The youth of America by David Barton
In a letter to his daughter, Susan, Boudinot described his motivations for writing that rebuttal:
I confess that I was much mortified to find the whole force of this vain man’s genius and art pointed at the youth of America. This awful consequence created some alarm in my mind lest at any future day, you, my beloved child, might take up this plausible address of infidelity; and for want of an answer at hand to his subtle insinuations might suffer even a doubt of the truth, as it is in Jesus, to penetrate into your mind. I therefore determined to put my thoughts on the subject of this pamphlet on paper for your edification and information, when I shall be no more.
I chose to confine myself to the leading and essential facts of the Gospel which are contradicted or attempted to be turned into ridicule by this writer. I have endeavored to detect his falsehoods and misrepresentations and to show his extreme ignorance of the Divine Scriptures which he makes the subject of his animadversions criticisms not knowing that “they are the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth” ROMANS 1:16.
Patrick Henry, too, wrote a refutation of Paine’s work which he described as “the puny efforts of Paine.” However, after reading Bishop Richard Watson’s Apology for the Bible written against Paine, Henry deemed that work sufficient and decided not to publish his reply. When William Paterson, signer of the Constitution and a Justice on the U. S. Supreme Court, learned that some Americans seemed to agree with Paine’s work, he thundered:
Infatuated Americans, why renounce your country, your religion, and your God? Oh shame, where is thy blush? Is this the way to continue independent, and to render the 4th of July immortal in memory and song? Zephaniah Swift, author of America’s first law book, noted:
David Barton – Did Simon Peter entertain? No doubt about it. Did the Apostle Paul entertain? Yes. You don’t have to be boring. You can be entertaining. This book, the Bible, is that exciting.