ABSTRACT
IT is “the maxim of Thomas Paine, that ‘an army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot. It is neither the Rhine, (he says) the channel, nor the Ocean that can arrest its progress. It will march to the horizon of the world, and it will conquer.’ In conformity with this maxim, that infamous book, styled the ‘Age of Reason,’ was written in France, (and, it is said, in the house and under the patronage of Mr. Munroe) printed there in the English language, and a cargo of 15,000 copies, at one time, sent into these United States, and disposed of by sale, at a cheap rate, or given away. Besides these imported copies, numerous editions of the same work (shame on our country!) have been printed here.” * The attempt to revolutionize this country has been further prosecuted by circulating the writings of Volney, a French philosophist and atheist, and of others.
