Liberté, égalité, fraternité

thumb|A [[propaganda poster from 1793 representing the French First Republic with the slogan "Unity and Indivisibility of the Republic. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or Death", together with symbols such as tricolour flags, phrygian cap and gallic rooster]]

(; French for , ; ), is the national motto of France and the Republic of Haiti, and is an example of a tripartite motto. Although its origins can be traced to the French Revolution, it was then only one motto among several popularized by revolutionaries and was not institutionalized until the Third Republic at the end of the 19th century. Debates concerning the compatibility and order of the three terms began at the same time as the Revolution. It is also the motto of the Grand Orient and the Grande Loge de France. During the German occupation of France during World War II, the collaborationist independent French State adopted the variation "travail, famille, patrie", French for "work, family, country".

History

Origins during the French Revolution

thumb|Text displayed on a 1793 placard announcing the sale of expropriated property ([[biens nationaux). Soon after the Revolution, the motto was often written as "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death". "Death" was later dropped for being too strongly associated with the Reign of Terror and excesses of the Revolution.]]

thumb|The [[French Tricolour has been seen as embodying all the principles of the Revolution—.]]

Some claim that Camille Desmoulins invented the phrase the 35th issue of Révolutions de France et de Brabant that was published on 26 July 1790; however, it is not confirmed as this is only the first official mention of the phrase. Speaking at the July 1790 Fête de la Fédération festival, he described "the citizen-soldiers rushing into each other's arms, promising each other liberty, equality, fraternity" (French: les soldats-citoyens se précipiter dans les bras l'un de l'autre, en se promettant liberté, égalité, fraternité). Several months later, Maximilien Robespierre popularized the phrase in his speech "On the Organization of the National Guard" (), held on 5 December 1790, which was disseminated widely throughout France by the popular societies.

Credit for the motto has been given also to Antoine-François Momoro (1756–1794), a Parisian printer and Hébertist organizer. During the Federalist revolts in 1793, it was altered to "Unity, Indivisibility of the Republic; Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood or Death" (). In 1839, the philosopher Pierre Leroux claimed it had been an anonymous and popular creation. The tripartite motto was neither a creative collection, nor really institutionalized by the Revolution.

The compatibility of liberté and égalité was not in doubt in the first days of the Revolution, and the problem of the antecedence of one term on the other not lifted. mainly under the pressure of the people who had attempted to impose the red flag over the tricolor flag. The 1791 red flag was the symbol of martial law and of order, not of insurrection. On 6 January 1852, the future Napoleon III, first President of the Republic, ordered all prefects to erase the triptych from all official documents and buildings, conflating the words with insurrection and disorder. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who preferred only liberty, criticized fraternity as an empty word, which he associated with idealistic dreams of Romanticism. Pierre Larousse's Dictionnaire universel deprived fraternity of its "evangelistic halo", conflating it with solidarity and the welfare role of the state. the political slogan adopted by Marshal Pétain, who became the leader of the new Vichy French government in 1940. Pétain had taken this motto from the French Social Party (PSF) of François de La Rocque, although the latter considered it more appropriate for a movement than for a regime.

The Czech slogan of rovnost, volnost, bratrství ("Equality, Liberty, Fraternity") was a motto of the Sokol movement, a Czech national gymnastics organization, at the end of the 19th century. Liberal values of the fraternal organization manifested themselves in the Czech independence movement during World War I, when many Sokol members joined armies of the Allies and formed the Czechoslovak Legion to form independent Czechoslovakia in 1918.

The Philippine National Flag has a rectangular design that consists of a white equilateral triangle, symbolizing liberty, equality, and fraternity; a horizontal blue stripe for peace, truth, and justice; and a horizontal red stripe for patriotism and valor. In the center of the white triangle is an eight-rayed golden sun symbolizing unity, freedom, people's democracy, and sovereignty. Some former colonies of the French Republic, such as Chad, Niger, and Gabon, adopted similar three-word national mottos. Haiti used it on its coins since 1872, having used Liberte Egalite on earlier coinage since 1828. The idea of the slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" has influenced as natural law, the First Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Since 1848, the motto has been present on the throne of the Grand masters of Latin Freemasonry. "Freedom" also alludes to the inner freedom from spiritual chains that are broken with the initiatory work. Lodovico Frapolli<sub>it</sub>, former Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, suggested to substitute "fraternity" with "solidarity".

Notes

References

External links

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity on the website of the French Presidency