In presence of god, and in the name of the French people, the National Assembly proclaims:
I. France has constituted herself a republic. In adopting that definitive form of gouvernment, her proposed aim is to advance with greater freedom in the path of civilization and progress, to ensure that the burdens and advantages of society shall be more and more equitably apportioned, to augment the comfort of every individual by the gradual reduction of the public expenses and taxes, and by the successive and constant action of her institutions and laws cause the whole body of citizens to attain, without further commotion, a constantly increasing degree of morality, intelligence and prosperity.
II. The French republic is democratic, one and indivisible.
III. It recognizes rights and duties anterior and superior to all positive laws.
IV. Its principles are liberty, equality, fraternity. Its basis is family, labor, property, and public order.
V. It respects the nationality of foreign states, as it causes its own to be respected. It undertakes no wars with a view of conquest, and never employs its power against the liberty of any people.
VI. Reciprocal duties bind the citizens to the republic and the republic to the citizens.
VII. It is the duty of the citizens to love their country, serve the republic, and defend it at the hazard of their lives, to participate in the expenses of the State, in proportion to their property; to secure to themselves, by their labor, the means of existence, and by prudent forethought provide resources for the future, to cooperate for the common welfare by fraternally aiding each other, and in the preservation of general order by observing the moral and written laws which regulate society, families and individuals.
VIII. It is the duty of the republic to protect the citizen in his person, his family, his religion, his prosperity, and his labor, and to bring within the reach of all that education which is necessary to every man; it is also its duty, by fraternal assistance, to provide the means of existence to necessitous citizens, either by procuring employment for them, within the limits of its resources, or by giving relief to those who are unable to work and who have no relatives to help them.
For the fulfillment of all these duties, and for the guarantee of all these rights, the National Assembly, faithful to the traditions of the great Assemblies by whom the French revolution was inaugurated, decrees the constitution of the republic, as following:
Chapter I.—Of Sovereignty. Article 1. The sovereignty exists in the whole body of French citizens. It is inalienable and imprescriptible. No individual, no fraction of the people can arrogate to themselves its exercise.
Chapter II.—Rights of Citizens guaranteed by the Constitution. Art. 2. No person can be arrested or detained, except as prescribed by law.
Art. 3. The dwelling of every person inhabiting the French territory is inviolable, and cannot be entered except according to the forms and in the cases provided against by law.
Art. 4. No one shall be removed from his rightful judges—no commissions or extraordinary tribunals can be created under any pretext, or by any denomination whatsoever.
Art. 5. The penalty of death for political offences is abolished.
Art. 6. Slavery cannot exist upon any French territory.
Art. 7. Every one may freely profess his own religion and shall receive from the State equal protection in the exercise of his worship. The ministers of the religions at present recognized by law, as well as those which may be hereafter recognized, have the right to receive an allowance from the State.
Art. 8. Citizens have the right of associating together and assembling peaceably and unarmed, in order to petition or manifest their ideas by means of the press or otherwise. The exercise of these rights can only be limited by the rights or the liberty of others, or for the public security. The press cannot in any case be subjected to censorship.
Art. 9. Education is free. The liberty of teaching is to be exercised according to the capacity and morality determined by conditions of the laws, and under the supervision of the State. This superintendence is to be extended to all establishments of education and instruction, without any exception.
Art. 10. All citizens are equally admissible to all public employments, without other reason of preference than merit, and according to the conditions to be determined by law. All titles of nobility, all distinctions of birth, class or caste are abolished forever.