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Show Old Masters I THOMAS PAINE H Bv c. c. g. m '"THE memory of Thomas Paino has been under A a ban for moro than a century. His lack of religious belief was the cause. He was born in H 1737, just when an unbeliever was a horror, and H all forms of religion were most Intolerant and un- H forgiving and refused the charity which should attach to all followers of tho Messiah. H In our day we have seen tho same spirit H shown Colonel Ingersoll, though in his life he was like Paine, the gentlest and most lovable of H men; tho truest of husbands and fathers; the H most loyal of friends, and possessed by a patriot- H ism passionate in its intensity. H Tho world has grown liberal enough to bo jH fair, hence it is proper to consider what men do H and to judge their hearts by their acts. In that H light among all the men who served their country H in the days "that tried men's souls," Thomas H Paine was the very foremost. English born, he H did more to arouse the country of his adoption to H rise and cast off the yoke of Great Britain than M any other man; without discounting in tho least the masterful brain and splendid patriotism of Thomas Jefferson, the thoughts in the great H Declaration were supplied almost entirely by Hl Thomas Paine and Richard Henry Lee. It was f due to an accident that they were compiled by B Jefferson. From tho time the thought of inde- '' pendence began to take form Paine's pen was the hH clarion that with clearest note kept calling the jH men of America to arouse themselves, and when "H the battlo was finally joined that same pen was H the inspiration that held tho country, among all M its distresses up to tho gigantic work they had M undertaken. His work was not confined to the m pen; ho went with the army and shared all its M sufferings. His "Common Sense" first aroused H! his countrymen, his "Crisis" gave them the stead- H iness and nerve to continue up the stormy path aHI until victory shone out on their flag. Hi Then he eschewed all the honors that were Hj tendered him and went to iFrance, just when H France was trying to shake off tho tyrannies of H' centuries and in a blind way to light the lamp D of progress. H He was elected a member of the French con- H ventlon, and was one of the committee to draft H a constitution for Franco. H In tho assembly men went mad and nearly H every ono was demanding the death of the king. D ,4 IM B Then the inherent courage and clear wisdom of B Paine shone out and in the face of the mad men B around him voted against the king's death. B He was arrested, imprisoned and doomed to B death. B Even Washington refused t intercede for him. B In his prison he wrote his "Age of 'heason," with B its claim that every man has a right to think. B Ho escaped execution and returned to New B York, and though ostracized by the men he had B done so much to help create a new and grand B republic for, he never complained and never wav- B ered in courage or in the gentleness which was B always his. B Ho died peacefully at seventy-three years of B Ho was the first man to write the words B "The United States of America"; it was he who B proposed the federal constitution; he was the B ruling genius of the committee that drafted the 9 Declaration of Independence. BW It was as though he was specially raised up B to stand as sponsor for our government. His B greatest admirers said of him: "If to love your B fellowmen more than self is goodness, Thomas HB Paine was good. If to be in advance of your time B to bo a pioneer in the direction of right is JB greatness, Thomas Paine was great. If to avow B your principles and discharge your duty in the H presence of death is heroic, Thomas Paine was B a hero." |