The poor asks for more than what is just while the rich does not even accept to grant what is just.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 399 to 401 (in French)
April 29th, 1849

In this letter, Frédéric Bastiat announces that he believes he will not be reelected in parliament because of his search for justice rather than a search for a partisan standing that would allow him to gather a majority vote.

As revealed in today’s quote indeed, justice is interesting to nobody in a context of class struggle. Those who address the poor promise the moon while those who address the rich advocate the status quo. It is easier to promise the poor to enrich them through the plunder of the rich than through economic growth, which is less expeditious. Similarly, it is easier to guarantee to the rich that they remain so by granting privileges rather than in exchange for an ongoing success of their enterprises while facing a legitimate competition. In general, politicians will attempt to seduce the ones or the others rather than disappoint them by choosing the path of justice, which cannot offer any guarantee in terms of outcome, for neither of them. Frédéric Bastiat who always voted according to his beliefs and in the view of promoting justice therefore found himself stuck on the fence, unable to lean towards one side or the other in order to gather a partisan majority.