Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/201

Rh 39. Constitution of the Year I.

June 24, 1793. Duvergier, Lois, V, 352–358.

This constitution was drawn up by the Convention and was submitted to the people. Although accepted by them, it was never put in operation, being first temporarily suspended and afterwards set aside. It possesses decided interest, nevertheless, since it represents the ideas of the Montagnards as to the best permanent form of government. It should be compared with their schemes of provisional government (Nos. 43 and 45) and with the constitutions of 1791 and of the Year III (Nos. 15 and 50), especially with respect to the executive and legislative branches of the government.

Mathews, French Revolution, 227–229; Stephens, French Revolution, II, 530–535; Cambridge Modern History, VIII, 342; Aulard, Révolution française, Part II, Ch. IV; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire générale, VIII, 179–180.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

The French people, convinced that forgetfulness and contempts of the natural rights of man are the sole causes of the miseries of the world, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration these sacred and inalienable rights, in order that all the citizens, being able to compare unceasingly the acts of the government with the aim of every social institution, may never allow themselves to be oppressed and debased by tyranny; and in order that the people may always have before their eyes the foundations of their liberty and their welfare, the magistrate the rule of his duties, the legislator the purpose of his commission.

In consequence, it proclaims in the presence of the supreme being the following declaration of the rights of man and citizen.

1. The aim of society is the common welfare.

Government is instituted in order to guarantee to man the enjoyment of his natural and imprescriptible rights.

2. These rights are equality, liberty, security, and property.

3. All men are equal by nature and before the law.

4. Law is the free and solemn expression of the general will; it is the same for all, whether it protects or punishes; it can command only what is just and useful to society; it can forbid only what is injurious to it.