Mr. Cabet reminds his followers that they should not seek the triumph of their ideas anywhere else but in debating and convincing the public.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 226 à 227 (in French)
La République française, March 1st, 1848

In this short article, Frédéric Bastiat is surprised and happy about the reaction of the Parisian press following the February revolution. He quotes three newspapers leaning towards communism that have all abandoned the “ardent and often brutal polemical debate of the previous times” (as have apparently all the other newspapers that were not quoted).  The Populaire calls for “respect of property”, the Fraternité develops a programme that is economically sound and the Atelier calls for a halt to “destroying machines”.

Etienne Cabet was one of the first communists and will even found Icaria in the United States, a community created in order for him to live his ideas. Today’s quote conveys the sincerity of those who, initially, believed that they could implement communism without imposing it on the population. What is interesting is to see how the February revolution created a sentiment within society that anything was possible, when the various factions substituted the willingness to build a new and democratic society for the political fights aiming at grabbing power at any cost. According to Frédéric Bastiat, even those who used to play on the nationalist prejudice to rally the people, had abandoned such a populist argument that would sadly be then regularly revived in all places and at all times.