He was employed, at the instance of Samuel Adams, by the people of Boston to conduct the prosecution against Captain Preston, for ordering his men to fire upon the populace on the 5th of March, 1770, which duty he discharged with great zeal and ability. During the gathering storm of the revolution, Mr. Paine was uniformly upon the important committees of the people, and many of the boldest resolutions that were adopted at the meetings and conventions of that trying period were from his pen. In 1773, he was chosen a representative to the general assembly, and was one of the members who conducted the impeachment of Peter Oliver, chief justice of the province, who was accused of acting under the direct influence of the crown instead of the assembly. In this trial, Mr. Paine manifested strong talent, and showed himself master of his profession.
In 1774, he was again elected to the assembly, and boldly warned the people against the dangers to be apprehended from the appointment of Governor Gage to succeed Governor Hutchinson. It was plainly seen that the designs of the British ministry were to be enforced at the point of the bayonet. An awful, an alarming crisis was approaching. A committee, larger than at any previous time, was convened at Boston, which advised and proposed the plan of a General Congress. Governor Gage sent a messenger with an order for them to disperse, to whom they refused admittance until they finished their deliberations, which resulted in the appointment of five delegates, one of which was Mr. Paine, to meet those from the other colonies at Philadelphia. This measure originated in Massachusetts, and had been proposed as early as 1765, and was strongly urged in a circular three years after. The set time had now arrived—the galling yoke had become painful—and the colonies generally acceded to the proposal. The ostensible object in convening this Congress was, not to effect a separation, but to obtain a relaxation of the severities imposed by the crown. It is believed a large majority of the members when they assembled had never contemplated a declaration of independence; but among them were bold and ardent spirits, noble and patriotic hearts. As one of those, Mr. Paine stood conspicuous. Their language continued to be respectful to the crown, but their chartered rights they were determined to defend and protect. They did not attribute their sufferings to a bad heart in their king, but to the ambitious avarice of a corrupt ministry. Their proceedings were calm as a summer morning, but firm as the rock of ages. They appealed to their sovereign, to the British nation, to the American people, and to a gazing world for the justice of their claims and the equity of their demands. But to Britain they appealed in vain. The cords of coercion were drawn with a stronger hand—their remonstrances and petitions were answered by legions of foreign soldiers in all the panoply of war—and servile submission or open resistance were the only alternatives left. Mr. Paine was also a member of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, convened at Concord, in October, 1774, and was the principal in preparing a spirited address to the people of England, which did much to open the eyes of many in the mother country, and rouse the colonists to a just sense of the injuries of the British parliament.
The following year he was again elected a member of the Continental Congress, and was placed upon many important committees. He was as indefatigable in his labours as he was zealous in the cause of human rights. He was chairman of the committee for the encouragement of the manufacture of arms and for furnishing the army. He used to say, “I fear we shall become slaves, because we are not industrious enough to be free.”
Mr. Paine was appointed on the committee to prepare a constitution for Massachusetts, and has the credit of framing that instrument. He was again elected to Congress, and in April, 1776, was appointed on a committee with Messrs. Jefferson and Rutledge to report rules to govern Congress in their deliberations, and upon the committee to inquire into the causes of the disasters of the campaign in Canada.—When the glorious 4th of July, 1776, dawned upon Columbia’s sons like smiling heaven, and the eagle of LIBERTY soared in peerless majesty over their blood-stained soil, Mr. Paine was at his post. With a buoyant heart and a firm hand he affixed his name to that matchless instrument which is a terror to tyrants and the pride of freemen. He did much to rouse his friends to action by his letters, which he poured upon them in the most happy style. In his native state he stood on the pinnacle of fame—in the national legislature he was universally esteemed. He was still continued a member of Congress, and, when he could be spared, took a part in the legislative proceedings of Massachusetts. In 1777, he was speaker of the House of Representatives, and the same year was appointed attorney-general, by the unanimous vote of both branches of the legislature. He was a prominent member of the committee who formed the “regulating act” reducing the price of labour, goods, &c. to a standard of equality. In 1779, he was elected a member of the executive council, which, in conjunction with his other appointments, imposed upon him constant and arduous duties. At the adoption of the constitution, he was re-appointed attorney-general of his native state, and continued in that office until 1790, when he declined, in order to pursue some more lucrative business that he might provide for the wants of a large and destitute family. He had been a faithful public servant and had expended all but a bare and scanty support in the cause of his country.
He was then appointed a judge of the superior court, which situation he held until 1804, when his health compelled him to resign. He discharged the duties of this office with great justice and ability, and did much to advance the interests of religion, social order and a sound state of society. On his resignation, he was elected a counsellor of the commonwealth, and continued to impart his salutary advice and influence to his fellow-citizens until death closed his career on the 11th of May, 1814, when, calm and resigned, he fell asleep in the arms of his glorious Redeemer, reposing full confidence in His merits, and possessing a full assurance of a welcome entrance into realms of transcendent bliss beyond the skies, there to enjoy the rich reward of a crown of unfading glory through the rolling ages of eternity.
In the life of Judge Paine, we have a picture which the christian, the patriot, the legislator, and the statesman, may contemplate with pleasure and delight. From the stations he occupied as the prosecutor for the commonwealth, and as the administrator of its laws, he obtained the reputation amongst some of being harsh, but no one dared to accuse him of injustice. His integrity was above the reach of slander. From his solicitude to confine a wayward son in the paths of rectitude, he was accused of being unkind to his family, an accusation as false as the heart was base that originated it. To his family he was all kindness and affection. No stronger proof need be adduced than his extreme anxiety for their welfare and usefulness. He was a friend to literature, and the founder of the American Academy of Massachusetts in 1780. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the Cambridge University. He was a striking example of the happy results of perseverance and industry, having acquired his fame without the aid of patronage in early life, rising by his own exertions, unaided by any, and administering to the comfort of his aged and destitute parents. His career in public and private life was marked with the purest integrity, the strictest morality, the utmost consistency and the noblest patriotism. His life was a continued round of usefulness; his labours were a blessing to mankind; his death was surrounded by a sacred purity that reached from earth to heaven—his examples will be held in veneration by the great and good to the remotest period of truth-telling time.
GEORGE TAYLOR.
A purely confederate republican government to answer fully its beautiful theory, must be healthful and sound in all its parts, and be wielded by enlightened rulers whose hearts are free from all guile, whose judgments are strong and matured, whose characters are in all respects irreproachable, whose conduct is in all things consistent, whose patriotism and virtue extinguishes self and soar above all temptation to digress from the most exalted honesty and rigid moral rectitude, whose minds are stored with useful knowledge and large experience, and whose souls are imbued with wisdom from above.
In such a condition and in such hands this kind of government is calculated to elevate the mental powers of man, to spread before the mind correct and liberal principles, and to promote social order and general happiness by extending its radiant light, its genial rays and its benign influence to the remotest bounds of the inhabited globe. In such a condition and in such hands it would become the solar fountain of intellectual improvement, the polar star of expanding science, and a shining light to the human family. Its refulgent beams would enrapture the ignorant, the oppressed, and the forlorn—its harmonious links would form a golden chain that would reach the confines of earth. It would be a messenger of peace, pointing and inviting the weary pilgrims of bondage in every clime to a reposing asylum of peaceful and quiescent rest. This is the kind of government intended by the sages of the American revolution—this is the kind of government they desired to form and perpetuate.