Jean Joseph Mounier (12 November 1758 – 28 January 1806) was a French

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Biography

Mounier was born the son of a cloth merchant in

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

in Southeastern France. He studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, and in 1782 purchased a minor judgeship at Grenoble. He took part in the struggle between the ''

parlement A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fre ...

s'' and the court in 1788, and promoted the meeting of the estates of Dauphiné at

Vizille Vizille (; frp, Veselye) is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. Population Sights Vizille is the home of the Musée de la Révolution française, a rich depository of archival and rare materials devoted to the French ...

(20 July 1788), on the eve of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. He was secretary of the assembly, and drafted the ''cahiers'' ("notebooks") of grievances and remonstrances presented by it to King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

. Thus brought into prominence, Mounier was unanimously elected deputy of the third estate to the Estates General of 1789; Mounier also founded the

Monarchiens The Friends of the Monarchist Constitution (french: Amis de la Constitution Monarchique), commonly known as the Monarchist Club (french: Club monarchique) or the Monarchiens, were one of the revolutionary factions in the earliest stages of the Fr ...

party in August 1789. There, and in the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

, he was at first an upholder of the new ideas, pronouncing himself in favor of the union of the Third Estate with the two privileged orders, proposing the famous

Tennis Court Oath On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (french: Serment du Jeu de Paume) in the tennis court which had been built in 1686 for the use of the Versailles palace. Their vow "not to separate and to reasse ...

, assisting in the preparation of the new constitution, and demanding the return of

Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (; 30 September 1732 – 9 April 1804) was a Genevan banker and statesman who served as finance minister for Louis XVI. He was a reformer, but his innovations sometimes caused great discontent. Necker was a constitutional monarchi ...

. After the Estates General became the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

, Mounier was elected to the committee on the constitution. Despite his skepticism of the abstract declaration of rights and his belief that such a declaration should be accompanied by a written constitution, Mounier was the principal author of the first three articles of the

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...

, adopted on 6 August.. On 28 September 1789 he was elected president of the Constituent Assembly. Being unable to approve the proceedings which followed, Mounier withdrew to Dauphiné, resigned as deputy, and, becoming suspect, took refuge in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1790. He returned to France in 1801.

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

named him prefect of the department of

Ille-et-Vilaine Ille-et-Vilaine (; br, Il-ha-Gwilen) is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named after the two rivers of the Ille and the Vilaine. It had a population of 1,079,498 in 2019.

, which he reorganized, and in 1805, he was appointed councillor of state. He died in Paris. His principal writings are ''Considérations sur les gouvernements'' (1789); ''Recherches sur les causes qui ont empeché les Français de devenir libres'' (1792), and ''De l'influence attribuée aux philosophes, aux francs-maçons et aux illuminés sur la Révolution Française.'' (1801).

External links

Full text online versions of pamphlets written by Jean Joseph Mounier
from the Ball State University Digital Media Repository

References

* which in turn cites: ** F. A. Aulard, ''Les Orateurs de l'assemblée constituante'' (2nd ed., Paris, 1905) ** De Lanzac de Laborie, ''Un Royaliste liberal en 1789; J. J. Mounier'' (Paris, 1887) ** A. Rochas, ''Biographie du Dauphiné'' (Paris, 1856) ** Berriat St Prix, ''Éloge historique de M. Mounier'' (1806) ** F. Boïanovski, "Quelques lettres inédites de J. J. Mounier," in the ''Revue historique'' (1898). {{DEFAULTSORT:Mounier, Jean Joseph 1758 births 1806 deaths Politicians from Grenoble Monarchiens Members of the National Constituent Assembly (France) Prefects of France Prefects of Ille-et-Vilaine Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur 18th-century French judges