hey there students in this segment I'm going to talk to you about the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the citizen if you've been watching my French Revolution series which hopefully you have been then we've been through the French Revolution of 1789 we've gone over the old regime we've looked at the failed meeting of the Estates General we've looked at some of the activities of the National Assembly but I didn't talk in detail about the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the citizen which is a a major document having to do with the French Revolution and I think that this document really has a lot to say about both what the french revolutionaries were looking for in 1789 and it kind of foreshadows in a way where the revolution is going to go thank you Kristen for just asking for this video at just the right time uh right after i' kind of figured out just how I want to teach it and uh let's go ahead and go into it the dec ation of the Rights of Man the citizen was passed by the National Assembly on August 26th 1789 and this really laid out a well I mean what it was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the citizen we're taking France which had been an absolute monarchy and for the first time we are outlining a plan for constitutional government and principles of constitutional government based on the Natural Rights of Man for people not just being subjects of a king but citizens of a Nation now in order to understand this I think that you really have to look at the influencers like who is really influencing the Declaration of the Rights of Man the citizen now first I'm going to call your attention to Thomas Jefferson uh who was the author of the US declaration of independence uh you know very much a crusader for Liberty and also at the time the US US ambassador to France so he would have been in contact with some of the people who were writing this document but we also have to take into account the enlightenment philosop Jean jacqu rouso who was a Frenchman now while Jefferson was a classical liberal and in all cases really a champion of individual rights and seeing government more than anything as you know kind of like this this loan construct of protecting natural rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness now while Jefferson is a classical liberal and we're going to get that voice uh you know this classical liberal um emphasis on the individual rouso is going to place some emphasis on not only individualism but also what I may refer to as radical democracy um that is focused on government as an instrument of the general will so what we're going to see here in the the Declaration of the Rights of Man the citizen is kind of a dialogue between Jefferson the champion of individual rights and rouso who in a lot of ways symbolizes the general will and that form of government as far as an upholder of majority rule now some people refer to Russo as a sort of Proto socialist now people who are really familiar with rouso say that this is based on a very simplistic reading of rouso that people who say this don't really understand Russo but then you would ask yourself what about the people writing this document were they necessarily Big Time Russo Scholars or were they people who had a casual interest and picked and chose what was best uh for them and what fit into their program and I think you're going to look at the latter so at this point let's go ahead and look at the document and let's see when we see Jeffersonian individualism and liberalism and then when are we going to see Russo's emphasis on democracy and the general will and you've got to keep in mind these two aren't always going to play well together because although we technically typically in our society we think of democracy as being synonymous with freedom it really is not I mean just ask Socrates like hey Socrates is annoying the majority approves well I was about to do this but really more like this okay Socrates you are about to literally drink yourself to death so just keep that in mind this tension between the individualism of Jefferson and this more kind of uh Proto socialist of sort of mentality that you're going to see creep in here now and then all right now here we go we've got the Declaration of the Rights of Man the citizen pulled up on my website tom.net if you ever want to take a look at it for yourself and it begins with a preamble as most documents do the representatives of the French people organized in National assembly considering the ignorance forgetfulness or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public miseries and the corruption of governments have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural inalienable and sacred Rights of Man so that this declaration being everpresent to all members of the social body May unceasingly remind them of their rights and duties now you see here first of all you see Jefferson okay that when we forget about the Rights of Man all kinds of misery starts but then we also saw some things about members of the social body and we not only saw rights uh which this the language of Jefferson but also something that uh we don't see as much in uh American documents the duties okay so the rights of citizenship and the duties of citizenship in Consequence the National Assembly recognizes and declares in the presence and under the offices of the Supreme Being the following Rights of Man and citizen notice the invocation of the Supreme Being we see the language of deism much like we see in the US declaration of independence not uh necessarily the Father the Son the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ anything like that but the Supreme Being uh this is Civic deism as we see in a lot of Western societies today first off men are born free and remain free and equal in rights social distinctions can be based only on public utility now keep in mind this is kind of a play on rouso Whose book the social contract begins with the sentence man is Born Free but everywhere he is in Chains so these people are taking a step further Men Are Born Free and remain free and equal in rights that perhaps we can set up the type of social contract that will guarantee freedom and then when we see that social distinctions can be based only on public utility we see that in societies such as uh the United States or any other Society where you have leaders uh if the president of the United States comes into the room uh you would show respect you would refer to him as Mr President he has a title there's all kinds of Pomp and Circumstance that surrounds the president not necessarily because the circumstances of his birth or anything like that that he had a title of nobility or any of the like but because he holds an office that we deem to be important and he got that office because he was elected by a majority of the people so we do have social distinctions in modern free societies but they are not due to hereditary nobility they are there because they benefit the public two the aim of every political Association is the preservation of the natural and inalienable rights of man these rights are Liberty property security and resistance to oppression now of course we see some Jeffersonian language here three the source of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation nobody no individual can exercise Authority that does not proceed from it in plain terms now you see here that we see a reference to the nation which is part of the whole idea of the French Revolution turning France from Estates into one single nation no First Estate no second estate no Third Estate no hereditary nobility protection for the church anything like that but a full Nation now you keep in mind too that sovereignty resides in the nation which is kind of more of a rouso kind of construct than Jeffersonian if we think of sovereignty in the United States and where that resides we would say that sovereignty resides in the Constitution that our public officials swear an oath to the Constitution when they take office not necessarily the nation which is really kind of vague and if you take that too far it kind of leaves room for some of the heads to be rolling later on in that sort of thing four Liberty consists in the power to do anything that does not injure others accordingly the exercise of the rights of each man has no limits except those that secure the enjoyment of these same rights to the other members of society these limits can be determined only by law five the law has only the rights to forbid such actions that are injurious to society and here we see Jeffersonian Classical liberalism that the function of government is only to keep me from hurting someone else that if I am doing anything that does not hurt someone else then that is none of the government's business that the government can only step in if someone is doing something harmful to someone else that is the principle of Classical liberalism that generally when it comes to politics Society the economy that government should stay out unless some legitimate harm is being done six law is the expression of the general will all citizens have the right to take part personally or by their representatives and its formation it must be the same for all now you see rouso stepping in again here that law is an expression of the general will and so far we've seen all right so the law can only step in when people are hurting each other or to keep you from hurting someone else that if it doesn't hurt anybody it's none of your business but then we see here that law is an expression of the general will which when you take that into account well what if the general will is to say that uh I shouldn't do something or something like that um this is the language of democracy which doesn't necessarily have any liberal value values attached to it so you can see that there are some contradictions in this document that we have this dialogue between Jefferson and rouso and they are not always saying the same things and if we go on and we look here we see some things that really sound a lot like the US Bill of Rights that uh no one can be uh accused arrested detained except uh you know determined by law due process and all of that kind of stuff uh that people should be able to express ex their opinions now when you look though more closely at number 10 we see here no one should be disturbed on account of his opinions even religious which this sounds like the US Bill of Rights uh Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion AB Bridging the freedom of speech all of that kind of stuff but when you look closely here it says provided their manifestation does not upset the public order established by law which leaves a little bit of room for interpretation that you have a right to your free opinions even in religion as long as it is not subverting the public order whereas in the Bill of Rights you see that you have a right to these things period um and then to be able to assemble peaceably as long as you're not doing violence or something like that but there's nothing there that says that oh well you know this your opinions violate the public order or something like that so you see some room here for the role of government to increase beyond what these people may have envisioned at increasing too and kind of foreshadowing the reign of terror in a few years and I've got a few more in the document if you want to keep reading but I think that you have gotten the gist of the Declaration of the Rights of Man the citizen which is really to articulate the values of the French Revolution Jeffersonian liberalism and uh you know sort of a Russo almost uh Democratic maybe in some ways almost Proto socialist mentality coming in so you're already seeing that the French Revolution has a little bit of an identity crisis what are the values of the French Revolution and this is going to really in most cases articulate the liberalism of the beginning of the French Revolution but also to foreshadow the radicalization of the French Revolution which is based on a simplistic reading of rouso so hopefully you understand that a little bit better you you kind of understand where we're going and as far as where we're going in this series the next installment is on the Civil constitution of the clergy and that is also very important because it is sort of a transition from the liberalism of the early French Revolution to the more Collective Proto socialistic reign of terror that's going to come later so that I hope you will keep watching the series and I'll keep adding some things I'm hoping one day to have this series finished all the way through the Napoleonic Wars and uh if you like what you heard if you're learning stuff you're getting ready for whatever exam or just learning for fun remember subscribe to my channel visit my website tom.net Twitter Instagram Facebook like dislike comment let me know what you think and thank you so much for watching and we'll uh be back soon till next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] n