Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke does NOT like what he sees in Paris-be warned there are graphic descriptions of horrific atrocities being meted out on the Citizens; the phrase 'reign of terror' is a apt description'. He hits out at the political instruments of the Jacobins in the most searing of ways. One to read alongside others happening at that time like Mary Wollestonecraft, Thomas Paine Rights of Man (both need to be read by me) ( )

Ur-text of modern conservatism. Well, he has a good writing style. I'll give him that.

For all of his self-righteous condemnations, which are so often repeated by conservatives and reactionaries today, I note how so very few of them tend to notice his conspiratorial wailing about international finance and the Jews. ( )

I cannot wait till I have finished this book: Burke's style is horrible, and his reflections are boring. Cannot say more. ( )

"Paine’s answer to Burke’s pamphlet begins to produce some squibs in our public papers. In Fenno’s paper they are Burkites, in the others Painites." — Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, May 8, 1791

"The Revolution of France does not astonish me so much as the Revolution of Mr. Burke. I wish I could believe the latter proceeded from as pure motives as the former. But what demonstration could scarcely have established before, less than the hints of Dr. Priestly and Mr. Paine establish firmly now. How mortifying that this evidence of the rotteness of his mind must oblige us now to ascribe to wicked motives those actions of his life which wore the mask of virtue and patriotism. To judge from what we see published, we must believe that the spirit of toryism has gained nearly the whole of the nation: that the whig principles are utterly extinguished except in the breasts of certain descriptions of dissenters. This sudden change in the principles of a nation would be a curious morsel in the history of man.—We have some names of note here who have apostatised from the true faith: but they are few indeed, and the body of our citizens are pure and insusceptible of taint in their republicanism. Mr. Paine’s answer to Burke will be a refreshing shower to their minds. It would bring England itself to reason and revolution if it was permitted to be read there. However the same things will be said in milder forms, will make their way among the people, and you must reform at last." — Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Vaughan, May 11, 1791

"Burke’s pamphlet and the answers to him occupy much attention there [i.e. Europe] and here [Philadelphia]. Payne’s and Priestly’s are excellent." — Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Sumter, May 14, 1791

"You will observe by the inclosed and preceding papers, that I am mentioned on the subject of Paine’s pamphlet on the rights of man: and you will have seen a note of mine prefixed to that pamphlet, whence it has been inferred that I furnished the pamphlet to the printer and procured it’s publication. This is not true. The fact was this. Mr. Beckley had the only copy of that pamphlet in town. He lent it to Mr. Madison, who lent it to me under the injunction to return it to Beckley within the day. Beckley came for it before I had finished reading it, and desired, as soon as I had done, I would send it to a Mr. Jonathan B. Smith whose brother was to reprint it. Being an utter stranger to Mr. J. B. Smith, I explained to him in a note that I sent the pamphlet to him by order of Mr. Beckley and, to take off somewhat of the dryness of the note, I added ‘that I was glad to find it was to be reprinted here &c. as you have seen in the printed note. I thought so little of this note, that I did not even retain a copy of it: and without the least information or suspicion that it would be published, out it comes the next week at the head of the pamphlet. I knew immediately that it would give displeasure to some gentlemen, fast by the chair of government, who were in sentiment with Burke, and as much opposed to the sentiments of Paine. I could not disavow my note, because I had written it: I could not disavow my approbation of the pamphlet, because I was fully in sentiment with it: and it would have been trifling to have disavowed merely the publication of the note, approving at the same time of the pamphlet. I determined therefore to be utterly silent, except so far as verbal explanations could be made." — Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, July 3, 1791

For details, see editorial note in PTJ 20: 268-312 on The Rights of Man: The "Contest of Burke and Paine . . . in America."

This classic is not a knee-jerk reactions against the Revolution but a deeper reflection and a realization of the ends of violent revolution. Burke opposed the Revolution from the beginning and as events turned out he was correct in identifying the violence and mayhem brought on by the cataclysmic events of the period.

Early on Burke correctly identified "The Social Contract: A Critique" or "Rousseau's Democracy Run Amok". Burke counters the "Rights of Man" declaration and the populist democracy that emerged in France which turned ruinously into anarchy followed by dictatorship. It is a sober reflection on democracy without the limitations of a constitutional republic.