Louis fell under the guillotine, and Mr. Paine's deprecation of that act brought down upon him the hatred of the whole Robespierrean party. The reign of terror now commenced in France; every public man who breathed a sigh for Louis was denounced a traitor to the nation, and as such was put to death. Every man who complained of the despotism and violence of the party in power, was hurried to a prison, or before the Revolutionary Tribunal and to immediate execution. Mr. Paine, although a Member of the Convention, was first excluded on the ground of being a foreigner, and then thrown into prison because he had been born in England! His place of confinement was the Luxembourg; the time, about eleven months, during which he was seized with a most violent fever, that rendered him insensible to all that was passing, and to which circumstance he attributes his escape from the guillotine.
About this period Mr. Paine wrote his first and second part of Age of Reason. The first part was written before he went to the Luxembourg, as in his passage thither he deposited the manuscript with Joel Barlow. The second part he wrote during his confinement, and at a moment when he could not calculate on the preservation of his life for twenty-four hours: a circumstance which forms the best proof of his sincerity, and his conviction of the fallacy and imposture of all established religions: Throughout this work he has also trod the path of nature, and has laid down some of the best arguments to shew the existence of an Omnipotent Being, that ever were penned. Those who are in the habit of running down every thing that does not tally with their antiquated opinions, or the prejudices in which they have been educated, have decried Mr. Paine as an Atheist! Of all the men who ever wrote, Mr. Paine was the most remote from Atheism, and has advanced stronger arguments against the belief of no God, than any who have gone before him, or have lived since. If there be any chance of the failure of Mr. Paine's theological writings as a standard work, it will be on the ground of their being more superstitious than otherwise. However, their beauties, I doubt not, will at all times be a sufficient apology for a few trifling defects. Mr. Paine has been taxed with inconsistency in his theological opinions, because in his "Common Sense," and other political writings, he has had recourse to Bible phrases and arguments to illustrate some of his positions. But this can be no proof of hypocrisy, because his "Common Sense" and his other political writings were intended as a vehicle for political principles only, and they were addressed to the most superstitious people in the world. If Mr. Paine had published any of his Deistical opinions in "Common Sense" or "The Crisis," he would have defeated the very purpose for which he wrote. The Bible is a most convenient book to afford precedents; and any man might support any opinion or any assertion by quotations from it, Mr. Paine tells us in his first Crisis that he has no superstition about him, which was a pretty broad hint of what his opinions on that score were at that time, but it would have been the height of madness to have urged any religious dissension among the inhabitants of the United States during their hostile struggle for independence. Such is not a time to think about making converts to religious opinions. Mr. Paine has certainly made use of the common hack term, "Christian this" and "Christian that," in many parts of his political writings; but let it be recollected to whom he addressed himself, and the object he had in view, before a charge of' inconsistency be made. He first published his Age of Reason in France, where all compulsive systems of religion had been abolished, and here, certainly, he cannot be charged with being a disturber of religious opinions, because his work was translated and re-printed in the English language. He could have no objection to see it published in England, but it was by no means his own act, and he has expressly stated that he wrote it for the French nation and the United States. But truth will not be confined to a nation, nor to a continent, and there can never be an inconsistency proceeding from wrong to right, although there must naturally be a change.
After the fall of Robespierre and his faction, and the arrival of Mr. Monroe, a new minister from America, Mr. Paine was liberated from his most painful imprisonment, and again solicited to take his seat in the Convention, which he accordingly did. Again his utmost efforts were used to establish a constitution on correct principles and universal liberty, united with security both for person and property. He wrote his "Dissertation on First Principles of Government," and presented it to the Convention, accompanied with a speech, pointing out the defects of the then existing constitution.
Intrigue is the natural characteristic of Frenchmen, and they never appeared to relish any thing in the shape of purity or simplicity of principle. Their intrigue being always attended with an impetuosity, has been aptly compared by Voltaire to the joint qualities of the monkey and the tiger. Of all countries on the face of the earth, perhaps France was the least qualified to receive a pure Republican Government. The French nation had been so long dazzled with the false splendours of its grand monarch, that a Court seemed the only atmosphere in which the real character of Frenchmen could display itself. At least, the Court had assimilated the character of the whole nation to itself. The French Revolution was altogether financial, and not the effect of good triumphing over bad principles. At various periods the people assumed various attitudes, but they were by no means prepared for a Republican form of Government. Political information had made no progress among the mass of the people, as is the case in Britain at this moment. There were but few Frenchmen amongst the literate part of the community who had any notion of a representative system of Government. The United States had scarcely presented any thing like correct representation, and the boasted constitution of England is altogether a mockery of representation. The people of England have no more direct influence over the Legislature than the horses or asses of England. Mr. Paine saw this, both in France and England, and, at the same time, saw the necessity of inculcating correct notions of Government through all classes of the community. He struggled in vain during his own lifetime, but the seed of his principles has taken root, and is now beginning to shoot forth.
France, by a series of successful battles with the monarchs of Europe, began to assume a military character-the very soul of Frenchmen, but the bane of Republicanism. Hence arose a Buonaparte, and hence the fall of France, and the restoration of the hated Bourbons.
After Buonaparte had usurped the sovereign power, and every thing in the shape of a representative system of government had subsided, Mr. Paine led quite a retired life, saw but little company, and for many years brooded over the misfortunes of France, and the advantages it had thrown away, by anticipating its present disgrace. He saw plainly that all the benefits which the Revolution ought to have preserved, would be foiled by the military ambition of Buonaparte. He would not allow the epithet Republic to be applied to it, without condemning such an association of ideas, and insisted upon it, that the United States of America was alone, of all the governments on the face of the earth, entitled to that honourable appellation.
In this retirement Mr. Paine wrote two small pamphlets of considerable interest: the one was his "Agrarian Justice opposed to Agrarian Law and Agrarian Monopoly;" the other was his "Decline and Fall of the English system of Finance," the first was a plan for creating a fund in all societies to give a certain sum of money to all young people about to enter into life, and live by their own industry, and to make a provision for all old persons, or such as were past labour, so that their old age might be spent serenely and comfortably. The idea was evidently the offspring of humanity and benevolence: of its practicability I cannot speak; here, as nothing but experience could prove it. His "Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance," is of more immediate importance, as no one of his pamphlets has displayed the acuteness, the foresight, and the ability of Mr. Paine, as a political economist, more than this. We can now speak most feelingly on this subject as this is the moment at which all his financial and funding system predictions are about to be fulfilled. Talk of Jewish prophets, or Christian prophets! look at this little pamphlet, and here you will find a prophet indeed! No imposter but a real prophet! A prophet who preferred common sense to divine inspiration. A prophet who stood not in need of any Holy Ghost to instruct him, but who prophesied from reason and natural circumstances. Mr. Cobbett has made this little pamphlet a text book, for most of his elaborate treatises, on our finances, and funding systems. This pamphlet was written in the year 1796, one year before the bank refused to pay its notes in gold. This latter circumstance, has in some measure had the effect of lengthening the existence of the funding system, although its occurrence was previously foretold by Mr. Paine, as one of the natural consequences of that system. On the authority of a late register of Mr. Cobbett's, I learn that the profits arising from the sale of this pamphlet, were devoted to the relief of the prisoners confined in Newgate for debt.
Mr. Paine, found it impossible to do any good in France, and he sighed for the shores of America. The English cruizers prevented his passing during the war; but immediately after the peace of Amiens he embarked and reached his adopted country. Before I follow him to America, I should notice his attack on George Washington. It is evident from all the writings of Mr. Paine that he lived in the closest intimacy with Washington up to the time of his quitting America in 1787, and it further appears, that they corresponded up to the time of Mr. Paine's imprisonment in the Luxembourg. But here a fatal breach took place. Washington having been the nominal Commander-in-Chief during the struggle for independence, obtained much celebrity, not for his exertions during that struggle, but in laying down all command and authority immediately on its close, and in retiring to private life, instead of assuming any thing like authority or dictation in the Government of the United States, which his former situation would have enabled him to do if he had chosen. This was a circumstance only to be paralleled during the purest periods of the Roman and Grecian Republics, and this circumstance obtained for Washington a fame to which his Generalship could not aspire. Mr. Paine says, that the disposition of Washington was apathy itself, and that nothing could kindle a fire in his bosom-neither friendship, fame, or country. This might in some measure account for the relinquishment of all authority, at a time when he might have held it, and, on the other hand, should have moderated the tone of Mr. Paine in complaining of Washington's neglect of himself whilst confined in France. The apathy which was made a sufficient excuse for the one case, should have also formed a sufficient excuse for the other. This was certainly a defect in Mr. Paine's career as a political character. He might have attacked the conduct of John Adams, who was a mortal foe to Paine and all Republicanism and purity of principle, and who found the apathy and indifference of Washington a sufficient cloak and opportunity to enable him to carry on every species of court and monarchical intrigue in the character of Vice-President. I will, however, state this case more simply.
During the imprisonment of Mr. Paine in the Luxembourg, and under the reign of Robespierre, Washington was President of the United States, and John Adams was Vice-President. John Adams was altogether a puerile character, and totally unfit for any part of a Republican Government. He openly avowed his attachment to the monarchical system of Government: he made an open proposition to make the Presidency of the United States hereditary in the family of Washington, although the latter had no children of his own; and even ran into an intrigue and correspondence with the Court and Ministry of England, on the subject of his diabolical purposes. All this intelligence burst upon Paine immediately on his liberation from a dreadful imprisonment, and at a moment when the neglect of the American Government had nearly cost him his life. It was this which drew forth this virulent letter against Washington. The slightest interference of Washington would have saved Paine from several months unjust and unnecessary imprisonment, for there was not the least charge against him, further than being born an Englishman; although he had actually been outlawed in that country for supporting the cause of France and of mankind!
If all the charges which Mr. Paine has brought against Washington be true, and some of them are too palpable to be doubted, his character has been much overrated, and Mr. Paine has either lost sight of his duty in the arms of friendship, by giving Washington too much applause, or he has suffered an irritated feeling to overcome his prudence by a contradictory and violent attack. The letter written by Mr. Paine from France to Mr. Washington stands rather as a contrast to his former expressions, but he who reads the whole of Mr. Paine's writings can best judge for himself. Some little change might have taken place in the disposition of each of those persons towards the close of life, but I will not allow for a moment that Paine ever swerved in political integrity and principle. This letter seems to stand rather as a blur in a collection of Mr. Paine's writings, and every reader will, no doubt, exercise his right to form his own opinion between Paine and Washington. I am of opinion, that one Paine is worth a thousand Washingtons in point of utility to mankind.