American state constitutions, which had been French. The Declaration was prefixed to the stitution of 1791, and many of its clauses wer reproduced in the constitutions framed in Fra Continental countries during the nineteenth cen DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AN The representatives of the French people, organize Assembly, believing that the ignorance, negle of the rights of man are the sole causes of publi of the corruption of governments, have determ in a solemn declaration the natural, inaliena rights of man, in order that this declaration, before all the members of the social body, sh continually of their rights and duties; in order the legislative power, as well as those of the may be compared at any moment with the end institutions and may thus be more respected order that the grievances of the citizens, based simple and incontestable principles, shall tend nance of the constitution and redound to the Therefore the National Assembly recognizes a the presence and under the auspices of the Sup following rights of man and of the citizen: I. Men are born and remain free and equal i distinctions may only be founded upon the general 1 Translations and Reprints, vol. i, No. 5, pp. be determined by law. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society ng may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no ay be forced to do anything not provided for by law. . Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has t to participate personally, or through his representative, in its tion. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punAll citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally e to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, ling to their abilities and without distinction, except that of virtues and talents. I. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one ing, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed any ary order shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or ed in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance tutes an offense. II. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are y and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law, passed and promulbefore the commission of the offense. . As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been ed guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all severity sential to the securing of the prisoner's person shall be severely sed by law. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, includreligious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb ablic order established by law. I. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, means. XIV. All the citizens have a right to decide, eit by their representatives, as to the necessity of the tion; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it i the proportion, the mode of assessment and of co duration of the taxes. XV. Society has the right to require of every account of his administration. XVI. A society in which the observance of the la nor the separation of powers defined, has no consti XVII. Since property is an inviolable and sacr shall be deprived thereof except where public nece termined, shall clearly demand it, and then only o the owner shall have been previously and equitably 1792, as c rulers and privileged classes everywhere. Articles I, 1 nd XII are of particular importance in this connection. ADDRESS TO ALL PEOPLES, 1792 National Convention, after having heard the report of its unite ommittees of finances, war, and diplomacy, faithful to th rinciples of the sovereignty of the people, which do not perm t to recognize any of the institutions that constitute an attac hereon, and wishing to settle the rules to be followed by th generals of the armies of the Republic in the countries where they hall carry its arms, decrees: In the countries which are or shall be occupied by the armies e Republic, the generals shall proclaim immediately, in the of the French nation, the sovereignty of the people, the supon of all the established authorities and of the existing imposts axes, the abolition of the tithe, of feudalism, of seignioral rights, feudal and censuel, fixed or precarious, of banalités,2 of real and nal servitude, of the privileges of hunting and fishing, of corof the nobility, and generally of all privileges. . They shall announce to the people that they bring them , assistance, fraternity, liberty, and equality, and that they convoke them directly in primary or communal assemblies, in to create and organize an administration and a provisional F. M. Anderson, The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of story of France, 1789-1907, pp. 130-133. Second Edition. Minneapolis, H. W. Wilson Company. Certain exclusive rights of a lord over mills, forests, fishing, etc. The corvée was the forced labor exacted of peasants on the highways. IV. The generals shall directly place under the protection of the French Republic all the movable goods belonging to the public treasury, to the prince, adherents, and voluntary satellites, to the public es the lay and ecclesiastical bodies and communities; to be prepared without delay a detailed list thereof, dispatch to the executive council, and shall take a which are in their power that these properties may V. The provisional administration selected by be charged with the surveillance and control of the go the safeguard and protection of the French Republ after the security of persons and property; it shall cuted the laws in force relative to the trial of civil ar and to the police and the public security; it shal regulate and to cause the payment of the local exp which shall be necessary for the common defense; taxes, provided, however, that they shall not be bo gent and laboring portion of the people. VI. When the provisional administration shal the National Convention shall appoint commission its own body to go to fraternize with it. VII. The executive council shall also appoint n sioners, who shall repair directly to the places in or with the generals and the provisional administrat the people upon the measures to be taken for the o and upon the means employed to procure the clot ions necessary for the armies, and to meet the expe have incurred and shall incur during their sojourn up VIII. The national commissioners appointed b council shall every fifteen days render an account to |