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ed a new gospel.

Magna Charta to the people.

He had given a new felt grateful not only to the King, but to every Frenchman. He, the adversary of all kings, asked the convention to remember that kings were men, and subject to human frailties. He took still another step, and said: As France has been the first of European nations to abolish royalty, let us also be the first to abolish the punishment of death.”

So popular was Paine in France that he was elected by three constituencies to the national convention. He chose to represent Calais. From the moment he entered French territory he was received with almost royal honors. He at once stood with the foremost, and was welcomed by all enlightened patriots. As in America, so in France, he knew no idleness he was an organizer and worker. The first thing he did was to found the first republican society, and the next to write its Manifesto, in which the ground was taken that France did not need a

king; that the people should govern themselves. In this Manifesto was this argu

ment:

Even after the death of Louis had been voted, Paine made another appeal. With a courage born of the highest possible sense of duty, he said:

"France has but one ally-the United States of America. That is the only nation that can furnish France with naval pro

visions, for the kingdoms of northern Europe happens that the person

are, or soon will be, at war with her. It now under discussion is regarded in America as a deliverer of their country. I can assure you that his execution will there spread universal sorrow, and it is in your power not thus to wound the feelings of your ally. Could I speak the French language I would descend to your bar, and in their name become your petitioner to respite the execution of your sentence on Louis. . . . Ah, citizens, give not the tyrant

"What kind of office must that be in a government which requires neither experience nor ability to execute; that may be abandoned to the desperate chance of birth; that may be filled with an idiot, a madman, a tyrant, with equal effect as with the good, the virtuous, the wise? An office of this nature is a mere nonentity; it is a place of show, of England the triumph of seeing the man not of use."

He said:

"I am not the personal enemy of kings. Quite the contrary. No man wishes more heartily than myself to see them all in the happy and honorable state of private individuals; but I am the avowed, open and intrepid enemy of what is called monarchy; and I am such by principles which nothing can either alter or corrupt, by my attachment to humanity, by the anxiety which I feel within myself for the dignity and honor of the human race."

perish on the scaffold who helped my dear brothers of America to break his chains."

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This was worthy of the man who said: Where liberty is not, there is my country."

Paine was second on the committee to prepare the draft of a constitution for France to be submitted to the convention. He was the real author, not only of the draft of the constitution, but of the Declaration of Rights.

In France, as in America, he took the lead. His first thoughts seemed to be first principles. He was clear because he was profound. People without ideas experience great difficulty in finding words to express them.

One of the grandest things done by Thomas Paine was his effort to save the life of Louis XVI. The convention was in favor of death. Paine was a foreigner. His career had caused some jealousies. He knew the danger he was in; that the From the moment that Paine cast his tiger was already crouching for a spring; vote in favor of mercy, in favor of life, but he was true to his principles. He was the shadow of the guillotine was upon opposed to the death penalty. He re- him. He knew that when he voted for membered that Louis XVI. had been the the King's life he voted for his own friend of America, and he very cheerfully death. Paine remembered that the King risked his life, not only for the good of had been the friend of America, and to France, not only to save the King, but him ingratitude seemed the worst of to pay a debt of gratitude. He asked crimes. He worked to destroy the monthe convention to exile the King to the arch, not the man; the King, not the United States. He asked this as a mem- friend. He discharged his duty and acber of the convention and as a citizen of cepted death. This was the heroism of the United States. As an American he goodness, the sublimity of devotion.

son.

Believing that his life was near its that they were the authorized agents of close, he made up his mind to give to God. Paine replied with the Age of Reathe world his thoughts concerning “revealed religion." This he had for some time intended to do, but other matters had claimed his attention. Feeling that there was no time to be lost, he wrote the first part of the Age of Reason, and gave the manuscript to Joel Barlow. Six hours after, he was arrested. The second part was written in prison while he was waiting for death.

Paine clearly saw that men could not be really free, or defend the freedom they had, unless they were free to think and speak. He knew that the Church was the enemy of liberty; that the altar and throne were in partnership; that they helped each other and divided the spoils. He felt that, being a man, he had the right to examine the creeds and the Scriptures for himself, and that, being an honest man, it was his duty and his privilege to tell his fellow-men the conclusions at which he arrived.

He found that the creeds of all orthodox churches were absurd and cruel, and that the Bible was no better. Of course he found that there were some good things in the creeds and in the Bible. These he defended, but the infamous, the inhuman, he attacked.

In matters of religion he pursued the same course that he had in things political. He depended upon experience, and above all on reason. He refused to extinguish the light in his own soul. He was true to himself, and gave to others his honest thoughts. He did not seek wealth, or place, or fame. He sought the truth.

He had felt it to be his duty to attack the institution of slavery in America, to raise his voice against duelling, to plead for the rights of woman, to excite pity for the sufferings of domestic animals, the speechless friends of man; to plead the cause of separation, of independence, of American nationality, to attack the abuses and crimes of monarchs, to do what he could to give freedom to the world.

This book is still a power, and will be as long as the absurdities and cruelties of the creeds and the Bible have defenders. The Age of Reason affected the priests just as the Rights of Man affected nobles and kings. The kings answered the arguments of Paine with laws, the priests with lies. Kings appealed to force, priests to fraud. Mr. Conway has written in regard to the Age of Reason the most impressive and the most interesting chapter in his book. Paine contended for the rights of the individual, for the jurisdiction of the soul. Above all religions he placed Reason, above all kings, Men, and above all men, Law.

The first part of the Age of Reason was written in the shadow of a prison, the second part in the gloom of death. From that shadow, from that gloom, came a flood of light. This testament, by which the wealth of a marvellous brain, the love of a great and heroic heart were given to the world, was written in the presence of the scaffold, when the writer believed he was giving his last message to his fellowmen.

The Age of Reason was his crime.

Franklin, Jefferson, Sumner and Lincoln, the four greatest statesmen that America has produced, were believers in the creed of Thomas Paine.

The Universalists and Unitarians have found their best weapons, their best arguments, in the Age of Reason.

Slowly, but surely, the churches are adopting not only the arguments, but the opinions, of the great Reformer. Theodore Parker attacked the Old Testament and Calvinistic theology with the same weapons and with a bitterness excelled by no man who has expressed his thoughts in our language.

Paine was a century in advance of his time. If he were living now his sympathy would be with Savage, Chadwick, Professor Briggs and the advanced theologians." He, too, would talk about the He thought it his duty to take another "higher criticism" and the latest definistep. Kings asserted that they derived tion of "inspiration." These advanced their power, their right to govern, from thinkers substantially are repeating the God. To this assertion Paine replied with Age of Reason. They still wear the old the Rights of Man. Priests pretended uniform-clinging to the toggery of the

ology-but inside of their religious rags they agree with Thomas Paine.

Not one argument that Paine urged against the inspiration of the Bible, against the truth of miracles, against the barbarities and infamies of the Old Testament, against the pretensions of priests and the claims of kings, has ever been answered.

His arguments in favor of the existence of what he was pleased to call the God of Nature were as weak as those of all theists have been. But in all the affairs of this world, his clearness of vision, lucidity of expression, cogency of argument, aptness of comparison, power of statement and comprehension of the subject in hand, with all its bearings and consequences, have rarely, if ever, been ex

celled.

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Paine was arrested and imprisoned in December, 1793. He was, to say the least, neglected by Gouverneur Morris and Washington. He was released through the efforts of James Monroe in November, 1794. He was called back to the convention. but too late to be of use. As most of the actors had suffered death, the tragedy was about over and the curtain was falling. Paine remained in Paris until the "reign of terror" was ended and that of the Corsican tyrant had commenced.

Paine came back to America hoping to spend the remainder of his life surrounded by those for whose happiness and freedom he had labored so many years. He expected to be rewarded with the love and reverence of the American people.

In 1794 James Monroe had written to Paine these words:

"It is unnecessary for me to tell you how much all your countrymen-I speak of the

great mass of the people are interested in your welfare. They have not forgot the history of their own Revolution and the difficult scenes through which they passed; nor do they review its several stages without reviving in their bosoms a due sensibility of the merits of those who served them in that great and arduous conflict. The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I hope never will stain, our national character. You are considered by them as not only having rendered important services in our own Revolution, but as being on a more extensive scale the friend of human rights and a distinguished and able advocate of public liberty. To the welfare of Thomas Paine we are not and cannot be indifferent."

In the same year Mr. Monroe wrote a letter to the committee of general safety, asking for the release of Mr. Paine, in which, among other things, he said:

"The services Thomas Paine rendered to his country in its struggle for freedom have implanted in the hearts of his countrymen a sense of gratitude never to be effaced as

long as they shall deserve the title of a just

and generous people."

On reaching America Paine found that the sense of gratitude had been effaced. He found that the Federalists hated him with all their hearts because he believed in the rights of the people and was still true to the splendid principle advocated during the darkest days of the Revolution. In almost every pulpit he found a malig nant and implacable foe, and the pews were filled with his enemies. The slavehelders hated him. He was held responsible even for the crimes of the French Revolution. He was regarded as a blasphemer, an atheist, an enemy of God and man. The ignorant citizens of Bordentown, as cowardly as orthodox, longed to mob the author of Common Sense and The Crisis. They thought he had sold himself to the devil because he had defended God against the slanderous charges that he had inspired the writers of the Bible-because he had said that a being of infinite goodness and purity did not establish slavery and polygamy.

Paine had insisted that men had the right to think for themselves. This so enraged the average American citizen that he longed for revenge.

In 1802 the people of the United States had exceedingly crude ideas about the

liberty of thought

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and expression. without regard to their virtues, and all Neither had they any conception of re- for the glory of the Damner-this was ligious freedom. Their highest thought Calvinism. He that hath ears to hear, on that subject was expressed by the let him hear," but he that hath a brain word "toleration," and even this tolera- to think must not think. He that betion extended only to the various Chris- lieveth without evidence is good, and he tian sects. Even the vaunted religious liberty of colonial Maryland was only to the effect that one kind of Christian should not fine, imprison and kill another kind of Christian, but all kinds of Christians had the right, and it was their duty, to brand, imprison and kill infidels of every kind.

that believeth in spite of evidence is a saint. Only the wicked doubt, only the blasphemer denies. This was orthodox Christianity.

Thomas Paine had the courage, the sense, the heart, to denounce these horrors, these absurdities, these infinite infamies. He did what he could to drive these theological vipers, these Calvinistic cobras, these fanged and hissing serpents of superstition from the heart of man.

Paine had been guilty of thinking for himself and giving his conclusions to the world without having asked the consent of a priest-just as he had published his A few civilized men agreed with him political opinions without leave of the then, and the world has progressed since king. He had published his thoughts on 1809. Intellectual wealth has accumureligion and had appealed to reason to lated; vast mental estates have been left the light in every mind, to the humanity, to the world. Geologists have forced the pity, the goodness which he believed to be in every heart. He denied the right of kings to make laws and of priests to make creeds. He insisted that the people should make laws, and that every human being should think for himself. While some believed in the freedom of religion, he believed in the religion of freedom.

If Paine had been a hypocrite, if he had concealed his opinions, if he had defended slavery with quotations from the "sacred scriptures "if he had cared nothing for the liberties of men in other lands-if he had said that the state could not live without the Church-if he had sought for place instead of truth, he would have won wealth and power, and his brow would have been crowned with the laurel of fame.

He made what the pious call the "mistake" of being true to himself-of living with an unstained soul. He had lived and labored for the people. The people were untrue to him. They returned evil for good, hatred for benefits received, and yet this great chivalric soul remembered their ignorance and loved them with all his heart, and fought their oppressors with all his strength.

We must remember what the churches and creeds were in that day, what the theologians really taught, and what the people believed. To save a few in spite of their vices, and to damn the many

V.-D

secrets from the rocks, astronomers from the stars, historians from old records and lost languages. In every direction the thinker and the investigator have ventured and explored, and even the pews have begun to ask questions of the pulpits. Humboldt has lived, and Darwin and Haeckel and Huxley, and the armies led by them, have changed the thought of the world.

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The churches of 1809 could not be the friends of Thomas Paine. No church asserting that belief is necessary to salvation ever was, or ever will be, the champion of true liberty. A church founded on slavery-that is to say, on blind obedience, worshipping irresponsible and arbitrary power-must of necessity be the enemy of human freedom.

The orthodox churches are now anxious to save the little that Paine left of their creed. If one now believes in God, and lends a little financial aid, he is considered a good and desirable member. He need not define God after the manner of the catechism. He may talk about a "Power that works for righteousness"; or the tortoise Truth that beats the rabbit Lie in the long run; or the Unknowable "; or the "Unconditioned"; or the "Cosmic Force"; or the "Ultimate Atom"; or "Protoplasm," or the "What "-provided he begins this word with a capital.

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We must also remember that there is a

difference between independence and liberty. Millions have fought for independence to throw off some foreign yoke and yet were at heart the enemies of true liberty. A man in jail, sighing to be free, may be said to be in favor of liberty, but not from principle; but a man who, being free, risks or gives his life to free the enslaved, is a true soldier of liberty.

Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned, and abhorred his virtues denounced as vices-his services forgottenhis character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend — the friend of the whole world with all their hearts.

forefathers that his words were gladly repeated by the best and bravest in many lands; if they knew that he attempted, by the purest means, to attain the noblest and loftiest ends-that he was original, sincere, intrepid, and that he could truthfully say: " The world is my country, to do good my religion"-if the people only knew all this-the truth-they would repeat the words of Andrew Jackson:

Thomas Paine needs no monument made with hands; he has erected a monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty."

Ingham, SAMUEL DELUCENNA, legislator; born in Pennsylvania, Sept. 16, 1779; served several years in the Pennsylvania legislature; served in Congress in 1813-18 and 1822-29. President Jackson appointed him Secretary of the Treasury, but he resigned on account of the Kitchen Cabinet. He died in Trenton, N. J., June 5, 1860.

Ingle, EDWARD, author; born in Baltimore, Md., May 17, 1861; graduated at Johns Hopkins University in 1882.

On June 8, 1809, death came-death, al- Among his publications are Local Institumost his only friend.

At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead-on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head—and, following on foot, two negroes, filled with gratitude-constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine.

He who had received the gratitude of many millions, the thanks of generals and statesmen he who had been the friend and companion of the wisest and best he who had taught a people to be free, and whose words had inspired armies and enlightened nations, was thus given back to Nature, the mother of us all.

If the people of the great republic knew the life of this generous, this chivalric man, the real story of his services, his sufferings and his triumphs-of what he did to compel the robed and crowned, the priests and kings, to give back to the people liberty, the jewel of the soul; if they knew that he was the first to write The Religion of Humanity; if they knew that he, above all others, planted and watered the seeds of independence, of union, of nationality, in the hearts of our

tions of Virginia; Local Institutions of Maryland; Southern Sidelights; The Negro in the District of Columbia, etc.

Ingle, RICHARD, mariner; born in London, England, about 1610. During the civil war in England the royalist governor of Maryland seized Ingle's ship. On his return to England, Ingle applied to Parliament for redress, and received a commission authorizing him to act against the royalists. Ingle returned to America in 1645, and, taking advantage of local troubles, expelled Leonard Calvert, and himself took charge of the government for six months, at the end of which period Calvert regained control.

Inglis, CHARLES, clergyman; born in Ireland, in 1734. From 1764 to the Revolution he was assistant rector of Trinity Church, New York; and was rector from 1777 to 1783. He adhered to the royal cause, and departed for Nova Scotia with the loyalists who fled from New York City in 1783. His letters evinced considerable harsh feeling towards the American patriots as "fomenters of rebellion." Dr. Inglis was consecrated bishop of Nova Scotia in 1788, and in 1809 became a member of the governor's council. He published an answer to Paine's Common

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