Jacques Guillaume Thouret

In 1788 he participated in the agitation that contributed to the recall of the Estates-General. Thouret was elected deputy to the Estates-General by the third estate of Rouen, and was instrumental in composing the local cahiers de doléances. In the Constituent Assembly (beginning 17 June 1789) his eloquence gained him great influence. Like so many lawyers of his time, he was violently opposed to the clergy, and strongly supported the secularization of church property. He also advocated the suppression of the religious orders and of all ecclesiastical privileges, and actively contributed to the change of the judiciary and administrative system; in particular, he demanded the writing of a uniform civil code. He was four times elected president of the Constituent Assembly (3 August 1789, declined to serve; 12–23 November 1789; 8–27 May 1790; 11–30 September 1791, the final sessions of the Assembly), which is more times than anyone else.[1]

Thouret joined the Constitutional Committee late in September 1789. Article five of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted on his initiative, but his most important efforts surrounded the process by which France was divided into départements though 1790.[1]

On 3 September 1791, a deputation of sixty members of the Constituent Assembly under the presidency of Thouret presented the 1791 Constitution to Louis XVI; on 13 September, the King addressed the Assembly, declaring that he accepted the Constitution.

After the Assembly's dissolution, Thouret became a member, and then in 1793 president, of the Court of Cassation.

He was included in the proscription of the Girondists, whose political opinions he shared, and was guillotined in Paris,[1] during the Reign of Terror, the same day as fellow Constitutional Committee member Isaac René Guy le Chapelier, and defense attorney for Louis XVI, Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes.