Col. E. A. Stevens: "May Americans long appreciate the genius and reverence the virtues of their noble benefactor, for he left them a legacy greater than his works—the contemplation of his high-souled, unselfish character."

Every person who has charged Paine with immorality has either invented a falsehood or repeated one. The character of Paine; was as blameless as that of Washington. Both men, in their last days, were bitterly assailed by political enemies. With their deaths political censure, for the most part, ceased. But Paine's religious opinions were not forgotten, and could not be forgiven. His "Age of Reason" continued to be read, and remained unanswered, because unanswerable. What "Common Sense" had done to kingcraft in America the "Age of Reason" promised to do to priestcraft throughout the world. In her desperation the church seized her only available weapon, slander. Every inventor of a calumny against Paine was hailed as a defender of the faith. Unscrupulous biographers and historians, like Cheetham and McMaster, to curry favor with the church, have recorded these calumnies as facts; and others, accepting these writers as reliable authorities, have innocently repeated them. Many who have acknowledged Paine's services to mankind have felt compelled to apologize for his supposed errors. Sir Leslie Stephen, who had accepted some of these charges, thus frankly admits that he had been deceived: "I regret to say that I had accepted certain charges against Paine's character, which Mr. Conway has shown to rest upon worse than suspicious evidence.... I fully admit that I was entirely misled by a hasty reliance upon worthless testimony." (History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, 3rd ed., vol. ii, p. 261, note.)

William H. Burr: "While the corpse of the philanthropist lay cooling in the ground the English Tory Cheetham wrote a biography full of malignity and detraction."

Cheetham had a double motive in writing his Life of Paine—revenge and gain. He was an Englishman and had been an ardent Republican. But he had betrayed his party and as a result of this he and Paine became engaged in a bitter controversy. Paine's punishment of the renegade was terrible. His wounds still smarting when his adversary died, Cheetham wreaked his vengeance by writing a book in which he presented as facts all the calumnies that Paine's political and religious enemies had circulated concerning him, supplemented by all that his own malignant mind could invent. Realizing that his career in America was ended he had decided to return to England and the book, he believed, would win for him the favor and patronage of England's two most powerful institutions, the Tory Government and the Orthodox Church.

"When, therefore, a party hack, as Cheetham doubtless was, disappointed and a renegade, with talents, as he certainly possessed, but embittered in feelings and regardless of truth, as all circumstances contribute to show—what could be expected from such a man but just what he produced, a Life of Paine abounding in bold falsehoods, cunningly contrived, and addressed to a people who wished to be deceived."—Gilbert Vale.

"Cheetham's book is one of the most malicious ever written."—Dr. Conway.

"We have no hesitation in saying that we knew perfectly well at the time the motives of that author [Cheetham] for writing and publishing a work, which, we have every reason to believe, is a libel almost from beginning to end."—Rev. Solomon Southwick.

Eighteen years prior to the appearance of Cheetham's book George Chalmers, an English writer, under the pseudonymn of "Francis Oldys," backed by the friends of the English Tory government and for a consideration, it is claimed, of £500, to counteract the influence of the "Rights of Man" which was threatening to overthrow monarchy in England, wrote a pretended biography of Paine filled with slander and vituperation. Referring to this book and the corrupt English political and religious age in which it was written, Edward Smith, an English author, writing nearly a century later, characterizes it as "one of the most horrible collections of abuse which even that venal day produced."

Excepting Cheetham and Chalmers, all of the biographers of Paine—Conway, Vale, Rickman, Sedgwick, Sherwin, Blanchard, Linton and others—have endeavored to do him justice. But Cheetham's and Chalmer's books have been the arsenals where the orthodox of England and America have gone for their weapons with which to attack the author of the "Age of Reason." Not only have they tried to suppress Paine's book, they have tried to banish from the public library and book-store every work that has appeared in defense of it or its author. For three-quarters of a century the only biographies of Paine to be found in the London library were those of Cheetham and Chalmers; the only one to be found in the public libraries of America was that of Cheetham. Is it any wonder, then, that nearly all the pictures of Paine, even those drawn by friendly hands, to be found in our histories, biographical dictionaries, encyclopedias and other works, should be largely caricatures?

One of the foulest of these caricatures is that drawn by the historian John Bach McMaster. For this writer's scurrilous attack on Paine no excuse can be offered. The plea of ignorance of Paine's true character and history cannot be urged in his behalf. He had before him the authentic records of Paine's career, in America, at least. He knew that his statements were untruthful and unjust. His tirade of abuse is seemingly for the sole purpose of securing for his books the endorsement of the clerical bigots who dominate our schools and colleges.