{"data":{"description":"The Rights of Man has stood for more than two centuries, pointing out paths in democratic government. Even today, it would be considered radical by many.","title":"The First Boston Edition of The Rights of Man","post_type":"page","content":"\u003ch2 style=\"color: #ad8431;\"\u003eA Political Pamphlet by Thomas Paine\r\nPublished in 1791\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eThe Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution....Third Edition. Boston: I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, 1791. The edition runs 79 pages. It has marginal browning but is in very good condition.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eThe front of this edition contains an extract of a letter from Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson: \"I am extremely pleased to find this will be reprinted, and that something is at length to be publicly said against the political heresies which have sprung up against us.\" This was a direct slap at the Vice-president John Adams.This is the first edition printed in Boston (the third American edition). The Rights of Man was published in two parts. This edition — Part The First — was printed in 1791 and dedicated to George Washington. The second part, entitled Part The Second, followed in 1792.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"divimgright\" style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #990000;\"\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-5220 size-full\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/paine.jpg\" alt=\"Portrait of Thomas Paine\" width=\"187\" height=\"216\" /\u003e\u003cp\u003eThomas Paine From an engraving by W. Sharp. Published February 1794, London.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\nThomas Paine\r\nFrom an engraving by W. Sharp. Published\r\nFebruary 1794, London.\r\n\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eAfter the war Thomas Paine returned to England in 1787. Soon after the opening phase of the French Revolution, Britain's foremost statesman, Edmund Burke, wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France, a scathing denunciation of the people's movement in France. Burke's attack infuriated Paine, who promptly set out to write his defense of the French Revolution. In so doing he produced one of the finest statements of eighteenth century democratic philosophy ever formulated.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eWhen The Rights of Man was printed in America, it created a new sensation. Not because of the principles outlining American Jeffersonian democracy, but because the publisher had printed in the front of the book remarks from a letter from Thomas Jefferson, in which Jefferson pointed a finger at Vice-president Adams.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eIn England The Rights of Man encountered a response like no other in English publishing history. The poor pooled their pennies, supplementing it with meager savings to buy the book. The Rights of Man became an underground manifesto, passed from hand to hand, even when it became a crime to be found with it in one's possession.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eThe book became a bible to thousands of citizens who dreamed of a free England. Time after time, when men were tried for treason, invariably the Crown offered as evidence to the jury the fact that these men possessed a copy of The Rights of Man.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eOutlawed for treason, Paine fled to France in 1792, never to return to England again.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eAnd what of the revolution that Paine had started in England? Three generations would pass before even a small part of the things Paine pleaded for in his book would see fruition. Observed biographer Howard Fast:\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\"Yet one cannot say that the book had no effect. It shook the government; it set thousands of people to thinking. It stirred the currents in what had been placid water, and once stirred, those currents never stilled themselves. And not only in England, but everywhere men longed for freedom, Rights of Man became an inspiration and a hope.\"\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eAll of Paine's works reflected his belief in natural reason and natural rights, political equality, tolerance, civil liberties, and the dignity of man.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003ePaine has been described as a professional radical and a revolutionary propagandist without peer. Born in England, he was dismissed as an excise officer while lobbying for higher wages. Impressed by Paine, Benjamin Franklin sponsored Paine's emigration to America in 1774.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eIn Philadelphia Paine became a journalist and essayist, contributing articles on all subjects to The Pennsylvania Magazine. After the publication of Common Sense, Paine continued to inspire and encourage the patriots during the Revolutionary War with a series of pamphlets entitled The American Crisis. Eventually, Paine went on to write The Rights of Man.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eWhen Paine wrote Common Sense he was venturing into uncharted waters. By the time he settled into writing The Rights of Man, he did so with hindsight and deliberately set out to write a document that would shake the whole fabric of England.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eThe Rights of Man has stood for more than two centuries, pointing out paths in democratic government. Even today, it would be considered radical by many.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eIt is one of history's ironies that the volume written by one of England's greatest statesman is by and large forgotten....while Thomas Paine's answer to it has become a classic.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003ctable class=\"mytable\" style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd class=\"ctrbld\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\" colspan=\"4\"\u003eClick on the icons to view the Title Page, Dedication to George Washington, Remarks from Thomas Jefferson and the first page of the book.\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003ca href=\"/earlyamerica/writings/rights-of-man/rights1\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-5221 size-thumbnail\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/rights1.jpg\" alt=\"Title page of The Rights of Man\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003e Title Page\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003ca href=\"/earlyamerica/writings/rights-of-man/rights2\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-5222 size-thumbnail\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/rights2.jpg\" alt=\"Rights of Man Dedication page to George Washingtom\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003e Dedication page to George Washington\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003ca href=\"/earlyamerica/writings/rights-of-man/rights3\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-5223 size-thumbnail\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/rights3.jpg\" alt=\"Rights of Man Remarks to Thomas Jefferson\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003e Remarks to Thomas Jefferson\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003ca href=\"/earlyamerica/writings/rights-of-man/rights4\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-5224 size-thumbnail\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/rights4.jpg\" alt=\"First page The Rights of Man\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cp\u003e First Page\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\r\n\u003c/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c/tbody\u003e\r\n\u003c/table\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"hr\" style=\"color: #990000;\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003ch2 style=\"color: #ad8431;\"\u003eBibliography\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eA. Owen Aldridge, \"Tom Paine's American Ideology.\" 1984.\r\nA.J. Ayer, \"Thomas Paine.\" 1989.\r\nI. Dyck, ed., \"Citizen of the World.\" 1988.\r\nDavid F. Hawke, \"Paine.\" 1974.\r\nThomas Clio Rickman, \"The Life of Thomas Paine.\" London. 1819.\r\nAudrey Williamson, \"Thomas Paine: His Life, Work and Times.\" 1973.\r\nJerome D. Wilson and William F. Ricketson, \"Thomas Paine.\" 1978.\u003c/p\u003e","menu":[{"path":"lives-early-america","title":"Famous Lives","submenu":[{"path":"lives-early-america/autobiography-benjamin-franklin","title":"Autobiography of Ben Franklin"},{"path":"lives-early-america/ramsays-life-washington","title":"Ramsay's The Life of Washington"},{"path":"lives-early-america/adventures-col-daniel-boone","title":"The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone"},{"path":"lives-early-america/true-story-paul-revere","title":"The True Story of Paul Revere"},{"path":"world-early-america/famous-obits","title":"Famous Obits"},{"path":"portrait","title":"Portraits"},{"path":"rare-images/last-men-revolution","title":"The Last Men of the Revolution"}]},{"path":"freedom-documents","title":"Freedom Documents","submenu":[{"path":"freedom-documents/bill-rights","title":"Bill of Rights"},{"path":"freedom-documents/declaration-independence","title":"Declaration of Independence"},{"path":"freedom-documents/u-s-constitution","title":"The U.S. Constitution"}]},{"path":"world-early-america","title":"World of Early America","submenu":[{"path":"bookmarks","title":"Early American Bookmarks"},{"path":"world-early-america/famous-obits","title":"Famous Obits"},{"path":"firsts","title":"Firsts!"},{"path":"rare-images/maps","title":"Maps"},{"path":"rare-images","title":"Rare Images"},{"path":"music1","title":"Music"},{"path":"writings","title":"The Writings of Early America"}]},{"path":"boston-massacre","title":"Boston Massacre"},{"path":"milestone-events","title":"Milestones"},{"path":"early-america-review","title":"The Review"},{"path":"home/teachers-students","title":"Teachers"},{"path":"sitemap","title":"Sitemap"}]},"success":true}