When the National Assembly established a dominant position in the running of the French state in 1789, they needed to move quickly to reform the old state around them into one that corresponded to the political views held within the new Assembly members. A 'principle' or origin from which all remodelling could take form from, and that would justify the actions of the Assembly to the people as they began reconstructing the state into a ' uniform, decentralised, representative and humanitarian system' was needed. The question being asked is for us to define this principle used by the Assembly to remodel French society and government, a question that can only be answered by studying the declarations of the Assembly to discover the point at which they declare the main principles of their new system openly in a bid to justify further actions.

When the newly gathered members of the National Assembly met on the royal tennis court on the 20th June 1789, they declared a vow that was to be remembered as the 'Tennis court oath.' This vow was to never rest until they 'provided France with a constitution,' a basses that the

The Assembly was making idealistic assertions that may have been different, but were to no extent radical in their objectives. They did not stress the need to remove of the king totally, but depended on him to rule under their constitutional monarchy, thus it became understandable to see why the Assembly fell under the fast feet of the revolution when it cried out for a Republic. In the end France was fundamentally changed in many ways, the new institutions and attitudes had took root from the Assembly's principles and many would even survive longer than the assembly itself.

As the Assembly struggled on reconstructing the state under their new principles, it became apparent that the status of the church would have to be curbed inline with the new government system. They did not intend to destroy or attack the religion of the church, but simple wanted to link it closer to the new government, rather than the old government and outside elements such as the pope, in a bid to strengthen the revolution. The first steps were taken in August 1789 removing the 'tithe, annates and pluralism' followed by the 1790 decree suppressing the monastic orders. These two assertions upon the church met with no real retaliation, however that was to be short lived. In July 1790 the Assembly decided to release a document that would bring the church into a more uniformed relationship with the new government system. The 'Civil Constitution of the Clergy' was to strip the number of priests down to fit into the departments of the local government; priests were to be appointed by the people and the Pope lost the ability to elect bishops. The entire system of the church was to be constructed around the revolution and the Assembly's principles and although many clergy were willing to debate the terms, the Assembly simple saw this as returning to the old way of separate systems. Forced by time and lack of results the assembly declared a decree in November 1790 calling all clergy to take oath to the constitution, the result was a serious blow to the authority of the assembly. Only 'seven bishops and 55 percent of the clergy excepted the oath,' the result split the church in France into constitutional and non-juring spoiling the assembly's hope of a uniformed church, and providing one of the largest boosts to the counter-revolution yet seen. Ideals had got in the way of th political reality surrounding the church, they could not change a religion to fit their principles.

The August Decree had given the Assembly the chance to construct the constitution on fresh ground, but firstly they needed to devise a collection of principles on which the constitution could begin to be formed around. However, to come to a conclusion on what to include in such a revolutionary document would be the hardest task for the Assembly. They had once again come to a task that had not yet been attempted in their countries history, their knowledge had to be based around what they believed to be right at the time, and from the study of such documents as the list of 'cahiers' and 'American Declaration.' The result was the 'declaration of the rights of men and the citizen' that stated that men are free and equal in their rights, those rights are more of liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression, and tax should be born equally by all citizens. A set of idealistic views that corresponded to the wants of the various member

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2303
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)