CONCERNING THE DECLARATION OF THE
RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN
This speech by Robespierre identifies him with the French socialism of the 19th Century. It was reprinted countless times and became the charter of the left petit bourgeois republicans in 1830, 1848, and 1870.
In the last session, I took the floor in order to make a few important additions to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It was my intention to expand your declarations of the "theory of property" by the addition of a few articles. Let the word "property" frighten no one! Filthy souls who value only your money, I will not violate your treasures, even though I know how unclean the source from which they come. … So let us establish the principles of law in good faith on property! We are obliged to do this the more, since the conception of property is enveloped in a dense mist by reason of the prejudices and the vices of men.
Ask any one of these traders in human flesh what is property; he will show you the long coffin called a ship, in which men are packed together and chained, men who seem yet alive, and he will tell you: "Look at my property; I have bought it head for head." Question this nobleman who has goods and subjects,
52
