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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
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