The Rights of Man
Thomas Paine, 1791
Held by Global reading listread here
Read it here about 6 h of reading
Add to a shelf
Rights of Man is Thomas Paine's two-part answer to Edmund Burke's attack on the French Revolution. Part one came out in March 1791 and part two in February 1792. It argues that every generation is free to act for itself, that a charter does not create rights, and that government exists for the people it serves. Part two moves from defense to proposal and includes a plan for welfare and education in England. Standard Ebooks notes that nearly a million copies sold.
Where it happens
Through time
Who is in it, and behind it
Edmund Burke Opponent
His 1790 Reflections on the Revolution in France drew Paine's reply.2
Joseph Johnson Publisher
Was threatened with legal action over the book and dropped it.2
J. S. Jordan Publisher
Published the book after Johnson stepped aside.2
William Blake Poet
Advised Paine to go to France.2
Thomas Jefferson Statesman
Talked with Paine in France about the book's themes.2
What it is about
Each generation decides for itself
Paine argues that no age may bind those that follow.1
Charters do not give rights
He calls it a perversion of terms to say a charter gives rights.1
Society before government
He holds that most social order comes from society itself, not from government.1
A world citizen
He gives his creed as a country that is the world and a religion of doing good.1
Welfare in England
Part two proposes support for the poor and for education.2
In its own words
Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.
Man did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, nor to have fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured. His natural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights. But in order to pursue this distinction with more precision, it will be necessary to mark the different qualities of natural and civil rights.
Mr. Burke’s book is all Miscellany. His intention was to make an attack on the French Revolution; but instead of proceeding with an orderly arrangement, he has stormed it with a mob of ideas tumbling over and destroying one another. But this confusion and contradiction in Mr.
Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished.
It is a perversion of terms to say that a charter gives rights. It operates by a contrary effect—that of taking rights away. Rights are inherently in all the inhabitants; but charters, by annulling those rights, in the majority, leave the right, by exclusion, in the hands of a few.
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good. Mr.
The shape of the book
21 chapters, 86,004 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
Burke's Reflections appeared in 1790, and Paine replied with a book dedicated to Washington and Lafayette. Printer Joseph Johnson was threatened with legal action, so J. S. Jordan published it. William Blake advised Paine to go to France. Paine was later tried in absentia for seditious libel. The book reproduces the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789. Its welfare plan for England counts a population of about seven million, with about one fifth poor.
Sources
Text: Standard Ebooks edition of the public-domain text. Standard Ebooks markup CC0 1.0; text public domain in the USA.