Madison, Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, and others urged the appointment of Paine to a place in Washington's cabinet. "A little less modesty, a little more preference of himself to humanity, and a good deal more of what ought to be common sense on the part of the people he sought to free, and he would have been President of the United States."--_Calvin Blanchard_. Marquis de Lafayette: "To me America without her Thomas Paine is unthinkable." Should you ever visit Mount Vernon you will see among the many interesting relics preserved there a key. It is the Key of the Bastille, the demolition of which, on the 14th of July, 1789, was France's Declaration of Independence. This key passed through the hands of three celebrated men and associates in the mind the world's two greatest revolutions. Its history, briefly stated, is as follows: "Jefferson [then Minister to France] had sailed [for America] in September, and Paine was recognized by Lafayette and other leaders as the representative of the United States. To Paine Lafayette gave for presentation to Washington the key of the destroyed Bastille, ever since visible at Mount Vernon--symbol of the fact that, in Paine's words, 'the principles of America opened the Bastille.'"--_Conway_. Dr. J. Rudis-Jicinsky: "When, in Germany, I read for the first time Paine's 'Common Sense' I thought that in the land of liberty, the United States, this hero who upheld the cause of the Colonies must be glorified and his works known to every patriotic citizen... To my astonishment I found that in this country the name of this great writer was not even known to all its citizens. Then a flood of light flashed through my brain and by its rays I spelled the word 'Ingratitude.'" Unknown Writer (written in an old volume of Paine's works in a Philadelphia library): "He has no name. The country for which he labored and suffered knows him not. His ashes rest in a foreign land. A rough grass-grown mound, from which the bones have been purloined [now surmounted by a handsome monument] is all that remains on the continent of America to tell of the hero, the statesman, and the friend of man." Rev. John Snyder of St. Louis says: "Paine is one of his country's half-forgotten saviors. In the mind of that country his heresy has canceled the years of loving and priceless service he rendered to a new-born nation. The clamor of bigotry has drowned the voice of gratitude." "His patriotism shows not the slightest stain, and yet children have been taught to abhor his name."--_Ibid._ "The highest monument of injustice on this earth is America's ingratitude to Thomas Paine."--_James P. Bland, B.D._ "It is time the world awakened to his merits."--_Ella Wheeler Wilcox._ "It is time that justice should be done the memory of the man who strove and suffered for his fellowmen."--_William Marion Reedy_.