Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

CHAPTER V.

THE CONSTITUTION-MONGERS the constitution was now in full train the revolution up to the latter point was officially recognized there was no harking back for any one foulon and berthier two administrators of the first rank under the old regime had been publicly hanged at la lanterne and quartered by the people the first stratum of revolutionists was to the fore mirabeau lafayette and bailly are the central figures of the constituent assembly du pare barnave and lameth its extreme men the court de mirabeau seventeen forty nine to seventeen ninety one one of the pre-revolutionary writers was the leader of the moderate party in the assembly his stupendous powers of oratory made him a useful ally and a dangerous foe this the court was not slow in discovering and accordingly mirabeau was soon won over by bribes to do his best to frustrate every popular measure in the assembly while all the time professing devotion to the cause of liberty and the people when this failed the popular orator did not disdain to resort to actual plotting the marquis de la fayette seventeen fifty seven to eighteen thirty four of american independence notoriety another member of the noblesse who had adopted previously to the revolution the quasi advanced views then fashionable with his class was the military representative of the moderate party in his capacity of commandant of the national guard besides the henchman of mirabeau in the assembly bailly seventeen thirty six to seventeen ninety three who was elected mayor of paris the day after the taking of the bestee also coadjuted in the work of moderating the revolution alike in his official capacity and in the assembly as to the extreme men they really represented but the most moderate form of constitutional monarchy the situation of parties may be estimated by the fact that bernard advocated a suspensory veto on the part of the king while mirabeau strenuously supported the absolute veto and be it remembered at such a time the right of vetoing obnoxious measures would have been no mere matter of form it appears then that even the most advanced parliamentarians of the day were not prepared to go beyond the present prussian constitution nevertheless circumstances early forced upon this timid and comparatively reactionary assembly some drastic political measures first and foremost on the memorable night of the fourth of august the abolition of all seignorial rights and privileges at a later stage after the assembly had removed to paris a little judicious coercion from the tribunes or people's galleries which were tenanted by advanced revolutionists there is no doubt exercised a salutary influence on several occasions the members knew well enough that their lives were in the hands of the paris populace and those of their wives and children besides their property at the mercy of the populace of the rural districts the assembly's first important performance after the fall of the bastille was the declaration of the rights of man in imitation of the americans after the successful termination of the war of independence the declaration of the rights of man contains a series of articles laying down the principles of political equality most of them are unexceptionable and even trite but it is significant that number seventeen affirms categorically the absolute sacredness of private property the question which arose immediately subsequent to this on the constitution of the chamber and its relations to the king need not detain us it is sufficient to state that while the assembly was amusing itself discussing suspensory veto or absolute veto the court viz queen and company at versailles were meditating the transference of the king to metz where the mercenary german troops were stationed and once communication with the french noblesse who had emigrated and the reactionary foreign powers was easy the idea being to declare paris and the assembly rebels and march upon the city with the view of restoring the absolute monarchy These machinations at Versailles are interesting as having given the direction to the first great demonstration of the proletariat of Paris during the revolution.

I say the direction as the proximate cause was the advice the now rising popular journalist Marat had given some days before in his Amis du Peuple when discussing the scarcity of bread.

The revolt broke out in this way.

And that is why the violent uprisings all over France continued.

It is the period in which the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a document which may fittingly stand side by side with the Declaration of Independence, for together they form the noblest monuments of our modern origins, was promulgated.

In the same period were the elements of the future constitution rapidly debated and laid down, and notably that national policy of a single chamber which the modern French have imprudently abandoned.

In that same period, however, appeared, and towards the close of it, another form of resistance on the part of the crown and of those who advised the crown.

The king hesitated to accept the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and similarly hesitated to promulgate the decree of the 4th of August, in which the nobility had abandoned their feudal dues.

It would be foolish to exaggerate the military aspect of what followed.

Louis did call in troops, but only in numbers sufficient for personal defense, and we can hardly believe that he intended anything more than to police the surroundings of his throne.

Da Dinh Square in Hanoi was the location.

Looking at its inspiration, the speech quoted both the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Right of Man.

It marked the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Looking at the background and aftermath...

The nobility's rights, a lot of them were just lost immediately on August 4th.

But what would the new system look like? On August 26th, 1789, the Assembly published the document at the heart of the revolution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Initially drafted by Lafayette with a little help from the American ambassador to France, a guy named Thomas Jefferson, who had written his own declaration 13 years earlier.

So Lafayette's like, Thomas, I hear you got experience in drafting declarations.