The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-13
THOMAS PAINE.
Points in the Career of an UngratefuI and
Indecent Man.



Indecent Man.
"GAth's" New York Letter.
We occasionally hear the name of Calendar
and Tom Paine and varlets OF that sort only to
shudder when read them. l possess one of
the very earliest lives of Tom Paine published
in England. 1t is a rather Insignificant looking
book but think that paid considerable for it.
bought it on the principle of buying the life of
Lucretia Borgia or Caesar Borgia. l think it
was written by George Chalmers, of England,
and Lord Liverpool is said to have paid $500 for
the manuscript This book deals with Tom
Paine without any gloves.
1t seems that he was born in the old Yankee
county OF Norfolk on the east of England. His
father was a Quaker, who made stays corsets.
The Quakers expelled the elder Paine from their
church for marrying outside of their sect Tom
Paine was brought up to make cOrsets OF stays,
He married servant and abused her. He got
in debt and away from his creditors, taking
his furniture with him, and it is said that his
wife died on the road of illusage and premature
birth
He got an Office at the age of twenty five, the
s. me Office Burns the poet held of an excise
man. Without any thrift or foresight, Paine
was nearly all his life hard up. He became
teacher, and the boys hated him for his harsh
ness and their mothers for his coarseness. He
became a street preacher Backsliding, he went
into the internal revenue again, and was dis
tinguished by his Incorporate perseverance, in
following up volators of the revenue
He now married his second wife at thirty
four who was tobaeconist's daughter. Soon
after this he wrote book, entitled Thoughts
on the Corruption Arising from the Poverty of
Excise Officers.
His creditors again sold him out and his wife
left him, guaranteeing TO pay him a certain in
come. Hiding himself in the midst of London,
he got introduction to Dr. Franklin in LIZA,
who assisted him to come to the United States.
He arrived in this country few months before
the battle of Lexington. In Philadelphia he be-
came booksellers clerk. This gave him an op-
portunity to publish his book called Com
mon Sense" At the same time he was
Interested in a contract to furnish salt
peter to the American army for the
making of gunpowder Through the aid
of Benjamin Rush he ran a brief and vigorous
career as a pamphleteer. Yet the ungrateful
and indecent character of the man is shown by a
letter he wrote to General Washington, His
last letter to that illustrious published says:
''Treacherous in private friendship and hypo-
critic in public life, the world will be troubled to
decide whether you have abandoned good prinei-
pies, or whether you ever had any"
This editorial and newspaper scamp died in
1900 in the city of New York, drunk and imbe-
cile, at the age of seventy two. Mr.. Cheepham,
who published his life In 1909, says of him. His
association with low and disreputable persons is
attributable to his attachment to ardent spirits
and his love of personal distiction Neither the
one nor the other could be gratiied in respeeta-
BILE company. He looked for alteration"