The events in Paris and the disorder in the countryside forced the National Assembly into action. On the night of August 4, the nobles and clergy offered to end tax exemptions of the privileged classes, payment of feudal dues by the peasants, the tithe, and all class distinctions. It would prove to be the most sweeping and radical legislative session of the whole French Revolution.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man

On August 27, 1789, the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which embodied many of the ideas of the philosophes. It declared that the authority of a government is derived from the people; that all citizens should be equal before the law; that all citizens are entitled to a voice in making the nation's laws; and that the purpose of government should be the protection of the natural rights of men to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. Freedom of speech, press, and religion should be guaranteed to all. The Declaration, along with the English Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and US Constitution, ranks as one of the great documents of modern times.
                                                              ~~The End~~
 
Back to the front page