National Constituent Assembly (France)

The National Constituent Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale constituante) was formed from the National Assembly on July 9, 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution.

Background

The Estates-General of 1789, which convened on May 5, had reached a deadlock in its deliberations by May 6. The representatives of the Third Estate therefore attempted to make the whole body more effective; they met separately from May 11 as the Communes. On June 12, the Communes invited the other Estates to join them: some members of the First Estate did so the following day. On June 17 the Communes declared themselves the National Assembly by a vote of 490 to 90. The First Estate joined the assembly on June 19. A legislative and political agenda unfolded.

Following attempts by King Louis XVI and the Second Estate to prevent the delegates from meeting, the new assembly was forced to relocate to a tennis court on June 20; there, it swore the Tennis Court Oath, promising to draft a new constitution for France. Failing to disperse the delegates, Louis started to recognise their validity on June 27. The Assembly re-named itself the National Constituent Assembly on July 9, and began to function as a governing body and a constitution-drafter. However, it is common to refer to the body even after this date as the "National Assembly" or alternatively, "Constituent Assembly."

Structure in the summer of 1789

Following the storming of the Bastille on July 14, the National Constituent Assembly became the effective government of France. In the words of historian François Mignet, "The assembly had acquired the entire power; the corporations depended on it; the national guards obeyed it... The royal power, though existing of right, was in a measure suspended, since it was not obeyed, and the assembly had to supply its action by its own." [1]

Some of the leading figures of the Assembly at this time included:

• The conservative foes of the revolution, later known as the "Right":
  • Jacques Antoine Marie Cazalès — a forthright spokesman for aristocracy
  • the abbé Jean-Sifrein Maury — a somewhat inflexible representative of the Church
• The "Royalist democrats" (later known as "Constitutionals" or "Monarchicals") allied with Jacques Necker, inclined toward arranging France along lines similar to the British constitutional model with a House of Lords and a House of Commons:
  • Jean Joseph Mounier
  • the Comte de Lally-Tollendal
  • the Comte de Clermont-Tonnerre
  • Pierre Victor Malouet, Comte de Virieu
• The "National Party," at this time still relatively united in support of revolution and democratization, representing mainly the interests of the middle classes, but strongly sympathetic to the broader range of the common people. In this early period, its most notable leaders included Mirabeau, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Jean-Sylvain Bailly (the first two coming from aristocratic backgrounds). Mignet also points to Adrien Duport, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, and Alexander Lameth as leaders among the "most extreme of this party" in this period, leaders in taking "a more advanced position than that which the revolution had [at this time] attained." Lameth's brother Charles also belonged to this group.

To this list one must add the Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, foremost in proposing legislation in this period, and the man who, for a time, managed to bridge the differences between those who wanted a constitutional monarchy and those who wished to move in more democratic (or even republican) directions.

Proceedings

For a detailed description of the proceedings in the National Constituent Assembly and related events, please see the following articles:

• French Revolution from the abolition of feudalism to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
• French Revolution from the summer of 1790 to the establishment of the Legislative Assembly

For a list of presidents of the National Constituent Assembly, see: List of Presidents of the French National Assembly.

Dissolution

After surviving the vicissitudes of a revolutionary two years, the National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself on September 30, 1791. The following day the Constitution of 1791 went into effect, granting power to the Legislative Assembly.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, by François Mignet (1824), as made available by Project Gutenberg.