History 4C, Hasegawa Lecture 3, April 8

The French Revolution (1):
The Declaration of Rights of Man

I. Introduction

3 Catchwords of the French Revolution

• Freedom

• Equality

• Fraternity

Declaration of Independence vs Declaration of the Rights of Man

• DI—particularistic

• DRM—universal, abstract, applicable to all men and women in all over the world

• Declaration of Rights of Women and the Female Citizen—Olympe de Gouges

Article 6

• Original: “The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to participate personally, or through their representatives, in its formation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizen, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible to all honors, positions, and employments.”

Amendments to Article 6

First amendment, add to the last sentence:

“according to their capabilities.”

Second amendment: further add:

“and without other distinctions than those of their virtues and talents.”

II. Euality and Freedom

Origins of Equality

· Until 18^th century, society divided into a class hierarchy of unequal orders

· Impact of the Enlightenment

Origins of Freedom

• Feudalism

• Magna Carta

• Impact of the Enlightenment

John Locke

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Locke’s Idea of Freedom

• State of nature

• Private property

• Freedom from authority

• Private/public realm

• Civil society

Rousseu’s Idea of Freedom

• “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”

• Social Contract

• Freedom and equality

• General will

• Popular sovereignty

• “Whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be forced to be free.”

III. Europe in the 18^th Century

• War and the State

how to meet expenses? Heavy tax

• Britain

parliamentary system

Bank of England

Land tax

· The Old Regime in France

-conflict between the King and the nobility

-Louis XVI’s attempts to impose tax on nobility resisted

-France on verge of bankruptcy

--Rigid Class system

First Estate: clergy

Second Estate: Nobility

Third Estate: Everyone else

Bourgeoisie

IV. The French Revolution

· Louis XVI’s attempts to impose tax on nobility, but nobility resisted

· King decided to convene the Estates General

· Cahiers de doléances (petitions)

· Method of voting: vote by order or vote by head

· Abbé Sièyes, What Is the Third Estate?

· Estates General, May 1789

· National Assembly, June 10: Oath of Tennis Court

· Attack on Bastille, July 14, 1789

· Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, August 1789

Work of compromise

Lockean ideas plus Rousseau’s ideas

New era of democracy

Quotes in the lecture:

Rousseau:

Whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be constrained to do so by the whole body; which means nothing else than that he shall be forced to be free.

Calonne:

I shall easily show that it is impossible to tax further, ruinous to be always borrowing and not enough to confine ourselves to economic reforms and that,... the only means ... to put the finances truly in order must consist in revivifying the entire State by recasting all that is vicious in its constitution.

Abbé Sièyes:

What is the third Estate? Everything

What has it been before? Nothing

What does it demand? To become something therein.

Article 6 of the Declaration:

First draft: "The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to participate personally, or through representatives, in its formation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible to all honors, positions, and employments."

First amendment: "All citizens, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible to all honors, positions, and employments, according to their capabilities."

Second amendment: "All citizens, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible to all honors, positions, and employments, according to their capabilities, and without other distinctions than those of their virtues and talents."