Rights of Man

Rights of Man is a political treatise by Thomas Paine, first published in two parts in 1791 and 1792. It began as a defence of the French Revolution against Edmund Burke's Reflections.

Paine argues that natural rights do not descend from monarchs or ancestors and cannot be surrendered by one generation for another. Legitimate government rests on a living people, representation, and a written constitution because rights belong to the living.

The first part attacks hereditary monarchy and aristocratic privilege; the second contrasts hereditary and representative systems and moves from principle toward administration. Paine treats hereditary power as usurpation sustained by war, titles, and unequal taxation.

His proposals include progressive taxes, education grants, old-age support, maternity assistance, and reductions in military expenditure. The work therefore joins revolution and constitutional argument to practical social provision, helping make Paine a target for prosecution for seditious libel.

"From the part Mr. Burke took in the American Revolution, it was natural that I should consider him a friend to mankind; and as our acquaintance commenced on that ground, it would have been more agreeable to me to have had cause to continue in that opinion than to change it."