18.5 “What Is the Third Estate?” (January 1789): the Abbé Sieyès

Part 18: From Old Regime to Revolution

18.5 “What Is the Third Estate?” (January 1789): The Abbé Sieyès

The wars and extravagance of King Louis XIV had sent France to the brink of bankruptcy by 1715—and Louis was a competent and diligent administrator. His heirs, on the other hand, were not particularly dedicated to the governance of France. Louis XV (1715–1774) was poorly educated and preferred to allow his mistresses (one of whom had been a Parisian prostitute) to control the politics of state. Louis XVI (1774–1792) was well educated but more interested in hunting than in administration. From 1715 to 1789, the French economy spiraled into chaos. With the nobility and church exempt from taxation, the burden fell upon the Third Estate.

The French Revolution drew much of its support from the Third Estate, a conglomeration of middle-class professionals, artisans, and peasants. As a group, the middle class or bourgeoisie was ambitious, educated, and competent. Could they be expected to sit idly by while the nobility held offices that should have been theirs? Inspired by philosophical ideals as well as by potential economic and social advan- tages, they provided the leadership for the revolution. Lower members of the Third Estate, the artisans and peasants, generally could not read and were not concerned with philosophical justifications. It was the peasantry that labored under intolerable taxes, rents, and corvées (feudal services), which they were forced to undertake by the nobility without payment. What were their demands? Did their needs justify revolution?

By August 1788, Louis XVI had decided to summon the Estates-General, a convocation of the three estates, which had not met since 1614, in order to solve the government’s financial problems. Louis was in debt, and he wanted the Estates-General to raise new taxes. This pamphlet by the Abbé Sieyès (1748–1836) was issued in January 1789, before the Estates-General met. It was intended to unite the var- ious interests within the Third Estate toward a common cause: reform of the unequal voting procedure that gave advantage to the first two estates.

What Does the Third Estate Demand? To Become Something The true petitions of this order may be appreciated only through the authentic claims directed to the government by the large municipalities of the kingdom. What is indicated therein? That the people wishes to be something, and, in truth, the very least that is possible. It wishes to have real representatives in the Estates General, that is to say, deputies drawn from its order, who are competent to be interpreters of its will and defenders of its interests. But what will it avail it to be pre- sent at the Estates General if the predominating interest there is contrary to its own! Its presence would only consecrate the oppression of which it would be the external victim. Thus, it is indeed certain that it cannot come to vote at the Estates Gen- eral unless it is to have in that body an influence at least equal to that of the privileged classes; and it demands a number of representatives equal to that of the first two orders together. Finally, this equality of representation would become com- pletely illusory if every chamber voted separately. The third estate demands, then, that votes be taken by head and not by order. This is the essence of those claims so alarming to the privileged classes, because they believed that thereby the reform of abuses would become inevitable. The real intention of the third estate is to have an influence in the Estates General equal to that of the privileged classes. I repeat, can it ask less?

What Remains to Be Done: Development of Some Principles The time is past when the three orders, thinking only of defending them-selves from ministerial despotism, were ready to unite against the common enemy.... • • •

The third estate awaits, to no purpose, the meeting of all classes, the restitution of its political rights, and the plenitude of its civil rights; the fear of seeing abuses reformed alarms the first two orders far more than the desire for liberty inspires them. Between liberty and some odious privileges, they have chosen the latter. Their soul is identified with the favors of servitude. Today they dread this Estates General which but lately they invoked so ardently. All is well with them; they no longer complain, except of the spirit of innovation. They no longer lack anything; fear has given them a constitution.

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The third estate must perceive in the trend of opinions and circumstances that it can hope for nothing except from its own enlightenment and courage. Reason and justice are in its favor;... there is no longer time to work for the conciliation of parties. What accord can be anticipated between the energy of the oppressed and the rage of the oppressors? They have dared pronounce the word secession. They have menaced the King and the people. Well! Good God! How fortunate for the nation if this desirable secession might be made permanently! How easy it would be to dispense with the privileged classes! How difficult to induce them to be citizens! • • •

In vain would they close their eyes to the revolution which time and force of circumstances have effected; it is none the less real. Formerly the third estate was serf, the noble order everything. Today the third estate is everything, the nobility but a word.... In such a state of affairs, what must the third estate do if it wishes to gain possession of its political rights in a manner beneficial to the nation? There are two ways of attaining this objective. In following the first, the third estate must assemble apart: it will not meet with the nobility and the clergy at all; it will not remain with them, either by order or by head. I pray that they will keep in mind the enormous difference between the assembly of the third estate and that of the other two orders. The first represents 25,000,000 men, and deliberates concerning the interests of the nation. The two others, were they to unite, have the powers of only about 200,000 individuals, and think only of their privileges. The third estate alone, they say, cannot constitute the Estates General. Well! So much the better! It will form a National Assembly.

Question: 1. What were the specific demands made by the Third Estate? Do they seem reasonable to you?

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18.6 The Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789)

From the outset, the Estates-General was hampered by organizational disputes. After several weeks of frustration, the Third Estate invited the clergy and nobility to join them in organizing a new legislative body. Only a few of the lower clergy accepted, but the National Assembly was thus formed on June 17, 1789. Three days later they were accidentally locked out of their usual meeting place, and they marched to a nearby tennis court, where they took an oath to draft a new constitution for France. This is one of the most important documents of the revolution. The oath was taken orally and individually with but one vote in dissension. The president of the National Assembly was barely able to save the dissenter from bodily harm.

Source: “The Tennis Court Oath” is reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Company from A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution, edited by John Hall Stewart, p. 88. Copyright 1951 by Macmillan Publishing Company, renewed 1979 by John Hall Stewart.

The National Assembly, considering that it has been summoned to establish the constitution of the kingdom, to effect the regeneration of public order, and to maintain the true principles of monarchy; that nothing can prevent it from continuing its deliberations in whatever place it may be forced to establish itself; and, finally, that wheresoever its members are assembled, there is the National Assembly; Decrees that all members of this Assembly shall immediately take a solemn oath not to separate, and to reassem- ble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and consolidated upon firm foun- dations; and that, the said oath taken, all members and each one of them individually shall ratify this steadfast resolution by signature.

Question: 1. Does The Tennis Court Oath call for radical action? Why is it considered to be one of the most important documents of the French Revolution?

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