read on the streets amid cheers; it is read in
churches with thanksgiving and praise; it is read in the legislative
halls of the states, and at the firesides of patriots; it is read in the
camp of the soldier, and by officers to their battalions; it is
proclaimed by the congress of the new nation, and from the house-tops to
all mankind. It is the second child of a man who has on his hands the
"BUSINESS OF A WORLD."

Now let the nation buckle on its armor, and look forward to peace won
only in blood. The Declaration of Independence is an easy thing
compared with what is to come. We shall see this man's work in war.

Washington is at the head of the army; John Adams, whose head is a
perfect battery of war forces, is at the head of the board of war. Upon
this man's office depends more than any other in the nation, for he is
_Secretary of War_. Mr. Paine has no office, no power of position, not
known to the nation, nor to the world, for Common Sense was thought to
be the production of Franklin or John Adams. Thomas Paine had great
faith in Washington, not so much in Lee. John Adams distrusted
Washington, and called him "a dolt," but put great confidence in Lee, an
English deserter, and more than an American traitor. Paine never
misjudged a man; John Adams never judged a man rightly. As colonies,
this country has done much for independence; as a nation, nothing. She
is now to be tried.

Paine enlists as a soldier with the "Flying Camp."

The British fleet is repulsed from Charleston, S.C., and can not land
her army of English, Scotch, and Hessians; but now, in August, she
effects a landing on Long Island. Washington is there with twenty
thousand men with guns, but no soldiers in arms. He loses a battle on
Long Island, and retreats therefrom. In October, he loses the battle of
White Plains. In November, Fort Washington, with two thousand six
hundred men, and our best cannon and arms are taken by the British
command, and Fort Lee falls, leaving commissary and quartermasters'
stores and cannon in the hands of the British. Washington now retreats
through the Jerseys, the British hard after. As they retreat, Paine
writes at night on a drum-head. In nineteen days, "often in sight and
within cannon-shot of each other, the rear of the one employed in
pulling down bridges, and the van of the other in building them up,"
Washington effected a march of ninety miles. The weather was severe, the
roads bad, and his army without blanke