The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol. II
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Thomas Paine >> The Writings of Thomas Paine Vol. II
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22 Produced by Norman M. Wolcott
[Redactor's Note:]
[Redactor's Note: Reprinted from the "The Writings of Thomas Paine
Volume I" (1894 - 1896). The author's notes are preceded by a "*". A
Table of Contents has been added for each part for the convenience of
the reader which is not included in the printed edition. Notes are at
the end of Part II. ]
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
XIII The Rights of Man
PART THE FIRST
BEING AN ANSWER TO MR. BURKE'S ATTACK ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
* Editor's Introduction
* Dedication to George Washington
* Preface to the English Edition
* Preface to the French Edition
* Rights of Man
* Miscellaneous Chapter
* Conclusion
XIV The Rights of Man
PART THE SECOND
COMBINING PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE
* French Translator's Preface
* Dedication to M. de la Fayette
* Preface
* Introduction
* Chapter I Of Society and Civilisation
* Chapter II Of the Origin of the Present Old Governments
* Chapter III Of the Old and New Systems of Government
* Chapter IV Of Constitutions
* Chapter V Ways and Means of Improving the Condition of Europe,
Interspersed with Miscellaneous Observations
* Appendix
* Notes
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THE WRITINGS
OF
THOMAS PAINE
COLLECTED AND EDITED BY
MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY
VOLUME II.
1779 - 1792
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XIII.
RIGHTS OF MAN.
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION.
WHEN Thomas Paine sailed from America for France, in April, 1787, he
was perhaps as happy a man as any in the world. His most intimate
friend, Jefferson, was Minister at Paris, and his friend Lafayette
was the idol of France. His fame had preceded him, and he at once
became, in Paris, the centre of the same circle of savants and
philosophers that had surrounded Franklin. His main reason for
proceeding at once to Paris was that he might submit to the Academy
of Sciences his invention of an iron bridge, and with its favorable
verdict he came to England, in September. He at once went to his aged
mother at Thetford, leaving with a publisher (Ridgway), his "
Prospects on the Rubicon." He next made arrangements to patent his
bridge, and to construct at Rotherham the large model of it exhibited
on Paddington Green, London. He was welcomed in England by leading
statesmen, such as Lansdowne and Fox, and above all by Edmund Burke,
who for some time had him as a guest at Beaconsfield, and drove him
about in various parts of the country. He had not the slightest
revolutionary purpose, either as regarded England or France. Towards
Louis XVI. he felt only gratitude for the services he had rendered
America, and towards George III. he felt no animosity whatever. His
four months' sojourn in Paris had convinced him that there was
approaching a reform of that country after the American model, except
that the Crown would be preserved, a compromise he approved, provided
the throne should not be hereditary. Events in France travelled more
swiftly than he had anticipated, and Paine was summoned by Lafayette,
Condorcet, and others, as an adviser in the formation of a new
constitution.
Such was the situation immediately preceding the political and
literary duel between Paine and Burke, which in the event turned out
a tremendous war between Royalism and Republicanism in Europe. Paine
was, both in France and in England, the inspirer of moderate
counsels. Samuel Rogers relates that in early life he dined at a
friend's house in London with Thomas Paine, when one of the toasts
given was the " memory of Joshua,"-in allusion to the Hebrew leader's
conquest of the kings of Canaan, and execution of them. Paine
observed that he would not treat kings like Joshua. " I 'm of the
Scotch parson's opinion," he said, "when he prayed against Louis
XIV.-`Lord, shake him over the mouth of hell, but don't let him drop!
' " Paine then gave as his toast, " The Republic of the World,"-which
Samuel Rogers, aged twenty-nine, noted as a sublime idea. This was
Paine's faith and hope, and with it he confronted the revolutionary
storms which presently burst over France and England.
Until Burke's arraignment of France in his parliamentary speech
(February 9, 1790), Paine had no doubt whatever that he would
sympathize with the movement in France, and wrote to him from that
country as if conveying glad tidings. Burke's " Reflections on the
Revolution in France " appeared November 1, 1790, and Paine at once
set himself to answer it. He was then staying at the Angel Inn,
Islington. The inn has been twice rebuilt since that time, and from
its contents there is preserved only a small image, which perhaps was
meant to represent " Liberty,"-possibly brought from Paris by Paine
as an ornament for his study. From the Angel he removed to a house in
Harding Street, Fetter Lane. Rickman says Part First of " Rights of
Man " was finished at Versailles, but probably this has reference to
the preface only, as I cannot find Paine in France that year until
April 8. The book had been printed by Johnson, in time for the
opening of Parliament, in February ; but this publisher became
frightened after a few copies were out (there is one in the British
Museum), and the work was transferred to J. S. Jordan, 166 Fleet
Street, with a preface sent from Paris (not contained in Johnson's
edition, nor in the American editions). The pamphlet, though sold at
the same price as Burke's, three shillings, had a vast circulation,
and Paine gave the proceeds to the Constitutional Societies which
sprang up under his teachings in various parts of the country.
Soon after appeared Burke's " Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs."
In this Burke quoted a good deal from " Rights of Man," but replied
to it only with exclamation points, saying that the only answer such
ideas merited was "criminal justice." Paine's Part Second followed,
published February 17, 1792. In Part First Paine had mentioned a
rumor that Burke was a masked pensioner (a charge that will be
noticed in connection with its detailed statement in a further
publication); and as Burke had been formerly arraigned in Parliament,
while Paymaster, for a very questionable proceeding, this charge no
doubt hurt a good deal. Although the government did not follow
Burke's suggestion of a prosecution at that time, there is little
doubt that it was he who induced the prosecution of Part Second.
Before the trial came on, December 18, 1792, Paine was occupying his
seat in the French Convention, and could only be outlawed.
Burke humorously remarked to a friend of Paine and himself, " We hunt
in pairs." The severally representative character and influence of
these two men in the revolutionary era, in France and England,
deserve more adequate study than they have received. While Paine
maintained freedom of discussion, Burke first proposed criminal
prosecution for sentiments by no means libellous (such as Paine's
Part First). While Paine was endeavoring to make the movement in
France peaceful, Burke fomented the league of monarchs against France
which maddened its people, and brought on the Reign of Terror. While
Paine was endeavoring to preserve the French throne ("phantom" though
he believed it), to prevent bloodshed, Burke was secretly writing to
the Queen of France, entreating her not to compromise, and to " trust
to the support of foreign armies " (" Histoire de France depuis
1789." Henri Martin, i., 151). While Burke thus helped to bring the
King and Queen to the guillotine, Paine pleaded for their lives to
the last moment. While Paine maintained the right of mankind to
improve their condition, Burke held that " the awful Author of our
being is the author of our place in the order of existence; and that,
having disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactick, not according
to our will, but according to his, he has, in and by that
disposition, virtually subjected us to act the part which belongs to
the place assigned us." Paine was a religious believer in eternal
principles; Burke held that " political problems do not primarily
concern truth or falsehood. They relate to good or evil. What in the
result is likely to produce evil is politically false, that which is
productive of good politically is true." Assuming thus the
visionary's right to decide before the result what was " likely to
produce evil," Burke vigorously sought to kindle war against the
French Republic which might have developed itself peacefully, while
Paine was striving for an international Congress in Europe in the
interest of peace. Paine had faith in the people, and believed that,
if allowed to choose representatives, they would select their best
and wisest men; and that while reforming government the people would
remain orderly, as they had generally remained in America during the
transition from British rule to selfgovernment. Burke maintained that
if the existing political order were broken up there would be no
longer a people, but " a number of vague, loose individuals, and
nothing more." " Alas! " he exclaims, " they little know how many a
weary step is to be taken before they can form themselves into a
mass, which has a true personality." For the sake of peace Paine
wished the revolution to be peaceful as the advance of summer; he
used every endeavor to reconcile English radicals to some modus
vivendi with the existing order, as he was willing to retain Louis
XVI. as head of the executive in France: Burke resisted every
tendency of English statesmanship to reform at home, or to negotiate
with the French Republic, and was mainly responsible for the King's
death and the war that followed between England and France in
February, 1793. Burke became a royal favorite, Paine was outlawed by
a prosecution originally proposed by Burke. While Paine was demanding
religious liberty, Burke was opposing the removal of penal statutes
from Unitarians, on the ground that but for those statutes Paine
might some day set up a church in England. When Burke was retiring on
a large royal pension, Paine was in prison, through the devices of
Burke's confederate, the American Minister in Paris. So the two men,
as Burke said, " hunted in pairs."
So far as Burke attempts to affirm any principle he is fairly quoted
in Paine's work, and nowhere misrepresented. As for Paine's own
ideas, the reader should remember that "Rights of Man" was the
earliest complete statement of republican principles. They were
pronounced to be the fundamental principles of the American Republic
by Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson,-the three Presidents who above
all others represented the republican idea which Paine first allied
with American Independence. Those who suppose that Paine did but
reproduce the principles of Rousseau and Locke will find by careful
study of his well-weighed language that such is not the case. Paine's
political principles were evolved out of his early Quakerism. He was
potential in George Fox. The belief that every human soul was the
child of God, and capable of direct inspiration from the Father of
all, without mediator or priestly intervention, or sacramental
instrumentality, was fatal to all privilege and rank. The universal
Fatherhood implied universal Brotherhood, or human equality. But the
fate of the Quakers proved the necessity of protecting the individual
spirit from oppression by the majority as well as by privileged
classes. For this purpose Paine insisted on surrounding the
individual right with the security of the Declaration of Rights, not
to be invaded by any government; and would reduce government to an
association limited in its operations to the defence of those rights
which the individual is unable, alone, to maintain.
From the preceding chapter it will be seen that Part Second of
" Rights of Man " was begun by Paine in the spring of 1791. At the
close of that year, or early in 1792, he took up his abode with his
friend Thomas" Clio " Rickman, at No. 7 Upper Marylebone Street.
Rickman was a radical publisher; the house remains still a
book-binding establishment, and seems little changed since Paine
therein revised the proofs of Part Second on a table which Rickman
marked with a plate, and which is now in possession of Mr. Edward
Truelove. As the plate states, Paine wrote on the same table other
works which appeared in England in 1792.
In 1795 D. I. Eaton published an edition of " Rights of Man," with a
preface purporting to have been written by Paine while in Luxembourg
prison. It is manifestly spurious. The genuine English and French
prefaces are given.
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RIGHTS OF MAN
BEING AN ANSWER TO MR. BURKE'S ATTACK ON THE FRENCH
REVOLOUTION
BY
THOMAS PAINE
SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO CONGRESS IN THE
AMERICAN WAR, AND
AUTHOR OF THE WORKS ENTITLED "COMMON SENSE' AND 'A LETTER TO ABBÉ
RAYNAL"
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DEDICATION
George Washington
President Of The United States Of America
Sir,
I present you a small treatise in defence of those principles of
freedom which your exemplary virtue hath so eminently contributed to
establish. That the Rights of Man may become as universal as your
benevolence can wish, and that you may enjoy the happiness of seeing
the New World regenerate the Old, is the prayer of
Sir,
Your much obliged, and
Obedient humble Servant,
Thomas Paine
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PAINE'S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
From the part Mr. Burke took in the American Revolution, it was
natural that I should consider him a friend to mankind; and as our
acquaintance commenced on that ground, it would have been more
agreeable to me to have had cause to continue in that opinion than to
change it.
At the time Mr. Burke made his violent speech last winter in the
English Parliament against the French Revolution and the National
Assembly, I was in Paris, and had written to him but a short time
before to inform him how prosperously matters were going on. Soon
after this I saw his advertisement of the Pamphlet he intended to
publish: As the attack was to be made in a language but little
studied, and less understood in France, and as everything suffers by
translation, I promised some of the friends of the Revolution in that
country that whenever Mr. Burke's Pamphlet came forth, I would answer
it. This appeared to me the more necessary to be done, when I saw the
flagrant misrepresentations which Mr. Burke's Pamphlet contains; and
that while it is an outrageous abuse on the French Revolution, and
the principles of Liberty, it is an imposition on the rest of the
world.
I am the more astonished and disappointed at this conduct in Mr.
Burke, as (from the circumstances I am going to mention) I had formed
other expectations.
I had seen enough of the miseries of war, to wish it might never more
have existence in the world, and that some other mode might be found
out to settle the differences that should occasionally arise in the
neighbourhood of nations. This certainly might be done if Courts were
disposed to set honesty about it, or if countries were enlightened
enough not to be made the dupes of Courts. The people of America had
been bred up in the same prejudices against France, which at that
time characterised the people of England; but experience and an
acquaintance with the French Nation have most effectually shown to
the Americans the falsehood of those prejudices; and I do not believe
that a more cordial and confidential intercourse exists between any
two countries than between America and France.
When I came to France, in the spring of 1787, the Archbishop of
Thoulouse was then Minister, and at that time highly esteemed. I
became much acquainted with the private Secretary of that Minister, a
man of an enlarged benevolent heart; and found that his sentiments
and my own perfectly agreed with respect to the madness of war, and
the wretched impolicy of two nations, like England and France,
continually worrying each other, to no other end than that of a
mutual increase of burdens and taxes. That I might be assured I had
not misunderstood him, nor he me, I put the substance of our opinions
into writing and sent it to him; subjoining a request, that if I
should see among the people of England, any disposition to cultivate
a better understanding between the two nations than had hitherto
prevailed, how far I might be authorised to say that the same
disposition prevailed on the part of France? He answered me by letter
in the most unreserved manner, and that not for himself only, but for
the Minister, with whose knowledge the letter was declared to be
written.
I put this letter into the, hands of Mr. Burke almost three years
ago, and left it with him, where it still remains; hoping, and at the
same time naturally expecting, from the opinion I had conceived of
him, that he would find some opportunity of making good use of it,
for the purpose of removing those errors and prejudices which two
neighbouring nations, from the want of knowing each other, had
entertained, to the injury of both.
When the French Revolution broke out, it certainly afforded to Mr.
Burke an opportunity of doing some good, had he been disposed to it;
instead of which, no sooner did he see the old prejudices wearing
away, than he immediately began sowing the seeds of a new inveteracy,
as if he were afraid that England and France would cease to be
enemies. That there are men in all countries who get their living by
war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations, is as shocking as it
is true; but when those who are concerned in the government of a
country, make it their study to sow discord and cultivate prejudices
between Nations, it becomes the more unpardonable.
With respect to a paragraph in this work alluding to Mr. Burke's
having a pension, the report has been some time in circulation, at
least two months; and as a person is often the last to hear what
concerns him the most to know, I have mentioned it, that Mr. Burke
may have an opportunity of contradicting the rumour, if he thinks
proper.
Thomas Paine
PAINE'S PREFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION
The astonishment which the French Revolution has caused throughout
Europe should be considered from two different points of view: first
as it affects foreign peoples, secondly as it affects their
governments.
The cause of the French people is that of all Europe, or rather of
the whole world; but the governments of all those countries are by no
means favorable to it. It is important that we should never lose
sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their
governments; especially not the English people with its government.
The government of England is no friend of the revolution of France.
Of this we have sufficient proofs in the thanks given by that weak
and witless person, the Elector of Hanover, sometimes called the King
of England, to Mr. Burke for the insults heaped on it in his book,
and in the malevolent comments of the English Minister, Pitt, in his
speeches in Parliament.
In spite of the professions of sincerest friendship found in the
official correspondence of the English government with that of
France, its conduct gives the lie to all its declarations, and shows
us clearly that it is not a court to be trusted, but an insane court,
plunging in all the quarrels and intrigues of Europe, in quest of a
war to satisfy its folly and countenance its extravagance.
The English nation, on the contrary, is very favorably disposed
towards the French Revolution, and to the progress of liberty in the
whole world; and this feeling will become more general in England as
the intrigues and artifices of its government are better known, and
the principles of the revolution better understood. The French should
know that most English newspapers are directly in the pay of
government, or, if indirectly connected with it, always under its
orders; and that those papers constantly distort and attack the
revolution in France in order to deceive the nation. But, as it is
impossible long to prevent the prevalence of truth, the daily
falsehoods of those papers no longer have the desired effect.
To be convinced that the voice of truth has been stifled in England,
the world needs only to be told that the government regards and
prosecutes as a libel that which it should protect.*[1] This outrage
on morality is called law, and judges are found wicked enough to
inflict penalties on truth.
The English government presents, just now, a curious phenomenon.
Seeing that the French and English nations are getting rid of the
prejudices and false notions formerly entertained against each other,
and which have cost them so much money, that government seems to be
placarding its need of a foe; for unless it finds one somewhere, no
pretext exists for the enormous revenue and taxation now deemed
necessary.
Therefore it seeks in Russia the enemy it has lost in France, and
appears to say to the universe, or to say to itself. "If nobody will
be so kind as to become my foe, I shall need no more fleets nor
armies, and shall be forced to reduce my taxes. The American war
enabled me to double the taxes; the Dutch business to add more; the
Nootka humbug gave me a pretext for raising three millions sterling
more; but unless I can make an enemy of Russia the harvest from wars
will end. I was the first to incite Turk against Russian, and now I
hope to reap a fresh crop of taxes."
If the miseries of war, and the flood of evils it spreads over a
country, did not check all inclination to mirth, and turn laughter
into grief, the frantic conduct of the government of England would
only excite ridicule. But it is impossible to banish from one's mind
the images of suffering which the contemplation of such vicious
policy presents. To reason with governments, as they have existed for
ages, is to argue with brutes. It is only from the nations themselves
that reforms can be expected. There ought not now to exist any doubt
that the peoples of France, England, and America, enlightened and
enlightening each other, shall henceforth be able, not merely to give
the world an example of good government, but by their united
influence enforce its practice.
(Translated from the French)
RIGHTS OF MAN
Among the incivilities by which nations or individuals provoke and
irritate each other, Mr. Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution is
an extraordinary instance. Neither the People of France, nor the
National Assembly, were troubling themselves about the affairs of
England, or the English Parliament; and that Mr. Burke should
commence an unprovoked attack upon them, both in Parliament and in
public, is a conduct that cannot be pardoned on the score of manners,
nor justified on that of policy.
There is scarcely an epithet of abuse to be found in the English
language, with which Mr. Burke has not loaded the French Nation and
the National Assembly. Everything which rancour, prejudice, ignorance
or knowledge could suggest, is poured forth in the copious fury of
near four hundred pages. In the strain and on the plan Mr. Burke was
writing, he might have written on to as many thousands. When the
tongue or the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man,
and not the subject, that becomes exhausted.
Hitherto Mr. Burke has been mistaken and disappointed in the opinions
he had formed of the affairs of France; but such is the ingenuity of
his hope, or the malignancy of his despair, that it furnishes him
with new pretences to go on. There was a time when it was impossible
to make Mr. Burke believe there would be any Revolution in France.
His opinion then was, that the French had neither spirit to undertake
it nor fortitude to support it; and now that there is one, he seeks
an escape by condemning it.
Not sufficiently content with abusing the National Assembly, a great
part of his work is taken up with abusing Dr. Price (one of the
best-hearted men that lives) and the two societies in England known
by the name of the Revolution Society and the Society for
Constitutional Information.
Dr. Price had preached a sermon on the 4th of November, 1789, being
the anniversary of what is called in England the Revolution, which
took place 1688. Mr. Burke, speaking of this sermon, says: "The
political Divine proceeds dogmatically to assert, that by the
principles of the Revolution, the people of England have acquired
three fundamental rights:
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