Letter From Thomas Paine to George Washington, President of the United States of America.

PAINE, Thomas.

$6,500.00

Item Number: 134033

London: Printed for H. D. Symonds, 1797.

Rare second English edition of Paine’s bitter letter to Washington written during his imprisonment in Paris, issued the same year as the first English edition. Octavo. In near fine condition. Ownership initials to the front panel.

Paine blamed Washington “for not quickly interceding on his behalf when he was imprisoned by the French as an enemy alien. Moreover, while in prison he had contracted a serious illness, which he likewise now blamed on Washington’s negligence… Paine had written Washington on September 20, 1794: ‘Your silence in not inquiring into the cause of that imprisonment and reclaiming me against it, was tacitly giving me up. I ought not to have suspected you of treachery; but whether I recover from the illness I now suffer, or not, I shall continue to think you treacherous, till you give me cause to think otherwise.’ When Paine did not receive any answer to this letter, he was convinced that Washington had connived at his imprisonment, and published this violent diatribe” (Gimbel-Yale 92, 104).