"Quick as the lightning's vivid flash The poet's eye o'er Europe rolls; Sees battles rage, hears tempests crash, And dims at horror's threatening scowls.
"Mark ambition's ruthless king, With crimsoned banners scathe the globe; While trailing after conquest's wing, Man's festering wounds his demons probe.
"Palled with streams of reeking gore That stain the proud imperial day, He turns to view the western shore, Where freedom holds her boundless sway.
"'T is here her sage triumphant sways An empire in the people's love; 'T is here the sovereign will obeys No king but Him who rules above."
The verses, crudely expressing the contrast between President Jefferson and King George--or Napoleon, it is not clear which,--sufficiently show that Paine's genius was not extempore. His reputation as a patriotic minstrel was high; his "Hail, great Republic," to the tune of "Rule Britannia," was the established Fourth-of-July song, and it was even sung at the dinner of the American consul in London (Erving) March 4, 1803, the anniversary of Jefferson's election. Possibly the extempore lines were sung on some Fourth-of-July occasion. I find "Thomas Paine" and the "Rights of Man" favorite toasts at republican celebrations in Virginia also at this time. In New York we may discover Paine's coming and going by rancorous paragraphs concerning him in the _Evening Post_.
*"And having spent a lengthy life in evil, Return again unto thy parent Devil!"
Perhaps the most malignant wrong done Paine in this paper was the adoption of his signature, "Common Sense," by one of its contributors! Another paragraph says that Franklin hired Paine in London to come to America and write in favor of the Revolution,--a remarkable example of federalist heredity from "Toryism." On September 27th the paper prints a letter purporting to have been found by a waiter in Lovett's Hotel after Paine's departure,--a long letter to Paine, by some red-revolutionary friend, of course gloating over the exquisite horrors filling Europe in consequence of the "Rights of Man." The pretended letter is dated "Jan. 12, 1803," and signed "J. Oldney." The paper's correspondent pretends to have found out Oldney, and conversed with him. No doubt many simple people believed the whole thing genuine.