has improved, and it will not be many years
before all laws touching liberty of conscience, excepting it may be in
the State of Delaware, will be blotted out, and when that time comes we
or our children may thank the infidels of 1776. The church never
pretended that Franklin died in fear. Franklin wrote no books against
the bible. He thought it useless to cast the pearls of thought before
the swine of his generation.

Jefferson was a statesman. He was the author of the Declaration of
Independence, founder of a university, father of a political body,
president of the United States, a statesman, and a philosopher. He was
too powerful for the churches of his day. Paine attacked the Trinity
and the bible both. He had done these things openly--His arguments
were so good that his reputation got bad. I want you to recollect
tonight that he was the first man who wrote these words: "The United
States of America." I want you to know tonight that he was the first
man who suggested the Federal Constitution. I want you to know that he
did more for the actual separation from Great Britain than any man that
ever lived. I want you to know that he did as much for liberty with
his pen as any soldier did with his sword. I want you to know that
during the Revolution his "Crisis" was the pillar of fire by night and
a cloud by day. I want you to know that his "Common Sense" was the one
star in the horizon of despotism. I want you to know that he did as
much as any living man to give our free flag to the free air. He was
not content to waste all his energies here. When the volcano covered
Europe with the shreds of robes and the broken fragments of thrones,
Paine went to France. He was elected by four constituencies. He had
the courage to vote against the death of Louis, and was imprisoned. He
wrote to Washington, the president, and asked him to interfere.
Washington threw the letter in the wastebasket of forgetfulness. When
Paine was finally released he gave his opinion of George Washington,
and, under such circumstances, I say a man can be pardoned for having
said even unjust things. The eighteenth century was crowning its gray
hairs with the wreaths of progress, and Thomas Paine said: "I will do
something to liberate mankind from superstition." He wrote the "Age of
Reason." For his good, he wrote it too soon; for ours, not a day too
quick. From that moment he was a despised and calumniated man. When
he came back to