Considerant also attended school in Metz and from there he went to Paris, where he set about his work. In June, 1832, the first number of the Phalanstére, organ of the Fourierists, appeared. The principal contributors to the paper were Considerant, Baudet-Dulary, Jules Lechevalier, Just Muiron, Amédee Paget, Pellarin, Renaud, Clarisse Vigoureaux, and Fourier. The followers of Fourier rejected the name Fourierists and accepted as an official title phalanstériens and the constituent parts were to be known as phalanstére or phalange. The paper soon brought discord, or rather the discord was inherent in the publication. Fourier thought that the whole movement should be advertised or established by an actual experiment, while the disciples thought that conferences, pamphlets, political actions, public speeches, and other means should be used to get the plan before the people. Then, too, besides Fourier, others led a mild revolt from the group which Considerant apparently controlled.
Fourier had an opportunity to see his scheme tested and his idea of propagation carried out when in 1833 Baudet-Dulary, deputy from the Seine-et-Oise, purchased five hundred hectares of land near the forest of Rambouillet and founded a society with a capital of 1,200,000 francs for the purpose of trying out the phalange idea. The subscription did not reach five hundred thousand francs and failure came quickly. The members could not agree, a sad situation which was repeated later at La Réunion, and the company broke up greatly in debt. The disappointment was great to Fourier; “he grew old quickly, his health declined, a bitter disquietude seized him,” and he died at the home of Mme. Vigoureaux, October, 1837. His death freed Considerant from certain restraint which the master had held over him, and permitted Considerant to develop the phalange idea along the line which he thought best to follow.[7]
Great activity of the school now became imperative. The Phalanstére was succeeded in 1835 by the Réforme Industrielle, and in the following year the Phalange made its appearance. On July 30, 1843, the journal announced further changes, and on August 1, there appeared the first number of the Démocratie Pacifique, journal des intérets des gouvernements et des peuples. At first the paper appeared three times weekly, later becoming a daily. This advance and transformation of the journal was made possible by a gift of four hundred thousand francs to the society by Arthur Young, an Englishman. Young, who travelled much in France, had been converted to Fourierism and made this contribution to advancement of the doctrine. The Démocratie Pacifique, in a sense, continued the great work of the St. Simonians, although the Fourierists abstained from all theorizing on the subject of religion or on minor changes in social institutions. The great objective was the organization of the collective life of man strictly on a scientific basis. In 1840 the school founded a society for the propagation of the theories held by Fourier; the capital amounted to seven hundred thousand francs. With the aid of this money, Considerant gathered all the manuscripts which Fourier had left and, combining them into one complete series, published and sold them. Various other materials were sent out over Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Belgium, and the United States, so that in 1847 in all these countries and in thirty-four cities in France, great banquets were held in celebration of the memory of Fourier.[8]
This was undoubtedly the high tide of Fourierism; in France, and everywhere the propaganda had been spread, people received and held on to it like fanatics. Fourier’s works went through several editions, his bust was sculptured and sold throughout the world; Considerant’s writings were in demand everywhere. Even the government of France feared the Démocratie Pacifique and sought to stem the tide of its influence.[9]
At the time of the publication of the first issue of the Démocratie Pacifique, the disciples of Fourier, thanks to the incessant propaganda of Considerant and his friends, already had a large number of converts, not only in Paris and other cities in France but in other parts of the world.[10] The paper, being most of the time published in secret, was housed in various places, having to be moved frequently with only a moment’s notice. However, the audacity and earnestness of Considerant and his group of young intellectuals kept it alive. Their enthusiasm is well illustrated by an incident told by Brisbane:
Those were happy days—days of faith and enthusiasm, when material obstacles were but straws to be blown to the winds before the vehemence of youth under the inspiration of a grand idea! I remember Considerant rushing into the office one day—a red fez cap, which I had given him to wear to a masked ball a few days before, on his head,—and throwing down upon the sofa a bag of money; “There,” he exclaimed, “is enough to go on with sometime yet! In twenty years we shall be in Constantinople.” Fourier’s idea was that Constantinople would ultimately become the capital of the globe.[11]
Nevertheless, such inspiration and hope could not continue under a despotic government such as ruled France. In 1848, a revolution having dethroned Louis Philippe and established, for the time being, a socialistic republic, Considerant was elected to the National Assembly. Three years later, after Napoleon had been elected president, Considerant, on account of his energetic protest against the French armies’ destruction of the Roman republic and because of his known connection with the Démocratie Pacifique, was condemned to be transported to some French island, but he was successful in escaping in disguise to Belgium where he continued to dwell until he came to the United States.[12]
The incident of the escape is vividly told by Brisbane, who says:
A great many caricatures of Napoleon had been posted up in the editorial rooms of the Democratie Pacifique and these were speedily torn down: I could see that the editors felt that the reign of despotism had come; no one could tell how long he himself would be safe, and every preparation was made to meet an attack on the office. Fourier’s manuscripts and other valuables were removed to a place of safety just in time. The attack came, and Considerant made his escape by disguising himself as a fisherman. Having shaved his long peculiarly-shaped mustache he was unrecognizable, even by his intimate friends, and he thus spent several days fishing under the bridges of the Seine. At length passports were obtained and he made his way to Belgium.[13]
Considerant’s relation to the whole Fourieristic movement is splendidly summed up in an article in the Allgemeine Zeitung, which states: