The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Volume V Part 54

take care of both, by nouris.h.i.+ng the first with tem- perance and the latter with abundance."

"He lives immured within the Bastile of a word."

How perfectly that sentence describes you! The Bastile in which you are immured is the word "Calvinism."

"Man has no property in man."

What a splendid motto that would have made for the _New York Observer_ in the olden time!

"The world is my country; to do good, my religion."

I ask you again whether these splendid utterances came from the lips of a drunken beast?

_Did Thomas Paine die in dest.i.tution and want?_

The charge has been made, over and over again, that Thomas Paine died in want and dest.i.tution-- that he was an abandoned pauper--an outcast with- out friends and without money. This charge is just as false as the rest.

Upon his return to this country in 1802, he was worth $30,000, according to his own statement made at that time in the following letter addressed to Clio Rickman:

"My Dear Friend: Mr. Monroe, who is appointed minister extraordinary to France, takes charge of

485

this, to be delivered to Mr. Este, banker in Paris, to be forwarded to you.

"I arrived at Baltimore the 30th of October, and you can have no idea of the agitation which my arrival occasioned. From New Hamps.h.i.+re to Georgia (an extent of 1,500 miles) every newspaper was filled with applause or abuse.

"My property in this country has been taken care of by my friends, and is now worth six thousand pounds sterling; which put in the funds will bring me 400 sterling a year.

"Remember me in affection and friends.h.i.+p to your wife and family, and in the circle of your friends."

Thomas Paine.

A man in those days worth thirty thousand dol- lars was not a pauper. That amount would bring an income of at least two thousand dollars per annum.

Two thousand dollars then would be fully equal to five thousand dollars now.

On the 12th of July, 1809, the year in which he died, Mr. Paine made his will. From this instru- ment we learn that he was the owner of a valuable farm within twenty miles of New York. He also was the owner of thirty shares in the New York Phoenix Insurance Company, worth upwards of fif- teen hundred dollars. Besides this, some personal

486

property and ready money. By his will he gave to Walter Morton, and Thomas Addis Emmett, brother of Robert Emmett, two hundred dollars each, and one hundred to the widow of Elihu Palmer.

Is it possible that this will was made by a pauper --by a dest.i.tute outcast--by a man who suffered for the ordinary necessaries of life?

But suppose, for the sake of the argument, that he was poor and that he died a beggar, does that tend to show that the Bible is an inspired book and that Calvin did not burn Servetus? Do you really regard poverty as a crime? If Paine had died a millionaire, would you have accepted his religious opinions? If Paine had drank nothing but cold water would you have repudiated the five cardinal points of Calvin- ism? Does an argument depend for its force upon the pecuniary condition of the person making it?

As a matter of fact, most reformers--most men and women of genius, have been acquainted with poverty.

Beneath a covering of rags have been found some of the tenderest and bravest hearts.

Owing to the att.i.tude of the churches for the last fifteen hundred years, truth-telling has not been a very lucrative business. As a rule, hypocrisy has worn the robes, and honesty the rags. That day is pa.s.sing away. You cannot now answer the argu-

487

ments of a man by pointing at holes in his coat.

Thomas Paine attacked the church when it was powerful--when it had what was called honors to bestow--when it was the keeper of the public con- science--when it was strong and cruel. The church waited till he was dead then attacked his reputation and his clothes.

Once upon a time a donkey kicked a lion. The lion was dead.

Conclusion.

From the persistence with which the orthodox have charged for the last sixty-eight years that Thomas Paine recanted, and that when dying he was filled with remorse and fear; from the malignity of the attacks upon his personal character, I had con- cluded that there must be some evidence of some kind to support these charges. Even with my ideas of the average honor of believers in superst.i.tion-- the disciples of fear--I did not quite believe that all these infamies rested solely upon poorly attested lies. I had charity enough to suppose that some- thing had been said or done by Thomas Paine capa- ble of being tortured into a foundation for these calumnies. And I was foolish enough to think that even you would be willing to fairly examine the pre- tended evidence said to sustain these charges, and

488

give your honest conclusion to the world. I sup- posed that you, being acquainted with the history of your country, felt under a certain obligation to Thomas Paine for the splendid services rendered by him in the darkest days of the Revolution. It was only reasonable to suppose that you were aware that in the midnight of Valley Forge the "Crisis," by Thomas Paine, was the first star that glittered in the wide horizon of despair. I took it for granted that you knew of the bold stand taken and the brave words spoken by Thomas Paine, in the French Con- vention, against the death of the king. I thought it probable that you, being an editor, had read the "Rights of Man;" that you knew that Thomas Paine was a champion of human liberty; that he was one of the founders and fathers of this Republic; that he was one of the foremost men of his age; that he had never written a word in favor of injustice; that he was a despiser of slavery; that he abhorred tyr- anny in all its forms; that he was in the widest and highest sense a friend of his race; that his head was as clear as his heart was good, and that he had the courage to speak his honest thought. Under these circ.u.mstances I had hoped that you would for the moment forget your religious prejudices and submit to the enlightened judgment of the world the evi-

489

dence you had, or could obtain, affecting in any way the character of so great and so generous a man. This you have refused to do. In my judgment, you have mistaken the temper of even your own readers. A large majority of the religious people of this country have, to a considerable extent, outgrown the preju- dices of their fathers. They are willing to know the truth and the whole truth, about the life and death of Thomas Paine. They will not thank you for having presented them the moss-covered, the maimed and dis- torted traditions of ignorance, prejudice, and credulity.

By this course you will convince them not of the wickedness of Paine, but of your own unfairness.

What crime had Thomas Paine committed that he should have feared to die? The only answer you can give is, that he denied the inspiration of the Scriptures. If this is a crime, the civilized world is filled with criminals. The pioneers of human thought --the intellectual leaders of the world--the foremost men in every science--the kings of literature and art--those who stand in the front rank of investiga- tion--the men who are civilizing, elevating, instruct- ing, and refining mankind, are to-day unbelievers in the dogma of inspiration. Upon this question, the intellect of Christendom agrees with the conclusions reached by the genius of Thomas Paine. Centuries

490

ago a noise was made for the purpose of frightening mankind. Orthodoxy is the echo of that noise.

The man who now regards the Old Testament as in any sense a sacred or inspired book is, in my judg- ment, an intellectual and moral deformity. There is in it so much that is cruel, ignorant, and ferocious that it is to me a matter of amazement that it was ever thought to be the work of a most merciful deity.

Upon the question of inspiration Thomas Paine gave his honest opinion. Can it be that to give an honest opinion causes one to die in terror and de- spair? Have you in your writings been actuated by the fear of such a consequence? Why should it be taken for granted that Thomas Paine, who devoted his life to the sacred cause of freedom, should have been hissed at in the hour of death by the snakes of conscience, while editors of Presbyterian papers who defended slavery as a divine inst.i.tution, and cheer- fully justified the stealing of babes from the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of mothers, are supposed to have pa.s.sed smilingly from earth to the embraces of angels? Why should you think that the heroic author of the "Rights of Man"

should shudderingly dread to leave this "bank and shoal of time," while Calvin, dripping with the blood of Servetus, was anxious to be judged of G.o.d? Is it possible that the persecutors--the instigators of

491

the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew--the inventors and users of thumb-screws, and iron boots, and racks-- the burners and tearers of human flesh--the stealers, whippers and enslavers of men--the buyers and beaters of babes and mothers--the founders of inquisitions--the makers of chains, the builders of dungeons, the slanderers of the living and the calum- niators of the dead, all died in the odor of sanct.i.ty, with white, forgiven hands folded upon the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of peace, while the destroyers of prejudice--the apostles of humanity--the soldiers of liberty--the breakers of fetters--the creators of light--died sur- rounded with the fierce fiends of fear?

In your attempt to destroy the character of Thomas Paine you have failed, and have succeeded only in leaving a stain upon your own. You have written words as cruel, bitter and heartless as the creed of Calvin. Hereafter you will stand in the pillory of history as a defamer--a calumniator of the dead.

You will be known as the man who said that Thomas Paine, the "Author Hero," lived a drunken, coward- ly and beastly life, and died a drunken and beastly death. These infamous words will be branded upon the forehead of your reputation. They will be re- membered against you when all else you may have uttered shall have pa.s.sed from the memory of men.

Robert G. Ingersoll.

THE OBSERVER'S SECOND ATTACK

_* From the NY. Observer of Nov. 1, 1877._