Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen

Abstract

Thomas Jefferson lives, as John Adams said on July 4, 1826, a few hours after Thomas Jefferson died and a few hours before John Adams died. Among other things, he lives through his direct influence on constitutional design. In the field of human rights, he influenced both the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights (especially the First Amendment), and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789 (DDHC). The purpose of this chapter is to examine Jefferson’s role in the French declaration. It is a role that has been seriously underestimated both by American scholars who do not read French and by French scholars unwilling to admit that their revolution was not homegrown.