Excepting Cheetham and Chalmers, all of the biographers of Paine--Conway, Vale, Rickman, Sedgwick, Sherwin, Blanchard, Linton and others--have endeavored to do him justice. But Cheetham's and Chalmer's books have been the arsenals where the orthodox of England and America have gone for their weapons with which to attack the author of the "Age of Reason." Not only have they tried to suppress Paine's book, they have tried to banish from the public library and book-store every work that has appeared in defense of it or its author. For three-quarters of a century the only biographies of Paine to be found in the London library were those of Cheetham and Chalmers; the only one to be found in the public libraries of America was that of Cheetham. Is it any wonder, then, that nearly all the pictures of Paine, even those drawn by friendly hands, to be found in our histories, biographical dictionaries, encyclopedias and other works, should be largely caricatures? One of the foulest of these caricatures is that drawn by the historian John Bach McMaster. For this writer's scurrilous attack on Paine no excuse can be offered. The plea of ignorance of Paine's true character and history cannot be urged in his behalf. He had before him the authentic records of Paine's career, in America, at least. He knew that his statements were untruthful and unjust. His tirade of abuse is seemingly for the sole purpose of securing for his books the endorsement of the clerical bigots who dominate our schools and colleges. Louisa Harding: "One would imagine that even the religious bigot would know that he [McMaster] drew for us the picture of a great man, looming up tall and wide behind the chronicler who strove to pull him down.... In the course of a careful, impartial investigation of the various lives of, and articles on, Paine, it became necessary to resort to the explanation of blinding religious prejudice; and that, too, having failed to fit the case, there seems to be no recourse save to use a shorter, uglier word--John Bach McMaster _lies_." A little while ago a prominent American, misled by Paine's calumniators and too proud to retract it when the error was called to his attention, applied to the author-hero the brutal epithet "filthy little Atheist"--three falsehoods in three words, for Paine was neither filthy, little, nor an Atheist. [See the works of President Theodore Roosevelt for this quotation of his opinion of Thomas Paine. DW] "Every syllable of that characterization is a shameful falsehood."--_William M. Salter, A.M._ "One of the most transparently false and indefensible slanders that ever came from lip or pen."--_J. P. Bland, B. D._