CHAPTER IX. A RESTORATION
As in 1792 Paine had left England with the authorities at his heels, so in 1794 escaped Morris from France. The ex-Minister went off to play courtier to George III. and write for Louis XVIII. the despotic proclamation with which monarchy was to be restored in France*; Paine sat in the house of a real American Minister, writing proclamations of republicanism to invade the empires. So passed each to his own place.
While the American Minister in Paris and his wife were nursing their predecessor's victim back into life, a thrill of joy was passing through European courts, on a rumor that the dreaded author had been guillotined. Paine had the satisfaction of reading, at Monroe's fireside, his own last words on the scaffold,** and along with it an invitation of the 27th of December 1792.
* Morris' royal proclamations are printed in full in his
biography by Jared Sparks.
** "The last dying words of Thomas Paine. Executed at the
Guillotine in France on the 1st of September, 1794." The
dying speech begins: "Ye numerous spectators gathered
around, pray give ear to my last words; I am determined to
speak the Truth in these my last moments, altho' I have
written and spoke nothing but lies all my life." There is
nothing in the witless leaflet worth quoting. When Paine was
burnt in effigy, in 1792, it appears to have been with
accompaniments of the same kind. Before me is a small
placard, which reads thus: "The Dying Speech and Confession
of the Arch-Traitor Thomas Paine. Who was executed at Oakham
on Thursday."
"This morning the Officers usually attending on such
occasions went in procession on Horseback to the County
Gaol, and demanded the Body of the Arch-Traitor, and from
thence proceeded with the Criminal drawn in a Cart by an Ass
to the usual place of execution with his Pamphlet called the
'Rights of Man' in his right hand."
On December 7, 1794, Thibaudeau had spoken to that assembly in the following terms:
"It yet remains for the Convention to perform an act of justice. I reclaim one of the most zealous defenders of liberty'—Thomas Paine. (Loud applause.) My reclamation is for a man who has honored his age by his energy in defence of the rights of humanity, and who is so gloriously distinguished by his part in the American revolution. A naturalized Frenchman* by a decree of the legislative assembly, he was nominated by the people. It was only by an intrigue that he was driven from the Convention, the pretext being a decree excluding foreigners from representing the French people. There were only two foreigners in the Convention; one [Anacharsis Clootz] is dead, and I speak not of him, but of Thomas Paine, who powerfully contributed to establish liberty in a country allied with the French Republic. I demand that he be recalled to the bosom of the Convention." (Applause.)
"The Moniteur, from which I translate, reports the unanimous adoption of Thibaudeau's motion. But this was not enough. The Committee of Public Instruction, empowered to award pensions for literary services, reported (January 3, 1795) as the first name on their list, Thomas Paine. Chenier, in reading the report, claimed the honor of having originally suggested Paines name as an honorary citizen of France, and denounced, amid applause, the decree against foreigners under which the great author had suffered.
* Here Thibaudeau was inexact. In the next sentence but one
he rightly describes Paine as a foreigner. The allusion to
"an intrigue" is significant.
You have revoked that inhospitable decree, and we again see Thomas Paine, the man of genius without fortune, our colleague, dear to all friends of humanity,—a cosmopolitan, persecuted equally by Pitt and by Robespierre. Notable epoch in the life of this philosopher, who opposed the arms of Common Sense to the sword of Tyranny, the Rights of Man to the machiavelism of English politicians; and who, by two immortal works, has deserved well of the human race, and consecrated liberty in the two worlds."
Poor as he was, Paine declined this literary pension. He accepted the honors paid him by the Convention, no doubt with a sorrow at the contrasted silence of those who ruled in America. Monroe, however, encouraged him to believe that he was still beloved there, and, as he got stronger, a great homesickness came upon him. The kindly host made an effort to satisfy him. On January 4th he (Monroe) wrote to the Committee of Public Safety: