ing tortured into a
foundation of all these calumnies. What crime had Thomas Paine
committed that he should have feared to die? The only answer you can
give is that he denied the inspiration of the scriptures. If that is
crime, the civilized world is filled with criminals. The pioneers of
human thought, the intellectual leaders of this world, the foremost men
in every science, the kings of literature and art, those who stand in
the front of investigation, the men who are civilizing and elevating
and refining mankind, are all unbelievers in the ignorant dogma of
inspiration.

Why should we think Thomas Paine was afraid to die? and why should the
American people malign the memory of that great man? He was the first
to advocate the separation from the mother country. He was the first
to write these words: "The United States of America." Think of
maligning that man! He was the first to lift his voice against human
slavery, and while hundreds and thousands of ministers all over the
United States not only believed in slavery, but bought and sold women
and babes in the name of Jesus Christ, this infidel, this wretch who is
now burning in the flames of hell, lifted his voice against human
slavery and said: "It is robbery, and a slaveholder is a thief; the
whipper of women is a barbarian; the seller of a child is a savage."
No wonder that the thieving hypocrite of his day hated him! I have no
love for any man who ever pretended to own a human being. I have no
love for a man that would sell a babe from the mother's throbbing,
heaving, agonized breast. I have no respect for a man who considered a
lash on the naked back as a legal tender for labor performed. So write
it down, Thomas Paine was the first great abolitionist of America.

Now let me tell you another thing. He was the first man to raise his
voice for the abolition of the death penalty in the French convention.
What more did he do? He was the first to suggest a federal
constitution for the United States. He saw that the old articles of
confederation were nothing; that they were ropes of water and chains of
mist, and he said, "We want a federal constitution so that when you
pass a law raising 5 percent you can make the states pay it." Let us
give him his due. What were all these preachers doing at that time?

He hated superstition; he loved the truth. He hated tyranny; he loved
liberty. He was the friend of the human race. He lived a brave and
thought