From the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 11:02AM Tweet 
Though agreed to by the National Assembly on 26 August 1789, the Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen was not ratified by King Louis XVI until 5 October 1789 and only then under then under pressure of the National Assembly and the people (see next story installment: Chapter 12 - The October March of Women).
The Déclaration served as the preamble to the first constitution of the French Republic, adopted in 1791. It consists of 17 articles among which assert the following rights of the individual and the nation:
All men are created equal.
No man shall hold Absolute or Divine rule over others.
Henceforth the inalienable (absolute) rights of the individual will include: The rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression; the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
It is upon a sovereign (that is, self-governing) people on whom, henceforth: The law of the nation should rest, to whom officials should be responsible, and by whom finances should be controlled.
Does is remind you of another important 18th century document?
There's Still Time to Support Our
Kickstarter Campaign
Image:
Unknown. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Printing; Watercolor painting, 1793. Centre historique des Archives nationale, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Reader Comments