Gilbert Vale, next to Dr. Conway, one of Paine's best biographers, says: "Mr. Paine was as much esteemed in his private life as in his public. He was a welcome visitor to the tables of the most distinguished citizens.... He possessed every prominent virtue in large proportions, and to these he added the most social qualities." Annie Cary Morris: "Mr. Jefferson, it was said, received him warmly, dined him at the White House, and could be seen walking arm in arm with him on the street any fine afternoon." "The author [Paine] was for some days a guest in the President's family."--_Dr. Conway_. In his old age Paine received the following, one of many similar assurances of Jefferson's affection: "That you may live long to continue your useful labors, and reap the reward in the thankfulness of nations, is my sincere prayer. Accept the assurances of my high esteem and affectionate attachment." "Jefferson's dearest friend," says Albert Payson Terhune, "was Thomas Paine." Albert Badeau: "My mother [in whose mother's family, prominent and wealthy residents of New Rochelle, Paine boarded for a time during his later years] would never tolerate the aspersions on Mr. Paine. She declared steadfastly to the end of her life that he was a perfect gentleman, and a most faithful friend, amiable, gentle, never intemperate in eating or drinking. My mother declared that my grandmother equally pronounced the disparaging reports about Mr. Paine slanders. I never remembered to have seen my mother angry except when she heard such calumnies of Mr. Paine, when she would almost insult those who uttered them. My mother and grandmother were very religious, members of the Episcopal church." The handsome monument erected to Paine at New Rochelle is said to have been suggested by Mrs. Badeau. D. Burger (one of Paine's acquaintances at New Rochelle, who often took him out riding): "Mr. Paine was really abstemious, and when pressed to drink by those on whom he called during his rides he usually refused with great firmness, but politely." D. M. Bennett of New York, writing forty years ago, says: "I have conversed with Major A. Coutant and Mr. Barker of New Rochelle, now very far advanced in life, but who distinctly remember Mr. Paine. They remember him as a pleasant, genial man, who lived on good terms with his neighbors and was not known to ever have been intoxicated." Judge J. B. Stallo, Minister to Italy during President Cleveland's administration, told Dr. Conway "that in early life he visited the place [New Rochelle] and saw persons who had known Paine, and who declared that Paine resided there without fault."