Volume II Part 29 (2/2)
Nothing cas of Paine; but perhaps on his last stroll along the Hudson, with his friend Fulton, to watch the little stea its labors for the federation of the world
Early in July, 1808, Paine removed to a comfortable abode, that of Mrs
Ryder, near which Madame Bonneville and her two sons resided The house was on Herring Street (afterwards 293 Bleecker), and not far, he ht be pleased to find, from ”Reason Street” Here hea brief letter ”To the Federal Faction,” which he warns that they are endangering A theation act that will exclude American shi+ps from Europe ”The United States have flourished, unrivalled in commerce, fifteen or sixteen years But it is not a pers It arose froe at the close of the present war The Federalists give provocation enough to promote it”
Apparently this is the last letter Paine ever sent to the printer The year passed peacefully away; indeed there is reason to believe that from the middle of July, 1808, to the end of January, 1809, he fairly enjoyed existence During this time he made acquaintance with the worthy Willett Hicks, watchmaker, as a Quaker preacher His conversations with Willett Hicks--whose cousin, Elias Hicks, becaure in the Quaker Society twenty years later--were fruitful
Seven serene months then passed away Towards the latter part of January, 1809, Paine was very feeble On the 18th he wrote and signed his Will, in which he reaffirms his theistic faith On February 1st the Committee of Clai, ”That Mr Paine rendered great and ele for liberty and independence cannot be doubted by any person acquainted with his labours in the cause, and attached to the principles of the contest” On February 25th he had some fever, and a doctor was sent for Mrs Ryder attributed the attack to Paine's having stopped taking stiht later symptoms of dropsy appeared Towards the end of April Paine was removed to a house on the spot now occupied by No 59 Grove Street, Mada up her abode under the same roof The oas William A Thompson, once a law partner of Aaron Burr, whose wife, _nee_ Maria Holdron, was a niece of Elihu Palmer The whole of the back part of the house (which was in a lot, no street being then cut) was given up to Paine
The topographical facts were investigated by John Randel, Jr, Civil Engineer, at the request of David C Valentine, Clerk of the Co rendered April 6, 1864
Reports of neglect of Paine by Madame Bonneville have been credited by soave all the time she could to the sufferer, and did her best for hihter (afterwards Mrs Cheese-man) used to take Paine delicacies The only procurable nurse was a woman named Hedden, who combined piety and artfulness Paine's physician was the uished in New York, Dr Roet into the house one Dr Manly, who turned out to be Cheetham's spy Manly afterwards contributed to Cheetha letter, in which he claimed to have been Paine's physician It will be seen, however, by Madame Bonneville's narrative to Cobbett, that Paine was under the care of his friend Dr Ro that he called as many did, never saw Paine alone, he was unable to assert that Paine recanted, but he converted the exclamations of the sufferer into prayers to Christ
Another claimant to have been Paine's physician has been cited In 1876 (N Y, Observer) Feb 17th) Rev Dr Wickham reported from a late Dr Matson Smith, of New Rochelle, that he had been Paine's physician, and witnessed his drunkenness Unfortunately for Wickham he makes Smith say it was on his farm where Paine ”spent his latter days” Paine was not on his farm for two years before his death Smith could never have attended Paine unless in 1803, when he had a slight trouble with his hands,--the only illness he ever had at New Rochelle,--while the guest of a neighbor, who attests his sobriety Finally, a friend of Dr S, Mr Albert Willcox, rites me his recollection of what Smith told him of Paine Neither drunkenness, nor any item of Wickham's report is mentioned He said Paine was afraid of death, but could only have heard it
The God of wrath who ruled in New York a hundred years, through the end The three alternatives of the heretic were, recantation, special judgment, terrible death Before Paine's arrival in America, the excitement on his approach had tempted a canny Scot, Donald Fraser, to write an anticipated ”Recantation” for hily devised so as to imply that there had been an actual recantation On his arrival in New York, Paine found it necessary to call Fraser to account, The Scotch as fencing-hty dollars for writing the ”Recantation” Paine said: ”I alad you found the expedient a successful shi+ft for your needy fa Tho more worthy of a man”
Dr Francis' ”Old New York,” p 139
The second hout the land; revivalists were describing in New Jersey how soinia how one was struck dumb in New Jersey
But here was the very head and front of what they called ”infidelity,”
Thoathered in his side a sheaf of thunderbolts, preserved by more marvellous ”providences” than any sectarian saint Out of one hundred and sixty carried to the guillotine from his prison, he alone was saved, by the accident of a chalkside of his cell door On two shi+ps he prepared to return to America, but was prevented; one sank at sea, the other was searched by the British for him particularly And at the verydown fire on his head, Christopher Dederick tried vainly to answer the iun only shattered the hich the author sat ”Providence must be as bad as Thomas Paine,” wrote the old deist
This amounted to a sort of contest like that of old between the prophets of Baal and those of Jehovah The deists were crying to their antagonists: ”Perchance he sleepeth” It seemed a test case If Paine was spared, what heretic need tremble? But he reached his threescore years and ten in co off with him represented a last hope
Skepticism and rationaliso In soions they are not understood yet Renan thinks he will have his legend in France modelled after Judas But no educated Christian conceives of a recantation or extraordinary death-bed for a Darwin, a Parker, an Eht be a posthuend” In 1875, when he was ill in St Luke's Hospital, New York, he desired ht, if necessary, testify to his fearlessness and fidelity to his views in the presence of death But he has died without the ”legend,” whose decline dates froe
The whole nation had recently been thrown into a wild excitement by the fall of Alexander Hamilton in a duel with Aaron Burr Haymen (Bishop Moore and the Presbyterian John Mason) reported his dying words of unctuous piety and orthodoxy In a public letter to the Rev John Mason, Paine said:
”Between you and your rival in communion ceremonies, Dr Moore of the Episcopal church, you have, in order to make yourselves appear of some importance, reduced General Haoing out of the world wanted a passport from a priest Which of you was first applied to for this purpose is a matter of no consequence The man, sir, who puts his trust and confidence in God, that leads a just and ood, does not trouble himself about priests when his hour of departure comes, nor permit priests to trouble themselves about him”
The words idely commented on, and both sides looked forward, alht, to the hour when the man who had un of Terrors
Since Michael and Satan had their legendary co like it In view of the pious raids on Paine's death-bed, freethinkers have not been quite fair To my own mind, some respect is due to those hu eternal fires, and had a frantic desire to save hiotten that several liberal Christians, like Hicks, were friendly towards Paine at the close of his life, whereas his nant enemies were of his own ”Painite” household, Carver and Cheethalish clergyha's) father He heard him say that Paine and he were friends; and that ”the whole fault was that people hectored Paine, and s he would never say to those who treated hientleman”
Paine had no fear of death; Madame Bonneville's narrative shows that his fear was rather of living too long But he had so his house at Fernay after it began to lighten
He was not afraid of the lightning, he said, but of what the neighboring priest would make of it should he be struck Paine had some reason to fear that the zealots who had placarded the devil flying aith hi His unwillingness to be left alone, ascribed to superstitious terror, was due to efforts to get a recantation from him, so determined that he dare not be without witnesses He had foreseen this While living with Jarvis, two years before, he desired him to bear witness that he maintained his theistic convictions to the last Jarvis merrily proposed that he should make a sensation by a mock recantation, but the author said, ”Tom Paine never told a lie” When he knew that his illness was mortal he solemnly reaffirmed these opinions in the presence of Madame Bonneville, Dr
Romaine, Mr Haskin, Captain Pelton, and Thomas Nixon The nurse Hedden, if the Catholic Bishop of Boston (Fenwick) remembered accurately thirty-seven years later, et him into the patient's room, from which, of course, he was stormily expelled But the Bishop's story is so like a pious novelette that, in the absence of any mention of his visit by Madame Bonneville, herself a Catholic, one cannot be sure that the intervieaited so long to report did not take place in some slumberous episcopal chamber in Boston
Sec the certificate of Nixon and Pelton to Cobbett (Vale, p 177)
Bishop Fenwick's narrative (U S Catholic Magazine, 1846) is quoted in the N Y Observer September 27, 1877
(Extremes become friends when a freethinker is to be crucified)