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Home , Edmund Burke, Edmund Burke (Thomas), Hereditary monarchy, Mary Wollstonecraft, People, Rights of Man

Defining the Natural of Man: An Analysis of Burke, Paine, and Wollstonecraft

Lindsay Kohl of North Carolina at Greensboro Faculty Mentor: Joseph Moore University of North Carolina at Greensboro

ABSTRACT Many texts and writing appeared in response to the violence and political upheaval of the French in the eighteenth century. , , and were three specific writers of this period that engaged in a dialogue about where the natural were derived and the limits and responsibilities of to their people. Their beliefs were very diverse, but they held much in common as well. Revolution was not always the immediate answer, but at certain critical times in it could be helpful and even necessary to the protection and preservation of man’s natural rights.

ways to recognize and protect these rights. s the took place in These three writers work to recognize Athe late eighteenth century, a myriad the inadequacies within the political of texts and writing appeared in response systems of Britain and America as they to the violence and political upheaval. concerned the natural rights of man. Among some of the most notable and Burke employed a practical approach in compelling writers were Edmund Burke, writing Reflections on the Revolution in in Thomas Paine, and Mary Wollstonecraft. 1790. He wanted to put his concern for Their opinions and rhetoric, encompassing the people of Britain in writing, based on everything from the monarchial system his reaction to the events in France. Paine to class and issues, are still drawn answered Burke’s musings with a text of his upon today when discussions arise about own in 1791, Rights of Man. His theories the origins of modern political thought. centered on a more straightforward radical Each of them carries a particular set of ideology, and he attacked Burke’s support beliefs about revolution and its proper of the English and defended place and function in society. The his own ideas of Republican . diversity of their ideas can be bridged by Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of the theory that all are entitled Men, and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, to certain natural rights. However, their published in 1790 and 1792, respectively, individual interpretations concerning were a justification and defense of the origin of the natural rights of man natural rights, with a unique set contrast, and they disagree on the best of regarding the education

68 Lindsay Kohl of women and their role in society. disruptive nature of the French Revolution. Born in 1729 in Ireland, Edmund Burke His intention was to warn the people of was the son of Protestant and Catholic against being swept up in the parents. He eventually went to London same type of passionate, yet catastrophic in 1750 to study . He was a Whig movement that was corrupting France. politician deeply invested in the political Reflections on the Revolution in France was a life in Britain. He viewed revolution as a provocative text because it took up the subject kind of obligation to repair some of the of the French Revolution and rhetorically grievances in society, but he drew exhausted it. Burke was sentimental in his issue with the violence and of the views of the monarchy and reacted to the French Revolution. He endorsed positive revolution with gravity and contempt. His examples such as the , political theories are impressive in that his which helped England to essentially trade beliefs remained intense and direct through while still keeping many accustomed nearly 250 pages of what began simply practices of government intact, and the as a letter. He claims that the hereditary , which successfully privilege of the monarchy and delivered the Americans from British are the foundation for governmental and oppression with significantly less violence religious order and believes these principles than what he believed France was complement his ideas about inherited experiencing. Fundamentally, governments natural rights: were responsible for responding to the practical needs of the people that they [Men] have a right to the acquisitions of their governed, but what was occurring in parents; to the nourishmentand improvement of their France was a damaging abuse of nature. offspring; to instruction in life, and to consolation Rather than moderately amending in death. Whatever each man can separately do, traditional practices, the people were without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do placing all of their confidence in untested for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of and unproven theories. He saw the French all which society, with all its combinations of skill Revolution as chaotic and unpredictable, and force, can do in his favour. In this partnership because the “swinish multitude”1 was more all men have equal rights; but not to equal things.3 concerned with their individual than respecting or adhering to custom. When examining Burke’s view of natural Burke’s theories supported belief that rights in the context of this passage, it is the way things are in the present can not be obvious that he favors an idea synonymous understood by simply taking them at face with the common proverb: “Give a man value. History and precedent are important a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a contributors to society, and they must be man to fish and he will feed himself for a taken into consideration in order to better lifetime.” He was horrified by the idea of comprehend the needs of the people. For seizure and had sympathy for those who him, provoking the current state of affairs is were deprived of their rank and fortune dangerous. He bitterly asserts: “Massacre, during the progression of the revolution. torture, hanging! These are your rights of For Burke, land equaled . men!”2 He was opposed to the brutality and Therefore, the protection of is also a protection of . Titles of 1 Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in , religious distinctions, and the France (Oxford: , 2009), 79.

2 Ibid., 223. 3 Ibid., 59.

69 Explorations | Humanities preservation of offered stability views through essays and pamphlets. in British society. Burke felt this would all Paine's writings provide the antithesis to be threatened if the ideas of the French Burke’s doctrine. As one of America’s most Revolution made their way into England. famous , he advocated that, Burke states that, “by preserving the although revolution is often agitated and method of nature in the conduct of the violent, it is essential to prevent tyranny. state, in what we improve we are never Pain saw Burke’s ideas as being unfounded, wholly new; in what we retain we are maintaining that, “he does not understand 4 never wholly obsolete.” He felt that the French revolution.”6 He felt that the adhering to historical precedent is the minds of the people in France had been safest way to ensure the preservation long since made up about what needed to of culture. Improvement is welcome as happen, and it was just a matter of time long as it does not disrupt the natural before their actions caught up with their order of things, and holding true to basic thoughts. Paine also stated, “[Burke] is not principles of the does not necessarily affected by the reality of distress touching mean that the government would be his heart, but by the showy resemblance out-dated. This is best demonstrated in of it striking his imagination. He pities the his view of the monarchy and privilege: plumage, but forgets the dying bird.”7 Paine viewed Burke as being overly concerned You will observe, that from Magna Charta to the with the preservation of established Declaration of Rights, it has been the uniform policy , and blind to the need for reform. of our to claim and assert our liberties, His argument against Burke in this sense as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our is valid: Burke believed that government forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity was a basic and natural progression from […] By this means our constitution preserves traditions and institutions, which were not an unity in so great a diversity of its parts. We to be manipulated. have an inheritable crown; an inheritable peerage; The legitamacy of an house of commons and a people inheriting is one example of Paine and Burke’s privileges, franchises, and liberties, from a long line differences at the most fundamental level: 5 of ancestors. Mr. Burke talks about what he calls an hereditary Burke saw human beings as being crown, as if it were some production of Nature; or discerning and capable, but also as creatures as if, like Time, it had a power to operate, not only of habit. He sought to uphold timeless independently, but in spite of man; or as if it were values and structures of government in a thing or a subject universally consented to. Alas! order to keep a sense of balance and It has none of those , but is the reverse of cohesion within society. Natural rights, them all. It is a thing in imagination, the propriety to Burke, were in every sense prescriptive of which is more than doubted, and the legality of and determined by estate and inheritance. which in a few years will be denied.8 Thomas Paine was born in 1737 in Great Britain as the son of a Quaker farmer. After meeting in London, he traveled to America in 1774 6 Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, and and began expressing his strong political Other Political Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 144.

4 Ibid., 34. 7 Ibid., 102.

5 Ibid., 33. 8 Ibid., 172-173.

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Paine felt that every generation should rights: “Civil distinctions, therefore, [could] have the right to establish its own system only be founded on public utility.”11 Paine of government, electing its leaders from believed that the protection of natural the living, not deriving them from the dead. rights and the equality and unity of man His religious background may well have were a product of creation and should not influenced this idea. The Quaker belief be designated or infringed upon. Based is that each is responsible for their on his argument, he states that because spiritual growth, rather than reliant on the government of France was based on priests or theologians for the understanding elections and representations of the people, or articulation of faith. He felt that families then through it would stand to be had no right to establish dominance in accepted by the citizens of France. This is in society, nor did a have the right to contrast to his beliefs about the government sanction such families as hereditary leaders. in England, which was based on succession Government, in Paine’s mind, was a and inheritance, and only welcomed necessary evil. It was necessary because a because the people were unenlightened. country could not exist without some kind Paine also differs from Burke greatly in of order and structure, but the smaller and his view of the distribution of wealth. Burke more limited that the government was, the demonstrated his ideas about equality better. Its sole responsibility and duty was in rights, but not in things. Paine, on the to protect the rights of the people, and to other hand, proposes the redistribution of uphold the idea of a contract. He the national income in order to help the urges England to establish a Republican poor. He states, “The first step, therefore, form of government as the only way to of practical relief, would be to abolish the guarantee their citizens’ “sacred rights.” poor-rates entirely, and in lieu thereof, to Such rights included “liberty, property, make a remission of taxes to the poor of security, and resistance of oppression.”9 double the amount of the present poor- His view that a was superior to rates, viz. four millions annually out of a Monarchy meant that people would the surplus taxes.”12 These early ideas of be free from a system of social castes public welfare and redistributive taxation, and hereditary privilege. The flaw of and even education for the lower classes, a Monarchy was that it “counteracts are all factored into Paine’s financial nature. It turns the of the human improvement plan. His inclusion of these faculties upside down.” Paine felt that a methods of improvement into Rights of representative system was more compatible Man serves to explain, in plain language with the “order and immutable of and figures, his position that natural rights nature,” and would “meet the reason of are not just afforded to the aristocracy and man in every part.”10 A representative upper classes, but to all people. He wanted government would ensure that the whole to have the monarchy abolished, and a body of people was represented, and that Republican form of government installed, all of their rights and interests were taken in order to best protect those rights. into account. Paine believed that men were Mary Wollstonecraft was born in born with a prescribed set of natural rights. London in 1759 and spent most of her life His ideas about these rights were integral attempting to gain financial independence to the formation of ideas regarding civil as a result of her resentment to the

9 Ibid., 162. 11 Ibid., 194.

10 Ibid., 235. 12 Ibid., 292-293.

71 Explorations | Humanities practice of .13 In response Her ideas about revolution inferred that to Burke’s writing and other there were groups, such as women, who were texts, Mary Wollstonecraft penned A left entirely out of the equation. Because of Vindication of the Rights of Men, and later A laws like those of primogeniture, that were Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Although in place to protect a family’s estate and the first was more of a direct criticism of ensure that it remained within the family, Burke, perhaps even a request to “reason women were left with little or no property together,”14 the latter was possibly the rights. Wollstonecraft felt that precedence most preeminent work by a female in the and customs such as these were no reason late eighteenth century. She attacks the to blindly accept laws or a constitutional “wretchedness that [flows] from hereditary principle, and that upholding many honours, riches, and monarchy,”15 just as traditions of the past was tantamount to Paine does, and disapproves of Burke’s being irrational, oppressive, and ignorant. justification of the unequal society that This is one area that suggests her conformity promotes the passivity of women by relying with Burke’s ideas about land ownership. on and custom. She criticizes If land and property ownership meant Burke for his sympathy towards aristocratic freedom, and if women were not entitled women in France, while many other to land or property, then Wollstonecraft’s mothers who are poor, hungry, and without concern for women’s liberties was property of their own were suffering. justified and deserved to be vindicated. Notably, Wollstonecraft amplified the basic Rights of Woman is sometimes looked arguments of Paine and Burke by inserting upon as an early feminist treatise, but females into the dialogue, at a time when Wollstonecraft’s ideas about neither the established values in society were not what we might consider radical nor the most radical egalitarians dared to today. Burke employs his credibility within do so. In one passage, she compares the the tradition of the landed aristocracy, and institution of to the monarchy: Paine uses reason to appeal to the common sense of the public. Wollstonecraft cleverly The divine right of husbands, like the divine harnesses the emotions of the middle class right of kings, may, it is to be hoped, in this and the female voice in order to support enlightened age, be contested without danger, and, her notion that natural rights appeal to though conviction may not silence many boisterous men and women alike. Wollstonecraft disputants, yet, when any prevailing prejudice firmly defends the ideals of Republican is attacked, the wise will consider, and leave the womanhood and virtue: narrow-minded to rail with thoughtless vehemence at .16 Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common 13 Primogeniture: a rule of inheritance, whether through law or custom, that gave the firstborn (usually to all [… and] if children are to be educated to male) child entitlement to the entire estate of an ancestor. understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot […] but the education 14 Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and A Vindication of the Rights of Men and situation of woman, at present, shuts her out (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 7. from such investigations.17 15 Ibid., 77.

16 Ibid., 108 17 Ibid., 66.

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While she argues for the education of a woman thinks of more of the incidental women in order to enhance their dignity occurrences, the strange things that may and self-worth, and to make them more possibly occur on the road; the impression valuable members of society, she concedes that she may make on her fellow-travellers that only a small number of exceptional […].”20 She also points out that there are women would be suited to a life of obvious differences in physical strength independence. This is not because women between men and women, and in their were not capable, but because they had not physical appearance: “To satisfy this genus been given the opportunity or the equal of men, women are made systematically rights to achieve. voluptuous.”21 Her Christian view of motherhood However, these are trivial matters to promotes companionate , Wollstonecraft in comparison with the domesticity, and the moral upbringing larger picture: of children. This is where her argument becomes somewhat ambiguous. Despite The two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each her views of marriage as an admirable other. This is believed to be an indisputable truth, option for women, she heavily praises extending it to every virtue. Chastity, modesty, modesty and the potential ability of public spirit, and all the noble train of virtues, on women to deny themselves sexual desires. which social virtue and happiness are built, should She calls on them to not be made slaves to be understood and cultivated by all mankind, or their bodies simply because it is their duty they will be cultivated to little effect.22 as a . Wollstonecraft points out that her view of traditional marriage is essentially This passage demonstrates her main legal prostitution.18 Her specific concept idea that men and women are not equal of natural rights is rooted in the Christian in everything, except in morality. Natural argument that woman is made as a help- rights are as equally important for women mate for man, not as a subordinate, and by as they are for men, and to deny them these “allowing them to have souls,”19 it is implied rights would be sinful. For Wollstonecraft, it that virtue and happiness are afforded to was the duty of society and the government women as equally as men. Wollstonecraft to verify and promote this concept through believes that women are conditioned by such means as education for women. society to perform in a weak, falsely-refined, Her ideas about Republican virtue and and servile manner; this in turn leads them natural rights extend to promote individual to be easily manipulated or persuaded success over the good of society. She favors into abandoning their sense of virtue. industry and personal achievement, rather The arguments and tone of Rights of than dependence on others. This idea is Woman are highly compelling, but there are prevalent in her ideas about parenting: several rare moments when Wollstonecraft allows that men and women are not Why should the minds of children be warped fundamentally equal in all aspects of as they just begin to expand, only to favour the life. First, she notes the differences in the indolence of parents, who insist on a privilege ways that men and women operate on an without being willing to pay the price fixed by everyday level: “A man, when he undertakes nature? I have before had occasion to observe, that a journey, has, in general, the end in view; 20 Ibid., 130.

18 Ibid., 130. 21 Ibid., 218.

19 Ibid., 84. 22 Ibid., 219.

73 Explorations | Humanities a right always includes a duty, and I think it may, in alignment with change and aiding in likewise, fairly be inferred, that they forfeit the reform. In reality, his thesis would do no right, who do not fulfill the duty.23 more than perpetuate the chasm between rich and poor and stifle social mobility Wollstonecraft did not approve of by making the lower and middle classes charity when it promoted idleness. This dependent on the aristocracy and the kind of benefaction simply promotes and government. maintains inequality while giving the Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas about the wealthy the appearance and performance role of women within society are influential of virtue. If the rich give to the poor, and persuasive, specifically concerning there is little incentive for the lower the education of women and her opinion classes to exercise their natural and equal that women and men are morally equal rights of opportunity and advancement. and capable of promoting Republican Wollstonecraft advocated for reason, virtue within society. Allowing that virtue, and knowledge. She believed that women are both adept and indispensable reason and feelings should inform each when it comes to maintaining a family, as other, virtue should focus on individual well as serving a greater purpose within happiness, and knowledge was the key to society, lends itself to a modern, Christian equality within society. interpretation that motherhood and service In looking at the texts written in response can, in fact, coexist. Her focus is expressly to the French Revolution by Burke, Paine, on reason and enlightenment. She sums up and Wollstonecraft, it is evident that her idea of natural rights with a causality: there are varying opinions on what man’s if human beings are rational creatures, natural rights are, and whose duty it is men and women are both human beings, to protect them. Edmund Burke’s ideas then women must be entitled to the same about historical precedent are appealing. natural rights as men. Though he is idealistic in his view of the All three of the writers presented, have monarchy, he does advocate for reform to a distinct opinion about the necessity and be performed in a cautious and moderate place of revolution within society, and its way. The past can effectively guide us ability to uphold or undermine their idea to make better decisions in the present. of man’s natural rights. Burke believed For him, natural rights are inherited and himself to be fairly moderate in his political formed by society. beliefs; however, his ideas in reference to Thomas Paine is agreeable in his defense monarchial tradition, birthrights, and the of man being blessed with certain natural customs of society serve to classify him as rights since creation, but his propositions of more conservative. Wollstonecraft and public welfare and the common good being Paine are much more libertarian in their the best solution for the improvement of desire for equality and natural rights for society are disputable. He seems to apply all. Though one commonality that they the concept of noblesse oblige, where it is the all agree upon is that these rights exist, obligation and responsibility of the upper the design in which they are acquired and classes to use their money and influence to the ways in which they are exercised and help those of the lower classes. However, protected was argued over in the eighteenth this is contradictory to what he hopes to century, and remains a disputable point accomplish because he positions himself today. Being a citizen comes with the duty to protect and defend these liberties. The ways in which a human being chooses 23 Ibid., 238.

74 Lindsay Kohl to do that enable them to demonstrate revolution in their own diverse ways. Using their freedom at the most basic level. the same ideas about natural rights and Burke, Paine, and Wollstonecraft derive personal liberties today, we enable ourselves meaning by examining different events to historicize the present as it relates to the and circumstances. Their commonality past and draw upon similar arguments in of believing in something is what is most order to gain a deeper understanding of powerful, and it allows them to help facilitate the fundamental principles that make up twenty-first century .

Bibliography

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Paine, Thomas. Rights of Man, Common Sense and Other Political Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and a Vindication of the Rights of Men. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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