When they defined the word ‘patriotism,’ the pamphleteers said they meant love of country and of fellow-citizens, and the desire that both they and France be prosperous and happy. Specifically, however, to them a patriot was a citizen who, loving his country and countrymen, wished to make his country great and his countrymen happy through the well-known reforms. Patriotism, in fact, had become synonymous with reform, and to be called ‘patriotic’ was becoming the greatest honor to which men might aspire.63
A French patriote was a full-blown nationalist, setting his own nation above all other nations, and contemplating it with feelings bordering on adoration.64 Patriotism was something to which all good citizensp aspired. To be considered a patriot in the French Revolution was to be respected. Patriots were often the leading figures of the Revolution. They showed great love for and devotion to their country. Nationalist sentiment can be seen in the efforts to plan a government that would make the nation great. In France, the nationalism expressed through patriotism was aimed at uniting a nation with a government that was in the interests of the people, and not for the personal gains of a monarch.
In August of 1789, the National Assembly declared the abolition of feudalism and decreed the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.” This document asserted that men are born and remain free and equal in rights.65 It also showed the strong nationalist leanings of the National Assembly: “The principle of all sovereignty rests essentially in the nation. No body and no individual may exercise authority which does not emanate expressly from the nation.”66 It hailed the nation as the all-powerful entity from which authority and privilege extended. The Declaration also echoed Rousseau’s ideas about the general will.
