mpossible, in the first steps which are made in a
Revolution, to avoid all kind of error, in principle or in practice, or
in some instances to prevent the combination of both. Before the sense
of a nation is sufficiently enlightened, and before men have entered
into the habits of a free communication with each other of their natural
thoughts, a certain reserve--a timid prudence seizes on the human mind,
and prevents it from obtaining its level with that vigor and promptitude
that belongs to _right_.--An example of this influence discovers
itself in the commencement of the present Revolution: but happily this
discovery has been made before the Constitution was completed, and in
time to provide a remedy.

The _hereditary succession_ can never exist as a matter of _right_; it
is a _nullity_--a _nothing_. To admit the idea is to regard man as a
species of property belonging to some individuals, either born or to
be born! It is to consider our descendants, and all posterity, as mere
animals without a right or will! It is, in fine, the most base and
humiliating idea that ever degraded the human species, and which, for
the honor of Humanity, should be destroyed for ever.

The idea of hereditary succession is so contrary to the rights of man,
that if we were ourselves to be recalled to existence, instead of being
replaced by our posterity, we should not have the right of depriving
ourselves beforehand of those _rights_ which would then properly belong
to us. On what ground, then, or by what authority, do we dare to deprive
of their rights those children who will soon be men? Why are we not
struck with the injustice which we perpetrate on our descendants, by
endeavouring to transmit them as a vile herd to masters whose vices are
all that can be foreseen.

Whenever the _French_ constitution shall be rendered conformable to its
_Declaration of Rights_, we shall then be enabled to give to France, and
with justice, the appellation of a _civic Empire_; for its government
will be the empire of laws founded on the great republican principles
of _Elective Representation_, and the _Rights of Man_.--But Monarchy
and Hereditary Succession are incompatible with the _basis_ of its
constitution.

I hope that I have at present sufficiently proved to you that I am
a good Republican; and I have such a confidence in the truth of the
principles, that I doubt not they will soon be as universal in _France_
as in _America_. The pride of human nat