lapse of time historical
research, while removing the sacred halo of Washington, has revealed
beneath it a stronger brain than was then known to any one. Paine
published what many whispered, while they were fawning on Washington for
office, or utilizing his power for partisan ends. Washington, during his
second administration, when his mental decline was remarked by
himself, by Jefferson, and others, was regarded by many of his eminent
contemporaries as fallen under the sway of small partisans. Not only
was the influence of Jefferson, Madison, Randolph, Monroe, Livingston,
alienated, but the counsels of Hamilton were neutralized by Wolcott and
Pickering, who apparently agreed about the President's "mental powers."
Had not Paine previously incurred the _odium theologicum_, his pamphlet
concerning Washington would have been more damaging; even as it was, the
verdict was by no means generally favorable to the President, especially
as the replies to Paine assumed that Washington had indeed failed to
try and rescue him from impending death.(1) A pamphlet written by Bache,
printed anonymously (1797), Remarks occasioned by the late conduct of
Mr. Washington, indicates the belief of those who raised Washington to
power, that both Randolph and Paine had been sacrificed to please Great
Britain.

The _Bien-informe_ (Paris, November 12, 1797) published a letter from
Philadelphia, which may find translation here as part of the history of
the pamphlet:

"The letter of Thomas Paine to General Washington is read here with
avidity. We gather from the English papers that the Cabinet of St James
has been unable to stop the circulation of that pamphlet in England,
since it is allowable to reprint there any English work already
published elsewhere, however disagreeable to Messrs. Pitt and Dundas.
We read in the letter to Washington that Robespierre had declared to
the Committee of Public Safety that it was desirable in the interests
of both France and America that Thomas Paine, who, for seven or eight
months had been kept a prisoner in the Luxembourg, should forthwith be
brought up for judgment before the revolutionary tribunal. The proof of
this fact is found in Robespierre's papers, and gives ground for strange
suspicions."

1 The principal ones were "A Letter to Thomas Paine. By an
American Citizen. New York, 1797," and "A Letter to the
infamous Tom Paine, in answer to his Letter to General
Washington. December 17