Manifesto adopted by France's National Assembly in 1789, which contained the principles that inspired the French Revolution .
One of the basic charters of human liberties, it served as the preamble to the Constitution of 1791 . Its basic principle was that "all men are born free and equal in rights," specified as the rights of liberty, private property, the inviolability of the person, and resistance to oppression. It also established the principle of equality before the law and the freedoms of religion and speech. The Declaration represented a repudiation of the pre-Revolutionary monarchical regime.