aid in bringing about its downfall and destruction.
We reject the sacrilegious assertion that the power of the Habsburg and Hohenzollern dynasties is of divine origin; we refuse to recognize the divine rights of kings. Our nation elected the Habsburgs to the throne of Bohemia of its own free will and by the same right deposes them. We hereby declare the Habsburg dynasty unworthy of leading our nation, and deny all of their claims to rule in the Czechoslovak Land, which we here and now declare shall henceforth be a free and independent people and nation.
We accept and shall adhere to the ideals of modern democracy, as they have been the ideals of our nation for centuries. We accept the American principles as laid down by Presihdent Wilson; the principles of liberated mankind—of the actual equality of nations—and of Governments deriving all their just power from the consent of the governed. We, the nation of Comenius, cannot but accept these principles expressed in the American Declaration of Independence, the principles of Lincoln, and of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. For these principles our nation shed its blood in the memorable Hussite Wars five hundred years ago, for these same principles, beside her Allies, our nation is shedding its blood today in Russia, Italy, and France. We shall outline only the main principles of the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Nation; the final decision as to the Constitution itself falls to the legally chosen representatives of the liberated and united people.
The Czechoslovak State shall be a republic. In constant endeavor for progress it will guarantee complete freedom of conscience, religion and science, literature and art, speech, the press and the right of assembly and petition. The Church shall be separated from the State. Our democracy shall rest on universal suffrage; women shall be placed on an equal footing with men, politically, socially, and culturally. The rights of the minority shall be safeguarded by proportional representation; national minorities shall enjoy equal rights. The government shall be parliamentary in form and shall recognize the principles of initiative and referendum. The standing army will be replaced by militia.
The Czechoslovak Nation will carry out far-reaching social and economic reforms; the large estates will be redeemed for home colonization, patents of nobility will be abolished. Our nation will assume its part of the Austro-Hungarian pre-war public debt;—the debts for this war we leave to those who incurred them.
In its foreign policy the Czechoslovak Nation will accept its full share of responsibility in the reorganization of Eastern Europe. It accepts fully the democratic and social principle of nationality and subscribes to the doctrine that all covenants and treaties shall be enered into openly and frankly without secret diplomacy.
Our constitution shall provide an efficient, rational, and just government, which will exclude all special privileges and prohibit class legislation.
Democracy has defeated theocratic autocracy. Militarism is overcome—democracy mankind will be reorganized. The forces of darkness have served the victory of light, the longed-for age of humanity is dawning.
We believe in democracy,—we believe in liberty,—and liberty ever more.
Given in Paris, on the eighteenth of October, 1918.
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
GENERAL DR. MILAN R. STEFANIK,
Minister of National Defense.
DR. EDWARD BENEŠ,
Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Interior.
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