The herald., 1893-01-30

taken there would have been no "Reign
of Terror" For voting against the exc
cution of Louis he was thrust into prison
and sentenced 20 die, bat eecaned by an
accident which had it happened in favor
of protesting Christian, would have
come down to US as special act OF
Providence. While in prison he wrote
his celebrated Age Of Reason. On be-
ing released from prieon he went to live
in the house of James Monroe, our min
lister to France. The French people
again invited him to seat in the house
OF deputies, and to show that be har-
bored no resentment he accepted the in
vltation and renewed his labors in be-
half of France. After year, failing in
health, he signifisd his intention OF re-
turning to America. Thomas Jefferson
sent national ship to bring him home,
and on his arrival in Baltimore in tbs
fall of 1872 there went up from one end
OF the country to the other the plaudits
OF every patriot and the curees Of every
clergyman. His Age of Reason had
preceded him. The national authorities
showed him distinguished attention as
did his former compsnions and friends.
He declined the highest Office in the
gift OF the president and after few
months retired to his farm near New
Rochelle in New York, where he died in
1909.
His life was a busy and stormy one.
For the cause of man he lived and died,
and yet the flowers of love had scarcely
blossomed o'er his grave, aye, even be.
fore his corpse Was cold. grim bigoiry
stalked forth and with devilish glee
danced round the prostrste form of
him whose arguments she could not
answer and who dared oppose equally
the frauds and hypocrisies Of kings and
priests.
Because Paine did not believe the
childish and vulgar stories of the Bible
and the cruel and barharous dogmas
founded thereon, and had the splendid
courage to cay 60, his brilliant services
have bean ignored and himself elan
dered as perhaps no man ever was be-
fore. Is it ever thus to be? Will the
millions who boast Of the grandeur of
this republic always be unjust to the
memory of him whose magic pen called
it into being? II 80, hide from our gaze
the flag that crossed with Washington
the icy Delaware, tear from our Consti
tuition the lie of religious liberty, frem
the dome of our capitol take the figure
of justice, transform the heroic shaft OF
Bunker hill into church steeple, Inde-
pendence hall, the old 'cradle OF lib
erty," into chamber for the trial of
heresy, and blot from our minds the
tender memories of Concord, Lexington
and Yorktown.
The speaker considered at length the
charges that have been made against
Paine, claiming that the true facts of
history have been suppressed, his vir-
tues dwarfed and his faults msgnifed by
those who feared his influence. To
those who desired to know the real
Thomas Paine he advised the reading of
his life by the Rev. M. d. Conway, and
in closing an address of more than an
hour said: Time fights the battle of
truth, and the man whose Common
Sense put our flag in heaven, whose
Rights Of Man gave liberty to France
and associated his name with progress
for ell coming ages, whose Age of Reason
exposed the iallibility of the Bible. rob-
bed religion Of its terrors and made US
ashamed of a God with beard and q
devil with horns, will live in the hearts
Of humanity when his traducers sleep
beneath the waveless ocean of oblivion.