POTTER United Families

Louis and his old friend minister Tielemans went one step further
and came up with the idea of a patriotic confederation. Jean Francois
Tielemans, who was the one who originally envisioned the
confederation, was at that time a referendary in the Department of
Foreign Affairs at the Hague.
Louis had met Tielemans at the home of the publisher of his
biography of Scipio de Ricci, Tielemans at that time being a student
courting the publisher's daughter. Later on, Louis had approached
Van Gobbelschroy about him and gotten him a governmental
position.
Louis and Tielemans had been corresponding since 1827, and had
become the best of friends. Louis proposed the Patriotic
Confederation in the February issue of the Courrier des Pays-Bas.
The Confederation was to be what we today would simply regard as
a political party, however besides accepting donations from its
members, it would tax each one of them in order to create a bank
from which needy members might draw.
The idea was that timid men might be more willing to join the
opposition if they knew they would be guaranteed a kind of
"unemployment insurance". Minister Van Maanen did not let this
plan go unnoticed. On February 5, 1830, he wrote to King William
that this idea was definitely dangerous and subject to punishment
under the penal code.
The King agreed and Louis’ correspondence with Tielemans was
seized and he was put in solitary confinement.
Louis wrote that this upset him greatly because his child was very ill,
and he was no longer able to see his wife.
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