Shared values?

Dave Schuler February 24, 2005

United States	France¹
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.²	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.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.³	The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.

What shared values were those again?

¹
Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789
²
Declaration of Independence, 1776
³
U. S. Constitution, Amendment I

7 comments… add one

mark safranski Link

Outstanding.
praktike Link

IIRC France has had some changes in government since then.
Dave Schuler (gEye) Link

You’re absolutely right, praktike. But you might like this (from the French Constitution of 1958):

The French people solemnly proclaim their attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789, confirmed and complemented by the Preamble to the Constitution of 1946.
praktike Link

How about that? Learn something every damn day.
Different River Link

I believe the appropriate analog to the first item in the “France” column is actually the sentence in the Declaration of Independence immediately following the one you quote, which shows that in the United States sovereignty lies essentially in the people, not the nation:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –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 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.”
Dave Schuler Link

Your point is well-taken, Different River, but I haven’t found anything in either the Declaration of the Rights of Man or the French Constitution which gives much of a hint as to where rights come from. I conclude that there’s a collectivist notion in France that’s very different from the God => Man => State equation that’s present from the Founding here.
mark safranski Link

“I conclude that there’s a collectivist notion in France that’s very different from the God => Man => State equation that’s present from the Founding here.”

I think most historians, Left or Right, would agree that the French and American Revolutions were built upon different concepts and even where the concepts were the same, Liberty, on different interpretations