60 Carl Christophelsmeier 



True, the deputies of the assembly were elected by the commons 

 or the people and they had also to deal with this class very largely 

 in their business as an assembly, but they were instructed by their 

 constituents to prepare a constitution, and they had to take into 

 consideration, therefore, all the interests of the nation, and Ber- 

 gasse maintained that the most fitting title for such an assembly 

 was assemble e des representants de la nation. "Elected by the 

 nation in order to organize the political system of the nation, 

 your assembly can not constitute itself otherwise than as assem- 

 ble des representants de la nation." Bergasse said that the ob- 

 jection found to this title was that it would wound the privileged 

 classes and that it would end in alienating them, when the assem- 

 bly had announced that it would never give up the hope of the 

 union of all the deputies elected to the states general. "I answer, 

 first, that even though such consideration were well founded, yet 

 the principles which I have just developed are not less true, and 

 when the making of a constitution is in question, it is not deter- 

 mined by considerations, but it is based upon principles. 



"In the second place, I answer that it is wrong for you to fear 

 that you wound the deputies of the privileged classes. They cer- 

 tainly agree with you in principle ; surely no one but a deputy of 

 the nation can work in the interest of the nation; they certainly 

 agree with you, for if they would consider themselves only as 

 deputies of the clergy, or only as deputies of the nobility, they 

 would have no right to occupy themselves with the totality of the 

 interests of the nation, for example with the making of the 

 constitution." 1 



Bergasse proposed another amendment to the motion of Sieyes, 

 namely : that as soon as the assemblee des representants de la na- 

 tion was constituted, a committee ought to be appointed for the 

 purpose of setting forth the motives of the assembly in consti- 

 tuting itself in the manner that it had, and also of showing the 

 necessity of vote by head, and the indivisibility of the states gen- 

 eral. This statement should be presented to the king and should 

 be made public. 2 



1 Bergasse, like the other principal speakers, repeated some of the ideas 

 expressed by Chapelier in his motion of May 14. 



2 Archives parlementaires, VIII, 118; Journal des etats-generaux, I, 101, 

 102. 



6o 





