proclaimed them in the form of a Declaration of Rights. The idea of a Declaration of the Rights of Man is specifically American. There is no trace of such an idea in Rousseau or any other French writer. Indeed, though the political theories the Declaration of the Rights of Man announces are to be found in Rousseau's writings, the idea of drawing up a declaration of individual rights with which the State shall not interfere, is hostile to the entire course of Rousseau's reasoning. The members of the Constituent Assembly in discussing the principles of the Declaration constantly speak of American precedent and refer to the idea of such a declaration as coming from the New World. It was because the wellknown theories of the liberal writers seemed to have been triumphantly carried out in America, that the influence of the American Revolution upon Europe was so great. The identical principles embodied in a political programme or declaration according to the manner of the Americans are prefixed to the first French constitution. They were now scattered broadcast throughout Europe, and have contributed more than anything else to the transformation of society and of government along the lines of democracy and individual liberty. It has been my purpose to trace the genesis and development of the political theories embodied in the Bills of Rights and in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, and to show that these documents are the results of a long development. I have confined myself to an historical treatment of the subject. For critical discussions I refer to Ritchie, Natural Rights; Willoughby, The Nature of the State; Lyman Abbott, The Rights of Man; Tiedemann, The Unwritten Constitution of the United States; Blum, La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen, and to Bertrand's book on the same subject. Thanks are due to Professor Max Lenz of the University of Berlin; to Professors J. W. Jenks and G. L. Burr of Cornell University; to Professor H. Morse Stephens of California University; and to President F. W. Gunsaulus of the Armour Institute of Technology, for suggestions and assistance in the preparation of this monograph. September, 1903. CONTENTS Absence of Liberty Among the Ancients. Genesis of Liberty. Importance of Liberty. The Rights of Man. Impor- tance of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The Greek Republics and Rome. The Lex Regia. The Polit- ical Institutions of the Ancient Germans. Roman Traditions and Roman Law During the Middle Ages. Manegold von Lautenbach. Arnold of Brescia and the Roman Republic. Thomas Aquinas's De Regimine Principum. Marsilius of Padua. Lupold of Beben- burg. The Roman de la Rose. The Conciliar Move- THE REFORMATION AND THE MONARCHOMACHISTS The Ideas of the Great Reformers Theocratic. Calvin's System of Church Polity. Mair, Knox, Poynet, Junius Brutus, Hotman. The Jesuits: Lainez, Bellarmin, INDEPENDENTS, LEVELLERS, AND WHIGS In English Independency the Individualism of the Reforma- The Formation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man not Due to Rousseau. His Social Contract. Freedom and Equality. His Sovereign. Distinction between Sov- Why Did the Declaration of the Rights of Man Originate in America? Character of the Colonists. Religion. Self- government. Republican Institutions. Equality in Social and Economic Conditions. American Demo- crats: Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker. Reality of THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE BILLS OF RIGHTS Massachusetts First Appealed to Natural Law. Otis. Writs of Assistance. Rights of the British Colonies. Otis's Vindication. Letter. John Adams on Canon and Feudal Law. Samuel Adams. The Fourteen Re- solves. The Declaration of the Rights of the Colo- nists as Men, Christians, and Subjects, 1772, Com- posed by Samuel Adams. The Congress of 1774. Origin of the Virginia Bill of Rights. Its Stipulations. PAGE |