Proudhon - A Biography

THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
of the month began the signed articles in which, sustained by a
great indignation against those in power, and also by a feeling
that he represented the innermost inclinations o f the working
people, Proudhon stood forth to voice the conscience o f the
Revolution. He spoke with a clarity and a lack of fear that soon
took him and his paper to the forefront of public attention, for
there was no other journalist able or willing to wield so
assiduously and so unerringly the flail of criticism. Among the
171 papers that appeared in the first months o f the Revolution,
Le Representant du Peuple rapidly became distinguished for its
liveliness, and the Comtesse d’Agoult, who had no reason to
remember Proudhon with pleasure, could not restrain her
admiration when she discussed it in her history o f 1848. ‘O f all
the newspapers,’ she said, ‘the only one that was produced with
a quite extraordinary originality and talent was Le Representant
du Peuple ... From the depth of his retreat he [Proudhon] agitated
public opinion more strongly, more deeply than was done by
the men who mingled most with the multitudes.1 Le Representant
du Peuple took paths to which the Press was unaccustomed. It
ranged itself under no banner. Attacking with a haughty spirited­
ness the majority as well as the minority in the government,
chiding the clubs, the newspapers, the civil service, judging dis­
dainfully and rallying pitilessly the Republicans o f Le National,
the Jacobins, the Communists, each morning M. Proudhon
surprised his readers, who had difficulty in reconciling the tone
and manner o f his polemics against the revolutionaries with what
was known of his ultra-radical theories... [His] unexpected and
striking manner of speaking... excited the curiosity o f the
public to the highest degree.’ Gustave Lefrangais, the Com­
munard, declared that in 1848 Le Representant du Peuple was soon
more in demand than any other radical paper, and was eagerly
torn from the hands of the vendors as soon as it appeared on the
streets.
Indeed, there is no doubt that, while Proudhon’s journalistic
activities had little result in the sense o f establishing a Proudhonian
party or collecting a great many disciples (the first he did not
1 While it is true that Proudhon mingled little with the factions of the time,
his influence among the militant workers was considerable even before he
became a journalist, for Engels complained to Marx in January, 1848 , on the
eve o f the February Revolution, of the ‘Weitlingery and Proudhonistery’
which were rampant among the members of the Communist League in Paris.