ABSTRACT
French historical tradition offered an example of such a body: the Estates-General, a body of deputies chosen from the three traditional Estates with power to present grievances to the king and offer advice on taxes and laws. Charged with presenting the government's program to the Estates-General in its opening session, he gave the deputies a long-winded account of the monarchy's fiscal problems but offered no specific proposals. But when the Parisians, infuriated by the commander's refusal to give up the weapons it contained, stormed and captured it, their victory became an immediate symbol of the newly born popular revolutionary movement. The successful creation of a republic based on popular sovereignty in the United States provided a thought-provoking new political model whose virtues the American ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson, advertised among his circle of intellectual and political friends.
