Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll, Volume 2 — 02 - Thomas Paine, Part 2

"Any system of religion that shocks the mind of a child can not be a true system.

The world is my country, and to do good my religion."

The next question is: Did Thomas Paine recant?

Mr. Paine had prophesied that fanatics would crawl and cringe around him during his last moments.

He believed that they would put a lie in the mouth of death.

When the shadow of the coming dissolution was upon him, two clergymen, Messrs. Milledollar and Cunningham, called to annoy the dying man.

Mr. Cunningham had the politeness to say: "You have now a full view of death; you can not live long; whoever does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, will assuredly be damned."

Mr. Paine replied: "Let me have none of your popish stuff.

Get away with you.

Good morning."

On another occasion a Methodist minister obtruded himself.

Mr. Willet Hicks was present.

The minister declared to Mr. Paine that "unless he repented of his unbelief he would be damned."

Paine, although at the door of death, rose in his bed and indignantly requested the clergyman to leave the room.

On another occasion, two brothers by the name of Pigott sought to convert him.

He was displeased, and requested their departure.

Afterward, Thomas Nixon and Capt. Daniel Pelton visited him for the express purpose of ascertaining whether he had, in any manner, changed his religious opinions.

They were assured, by the dying man that he still held the principles he had expressed in his writings.

Afterward, these gentlemen, hearing that William Cobbet was about to write a life of Paine, sent him the following note: I must tell you now that it is of great importance to find out whether Paine recanted.

If he recanted, then the Bible is true--you can rest assured that a spring of water gushed out of a dead dry bone.

If Paine recanted, there is not the slightest doubt about that donkey making that speech to Mr. Baalam--not the slightest--and if Paine did not recant, then the whole thing is a mistake.

I want to show that Thomas Paine died as he has lived, a friend of man and without superstition, and if you will stay here I will do it.

"New York, April 21, 1818. --Sir: Having been informed that you have a design to write a history of the life and writings of Thomas Paine, if you have been furnished with materials in respect to his religious opinions, or rather of his recantation of his former opinions before his death, all you have heard of his recanting is false.

Being aware that such reports would be raised after his death by fanatics who infested his house at the time it was expected he would die, we, the subscribers, intimate acquaintances of Thomas Paine since the year 1776, went to his house.

He was sitting up in a chair, and apparently in full vigor and use of all his mental faculties.

We interrogated him upon his religious opinions, and if he had changed his mind, or repented of anything he had said or wrote on that subject.

He answered, "Not at all," and appeared rather offended at our supposition that any change should take place in his mind.

We took down in writing the questions put to him and his answers thereto, before a number of persons then in his room, among whom were his doctor, Mrs. Bonneville, etc. This paper is mislaid and can not be found at present, but the above is the substance, which can be attested by many living witnesses.

--Thomas Nixon, Daniel Pelton" Mr. Jarvis, the artist, saw Mr. Paine one or two days before his death.

To Mr. Jarvis he expressed his belief in his written opinions upon the subject of religion.

B.

F.

Haskin, an attorney of the City of New York, also visited him, and inquired as to his religious opinions.

Paine was then upon the threshold of death, but he did not tremble, he was not a coward.

He expressed his firm and unshaken belief in the religious ideas he had given to the world.

Dr. Manly was with him when he spoke his last words.

Dr. Manly asked the dying man, and Dr. Manly was a Christian, if he did not wish to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and the dying philosopher answered: "I have no wish to believe on that subject."

Amasa Woodsworth sat up with Thomas Paine the night before his death.

In 1839 Gilbert Vale, hearing that Woodsworth was living in or near Boston, visited him for the purpose of getting his statement, and the statement was published in The Beacon of June 5, 1830, and here it is: "We have just returned from Boston.

One object of our visit to that city was to see Mr. Amasa Woodsworth, an engineer, now retired in a handsome cottage and garden at East Cambridge, Boston.

This gentleman owned the house occupied by Paine at his death, while he lived next door.

As an act of kindness, Mr. Woodsworth visited Mr. Paine every day for six weeks before his death.

He frequently sat up with him and did so on the last two nights of his life.

He was always there with Dr. Manly, the physician, and assisted in removing Mr. Paine while his bed was prepared.

He was present when Dr. Manly asked Mr. Paine if he wished to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

He said that lying on his back he used some action and with much emphasis replied: 'I have no wish to believe on that subject.'

He lived some time after this, but was not known to speak, for he died tranquilly.

He accounts for the insinuating style of Dr. Manly's letter by stating that that gentleman, just after its publication, joined a church.

He informs us that he has openly proved the doctor for the falsity contained in the spirit of that letter, boldly declaring before Dr. Manly, who is still living, that nothing which he saw justified the insinuations.

Mr. Woodsworth assures us that he neither heard nor saw anything to justify the belief of any mental change in the opinions of Mr. Paine previous to his death; but that being very ill and in pain, chiefly arising from the skin being removed in some parts by long lying, he was generally too uneasy to enjoy conversation on abstract subjects.

This, then, is the best evidence that can be procured on this subject, and we publish it while the contravening parties are yet alive, and with the authority of Mr. Woodsworth.

--Gilbert Vale" A few weeks ago I received the following letter, which confirms the statement of Mr. Vale: "Near Stockton, Cal.

, Greenwood Cottage, July 9. 1877. --Col. Ingersoll: In 1812 I talked with a gentleman in Boston.

I have forgotten his name; but he was then an engineer of the Charleston navy yard.

I am thus particular so that you can find his name on the books.

He told me that he nursed Thomas Paine in his last illness and closed his eyes when dead.

I asked him if he recanted and called upon God to save him.

He replied: No; he died as he had taught.

He had a sore upon his side, and when we turned him it was very painful, and he would cry out, 'O God!'

or something like that.

'But,' said the narrator, 'that was nothing, for he believed in a God.'

I told him that I had often heard it asserted from the pulpit that Mr. Paine had recanted in his last moment.

The gentleman said that it was not true, and he appeared to be an intelligent, truthful man.

With respect, I remain, etc. , Philip Graves, M. D."

The next witness is Willet Hicks, a Quaker preacher.

He says that during the last illness of Mr. Paine he visited him almost daily, and that Paine died firmly convinced of the truth of the religious opinions that he had given to his fellow-men.

It was to this same Willet Hicks that Paine applied for permission to be buried in the cemetery of the Quakers.

Permission was refused.

This refusal settles the question of recantation.

If he had recanted, of course there would have been no objection to his body being buried by the side of the best hypocrites in the earth.

If Paine recanted, why should he denied "a little earth for charity?"

Had he recanted, it would have been regarded as a vast and splendid triumph for the gospel.

It would, with much noise and pomp and ostentation, have been heralded about the world.

Here is another letter: "Peoria, Ill.

, Oct.

8, 1877. --Robert G. Ingersoll--Esteemed Friend: My parents were Friends (Quakers).

My father died when I was very young.

The elderly and middle-aged Friends visited at my mother's house.

We lived in the City of New York.

Among the number I distinctly remember Elias Hicks, Willet Hicks, and a Mr. -- Day, who was a bookseller in Pearl St. There were many others whose names I do not now remember.

The subject of the recantation of Thomas Paine of his views about the Bible in his last illness, or any other time, was discussed by them in my presence at different times.

I learned from them that some of them had attended upon Thomas Paine in his last sickness, and ministered to his wants up to the time of his death.

And upon the question of whether he did recant there was but one expression.

They all said that he did not recant in any manner.

I often heard them say they wished he had recanted.

In fact, according to them, the nearer he approached death the more positive he appeared to be in his convictions.

These conversations were from 1820 to 1822. I was at that time from ten to twelve years old, but these conversations impressed themselves upon me because many thoughtless people then blamed the society of Friends for their kindness to that "arch-infidel," Thomas Paine.

Truly yours, A. C.

Hankenson" A few days ago I received the following: "Albany, N. Y.

, Sept.

27, 1877. --Dear Sir: It is over twenty years ago that, professionally, I made the acquaintance of John Hogeboom, a justice of the peace of the County Rensselaer, New York.

He was then over seventy years of age, and had the reputation of being a man of candor and integrity.

He was a great admirer of Paine.

He told me he was personally acquainted with him, and used to see him frequently during the last years of his life in the City of New York, where Hogeboom then resided.

I asked him if there was any truth in the charge that Paine was in the habit of getting drunk.

He said that it was utterly false; that he never heard of such a thing during the lifetime of Mr. Paine, and did not believe anyone else did.

I asked him about the recantation of his religious opinions on his deathbed, and the revolting deathbed scenes that the world heard so much about.

He said there was no truth in them; that he had received his information from persons who attended Paine in his last illness, and that he passed peacefully, as we may say, in the sunshine of a great soul.

Yours truly, W. J.

Hilton" The witnesses by whom I substantiate the fact that Thomas Paine did not recant, and that he died holding the religious opinions he had published are: 1. Thomas Nixon, Capt. Daniel Pelton, B. F.

Haskin.

These gentlemen visited him during his last illness for the purpose of ascertaining whether he had, in any respect, changed his views upon religion.

He told them that he had not.

2. James Cheetham.

This man was the most malicious enemy Mr. Paine had, and yet he admits that "Thomas Paine died placidly, and almost without a struggle."

--Life of Thomas Paine, by James Cheetham.

3. The ministers, Milledollar and Cunningham.

These gentleman told Mr. Paine that if he died without believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, he would be damned, and Paine replied: "Let me have none of your popish stuff.

Good morning."

--Sherwin's Life of Paine, page 220. 4. Mrs. Hedden.

She told these same preachers, when they attempted to obtrude themselves upon Mr. Paine again, that the attempt to convert Mr. Paine was useless; "that if God did not change his mind, no human power could."

5. Andrew A. Dean.

This man lived upon Paine's farm, at New Rochelle, and corresponded with him upon religious subjects.

--Paine's Theological Works, page 308. 6. Mr. Jarvis, the artist with whom Paine lived.

He gives an account of an old lady coming to Paine, and telling him that God Almighty had sent her to tell him that unless he repented and believed in the blessed savior he would be damned.

Paine replied that God would not send such a foolish old woman with such an impertinent message.

--Clio Rickman's Life of Paine.

7. William Carver, with whom Paine boarded.

Mr. Carver said again and again that Paine did not recant.

He knew him well, and had every opportunity of knowing.

--Life of Paine, by Vale.

8. Dr. Manly, who attended him in his last sickness, and to whom Paine spoke his last words.

Dr. Manly asked him if he did not wish to believe in Jesus Christ.

and he replied: "I have no wish to believe on that subject."

9. Willet Hicks and Elias Hicks, who were with him frequently during his last sickness, and both of whom tried to persuade him to recant.

According to their testimony Mr. Paine died as he lived--a believer in God and a friend to man.

Willet Hicks was offered money to say something false against Paine.

He was even offered money to remain silent, and allow others to slander the dead.

Mr. Hicks, speaking of Thomas Paine, said: "He was a good man.

Thomas Paine was an honest man."

10. Amasa Woodsworth, who was with him every day for some six weeks immediately preceding his death, and sat up with him the last two nights of his life.

This man declares that Paine did not recant, and that he died tranquilly.

The evidence of Mr. Woodsworth is conclusive.

11. Thomas Paine himself.

The will of Mr. Paine, written by himself, commences as follows: "The last will and testament of me, the subscriber, Thomas Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator, God, and in no other being, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other," and closes with these words: "I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind.

My time has been spent in doing good, and I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God."

12. If Thomas Paine recanted, why do you pursue him?

If he recanted he died in your belief.

For what reason, then, do you denounce his death as cowardly?

If upon his death-bed he renounced the opinions he had published, the business of defaming him should be done by infidels, not by Christians.

I ask Christians if it is honest to throw away the testimony of his friends, the evidence of fair and honorable men, and take the putrid words of avowed and malignant enemies?

When Thomas Paine was dying he was infested by fanatics, by the snaky spies of bigotry.

In the shadows of death were the unclean birds of prey waiting to tear, with beak and claw, the corpse of him who wrote the "Rights of Man," and there lurking and crouching in the darkness, were the jackals and hyenas of superstition, ready to violate his grave.

These birds of prey--these unclean beasts--are the witnesses produced and relied upon to malign the memory of Thomas Paine.

One by one the instruments of torture have been wrenched from the cruel clutch of the church, until within the armory of orthodoxy there remains but one weapon--Slander.

Against the witnesses that I have produced there can be brought just two--Mary Roscoe and Mary Hinsdale.

The first is referred to in the memoir of Stephen Grellet.

She had once been a servant in his house.

Grellet tells what happened between this girl and Paine.

According to this account, Paine asked her if she had ever read any of his writings, and on being told that she had read very little of them, he inquired what she thought of them, adding that from such an one as she he expected a correct answer.

Let us examine this falsehood.

Why would Paine expect a correct answer about his writings from one who read very little of them?

Does not such a statement devour itself?

This young lady further said that the "Age of Reason" was put in her hands, and that the more she read in it, the more dark and distressed she felt, and that she threw the book into the fire.

Whereupon Mr. Paine remarked: "I wish all had done as you did, for if the devil ever had any agency in any work, he had in my writing that book."

The next is Mary Hinsdale.

She was a servant in the family of Willet Hicks.

The church is always proving something by a nurse.

She, like Mary Roscoe, was sent to carry some delicacy to Mr. Paine.

To this young lady Paine, according to his account, said precisely the same that he did to Mary Roscoe, and she said the same thing to Mr. Paine.

My own opinion is that Mary Roscoe and Mary Hinsdale are one and the same person, or the same story has been, by mistake, put in the mouths of both.

It is not possible that the identical conversation should have taken place between Paine and Mary Roscoe and between him and Mary Hinsdale.

Mary Hinsdale lived with Willet Hicks, and he pronounced her story a pious fraud and fabrication.

Another thing about this witness.

A woman by the name of Mary Lockwood, a Hicksite Quaker, died.

Mary Hinsdale met her brother about that time and told him that his sister had recanted, and wanted her to say so at her funeral.

This turned out to be a lie.

It has been claimed that Mary Hinsdale made her statement to Charles Collins.

Long after the alleged occurrence Gilbert Vale, one of the biographers of Paine, had a conversation with Collins concerning Mary Hinsdale.

Vale asked him what he thought of her.

He replied that some of the Friends believed that she used opiates, and that they did not give credit to her statements.

He also said that he believed what the Friends said, but thought that when a young Roman she might have told the truth.

In 1818 William Cobbett came to New York.

He began collecting material for a life of Thomas Paine.

In this way he became acquainted with Mary Hinsdale and Charles Collins.

Mr. Cobbett gave a full account of what happened in a letter addressed to The Norwich Mercury in 1819. From this account it seems that Charles Collins told Cobbett that Paine had recanted.

Cobbett called for the testimony, and told Mr. Collins that he must give time, place, and circumstances.

He finally brought a statement that he stated had been made by Mary Hinsdale.

Armed with this document, Cobbett, in October of that year, called upon the said Mary Hinsdale, at No. 10 Anthony Street, New York, and showed her the statement.

Upon being questioned by Mr. Cobbett she said that it was so long ago that she could not speak positively to any part of the matter; that she would not say that any part of the paper was true;

that she had never seen the paper, and that she had never given Charles Collins authority to say anything about the matter in her name.

And so in the month of October, in the year of grace 1818, in the mist of fog and forgetfulness, disappeared forever one Mary Hinsdale, the last and only witness against the intellectual honesty of Thomas Paine.

A letter was written to the editor of The New York World by the Rev. A.

W.

Cornell, in which he says: "Sir: I see by your paper that Bob Ingersoll discredits Mary Hinsdale's story of the scenes which occurred at the death bed of Thomas Paine.

No one who knew that good old lady would for one moment doubt her veracity, or question her testimony.

Both she and her husband were Quaker preachers, and well known and respected inhabitants of New York City.

"Ingersoll is right in his conjecture that Mary Roscoe and Mary Hinsdale were the same person.

Her maiden name was Roscoe and she married Henry Hinsdale.

My mother was a Roscoe, a niece of Mary Roscoe, and lived with her for some time.

--Rev. A.

W.

Cornell, Harpersville, N. Y."

The editor of the New York Observer took up the challenge that I had thrown down.

I offered in gold to any minister who would prove, or to any person who would prove that Thomas Paine recanted in his last hours.

The New York Observer accepted the wager, and then told a falsehood about it.

But I kept after the gentlemen until I forced them, in their paper, published on the 1st of November, 1877; to print these words: "We have never stated in any form, nor have we ever supposed, that Paine actually renounced his infidelity.

The accounts agree in stating that he died a blaspheming infidel."

This, I hope, for all coming time will refute the slanders of the churches yet to be.

The next charge they make is that Thomas Paine died in destitution and want.

That, of course, would show that he was wrong.

They boast that the founder of their religion had not whereon to lay his head, but when they found a man who stood for the rights of man, when they say that he did, that is an evidence that this doctrine was a lie.

Won't do!

Did

Thomas Paine die in destitution and want?

The charge has been made over and over again that Thomas Paine died in want and destitution;

that he was an abandoned pauper--an outcast, without friends and without money.

This charge is just as false as the rest.

Upon his return to this country, in 1802, he was worth ,000, according to his own statement, made at that time in the following letter, and addressed to Clio Rickman: "My dear friend, Mr. Monroe, who is appointed minister extraordinary to France, takes charge of this, to be delivered to Mr. Este, banker, in Paris, to be forwarded to you.

"I arrived in Baltimore, 30th of October, and you can have no idea of the agitation which my arrival occasioned.

From New Hampshire to Georgia (an extent of 1,500 miles), every newspaper was filled with applause or abuse.

"My property in this country has been taken care of by my friends, and is now worth six thousand pounds sterling, which, put in the funds, will bring about L400 sterling a year.

"Remember me in affection and friendship to your wife and family, and in the circle of your friends.

--Thomas Paine" A man in those days worth ,000 was not a pauper.

That amount would bring an income of at least ,000. Two thousand dollars then would be fully equal to ,000 now.

On the 12th of July, 1809, the year in which he died, Mr. Paine made his will.

From this instrument we learn that he was the owner of a valuable farm within twenty miles of New York.

He was also owner of thirty shares in the New York Phoenix Insurance Company, worth upward of ,500. Besides this, some personal property and ready money.

By his will he gave to Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, a brother of Robert Emmet, each, and to the widow of Elihu Palmer.

Is it possible that this will was made by a pauper, by a destitute outcast, by a man who suffered for the ordinary necessities of life?

But suppose, for the sake of argument, that he was poor, and that he died a beggar, does that tend to show that the Bible is an inspired book, and that Calvin did not burn Servetus?

Do you really regard poverty as a crime?

If Paine had died a millionaire, would Christians have accepted his religious opinions?

If Paine had drank nothing but cold water, would Christians have repudiated the five cardinal points of Calvinism?

Does an argument depend for its force upon the pecuniary condition of the person making it?

As a matter of fact, most reformers--most men and women of genius--have been acquainted with poverty.

Beneath a covering of rags have been found some of the tenderest and bravest hearts.

Owing to the attitude of the churches for the last fifteen hundred years, truth telling has not been a very lucrative business.

As a rule, hypocrisy has worn the robes, and honesty the rags.

That day is passing away.

You can not now answer a man by pointing at the holes in his coat.

Thomas Paine attacked the church when it was powerful; when it had what is called honors to bestow; when it was the keeper of the public conscience; when it was strong and cruel.

The church waited till he was dead, and then attacked his reputation and his clothes.

Once upon a time a donkey kicked a lion.

The lion was dead.

You just don't know how happy I am tonight that justice so long delayed at last is going to be done, and to see so many splendid looking people come here out of deference to the memory of Thomas Paine.

I am glad to be here.

The next thing is: Did Thomas Paine live the life of a drunken beast, and did he die a drunken, cowardly, and beastly death?

Well, we will see.

Upon you rests the burden of substantiating these infamous charges.

The Christians have, I suppose, produced the best evidence in their possession, and that evidence I will now proceed to examine.

Their first witness is Grant Thorburn.

He made three charges against Thomas Paine: 1. That his wife obtained a divorce from him in England for cruelty and neglect.

2. That he was a defaulter and fled from England to America.

3. That he was a drunkard.

These three charges stand upon the same evidence--the word of Grant Thorburn.

If they are not all true, Mr. Thorburn stands impeached.

The charge that Mrs. Paine obtained a divorce on account of the cruelty and neglect of her husband is utterly false.

There is no such record in the world, and never was.

Paine and his wife separated by mutual consent.

Each respected the other.

They remained friends.

This charge is without any foundation.

In fact, I challenge the Christian world to produce the record of this decree of divorce.

According to Mr. Thorburn, it was granted in England.

In that country public records are kept of all such decrees.

I will give ,000 if they will produce a decree, showing that it was given on account of cruelty, or admit that Mr. Thorburn was mistaken.

Thomas Paine was a just man.

Although separated from his wife, he always spoke of her with tenderness and respect, and frequently lent her money without letting her know the source from whence it came.

Was this the conduct of a drunken beast?

The next is that he was a defaulter, and fled from England to America.

As I told you in the first place, he was an exciseman; if he was a defaulter, that fact is upon the records of Great Britain.

I will give ,000 in gold to any man who will show, by the records of England, that he was a defaulter of a single, solitary cent.

Let us bring these gentlemen to Limerick.

And they charge that he was a drunkard.

That is another falsehood.

He drank liquor in his day, as did the preachers.

It was no unusual thing for a preacher going home to stop in a tavern and take a drink of hot rum with a deacon, and it was no unusual thing for the deacon to help the preacher home.

You have no idea how they loved the sacrament in those days.

They had communion pretty much all the time.

Thorburn says that in 1802 Paine was an "old remnant of mortality, drunk, bloated, and half asleep."

Can anyone believe this to be a true account of the personal appearance of Mr. Paine in 1802?

He had just returned from France.

He had been welcomed home by Thomas Jefferson, who had said that he was entitled to the hospitality of every American.

In 1802 Mr. Paine was honored with a public dinner in the City of New York.

He was called upon and treated with kindness and respect by such men as De Witt Clinton.

In 1806 Mr. Paine wrote a letter to Andrew A. Dean upon the subject of religion.

Read that letter and then say that the writer of it was an old remnant of mortality, drunk, bloated, and half asleep.

Search the files of Christian papers, from the first issue to the last, and you will find nothing superior to this letter.

In 1803 Mr. Paine wrote a letter of considerable length, and of great force to his friend Samuel Adams.

Such letters are not written by drunken beasts, nor by remnants of old mortality, nor by drunkards.

It was about the same time that he wrote his "Remarks on Robert Hall's Sermons."

These "Remarks" were not written by a drunken beast, but by a clear-headed and thoughtful man.

In 1804 he published an essay on the invasion of England and a treatise on gun-boats, full of valuable maritime information; in 1805 a treatise on yellow fever, suggesting modes of prevention.

In short, he was an industrious and thoughtful man.

He sympathized with the poor and oppressed of all lands.

He looked upon monarchy as a species of physical slavery.

He had the goodness to attack that form of government.

He regarded the religion of his day as a kind of mental slavery.

He had the courage to give his reasons for his opinion.

His reasons filled the churches with hatred.

Instead of answering his arguments they attacked him.

Men who were not fit to blacken his shoes blackened his character.

There is too much religious cant in the statement of Mr. Thorburn.

He exhibits too much anxiety to tell what Grant Thorburn said to Thomas Paine.

He names Thomas Jefferson as one of the disreputable men who welcomed Paine with open arms.

The testimony of a man who regarded Thomas Jefferson as a disreputable person, as to the character of anybody, is utterly without value.

Now, Grant Thorburn--this gentleman who was "four feet and a half high, and who weighed ninety-eight pounds three and one-half ounces"--says that he used to sit nights at Carver's, in New York, with Thomas Paine.

Mrs. Ferguson, the daughter of William Carver, says that she knew Thorburn when she saw him, but that she never saw him in her father's house.

The denial of Mrs. Ferguson enraged Thorburn, and he at once wrote a few falsehoods about her.