* A- ,-- iſ f .”...
zº, a . ~ : : -, r-,
Tºlts -
|-u- ~~
º
& $ºº
º º
º
º
3. 2
iº
...?.
...?.3%

tº: #4+º
* * *
sº *ś.
i T.&# * r *... j.
** & ºt º º
... " . *.
x- *:::::::: *: -- - - - # ºº::
*:', º.º.º.º. - - -- º *...*, *. --
.# *. sº * º§§§ #3 --- §: - **. *..., n - * º º ..º. - º: tº: - #sº
*:::: :* ... *...*.*.*.*. +: *** *. * dº *, * * * * * *:: - * * * *** ..º.” . §: * *
... º. ſº ºf *º, * £" .* ... **, *, 5'', º, . - ..º.º. 3. * * * *.*.*.*.*.
º; º; - *...* Fº'. "
* * **** - -
** *.* ºn .
* ~ : * ...' . . . . . º. ** º, W.
* . . . ." i * 14 §§ ~ * ºr -- !.
:*...* ºrº
* - * ...# . +. - '#'s sº * * **: ;
* ºº:: ..º.º.º.º.º. º.º.º.
rx * * * * * * * ...tº º'-. - * ,
- * . . "... }, . Yºº J. : *
a ſº
* … ºdºrº
- tºº º r;
- **, *.
-' * * § 2.x tº
* : * } #! +,
- .*.*, ** * . .” - - -
-- º' tºº... º. ºf *"... ". . " +... : :-
* , º, **ś *...* , º, ºr
* * * * *, +, º - º: - º' g . . .” I º ', i.
Pºlº, , ºº e " *** ---- ... ', ºr: º, ...
. . *:- r. º º * º: rt - ... ii.º. - ***
• * ~ * *...*** - - - -*.* ~ iſ. "... ººſ."º , , th . ºft”. J.
- - tº º f : fº.º. º.º.º. 3 F. : : . . . . Jr., T. * gº
- . . . - - # * * : ...". - -- º = ~ : -
sk. <- . - - - - - --
“. . . . .. . - - § {}. * * *
*::::: . . . . . . . . sº ** - i i 4
wi * * * -º-ºr - -
’’’ ‘‘.…?'...sº wºº ºw.
... .". -rºl &. ºxº }
* : xº
# " ... "
**.*.*.*::
| "...ſº
rt a } ...tº
§:
. . . * *...; ºr
* **, *, * * º
* * * * ---
º * , *
; :43, ... 'rºn f *.
* * **a* Hººs
º c * : * : * * * , ,
- - - * * * - * * - ':
- **: :,” “. ...; + . , , "º. " * *
.*, *, *. , sº # . . - *]
--- * ... * * * * . . . .” #
... . *** * * * ---
*...* 3.
jºšº.
3. * *...****, º
** •.
#º
* * ,
… ... .º.
+ F-º- - *L - -
, is . 3*.*.* tº
... .º. *:::::::::::$$.”: ; ; ; sº
. … Ti • ** . . . . . "... ºr
* . ." § º: º: * x - - - * º - ‘....” :*: m º: is:#.
***:: *, *, *. i # ...:"º. . '*.*.* . . º: º
*: - ? - &= fºr k **-*. --
sº
- lº
..., x *...***
-** … . sº
* * *, * , r **... ." - * . º. *…*. “g
, ‘3 rº- *-* * * : *. *... --> — = ** hº . .
* - -
§ - iº- ~ *. 13 - * * * *. r ** - -
*.
** tº jº
* * * *.*.*, *, wk.
- - ". . * * **
sº * , -
i...º.º. º.
3, “...º.º. º.º.
jºr fº
-1}: • , .,, . " .
**.*, ... ... ". . . .
* * *
* : " ' ". . . . º.º. . . . "
- - * * * sº -
* * *
*: * ***...
.* 3. *
* -
** **- : * .
... • , , sº.
*. ' ', --
- *. -
* . ." s: º, ºr • * * * , 1 * * :
"...º.º.º. #-ººº…&#$.”
** -- *** ... " ; : tº: * - -
jº I. 3
- **.
º º'",
tº y - . .3 --- º $º,
à. *...*.*.* º - & §ºº .#
* .*.*.*.*.** * * * ** "º. 1 :*::
" * : * * iº, *...* ** .." . * * * * #. -ºr H ;"
* *** * … * --- , , , ºr *..." ... ". .
º, ... º.º. 3. --
“. …; ºf - :*. tº...", - -
-> * * ,
• * - - ', **.
- Wºº. . ºr
... 2-ºxºx.: ". s: “ . . . .3' ºf
- - - * : * * ***, ... s. *
* r * * *.*, * * , - m 4 ; : * * * * ſ:
º" -- ...º. ** Sº... : ić. -
- - pº - L3 a sū -
• gºº: **** f *s ºr º:
* : * *
*
i.
*r
, , º.
"#, "...
* * *
p †:
*::::
,'. 2 *.
+ * : ***.
;''...? ... º.º.º.
…*.**"… .
*****"...sº .
*...* .
* †
...tº "s
* ,
, ſº
* *
i th ºk r
* s º- --
--- * * * -
*"...º.º.º. . * * * *
* , i-º,+Wºrlºr is -:
**.*.*.
*
- * i ir
**- :: *,* º:
ºº::::::::::::
• * * * * * * * *...*.*, *.
* h ***** *" §: * 3.
- * * * *::::: * .*...*.*, *. ºr. *rſ
** : *…*.*, *: --
* . * - ºr ,
º:, . .
º!
:...?
* * *…*
##:…
...:
*::::::::
...' ... "
: **.*.
* , , -ī-rº
#
* ...…" .
. . e.”... "
*** {}, ...ºf
:*:: *** -:
-- , ºt,
*...*.*, *.
*, J.º.º.
;
: :
* r * ºw",
º : ºº sº.
...º.º.
º
_*
* * * ºg º: -:
º, , º
sº... tº º:
.*.*.*.* § sº
rºl *.
*śs
tº
-*'.
3.º.
* * *
sº
.**
**
• **wº §
'º.ºr' A 3: º * r
.#. #:§
: :
§§§ sº
º:
A
sk
i tº ºr
f'_º ". .
- º $º ſº...º. º:
- §º . º *. ... º.º. ſº - - -
- * ºn , - 'i º º: # -- º -- " - ...- - -º-º- º ºr :--ºº: *
*** r ſº jºi: Sºº' --> * • - ---
ºš º - º * ... .
*ē, §§ º
*º-
º º sº - º º -
º: º

AS TO ITS
PRINCIPLES AND AIMS,
BY DONALD C. M.L.AREN,
CALEDONIA, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, N. Y.
ROCHESTER :
ED BY CANFIELD & WARREN.
1
PRINT
84 4.





g
Af º º * * * / *º º § (f º º
* -2J -/732
Four IERISM, through the lectures and exertions of its agents,
having excited some attention and gained some favor in my
immediate vicinity, I was led to examine it. I examined the
inside and the outside of it, its nature and features, as delineated
in books issued to recommend and promote it. Finding it to be
what it is, and so different in many respects from what it pro-
fesses to be, I felt myself bound in duty to those to whom I am
bound by citizenship and by other endearing ties, to raise my
voice against Fourier Association. This I did in an address
delivered to my fellow-citizens a few weeks ago. Circumstan-
ces which I need not here mention, growing out of the delivery
of that address, and my own inclinations of regard for the public
good, induced me to prepare the address for publication. It is
now before the public, to go whithersoever the public voice may
send it, in defence of civilization, with its bow of truth in its
hand and nothing but truth in its quiver.
THE AUTHoR.






sº


FOURIERISM EXPOSED.
I wish it to be distinctly understood, that in this expose of Fourier
Association, I say nothing of those who may be favorably disposed to
it from a cursory or partial examination of its pretensions, except to
advise them not to allow themselves to be charmed by melodious
sounds and bright airy forms, to plunge into an abyss of which they
do not see the breadth or bottom. Timely caution often prevents dis-
asters which no subsequent regrets could mitigate. This advice is
only to a small extent necessary; for no intelligent person, no one
who has any thing to lose or gain, can listen to the boastful profes.
sions of the Fourier reform, to its contemptuous criminations, and
to its levity, without feeling suspicions, that, under all its seeming
fairness, there is something false and wrong in it. These suspicions
will prompt to inquiry, and inquiry, rightly directed, must issue in
the conviction, that this whole scheme will, on trial, be found as de-
lusive to the hopes of those who may trust in it, as it is now false in
the promises which it makes to them. We have, therefore, no fears
of its prevailing. We have that confidence in the enlightening influ-
ence of civilization on the minds of men, we have that confideněe in
the sober intelligence and wise sagacity of those who have lived un-
der its influence in this republic, that we are sure very few, only one
here and one there, will be found Willing to exchange our present so-
cial system, its realized benefits, its proven truths, its personal liberty,
its noble individualism, its social usages, its family home, its holy
religion, its civil institutions, its laws, its government—for what?—
for what is, by its own confession, at present, nothing but theory, an
untried, discordant, revolutionary theory ! Of this theory I shall
speak freely; and from its own published avowals, I will show its
reckless slanders, its arrogant pretensions, the licentiousness of its
principles, its hypocrisy, and its sinister aims. It comes to us with
many winning smiles and soft words. I will show that, out of its
own mouth it should be condemned.
6
I. Observe the GLARING MISREPRESENTATIONS of the existing social
system which it assails.
The advocates of Fourier association, “in condemning civilization,”
plainly define what they mean, thus: “By civilization, we understand
the social system in which we live, as it now is, with all its defects
and the little good it may possess.” It is, then, “the social system
of this country and Europe,” of which these men are the wrathful
antagonists. We affirm, therefore, that it is misrepresentation and
miserable reasoning, to set forth that our civilization is responsible for
any amount of evils which may be heaped up beyond its limits, in
regions of the earth which have never felt its ameliorating influences.
As well might it be brought, as an argument against our government,
that all civil affairs are in a bad condition in the island of Madagas.
car. Why, then, do these men, in their restless search for railing
accusations against our social system, go over all the earth, to the
condition of its entire population, even to China and to the banks of
the Ganges 7 Let the civilization of Christendom advance as it is
advancing, and let it act as it has acted in its benign tendency wherever
it has gained sway, and it will give increased proof of its goodness,
by its works; for it has, in its resources, the means and elements of
elevating the social state and individual character even of barbarians
and savages; and this, Fourierism, by its own admission, cannot do.
It is a common practice for the Fourier declaimers that are Strag-
gling through the country, in imitation of their stationary oracle at
New-York, in decrying civilization, to impute to it all the evils of
every kind in human society and individual conduct, that may be
found within its bounds, as if it were the cause of evils which, from
its very nature, it opposes and counteracts. Such detraction is not
reasoning: it is nothing but the expedient of a weak mind or of a bad
heart, trying to stand when it staggers under the burden of a bad
cause. Civilization has too much sense and experience to lay claim
to perfectionism; still, it comprises within itself, causes, institutions,
and doctrines, which have been and still are operating on the opinions,
on the energies and activities of men, separately and collectively, to
the production of a vast amount and variety of advantages, in their
social condition and in the elevation and enlargement of their minds,
It was under the operation of these causes, it was by this social sys.
tem, that European nations rose progressively from a state of barba-
* Social Destiny of Man, by Albert Brisbane, p. 11. This book wo shall in our
quotations designato by Dest. . . *
7
rism to the distinguished station which they now hold. Civilization,
after having done all this, is justly entitled to some respect from its
puny foe, which can, it is true, boast loud enough, but has, in fact,
done nothing for the good of human society. . . .
Of the defects, the dark spots, in society, within the pale of civili.
zation, some of these are the remains of evils once general and enor.
mous, but which are now mitigated and limited by the advancement
of civilization. Slavery exists to some extent, governmental tyranny,
ecclesiastical hierarchy, landed aristocracy, hereditary nobility, have
not come to an end; but all these and everything else in high places,
injurious to mankind, the equitable spirit of modern civilization oppo.
ses, and in its progress will subvert. There are other evils in society
and in individuals, which may continue more or less in different places
and persons, although civilization provides fit and practicable reme.
dies for their removal. The continuance of these evils furnishes no
evidence that the system itself is defective. It only evinces that there
is something wrong in human conduct, and something wrong in human
nature. Let the system be carried out, let it be applied, and it will
convey its benefits to the extent of its faithful application. For in-
stance, in our own country some persons are uneducated; still, they
have the means of education open and accessible to all, . So, also,
many crimes are committed in civilized countries. But who is to
blame for that Not civilization, which, by its righteous laws, pro-
hibits these crimes, and discourages those who may have criminal
hankerings by pointing them to “its courts of justice, its jails and
penitentiaries,” ugly-looking contrivances which the social theorists do
not like; and which, in their view, render the present system “mon-
strously defective.” They promise that nothing of the kind shall
have place in their new social world, to spoil its beauty or mar their
own safety and comfort. One of the chief benefits which they hold.
out to the anticipation of their disciples, is this: “ avoidance of bai-
liffs, courts of justice, prisons, and scaffolds.” (Des, p. 474.) They
sare, however, under a great mistake, to argue that this desirable
avoidance can only be attained in the combined order; for this is a
privilege which civilization secures to all who obey the laws. It is
withheld only from the lawless and disobedient, who of course cannot
always or easily effect “the avoidance” at which they aim. To
them, the new scheme must consequently be very pleasing and won-
derfully “attractive.” -
The Fourier leaders send forth many vehement denunciations
8
against civilization, on the ground of its alleged neglect and misman-
agement of labor and industry. It is this that makes their wrath smoke
against civilization, and that stirs up their philanthropic pities into
such a foam in behalf of the industrial classes. It is in this, they
pretend, that they have grappled civilization firmly by the throat, and
that all its future struggles will only be its death-struggles in their
grasp. We have no fears of any such catastrophe; for civilization is
strong. And, after all, this may only be a sham fight on the part of
the assailants, got up for playing some deep game, for some covert
purpose, which the history of party politics may hereafter divulge.
Sham ſight as it may be, many a bitter imprecation is uttered against
our social system, for not attending more to the working classes, and
especially to the interests and affairs of those who are employed in
agriculture. In reference to the latter class, our system is heavily
blamed for allowing them to live separately in their own houses, ev-
ery family by itself—for allowing every man and family to manage
their business in their own way—and for allowing the land to be divi-.
ded into such small portions, that every family may have a portion.
All this our civilization does, to its praise; and in this way a large
amount of work has been done, well done, and well requited. Look
abroad over the face of our country, and see the proof of it. Imbued.
as our civilization is, by the kindness of Christianity, it attaches no
disgrace to poverty. There are some things which it will not do. If
men, destitute of property, will not enter some lawful occupation for
a livelihood, it will not take them and name them men of “skill,” and
feed them from the public bounty, giving them three-twefths or two-
twelfths of the profits of other men's labor. Another thing it will not.
do. It will not favor any combinations of capital and skill, having
for their end a monopoly of the soil, and the subjection of agricultural
labor into relations of dependency and vassalage to capital. But we
need not say more on this point; for the vituperative assailants them.
selves, when they get out of the breeze which conveys their words to
the popular ear, can speak very becomingly of civilization as the friend
of labor and patron of industry. Yes, after all they have said to the
contrary, they maintain that “civilization is the true nurse of indus.
try.” (Dest. 277.) This is our thought about it, precisely. And
we have another thought, which we are sure we have in common with
multitudes in the country; and it is, that American industry, nursed
and honored as it has been by civilization, will never dishonor itself
by forsaking that true and faithful nurse. No! ye men of the Tri.
bune ye may coax or ye may scold, ye may smile or ye may frown;
9
but American industry, the sprightly, robust nurseling of civilization
in this Western World, will never be decoyed from the fostering care
of its fond and generous nurse, into the skinny arms, to be hugged to
death on the bony bosom and dry breasts of a dissolute, silly, imported,
pauper hag. American industry will never be so duped and so ru.
ined. º
The value, the beneficence, the equity of our present civilization,
are evident from the fact, that the Bible, the pure and purifying Chris.
tianity of the Bible, is its vital, most 9perative and efficient element
in counteracting whatever tends to degrade, deceive, or injure men.
This cannot be denied. Who can glance his eye over our various
public institutions, who can mingle in Society, who can enter our house.
holds or our churches, who can tarry seven days in our land, and not
discern that Christianity is intimately and beneficently interwoven with
our civilization ? We know it may be perverted ; but it has with its
own hand, by its own-unerring standard, drawn a visible line of de-
markation between its own native tendencies and all perversions origi-
nating in the craft or perverseness of men. We know the name of
Christianity may be assumed and its substance rejected ; but it does
itself furnish a sure test for detecting the counterfeit. We know, also,
that it has not that influence on all, which it claims and merits; still,
there are those, and we hope not a few, who sincerely and habitually
conform their conduct to the moral precepts of the Christian religion,
and have imbibed into their hearts its spirit, its holiness, and its hopes.
There are those who discard its morality and contemn its salvation,
who live serving diverse lusts and pleasures, and die in their sins.
“But is there no balm in Gilead 2 is there no physician there?” That
remedy has been extensively applied, and found salutary. If men do
not apply it, they of course will not realize its benefits.
Fourier declamation is very scant of common sense, in arguing that
civilization is bad, from the existence of evils to which it is opposed,
and for the removal of which it has provided. Such reasoning may
prove that spring-water is bad, because some people do not make a
right use of it, by keeping themselves clean ; or that the light of heaven
is bad, because some men “love darkness rather than light.”
There is scarcely any measure to the blame which the Fourier re-
formers heap on civilization. Their object seems to be to make out
a long indictment with many and oft-repeated specifications, without
any concern about their truth or falsehood. They accordingly find
what they reckon the defects of civilization, in every knot, and crook,
and comfortless corner in the whole creation, in every hurricane and
tornado, in every barren mountain, in every desert, in every marsh and
O
sº
10
moor on the face of the globe. These men see nothing in the scorch.
ing heat of the tropics, but what is a burning shame to civilization;
and nothing but a vast monument of its cold indifference to the interésts
of agriculture, in the vast masses of ice which it suffers to accumu-
late in the polar regions. Those useless icy mountains that now jut
their bald heads into empty space, encumbering the polar soil, and
sending their chilling frosts into all the regions around, to the disgrace
of civilization and to the injury of agriculture, should have been thaw-
ed away and the land reclaimed ; and for this purpose half the heat of
the torrid zone should have been transferred to the poles, and its place
supplied by polar cold, which would then be usefully employed in
cooling the fervors of a tropical sun. For all these great achievments
civilization must confess itself powerless. It cannot even take off the
snowy cap from the head of old Mont Blanc. It cannot cover one
“bleak and barren mountain” with fertility and verdure. It cannot
plug up an ordinary volcano, nor lull an earthquake, nor stop a tor.
nado, nor check a common thunder-storm. It cannot make all the
zones temperate, nor establish “an equilibrium of climate.” In de-
spite of all that civilization can do, the north will stay to the north,
and the south will obstinately remain to the south. But Fourierism
engages that, whenever it shall get fairly astride the earth, it will set
every thing to rights, and make all nature move as it bids. (Dest. 82.)
We will not try the patience of our readers, by inserting here all
that these calumniators of civilization have affirmed, in their misjudg-
ment and contempt of civilized society. Besides, we have not room
for it. But take a few samples. They affirm of the ciyilized com-
munity or of civilized people, that “seven-eighths of them are reduced
to a state of starvation and suffering;” (Dest. 226.) that “nine-tenths
of them must necessarily be deprived of the goods of this world.”
(Dest. 15.) They affirm that “there is an absence of every thing like
order, economy, and foresight in our present system of society;” (Dest.
75.) that “it is a monstrous assemblage of all duplicities.” (Dest.
195.) They see nothing in civil society, but indigence, fraud, oppres.
sion, waste, misery, ignorance, selfishness, and such like. All, in
their view, is wrong, useless, repulsive, and injurious. They are
resolutely determined not to be pleased with any thing ; for at one
time they complain that there is too much rivalry, and then again that
there is no rivalry at all. At one time all is sameness and dull mo-
notony, then again they are horror-struck at the diversities and inco-
herent varieties that are met with in the civilized order. In dealing
out their lavish and indiscriminate abuse, every class of men, what-
11
ever be their station, whatever the profession or business they follow,
must receive its share. “Each class desiros, from interest, the mis-
fortune of other classes, and places, every where, individual interest
in conflict with public good. The lawyer wishes litigations, particu-
larly among the rich. The physician desires sickness. The soldier
wants war, which will carry off half his comrades to secure him pro-
motion. The undertaker wants burials. Monopolists and forestallers
want famines to increase the price of grain. The architect, the car-
penter, the mason, want conflagrations that will burn down a hundred.
houses, to give activity to their branches of business.” (Dest. 85.) In
what..estimation do these arrogant reformers hold those who are em-
ployed in labor—a class in our country numerous, independent, and
.far from being uneducated or unmannerly 2 This is the class which
they designate “the mass,” a name which should be utterly repudia-
ted, as every way improper in its application to one class of citizens
in distinction from another; and this is the class which they regard
as being now in a state of mitigated slavery. “The changes which
have taken place in the condition of the laboring classes, have only
been so many varieties of one general tyranny. At one epoch we see
them slaves; at another, serfs; and now they are the working clas-
ses.” (Dest. 105.) “Industrial servitude is the lot of the laboring
classes of the fourth society, called civilization.” (Dest. 111.) And
with respect to this country, it is affirmed that “labor” here “is based
on constraint, and forms a perfect system of industrial servitude.”
Again: what think ye of the following 2 “Civilized labor is degra-
ding, being exercised by persons who, for the most part, are coarse
and vulgar in their manners.” (Dest. 299.) “Agriculture is pursued
by isolated families, mostly without the necessary capital, or credit,
or the proper implements, and who only vie with each other in igno.
rant and injudicious use and application of the soil.” (Dest, 5.) Is
this a true picture of the population that covers our land and clusters
in our villages 2 Are our farmers and mechanics ignorant, degraded,
vulgar, and enslaved, as the above delineation represents 2 No; and
the haughty cabal who make the Tribune their platform, may yet find
on their platform itself, the insult hurled back by indignant freemen.
We have only given specimens of the contemptuous calumnies which
the adversaries of civilization have disgorged in their publications.
And yet, after all, they allow that “civilization is the most advanced
society that has as yet existed on the globe.” (Dest. 285.) Yes! even
in this young republic, it is sufficiently advanced in intelligence to
discern that Fourierism, in the shape it has assumed on this side of the
12
Atlantic, is an ATHEISTICAL inanity, to which party craft, for its own
ends, has given some show of substance and all the power it can have
to do mischief. s -
II. It is the avowed purpose of Fourier Association, to SUBVERT THE
WHOLE FABRIC AND FOUNDATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY.
If any reliance is to be placed in the unequivocal avowals of the
persons most deeply implicated in the furtherance of association, of the
persons who constitute its self-elected central power, they have laid a
plot for the downfal of the civil government under which we live; and
for the substitution, in its place, of another and different form of gov-
ernment. Not only is the plot laid, but incipient steps are taken, overt
acts are done, agents are employed, and associations are formed, to
carry this plot into execution. Whatever may be their secret designs,
they pretend not to be actuated by hostility to any particular admin-
istration; but they set themselves in array and direct the front of ev-
ery Phalanx which they enlist, against the government itself, as it is
based on the Constitution. The plan of government which they intend
to found, is the reverse of that which now exists. (Er.* 71.) It is to be
a government without “control,” without “coercive measures,” without
“judges or courts of justice,” “without laws or regulations of human
invention,” (Dest. 189.) though not without “ direct taxation.” What
kind of a government it would be in reality, shall be shown in the
sequel. '
These daring traitors make no concealment of their intention to
abolish the civil law, whenever they shall have power to do so. “Until
association is fully established, the civil law of the land will remain
in force.” (Ez. 72.) As soon as they shall have gained power to use
without restraint their besom of destruction, the whole civil law and
all institutions resting on it, shall be swept away. Yea, and in the
mean time, worthy and patriotic citizens, instigated by the wiles of
craftiness and moved by no motives in common with their deceivers,
may unite in humbly petitioning the Legislature to make Fourier as-
sociations chartered institutions ! Will the present Legislature, will
any future Legislature, listen to such petitions, and legalize a system
which has for its object the overthrow of civil law and of public order?
Will the authorised guardians of our rights, ever become so reckless
of the high trust committed to them, especially when they may see the
traitorous gang skulking in the dusky distance, who have sworn in
conclave on their black and fireless altars, that the Legislature itself
shall become an institution without power, and, at last, a ruin without
remains 7
* A Concise Exposition of the Doctrine of Association, by Albert Brisbane.
13
In their hands, the Fourier theory modestly aims to make its own
irresponsible sway supreme and universal throughout the land. This
creature of corruption, which first began to crawl, lizard-like, in the
filthiest dregs of Parisian infidelity, and which has never since left
any thing, but its slime and venom, in the track of its crawling—this
odious creature of corruption, nourished and trained in the hands of
its present owners, now rears its head, and stretches out its length, and
offers to encircle in its scaly glistening folds all the business, industry,
and education of the country—to crush, to besmear, and devour? Oh
no; if we are to believe its owners, who assure us, that, notwithstanding
its ugly looks and fierce eye, it is a kind creature, and a wise creature,
and able to adjust, into perfect harmony, into “unity,” and to manage
with easy efficiency, all that is now done so imperfectly and “incohe-
rently,” as they say, by farmers and mechanics, merchants, teachers,
doctors, lawyers, clergymen, rulers, judges, and such like. Yes, it
blandly promises to manage, simply by the power of attraction, all
this endless variety and immense amount of interests and occupations,
without any difficulty, error, or weariness, so as to diſfuse wealth,
health, liberty, and perfect happiness to all, making an end of indi-
gence, crime, sickness, and discontent, and every thing of this kind.
Yes, this wonder-working, this ill-looking monster promises to do all
this, and more, if it may be permitted to entwine itself around all
things and around all persons, gathered together for its convenience in
associations; and when it shall have lovingly coiled itself around all
things and all persons in its dear associations; when it shall have
drawn its cold folds close enough to make all things safe and all per-
sons passive; then, when it shall have achieved this tight “social
unity,” this compact “social harmony,” it may show its monstrous
energies in a general crush of all which it has enfolded. No, no,
say its hopeful votaries; when it shall thus have fastened itself around
all things, and drawn all things, now “ conflicting and incoherent” into
unity in the “true social system,” then it will make all men happy
in one “universal harmony” by the power of its passional attractions;
then it will set the whole earth to rights. By a mere lash of its tail, it
will correct the present “derangement of climate,” and teach it to be
steady and temperate; the largest volcano in the earth, brim full of
lava, will only be as a pot of porridge for its supper; it has only to
raise its majestic head, and tornadoes and earthquakes will at once
flee away, in a fright, to old chaos; it can easily snuff up into its nos.
trils the torridity that now troubles the Equator, and sneeze it out
14
towards the Poles, and thus make the climate, yery comfortable-for
associations and agriculture in those delightful regions of the earth
which civilization has hitherto so shamefully neglected. We cannot
think that these high praises and promised wonders will reconcile
civilized beings to this horrid monster, or awaken any rational hope
that any good can proceed from its powers or properties. Its lauded
attractions may prove, in experience, strong contractions, and its com.
binations tend to terrible compressions. Those who are now showing
it off in its new skin and manifold curious wrigglings, would do better
to take it with their Phalanx to the other side of the world, and try its
melting powers and its agricultural skill in the regions which the late
exploring expedition glanced at. The present administration may fit
out a vessel for the purpose. All our great statesmen, being-civilized
men, will at once approve the measure. SThat civilized man, the acute
Martin Van Buren, will, no doubt, now or soon, heartily facilitate the
indertaking; and there is as little doubt, that the sagacious Henry
Clay, civilized man as he is, would have preferred that his friends
should have commenced their reforming operations in some part of the
world where his cause might not be named and linked to be sunk in
connection with theirs. *-
This system, which is now sedulously striving to disorganize soci-
ëty, 'suspends all its promises on two conditions. The ſirst is, that it
shall have the "disposal of all the property; and the second, that it
shall have the control of the people. The property is to be concen-
trated in joint-stock companies, and to be represented stock, each com-
pany to Ówn a large tract of land and all the personal property upon
it: “The inhabitants are to concentrate in associations, in one building,
on these large landed estates. “The system of joint-stock or sharehold
property of association, is one of its most beautiful practical features,
ăiid'wili, when the highly important results to which it leads are un-
derstood, excite admiration.” (Ex. 30.) Let this be kept in mind,
inäsmuch as it has an important bearing in determining who are the
främers of this system, and who are to be held responsible for all the
consequences to which it necessarily leads. According to this “beau.
tiful practical system, one man, by owning the whole stock, may own
and control the whole property of an association of persons, who would,
in that case, be tenants and laborers on his estate. A man may hold
the property of an association, by a mortgage given to secure payment
of moneys advanced in purchasing the land or in making improve-
ments. “Who may not see, that this opens a wide and short avenue,
15
by which capitalists may make a monopoly of the soil, and form them.
selves into a landed aristocracy 3 This is the plan: that the whole
country be divided into landed estates of three or four miles square,
which are to be a substitute for our present townships; for these cen-
sorious reformers find dreadful evils in the township. “It is in the
defective organization of the township that we must seek for the cau-
ses of existing social evils and disorder, of repugnant industry, of
complication and waste of power, destitution and suffering.” (Er. 74.)
In place, therefore, of towns, they would form large farms, by asso;
ciating the present farms on every three or four miles square. They
would erect on each of these large farms, a proportionably large farm.
house, sufficiently commodious to accommodate three hundred families
or eighteen hundred persons; and also, on the same large scale, barns
and other out-houses necessary on a farm. . A great amount of money
would be required in making all these new improvements. This has
been foreseen ; and therefore great inducements are held out to capi.
'talists to turn their money into this new channel. The capitalist may
buy and own the land; and the association that settles on it, may
make the improvements, expending all their property in this folly.
Or they may own the land, and borrow money to make the splendid
Fourier improvement, and in this way put themselves on the mercy of
the man of money. We cannot, however, go into an examination of
this matter in detail. x • ‘ * -
Is there the remotest probability that the citizens of this civilized'
Republic, or any considerable portion of them, will ever yield them-
selves to this disorganizing scheme on the faith of promises; for the
fulfilment of which there is no guaranty in the past history of man-
kind, and no guaranty even in the truth and common honesty of its
projectors Can the leading advocates of this system.in our metropo-
lis, whatever end they may propose to accomplish by its agitation in
certain quarters, and in certain classes, be so infatuated; so blinded
by the intensity of their hatred to any cause, religious or political, as
to expect, that the American people will ever degrade themselves into
the social condition which this system offers ? Can these men expect
that the relations which they are striving to create for binding Labor
in bondage to Capital, will ever be sanctioned by either ? Američān
capital has already spurned them with their proposal, from its pré.
sence; and American labor, free in its right of contempt, and free in
its civilized power, defies them. The extravagance of the scheme in
which they profess to be engaged, the absolute certainty of its fail-
16
ure, does not remove their criminality. That very extravagance,
however, aided by the mysticism cast over their system, has been too
much allowed, to screen them from the odium they deserve, and thus
to aid them in prosecution of their designs. People may say, Let
thern work. They have undertaken to accomplish what is an impos.
sibility. Let them alone. A few moles may try to undermine or ex-
cavate a mountain, Let them try. What hurt can they do We
reply: they will never remove the mountain; but they may do some
damage when they commence their work in any of the gardens or
vineyards; or nurseries that beautify the foot or sides of the mountain;
and, no prudent man would deem it labor lost to put his foot on the
mischievous vermin wherever he might see them,--working under
ground or above ground. - * * -
III. "What is to be THE RULE of IIUMAN coxDUCT um Fourier Associ-
ations 2 g-
We shall not spend time in examining the fine baubles and glittering
trinkets, with which they make so much show and rattling—“the
groups and series, ascending and descending;” the “stimulants;”
“compact scale, short occupations, parcelled exercise,” &c. Neither
shall we have time now to visit the favorite, hard-beaten dancing
ground—the “Economies”—where the Fourier warriors, with an oc-
casional whoop against civilization, much to their own satisfaction, af.
ter the old Indian style, dance the war-dance in a kind of stationary
trot, with many a vigorous antic, to a hum-drum kind of music.: of
which performance civilized beings may not perhaps be able to appre-
ciate the merits. We shall pass all these by, as very simple fooleries
in our thought of them ; and shall venture on “the dangerous
ground”—the less frequented back-ground ; and look for an answer
to this inquiry, What is to be the rule or guide of human conduct in
the Fourier Society This is a matter of too much magnitude to be
overlooked: and the more it is examined, the more emphatic and
enforced will be the sentence with which all good citizens will unite
in condemning this whole system, to their perpetual abhorrence. .
We have already shown, that the civil law of the land will be de-
clared null and void, whenever the central Junto shall deem it expe-
dient to issue a proclamation to that effect. Rebellion against the
laws will of course be taught in every association.
The sacred Scriptures will not be regarded as a rule of conduct or
of faith. The plainest doctrines of that holy Book, the first principles
of its morality, are rejected by this spurious reform, the advocates of
which urge that society, as it now is, has no “true standard of moral-
17
ity.” (Ex. 28.) They cannot, then, regard the Bible as a true stan-
dard.
Moreover, human reason will not be a guide to human conduct in the
Fourier Society. All the members in each group, in every series, in
every phalanx, in applying themselves “to industrial occupations and
to pleasures,” in “the broad field of human activity embraced under
the general term of industry,” will be “impelled by attraction
alone,” or will act “from passion or taste,” “without resorting to
means used in the civilized order, like want, moral duty, reason, and
constraint.” (Dest. 186; 184.) “Science places man in revolt with
the Divinity, in giving him as guides the cold calculations of reason.”
(Dest. 171.) By “science,” they mean “philosophy,” “legisla-
tion,” and religion, or, as they term it, “moralism.” If this testimo-
ny were not sufficient, we could furnish more of similar import, to
prove, that these reformers, when they become themselves reformed,
and perhaps they are so now, do not intend to be even reasonable men,
or to allow their disciples to be so.
If neither reason nor conscience, nor moral duty, nor the Bible,
nor civil law are to be followed, what will be the rule and guide of
human conduct in the Fourier Society ? The answer is this; human
passions are to have universal, sole and undivided sway—human pas-
sions and animal appetites are the only and the supreme law for the
direction of human conduct, in Society, so far and wherever it shall
fatally become modelled after the Fourier pattern. This is the nu-
cleus of the whole system—the centre in which all its lines meet—the
pivot on which all its apparatus turns. To prove this, we need only
quote the following: “I’rom what we have said the reader will per-
ceive, that we assign to the passions the high office of guiding the be-
ing in whom they are implanted; all our actions from the most mi-
nute to the most important, are impulses of passion or shades of passion.”
(Dest. 213.) This extract proves, that Fourierism, in its social sys-
tem, gives to the human passions sovereign and unrestricted sway over
human conduct. What it affirms as a fact, that all men in all their
acts, follow the blind impulses of passion, is not true. It is not true
even of savages. It may be true of those who here make their con-
fession ; but it is not true of those who live under the moral and ra.
tional influences of civilization. This is the ground of all the quarrel
which the foremost, the most furious of the Fourier band have with civ-
ilization, that it hems in and hampers the passions of men. They
stoutly maintain, that it is a sophism, that it is false, to say, “that God
has given us reason to resist the passions.” (Dest. 472.) “Theorists
3
18
assign to the intellect, or reason, the especial task of guiding and con-
troling the passions, and of keeping them in subjection. They sup-
pose that there is no regulating principle within the passions them-
selves.” (Dest. 214.) Sensualists assign to reason no such task, nor
allow reason to do any such work. They wish to have as little to do
with reason as possible. They flatter themselves, that they have a
better guide in their loved passions. But are not the passions blind?
And if the blind lead the blind, will they not both fall into the ditch?
That is true, say they ; but that happens only in the civilized order,
where the “passions invariably lead to discórd, anarchy and crime.”
But why may not the same thing happen in the combined order ? Oh!
no ; that cannot be, say they ; for we will have the practical bene-
fits of the wonderful discovery, made by Mons. Fourier, the most pro-
found and original genius of the age, after forty years scientific search.
Well, what is the discovery? Why, it is just precisely that which
theorists and moralists of all preceding ages did not have in their eye
when they supposed that “there was no regulating” or directing
“principle in the passions themselves.” Perhaps they supposed no
such thing. But, grant it. What is the regulating principle in the
passions ? They will reply, stretching up their heads very scientifi-
cally, and looking as grave as if the wisdom of centuries were in their
heads, attraction, passional attraction, is “the directing principle in
the passions.” And this word is almost always printed in capitals or
italics, as if the mere size or shape of the letters would illustrate its
meaning. The Fourier literati have great fondness for this magical
world, for it is, as a beautiful wand, in their hand, by which they
make every thing attractive that it touches. As they are very shy of
letting out the occult sense of this august word, we shall be very plain in
saying, that “attraction,” or “the directing principle in the passions”
is nothing else than what is commonly meant, when we speak of the
impulses, the suggestions, the inclinations of passion. “Passional at-
traction” is the tendency or propensity of the human passions, to have
their own way, and to act themselves out for their own gratification.
There is an abundance of this attraction now in society, and it is the
very thing in the passions which renders them so injurious. “Every
man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed.”
When any man is thus drawn away and enticed, he exemplifies fully
what Fourierism means by “attraction.” The promoters of Fourier-
ism grant that human passions are “pernicious,” “lead to disorder,”
“produce discord, hatred jealousy, oppression, injustice and innumer-
able varieties of vice and crime.” (Dest. 233.) This is all true.—
19
The passions are bad and troublesome enough under restraint and
subjection. But the world is full of proof, and has been in all ages,
that nothing is more turbulent, cruel, despotic, and destructive, than
human passions, when they have the dominion; and yet these pas-
sions, so unruly, vicious and hurtful in their operations hitherto, are
to be the exclusive guide of human conduct in the Fourier state.—
Those who would have it so, admit, “that the powers of the mind are
but too servilely obedient to the suggestions of the passions.” [Des.
146.] That is, in the civilized order, they are too much under the
power of passional attractions. And yet it is proposed to give these
very passions the entire and permanent mastery over all the powers
of the mind, and over the whole person, in Fourier Associations. Can
that mastery be established in any society of human beings, without
placing their individual and collective welfare in jeopardy every
hour ! Can the same causes, and they remaining the same, produce
disastrous results in civilization, and salutary effects, in Fourier As.
sociation ? It is vain to try to shield the depraved passions from
blame, by charging their bad conduct and bad effects to the restraints
and repressions of civilization. For it is well known that the less, vi.
cious passions are curbed, the more forward ańd headstrong they be-
come. Besides, there are persons within the limits of civilization,
who make their base passions their sole guide ; they are under no
moral restraints; they have a wide sphere, as wide as they could
have in an association, to follow their passions, and they are under no
temptation or necessity to put themselves in conflict with the restraint
of civil law and criminal courts. The vices of such persons, vices
produced by their passions, cannot be charged on repressive restraints,
when they are not touched or influenced by restraints.
But it is affirmed that the evil produced by the passions in civilized
society, is owing to “their false action and developement.” The
passions of men have acted long and extensively in the world, and
the unvarying character of their work is evil : they have had an end.
less variety of developements, but always showing the same evil ten-
dency. Hence, then, we have the strong evidence of fact, that the
passions have not been false to themselves, and that they have had
their true developement in accordance with their inherent badness and
depravity. If bitter water flows from a deep pool at every outlet and
every stream, we may confidently conclude that the water in the
depths of the pool itself is bitter. Q But admitting that the passions
have had a false developement in civilized society, what is there to
guaranty or to produce another and a true developement of them, in
20
Fourier Associations? Nothing at all. It will not answer to affirm
that “passional attraction” will produce it, with an understanding of
what is really meant by attraction. For attraction, we affirm, means,
in Fourier Association, “the directing principle inherent in the pas-
sions,” the impulsive power, the tendency of the passions to seek
their own ends. This is the very cause which has produced their
present developement in civilized society and in all nations, and no
other developement can proceed from them. .
We have thus shown, that the only and universal rule for the di-
rection of all persons in Fourier Society, in all their relations, inter-
course, business, thoughts, words, and deeds, is the human passions.
IV. We shall now proceed to prove that this whole vaunting sys.
tem of social reform, is a concerted scheme of cowardly, contemptible
DUPLICITY, on the part of its arch projectors. If its name were graven
on its brazen brow according to its nature, by the hand of truth and
justice, that name would be, IMPOSTURE. -
1. It belies itself in boastfully pretending to be a system of univer-
sal social reform, or in claiming to possess in itself the means and
power of reforming all nations of the world. This pretension it sets
up. “If a district can be covered with associations, it is certain a
State or nation can ; and if a nation can be covered, a continent can
be covered ; and if a continent, the whole globe. The work of a uni-
versal social reform, which now appears gigantic and impracticable,
will in reality be simple and easy.” (Ez. 74.) What is here with
proud exultation pronounced so casy, is, by the very same scientific
expositor of Fourier absurdities, pronounced an impossibility. Thus:
“ the two leading characters of the barbarian period, are the slavery
of women and the slavery of the laborers. It is easy to conceive how
impossible it would be, with two such obstacles, to organize associa-
tions based on groups and series. Civilization, with other ameliora-
tions, does away with these obstacles.” (Dest. 291.) What, then, can
this braggart reform do in Asia, in Africa, or in any barbarian nation ?
Nothing: it has no ameliorations. Its tender mercies are cruelty.
The desert it cannot turn into a fruitful field, but it can turn the fruit.
ful field into a barren and gloomy desert. It has the one tendency,
like rust, to corrode; and like the rot, to corrupt. Its ruling impulse
is hatred, and its ultimate aim the overthrow of Christian civilization;
and with this aim it offers itself as a fit receptacle of every other pur.
pose foul and detrimental, which fraud may form or injustice perpe.
trate against man. If it triumph, its work is done. It has nothing
more to do than what it now desires, to rule and riot among the wide-
21
spread ruins. It sees nothing to attract it, nothing to work with, no-
thing to destroy, nothing to reward it, in the vast countries where
European civilization has not diffused its ameliorations, its life, and
riches. It sees there the absence of all that is necessary to the found-
ing of association. “In civilization, man accomplishes the task of
his social infancy, the developement of the elements of industry, art,
and science, which are necessary to the founding of associations.”
(Dest. 277.) Associations cannot be, therefore, founded in uncivilized
countries. No | Will the jackal scream or the hyena prowl where
there is no prey ! or will banditti infest regions where no plunder is to
be found ! r -
2. Fourier association promises fallaciously to maintain individual
property.
It certainly has contrived a device, in its sharehold trap, for making
all property of every kind, now owned by individuals, corporate prop-
erty. When a person makes this investment of his property, he puts
it entirely out of his possession and control, as an individual; and re-
ceives, in return, a transferable representative, or a paper certificate,
which entitles him, as a member of the corporation, to the right of
suffrage in it, and to his share of its profits. All the right of property
which remains to him individually, is the right to claim his share of
the profits, if there are any, and to sell his stock, if he choose. This
is, in our view, a great curtailment of individual property as now held,
and of its rights and benefits. This system would introduce monopo-
lies and stockjobbing, with a vengeance. It would place the most
valuable of all property afloat upon a tumultuous sea, among the rocks
and along the shores of which lie many a wreck of fortune and of
hope.
This system, in its present working, has one striking “practical”
feature, no doubt very “beautiful” to the eye of its managers. It is
this: that it is a complete take-in system. They will take in any-
thing. If a man has a farm, they will take it in at a fair price, and
give him a bit of paper called stock. If he has live stock, farming
implements, or household furniture, they will take it in, even to dogs
and cats, old geese and broken tea-pots; they will take it all in “at
a fair valuation,” and give paper stock in pay ; and perhaps, in the
end, if not before, they will take in the man himself. They will even
take in money at par, and give stock for it! They will take in la-
borers, too, and settle with them at the end of the year, when the la-
borer will learn whether he is to receive “five-twelfths” of the profit,
according to one apportionment, (Dest. 354, 155.) or “seven-twelfths,”
22
according to another, (Ex. 32.) or whether he will get anything at all.
And this is the way in which the rights of property will “be strictly
preserved.”
According to this system, a community of persons, numbering eight-
een hundred, (that is the perfect number, a manageable number,) may
be settled and may work on a landed estate, and have no interest in
any portion of its property. Who may not see appaling hazard to so-
ciety, in such a number of persons with all their interests being made
dependent on one man, the owner of the whole property, and that to
be managed for his profit, by mercenary skill These consequences
the framers of this system clearly foresee and calculate upon.
A few associations may own all the property upon which they are
settled. In this case they would form a community of persons with a
community of property. As a community of persons, they are liable
to all the evils incident to such communities; and the sharehold sys-
tem, instead of being a safeguard, will be a floodgate to let in among
them the elements of inequality, discord, and oppression.
Still it will be replied and reiterated, that a man holding stock, can
“sell it, and obtain in cash its current value.” Yes, he may sell it,
if he can find any one to buy what he himself dishonors by the offer to
sell. But we say that this poor privilege of selling stock, to which
the advocates of Fourierism attach so much importance, is no part of
association: it is a privilege which no man can practically turn to any
good account, in a state of society modeled after the Fourier vagaries.
It is only a temporary appendage to what they call “false associa-
tion ;” and appended to it for the purpose of setting it up in its false-
hood. Let this false system prevail, and under its power let the indi-
vidual spirit and the family spirit be crushed—let the inhabitants of
this country bid forever farewell to civilization and farewell to their
homes and to their Bible—let the whole population divide itself into
droves of eighteen hundred, and march, under the Fourier government,
into the association edifices, there to be arranged by Fourier skill into
groups and series, to be enchanted or enchained to labor by Fourier
attraction, all their days; then, when that achievment shall have been
accomplished, when all vestiges of civilization shall have been oblit.
erated, when all property shall have been locked up in the combined
order, where will be “individual property” then What benefit
would stock then secure to any who might seek egress and deliverance
from that mighty combination empire 7 “O,” say these reformers,
“no one will ever desire to leave these genuine associations, in which
man will attain his social destiny.” But supposing some few individ-
23
*
uals or families should not be altogether satisfied with that destiny,
finding its attraction distraction, its promised liberty bondage, its pleas-
ures corruption, and its very religion sensuality, and its heaven the
grave, and supposing they should long and sigh for some of the old
overthrown civilization, would they find any solace in their paper-
stock, or hope or help from it?
3. Association promises, in hypocrisy, to maintain the family and mar-
riage ties. (Ev. 9.) When in this pledge it talks of conjugal and do-
mestic ties, what does it mean 2 What does it mean by family ties 7
Not those which now bind families together; far from it; for it affirms,
what is not true, that “those ties, as they now exist in civilized society,
lead in general to the most contracted and repulsive selfishness.”
(Er. 9.) If there were any intention of maintaining family ties, why
do they enjoin “that the family spirit tending to selfishness should be
absorbed by corporative ties.” (Dest. 18.) An hostility that threatens
the existence of all family ties, is manifested in statements like the
following. That “the isolated household with its single couple, which
is the savage or primitive system, still continues the domestic organi-
zation of civilization.” (Dest. 130.) That “here is the radical defect
of our societies, and here it is that a radical reform must begin.”
(Dest. 131.) What is meant by marriage ties which association
promises to sanction ? those that now exist? No; for it affirms “that
great defects are to be found in the marriage ties as they now exist.”
(Ec. 9.) That “marriage is itself degraded and contaminated by the
system of isolated households.” (Ev. 9.) What does association
mean to substitute in the place of marriage, as it now is ? Marriage,
as an institution, cannot subsist in the combined order. How can it
be maintained, when there is to be the greatest intimacy and freedom
of intercourse between the sexes, and that intercourse regulated, not
by conscience, or moral duty, or reason, but by the passions alone.
The artful and unprincipled promoters of this passional scheme, give
their views with caution and reserve on this point, and will, no doubt,
be unwilling that associations should at present be established in har-
mony with their theory. Still, they divulge enough to convict them
of base duplicity in their profession of adherence to the marriage
institution of civilized society. “If in imagination we transport our-
selves to the epoch when, in the combined order, industry shall be
exercised by series of groups ; when woman will take part in those
occupations which please her, receiving, in her individual capacity,
remuneration according to her talents and labor, which will render
her the equal of man, and give her absolute disposal over her feelings,
24.
her sympathies, and person; we shall feel how great a step must be
taken, and how many prejudices overcome, before association can be
organized.” (Dest. 292.) “She becomes dependent upon man for
her support. Pecuniary dependency poisons all social relations, and
causes, to a greater or less extent, the renouncement of liberty, of that
liberty which is the most cherished—the liberty of the heart, with its
sympathies and affections.” (Dest. 297.) We leave the italics as we
found them.
4. Association pretends, un mere mockery, that it “will respect sacredly
the religious sentiment and preserve religious worship.” (Ex. 10. It
engages to “establish Christianity practically upon the earth,” (Ea.
2;) “to form a new plane, upon which Christianity can be fully and
truly developed.” (Ex. 2.) This was, no doubt, intended to quiet the
suspicions and smooth down the scruples of those who may be unwil-
ling to relinquish their religion for any advantages proffered to them
in Fourier association. But how can this system establish Christian-
ity, when it contemptuously discards Christianity itself, and aims to
exterminate and destroy that civilization upon which Christianity has
impressed so much of its own pure and benign influence 2 “It will
sacredly respect the religious sentiment.” Now what is the religious
sentiment of the combined order ? You will be able to determine
this, if you listen to the “definition deduced from its principles,” which
is given of Fourier happiness. “Happiness consists in the continued
satisfaction of the twelve passions harmonically developed.” (Dest.
216.) The substance of this is, that true happiness consists in sen-
sual gratification. Hence it is added, “Moralists having pursued an
entirely false route in their studies of nature, have, of course, arrived
at exactly a contrary definition. They deduce that happiness is only
to be attained by a continued repression of the passions, and that rea-
son is given us to control them.” (Dest. 216.) These quotations show
what the Fourier advocates mean by the “religious sentiment” which
shall be sacredly respected in association. Guizot, a French writer,
in his celebrated work on civilization, says, “What is the object of
religion ? of any religion, true or false ? It is to govern the human
passions, the human will. All religion is a restraint, an authority, a
government. It comes in the name of a Divine law, to subdue, to
mortify human nature. It is to human liberty that it directly opposes
itself. It is human liberty that resists it, and that it wishes to over-
come. This is the grand object in religion, its mission, its hope.”
(Hist. of Civ. p. 138.) Fourier association, therefore, has no religion;
and yet it has the blasphemous effrontery to claim for itself a divine
25
origin and revelation. Its advocates say, “The system which we
propose to the world, is not the plan or scheme of an individual. It
is not the invention of mere human reason.” (Ex. 3.) They need not
so formally acquit human reason of having any agency or exercise
in framing this foul enormity. For every one knows that human rea-
son never could or would invent or sanction it; nor will human reason
ever enter an association, or appear among its inmates, except to make
them cry out, as did the wicked king in the vineyard of its murdered
owner at the sight of a holy prophet, “Hast thou found me, O mine
enemy P Human depravity may, however, do what human reason
condemns. And depravity, diabolical enough to invent such a scheme,
is diabolical enough to charge the invention of it on Heaven. This
the Fourier theorists do. This they maintain is the great truth before
which human legislation stands condemned, to wit, that there must
exist a unitary passional code composed by God, and interpreted by
attraction.” (Dest. 469.) Besides this, they say, “the permanent
revelation of that code is to be found in the constant tendencies of our
attractions and passions when rightly developed. Our attractions
and passions are expressions of the will of Divinity; and as they are
ever acting, they are a permanent expression, that is, a revelation of his
will; he has given them to us as an impelling power, and it is through
them that he makes known his intentions to us.” (Dest. 456.)
These sentiments are indeed contrary to all human legislation, an-
cient and modern. How utterly blasphemous they are and repugnant
to the holy doctrines of the Bible, will appear to all who know any
thing of its contents. “Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am
tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with ovil, neither tempt-
eth he any man; but every man is tempted when he is drawn away
of his own lust and enticed.” (James i. 13, 14.)
This, fellow-citizens, is the doctrine of association | Here is a new
creed ; and those who adopt it, form a new sect, the like of which is
graphically described in the book of Revelation, chapter ix. What
falsehood, therefore, is embodied in the declaration put forth, that
“ association will establish no new sect or creed l’’ (Ex. 10.) They
seem to be very much afraid lest any one should suspect that their
social reform is connected with infidelity; and they put themselves to
some pains to prove “that it shall be avoided.” All fears on this
“dangerous ground” are, in that respect, unnecessary; for sure I am
that what is commonly meant by infidelity in this country, would re-
coil from any such connexion, and feel itself degraded by the suspi-
cion of any such connexion existing.
26
V. All the promises which this vaunting social reform holds out, of
advantage to be derived from it, to those who are employed in labor and
agriculture, are PROMISEs MADE IN PERFIDY and INTENDED FOR DECEP-
TION.
Explore the interior of this pretended reform—go into the inside and
to the centre of this machine about which there is so much strange and
uncouth mechanism—observe its secret springs in connexion with its
outward movements—examine closely its workings on the interests and
relations of agriculture, and the results to which its workings inevita-
bly tend in producing an entire change in the condition of those who
now own and work the land, dire and degrading results clearly fore-
seen by those with whom the scheme originates—ponder on the ends
aimed at, and on the means relied upon to effect those ends ; and we
are confident, fellow-citizens, that you will then unite in holding up to
public execration this whôle scheme, as a stupendous scheme of nefa-
rious villainy—a scheme which, if carried into execution to the ex-
tent intended, will make men of large wealth the lords of the soil, and
will make men of labor and of limited means tenants and bond-serfs
on their large landed estates. We know that we are advancing grave
charges, and we do it gravely, advancing at the same time the proof
which we deem sufficient to make manifest their truth, proof taken
from publications which have been issued in furtherance and defence
of Fourier association.
In the process of proof which we shall pursue, we will, firstly, direct
the attention of our readers to the extreme and incessant urgency with
which this professedly “industrial reform” is pressed on the accept-
ance of those who are engaged in the cultivation of the land. Multi-
plied motives of every kind are placed in thick array before them, to
induce them to relinquish their present dwellings, their beloved homes,
and their present freemen-like mode of managing every man his own
farm and business separately, in his own way. These small farms—
small, compared with the six thousand acre tracts or “associated
farms” which the Fourier surveyors have planned—these small farms
into which the country is now divided, and the family dwellings which
now beautify them and betoken the general diffusion of comfort and
competency—these evidences of the presence, these gifts of the good.
ness of, civilization, are loathsome to these reforming busy-bodies, and
are stigmatized as the sources of all Social evils, as the abodes of self.
ishness, ignorance, waste, and misery. . These men, from the lofty
eminence to which they imagine themselves elevated, in looking down
on this favored land, see nothing but a spectacle of folly, degradation,
and wo; and they send forth many a wailing sigh about it, and groan
bitterly, just as if they were sore pained at their hearts; and they try
to get other people to groan in earnest. Every thing is said that can
be said, to instil into the minds of all, a spirit of discontent; and, es.
pecially, to make all classss interested in husbandry, dissatisfied with
themselves, their homes, their occupations, and their income—to make
them unhappy in their present condition and despondent as to the fu-
ture. It seems to be the primary object to agitate and unsettle, and
at last completely to unmoor the minds of those who now have the
ownership, and occupancy, and control of the soil, and dwell in their
own private habitations. Every inconvenience, embarrassment, and
obstacle which the farmer meets with, is charged on the present social
27
system. He is informed that his farm is poorly tilled, that his hired
men are lazy and untrusty, (Dest. 62.) that his implements are poor,
his crops poor and profits small, that he is a poor man himself; and
great stress is laid on the alleged fact, that he has little or no capital.
He is again and again assured that there is no remedy, no refuge for
him, but in the splendid edifices on the noble domains of Fourier as-
sociation.
These reformers know full well that they can never spoil, never
unpeople the abodes of civilization, without the consent of woman; and
that consent is as far from their reach, as the east is distant from the
west. It is to these abodes of the single couple, with their children
like olive-plants round about their table—it is to these abodes where
the worth of woman is diffused, and felt, and owned—where the wo-
man is the wife and the wife the woman, that civilization may point
and does point with a smile of fondness and of triumph; and that
smile woman"meets with her own smile of gratitude and of trust. The
civilized household is the sanctuary and citadel of her rights, her hap-
piness, and her honor. And if there were no others than women, and
those women widows, to rise up in defence of civilization, its interests
in the family household would remain safe, and its reign stable. These
ruthless Vandal reformers, however, in their infatuated determination
to overthrow civilization, deem nothing impracticable; and are suffi.
ciently daring and sufficiently deceitful to maintain that “the cause
of association and attractive industry is especially the cause of wo.
man.” (Dest. 300.) “The condition of woman must be ameliora-
ted: she must be socially elevated.” “In association she will no
longer ask support at man's hands. Invested with her liberty, she
will scorn to live on his industry.” From the account given of wo.
man's lot in “the monotonous household,” she must certainly do work
enough to earn her board and garb ; for “she wastes her life in the
unproductive and menial occupations of the kitchen,” (Dest. 299.) in
one ceaseless round of petty domestic cares. (Ex. 23.) Poor woman!
she is an idle dependent for support on her husband, and, at the very
same time, a worn-out drudge | Well, if she is a drudge, her hus-
band is in a worse condition, for he is her slave. “Man himself has
become a slave. Instead of having made woman subordinate, he has
excited in both the woman and child, a disgust for industry. He has
to support them Both out of the product of his labor.” (Dest. 439.) We
ive the extract as we find it. In the Fourier system the husband
shall be under no obligations to support his family. This being the
case, the advocates of this system may prove that they are not infidels,
but worse, by quoting the following passage: “He that provides not
for his own, and especially for them of his own house, is worse than
an infidel.” If any are curious to know how females are to be “so-
cially elevated,” how they are to be employed in the attractive indus-
try of the combined order, we answer, they are to be employed “ in
all the minor branches of agriculture,” and have “the care of the
small domestic animals,” such, I presume, as sheep, calves, hogs, and
pigs, “ of the poultry, the gardens, etc.” (Dest. 439.)
12xtraordinary efforts are made by Fourier writers and agents, to
attract the attention, and enlist the favor of the working classes, who
of course must allow the many hard things said of them, to be out-
weighed by the many hard things said to them. The Fourier fondness
28
has, with some appearance of partiality, singled out, as its special ſa-
vorites, those who till the ground around “the isolated household,”
on the small farms. But it has a love that concerns itself about all
that are engaged in any trade or industrial occupation. It is frequent-
ly announced, lest any should forget it, that these are the classes of
the commonwealth, which this reform befriends and will benefit,
above all others. The association edifices are to be fitted up in a style
as if expressly to please them. Every thing will be made so pleasant
and so convenient—such a constant regard will be paid to their com-
fort and improvement, that it would seem almost like a constant
amusement to work on the “attractive” land, and in the “attractive”
work-shops of a Fourier Association. They are assured “that labor,
now repulsive, repugnant, and degrading, shall be dignified and at-
tractive.” They are informed that civilization has indeed banished
“serfdom or feudal bondage;” yet that those who “labor for wages”
are the “dependent hirelings of those who employ them.” [Er. 43.]
“In association, you will be masters of your time and persons—you
will lay down just and equitable laws for the regulation of your in-
dustrial affairs and interests.” [Ea. 37.] “Individual liberty, instead
of being restricted, shall be greatly extended.” [Ev. 27.] “Strict
discipline, as in manufactories, shall not exist in association.” [Er.
28.] One special advantage of the joint-stock association is, “that it
will prevent the unjust and tyrannical control which the few who own
the land, work-shops and other means of production, now exercise over
the destitute multitude.”...[Ex. 30.] Listen to the following moving
appeal : “Ye toiling millions ! Oppressed victims of honest and most
honorable industry | When will you learn to know—that monopoly
alone, or leagues of capital in different degrees of legal or illegal pri.
vileges, deprive you and your children, of both health, wealth, and
knowledge and morality.” [Er. 37.] Now, supposing the “millions”
in this country, all who labor with their hands, should be so destitute
of “knowledge and morality,” as to believe all this insulting trash—
supposing the working class should give credit to the foregoing shiny
promises 2 Then they might be disposed to unite themselves into as-
sociations—and then, we say, one perilous advancement would be
made toward the success and accomplishment of a deep-laid conspir-
acy against their rights and well-being.
Fellow. citizens, think me not rash in making this statement so bold-
ly and unequivocally. In my place, and under my responsibility, as
a private citizen of the country in which I was born and which I love,
I make it and reiterate it. The wild extravagance of the plot and
the certainty of its failure, will never whiten the black criminality of
its authors. If the main purpose fails, the very attempt, and the agi.
tation it creates, may be the means of attaining some base end, and an
end in measure detrimental to society. This conspiracy, under the
imposing name of a “Social Reform,” conceals itself still more deep.
ly, in assuming to be the only true democratic system of society. In
this respect, it exalts itself above every political party, and even above
the government. “But no government, no party, has ever accepted
and acted on the full idea of democracy. No party purposes or mea-
sures are calculated to place the poor and humble where democracy
implies they should be.” [New-York Tribune, Feb. 8.] It is plainly
enough there intimated that the full idea of democracy is only to be
29
found in the Fourier reform. This towering pretension will never de-
ceive those for whom it is designed. The numerous and powerful por-
tion of the citizens of this republic, who live and thrive by their work,
feel and know what true democracy is; and experimental knowledge
is not soon lost. Those who become enamored by “the pacific and
constructive democracy” of the Tribune, will of course follow the
phantom whithersoever it may lead, and will turn their backs on the
democracy not only of party, but of the government itself.
We have thus shown that powerful inducements are held out to
draw the working classes, and especially those engaged in husbandry,
into Fourier Associations. But this is only one step in the outrageous
procedure which has already commenced in this country. The work
of darkness cannot be carried on with activity, or advanced to its con-
summation, without the agency and resources of capital.
In furnishing the proof of an existing conspiracy enveloped in the
“Social Reform,” I will direct public attention, and especially the
attention of those most concerned in the exposure of this iniquity, its
intended victims, to the immense advantages which are proffered to af.
fluent capitalists, to induce them to invest their funds in the purchase
of land for the establishment of associations. “Large profits will
alone induce capitalists in the beginning to invest their funds in asso-
ciation, and aid with their means the spread of the system.” (Ex. 16.)
Large profits are accordingly promised. “Colossal,” “gigantic”
“profits” are to flow from labor in this system, and capital shall re-
ceive one-fourth. “To induce capitalists to furnish the means neces.
sary to found an association, a fixed rate of interest, which should be
a little above the legal rate, may be guarantied to them, in the place
of one-quarter of the product.” (Er. 60.) See also Ex. 32.
Mark well the following acknowledgment to the high praise of civil-
ization, and in direct and full contradiction of all which these men
have proclaimed to the working classes about the present tyranny of
capital : “Capitalists, from pride or distrust, may be opposed to as-
sociation ; we must multiply consequently details to satisfy them; we
MUST PROVE TO THEM IN VARIOUS ways, THAT IN CIVILIZATION THEY ARE
DEPRIVED OF ALL THE ADVANTAGES WHICH THEY DESIRE, AND THAT IN THE
combined or DER ALONE, THEY will, Possess THEM.” (Dest. 357.)—
Surely this is an inducement sufficiently alluring to enlist the effi-
cient aid 6f capitalists, if they were in fact actuated by “that instinct
of monopoly and extortion”, which the reckless and unprincipled au-
thors of this conspiracy ascribe to them.
If, however, the wealthy and powerful bankers of this country, aid.
ed by the exhaustless wealth of England, would divest themselves of
the spirit of civilization, and expend their funds in making a monopo.
ly of the soil, then associations might be founded—provided, that “the
millions,” “the masses,” could only be induced to become the in-
struments of their own degradation and ruin, by relinquishing their
present manner of life and labor, and by consenting to dwell and
work after the Fourier fashion, on the association domains.
Let the iniquitous conspiracy now formed, attain its ends and fulfil
its plans, and it will issue in the triumphant ascendency of the social
reform, and in the entire downfall of civilization. What state or sys.
tem of society would then exist? It would be essentially and wholly a
Jeudal system. The few, owning the land, and forming a wealthy
30
landed aristocracy, would hold and exercise an independent and irre-
sponsible jurisdiction, each over his own territories—and the multi-
tude, the working classes, would be bond-serfs on their estates.
Are the originators of this false reform aware that, if it prevail, it
will lay and rivet on the country a feudalism most despotic in its
power and oppressive to all beneath its sway ? They know they have
contrived a plan for the reorganization of society, which is directly
calculated to make men of wealth feudal barons in their ownership of
the soil acquired by means of the sharehold facilities for acquiring it,
and to make the working and industrious classes “serfs,” abject ser-
vants, collected and located on the feudal estates in associations, under
the supervision of a new privileged order of men, the men of “skill.”
The head men among the reformers, the Fourier Magi, set them-
selves up to be prophets. They “predict” a calamitous and speedy
end to all civilization, and then endeavor, by all the means of mischief
within their reach, to verify their prediction. They “predict” a
“fourth age” for civilization, which they name its “Decrepitudo.”
What, in the vision of these self inspired prophets, will be the signs
of the times, what will be the great causes at work, in that dark age,
when civilization shall enter on its decline ! That forlorn age will
be indicated by the presence and operation of the following causes
and dire agencies: “associated farms, discipline system of cultiva-
tion, commercial and industrial feudality, contractors of feudal mo-
nopoly, oligarchy of capital, and illusions in association.” (Dest. p.
284.) Has not the dark age begun already to cast its dismal shadows
on our land 2 Do we not see large “associated farms” laid out 2
Are not associations formed, with such deceptive appearances and false
show, that the prime adviser of their formation pronounces them “illu-
sions?” Are not the “contractors of monopoly” busily at work, not
only at head-quarters in New-York, but in other places, even in the
noble city of Rochester, and in the chief place of concourse for her
citizens? Is not the sharehold machine, with all its apparatus, ready,
and sufficient in its workings to raise capital to an “oligarchy?” In
all these measures and advances of Fourierism, a commencement has
already been made in the work of rearing up a feudality for the gov-
ernment of the whole country. A feudal government, in its mildest
form, is a hard government for the people; but a feudal government,
actuated by the foul and fiendish spirit of Fourierism, would be more
frightful in its object, and more tremendous in its power of oppression,
than any despotism which this world has ever felt.
Let all persons thoughtfully ponder the following correct descrip-
tion of the state of things which the Fourier reform would establish, if
it were able by its fascinating charms “to induce capitalists to invest
their funds in association.” “The nations of Europe and the United
States are moving towards the fourth age of civilization,” “the lead-
ing character of which will be a monopoly of the soil by great capi-
talists who will organize large agricultural establishments, but with
the strict discipline that now exists in our manufacturing system.”
(Dest. 286.) “There will be an increase in the tyranny of capital
and fraud. The social world will be forced through a new course of
suffering. The multitude will become serfs in a feudality to , which
politics and legislation will be subservient.” (Dest. p. 287.) We
make this extract to prove that the authors of the Fourier reform ſore-
31
see and anticipate the disasters which it is fitted to produce. They
foresee that a monopoly of the soil by capitalists, and the organization
of large agricultural establishments, must create a landed aristocracy,
and a vigorous feudal government, with power not only to oppress the
laboring classes, but also to control and force even politics and legisla-
tion into its service. This is the state of society which these auda-
cious reformers, under the pretext of advancing industry, are striving
to introduce—a state of society in which the smaller number shall be
raised to feudal power by their wealth, and the multitude be reduced
in agricultural associations into a base and miserable serfdom. We
have their testimony that their agency is exerted to induce capitalists
to lay out their money in making a monopoly of the soil for founding as-
sociations or large agricultural establishments? By exerting this agen-
cy, by performing this part of their chosen office, as “the contractors of
monopoly,” are they not doing what they know will increase “the
tyranny of capital,” and reduce their fellow-men into a “new course
of suffering,” as “serfs of a feudality.” These disguished de-
stroyers of society allure their fellow-citizens into “false associations,”
by making promises exuberant in all that is pleasant, when they fore-
see that all these promises will be falsified by the baleful realities
treasured up in associations.
Let them not imagine, that they can escape the odium which they
deserve, by pleading that the present social system has in itself a ten-
dency to the depression which they predict. Civilization has no such
downward tendencies. It has no tendency in any one of its elements,
to create a landed aristocracy. While it exerts its present influence
and breathes its animating and free spirit through the community,
while every family has its own home, and every man minds his own
business, feudalism and serfdom will remain where civilization casts
them. Radical changes must take place both in the sentiments and
condition of society, it must in fact become uncivilized, before wealth
can make a monopoly of the soil, and gain aristocratic and feudal
power. These are the very changes which Fourierism is striving to
produce in society.
Our present social system does not encourage capitalists to monopo.
lize the soil. This civilized legislation has always vigilantly and
steadfastly opposed. There is no tendency of this kind even in France,
where, if the Fourier account is to be believed, “eight millions of the
inhabitants live on chestnuts and such trash.” In describing the so-
cial condition of France, the author of the Encyclopædia of Geogra-
phy, states, that “it has become a rage in France for every one to
possess a little spot of land. And the division of a man's property
among his children, which the law enforces, tends to split it perpetu-
ally more and more into minute portions.” As to the United States,
the Fourier “contractors of monopoly” admit, that “the landed pro.
perty is mostly held by those who cultivate it.” (Dest. 338.) . They
also admit, “ that in civilization, capitalists cannot have the advanta-
ges they desire, and that in the combined order alone they will pos-
sess them;” that the present banking system tends to no such monop-
oly, being “by its nature adapted only to commerce and specula-
tion,” (Dest. .310 ;) that “politicians and economists” have not
thought of such a scheme, (Ex. p. 11;) and that “it has entirely es.
caped, up to the present day, the attention of the scientific world.”—
[Dest. 106.]
32
This scheme is entirely their own, from beginning to end, in every
part, tendency and effect of it; and the following base avowal will
show the means to which they deliberately resort, in their mad and
ferocious efforts to give this scheme life, and power, and prevalence,
to the corruption and ruin of society: “If the age has not the intelli-
gence to undertake a scientific organization of association, let it be
commenced in some way, even if it be by that instinct of monopoly
and extortion which is inherent in capital.” (Dest. 339.)
We have now, fellow-citizens, finished what we proposed to do. We
have examined with impartiality, the Fourier Social Reform. It comes
to us with many smiles and soft words. We have shown that out of
its own mouth it should be condemned. It comes to us as an angel of
light, brandishing a glittering sword over civilization, with its right
hand; and, lest we should flee from it as from a transformed fiend of
ruin, it loudly assures us that, in its left hand, enwrapt in its robes, it
carries, as the messenger of Heaven, the cup of salvation, the crown
of perfection, to all humanity. ... We have shown, by merely drawing
aside its mystic robes, that, while it holds nothing but a drawn sword
for civilization in the one hand, in the other it carries concealed
nothing but a chain-net for freemen, poison for their morals, and a
dagger for their souls.
Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year of our Lord 1844,
BY DONALD C. MºLAREN,
in the Clerk's Office of the Northern District of the State of New-York,