Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/284

 280 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION or revision ; but none has hitherto been called, the amendments thus far having all been made under another provision, by which congress proposes and the states ratify. The constitu- tions for the individual states have all been established through similar conventions. When a territory is supposed to possess the proper population for a state, it is customary for con- gress to pass an enabling act, under which the residents possessing the qualifications prescribed for electors in the act choose delegates to form a constitution, and the instrument agreed upon in this convention is then submitted to the people for adoption or rejection. In some cases these conventions have been called and held without the previous authority of congress; but after a constitution has been framed and adopted, and the state admitted to the Union under it, any irregularity in the incipient steps is cured. The original thirteen states have all adopted constitutions agreed upon in conven- tions called by legislative authority, and most of these have since been revised in similar con- ventions. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, however, no constitution was adopted till 1818 and 1842 respectively, the government of those states having continued to be administered un- der their royal charters. The convention when in session does not exercise the ordinary legis- lative powers. It is a disputed question whether, when not required by the act under which it is called, or by an existing constitution, to sub- mit the result of its deliberations to the people for their action, the convention is so possessed for the time being of the sovereign power of the state that it may rightfully of its own au- thority and without such submission put in force a new constitution or any proposed amendments of the old. There are precedents favoring this power, particularly in the case of early conventions in the original states, and during the disorders following in what were called the border states the outbreak of the late civil war ; but in many of these cases the bodies assuming this authority were, under the pressure of a supposed great public necessi- ty, exercising ordinary powers of government, and acting rather as revolutionary conventions than as the bodies which meet to revise or form constitutions in peaceful times. Such an exercise of power is not regarded as legiti- mate ; the convention being looked upon in the light of an advisory body, chosen for the one task of maturing a constitution, and possessing no further authority except to submit the instru- ment agreed upon to the people for their ap- proval. The corresponding body in France is called a constituent assembly (assetnbUe con- stituante). Two such are particularly known under the name. The first opened at Ver- sailles May 5, 1789, as the states general, con- sisting of 291 deputies of the clergy, 270 of the nobles, and 584 of the tiers etat, or middle class; but on the refusal of the nobles and clergy to sit with the representatives of the tiers etat, the latter assumed the name of as- semblee nationale, and began their delibera- tions. Louis XVI. caused their hall to be closed against them, but they assembled in a tennis court, resolved to continue united until they should have given a constitution to France, and called upon the nobility and clergy to join them. Of the nobles 47, including the duke of Orleans, yielded to the invitation, and then on command of the king the others followed, and the clergy with them. The sessions con- tinued until Sept. 30, 1791. Among the leading members of the body were Mirabeau, Sieyes, Barnave, Cazales, Dupont, Lafayette, and La- meth. The principal measures of the assembly were : Abolition of all feudal privileges, Aug. 4, 1789; the declaration of rights, Aug. 20; free- dom of religion and of the press, Aug. 23 and 24 ; property of the clergy declared to belong to the nation, Nov. 2 ; creation of assignats, Dec. 19 ; division of the kingdom into departments, Jan. 15, 1790; suppression of titles of nobility, June 19 ; the right of pardon withdrawn from the king, June 5, 1791 ; the king suspended from his functions until the completion of the constitution, July 15; 'abolition of orders of chivalry, July 30 ; constitution finished, Sept. 3; accepted by the king, Sept. 13. The sec- ond constituent assembly, consisting of 900 delegates from France and its colonies, elected by universal suffrage after the proclamation of the republic, Feb. 24, 1848, met in Paris, May 4, 1848 ; was attacked May 15 by an insurrec- tion led by Blanqui, but was successfully de- fended by a battalion of the national guard ; on June 23 appointed Cavaignac dictator to put down a revolt growing out of the dissolu- tion of the national workshops; adopted the constitution Nov. 4; ordered the election of president for Dec. 10, and after the choice of Louis Napoleon to that office held its last meet- ing, May 24, 1849. Each of these constituent assemblies was succeeded by a national assem- bly styled assemblee legislative. The sovereign assembly which succeeded the first legislative in 1792 is known as the convention. (See CON- VENTION.) The present national assembly of France, which also claims constituent rights, was chosen by universal suffrage Feb. 8, 1871, after resistance to the power of the German army had become hopeless, and with a view primarily to a treaty of peace. It convened at Bordeaux, Feb. 12, 1871, and on the 17th ap- pointed Thiers president of the republic. Pre- liminary articles of peace were ratified March 1, and the fall of the empire decreed. The as- sembly assumed full powers of sovereignty, which however were denied to it and resisted by the commune of Paris, and the siege and capture of that city became necessary. On March 4 the assembly adjourned its sessions to Versailles, where it convened March 20. The definitive treaty of peace with Germany, signed May 10, was ratified May 18; the gradual dis- bandment of the national guard was decreed Aug. 24; a formal declaration of the consti- tuent authority of the assembly, which was