National Assembly

“ I knew nothing about the situation of the national workshops, nor the politics of government, nor the intrigues that were intersecting the Assembly. One must have lived in this booth, called the National Assembly, to conceive how the men who are the most completely ignorant of the state of a country are almost always those who represent it. ”

“ O, sons of Joel, let us glorify the memory of our obscure ancestors, who prepared the triumph of the Revolution.
The imperishable work of the National Assembly was the Declaration of the Rights of Man. This monumental document embraced territorial and administrative unity; social, civil, political and religious equality; and above all, the formal recognition of the sovereignty of the people as the source of all power and of all functions, which it delegated to its representatives by election. ”

“ Before starting its works, the National Assembly shall declare the validity of each Member's mandate and shall vote separately to elect its President, its Vice-Presidents and all the Members of its various Commissions, by an absolute majority of all its Members.
The National Assembly shall adopt its Rules of Procedure by an absolute majority of all its Members. ”

“ The National Assembly has the right to discuss truthfully and sincerely all matters it considers to be desirable in the interests of the State and nation to investigate; and, subject to the approval of a majority, to submit them, in the enjoyment of the utmost safety and confidence, with the approval of the Senate, to His Imperial Majesty the Shah, through the first person of the Government, for His Majesty’s signature, and to be then put into execution. ”

“ Grand National Assembly powers that devolve to the Council of State between assembly sessions, or in the event of exceptional circumstances that prevent the assembly from acting, include the authority to appoint and recall members of the Council of Ministers, members of the Supreme Court, and the prosecutor general. ”

“ Constitutionally, the Grand National Assembly, as the highest voice of the people, is asserted to be the supreme organ of state power, and all other government bodies are theoretically subordinate to it. ”

“ To me, however, our visit to the National Assembly, then in session, was the most interesting, with the exception of our interview with Monsieur Thiers, the president of the French republic, which I will describe presently. The National Assembly comprises seven hundred and fifty-eight deputies, elected by their respective districts in 1871, constituting only a provisional government. How long they may feel disposed to hold office, or the vacillating minds of the people to sustain them, the future will reveal. ”

“ All is dissolution, mutual rancour, gloom and despair:—till National Assembly Commissioners arrive, with a steady gentle flame of Constitutionalism in their hearts; who gently lift up the downtrodden, gently pull down the too uplifted; reinstate the Daughter Society, recall the mutineer deserter; gradually levelling, strive in all wise ways to smoothe and soothe. ”

“ The new assembly thus formed became known as the “National Assembly.” The National Assembly soon began to make many changes giving the people more freedom, and taking away much of the power of the king, nobles, and clergy. ”

“ The National Assembly profess to effectuate an entire regeneration of the country, and to eradicate all evils, moral, physical, and political. I heartily wish the numerous and miserable poor, with which Arras abounds, may become one of the first objects of reform; and that a nation which boasts itself the most polished, the most powerful, and the most philosophic in the world, may not offer to the view so many objects shocking to humanity. ”

“ We who remain free number a hundred and twenty Republican Representatives. Let us install ourselves in this hall. Let us install ourselves in the fulness and majesty of the Legislative Power. Henceforward we are the Assembly, the whole of the Assembly! Let us sit there, deliberate there, in our official sashes, in the midst of the People. Let us summon the Faubourg St. Antoine to its duty, let us shelter there the National Representation, let us shelter there the popular sovereignty. ”

“ As it is—and herein lies the evil—the people are taught that the National Assembly, as it is now constituted, is the concentrated essence of the spirit of Reaction—that the representatives of the people, with but few exceptions, are the ministering imps in a visible form of the invisible demon. ”

“ In exercising parliamentary control, the National Assembly shall have the power to make a finding of political liability on the part of public officials and call on Citizen Power to initiate the appropriate action to enforce such liability. ”

“ The above regulation to apply also to the case of citizens imprisoned at the time of being named representatives.
Art. 38. Every representative of the people is to receive a remuneration, which he is not at liberty to renounce.
Art. 39. The sittings of the Assembly are to be public. Nevertheless, the Assembly may form itself into a secret committee, on the requisition of a number of representatives, as settled by the rules. Each representative has the right of initiating parliamentary measures, which he will do according to the forms determined by the regulations. ”