Thomas Paine, the Apostle of Liberty: An Address Delivered in Chicago, January 29, 1916; Including the Testimony of Five Hundred WitnessesRemsburg, John E. (John Eleazer)
History
Thomas Paine, the Apostle of Liberty: An Address Delivered in Chicago, January 29, 1916; Including the Testimony of Five Hundred Witnesses
Remsburg, John E. (John Eleazer)
Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
Cobbett, probably waiting for a more opportune time, failed to carry out
his cherished scheme. The bones of Paine reposed for nearly thirty
years in their coffin and then disappeared. As late as 1854 a Unitarian
clergyman claimed to have in his possession "the skull and the right
hand of Thomas Paine.")
"The skull and the right hand of Thomas Paine!" What priceless relics!
Could they be found America should repossess them, place them in a
casket of gold and preserve them in a shrine at her national capitol.
Within that skull was conceived this great republic. That hand wrote the
inspired volume which transformed a vague dream into a glorious reality.
That hand, too, wrote two other immortal works which, slowly but surely,
are effecting what Cobbett contemplated, "the reformation of England in
Church and State."
"His 'Rights of Man' is now the political constitution of England,
his 'Age of Reason' is the growing constitution of its Church."--_Dr.
Conway._
"As to his bones, no man knows the place of their rest to this day. His
principles rest not. His thoughts, untraceable like his dust, are blown
about the world which he held in his heart. For a hundred years no
human being has been born in the civilized world without some spiritual
tincture from that heart whose every pulse was for humanity, whose
last beat broke a fetter of fear, and fell on the throne of
thrones."--_Ibid._
Rev. Charles Wendt, DD.: "A much abused name."
Rev. O. B. Frothingham: "No private character has been more foully
calumniated in the name of God than that of Thomas Paine."
"No page in history, stained as it is with treachery and falsehood, or
cold-blooded indifference to right or wrong, exhibits a more disgraceful
instance of public ingratitude than that which Thomas Paine experienced
from an age and country which he had so faithfully served."--_Rev.
Solomon Southwick_.
Referring to Paine, the Boston _Herald_ says: "It has, perhaps, never
fallen to the lot of any really great man to be so traduced in his
lifetime, and, after the grave has closed over him, to have his
memory so weighted down with obloquy of unsparing critics." Mrs.
Bradlaugh-Bonner of England, daughter of Charles Bradlaugh, one of
England's noted orators and statesmen, says: "Paine's politics were
politics for the people, and the people were taught to deny him; his
ideal religion was 'the Religion of Humanity,' and humanity would not
even grant him a grave." Col. Ingersoll says: "I challenge the world
to show that Thomas Paine ever wrote one line, one word in favor of
tyranny--in favor of immorality; one line, one word against what he
believed to be for the highest and best interests of mankind; one
line, one word against justice, charity or liberty; and yet he has been
pursued as though he had been a fiend from hell."
Harriet Law: "There are few to whom the world owes more, and probably
none to whose memory it has been more ungrateful."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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