ANOTHER MAJOR CONSERVATIVE THINKER WHO OPPOSES TOM PAINE

I noted below that Tom Paine and Edmund Burke were at opposite ends of the liberal-conservative spectrum and in a biography of Joseph de Maistre, another prominent conservative thinker from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, I found that he despised Tom Paine's The Rights of Man.  In 1793, de Maistre wrote to a friend that he wanted a copy of Paine's book so he could write a "refutation of the principles of this wretch."

Original Source: Letter of de Maistre to Vignet des Etoles, 10/1/1793, Maistre Family Archives