Edmond Potonié-Pierre
# Edmond Potonié-Pierre

Edmond Potonié (1829–1902), commonly known as Edmond Potonié-Pierre, was a French $pacifist.^{:31}$

## Pacifist activism

During the 1850s, Potonié-Pierre was inspired by Richard Cobden's Anti-Corn Law League and aimed to do similar in $France.^{:31}$ He learnt German and Italian while travelling around Europe, and developed the liberal economics of his father to make it more socialistic and $cooperative.^{:31}$

During the 1860s, he associated with notable thinkers like John Stuart Mill, Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, Frédéric Passy, and Rudolf $Virchow.^{:31}$ After receiving financial support from Henry Richard, Potonié-Pierre founded the Ligue du Bien Public (Public Good $League).^{:31}$ The Ligue attacked monopolies and high levels of taxation while advocating individual freedom and organised world $peace.^{:31–2}$

Despite earlier support, Potonié-Pierre disagreed with Passy over his Ligue Internationale et Permanente de la Paix (International and Permanent League of Peace) due to Passy's legalistic approach towards peace and Potonié-Pierre's approach of social $justice.^{:34}$

In 1868, the papers detailing his international contacts were seized by the French police, and their status remains $unknown.^{:32}$

## Family

Potonié-Pierre's father was an entrepreneur, a friend of the author Victor $Hugo.^{:31}$

Potonié-Pierre was the partner of Eugénie Potonié-Pierre (née Pierre), the French feminist. They refused to marry, but lived together and took each other's $names.^{:228}$ They worked together to free exiled communards, bring women the vote, campaign against poverty, and cut military $expenses.^{:58}$

## Selected works

* Potonié-Pierre, Edmond (1877). La guerre à la guerre (in French).
* Un Peu Plus Tard. $1893.^{:4}$
* Historique du mouvement pacifiste (in French). impr. de Steiger. 1899.
