The Enlightenment and the French The Enlightenment and the French RevolutionRevolution

Cahiers

Cahiers de doléances: Lists of grievances of each estate that were to be presented at the Estates-General.

“To close off employment possibilities and respectable occupations to the most numerous and useful class is like killing genius and talents, and forcing them to run away from an ungrateful home. However, in our current constitution, only nobles enjoy all prerogatives like landed wealth, honors, dignities, graces, pensions, retirements, responsibility for government, and free schools. . . . These [privileges] constitute the favors the State lavishes exclusively on the nobility, at the expense of the Third Estate.

The nobility enjoys and owns everything, and would like to free itself from everything. However, if the nobility commands the army, the Third Estate makes it up. If nobility pours a drop of blood, the Third Estate spreads rivers of it. The nobility empties the royal treasury, the Third Estate fills it up. Finally, the Third Estate pays everything and does not enjoy anything.”

“Sire, it is with the heaviest pain that we see huge pensions granted to vile and scheming courtiers. They take credit in front of Your Majesty. Significant remunerations are tied to jobs without duties.

If only you knew, Sire, how much sweat, how many tears soak the money going into your treasury. Without doubt, your kindness will be more on its guard against people's indiscreet requests who consume in one day the fruits of taxes from thousands of your poor subjects.

We cannot hide, Sire, that the nobility consumes the major part of State income. Indeed, it is this order of citizens, to whom we probably give the most merit, that furnishes the crown officers, the governors, the commanders, the quartermasters, and all the people who have honorable positions. A noble man, who knows how to dance well, ride a horse well, and handle a sword, thinks he deserves everything, and, nonetheless, he pretends that he does not owe anything to the State. If he is only greedy for glory, then he should serve Your Majesty and the nation and receive no income.”

The Estates-General

When the Estates-General was convened, many members of the Third Estate challenged the idea that all three estates should have an equal vote, given that the Third Estate vastly outnumbered the First and Second.

The Third argued that they should be able to vote “by head” rather than “by order” in order to more fairly represent the interests of France.

Their motivations were crystallized following the Tennis Court Oath.

The Tennis Court Oath

6/17/1789: The deputies from the Third Estate, having been locked out of the Estates-General meeting hall at Versailles, moved to a nearby handball court and swore that they would unite together to represent the country as a whole, rather than just as one order among three.

The National Assembly

The Third Estate was trying to advocate for a new national unity based on equality.

They proclaimed themselves the National Assembly.

Louis XVI rejected the legitimacy of the National Assembly, but agreed to offer them some concessions in the debate over the financial crisis.

The Joyous Accord (1790), an image representing the burgeoning national unity brought about by the National Assembly.

Revolutionary Ideas

As with the American Revolution, the ideas spawned by Enlightenment thinkers had an enormous influence over the French Revolution.

One of the best examples of this is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Drafted by the National Assembly in August 1789 following the successful storming of the Bastille by the new National Guard.

The document emphasized human rights, not just the rights of French citizens.

LOCKE JEFFERSON

ROUSSEAU KANT

VOLTAIRE MONTESQUIEU

Locke's Influence

Locke's advocacy of a limited sovereign, his emphasis on natural rights – life, liberty, and property – and the responsibility of the sovereign to protect those rights influenced the French in their Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

British Influence

The French looked to Britain for an example of a system that seemed to work – a limited, constitutional monarchy which was supposed to guarantee the natural rights of its citizens.

Voltaire also admired the British system. The Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of Right

(1628), and the English Bill of Rights (1689) were all important precedents for legal rights for citizens and limited royal authority. They had great impact in England, America, and France

Jefferson's Influence

Echoes of Thomas Jefferson's Locke-inspired Declaration of Independence can be felt in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

Jefferson argued that all that was needed to make rights effective was to “declare” them.

American Influence

The rights affirmed in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in the Constitution both served as inspiration to the French National Assembly in crafting their document.

Freedom of speech, the press, the right to a fair trial – all of these are emphasized in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, and go back even further to the English Bill of Rights.

Rousseau's Influence

While the Declaration of Independence was primarily Lockean, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen took influence from both Locke and Rousseau.

In general, America tends to be more Lockean, while Europe tends to be more Rousseauian, even to the present day.

General Will

Rousseau's concept of the general will is strongly present in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

The idea that the law is an expression of the will of the community is explicitly Rousseauian, and the entire concept of the nation as the source of sovereignty rings true of Rousseau as well.

The idea that citizens should all be bound equally under the law, and take responsibility for its exercise is reminiscent of Rousseau's call that those in defiance of the general will must be made to abide by it through the actions of the community.

Montesquieu's Influence

Montesquieu's notion that the powers of government ought to be separated as a guard against tyranny is seen in article XVI: “Every community in which a separation of powers and a security of rights is not provided for, wants a constitution.”

Criticism of Nobility

In 1721, Montesquieu penned The Persian Letters anonymously, as it amounted to a scathing attack on the French nobility (though he was himself a noble) through satire, much like Voltaire's works.

His authorship was discovered, but since the work was so popular, it made him wealthy and allowed him to travel, ultimately resulting in his study of different forms of government as discussed in The Spirit of the Laws.

Kant and Freedom of Thought

Kant's emphasis on freedom of thought, as expressed in What is Enlightenment? finds support in article X: “No man ought to be molested on account of his opinions, not even on account of his religious opinions, provided his avowal of them does not disturb the public order established by the law.”

Influence of Voltaire

Voltaire was a hero to the French revolutionaries.

His rejection of traditional religious and political authority, his skepticism, his rejection of superstition and emphasis on reason all influenced the French Revolution.

Voltaire was such an inspiration to the revolutionaries, they transported his remains from the countryside to the Panthéon in Paris, where the bodies of the heroes of the Revolution were to be interred. This ceremony was part of the revolutionary campaign against the Catholic Church, of which Voltaire had been a vocal opponent in life.

The Four Themes of the Enlightenment in the French

Revolution

Rationality The French

revolutionaries wanted a new society which was based on a foundation of reason.

Laws should be rational, and so should the social order.

Absolute, arbitrary monarchy was irrational, as was the corruption in the Church.

The French revolutionaries deified the concept of Reason.

Progress

The French revolutionaries wanted to found a more progressive, egalitarian society – even more so than that of the United States of America.

In order to make progress, the ancien regime had to be destroyed and replaced with a new order.

As with Reason, Equality was also deified.

Freedom of Thought

Rejecting absolutism and religious persecution, (particularly of Protestants in the largely-Catholic nation) revolutionaries argued for free speech and a free press to make their voices heard.

Liberty was the premiere symbol of the French Revolution.

Humanitarianism The Declaration of the

Rights of Man and Citizen emphasized human rights.

There was a growing abolitionist movement in France, protesting slavery in the Caribbean colonies.

Even the guillotine which would emerge during the Terror was billed as a “humanitarian” form of execution.

The concept of Fraternity is again represented by a goddess.

Meritocracy

In What is the Third Estate? Abbé Sieyès argues that merit, not birth, should determine a person's function in society.

This same notion was behind the American Revolution as well, advocated for by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–94)

Robespierre was a young lawyer from Arras in northern France.

He made a name for himself as a champion of “the people.”

Held radical democratic views, influenced by the Enlightenment philosophes.

Robespierre was chosen as one of the deputies of the Third Estate to speak at the Estates-General.

Years before, while still at school, he had delivered a glowing tribute to Louis XVI on a royal visit to the school early in his reign; the king paid him little attention.

Robespierre grew to despise the excesses of the royal court at Versailles, and wanted to see reforms made.

Robespierre and his followers would become known as the Jacobins, radical revolutionaries that took their name from the Jacobin Club where they frequently met.