I am too well aware of the human’s heart to hold grudge against anybody.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works volume I, page 88 (in French)
Letter dated September 7th, 1848

In this letter, Frédéric Bastiat is referring to his resignation from the local council of the Landes where he was seating since 1833. A quick search on wikipedia does not allow me to assess if this resignation was effective because his successor appears only after 1851. It is not very important though. The situation in which this resignation occurs is the vote about the parliamentary immunity of Louis Blanc who had been accused of fomenting the riots of May 15th, 1848. Although Bastiat was a strong opponent (it is clear in various pieces of the collected works) of Louis Blanc (who was a major political figure of the socialists), he refused to vote in favour of suspending the parliamentary immunity because he considered this was a witch hunt. The intellectual probity of Frédéric Bastiat here is admirable, when he refuses to condemn a man for his ideas and wants to stick to the facts.

This integrity has then led to local political attacks that made him tend his resignation (although not from parliament because he believed that he was representing the people beyond his district of Mugron there). Today’s quote reflects the state of mind in which he finds himself – always looking for truth while respecting his opponents despite their base actions.