To My Fellow-Citizens of the
United States of America

I put the following work under your protection.  It contains my opinions upon Religion.  You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine.  He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason.  I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.

Your affectionate friend and fellow-citizen,

Thomas Paine. 

Luxembourg, (Paris), 8th Pluviose,
Second Year of the French Republic, one and indivisible.
January 27, O. S. 1794.