The Estates General

During my time in the Estates General, I created a pamphlet that outlined the desires and frustrations of the alienated Third Estate. Not to be exaggerating but in some ways I was the force that tore apart the Ancient Regime in France by arguing the nobility to be fraudulent and preying on an overburdened and despondent bourgeoisie. My pamphlet was essentially the necessary call for the transition from a once powerless class into an unheard-of political force stating grievances that were not to be disregarded in the convocation of the Estates General known as the cahiers de doleances. Whereas the aristocracy defined themselves as an elite ruling class charged with maintaining the social order in France, I saw the Third estate as the primary mechanism of public service. In my pamphlet, I deemed noble privilege “treason to the commonwealth” and advocated equality for all men. The French Revolution could not have been what it was without this patriotic message which was spread rapidly through a developing language of revolutionary politics within the Third Estate. It was also from this reform that the Declaration of the Rights of Men and the Citizen was instituted. Specifically, the third estate demanded that the number of deputies for their order be equal to that of the two privileged orders combined, and most controversially “that the States General Vote, Not by Orders, but by Heads”. The pamphlet took these issues to the masses and their partial appeasement was met with revolutionary reaction. I proposed that the members of the First and Second order join the Third Estate and become a united body to represent the nation as a whole. Also to help persuade the other estates, I stated that the Third Estate had the right to consider those who denied this invitation to be in default of their national responsibility. The traditional system of the three Estates as separate groups must be abandoned to make the formation of a single chamber National Assembly. As a result, I inspired resentment in the Third Estate to encourage them to unite against the feudalistic traditions of the ancient regime.