Tyler Livingston

Democracy of Global Diversity

Persuasive Paper #1

Burke maintains that the security of property, especially landed property passed down
through generations, is essential to a free people (Online Library of Liberty). This quote clearly
states Burke believes property being passed down to each generation is essential to free people. I
believe as part of the nobility it is essential for all the people of the nobility to keep their property
rights, and the right to pass down property should be added to the constitution. In order to keep
liberty, the nobility needs the right to have property and the right to pass down property to their
families and future generations. With property being an essential part of living it is important
that, I as the nobility, fight for the right of property and the right for property to be passed down
to my future generations of family. There are many reasons as to why property rights for nobility
should be added to the constitution but here are three main points to help one understand why it
is so important. First, my past family worked for this property so it is my familys property to be
passed on to me. Secondly, my great grandfather has stood with the king to be where we are, and
who we are today. Lastly, I made the crops and kept up with the land so I should get to keep the
land. What right does one have over me to keep the land if one hasnt done any work to keep it?
Take a moment and think about your parents and how they have worked their entire lives
for you to have a better future and live a better life. Now think about you, working hard to make
your future families lives better. If you dont allow for the nobility to have this right to pass on
property to our future families then we have will have no motivation to work at all. We are all
fighting and working toward a goal, whether it be to have property, make money, or just survive.
Whatever it is, in order to have that goal met you need the right to achieve that goal. My goal is
to work hard with the property that my parents and grandparents worked so hard for me so that I

can one day pass it on to my future family for them to have a better life. I want this right to be
passed for my family and for my future children so that they can live a better life. Without this
property right to be passed on then there would be no goal for me to continue what I have
worked so hard for. What right do you have to take away what my parents and grandparents
have worked so hard for?
My great grandfather, and my entire family has stood by the King and helped him in
everything that you had before this revolution. They have found their punishment in their
success: laws overturned; tribunals subverted; 9industry without vigor; commerce expiring; the
[tax] revenue unpaid, yet the people impoverished; a church pillaged, and a state not relieved;
(Carnes 84). As you can see in this quote Burke expresses that we did have a set order and we
did have some sort of civil order. Now, we have violence in the streets, nobody is paying taxes,
and there is just chaos and no order at all. I propose that we come to an agreement in the middle
of having property rights for the nobility. Burke expresses that usually during a debate or
argument people tend to go to the extreme of one side or the other and completely forget about
the middle ground of compromising both. When they have rendered that deposed power
sufficiently black, they then proceed in argument as if all those who disapprove of their new
abuses must of course be partisans of the old, that those who reprobate their crude and violent
schemes of liberty ought to be treated as advocates for servitude (Carnes 105). This is a direct
quote from Burke stating that people tend to choose one side or the other to an extreme and
usually forget about the middle ground. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, there
is a part that talks about this right of property. The aim of every political association is the
preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property,
security, and resistance to oppression (Carnes 59). This has to go into the new constitution

because without it we will have no motivation to work and proceed with trying to better the
country for everyone. Rousseau believes that every man should be equal and have equal rights.
I should state that this part of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen should be in the
new constitution but it can be changed around to benefit everyone. If it is changed around it
should be changed to be able to benefit everyone so that we can as Burke mentions find a middle
ground. In order to find a middle ground I think that we should (as the national assembly) take a
vote on changing it to be able to benefit everyone. It should give the nobility the right to allow
to pass down property to their future family generations and during that time be the property of
the nobility. But in a time of desperate need may it be split up among the people who need it
most in order to help and better the country.
Finally, I state that the reason that this property right should be put into the constitution
and allow the nobility the right to pass on property to their future generations is because it is our
land. We (nobility) have worked hard for this land and have done a lot of work with standing by
the King and our work and history of this land goes back generations of generations. For you to
take away that land from us (nobility) would be wrong. We have worked hard for this land and if
you work hard for something it should ultimately be yours to keep. The land and property that
we have worked for and our parents have worked for should be ours to keep. Everyone should
have equal rights to have land, however it should not be taken away from the people who have
worked for centuries to maintain and keep the land and property. Think about everything you
have worked for in your life being taken away from you because someone else wants what you
worked so hard for. In all respect that should not be legally right and we need to have this put
into the constitution.

Some might say that since I didnt earn the property and it was my parents and
grandparents that it is unfair that it be passed down to me and not to everyone. I see your point
in that case that it is not my property and that I did not work for this specific property but I have
worked to maintain it and stay loyal to the King to keep the rights that I have today. The
property belongs to my family and since my family has worked so hard for it should be passed
on to me. I understand that some might say that their parents have worked hard but dont have
the right class to rise up in class and become a noble or higher class to own land. In this case it is
important to know that that is the reason for this assembly and why we are at such a
disagreement for this constitution. The whole purpose of us holding a national assembly is to
construct a constitution that benefits everyone and allows for the country to be stable and have
rights for all again. I would say that having the right to property being passed on to future family
generations is extremely important in order to have a stable country. I would say to make it more
fair for the families and people who didnt have land or property that if they are in dire need of
land or property or the country is in dire need of land that it would be morally right for the
nobility to give up their land at that point in time to allow for the country to be better off.
Another point that is probably brought up a lot would be with the exception of a few
liberals, the nobility wanted greater political influence for themselves but nothing for the third
estate (The Revolt of the Nobility). This is far from the truth. Speaking not only for myself,
but for all the nobility I can say that as a noblemen, I work hard with the king to ensure loyalty
and education for the people. Being such an educated, loyal man to the king and this country I
do not want everything for myself, however I do feel that since I have been so loyal and since I
have worked so hard to get where I have, I feel that it is my right to have these necessities for

myself as well as I feel that it is not your right as the people to take that away from me especially
after the history of what my entire line of family has done for this country.
In conclusion, as part of the nobility, I say that it should be added to the constitution that
the noble have the right to pass on property to their future family generations and that the only
time that they should not be allowed to is when the country is in dire need of property or land.
The noble should have this right to land because our past families have worked for this land; they
have worked their entire lives to give us a better future. Secondly, we have stood by the king to
give you all a better life and better future. Lastly, we have worked to maintain this land and since
we made it, we should get to keep it.

Works Cited
Carnes, Mark C. Roussea, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791. Pearson Education Inc, 2005.
Online Library of Liberty. 2012. 19 September 2012 <http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?
Itemid=287&id=733&option=com_content&task=view>.
The Revolt of the Nobility. 2008. 27 September 2012 <http://www.historywiz.com/nobility.htm>.