Bill to Aid Thomas Paine, 28 June 1784
Bill to Aid Thomas Paine
Editorial Note
Despite the concern expressed to JM by Jefferson and Washington over the penury afflicting Thomas Paine, all legislative attempts in Virginia to aid the author of Common Sense failed. On 28 June there was appointed a special committee, of which Patrick Henry was chairman and JM a member, to prepare a bill “vesting a certain tract of public land, in Thomas Payne and his heirs” (, May 1784, p. 82). As JM on 2 July reported to Washington, the “gift first proposed” offered Paine “a moiety of a tract … known by the name of ‘the Secretary’s land.’” This was true so far as the proposal was first made to the House of Delegates; but the present manuscript clearly indicates that within the committee itself there was a disposition to reward Paine with the entire tract. Evidently fearing (justifiably, as time would reveal) that a donation so liberal might cause the raising of more than eyebrows, JM persuaded the committee to halve the acreage.
[28 June 1784]
Whereas Thomas Paine author of the Pamphlet entitled common Sense printed at Philadelphia in the year 1776 has by the said and several other literary performances published in the Course of the late Revolution rendered distinguished Service to the United States and it is just and expedient that such patriotic exertions of Genius should be honorably and substantially rewarded Be it enacted that in Testimony of the Esteem entertained by this Commonwealth for the merits of the said Thomas Paine the tract of Public Land lying in the County of Northampton and known by the name of the Secretarys Land1 ⟨shall be divided into two equal moieties in such manner as the Executive shall direct, and for such moiety as the said Thomas Paine shall prefer a patent shall issue vesting the same⟩ be and the same is hereby vested in him and his heirs forever; Saving to all persons other than those claiming under the Commonwealth any Interest which they may have therein.2
Ms (Vi). In hand of John Beckley, with amendment by JM within angle brackets, and canceled words indicated by italics.
1. The “Secretary’s Land,” 500 acres lying on King’s Creek, was first tenanted in 1620. In 1633 the income from the leases thereon was made a perquisite of the office of the secretary of the colony (Ralph T. Whitelaw, Virginia’s Eastern Shore: A History of Northampton and Accomack Counties [2 vols.; Richmond, 1951], I, 167–75).
2. On the same day that the committee was formed, Henry introduced the bill which promptly passed two readings. On the following day it was referred to the Committee of the Whole, which “made several amendments thereto,” and was ordered engrossed. A second Ms of the bill, together with Beckley’s notes on the amendments, is in the Virginia State Library. These documents verify JM’s statement to Washington that the donation to Paine was augmented to include “the other moiety” (2 July 1784). The result justified JM’s fear of attempting too much, for on its third reading the bill was “thrown out by a large majority” (, May 1784, pp. 82, 86, 87).
Time was pressing (30 June was the last day of session); so JM undertook a hurried salvage operation by moving that a new special committee be appointed to prepare a bill for selling the Secretary’s Land “and applying part of the money arising therefrom, to the purchase of a tract to be vested in Thomas Payne, and his heirs.” As chairman of the committee, JM later in the day introduced the second bill, no Ms of which is known to exist, but it “lost by a single vote” (, May 1784, pp. 87, 87–88; JM to Washington, 2 July, 12 Aug. 1784).