President Of The United States Of America

Sir,

I present you a small treatise in defence of those principles of
freedom which your exemplary virtue hath so eminently contributed to
establish. That the Rights of Man may become as universal as your
benevolence can wish, and that you may enjoy the happiness of seeing
the New World regenerate the Old, is the prayer of

Sir,

Your much obliged, and

  Obedient humble Servant,

    Thomas Paine

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PAINE'S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

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.

At the time Mr. Burke made his violent speech last winter in the
English Parliament against the French Revolution and the National