Note 691 — Chapter III

A very significant reference to the mixed qualities recognized in Paine by his contemporaries is found in Men and Times of the Revolution; or Memoirs of Elkanah Watson, etc. (New York, 1856). Mr. Watson, a native of Plymouth, was patriotic in his sentiments, and was on mercantile business in Europe during the war, honored with the friendship of Dr. Franklin and John Adams in Paris. His brother, Benj. Marston Watson, of Marblehead, was a noted loyalist. (See a "Memoir" of him in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Oct., 1873.) When Elkanah was at Nantes in 1781, Paine arrived there as secretary of Colonel Laurens, "and took up his quarters at my boarding-place. He was coarse and uncouth in his manners, loathsome in his appearance, and a disgusting egotist. Yet I could not repress the deepest emotions of gratitude towards him, as the instrument of Providence in accelerating the declaration of our independence. He certainly was a prominent agent in preparing the public sentiment of America for that glorious event."