E BILLS OF RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL STATES
OF THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION WERE ITS MODELS 13

IV. VIRGINIA'S BILL OF RIGHTS AND THOSE OF THE
OTHER NORTH AMERICAN STATES 22

V. COMPARISON OF THE FRENCH AND AMERICAN DECLARATIONS 27

VI. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE AMERICAN AND ENGLISH
DECLARATIONS OF RIGHTS 43

VII. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE ANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIES
THE SOURCE OF THE IDEA OF ESTABLISHING BY LAW A UNIVERSAL
RIGHT OF MAN 59

VIII. THE CREATION OF A SYSTEM OF RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF
CITIZENS DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 78

IX. THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND THE TEUTONIC CONCEPTION OF RIGHT 90

THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF CITIZENS.

CHAPTER I.

THE FRENCH DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF AUGUST 26, 1789, AND ITS
SIGNIFICANCE.

The declaration of "the rights of man and of citizens" by the French
Constituent Assembly on August 26, 1789, is one of the most significant
events of the French Revolution. It has been criticised from different
points of view with directly opposing results. The political scientist
and the historian, thoroughly appreciating its importance, have
repeatedly come to the conclusion that the Declaration had no small part
in the anarchy with which France was visited soon after the storming of
the Bastille. They point to its abstract phrases as ambiguous and
therefore dangerous, and as void of all political reality and practical
statesmanship. Its empty pathos, they say, confused the mind, disturbed
calm judgment, aroused passions, and stifled the sense of duty,--for of
duty there is not a word.[1] Others, on the contrary, and especially
Frenchmen, have exalted it as a revelation in the world's history, as a
catechism of the "principles of 1789" which form the eternal foundation
of the state's structure, and they have glorified it as the most
precious gift that France has given to mankind.

Less regarded than its historical and political significance is the
importance of this document in the history of law, an importance which
continues even to the present day. Whatever may be the value or
worthlessness of its general phrases, it is under the influence of this
document that the conception of the public rights of the individual has
developed in the posi