POTTER United Families

The Union pamphlet, was of such a high journalistic quality, in the
opinion of a small part of the population which had access to
newspapers, that it would become an example of "freedom of
expression" for other oppressed populations. It sounded like a
philosophical statement of what both liberal Catholicism and open
minded liberalism could become.
As surely as the writings of the great editor Félicité de la Mennais - in
his newspaper “L’Avenir” - or Stendhal must have given Louis
confidence in the ability of Catholicism to absorb new ideas, this
pamphlet must have given Lamennais hope that modern Catholicism
could still flourish in a secular state.
It would have been almost a certainty that someone, perhaps Felix de
Merode, would have sent Lamennais a copy soon after its appearance.
The first edition of Louis' Union des catholiques et des libéraux was
sold out in fifteen days. In the second edition, which appeared in the
first days of July, Louis added some notes refuting some objections
Liberals had made.
Both the Liberal and Catholic press had praised the pamphlet
however, and Louis wrote: “Never was a success so prompt and flattering;
Happened what always happens when one gathers the ideas of all others: all
readers adopted my writing and I was blessed with support, including from most
opposing newspapers”.
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