Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The drafting of the Constitution started on the 14th of July 1789 just as the Bastille was stormed. The Declaration would owe much to the American Declaration of Independence. This was perhaps unsurprising as Thomas Jefferson had a hand in both documents. Lafayette who helped write the Declaration distilled much enlightenment thought into the document upholding the need for freedom of the press. It would also embed equality into the law of France eroding class distinctions. It was clear as well that with the lines “the principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual can exert authority which does not emanate expressly from it,” France could no longer be considered under the rule of an absolute monarch.
Difficulties arose after the Declarations of the Rights of Man was accepted. The text suggested that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights,” would this follow through to the constitution in terms of political rights? Much to the disquiet of many it was agreed that there would be active citizens who would be over the age of 25 and paid taxes who would have full political rights. Passive citizens referred to all others who would enjoy civil but not political rights. Others would point to the document as proof that the institution of slavery should end in the colonies. Indeed the Declaration would serve as an inspiration to the freemen and slaves of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) where revolution would break out for freedom from slavery.
Women would not be mentioned explicitly in the document and would enjoy no political rights and very little in the way of civil rights either. This would not go unnoticed by Olympe de Gouges who wrote a retort in her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791.
Tom Paine discusses the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Burke’s opposition to it. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p68-69
While I am writing this, there are accidentally before me some proposals for a declaration of rights by the marquis de Lafayette to the National Assembly, on the 11th of July 1789, three days before the taking of the Bastille; and I cannot but remark with astonishment how opposite the sources are from the Gentleman and Mr Burke draw their principles. Instead of referring to musty records and mouldy parchments to prove that the rights of the living are lost, “renounced and abdicated forever,” by those who are now no more, as Mr Burke has done, M. de Lafayette applies to the living world, and emphatically says, “Call to mind the sentiments which Nature has engraved in the heart of every citizen, and which take a new force when they are solemnly recognised by all :- For a nation to love liberty, it is sufficient that she knows it; and to be free, it is sufficient that she wills it.” How dry, barren, and obscure, is the source from which Mr Burke labours! And how ineffectual, though gay with flowers, are all his declamation and his arguments, compared with these clear, concise, and soul animating sentiments! Few and short as they are, they lead on to a vast field of generous and manly thinking, and do not finish, like Mr Burke’s periods, with music in the ear, and nothing in the heart.
Germaine De Staël on La Fayette and the Declaration of Rights. Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p184
On the 11th of July, before the Third Estate had obtained their triumph, M. de la Fayette addressed the Constituent Assembly and proposed a declaration of rights, nearly similar to that which the Americans placed at the head of their constitution, after conquering their independence….
The French declaration of rights in 1789 contained the best part of those of England and America; but it would have perhaps been better to have confined it, on the one hand to what was disputable and on the other to what would not have admitted of any dangerous interpretation.
Tom Paine on the Declaration of Rights. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p136
In the declaratory exordium which prefaces the Declaration of Rights, we see the solemn and majestic spectacle of a Nation opening its commission, under the auspices of its Creator, to establish a Government; a scene so new, and so transcendentally unequalled by anything in the European world, that the name of a revolution is diminutive in character, and rises into a regeneration of man. What are the present Governments of Europe, but a scene iniquity and oppression?
Duke Mathieu De Montmorency on rights on August 1st 1789 taken from The French Revolution and Human Rights a brief documentary history, Bedford/St Martins, Boston New York (1996) p73-74
To raise up an edifice it is necessary to lay foundations; one does not draw conclusions without having posed principles; and before choosing for oneself the means and starting along a path, one must be assured of the endpoint. It is important to declare the rights of man before the constitution, because the constitution is only the continuation, the conclusion of this declaration….
The rights of man in society are eternal; no sanction is needed to recognise them.
Some have spoken of provisionally adopting this declaration; but do they believe that we could reject it later? The rights of man are invariable like justice, eternal like reason; they apply to all times and all countries.
I would wish that the declaration be clear, simple, and precise; that it be within the reach of those who would be least able to comprehend it.
These are not detestable principles that the representatives of the nation should fear to bring into the light! We are no longer in those times of barbarism when prejudices took the place of reason. Truth leads to happiness. Would we be here if the lights of wisdom had not dissipated the darkness that covered our horizon? Would we be finally at the point where we are now?
Wollstonecraft on the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Taken from A Vindication of the Rights of Man, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2008) p355
The declaration of rights contains an aggregate of principles the most beneficial; yet so simple, that the most ordinary capacity cannot fail to comprehend their import. It begins by asserting, that the rights of men are equal, and that no distinctions can exist in a wholesome government, but what are founded on public utility. Then showing that political associations are intended only for the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man, which are his liberty, security of property, and resistance against oppression; and asserting also, that the nation is the source of all sovereignty; it delineates, in a plain and perspicuous manner, in what these rights, and this sovereignty, consist. In this delineation men may learn, that, in the exercise of their natural rights, they have the power of doing whatever does not injure another; and that this power has no limits, which are not determined by law-the laws being at the same time an expression of the will of the community, because all the citizens of the state, either personally, or by their representatives, have a right to concur in the formation.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen from 26th August 1789 taken from The French Revolution and Human Rights a brief documentary history, Bedford/St Martins, Boston New York (1996) p77-79
The representatives of the French people, constituted as a National Assembly, and considering that ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public misfortunes and governmental corruption, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable and sacred rights of man: so that by being constantly present to all the members of the social body this declaration may always remind them of their rights and duties; so that by being liable at every moment to comparison with the aim of any and all political institutions the acts of the legislative and executive powers may be the more fully respected; and so that by being founded henceforward on simple and incontestable principles the demands of the citizens may always tend toward maintaining the constitution and the general welfare.
In consequence, the National Assembly recognizes and declares, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and the citizen:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on common utility.
2. The purpose of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty rests essentially in the nation. No body and no individual may exercise authority which does not emanate expressly from the nation.
4. Liberty consists in the ability to do whatever does not harm another; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no other limits than those which assure to other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by the law.
5. The law only has the right to prohibit those actions which are injurious to society. No hindrance should be put in the way of anything not prohibited by the law, nor may anyone be forced to do what the law does not require.
6. The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to take part, in person or by their representatives, in its formation. It must be the same for everyone whether it protects or penalizes. All citizens being equal in its eyes are equally admissible to all public dignities, offices, and employments, according to their ability, and with no other distinction than that of their virtues and talents.
7. No man may be indicted, arrested, or detained except in cases determined by the law and according to the forms which it has prescribed. Those who seek, expedite, execute, or cause to be executed arbitrary orders should be punished; but citizens summoned or seized by virtue of the law should obey instantly, and render themselves guilty by resistance.
8. Only strictly and obviously necessary punishments may be established by the law, and no one may be punished except by virtue of a law established and promulgated before the time of the offense, and legally applied.
9. Every man being presumed innocent until judged guilty, if it is deemed indispensable to arrest him, all rigor unnecessary to securing his person should be severely repressed by the law.
10. No one should be disturbed for his opinions, even in religion, provided that their manifestation does not trouble public order as established by law.
11. The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may therefore speak, write, and print freely, if he accepts his own responsibility for any abuse of this liberty in the cases set by the law.
12. The safeguard of the rights of man and the citizen requires public powers. These powers are therefore instituted for the advantage of all, and not for the private benefit of those to whom they are entrusted.
13. For maintenance of public authority and for expenses of administration, common taxation is indispensable. It should be apportioned equally among all the citizens according to their capacity to pay.
14. All citizens have the right, by themselves or through their representatives, to have demonstrated to them the necessity of public taxes, to consent to them freely, to follow the use made of the proceeds, and to determine the means of apportionment, assessment, and collection, and the duration of them.
15. Society has the right to hold accountable every public agent of the administration.
16. Any society in which the guarantee of rights is not assured or the separation of powers not settled has no constitution.
17. Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one may be deprived of it except when public necessity, certified by law, obviously requires it, and on the condition of a just compensation in advance.