Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest — John Shaqi
Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - LatestIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
8. Dr. Manly, who attended him in his last sickness, and to whom Paine
spoke his last words. Dr. Manly asked him if he did not wish to
believe in Jesus Christ. and he replied: "I have no wish to believe on
that subject."
9. Willet Hicks and Elias Hicks, who were with him frequently during
his last sickness, and both of whom tried to persuade him to recant.
According to their testimony Mr. Paine died as he lived--a believer in
God and a friend to man. Willet Hicks was offered money to say
something false against Paine. He was even offered money to remain
silent, and allow others to slander the dead. Mr. Hicks, speaking of
Thomas Paine, said: "He was a good man. Thomas Paine was an honest
man."
10. Amasa Woodsworth, who was with him every day for some six weeks
immediately preceding his death, and sat up with him the last two
nights of his life. This man declares that Paine did not recant, and
that he died tranquilly. The evidence of Mr. Woodsworth is conclusive.
11. Thomas Paine himself. The will of Mr. Paine, written by himself,
commences as follows: "The last will and testament of me, the
subscriber, Thomas Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator, God, and
in no other being, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other,"
and closes with these words: "I have lived an honest and useful life
to mankind. My time has been spent in doing good, and I die in perfect
composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God."
12. If Thomas Paine recanted, why do you pursue him? If he recanted
he died in your belief. For what reason, then, do you denounce his
death as cowardly? If upon his death-bed he renounced the opinions he
had published, the business of defaming him should be done by infidels,
not by Christians. I ask Christians if it is honest to throw away the
testimony of his friends, the evidence of fair and honorable men, and
take the putrid words of avowed and malignant enemies? When Thomas
Paine was dying he was infested by fanatics, by the snaky spies of
bigotry. In the shadows of death were the unclean birds of prey
waiting to tear, with beak and claw, the corpse of him who wrote the
"Rights of Man," and there lurking and crouching in the darkness, were
the jackals and hyenas of superstition, ready to violate his grave.
These birds of prey--these unclean beasts--are the witnesses produced
and relied upon to malign the memory of Thomas Paine. One by one the
instruments of torture have been wrenched from the cruel clutch of the
church, until within the armory of orthodoxy there remains but one
weapon--Slander.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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