The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 1. (of 2): With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England; to which is added a Sketch of Paine by William CobbettConway, Moncure Daniel
Religion
The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 1. (of 2): With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England; to which is added a Sketch of Paine by William Cobbett
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
"Honorable Sirs.--Finding by the Journals of this House, of yesterday,
that I am not to be heard, and having in my letter of the same day,
prior to that resolution, declared that I could not 'in duty to my
character as a freeman submit to be censured unheard,' therefore,
consistent with that declaration, and to maintain that Right, I think it
my duty to resign the office of Secretary to the Committee for foreign
Affairs, and I do hereby resign the same. The Papers and documents in my
charge I shall faithfully deliver up to the Committee, either on honor
or oath, as they or this House shall direct.
"Considering myself now no longer a servant of Congress, I conceive
it convenient that I should declare what have been the motives of my
conduct. On the appearance of Mr. Deane's Address to the Public of the
5 of Dec, in which he said 'The ears of the Representatives were shut
against him,' the honor and justice of this House were impeached and
its reputation sunk to the lowest ebb in the opinion of the People. The
expressions of suspicion and degradation which have been uttered in my
hearing and are too indecent to be related in this letter, first induced
me to set the Public right; but so grounded were they, almost without
exception, in their ill opinion of this House, that instead of
succeeding as I wished in my first address, I fell under the same
reproach and was frequently told that I was defending Congress in their
bad designs. This obliged me to go farther into the matters, and I
have now reason to believe that my endeavours have been and will be
effectual.
"My wish and my intentions in all my late publications were to preserve
the public from error and imposition, to support as far as laid in my
power the just authority of the Representatives of the People, and to
cordiallize and cement the Union that has so happily taken place between
this country and France.
"I have betrayed no Trust because I have constantly employed that Trust
to the public good. I have revealed no secrets because I have told
nothing that was, or I conceive ought to be a secret. I have convicted
Mr. Deane of error, and in so doing I hope I have done my duty.
"It is to the interest of the Alliance that the People should know that
before America had any agent in Europe the 'public-spirited gentlemen'
in that quarter of the world were her warm friends. And I hope this
Honorable House will receive it from me as a farther testimony of
my affection to that Alliance, and of my attention to the duty of my
office, that I mention, that the duplicates of the Dispatches of Oct. 6
and 7, 1777, from the Commissioners, the originals of which are in the
Enemy's possession, seem to require on that account a reconsideration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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