The First Revolutionary Step 63 



tion was doomed, while that of Sieyes gained correspondingly in 

 popularity. Young says : "All conversation on the motion of 

 l'abbe Sieyes being accepted, yet that of Mirabeau better rel- 

 ished." Mirabeau's "character is a dead weight upon him." 1 



The question was not decided during the sessions of June 15. 

 "In all probability," wrote Young, "it will be unfinished even 

 tomorrow, as the number that will speak on it is very great." 2 

 At ten o'clock in the evening, the assembly adjourned to nine 

 o'clock the following morning. 3 



The leaders of the assembly had spoken during the sessions of 

 June 15; several of them spoke again on June 16, but on this 

 second day, for the most part, second-rate speakers discussed 

 the question of organization. 4 Camus favored Sieyes' motion 

 and title as amended; he maintained that by constituting them- 

 selves as the representants de la nation francaise legalement veri- 

 fies, they were expressing "a simple fact, an authentic truth. You 

 are the only verified representatives ; why not publish it therefore 

 in the face of the nation? And why speak to us of the sanction 

 of the king, of his veto? Can his veto prevent that the fact which 

 we shall proclaim, that the truth which we shall publish is always 

 one and always unchangeable? Can his veto prevent us from 



'Young, 168. 



'Ibid., 166. 



3 Proces-verbal, I, 96; Journal des etats-generaux, I, 106, states, "II etait 

 pres de onze heures." Biauzat wrote (II, 118) at nine o'clock the next 

 morning: "L'assemblee n'a pas encore commence, j'ai entrevu, dans les 

 difrerentes groupes qui raisonnent en attendant, que la motion de M. l'abbe 

 Sieyes passera, et sans restriction. Les Bretons, les Dauphinois, les An- 

 gevins et leurs adherents, qui font capable depths pres d'un mois sur toute 

 matiere, epaulent ce systeme qui pourrait bien n'etre pas generalement ap- 

 .prouve hors de chez nous. Cependant faudrat-il bien se referer a la ma- 

 jorite des voix, que Ton recueillera infailliblement dans aujourd'hui." 

 Coitrricr de Provence, Lettre XI, 36: "L'assemblee ne se separa qu'a dix 

 heures et s'ajourna le [au] lendemain a huit." Revue de la revolution, 

 XII, Documents inedits, 112 : "Les discussions . . . se sont prolongees 

 jusqu'a environ onze heures." 



i Courrier de Provence, Lettre XI, 36, 37: "Moins de nouveaute dans 

 les discours des opinants de cette seance, et par consequent moins de com- 

 plaisance attentive dans l'assemblee." For the two sessions held on June 

 16 we have an account by Hardy, printed in La revolution frangaisc, XVI, 

 536-39. A study of the speeches delivered before June 15 and of the com- 

 mittees appointed by the commons shows that the deputies who spoke on 

 June 15 were the chief men of the assembly. 



63 



