The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 2. (of 2): With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and EnglandConway, Moncure Daniel
History
The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 2. (of 2): With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
"I will be obliged to you to send back the Models, as I am packing up
to set off for Philadelphia and New York. My intention in bringing them
here in preference to sending them from Baltimore to Philadelphia, was
to have some conversation with you on those matters and others I have
not informed you of. But you have not only shown no disposition towards
it, but have, in some measure, by a sort of shyness, as if you stood in
fear of federal observation, precluded it. I am not the only one, who
makes observations of this kind."
Jefferson at once took care that there should be no misunderstanding
as to his regard for Paine. The author was for some days a guest in the
President's family, where he again met Maria Jefferson (Mrs. Eppes) whom
he had known in Paris. Randall says the devout ladies of the family had
been shy of Paine, as was but natural, on account of the President's
reputation for rationalism, but "Paine's discourse was weighty, his
manners sober and inoffensive; and he left Mr. Jefferson's mansion the
subject of lighter prejudices than he entered it."*
* "Life of Jefferson," ii., 642 sec. Randall is mistaken in
some statements. Paine, as we have seen, did not return on
the ship placed at his service by the President; nor did
the President's letter appear until long after his return,
when he and Jefferson felt it necessary in order to disabuse
the public mind of the most absurd rumors on the subject.
Paine's defamers have manifested an eagerness to ascribe his
maltreatment to personal faults. This is not the case. For some years
after his arrival in the country no one ventured to hint anything
disparaging to his personal habits or sobriety. On January 1, 1803, he
wrote to Samuel Adams: "I have a good state of health and a happy mind;
I take care of both by nourishing the first with temperance, and the
latter with abundance."
Had not this been true the "federal" press would have noised it abroad.
He was neat in his attire. In all portraits, French and American, his
dress is in accordance with the fashion. There was not, so far as I can
discover, a suggestion while he was at Washington, that he was not a
suitable guest for any drawing-room in the capital On February 23,
1803, probably, was written the following which I find among the Cobbett
papers:
From Mr. Paine to Mr. Jefferson, on the occasion of a toast being given
at a federal dinner at Washington, of "May they
NEVER KNOW PLEASURE WHO LOVE PAINE."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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