ASSEMBLING OF THE STATES-GENERAL.
Opening of the States-General.--Sermon of the Bishop of
Nancy.--Insult to the Deputies of the People.--Aspect
of Mirabeau.--Boldness of the Third Estate.--Journal of
Mirabeau.--Commencement of the Conflict.--First Appearance of
Robespierre.--Decided Stand taken by the Commons.--Views of the
Curates.--Dismay of the Nobles.--Excitement in Paris.--The National
Assembly.--The Oath.
On the 4th of May, 1789, the day of the opening of the States-General,
a solemn procession took place. Nearly all Paris flocked out to
Versailles, which is but ten miles from the metropolis, and countless
thousands from the surrounding regions crowded the avenues of the
city of the court. The streets were decorated with tapestry. The
pavements, balconies, and house-tops were covered with spectators. Joy
beamed from almost every face,[95] for it was felt that, after a long
night, a day of prosperity was dawning. The court, the clergy, and
the nobles appeared in extraordinary splendor; but, as the procession
moved along, it was observed that the eyes of the multitude, undazzled
by the pageant of embroidered robes and nodding plumes, were riveted
upon the six hundred deputies of the people, in their plain garb--the
advance-guard of freedom's battalions. They were every where greeted,
as they moved along, with clapping of hands and acclaim which seemed to
rend the skies.
"Rapturous, enchanting scene!" exclaims Ferrières, "to which I faintly
strive to do justice. Bands of music, placed at intervals, filled the
air with melodious sounds. Military marches, the rolling of the drums,
the clang of trumpets, the noble chants of the priests, alternately
heard without discordance, without confusion, enlivened this triumphal
procession to the temple of the Almighty."
On their arrival at the church, the three orders were seated on benches
placed in the nave. The king and queen occupied thrones beneath a
canopy of purple velvet sprinkled with golden _fleur de lis_. The
princes and princesses, with the great officers of the crown and the
ladies of the palace, occupied conspicuous positions reserved for them
by the side of their majesties. After the most imposing ceremonies, and
music by a majestic choir, "unaccompanied by the din of instruments,"
the Bishop of Nancy preached a sermon enforcing the sentiment that
religion constitutes the prosperity of nations.[96]
It was a noble discourse, replete with political wisdom and Christian
philosophy. The two can never be dissevered. In glowing colors he
depicted the vices of the financial system, and showed the misery
and demoralization which it necessarily brought upon the people.
"And it is," said he, "in the name of a good king, of a just and
feeling monarch, that these miserable exactors exercise their acts
of barbarism." This sentiment, so complimentary to the personal
character of the king, so denunciatory of the institutions of France,
was received with a general burst of applause, notwithstanding the
sacredness of the place, and the etiquette of the French court,
which did not allow applause in the presence of the king even at the
theatre.[97] With these religious ceremonies the day was closed.
The next day, May 5th, the court and all the deputies of the three
orders were assembled in the great hall, to listen to the instructions
of the king. And here, again, the deputies of the people encountered an
insult. A particular door was assigned to them, a back door which they
approached by a corridor, where they were kept crowded together for
several hours, until the king, the court, the nobles, and the clergy
had entered in state at the great door, and had taken their seats. The
back door was then opened, and the deputies of the people, in that
garb which had been imposed upon them as a badge of inferiority, were
permitted to file in and take the benches at the lower end of the hall
which had been left for them.[98]
As they entered, the galleries were filled with spectators. The king
and queen were seated upon a throne gorgeously decorated. The court,
in its highest splendor, nearly encircled the throne. The nobility and
the clergy, with plumes and robes of state, occupied elevated seats.
All eyes were fixed upon the deputies as they entered one by one,
plainly dressed, with slouched hat in hand. Mirabeau, in particular,
attracted universal observation. He was not only by birth and blood an
aristocrat, but he was an aristocrat in taste and manners. The spirit
of revenge had driven him into the ranks of the people. As he strode
along the aisle to his seat, he turned a threatening glance to the
plumed and embroidered noblesse, from whose seats he had been driven,
and a smile, haughty and bitterly menacing, curled his lips.[99]
The king's speech was favorably received. He appeared before the
representatives with dignity, and recited very appropriately the
cordial and conciliatory words which Necker had placed in his mouth. On
finishing his speech, he sat down and put on his plumed hat. The clergy
and the nobles, in accordance with custom, did the same. But to their
astonishment, the Third Estate also, as by an instinctive simultaneous
movement, placed their slouched hats upon their heads. The nobles,
amazed at what they deemed such insolence of the people, shouted
imperiously, "Hats off, hats off!" But the hats remained, as if glued
to the head. The king, to appease the tumult, again uncovered his head.
This necessitated the nobles and the clergy to do the same. Immediately
the Third Estate followed their example, and, for the remainder
of the session, all sat with uncovered heads.[100] When the last
States-General met, the Third Estate were compelled to throw themselves
upon their knees in the presence of the king, and to address him only
upon their knees.[101]
When Necker arose to speak, all eyes were riveted and all ears were
on the alert. As the organ of the king and his council, the minister
was to communicate the real opinions and intentions of the court. The
clergy and the nobility were agreeably disappointed; but the people,
on their back benches, listened silent and sorrowful. They heard none
of those noble ideas of equality and liberty which they were ready to
receive with enthusiastic acclaim. Necker was evidently trammeled by
the king, the court, and the nobles, now uniting in the feeling that
the rising power of the Third Estate must be repressed. Thus ended the
second day.
Mirabeau had commenced a journal, to contain, for popular information,
a record of the proceedings of the States-General. The court promptly
issued a decree prohibiting the publication of this journal, and
also prohibiting the issuing of any periodical without permission of
the king. A rigid censorship of the press was thus re-established,
and the deputies were excluded from all effectual communication with
their constituents. This was another measure of folly and madness. It
led individual members to issue written journals, which were read in
the saloons, the clubs, and at the corners of the streets to excited
multitudes, and it induced thousands to crowd the spacious galleries of
the hall to listen to the debates. Thus the speakers were animated by
the presence of four thousand of the most earnest of the people, eager
to applaud every utterance in behalf of popular liberty. The public
mind was also increasingly irritated by the petty persecution; so much
so, that at length the king thought it not safe to enforce the decree,
and the defiant Mirabeau soon resumed the publication of his journal,
under the title of _Letters to my Constituents_.[102]
The next day the deputies of the Third Estate at the appointed hour
repaired to the hall; but they found there none either of the clergy or
of the nobles. These two parties, resolved to perpetuate the division
of orders, had met in their respective halls and had organized as
distinct bodies. The Third Estate, assuming the name of the Commons,
abstained from any organic measures and waited to be joined by their
colleagues. Thus matters continued for several days. Every effort was
made on the part of the clergy and nobles to ensnare the Commons into
some measure which would imply their organization as the Third Estate,
but all was in vain. Assuming that they were a meeting of citizens
assembled by legitimate authority to wait for other citizens that they
might organize a political assembly, they merely chose a temporary
chairman for the preservation of order, and _waited_.[103]
Here, then, the vital question was to be decided whether the
States-General should compose one body where the majority should
rule, or three separate bodies where two could unite, a perpetual
majority, against one. Upon this question the whole issue of reform
was suspended. All equally understood the bearings of the question,
and all equally saw that there was no room for compromise. It was a
death-struggle. If united in one assembly the _people_ would have
a majority, and could maintain popular rights. If there were three
bodies the people would be in a hopeless minority, having two against
them. The attention of all France was engrossed by the conflict, and
the nation, with all its interests paralyzed, began to grow impatient
of the delay. "The nobles," M. Bailly writes, "decreed that the
deliberation by order, and the power of each order to put a veto on
the proceedings of the other two, were part of the very constitution
of the monarchy, and that they must maintain them as the defenders of
the throne and freedom. What a strange decree! The representatives of
about two hundred thousand individuals, or more, who are nobles take
upon themselves to decide, and in their own favor, a question that
concerns twenty-five millions of men. They assume for themselves the
right of the veto; they declare the powers and the principles of the
constitution; and who are they more than others who thus declare?"[104]
During this protracted conflict the higher clergy cunningly devised the
following plan to place the Commons in a false position: They sent an
imposing delegation, headed by the Archbishop of Aix, with a pathetic
allusion to the miseries of the people, and entreated the Commons to
enter into a conference to assuage their sufferings. The snare was
shrewdly contrived. If the Commons assented, it was the commencement
of business with three chambers; if they refused, the clergy would
apparently be those alone who regarded the starving population. For a
moment there was much embarrassment.
A young man rose in the Assembly, who was unknown to nearly all the
members, and in a calm, distinct, deliberate voice, which arrested
universal attention, said:
"Go, tell your colleagues that we are waiting for them here to aid us
in assuaging the sorrows of the people; tell them no longer to retard
our work; tell them that our resolution is not to be shaken by such a
stratagem as this. If they have sympathy for the poor, let them, as
imitators of their Master, renounce that luxury which consumes the
funds of indigence, dismiss those insolent lackeys who attend them,
sell their gorgeous equipages, and with these superfluities relieve the
perishing. We wait for them here."[105]
The snare was adroitly avoided. There was a universal hum of approval,
and all were inquiring the name of the young deputy. This was the first
public appearance of Maximilian Robespierre.[106]
At last, on the 27th of May, twenty-two days after the convening of the
States, the Commons sent a deputation to the halls of the clergy and of
the nobility, urging them, in the name of the God of peace, to meet in
the hall of the Assembly to deliberate upon the public welfare. This
led to a series of conferences and of suggested compromises from the
king and the court which continued for a fortnight, and all of which
proved unavailing. At last, on the 10th of June, Mirabeau arose, and
said,
"A month is passed.[107] It is time to take a decisive step. A deputy
of Paris has an important motion to make. Let us hear him."
The Abbé Sièyes[108] then rose and proposed to send a last invitation
to the other orders to join them; and, if they refused, to proceed to
business, not as a branch of the convention, but as the whole body. The
proposition was received with enthusiasm. This was on Wednesday. As the
next day, Thursday, was appropriated to religious solemnities, Friday,
the 12th, was fixed upon as the day in which this important summons was
to be sent.[109]
This last appeal was sent in the following words, which the committee
from the Commons were charged to read to the clergy and the nobles, and
a copy of which they were to leave with them:
"Gentlemen, we are commissioned by the deputies of the Commons of
France to apprise you that they can no longer delay the fulfillment of
the obligation imposed on all the representatives of the nation. It is
assuredly time that those who claim this quality should make themselves
known by a common verification of their powers, and begin at length to
attend to the national interest, which alone, and to the exclusion of
all private interests, presents itself as the grand aim to which all
the deputies ought to tend by one general effort. In consequence, and
from the necessity which the representatives of the nation are under
to proceed to business, the deputies of the Commons entreat you anew,
gentlemen, and their duty enjoins them to address to you, as well
individually as collectively, a last summons to come to the hall of
the States, to attend, concur in, and submit like themselves to the
common verification of powers. We are, at the same time, directed to
inform you that the general call of all the bailliages convoked will
take place in an hour; that the Assembly will immediately proceed to
the verification, and that such as do not appear will be declared
defaulters."
This summons, so bold and decisive, excited not a little consternation
in both of the privileged bodies. The curates among the clergy received
the message with applause, and were in favor of immediate compliance.
But their ecclesiastical superiors held them in check, and succeeded in
obtaining an adjournment.
The Commons waited the hour, and then proceeded to the examination
of the credentials of the deputies. This occupied three days. On
the first day three of the curates came from the clergy and united
with them. They were received with enthusiasm. On the second day six
came, on the third ten, and then it was announced that one hundred
and forty were coming in a body. This excited thorough alarm with all
the high dignitaries of Church and State. "The aristocracy," says
Thiers, "immediately threw itself at the feet of the king. The Duke of
Luxembourg, the Cardinal de la Rochefoucault, the Archbishop of Paris,
implored him to repress the audacity of the _Tiers Etat_ and to support
their rights which were attacked. The Parliament proposed to him to do
without the States, _promising to assent to all the taxes_. The king
was surrounded by the princes and the queen. This was more than was
requisite for his weakness. They hurried him off to Marly in order to
extort from him a vigorous measure."
This state of things had secured perfect reconciliation between the
court and the aristocracy. The lines were now distinctly drawn; the
king, nobles, and clergy on one side, the people on the other. The
excitement in Paris during this protracted conflict was very great. A
large wooden tent was erected in the garden of the Palais Royal, where
a crowd was almost constantly gathered to receive the news brought by
couriers from Versailles. At every street corner, in every café, the
subject was discussed. Almost every hour produced a pamphlet. "There
were thirteen issued to-day," writes Arthur Young, "sixteen yesterday,
ninety-two last week." In the mean time the court was concentrating the
troops from all parts of the kingdom around Paris and Versailles, and a
hundred pieces of field artillery menaced the two cities.
It was now necessary to give the Assembly a name, a name which should
define its functions. The assumption that they were the nation would
be bold and defiant. The admission that they were but a _branch_ of
the national representation would be paralyzing. The Assembly was
impelled to prompt and decisive action by the apprehension, universally
entertained, that the court might employ the army, now assembled in
such force, to arrest the principal deputies, dissolve the States, and,
if the people of Paris manifested any opposition, to surround the city
and starve them into subjection. Sièyes, in a celebrated pamphlet which
he had issued to prepare the public mind for this movement, had said,
"The Third Estate alone, they affirm, can not form the States-General.
Well! so much the better; it shall compose a National Assembly." A body
which, by universal admission represented ninety-six hundredths of the
nation, might with propriety take the name of National.[110]
Upon the morning of the 17th of June, after a long and animated
discussion of the preceding day, the Commons met to decide this
all-important question. The king, the court, and the aristocracy
were greatly alarmed. If this bold, resolute body were the _nation_,
what were they? Nothing. The people were intensely excited and
animated. Thousands in every conceivable vehicle flocked out from
Paris to Versailles. The galleries of the vast hall, rising like an
amphitheatre, were crowded to their utmost capacity. The building
was surrounded and the broad avenues of Versailles thronged with the
excited yet orderly multitude.
The members had but just assembled when the president, Bailly, was
summoned to the chancellor's office to receive a message from the king.
It was well understood that this message would be a regal prohibition
for them to do any thing without the concurrence of the three orders.
The Assembly immediately, with firmness, postponed the reception of
the message until the vote then before them was taken. Again they were
interrupted by a communication from the nobles, who in their alarm made
a desperate endeavor to thwart the proceedings. But the Assembly calmly
and firmly proceeded, and by a vote of four hundred and one against
ninety declared themselves the National Assembly.
In the presence of four thousand spectators the deputies then arose,
and with uplifted hands took the oath of fidelity. As with simultaneous
voice they pronounced the words "_We swear_," a burst of acclamation
rose from the galleries, which was caught by those outside the door and
rolled along the streets like reverberating thunder. "Vive le Roi! Vive
l'Assemblée Nationale!" was the cry which came from gushing hearts, and
thousands in intensity of emotion bowed their heads and wept.
A more heroic deed than this history has not recorded. It was a
decisive movement. It gave the people an organization and arrayed them
face to face against royalty and aristocracy. The king, the court,
the nobles, and the higher clergy were all against them. They were
surrounded with armies. They were unarmed and helpless, save in the
righteousness of their cause. They were menaced with all the terrors
of exile, the dungeon, and the scaffold; but, regardless of all these
perils, faithful to the sacred cause of popular liberty, they pledged
in its support their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
Even Alison, the unrelenting foe of popular rights, the untiring
advocate of aristocratic assumption, is constrained to say,
"It is impossible to refuse a tribute of admiration to those intrepid
men, who, transported by a zeal for liberty and the love of their
country, ventured to take a step fraught with so many dangers, and
which, to all appearance, might have brought many to prison or the
scaffold. Few situations can be imagined more dignified than that of
Bailly, crowning a life of scientific labor with patriotic exertion,
surrounded by an admiring assembly, the idol of the people, the
admiration of Europe."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 95: "Like the nation, I was full of hope, hope that I then
could not suppose vain. Alas! how can one now think without tears on
the hopes and expectations then every where felt by all good Frenchmen,
by every friend of humanity!"--_Necker on the French Revolution._]
[Footnote 96: "The _Tiers Etat_ numbered among its members a great
proportion of the talent and almost all the energy of France. The
leading members of the bar, of the mercantile and medical classes,
and many of the ablest of the clergy were to be found in its
ranks."--_Alison_, vol. i., p. 69.]
[Footnote 97: France and its Revolutions, by Geo. Long, Esq., p. 2.]
[Footnote 98: M. Rabaud de St. Etienne, vol. i., p. 47.]
[Footnote 99: Madame de Staël.]
[Footnote 100: Histoire Parlementaire, vol. i., p. 356.]
[Footnote 101: "Who would believe that this mad court remembered
and regretted the absurd custom of making the Third Estate harangue
on their knees? They were unwilling to dispense from this ceremony
expressly, and preferred deciding that the President of the Third
Estate should make no speech whatever."--_Michelet_, vol. i., p. 88.]
[Footnote 102: Procès verbal des électeurs redigé par Bailly et
Duveyrier, t. i., p. 34.]
[Footnote 103: "The chairman was M. Bailly, a simple and virtuous man,
an illustrious and modest cultivator of the sciences, who had been
suddenly transported from the quiet studies of his closet into the
midst of civil broils. Elected to preside over a great assembly, he had
been alarmed at his new office, had deemed himself unworthy to fill it,
and had undertaken it solely from a sense of duty. But, raised all at
once to liberty, he found within him an unexpected presence of mind and
firmness. Amid so many conflicts, he caused the majesty of the assembly
to be respected, and represented it with all the dignity of virtue and
reason."--_Thiers_, vol. i., p. 42.]
[Footnote 104: Indignantly Desodoards exclaims, "The descendants of the
Sicumbrians, or of I know not what savages, who ages ago came prowling
from the forests of Germany, could they assume at the end of eighteen
centuries that their blood was more pure than that which flowed in
the veins of the descendants of the Gauls, or the Romans, the ancient
inhabitants of France? Do they pretend that they are nobles because
they are conquerors? Then we, being now more powerful, have only to
drive them across the Rhine, and in our turn we shall be conquerors
and consequently nobles."-_Histoire Philosophique de la Revolution de
France, par Ant. Fantin Desodoards, Citoyen Français._]
[Footnote 105: "What a spectacle for France! Six hundred inorganic
individuals, essential for its regeneration and salvation, sit there
on their elliptic benches longing passionately toward life, in painful
durance, like souls waiting to be born. Speeches are spoken, eloquent,
audible within doors and without. Mind agitates itself against mind;
the nation looks on with ever deeper interest. Thus do the Commons
deputies sit incubating."--_Carlyle_, vol. i., p. 148.]
[Footnote 106: Bailly's Mémoires, t. i., p. 114.--_Dumont, Souvenirs,
etc._, vol. i., p. 59.]
[Footnote 107: "A month lost! One month in open famine. Observe that
in this long expectation the rich kept themselves motionless, and
postponed every kind of expenditure. Work had ceased. He who had but
his hands, his daily labor to supply the day, went to look for work,
found none--begged--got nothing--robbed. Starving gangs overran the
country."--_Michelet_, vol. i., p. 93.]
[Footnote 108: The Abbé Sièyes was one of the deputies sent by the
Third Estate from Paris, and the only clergyman in their delegation.]
[Footnote 109: Sièyes' motion was to _summon_ the privileged. By vote
of the Assembly the word was changed to invite.--_France and its
Revolutions, by G. Long, Esq._, p. 12.
"The Assembly," writes M. Bailly, its president, "deliberating after
the verification of its powers, perceives that it is already composed
of representatives sent directly by ninety-six hundredths, at least, of
the whole nation. Nothing can be more exact than this assertion. The
four hundredths that are absent, but duly summoned, can not impede the
ninety-six hundredths that are present.
"The Assembly will never lose the hope of uniting in its bosom all
the deputies that are now absent; will never cease to call upon
them to fulfill the obligation that has been imposed upon them of
concurring with the sitting of the States-General. At whatever moment
the absent deputies may present themselves in the session about to
open, the Assembly declares beforehand that it will hasten to receive
them, to share with them, after the verification of their powers,
the continuance of the great labors which can not but procure the
regeneration of France."]
[Footnote 110: Necker estimated the Third Estate at ninety-_eight_
hundredths of the population.]