The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III.
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~160,000 words · 765 passages
Cite this work
- APAThomas Paine. (n.d.). The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III.. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-paine/the-writings-of-thomas-paine-volume-iii
- MLAThomas Paine. The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III.. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-paine/the-writings-of-thomas-paine-volume-iii.
- ChicagoThomas Paine. The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III.. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-paine/the-writings-of-thomas-paine-volume-iii.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The third volume of Paine's works in Conway's edition: the writings of the years of the French Revolution, above all 'Rights of Man'.
Context and history
'Rights of Man' is the answer to Burke's 'Reflections', and both works are in the corpus: reading them one after the other is the best way to see the fundamental political argument of the late eighteenth century. Paine does not argue as Burke does: where the other speaks of tradition and continuity, he holds that no generation can bind those that follow, that rights come not from history but from the human condition, and that a government not founded on consent is not legitimate however old it may be. The second part contains concrete proposals far ahead of their time: old-age pensions, child allowances, public education, funded by progressive taxation. It cost him a charge of sedition and exile.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
America had internally sustained the ravages of upwards of seven years of war, which England had not. England sustained only the expence of the war; whereas America sustained not only the expence, but the destruction of property committed by _both_ armies. Not a house was built during that period, and many thousands were destroyed. The farms and plantations along the coast of the country, for more than a thousand miles, were laid waste. Her commerce was annihilated. Her ships were either taken, or had rotted within her own harbours. The credit of her funds had fallen upwards of ninety per cent., that is, an original hundred pounds would not sell for ten pounds. In fine, she was apparently put back an hundred years when the war closed, which was not the case with England. But such was the event, that the same representative system of government, though since better organized, which enabled her to conquer, enabled her also to recover, and she now presents a more flourishing condition, and a more happy and harmonized society, under that system of government, than any country in the world can boast under any other. Her towns are rebuilt, much better than before; her farms and plantations are in higher improvement than ever; her commerce is spread over the world, and her funds have risen from less than ten pounds the hundred to upwards of one hundred and twenty. Mr. Pitt and his colleagues talk of the things that have happened in his boyish administration, without knowing what greater things have happened elsewhere, and under other systems of government. I now come to state the expence of the two systems, as they now stand in each of the countries; but it may first be proper to observe, that government in America is what it ought to be, a matter of honour and trust, and not made a trade of for the purpose of lucre.…