The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-03-16

To the Editor Of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser
SIR In your issue of the 23d February is a let
ter headed "Tom Paine and signed ''Aliquis,' -
the declared object Of the writer being to show to
" the disciples of Tom Paine on these islands what
sort of a man he was;'' and this ''Aliquis seems
to think is accomplished when he asserts that Paine
lived a besotted and degraded life and died misera-
bly,. The writer POUNDS all his statements on an
article that appeared in the New York Observer, a
religious journal of the straitest sort of CalyInism.
"Aliquis" is apparently not aware that Robert G..
I~ngersoll, the well-knoWn eloquent American lee
turer, (who, like Paine, is a pronounced Deist) in
August last addressed a letter to the editor Of the
Observer, offering a thousand dollars in gold-not
as a wager, but as a gif-to any one that would
substantiate the story that Thomas Paine died in
agony and fear, or that be recanted his opinions on
his death-bed; and ;hat the Observer subsequently
backed down on a bubble and ate its own words.
Such appears TO be the fact of the case, as may be
seen on perusing a letter from Mr.. Ingersoll, pub
lished in the San Francisco Daily EUening Post, of
November Sd, 1877, to a careful perusal Of which l
%ecommend "Aliquis'' and all others who love the
truth.
In the letter in question, all the evidence as to the
life, last illness and death of Paine is thoroughly ex-
amined and sifted, and to any unbiased mind it
overwhelmingly proves that the assertion, so fire.
quently made, that Paine /" lived a drunken and
beastly life and died a drunken, cowardly and beast
ly death" is q base and reckless libel on the dead.
'Aliquis" says Paine on his death-bed asserted
that there was no God. Willet Hicks and Elias
Hicks. good, ld-fashioned Quakers. who we're with
him frequently during his last sickness, (and both
of whom tried to persuade him to recant) testify that
Paine '' died as he had lived-a believer in God, and
a friend of man. Wilet Hicks said she was n
good man-an honest man" Amasa Woodwork,
who was with him every day for some six weeks i'm
mediately preceding his death, and sat up with him
the last two nights Of his life, declared that Paine
died TRANQUILITY. Paine's will, written by himself,
commences as follows 'The last will and tesla
ment of me, the subscriber, Thomas Paine, reposing
confidence in my creator God,'' and closes in these
wOrds-"I have lived an honest and useful life to
mankind; my time has been spent in doing good;
and 1 die in perfect composure and resignation to
the will of my creator God.'
Judge Hogeboom, of Rensselaer, County, New
York, who was personally acquainted with Paine, |
and used to see him frequently during the last years
of his life in the city Of New York, declared that the
charge that Paine was in the habit Of getting drunk
was utterly false; that he never heard Of such a
thing during the lifetime of Paine.
George Washington, Thomas jefferson, John
Adams, and James Munroe, each wrote letters to
Thomas Paine, expressing in the highest terms their
appreciation of his character and of the inestimable
service he had rendered the cause Of American lib
erty. The Legislature Of Pennsylvania presented
him with $500; the State Of New York gave him an
estate of several hundred acres; Congress thanked
him for his services. Would he have been the re-
cipient of all these honors had be lived a drunken
aud beastly life? Nor did he die in destitution and
want, for in 1909, when he died, after making the
will above mentioned, he owned a valuable farm
within twenty miles of New York and 80 shares in
an Insurance Company, worth upwards Of 81 500,
besides some personal property and ready money.
The services he rendered TO America by writing
the " Crisis" during the darkest days of the Revo-
luton, can never be forgotten by any true American.
who is not blinded by religious prejudice. He did
not believe in the dogma of the inspiration Of the
Bible, it is true; but is that a crime-or can it, at
the worst, be considered rs anything more than an
error of human judgment? But is il a part of the
charity taught by the founder of Christianity TO try
to dig up dead mems bones in order TO befoul their
l doubt if the cause Of true religion
gains anything by such a course Of bearing false
witness against the dead. PHILo VERITAs.