thers, and the despicable craft of
preferring _expedient to right_, as if the world was a world of babies
in leading strings, I should get forward with nothing. My path is a
right line, as straight and clear to me as a ray of light. The boldness
(if they will have it to be so) with which I speak on any subject, is a
compliment to the judgment of the reader. It is like saying to him,
_I treat you as a man and not as a child_. With respect to any worldly
object, as it is impossible to discover any in me, therefore what I do,
and my manner of doing it, ought to be ascribed to a good motive.

In a great affair, where the happiness of man is at stake, I love
to work for nothing; and so fully am I under the influence of this
principle, that I should lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the pride
of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward; and with this
declaration, I take my leave for the present.(1)

1 The self-assertion of this and other letters about this
time was really self-defence, the invective against him, and
the calumnies, being such as can hardly be credited by those
not familiar with the publications of that time.--_Editor._

Thomas Paine.

Federal City, Lovett's Hotel, Dec. 3, 1802.

LETTER V.(1)

1 The National Intelligencer, Feb., 1803. In the Tarions
collections of these Letters there appears at this point a
correspondence between Paine and Samuel Adams of Boston, but
as it relates to religious matters I reserve it for the
fourth volume.--_Editor._.

It is always the interest of a far greater part of the nation to have
a thing right than to have it wrong; and therefore, in a country whose
government is founded on the system of election and representation, the
fate of every party is decided by its principles.

As this system is the only form and principle of government by which
liberty can be preserved, and the only one that can embrace all the
varieties of a great extent of country, it necessarily follows, that to
have the representation real, the election must be real; and that where
the election is a fiction, the representation is a fiction also. _Like
will always produce like_.

A great deal has been said and written concerning the conduct of Mr.
Burr, during the late contest, in the federal legislature, whether Mr.
Jefferson or Mr. Burr should be declared President of the United States.
Mr. Burr has been accused of intriguing to obtain the Pre