46
Swartbmore Xecture.
little in Locke that is not to be found in theCommonwealth .
But the example of the American Revolution substituted action for theory. America' s war withEngland was understood as a general war of libera-tion and stimulated the French to follow it up withaction of their own. According to Franklin'sletter to Cooper in 1777 the opinion prevailed inFrance that the cause of the Americans was thecause of the entire human race. Thomas Paine, Quaker by origin and member of the French Con-vention 1792, avers that the French soldiers andofficers derived from America their knowledge ofthe practice of liberty. 1 According to Condorcet the enslaved European recognised in the exampleof the New World his own indefeasible rights tofreedom. The Frenchman felt it a humiliation tohave fought for the liberation of another peoplewhile himself subjected to despotism. The" Rights of Man " as set forth by Mirabeau in histract " Aux Bataves " 1788, or by Lafayette inhis draft document of July 1789, are drawn fromthe several American State Constitutions. Inpart they are verbally identical, and in much thegreater part their context is the same. And thesame may be said of the definitive Declarationaccepted by the King on October 1st, 1789.
Thus historical research has confirmed theflash of intuition to be found in the preface toHeine's " Franzosischen Zustanden " (Nov. 1832)." That declaration of the rights of man upon whichour whole political science is based, has its origin