Ferdinand Flocon (1 November 1800 – 15 March 1866) was a French journalist and politician who was one of the founding members of the Provisional Government at the start of the French Second Republic in 1848. He was Minister of Agriculture and Commerce for the Executive Commission of 1848. He opposed Louis Napoleon and was forced into exile in the Second French Empire (1852–1870). Early years Ferdinand Flocon was born in Paris on 1 November 1800. His father worked for the Chappe telegraph service. Flocon was committed to democracy and the republican movement in France. In the 1820s he was a member of the Carbonari. Under the July Monarchy (1830–1848) he belonged to republican secret societies. Flocon became a stenographer and parliamentary reporter for liberal newspapers. He was also a translator and novelist. He was an editor for le Courrier français. Flocon later worked for le Constitutionnel and then for La Tribune. Flocon joined a group of republicans who prepared to overthrow the monarchy when the king died. La Réforme, founded in 1843, became the organ of this group. It promoted a more assertive line than the moderate republican Le National. The first chief editor was Éléonore-Louis Godefroi Cavaignac. Flocon took over when Cavaignac died in 1845. He published the main articles of the abolitionist Victor Schœlcher in 1846–47. He was not a socialist, but believed in organized labor and the right to work. While he was editor La Réforme published articles from Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, Constantin Pecqueur, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Second Republic Flocon spoke on Robespierre's 1793 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen at the banquets held before the February Revolution of 1848. From his base at La Réforme, Flocon was active during the days of the revolution, organizing and speaking. He became a member of the provisional government after the revolution had succeeded. The positions of power in the Provisional Government were mainly given to moderate republicans, although Étienne Arago was made Minister of Posts and Marc Caussidière became Prefect of Police. Alexandre Martin ("Albert"), Louis Blanc and Flocon did not get ministerial portfolios, and so had little power. Flocon was able to assist Bakunin with funds for an attempt to stir up a Polish rebellion against the Russians. In April 1848 Flocon was elected a representative for the Seine department in the Constituent Assembly. In this election, only 285 out