To Governor Johnstone

To Governor Johnstone, one of the British Commissioners, on his late letters and offers to bribe certain eminent characters in America, and threatening afterwards to appeal to the public.

1 When Satan first from Heaven’s bright region fell,
2 And fix’d the gloomy monarchy of hell,
3 Sin then was honest; Pride led on the tribe;
4 No Devil receiv’d — no Devil propos’d a bribe:
5 But each infernal, while he fought, abhorr’d
6 The meaner mongrel arts of sap and fraud;
7 Brave in his guilt, he rais’d his daring arm,
8 And scorn’d the heavens, unless obtain’d by storm.
9 But Britain — Oh! how painful ’tis to tell!
10 Commits a sin that makes a blush in hell;
11 Low in the ruins of demolish’d pride
12 She barely skulks to conquer with a bribe,
13 And when detected in the rank offence,
14 Throws out a threat — to turn King’s evidence.
15 Yet while we scorn the lure, despite the plan,
16 We feel an angry sorrow at the man;
17 Was there no wretch, whose cold unkindl’d mind
18 Ne’er knew one gen’rous passion for mankind,
19 Whose hackney’d soul, the purchase of a pound,
20 No guilt could blacken and no shame confound?
21 No slave to act the dirty work — and spare,
22 From men of sentiment, the painful tear?
23 Must Johnstone be the man? Must he, whose tongue
24 Such able peals of locution rung,
25 Whose tow’ring genius seem’d at times to rise,
26 And mix a kindred fervor with the skies,
27 Whose pointed judgement, and connected sense,
28 Gave weight to wit, and worth to eloquence;
29 Must he, Oh shame to genius! be the first
30 To practise arts himself so loudly curst?
31 Must he exhibit to a laughing mob,
32 A turn coat patriot conquer’d by a jobb;
33 And prove from under his adult’rous pen
34 How few are just of all the sons of men?
35 When the sad echo of St. Pulchre’s bell
36 Tolls to the carted wretch, a last farewell,
37 Or when the tyrant sees the lifted steel,
38 They feel those pains which Johnstone ought to feel.
39 Man may a while in infamy survive,
40 And by deception think himself alive,
41 But time will prove to his eternal shame
42 He dies in earnest who outlives his fame.
43 Of pitt and you this contrast may be said,
44 The dead is living; and the living dead.
Common Sense.
Philadelphia, July 27, 1778.

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Title (in Source Edition): To Governor Johnstone
Author: Thomas Paine
Themes:
Genres: address
Headnote: Pennsylvania Packet, 28 July 1778

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Cleary, Scott M., ed. Claeys, Gregory, gen. ed. Thomas Paine Collected Writings. Vol. II. Part 2: Poetry. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2026. 5 Volumes.

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