In this second charge there is not one word of truth. He held a small office in England. If he was a defaulter the records of that country will show that fact. Mr. Thorburn, unless the record can be produced to substantiate him, stands convicted of at least two mistakes. Now, as to the third: He says that in 1802 Paine was an "old remnant of mortality, drunk, bloated and half asleep." Can any one believe this to be a true account of the personal appearance of Mr. Paine in 1802? He had just returned from France. He had been wel- comed home by Thomas Jefferson, who had said that he was entitled to the hospitality of every American. 473 In 1802 Mr. Paine was honored with a public din- ner in the city of New York. He was called upon and treated with kindness and respect by such men as DeWitt Clinton. In 1806 Mr. Paine wrote a letter to Andrew A. Dean upon the subject of religion. Read that letter and then say that the writer of it was an "old rem- nant of mortality, drunk, bloated and half asleep." Search the files of the New York Observer from the first issue to the last, and you will find nothing supe- rior to this letter. In 1803 Mr. Paine wrote a letter of considerable length, and of great force, to his friend Samuel Adams. Such letters are not written by drunken beasts, nor by remnants of old mortality, nor by drunkards. It was about the same time that he wrote his "Remarks on Robert Hall's Sermons." These "Remarks" were not written by a drunken beast, but by a clear-headed and thoughtful man. In 1804 he published an essay on the invasion of England, and a treatise on gunboats, full of valuable maritime information:--in 1805, a treatise on yellow fever, suggesting modes of prevention. In short, he was an industrious and thoughtful man. He sympa- thized with the poor and oppressed of all lands. He looked upon monarchy as a species of physical 474 slavery. He had the goodness to attack that form of government. He regarded the religion of his day as a kind of mental slavery. He had the courage to give his reasons for his opinion. His reasons filled the churches with hatred. Instead of answering his arguments they attacked him. Men who were not fit to blacken his shoes, blackened his character. There is too much religious cant in the statement of Mr. Thorburn. He exhibited too much anxiety to tell what Grant Thorburn said to Thomas Paine. He names Thomas Jefferson as one of the disreputa- ble men who welcomed Paine with open arms. The testimony of a man who regarded Thomas Jefferson as a disreputable person, as to the character of any- body, is utterly without value. In my judgment, the testimony of Mr. Thorburn should be thrown aside as wholly unworthy of belief.