NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE

FRENCH REVOLUTION

Program: B.A. Honours

Subject: History
Paper: IV

Dr. Deepti Tiwari

Assistant Professor
H.O.D., Department of History,
Magadh Mahila College,Patna University
deeptitiwaribhu@gmail.com
9451545311

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 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
FRENCH REVOLUTION
The French Revolution was a major event in the history of Western societies, and
has had a profound effect on the world today. The revolution that destroyed the
ancient régime in France is considered by many as the first of the modern
revolutions. It is one of the great turning points of the modern era because never
before had the society of a powerful country been transformed to give political
representation to its entire population on the basis of the principle of popular
sovereignty. France was one of the most powerful states in 18th-century Europe
and influenced European economic, political and cultural development.
Throughout the years of the revolution, there were four different revolutionary
governments, including: National Assembly, Legislative Assembly, National
Convention and the Directory. The National Assembly was the first revolutionary
government of the French Revolution and existed from June 14th to July 9th in
1789.

Background
On 5th May 1789, Louis XIV called together assembly of estates to pass proposal
for new taxes. The first and second estate sent 300 representatives each while 600
members from third estates were sent.* Voting in the Estate General was conducted

*
There were 3 estates of France before 1789. They are:

a) Clergy : - In this estates, persons were invested with special functions of the church.
b) Nobility : Richer most people came in these estate which lives in Forts that is Kings and
queens.
c) Common Man : This category was further sub divided in three categories:
** Big businessmen, merchants, courts official, lawyers etc.
** Peasants and artisans.
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in the past with principle of each estate one Vote. But the members of third estate
demanded that voting now be conducted by the assembly as a whole, where every
member has one vote. King rejected the proposal; and as a result third estate
walked out of the assembly. Shuttle diplomacy among the estates continued
without success until May 27; on May 28, the representatives of the Third Estate
began to meet on their own. From June 13 to June 17 they were gradually joined
by some of the nobles and the majority of the clergy and other people such as the
peasants.

Estates General of 1789

** Small peasants, landless labours, servants.

In the period of old regime, only the third estates have to pay taxes.

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Tennis Court Oath
On June 20, the king ordered to close the doors of the hall, but the deliberations
were moved to a nearby tennis court. It was here that the third estate established
the National Assembly, the new revolutionary government, and pledged “not to
separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution
of the kingdom is established”. 576 men signed the oath, with only one refusing.

It was a pivotal event in the early days of the French Revolution. The oath was
both a revolutionary act and an assertion that political authority derived from the
people and their representatives rather than from the monarch himself. Their
solidarity forced Louis XVI to order the clergy and the nobility to join with the
Third Estate in the National Assembly to give the illusion that he controlled the
National Assembly. The Oath signified for the first time that French citizens
formally stood in opposition to Louis XVI, and the National Assembly’s refusal to
back down forced the king to make concessions.

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 Two days later, deprived of use of the tennis court as well, the National
Assembly met in the church of Saint Louis, where the majority of the
representatives of the clergy joined them: efforts to restore the old order had served
only to accelerate events.

When, on June 23, in accord with his plan, the king finally addressed the
representatives of all three estates, he encountered a stony silence. He concluded
by ordering all to disperse. The nobles and clergy obeyed; the deputies of the
common people remained seated in a silence finally broken by Mirabeau, whose
short speech culminated, “A military force surrounds the assembly! Where are the
enemies of the nation? Is Catiline at our gates? I demand, investing yourselves
with your dignity, with your legislative power, you inclose yourselves within the
religion of your oath. It does not permit you to separate till you have formed a
constitution.” The deputies stood firm. Reconstitution Messages of support poured
into the Assembly from Paris and other French cities.

Mirabeau's defiance in front of the marquis de Dreux-Brézéon 23 June 1789

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National Constituent Assembly

Although the National Assembly was originally made up of mostly members of the
third estate, many clergy and nobility representatives soon joined as anger for the
monarchy of Louis XVI spread. After July 9th, the National Assembly formed into
the National Constituent Assembly, which would last until September 30th, 1791.
Following the storming of the Bastille on July 14, the National Assembly became
the effective government and constitution drafter that ruled until passing the 1791
Constitution, which turned France into a constitutional monarchy.

Interior of the chamber of the French National Assembly

Fall of the Bastille

On June 12, as the National Assembly continued to meet at Versailles, fear

and violence consumed the capital. Though enthusiastic about the recent
breakdown of royal power, Parisians grew panicked as rumors of an

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impending military coup began to circulate. On July 14 1789 the Paris mob,
hungry due to a lack of food from poor harvests, upset at the conditions of their
lives and annoyed with their King and Government, stormed the Bastille fortress (a
prison). This turned out to be more symbolic than anything else as only four or five
prisoners were found. Many consider this event, now commemorated in
France as a national holiday, as the start of the French Revolution.

Work of The Assembly

On August 4, 1789, the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism,
sweeping away both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate and the tithes (a
10% tax for the Church) collected by the First Estate. During the course of a few
hours, nobles, clergy, towns, provinces, companies, and cities lost their special
privileges. Originally the peasants were supposed to pay for the release of
seigneurial dues, but the majority refused to pay and in 1793 the obligation was
cancelled. The old judicial system, based on the 13 regional parliaments, was
suspended in November 1789 and officially abolished in September 1790.

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 In an attempt to address the financial crisis, the Assembly declared, on
November 2, 1789, that the property of the Church was “at the disposal of the
nation.” Thus the nation had now also taken on the responsibility of the Church,
which included paying the clergy and caring for the poor, the sick, and the
orphaned. In December, the Assembly began to sell the lands to the highest bidder
to raise revenue. Monastic vows were abolished, and in February 1790 all religious
orders were dissolved. Monks and nuns were encouraged to return to private life.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, passed in July 1790, turned the remaining
clergy into employees of the state.

In the turmoil of the revolution, the Assembly members gathered the various
constitutional laws they had passed into a single constitution and submitted it to
recently restored Louis XVI, who accepted it, writing “I engage to maintain it at
home, to defend it from all attacks from abroad, and to cause its execution by all
the means it places at my disposal.” The King addressed the Assembly and
received enthusiastic applause from members and spectators. With this capstone,
the National Constituent Assembly adjourned in a final session on September 30,
1791. Under the Constitution of 1791, France would function as a constitutional
monarchy.

But the National Constituent Assembly is best remembered for passing the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen on 26th August 1789. The
declaration was written by Marquis de Lafeyette, a French military officer who
fought in the American Revolution and was inspired by the ideals of liberty
expressed by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. The
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was vitally important to the
French Revolution because it directly challenged the authority of Louis XVI.

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was comprised a
statement of principles rather than a constitution with legal effect. Its 17 articles,
adopted between August 20 and August 26, 1789, by France’s National Assembly,
served as the preamble to the Constitution of 1791. The concepts in the Declaration
come from the tenets of the Enlightenment, including individualism, the social
contract as theorized by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the separation of
powers espoused by Montesquieu. The spirit of secular natural law rests at the
foundations of the Declaration.

Articles:

1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be
founded only upon the general good.

2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and
imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and
resistance to oppression.

3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor
individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the
nation.

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else;

hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those
which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.
These limits can only be determined by law.

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 5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be
prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything
not provided for by law.

6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to
participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be
the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the
eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and
occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their
virtues and talents.

7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and

according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting, transmitting,
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executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But
any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay,
as resistance constitutes an offense.

8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and obviously
necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally inflicted in
virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the offense.

9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty, if
arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all harshness not essential to the securing of
the prisoner's person shall be severely repressed by law.

10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his

religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order
established by law.

11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious
of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with
freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be
defined by law.

12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military
forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the
personal advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.

13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces
and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all
the citizens in proportion to their means.

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 14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their
representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to
know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and
of collection and the duration of the taxes.

15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his
administration.

16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the
separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.

17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived
thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it,
and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably
indemnified.

Limitations

1. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, passed by France’s
National Constituent Assembly in August 1789, is a fundamental document
of the French Revolution that granted civil rights to some commoners,
although it excluded a significant segment of the French population. At the
time of writing, the rights contained in the declaration were only awarded to
men.
2. Furthermore, the declaration was a statement of vision rather than reality as
it was not deeply rooted in the practice of the West or even France at the
time. It embodied ideals toward which France pledged to aspire in the future.

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 3. There remained a distinction between those who obtained the political rights
in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and those who did not.
Those who were deemed to hold these political rights were called active
citizens, a designation granted to men who were French, at least 25 years
old, paid taxes equal to three days of work, and could not be defined as
servants. The category of passive citizens was created to encompass those
populations that the Declaration excluded from political rights. Tensions
arose between active and passive citizens throughout the Revolution.
4. The Declaration did not recognize women as active citizens despite the fact
that after the March on Versailles on October 5, 1789, women presented the
Women’s Petition to the National Assembly, in which they proposed a
decree giving women equal rights.
5. The Declaration did not revoke the institution of slavery.
6. It was also silent about freedom in the choice of business or occupation.

Today, many historians view it as an important document in both the history

of the French Revolution and the history of democracy and individual rights in the
world. The Declaration, together with the American Declaration of Independence,
Constitution, and Bill of Rights, inspired in large part the 1948 United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It has also influenced and inspired rights-
based liberal democracy throughout the world.

In spite of some shortcomings, the new set up chalked out by the National
Assembly was remarkable and placed France on the threshold of a new epoch of
social development. The National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself in 1791,
passing government to the newly created Legislative Assembly.

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