Junius Unmasked Part 15

_Paine._

"As to mere theoretical reformation, I have never preached it up. The most effectual process is that of improving the condition of man by means of his interest, and it is on this ground that I take my stand."--R. of M., part ii, chap. v.

_Junius._

"It will be said, that I deny at one moment what I would allow at another. To this I answer, generally, that human affairs are in no instance governed by strict, positive right.... My premises, I know, will be denied in argument, but every man's conscience tells him they are true. It remains then to be considered whether it be for the _interest of the people_," etc.--Let. 44.

The reader will here see a mental characteristic the same, and a philosophy growing therefrom which is boldly affirmed by both.

That we gather strength by antagonism, and in this way the vicious are often brought into notice and become successful, is a prominent fact noticed by both.

_Paine._

"Those whose sentiments are injudicious or unfriendly, will cease of themselves, unless too much pains is bestowed upon their conversion."--C.

S., Int.

_Junius._

"Mr. Wilkes, if not persecuted, will soon be forgotten."--Let. 11. See also Let. 1 and 35.

I have heretofore given examples of the above to prove another fact.

I now call attention to the pa.s.sion of suspicion:

_Paine._

"I am not of a disposition inclined to suspicion.

It is, in its nature, a mean and cowardly pa.s.sion, and, upon the whole, even admitting error into the case, it is better; I am sure it is more generous to be wrong on the side of confidence, than on the side of suspicion. _But_, I know as a fact, that the English government.... Their anti-revolutionary doctrines invite suspicion even against one's will, and in spite of one's charity to believe well of them."--Let. to Samuel Adams.

_Junius._

"The situation of this country is alarming enough to rouse the attention of every man who pretends to a concern for the public welfare. Appearances justify _suspicion_; and when the safety of a nation is at stake, suspicion is a just ground of inquiry."--Let. 1.

The above is strong language in regard to _suspicion_. Paine thinks it mean and cowardly if not well founded, and Junius thinks it is justifiable when the safety of a nation is at stake. This is an uncommon sentiment, and, if Mr. Paine was Junius, he is found repeating himself after an interval of thirty-four years.

In regard to thinking for one's self, Junius says of Benson, in withering rebuke to Lord Mansfield, who had committed him for contempt: "He had the _impudence_ to pretend to _think for himself_." Paine exclaims: "Why is man afraid to think?"

There is a fact now in regard to the English army which is of great weight in my argument relative to a change of opinion. Junius always spoke highly of the army, while he sometimes censured individual officers. Speaking of the regiments of the guards, he says: "Far be it from me to insinuate the most distant reflection upon the army. On the contrary, I honor and esteem the profession, and if these gentlemen were better soldiers I am sure they would be better subjects." Mr. Paine, just nine years afterward, when in America, and fighting against the English army, says of the English people: "They are made to believe that their generals and armies differ from those of other nations, and have nothing of rudeness or barbarity in them. They suppose them what they wish them to be; they feel a disgrace in thinking otherwise. There was a time when I felt the same prejudices, and reasoned from the same errors; but experience--sad and painful experience--has taught me better. What the conduct of former armies was I know not, but what the conduct of the present is I well know--it is low, cruel, indolent, and profligate."--Crisis, vii. This is a species of dovetailing the life and opinions of Junius into those of Mr. Paine. But the reader will see there is no effort on my part. All I ask is for truth to take its course. It would be beneath the dignity of a scientific criticism to stoop to artifice.

I wish now to bring forward a complex parallel, to show that pride of character which would not stoop to the meanness of party politics, and to show, also, their opinion of bribery at elections, and the origin of "military governments" in England.

"It is difficult," says Mr. Paine, "to account for the origin of charter and corporation towns, unless we suppose them to have arisen out of, or having been connected with, some species of garrison service. The times in which they began justify this idea. The generality of these towns have been garrisons, and the corporations were charged with the care of the gates of the town when no military garrison was present. Their refusing or granting admission to strangers, which has produced the custom of giving, selling, and buying freedom, has more of the nature of garrison authority than civil government."--Rights of Man, part ii, chap. 5, note.

I am now prepared to give the parallels:

_Paine._

"As one of the houses of the English Parliament is in a great measure made up by elections from these corporations, and as it is unnatural that a pure stream would flow from a foul fountain, its vices are but a continuation of the vices of its origin.

A man of moral honor and good political principles can not submit to the mean _drudgery_ and disgraceful arts by which such elections are carried."

_Junius._

"But it seems the sale of a civil employment was not sufficient, and _military governments_, which were intended for the support of worn-out veterans, must be thrown into the scale to defray the extensive bribery of a contested election."--Let. 34.

"But is there no honorable way to serve the public without engaging in personal quarrels with insignificant individuals, or submitting to the _drudgery_ of canva.s.sing votes for an election."--Let. 53.

Says Mr. Paine: "_I love method._" This, every action proved. His business transactions, his political plans, the productions of his pen, were all in design and execution methodical. In dedicating his life to the good of mankind, he studied method in the use of his great mental powers. He never set about doing any thing without a plan and specifications. He carried in the brain the ideal of the work he was to give material shape and substance. His plans were always well-digested and often long in maturing. He, for example, antic.i.p.ated the revolution, and proceeded to fill the public a.r.s.enals with powder. He then brought out Common Sense, when public opinion was decidedly against a declaration of independence, to educate that public sentiment in favor of it. This produced the desired effect, and when war was fairly begun upon a proper basis and plan, he struck the enemy at the proper time and place with an occasional Crisis. The first Crisis he wrote, for example, won a battle for the Union. After the war was over, he went to England and brought out his Rights of Man, laboring in the same lines and advocating the very principles of Junius. There is not a political principle expressed in Junius which was not again reproduced in Rights of Man. But method is stamped upon every production of his pen. Take, for example, Common Sense. The design was to bring public sentiment up to a declaration of independence. Now if we examine the method of the work, we will find the steps like a geometrical demonstration, from first principles to conclusion. In Common Sense he first convinces the reason, then inflames the pa.s.sions, and lastly destroys dissension by a stirring, manly, patriotic appeal. The work proper is divided into four parts.

I. Of the origin and design of government. Here the first principles are laid down, and are such as to convince the mind of every man capable of thinking. He then shows that the English const.i.tution is not founded upon such principles; and that a people seeking political happiness while clinging to such a rotten government, is like a man seeking connubial happiness while he is attached to a prost.i.tute.

II. Of monarchy and hereditary succession. Here he brings out his great political axiom, _the equality of man in the order of creation_, and then ridicules the pretentions of kings, and demolishes the whole fabric of "sacred t.i.tles" by an appeal to sacred and profane history, to the rights of man, to his reason, to his affections, and to posterity. He has now prepared the mind of the American reader for the reception of truth, and he brings forward--

III. Thoughts on the present state of the American affairs.

He begins by saying: "In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense." It is now he warms with the subject, and having before prepared the mind with exalted views of government and with the axioms upon which all just governments are founded; having before shown that all legislative powers are derived from the people, and founded in the consent of the governed; having, in short, announced his bill of rights, he now comes forward with an indictment against England. This is full and complete, and by the time the reader has done with it he is then prepared for his final argument, which is--

IV. The ability of America to acquire and maintain her independence.

He afterward added an appendix, in which he recounts the princ.i.p.al causes which impel the colonies to a separation.

The reader will remark the _method_ of the whole piece. He takes hold of the mind by strategy at first, and then places before it principles, facts, causes, and consequences, till he has made it entirely his own.

If now the reader will return to the first Letter of Junius, he will find an admirable example of the same method. As to _method_, the two pieces are every way identical. Did a person not study this Letter of Junius, he would perhaps fail to get, at first, the exact likeness which Mr. Paine has so completely reproduced in Common Sense, as an artistic performance.

Junius' Letter to the king is also an example of the same method. There is, first, the bill of rights, and then the indictment. We find here the same strategy, which takes possession of the mind of the people, the same method to place the writer above and beyond selfish motives, the same foundation of principles, the same superstructure of argument, and the same method of bringing the reader to the conclusions. Herein we find _policy_.

The policy of Mr. Paine made him extremely cautious, and he weighed well the consequences of speaking to the public, studying especially the proper time. This was the habit of Junius also. I will now give a few examples: When the civil laws of England had been trampled on by the military, in the case of General Gansel, Junius delayed speaking about it. He says: "Had I taken it up at an earlier period, I should have been accused of an uncandid, malignant precipitation, as if I watched for an unfair advantage against the ministry, and would not allow them a reasonable time to do their duty. They now stand without excuse."--Let.

30. He then proceeds to strike the ministry "hip and thigh." In Letter 44 he also mentions the fact of having been silent, not from a "shameful indifference," but because he had determined to "not deliver a hasty opinion on a matter of so much delicacy and importance."

The same const.i.tutional caution is exhibited in Mr. Paine. Upon national honor, in Crisis xii, dated May, 1782, he says: "In March, 1780, I published part of the Crisis, No. viii, in the newspapers, but did not conclude it in the following papers, and the remainder has lain by me till the present day. There appeared about that time some disposition in the British cabinet to cease the further prosecution of the war, and as I had formed my opinion that whenever such a design should take place, it would be accompanied by a dishonorable proposition to America respecting France, I had suppressed the remainder of that number, not to expose the baseness of any such proposition." He now incorporates it in this number, and then follows with one of the n.o.blest productions on national honor which it has been the fortune of man to write.

I now give an opinion on the principles of the English const.i.tution:

_Paine._

"A government on the principles on which const.i.tutional governments arising out of society are established, can not have the right of altering itself. If it had, it would be arbitrary. It might make itself what it pleased; and whenever such a right is set up, it shows that there is no const.i.tution. The act by which the English parliament empowered itself to sit for seven years, shows there is no const.i.tution in England. It might, by the same self-authority, have to sat any greater number of years, or for life."--R. of M., part i.