Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution.

Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution.

Part I printed for J.S. Jordan. Part II printed for H.D. Symonds.

1792

Thomas Paine was a forceful proponent of natural law - a legal and political philosophy that viewed certain rights as being held in common by all people and derived from nature rather than government. Revolution is permissible when government interferes with these natural rights. Rights of Man resulted in Paine and his publisher being indicted for seditious libel. The author was tried in absentia, found guilty, and the tract ordered permanently suppressed. ESTC (N13085) lists only one copy of this variant (Harvard).

From the Collection of Kyle Shephard

Thomas Paine.

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