User:Todd Coles/Sandbox

COTTON MATHER

JOE LOUIS

THOMAS PAINE - FINISH ARTICLE Upon his return to Britain and France, Paine found himself accepted in radical circles. On July 14, 1789, the French Revolution began, and he was invited to Paris by the Marquis de Lafayette, who had also fought in the American Revolution. The Revolution was successful and the absolute monarchy was overthrown. This fueled fears in Britain that a similar revolution might threaten the government, and led to Edmund Burke, a conservative member of Parliament, to write Reflections on the Revolution in France which celebrated the British political structure while denouncing the revolutionary movement. Paine was outraged by Burke's writings, and this led him to pen Rights of Man which debuted in February of 1791.

Rights of Man shared many of the arguments previously outlined in Common Sense. Paine went on to credit the ideas of the American Revolution, such as the natural rights of citizens, the end of hereditary monarchy, constitutionally limited governments, and that rulers were servants of their people, as influencing the French Revolution. Paine was optimistic that these ideas would rapidly spread and reform the governments of Europe to republicanism. Rights of Man was very successful and became well read throughout Europe.

The success of Rights of Man angered the British government, and in May 1972 a proclamation was issued against "wicked and seditious writings" and charged Paine with this crime. Paine was defiant, and wrote Letter Adressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation, which openly called for a formation of a British republic. After being tipped off by his friend, the poet William Blake, Paine fled to France, never to return to Britain. In December, he was prosecuted in absentia and found guilty of seditious libel.