A professor of law and brother of the agronomist Ion Ionescu de la Brad, Ionescu had played a marginal role the Moldavian and Wallachian Revolutions of 1848. In 1856–1858, he had also supported the unionist National Party, putting out the French edition of "Stéoa Dunării" from Brussels. His effort was partly financed by the Moldavian statesman Mihail Kogălniceanu, with whom Ionescu had an on and off friendship. Of the other Factionalists, Alecu Holban and Nicolae Voinov had a similar background: both had been arrested for unionist activity during the Moldavian election of 1858.