Constitutions and Documents
Illustrative of the
History of France
1. Decree upon 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, 58–62; Von Sybel, French Revolution, I, 54–65; Camhridge Modern History, VIII, 153–154; Aulard, Révolution française, 32–34; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire générale, VIII, 56–59; Jaurès, Histoire socialiste, I, 244.
The Assembly, deliberating after the verification of its credentials, 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, cannot prevent those present from exercising the full extent of their rights, especially when the exercise of these rights is an imperious and pressing duty.
