A twelve-member Constitutional Committee is convened on July 14, 1789 (coincidentally the day of the Storming of the Bastille).

Its task is to do much of the drafting of the articles of the constitution.

It includes originally two members from the First Estate (Champion de Cicé, Archbishop of Bordeaux and Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun); two from the Second (the comte de Clermont-Tonnerre and the marquis de Lally-Tollendal); and four from the Third (Jean Joseph Mounier, Abbé Sieyès, Nicholas Bergasse, and Isaac René Guy le Chapelier).

The National Constituent Assembly has become the effective government of France following the storming of the Bastille on 14 July.

The number of the Estates-General had increased significantly during the election period, but many deputies take their time arriving; some of them will reach Paris as late as 1791.

According to Timothy Tackett, there were a total of eleven hundred and seventy-seven deputies in the Assembly by mid-July 1789.

Among them, two hundred and seventy-eight belong to the nobility, two hundred and ninety-five to the clergy, and six hundred and four are representatives of the Third Estate.

For the entire duration of the Assembly, a total of thirteen hundred and fifteen deputies will be certified: three hundred and thirty clerics, three hundred and twenty-two nobles, and six hundred and sixty-three deputies of the Third Estate.

Tackett will note that the majority of the Second Estate has a military background, and the Third Estate is dominated by men of legal professions.

Some of the leading figures of the Assembly at this time are:

    The conservative foes of the revolution, later known as "The Right":
        Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès – a forthright spokesman for aristocracy
        the abbé Jean-Sifrein Maury – a somewhat inflexible representative of the Church
    The Monarchiens ("Monarchists", also called "Democratic Royalists") allied with Jacques Necker, inclined toward arranging France along lines similar to the British constitution model with a House of Lords and a House of Commons:
        Pierre Victor, baron Malouet
        Trophime-Gérard, marquis de Lally-Tollendal
        Stanislas Marie Adelaide, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre
        Jean Joseph Mounier
    "The Left" (also called "National Party") is still relatively united in support of revolution and democracy, representing mainly the interests of the middle classes but strongly sympathetic to the broader range of the common people.

In the early period, its most notable leaders include Honoré Mirabeau, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Jean-Sylvain Bailly (the first two of aristocratic background).

Mignet also points to Adrien Duport, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave, and Alexander Lameth as leaders among the "most extreme of this party" in this period, leaders in taking "a more advanced position than that which the revolution had [at this time] attained." (Mignet, François (1856). History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814. France. p. 61.)

Lameth's brother Charles also belongs to this group.

In regard to the proposition of legislation in this period, the Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, especially for a time, manages to bridge the differences between those who want a constitutional monarchy and those who wish to move towards more democratic, even republican directions.

Many proposals for redefining the French state are floated, particularly in the days after the remarkable sessions of August 4–5, 1789, and the abolition of feudalism.

For instance, the Marquis de Lafayette proposes a combination of the American and British systems, introducing a bicameral parliament, with the king having the suspensive veto power over the legislature, modeled to the authority recently vested in the President of the United States.

The main controversies early on had surrounded the issues of what level of power is to be granted to the king of France (i.e.: veto, suspensive or absolute) and what form will the legislature take (i.e.: unicameral or bicameral).

The Constitutional Committee proposes a bicameral legislature, but the motion is defeated on September 10, 1789 (849–89) in favor of one house; the next day, they propose an absolute veto, but are again defeated (673–325) in favor of a suspensive veto, which can be over-ridden by three consecutive legislatures.

Many proposals for redefining the French state are floated, particularly in the days after the remarkable sessions of August 4–5, 1789, and the abolition of feudalism.

For instance, the Marquis de Lafayette proposed a combination of the American and British systems, introducing a bicameral parliament, with the king having the suspensive veto power over the legislature, modeled to the authority then recently vested in the President of the United States.