"The Republic owes so much to him that it is hardly seemly that it should continue doing less than justice to his memory."--_New York World._ Hon. Henry S. Randall: "Concede all the allegations against him and it still leaves him the author of 'Common Sense' and certain other papers, which rung like clarions in the darkest hour of the Revolutionary struggle, inspiring the bleeding and starving and pestilence-stricken as the pen of no other man ever inspired them." "_Shame rest on the pen which dares not to do him justice._" "A religion which will incite its followers, with virtual unanimity, to pursue with malignant hatred and to blacken with all the refinements of insatiable malice the memory of a distinguished benefactor of the human race, on the sole ground of his renunciation of certain theological dogmas, is undeniably the embodiment of a spirit hostile to intellectual liberty and human progress."--_James F. Morton, Jr._ "The national ingratitude displayed toward him on account of the fact of his theological heresies has hardly a parallel in history. In vindicating his memory, and calling attention, afresh to his invaluable services, we are not indulging in a blind hero worship, but are establishing a principle. The securing of justice to Paine, against the venomous hatred invoked by his priestly enemies, involves a crushing blow to clerical malice, and the winning of a victory which will have large consequences. In the person of Paine, we are vindicating the principles of religious liberty and confounding its antagonists."--_Ibid._ "The Atheists and Secularists of our time are printing, reading, revering a work ['Age of Reason'] that opposes their opinions. For above its arguments and criticisms they see the faithful heart contending with a mighty Apollyon, girt with all the forces of revolutionary and royal Terrorism. Just this one Englishman, born again in America, confronting George III. and Robespierre on earth and tearing the like of them from the throne of the universe! Were it only for the grandeur of this spectacle in the past Paine would maintain his hold on thoughtful minds. But in America the hold is deeper than that. In this self-forgetting insurrection of the human heart against deified Inhumanity there is an expression of the inarticulate wrath of humanity against continuance of the same wrong... There is still visible, however refined, the sting and claw of the Apollyon against whom Paine hurled his far-reaching dart."--_Dr. Conway._ Judge Thomas Herttell: "No man in modern ages has done more to benefit mankind, or distinguished himself more for the immense moral good he has effected for his species, than Thomas Paine." Ernestine L. Rose: "He was one of the greatest benefactors of mankind." Theodore Parker: "His instincts were humane and elevated,' and his life was devoted mainly to the great purposes of humanity."