"Long live the man, in early contest found,
Who spoke-his heart when dastards trembled round;
Who, fired with more than Greek or Roman rage,
Flashed truth on tyrants from his manly page."
—Dr. Joseph B. Ladd.
Rev. Brooke Hereford: "Thomas Paine was the great defender of human rights and merits the everlasting gratitude of man."
Rev. Dr. David Swing: "He was one of the best and grandest men that ever trod the planet."
Charles Phillips: "Thomas Paine, no matter what may be the difference of opinion as to his principles, must ever remain a proud example of mind, unpatronized and unsupported, eclipsing the factitious beams of rank, and wealth, and pedigree. I never saw him in his captivity, or heard the revilings by which he has since been assailed, without cursing in my heart that ungenerous feeling which, cold to the necessities of genius, is clamorous in the publication of its defects.
"Ye great ones of his nation [England]! ye pretended moralists, so forward now to cast your interested indignation upon the memory of Paine!—where were you in the day of his adversity? Which of you, to assist his infant merit, would diminish even the surplus of your debaucheries? Where the mitred charity, the practical religion? Consistent declaimers, rail on! What though his genius was the gift of Heaven, his heart the altar of friendship! What though wit and eloquence and anecdote flowed freely from his tongue, while Conviction made his voice her messenger! What though thrones trembled, and prejudice fled, and freedom came, at his command! He dared to question the creed which you, believing, contradicted, and to despise the rank which you, boasting of, debased."
William Lee:
"Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die!"
C. Fannie Allyn:
"Because you left a record that has floated down the years,
Because your words undying have conquered low-born jeers,
Because the ones who listened are victors over fears,
As Thomas Paine the Hero we salute you!
"Philanthropist and Patriot, a-down the Yet-to-be!
Your thoughts are sweeping deathless as breezes o'er the sea,
And hearts of men and women by you are made more free,
As Thomas Paine the Future will salute you!"
Alden Freeman: "One hundred years ago today there passed from life into the undying fame of assured immortality a chieftain among the Fathers of our Country, the foremost agitator of the American Revolution—Thomas Paine."