Stephen Simpson: "To the genius of Thomas Paine as a popular writer, and to that of George Washington as a prudent, skillful, and consummate general, are the American people indebted for their rights, liberty and independence."
Mrs. Hypatia Bradlaugh-Bonner: "With Washington he played the foremost part in the American Revolution. If Washington was the sword and the strong arm, Paine was the heart and brains of that great struggle. He was the mouth-piece of the aspirations of a continent. He dared to utter the thoughts that lay concealed in the secret hearts of the people. He sounded the demand for the Independence of the Continent. He bound together the separate colonies, and proclaimed 'The Free and Independent States of America.'"
Thomas Paine was the creator of this great Republic. He was the real father of our country; Washington was its foster father. Paine's pen transformed a petty rebellion into a mighty revolution and made a rebel chief the triumphant defender of a new-born nation. Washington's fame is secure. His right to a place in the pantheon of earth's immortals will never be denied. And when the clouds of prejudice are dispelled, as they will be, Paine's name will shine with a splendor unsurpassed, never to be obscured again.
THE "RIGHTS OF MAN" AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Thomas H. Dyer, LL.D.: "An active agent in the French Revolution."
"One of those celebrated foreigners whom the nation ought with eagerness to adopt."—Madame Roland.
M. Cheslay: "He defended in London the principles of the French Revolution."
Brockhaus' Konversatjons-Lexikon: "After he returned to England in 1791 he published his 'Rights of Man.' (translated into many languages) in which he defended the French Revolution against the assaults of Burke."
Porter C. Bliss: "Published, in 1791-92 his 'Rights of Man' [two parts], a vindication of the French Revolution, in reply to Burke, which gave him immense popularity in France and led to a bestowal of citizenship and his election to the French National Convention."