The First Revolutionary Step 47 



but not in meaning. And with the omission of the words, connus 

 et verifies, the title would have expressed nothing more nor less 

 than the name national assembly. 



And why should the assembly accept the entire proposition of 

 Sieyes as favorably as it did, when so many radical members were 

 present? Why was the short, the suggestive, the well-known 

 title, national assembly, not proposed immediately after Sieyes 

 left the floor, and why should it be passed over as unnoticed when 

 it was proposed after a whole day's discussion? The leaders evi- 

 dently avoided it, and the great majority of the members had 

 complete confidence in Sieyes and his tactics. For several days 

 previous to June 15, a large number of the deputies had known 

 of the plan of Sieyes, and they had given, in advance, their hearty 

 support to it. 1 The projects of Sieyes were prepared before June 

 10, for after the reading of his, motion on that day, he had re- 

 ferred to them. He had explained to the assembly that the ques- 

 tion of constituting itself could only be taken up after the com- 

 pletion of the verification of credentials. Also the personality and 

 popularity of Sieyes gave weight to the proposed title. He was, 

 for the moment, the acknowledged leader of the assembly; 2 his 

 ability and great devotion to the cause of the third estate were 

 well known; his motion of June 10, which had so entirely met 

 with the desires of the commons, had given him, already famous, 

 still greater prestige. The vast majority of the deputies, includ- 

 ing those from Brittany, favored both his motion and his title. 

 The assembly was forced to be arbitrary in its decision. It had 

 no legal nor customary right to constitute itself as the only as- 

 sembly and to declare against the veto power of the other orders, 

 but in taking such a resolute step, Sieyes desired to give as little 



1 Courrier de Provence, Lettre XI, 4; Duquesnoy, I, 98: "Si favorable 

 a ceux a qui les motions ont ete communiquees d'avance, et si cruel pour 

 ceux qui, etrangers a tous les partis, a toutes les coalitions, ne connaissent 

 de projets que ceux qui se forment dans cette assemblee." Duquesnoy took 

 this extract from Creniere's speech made on lune 16. Journal dcs _ ctats- 

 gencraux, I, S6-87. All the deputies awaited the moment of constituting 

 themselves and "s'y etaient prepares, et depuis quelques jours les motions 

 etaient deja fortes, et ce fut a les lire que Ton employa cette seance" of 

 lune 15. 



2 Dumont, 52-54. 



47 



