National Assembly

By: Scott Chow Per. 4 5/13/09

When was it?

The National Assembly of France is the lower legislative house under the French Fifth Republic."During the French Revolution, the National Assembly, which existed from June 17 to July 9 of 1789, was a transitional body between the Estates-General and the National Constituent Assembly.

June 17, 1789

On June 17, 1789 one month after the Estates-General met at Versailles, the members of the third estate declared themselves to be the `National Assembly', since they represented at least 96% of the nation.
This was an assembly not of the Estates but of "the People". They were slowly joined by the First Estate (the Clergy) and the Second Estate (the Nobility).

Quotes
The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptibly rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. (French National Assembly) Ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the only causes of public misfortunes and of the corruption of governments (French National Assembly)

Tennis Court Oath

June 20, 1789 National Assembly members take Tennis Court Oath, pledging to create new constitution. There, all but one of the members took the Tennis Court Oath, which stated simply that the group would remain indissoluble until it had succeeded in creating a new national constitution.

DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN On August 26, 1789, the assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Written by Marquis de la Fayette. The Declaration is a brief, but powerful, statement of the central themes of the revolution: Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood.

The Constitution of 1791

In June of 1789, the National Assembly took a collective oath to draft a new civil constitution for France; they completed this task in 1791. The new constitution declared France to be a constitutional monarchy. Within this new government, all legislative powers would fall to a single Legislative Assembly, which alone had the power to declare war and raise taxes.

What did they accomplish?

The abolition of special privileges of the nobility through the legalization of equality (August 4, 1789) They made their statement of human rights with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August 4, 1789) They subordinated Church to State. In November 1789, the National Assembly confiscated all Church property. And in early 1790, they passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy which reduced the power of the bishops. The clergy was now selected and paid by the State

Accomplishments cont.

In September 1791, the National Assembly drew up a constitution, something it had been trying to do since June 1789. The constitution of 1791 specified such liberal ideas as a limited monarchy and full equality before the law The National Assembly also made every effort to replace the inefficient and uncoordinated provinces with 83 new administrative units nearly equal in size. A standardized system of courts was introduced, the sale of judicial offices was abolished, citizen-filled juries were introduced and torture was abolished In terms of economic reforms, the National Assembly adopted a uniform system of weights and measures, guild restrictions were abolished and customs on goods transported within the country were eliminated