“The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect or the contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man…”
The declaration of the rights of man and citizen were created by the National Assembly who saw themselves as the representatives of the French people. They believed that the neglect of the rights that they have listed in the document were the exact cause of the public discontent among the french people. These rights of man set out by the national assembly were largely influenced by Thomas Jefferson therefore having a large american influence.Some of this american influence can be seen with the mention of inalienable rights.
This list of rights formed by the National assembly include some of the basic human rights that were being infringed upon during the french revolution and would come to be an extremely significant document throughout said revolution. These laws included basic freedoms ranging from the equality of men and that the law should be based off of the will of the people. It was clear that these changes were needed at the time because people were being persecuted left and righ by the government for trivial reasons and people were not given natural rights from birth which many may argue that you are given these rights at birth.This document would create the framework for the later french constitution.
I believe that the National Assembly not only saw themselves as representatives of the French people but even went as far as considering themselves one of the French people individually. This belief would be significant because they would not just be campaigning for rights of a group, but rather for reform that would benefit themselves as well as their fellow citizens. Looking back at the document, when pointing out the rights that they accused the government of ignoring and failing to protect, there was a claim stating that these were the rights that should be made available to man; generalizing it to all humans.