Lafayette's Copy of
the Declaration of the
Rights of Man

Manuscript in a clerical hand and endorsed
by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Page 2
Holograph manuscript, July 1789
Manuscript Division

General Lafayette gave this copy of France's Declaration of the Rights of Man to Thomas Jefferson before he presented it to the French Estates General. One of several such declarations circulated in revolutionary France, Lafayette's draft was influenced by his years in America and his intimate knowledge of George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights.