ABSTRACT
THE political record of the Constituent Assembly is not particularly impressive. We have seen it harassed and sometimes paralysed by bitter division. Debates were often rowdy and decisions prompted by the needs of faction. The Right made no attempt to play a constructive role as a conservative opposition, while the Feuillants found themselves campaigning in 1791 for measures they had defeated in 1789. And yet this same Assembly and its indefatigable committees, when they turned to the reorganization of the structure and institutions of the State, acted with boldness, magnanimity and a surprising amount of agreement. Within two years they transformed the appearance of the country by revolutionary measures that were not merely radical but also lasting.
