Rights of Man

Contents

1. Dedication to George Washington 1 min 3

   Paine dedicates Part I to George Washington, President of the United States, as a defence of the principles of freedom Washington helped establish, with the hope that the rights of man may become universal and that the New World may regenerate the Old.

2. Preface to the English Edition 5 min 6

   Paine explains why he answers Burke. He had thought Burke a friend of liberty because of his stand on America, and had known him personally. Paine recalls a letter from the secretary of the French minister Brienne, which he left with Burke in 1787 in the hope that it would help reconcile England and France, and accuses Burke of reviving national hatreds when the Revolution offered peace. He promised French friends to reply to Burke’s pamphlet, and mentions the rumour of Burke’s pension so that Burke can deny it.

3. Preface to the French Edition 5 min 6

   Written for the French translation and known only in Conway’s English, this preface distinguishes the peoples of Europe, friendly to the Revolution, from their governments. The English court, which thanked Burke and is served by a bought press and a law of libel that punishes truth, needs enemies to justify its taxes: the American war, the Dutch crisis, Nootka Sound and now Russia. Reform, Paine concludes, must come from the nations themselves, and France, England and America together can enforce good government.

4. I.1 Mr. Burke and the French Revolution 1 h 5 min 25

   Paine answers Burke’s claim that the Parliament of 1688 bound the nation for ever: no generation can bind its successors, and government belongs to the living. He argues that the French revolted against the despotic principles of the monarchy, not the mild Louis XVI, and mocks Burke’s theatrical pity for the queen. He then narrates the plot of July 1789, the rising in Paris and the fall of the Bastille, explains crowd violence as learned from cruel governments, and corrects Burke’s account of the October Days at Versailles.

5. I.2 The Rights of Man and the Origin of Government 1 h 10 min 21

   Paine traces the rights of man to creation and distinguishes natural rights, kept by individuals, from civil rights held in common. Governments arise from superstition, conquest or a social compact; England’s, founded at the Norman Conquest, has no written constitution. Comparing the new French constitution point by point with English practice, he praises a wide franchise, equal representation, no game laws or monopolies, no placemen, the nation’s right of war and peace, the abolition of titles, primogeniture and tithes, and universal liberty of conscience.

6. I.3 The Growth of the French Revolution 40 min 14

   Paine supplies the history he says Burke left out. A “mental revolution” prepared by the French philosophers and by the American war came before the political one. He traces the fiscal crisis from Necker's fall and Calonne's deficits through the Assembly of Notables (1787), the parlements' refusal to register new taxes, and the failed Cour plénière of 1788 to the calling of the Estates-General. The Third Estate then declared itself the National Assembly, and its members took the tennis-court oath. A court plot with foreign troops ended with the fall of the Bastille, and the Assembly published the Declaration of Rights.

7. I.4 The Declaration of Rights, with Observations 11 min 8

   Paine prints the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens (August 1789) in English: seventeen articles on natural rights, the sovereignty of the nation, law as the will of the community, due process, freedom of opinion and the press, equal taxation according to ability, and property. His observations group the articles, question whether article X's religious liberty goes far enough, and answer the call for a declaration of duties: every right implies a duty to respect it in others. He ends by calling the Revolution a “Regeneration of man”.

8. I.5 Miscellaneous Chapter 56 min 17

   A collection of replies to Burke. Hereditary government cannot be a “contrivance of human wisdom”, since wisdom is not inherited. No generation can bind its successors, and the English crown rests on conquest and imported German princes. English local government is already republican and cheap, so its heavy taxes come from the monarchy. Paine reviews English politics since the American war: the Fox–North coalition, Pitt's reform plan and the Regency crisis. He argues that Parliament's talk of a “Constitution” shows there is none. He predicts the end of the funding system, compares French and English stocks of coin, and praises France for treating its creditors as the nation's.

9. I.6 Conclusion 17 min 6

   Government rests on either reason (election and representation) or ignorance (hereditary succession). Mixed government, like Britain's, is held together by corruption, and responsibility disappears among its parts. Sovereignty belongs to the nation, as the Declaration's first three articles state. Old governments live on war, which brings them taxes and offices, while republics have no interest separate from the nation. Recalling Henry IV's plan for a European congress, Paine calls this “an age of Revolutions” and urges reform by reason rather than by convulsion.

10. Dedication to M. de la Fayette 3 min 2

    Paine dedicates Part II to Lafayette, his friend of nearly fifteen years. They differ only on timing: Lafayette expects reform within fifteen years, while Paine thinks it can come sooner. He hopes any spring campaign will free Germany from despotism, and asks Lafayette to “hasten your principles and overtake me”.

11. Preface 14 min 4

    Paine explains why he held back the rest of his work: he was waiting for the comparison of constitutions that Burke had promised and never wrote. He mocks Burke's “Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs” for leaving Part I's refutation to “criminal justice”. He claims Part I sold 40,000–50,000 copies, against unread replies. He argues that anyone may discuss the principles of a government even while obeying its laws, that no jury of twelve can judge a nation's right to reform itself, and that monarchy and aristocracy will not last seven more years in enlightened Europe.

12. Introduction 9 min 2

    Like Archimedes' lever, the American Revolution gave reason a place to stand from which to move the world. America's mixed settlers and vast landscape made it the natural starting point. Old governments, by contrast, live on war, taxes and plunder. The new revolutions are a recovery of rights that conquest took away, and to judge them one must first separate what society does from what government does.

13. II.1 Of Society and Civilisation 11 min 7

    Most social order comes from society, not government. Human wants and social affections bind people together, and trade and common interest regulate their dealings. America ran without formal government for two years of the war, and order survived. Government is needed only for the few things society cannot do; heavy, unequal taxation causes riots, as in 1780. America shows that government built on the principles of society produces harmony, and that government is nothing more than a “national association”.

14. II.2 Of the Origin of the Present Old Governments 5 min 3

    Existing governments began in conquest: bands of robbers seized countries, and their chiefs became kings. England's Norman conquest is the best recorded example. Plunder became “revenue” and usurpation became inheritance, so these governments live by war and extortion and cannot be reformed from within. The farmer and the manufacturer gain nothing from war, which is the governments' gambling table. Paine marvels that agriculture, manufacture and commerce have advanced at all under such governments.

15. II.3 Of the Old and New Systems of Government 35 min 12

    Paine contrasts the “old” hereditary system of government with the “new” representative one, addressing his argument to the Abbé Sieyès, who had defended monarchy. Hereditary rule is an imposition, since no generation can bind its successors, and it is incompetent, since wisdom is not inherited. Representation grafted onto democracy, as in America, can govern any territory, and gathers knowledge from the whole society. A republic means government for the public good, not a particular form. Monarchy, he concludes, is a costly mystery kept up to make people pay taxes: the American federal government costs less than a European king’s civil list.

16. II.4 Of Constitutions 55 min 18

    A constitution is the act of a people creating a government, and is prior to it. Paine illustrates this with the Pennsylvania constitution of 1776 and the federal Constitution of 1787, both made by conventions and open to revision. England, he argues, has no constitution: Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights only limited a government founded on conquest, and Parliament’s power is unbounded. He mocks Burke and the cult of precedent, and discusses legislative design, preferring a single chamber divided by lot. He argues that no office is worth more than £10,000 a year, rejects oaths of allegiance to persons, and praises constitutions that provide for their own amendment.

17. II.5 Ways and Means of Improving the Condition of Europe, Interspersed with Miscellaneous Observations 2 h 12 min 45

    The longest chapter turns principles into a budget. War and court government consume Europe’s taxes, and commerce would bring peace. Paine attacks chartered corporations, the House of Lords as a landlords’ combination that shifts taxes onto consumption, primogeniture and the crown. Using Sinclair’s figures, he proposes cutting government spending to £1.5 million and using the surplus to abolish the poor-rates and pay child allowances conditional on schooling, old-age pensions as a right, and grants for births, marriages and funerals. He also proposes a progressive tax to break up great estates and an alliance of England, France and America to disarm navies, and he hopes for peaceful revolution.

18. Appendix 10 min 4

    Paine explains why Part II appeared late. Its printer stopped work without warning just where the tax-reduction plan began, after offering a thousand pounds for the copyright. Meanwhile Pitt announced repeals of some of the same taxes Paine proposed to abolish. Paine lists suspicious circumstances, including a government-connected bookseller’s access to the printing office, but says he will not draw a conclusion himself.