[Nathaniel] Greene had not moved instantly off on the
first news of the enemy's approach. I was with Greene through the whole
of that affair, and know it perfectly.

But though I came forward in defence of Mr. Washington when he was
attacked, and made the best that could be made of a series of blunders
that had nearly ruined the country, he left me to perish when I was in
prison. But as I told him of it in his life-time, I should not now bring
it up if the ignorant impertinence of some of the Federal papers, who
are pushing Mr. Washington forward as their stalking horse, did not make
it necessary.

That gentleman did not perform his part in the Revolution better, nor
with more honour, than I did mine, and the one part was as necessary
as the other. He accepted as a present, (though he was already rich,)
a hundred thousand acres of land in America, and left me to occupy six
foot of earth in France.(1) I wish, for his own reputation, he had acted
with more justice. But it was always known of Mr. Washington, by
those who best knew him, that he was of such an icy and death-like
constitution, that he neither loved his friends nor hated his enemies.
But, be this as it may, I see no reason that a difference between Mr.
Washington and me should be made a theme of discord with other people.
There are those who may see merit in both, without making themselves
partisans of either, and with this reflection I close the subject.

1 Paine was mistaken, as many others were, about the gifts
of Virginia (1785) to Washington. They were 100 shares, of
$100 each, in the James River Company, and 50 shares, of
L100 each, in the Potomac Company. Washington, accepted on
condition that he might appropriate them _to public uses_
which was done in his Will.--_Editor._

As to the hypocritical abuse thrown out by the Federalists on other
subjects, I recommend to them the observance of a commandment that
existed before either Christian or Jew existed:

Thou shalt make a covenant with thy senses:
With thine eye that it behold no evil,
With thine ear, that it hear no evil,
With thy tongue, that it speak no evil,
With thy hands, that they commit no evil.

If the Federalists will follow this commandment, they will leave off
lying.

Thomas Paine.

Federal City, Lovett's Hotel, Nov. 26,1802.

LETTER IV.(1)

1 The National Intelligencer, Dec. 6th. 1802.--_Editor._.

As Congres