The present writer, having perused some thou-sands of documents concerning Paine, is convinced that no charge of sensuality could have been brought against him by any one acquainted with the facts, except out of malice. Had Paine held, or practised, any latitudinarian theory of sexual liberty, it would be recorded here, and his reasons for the same given. I have no disposition to suppress anything. Paine was conservative in such matters. And as to his sacrificing the happiness of a home to his own pleasure, nothing could be more inconceivable.
Above all, Paine was a profoundly religious man,—one of the few in our revolutionary era of whom it can be said that his delight was in the law of his Lord, and in that law did he meditate day and night Consequently, he could not escape the immemorial fate of the great believers, to be persecuted for unbelief—by unbelievers.
CHAPTER XX. DEATH AND RESURRECTION
The blow that Paine received by the refusal of his vote at New Rochelle was heavy. Elisha Ward, a Tory in the Revolution, had dexterously gained power enough to give his old patrons a good revenge on the first advocate of independence. The blow came at a time when his means were low, and Paine resolved to apply to Congress for payment of an old debt. The response would at once relieve him, and overwhelm those who were insulting him in New York. This led to a further humiliation, and one or two letters to Congress, of which Paine's enemies did not fail to make the most.
* Paine had always felt that Congress was in his debt for
his voyage to France for supplies with Col. Laurens (i., p.
171). In a letter (Feb. 20, 1782) to Robert Morris, Paine
mentions that when Col. Laurens proposed that he should
accompany him, as secretary, he was on the point of
establishing a newspaper. He had purchased twenty reams of
paper, and Mr. Izard had sent to St. Eustatia for seventy
more. This scheme, which could hardly fail of success, was
relinquished for the voyage. It was undertaken at the urgent
solicitation of Laurens, and Paine certainly regarded it as
official. He had ninety dollars when he started, in bills of
exchange; when Col. Laurens left him, after their return,
he had but two louis d'or. The Memorial sent by Paine to
Congress (Jan. 21, 1808) recapitulated facts known to my
reader. It was presented by the Hon. George Clinton, Jr.,
February 4, and referred to the Committee of Claims. On
February 14th Paine wroth a statement concerning the $3,000
given him (1785) by Congress, which he maintained was an
indemnity for injustice done him in the Deane case.
Laurens had long been dead. The Committee consulted the
President, whose reply I know not. Vice-President Clinton
wrote (Mardi 23, 1808) that from the information I received
at the time I have reason to believe that Mr. Paine
accompanied Col. Laurens on his mission to France in the
course of our revolutionary war, for the purpose of
negotiating a loan, and that he acted as his secretary on
that occasion; but although I have no doubt of the truth of
this fact, I cannot assert it from my own actual knowledge."
There was nothing found on the journals of Congress to show
Paine's connection with the mission. The old author was
completely upset by his longing to hear the fate of his
memorial, and he Wrote two complaints of the delay, showing
that his nerves were shattered. "If." he says, March 7th,
"my memorial was referred to the Committee of Claims for the
purpose of losing it, it is unmanly policy. After so many
years of service my heart grows cold towards America."
The letters are those of a broken-hearted man, and it seems marvellous that Jefferson, Madison, and the Clintons did not intervene and see that some recognition of Paine's former services, by those who should not have forgotten them, was made without the ill-judged memorial. While they were enjoying their grandeur the man who, as Jefferson wrote, "steadily laboured, and with as much effect as any man living," to secure America freedom, was living—or rather dying—in a miserable lodging-house, 63 Partition Street. He had gone there for economy; for he was exhibiting that morbid apprehension about his means which is a well-known symptom of decline in those who have suffered poverty in early life. Washington, with 40,000 acres, wrote in his last year as if facing ruin. Paine had only a little farm at New Rochelle. He had for some time suffered from want of income, and at last had to sell the farm he meant for the Bonnevilles for $10,000; but the purchaser died, and at his widow's appeal the contract was cancelled. It was at this time that he appealed to Congress. It appears, however, that Paine was not anxious for himself, but for the family of Madame Bonneville, whose statement on this point is important.
The last letter that I can find of Paine's was: written to Jefferson, July 8, 1808:
"The british Ministry have out-schemed themselves. It is not difficult to see what the motive and object of that Ministry: were in issuing the orders of Council. They expected those orders would force all the commerce of the United States to England, and then, by giving permission to such cargoes as they did not want for themselves to depart for the Continent of Europe, to raise a revenue out of those countries and America.' But instead of this they have lost revenue; that is, they have-lost the revenue they used to receive from American imports, and instead of gaining all the commerce they have lost it all.
"This being the case with the british Ministry it is natural to suppose they would be glad to tread back their steps, if they could do it without too much exposing their ignorance and obstinacy. The Embargo law empowers the President to suspend its operation whenever he shall be satisfied that our ships can pass in safety. It therefore includes the idea of empowering him to use means for arriving at that event. Suppose the President were to authorise Mr. Pinckney to propose to the british Ministry that the United States would negociate with France for rescinding the Milan Decree, on condition the English Ministry would rescind their orders of Council; and in that case the United States would recall their Embargo. France and England stand now at such a distance that neither can propose any thing to the other, neither are there any neutral powers to act as mediators. The U. S. is the only power that can act.