Louis Joseph Antoine De Potter (1786-1.859) was the gifted journalist who served as the catalyst of the successful Belgian revolution of 1830. He has been largely overlooked by students of the nineteenth century revolutionary era. Only one of De Potter's works is known to have been translated into English, his Vie de Scipion de Ricci. This paper has examined the development of De Potter's thought from his youth up to and including his participation in the Provisional Belgian Government of 1830. For clarity this study has been divided into four chapters.