Early in March Paine visited New York, to see Monroe before his departure for France. He drove with Kirkbride to Trenton; but so furious was the pious mob, he was refused a seat in the Trenton stage. They dined at Government House, but when starting for Brunswick were hooted These were the people for whose liberties Paine had marched that same road on foot, musket in hand. At Trenton insults were heaped on the man who by camp-fires had written the Crisis, which animated the conquerors of the Hessians at that place, in "the times that tried men's souls." These people he helped to make free,—free to cry Crucify!
Paine had just written to Jefferson that the Louisianians were "perhaps too much under the influence of their priests to be sufficiently free." Probably the same thought occurred to him about people nearer home, when he presently heard of Colonel Kirkbride's sudden unpopularity, and death. On October 3d Paine lost this faithful friend.*
* It should be stated that Burlington County, in which
Bordentown is situated, was preponderantly Federalist, and
that Trenton was in the hands of a Federalist mob of young
well-to-do rowdies. The editor of the True American, a
Republican paper to which Paine had contributed, having
commented on a Fourth of July orgie of those rowdies in a
house associated with the revolution, was set upon with
bludgeons on July 12th, and suffered serious injuries. The
Grand Jury refused to present the Federalist ruffians,
though the evidence was clear, and the mob had free course.
The facts of the Paine mob are these: after dining at Government House, Trenton, Kirkbride applied for a seat on the New York stage for Paine. The owner, Voorhis, cursed Paine as "a deist," and said, "I 'll be damned if he shall go in my stage." Another stage-owner also refused, saying, "My stage and horses were once struck by lightning, and I don't want them to suffer again." When Paine and Kirkbride had entered their carriage a mob surrounded them with a drum, playing the "rogue's march." The local reporter (True American) says, "Mr. Paine discovered not the least emotion of fear or anger, but calmly observed that such conduct had no tendency to hurt his feelings or injure his fame." The mob then tried to frighten the horse with the drum, and succeeded, but the two gentlemen reached a friend's house in Brunswick in safety. A letter from Trenton had been written to the stage-master there also, to prevent Paine from securing a seat, whether with success does not appear.
CHAPTER XVII. NEW ROCHELLE AND THE BONNEVILLES
The Bonnevilles, with whom Paine had resided in Paris, were completely impoverished after his departure. They resolved to follow Paine to America, depending on his promise of aid should they do so. Foreseeing perils in France, Nicolas, unable himself to leave at once, hurried off his wife and children—Benjamin, Thomas, and Louis. Madame Bonneville would appear to have arrived in August, 1803. I infer this because Paine writes, September 23d, to Jefferson from Stonington, Connecticut; and later letters show that he had been in New York, and afterwards placed Thomas Paine Bonneville with the Rev. Mr. Foster (Universalist) of Stonington for education. Madame Bonneville was placed in his house at Bordentown, where she was to teach French.
At New York, Paine found both religious and political parties sharply divided over him. At Lovett's Hotel, where he stopped, a large dinner was given him, March 18th, seventy being present One of the active promoters of this dinner was James Cheetham, editor of the American Citizen, who, after seriously injuring Paine by his patronage, became his malignant enemy.
In the summer of 1803 the political atmosphere was in a tempestuous condition, owing to the widespread accusation that Aaron Burr had intrigued with the Federalists against Jefferson to gain the presidency. There was a Society in New York called "Republican Greens," who, on Independence Day, had for a toast "Thomas Paine, the Man of the People," and who seem to have had a piece of music called the "Rights of Man." Paine was also apparently the hero of that day at White Plains, where a vast crowd assembled, "over 1,000," among the toasts being: "Thomas Paine—the bold advocate of rational liberty—the People's friend." He probably reached New York again in August A letter for "Thomas Payne" is in the advertised Letter-list of August 6th, and in the American Citizen (August 9th) are printed (and misprinted) "Lines, extempore, by Thomas Paine, July, 1803."*
* On July 12th the Evening Post (edited by William
Coleman) tries to unite republicanism and infidelity by
stating that Part I. of the "Age of Reason" was sent in MS.
to Mr. Fellows of New York, and in the following year Part
II. was gratuitously distributed "from what is now the
office of the Aurora." On September 24th that paper
publishes a poem about Paine, ending: