Volume II Part 22 (1/2)
This letter to Samuel Adams (January 1, 1803) has indications that Paine had developed farther his theistic ideal
”We cannot serve the Deity in the manner we serve those who cannot do without that service He needs no service fro to eternity But it is in our power to render a service acceptable to hi to make his creatures happy A , for it is hi men to pray, as if the Deity needed instruction, it is in my opinion an abohthe Deity with prayers, as if I distrusted him, or must dictate to him, I reposed myself on his protection; and you, my friend, will find, even in your last nation than in thewish of a prayer”
Paine must have been especially hurt by a sentence in the letter of Samuel Adams in which he said: ”Our friend, the president of the United States, has been calumniated for his liberal sentiments, by n to promote the cause of infidelity” To this he did not reply, but it probably led him to feel a deeper disappointment at the postponement of the interviews he had hoped to enjoy with Jefferson after thirteen years of separation A feeling of this kind no doubt pro note (January 12th) sent to the President:
”I will be obliged to you to send back the Models, as I a up to set off for Philadelphia and New York My intention in bringing the them from Baltimore to Philadelphia, was to have some conversation with you on those matters and others I have not informed you of But you have not only shown no disposition towards it, but have, in some measure, by a sort of shyness, as if you stood in fear of federal observation, precluded it I am not the only one, who makes observations of this kind”
Jefferson at once took care that there should be no ard for Paine The author was for soain met Maria Jefferson (Mrs Eppes) whom he had known in Paris Randall says the devout ladies of the family had been shy of Paine, as was but natural, on account of the President's reputation for rationalishty, his manners sober and inoffensive; and he left Mr Jefferson's hter prejudices than he entered it”
”Life of Jefferson,” ii, 642 sec Randall is mistaken in some statements Paine, as we have seen, did not return on the shi+p placed at his service by the President; nor did the President's letter appear until long after his return, when he and Jefferson felt it necessary in order to disabuse the public mind of the most absurd rumors on the subject
Paine's defaerness to ascribe his maltreatment to personal faults This is not the case For some years after his arrival in the country no one ventured to hint anything disparaging to his personal habits or sobriety On January 1, 1803, he wrote to Saood state of health and a happythe first with temperance, and the latter with abundance”
Had not this been true the ”federal” press would have noised it abroad
He was neat in his attire In all portraits, French and American, his dress is in accordance with the fashi+on There was not, so far as I can discover, a suggestion while he was at Washi+ngton, that he was not a suitable guest for any drawing-room in the capital On February 23, 1803, probably, ritten the follohich I find a the Cobbett papers:
Fro given at a federal dinner at Washi+ngton, of ”May they
NEVER KNOW PLEASURE WHO LOVE PAINE”
”I send you, Sir, a tale about soerheads
The case was this, they felt so flat and sunk, They took a glass together and got drunk
Such things, you know, are neither new nor rare, For some will hary themselves when in despair
It was the natal day of Washi+ngton, And that they thought a fareed, The better day the better deed
They talked away, and as the glass went round They grew, in point of wisdom, more profound; For at the bottom of the bottle lies That kind of sense we overlook ise
Come, here 's a toast, cried one, with roar immense, May none know pleasure who love Common Sense
Bravo! cried some,--no, no! some others cried, But left it to the waiter to decide
I think, said he, the case would be more plain, To leave out Cohty noise arose a
So people wiser made them worse; It learned them to be careful of their purse, And not be laid about like babes at nurse, Nor yet believe in stories upon trust, Which all overned must; And that the toast was better at the first, And he that did n't think so ht be cursed
So on they went, till such a fray arose As all who knohat Feds are may suppose”
On his way northward, to his old home in Bor-dentown, Paine passedon his journey In Baltiian was then called, the Rev Mr Hargrove, accosted him with the infor lost 4,000 years
”Then it must be very rusty,” answered Paine In Philadelphia his old friend Dr Benjamin Rush never came near him ”His principles,” wrote Rush to Cheethae of Reason,' were so offensive to me that I did not wish to renew ee models at Peale's Museum, but if he met any old friend there no mention of it appears Most of those who had --were dead, soe Cly in Philadelphia, for he was eager to reach the spot he always regarded as his home, Bordentown
And there, indeed, his hope, for a time, seemed to be fulfilled It need hardly be said that his old friend Colonel Kirkbride gave hie mechanician, ”never saw him jollier,”
and he was full of ether Jefferson was candidate for the presidency, and Paine entered heartily into the canvass; which was not prudent, but he knew nothing of prudence The issue not only concerned an old friend, but was turning on the question of peace with France On March 12th he writes against the ”federalist” sche in April, over which Colonel Kirkbride presides, Paine drafts a reply to an attack on Jefferson's administration, circulated in New York On April 21 st he writes the refutation of an attack on Jefferson, _apropos_ of the national vessel offered for his return, which had been coupled with a charge that Paine had proposed to the Directory an invasion of Ae models (then at Peale's Museum, Philadelphia), and his hope to span the Delaware and the Schuylkill with iron arches