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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 13 June 1, 1779 - September 30, 1779 --Thomas Burke's "Epistle"
[July 16? 1779] An EPISTLE
Hail, mighty Thomas!(1) In whose works are seen
A mangled Morris and distorted Deane;
Whose splendid periods flash for Lees defence,
Replete with every thing but common sense.
You by whose labors no man e'er was wiser,
You of invective, great monopolizer;
You who, unfeeling as a Jew or Turk,
Attack a J-y, a P-a, and a B-ke;(2)
You who, in fervor of satiric vein,
Maul and abuse the mild and meek Du-e;(3)
And eager to traduce the worthiest men,
Despise the energy of Drayton's pen.
O say, what name shall dignify the lays,
Which now I consecrate to sing thy praise;
In pity tell, by what exalted name
Thou would'st be damn'd to an eternal fame.
Shall Common Sense, or Comus greet thine ear,
A piddling poet, or puft pamphleteer;
Behold around thee, how thy triumphs lie,
Of reputations hosts before thee die;
On envy's altars hecatombs expire,
And Faction fondly lights her pupil's fire.
That pupil most devoted to her will,
Who for the worthless wags his quibbling quill;
And with a true democracy of spirit
Bravely attacks the most exalted merit.
Thou pupil worthy her attentive care,
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JULY 16, 1779
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By Satan granted to her earnest prayer;
When on the brink of fate smooth Adams stood,
And saw his Arthur flound'ring in the flood.
While plausive Richard, in whose gloomy breast
Revenge and terror stood by turns confest;
Doubtful his brothers measures to defend,
With Berkenhout their confidant and friend;
Or breaking thro' the weak fraternal ties,
To save himself the doctor sacrifice.
'Twas in that desperate, the important hour,
When Faction, trembling for her tott'ring pow'r,
Thus pour'd her vows-"Author of ev'ry crime!
Whose pangs shall last beyond the reach of time;
By all those crimes, and all those pangs, give ear,
And if, O sire, thy daughter e'er was dear;
If e'er obedient to her father's call,
The crowds of Faction fill'd his spacious hall;
If e'er the populace by her possest,
Have plung'd their daggers in a patriot breast;
And forc'd humanity herself to fly,
With banish'd Justice to yon azure sky;
Attend, attend, attend, my fav'rites see,
Their hopeless eyes are fix'd alone on thee;
Oh help them, save them, or my sway is o'er,
Opprest like thee, like thee to rise no more."
The prayer was heard, the dreadful monarch spoke.
While Hell convuls'd e'en to her center shook:
"Since on mankind to fix my iron reign,
Nor sin, nor death suffice, I give them Payne.
" Say, mighty Thomas, on what awful day
You first beheld the morn's resplendent ray;
That day to envy shall most sacred be,
And all her squinting sons shall wait on thee.
But sure no mortal mother did thee bear,
Rather a cholic in the prince of air,
On dusky pinions borne o'er Ether's plain,
Expell'd thee from him with a griping pain.
For as Minerva, queen of sense uncommon,
Owed not her birth to goddess or to woman;
But softly crept from out her father's scull,
At a small crack in't when the moon was full;
So you, great Common Sense, did surely come
From out the crack in grisly Pluto's bum.
Such as thy origin such be thy fate,
To war 'gainst virtue with a deadly hate;
By daily slanders earn thy daily food,
Exalt the wicked, and depress the good;
Page 228
JULY 16, 1779
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And having spent a lengthy life in evil,
Return again unto thy parent Devil.
MS not found; reprinted from the Pennsylvania Evening Post, July 16, 1779.
1 That is, Thomas Paine, who had since December 1778 been engaged periodically in the public debate over the Deane-Lee controversy, and recently over the question of American claims to the northern fisheries. For the context of the debate over the latter issue in which Burke chose this moment to attack Paine, see Gouverneur Morris to Benjamin Towne, July 9, 1779, note 1. Ironically, Burke's "Epistle" appeared in this issue immediately following Paine's public response to the attack on him by "Cato" (Gouverneur Morris) that Towne had printed in the July 9 issue of the Post. It has been analyzed in the context of his verse writings in Richard Walser, ed., The Poems of Governor Thomas Burke of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.: State Department of Archives and History, 1961), pp. 50-51, 66-67.
2 That is, John Jay, William Paca, and Thomas Burke.
3 James Duane.
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