"Was he filthy? He was the friend and associate of Washington and Franklin. He was a member of the most conspicuous philosophical society in the new world. He was associated with the most distinguished men of the philosophical circles of France. Was he little? He entered an intellectual combat with Edmund Burke, and won immortal renown. Was he little? He was big enough and mighty enough to make the throne of Great Britain tremble. Was he little? He was big enough to make in America as well as in France the cause of human liberty his debtor forever "--_Dr. John E. Roberts._ Commenting on this slander the _Nation_ of England says: "After all, our feelings of resentment at such a brutality are assuaged by the reflection that whereas, this man, will in a quick generation sink to the obscurity from which a series of accidents lifted him for a few years, history will gradually set in its proper place among the makers of the Republic the memory of the man whom he defamed." "All this vilification is really the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius."--_Elbert Hubbard_. Walt Whitman: "Paine was double damnably lied about." "Anything lower, meaner, more contemptible, I cannot imagine, to take an aged man--a man tired to death after a complicated life of toil, struggle, anxiety--weak, dragged down, at death's door;... then to pull him into the mud, distort everything he does and says; oh, it's infamous." "Thomas Paine had a noble personality, as exhibited in presence, face, voice, dress, manner, and what may be called his atmosphere and magnetism, especially the later years of his life. I am sure of it. Of the foul and foolish fictions yet told about the circumstances of his decease, the absolute fact is that he lived a good life, after its kind; he died calmly and philosophically, as became him." Dr. Morrison Davidson: "He died as he lived, one of the grandest examples of intellectual piety, fidelity and rectitude that ever lived." New York Advertiser (June 9, 1809): "With heartfelt sorrow and poignant regret, we are compelled to announce to the world that Thomas Paine is no more. This distinguished philanthropist, whose life was devoted to the cause of humanity, departed this life yesterday morning; and, if any man's memory deserves a place in the breast of a freeman, it is that of the deceased, for, "'Take him for all in all, We ne'er shall look upon his like again.'" (Paine's remains were buried on his farm at New Rochelle. Ten years later, because of America's ingratitude and neglect, William Cobbett had his bones disinterred and sent to England. In connection with their reinterment he had planned a great popular demonstration. "When I return," he said, "I shall cause them to speak the common sense of the great man; I shall gather together the people of Liverpool and Manchester in one assembly with those of London, and those bones will effect the reformation of England in Church and State."