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Essay
Can you tell that this is a last-minute essay? Just tell me if it's crappy or not. It's very important. Thanks.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man: the original Declaration of Independence?
The Declaration of Independence is an amazing speech written by one of the United States’ greatest former presidents, Thomas Jefferson. It was this very document that freed us of Great Britain’s unjust government. But just how original is this document? - Not very, actually. You see, in August of 1789, the National Assembly of France (the representatives of the French people) came to the conclusion that, “the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments,” and decided that they needed to do something about it.
So, they sat down and decided to write The Declaration of the Rights of Man, a document stating the natural rights that every citizen should be granted. It was mainly written by The Marquis de Lafayette (Major General of France) and his good friend, our very own Thomas Jefferson. This is the exact place where he got the ideas for America’s Declaration of Independence, and the similarities in the two documents are obvious.
Our Declaration of Independence states that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This famous line sounds very much like the second article in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which says that, “The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” They both mean that all people should be entitled to the same rights and that everyone has access to freedom, happiness, and a say in the government. Another example of this is the seventh article in the DOROM. It basically says that a person is innocent until proven guilty, which is a topic also discussed in the DOI. The idea of freedom of speech is seen in both as well.
The fact that both documents contain many of the same ideas and statements isn’t the only thing that makes the two similar. Both were written during a time of revolution, and both countries were fighting against the royals who had power over them. The U.S. was going against Britain, and the people of France were feuding with their own country’s royalty. Both wanted a new political system. Overall, it is clear that Thomas Jefferson saw the impact that the Declaration of the Rights of Man had on France and knew that he should do the same for the United States. This of course turned out to be a wonderful idea, and it is the reason we have our prosperous, free country today.
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