UMass Boston History 112: Essay #2

When evaluating the legitimacy of a revolution, I consider the standard of a revolution’s declaration to be of the utmost usefulness and importance. In both instances of the American and French Revolutions, each relative declaration served as the most visible and vocal platform upon which the purpose of each revolution clearly defined and the unity of each revolution’s people powerfully compelled. While the American Declaration of Independence may have preceded the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen chronologically and thus conceptually, the French declaration ultimately served a broader role in its revolution than that of the American declaration in its own revolution.

Before breaking down the similarities and differences between these great documents, I feel it is important to state a link that I have come across in my independent studies, which I have not yet encountered in the readings of the lectures. The Sherman passage explicitly states, “…it is uncertain whether the French were directly influenced by the American document, both are products of common ideas of the late eighteenth century and show evidence of a strong relationship between these ideas and revolutionary activities in Western civilization.” When watching the HBO mini-series “John Adams”, I was astonished to behold Jefferson declaring to Adams that he had personally advised the Marquis de Lafayette who was in the midst of drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. I verified this fact on the Internet, one website stating, “Lafayette proceeded to persuade the Assembly to adopt the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, a document he drafted in cooperation with Jefferson.” This link, I feel, is far more binding than each revolution’s mutual inspiration of the Age of Enlightenment ideals. It is inherent proof that the American Revolution directly impacted the French Revolution by way of common declaration authors, as opposed to merely serving as a remote influence due to shared ideology and order of occurrence.

Aside from the declarations’ similarities in their virtues as they apply to their overall relevance to each relative revolution as stipulated in my introduction, what is apparent in examining the similarities between the two documents is the shared inspiration of John Locke. Locke’s notion that all people possess certain natural rights directly relates to the American declaration’s statement that “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” as much as it relates to the French declaration’s statement that the “…representatives of the French people…have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable and sacred rights of man…” and also Article 1 of the French declaration stating “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” Given the fact presented in the above paragraph, one can’t help but wonder if Jefferson’s choice of language (the mutual usage of the word “inalienable” for example) pervaded the French declaration as much as his overall conceptual influence!

Locke’s definition of these natural rights as being life, liberty and property are variably espoused by the American declaration as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and also variably espoused by the French declaration in Article 2 as “liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.” Locke’s notion that the sole responsibility of government is to preserve these rights as delegated by the people directly relates to the American declaration’s statement that “…to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” as much as it relates to the French Declaration’s statement in Article 2 that “The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man” and also Article 3 that “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.”

Lastly, Locke’s notion that a political agent being subject to resistance should he exceed society’s expectation of his power’s limits is powerfully reflected in the American declaration’s statement that “…whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness” and more simply stated in the French declaration’s Article 15 that “Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.”

The difference between the two documents pertaining to purpose finds its origins in the differing set of circumstances per revolution as well as the chain of events leading up to each document’s creation. In the case of the American Revolution, the rebellion’s representatives were an illegitimate body in the eyes of the King, whose prior attempts at peacefully seeking redress via the Olive Branch Petition, had been completely ignored. Thus, the Declaration of Independence was a calculated and aggressive tactical maneuver in decrying the King (and not Parliament) for purposes of rallying the populace of all colonies to enlist in armed resistance despite geographical and cultural differences. In the case of the French Revolution, the rebellion’s representatives were a legitimate body in the eyes of the King, who chose to break away from the remaining bodies of the Estates-General. Their armed resistance had already ensued since their siege of the Bastille, and thus the need to rally for armed resistance was not to be a goal in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. Instead, it largely sought to outline principles of government and serve as a preface to the French Constitution.

The difference between the two documents pertaining to substance finds its origins in the difference between the documents pertaining to purpose. Because the Declaration of Independence was a call to arms and an aggressive decrying of the King in purpose, its substance parts ways with that of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen following the establishment of their mutual natural rights sentiments in the Introduction and the Preamble. The remaining two sections of the American declaration are known as the “Indictment” (which lists all of the King’s “repeated injuries and usurpations” of the Americans’ natural rights) and the “Denunciation” (which completes the justification for revolution in stating disappointment that prior attempts to reconcile their differences had gone ignored). In the case of the French declaration, it transcended listing injuries by the King and proceeded to listing principles of governance. The American declaration was largely focused on the causes of the revolution, while the French declaration was focused on the ends of the revolution.

While the substantive and causal differences between the American and French declarations are significant, their similarities both in big-picture revolutionary function as well as historical importance cannot be denied when considering the standard of declarations in evaluating the legitimacy of revolutions. When one takes into account the dual role that Jefferson played in both revolutions, it should also refresh our understanding of the significance the American Revolution with respect to the French Revolution.