"I come to sing that summer is at hand,
The summer time of wit, you 'll understand;
Plants, fruits, and flowers, and all the smiling race
That can the orchard or the garden grace;
The Rose and Lily shall address the fair,
And whisper sweetly out, 'My dears, take care:'
With sterling worth the Plant of Sense shall rise,
And teach the curious to philosophize.
"The frost returns?
We 'll garnish out the scenes
With stately rows of Evergreens,
Trees that will bear the frost, and deck their tops
With everlasting flowers, like diamond drops."
* "The Snowdrop and Critic," Pennsylvania Magazine, 1775.
Couplets are omitted between those given.
CHAPTER XVI. THE AMERICAN INQUISITION
On October 30th Paine landed at Baltimore. More than two and a half centuries had elapsed since the Catholic Lord Baltimore appointed a Protestant Governor of Maryland, William Stone, who proclaimed in that province (1648) religious freedom and equality. The Puritans, crowding thither, from regions of oppression, grew strong enough to exterminate the religion of Lord Baltimore who had given them shelter, and imprisoned his Protestant Governor. So, in the New World, passed the Inquisition from Catholic to Protestant hands.
In Paine's first American pamphlet, he had repeated and extolled the principle of that earliest proclamation of religious liberty. "Diversity of religious opinions affords a larger field for Christian kindness." The Christian kindness now consists in a cessation of sectarian strife that they may unite in stretching the author of the "Age of Reason" on their common rack, so far as was possible under a Constitution acknowledging no deity. This persecution began on the victim's arrival.
Soon after landing Paine wrote to President Jefferson:
"I arrived here on Saturday from Havre, after a passage of sixty days. I have several cases of models, wheels, etc., and as soon as I can get them from the vessel and put them on board the packet for Georgetown I shall set off to pay my respects to you. Your much obliged fellow-citizen,—Thomas Paine."
On reaching Washington City Paine found his dear friend Monroe starting off to resume his ministry in Paris, and by him wrote to Mr. Este, banker in Paris (Sir Robert Smith's son-in-law), enclosing a letter to Rickman, in London. "You can have no idea," he tells Rickman, "of the agitation which my arrival occasioned." Every paper is "filled with applause or abuse."
"My property in this country has been taken care of by my friends, and is now worth six thousand pounds sterling; which put in the funds will bring me £400 sterling a year. Remember me in friendship and affection to your wife and family, and in the circle of our friends. I am but just arrived here, and the minister sails in a few hours, so that I have just time to write you this. If he should not sail this tide I will write to my good friend Col. Bosville, but in any case I request you to wait on him for me.* Yours in friendship."
* Paine still had faith in Bosville. He was slow in
suspecting any man who seemed enthusiastic for liberty. In
this connection it may be mentioned that it is painful to
find in the "Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris," (ii.,
p. 426) a confidential letter to Robert R. Livingston,
Minister in France, which seems to assume that Minister's
readiness to receive slanders of Jefferson, who appointed
him, and of Paine whose friendship he seemed to value.
Speaking of the President, Morris says: "The employment of
and confidence in adventurers from abroad will sooner or
later rouse the pride and indignation of this country."
Morris' editor adds: "This was probably an allusion to
Thomas Paine, who had recently returned to America and was
supposed to be an intimate friend of Mr. Jefferson, who, it
was said, received him warmly, dined him at the White House,
and could be seen walking arm in arm with him on the street
any fine afternoon." The allusion to "adventurers" was no
doubt meant for Paine, but not to his reception by
Jefferson, for Morris' letter was written on August 27th,
some two months before Paine's arrival. It was probably
meant by Morris to damage Paine in Paris, where it was known
that he was intimate with Livingston, who had been
introduced by him to influential men, among others to Sir
Robert Smith and Este, bankers. It is to be hoped that
Livingston resented Morris' assumption of his treacherous
character. Morris, who had shortly before dined at the White
House, tells Livingston that Jefferson is "descending to a
condition which I find no decent word to designate." Surely
Livingston's descendants should discover his reply to that
letter.