[893] Writings: Conway, i, 69 et seq.
[894] "Common Sense had a prodigious effect." (Franklin to Le Veillard, April 15, 1787; Writings: Smyth, ix, 558.) "Its popularity was unexampled.... The author was hailed as our angel sent from Heaven to save all from the horrors of Slavery.... His pen was an appendage [to the army] almost as necessary and formidable as its cannon." (Cheetenham, 46-47, 55.) In America alone 125,000 copies of Common Sense were sold within three months after the pamphlet appeared. (Belcher, i, 235.)
"Can nothing be done in our Assembly for poor Paine? Must the merits of Common Sense continue to glide down the stream of time unrewarded by this country? His writings certainly have had a powerful effect upon the public mind. Ought they not, then, to meet an adequate return?" (Washington to Madison, June 12, 1784; Writings: Ford, x, 393; and see Tyler, i, 458-62.) In the Virginia Legislature Marshall introduced a bill for Paine's relief. (Supra, chap, VI.)
[895] Graydon, 358.
[896] Common Sense: Paine; Writings: Conway, i, 61. Paine's genius for phrase is illustrated in the Crisis, which next appeared. "These are the times that try men's souls"; "Tyranny like hell, is not easily conquered"; "The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot," are examples of Paine's brilliant gift.
[897] Moore's Diary, ii, 143-44. Although this was a British opinion, yet it was entirely accurate.
[898] "They will rise and for lack of argument, say, Mṛ Speaker, this measure will never do, the People Sir, will never bear it.... These small Politicians, returned home, ... tell their Constituents such & such measures are taking place altho' I did my utmost to prevent it—The People must take care of themselves or they are undone. Stir up a County Convention and by Trumpeting lies from Town to Town get one Hist. Mag. (2d Series), vi, 257.)
[899] More than a decade after the slander was set afoot against Colonel Levin Powell of Loudoun County, Virginia, one of the patriot soldiers of the Revolution and an officer of Washington, that he favored establishing a monarchy, one of his constituents wrote that "detraction & defamation are generally resorted to promote views injurious to you.... Can you believe it, but it is really true that the old & often refuted story of your predilection for Monarchy is again revived." (Thomas Sims to Colonel Levin Powell, Leesburg, Virginia, Feb. 5 and 20, 1801; Branch Historical Papers, i, 58, 61.)
[900] Watson, 262-64. This comic prophecy that the National Capital was to be the fortified home of a standing army was seriously believed by the people. Patrick Henry urged the same objection with all his dramatic power in the Virginia Convention of 1788. So did the scholarly Mason. (See infra, chaps. XI and XII.)
[901] Graydon, 392-93.