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
The deep affection entertained for Paine by his Parisian friends was
shown when, grievously ill and believed to be dying, he was carried from
his cot in the Luxembourg to the home of the Monroes. I quote again from
Dr. Conway: "Paine had been restored by the tenderness and devotion of
friends. Had it not been for friendship he could hardly have been saved.
We are little able, in the present day, to appreciate the reverence and
affection with which Thomas Paine was regarded by those who saw in him
the greatest apostle of liberty in the world.... In Paris there
were ladies and gentlemen who had known something of the cost of
liberty--Col. and Mrs. Monroe, Sir Robert and Lady Smith, Madame
Lafayette, Mr. and Mrs. Barlow, M. and Madame de Bonneville. They
had known what it was to watch through anxious nights with terrors
surrounding them. He who % had suffered most was to them a sacred
person. He had come out of the succession of ordeals, so weak in body,
so wounded by American ingratitude, so sore at heart, that no delicate
child needed more tender care.... Men say their Arthur is dead, but
their love is stronger than death. And though the service of these
friends might at first have been reverential, it ended with attachment,
so great was Paine's power, so wonderful and pathetic his memories, so
charming the play of his wit, so full his response to kindness."
"In Luxembourg prison," says Conway, "he won all hearts."
Augustus C. Buel: "Jones [John Paul] liked Tom Paine and Paine
almost worshiped Jones [they were in Paris]. All through the American
Revolution they had been fast friends, familiarly calling each other
'Tom' and 'Paul.'"
Joseph Mazzini Wheeler: "Landor [Walter Savage] told my friend Mr. Birch
of Florence that he particularly admired Paine, and that he visited him,
having first obtained an interview at the house of General Dumouriez
[the most famous general of the Revolution]. Landor declared that Paine
was always called 'Tom,' not out of disrespect, but because he was a
jolly good fellow."
Lord Edward Fitzgerald (to his mother): "I lodge with my friend Paine
[in Paris]; we breakfast, dine, and sup together. The more I see of his
interior the more I like and respect him. I cannot express how kind he
is to me. There is a simplicity of manner, a goodness of heart, and a
strength of mind in him that I never knew a man before to possess."
Lady Lucy Fitzgerald: "Although he [Lord Edward] was unsuccessful in the
glorious attempt of liberating his country [Ireland] from slavery, still
he was not unmindful of the lessons you taught him. Accept, then, his
picture from his unhappy sister. Its place is in your house; my heart
will be satisfied with such a Pantheon: it knows no consolation but the
approbation of such men as you, and the soothing recollection that he
did his duty and died faithful to the cause of liberty."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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