The way to power

Even if it started gradually, Lamartine’s opposition to the government of King Louis-Philippe was obvious from 1842 onward, date when he founded a newspaper in Macon, Le Bien Public, which was published twice a week. The creation of a press organ was for him the means to broadcast his ideas while addressing the population directly. His political activity pushed him to distance himself from poetry to favor other forms of writings : through The History of the Girondins which was published  in 1847, he pondered upon the French Revolution and democracy. The publication was a real success and confirmed the popularity of its author.

As the parliament refused to reform the electoral system broadening its electorate, the opposition organized in 1847 a series of banquets in the whole of France. During the one in Macon, Lamartine pronounced a speech announcing the upcoming revolution. The riots and barricades that were formed in many neighborhoods of Paris on 23 and 24 February 1848 led to the abdication of the King and to the creation of a temporary government that Lamartine belonged to. In front of a crowd gathered at the Town Hall, the latter declared the advent of the Republic on 24 February 1848.