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 any one 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.
In July 1789, the National Constituent Assembly began deliberating how to guarantee and protect individual rights in the new nation. One proposed solution was a document that explicitly protected these rights. Rights-based documents were a feature of British law and also the recently adopted United States Constitution. The Assembly formed a committee to draft a bill of rights. On August 26th 1789, it passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. This declaration became a cornerstone document of the French Revolution – and according to some historians, its greatest legacy. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen served as a preamble to all three revolutionary constitutions and a cornerstone document for political clubs and movements. It also set goals and standards for subsequent national governments – standards that were ignored and trampled on during the radical phase of the revolution.
 The main sponsor of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. A veteran of the American Revolution and a student of the philosophes, Lafayette embraced Enlightenment doctrines of constitutionalism, popular sovereignty and natural rights. On July 11th, three days before the attack on the Bastille, Lafayette delivered an address to the Assembly, maintaining the need for a constitutional document that guaranteed the rights of individuals. Lafayette went as far as tabling his own draft declaration of rights, prepared in consultation with Thomas Jefferson. A prominent writer and political leader, Jefferson authored some of the American Revolution’s most significant documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the United States Declaration of Independence (both 1776).
Despite Lafayette’s enthusiasm, there was considerable division in the Assembly over the need for a declaration of rights. Most conservative and Monarchien (constitutional monarchist) deputies rejected the idea. They accepted that the royal government needed reform and limitations on its power – but they considered a bill of rights an unnecessary step. The Assembly’s more radical deputies thought otherwise. The new government, they argued, must have explicit constitutional limitations on its power, particularly where this power could infringe on individual liberties. Other deputies had structural, procedural and legal concerns. What form should a declaration of rights take? Should it be part of the constitution? Should it exist as separate legislation? Should it be a broad philosophical statement or a legally binding set of points?
The debate continued through July and into the first days of August. On August 4th, the deputies reached a consensus about drafting a declaration of rights. Responsibility for this was given to the Assembly’s constitutional committee. This committee contained around 40 deputies, including Honore Mirabeau, Emmanuel Sieyès, Charles Talleyrand and Isaac Le Chapelier. For six days, the committee thrashed out a declaration of rights. They studied similar documents from Britain and America and received numerous submissions and drafts from interested locals. They eventually emerged with a draft declaration of rights, containing a preamble and 24 articles. On August 26th they whittled this back to 17 articles. The committee then voted to suspend deliberations and accept the draft as it stood, intending to review it after the finalisation of a constitution. Thus was born the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (in French, Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen).
The Declaration was a crystallisation of Enlightenment ideals. According to historian Lynn Hunt, it was “stunning in its sweep and simplicity”. It encapsulated the natural and civil rights espoused by writers like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Jefferson, and entrenched them in French law. The Declaration was a short document, containing only a preamble and 17 brief articles. These articles provided protection for numerous individual rights: liberty, property, freedom of speech and the press, freedom of religion and equal treatment before the law. The Declaration guaranteed property rights and asserted that taxation should be paid by all, in proportion to their means. It also asserted the concept of popular sovereignty: the idea that law and government existed to serve the public will, not to suppress it. All of this was articulated in language that was clear, brief and unambiguous. The Declaration was also universal in its tone. Its rights and ideas applied to all people, not just the citizens of France.
The Declaration was passed by the National Constituent Assembly and delivered to Louis XVI for endorsement. As Eric Hobsbawm puts it, the king “resisted with his usual stupidity” and refused to sign. He refused his assent until October 5th, when he signed the Declaration to placate angry crowds at Versailles. Passed into law, the Declaration became a cornerstone of the revolution. The National Constitution Assembly adopted the Declaration as a preamble to the Constitution of 1791. An amended version of the Declaration formed the basis of the Constitution of Year I, drafted by the Montagnards. It also served as a beacon for revolutionary groups, both moderate and radical. The political clubs and cercles considered the document sacrosanct. The formal name of the Cordeliers club was the Société des Amis des droits de l’homme et du citoyen (‘Society of Friends of the Rights of Man and Citizen’); a copy of the Declaration was pinned to the club’s wall beneath a pair of crossed daggers. The Jacobin rulebook required members to show loyalty to the Declaration and uphold its values at all times.
While the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was held up as sacred and inviolable, there was debate and disagreement about who these rights applied to. Like the great documents of the American Revolution, the Declaration said nothing about the rights of women, nor did it extend any rights to the slaves and indentured servants in the colonies. This selective application of rights rankled with most radical democrats. In October 1789, Robespierre used the Declaration to suggest that Jews – a marginalised group excluded from voting and political office, even during the revolution – were entitled to equality and civil rights. Despite these gaps and shortcomings, the Declaration remains one of history’s foremost expressions of human rights. It served as a death warrant for the absolutist monarchy, an articulation of Enlightenment values and a model for future societies seeking freedom and self-government.
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When was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen written and what impact did it have at the time?
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