It is just the reverse in 1789 In conformity with the doctrine of
the social contract, the principle is set up that every man is born
free, and that his freedom has always been inalienable. If he
formerly submitted to slavery or to serfdom, it was owing to his
having had a knife at his throat; a contract of this sort is
essentially null and void. So much the worse for those who have the
benefit of it at the present day; they are holders of stolen
property, and must restore it to the legitimate owners. Let no one
object that this property was acquired for cash down, and in good
faith; they ought to have known beforehand that man and his liberty
are not commercial matters, and that unjust acquisitions rightly
perish in their hands.[20] Nobody dreams that the State which was a
party to this transaction is the responsible guarantor. Only one
scruple affects the Assembly ; its jurists and Merlin, its reporter,
are obliged to yield to proof; they know that in current practice,
and by innumerable ancient and modern titles, the noble in many
cases is nothing but an ordinary lessor, and that if, in those
cases, he collects his dues, it is simply in his capacity as a
private person, by virtue of a mutual contract, because he has given
a perpetual lease of a certain portion of his land; and he has given
it only in consideration of an annual payment in money or produce,
or services, together with another contingent claim which the farmer
pays in case of the transmission of the lease.
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