The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-11-03
TOM PAINE.
was AN Unhappy One-Strange
Habits and ChRractC ris-
ties Of The Man.

The New York Observer of this week
devotes over four columns of editoris
and quotation to prove Tom PAINE &c
have been all that that journal has saic
about HIM. The editor apologies fol
referring to the subject at all, but excuses
himself on the ground that for fifty years
infitels have been trying to revive snd
honor the memory of one whose friends
wouid honor him most by suffering hi
name TO sink into Oblivion.
We reproduce from the Observers col
umGs the additional testimony which Il
gives to establish its former accusations
on Paine'S character
William Carver has been cited as {
witness IN behsl: of Paine, and particu
iarly as to hls "personsl habits" In {
letter to Paine, dated December 2, 1916
he bears the following testimony:
"a respectable gentleman from New
Rochelle called to see me few DAYS bach
and said that everybody was tired OF you
there, and no one would undertake Il
board and lodge you. l thought TIM
was the case, as found you at &
tavern in q most miserable situation
You appeared as If you had not beer
shaved for II fortnight. and as to SHIT
1t could not be said that you had one on
1t was only the remains OF one, and this
likewise appeared not to have been of
your back for fortnight, and WAS near
" the color o. tanned leather; and you
had the most dissgreesble smell possible
Just like tbst o our poor beggers in Eng
land. Do you remember the pains
took TO clean you? That | got tub Of
OF warm water and soap and washed YOU
rom head TO foot, and this | had TO dc
;nree times before l could get you clean. D
{ And then follow more disgusting de-
tsjls)
"You say, also, that you found your
own liquors during the time you boarded
With me; but you should have said, j
.ound only small part of the liquor
drank during with you; TINS part Pur'
chased OF John Fellows, which WAS d
demliohn of brandy containing tour gal
Ions and this did but serve me three
weeks This can be proved and | mean
not to say anything that | cannot prove
Tor l hold truth rs n precious Jewel, Ii
/, \ well known fact, that you drunk ont
quart OF brandy per day, ut my expence
during the different times that you nave
boarded with me, the demijohn above
mentioned excepted, and the last fourteen
weeks YOU were sick. Is not this sup
ply OF liquor for dinner and supper?
This chosen witness in behalf of PAINE
closes his letter, which is full of losth
some descriptions of Psines manner o
lite, as follows:
Now sir, | think ] have drawn {
complete portrait OF your character; ye
to enter upon every miuutia would be t
give history Of your lire ard TO devel
ope the tallacious mssk of hypocricy snC
deception under which you have II II
YOUR 7, ltlcal as well as Il o~at a!acltI
OF lite.
(Signed) WILLIAM CARVER"
Carver had the same opinion of Psin'
to his dying day. When an old man
and an infidel of the Paine type and hsb
ITS, he WAS visited by the Rev, +. +. Hat
field, d d, of this city, who writes t.
US OF his interview with Carver, unde
date of Sept u, 1871.
II conversed with him nearly an hou
took peclsl pains to learn from hin
All tina. | could about Paine, whose land
/ lord ne had been for eighteen months
| H. spoke for him as q base and shame
less drum kard, utterly destitute OF mora
principle. His denunciatiOns OF the msI
we're perfectly fearful, and fully conhm
ed, in my apprehension, ali that ha'
| been written OF PaIne's immortality sn'
repulslveness.'
Cheetham's Lite OF Paine, which wa
published the year that he died, an,
which has passed though several edi
tions. 1--WE have three o! them now be
/ fore usl describes a man lost to all mora
sensiblity snd to al sence OF decency,
haoitual drunksrd, and it's simply in
credible that u book should have appear
I ed so soon after the death Of Its subiec
and should have been so frequently re
published without being at once refutec
. if the testimony were not substantial
true. Many years later, when it Wa
found necessary TO bolster up the reputs
tion Of Psiue Cneethsm' Memoirs wer
called pack of lies. If only one-tent
part OF what ne publishes cIrcumstsn
TALLY in his volume, as facts in regart
to Paine, were true. ali that has b-el
written against him in later years doe
not begin to set fc nth the degraded char
scter OF u mans life. And with al ths
has been written on the subject we Sc
no good reason to dcubt the substantis
accuracy of Cheethsm's portrait OF tn
man whom he knew So well.
DR.. j. w. Francis, well known as a
eminent physician, of this city, in hi
Remir iscences Of New York, says G
Paine:
"He who, in his early days, has bee
associated with, and has received COunse
from Franklin, wss, In his old age, de.
serted by the BUNDLED meuial; be, who's
pen hsd proved very sword among I'D
tionS, had shaken empires, and mad
king, trsnbls, new yielded up the mai