Paine, Thomas

Autograph letter signed ("Thomas Paine"), 1 page (5 3/8 x 7 in.; 135 x 178 mm) on a large slip of paper removed from a full sheet, (New Rochelle, 23 June), [1806?], to DeWitt Clinton (at New York), autograph address and reception-docket date on verso; seal tear with tiny loss, some light staining and mounting remnants on verso. Half blue morocco folding case, green morocco spine labels.

Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 14 November 1978, lot 533)

Paine seeks assistance from the Mayor of New York, one of his staunchest supporters, in placing for publication an anti-Federalist polemic. "I enclose you a piece [not present] written for publication. I have always in the pieces I have published both during the war and since kept wholly to the affairs of the union without involving myself in the party disputes of any state. But the subjects treated of in the enclosed tho locally and immediately applicable to this state on account of the merchants business, are, in point of principle applicable to all the states. I have put the signature Common Sense that if any should chuse to criticize it they may know who it is they have to deal with. I will thank you to send me the paper in which it will be published."

The sale catalogue of the Sang Foundation dates this letter to 1803, but it seems much more likely to be from 1806. After his return to America in 1802 following a fifteen-year exile (both voluntary and involuntary) in Europe, Paine published just seven essays under the celebrated pseudonym "Common Sense." Of these, the essay "A Challenge to the Federalists to Declare Their Principles" is the most likely candidate to be the article referred to in the present letter. Paine's editorial predicts "that could the Federalists get again into power, they would again load the country with internal taxes." "A Challenge to the Federalists to Declare Their Principles" first appeared in the 7 October 1806 issue of the New York American Citizen, a Republican newspaper edited by James Cheetham.