Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/805

 PAINE 791 ton, which were collected into a volume enti- tled "The Cholera Asphyxia of New York" (1832). In 1841 he united with five other physicians in establishing the university medi- cal college (the medical department of the university of New York), in which he held for many years the chair of the institutes of medicine and materia medica, and afterward that of therapeutics and materia medica. In 1854 he was prominent in securing a repeal of the law against dissections of the human body, which was till then a state prison offence. He is a member of many of the principal learned societies in Europe and America. His princi- pal works are: "Medical and Physiological Commentaries " (3 vols. 8vo, 1840-'44) ; " Ma- teria Medica and Therapeutics," on an origi- nal plan (1842) ; " The Institutes of Medicine " (1847; last ed., 1870); "The Soul and Instinct, physiologically distinguished from Material- ism" (1848; enlarged ed., 1872); and "A Re- view of Theoretical Geology " (1856), directed against the geological interpretations of the Mosaic narratives of the creation and the flood. In 1852 he prepared for private circulation a memoir and the literary remains of his son Robert Troup Paine, who graduated at Harvard college in 1851, and died the same year. PAINE. I. Robert Treat, an American states- man, born in Boston, March 11, 1731, died there, May 11, 1814. He graduated at Harvard col- lege in 1749, studied theology, and acted in 1755 as chaplain of the provincial troops on the northern frontier. After a visit to Europe he studied law, and in 1759 settled in Taunton, where he resided many years. He was a dele- gate in 1768 to the convention called by lead- ing men in Boston, after the dissolution of the general court by Gov. Bernard for refusing to rescind the circular letter to the other colonies. In 1770 he conducted, in the absence of the attorney general, the prosecution against Capt. Preston and his men for firing on the inhabi- tants of the city. In 1773, and again in 1774, he was chosen to the general assembly of Massachusetts ; and he was a delegate to the continental congress from 1774 to 1778, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. During the same period he oc- cupied important stations in the government of Massachusetts. When, in October, 1780, the state constitution was adopted, he was chosen attorney general, and held that office till 1790, when he became a judge of the supreme court. In 1804 he resigned on account of deafness and infirm health. The same year he was a state councillor, but shortly afterward retired from public life. He was one of the founders of the American academy, established in Massa- chusetts in 1780. II. Robert Treat, jr., an Amer- ican author, son of the preceding, born in Taunton, Mass., Dec. 9, 1773, died in Bos- ton, Nov. 13, 1811. His name was originally Thomas Paine, but in 1801 it was changed by act of the legislature to that of his father, when he remarked that he now had a " Chris- tian " name, in allusion to Thomas Paine the infidel. He graduated at Harvard college in 1792, and entered mercantile life ; but in Oc- tober, 1794, he started a semi- weekly newspa- per called the "Federal Orrery." In Febru- ary, 1795, he married Miss Baker, an actress. On taking the degree of A. M. in that year, he delivered a poem on "The Invention of Let- ters," which brought him $1,500, being more than $5 a line. In 1796 he sold his newspaper, which had become unprofitable; and a poem entitled "The Ruling Passion," delivered be- fore the Phi Beta Kappa society in the same year, yielded him $1,200. In 1798 he wrote the celebrated song of " Adams and Liberty x " for which he received $750, or more than $ll aline. Resigning the office of "master of ceremonies" at the theatre, which had been created for him, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1802, and commenced practice in Boston with great success; but soon re- suming his old acquaintance with the players, and his former unsettled mode of life, he passed his last days in misery and destitution. .His works were collected and published by Charles Prentiss in 1812 (1 vol. 8vo, Boston). PADfE, Thomas, an American political writer, born at Thetford, county of Norfolk, England, Jan. 29, 1737, died in New York, June 8, 1809. He learned under his father, a Quaker, the trade of stay making. About 1755 he shipped in a privateer, and in 1759 settled at Sandwich, where he worked at his trade, and preached occasionally as a dissenting minister. In 1760 he obtained a place in the excise at Thetford, and subsequently at Lewes in Sussex, where he also carried on business as a grocer and tobacconist. He was chosen by the excisemen to speak for them, and wrote in 1772 "The Case of the Officers' of the Excise." Being accused of smuggling in connection with his business as a grocer, he was dismissed from the excise. Benjamin Franklin having advised him to go to America, he arrived in Philadel- phia in December, 1774, and was employed as editor of the "Pennsylvania Magazine." In October, 1775, he published in the "Pennsyl- vania Journal" his "Serious Thoughts," in which he declared his hope of the ultimate abolition of slavery, and his belief in the sep- aration of America from Great Britain. His writings attracted the attention of Dr. Benja- min Rush, at whose suggestion, it is said, he wrote "Common Sense," a pamphlet advo- cating an independent republic. It made a profound impression, and is said to have had a wider circulation than any paper published until that time in America. It was strongly opposed and denounced, but struck the keynote of popular feeling, and contributed much to the dissemination of republican ideas. The legis- lature gave him 500, and the university of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the honorary degree of M. A. The work was first published anonymously and without copyright, and its great circulation did not reimburse the author.