"Almost a century ago an American newspaper claimed to have proof that Jefferson did not write the Declaration, and strongly hinted that Paine wrote it. "Jefferson, it is said, never formally claimed the authorship until after Paine's death, and was always reticent on the subject." Walton Williams: "Ever since the Revolution there has been a tradition in certain parts of the country that the real author of the Declaration of Independence was Thomas Paine. The storm of opprobrium that beat upon Paine's name because af his religious writings almost eradicated this tradition." Jefferson lived fifty years after the Declaration appeared. During all this time--and his silence is significant--he never claimed the authorship of the document except in the epitaph which he is said to have prepared for his tombstone. He was its accredited author and in an official sense was its author, and in this sense the claim made in his epitaph is admissible. Nearly seventy years ago George M. Dallas, then Vice President of the United States, and an admirer of Jefferson, contended that Paine wrote the Declaration. "Whoever may have written the Declaration, Paine was its author."--_William Cobbett._ New York Sun: "In addition to his great responsibility for the literary form of the Declaration of Independence, he contributed to literature a number of phrases which have held a place." "His phrase, 'These are the times that try men's souls,' illuminates that gigantic struggle [American Revolution] and has become one of the shibboleths of liberty."--_Michael Monahan_. "No life was ever attuned to a nobler sentiment--'Where liberty is not there is my home.'"--_Dr. Lucy Waite_. "'The world is my country, to do good my religion." Was ever nobler thought conceived than this?"--_Eva Ingersoll Brown_. "Had Paine given to the world nothing more than that matchless phrase which he adopted as his motto, 'The world is my country; to do good is my religion,' I should still feel that he was indeed entitled to a supernal position in the galleries of Fame."--_Elbert Hubbard_. "A jewel which sparkles forever on the outstretched forefinger of Time."--_George W. Foote._ Peter Eckler: "Paine's political and religious writings exerted an immense influence in America, England and France during his life, and since his death that beneficent influence has increased and extended throughout the civilized world." Horace Seaver: "Paine's writings are a noble monument to the loftiness of his aims, the brilliancy of his genius, the wealth of benevolence in his heart, and the breadth and power of his intellect." Horace Traubel: "He will always stand there, immortal in history, a contemporary giant in whose aggressiveness and fortitude political literature discovered a new epoch. He will ever be ranked with the masters in theological innovation." General Nathaniel Greene: "Your fame for your writings will be immortal." REFORMS AND INVENTIONS.