New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-17


way of ants that we're passing by, and he
found almost invariably that they took no
notice Of their unfortunate brethren. In
deed, the exceptions in which any attention
was paid were 80 few that Sir John said he
was disposed to regard these a. ants with
individual feelings, which were by NO means
those common to the community.
Tom Paise.
Among the centennial events there is one
that should not be forgotten, yet will not
gladly be remembered, because it is asso-
ciated with name which is as generally
distastefol as any in our history. In the
winter of q hundred years ago was pub
Sense" which crystalized into fixed pur
pose the wishes and hopes for independence
which filed the colonial mind. The author
was Thomas Paine-a very conspicuous
figure in his time, but generally known to
us as Tom Paine, the intidel. One lit
tie boy, whom the Easy Chair" we'll
knew, heard his name first upon .. raw,
when his attention was attracted by the
fire of guns, and he asked what they we're
for. The reply was in substance that some
disreputable people were celebrating Tom
Paine's birthday. The tone implied that he
was dreadful reprobate. But surely Tom
Paine had done some good service. He
wrote Common Sense" and published it
in the dark hour of the revolution. 1t was
wholly unselfsh service, for he took
days, among colonial population of
1000 900 only, poor, and in the midst
of exhausting war, there we're 100000
copies of the pamphlet sold. Washing
ton, Franklin, Adams and Jefferson
hailed him as a public benetactor.
But among later Americans his name was
always mentioned with horror and disdain.
1t is agreed that no single cause Was more
effective in producing the declaration Of in
dependence than his Common Sense" Yet,
sixteen years ago, when portrait of Paine
was offered to the city Of Philadelphia, to
be hung in the hall where the declaration
was adopted and signed, it was declined.
A likeness of Tom Paine, the infdel, must
not hang among the august shades of the
fathers. Yet the religious views of "Tom
Paine" were essentially those of "Tom JEFF
among the most illustri0us of this illustrious
year.
The feeling about Paine in the beginning
of the century was largely political. When
Jefferson was President, he invited Paine
| to come to this country from France, where
he had narrowly escaped the guillotine, and
| he arrived in October, 1902. His friends
gave him public dinners. His opponents
said that Tom Paine and Tom Jefferson
| For even in that golden age of the republic,
| to which so many signing imaginations re-
| vert from the corruption of this age of brass
| and iron upon which we have fallen, there
| was some warmth of party feeling and
| expression. When Paine came to New
York he stopped at the old City Hotel,
on Broadway, just north Of Trinity Church.
And inquisitive little Laurie Todd, or
Grant ThOrnburn, heard one day that
| OF the hOtel, and he ran out with some
friends to see him. But Mr. Paine had gone
| to his room. The ScOtchman was not to be
foiled, and he asked q servant who wa:
| sweeping the hall if Mr.. Paine was at home
Hearing that he was, Thorburn pushed on
and was shown inlo large room where the
table was set for breakfast. One gentleman
was writing, another reading the news
! paper, and at the further end of the room
stood long, lauk, coarse looking figure
warming his hindquarters before the fire
| The intruder asked for Mr.. Paine. The
figure by the fire replied that his name W as
Paine. Thorburn put out his hand, which
Paine took, and the little Scotch
man said he had called from mere
curiosity. Mr., Paine replied that he
was very glad TO satisfy it. Upon
which ThOrburn made low like goose
| duckipg his head under water" walked out
and shut the door, while all the gentlemen
| in the room burst into q laugh, which he
heard all the way to the door. He did not
care; he had seen the great man. But he
had to pay for the pleasure. The great city
was a email town then, and the story of the
interview grew as it was repeated. Thor.
burn was clerk of the Scotch Presbyterian
church in Cedar street, and if he had hob
nObbed with Voltaire-as Voltaire was then
friendship with David Hume, he could not
have struck his bret lren with greater hor
Tor. The kirk sessiO- took alarm. A special
meeting was called, and Grant Thorburn
was suspended from psalm singing for three
months because he had shaken hands with
Tom Paine.
| Doubtless. Paine has been very harshly
| treated. His honesty can not be doubted
| His political views we're those of the men OF
! his time whom we most reverence, and his
| religious opinion did not differ from those
| of many men whom We most highly honor
He was not an intidel in an ordinary sense
| for his cage of Reason" was written to op
pose atheism. His misfortune was that he
had no tact, and the svery vigor and sim
plicity of mind which made Common
Sense" and The Rights of Man" such emil
nent political pamphlets, made his religious
treatise, the cage Of Reason" fatal to his
| reputation. In the first he trenchantly OK
pressed great and powerful opinion. In
the last he came into collision with it. and
it crushed him.-George William Curtis, IN
| Harpers Magazine.