[42] JERRY W. KNUDSON It was not then believed that this short paragraph would be made the mighty instrument of calumniating, and even damning the character of the President. We possessed not the admirable penetration of discerning in such a measure a full demonstration that Mr. Jefferson entertained the same religious opinions with Mr. Paine, that he indiscriminately approved every act of Mr. Paine's life, and that he took this mode of evincing his secret pleasure in the calumny, alleged to have been cast by Mr. Paine upon the character of General Washington.17 The voice of reason could not outshout the party zealots, however, at least not in this defensive posture. The Republican press at first denied and then cautiously admitted that the President may have invited Paine to return in a government vessel,18 until the National Intelligencer was forced to confess on August 3, 1801 that this was indeed the case. Less than a month later, Thomas Paine—unaware of the partisan storm raging over his head in the United States—sailed for home. If readers of Federalist newspapers expected a riot when Paine's ship docked at Baltimore on October 30,1802 they were disappointed, for the arrival of the notorious figure provoked no incident. The Baltimore American Patriot reported that even Federalists "were the foremost to visit him, and with smiling friendly expressions, make him welcome in the city!'19 And the Baltimore Republican; or, Anti-Democrat announced Paine's arrival: The noted thomas pain[e] arrived here on Saturday last. It is far from being the wish of the editor to speak of him in unbecoming terms, yet it is but justice to observe that this man has some claims on our gratitude for his work entitled "Common Sense;" for, though the motives that induced him to collect together and publish the general arguments of the day, at that time, were as might easily be proved, those of a hireling, yet that little work was of essential service in our revolution.20 The newspaper reported that a crowd of curious onlookers accompanied Paine to Fulton's tavern, where "after sipping well of Brandy, he became somewhat fluent in conversation, and readily declared that Mr. Jefferson's invitations were the cause of his returning to this coun- 17 National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, July 29,1801. 18 The Boston Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser, July 30,1801. 19 Quoted in Aldridge, Man of Reason, 273. 20 Reprinted in the New-York Evening Post, November 3,1802.