Constitutions and Documents Illustrative of the History of France 1. Decree Creating the National Assembly. June 17, 1789. Duvergier, Lois, I, 23. The States-General met May 5, 1789. It contained approximately twelve hundred members-three hundred nobles, three hundred clergy, six hundred deputies of the Third Estate. As Louis XVI had failed to provide regulations respecting its organization and method of voting, a controversy immediately developed over these questions. The nobles and clergy desired separate organization and vote by order; the Third Estate demanded a single organization and vote by head. This decree was finally adopted by the Third Estate alone, after an invitation to the other two orders had met with no general response. The document indicates the method by which the Third Estate proposed to proceed, the arguments by which the method was justified, and the general temper which characterized the proceedings. REFERENCES. Mathews, French Revolution, 119-120; Gardiner, French Revolution, 37-39; Stephens, French Revolution, I, 58-61; Von Sybel, French Revolution, I, 54-65; Aulard, Revolution Francaise, 32-34; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, VIII, 5659. The Assembly, deliberating after the verification of the powers, recognizes that this assembly is already composed of the representatives sent directly by at least ninety-six per cent of the nation. Such a body of deputies cannot remain inactive owing to the absence of the deputies of some bailliages and some classes of citizens; for the absentees, who have been summoned, can not prevent those present from exercising the full extent of their rights, especially when the exercise of these rights is an imperious and pressing duty. Furthermore, since it belongs only to the verified representatives to participate in the formation of the national opinion, and since all the verified representatives ought to be in this assembly, it is still more indispensable to conclude that the interpretation and presentation of the general will of the nation belong to it, and belong to it alone, and that there cannot exist between the throne and this assembly any veto, any negative power.-The Assembly declares then that the common task of the national restoration can and ought to be commenced without delay by the deputies present and that they ought to pursue it without interruption as well as without hindrance.-The denomination of NATIONAL AsSEMBLY is the only one which is suitable for the Assembly in the present condition of things; because the members who compose it are the only representatives lawfully and publicly known and verified; because they are sent directly by almost the totality of the nation; because, lastly, the representation being one and indivisible, none of the deputies, in whatever class or order he may be chosen, has the right to exercise his functions apart from the present assembly.-The Assembly will never lose the hope of uniting within its own body all the deputies absent today; it will not cease to summon them to fulfil the obligation laid upon them to participate in the holding of the States-General. At any moment when the absent deputies present themselves in the course of the session which is about to open, it declares in advance that it will hasten to receive them and to share with them, after the verification of their powers, the results of the great labors which are bound to procure the regeneration of France.-The National Assembly orders that the motives of the present decision be immediately drawn up in order to be presented to the King and the nation. 2. The Tennis Court Oath. June 20, 1789. Duvergier, Lois, I, 24. When the deputies of the Third Estate went to their hall on June 20, 1789, they found it closed to them and placards posted announcing a royal session two days later. Fearing that this foreshadowed a command from the King for separate organization and vote by order, they met in a neighboring tennis court and with practical unanimity formulated the resolution embodied in this document. REFERENCES. James Harvey Robinson, Political Science Quarterly, X, 460-474; Von Sybel, French Revolution, I, 65-66. The National Assembly, considering that it has been summoned to determine the Constitution of the kingdom, to effect the regeneration of public order, to maintain the true principles of the monarchy; that nothing can prevent it from continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced to establish itself, and lastly, that wherever its members meet together, there is the National Assembly, Decrees that all the members of this Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath never to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances shall require, until the Constitution of the kingdom shall be established and consolidated upon firm foundations; and that, the said oath being taken, all the members and each of them individually shall ratify by their signatures this stedfast resolution. 3. Documents upon the Royal Session of June 23, 1789. These documents show the parts played by the King and the Third Estate at the royal session of June 23, 1789. Document A is a command, although expressed as a wish. Document B has a special interest, since it indicates approximately how far Louis XVI was ready to go in the way of reform. Mirabeau's famous defiance of the royal usher was an important factor in nerving the Third Estate to take the action embodied in document C. Studies. REFERENCES. Fling's Source The Royal Session contains other interesting documents, bearing upon this event. See also Mathews, French Revolution, 121-124; Stephens. French Revolution, I, 62-63; Von Sybel, French Revolution, I, 6669. A. Declaration of the King upon the States-General. June 23, 1789. Duvergier, Lois, I, 24-25. Translation, Mrs. Fred M. Fling, Fling's Source Studies, The Royal Session, 46-49. I. The King wishes that the ancient distinction of the |