On April 5, 1848, the Institut Canadien de Montréal founded the "Association des établissements canadiens des townships", and Bourget was made chair of the central committee. The vice-chair was Louis-Joseph Papineau, a noted anti-clericist whom Bourget had publicly condemned during the 1837 rebellions, and in September 1848 Bourget found himself unable to work productively with the committee and resigned.