Frenchmen read the Declaration of Independence, and framed a “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.” They adopted for their watchword the three words, “_Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité_,” which are inscribed on the public buildings of the present French Republic. Liberty--that is, personal freedom; equality--that is, equal rights before the law; fraternity--that is, brotherhood with other people. The French, like the Americans, made it their bottom principle that freedom was the normal condition of men, and that everybody was entitled to a chance to do what in him lay, provided he did not thereby obstruct the equal privileges of his brother man. With many hesitations, and some errors, the rising nations of the nineteenth century strove to make real those glorious ideas. The Latin peoples of both North and South America all professed liberty. Republics have been set up in Switzerland, in France, in Portugal, in China, in Russia. Virtual democracies are established in the Scandinavian countries, Holland, Italy, Great Britain, and the great British commonwealths of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Even Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey use the forms of popular government to conceal the real refusal of responsibility to the people by their sovereigns. [Illustration: ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE to the assembled crowd outside Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 8, 1776] _Constitutional Liberty_ After the Revolution came the real test of the whole principle. How could one generation, nurtured in the cradle of liberty, pass that blessing on to its descendants? The solution was found in a system of state and national constitutions wherein, while standing by the inalienable right of men to alter their government as they saw need, checks and limitations were introduced for the protection of personal rights. All the state constitutions, and eventually the new federal constitution, included statements of those precious privileges. The share in the government, so necessary for keeping alive an interest in the welfare of the state, was extended more and more widely, till in our time it seems likely to include all legally competent men and women. As time has passed, new personal relations have developed; slavery has been rooted out, the rights of labor have come to the front and women have the vote. In time of war personal rights must yield something to the necessities of the state, but they are the bedrock of American Government. [Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF OLD GLORY The Betsy Ross House, on Arch Street, Philadelphia, where the first American flag was made] _What Is Liberty Today?_