THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLEbefore reason. The Enlightenment proclaimed equality before the
law. The fourth revolution, that o f the nineteenth century, was
based on the right to work, its motto was equality before fortune,
and its goal was fraternity. ‘Today work is at the direction of
capital. The Revolution tells you to change that order. It is for
capital to recognise the preponderance o f work, for the instrument
to put itself at the disposition o f the workers.’
From revolutionary principles, Proudhon proceeded to prac
tice. The Revolution must be built on a foundation o f economic
change. The people must cling to that truth, and, whatever the
government might do or fail to do, must see that it was carried to
fruition. ‘The people alone, operating on itself without intermedi
aries, can complete the economic revolution whose foundation was
laid in February. The people alone can save civilisation and make
humanity advance.’ Unfortunately, he was to see in the very near
future that even the people were not so anxious as he hoped to
play the part that history tried to assign them.
The disagreement with the Mountain was widened into final
irreconcilability by the greater dispute which arose over the Presi
dential elections o f the ioth December. Cavaignac was standing
as candidate for the right republicans, Ledru-Rollin for the Moun
tain, while in the background loomed the seedy figure of Louis
Napoleon, making a diffuse and ambiguous appeal to the discon
tent o f the most diverse interests, and supported by a sinister
combination o f Bonapartists, Orleanists, Legitimists, Right Re
publicans, clericals and reactionaries o f all descriptions.
Proudhon denounced the dictatorial ambitions of Louis Napo
leon, but he refused to be governed by the Mountain’s decision
to present Ledru-Rollin as an official candidate, since he regarded
him as exemplifying the division o f powers between executive and
legislative, to which he was opposed. After some hesitation, he
eventually gave his support to the socialist nominee, Raspail, still
imprisoned at Vincennes. On the 8th November he issued a
manifesto in which he and his friends recommended Raspail as
‘the democratic socialist... the implacable denouncer o f political
mystifications... We accept Raspail as a living protest against the
principle o f the Presidency, we present him to the suffrage of the
people, not because he is or believes himself possible, but because
he is impossible, because with him the Presidency, image of
royalty, would be impossible.’