To Governor Johnstone Thomas Paine Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Cleary, Scott M., ed. Claeys, Gregory, gen. ed. Thomas Paine Collected Writings. Vol. II. Part 2: Poetry. Princeton Princeton UP 2026 pp. []-[]. 5 Volumes.

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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 .

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