good  of  everyone:  for  as  the 
public  body  is  every  individual  collected,  so  the 
public  good  is  the  collected  good  of  those  indi- 
viduals. 

The  foundation-principle  of  public  good  is 
justice,  and  wherever  justice  is  impartially  ad- 
ministered, the  public  good  is  promoted ;  for  as  it 

295 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

is  to  the  good  of  every  man  that  no  injustice  be 
done  to  him,  so  likewise  it  is  to  his  good  that  the 
principle  which  secures  him  should  not  be  violat- 
ed in  the  person  of  another,  because  such  a  viola- 
tion weakens  his  security,  and  leaves  to  chance 
what  ought  to  be  to  him  a  rock  to  stand  on. 

But  in  order  to  understand  more  minutely, 
how  the  public  good  is  to  be  promoted,  and  the 
manner  in  which  the  representatives  are  to  act 
to  promote  it,  we  must  have  recourse  to  the  orig- 
inal or  first  principles,  on  which  the  people  form- 
ed themselves  into  a  republic. 

When  a  people  agree  to  form  themselves  into 
a  republic  (for  the  word  republic  means  the  pub- 
lic good,  or  the  good  of  the  whole,  in  contradis- 
tinction to  the  despotic  form,  which  makes  the 
good  of  the  sovereign,  or  of  one  man,  the  only 
object  of  the  government),  when  I  say,  they 
agree  to  do  this,  it  is  to  be  understood  that  they 
mutually  resolve  and  pledge  themselves  to  each 
other,  rich  and  poor  alike,  to  support  and  main- 
tain this  rule  of  equal  justice  among  them.  They 
therefore  renounce  not  only  the  despotic  form, 
but  despotic  principle,  as  well  of  governing  as 
of  being  governed  by  mere  will  and  power,  and 
substitute  in  its  place  a  government  of  justice. 

By  this  mutual  compact,  the  citizens  of  a  re- 
296 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

public  put  it  out  of  their  power,  that  is,  they  re- 
nounce, as  detestable,  the  power  of  exercising, 
at  any  future  time  any  species  of  despotism  over 
each  other,  or  doing  a  thing  not  right  in  itself, 
because  a  majority  of  them  may  have  strength 
of  numbers  sufficient  to  accomplish  it. 

In  this  pledge  and  compact*  lies  the  founda- 

*This  pledge  and  compact  is  contained  in  the  declaration  of 
rights  prefixed  to  the  constitution  (of  Pennsylvania),  and  is  as 
follows : 

I.  That  all  men  are  born  equally  free  and  independent,  and 
have  certain  natural,  inherent  and  unalienable  rights,  amongst 
which  are,  the  enjoying  and  defending  life  and  liberty,  acquir- 
ing, possessing  and  protecting  property,  and  pursuing  and  ob- 
taining happiness  and  safety. 

II.  That  all  men  have  a  natural  and  unalienable  right  to 
worship  Almighty  God,  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own 
consciences  and  understanding:  and  that  no  man  ought  or  of 
right  can  be  compelled  to  attend  any  religious  worship,  or  erect 
or  support  any  place  of  worship,  or  maintain  any  ministry, 
contrary  to,  or  against  his  own  free  will  and  consent:  nor  can 
any  man,  who  acknowledges  the  being  of  a  God,  be  justly  deprived 
or  abridged  of  any  civil  right  as  a  citizen,  on  account  of  his 
religious  sentiments  or  peculiar  mode  of  religious  worship:  and 
that  no  authority  can  or  ought  to  be  vested  in,  or  assumed  by, 
any  power  whatever,  that  shall  in  any  case  interfere  with,  or 
in  any  manner  control,  the  right  of  conscience  in  the  free  exer- 
cise of  religious  worship. 

III.  That  the  people  of  this  State  have  the  sole,  exclusive 
and  inherent  right  of  governing  and  regulating  the  internal 
police  of  the  same. 

IV.  That  all  power  being  originally  inherent  in,  and  conse- 
quently derived  from,  the  people;  therefore,  all  oflBcers  of  govern- 
ment, whether  legislative  or  executive,  are  their  trustees  and 
servants,  and  at  all  times  accountable  to  them. 

V.  That  government  is,  or  ought  to  be,  instituted  for  the 
common  benefit,  protection  and  security  of  the  people,  nation 
or   community;   and   not    for   the   particular    emolument   or    ad- 

297 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tion  of  the  republic:  and  the  security  to  the  rich 
and  the  consolation  to  the  poor  is,  that  what  each 
man  has  is  his  own;  that  no  despotic  sovereign 
can  take  it  from  him,  and  that  the  common  ce- 

vantage  of  any  single  man,  family,  or  set  of  men,  who  are  a 
part  only  of  that  community;  and  that  the  community  hath  an 
indubitable,  unalienable  and  indefeasible  right  to  reform,  alter 
or  abolish  government  in  such  manner  as  shall  be  by  that  com- 
munity judged  most  conducive  to  the   public  weal. 

VI.  That  those  who  are  employed  in  the  legislative  and  ex- 
ecutive business  of  the  state  may  be  restrained  from  oppression, 
the  people  have  a  right,  at  such  periods  as  they  may  think  proper 
to  reduce  their  public  oflficers  to  a  private  station,  and  supply  the 
vacancies  by  certain  and  regular  elections. 

VII.  That  all  elections  ought  to  be  free;  and  that  all  free 
men  having  a  suflBcient  evident  common  interest  with,  and  attach- 
ment to  the  community,  have  a  right  to  elect  officers,  or  to  be 
elected  into  office. 

VIII.  That  every  member  of  society  hath  a  right  to  be  pro- 
tected in  the  enjoyment  of  life,  liberty  and  property,  and  there- 
fore is  bound  to  contribute  his  proportion  toward  the  expense 
of  that  protection,  and  yield  his  personal  service  when  necessary, 
or  an  equivalent  thereto;  but  no  part  of  a  man's  property  can 
be  justly  taken  from  him,  or  applied  to  public  uses,  without  his 
own  consent,  or  that  of  his  legal  representatives;  nor  can  any 
man  who  is  conscientiously  scrupulous  of  bearing  arms,  be  justly 
compelled  thereto,  if  he  will  pay  such  equivalent;  nor  are  the 
people  bound  by  any  laws,  but  such  as  they  have  in  like  manner 
assented  to,  for  their  common  good. 

IX.  That  in  all  prosecutions  for  criminal  oflFenses,  a  man  hath 
a  right  to  be  heard  by  himself  and  his  counsel,  to  demand  the 
cause  and  nature  of  his  accusation,  to  be  confronted  with  the 
witnesses,  to  call  for  evidence  in  his  favor,  and  a  speedy  public 
trial,  by  an  impartial  jury  of  the  country,  without  the  unanimous 
consent  of  which  jury  he  cannot  be  found  guilty;  nor  can  he 
be  compelled  to  give  evidence  against  himself;  nor  can  any  man 
be  justly  deprived  of  his  liberty,  except  by  the  laws  of  the 
land,  or  the  judgment  of  his  peers. 

X.  That  the  people  have  a  right  to  hold  themselves,  their 
houses,  papers,  and  possessions  free  from  search  and  seizure  j  and 

298 


.WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

meriting  principle  which  holds  all  the  parts  of 
a  republic  together,  secures  him  likewise  from  the 
despotism  of  numbers:  for  despotism  may  be 
more  effectually  acted  by  many  over  a  few,  than 
by  one  man  over  all. 

therefore  warrants  without  oaths  or  affirmations,  first  made, 
aflFording  a  sufficient  foundation  for  them,  and  whereby  any 
officer  or  messenger  may  be  commanded  or  required  to  search 
suspected  places,  or  to  seize  any  person  or  persons,  his  or  their 
property,  not  particularly  described,  are  contrary  to  that  right, 
and  ought  not  to  be  granted. 

XI.  That  in  controversies  respecting  property,  and  in  suits 
between  man  and  man,  the  parties  have  a  right  to  trial  by 
jury,  which  ought  to  be  held  sacred. 

XII.  That  the  people  have  a  right  to  freedom  of  speech,  and 
of  writing  and  publishing  their  sentiments;  therefore  the  free- 
dom of  the  press  ought  not  to  be  restrained. 

XIII.  That  the  people  have  a  right  to  bear  arms  for  the 
defense  of  themselves  and  the  state — and  as  standing  armies, 
in  the  time  of  peace,  are  dangerous  to  liberty,  they  ought  not 
to  be  kept  up — and  that  the  military  should  be  kept  under  a 
strict  subordination  to,  and  governed  by,  the  civil  power. 

XIV.  That  a  frequent  recurrence  to  fundamental  principles, 
and  a  firm  adherence  to  justice,  moderation,  temperance,  in- 
dustry and  frugality  are  absolutely  necessary  to  preserve  the 
blessings  of  liberty  and  keep  a  government  free — the  people  ought 
therefore  to  pay  particular  attention  to  these  points  in  the 
choice  of  officers  and  representatives,  and  have  a  right  to  exact 
a  due  and  constant  regard  to  them,  from  their  legislators  and 
magistrates,  in  the  making  and  executing  such  laws  as  are  neces- 
sary for  the  good  government  of  the  state. 

XV.  That  all  men  have  a  natural  inherent  right  to  emigrate 
from  one  state  to  another  that  will  receive  them,  or  to  form 
a  new  state  in  vacant  countries,  or  in  such  countries  as  they  can 
purchase,  whenever  they  think  that  thereby  they  may  promote 
their  own  happiness. 

XVI.  That  the  people  have  a  right  to  assemble  together,  to 
consult  for  their  common  good,  to  instruct  their  representatives, 
nnd  to  apply  to  the  Legislature  for  redress  or  grievances,  by  ad- 
dress, petition,  or  remonstrance. 

VIII— 11  299 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Therefore,  in  order  to  know  how  far  the  pow- 
er of  an  assembly,  or  a  house  of  representa- 
tives can  act  in  administering  the  affairs  of  a 
republic,  we  must  examine  how  far  the  power  of 
the  people  extends  under  the  original  compact 
they  have  made  with  each  other ;  for  the  power  of 
the  representatives  is  in  many  cases  less,  but 
never  can  be  greater  than  that  of  the  people  rep- 
resented; and  whatever  the  people  in  their  mu- 
tual, original  compact  have  renounced  the  power 
of  doing  toward,  or  acting  over  each  other,  the 
representatives  cannot  assume  the  power  to  do, 
because,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  power  of  the 
representatives  cannot  be  greater  than  that  of 
the  people  they  represent. 

In  this  place  it  naturally  presents  itself  that 
the  people  in  their  original  compact  of  equal 
justice  or  first  principles  of  a  republic,  renounced 
as  despotic,  detestable  and  unjust,  the  assum- 
ing a  right  of  breaking  and  violating  their  en- 
gagements, contracts  and  compacts  with,  or  de- 
frauding, imposing  or  tyrannizing  over  each 
other,  and  therefore  the  representatives  cannot 
make  an  act  to  do  it  for  them,  and  any  such  kind 
of  act  would  be  an  attempt  to  depose  not  the 
personal  sovereign,  but  the  sovereign  principle 
300 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  the  republic,  and  to  introduce  despotism  in  its 
stead. 

It  may  in  this  place  be  proper  to  distinguish 
between  that  species  of  sovereignty  which  is 
claimed  and  exercised  by  despotic  monarchs,  and 
that  sovereignty  which  the  citizens  of  a  republic 
inherit  and  retain.  The  sovereignty  of  a  des- 
potic monarch  assumes  the  power  of  making 
wrong  right,  or  right  wrong,  as  he  pleases  or  as 
it  suits  him.  The  sovereignty  in  a  republic  is 
exercised  to  keep  right  and  wrong  in  their  prop- 
er and  distinct  places,  and  never  suffer  the  one 
to  usurp  the  place  of  the  other.  A  republic, 
properly  understood,  is  a  sovereignty  of  justice, 
in  contradistinction  to  a  sovereignty  of  will. 

Our  experience  in  republicanism  is  yet  so 
slender,  that  it  is  much  to  be  doubted,  whether 
all  our  public  laws  and  acts  are  consistent  with, 
or  can  be  justified  on,  the  principles  of  a  repub- 
lican government. 

We  have  been  so  much  habited  to  act  in  com- 
mittees at  the  commencement  of  the  dispute,  and 
during  the  interregnum  of  government,  and  in 
many  cases  since,  and  to  adopt  expedients  war- 
ranted by  necessity,  and  to  permit  to  ourselves 
a  discretionary  use  of  power,  suited  to  the  spur 
and  exigency  of  the  moment,  that  a  man  trans- 

301 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

f erred  from  a  committee  to  a  seat  in  the  legisla- 
ture, imperceptibly  takes  with  him  the  ideas  and 
habits  he  has  been  accustomed  to,  and  continues 
to  think  like  a  committee-man  instead  of  a  legis- 
lator, and  to  govern  by  the  spirit  rather  than  by 
the  rule  of  the  Constitution  and  the  principles  of 
the  republic. 

Having  already  stated  that  the  power  of  the 
representatives  can  never  exceed  the  power  of 
the  people  whom  they  represent,  I  now  proceed  to 
examine  more  particularly,  what  the  power  of  the 
representatives  is. 

It  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  power  of  acting  as 
legislators  in  making  laws — and  in  the  second 
place,  the  power  of  acting  in  certain  cases,  as 
agents  or  negotiators  for  the  commonwealth,  for 
such  purposes  as  the  circumstances  of  the  com- 
monwealth require. 

A  very  strange  confusion  of  ideas,  danger- 
ous to  the  credit,  stability,  and  the  good  and  hon- 
or of  the  commonwealth,  has  arisen,  by  confound- 
ing those  two  distinct  powers  and  things  together 
and  blending  every  act  of  the  assembly,  of  what- 
ever kind  it  may  be,  under  one  general  name,  of 
Laws  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  thereby  creat- 
ing an  opinion  (which  is  truly  of  the  despotic 
kind)  that  every  succeeding  assembly  has  an 
302 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

equal  power  over  every  transaction,  as  well  as 
law,  done  by  a  former  assembly. 

All  laws  are  acts,  but  all  acts  are  not  laws. 
Many  of  the  acts  of  the  assembly  are  acts  of 
agency  or  negotiation,  that  is,  they  are  acts  of 
contract  and  agreement,  on  the  part  of  the  state, 
with  certain  persons  therein  mentioned,  and  for 
certain  purposes  therein  recited.  An  act  of  this 
kind,  after  it  has  passed  the  house,  is  of  the  na- 
ture of  a  deed  or  contract,  signed,  sealed  and  de- 
livered; and  subject  to  the  same  general  laws  and 
principles  of  justice  as  all  other  deeds  and  con- 
tracts are:  for  in  a  transaction  of  this  kind,  the 
state  stands  as  an  individual,  and  can  be  known 
in  no  other  character  in  a  court  of  justice. 

By  'laws"  as  distinct  from  the  agency  trans- 
actions, or  matters  of  negotiation,  are  to  be  com- 
prehended all  those  public  acts  of  the  assembly  or 
commonwealth,  which  have  a  universal  operation, 
or  apply  themselves  to  every  individual  of  the 
commonwealth.  Of  this  kind  are  the  laws  for 
the  distribution  and  administration  of  justice,  for 
the  preservation  of  the  peace,  for  the  security  of 
property,  for  raising  the  necessary  revenue  by 
just  proportions,  etc. 

Acts  of  this  kind  are  properly  lawSj,  and  they 
may  be  altered,  amended  and  repealed,  or  others 

303 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

substituted  in  their  places,  as  experience  shall 
direct,  for  the  better  effecting  the  purpose  for 
which  they  were  intended:  and  the  right  and 
power  of  the  assembly  to  do  this  is  derived  from 
the  right  and  power  which  the  people,  were  they 
all  assembled  together,  instead  of  being  repre- 
sented, would  have  to  do  the  same  thing:  be- 
cause, in  acts  or  laws  of  this  kind,  there  is  no 
other  party  than  the  public. 

The  law,  or  the  alteration,  or  the  repeal,  is  for 
themselves ; — and  whatever  the  effects  may  be,  it 
falls  on  themselves ; — if  for  the  better,  they  have 
the  benefit  of  it — if  for  the  worse,  they  suffer  the 
inconvenience.  No  violence  to  anyone  is  here  of- 
fered— no  breach  of  faith  is  here  committed.  It 
is  therefore  one  of  those  rights  and  powers  which 
is  within  the  sense,  meaning  and  limits  of  the 
original  compact  of  justice  which  they  formed 
with  each  other  as  the  foundation-principle  of 
the  republic,  and  being  one  of  those  rights  and 
powers,  it  devolves  on  their  representatives  by 
delegation. 

As  it  is  not  my  intention  (neither  is  it  withir^ 
the  limits  assigned  to  this  work)  to  define  every 
species  of  what  may  be  called  laws  (but  rather  to 
distinguish  that  part  in  which  the  representa- 
tives act  as  agents  or  negotiators  for  the  state 
304 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

from  the  legislative  part)  I  shall  pass  on  to  dis- 
tinguish and  describe  those  acts  of  the  assembly 
which  are  acts  of  agency  or  negotiation,  and  to 
show  that  as  they  are  different  in  their  nature, 
construction  and  operation,  from  legislative  acts, 
so  likewise  the  power  and  authority  of  the  as- 
sembly over  them,  after  they  are  passed,  is  differ- 
ent. 

It  must  occur  to  every  person  on  the  first  re- 
flection, that  the  affairs  and  circumstances  of  a 
commonwealth  require  other  business  to  be  done 
besides  that  of  making  laws,  and,  consequently, 
that  the  different  kinds  of  business  cannot  all 
be  classed  under  one  name,  or  be  subject  to  one 
and  the  same  rule  of  treatment. 

But  to  proceed — 

Ey  agency  transactions,  or  matters  of  negoti- 
ation, done  by  the  assembly,  are  to  be  compre- 
hended all  that  kind  of  public  business,  which 
the  assembly,  as  representatives  of  the  republic, 
transact  in  its  behalf,  with  a  certain  person  or 
persons,  or  part  or  parts  of  the  republic,  for  pur- 
poses mentioned  in  the  act,  and  which  the  as- 
sembly confirm  and  ratify  on  the  part  of  the 
commonwealth,  by  affixing  to  it  the  seal  of  the 
state. 

An  act  of  this  kind,  differs  from  a  law  of  the 

305 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

before-mentioned  kind;  because  here  are  two 
parties  and  there  but  one,  and  the  parties  are 
bound  to  perform  different  and  distinct  parts: 
whereas,  in  the  before-mentioned  law,  every 
man's  part  was  the  same. 

These  acts,  therefore,  though  numbered 
among  the  laws,  are  evidently  distinct  therefrom, 
and  are  not  of  the  legislative  kind.  The  former 
are  laws  for  the  government  of  the  common- 
wealth ;  these  are  transactions  of  business,  such  as, 
selling  and  conveying  an  estate  belonging  to  the 
public,  or  buying  one ;  acts  for  borrowing  money, 
and  fixing  with  the  lender  the  terms  and  modes 
of  payment;  acts  of  agreement  and  contract, 
with  a  certain  person  or  persons,  for  certain  pur- 
poses: and,  in  short,  every  act  in  which  two 
parties,  the  state  being  one,  are  particularly  men- 
tioned or  described,  and  in  which  the  form  and 
nature  of  a  bargain  or  contract  is  comprehended. 

These,  if  for  custom  and  uniformity  sake  we 
call  them  by  the  name  of  laws,  are  not  laws  for 
the  government  of  the  commonwealth,  but  for  the 
government  of  the  contracting  parties,  as  all 
deeds  and  contracts  are;  and  are  not,  properly 
speaking,  acts  of  the  assembly,  but  joint  acts,  or 
acts  of  the  assembly  in  behalf  of  the  common- 
306 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

wealth  on  one  part,  and  certain  persons  therein 
mentioned  on  the  other  part. 

Acts  of  this  kind  are  distinguishable  into  two 
classes : 

First — Those  wherein  the  matters  inserted 
in  the  act  have  already  been  settled  and  adjusted 
between  the  state  on  one  part,  and  the  persons 
therein  mentioned,  on  the  other  part.  In  this 
case  the  act  is  the  completion  and  ratification  of 
the  contract  or  matters  therein  recited.  It  is  in 
fact  a  deed  signed,  sealed  and  delivered. 

Second — Those  acts  wherein  the  matters  have 
not  been  already  agreed  upon,  and  wherein  the 
act  only  holds  forth  certain  propositions  and 
terms  to  be  accepted  of  and  acceded  to. 

I  shall  give  an  instance  of  each  of  those  acts. 
First,  the  state  wants  the  loan  of  a  sum  of  money ; 
certain  persons  make  an  offer  to  government  to 
lend  that  sum,  and  send  in  their  proposals:  the 
government  accept  these  proposals,  and  all  the 
matters  of  the  loan  and  the  payment  are  agreed 
on;  and  an  act  is  passed  according  to  the  usual 
form  of  passing  acts,  ratifying  and  confirming 
this  agreement.    This  act  is  final. 

In  the  second  case — the  state,  as  in  the  pre- 
ceding one,  wants  a  loan  of  money — the  assembly 
passes  an  act  holding  forth  the  terms  on  which  it 

307 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

will  borrow  and  pay:  this  act  has  no  force  until 
the  propositions  and  terms  are  accepted  of  and 
acceded  to  by  some  person  or  persons,  and  when 
those  terms  are  accepted  of  and  complied  with, 
the  act  is  binding  on  the  state. 

But  if  at  the  meeting  of  the  next  assembly, 
or  any  other,  the  whole  sum  intended  to  be  bor- 
rowed, should  not  be  borrowed,  that  assembly 
may  stop  where  they  are,  and  discontinue  pro- 
ceeding with  the  loan,  or  make  new  propositions 
and  terms  for  the  remainder;  but  so  far  as  the 
subscriptions  have  been  filled  up,  and  the  terms 
complied  with,  it  is,  as  in  the  first  case,  a  signed 
deed:  and  in  the  same  manner  are  all  acts,  let 
the  matters  in  them  be  what  they  may,  wherein, 
as  I  have  before  mentioned,  the  state  on  one  part, 
and  certain  individuals  on  the  other  part,  are 
parties  in  the  act. 

If  the  state  should  become  a  bankrupt,  the 
creditors,  as  in  all  cases  of  bankruptcy,  will  be 
sufferers;  they  will  have  but  a  dividend  for  the 
whole:  but  this  is  not  a  dissolution  of  the  con- 
tract, but  an  accommodation  of  it,  arising  from 
necessity.  And  so  in  all  cases  of  this  kind,  if  an 
inability  takes  place  on  either  side,  the  contract 
cannot  be  performed,  and  some  accommodation 
308 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

must  be  gone  into,  or  the  matter  falls  through  of 
itself. 

It  may  likewise,  though  it  ought  not  to,  hap- 
pen that  in  performing  the  matters,  agreeably 
to  the  terms  of  the  act,  inconveniences,  unfore- 
seen at  the  time  of  making  the  act,  may  arise  to 
either  or  both  parties:  in  this  case,  those  incon- 
veniences may  be  removed  by  the  mutual  con- 
sent and  agreement  of  the  parties,  and  each  finds 
its  benefit  in  so  doing:  for  in  a  republic  it  is  the 
harmony  of  its  parts  that  constitutes  their  sev- 
eral and  mutual  good. 

But  the  acts  themselves  are  legally  binding, 
as  much  as  if  they  had  been  made  between  two 
private  individuals.  The  greatness  of  one  party 
cannot  give  it  a  superiority  or  advantage  over 
the  other.  The  state,  or  its  representatives,  the 
assembly,  has  no  more  power  over  an  act  of  this 
kind,  after  it  has  passed,  than  if  the  state  was  a 
private  person.  It  is  the  glory  of  a  republic  to 
have  it  so,  because  it  secures  the  individual  from 
becoming  the  prey  of  power,  and  prevents  might 
from  overcoming  right. 

If  any  difference  or  dispute  arise  afterward 
between  the  state  and  the  individuals  with  whom 
the  agreement  is  made  respecting  the  contract,  or 
the  meaning,  or  extent  of  any  of  the  matters  con- 

309 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tained  in  the  act,  which  may  affect  the  property 
or  interest  of  either,  such  difference  or  dispute 
must  be  judged  of,  and  decided  upon,  by  the 
laws  of  the  land,  in  a  court  of  justice  and  trial  by 
jury;  that  is,  by  the  laws  of  the  land  already  in 
being  at  the  time  such  act  and  contract  was 
made. 

No  law  made  afterwards  can  apply  to  the 
case,  either  directly,  or  by  construction  or  impli- 
cation: for  such  a  law  would  be  a  retrospective 
law,  or  a  law  made  after  the  fact,  and  cannot 
even  be  produced  in  court  as  applying  to  the 
case  before  it  for  judgment. 

That  this  is  justice,  that  it  is  the  true  prin- 
ciple of  republican  government,  no  man  will  be  so 
hardy  as  to  deny.  If,  therefore,  a  lawful  con- 
tract or  agreement,  sealed  and  ratified,  cannot  be 
affected  or  altered  by  any  act  made  afterwards, 
how  much  more  inconsistent  and  irrational,  des- 
potic and  unjust  would  it  be,  to  think  of  making 
an  act  with  the  professed  intention  of  breaking 
up  a  contract  already  signed  and  sealed. 

That  it  is  possible  an  assembly,  in  the  heat 
and  indiscretion  of  party,  and  meditating  on 
power  rather  than  on  the  principle  by  which  all 
power  in  a  republican  government  is  governed, 
that  of  equal  justice,  may  fall  into  the  error  of 
310 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

passing  such  an  act,  is  admitted; — but  it  would 
be  an  actless  act,  an  act  that  goes  for  nothing, 
an  act  which  the  courts  of  justice  and  the  estab- 
lished laws  of  the  land,  could  know  nothing  of. 

Because  such  an  act  would  be  an  act  of  one 
party  only,  not  only  without,  but  against  the  con- 
sent of  the  other;  and  therefore,  cannot  be  pro- 
duced to  affect  a  contract  made  between  the  two. 
That  the  violation  of  a  contract  should  be  set 
up  as  a  justification  to  the  violator,  would  be  the 
same  thing  as  to  say,  that  a  man  by  breaking  his 
promise  is  freed  from  the  obligation  of  it,  or  that 
by  transgressing  the  laws,  he  exempts  himself 
from  the  punishment  of  them. 

Besides  the  constitutional  and  legal  reasons 
why  an  assembly  cannot,  of  its  own  act  and  au- 
thority, undo  or  make  void  a  contract  made  be- 
tween the  state  (by  a  former  assembly)  and  cer- 
tain individuals,  may  be  added  what  may  be  call- 
ed the  natural  reasons,  or  those  reasons  which  the 
plain  rules  of  common  sense  point  out  to  every 
man.    Among  which  are  the  following: 

The  principals,  or  real  parties  in  the  contract, 
are  the  state  and  the  persons  contracted  with. 
The  assembly  is  not  a  party,  but  an  agent  in  be- 
half of  the  state,  authorized  and  empowered  to 
transact  its  affairs. 

311 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Therefore,  it  is  the  state  that  is  bound  on  one 
part  and  certain  individuals  on  the  other  part, 
and  the  performance  of  the  contract,  according 
to  the  conditions  of  it,  devolves  on  succeeding 
assemblies,  not  as  principals,  but  as  agents. 

Therefore,  for  the  next  or  any  other  assembly 
to  undertake  to  dissolve  the  state  from  its  obli- 
gation is  an  assumption  of  power  of  a  novel  and 
extraordinary  kind.  It  is  the  servant  attempt- 
ing to  free  his  master. 

The  election  of  new  assemblies  following 
each  other  makes  no  difference  in  the  nature  of 
things.  The  state  is  still  the  same  state.  The 
public  is  still  the  same  body.  These  do  not  an- 
nually expire,  though  the  time  of  an  assembly 
does.  These  are  not  new-created  every  year,  nor 
can  they  be  displaced  from  their  original  stand- 
ing; but  are  a  perpetual,  permanent  body,  al- 
ways in  being  and  still  the  same. 

But  if  we  adopt  the  vague,  inconsistent  idea 
that  every  new  assembly  has  a  full  and  complete 
authority  over  every  act  done  by  the  state  in  a 
former  assembly,  and  confound  together  laws, 
contracts,  and  every  species  of  public  business,  it 
will  lead  us  into  a  wilderness  of  endless  confusion 
and  insurmountable  difficulties.  It  would  be  de- 
claring an  assembly  despotic,  for  the  time  being. 
312 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Instead  of  a  government  of  established  prin- 
ciples administered  by  established  rules,  the  au- 
thority of  government,  by  being  strained  so  high, 
would,  by  the  same  rule,  be  reduced  proportion- 
ately as  low,  and  would  be  no  other  than  that  of 
a  committee  of  the  state,  acting  with  discretion- 
ary powers  for  one  year.  Every  new  election 
would  be  a  new  revolution,  or  it  would  suppose 
the  public  of  the  former  year  dead  and  a  new 
public  in  its  place. 

Having  now  endeavored  to  fix  a  precise  idea 
to,  and  distinguish  between  legislative  acts  and 
acts  of  negotiation  and  agency,  I  shall  proceed 
to  apply  this  distinction  to  the  case  now  in  dis- 
pute, respecting  the  charter  of  the  bank. 

The  charter  of  the  bank,  or  what  is  the  same 
thing,  the  act  for  incorporating  it,  is  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  an  act  of  negotiation  and 
contract,  entered  into,  and  confirmed  between 
the  State  on  one  part,  and  certain  persons  men- 
tioned therein  on  the  other  part.  The  purpose 
for  which  the  act  was  done  on  the  part  of  the 
State  is  therein  recited,  viz.,,  the  support  which 
the  finances  of  the  country  would  derive  there- 
from. The  incorporating  clause  is  the  condition 
or  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  State;  and  the 
obligation  on  the  part  of  the  bank,  is  "that  noth- 

313 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ing  contained  in  that  act  shall  be  construed  to 
authorize  the  said  corporation  to  exercise  any 
powers  in  this  State  repugnant  to  the  laws  or 
constitution  thereof." 

Here  are  all  the  marks  and  evidences  of  a 
contract.  The  parties — the  purport — and  the 
reciprocal  obligations. 

That  this  is  a  contract,  or  a  joint  act,  is  evi- 
dent from  its  being  in  the  power  of  either  of 
the  parties  to  have  forbidden  or  prevented  its  be- 
ing done.  The  State  could  not  force  the  stock- 
holders of  the  bank  to  be  a  corporation,  and 
therefore,  as  their  consent  was  necessary  to  the 
making  the  act,  their  dissent  would  have  pre- 
vented its  being  made;  so,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
the  bank  could  not  force  the  State  to  incorporate 
them,  the  consent  or  dissent  of  the  State  would 
have  had  the  same  effect  to  do,  or  to  prevent  its 
being  done;  and  as  neither  of  the  parties  could 
make  the  act  alone,  for  the  same  reason  can 
neither  of  them  dissolve  it  alone:  but  this  is  not 
the  case  with  a  law  or  act  of  legislation,  and 
therefore,  the  difference  proves  it  to  be  an  act 
of  a  diff'erent  kind. 

The  bank  may  forfeit  the  charter  by  delin- 
quency, but  the  delinquency  must  be  proved  and 
established  by  a  legal  process  in  a  court  of  justice 
314 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

and  trial  by  jury;  for  the  state,  or  the  assembly, 
is  not  to  be  a  judge  in  its  own  case,  but  must 
come  to  the  laws  of  the  land  for  judgment;  for 
that  which  is  law  for  the  individual,  is  likewise  law 
for  the  state. 

Before  I  enter  further  into  this  affair,  I  shall 
go  back  to  the  circumstances  of  the  country,  and 
the  condition  the  government  was  in,  for  some 
time  before,  as  well  as  at  the  time  it  entered 
into  this  engagement  with  the  bank,  and  this 
act  of  incorporation  was  passed:  for  the  govern- 
ment of  this  State,  and  I  suppose  the  same  of 
the  rest,  were  then  in  want  of  two  of  the  most 
essential  matters  which  governments  could  be 
destitute  of — money  and  credit. 

In  looking  back  to  those  times,  and  bringing 
forward  some  of  the  circumstances  attending 
them,  I  feel  myself  entering  on  unpleasant  and 
disagreeable  ground;  because  some  of  the  mat- 
ters which  the  attacks  on  the  bank  now  make  it 
necessary  to  state,  in  order  to  bring  the  aifair 
fully  before  the  public,  will  not  add  honor  to 
those  who  have  promoted  that  measure  and  car- 
ried it  through  the  late  House  of  Assembly;  and 
for  whom,  though  my  own  judgment  and  opin- 
ion on  the  case  oblige  me  to  differ  from,  I  retain 

VIII-22  "-"^^ 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

my  esteem,  and  the  social  remembrance  of  times 
past. 

But,  I  trust,  those  gentlemen  will  do  me  the 
justice  to  recollect  my  exceeding  earnestness  with 
them,  last  spring,  when  the  attack  on  the  bank 
first  broke  out;  for  it  clearly  appeared  to  me 
one  of  those  overheated  measures,  which,  neither 
the  country  at  large,  nor  their  own  constituents, 
would  justify  them  in,  when  it  came  to  be  fully 
understood;  for  however  high  a  party  measure 
may  be  carried  in  an  assembly,  the  people  out  of 
doors  are  all  the  while  following  their  several 
occupations  and  employments,  minding  their 
farms  and  their  business,  and  take  their  own 
time  and  leisure  to  judge  of  public  measures;  the 
consequence  of  which  is,  that  they  often  judge 
in  a  cooler  spirit  than  their  representatives  act 
in. 

It  may  be  easily  recollected  that  the  present 
bank  was  preceded  by,  and  rose  out  of  a  former 
one,  called  the  Pennsylvania  Bank  which  began  a 
few  months  before ;  the  occasion  of  which  I  shall 
briefly  state. 

In  the  spring  of  1780,  the  Pennsylvania  As- 
sembly was  composed  of  many  of  the  same  mem- 
bers, and  nearly  all  of  the  same  connection,  which 
composed  the  late  House  that  began  the  attack 
316 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

on  the  bank.  I  served  as  Clerk  of  the  Assembly 
of  1780,  which  station  I  resigned  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  and  accompanied  a  much  lamented  friend, 
the  late  Colonel  John  Laurens,  on  an  embassy  to 
France. 

The  spring  of  1780  was  marked  with  an  ac- 
cumulation of  misfortunes.  The  reliance  placed 
on  the  defense  of  Charleston  failed,  and  exceed- 
ingly lowered  or  depressed  the  spirits  of  the 
country.  The  measures  of  government,  from 
the  want  of  money,  means  and  credit,  dragged  on 
like  a  heavy  loaded  carriage  without  wheels,  and 
were  nearly  got  to  what  a  countryman  would 
understand  by  a  dead  pull. 

The  Assembly  of  that  year  met,  by  adjourn- 
ment, at  an  unusual  time,  the  tenth  of  May,  and 
what  particularly  added  to  the  affliction,  was,  that 
so  many  of  the  members,  instead  of  spiriting  up 
their  constituents  to  the  most  nervous  exertions, 
came  to  the  Assembly  furnished  with  petitions  to 
be  exempt  from  paying  taxes.  How  the  public 
measures  were  to  be  carried  on,  the  country  de- 
fended, and  the  army  recruited,  clothed,  fed,  and 
paid,  when  the  only  resource,  and  that  not  half 
sufficient,  that  of  taxes,  should  be  relaxed  to  al- 
most nothing,  was  a  matter  too  gloomy  to  look  at. 

A  language  very  different  from  that  of  pe- 

317 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

titions  ought  at  this  time  to  have  been  the  lan- 
guage of  everyone.  A  declaration  to  have  stood 
forth  with  their  lives  and  fortunes,  and  a  repro- 
bation of  every  thought  of  partial  indulgence 
would  have  sounded  much  better  than  petitions. 

While  the  Assembly  was  sitting,  a  letter  from 
the  commander-in-chief  was  received  by  the  ex- 
ecutive council  and  transmitted  to  the  House. 
The  doors  were  shut,  and  it  fell  officially  to  me  to 
read. 

In  this  letter  the  naked  truth  of  things  was 
unfolded.  Among  other  informations,  the  gen- 
eral said,  that  notwithstanding  his  confidence  in 
the  attachment  of  the  army  to  the  cause  of  the 
country,  the  distress  of  it,  from  the  want  of  every 
necessary  which  men  could  be  destitute  of,  had 
arisen  to  such  a  pitch,  that  the  appearances  of 
mutiny  and  discontent  were  so  strongly  marked 
on  the  countenance  of  the  army,  that  he  dreaded 
the  event  of  every  hour. 

When  the  letter  was  read,  I  observed  a  de- 
spairing silence  in  the  House.  Nobody  spoke 
for  a  considerable  time.  At  length,  a  member,  of 
whose  fortitude  to  withstand  misfortunes  I  had 
a  high  opinion,  rose: 

"'If,"  said  he,  "the  accoimt  in  that  letter  is 
a  true  state  of  things,  and  we  are  in  the  situation 
318 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

there  represented,  it  appears  to  me  in  vain  to 
contend  the  matter  any  longer.  We  may  as  well 
give  up  at  first  as  at  last." 

The  gentleman  who  spoke  next,  was  (to  the 
best  of  my  recollection)  a  member  of  Bucks 
County,  who,  in  a  cheerful  note,  endeavored  to 
dissipate  the  gloom  of  the  House: 

"Well,  well,"  said  he,  "don't  let  the  House 
despair.  If  things  are  not  so  well  as  we  wish,  we 
must  endeavor  to  make  them  better." 

And  on  a  motion  for  adjournment,  the  con- 
versation went  no  further. 

There  was  now  no  time  to  lose,  and  something 
absolutely  necessary  to  be  done,  which  was  not 
within  the  immediate  power  of  the  House  to  do ; 
for  what  with  the  depreciation  of  the  currency, 
and  slow  operation  of  taxes,  and  the  petitions 
to  be  exempted  therefrom,  the  treasury  was 
moneyless,  and  the  Government  creditless. 

If  the  Assembly  could  not  give  the  assistance 
which  the  necessity  of  the  case  immediateh?^  re- 
quired, it  was  very  proper  the  matter  should  be 
known  by  those  who  either  could  or  would  en- 
deavor to  do  it.  To  conceal  the  information 
within  the  House,  and  not  provide  the  relief  which 
that  information  required,  was  making  no  use 
of  the  knowledge,  and  endangering  the  public 

319 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

cause.  The  only  thing  that  now  remained,  and 
was  capable  of  reaching  the  case,  was  private 
credit,  and  the  voluntary  aid  of  individuals;  and 
under  this  impression,  on  my  return  from  the 
House,  I  drew  out  the  salary  due  to  me  as  clerk, 
enclosed  $500  to  a  gentleman  in  this  city,  in 
part  of  the  whole,  and  wrote  fully  to  him  on  the 
subject  of  our  affairs. 

The  gentleman  to  whom  this  letter  was  ad- 
dressed is  Mr.  Blair  M'Clenaghan.  I  mentioned 
to  him,  that  notwithstanding  the  current  opinion 
that  the  enemy  were  beaten  from  before  Charles- 
ton, there  were  too  many  reasons  to  believe  the 
place  was  then  taken  and  in  the  hands  of  the  en- 
emy: the  consequence  of  which  would  be,  that 
a  great  part  of  the  British  force  would  return, 
and  join  at  New  York;  that  our  own  army  re- 
quired to  be  augmented,  ten  thousand  men,  to 
be  able  to  stand  against  the  combined  force  of  the 
enemy. 

I  informed  Mr.  M'Clenaghan  of  General 
Washington's  letter,  the  extreme  distresses  he 
was  surrounded  with,  and  the  absolute  occa- 
sion there  was  for  the  citizens  to  exert  themselves 
at  this  time,  which  there  was  no  doubt  they  would 
do,  if  the  necessity  was  made  known  to  them; 
for  that  the  ability  of  Government  was  exhausted. 
320 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

I  requested  Mr.  M'Clenaghan  to  propose  a  vol- 
untary subscription  among  his  friends  and 
added,  that  I  had  enclosed  five  hundred  doUars 
as  my  mite  thereto,  and  that  I  would  increase  it 
as  far  as  the  last  ability  would  enable  me  to  go.* 

The  next  day  Mr.  M'Clenaghan  informed  me 
that  he  had  communicated  the  contents  of  the 
letter,  at  a  meeting  of  gentlemen  at  the  coffee- 
house, and  that  a  subscription  was  immediately 
began;  that  Mr.  Robert  Morris  and  himself  had 
subscribed  £200  each,  in  hard  money,  and  that 
the  subscription  was  going  on  very  successfully. 
This  subscription  was  intended  as  a  donation,  and 
to  be  given  in  bounties  to  promote  the  recruiting 
service.  It  is  dated  June  8,  1780.  The  original 
subscription  list  is  now  in  my  possession — it 
amounts  to  £400  hard  money,  and  .£101,360  Con- 
tinental. 

While  this  subscription  was  going  forward, 
information  of  the  loss  of  Charleston  arrived,t 
and  on  a  communication  from  several  members 
of  Congress  to  certain  gentlemen  of  this  city, 

*  Mr.  M'Clenaghan  being  now  returned  from  Europe,  has 
ray  consent  to  show  this  letter  to  any  gentleman  who  may  be 
inclined  to  see  it. 

fColonel  Tennant,  aide  to  General  Lincoln,  arrived  the  four- 
teenth of  June,  with  despatches  of  the  capitulation  of  Charles- 
ton. 

321 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  the  increasing  distresses  and  dangers  then 
taking  place,  a  meeting  was  held  of  the  sub- 
scribers, and  such  other  gentlemen  who  chose  to 
attend,  at  the  city  tavern.  This  meeting  was  on 
the  seventeenth  of  June,  nine  days  after  the  sub- 
scriptions had  begun. 

At  this  meeting  it  was  resolved  to  open  a 
security-subscription,  to  the  amount  of  £300,000^ 
Pennsylvania  currency,  in  real  money;  the  sub- 
scribers to  execute  bonds  to  the  amount  of  their 
subscriptions,  and  to  form  a  bank  thereon  for 
supplying  the  army.  This  being  resolved  on 
and  carried  into  execution,  the  plan  of  the  first 
subscriptions  was  discontinued,  and  this  extended 
one  established  in  its  stead. 

By  means  of  this  bank  the  army  was  supplied 
through  the  campaign,  and  being  at  the  same 
time  recruited,  was  enabled  to  maintain  its 
ground;  and  on  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Morris 
to  be  superintendent  of  the  finances  the  spring 
following,  he  arranged  the  system  of  the  pres- 
ent bank,  styled  the  Bank  of  North  America, 
and  many  subscribers  of  the  former  bank  trans- 
ferred their  subscriptions  into  this. 

Toward  the  establishment  of  this  bank,  Con- 
gress passed  an  ordinance  of  incorporation,  De- 
cember twenty-first,  which  the  government  of 
322 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Pennsylvania  recognized  by  sundry  matters ;  and 
afterward,  on  an  application  of  the  president 
and  directors  of  the  bank,  through  the  mediation 
of  the  executive  council,  the  Assembly  agreed  to, 
and  passed  the  State  Act  of  incorporation 
April  1,  1782. 

Thus  arose  the  bank — produced  by  the  dis- 
tresses of  the  times  and  the  enterprising  spirit 
of  patriotic  individuals.  Those  individuals  fur- 
nished and  risked  the  money,  and  the  aid  which 
the  Government  contributed  was  that  of  incorpo- 
rating them. 

It  would  have  been  well  if  the  State  had 
made  all  its  bargains  and  contracts  with  as  much 
true  policy  as  it  made  this:  for  a  greater  service 
for  so  small  a  consideration,  that  only  of  an  act 
of  incorporation,  has  not  been  obtained  since  the 
Government  existed. 

Having  now  shown  how  the  bank  originated, 
I  shall  proceed  with  my  remarks. 

The  sudden  restoration  of  public  and  private 
credit,  which  took  place  on  the  establishment  of 
the  bank,  is  an  event  as  extraordinary  in  itself 
as  any  domestic  occurrence  during  the  progress 
of  the  Revolution. 

How  far  a  spirit  of  envy  might  operate  to 

produce  the  attack  on  the  bank  during  the  sitting 

823 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

of  the  late  Assembly,  is  best  known  and  felt  by 
those  who  began  or  promoted  the  attack.  The 
bank  had  rendered  services  which  the  Assembly 
of  1780  could  not,  and  acquired  an  honor  which 
many  of  its  members  might  be  unwilling  to  own, 
and  wish  to  obscure. 

But  surely  every  government,  acting  on  the 
principles  of  patriotism  and  public  good,  would 
cherish  an  institution  capable  of  rendering  such 
advantages  to  the  community.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  bank  in  one  of  the  most  trying  vicis- 
situdes of  the  war,  its  zealous  services  in  the  pub- 
lic cause,  its  influence  in  restoring  and  support- 
ing credit,  and  the  punctuality  with  which  all 
its  business  has  been  transacted,  are  matters,  that 
so  far  from  meriting  the  treatment  it  met  with 
from  the  late  Assembly,  are  an  honor  to  the 
State,  and  what  the  body  of  her  citizens  may  be 
proud  to  own. 

But  the  attack  on  the  bank,  as  a  chartered 
institution,  under  the  protection  of  its  violators, 
however  criminal  it  may  be  as  an  error  of  govern- 
ment, or  impolitic  as  a  measure  of  party,  is  not 
to  be  charged  on  the  constituents  of  those  who 
made  the  attack.  It  appears  from  every  circum- 
stance that  has  come  to  light,  to  be  a  measure 

which  that  Assembly  contrived  of  itself.     The 
324 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

members  did  not  come  charged  with  the  affair 
from  their  constituents.  There  was  no  idea  of 
such  a  thing  when  they  were  elected  or  when 
they  met.  The  hasty  and  precipitate  manner  in 
which  it  was  hurried  through  the  House,  and  the 
refusal  of  the  House  to  hear  the  directors  of  the 
bank  in  its  defense,  prior  to  the  publication  of 
the  repealing  bill  for  public  consideration,  oper- 
ated to  prevent  their  constituents  comprehending 
the  subject:  therefore,  whatever  may  be  wrong 
in  the  proceedings  lies  not  at  the  door  of  the  pub- 
lic. The  House  took  the  affair  on  its  own 
shoulders,  and  whatever  blame  there  is,  lies  on 
them. 

The  matter  must  have  been  prejudged  and 
predetermined  by  a  majority  of  the  members  out 
of  the  House,  before  it  was  brought  into  it.  The 
whole  business  appears  to  have  been  fixed  at 
once,  and  all  reasoning  or  debate  on  the  case 
rendered  useless. 

Petitions  from  a  very  inconsiderable  number 
of  persons,  suddenly  procured,  and  so  privately 
done,  as  to  be  a  secret  among  the  few  that  signed 
them,  were  presented  to  the  House  and  read 
twice  in  one  day,  and  referred  to  a  committee 
of  the  House  to  inquire  and  report  thereon.     I 

325 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

here  subjoin  the  petition*  and  the  report,  and 
shall  exercise  the  right  and  privilege  of  a  citizen 
in  examining  their  merits,  not  for  the  purpose  of 

*Minutes  of  the  Assembly,  March  21,  1785.  Petitions  from  a 
considerable  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  Chester  County  were 
read,  representing  that  the  bank  established  at  Philadelphia  has 
fatal  effects  upon  the  community;  that  whilst  men  are  enabled, 
by  means  of  the  bank,  to  receive  near  three  times  the  rate  of 
common  interest,  and  at  the  same  time  receive  their  money  at 
very  short  warning,  whenever  they  have  occasion  for  it,  it  will 
be  impossible  for  the  husbandman  or  mechanic  to  borrow  on  the 
former  terms  of  legal  interest  and  distant  payments  of  the 
principal;  that  the  best  security  will  not  enable  the  person  to 
borrow;  that  experience  clearly  demonstrates  the  mischievous 
consequences  of  this  institution  to  the  fair  trader;  that  imposters 
have  been  enabled  to  support  themselves  in  a  fictitious  credit, 
by  means  of  a  temporary  punctuality  at  the  bank,  until  they 
have  drawn  in  their  honest  neighbors  to  trust  them  with  their 
property,  or  to  pledge  their  credit  as  sureties,  and  have  been 
finally  involved  in  ruin  and  distress. 

That  they  have  repeatedly  seen  the  stopping  of  discounts  at  the 
bank  operate  on  the  trading  part  of  the  community,  with  a  degree 
of  violence  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  a  stagnation  of  the  blood  in 
the  human  body,  hurrying  the  wretched  merchant  who  hath  debts 
to  pay  into  the  hands  of  griping  usurers;  that  the  directors  of  the 
bank  may  give  such  preference  in  trade,  by  advances  of  money, 
to  their  particular  favorites,  as  to  destroy  that  equality  which 
ought  to  prevail  in  a  commercial  country;  that  paper  money 
has  often  proved  beneficial  to  the  state,  but  the  bank  forbids 
it,  and  the  people  must  acquiesce;  therefore,  and  in  order  to 
restore  public  confidence  and  private  security,  they  pray  that  a 
bill  may  be  brought  in  and  passed  into  a  law  for  repealing  the 
law  for  incorporating  the  bank. 

March  28.  The  report  of  the  committee,  read  March  25,  on 
the  petitions  from  the  counties  of  Chester  and  Berks,  and  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  and  its  vicinity,  praying  the  act  of  the 
Assembly,  whereby  the  bank  was  established  at  Philadelphia,  may 
be  repealed,  was  read  the  second  time  as  follows — viz. 

The  committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  petitions  concern- 
ing  the   bank    established    at    Philadelphia,    and   who    were   in- 

326 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

opposition,  but  with  a  design  of  making  an  in- 
tricate affair  more  generally  and  better  under- 
stood. 

structed  to  inquire  whether  the  said  bank  be  compatible  with 
the  public  safety,  and  that  equality  which  ought  ever  to  pre- 
vail between  the  individuals  of  a  republic,  beg  leave  to  report, 
that  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  committee  that  the  said  bank,  as 
at  present  established,  is  in  every  view  incompatible  with  the 
public  safety — that  in  the  present  state  of  our  trade,  the  said 
bank  has  a  direct  tendency  to  banish  a  great  part  of  the  specie 
from  the  country,  so  as  to  produce  a  scarcity  of  money,  and 
to  collect  into  the  hands  of  the  stockholders  of  the  said  bank, 
almost  the  whole  of  the  money  which  remains  amongst  us. 

That  the  accumulation  of  enormous  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a 
society,  who  claim  perpetual  duration,  will  necessarily  produce  a 
degree  of  influence  and  power,  which  cannot  be  intrusted  in  the 
hands  of  any  set  of  men  whatsoever,  without  endangering  the  pub- 
lic safety.  That  the  said  bank,  in  its  corporate  capacity,  is  em- 
powered to  hold  estates  to  the  amount  of  ten  millions  of  dollars, 
and  by  the  tenor  of  the  present  charter,  is  to  exist  forever, 
without  being  obliged  to  yield  any  emolument  to  the  govern- 
ment, or  to  be  at  all  dependent  upon  it.  That  the  great  profits 
of  the  bank  which  will  daily  increase  as  money  grows  scarcer, 
and  which  already  far  exceed  the  profits  of  European  banks, 
have  tempted  foreigners  to  vest  their  money  in  this  bank,  and 
thus  to  draw  from  us  large  sums  for  interest. 

That  foreigners  will  doubtless  be  more  and  more  induced  to 
become  stockholders,  until  the  time  may  arrive  when  this  enor- 
mous engine  of  power  may  become  subject  to  foreign  influence; 
this  country  may  be  agitated  with  the  politics  of  European 
courts,  and  the  good  people  of  America  reduced  once  more  into 
a  state  of  subordination,  and  dependence  upon  some  one  or 
other  of  the  European  powers.  That  at  best,  if  it  were  even  con- 
fined to  the  hands  of  Americans,  it  would  be  totally  destructive  of 
that  equality  which  ought  to  prevail  in  a  republic. 

We  have  nothing  in  our  free  and  equal  government  capable  of 
balancing  the  influence  which  this  bank  must  create — and  we  see 
nothing  which  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  can  prevent  the  direct- 
ors of  the  bank  from  governing  Pennsylvania.  Already  we  have 
felt  its  influence  indirectly  interfering  in  the  measures  of  the  legis- 

327 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

So  far  as  my  private  judgment  is  capable 
of  comprehending  the  subject,  it  appears  to  me 
that  the  committee  were  unacquainted  with,  and 
have  totally  mistaken,  the  nature  and  business 
of  a  bank,  as  well  as  the  matter  committed  to 
them,  considered  as  a  proceeding  of  government. 

They  were  instructed  by  the  house  to  inquire 
whether  the  bank  established  at  Philadelphia  was 
compatible  with  the  public  safety.  It  is  scarcely 
possible  to  suppose  the  instructions  meant  no 
more  than  that  they  were  to  inquire  of  one  an- 
other. It  is  certain  they  made  no  inquiry  at  the 
bank,  to  inform  themselves  of  the  situation  of 
its  affairs,  how  they  were  conducted,  what  aids 
it  had  rendered  the  public  cause,  or  whether  any; 

lature.  Already  the  House  of  Assembly,  the  representatives  of 
the  people,  have  been  threatened,  that  the  credit  of  our  paper 
currency  will  be  blasted  by  the  bank;  and  if  this  growing  evil 
continues,  we  fear  the  time  is  not  very  distant,  when  the  bank 
will  be  able  to  dictate  to  the  legislature,  what  laws  to  pass  and 
what  to  forbear. 

Your  committee  therefore  beg  leave  to  further  report  the 
following  resolution  to  be  adopted  by  the  House — viz. 

Resolved,  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  bring  in  a  bUl  to 
repeal  the  act  of  Assembly  passed  the  first  day  of  April,  1782, 
entitled,  "An  act  to  incorporate  the  subscribers  to  the  Bank  of 
North  America":  and  also  to  repeal  one  other  act  of  Assembly, 
passed  the  eighteenth  of  March,  1782,  entitled,  "An  act  for  pre- 
venting and  punishing  the  counterfeiting  of  the  common  seal, 
bank  bills  and  bank  notes  of  the  president,  directors  and  com- 
pany, of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  and  for  the  other  purposes 
therein  mentioned," 

328 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

nor  do  the  committee  produce  in  their  report  a 
single  fact  or  circumstance  to  show  that  they 
made  any  inquiry  at  all,  or  whether  the  rumors 
then  circulated  were  true  or  false;  but  content 
themselves  with  modeling  the  insinuations  of  the 
petitions  into  a  report  and  giving  an  opinion 
thereon. 

It  would  appear  from  the  report,  that  the 
committee  either  conceived  that  the  House  had 
already  determined  how  it  would  act,  without  re- 
gard to  the  case,  and  that  they  were  only  a  com- 
mittee for  form  sake,  and  to  give  a  color  of  in- 
quiry without  making  any,  or  that  the  case  was 
referred  to  them,  as  law-questions  are  sometimes 
referred  to  law-officers  for  an  opinion  only. 

This  method  of  doing  public  business  serves 
exceedingly  to  mislead  a  country.  When  the 
constituents  of  an  assembly  hear  that  an  inquiry 
into  any  matter  is  directed  to  be  made,  and  a 
committee  appointed  for  that  purpose,  they  nat- 
urally conclude  that  the  inquiry  is  made^  and  that 
the  future  proceedings  of  the  House  are  in  con- 
sequence of  the  matters,  facts,  and  information 
obtained  by  means  of  that  inquiry.  But  here  is 
a  committee  of  inquiry  making  no  inquiry  at  all, 
and  giving  an  opinion  on  a  case  without  inquir- 
ing into  the  merits  of  it.    This  proceeding  of  the 

329 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

committee  would  justify  an  opinion  that  it  was 
not  their  wish  to  get,  but  to  get  over  information, 
and  lest  the  inquiry  should  not  suit  their  wishes, 
omitted  to  make  any. 

The  subsequent  conduct  of  the  House,  in  re- 
solving not  to  hear  the  directors  of  the  bank,  on 
their  application  for  that  purpose,  prior  to  the 
publication  of  the  bill  for  the  consideration  of 
the  people,  strongly  corroborates  this  opinion; 
for  why  should  not  the  House  hear  them,  unless  it 
was  apprehensive  that  the  bank,  by  such  a  public 
opportunity,  would  produce  proofs  of  its  services 
and  usefulness,  that  would  not  suit  the  temper 
and  views  of  its  oppressors? 

But  if  the  House  did  not  wish  or  choose  to 
hear  the  defense  of  the  bank,  it  was  no  reason 
that  their  constituents  should  not.  The  Constitu- 
tion of  this  State,  in  lieu  of  having  two  branches 
of  legislature,  has  substituted,  that,  "to  the  end 
that  laws  before  they  are  enacted  may  be  more 
maturely  considered,  and  the  inconvenience  of 
hasty  determinations  as  much  as  possible  pre- 
vented, all  bills  of  a  public  nature  shall  be  printed 
for  the  consideration  of  the  people."*  The  peo- 
ple, therefore,  according  to  the  Constitution, 
stand  in  the  place  of  another  House;  or,  more 

♦Constitution,  sect.  15th. 

330 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

properly  speaking,  are  a  house  in  their  own  right. 
But  in  this  instance,  the  Assembly  arrogates  the 
whole  power  to  itself,  and  places  itself  as  a  bar 
to  stop  the  necessary  information  spreading 
among  the  people. 

The  application  of  the  bank  to  be  heard  be- 
fore the  bill  was  published  for  public  considera- 
tion had  two  objects.  First,  to  the  House — and 
secondly,  through  the  House  to  the  people,  who 
are  as  another  house.  It  was  as  a  defense  in  the 
first  instance,  and  as  an  appeal  in  the  second. 
But  the  Assembly  absorbs  the  right  of  the  people 
to  judge;  because,  by  refusing  to  hear  the  de- 
fense, they  barred  the  appeal.  Were  there  no 
other  cause  which  the  constituents  of  that  As- 
sembly had  for  censuring  its  conduct,  than  the 
exceeding  unfairness,  partiality,  and  arbitrari- 
ness with  which  its  business  was  transacted,  it 
would  be  cause  sufficient. 

Let  the  constituents  of  assemblies  differ,  as 
they  may,  respecting  certain  peculiarities  in  the 
form  of  the  constitution,  they  will  all  agree  in 
supporting  its  principles,  and  in  reprobating  un- 
fair proceedings  and  despotic  measures.  Every 
constituent  is  a  member  of  the  republic,  which  is 
a  station  of  more  consequence  to  him  than  being 
a  member  of  a  party,  and  though  they  may  dif- 

VIII-f8  331 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

fer  from  each  other  in  their  choice  of  persons  to 
transact  the  public  business,  it  is  of  equal  impor- 
tance to  all  parties  that  the  business  be  done  on 
right  principles ;  otherwise  our  laws  and  acts,  in- 
stead of  being  founded  in  justice,  will  be  found- 
ed in  party,  and  be  laws  and  acts  of  retalia- 
tion; and  instead  of  being  a  republic  of  free  citi- 
zens, we  shall  be  alternately  tyrants  and  slaves. 
But  to  return  to  the  report. 

The  report  begins  by  stating  that,  "The  com- 
mittee to  whom  was  referred  the  petitions  con- 
cerning the  bank  established  at  Philadelphia,  and 
who  were  instructed  to  inquire  whether  the  said 
bank  be  compatible  with  the  public  safety,  and 
that  equality  which  ought  ever  to  prevail  between 
the  individuals  of  a  repubhc,  beg  leave  to  report" 
(not  that  they  have  made  any  inquiry,  but)  "that 
it  is  the  opinion  of  this  conmiittee,  that  the  said 
bank,  as  at  present  established,  is,  in  every  view, 
incompatible  with  the  public  safety."  But  why 
is  it  so?  Here  is  an  opinion  unfounded  and  un- 
warranted. The  conmiittee  have  begun  their  re- 
port at  the  wrong  end;  for  an  opinion,  when 
given  as  a  matter  of  judgment,  is  an  action  of 
the  mind  which  follows  a  fact,  but  here  it  is  put 
in  the  room  of  one. 

The  report  then  says,  "that  in  the  present 
332 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

state  of  our  trade,  the  said  bank  has  a  direct 
tendency  to  banish  a  great  part  of  the  specie  from 
the  country,  and  to  collect  into  the  hands  of  the 
stockholders  of  the  bank,  almost  the  whole  of 
the  money  which  remains  among  us." 

Here  is  another  mere  assertion,  just  like  the 
former,  without  a  single  fact  or  circumstance  to 
show  why  it  is  made,  or  whereon  it  is  founded. 
Now  the  very  reverse  of  what  the  committee  as- 
serts is  the  natural  consequence  of  a  bank.  Spe- 
cie may  be  called  the  stock  in  trade  of  the  bank,  it 
is  therefore  its  interest  to  prevent  it  from  wan- 
dering out  of  the  country,  and  to  keep  a  con- 
stant standing  supply  to  be  ready  for  all  do- 
mestic occasions  and  demands. 

Were  it  true  that  the  bank  has  a  direct  ten- 
dency to  banish  the  specie  from  the  country, 
there  would  soon  be  an  end  to  the  bank;  and, 
therefore,  the  committee  have  so  far  mistaken  the 
matter,  as  to  put  their  fears  in  the  place  of  their 
wishes:  for  if  it  is  to  happen  as  the  committee 
states,  let  the  bank  alone  and  it  will  cease  of  it- 
self, and  the  repealing  act  need  not  have  been 
passed. 

It  is  the  interest  of  the  bank  that  people 
should  keep  their  cash  there,  and  all  commercial 
countries  find  the  exceeding  great  convenience  of 

333 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

having  a  general  depository  for  their  cash.  But 
so  far  from  banishing  it,  there  are  no  two  classes 
of  people  in  America  who  are  so  much  interested 
in  preserving  hard  money  in  the  country  as  the 
bank  and  the  merchant.  Neither  of  them  can 
carry  on  their  business  without  it.  Their  oppo- 
sition to  the  paper  money  of  the  late  Assembly 
was  because  it  has  a  direct  effect,  as  far  as  it  is 
able,  to  banish  the  specie,  and  that  without  pro- 
viding any  means  for  bringing  more  in. 

The  committee  must  have  been  aware  of  this, 
and  therefore  chose  to  spread  the  first  alarm,  and, 
groundless  as  it  was,  to  trust  to  the  delusion. 

As  the  keeping  the  specie  in  the  country  is 
the  interest  of  the  bank,  so  it  has  the  best  oppor- 
tunities of  preventing  its  being  sent  away,  and 
the  earliest  knowledge  of  such  a  design.  While 
the  bank  is  the  general  depository  of  cash,  no 
great  sums  can  be  obtained  without  getting  it 
from  thence,  and  as  it  is  evidently  prejudicial 
to  its  interest  to  advance  money  to  be  sent  abroad, 
because  in  this  case  the  money  cannot  by  circula- 
tion return  again,  the  bank,  therefore,  is  inter- 
ested in  preventing  what  the  committee  would 
have  it  suspected  of  promoting. 

It  is  to  prevent  the  exportation  of  cash,  and 
to  retain  it  in  the  country,  that  the  bank  has,  on 
334 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

several  occasions,  stopped  the  discounting  notes 
till  the  danger  had  been  passed.*  The  first  part, 
therefore,  of  the  assertion,  that  of  banishing  the 
specie,  contains  an  apprehension  as  needless  as  it 

*The  petitions  say,  "That  they  have  frequently  seen  the  stop- 
ping of  discounts  at  the  bank  operate  on  the  trading  part  of 
the  community,  with  a  degree  of  violence  scarcely  inferior  to 
that  of  a  stagnation  of  the  blood  in  the  human  body,  hurrying 
the  wretched  merchant  who  hath  debts  to  pay  into  the  hands  of 
griping  usurers." 

As  the  persons  who  say  or  signed  this  live  somewhere  in 
Chester  County,  they  are  not,  from  situation,  certain  of  what 
they  say.  Those  petitions  have  every  appearance  of  being  con- 
trived for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  matter  on.  The  petitions 
and  the  report  have  strong  evidence  in  them  of  being  both  drawn 
by  the  same  person:  for  the  report  is  as  clearly  the  echo  of  the 
petitions  as  ever  the  address  of  the  British  Parliament  was  the 
echo  of  the  King's  speech. 

Besides  the  reason  I  have  already  given  for  occasionally  stop- 
ping discounting  notes  at  the  bank,  there  are  other  necessary  rea- 
sons. It  is  for  the  purpose  of  settling  accounts;  short  reckon- 
ings make  long  friends.  The  bank  lends  its  money  for  short 
periods,  and  by  that  means  assists  a  great  many  different  people: 
and  if  it  did  not  sometimes  stop  discounting  as  a  means  of 
settling  with  the  persons  it  has  already  lent  its  money  to,  those 
persons  would  find  a  way  to  keep  what  they  had  borrowed 
longer  than  they  ought,  and  prevent  others  being  assisted.  It 
is  a  fact,  and  some  of  the  committee  know  it  to  be  so,  that 
sundry  of  those  persons  who  then  opposed  the  bank  acted  this 
part. 

The  stopping  the  discounts  do  not,  and  cannot,  operate  to  call 
In  the  loans  sooner  than  the  time  for  which  they  were  lent,  and 
therefore  the  charge  is  false  that  "it  hurries  men  into  the  hands 
of  griping  usurers":  and  the  truth  is,  that  it  operates  to  keep 
them  from  them. 

If  petitions  are  to  be  contrived  to  cover  the  design  of  a  house 
of  assembly,  and  give  a  pretense  for  its  conduct,  or  if  a  house 
is  to  be  led  by  the  nose  by  the  idle  tale  of  any  fifty  or  sixty 
signers  to  a  petition,  it  is  time  for  the  public  to  look  a  little 
closer  into  the  conduct  of  its  representatives. 

335 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

is  groundless,  and  which,  had  the  committee 
understood,  or  been  the  least  informed  of  the 
nature  of  a  bank,  they  could  not  have  made.  It 
is  very  probable  that  some  of  the  opposers  of  the 
bank  are  those  persons  who  have  been  disappoint- 
ed in  their  attempts  to  obtain  specie  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  now  disguise  their  opposition  under 
other  pretenses. 

I  now  come  to  the  second  part  of  the  asser- 
tion, which  is,  that  when  the  bank  has  banished 
a  great  part  of  the  specie  from  the  country,  "it 
will  collect  into  the  hands  of  the  stockholders 
almost  the  whole  of  the  money  which  remains 
among  us."  But  how,  or  by  what  means,  the 
bank  is  to  accomplish  this  wonderful  feat,  the 
conmiittee  have  not  informed  us.  Whether  peo- 
pie  are  to  give  their  money  to  the  bank  for  noth- 
ing, or  whether  the  bank  is  to  charm  it  from  them 
as  a  rattlesnake  charms  a  squirrel  from  a  tree, 
the  committee  have  left  us  as  much  in  the  dark 
about  as  they  were  themselves. 

Is  it  possible  the  committee  should  know  so 
very  little  of  the  matter,  as  not  to  know  that  no 
part  of  the  money  which  at  any  time  may  be  in 
the  bank  belongs  to  the  stockholders?  Not  even 
the  original  capital  which  they  put  in  is  any 
part  of  it  their  own,  imtil  every  person  who  has 
336 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

a  demand  upon  the  bank  is  paid,  and  if  there  is 
not  a  sufficiency  for  this  purpose,  on  the  balance 
of  loss  and  gain,  the  original  money  of  the  stock- 
holders must  make  up  the  deficiency. 

The  money,  which  at  any  time  may  be  in  the 
bank,  is  the  property  of  every  man  who  holds  a 
bank  note,  or  deposits  cash  there,  or  who  has 
a  just  demand  upon  it  from  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia up  to  Fort  Pitt,  or  to  any  part  of  the 
United  States ;  and  he  can  draw  the  money  from 
it  when  he  pleases.  Its  being  in  the  bank,  does 
not  in  the  least  make  it  the  property  of  the  stock- 
holders, any  more  than  the  money  in  the  state 
treasury  is  the  property  of  the  state  treasurer. 
They  are  only  stewards  over  it  for  those  who 
please  to  put  it,  or  let  it  remain  there :  and,  there- 
fore, this  second  part  of  the  assertion  is  somewhat 
ridiculous. 

The  next  paragraph  in  the  report  is,  "that 
the  accumulation  of  enormous  wealth  in  the  hands 
of  a  society  who  claim  perpetual  duration,  will 
necessarily  produce  a  degree  of  influence  and 
power  which  cannot  be  intrusted  in  the  hands  of 
any  set  of  men  whatsoever"  (the  committee  I 
presume  excepted)  * 'without  endangering  pub- 
lic safety."  There  is  an  air  of  solemn  fear  in 
this  paragraph  which  is  something  like  introduc- 

337 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ing  a  ghost  in  a  play  to  keep  people  from  laugh- 
ing at  the  players. 

I  have  already  shown  that  whatever  wealth 
there  may  be,  at  any  time,  in  the  bank,  is  the 
property  of  those  who  have  demands  upon  the 
bank,  and  not  the  property  of  the  stockholders. 
As  a  society  they  hold  no  property,  and  most 
probably  never  will,  unless  it  should  be  a  house 
to  transact  their  business  in,  instead  of  hiring  one. 
Every  half  year  the  bank  settles  its  accounts,  and 
each  individual  stockholder  takes  his  dividend  of 
gain  or  loss  to  himself,  and  the  bank  begins  the 
next  half  year  in  the  same  manner  it  began  the 
first,  and  so  on.  This  being  the  nature  of  a  bank, 
there  can  be  no  accumulation  of  wealth  among 
them  as  a  society. 

For  what  purpose  the  word  ''society**  is  intro- 
duced into  the  report  I  do  not  know,  unless  it 
be  to  make  a  false  impression  upon  people's 
minds.  It  has  no  connection  with  the  subject, 
for  the  bank  is  not  a  society,  but  a  company,  and 
denominated  so  in  the  charter.  There  are  sev- 
eral religious  societies  incorporated  in  this  State, 
which  hold  property  as  the  right  of  those  so- 
cieties, and  to  which  no  person  can  belong  that 
is  not  of  the  same  religious  profession.  But  this 
is  not  the  case  with  the  bank.  The  bank  is  a  com- 
338 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

pany  for  the  promotion  and  convenience  of  com- 
merce, which  is  a  matter  in  which  all  the  State 
is  interested,  and  holds  no  property  in  the  man- 
ner which  those  societies  do. 

But  there  is  a  direct  contradiction  in  this  para- 
graph to  that  which  goes  before  it.  The  com- 
mittee, there,  accuses  the  bank  of  banishing  the 
specie,  and  here,  of  accumulating  enormous  sums 
of  it.  So  here  are  two  enormous  sums  of  specie ; 
one  enormous  sum  going  out,  and  another  enor- 
mous sum  remaining.  To  reconcile  this  contra- 
diction, the  committee  should  have  added  to  their 
report,  that  they  suspected  the  hank  had  found 
out  the  philosopher's  stone,  and  kept  it  a  secret. 

The  next  paragraph  is,  "that  the  said  bank, 
in  its  corporate  capacity,  is  empowered  to  hold 
estates  to  the  amount  of  ten  millions  of  dollars, 
and  by  the  tenor  of  the  present  charter  is  to 
exist  for  ever,  without  being  obliged  to  yield 
any  emolument  to  the  government,  or  be  in  the 
least  dependent  on  it." 

The  committee  have  gone  so  vehemently  into 
this  business,  and  so  completely  shown  their  want 
of  knowledge  in  every  point  of  it,  as  to  make, 
in  the  first  part  of  this  paragraph,  a  fear  of  what, 
the  greater  fear  is,  will  never  happen.  Had  the 
committee   known   anything   of  banking,   they 

339 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

must  have  known,  that  the  objection  against 
banks  has  been  (not  that  they  held  great  estates 
but)  that  they  held  none;  that  they  had  no  real, 
fixed,  and  visible  property,  and  that  it  is  the 
maxim  and  practise  of  banks  not  to  hold  any. 

The  Honorable  Chancellor  Livingston,  late 
secretary  for  foreign  affairs,  did  me  the  honor 
of  showing,  and  discoursing  with  me  on,  a  plan 
of  a  bank  he  had  drawn  up  for  the  state  of  New 
York.  In  this  plan  it  was  made  a  condition  or 
obligation,  that  whatever  the  capital  of  the  bank 
amounted  to  in  specie,  there  should  be  added 
twice  as  much  in  real  estates.  But  the  mercantile 
interest  rejected  the  proposition. 

It  was  a  very  good  piece  of  policy  in  the  As- 
sembly which  passed  the  charter  act,  to  add  the 
clause  to  empower  the  bank  to  purchase  and  hold 
real  estates.  It  was  as  an  inducement  to  the 
bank  to  do  it,  because  such  estates  being  held 
as  the  property  of  the  bank  would  be  so  many 
mortgages  to  the  public  in  addition  to  the  money 
capital  of  the  bank. 

But  the  doubt  is  that  the  bank  will  not  be 
induced  to  accept  the  opportunity.  The  bank 
has  existed  five  years,  and  has  not  purchased  a 
shilling  of  real  property:  and  as  such  property 
or  estates  cannot  be  purchased  by  the  bank  but 
340 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

with  the  interest  money  which  the  stock  produces, 
and  as  that  is  divided  every  half  year  among  the 
stockholders,  and  each  stockholder  chooses  to 
have  the  management  of  his  own  dividend,  and 
if  he  lays  it  out  in  purchasing  an  estate  to  have 
that  estate  his  own  private  property,  and  under 
his  own  immediate  management,  there  is  no  ex- 
pectation, so  far  from  being  any  fear,  that  the 
clause  will  be  accepted. 

Where  knowledge  is  a  duty,  ignorance  is  a 
crime;  and  the  cormnittee  are  criminal  in  not 
understanding  this  subject  better.  Had  this 
clause  not  been  in  the  charter,  the  committee 
might  have  reported  the  want  of  it  as  a  defect, 
in  not  empowering  the  bank  to  hold  estates  as  a 
real  security  to  its  creditors :  but  as  the  complaint 
now  stands,  the  accusation  of  it  is,  that  the  char- 
ter empowers  the  bank  to  give  real  security  to  its 
creditors.  A  complaint  never  made,  heard  of,  or 
thought  of  before. 

The  second  article  in  this  paragraph  is,  "that 
the  bank,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  present 
charter,  is  to  exist  forever."  Here  I  agree  with 
the  committee,  and  am  glad  to  find  that  among 
such  a  list  of  errors  and  contradictions  there  is 
one  idea  which  is  not  wrong,  although  the  com- 
mittee have  made  a  wrong  use  of  it. 

341 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

As  we  are  not  to  live  forever  ourselves,  and 
other  generations  are  to  follow  us,  we  have 
neither  the  power  nor  the  right  to  govern  them, 
or  to  say  how  they  shall  govern  themselves.  It 
is  the  summit  of  human  vanity,  and  shows  a  cov- 
etousness  of  power  beyond  the  grave,  to  be  dic- 
tating to  the  world  to  come.  It  is  sufficient  that 
we  do  that  which  is  right  in  our  own  day,  and 
leave  them  with  the  advantage  of  good  examples. 

As  the  generations  of  the  world  are  every  day 
both  commencing  and  expiring,  therefore,  when 
any  public  act,  of  this  sort,  is  done,  it  naturally 
supposes  the  age  of  that  generation  to  be  then 
beginning,  and  the  time  contained  between  com- 
ing of  age,  and  the  natural  end  of  life,  is  the 
extent  of  time  it  has  a  right  to  go  to,  which 
may  be  about  thirty  years ;  for  though  many  may 
die  before,  others  will  live  beyond ;  and  the  mean 
time  is  equally  fair  for  all  generations. 

If  it  was  made  an  article  in  the  Constitution, 
that  all  laws  and  acts  should  cease  of  themselves 
in  thirty  years,  and  have  no  legal  force  beyond 
that  time,  it  would  prevent  their  becoming  too 
numerous  and  voluminous,  and  serve  to  keep 
them  within  view  in  a  compact  compass.  Such 
as  were  proper  to  be  continued,  would  be  enacted 
again,  and  those  which  were  not,  would  go  into 
342 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

oblivion.  There  Is  the  same  propriety  that  a 
nation  should  fix  a  time  for  a  full  settlement  of 
its  affairs,  and  begin  again  from  a  new  date,  as 
that  an  individual  should;  and  to  keep  within  the 
distance  of  thirty  years  would  be  a  convenient 
period. 

The  British,  from  the  want  of  some  general 
regulation  of  this  kind,  have  a  great  number  of 
obsolete  laws ;  which,  though  out  of  use  and  for- 
gotten, are  not  out  of  force,  and  are  occasionally 
brought  up  for  particular  purposes,  and  inno- 
cent, unwary  persons  trapanned  thereby. 

To  extend  this  idea  still  further — it  would 
probably  be  a  considerable  improvement  in  the 
political  sj'-stem  of  nations,  to  make  all  treaties 
of  peace  for  a  limited  time.  It  is  the  nature  of 
the  mind  to  feel  uneasy  under  the  Idea  of  a  con- 
dition perpetually  existing  over  it,  and  to  ex- 
cite in  itself  apprehensions  that  would  not  take 
place  were  it  not  from  that  cause. 

Were  treaties  of  peace  made  for,  and  renew- 
able every  seven  or  ten  years,  the  natural  effect 
would  be,  to  make  peace  continue  longer  than  it 
does  under  the  custom  of  making  peace  forever. 
If  the  parties  felt,  or  apprehended,  any  incon- 
veniences under  the  terms  already  made,  they 
would  look  forward  to  the  time  when  they  should 

343 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

be  eventually  relieved  therefrom,  and  might  re- 
new the  treaty  on  improved  conditions. 

This  opportunity  periodically  occurring,  and 
the  recollection  of  it  always  existing,  would  serve 
as  a  chimney  to  the  political  fabric,  to  carry  off 
the  smoke  and  fume  of  national  fire.  It  would 
naturally  abate  and  honorably  take  off  the  edge 
and  occasion  for  fighting:  and  however  the  par- 
ties might  determine  to  do  it,  when  the  time  of  the 
treaty  should  expire,  it  would  then  seem  like 
fighting  in  cool  blood :  the  fighting  temper  would 
be  dissipated  before  the  fighting  time  arrived, 
and  negotiation  supply  its  place.  To  know  how 
probable  this  may  be,  a  man  need  do  no  more 
than  observe  the  progress  of  his  own  mind  on 
any  private  circumstance  similar  in  its  nature 
to  a  public  one.    But  to  return  to  my  subject. 

To  give  limitation  is  to  give  duration:  and 
though  it  is  not  a  justifying  reason,  that  because 
an  act  or  contract  is  not  to  last  forever,  that  it 
shall  be  broken  or  violated  to-day,  yet,  where  no 
time  is  mentioned,  the  omission  affords  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  abuse.  When  we  violate  a  con- 
tract on  this  pretense,  we  assume  a  right  that  be- 
longs to  the  next  generation;  for  though  they, 
as  a  following  generation,  have  the  right  of  al- 
tering or  setting  it  aside,  as  not  being  concerned 
344 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

in  the  making  it,  or  not  being  done  in  their  day, 
we,  who  made  it,  have  not  that  right ;  and,  there- 
fore, the  committee,  in  this  part  of  their  report, 
have  made  a  wrong  use  of  a  right  principle ;  and 
as  this  clause  in  the  charter  might  have  been  al- 
tered by  the  consent  of  the  parties,  it  cannot  be 
produced  to  justify  the  violation.  And  were  it 
not  altered  there  would  be  no  inconvenience  from 
it. 

The  term  "forever"  is  an  absurdity  that 
would  have  no  effect.  The  next  age  will  think 
for  itself,  by  the  same  rule  of  right  that  we  have 
done,  and  not  admit  any  assumed  authority  of 
ours  to  encroach  upon  the  system  of  their  day. 
Our  forever  ends,  where  their  forever  begins. 

The  third  article  in  this  paragraph  is,  that 
the  bank  holds  its  charter  "without  being  obliged 
to  yield  any  emolument  to  the  Government.'* 

Ingratitude  has  a  short  memory.  It  was  on 
the  failure  of  the  Government  to  support  the 
public  cause,  that  the  bank  originated.  It  step- 
ped in  as  a  support,  when  some  of  the  persons 
then  in  the  Government,  and  who  now  oppose  the 
bank,  were  apparently  on  the  point  of  abandon- 
ing the  cause,  not  from  disaffection,  but  from  de- 
spair. While  the  expenses  of  the  war  were  car- 
ried on  by  emissions  of  Continental  money,  any 

345 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

set  of  men,  in  government,  might  carry  it  on. 
The  means  being  provided  to  their  hands,  re- 
quired no  great  exertions  of  fortitude  or  wis- 
dom ;  but  when  this  means  failed,  they  would  have 
failed  with  it,  had  not  a  public  spirit  awakened 
itself  with  energy  out-of-doors.  It  was  easy 
times  to  the  governments  while  Continental  mon- 
ey  lasted.  The  dream  of  wealth  supplied  the  real- 
ity of  it;  but  when  the  dream  vanished,  the  gov- 
ernment did  not  awake. 

But  what  right  has  the  government  to  ex- 
pect any  emolument  from  the  bank?  Does  the 
committee  mean  to  set  up  acts  and  charters  for 
sale,  or  what  do  they  mean?  Because  it  is  the 
practise  of  the  British  Ministry  to  grind  a  toll 
out  of  every  public  institution  they  can  get  a 
power  over,  is  the  same  practise  to  be  followed 
here? 

The  war  being  now  ended,  and  the  bank  hav- 
ing rendered  the  service  expected,  or  rather  hoped 
for,  from  it,  the  principal  public  use  of  it,  at  this 
time,  is  for  the  promotion  and  extension  of  com- 
merce. The  whole  community  derives  benefit 
from  the  operation  of  the  bank.  It  facilitates  the 
commerce  of  the  country.  It  quickens  the  means 
of  purchasing  and  paying  for  country  produce, 
and  hastens  on  the  exportation  of  it.    The  emolu- 

346 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ment,  therefore,  being  to  the  community,  it  is  the 
office  and  duty  of  government  to  give  protection 
to  the  bank. 

Among  many  of  the  principal  conveniences 
arising  from  the  bank,  one  of  them  is,  that  it 
gives  a  kind  of  life  to,  what  would  otherwise  be, 
dead  money.  Every  merchant  and  person  in 
trade,  has  always  in  his  hands  some  quantity  of 
cash,  which  constantly  remains  with  him ;  that  is, 
he  is  never  entirely  without :  this  remnant  money, 
as  it  may  be  called,  is  of  no  use  to  him  till  more 
is  collected  to  it.  He  can  neither  buy  produce 
nor  merchandise  with  it,  and  this  being  the  case 
with  every  person  in  trade,  there  will  be  (though 
not  all  at  the  same  time)  as  many  of  those  sums 
lying  uselessly  by,  and  scattered  throughout  the 
city,  as  there  are  persons  in  trade,  besides  many 
that  are  not  in  trade. 

I  should  not  suppose  the  estimate  overrated, 
in  conjecturing,  that  half  the  money  in  the  city, 
at  any  one  time,  lies  in  this  manner.  By  collect- 
ing those  scattered  sums  together,  which  is  done 
by  means  of  the  bank,  they  become  capable  of 
being  used,  and  the  quantity  of  circulating  cash 
is  doubled,  and  by  the  depositors  alternately  lend- 
ing them  to  each  other,  the  commercial  system 
is  invigorated:    and  as  it  is  the  interest  of  the 

VIII-44  "     * 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

bank  to  preserve  this  money  in  the  country  for 
domestic  uses  only,  and  as  it  has  the  best  op- 
portunity of  doing  so,  the  bank  serves  as  a  sen- 
tinel over  the  specie. 

If  a  farmer,  or  a  miller,  comes  to  the  city  with 
produce,  there  are  but  few  merchants  that  can  in- 
dividually purchase  it  with  ready  money  of  their 
own;  and  those  few  would  command  nearly  the 
whole  market  for  country  produce ;  but,  by  means 
of  the  bank,  this  monopoly  is  prevented,  and  the 
chance  of  the  market  enlarged. 

It  is  very  extraordinary  that  the  late  Assem- 
bly should  promote  monopolizing;  yet  such  would 
be  the  effect  of  suppressing  the  bank;  and  it  is 
much  to  the  honor  of  those  merchants,  who  are 
capable  by  their  fortunes  of  becoming  monopo- 
lizers, that  they  support  the  bank.  In  this  case, 
honor  operates  over  interest.  They  were  the 
persons  who  first  set  up  the  bank,  and  their  hon- 
or is  now  engaged  to  support  what  it  is  their  in- 
terest to  put  down. 

If  merchants,  by  this  means,  or  farmers,  by 
similar  means,  among  themselves,  can  mutually 
aid  and  support  each  other,  what  has  the  govern- 
ment to  do  with  it?  What  right  has  it  to  expect 
emolument  from  associated  industry,  more  than 
from  individual  industry?  It  would  be  a  strange 
348 


AVRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

sort  of  government,  that  should  make  it  illegal 
for  people  to  assist  each  other,  or  pay  a  tribute 
for  doing  so. 

But  the  truth  is,  that  the  government  has  al- 
ready derived  emoluments,  and  very  extraordi- 
nary ones.  It  has  akeady  received  its  full  share, 
by  the  services  of  the  bank  during  the  war;  and 
it  is  every  day  receiving  benefits,  because  what- 
ever promotes  and  facilitates  commerce,  serves 
likewise  to  promote  and  facilitate  the  revenue. 

The  last  article  in  this  paragraph  is,  "that  the 
bank  is  not  the  least  dependent  on  the  govern- 
ment." 

Have  the  committee  so  soon  forgotten  the 
principles  of  republican  government  and  Con- 
stitution, or  are  they  so  little  acquainted  with 
them,  as  not  to  know,  that  this  article  in  their 
report  partakes  of  the  nature  of  treason?  Do 
they  not  know,  that  freedom  is  destroyed  by  de- 
pendence, and  the  safety  of  the  state  endangered 
thereby?  Do  they  not  see,  that  to  hold  any  part 
of  the  citizens  of  the  state,  as  yearly  pensioners 
on  the  favor  of  an  assembly,  is  striking  at  the 
root  of  free  elections  ? 

If  other  parts  of  their  report  discover  a  want 
of  knowledge  on  the  subject  of  banks,  this  shows 
a  want  of  principle  in  the  science  of  government. 

349 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Only  let  us  suppose  this  dangerous  idea  car- 
ried into  practise,  and  then  see  what  it  leads  to. 
If  corporate  bodies  are,  after  their  incorpora- 
tion to  be  annually  dependent  on  an  assembly  for 
the  continuance  of  their  charter,  the  citizens  which 
compose  those  corporations,  are  not  free.  The 
Government  holds  an  authority  and  influence 
over  them,  in  a  manner  different  from  what  it 
does  over  other  citizens,  and  by  this  means  de- 
stroys that  equality  of  freedom,  which  is  the  bul- 
wark of  the  republic  and  the  Constitution. 

By  this  scheme  of  government  any  party, 
which  happens  to  be  uppermost  in  a  state,  will 
command  all  the  corporations  in  it,  and  may 
create  more  for  the  purpose  of  extending  that  in- 
fluence. The  dependent  borough  towns  in  Eng- 
land are  the  rotten  parts  of  their  government  and 
this  idea  of  the  committee  has  a  very  near  relation 
to  it. 

"If  you  do  not  do  so  and  so,"  expressing  what 
was  meant,  "take  care  of  your  charter,"  was  a 
threat  thrown  out  against  the  bank.  But  as  I  do 
not  wish  to  enlarge  on  a  disagreeable  circumstance 
and  hope  that  what  is  already  said  is  sufficient 
to  show  the  anti-constitutional  conduct  and  prin- 
ciples of  the  committee,  I  shall  pass  on  to  the  next 
paragraph  in  the  report.  Which  is — 
350 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

"That  the  great  profits  of  the  bank,  which 
will  daily  increase  as  money  grows  scarcer,  and 
which  already  far  exceed  the  profits  of  Euro- 
pean banks,  have  tempted  foreigners  to  vest  their 
money  in  this  bank,  and  thus  to  draw  from  us 
large  sums  for  interest." 

Had  the  committee  understood  the  subject, 
some  dependence  might  be  put  on  their  opinion 
which  now  cannot.  Whether  money  will  grow 
scarcer,  and  whether  the  profits  of  the  bank  will 
increase,  are  more  than  the  committee  know,  or 
are  judges  sufficient  to  guess  at.  The  committee 
are  not  so  capable  of  taking  care  of  commerce,  as 
commerce  is  capable  of  taking  care  of  itself. 

The  farmer  understands  farming,  and  the 
merchant  understands  commerce;  and  as  riches 
are  equally  the  object  of  both,  there  is  no  occa- 
sion that  either  should  fear  that  the  other  will 
seek  to  be  poor.  The  more  money  the  merchant 
has,  so  much  the  better  for  the  farmer  who  has 
produce  to  sell;  and  the  richer  the  farmer  is,  so 
much  the  better  for  the  merchant,  when  he  comes 
to  his  store. 

As  to  the  profits  of  the  bank,  the  stockholders 
must  take  their  chance  for  it.  It  may  some  years 
be  more  and  others  less,  and  upon  the  whole  may 
not  be  so  productive  as  many  other  ways  that 

351 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

money  may  be  employed.  It  is  the  convenience 
which  the  stockholders,  as  commercial  men,  de- 
rive from  the  establishment  of  the  bank,  and  not 
the  mere  interest  they  receive,  that  is  the  induce- 
ment to  them.  It  is  the  ready  opportunity  of  bor- 
rowing alternately  of  each  other  that  forms  the 
principal  object:  and  as  they  pay  as  well  as  re- 
ceive a  great  part  of  the  interest  among  them- 
selves, it  is  nearly  the  same  thing,  both  cases  con- 
sidered at  once,  whether  it  is  more  or  less. 

The  stockholders  are  occasionally  depositors 
and  sometimes  borrowers  of  the  bank.  They 
pay  interest  for  what  they  borrow,  and  receive 
none  for  what  they  deposit ;  and  were  a  stockhold- 
er to  keep  a  nice  account  of  the  interest  he  pays 
for  the  one  and  loses  on  the  other,  he  would  find, 
at  the  year's  end,  that  ten  per  cent  on  his  stock 
would  probably  not  be  more  than  common  inter- 
est on  the  whole,  if  so  much. 

As  to  the  committee  complaining  "that  for- 
eigners by  vesting  their  money  in  the  bank  will 
draw  large  sums  from  us  for  interest,"  it  is  like 
a  miller  complaining,  in  a  dry  season,  that  so 
much  water  runs  into  his  dam  some  of  it  runs 
over. 

Could  those  foreigners  draw  this  interest 
without  putting  in  any  capital,  the  complaint 
352 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

would  be  well  founded ;  but  as  they  must  first  put 
money  in  before  they  can  draw  any  out,  as  they 
must  draw  many  years  before  they  can  draw  even 
the  numerical  sum  they  put  in  at  first,  the  effect 
for  at  least  twenty  years  to  come,  will  be  directly 
contrary  to  what  the  committee  states;  because 
we  draw  capital  from  them  and  they  only  interest 
from  us,  and  as  we  shall  have  the  use  of  the  money 
all  the  while  it  remains  with  us,  the  advantage 
will  always  be  in  our  favor.  In  framing  this 
part  of  the  report,  the  committee  must  have  for- 
gotten which  side  of  the  Atlantic  they  were  on, 
for  the  case  would  be  as  they  state  it  if  we  put 
money  into  their  bank  instead  of  their  putting  it 
into  ours. 

I  have  now  gone  through,  line  by  line,  every 
objection  against  the  bank,  contained  in  the  first 
half  of  the  report;  what  follows  may  be  called, 
The  lamentations  of  the  committee,  and  a  lament- 
able, pusillanimous,  degrading  thing  it  is. 

It  is  a  public  aiFront,  a  reflection  upon  the 
sense  and  spirit  of  the  whole  country.  I  shall 
give  the  remainder  together,  as  it  stands  in  the 
report,  and  then  my  remarks.  The  lamentations 
are: 

That  foreigners  will  doubtless  be  more  and  more 
induced  to  become  stock  holders,  until  the  time  may 

358 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

arrive  when  this  enormous  engine  of  power  may  become 
subject  to  foreign  influence,  this  country  may  be  agi- 
tated by  the  politics  of  European  courts,  and  the  good 
people  of  America  reduced  once  more  into  a  state  of 
subordination  and  dependence  upon  some  one  or  other 
of  the  European  powers.  That  at  best,  if  it  were  even 
confined  to  the  hands  of  Americans,  it  would  be  totally 
destructive  of  that  equality  which  ought  to  prevail  in 
a  republic.  We  have  nothing  in  our  free  and  equal 
government  capable  of  balancing  the  influence  which 
this  bank  must  create;  and  we  see  nothing  which  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  can  prevent  the  directors  of  the 
bank  from  governing  Pennsylvania.  Already  we  have 
felt  its  influence  indirectly  interfering  in  the  measures 
of  the  Legislature.  Already  the  House  of  Assembly, 
the  representatives  of  the  people,  have  been  threatened, 
that  the  credit  of  our  paper  currency  will  be  blasted  by 
the  bank;  and  if  this  growing  evil  continues,  we  fear 
the  time  is  not  very  distant  when  the  bank  will  be  able 
to  dictate  to  the  Legislature,  what  laws  to  pass  and  what 
to  forbear. 

When  the  sky  falls  we  shall  all  be  killed. 
There  is  something  so  ridiculously  grave,  so  wide 
of  probability,  and  so  wild,  confused  and  incon- 
sistent in  the  whole  composition  of  this  long  para- 
graph, that  I  am  at  a  loss  how  to  begin  upon  it. 

It  is  like  a  drowning  man  crying  fire!  fire! 

This  part  of  the  report  is  made  up  of  two 
dreadful  predictions.  The  first  is,  that  if  for- 
eigners purchase  bank  stock,  we  shall  be  all  ruin- 
ed;— the  second  is,  that  if  the  Americans  keep 
the  bank  to  themselves,  we  shall  be  also  ruined. 
354 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

A  committee  of  fortune-tellers  Is  a  novelty  in 
government,  and  the  gentlemen,  by  giving  this 
specimen  of  their  art,  have  ingeniously  saved 
their  honor  on  one  point,  which  is,  that  though 
the  people  may  say  they  are  not  bankers,  nobody 
can  say  they  are  not  conjurers.  There  is,  how- 
ever, one  consolation  left,  which  is,  that  the  com- 
mittee do  not  know  exactly  how  long  it  may  be; 
so  there  is  some  hope  that  we  may  all  be  in  heaven 
when  this  dreadful  calamity  happens  upon  earth. 

But  to  be  serious,  if  any  seriousness  is  neces- 
sary on  so  laughable  a  subject.  If  the  State 
should  think  there  is  anything  improper  in  for- 
eigners purchasing  bank  stock,  or  any  other  kind 
of  stock  or  funded  property  (for  I  see  no  reason 
why  bank  stock  should  be  particularly  pointed  at) 
the  Legislature  have  authority  to  prohibit  it.  It 
is  a  mere  political  opinion  that  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  charter,  or  the  charter  with  that;  and 
therefore  the  first  dreadful  prediction  vanishes. 

It  has  always  been  a  maxim  in  pohtics,  found- 
ed on,  and  drawn  from,  natural  causes  and  con- 
sequences, that  the  more  foreign  countries  which 
any  nation  can  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  its 
own,  so  much  the  better.  Where  the  treasure  is, 
there  will  the  heart  be  also;  and  therefore  when 

foreigners  vest  their  money  with  us,  they  natur- 

355 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ally  invest  their  good  wishes  with  it;  and  it  is 
we  that  obtain  an  influence  over  them,  not  they 
over  us.  But  the  committee  set  out  so  very 
wrong  at  first,  that  the  further  they  traveled,  the 
more  they  were  out  of  their  way;  and  now  they 
have  got  to  the  end  of  their  report,  they  are  at  the 
utmost  distance  from  their  business. 

As  to  the  second  dreadful  part,  that  of  the 
bank  overturning  the  government,  perhaps  the 
committee  meant  that  at  the  next  general  elec- 
tion themselves  might  be  turned  out  of  it,  which 
has  partly  been  the  case;  not  by  the  influence  of 
the  bank,  for  it  had  none,  not  even  enough  to  ob- 
tain the  permission  of  a  hearing  from  govern- 
ment, but  by  the  influence  of  reason  and  the  choice 
of  the  people,  who  most  probably  resent  the  un- 
due and  unconstitutional  influence  which  that 
House  and  committee  were  assuming  over  the 
privileges  of  citizenship. 

The  committee  might  have  been  so  modest  as 
to  have  confined  themselves  to  the  bank,  and  not 
thrown  a  general  odium  on  the  whole  country. 
Before  the  events  can  happen  which  the  commit- 
tee predict,  the  electors  of  Pennsylvania  must 
become  dupes,  dunces,  and  cowards,  and,  there- 
fore, when  the  committee  predict  the  dominion  of 
the  bank  they  predict  the  disgrace  of  the  people. 
356 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

The  committee  having  finished  their  report, 
proceed  to  give  their  advice,  which  is, 

That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  bring  in  a  bill 
to  repeal  the  act  of  Assembly  passed  the  first  day  of 
April,  1782,  entitled,  "An  act  to  incorporate  the  sub- 
scribers to  the  Bank  of  North  America,"  and  also  to  re- 
peal one  other  act  of  the  Assembly  passed  the  eighteenth 
of  March,  1782,  entitled,  "An  act  for  preventing  and 
punishing  the  counterfeiting  of  the  common  seal,  bank- 
bills  and  bank  notes  of  the  president,  directors  and  com- 
pany of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  and  for  other 
purposes  therein  mentioned." 

There  is  something  in  this  sequel  to  the  report 
that  is  perplexed  and  obscure. 

Here  are  two  acts  to  be  repealed.  One  is, 
the  incorporating  act.  The  other,  the  act  for  pre- 
venting and  punishing  the  counterfeiting  of  the 
common  seal,  bank  bills,  and  bank  notes  of  the 
president,  directors  and  company  of  the  Bank  of 
North  America. 

It  would  appear  from  the  committee's  man- 
ner of  arranging  them  (were  it  not  for  the  dif- 
ference of  their  dates)  that  the  act  for  punishing 
the  counterfeiting  the  common  seal,  etc.,  of  the 
bank  followed  the  act  of  incorporation,  and  that 
the  common  seal  there  referred  to  is  a  common 
seal  which  the  bank  held  in  consequence  of  the 
aforesaid  incorporating  act.    But  the  case  is  quite 

357 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

otherwise.  The  act  for  punishing  the  counterfeit- 
ing the  common  seal,  etc.  of  the  bank,  was  passed 
prior  to  the  incorporating  act,  and  refers  to  the 
common  seal  which  the  bank  held  in  consequence 
of  the  charter  of  Congress,  and  the  style  which  the 
act  expresses,  of  president,  directors  and  com- 
pany of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  is  the  cor- 
porate style  which  the  bank  derives  under  the 
Congress  charter. 

The  punishing  act,  therefore,  hath  two  dis- 
tinct legal  points.  The  one  is,  an  authoritative 
public  recognition  of  the  charter  of  Congress. 
The  second  is,  the  punishment  it  inflicts  on  coun- 
terfeiting. 

The  Legislature  may  repeal  the  punishing 
part  but  it  cannot  undo  the  recognition,  because 
no  repealing  act  can  say  that  the  State  has  not 
recognized.  The  recognition  is  a  mere  matter  of 
fact,  and  no  law  or  act  can  undo  a  fact,  or  put  it, 
if  I  may  so  express  it,  in  the  condition  it  was  be- 
fore it  existed.  The  repealing  act  therefore  does 
not  reach  the  full  point  the  committee  had  in 
view;  for  even  admitting  it  to  be  a  repeal  of  the 
state  charter,  it  still  leaves  another  charter  recog- 
nized in  its  stead. 

The  charter  of  Congress,  standing  merely 

on   itself,   would   have   a   doubtful   authority, 
858 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

but  recognition  of  it  by  the  state  gives  it  legal 
ability.  The  repealing  act,  it  is  true  sets  aside 
the  punishment,  but  does  not  bar  the  operation  of 
the  charter  of  Congress  as  a  charter  recognized 
by  the  state,  and  therefore  the  committee  did  their 
business  but  by  halves. 

I  have  now  gone  entirely  through  the  report 
of  the  committee,  and  a  more  irrational,  incon- 
sistent, contradictory  report  will  scarcely  be 
found  on  the  journals  of  any  legislature  of 
America. 

How  the  repealing  act  is  to  be  applied,  or  in 
what  manner  it  is  to  operate,  is  a  matter  yet  to 
be  determined.  For  admitting  a  question  of  law 
to  arise,  whether  the  charter,  which  that  act  at- 
tempts to  repeal,  is  a  law  of  the  land  in  the  man- 
ner which  laws  of  universal  operation  are,  or  of 
the  nature  of  a  contract  made  between  the  public 
and  the  bank  (as  I  have  already  explained  in  this 
work) ,  the  repealing  act  does  not  and  cannot  de- 
cide the  question,  because  it  is  the  repealing  act 
that  makes  the  question,  and  its  own  fate  is  in- 
volved in  the  decision.  It  is  a  question  of  law  and 
not  a  question  of  legislation,  and  must  be  decided 
on  in  a  court  of  justice  and  not  by  a  house  of 
assembly. 

But  the  repealing  act,  by  being  passed  prior 

859 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

to  the  decision  of  this  point,  assumes  the  power  of 
deciding  it,  and  the  assembly  in  so  doing  erects 
itself  unconstitutionally  into  a  tribunal  of  judica- 
ture, and  absorbs  the  authority  and  right  of  the 
courts  of  justice  into  itself. 

Therefore  the  operation  of  the  repealing  act, 
in  its  very  outset,  requires  injustice  to  be  done. 
For  it  is  impossible  on  the  principles  of  a  re- 
publican government  and  the  Constitution,  to 
pass  an  act  to  forbid  any  of  the  citizens  the  right 
of  appealing  to  the  courts  of  justice  on  any  mat- 
ter in  which  his  interest  or  property  is  aifected; 
but  the  first  operation  of  this  act  goes  to  shut 
up  the  courts  of  justice  and  holds  them  subserv- 
ient to  the  Assembly.  It  either  commands  or  in- 
fluences them  not  to  hear  the  case,  or  to  give 
judgment  on  it  on  the  mere  will  of  one  party 
only. 

I  wish  the  citizens  to  awaken  themselves  on 
this  subject.  Not  because  the  bank  is  concerned, 
but  because  their  own  constitutional  rights  and 
privileges  are  involved  in  the  event.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion of  exceeding  great  magnitude ;  for  if  an  as- 
sembly is  to  have  this  power,  the  laws  of  the  land 
and  the  courts  of  justice  are  but  of  little  use. 

Having  now  finished  with  the  report,  I  pro- 
360 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ceed  to  the  third  and  last  subject — that  of  paper 
money. 

I  remember  a  German  farmer  expressing  as 
much  in  a  few  words  as  the  whole  subject  re- 
quires; ^'money  is  money,  and  paper  is  paper" 

All  the  invention  of  man  cannot  make  them 
otherwise.  The  alchemist  may  cease  his  labors, 
and  the  hunter  after  the  philosopher's  stone  go  to 
rest,  if  paper  can  be  metamorphosed  into  gold 
and  silver,  or  made  to  answer  the  same  purpose  in 
all  cases. 

Gold  and  silver  are  the  emissions  of  nature: 
paper  is  the  emission  of  art.  The  value  of  gold 
and  silver  is  ascertained  by  the  quantity  which 
nature  has  made  in  the  earth.  We  cannot  make 
that  quantity  more  or  less  than  it  is,  and  therefore 
the  value  being  dependent  upon  the  quantity,  de- 
pends not  on  man.  Man  has  no  share  in  making 
gold  or  silver;  all  that  his  labors  and  ingenuity 
can  accomplish  is,  to  collect  it  from  the  mine,  re- 
fine it  for  use  and  give  it  an  impression,  or  stamp 
it  into  coin. 

Its  being  stamped  into  coin  adds  considerably 
to  its  convenience  but  nothing  to  its  value.  It 
has  then  no  more  value  than  it  had  before.  Its 
value  is  not  in  the  impression  but  in  itself.  Take 
away  the  impression  and  still  the  same  value  re- 

361 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

mains.  Alter  it  as  you  will,  or  expose  it  to  any 
misfortune  that  can  happen,  still  the  value  is  not 
diminished.  It  has  a  capacity  to  resist  the  ac- 
cidents that  destroy  other  things.  It  has,  there- 
fore, all  the  requisite  quahties  that  money  can 
have,  and  is  a  fit  material  to  make  money  of;  and 
nothing  which  has  not  all  those  properties,  can 
be  fit  for  the  purpose  of  money. 

Paper,  considered  as  a  material  whereof  to 
make  money,  has  none  of  the  requisite  qualities 
in  it.  It  is  too  plentiful,  and  too  easily  come  at. 
It  can  be  had  anywhere,  and  for  a  trifle. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  I  shall  consider 
paper. 

The  only  proper  use  for  paper,  in  the  room 
of  money,  is  to  write  promissory  notes  and  ob- 
ligations of  payment  in  specie  upon.  A  piece  of 
paper,  thus  written  and  signed,  is  worth  the  sum 
it  is  given  for,  if  the  person  who  gives  it  is  able 
to  pay  it ;  because  in  this  case,  the  law  will  oblige 
him.  But  if  he  is  worth  nothing,  the  paper  note 
is  worth  nothing.  The  value,  therefore,  of  such 
a  note,  is  not  in  the  note  itself,  for  that  is  but 
paper  and  promise,  but  in  the  man  who  is  obliged 
to  redeem  it  with  gold  or  silver. 

Paper,  circulating  in  tkis  manner,  and  for 
this  purpose,  continually  points  to  the  place  and 
362 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

persoji  where,  and  of  whom,  the  money  is  to  be 
had,  and  at  last  finds  its  home;  and,  as  it  were, 
unlocks  its  master's  chest  and  pays  the  bearer. 

But  when  an  assembly  undertake  to  issue  pa- 
per as  money,  the  whole  system  of  safety  and  cer- 
tainty is  overturned,  and  property  set  afloat.  Pa- 
per notes  given  and  taken  between  individuals  as 
a  promise  of  payment  is  one  thing,  but  paper  is- 
sued by  an  assembly  as  money  is  another  thing.  It 
is  like  putting  an  apparition  in  the  place  of  a 
man;  it  vanishes  with  looking  at  it,  and  nothing 
remains  but  the  air. 

Money,  when  considered  as  the  fruit  of  many 
years  industry,  as  the  reward  of  labor,  sweat  and 
toil,  as  the  widow's  dowry  and  children's  portion, 
and  as  the  means  of  procuring  the  necessaries  and 
alleviating  the  afflictions  of  life,  and  making  old 
age  a  scene  of  rest,  has  something  in  it  sacred  that 
is  not  to  be  sported  with,  or  trusted  to  the  airy 
bubble  of  paper  currency. 

By  what  power  or  authority  an  assembly  un- 
dertakes to  make  paper  money,  is  difficult  to  say. 
It  derives  none  from  the  Constitution,  for  that  is 
silent  on  the  subject.  It  is  one  of  those  things 
which  the  people  have  not  delegated,  and  which, 
were  they  at  any  time  assembled  together,  they 
would  not  delegate.    It  is,  therefore,  an  assump- 

VIII-25  363 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

tion  of  power  which  an  assembly  is  not  warranted 
in,  and  which  may,  one  day  or  other,  be  the  means 
of  bringing  some  of  them  to  punishment. 

I  shall  enmnerate  some  of  the  evils  of  paper 
money  and  conclude  with  offering  means  for  pre- 
venting them. 

One  of  the  evils  of  paper  money  is,  that  it 
turns  the  whole  country  into  stock  jobbers.  The 
precariousness  of  its  value  and  the  uncertainty 
of  its  fate  continually  operate,  night  and  day,  to 
produce  this  destructive  effect.  Having  no  real 
value  in  itself  it  depends  for  support  upon  acci- 
dent, caprice  and  party,  and  as  it  is  the  interest 
of  some  to  depreciate  and  of  others  to  raise  its  val- 
ue, there  is  a  continual  invention  going  on  that  de- 
stroys the  morals  of  the  country. 

It  was  horrid  to  see,  and  hurtful  to  recollect, 
how  loose  the  principles  of  justice  were  left,  by 
means  of  the  paper  emissions  during  the  war. 
The  experience  then  had,  should  be  a  warning  to 
any  assembly  how  they  venture  to  open  such  a 
dangerous  door  again. 

As  to  the  romantic,  if  not  hypocritical,  tale 
that  a  virtuous  people  need  no  gold  and  silver, 
and  that  paper  will  do  as  well,  it  requires  no  other 
contradiction  than  the  experience  we  have  seen. 
Though  some  well  meaning  people  may  be  in- 
364 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

clined  to  view  it  in  this  light,  it  is  certain  that  the 
sharper  always  talks  this  language. 

There  are  a  set  of  men  who  go  about  making 
purchases  upon  credit,  and  buying  estates  they 
have  not  wherewithal  to  pay  for ;  and  having  done 
this,  their  next  step  is  to  fill  the  newspapers  with 
paragraphs  of  the  scarcity  of  money  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  paper  emission,  then  to  have  a  legal 
tender  under  the  pretense  of  supporting  its  credit, 
and  when  out,  to  depreciate  it  as  fast  as  they 
can,  get  a  deal  of  it  for  a  little  price,  and  cheat 
their  creditors;  and  this  is  the  concise  history  of 
paper  money  schemes. 

But  why,  since  the  universal  custom  of  the 
world  has  established  money  as  the  most  conven- 
ient medium  of  traffic  and  commerce,  should  pa- 
per be  set  up  in  preference  to  gold  and  silver? 
The  productions  of  nature  are  surely  as  innocent 
as  those  of  art;  and  in  the  case  of  money,  are 
abundantly,  if  not  infinitely,  more  so.  The  love 
of  gold  and  silver  may  produce  covetousness,  but 
covetousness,  when  not  connected  with  dishonesty, 
is  not  properly  a  vice.  It  is  frugahty  run  to  an 
extreme. 

But  the  evils  of  paper  money  have  no  end.  Its 
uncertain  and  fluctuating  value  is  continually 
awakening  or  creating  new   schemes   of   deceit. 

865 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Every  principle  of  justice  is  put  to  the  rack,  and 
the  bond  of  society  dissolved:  the  suppression, 
therefore,  of  paper  money  might  very  properly 
have  been  put  into  the  act  for  preventing  vice 
and  immorality. 

The  pretense  for  paper  money  has  been,  that 
there  was  not  a  sufficiency  of  gold  and  silver. 
This,  so  far  from  being  a  reason  for  paper  emis- 
sions, is  a  reason  against  them. 

As  gold  and  silver  are  not  the  productions  of 
North  America,  they  are,  therefore,  articles  of 
importation;  and  if  we  set  up  a  paper  manufac- 
tory of  money  it  amounts,  as  far  as  it  is  able,  to 
prevent  the  importation  of  hard  money,  or  to 
send  it  out  again  as  fast  as  it  comes  in;  and  by 
following  this  practise  we  shall  continually  ban- 
ish the  specie,  till  we  have  none  left,  and  be  con- 
tinually complaining  of  the  grievance  instead  of 
remedying  the  cause. 

Considering  gold  and  silver  as  articles  of  im- 
portation, there  will  in  time,  unless  we  prevent  it 
by  paper  emissions,  be  as  much  in  the  country  as 
the  occasions  of  it  require,  for  the  same  reasons 
there  are  as  much  of  other  imported  articles.  But 
as  every  yard  of  cloth  manufactured  in  the  coun- 
try occasions  a  yard  the  less  to  be  imported,  so  it 
is  by  money,  with  this  difference,  that  in  the  one 
866 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

case  we  manufacture  the  thing  itself  and  in  the 
other  we  do  not.  We  have  cloth  for  cloth,  but  we 
have  only  paper  dollars  for  silver  ones. 

As  to  the  assumed  authority  of  any  assembly 
in  making  paper  money,  or  paper  of  any  kind,  a 
legal  tender,  or  in  other  language,  a  compulsive 
payment,  it  is  a  most  presumptuous  attempt  at 
arbitrary  power.  There  can  be  no  such  power  in 
a  republican  government:  the  people  have  no 
freedom,  and  property  no  security  where  this 
practise  can  be  acted:  and  the  committee  who 
shall  bring  in  a  report  for  this  purpose,  or  the 
member  who  moves  for  it,  and  he  who  seconds  it 
merits  impeachment,  and  sooner  or  later  may  ex- 
pect it. 

Of  all  the  various  sorts  of  base  coin,  paper 
money  is  the  basest.  It  has  the  least  intrinsic  val- 
ue of  anything  that  can  be  put  in  the  place  of 
gold  and  silver.  A  hobnail  or  a  piece  of  wampum 
far  exceeds  it.  And  there  would  be  more  pro- 
priety in  making  those  articles  a  legal  tender  than 
to  make  paper  so. 

It  was  the  issuing  base  coin,  and  establishing  it 
as  a  tender,  that  was  one  of  the  principal  means 
of  finally  overthrowing  the  power  of  the  Stuart 
family  in  Ireland.    The  article  is  worth  reciting 

367 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

as  it  bears  such  a  resemblance  to  the  process  prac- 
tised in  paper  money. 

Brass  and  copper  of  the  basest  kind,  old  can- 
non, broken  bells,  household  utensils  were  assiduously 
collected;  and  from  every  pound  weight  of  such  vile 
materials,  valued  at  four  pence,  pieces  were  coined  and 
circulated  to  the  amount  of  five  pounds  normal  value. 
By  the  first  proclamation  they  were  made  current  in 
all  payments  to  and  from  the  King  and  the  subjects 
of  the  realm,  except  in  duties  on  the  importation  of 
foreign  goods,  money  left  in  trust,  or  due  by  mort- 
gage, bills  or  bonds ;  and  James  promised  that  when 
the  money  should  be  decried,  he  would  receive  it  in  all 
payments,  or  make  full  satisfaction  in  gold  and  silver. 
The  nominal  value  was  afterwards  raised  by  subsequent 
proclamations,  the  original  restrictions  removed,  and 
this  base  money  was  ordered  to  be  received  in  all  kinds 
of  payments.  As  brass  and  copper  grew  scarce,  it 
was  made  of  still  viler  materials,  of  tin  and  pewter, 
and  old  debts  of  one  thousand  pounds  were  discharged 
by  pieces  of  vile  metal  amounting  to  thirty  shillings 
in  intrinsic  value.* 

Had  King  James  thought  of  paper,  he  needed 
not  to  have  been  at  the  trouble  or  expense  of 
collecting  brass  and  copper,  broken  bells,  and 
household  utensils. 

The  laws  of  a  country  ought  to  be  the  stand- 
ard of  equity,  and  calculated  to  impress  on  the 
minds  of  the  people  the  moral  as  well  as  the  legal 
obligations  of  reciprocal  justice.     But  tender 

•Leland's  "History  of  Ireland,"  Vol.  IV.  p.  265 

868 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

laws,  of  any  kind,  operate  to  destroy  morality, 
and  to  dissolve,  by  the  pretense  of  law,  what 
ought  to  be  the  principle  of  law  to  support,  recip- 
rocal justice  between  man  and  man:  and  the 
punishment  of  a  member  who  should  move  for 
such  a  law  ought  to  be  death. 

When  the  recommendation  of  Congress,  in  the 
year  1780,  for  repealing  the  tender  laws  was  be- 
fore the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  on  casting  up 
the  votes,  for  and  against  bringing  in  a  bill  to  re- 
peal those  laws,  the  numbers  were  equal,  and  the 
casting  vote  rested  on  the  Speaker,  Colonel  Bay- 
ard. "I  give  my  vote,"  said  he,  "for  the  repeal, 
from  a  consciousness  of  justice;  the  tender  laws 
operate  to  establish  iniquity  by  law."  But  when 
the  bill  was  brought  in,  the  House  rejected  it, 
and  the  tender  laws  continued  to  be  the  means  of 
fraud. 

If  anything  had,  or  could  have,  a  value  equal 
to  gold  and  silver,  it  would  require  no  tender  law : 
and  if  it  had  not  that  value  it  ought  not  to  have 
such  a  law;  and,  therefore,  all  tender  laws  are 
tyrannical  and  unjust,  and  calculated  to  support 
fraud  and  oppression. 

Most  of  the  advocates  for  tender  laws  are 
those  who  have  debts  to  discharge,  and  who  take 
refuge  in  such  a  law,  to  violate  their  contracts  and 

869 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

cheat  their  creditors.  But  as  no  law  can  warrant 
the  doing  an  unlawful  act,  therefore  the  proper 
mode  of  proceeding,  should  any  such  laws  be  en- 
acted in  future,  will  be  to  impeach  and  execute 
the  members  who  moved  for  and  seconded  such  a 
bill,  and  put  the  debtor  and  the  creditor  in  the 
same  situation  they  were  in,  with  respect  to  each 
other,  before  such  a  law  was  passed.  Men  ought 
to  be  made  to  tremble  at  the  idea  of  such  a  bare- 
faced act  of  injustice.  It  is  in  vain  to  talk  of  re- 
storing credit,  or  complain  that  money  cannot  be 
borrowed  at  legal  interest,  until  every  idea  of  ten- 
der laws  is  totally  and  publicly  reprobated  and 
extirpated  from  among  us. 

As  to  paper  money,  in  any  light  it  can  be 
viewed,  it  is  at  best  a  bubble.  Considered  as  prop- 
erty, it  is  inconsistent  to  suppose  that  the  breath 
of  an  assembly,  whose  authority  expires  with  the 
year,  can  give  to  paper  the  value  and  duration  of 
gold.  They  cannot  even  engage  that  the  next 
assembly  shall  receive  it  in  taxes.  And  by  the 
precedent,  (for  authority  there  is  none,)  that 
one  assembly  makes  paper  money,  another  may 
do  the  same,  until  confidence  and  credit  are  to- 
tally expelled,  and  all  the  evils  of  depreciation 
acted  over  again.  The  amount,  therefore,  of 
paper  money  is  this,  that  it  is  the  illegitimate 
370 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

offspring  of  assemblies,  and  when  their  year  ex- 
pires, they  leave  a  vagrant  on  the  hands  of  the 
public. 

Having  now  gone  through  the  three  subjects 
proposed  in  the  title  to  this  work,  I  shall  conclude 
♦vith  offering  some  thoughts  on  the  present  affairs 
of  the  state. 

My  idea  of  a  single  legislature  was  always 
founded  on  a  hope,  that  whatever  personal  par- 
ties there  might  be  in  the  state,  they  would  all 
unite  and  agree  in  the  general  principles  of  good 
government — that  these  party  differences  would 
be  dropped  at  the  threshold  of  the  state  house, 
and  that  the  public  good,  or  the  good  of  the 
whole,  would  be  the  governing  principle  of  the 
legislature  within  it. 

Party  dispute,  taken  on  this  ground,  would 
only  be,  who  should  have  the  honor  of  making  the 
laws;  not  what  the  laws  should  be.  But  when 
party  operates  to  produce  party  laws,  a  single 
house  is  a  single  person,  and  subject  to  the  haste, 
rashness  and  passion  of  individual  sovereignty. 
At  least,  it  is  an  aristocracy. 

The  form  of  the  present  Constitution  is  now 
made  to  trample  on  its  principles,  and  the  con- 
stitutional members  are  anti-constitutional  legis- 
lators.    They  are  fond  of  supporting  the  form 

371 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

for  the  sake  of  the  power,  and  they  dethrone  the 
principle  to  display  the  sceptre. 

The  attack  of  the  late  Assembly  on  the  bank, 
discovers  such  a  want  of  moderation  and  prud- 
ence, of  impartiality  and  equity,  of  fair  and  can- 
did inquiry  and  investigation,  of  deliberate  and 
unbiased  judgment,  and  such  a  rashness  of  think- 
ing and  vengeance  of  power,  as  is  inconsistent 
with  the  safety  of  the  republic.  It  was  judging 
without  hearing,  and  executing  without  trial. 

By  such  rash,  injudicious  and  violent  proceed- 
ings, the  interest  of  the  state  is  weakened,  its  pros- 
perity diminished,  and  its  commerce  and  its  specie 
banished  to  other  places.  Suppose  the  bank  had 
not  been  in  an  immediate  condition  to  have  stood 
such  a  sudden  attack,  what  a  scene  of  instant  dis- 
tress would  the  rashness  of  that  Assembly  have 
brought  upon  this  city  and  State.  The  holders 
of  bank  notes,  whoever  they  might  be,  would  have 
been  thrown  into  the  utmost  confusion  and  diffi- 
culties. It  is  no  apology  to  say  the  House  never 
thought  of  this,  for  it  was  their  duty  to  have 
thought  of  everything. 

But  by  the  prudent  and  provident  manage- 
ment of  the  bank,  (though  unsuspicious  of  the  at- 
tack,)  it  was  enabled  to  stand  the  run  upon  it 
without  stopping  payment  a  moment,  and  to  pre- 
372 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

vent  the  evils  and  mischiefs  taking  place  which 
the  rashness  of  the  Assembly  had  a  direct  ten- 
dency to  bring  on;  a  trial  that  scarcely  a  bank  in 
Europe,  under  a  similar  circumstance,  could  have 
withstood. 

I  cannot  see  reason  sufficient  to  believe  that 
the  hope  of  the  House  to  put  down  the  bank  was 
placed  on  the  withdrawing  the  charter,  so  much 
as  on  the  expectation  of  producing  a  bankruptcy 
of  the  bank,  by  starting  a  run  upon  it.  If  this 
was  any  part  of  their  project  it  was  a  very  wicked 
one,  because  hundreds  might  have  been  ruined  to 
gratify  a  party  spleen. 

But  this  not  being  the  case,  what  has  the  at- 
tack amounted  to,  but  to  expose  the  weakness  and 
raslmess,  the  want  of  judgment  as  well  as  jus- 
tice, of  those  who  made  it,  and  to  confirm  the 
credit  of  the  bank  more  substantially  than  it  was 
ibefore? 

The  attack,  it  is  true,  has  had  one  effect,  which 
is  not  in  the  power  of  the  Assembly  to  remedy ;  it 
has  banished  many  thousand  hard  dollars  from 
the  State.  By  means  of  the  bank,  Pennsylvania 
had  the  use  of  a  great  deal  of  hard  money  belong- 
ing to  citizens  of  other  states,  and  that  without 
any  interest,  for  it  laid  here  in  the  nature  of  de- 
posit, the  depositors  taking  bank  notes  in  its 

373 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

stead.  But  the  alarm  called  those  notes  in  and 
the  owners  drew  out  their  cash. 

The  banishing  the  specie  served  to  make  room 
for  the  paper  money  of  the  Assembly  and  we  have 
now  paper  dollars  where  we  might  have  had  silver 
ones.  So  that  the  effect  of  the  paper  money  has 
been  to  make  less  money  in  the  state  than  there 
was  before.  Paper  money  is  like  dram-drinking, 
it  relieves  for  a  moment  by  deceitful  sensation,  but 
gradually  diminishes  the  natural  heat,  and  leaves 
the  body  worse  than  it  found  it.  Were  not  this 
the  case,  and  could  money  be  made  of  paper  at 
pleasure,  every  sovereign  in  Europe  would  be  as 
rich  as  he  pleased.  But  the  truth  is,  that  it  is  a 
bubble  and  the  attempt  vanity.  Nature  has  pro- 
vided the  proper  materials  for  money,  gold  and 
silver,  and  any  attempt  of  ours  to  rival  her  is 
ridiculous. 

But  to  conclude.  If  the  public  will  permit 
the  opinion  of  a  friend  who  is  attached  to  no 
party,  and  under  obligation  to  none,  nor  at  va- 
riance with  any,  and  who  through  a  long  habit  of 
acquaintance  with  them  has  never  deceived  them, 
that  opinion  shall  be  freely  given. 

The  bank  is  an  institution  capable  of  being 
made  exceedingly  beneficial  to  the  State,  not  only 
as  the  means  of  extending  and  facilitating  its 
374 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

commerce,  but  as  a  means  of  increasing  the  quan- 
tity of  hard  money  in  the  State.  The  Assembly's 
paper  money  serves  directly  to  banish  or  crowd 
out  the  hard,  because  it  is  issued  as  money  and 
put  in  the  place  of  hard  money.  But  bank  notes 
are  of  a  very  different  kind,  and  produce  a  con- 
trary effect.  They  are  promissory  notes  payable 
on  demand,  and  may  be  taken  to  the  bank  and 
exchanged  for  gold  or  silver  without  the  least 
ceremony  or  difficulty. 

The  bank,  therefore,  is  obliged  to  keep  a  con- 
stant stock  of  hard  money  sufficient  for  this  pur- 
pose; which  is  what  the  Assembly  neither  does, 
nor  can  do  by  their  paper;  because  the  quantity 
of  hard  money  collected  by  taxes  into  the  treas- 
ury is  trifling  compared  with  the  quantity  that 
circulates  in  trade  and  through  the  bank. 

The  method,  therefore,  to  increase  the  quan- 
tity of  hard  money  would  be  to  combine  the  se- 
curity of  the  government  and  the  bank  into  one. 
And  instead  of  issuing  paper  money  that  serves 
to  banish  the  specie,  to  borrow  the  sum  wanted  of 
the  bank  in  bank  notes,  on  the  condition  of  the 
bank  exchanging  those  notes  at  stated  periods  and 
quantities,  with  hard  money. 

Paper  issued  in  this  manner,  and  directed  to 
this  end,  would,  instead  of  banishing,  work  itself 

875 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

into  gold  and  silver;  because  it  will  then  be  both 
the  advantage  and  duty  of  the  bank  and  of  all 
the  mercantile  interests  connected  with  it,  to  pro- 
cure and  import  gold  and  silver  from  any  part 
of  the  world,  to  give  in  exchange  for  the  notes. 
The  English  Bank  is  restricted  to  the  dealing  in 
no  other  articles  of  importation  than  gold  and 
silver,  and  we  may  make  the  same  use  of  our 
bank  if  we  proceed  properly  with  it. 

Those  notes  will  then  have  a  double  security, 
that  of  the  government  and  that  of  the  bank: 
and  they  will  not  be  issued  as  money,  but  as  host- 
ages to  be  exchanged  for  hard  money,  and  will, 
therefore,  work  the  contrary  way  to  what  the  pa- 
per of  the  assembly,  uncombined  with  the  secur- 
ity of  the  bank,  produces:  and  the  interest  al- 
lowed the  bank  will  be  saved  to  the  government, 
by  a  saving  of  the  expenses  and  charges  attending 
paper  emissions. 

It  is,  as  I  have  already  observed  in  the  course 
of  this  work,  the  harmony  of  all  the  parts  of  a 
repubhc,  that  constitutes  their  several  and  mutual 
good.  A  government  that  is  constructed  only  to 
govern,  is  not  a  republican  government.  It  is 
combining  authority  with  usefulness,  that  in  a 
great  measure  distinguishes  the  republican  sys- 
tem from  others, 
376 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

Paper  money  appears,  at  first  sight,  to  be  a 
great  saving,  or  rather  that  it  costs  nothing;  but 
it  is  the  dearest  money  there  is.  The  ease  with 
which  it  is  emitted  by  an  assembly  at  first,  serves 
as  a  trap  to  catch  people  in  at  last.  It  oper- 
ates as  an  anticipation  of  the  next  year's  taxes. 
If  the  money  depreciates,  after  it  is  out,  it  then, 
as  I  have  already  remarked,  has  the  effect  of 
fluctuating  stock,  and  the  people  become  stock- 
jobbers to  throw  the  loss  on  each  other. 

If  it  does  not  depreciate,  it  is  then  to  be  sunk 
by  taxes  at  the  price  of  hard  money;  because  the 
same  quantity  of  produce,  or  goods,  that  would 
procure  a  paper  dollar  to  pay  taxes  with,  would 
procure  a  silver  one  for  the  same  purpose.  There- 
fore, in  any  case  of  paper  money,  it  is  dearer  to 
the  country  than  hard  money,  by  all  the  expense 
which  the  paper,  printing,  signing,  and  other  at- 
tendant charges  come  to,  and  at  last  goes  into 
the  fire. 

Suppose  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  pa- 
per money  to  be  emitted  every  year  by  the  as- 
sembly, and  the  same  sum  to  be  sunk  every  year 
by  taxes,  there  will  then  be  no  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  out  at  any  one  time.  If 
the  expense  of  paper  and  printing,  and  of  per- 
sons to  attend  the  press  while  the  sheets  are  strik- 

377 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

ing  oif ,  signers,  etc.,  be  five  per  cent  it  is  evident 
that  in  the  course  of  twenty  years'  emissions,  the 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  will  cost  the  coun- 
try two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Because  the 
papermaker's  and  printer's  bills,  and  the  expense 
of  supervisors  and  signers,  and  other  attendant 
charges,  will  in  that  time  amount  to  as  much  as 
the  money  amounts  to;  for  the  successive  emis- 
sions are  but  a  re-coinage  of  the  same  sum. 

But  gold  and  silver  require  to  be  coined  but 
once,  and  will  last  an  hundred  years,  better  than 
paper  will  one  year,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time 
be  still  gold  and  silver.  Therefore,  the  saving  to 
government,  in  combining  its  aid  and  security 
with  that  of  the  bank  in  procuring  hard  money, 
will  be  an  advantage  to  both,  and  to  the  whole 
community. 

The  case  to  be  provided  against,  after  this, 
will  be,  that  the  Government  do  not  borrow  too 
much  of  the  bank,  nor  the  bank  lend  more  notes 
than  it  can  redeem;  and,  therefore,  should  any- 
thing of  this  kind  be  undertaken,  the  best  way 
will  be  to  begin  with  a  moderate  sum,  and  ob- 
serve the  effect  of  it.  The  interest  given  the  bank 
operates  as  a  bounty  on  the  importation  of  hard 
money,  and  which  may  not  be  more  than  the 
money  expended  in  making  paper  emissions. 
378 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

But  nothing  of  this  kind,  nor  any  other  public 
undertaking,  that  requires  security  and  duration 
beyond  the  year,  can  be  gone  upon  under  the 
present  mode  of  conducting  government.  The 
late  Assembly,  by  assuming  a  sovereign  power 
over  every  act  and  matter  done  by  the  State  in 
former  assemblies,  and  thereby  setting  up  a 
precedent  of  overhauling,  and  overturning,  as  the 
accident  of  elections  shall  happen  or  party  pre- 
vail, have  rendered  government  incompetent  to 
all  the  great  objects  of  the  state.  They  have 
eventually  reduced  the  public  to  an  annual  body 
like  themselves;  whereas  the  public  are  a  stand- 
ing, permanent  body,  holding  annual  elections. 

There  are  several  great  improvements  and  un- 
dertakings, such  as  inland  navigation,  building 
bridges,  opening  roads  of  communication  through 
the  state,  and  other  matters  of  a  public  benefit, 
that  might  be  gone  upon,  but  which  now  cannot, 
until  this  governmental  error  or  defect  is  reme- 
died. The  faith  of  government,  under  the  pres- 
ent mode  of  conducting  it,  cannot  be  relied  on. 
Individuals  will  not  venture  their  money  in  un- 
dertakings of  this  kind,  on  an  act  that  may  be 
made  by  one  assembly  and  broken  by  another. 

When  a  man  can  say  that  he  cannot  trust  the 
government,  the  importance  and  dignity  of  the 
VIII-S8  379 


WRITINGS  OF  THOMAS  PAINE 

public  is  diminished,  sapped  and  undermined; 
and,  therefore,  it  becomes  the  pubhc  to  restore 
their  own  honor  by  setting  these  matters  to  rights. 

Perhaps  this  cannot  be  effectually  done  until 
the  time  of  the  next  convention,  when  the  prin- 
ciples, on  which  they  are  to  be  regulated  and 
fixed,  may  be  made  a  part  of  the  constitution. 

In  the  meantime  the  public  may  keep  their 
affairs  in  sufficient  good  order,  by  substituting 
prudence  in  the  place  of  authority,  and  electing 
men  into  the  government,  who  will  at  once  throw 
aside  the  narrow  prejudices  of  party,  and  make 
the  good  of  the  whole  the  ruling  object  of  their 
conduct.  And  with  this  hope,  and  a  sincere  wish 
for  their  prosperity,  I  close  my  book. 


380 


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