ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED; THE SOCIALISM OF THE TRIBUNE EXAMINED. BEING A Controversy BETWEEN THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE AND THE COuRIER AND ENQUIRER. H GREELEY AND H.J. RAYMOND, wsN*/V^ eekly and Weekly editions of both papeis. Aftei ward, #acli party will of course be at liberty to comment at pleasure in his own columns. In order that neither paper shall be crowded with this discussion, one article per week only, shall be given on either side, unless the Couriei shall piefer greater dispatch. Is not this a fair proposition 1 W h a t says the Courier 1 It has of course the advantage of the defensive position and of the last word. From the Courier and Enquirer, Sept. $th, 1846. W e are surprised, we confess, at T h e Tiibune's refusal to comply with our offer, 1st. Because Mr. BRISBANE, in the columns of The Tribune, commenced this discussion ; and T h e Tribune simply volunteered to defend him from our reply. W h y should not the principal, then, instead of the volunteer friend, be peimitted to answer for himself? 2d. Because T h e Tribune has readily found room for replies to all the articles we have written upon this subject except the last, and was not preoccupied until after our offer to publish arguments in favor of Association, on. condition that it should publish our reply. W e will comply, however, most cheerfully with the terms of T h e Tribune, in discussing this question, provided it will discuss Association as it is,—that is, as it is defined and explained in the writings of Fourier, Brisbane, Godwin, the Roxbury community, T h e Tribune and other advocates and apostles of the cause. If it will take up the whole subject, we will readily discuss it on almost any terms:—but it would be manifestly unfair for T h e Tribune to select some one isolated branch of the system, and insist that we shall discuss only that. W h e n we know exactly w h a t the Tribune understands Association to be, for the purposes of this discussion, we shall have no difficulty in agreeing upon the terms. Until then, however, it would be difficult to say whether we should even differ in regard to the subject. T h e Tribune may so narrow the platform as to leave nothing to be discussed. Until we know, therefore, the ground it proposes to take, and how thorough it is willing to make the inquiry, w e can only say that we " close readily with the spirit of its proposition,"—and will cheerfully discuss Association on the terms proposed. From The Tribune, Sept. lOtk, 1846. T h e Courier will find what we understand by Association plainly stated in our extended reply of the 1st inst. to one of its earlier articles. If it finds nothing to differ about in that statement, so much the better: we have recently been forced by violent attacks and unjust imputations to devote space to Social discussions which we could very ill spare, and would gladly have appropriated otherwise. If the Courier does not dissent from our idea of Association, as set before it on the 1st inst., we have no occasion for controversy. W e certainly can not find room for a discussion in which it is implied that w e are to be held lesponsible for whatever the Courier may find in the voluminous writings of a dozen persons, several of them disagreeing on certain points with each other, and one at least (Fourier) in his later expressly condemning a part of his earlier speculations. T h e Courier would doubtless object to our holding it responsible for all that has been advanced on Social topics by the Express, Observer and others who have written in favor of the existing order of things. To bring the discussion within the space we can afford it, the rule w e have proposed of letting each party speak for himself, and be responsible only for what h e propounds, appears to us indispensable. From the Courier and Enquirer, Nov. lOiA, 1846. FOURIERISM.—The Tribune some weeks since proposed a discussion, with this paper, of the principles and plans of the Associationists, to be commenced immediately after the State election; and agreed if we would publish its aitides in exposition and defense of those principles and plans, to give place in its columns to our replies. W e acceded at the time to this proposal; and now stand ready to redeem our promise, whenever T h e Tribune may think proper to commence the discussion. W e believe the discussion of this subject may be so conducted as to serve the cause of truth and the best interests of society: and also that in point of impoitance, it stands second to none of the topics which now agitate the public mind. W e aie temporarily and partially lelieved, moreover, from the immediate pressure of political matter, and shall gladly avail ourselves of the opportunity to canvass subjects of s.Qcial and universal interest. 4 PRE! From The Tribune, Nov. 12th, 1846. I T h e reasoning Editoi of the Courier undei stands this whole matter too well to have made the above pioposition in good faith. He quite well knows, for we have expressly informed him, that for any such general foray as he meditates on eveiy thing and every body who seems to consider a Social Refoim desirable, h e must find his excuse elsewhere than in The Tribune. He is quite at liberty to make himself the Bossuet of the Social Reformation if he can, but he need not expect our aid in attaining that distinction, j [Here follows a summary restatement of the positions taken by The Tribune in the foregoing paragraphs.] netism. But we know what is the true topic, and shall discuss that or nothing. From the Courier and Enquirer, Nov. 17th. W e believe T h e Tribune has " made this offer" three times before ; and if it had exhibited a tenth pait of the readiness to fulfil its engagements which it has shown in making them, the discussion would long ere this have been under way. Meantime, w e call T h e Tribune's attention again to the following, from our paper of Saturday, which w e desire to be understood as now repeating :— " W e agreed to discuss the subject of Association UPON T H E T R I B U N E ' S OWN T E R M S , because we believed it to bo an important subject, involving principles of vital inteiest to Society, and calling for the investigation of those who assume, through the public press, to instruct and guide From the Courier and Enquirer, Nov. 14th, 1846. tt will be seen [from t h e article of Sept. 9th] that our the public mind. T h e Tribune, moieover, had repeatedly only difficulty in the matter arose from fear that the Trib- complained that we only presented one side of the subune would take up only a branch of the gener.il subject, ject, and challenged us to its full and fair discussion, and so frame t h e statement of Association as to leave upon terms and in a manner definitely pointed out in t h e nothing to be discussed. If this apprehension should be extract w e have quoted above. We accepted the chalremoved, we agreed explicitly to " discuss Association on lenge; and if our acceptance then failed to meet T h e the terms proposed " On the 10th, the Tribune satisfied j Tribune's scruples, we now repeat it, and OFFER TO DISour scruples by saying that it would take the ground laid CUSS THE SUBJECT UPON THE TERMS LAID DOWN BY T H * down in a former article (Sept. 1) to which w e had al- T R I B U N E I T S E L F . " If the Tribune can quibble out of this, it probably w i l l ; ready replied, thus showing that w e did find in it matter if not, not. I t can take whatever course it thinks best. for discussion. W e acquiesced in this arrangement. "Of the personal and insulting tone of the above paragraph we have nothing to say, except that it is unworthy any From The Tribune, Nov. 18th. man who pretends to common fairness and courtesy. But T h e Courier and Enquirer offers to assent unreservedly we submit to the judgment of our readers, whether it is to the terms on which we originally professed, and have not a shuffling evasion of a proposition and a promise de- all along been willing, to discuss with it the subject of liberately and carefully made by T h e Tribune itself. T h e Association. Very good. Relying on t h e good faith of unieasoning editor of that paper knows that we ' m a d e ' the Couriei's assurance, we shall commence t h e discusno proposition, but only called upon him to fulfill his own. sion at our first available hour—certainly before t h e His assertion that w e ' meditate* a general foray on every week closes. W e only ask that t h e conditions be carething and every body w h o seems to consider a Social Re- fully remembered. form desirable, is as unfounded as it is impertinent. And the grace of his pei mission, that w e may make of ourselves a Bossuet if we can, is faiily matched by the unIn the progress of the discussion, (which gracious modesty with which he declines to aid us in the attempt. W e agreed to discuss Association upon T h e extended to a much greater length than Tribune's own terms, because we believed it to be an im- was originally contemplated by either parportant subject, involving principles of vital interest to ty), the scope of the terms agreed upon society, and calling for the investigation of those who assume, through the public press, to insttuct and guide the and the extent to which they had been public mind. T h e Tribune, moreover, had repeatedly observed, became mingled with the other complained that we only presented one side of the subFor the means of ject, and challenged us to its full and fair discussion, upon topics of controversy. terms and in a manner definitely pointed out in the ex- forming a judgment upon this point, theretract we have quoted above. W e accepted the challenge; and, if our acceptance then failed to meet T h e Tribune's fore, we refer to the papers in which it is scruples, we now repeat it, and agree to discuss the sub- discussed. ject upon the terms laid down by~The Tribune itself. If The examination of the subject on either that paper has any faith in the soundness of its views, it will not hesitate to submit them to free discussion. If its side has been less methodical and complete proposition for such a discussion was originally made in than was desired ; but for this defect a sufgood faith, it can not now be withdrawn or evaded without a breach of that faith. And if its deliberate promise I ficient apology is found in the discursive to enter upon it was made with any intention of fulfilling ] and desultory method which the form of it, w e submit that it can not now be repudiated without controversy renders unavoidable. a flagrant violation of common honesty." The papers are reprinted, without alter- From The Tribune, Nov. 16. ation or revision, from the daily journals T h e Courier and Enquirer surely can not expect us to for which, in the ordinary course and with multiply words about so plain a matter as that of our proposed controversy. Our original offer was to discuss the necessary haste of editorial duty, they "Association as we understand it" and w e referred to were originally written. They pretend, our article of Sept. 1st last to simply show w h a t that is, therefore, to no literary merit, and do not and that there is abundant room for discussion between us. But w e insist on our right to lay down our own venture voluntarily within the lines of litpropositions, and to be held to maintain those propo- erary criticism. sitions, and none other. W e seek not to hold the Courier Social theories and plans of general reresponsible for anybody's ideas or statements but its own, and we will be concluded by or requiied to defend form are daily acquiring new interest, and none other than our own. If the Courier accedes to this unreservedly, we will directly open the discussion; if gaining a stronger hold on the attention of not, not. This is our fourth and last time of making the the public. The parties to this discussion offer, each time as definitely as now. hope that it may not be wholly without T h e Couiier is too well acquainted with our views and convictions to apprehend that w e shall not broadly pre- influence, in stimulating and guiding to sent and maintain Association. It only fears that we beneficent results the active benevolence shall not afford it a pretext for dragging in whatever be- of the present age, as well as in keeping side it deems calculated to increase the general prejudice against or gratify the current hatred of the advocates of a its projects within the limits of sound Social Reform. T o discuss " t h e principles and plans sense, of strict morality, and the imperaof the Assoeiationists," which it seeks to substitute for the question we have uniformly proposed, would be like tive exactions of Christian principle. agreeing to discuss " the characters and objects of the public lecturers on Animal Magnetism." These last H. J. RAYMOND, might be ever so indiffetent, without affecting the vetity and importance of the phenomena termed Animal Mag-1 H. GREELEY, ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. From the Tribune, Nov. 20th, 1846. j exist here only by the purchased permission of •he land-owning dass, and were intruders and tre3pa£sus en the soil of their nativity without To the Editor of the Courier and Enquirer: that permission. By law, the landless have I OPEN the proposed discussion by the state- no inherent right to stand on a single square ment of a few rudimental propositions, intended foot of the State of New York except in the to show that Justice to the Poor and Wretched highways. The only solid ground on which this surrendemands of the more fortunate classes a radical Social Reform. Let it be termed a sum- der of the original property of the whole to a minor portion can be justified is that of PUBLIC mary setting forth GOOD—the good, not of a part, but of a whole. Of Rights and Obligations. The people of a past generation, through their " In the beginning GOD created the heaven rulers, claimed and exercised'the right of divesting, not themselves merely, but the majorand the earth." The earth, the air, the waters, the sunshine, ity of all future generations, of their original and with their natural products, were divinely in- inherent right to possess and cultivate any untended and appointed for the use and susten- improved portion of the soil of our State for ance of Man (Qen. i. 26,28)—not for a part only, their own sustenance and benefit. To render this assumption of power valid to the fearful but for the whole Human Family. Civilized Society, as it exists in our day, has extent to which it was exercised, it is essential divested the larger portion of mankind of the that it be demonstrated that the good of the unimpeded, unpurchased enjoyment of those whole was promoted by such exercise. natural rights. That larger portion may be Is this rationally demonstrable now? Can perishing with cold, yet have no legally recog- the widow, whose children pine and shiver in nized right to a stick of decaying fuel in the some bleak, miserable garret, on the fifteen or most unfrequented morass, or may be famish- twenty cents, which is all she can earn by uning, yet have no legal right to pluck and eat the remitted toil, be made to realize that she and bitterest acorn in the depths of the remotest wil- her babes are benefited by or in consequence of derness. The defeasance or confiscation of the granting to a part an exclusive right to use ivlans natural right to use any portion of the the earth and enjoy its fruits'? Can the poor Earth's surface not actually in use by another, man who day after day paces the streets of a is an important fact, to be kept in view in every city in search of any employment at any price, consideration of the duty of the affluent and (as thousands are now doing here), be made to comfortable to the poor and unfortunate. realize it on his part ? Are there not thouIt is not essential in this place to determine sands on thousands—natives of our State who that the divestment of the larger number of any never willfully violated her laws—who are toRecognized right to the Soil and its Products, day far worse off than they would have been save by the purchased permission of others, if Nature's rule of allowing no man to approwas or was not politic and necessary. All who priate to himself any more of the earth than he reflect must certainly admit that many of the can cultivate and improve had been recognized grants of land by hundreds of square miles to and respected by Society? These questions this or that favorite of the power which assumed admit of but one answer. And one inevitable to make them were made thoughtlessly or consequence of the prevailing system is that, recklessly, and would not have been so large as Population increases and Arts are perfected, or so unaccompanied with stipulations in be- the income of the wealthy owner of land inihalfof the future occupants and cultivators, if creases while the recompense of the hired or a reasonable foresight and a decent regard for leasehold cultivator is steadily diminishing. the general good had been cherished and The labor of Great Britain is twice as effective Jevinced by the granting power. Suffice it here, now as it was a century ago, but the laborer is however, that the granting of the Soil—of the worse paid, fed, and lodged than he then was, State of New York, for example—by the su- while the incomes of the landlord class have preme authority representing the whole to a been enormously increased. The same fundaminor portion of the whole is a "fixed fact." mental causes exist here, and tend to the same By a law of Nature, every person born in the results. They have been modified, thus far, State of New York had (unless forfeited by by the existence, within or near our State, of crime) a perfect right to be here, and to his equal large tracts of unimproved land, which the share of the Soil, the woods, the waters, and owners were anxious to improve or dispose of all the natural products thereof. By the law on almost any terms. These are growing of Society all but the possessors of title-deeds j scarcer and more remote; they form no part LETTER I. 6 ASSOCIATIO] DISCUSSED. of the system we are considering, but something which exists in opposition to it, which modifies it, but is absolutely sure to be ultimately absorbed and conquered by it. The notorious fact that they do serve to mitigate the exactions to which the landless mass, even in our long and densely-settled towns and cities, are subject, serves to show imt the condition of the great macs must inevitably bo far worse than at prosont when the r,ataral consummation of land-selling is reached, and all the soil of the Union has become the property ojf a minor part of the People of the Union. The past can not be recalled. What has been rightfully (however mistakenly", dcre by the authorized agents of the state or nation, can only be retracted upon urgent public necessity, and upon due satisfaction to all whose private rights ate thereby invaded. But those who have been divested of an important, a vital natural right, are also entitled to compensation. From the Couiier and Enquirer, Nov. 23, 1840. REPLY TO LETTER I. THE N. Y. Tribune has entered upon a formal and elaborate vindication of the new Social System, which, for the last five years, it has earnestly urged upon the attention of its readers, under the name of Association; and upon the first page of our paper this morning, will he found its first article, which is simply prefatory to its promised statement of what that System is. We intend to make the System, and the ptinciples out of which it grows, the theme of a somewhat close and critical examiuBiioii, in order to determine for ourselves, and, if possible, to furnish to others the means of determining for themselves, whether Truth and the Public Good require that we should aid in securing their general adoption ; or whether injury, of the most serious character, is inflicted upon Society by the constant and skillful appeals made to the public in their behalf. We do not know that the larger portion of the THE RIGHT TO LABOR, secured to them in the reading community will, in the outset at least, creation of the earth, taken away in the grant- follow this discussion with.any special or defiing of the Soil to a minor portion of them, must be nite interest. But we are confident it will soon restored. Labor, essential to all, is the inex- become apparent, that it is not a mere controorable condition of the honest, independent versy concerning words, nor a useless debate subsistence of the Poor. It must be fully of harmless abstractions, but a discussion of guaranteed to all, so that each may know that principles which lie at the very foundation of he can never starve nor be forced to beg while all Society ; which enter into all the opinions able and willing to work. Our public provision upon Politics, Morals, and for Pauperism is but a halting and wretched of men color, however insensibly, the Religion; speculasubstitute for this. Society exercises no pa- which ternal guardianship over the poor man until he tions of the closet, the teachings of the Pulpit, has surrendered to despair. He may spend a the Press, and the Bar, and the opinions of whole year and his little all in vainly seeking those who guide and control the affairs of civil employment, and all this time Society does and social life; and which involve, to an innothing, cares nothing for him; but when his last definite and unknown extent, the security, the dollar is exhausted, and his capacities very harmony, and the aggregate well-being of the probably prostrated by the intoxicating draughts whole fabric of civilized Society. We hope to to which he is driven to escape the horrors of be followed in an inquiry, which we deem so reflection, then he becomes a subject of public important, at least with patience, if not with charity, and is often maintained in idleness for interest. /The Tribune's first article not only the rest of his days at a cost of thousands, prefaces its promised statement of what Assowhen a few dollars' worth of foresight and ciation Is, but sets forth the elementary Printimely aid might have preserved him from this ciples out of which Association grows.% It fate, and in a position of independent useful- lays the foundation of the new Social System which, the Tribune contends, should be made a ness for his whole after-life. substitute for that which is now in existence: But the Right to Labor—that is, to constant It is necessary, therefore, at the outset, to see Employment with a just and full Recompense what those principles are ; and for this purpose —can not be guaranteed to all without a radi- we ask a close perusal of the Tribune's aiticle. cal change in our Social Economy., I, for one, In that article these points are distinctly set am veiy willing, nay, most anxious, to do my forth :— full share toward securing to every man, woman, and child, full employment and a just rec1. The entire surface of the Earth, with all its ompense for all time to come. I feel sure this products, was created for the use of the whole hucan be accomplished. But I can not, as the man race ; its ownership is, therefore, vested " by a world goes, give employment at any time to all law of Nature," in the race ; and every man who is who ask it of me, nor the hundredth part of born upon the Earth, has a perfect right to his share them. "Work, work! give us something to of it. 2. While this would be the alledged rightful disdo!—-any thing that will secure us honest position of the is vestbread," is at this moment the prayer of not ed in a portion land, the actual property of itthat is, of the race ; and the less than Thirty Thousand human beings with- those who own no land, have beenresidue, wrongfully diin sound of our City-hall bell. They would vested and despoiled of what is theirs. This has gladly be producers of wealth, yet remain from been done by Civilized Society; which has, theieweek to week mere consumers of bread which fore, been guilty of a foul wrong, in thus robbing the somebody has to earn. Here is an enormous larger portion of the human family of the land to waste and loss. We must devise a remedy. which, by a law of Nature, they are entitled. 3. As a natural consequence of this, it is held to It is the duty, and not less the palpable interest, of the wealthy, the thrifty, the tax-paying, be the duty of Society to restore to these landless that which is rightfully theirs; or, if this can to do so. The remedy, I propose to show, is men be done, Society is bound to compensate them not found in ASSOCIATION. H. G. for that of which they have been robbed. In other ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 7 words, those who own Land are, in duty, and by nat-1 cacy of Association—namely, that THERE CAN Mrnl law, bound to give to those who possess none, BE NO RIGHTFUL PROPERTY IN LAND. payment for that of which, by a law of Nature, they Now if a man may not rightfully own Land, are the rightful owners. 4. " Association" proposes to carry this into effect, how can he rightfully own any thing which the that is, to confer upon the landless, if not the land, land produces 1 Is there any ground for a dissomething equivalent in value to the land, of which tinction between property in Land, and property they have been despoiled. How this is to be ac- in the products of Land 1 Why may a tree be complished the Tribune has yet to explain. owned, when the land upon which it grows can These, we believe, are all the points made by not 1 Why may the wheat which grows out of the soil be owned by some man, when the soil the Tribune, or at least they embrace the substance of its first article. All its deductions from which it grows can not 1 What inherent rest upon its primary position : that, by a law quality makes the one ownahle when the other of Nature, every man born upon the Earth has is not 1 The Tribune may reply, the Labor bea right to a portion of that Earth. This posi- stowed in producing it makes one the subject of property. But Labor only changes the form tion is set forth very distinctly, thus :— " By a law of Nature, every person born in the Iof a thing :—it does not create it. And if the original be not ownable, how can its product State of New York had a perfect right to his equal share of the soil, the woods, the waters, and all the become so 1 If no one man can own "land, to the j natural products thereof " j exclusion of all others, how can any man own This can only mean that the land of New' its products 1 There is no principle which will Yotk is, by a law of Nature, and rightfully, sanction the distinction. If land is not ownable, owned in equal shares by all the persons born nothing is. If the right of property in Land be within the State; and that those who actually denied, the right of property in every thing else, own none of it are wronged and robbed of what is denied also. If, as the Tribune maintains, is justly theirs. Now, this position, we insist, "every person in New York, has a perfect is equivalent to a denial of the Right of Prop- right to his equal share of the soil" of New York, erty in Land. It denies the light of any one then, most certainly, he has an equally perfect man to hold a certain piece of Land for himself, right to his equal share of whatever that soil, and as his own, and to exclude from it all other directly or indirectly, may produce. persons in the world. This is a necessary and The original proposition, therefore, from inevitable inference. For, if all the men born which the Tribune starts, in its advocacy of Aswithin certain limits, at any time own all the sociation, is a denial of the Right of Property land within those limits, and if one thousand in Land ; and inclusively a denial of the right more men are afterward born within the same of Property in any thing whatever. Now we limits, then, according to the Tribune's theory, must not be understood to say that the Tribune the land within those limits will be then owned, does this actually and consciously; it will, probin equal shares, by one thousand more men than ably, promptly disavow any such opinion. But held it before. Of course, then, these equal we do assert, and we think we have proved, shares must become smaller than they were that the ground-principle of its whole System, before.; or, in other words, each man of the the elementary proposition with which it starts, original holders of the land must part with a the very principle which shapes its whole portion of that which he then accounted his. theory of Rights and Obligations, does, of neBut the right of property involves necessarily cessity, involve these results. If that principle the right of retention, of supreme and perma- is true, these results must follow ; and the Trinent dominion : and if this right of retention be bune can not disavow the results, without distaken away, the right of property no longer ex- avowing the principle also. ists. Now the Tribune's theory does actually Now it can scarcely be necessary, at least at destroy this right of retention ; and it, there- present, to establish the right of absolute Propfore, as we alledged at the start, denies that I erty, either in Land or in any thing else. God Land can be rightfully owned by anybody. gave to man, not simply the use, but the dominThe same conclusion may be reached by a re- ion, the property, the ownership of the Earth. verse process of reasoning. Suppose that the His declared object in doing so, was to secure Tribune concedes that a man may be the actual its cultivation. At first, when there were but and exclusive owner of a certain portion, say few men upon the Earth, they did not find it one acre, of the soil of New York. Another needful to cultivate it much, and so they did man may, of course, acquire an equally rightful not care to own it;—and thus it remained untitle to the adjoining acre; and this process cultivated and unowned. But when men inmay rightfully go on until every acre of the soil creased in number, it became essential to till of New Yoik may become the rightful property the Earth ;—no man could till land of which he of somebody. Now suppose other men to be had not the property, either original and comhorn within the limits of the same State : they plete, or derived and limited : and thus, out of could not rightfully own any portion of the soil, ' the very necessity of the case, grew the right because others have already acquired a rightful of property in land, and so the right of property and exclusive ownership in the whole of it. But in the products thereof. That right was essenthe Tribune declares explicitly that they would tial—was necessary to secure the cultivation of be wrongfully deprived of it—that each one of the Earth, and so the fulfillment of God's dethem has a " perfect right" to his " equal share." sign. From it grew Agriculture, Commerce, The Tribune, therefore, must deny the principle and Industry in all its forms. Passion and with which we started, that one man can right- avarice threatened to disturb or destroy it, and fully be the exclusive OWNER of any part of the hence grew up Law for its protection. Out of earth's surface. This is the fundamental princi- the institution of Property, therefore, which ple fiom which the Tribune starts in its advo- I grew from the law of Nature and of God, arose 8 ASS0CIATI01N DISCUSSED. the fabric of Civilized Society. This, which is I were, then universally despised, and she was the order of Nature, reverses, it will be seen, scarcely honored with the " pitying contempt of the order of the Tribune. That paper insists j smiles." Do those persons who thus regarded that Society creates property, when in truth it her fundamental doctrines then, realize that is its creature. Property is the root of the I they are now daily proclaimed and urged upon tree of which Society is the trunk ; and Society, I the public ear, by one of the ablest, most adroit, i in turn, as it is the product, becomes guardian and most influential leaders of the Whig party] of the right of individual property. Property And are they thoughtless enough to suppose, has always originated every thing like order, that this can go on, from year to year, without civilization, and refinement in the world. It producing an effect 1 has always been the mainspring of energy, enThe Tribune has commenced its discussion terprise, and all the refinements of life. Evils of Association by an elaborate exposition of its are of course developed in connection with i t ; theory of Property in Land. It regards this but they are accidental and comparatively tri- theory as essential to the Social System which fling. Without it, they would be increased a it advocates; and we have examined its funthousand fold, and would exist alone and with- damental principles precisely as they have been out relief. Without it civilization would be un- stated by itself. We have not sought nor deknown—the face of the Earth would be a desert, sired to hold it responsible for any thing out of and mankind transformed into savage beasts. its own columns. But for what it does state, There is no such " law of Nature" as that in for the influence which these statements have which the Tribune finds its sanction for the exerted, and for the actual effect which they doctrines it promulgates. There is no « law of have produced, the Tribune must certainly ex* Nature" which gives to every man a " perfect pect, and can not refuse, to be held accountable right" to his " equal share" of the Earth's sur- in this discussion. We urge, then, as a part face. No man born now can stand in the same of our case against " Association as the Tribune relations to the earth which Adam held: the understands and teaches it,"that the Tribune's " law of Nature" has forbidden it. That law advocacy of the fundamental principles upon brings men into the world under a certain sys- which it rests has produced a vast and most tem of circumstances, which have rightfully injurious effect upon society, in almost every and in due course of nature grown up around department of action and of thought. We conhim: that is the world into which he is born, tend that these principles should be disproved and no "law of Nature" impels or requires him and rejected by the great body of right-thinking to overthrow that system, in order to secure his men, because their constant, skillful and zealous fancied rights. proclamation by the Tribune has done, and is Now let it not be said that these are idle! doing, infinite evil to the best interests of Society speculations—mere truisms which no one dis-1 and the State. As proof of the effect they have putes, and which it is a waste of time to pro- already produced, we refer to the change they mulgate and discuss. Let it not be said that have effected, first, in the Tribune itself, and the Tribune entertains no such extravagant I then, in the public mind. With the Tribune theories as those set forth, and urges no such j these principles are not lightly entertained, nor application of them to the practical affairs of are they simply the play of a speculative and life. We are anxious to redeem this discus- ingenious mind. They lie at the basis of its sion from any such reproach; and we insist whole System of Politics and Morality. They upon the fact, that these principles are applied color all its views of Life, all its notices of the to the concerns of daily life, that they have | most common events, all its sketches of characalready, to a very great extent, shaped and ter and of fact. They mould its political theoguided the public sentiment, and that they are j ries and dictate its political measures. Instead slowly but surely creating a new habitude of j of advocating, as once it did, a distribution of thought and of action, in every department of the proceeds arising from the sales of the Public civil and of social life, as one of direct perti-1 Lands, among the States, which are its rightful nence, and of immense importance, in the bear- owners, it now demands that all landless men ings and arguments of this discussion. Let shall receive from that source the " equal shares" those who deem these matters of no import- to which, "by a law of Nature," they are said ance, look back to the state of the public mind to have a " perfect right.'''' The Tribune has ten years ago, when precisely these same fun- long contended that national and individual damental principles were proclaimed in this good require a diversity of national pursuits,— city by Fanny Wright. We intend no dis- that Manufactures must be built up, and men respect, and none is implied, to any one, by this induced to embark in that branch of industry, allusion to the fact, that these same principles for employment and an independent support. at that day, when preached by that woman, But now it insists upon the " perfect right" of found no adherents except in a small company every man to land whereon to produce what he gathered from the most radical and ignorant needs for his subsistence. We cite, therefore, portion of the Loco Foco party. She then de- the case of the Tribune itself, as directly in nounced the rich as spoilers of the poor: land- point, and as showing that these principles, owners as robbers of those who owned no land ; which concern the foundation of property and the laws of Society as essentially unjust; and the rights thereof, are injurious and wrong, the things that are, as the exact antipodes of because they are undermining and gradually the things that should be. She, too, demanded destroying sound and important doctrines of the reconstruction of Society; and enforced which the Tribune itself has hitherto been the her claims by earnest appeals to the poverty I advocate. And if it proceeds, as it certainly and the wretchedness which may at any time will, to carry these principles to their full exbe found upon the earth. She and her doctrines tent, it must convert the political party with A S S O C I A T I O N DISCUSSED. 9 which it acts, into a new party, made up from I originally wrong, and that no more such should all existing parties, and taking its stand upon be made, I have never advocated the revocation the fundamental propositions, whica have form- of any which have been lawfully and honestly ed the theme of these remarks. procured. I do not hold that a newly-dis* In further proof of the dangerous tendency of covered or long-forgotten truth invalidates the these views of the Tribune, we refer to the acts of the legitimate authority which were effect which they have had upon the public done in good faith in opposition to the dictates mind. Is it not evident to every one, who has of that truth. I do not hold that all lands can watched the current of public thought, that they be equally divided between this or any future have changed the tone of public sentiment, upon generation, nor that they ought to be. What I many most important points 1 Look at the facts propounded and still maintain is simply this :— already cited. What shocked the public when Civilized Society, having divested a large portion Fanny Wright proclaimed it, in the Tribune of mankind of any right to the Soil, their natural enlists their championship, or at least their resource for employment and sustenance, is bound toleration. Principles which, when urged by to guarantee them an OPPORTUNITY TO LABOR* Locofocos, were denounced as radical and and to secure to them the just Recompense of such destructive, when put forth by a leading Whig Labor. That is my fundamental proposition. press, become simply milestones of " Progress" Refrain from beating the air and admit or disand " Reform." In 1840, O. A. Brownson, then pute it. an active Locofoco, published an elaborate procOf course, you will perceive that I am just lamation of his belief that no man could right- as strenuous an advocate of «' a diversity of fully bequeath property, which he owned, to his National pursuits" as ever, and of Distributing posterity; and claimed that it should be thrown among the States, for enduring uses, the Prointo a common stock. The public sentiment ceeds of the Public Lands, so long as those was aroused ;—leading Whig presses published lands shall continue to be sold. What I mainly the review in full, and held it up as a beacon desire with regard to the Public Lands is a whereby to warn the citizens of the Union from Limitation of the area thereof which any man the rocks of Radicalism upon which the Locofo- may hereafter acquire and hold, whether dicos would wreck the ship of State. Now the rectly or at second-hand. That Limitation doctrine that no man can rightfully own land at established, it will be a matter of secondary all, finds an advocate in one of the leading Whig consequence that they continue to be sold at a presses of the City of New7 York ! And many moderate price, or be apportioned at free cost sober-minded, sound-headed, thoroughly con- to those who need them. servative Whigs, are excessively annoyed that Your allusion to Fanny Wright, utterly unany one should deem the fact of the least im- warranted by any evidence adduced by you, or portance ! by any facts within my knowledge, does not These are the considerations which we oppose surprise me. I was well aware from the outto the fundamental principles of Association, as set, that your course would be to appeal unthey are set forth in the Tribune's article of scrupulously to prejudices, bugbears, and nickNov. 20th, to which that paper will consider names, to parry the dictates of Reason, Justice and Humanity. I do not believe Fanny Wright this our reply. ever propounded or held views identical with mine respecting the Public Lands and the Right to Laber, but 1 shall not desert or deny a truth From the Tribune, Nov. 26th, 1846. because she or any one else has proclaimed it. I should prefer next to take up and demonLETTER II. strate the necessity of a radical and thorough To the Editor of the Courier and Enquirer : Reform of Society, if it be deemed desirable, to I DO not see how any man could, with my preserve the Laboring Class anywhere from opening article before him, have misstated its the degradation and misery which has already positions as you have done. That, in a state befallen a large proportion of the landless mulof Nature, all men had an equal right to the titude in Europe, and preeminently in Great Soil, and that each had a right to appropriate Britain and Ireland. To my mind it is absoto his own use any portion of it requisite for lutely demonstrable—nay, demonstrated—that the supply of his own wants and not already such degradation and misery are the results thus appropriated by another, is a truth of the of causes and influences inherent in our present most palpable character. That Civilized So- Social framework, and not to be eradicated ciety has substituted a different law for that until that framework shall be essentially of Nature on this subject, is equally manifest. changed. At this moment the farming laborers But what then? Does it follow that the J of England produce twice as much grain to the change must necessarily have originated in hand as the same labor produced three centuinjustice 1 That, surely, is not my position. { ries ago, yet receive far less bread for their Civilized Society, according to my understand- ' year's wages than they then did, and are actuing of it, divests the individual of many im- ally in worse condition than were their ancesportant natural rights, and may justly do soj tors of the Sixteenth Century. So is it in upon proof that the general good is thereby France, in Germany, in Italy. The incomes promoted, and that the individual receives a of the Wealthy and the destitution of the Poor fair compensation for that of which he is de- are steadily increasing, side by side, throughprived. I hold, therefore, that there may be a out the civilized world. I see no remedy for legitimate and just appropriation of lands and ihis under our present system of Society. I succession thereto; and, though I cannot doubt jam sure it may be remedied, without despoilthat large grants of land to any individual were]i n g or injuring any one, on the basis of Asso- 10 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. ciation. Of that basis let me now give an I 3. Economy of Household Labor, Cooking, Washing, &c. The saving herein must be immense, even outline s k e t c h : — By Association, then, I understand, under this if one half the families should chose to take theii t e r m I advocate, a Social Order which shall meals privately in their several apartments, as they substitute for Q t e ^ o s e n t Township, Commune, would be at perfect liberty to do. 4. Economy and perfection in Implements of CulParish, School District, or whatever the small- ture and Industry generally. The farmer of limited est Social Organization above the Family may means can not now afford to supply himself with be termed, a Phalanx or Social Structure ex- the best implements of his calling. He can barely pressly calculated to secure to all its members afford to purchase the variety of Plows actually (who shall at t h e outset be t w o or three hun- required to perform all kinds of Plowing with the dred, but ultimately be increased to near two greatest economy and in the best manner, and add thereto Cultivators, Harrows, Scythes, &c. & c , thousand) t h e following blessings:— but to furnish himself with Planting, Sowing, Reap1. A Home, commodious, comfortable, and perma- ing and Mowing Machines, Stump Extractors, Fannent so' long as each has means to pay'the fair ning Mills, &c. & c , is utterly beyond his ability. annual rent thereof, or is willing to labor to defray Yet every day is adding to the number and perfecsuch rent-^and from which he can never be ousted tion of these labor-saving inventions, without which because of "sickness, infirmity, or other misfortunes. the farmer of the next age will find himself thrown 2. An Education, complete and thorough* Moral, completely in the rear, and unable to compete in Physical, and Intellectual, commencing in infancy | products and prices with his wealthy neighbor. I and continued without interruption to perfect ma- I would gladly enlarge on this point, which is more turity, and longer if desirable. or less applicable to every department of human 3. A *S^§4Jstence, in infancy and childhood, at the effort and industry. The time is at hand when the cost of their lespective parents^ in after-life from Laboring Man must own the best Machinery, or be the fruits of their own Industrfor from the income , owned by the owners of it. of their several investments, if such there b e ; but 5. Economy in the cost of Education. Five to in case of orphanage, sickness, infirmity, or decrepi- I eight hundred children, living under the one roof, tude without propeity, then at the charge of the having there the choicest Maps, Globes, Orreries, Phalanx, as now of the Township, City, or County. Chemical Apparatus, & c , with Free Lectures at 4. Opportunity to Labor secured to each individual, least weekly on the various Useful Arts and man, woman, and child, at all times, whatever his Sciences, alternating with their teachers from the or her capacity, skill, or efficiencyy gaidens and work-rooms to the schools of vaiious 5. Just and fair Recompense to each for the labor grades, would learn immensely faster than any now actually performed by him or her, with assured op- do, while the cost of instruction would be vastly portunity for constant Improvement in Arts, Proces- less than now. Under proper regulations as to the ses, and industrial ability. distribution of time, all life would become Educa6. Agreeable Social Relations, including facilities tion, and a youth of twenty would often have acfor frequent and familiar intercourse with those quired a far more thorough and solid intellectual eminent for wisdom, virtue, learning, piety, or phil- cultuie than is now usually perfected in our highest anthropy. seminaiies. 7. Simple and ever-increasing Libraries, Cabinets, 6. Economy in Commercial Exchanges. The Philosophical Apparatus, &c. &c. with stated eve- Phalanx, purchasing for all its members at wholening Lectures on Chemistry, Botany, Agriculture, sale for ready pay and selling in the same manner, Geology, and all branches of desirable Knowledge. would effect an exchange of the products it could Such is a rude outline of the facilities to be spare for the commodities it should need at a twentieth part of the present cost, and thus save to Proafforded, with some of the more palpable ends ductive Labor at least one-fifth of its earnings nov. to be attained, by the Association of a number necessarily paid in mercantile profits and in the cost of families in the ownership and occupancy of of tiansmitting its surplus products to their cona single Domain of Five or Six Thousand Acres, sumers. 7. Economy in the cost of Medical Attendance, the occupants inhabiting a single edifice or Phalanstery located on its most eligible site, Legal Proceedings, (rendeied in good part needless,) &c. &c. and cultivated by the labor of all or nearly all the male members of suitable age, while a por—But I am transcending my limits, and must tion of them, larger or smaller according to the stop. Bear in mind that I regard the Reform season and the weather, with most of the wo- which Association proposes, and of which I men and children, will be employed in the va- have here sketched but the dry skeleton withrious Manufactures prosecuted by the Phalanx. out the animating soul, as one to be efFected Some of the external advantages and physical cautiously, gradually, and with due regard to economies to be secured by the ultimate perfec- all existing interests. I do not anticipate its tion of this Social Order are as follows :— consummation in one year, nor in ten. But 1. Economy of Land. Under the guidance of that the end it proposes is one to which Society scientific and thorough agriculturists, an Associa- should gravitate—nay, to which it does gravition, with its immense gardens, orchards, vineyards, tate—that it should be studied, labored for, &c. would produce four times as much as is usually lived for, prayed for, until attained, is the arobtained from a like area, and would require not dent conviction of H. G. more than two acres (ultimately much less) to each occupant, instead of the ten or twenty acres' average of our present farms, to each person subsisted From the Tribune of the same date as above. thereon. " From the Courier and Enquirer of Nov. %0th. 2. Economy of Fences and of Fuel. The Domain cultivated jointly by five hundred families would not " I t will be seen * * * that the Tribune require so much fencing as would be necessary on promises to commence the discussion. We conone-tenth of the same area cut up into twenty little gratulate ourselves on having brought it, by dint farms in the occupancy of so many diverse families; of constant and close efforts, to this point, and and the Unitary Edifice of an Association would be await the fulfillment of this promise with some dethoroughly and equably warmed with one tenth of gree of hope that it will not, because it can not be the fuel now required to warm imperfectly the iso- avoided. We trust and believe that some degree lated dwellings of four or five hundred families. of advantage to the public will accrue from the dia-' ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 11 e«$8k>n, to which, it will be remembered, we were The Tribune makes a new statement of its originally challenged by the Tribune upon certain position, which is briefly this:— specific and well defined terms, which we join with 1. In a state of Nature all men had an equal right that paper in hoping will be ' carefully remembered,' We theiefore copy them, and ask the Trib- to the soil. 2. Civilized Society has deprived a large portion une to do the same, in order that they may be distinctly understood by the readers of both papers :— of them of that soil, to which they had this right. 3. Society is therefore bound, by natural justice, to ' From the Tribune of Sept. 8. recompense them for that land; and the Tribune * As soon as the State Election is fairly over—say proposes that the guaranty of an " opportunity to November 10th—we will publish an article, filling labor" shall be that recompense. a cofumn of the Tribune, very nearly, in favor of Here, as before, it is clearly manifest, that Association as we understand it; and upon the Courier's copying this and replying, we will give the only rightful claim of the kind specified, which the landless portion of mankind can have place to its reply, and respond; and so on, until each party shall have published twelve articles on upon society, must be based upon some wrong its own;side, aaid twelve on the other, which shall inflicted upon them. Unless society has defulfill the terms of this agreement. All the twelve prived them of land to which they had a perfect articles of each party shall be published, without right, it owes them no recompense. If it owes abridgment or variation in the Daily, Semi-weekly, and Weekly editions of both papers. Afterward, them the recompense claimed by the Tribune, each party will of course be at liberty to comment it can only be upon the ground that they were at pleasure in his own columns. In order that unjustly deprived of land to which they had a neither paper shall be crowded with this discussion, natural and a perfect right. If that deprivation one article per week only shall be given on either was not unjust, no recompense is due. The side, unless the Courier shall prefer greater dis- Tribune insists that a recompense is due: and patch.' " it, therefore, unavoidably implies now, what it VO3 Our commencement of the Discussion openly asserted before, that the holders of land opened on the very same morning with the have despoiled those who own none, of the above. The Courier's readiness to discuss " equal share" to which, " by a law of nature," with us on "certain SPECIFIC and well defined they had a "perfect right." If Society does terms," is evinced by opening on its part in an owe to the landless man the guaranty deaiticle of nearly three times the length expressly manded, as a recompense for having devested agreed upon ! all which we are expected to him of land, it can only be upon the ground that publish, and do publish herewith. How much the land was rightfully his own. If it was farther this imposition is to be carried, for the rightfully his own, by a law of nature, it must sake not so much of discussing or controvert- have been wrongfully seized and held by another. ing what the Tribune, proposes, as of telling the And so we leturn to the precise point from public what an exceedingly mischievous and which the Tribune set out, and from which it dangerous paper the Tribune is, and how simi- now endeavors to escape, namely, that the lar its views are to those of Fanny Wright, & c , actual appropriation of land by individuals—in &c, remains to be seen. We now give fair other woids, the existing ownership of Land— notice, however, that we intend to keep sub- is contrary to the Law of Nature, and a wrong stantially within the limits agreed upon, and inflicted upon those who own no land. This, shall hold ourselves bound hereafter to publish as we have already shown, is equivalent to a of the Courier's articles so much only as comes denial of the Right of Property in Land, or in within the rule. That paper will do as it sees any thing else. fit about publishing, when we request it, an exWe said in our first article that the Tribune tra quantity equal to the overplus which it has would undoubtedly disavow any such opinion ; so unjustly saddled upon us to-day. and so it attempts to do. But how can it do so in the face of its fundamental principle? While it persists in urging that the landless Fiom the Courier and Enquirer, Nov. 30, 1846. have a claim upon the owners of land for a REPLY" TO LETTER II. recompense—while it insists that Society is IN its first article upon Association, the Trib- bound to guarantee to them an equivalent for mre attempted to place the matter of Social the land of which they have been deprived, how Reform upon the ground of abstract right. It can it possibly disown the fundamental principle set forth the fundamental proposition out of upon which this claim is founded 1 The two which its theory grows, and drew therefrom the must stand or fall together. Either the landinferences which its object required. We copied less man has been wrongfully deprived of land that ptoposition in the Tribune's own language ; to which he had a perfect right, or Society owes and proved that it could not be true, because it him no recompense. The Tribune can not led, inevitably and by logical necessity, to the maintain the latter, and yet reject the former. absolute denial of the Right of individual Prop- If " Society is bound to guarantee the landless erty in Land or in any thing else. The Tribune an opportunity to labor," it can only be upon in reply charges us with having " misstated its the ground that it has done them wrong—that positions." The charge is so absurd that it it has deprived them of land to which they had becomes simply ludicrous. We copied the very a right, and for which, as yet, it has paid them language of the Tribune itself. We gave to it no return. precisely the meaning which common sense The Tribune, fhen, does still virtually, as it required. We drew from it simply the deduc- did in terms before, assert, that " every person tions which were unavoidable. None of these born within the State of New York had a perthings does the Tribute dispute. How then fect right to his equal share of the soil thereof;" can it charge us with having "misstated its that Society has wrongfully deprived him of positions V that right, and that it owes him therefor a 12 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. recompense. Nor can that paper evade the j gether upon this single farm. This is its claim, s full responsibility of such a declaration, as it I but it remains to be substantiated. As yet the seeks to do by adroitly changing the terms of j Tribune has given no proof of its efficacy, nor its proposition, and substituting for it the truism, I has it even informed us of the terms or method that " in a state of nature all men had ,an equal of Association. In whom is the property to be right to the soil." That proposition is not true, j vested 1 How is labor to be remunerated ? in any sense available for the Tribune's pur- What share is capital to have in the concern 1 poses. Men are not now born into any such By what device are men to be induced to labor 1 " state of nature'- as that in which it could be j How are moral offenses to be excluded^ or puntrue. They are not born into any state which ! ished 1 These, and a great variety of other gives them an " equal right to the soil " They queries, must be answered before we can have were born, not into a state of nature, but into a any precise and definite notion of the nature civil state—a state molded into form by the and form of the Association proposed. Any institution of Property; a state which has discussion of the system as such, therefore, grown out of that institution, as the tree grows must of course be postponed until the Tribune from its root. They were born into it with sets forth clearly and in detail the organization, many rights which are perfect; but among essential character, and proposed advantages of, them is not a right to an " equal share of the such an Association. soil." They are not deprived of that right by The Tribune professes to have been u aware, Society, because they never possessed it. So- from the outset, that our course would be to ciety owes them no recompense, for it has done appeal unscrupulously to prejudices, bugbears, them no wrong. Thus falls to the ground the and nicknames to parry the dictates of Reason, new fundamental proposition of the Tribune, Justice, and Humanity." Language like this is which is simply a repetition of its old one, that quite uncalled for. It is utterly unwarranted Society is bound, by natural justice and right, by any thing we have said.. We need hardly to guarantee to the landless an opportunity to say that we regard the Tribune's doctrines, labor, as a recompense for the land of which it against which we are contending, as any thing has deprived them. but the " dictates of Reason, Justice, and HuNow the Tribune must not represent us as manity." In claiming them as such, the Tribsaying that such a guaranty is not desirable, une very coolly assumes every point in conor as opposing its attainment by any just and troversy, and reproaches us very coarsely feasible means. We do no such thing. We for not yielding to its pretensions. In attempted only, thus far, have denied the validity of the vindication of its assertion, that we appeal to Tribune's claim, upon the ground of abstract " prejudices, bugbears, and nicknames," it only and absolute Right. We deny that any such specifies our mention of the name of Fanny change in Society is demanded by Justice ; and Wright, well knowing at the same time, that that there is any thing in the essential relation we expressly disavowed disrespect to any one, between the owners of land and those who own and only referred to it as designating a point none, which would impose upon the former the of time, in the progress of radical sentiments. obligations claimed. We do so, because the The fact of such progress, which was the imclaim is based up^on principles false in them- portant point of our remark, the Tribune does selves, and destructive to Society. It can not not question, or even notice. We regard it as be maintained without involving, as we have undeniable, and as highly important in connecshown, the absolute denial of the Right of tion with this discussion. It proves the necesProperty ; and in maintaining it, as the Tribune sity of directing public attention to these do. Their families tions" of Natural Rights were those which gave sutler ; the grocers, coal-dealers. &c, are losers the impulse to our Revolution, and that by them in custom and profits ; the Aims-House is crowdonly can that Revolution be justified, is most ed, and private charity taxed to the point of notorious. When you connect his "theory of exhaustion ; thousands annually die of fevers fundamental politics" with Infidelity, you vir- and other diseases born of Destitution ; tboutually libel the cause of American Independence. sands more are driven by despair to intoxication And "drunken Infidel" as you term Paine, I —and all this vast and ever-increasing tide of never heard that he turned traitor to the Liberal human anguish and wo might be arrested or principles and associates of his earlier years, or at least greatly diminished, if Society could but died the pensioner and tool of Royalty and discover and adopt means of securing constant Aristocracy. As you do not deny that your employment and tolerable recompense to its view of the oiigin and fundamental basis of less fortunate members. Can this be a task Society and Government is substantially beyond the capacity of the Nineteenth Century 1 Burke's, and as you are surely mistaken both I am sure that if the results of a Presidential in your allegation that Burke did not write to Election had depended on the solution of this refute Paine, and your reason for it (that great problem, it would have been triumphantly Burke's great work on this subject was written solved before this time. When every sounu first) — for though Paine's "Rights of Man" horse or ox finds employment and has a positive was published after Burke's Essays, all its fun- I market value beyond the cost of its keeping, it damental ideas had been put forth in his eailier can not be that Man alone must be left to die writings in defense of the American cause because his freely proffered muscular and inprior to and during the Revolution—I believe tellectual powers will not command the bread which would keep him from famishing. I need say no more on this head. Our age has already witnessed great strides And now to resume my general argument: We have already seen that Association is the toward an Organization of Industry, and the vital element of Society—that it enters into and ] work is still rapidly progressing. Manufactomeasures Human Progress from the rudest I ries, Railroads, Mining Companies, &c, &c , are condition of the Savage to the most refined among the proofs and the fruits of this general Civilization, so that we might accurately say tendency, as Banks, Life Insurances, Mutual of a particular People, not that they were moie Insurances, Odd Fellowship, &c , are evidences or less Civilized, hut that they were more or on another side of the universal tendency of less Associated. A Civilized People grind their Civilized Society toward Association. In all, grain at common mills, instead of pounding it the principle of mutuality and reciprocity is the in family mortars, travel on common Roads and animating one ; and those most vehement Steamboats, instead of by separate trails and I against systematic and many-sided Association, in individual canoes, educate their children in j are individually sure that on this side or on that, Common Schools, have common Asylums, Col- a farther approach to it is feasible and would leges, Railroads, Canals, Banks, &c. The ques- prove beneficial. Perhaps the Manufacturing tion which separates us is not so much one of Capitalists of our day are, as a class, as hostile kind as of degree, and may be fairly stated thus: as any other to complete Association, and yet Is it practicable and desirable to multiply the they have done more than any other class to common interests and common efforts of civil- demonstrate the vast economies and efficiency ized society as much more as they have already of Organized Industry. One hundred persons been multiplied in the progress fiom Barbarism employed in a factory now fabricate as much to Civilization 1 You insist that the point al- cloth as many hundreds could do by isolated ready reached in Civilized Society is the ex-1 effort; and the march of improvement in this ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 27 department of Industry is exceedingly rapid, as greatly to preserve the health and prolong the life I doubt not it will be in Agriculture when duly of each worker, who now suffers from uwdoe exorganized and conducted on a scale of like mag- posure to the elements in farming, and undue connificence. The evils we now experience in finement and restraint from air and exercise in manufactniing. Manufacturing Industry result from its one4. There would be no loss of time by reason of sided and partial Organization. Having been the weather, but all seasons would be productive. organized by Capital alone, and with a primary 5. Each individual would be trained to expeitness view to the advantage and profit of Capital, the and efficiency in two or more different vocations, so coveted results, Economy and Efficiency in as at the most to be twice as hard to starve as at Production, have been attained; but with no present. corresponding benefit, often a positive injury, to I might extend this enumeration, but enough. the laborer, who frequently finds his recompense I think all must see that Association, while diminished as his product is increased. Rare guaranteeing Liberty in Labor and Justice in skill or talent, industrial or financial, may be the award of Profits, would not merely inable, because of its rarity, to command a liberal sure immense economies in Consumption but salary ; but mere Labor is unable even to stipu- an immensely-increased efficiency in Production late the hours of its own daily application, but also. It is far within the truth to estimate the must work as it is ordered in a schedule or code production of an Association of 1500 persons of by-laws which it had no voice in framing. at double the aggregate they would produce in In turn, it has but a slender and remote interest our present isolated, competitive relations, in the goodness of its own product, the faithful- while the aggregate consumption requisite to ness of its own work ; if the day is worn out or the enjoyment of plenty and comfort would be the piece woven, so as to pass muster and com- at least fifty per cent. less. Now let us concede mand the stipulated price, all is effected that that exact justice in distribution would not be the workman usually cares for. If his fabrics or attainable—that some members might receive wares rise in the market, his employer may ten per cent, less than their absolute earnings make a fortune, but nothing comes thence to —would they be likely to revolt at this, while him ; if the goods fall, the employer may be they still had abundance of every thing, includruined, while he can lose nothing unless it be ing Education, Libraries, Social advantages, his employment. Hence indifference, eye-ser- &c , with an unfailing home for their children, vice, indolence on the one hand, with avarice, and at least double the annual saving that they tyranny, and meager recompense on the other. could realize out of Association'? If they would, Le,t me endeavor, in contrast with this, to give they must be of the sort you instance who some idea of Manufacturing in Association : would delight in so conducting their religious The fundamental basis of Association, we worship as to annoy worshipers of a different creed, and who would be likely to insist on havhave seen, is a proportional distribution of products to Labor, Capital and Talent, according ing all the children educated after their own to the just claims of each. Every Association pattern. I apprehend you will find very few of will prosecute several branches of Manufacture, this sort who can ever be induced to believe H. G. in order to give the widest possible range of Association practicable. employment, and secure, as nearly as may be, to each member opportunity to live by what ever useful Labor may be most agreeable to From the Courier and Enquirer, Jan. 6, 1847. him. Every member will be attached to one or more groups organized for the prosecution of REPLY TO LETTER VI. certain species of Manufacture. In mild, pleasW E have now said nearly all that we deem ant weather, the great majority will he employed in the fields and gardens, Agricultural employ- necessary concerning what may be called the ment being then most agreeable and pressing. Political Economy of Association, and are Few beside women and children will be left therefore prepared to advance to a discussion within doors, unless there be an extraordinary of its MORALITIES, a term which may comprise demand for some species of Manufacture, tempt- all its provisions for Educaiion, Social intering some to persist therein by the assurance of course, &e., &c. We have already shown that a larger recompense But a stormy day will the Tribune's position, that " the property of an at any time transfer hundreds from the fields to Association is to be vested in those who furthe factories and shops, where in Winter the nish the Capital to establish it," and that Labor great majority will find employment. Now would be rewarded by a share of its products, mark the difference between Manufacturing in would % inevitably perpetuate the relation of Landlord and Tenant. The Tribune now asAssociation and out of it: serts that in " Capital" it meant to include the 1. In Association, the workers will choose their product of Labor; the evasion is too palpaown superintendents, foremen or overseers, and regulate their own hours of daily toil. They have ble to require special notice. How the Labor bestowed upon a domain can be called part of now no voice in regard to either. 2. In Association, the workers receiving a settled the "Capital contributed to establish it" is beproportion of the price realized for their product, will yond our comprehension. And if, moreover, have a direct interest in making the fabric as per- men may acquire property, ownership in land, fect as possible, so as to secure for it a preference in hy simply working upon it, and thus rendering the market, and a high price. Should an advance it more valuable, the original owner is certainly be realized, on this account, or any other, a large proportion of it will accrue directly to the workers, divested of his right without his consent. The whereas it now falls entirely to the share of Capital. position involves, as may easily be shown, that 3. The frequent and ready alternations from denial of the ripht of propeity in Land, which Manufacturing to Agricultural labor would tend has already been deduced from the Tiibune's 28 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. fundamental position. Of this point, therefore, I we shall say no more at present, hut proceed to another branch of the genera) subject. In our last article we endeavored to show that the inherent vices and weaknesses of human nature would render impossible such a community of interest and of life as the Tribune advocates. The essential selfishness of man would be at war with the essential principle of Association, and would inevitably destroy it While men continue vicious or imperfect, while they are governed or influenced by prejudice, passion, or self-seeking in any of its forms, they can not combine and carry forward such a community as that proposed The Tribune, while professing to reply to this obijection, actually concedes its lull force and validity. Says the Editor of that paper : the Water which is from the first to turn it ;-— who should look to the motion of a watch for the creation of the main-spring, which alone can give it motion. It is precisely the error which the would-be inventors of PeipetuaJ Motion have constantly committed. Can any thing be more palpably impossible 1 And is not this defect fatal to the whole system! Does it not strike at its very root 1 The personal reform of individual men must precede Association. That reform must be effected by some other agency than that which Association offers. That agency is Christianity. We have a right, therefore, to insist that Reformers shall commence their labors hy making individual men Christians : by seeking their personal, moral transformation. When that is accomplished, all needed Social Reform will either " I know that" vicious peisons " must have a new have been effected or rendered inevitable. spirit breathed into them before they can comprehend Now to all this the Tribune replies simply, and act upon the vital piinciples of Social Unity. that "Association will demonstrate its own I know well that an Association of indolent or practicability, in spite of all your (our) cavils;" covetous persons could not endure without a moral and points us to the Rapp and other communitransformation of its members" ties, which, it is alledged, have succeeded. Now it seems to us that this concession is We shall not enter upon this point now, farther fatal to the whole theory of Association. It than to say, that the Tribune must not mistake certainly implies that Individual Reform must I its own assertions for arguments : that we precede Social Reform—that the latter must know of no communities which have proved have its root in the former—that Association successful; and that, if they had done so, their can not advance beyond the personal reforma- success would have afforded no conclusive tion of the individuals who compose it. This proof of the practicahility of Association as a point the Tribune concedes; and the same new and universal Social Form, since they have thing has been conceded by some of those who been composed of picked men, and not of men have hitherto been most zealous in support of as they exist in general. We may recur to this Association. Thus, Charles Lane, of whose hereafter. At present we turn our attention to labors in this cause the Tribune has often the provisions of Association for the EDUCATION spoken in the highest terms, publishes in that OF CHILDREN, and to their effect upon the paper, of Dec. 23d., a letter which contains FAMILY Relation. this striking admission :— In our last article, we asked several queries " As in the experiments in the United States, it concerning the system of Education and Rehas been discovered that a justly-prepraed and wellqualified will in every individual comprised in an asso- ligion in an Association. The Tribune gives ciation, is necessary to its success, as well as good, to these queries, and to the objections which we enlightened, and pure habits. Manners which are suggested, the following answer :— quite passable in individuals become intoleiable in " Your mistaken assumptions [with regard to association ; for offenses may be borne during a few minutes where we have little or no inteiest, which, perpetually recurring where our all is affected, wax into grievous injuiies. Thus the conclusion at which most men have ariived, is that which the considerate long ago descried, namely, that a superior race of human beings is requisite to constitute a superior human society. This is the one thing needful. The good arrangements may fairly and safely be left to them." eating] evince a sad unacquaintance with a system which you have for years been denouncing as abomI inable, and imploring every body to understand and execrate as you did. So with regard to Labor, to Education, Religion, earned of setting them- hackmen may be exposed to temptation, but selves up as professional philanthropists, who they would not commit a crime unless the im* do more in visiting the sick, in seeking out and pulse existed within them ; and until that im* relieving the poor, in encouraging the despond- pulse be removed or ovenuled, vice and sufferent, and in meliorating the condition of the ing will exist under any form of Society that degraded and the destitute, than was ever done can be devised. Nothing else does half so by any Associationist, from its first apostle much to "darken the vision, and arrest the r down to the humblest of his deluded followers arm" of true philanthropy, as the Tribune's* And one of those three individuals, viliified by constant proclamation that, under the exist-. name in the Tribune's article as the selfish, ing System of Society, money given in charity grasping despisers of the poor, has expended is worse than wasted ; that Society is respond more money, and accomplished more actual sible for all existing evils; and that the whole good m aiding the poor, in providing for them social framework, must be reconstructed, before* 36 ASSOCIATION the poor can be relieved Its constant effect is to draw away the attention from what is practical and true, to that which is visionary and false. ' T h e Tribune's reply to what we said of the inevitable and direct effect of Association upon the FAMILY RELATION, amounts to nothing. I t accuses us broadly, but with most cautious vagueness, of gross " misrepresentations," "fraud," unfair quotations, &c. ; but it does not, and it can not, specify an instance in which these charges are not utterly unfounded. W e quoted exactly and fairly in every case ; we proved clearly that the system of EDUCATION, which is to be " o n e and the s a m e " in all Associations, withdraws children from the control of their parents ; denies the rightfulness of parental authority, as well as the duty of filial obedience ; and thus strikes at the very root of the FAMILY, so far as the relation of P a r e n t s and Children is concerned. Our evidence against Association, upon thi3 point, was precise, authentic, and conclusive. It is not impeached, in any particular, by the Tribune. But that paper, in its usual style, attempts to smoothe over the matter, to dilute these several distinct and explicit statements, and then give to them its own assent. Thus Mr. Brisbane asserted that DISCUSSED. the other, in action, affection, possessions, and power. If this be not to destroy the "essentia! charade?" of the marriage relation, then words have lost their meaning. And if this, in connection with the annihilation of Parental authority and Filial obedience, do not involve the DESTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY, then words have no meaning whatever. Yet the Tribune charges us with " gross fraud" for quoting the evidence of this fact, and for founding upon it the inference we have drawn. Now an " inference" may be wrong, but it can scarcely be fraudulent; and as to our quotation, the Tribune will not assert that it was incorrect. Mr. Brisbane's disclaimer of the purpose is entirely irrelevant ; we have proved upon the system the result specified, and that is all with which w e have any concern. T h e Tribune reminds us that under the pressure of social reform, several of our States are c a n y i n g into effect these principles concerning the conjugal relation. T h e fact only affords new evidence of the mischief which the Socialists of the day, and the Socialism of the Tribune, are steadily and adioitly effecting. F e w persons, probably, are in danger of becoming Associationists eo nomine. But the piinciplcs of Association are daily acquiring influence and dominion over the bodies which make our laws, and the public sentiment which gives them " Nature gives to the Child a repugnance for the lessons of the Father ;" that " the Child wishes to authority. Their crafty and zealous dissemicommand, and not obey the Father;" and that " the nation has already aroused a strong spirit of Child should be EXEMPT from obedience to superiors ladicalism in the community, which shows itself in denunciations of the rich, in wanton whom it has not chosen from inclination." contempt of authoiity, and in the bold proclaThis is distinct, explicit, and imperative. T h e mation of sentiments in regaid to the lights of Tribune refers to it as a " suggestion," property which, ten years since, would have 44 That the proper instructors of children, in most been, and indeed were, leceived with alarm in things, are those but little their seniors ;" every section of the country. T h e legislation And, in this form, gives it a qualified endorse- upon the relation of Husband and Wife, to ment. It deals, in the same way, with each of which the Tribune refers, has grown out of the the specific provisions of Association ; and, same spirit. Its tendency and diiect effect are, after all, it puts in the general plea, that if any to separate the two, to '• put asunder," in interof these specific provisions prove " erroneous est, in aciion, and in sympathy, " what God has or pernicious," " experience will set tight those joined together." Its results can not be witwho attempt to obey them." and " they will nessed in a single age, or a single generation ; be promptly discarded " Precisely the same but it would eventually work an entire reorganplea might, of course, be extended to the whole ization of domestic life. It makes the intei ests scheme. If the whole theory of Association of the wife sepamte fiom those of the husband, should prove to be " erroneous," and its prac- and it gives her the power to make them hostice "pernicious," it would probably be "prompt- tile. Instead of being one with him, she may ly discarded ;" but does that relieve from re- become his rival in business, and his worst and sponsibility those who contend that it is both most fatal enemy in all respects. T h e law is just and true, and that it ought to be adopted 1 urged to screen the property of wives from the These details are essential parts of the general dissipation of worthless husbands. For that system ; and just so far as they are set aside, purpose it is not needed, as such cases of hardAnd beside, the system itself is discarded also. T h e Word ship are already provided for. T of God constantly and explicitly commands what are we to think o( legislation w hich makes possible villainy the excuse for punishing and ehildren to obey their parents, and commands parents to instruct their children. Associa- enslaving the good \ Just as wise would it be,' tion rejects and repudiates all this, and sub- to impose handcuffs upon all mankind, lest a stitutes a new theory and new laws of its few should steal. T h e law is speciously urged on grounds of kindness to Woman ; yet it wrould own. So also of its effects upon the Marriage rela- prove her worst enemy, for it would create new tion ; the law of nature and the law of God causes of strife and of suffering, and aggravate combine to require that the Husband and Wife all those that now exist. Such legislation is should be o n e ; that their interest, their sym- false in principle, and would prove most banepathies, their affections and their life, should ful in practice. W e regret, quite as sincerely be identical. Association proposes to make as the Tribune exults, that it finds so much them, in all lespeets, independent of each other, favor with the public. W e regard it as ttie to divide their interests, sunder their attach- I entering wedge, by which Fourierism and Socialments, and make each entirely independent of i ism will, if they can, rend asunder the closest ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 37 reations of life, and in the end prostrate and trious, moral, sober, virtuous adults. Does any annihilate the essential character, and the high- one believe that the difference between the est worth of the FAMILY RELATION. It is one children trained about the Five Points and those of the Mist steps of the downward road, into educated by the Shakers, or under virtuous which the unreasoning and fanatical Innovation and comfort-giving auspices elsewhere, is inof the day is cunningly beguiling the legislation trinsic, and not superinduced by the force of and the public sentiment of portions of our circumstances 1 country. In this evil work, the Tribune is the Let me here make one more effort to show most dangerous agency now in existence ; and you why I believe ours the true practical remethat, too, mainly because it professes to sail dy for our existing Social Evils. Keeping in under another flag. mind what Association is, and how it will certainly (for I believe I take judgment by default on these points) secure to every member Opportunity to labor and produce at all times, with From the Tiibune, Jan. 29th, 1846 the fair and just Recompense of such laborr— that it will secure to each who will work an unLETTER VIII. failing Home, the use of a portion of the Soil on To the Editor of the Cornier and Enquirer: just terms, and insure immense Economies in As PROGRESS is my watchword and the ap- Production, Distribution, and Consumption, so pointed limit of this controversy approaches, I that ten hours' faithful daily labor will procure will endeavor to resist the strong temptation to to the Laborer far more than twice the necesfollow you into an infinity of irrelevant discus- saries and comforts of life he now in the aversions. It seems to me that the Doctrine of Cir- age enjoys—I beg you to consider with me, cumstances—namely, That Circumstances of briefly, a poor man's present relation to Land position, opportunity, encouragement, instruc- and Capital, see what are its innate evils, and tion, temptation, &c , exert a vast and often vital say whether they do not suggest appropriate influence, whether for good or evil, over the for- remedies. mation and quality of the Human Character— Man was ordained to live by Labor; some has already been sufficiently set forth and illus- evade this doom by Riches ; more by Roguery trated. The deduction therefrom that we should and Beggary; but every evasion provokes and systematically endeavor to secure to all, as insures an appropriate penalty. Some—sadnearly as may be, education and training und3r dest case of,all!—would gladly labor for a livesuch circumstances as will tend to incline them lihood, yet can find no opportunity. I personto Industry, Temperance, Virtue, Self-Respect, ally know scores of this latter class now in our instead of those which naturally tempt to Idle- City; I have not a doubt, from data in my ness, Dissipation, Vice, and Debasement, seems possession, that there are Thirty Thovsand in too obvious to need more explicit assertion. I our City this day, vainly seeking or farnishingly pass, then, to another branch of the general ar- awaiting some chance to earn a bare subsistrangement. ence. And this cruel wrong must continue You say that I have not attempted to prove and be aggravated so long as our present SoAssociation the best means of relieving the cial Order endures. Winter insures a great Poor—how truly the reader must judge. Most contraction of business in this and other Cities, surely, if I have not attempted this, I have at- throwing out of employment thousands upon tempted nothing whatever. All my articles thousands who found work of some kind during have had this single aim. True, I have not the greater part of the milder seasons. These, wished to assail nor undervalue other means or I need not urge, are precisely those whose earnagencies of philanthropic effort; yet I deeply ings have been smallest while they had work— feel that other plans contemplate, mainly, a hod-carriers, stevedores, and mere day-laborT mitigation of the woes and degradations which ers of all kinds, w hose weekly earnings can not are the consequences of extreme poverty, while exceed $5 for the 40 weeks in the year when Association proposes a way—in my judgment they can find work—say $200 in all for the suprational and feasible—of reaching the causes of port of a family, in a City where fire-wood costs these calamities, and absolutely abolishing- Pau- from $6 to $10 per cord, and the rent of a very perism, Ignorance, and the resulting Vices. I poor and mean house is oftener $300 than $200. need not, surely, recapitulate my statements of Need I urge that it is very hard for one of these what Association is, and how it will do what it poor men, even if strictly temperate and wisepromises. You yourself seem to admit that ly frugal, to lay up any thing during their betthe evils of Caste, Pauperism, constrained Idle- ter season for the twelve haid weeks of Winness, Intemperance, &o , have been abolished by ter 1 And how are they to live through those the Shakers, under an organization far less fa- weeks 1 The Alms-House can not hold a tenth vorable (it seems to me) than that of Associa- of them ; the City will not aid a fourth of them ; tion. I know you say " the Shakers are virtu- the Association for the Relief of the Poor does ous, not because they belong to a Shaker estab- nobly, yet can scarcely do enough to provide lishment, but because they have within them them with fuel alone Yet the Rent must be virtuous principles ;'' but I ask you to consider paid and the Food obtained—how 1 And do not the fact that these same Shakers are in the all agree that Alms-giving, though laudable and habit of taking gladly any such infants as they vitally necessary, does not tend to remove the can get—foundlings, illegitimates, destitute or- evils which it palliates, but the contrary 1 Does -phans, &c—the very material from which our any one believe that there will be fewer pauHouses of Refuge, Penitentiaries, and Prisons, pers here next Winter for all that Public and arte mainly recruited, and ttaining them up, Private Charity is so nobly doing this Winter 1 with scarcely a failure, into these same indus- Is it not rather probable that there will be more 1 38 ASSOCIATION D I S C U S S E D . But to the other point. In Oregon, where all I worth while, it would he easy to quote abundthe land not actually in occupancy is ftee to antly from the most eminent writers on Politicwhoever wants it, I have not heard that any pro- al Economy in confirmation of this rnelasdioly vision for Pauperism has been found necessary, truth. Now Association is based on the principle though probably some infirm, decrepit, crippled, or idiotic persons are charges upon their rela- of securing to the Laborer the full recompense tives. But a vigorous, willing male or female of his toil. Capital buys the hnd7 and receive® beggar is, I presume, an extreme rarity on the an annual dividend proportioned to its investwaters tributary to the Columbia. In Iowa and ment ; but the annual increase m the aetual (not Wisconsin the case is not much different, for nominal) value of the Land, being the fruit of there wild land is abundant at $ 1 | per acre, and Labor, is passed to the credit of Labor, and eighty acres, with a rude dwelling and twenty gradually forms for it a capital. For instance* acres in fence, may often be bought for the cost an Association commences with a capital of of making the improvements, very nearly. Of $100,000, and with five hundred resident memcourse, Labor is in demand, and will command bers, or one hundred families ; and goes steadvery nearly the value of its product. If we sup- ily onward until, at the expiration of twenpose improved farming land in Wisconsin worth ty years, its lands, edifices, granaries, fences, $10 per acre, the yearly rental which the land- orchards, factories, machinery, &c, <&e , are less cultivator must pay for the use of it will be worth $1,000,000. Daring the interim, Labor less than $1 per acre—say two bushels of j has drawn from the aggregate products its WTheat, three of Rye, or four of Indian Corn ; | subsistence merely, while the fair dividends and this mainly or entirely for the use of the I of Capital and superior Skill have steadily beers improvements made thereon by human labor. ' invested or allowed to remain in the concersi. And this rent will govern the price of Hired | Now at the twenty years' end, the original Capital will probably have about trebled its Labor in that community. But years pass ; the population of Wisconsin investment, while the balance of the increashas swelled to One Million, and, though Prod- ed value will have been from year to year disucts are not increased in average price nor tributed to Labor and Skill, so that the original Land in fertility, yet the improved acre is worth Capital will have been swelled by annual reinin the average some thirty dollars. Now the vestments of income to $300,000, while the othlack-lander, who must buy or rent a portion of er $700,000 will have been distributed to Labor, the soil, must pay for it at this rate ; that is, the or an average of $7,000 to each family, accordprice of six bushels of Wheat, nine of Rye, or ing to the efficiency and frugality of each. But twelve of Corn for the annual use of an acre, no suppositious value will have been given to and in proportion if he buys it. So if he sells r the land—no advance in price not based upon his labor to some owner of land, that owner increased fertility and productiveness; and now will only pay him for that labor a price which the young man commencing with nothing will will leave him a share of the products equiva- be on just as good a footing as one of the origilent to the rent aforesaid. Can any fail to see nal associates. Each will have the full and fair that the market value of Labor (the poor man's recompense of his own Labor, Skill, and Capital; only capital) has been depressed—that the mere none will receive that which justly belongs increase of population from 200,000 to 1,000,000 to another. But under our present Social Orhas diminished the facilities for obtaining a live- der nearly the whole $1,000,000 worth of proplihood although much land may yet remain un- erty would, at the twenty years' end, belong to improved 1 But a century afterward the popu- the original capitalists and half a dozen of the lation of Wisconsin will have increased to more scheming among the laborers. 3,000,000, and now the arable acre of land will And now a few words on some points raised be worth not less than $60, and its annual in your last article : rent, or the tribute levied by Capital upon Labor " Relieving Social Evils" is very well; we for the naked use of the elements which God think eradicating and preventing them still betcreated for the use of His human creatures, ter, and equally feasible if those who have powwill have been doubled once more. I need not er will adopt the right means, and give them a pursue the illustration. Europe in 1847 is its fair trial. But we do not ask, we have never impressive example. At this moment, the La- wished, all to " abandon their houses and dwell bor of Great Britain employed in Agriculture together under a common roof," & c , &c„ does not receive one-third of its product as its | What we ask is that the wealthy and the philreward, and while the day's work produces I anthropic shall furnish the means of making .probably twice as much now as it would two I one or more full and fair experiments of Assocenturies ago, the producers are worse fed, ciated Life and Labor, with such human matelodged, and subsisted every way than they were rials as will gladly enter upon the experiment. then. I can not doubt that the root of this in- I $400,000 would amply suffice for this purpose* justice is the fact that the few own and enjoy i three-fourths of which would be invested in the Soil, while the many must compete with ( Lands, Buildings, &e , which would be worth each other for the privilege of cultivating it. very nearly their cost, even should our hopes Is it not clear that this competition must be- be utterly blasted. These could be secured by come more and more intense as population in- mortgage or otherwise to the Capitalists, to be creases, and that Labor must continue bidding given up to the resident associates whenever higher and higher for land until they reach that they shall have fairly worked out their own point at which existence with strength to labor temporal emancipation, repaying or amply secan barely be maintained 1 I see clearly that curing to Capital the amount of its investment. this is the goal whereto Labor in our present Meantime, all existing Social Life may rem&ios Social Order is constantly tending. If it were | as it is, not one dwelling he abandoned^ iio? ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 39 one person adventure personally in Associa-1 community, and especially the readers of the tion who does not choose it. Not one particle Tribune, must be less generous and charitable of what you call "the good" need be destroy- than formerly. They must answer this charge ed, until it shall he fairly proved that the bad for themselves; you may answTer it on behalf can really be amended by our plan. An ene- of the community. my of the steam boat in 1808 might as fairly As to '• Family Relations," fraud, unfairness, have argued that Fulton required the abolition &c, I will make a plain statement, and our of all sail vessels to make room for his steam- readers shall judge between us. They know boat. that I at first proposed, and throughout insistI do not consider " Association the palpable ed that we should discuss " Association as I undictate of Christianity" simply because it pro- derstand it," and not as you might see fit to poses to " relieve the wants of the Poor," but present it by clipping a sentence here and because it promises to every man Social Just- I there from the wi itings of this or that advoice and Opportunity to labor and live. I think cate. You long stood out against this, but i( every man had full Justice not very many finally and unreservedly assented. So the diswould long need Charity. cussion commenced and, proceeded, until you I do not see why you should attempt to ar- saw fit to make the unqualified assertion that ray against Association the various organiza- in Association all would be required to eat at tions and efforts to relieve the destitute in our one common table. As this is directly contraCity and elsewhere. I regard all these as laud- dicted by every writer on Association of whom able and even indispensable, while I hold that I know any thing, as well as by the whole spirthey are not adequate to the work of putting] it of the Reform, whose object is Freedom and an end to the calamities they labor to mitigate Opportunity, not constraint and a narrow uni—as, indeed, they do not pretend to be. I be- formity, I corrected your assertion, remarking lieve those most zealous for the relief of pres- that it argued gross ignorance on your part of ent suffering from want will be, as they surely the writings and views of Associationists. should be, most rejoiced at the success of any This remark was seized by you as a pretext effort to remove or vanquish the causes of a for violating our express and fundamental great part of this suffering. Prejudice and agreement. You hasten thereupon to quote, clamor may for a time delude many of the from the earliest and crudest book ever issued most benevolent, but I have faith that all will in this country by an Associationist sundry ultimately work clear. If you mean (as your passages not at all sustaining your original aslanguage plainly imports) that the advocates of sertion, nor having the remotest bearing thereAssociation, in proportion to their numbers and upon, but in regard to Education, the Training means, are not as ready and as active as oth- of Infants, the pecuniary Independence of eis in the good work of feeding the hungry and Women, &c. The design clearly was to exrelieving the distressed, I most earnestly repel i cite prejudice against what I had proposed by the accusation, and wait your resort to facts , blending it in the reader's mind with what I and figures to support it. You are welcome to j had not, and holding me responsible for the render the investigation as searching and to whole. The fairness of this I will not characbring it as close home as you think proper. If terize as it deserves. you really mean that we who are AssociationHow far I might agree with all that Fourier ists refuse to aid in feeding the hungry, cloth- and Brisbane have advanced with regard to the ing the naked, raising the degraded, and assist- points embraced in your citations, is immateing the poor, until we shall first have recon- rial ; most certainly, as you represent them, I structed Society, I challenge you to justify should dissent from them ; and there are some your accusation ; and if you do not intend this, things laid down by Fourier which I object to I should be glad to know what you do mean. when fairly quoted The ground maintained Whether the " Association for Improving with regard to his writings by the Associationthe Condition of the Poor" has " proved en- ists was fairly and fully stated by us at our first tirely adequate to the service required," I will general Convention, held in this City in April, not here discuss. I freely acknowledge my ob- 1844, in the following resolution, unanimously ligation to give in outright alms to the needy adopted, never departed from, and expressing according to the measure of my ability, and to ! our sentiments as thoroughly to-day as ever, employ every dollar I can honestly earn in do- viz : ing good according to my own best judgment "Resolved, 6th, That the name which, in this first of the mode in which most good may be done. Annual Convention of the Friends of Association, If you maintain that I ought to be governed by based upon the Truths of Social Science discovered your judgment rather, we will consider that by Charles Fourier, we adopt for ourselves, recomproposition. My appeals to the benevolent in mend to those who throughout the country would behalf of the "Association for Improving the co-operate with us. and by which we desire to be always publicly designated, Condition of the Poor" have been earnest and ISTS OF THE UNITED STATES is T H E ASSOCIATIONW e do repeated; I intend to continue them. But I not call ourselves Fourierists, OF AMERICA. following for the two do not think all the means which Benevolence reasons : 1st. Charles Fourier often and earnestlymay contribute should be devoted to the relief protested in advance against giving the name of of existing distress ; I think something is need- any individual man to the Social Science, which he ed, and can be advantageously applied to arous- humbly believed to be, and reverently taught as, a ing public attention to the causes of such dis- discovery of Eternal Laws of Divine Justice, estabtress and to the necessity of devising and ap- lished and made known by the CREATOR. 2d. While we honor the plying effectual remedies therefor. If the Trib- ability, and devotedness magnanimity, consummate of this good and wise man, une has been influential to * darken the vision and gratefully acknowledge our belief that he has * and arrest the arm of Philanthropy," then this j been the means, under Providence, of giving to his 40 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. fellow-men a clue which may lead us out from our actual Scientific and Social labyrinth, yet we do not receive all the parts of his theories, which in the publications of the Fourier School are denominated u Conjectural:" because Fourier gives them as speculations • because we do not in all respects understand his meaning; and because there are parts which individually we R E J E C T ; and we hold ourselves not only free, but in duty bound, to seek and obey TRUTH wherever revealed in the Word of God, the Reason of Humanity, and the order of Nature." If you can induce any one to believe that the parents in Association will submit their children to any other Education or exercise of authority than they find by experience to contribute most thoroughly to their healthful development—or that a uniform System of Education will be attained to otherwise than by " proving all things" and " holding fast that which is good"—you are welcome to what you can make out of it. Mr. Brisbane says he meant by a uniform system, one affording equal and thorough opportunities to the childien of Rich and Poor—not one in which each child should he taught exactly like all the others. But I am in no wise responsible for w-hat he meant nor what he said You can not make one rational being believe that there is any necessary connection between Association and the suggestion that children should be instructed and directed by superiors a little older than themselves rather than by their parents. As to the Mairiage relation, you quoted Mr B as holding in 1840 that "the Family sphit, tending to selfishness, should be absorbed by corporative ties ;" and you thereupon asseited that " the Family is to be replaced by these jointstock companies" — that "such a result is sought''' &c. Now you had before you Mr. B 's express and emphatic disclaimers of any such thought—his repeated assertions that Association would purify and exalt the basis of the Family Relation, remove many causes of discord and unhappiness, &c, &c. That you should disagree with him on this point is matter of course ; but had you any moral right to say that he seeks to destroy the Family and substitute the Association therefor 1 Your opinion of the tendency of his suggestion is one thing ; what he seeks to compass by it is quite another. I trust no one will ever represent you as unfairly—nay, as unjustifiably—as you have represented him. So, again, you say in your last : " The Tribune reminds us that under the pressure of social reform several of our States are carrying into effect these principles concerning the conjugal relation." Now what I did say was very far from this : namely, that laws shielding the property inherited or acquired by the Wife fro.m dissipation by a profligate or reckless Husband, are being advocated and carried, not " under the pressure of Social Reform," but by the enlightened and generous who utterly disagree with me respecting Social Reform. I made this statement very broadly and plainly, remarking that I knew of but one Associationist in the Wisconsin Convention which has just passed, none at all in our Convention, which once passed, but finally receded from, a clause giving the Wife the legal control of her own property. By what right did you transform this into an assertion of the Tribune that Social Reform was at tfr© bottom of this movement? That the law on this subject will be changed, far sooner than public attention can be aroused to a radical cure of our Social Ills, I do confidently hope, and that we shall wait several generations before we realize the evils of such change, I have no doubt. Let the Wife transfer to her Husband so much of her property as she sees fit. if that be the whole ; but do not let the Law step in and confiscate her hard earnings, past and future, to the pampering of a villain's debaucheries because she has been deceived into marrying that villain. It is not right to do it. Your application of the text " Whom God hath joined let no man pat asunder," would justify a Hindoo Suttee quite as well as this. With this, however, Association has nothing to do. What it proposes, and I trust will accomplish, is the providing for each man, woman, and child an unfailing sphere of Industry and Usefulness, so that, though the Husband may die, the Wife and Children shall not therefore be turned out of house and home, and scattered like a lot of slaves set up at auction, but enabled to go on earning an honest livelihood and enjoying each other's society as before That the day of this and many kindred meliorations of the miseries of human life is not very distant is the ardent hope of H. G. From the Courier, Feb. 10th, 1847. REPLY TO LETTER VIII. W E acknowledge, at the outset, the sincerity and success of the Tribune's " endeavor" to "resist the strong temptation" to follow the course of our last argument upon this subject. It is barely possible, to he sure, that the temptation was not so " strong" as the Editor would have his readers suppose, and that the struggle to resist it was, therefore, less severe than they might infer. But, at all events, the "endeavor" was successful. The temptation was resisted, and our entire argument remains untouched, except by the general plea that it was all irrelevant. Whether that plea be well founded or not, our readers can easily determine. Association is urged by its advocates as a substitute for the Social System which now exists. It is presented as a plan for "leaching the causes of social evil"—for "abolishing pauperism, ignorance, and the resulting vices." It is intended, of course, for universal adoption —as a substitute for the present form of Society. Of couise, therefore, its merits ean be canvassed fully and fairly only by supposing it to have attained the universal dominion at which it aims. We may, it is true, discuss the principles on which it rests, and bring them to the test of established truth, without reference to the manner in which they are to be carried out. But if we seek to investigate the practical workings of the new system.it must be relieved from all the influences of the existing form We must suppose Association to be universal. Suppose that all men were living* ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 41 not as they now do, but as Association would I The fundamental element of the present Sohave them : What would then be the tendency I cial System is the FAMILY, or; as the Associaof things 1 What would then be the prevailing tion ists term it, the Isolated Household. It lies influences upon human character and human at the basis of all Social institutions. The luel And what the results which, so far as division of mankind into families is the first leason can decide, those influences would pro- law of natnrtt— the natural growth of humanduce 1 These are the questions involved in this ity. I; seems,, therefore, fitting and proper discussion ; and upon no other hypothesis can that ail vSooial forms should rust upon that as their necessary foundation ; that they should they find an answer. This simple statement, it will be seen, sweeps seek its preservation and full developement; away at once most of the Tribune's attempted and that the effect of ary institution upon the arguments in defense of the system. It de- Famil} srould be reorder* ?s a just measure stroys, for example, the pertinence of the o f ics merit Association proceeds upon the Tribune's references to the Shaker, Rapp, Mo- opposite principle It regards the Family spirit ravian, and other communities which, it is as- —that spiri* which binds the members of the sumed, have fully succeeded. The cases are Family together, which prompts them to seek not analogous. These little communities exist a home, property, happiness, and general wellin the very heart of the old Society. They are being for themselves—as a narrow and selfish surrounded on every side by its laws, its hab- spirit ; and it seeks, therefore, by its oiganits, and its atmosphere. They find in that ization, not to cherish and promote its growth, Society markets for their produce ; laws for but to absorb it in other relations. It seeks to the repression of crime ; penalties for at- bring men together under other forms, and to tempted fraud ; a constant pressure which bind them together by another spirit. It does keeps them together; and a place into which not leave the Family in its integrity ; but they may expel all troublesome members. In aims directly to modify and change its characAssociation, of course, when universally es- ter. Instead, for example, of leaving the famtablished, this could not be so. There could ' ilies of a township to dwell each in its own be no such thing as conditions of membership, house, to cultivate its own farm, educate its or expulsion for misconduct. All classes, the own children, and control its own affairs acwise and the stupid, the industrious and the cording to its own convictions of what is right, lazy, the virtuous and the profligate, must then Association would bring them all into a comexist together; and must be entirely free from mon dwelling ; set them at work upon a comthe laws, restraints, habits, and influences of mon farm ; have their cooking and other the old Society. The Association could not domestic concerns performed in common ; avail itself of any of the aids or resources of submit their children to a common training; the old form. It must exist alone, and furnish and so substitute, in all the details of their daiits own restraints, its own methods of educa- ly life, this Community of feeling and of action tion, of worship, and of promoting general or- for that Family spirit which it seeks to absorb. der. And when all Society, moreover, had This is a vast and momentous change. It inassumed that shape ; when all the towns and volves, of course, the complete subversion of cities in the land had been converted into pha- all existing institutions, the overthrow of the lanxes—each producing all the varieties of present Social System, and the entire demolineeded products—where would any of them tion of the existing fabric of social and of civil find a market for their surplus 1 There would life. We are aware that the Tribune attempts then be no world of " outside barbarians" to be to deny this. It says : supplied ; but each would produce all it would " W e do not ask, we have never wished, all to need — and something more, as is affirmed. abandon their houses and dwell together under a Here is a fatal difference between the two common roof. W h a t we ask is, that the wealthy cases. and philanthropic shall furnish the means of making' All these little communities, moreover, are one or more full and fair experiments of Associated under the complete control of some one or Life and Labor," for which " $400,000 would amply more persons. They are absolute monarchies suffice." This language at first sounds like a denial on a small scale. They are held together, furthermore, by the bond of a common religious of our assertion ; but it amounts to nothing. faith, which is different from that of the rest It means simply that everything is not expectof the world. Their manner of life is a part ed at once; that Association is not to be " built of that religious faith ; and their faith renders in a day ;" that all " we ask" is—$400,000 to them passively subservient to the will of their make a beginning. If the wealthy will but leader. In Association there is to be no such furnish this, Association, it is thought, will head, and no such bond. There is to be no then be able to go alone The "experiment" supreme power, clothed with authority, and will prove and establish the system—just as with the means of enforcing it. W7hile the Fulton's experimental steam-boat demonstranew phalanxes exist in the bosom of the pres- ted the practicability of his theories. The ent Society ; so long as they enjoy the defense Tribune should bear in mind rthat the theory is and shelter of its laws and its influences, they the theme of discussion. W e do not oppose may possibly hold together. But remove this any experiment the Tribune may make, except support from them, make the system univer- as we oppose the System it is intended to insal, and it would fall to pieces. At all events, troduce ; for, of course, something more than Jhe assumed success of the Shakers. Rappites, example is expected from a large, wealthy, and &c. (which, moreover, is not real), affords not successful Association. Composed of,picked even the shadow of a presumption to the con-1 men qualified for the,service, animated by a trary. I common purpose, and feeling a common inter 42 ASSOCIATION est in attaining their end, such an engine would be so used as to make still further encroachment on the existing System of Society, and carry Association, by a large stride forward, toward the univeisal dominion at which it aims Suppose one such Association, composed of 500 persons, with a capkal of-!$400,000, conducted by the most skillful and determined men, and embracing not,e but the most zealous foes of the existing order of things, to be planted in the midst of a farming section. The means by which it might extend itself are laid down very precisely in the following extracts from Mr. BRISBANE'S treatise : " Let us examine some of the details of the system which should be followed in the organization of these Associations. The contrast between the industrial organization of the Associated farms and the present mode of farming would favorably impress the rural population around them, and condemn in their eyes the present system of isolated households. The Association with its 500 inhabitants, equal to about 100 families, would not have a hundred kitchens or a hundred fires. One large kitchen would take their place. Various branches of manufactures should be established so as to afford occupation during the winter months. * * The most important operation would be the establishing of a Loaning Fund or Bank in the Association, which would lend on bond and mortgage to land-owners in the vicinity. This would give the establishment popularity in their eyes, and reduce greatly the number of money-lenders on a small scale, who are now so numerous in the country. A bank established on this plan would be the commencement of a gradual but CERTAIN ABSORPTION OF THE SOIL OR LANDED PROPERTY. Each Associa- tion would gradually ABSORB the little farms and pieces of land around on which it held mortgages, and the la?ids of persons already involved. Their owners could join the Association if they wished, which should offer the laborer more liberty and enjoyment than he finds in his isolated house. The Association would «also do its own commercial business, and would have its agents in large markettowns, who would sell its products and purchase at wholesale all articles wanted by the establishment. This operation would cad off the retail country merchants." (P. 320, et seq.J DISCUSSED. to this point; and sets forth, at unnecessary length, the positions, 1. That in a new Country, where labor is abundant and laborers few, the piiceof labor is high; 2 That in an old Country, where labor is scarce and laborers numerous, the price of labor falls; and, 3 That Association seeks to remedy this evil by giving to labor a fixed proportion of its product Now the first two propositions simply repeat the familiar principle that the Price of Labor, like that of every other commodity, is regulated by the ratio of Supply and Demand; and Association could not possibly alter that law. For in Association, as well as out of it, this ratio would vacillate; sometimes Labor would be abundant and Laborers few, while at others Laborers would be numerous and the work to be done comparatively small The proportion of product which each Laborer would receive would thus be subject to constant change ; or, in other words, the price of Labor would rise and fall, in strict conformity to the present law, which is founded in the nature of the case, and can not, therefore, be essentially changed. But the assertion, that Association proposes nothing but a " reorganization of Labor," is deceptive : quite as much so as the Tribune's similar assertion that all it asks is $400,000 for the trial of an " experiment." Mr. GODWIN, who has written, perhaps, the most clear and explicit work on this subject yet issued in this country, says, also, that "the School of FOURIER proposes but one thing—the organization of Labor in the Township." But he has the candor to add that, " L e t a Township be once organized according to our principles, and the reform will soon spiead over the whole nation;" and that " L a w , Government, Manners, and Religion would all be more or less affected by a unitary regime of Industry.'' In fact, the very means by which Association proposes to "organize Labor," involve an<* require an entire and radical change in all the relations of Social Life. Men, women, and children are to be brought together, to woik togethHere is certainly a very clear chart for the er, and to live together under new relations ; to conduct of the Tribune's " experimental Asso- be held together by new bonds ; and to live in an ciation." It was laid down originally to show entirely different state of things from that which how what the author calls the "fourth phasis" now exists. Thus we have shown very clearof civilization might be introduced ; but its ly that this new Social Form requires that method, of course, is equally adapted to the Parental Authority and Filial Obedience shall objects of the " Experiment," which the Trib- be abolished ; that the Husband and Wife, inune calls upon the rich to establish. Such an stead of being one, as the laws of God have •**experiment" would prove an admirable begin- decreed, shall be entirely independent of each ning for the new enterprise, and would enable other in name and in property, and that each the System to make rapid strides over the " lit- shall have perfect liberty of action and affectle farms" that might lie adjacent, and the tion ; that the Education of all the Children lands of " persons already involved," toward a shall be committed to a council, chosen by the still wider dominion. We object to this ex- aggregate members; and that various regulaperiment, because we object to the System it tions of a similar character shall be introduced, is intended thus to introduce. That System in order to preserve that harmony of action and seeks, as we have already stated, to take the of life, which could alone prevent Association place of the existing Society: to substitute from falling back into the "discord" and "another relations, other influences, other motives, archy" of existing Society. The Tribune asand other objects than those which now exist, sures us that we " can not make one rational and which give its distinctive character to the being believe that there is any necessary conpresent Social System The Tribune, we are nection" between Association and these reaware, constantly insists that the only change quirements ; and charges us, in the following proposed is a reorganization of Labor, and the language, with having unfairly made quotations same statement has been repeatedly made by in support of that position : other writers on Association. The first half of "You sawftt?to make the unqualified assertion the Tribune's reply to our last article is devoted that in Association all would be required to eat at ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 43 one common table. I corrected your assertion, re-1 for himself personally;—so may Mr Godwin, marking- that it argued gross ignorance on your so may Fourier, and so may the Editor of part of the writings and views of the Association- the Tribune.—Disclaimers of this kind do not ists. This remark was seized by you as a pretext for violating our express and fundamental agree- meet the point. The controversy can not be ment. You hasten thereupon to quote sundry pass- made a personal one, nor can personal disages not at all sustaining your original assertion, avowals relieve the System from the principles but in regard to education, the training of infants, and results which can be proved upon it. tlie independence of women," &c. Paine repelled the charge of being an infidel, A few words we doubt not, will convince the and declared himself to be a Christian;—but Editor, that his memory is entirely at fault. this did not in the least change the character In our fourth article of this discussion (Dec. of his writings upon the subject. It is need14th,) wre inquired " what provision would be less to add that the Tribune fabricates a quotamade in Association for education" and " how I tion, when it makes us say that " Mr. Biislane the principle would be carried into the various seeks to destroy the Family." We charge that departments of domestic life," the conjugal re- purpose upon the System: and those who uplation, the training of infants, &c. The Trib- hold it must share the responsibility, although they may disclaim the intention. une replied that To sustain its attempted disavowal of re"Education would be the special charge of counsellors elected by all the adult membeis," and that sponsibility for the doctiines referred to, the Tribune quotes a resolution passed in 1844 by " as to the definite arrangement of details, it would the "Associationists of the United States of require columns to state it fully." In our reply (Dec. 24th) we spoke of this North America" in Convention assembled. resolution that those response as unsatisfactory, and mentioned sev- That not receive saysthe parts ofwho passed it "do all Fourier's eral obstacles to the system of education, wor- ories which are termed conjectural" The thedisship, and domestic life, so far as it had been claimer, to whatever weight itmay be entitled, set forth, at the same time asking for more includes no other parts of Fourier's theories definite information. The Tribune's reply, than those specified. But the parts we have (Dec. 28th) was in these words: quoted are not among those which are termed con" Your mistaken assumptions [with regard to eat- jectural. They do not come within the sphere ing] evince a sad unacquaintance with a system of this disclaimer. They are not set forth as which you have for years been denouncing as abominable, and imploring every body to understand " speculations," but are given as essential porand execrate as you did. So with regard to Labor, tions of that " Social Science," which, in the to Education, to Religion, &c. Had you but read language of this resolution, attentively any of the writings of the Associationists, YOU W O U L D HAVE SEEN H O W YOUR OBSTACLES A R E SURMOUNTED." " FOURIER humbly believed to be, and reverently taught as, a discovery of Eternal Laws of Divine Justice, established and made known by the CRE- Here, then, the Tribune referred us, in the ATOR." most explicit language, to the " writings of the Associationists" for the information we had 1 The disavowal, therefore, does not reach the asked as to " how our obstacles are to be sur- case. And as for saying that " there are parts mounted." We were told that it would " re- of the System" which " individually they require columns" to give the answer, and that it ject," what is that but saying that the System would be found in the " writings of the Asso- does not reject them, though individuals mayl ciationists." And to this day the Tribune has j And the same thing may be said of any system given us no other answer, and yet it abuses us ever promulgated. The American Government for using that one ! We are still compelled to may just as well disclaim responsibility for a follow those directions, and have endeavored, Republican System, because individuals reject as we were advised, to "read attentively the some of its features. We repeat, therefore, the statement with writings of the Associationists," in order to r learn what Association proposes to do, and which w e set out, that Association comes behow it proposes to do it. The Tribune does fore the public as a new SOCIAL SYSTEM, based not charge us with having misquoted the *' writ- upon distinctive principles of moral and social ings' to which it referred us ; but simply dis- philosophy, proposing certain definite results, avows personal responsibility for what they and seeking their attainment by a definite ormay contain. The Editor apparently forgets ganization. It is offered as a substitute for the that we are discussing the merits of a system. present Society, and seeks to replace it in all We are examining "Association as the Trib- its departments. It is presented, not as an exune understands it," and as it is set forth in periment, not as a scheme of conjectural specthose " writings of the Associationists" to ulation, but as a " SOCIAL SCIENCE," as the which the Tribune referred us for its under- true, and the only true, Social System, created standing of it. In the course of this inquiry I by God, its principles implanted in human nawe have shown, very clearly, that the System ture, and first discovered, set forth, and imseeks to " absorb the Family spirit;" seeks to bodied in a definite organization by Fourier. abolish Parental Authority ; seeks to annul Thus, Mr. Godwin, in the preface to his "Popthe duty of Filial Obedience ; seeks to destroy I ular View" of this subject, says :— the essential character of the Marriage rela- | " W e wish to rest the claims of the Social Science tion ; and we shall hereafter show that it of Fourier upon precisely the same grounds on seeks to do many other things equally abhor- which Herschel rests the Science of Astronomy. rent to the moral sense and the direct inculca- Fourier and his disciples hold that his social prinare capations of the Word of God. Now Mr. BRISBANE ciples that entitled to rank as a Science, being willful ble of rigorous demonstration which only may, or may not, disclaim such an intention I prejudice rejects/' ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 44 Now the principles of such a science, if true, must be of universal application—just as the laws of Astronomy are universal. They must reach, and shape, and control all Social forms and all Social life, just as the law of gravitation controls the material universe. It is absurd to restrict their operations to the " organization of labor," or to any one branch of social existence. If they are, as is claimed, the principles of a true Social Science, they must control all departments of Social Life. And this is fully conceded, and indeed is distinctly claimed, by all the writers upon Association. In our next article upon this subject we shall set forth, more directly than we have done hitherto, what these fundamental principles are, and how they "surmount the obstacles" which seem to us likely to prove fatal to the success of the system proposed. In doing this, we shall, of course, follow the directions of the Tribune, and consult, " attentively, the writings of the Associationists." One or two points of the Tribune's last article, which we do not notice now, will then be considered. Fiom the Tribune, Feb. 17. LETTER IX. To the Editor of the Courier and Enquirer: WHOEVER comes before the public as the advocate of any momentous change in the habits, customs, or relations of men, is fairly bound to demonstrate two things—first, the necessity of change, and, secondly, the expediency and practicability of such change as he proposes. In other words, he is propeily required to prove that an evil exists, and that the change he advocates will provide the appropriate remedy or remedies. His argument naturally arranges itself under three heads—treating of the needful work to be done, the mode or means of doing it, and the end to be accomplished or attained These distinctions I have endeavored to keep in mind in the progress of this discussion. I have endeavored first to show that are radical defects or vices in our Social institutes and usages, demanding radical remedies ; secondly, that these defects are curable ; thirdly, that their remedy is to be found in ASSOCIATION. The controversial form has not permitted me, without seeming disrepect to my opponent and inattention to his statements, to keep this distinction always before the reader and pursue my argument with the logical sequence of an essay ; but I trust the reader will have made the necessary allowance. It seems to me that the first proposition—namely, the necessity of a radical leform—is the essential matter, and that if I could really convince you of this, all the rest would follow of course. Concede to me that Society needs literally to be re-formed, and you are welcome to black-ball Fourier, Brisbane, &c. to your heart's content. I am solicitous for results only, not names nor parties. And as I understand you still to maintain that there are no evils in the constitution and laws of Society, I will devote this one more article mainly to that branch of the question. Permit me once more, then, to call your attention to these facts :—That while the essen- tial or productive value of Human Labor in civilized Society is rapidly increasing, its market value is steadily diminishing; That while, through the rapid multiplication and improvement of Labor-saving Inventions, the Laboring Classes of to-day produce ten times as much as they did four centuries ago, their reward is more scanty and their living more precarious than that of their ancestors in the days of Columbus; That while Production and Wealth have been immensely increased, Want and consequent Wretchedness have increased along with them ; That while, through the inventions of Watt, Arkwright, Hargraves, &c , the labor of one person in spinning produces more yarn than that of two hundied did even a century since, so that warehouses groan and the markets of the world are glutted with every variety of fabrics, yet thete are this day more naked backs, more suffering for want of adequate and comfortable clothing, than there were in the fourteenth century ; That while on all hands there is manifest need of the limitless application of Labor—Lands to be cleared and subdued, Marshes to be drained, exhausted, or inferior Soils to be made fertile, Railroads, Canals and Buildings to be constructed, &c., &c.—there are at this moment and at all times great numbers of Laborers vainly seeking employment, and suffering for the want of it, while vastly many more are driven by hard necessity to work for Wages utterly inadequate either to reward their exertions or to procure a comfortable subsistence ; and, finally, that this enforced Idleness, and the consequent Destitution and Misery, are among the most potent causes of the Ignorance, Intemperance, Vice, Degradation, and Wretchedness so generally prevailing. For these fundamental facts there are appropriate and adequate causes, the root of which is found in that Isolation of Efforts and Antagonism of Interests on which our present Social Order is based. In that order the Ovvneis of Property form one class, the Producers of Wealth mainly another ; and it is the apparent and eagerly-pursued interest of the Owning class to procure the Labor of the Working class at the cheapest possible rate. To accomplish this end, -there are different modes—direct Slaveiy, Hiring for Wages, Rent or Purchase of Lands, Usury, &c.—not equally objectionable or pernicious, but all tending to the same end. Every year brings upon the stage of life its millions, each of whom must have food, shelter, implements, &c, before he can earn for himself as well as afterward ; and the great mass must have the use of the EaUh and its natural products to give scope to their labor and render it available But here they find themselves confronted with a smaller but more powerful class, who own this same Earth, and these its needful products, and who are authorized to exact, and do exact, for the use thereof, prices graduated by the number and consequent necessities of those requiring them. Suppose a township six miles square, located in a new country, and having as yet but 500 inhabitants: here those who need land will usually buy it wild, at one to three dollars per acre, or cleared at five to fifteen dollars. Now let this population increase to 2,000, and that same wild land will be worth three or ten dollars and the improved ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 45 twenty to fifty dollars per acre. But in time miums above a fair interest on the cost of the the population swells to 5,000, and now (all other buildings are paid to Capital, not because they things being equal, and no large tracts of vacant should be, but because they must. It simply land so situated as to draw off its population) holds up its dish and catches the golden shower. the primitive forest as well as the improved But in Association these various artisans and soil will command fifty to one hundred .dollars customers are brought together and not subjected per acre, and even more. But even at 5,000 to to any such inroad upon their earnings. They the township of six miles square the limits of pay a fair rent on the cost of their several shops Population are not reached, if human existence and dwellings, but nothing answering to groundcan be maintained, and the i ace perpetuated upon rent beyond the five to twenty dollars per the wages, direct or indirect, which Labor will acre that the naked ground actually cost the still command. What is the remedy for this Phalanx. Here, then, is one law vitally and evil 1 What shall arrest the palpable tendency balefully affecting the price of Labor in existof increasing Population to depress Labor and ing Society which would be entirely set aside diminish the means of subsistence for the great in Association. mass of mankind 1 The Free-Trade Economists But again the laborer is a partner in the Asanswer, The poor must not "increase their num- sociation, and is lecompensed as a partner. bers—it is a crime in them to do so—they I Suppose there are one hundred effective adult must marry late in life, and have few children, male laborers at the outset; these would divide on pain of starvation." The Tribune answers, the products or proceeds among them accord" Society must be so re-formed that Population ing to a prearranged scale, giving to Capital its may be increased without depressing the condi- stipulated interest or proportion. But the tion of the mass, diminishing the reward of number of laborers gradually increases to five their Labor, or depriving them of constant op- hundred : what then I Is the recompense of portunity to earn and live in comfort: all these Labor consequently diminished 1 Do they pay conditions are clearly attainable through Asso- more per head for shelter, more per acre for ciation " The Courier answers—what? Our land, and so retain a smaller share of the prodreaders will determine. ucts for themselves 1 By no means — rather But lei me here stop to correct your error of the contrary. The original capitalists own and assertion in regard to what Association will do receive dividends upon so much stock, as bein the piemises. You say it will make no fore, unless they have actually invested more change at all—that the price of Labor wiil va- capital in the improvements or additions since cillate with the proportion of Supply and De- made ; if they have, they receive dividends mand—that in Association " the price of Labor on this likewise ; all beyond this which has would rise and fall in strict conformity to the been added to the value of the property by peopresent law." This shows that you do not yet pling it, building, draining, fencing, fertilizing, understand what it is you aie opposing ; and at planting trees, orchards, &c , has been regularly the risk of being tedious to many a reader, I awarded to Labor, and stock issued aecoidingwill again explain the relation of Labor to Cap- ly. The laborer is his own employer; his Father in Heaven is his paymaster, and the ital in Association We have seen that, as a township increases amount of his dividend is mainly determined by its population, the price or rental of Land rap- his efficiency and subordinately by the prices idly increases and the wages of Labor propor- which such surplus products as he may have tionally diminish. This is the result of a ten- to sell will bring in the market. As a geneial dency or law inherent in civilized society, with rule, his labor will become, through experience the earth monopolized by a part, while the and improved processes, more and more effectlarger number own little or nothing. It may ive as the number of his associates increases, for a season be counteracted and checked by up to the limit at which land can he advanthe introduction of newr branches of industry or tageously cultivated from one center or dwellthe rapid extension and diversification of those ing. which do not require much land for their advanBut again : Society as it is presents the contageous prosecution ; but the snake is " scotch- stant spectacle of Labor vainly seeking employed, not killed;" Labor flows in from all sides ment, and this becomes more frequent and gento profit by the newly-created demand for it, eral as population increases. In Ireland it is and wages are soon pressed down to their calculated that the permanent surplus of Labor former minimum, pushed to the brink of a far- —that is, the Labor which can not find employther fall, and then over it. Meantime Land, ment—is one-fifth of the whole amount, equal Houses, and nearly all fixed Property have been to Three Hundred Thousand able men, at all vastly increased in pi ice or rental by this very times idle, because they can get nothing to do influx of Population, so that the surplus earn- at any price. Suppose the labor of these men ings of labor have been swallowed in an ever- to be actually woith fifty cents each per day, yawning abyss. A multitude has been rapidly and that they would willingly work three hundrawn together, and because they are thus as- dred days in each year, the positive loss to the sembled they are obliged to pay exorbitantly world, by their lack of employment, is no less for ground to stand upon and the roofs that thon Forty-Jive Millions of Dollars. Say that shelter them. The tailor, shoemaker, &c , pay I the labor of women and minors, doomed to idleeach a double rent; one on the cost of the ness, is worth but one-third so much, and we buildings they severally occupy, and the other have an aggregate of Sixty Millions of Dollars, (termed "ground-rent") for the privilege of absolutely wasted every year on one little islbeing convenient to their respective customers, and, because of the anarchical relation of Labor though those customers pay likewise for the to Capital under our present Social regime. privilege of being near them. These two pre- Wasted, did I say 1 No ; far worse than wast- 46 A S S 0 C I A T I 0 1 J DISCUSSED. ed—employed to lure millions every year into habits of dissipation, indolence, and depravity. An old proverb asserts that the Evil One finds work for those who have no other. Is it advisable to leave such an important function in such hands 1 I think not. Now, let any man who doubts inquire, and satisfy himself that Labor has found full employment in every attempt at Association, no matter how rude and imperfect—I think I need not except even that Clarksori abortion, destitute of capital, leading, and every requisite to give even a chance of success which has recently been dug out of its early and well-grassed grave, and paraded through journals of your stamp, to deepen the prejudice of Ignorance against any Social Reform. In the only examples we have of Communities—the Moravians, Rappites, Shakers, Zoarites, &c, I am confident that no man, for many a year, has stood idle a single day for want of woik to do. Go to the Township most thickly populated, where most Labor stands idly in the market-place, waiting, till " hope deferred maketh the heart sick," for some one to hire it, and inquire if there he not even there work enough needing to be done, and you will find it abundant. The Land needs Labor to render it in the highest degree salubrious and fertile; Labor extensively and urgently needs employment and recompense ; but an evil genius has built up a wall of iron between these two necessities, which ought to flow into and satisfy each other. The Laborer eagerly seeks employment, and would gladly accept even an inadequate reward ; the Land would lichly reward an immense addition of labor, hut it belongs to persons who are either unable to improve it thoroughly, or deem it inadvisable to do so—is held on leases by those who apprehend that a high state of cultivation would increase the prices at which they must ultimately buy or again hire it—is in law or in chancery, or in the hands of executors or guardians, who do not feel authorized to improve it, or in some one of a hundred other ways its improvement is forbidden. But in Association the Laborers of the Phalanx or Township are, at all times, directors of their own efforts, with full power to improve where and when they think proper, and he fairly recompensed for the additional value their Labor shall have created. The owners of two-thirds of the Capital may die without at all arresting or interfering with the regular routine of Industry or Education. The settlement of an estate will require simply the division among, and transfer to, the heirs of so many shares of stock as belonged to the deceased, with the adjustment of his running account for labor, subsistence, &c , with the Association. But again : It will be the palpable interest of Capital and Talent in Association to have the entire Labor at all times fully employed. Suppose this City of New York were now in some plain way a gigantic Association or Joint-Stock Community, in which each individual w7ho would work was guaranteed a minimum of subsistence—does any man believe that the hod-carriers, bricklayers, stone-masons, &c, &c, whom the approach of winter throws out of their accustomed employment, would he suffered mainly to spend the three cold months in unwilling I idleness and penury? No, sir; nothing like i t The very first winter would witness meetings at the Exchange and in the Bank parlors to devise ways and means of setting at work all those thus doomed to idleness and pauperism. Money in thousands would be subscribed to establish new Manufactures, &c., if only for the winter months, wherein men, women and children should find ample and unfailing employment at some rate which would enable them to earn a livelihood. I trust that, in the obvious though irregular progress of Society to a state of general guarantyism, this will soon he effected at any rate. But in Association the impulse to provide work for all would be instant and irresistible. Allow me to call your attention to a few striking facts, showing that, as Civilization advances and Population increases, the reward of Labor grows more and more meager and the condition of the Laboring Class more depressed and hopeless. I trust you will not have any difficulty in perceiving their bearing on the question now in controversy between us. Five centuries ago* (A D. 1350) a British statute (23d of Edward III) fixed the pi ices of Labor in England as follow :-—For common labor on a farm per day, three jjenre halfpenny; reaping per day,fourpcnce ; mowing an acte of gtass, sixpence; threshing a quarter of wheat (erght bushels), four-pence; and other labor in proportion. In Bishop Fleetwood's " Chronicon Preciosum," a work of repute, are found various accounts kept by bursars of convents. Fiom one of these dated in the fourteenih century the following items are taken :—A pair of shoes, fourpence ; russet broadcloth, pnr yard, thiiteen pence; a stall-fed ox, twenty-five shillings ; a fat goose, twopence halfpenny; wheat per quarter (eight bushels), three shillings fourpence Sir John Cuilum (quoted by Hallam), substantially corroborates these statements, quoting the price of wheat in the fourteenth century at four shillings per quarter, or sixpence per bushel. Fleta, who wrote abont 1330. likewise gives four shillings per quarter as the average price of wheat in his day; so that the week's wages of a common farm laborer in England would purchase three and a half bushels of wheat, or five pairs of shoes, or over a yard and a half of bioadcloath, or over eight fat geese, while fourteen weeks' work would buy a fat ox, and so on. In harvest-time, his wages were an eighth higher, and the price of mowing an acre of grass would buy a bushel of wheat. For threshing twelve bushels of wheat the laborer received the price of a bushel. In 1444 (act of 23d Henry VII.), the wages of a reaper were fixed at fivepence per day, and other labor in proportion. The account-book of a convent of a little earlier date, quoted by Sir F. Eden, gives these prices : Wheat (average) five shillings per quarter; Oxen, twelve to fifteen shillings each; Sheep, from fourteev to sixteenpence; butter, three farthings per pound: cheese, a halfpenny; eggs, twenty-five for a penny. Hallam states the average price of butchers' meat in the next century at a farthing * Most of the following facts respecting the ancient | and modern recompense of labor in Great Britain are | taken from an article, entitled "One of the Problems of [ the Age," in an old Democratic Review. ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 47 mxd a half per pound. In the next century (act j ual wealth)—a revolution which has depressed of ?Aih of Henry VIII ), it was decreed that no i them from comfort to wretchedness, from careperson shall take for beef or pork above a half- Jess ease to incessant anxiety and struggle for penny, nor for mutton or veal above three far- the bare means of existence. They have things per pound, and less in those places where reached that point where, in the words of the jy are now sold for less." Thus it appears Westminster Review, "there is not a step but that through the fourteenth, fifteenth, and six- merely a hand's-breath between the condition teenth centuries, the week's wages of an En- of the agricultural laborer and pauperism." glish farm laborer would purchase an average | Instead of the fare of his ancestors described of four bushels of wheat, or half-a-quarter of j above, his family are scantily subsisted on pobeef, or one and a half fat sheep, or ten fat tatoes and salt, bread and lard, withr a little ingeese, or six pair of shoes, or nearly broadcloth tensely-skimmed milk as an-occasional luxury enough for a coat. Compare these with the His weekly wages will barely procure this present prices of Labor and Food in Great diet and pay the rent of his cot, and when Britain (I do not refer to the famine prices of sickness or a failure of employment overtakes this season, but those which have ruled for the him, he is driven to beggary or the union worklast ten or more years), wherein the average house. wages of farm labor have been eight shillings Will any say, You are talking of British disper week," just the average retail price of one! tresses : what do they prove as to us ? Ah, bushel of wheat or fifteen pounds of beef! The I sirs! the same general causes which have British laborer of our day works harder and produced this fearful change itiXEurope are now produces far more than did his ancestors four at work here. Population is rapidly increasing; centuries'ago, yet receives in the average no Wealth is concentrating; the Public Lands more for a month's work than that ancestor 6U\ are rapidly passing into private ownership, for a week ! The balance of his product is ab- often by tens of thousands of aeies to a single sotbed by the profits of Capital, including the individual. And as our population becomes enormous rental or valuation of Land compact, and land costly as in England, the That the British laborer four centuries ago evils now experienced by the Many in Euiope, enjoyed a degree of comfort unknown to his will gradually fasten upon their brethren here. living descendants, need hardly be added. For- Our Political institutions may do something to tescue, Chancellor of England, writing in the mitigate this; but how muchl The masterfifteenth century, says the common people of evil in the condition of the English and Irish his day are «• rich in all the comforts and neces- is the monopoly by the few of the God-given saries of life," and that "they drink no water elements of production, which are necessary to except at certain times, upon a religious score, all. Abolish Monarchy, Titles of Nobility, Church Establishment, National Debt, and and by way of doing penance," and adds : 14 They are fed in great abundance with all whatever else you please, so long as the Land sorts of flesh and fish, of which they have shall remain the exclusive property of a small abundance everywhere. They are clothed and isolated class, competition for the use of it throughout in good woolens ; their bedding and as active as now, and rents consequently as other furniture in their houses are of wool, and high, so long will nothing have been accomthat in great store. They are well provided plished beyond clearing away some of the elewith alt sorts of household goods and necessa- mentary obstacles to the real and essential ry implements of husbandry. Every one ac- Reform. cording to his rank hath all things which conBut in our own country the footsteps of adduce to make life easy and happy." vancing Destitution and abject Dependence for the Many, already sound ominously near. In We may readily admit that this picture is rose-colored, but what Chancellor or Editor our journals are advertisements to let out some could possibly assert any thing like this in our hundreds of robust men from the immigrant day'? That the above is substantially true is alms-houses to work through the winter for confirmed by a variety of testimony. White, their board, while tens of thousands in our City of Selborne, the naturalist, in his history of his would gladly have been so disposed of ftom native village, mentions incidentally, a record, j December to April. Nor is this lack of employdated 1380, that certain men, for disorderly I mem by any means confined to immigrants with conduct, were punished by being " compelled | those displaced by them. Thousands of Amerito fast on bread and beer." Cobbett, who can-born Women are at this moment woiking quotes the above anecdote, has also dragged to I long days in our City, for less than the cost of light a statute of 1533, the preamble of which, one good meal of victuals per day (say twentyafter naming four sorts of meat, " beef, pork, five cents); and it was but yesterday that a mutton, and veal," adds, " these being the food friend, living in the country, casually informed me that he could hire as much farm labor in of the poorer sort." That, in those ages of rude implements and winter as he wanted, for the laborer's own unskillful husbandry, there were sometimes board, or for 37£ cents per day without board. famines after bad harvests or the desolations And these laborers are not foreigners, but the of war, is quite true; so there are now. These descendants of those who won our liberties on. do not affect the general and appalling truth the battle-fields of the Revoluiion. ,that during the last five centuries there has I rest here my argument on the point that been a complete and disastrous revolution in THERE MUST BE A SOCIAL REFORM—a reform the ordinary condition of the Toiling Millions which shall secure to Labor unfailing Employof Civilized Europe (for the same is true of ment and adequate Recompense; to Children other countries as well as England, in propor- and Youth, universally, ample and thorough tion to their increase in population and individ- I Education, moral, intellectual and physical; and 48 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. to the Poor as well as Rich comfortable, abiding dispute, only the assertions of the Tribune conHomes, the largest Opportunities for Social and cerning the causes and the cure of these evils. Mental Elevation, with freedom fiom incessant Far ftom denying their existence, we insist anxiety for Work and Bread. We have the that they are deeper and more fundamental in confessions of the best thinkers and ablest jour- their origin, and demand a more thorough and nals in the Old World (see London Times, also radical remedy, than the Tribune supposes. Morning Chronicle) that the old order of things That paper charges them to the prevailing /07ms has proved a failure—that new principles must of society : we attribute them to the selfishness be invoked, and new and profounder remedies and depravity of human nature, which pervade for Social Evils be' resorted to. (See also the I all social forms and depend upon none. The Queen's late Speech ) " Let us alone" and j Tribune demands a new form of social life, as " Every man for himself" have gone to the end the only remedy for them: we insist that, as of their tether ; we must now try the opposite they do not originate in any form, so no change principle of " Each for All," and seek Individual of form could cure them : that, as they spring only through Universal Good. This is in es- from an inherent and dominant principle of sinsence what I understand by Association—what- ful selfishness in the heart, so they can only be ever appears to me essential to this, I advocate ; cured by a radical change in individual characto nothing farther in this relation am I com- ter : and that, moreover, the form of society mitted, no matter who is its author or commend- proposed by Association is impracticable, and er. " The System" of Association is no man's certain to produce, if carried out, greater evils formula, hut whatever experience shall prove than it seeks to cure. Our arguments upon needful or helpful to give effect to the Principles these several points, as well as upon others above set forth, and to attain the Ends herein which have sprung up in the course of this stated. Whoever has written on this subject discussion, remain as yet unanswered : and we as an advocate of Association I listen to with do not intend, therefore, to, repeat them here. respect; his suggestion of means to obviate The Tribune devotes nearly the whole of its practical difficulties, I welcome ; but to nothing last article to the assertion of the principle upon am I committed beyond what is involved in the which, half a century ago, Mr. Malthus based fundamental idea of Associated Industry, Edu- his famous and exploded theory, viz: that as cation and Life. All this you very well under- the population of any country increases, the stand ; and I but waste words in repeating it. condition of its laboring classes becomes worse If you can make anyone believe that one model and worse. This position is laid down by the Phalanx will lead to the formation of others, Tribune in every possible variety of forms : and unless it demonstrates immense advantages in the effort is made to sustain it by some statistithe Associated over the Isolated sphere; or if cal statements of the relative prices of labor and you can induce any one to think that Associa- ot food in England during the last five centuries. tion will be more difficult when it becomes The point is stated thus: that five centuiies general than in its first experiments, I can only ago the condition of the laboring classes in say that argument fiom me would be lost on England was better than it is now : that they such readers. Whoever will imagine an article enjoyed, as the fiuits of their labor then, a betfrom a Courier and Enquirer of 160G, demon- ter living and more comfort, than the same labor strating from experience the impossibility of will command now: that, while the aggregate colonizing the Atlantic coast of North Ameiica, wealth of the whole mass has increased, the or at least the certainty that there can be no wealth of the laboring class has constantly general colonization of that coast, though one diminished : and that this is the natural, and or two of ihe first settlements may do well inevitable tendency of society everywhere We enough, will realize the light in which your regret that the Tribune should have copied its argument presents ilseli to H. G. statistics upon this subject so blindly "from an article in an old Democratic Review," and adopted so hastily the " foregone conclusions" From the Courier and Enquirer of March 5th, 1847. which that aiticle was compiled to establish. It quotes, for instance, the rates of labor fixed REPLY TO LETTER IX. by a British Statute in 1350, as the regular, THE Tribune has now devoted nine articles average prices of labor in that age ; whereas, almost entirely to the proof of an assertion, the if it had taken the pains to examine even the truth of which we expressly conceded at the preamble to that statute, it would have found very outset of this discussion ; namely, that that it was based upon the express averment, great social evils exist, and demand a remedy " That a great part of the people, and especially In its last article, which we have copied above, of the wmkmen and savants, had lately died of the the Tribune expresses the opinion that if this pestilence;" and that "many, seeing the necessity position be once established, "the rest will of masters, and the great scarcity of servants, will follow of course." If this he so, the controversy not serve unless they may receive excessive wages; ought long since to have been closed : for the and some aie willing to beg in idleness rather than position in question has never been denied. We by labor to get their living," &c. Just at that period, moreover, the great hody have taken unusual pains to admit, from the very beginning, that the condition of a large of the laboring class in England, who had bepart of society is not what it should be; and fore been villains or serfs, had thrown off their that the great law of Christian charity, as well chains of service and become free landers ; and as the dictates of common humanity, enjoins it is a matter of history that, under the exhilarathe most zealous, constant, and intelligent ef- tion of this change in their condition, they reforts for the relief of existing misery and the fused to work except at exorbitant rates. In removal of the causes which give it birth. We ( view of these facts, it is easy to see that the ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 40 ing classes are now genet ally hi the possession of conveniences and luxuries that were formerly not enjoyed even by the richest lords." These considerations, it seems to us, show conclusively that theTi ihune's theory is groundless. It is not true that the increase of population of necessity renders more wretched and hopeless the condition of the laboring classes. T h e increase of population is necessarily sub" T h e accounts of the prices of grain are usually the prices in dearths, or in years of very extraordinary ordinate to the increase in the means of subcheapness, and are no very accurate criterion of the I sistence, and will not, because it can not, in mean or ordinary price," j the long run, outstrip it. And, especially, is its theory untrue as applied, by the Tribune, to And another writer has remarked that the J the United States. It is not true that " wealth value of money, in those days, may be j is concentrating" in this country, or that any " Made to bear any proportion to its value in the I such " causes, as have produced the present present day that the fancy of the calculator might state of things in Europe," are operating here. prefer, or that it might best suit his particular object to All estates there go to the eldest son ; here Jix upan" they are divided among all the children. T h e T h e s e statistics, therefore, on which the prices- of all the necessaries of life are there Tribune relies, are by no means conclusive. raised to an artificial standard, by the enormous T h a t paper, moreover, neglects entirely the fact taxes levied upon t h e m ; no such causes aie in that new and cheaper kinds of food and cloth- operation here. Our public lands are, indeed, ing have been substituted, by the advance of " passing into private ownership ;" but it is the civilization, for those that were used in that very step necessary to secure their cultivation, eaily day. An immense increase, in the means and through that, an increase of the means of of subsistence, has taken place ; and although subsistence. T h e constant tendency of things certain kinds of food and clothing may have in- with us is, to divide among many the large creased in price, the average cost of living has estates which may have accumulated in the greatly diminished. It can not be necessary, hands of individuals. And, as a general rule, however, to pursue these details in order to dis- in this country, no man who is able and willing prove the Tribune's assertion, that " t h e Brit- to work need ever suffer any lack of the food ish laborer, four centuries ago, enjoyed a de- and clothing essential to his comfortable subgree of comfort unknown to his living descend- sistence. In large cities, and especially in this ants ;" arid that the laboring classes have been city, exceptions may be found to this general "depressed, during the last five centuries, from rule ; but they are far less numerous than they comfort to w r e t c h e d n e s s " It has been le- are lepresented, and are the result of "tempopeatedly refuted since it was first propounded rary and accidental causes. Cities, moreover, by Malihus, and is now almost universally never offer a just standard for estimating the abandoned by the soundest writers on political condition of a people, since extraneous causes economy. T h e rose-coloied pictures of the con- there prevent the fair operation of the general dition of England three or four centuries since, laws which govern society; and the condition quoted by the Tribune, are simply the best side of the great body of the population of the United which officials and placemen proverbially put States, of the farmers everywhere, is one upon outward, and are entitled to much less weight which the most zealous philanthropist, if he than would be due to sketches of the condition have no pet theory to support, may look with T h e population, it is ot Southern slaves, by Mr. M'Duffre or Governor unalloyed satisfaction Hammond. They are, indeed, contradicted by true, is increasing with great rapidity ; but this the most disinterested and reliable writers is owing to the immense and lapid increase in Erasmus, in the reign of Henry V I I I , describes the means of s u b s i s t e n c e ; and it is a settled the condition of the ordinary dwelling of the principle of political economy, that the latter English laborer in terms which would be gross- must not only keep pace with the former, but 1 ly exaggerated if applied to the Five Points, in take the lead. our city. Dr. Heberden, who has written fully Leaving this view of the case for the piesent, and ably upon the subject, ascribes the plague let us consider another portion of the Tribune's ,k of 1665 to the universal and constant filthi- argument. T h a t paper leiterates its complaints ness of the streets and houses," and the wretch- i that the wages of labor constantly fluctuate, as ed diet and clothing of the mass of the people. population incieases and the work to be done Sir Thomas More, as quoted by Lord Russell, diminishes; and demands that labor should in his lecent speech upon Ireland, draws a pic- receive a fixed propottion of its product. Our ture of society in England, as it was in his day, j reply to this is, that the price of labor, like that of the most appalling darkness. And the ac- j of every other marketable commodity, is of curate and pains-taking M'Culloch, gives the necessity regulated by the ratio of Supply and following, as the result of his investigations Demand; and the scheme of Association can upon this very point: it is so direct and em- not possibly alter that law, or evade its operaphatic, that it needs no comment : tion. When laborers increase faster than the capital that employs them, labor MUST FALL : when " Let any one compare the state of this or any the increase is m favor of capital, labor WILL RISE. other European country five hundred or one hundred And this law would operate in Association, preyears ago, with its present state, and he will be satisfied that prodigious advances have been made, cisely as it does in society now. T h e Tribune that the means of subsistence have increased much answers this point thus :— more rapidly than the population, and that the labor- I " Suppose there are 100 effective adult male laprices oflabor, quoted by the Tribune, are very I likely to be deceptive. And- to a still greater extent is this true in regard to the prices of j ihvd, clothing, & c . ; as is clearly stated, by one | of the writers quoted by the Review upon this very point, Bishop Fleetwood, in his " Chronicon Preciosum," or piic.es current of that early day. It is said expressly that 50 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. We have thus answered, at greater length than we intended, the Tribune's plea in behalf ot Association, so far as it sets at defiance established principles of Political Economy* But we do not intend to lose sight of the higher, moral interests involved in the scheme, nor to Most assuredly it must be, unless the demand oveilook other and more important departments for laborers, and the capital to employ them, of its operation. In our last article we proved conclusively have increased in the same ratio. Suppose, for example, that the net product of an Association that Association claims to be a SOCIAL SYSTEM, of 100 laborers at the end of the year is $10,000, basea upon distinctive, universal* and immutaafter paying the interest on capital, &c. It is ble laws, and intended to embrace, not only the clear that each one would receive as his share organization of Labor, but all departments of $100 But when the laborers increase to 500, domestic, social, and civil life. In its last arit is clear that in order to give to each the same ticle the Tribune asserts that all the evils which sum as before, the aggregate profits must be- afflict humanity " have their root in that Isolacome $50,000 instead of $10,000 as before. tion of efforts and antagonism of interests on The demand for labor must be increased as which our present Social Order is based," and rapidly as the number of laborers : or in other of which, in domestic life, the Isolated Housewords, the ratio of Supply and Demand must be hold is the type. Association proposes to remmaintained. If the former predominates, wages edy these evils by destroying their supposed w\\\ fall: if the latter they will rise, in Associa- root,—to "destroy their causes," to "abolish tion, just as they now do in the existing order. pauperism, ignorance, and the resulting vices," "As a general rule," says the Tribune, "labor in the language of the Tribune, by getting rid will become more and more effective, as the of this Isolation, and substituting for it a COMnumber of associates incieases, up to the limit MUNITY, of interests and of life. Men are no at which land can be advantageously culti- longer to labor for themselves and their families vated." Of course: and so it is now, and mainly or primarily " We must now uy the wages remain fixed so long as that proportion opposite principle," says the Tribune, "of each holds good, But when that "limit" is reached, for all, and seek individual only though uniwhat thenl The surplus members of the As- versal good." The first step to be taken in sociation, the Tiibune will say, must then emi- carrying this theory into practice is, to bring grate. True: but how does that differ from men together under this new relation—to have the present order 1 If the surplus laborers of them live, not in isolated households, but in a this city, that is, those who aie not needed to common dwelling; to labor upon a common supply the existing demand, would emigiate, farm and fur a common piofit; to conduct all the remainder would do well enough. The their affairs, domestic, social, educational, instate of things in Association must of necessity dustrial, political, and religious, not as individuals nor as separate families, hut as a COMMUNIbe the same. Now the Tribune answers all this, by as- TY. Now to accomplish this vast result, to suming and insisting that Association would bring to pass so momentous a change in men's overrule and set aside these laws: that if the habits of thought and of life, as this implies, market* price of labor was low, Association there must be an elaborate, well-defined SYSwould pay more, &c. This could only be done, TEM of MEANS, adapted carefully and exactly to it is clear, by lessening the profits of Capital. the ends to be attained, and the obstacles to be The products of Labor must of necessity be surmounted. We have endeavored, throughout sold at the market rates. If then the owners this discussion, to obtain from the Tribune a pay their laborers more than their neighbors do, distinct statement of that System and its protheir profits must be less. Capitalists will not visions : and have detailed very many obstacles do this, in the first place, because they are to its practical opeiation. The answer of,the governed mainly by self-interest: and next be- Tribune is embraced in the following passage: cause in the end, such unequal competition " With regard to Labor, to Education, to Religion, would ruin them. The owner of the Tribune, cjf-c, had you read attentively any of the writings of the for example, pays his laborers the market price Associationists, you would have seen how your obstacles for their work ; and clears say $20,000 per an- are surmounted." num, or thirty per cent on the capital invested. We have found in the sources indicated the If he were to double or quadruple their wages, information required. Our objections had been his own profits must fall: and his neighbors fully anticipated, and every supposable. emerwould outstrip him in the race. The owner of gency had been provided for, in I lie SYSTEM of the Tribune, therefore, will not do this : he Association. It is our present purpose to exwill not make the laborers he employs partners amine these specific provisions, and to set forth,in the concern, nor increase their wages above on the authority of these " Writings of the Asthe market price; because for such a step sociation ists" the fundamental principle from something more is requisite than a belief in the which they grow. We have objected to the theory of Association ; the self-seeking tendency, practical operation of the scheme, that Parentthe principle of selfishness, must first be rooted al Authority might interfere with the supreme out, before any man, before even the owner of authority of the Association ;—we are told in the Tribune, will thus carry into full and thor- reply, in the •* writings of Associationists," that ough operation these principles of disinterested paiental authority will be abolished. We have benevolence. The individual character must urged that the duly of Filial Obedience may first, be radically changed, before Association conflict with obedience to the Association ;— can become possible. we are told in reply, by the same authority, that borers at the outset: these would divide the products [ or pioceeds among them according to a prearranged scale, giving to capital its stipulated interest or propoition. But the number of laborers gradually increases to 500; what then? Is the recompense of labor consequently diminished ?" ASSOCIATION t h e duty of Filial Obedience will he annulled. W e have said that the essential character of the Conjugal relation, the vnity of Husband and W i l e , the dependence of the latter upon the former, &c., might clash with the principles and purposes of the C o m m u n i t y ; — w e learn from the " W i t l i n g s of the Associationists" that the Husband and Wife are to be one no longer: that each is to be entirely independent of the other in name and in property; and that each would have, in Association, "full LIBERTY « / acimn and AFFECTION." In short ail those, obstacles to the success of Association which spring from the Family Spirit, and from the Family Relation, are to be " s u r m o u n t e d " by " absorbing" that spirit, and destroying the essential character of the relation itself. This, however, is only one department of social life ; and we have accordingly suggested obstacles likely to arise from other quarters. T h u s we have urged that some of the members of an Association might tefuse to w o i k ; that others would not like the special service assigned to t h e m ; that differences of opinion would grow into causes of enmity ;—that iiul vidua! convictions, prejudices, passions and selfish aspirations would disturb the harmony of the new Society ; —and that there was no bond provided, strong enough to control all these jarring elements and preseive to the Association that unity of action, of purpose, and of feeling, without which it must inevitably fall in pieces. T h e question then arises, what principle is there to hind men thus together! T h e family spirit hinds the family together;—what similai bond will bind together the members of an Association ? What fundamental law will control their choice of occupations, their "relations to each other, and the subjection of their private wills to the general objects of the community. T h e ** Writings of the Associationists," cited by the Tribune, furnish the answer. W e learn from them that the law of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION will be the controlling power in Association. That law, they maintain, was eieated by God, implanted by him in human nature, discovered by Fourier, and intended to be universal in its operation upon the airangements of Society, just as the law of gravitation is upon all the relations of the material universe. " Attraction," says Godwin, " i s the general law. Written on the heart of all, it leveals perpetually and unitaiily the Will of God; it acts at all times and in all places. It impels each being on his way, it indicates to him kis Destiny, and it remains foiever incompiessible." , The law is t h i s : that the Passions, feelings, free impulses of Man point out to him the path in which he should walk, the relations he should fomi, the labor he should do, the functions he should discharge, and, generally, the whole course of life which he ought to pursue. T h a t this is the exact meaning of the law, and that it is also the fundamental principle of Association considered as a Social System, may be made perfectly certain whenever it shall be disputed. Nearly all the Associationists who have ever written upon the subject, either in Europe or in this country, have more or less distinctly asserted it. It is claimed that when this Law shall have been universally established, and this new form of Society shall have been per- DISCUSSED. 51 fected, in order that it may have free and full effect, all existing causes of dissension and of evil will have been removed ; a perfect bond will have been provided to keep mankind in harmony ; isolation of effort and of life will be unknown ; and we shall have, in the words of Mr. Godwin, a *« Social System in which order will be produced by the free action of the passions;" a " S o c i a l System devised by God and reserved for the discovery of Man." Then, to quote the same writer, "Reason and Passion will be in perfect accord; duty and pleasure will have the same meaning; without inconvenience or calculation, man will follow his bent; hearing only of Attraction, he will never act from necessity, and never curb himself by restraints" T h u s we have reached the fundamental principle, the supreme, controlling law of this nevr Social System. W e do not stop now to insist upon the palpable fact, that this principle is in the most direct and unmistakable hostility to the uniform inculcations of the Gospel. No injunction of the N e w Testament is more express, or more constant, than that of selfdenial; of subjecting the passions, the impulses of the heart to the law of conscience. W e may hereafter present this point more fully to public notice. But for the piesent we wish to follow the necessary operation of this fundamental law, upon some of the details of industiial and domestic life. How will it guide and control the airangements of labor, the relations of the sexes, & c , &c. 1 T h e Associationists urge that the passions of men will impel or attract them, to Rum reliant assemblages called gioups, with their fellows. T h u s if a man has an impulse, or a decided liking, for plowing, for gardening, or for any other branch of industry, he will enter into the group devoted to i t ; and in this way he will become a member of as many groups as he has special and definite impulses In the same way are foimed other groups, in other departments, and created by the. fiee operation of other impulses. Every "passional attraction" must find its proper object, and be fully carried out. In this way provision is made for the following various groups; as we learn from the " W r i t i n g s of the Associationists," to which the Tribune has referred u s : — " Group of FRIENDSHIP, All attracted to each other in confusion. Group of AMBITION, Superiors attracting inferiors. Group of Lovt:, Women attracting the Men. Gioup of FAMILY, Inferiors attracting Superiors." Now we shall take the third group named in this schedule, and inquire into the operation of the law of Passional Attraction upon the mutual relations of the two sexes. In an Association, the passional attraction of love will prompt men to form certain relations. This is provided for by the system. In forming these relations, 14 each party would consult the dictates of the h e a r t ; " " the choice thus made would be declared a marriage ,*" and the parties would pass from the Vestalate to some other Corporation composed exclusively of the married. N o w suppose the passional attraction which led tc* 52 A S S O C I A T I O !Si D I S C U S S E D . that connection should lose its force and take another direction. Suppose the same man should he attracted hy other women. W h a t t h e n ! How does the fundamental law operate in this case? How shall these instances (and it is certain that they will occur) of changing impulses and new attractions he controlled and guided] W h a t does the theory of the System require 1 W h e n a man has a special passion for a dozen kinds of work, he joins a dozen groups. W h e n he has a special passion for a dozen kinds of study, he joins a dozen groups. So, if the System he earned out, if its fundamental principle he not repudiated, if the whole scheme he not abandoned as a System —-if a man comes to have a passion for a dozen women, there must be a dozen different groups for its full development and gratification. We insist upon this as a necessary, logical, inevitable, deduction from the fundamental principles of the System of Association. If we are wrong, show the fallacy of our argument. It seems to us invincible; the conclusion can not he evaded. T h e i e must be, if the theory be maintained, groups in this department of life, as in othe r s ; and those whose passional attractions impel them to form various connections, must have liberty to do so. " Man will follow his bent, and never curb himself by restraints." We insist upon this as a logical necessity. And we shall proceed now to show that the '' Writers on Association," referred to by the Tribune, recognize this necessity, and have made their arrangements accoidingly. Those who have given most attention to the study of the System, those who have made it the subj e c t of closest and most constant thought, have seen, and have said, thai this result is rendered imperative hy the fundamental principles of Association W e quote the following passage. Upon this very point, from Mr. Godwin's " Pop ular View," to which we have before referred : that of the Vestalic Corporation ; another would b® a Corporation of Constancy, as we have said, at which the most part of men and women stop: while others again, named Bacchantes, Bayaderes, &c., would pass into other Corporations not so strict in their requirements. Such characters as Aspasia, Ninon De L'Enclos, & c , Fourier regards as essential parts in the variety of the human race." Here, then, w e have distinctly set forth, as parts of the System, the precise arrangements which, as we hav.e proved above, the fundamental principle of the System requires. * It is by the operation of that principle of passional attraction, that all the confusions and collisions of life are to be harmonized. T h i s is the great principle which Fourier discovered, and upon it are based the whole theory and practice of Association. All the passions of Man, it is held, are divine in their origin, and good in themselves. Evil flows only from their repression or subversion. Give them full scope, fiee play, a perfect and complete development, and universal happiness must be the result. They are the true revelation of God's designs within the soul. Their promptings are, the true utterances of Nature. Listen to them ; obey them ; follow the path which they indicate; create a new form of Society in which this shall be possible ; let atliaction, or in common language, the impulses of the heart, become its only l a w ; and then you will have a perfect Society; then will you have " t h e Kingdom of Heaven that comes to us in this terrestrial world " W e must, for the present, leave this statement of the fundamental and essential ptinciples of Association with our readers. These are the principles which accoi ding to the " Wi itings of the Associationists," are to v surmount the obstacles" we have suggested ; and this is the method in which that result is to be reached. W e shall heieafter consider some otlier departments of their operation, and if need be, fortify our demonstration of their character and " But suppose this arrangement [Marriage] should tendency, by farther citations from the authorhave been entered into unwisely, that the parties ities to which the Tribune has referred us. subsequently find that they aie not fitted to each Other, or that one or the other should be inconstant m passion : does Fourier regard the tie as indissoluFiom the Tribune, March 12th, 1846. ble ? He answers No! He thinks that Love is too sacred a passion to be forced, except in those incoL E T T E R X. herent and imperfect Societies where the rights and libeity of the individual are of necessity sacrificed To the Editor of the Courier and Enquirer : to the general order. W H E N I assume to have demonstrated that " W e should be unfaithful to the task we have " there are radical defects or vices in our undertaken weie we to conceal that Fourier was Social institutes and usages, demanding radical decidedly of the conviction that, while a part of mankind were formed for constancy in love, there are remedies," what do you propose to gain hy saysome who are formed for change. * * * * The ing that you concede the truth of my assertion Various relations of the Sexes will lead, like all other that " great Social evils exist and demand a passional relations, to an organization into groups and remedy V1 Can you suppose a single reader series. Departing from the Vestalate, each one will of this controversy so obtuse as not to perceive enter some corpoiation having constancy for its rule. the wide difference between my proposition Many will stop there ; but others are so peculiarly form- and your very gratuitous concession ! Nay ; ed that they will join themselves to other Corporations, do more or less levere, as may be agreeable to their inclina- you imagine that a single candid reader has tions and temperaments. * * * * In this way failed to discern which is proved by my facts, no one will have any inducement to dissimulate, my proposition or yours 1 You may seem to being always fiee to follow another rule, simply declar- put out your eyes by your ostrich-like burrowing it by joining another Corporation. * * * * ing in the sand, but the world will see, notT h e Affective Passions, Fourier continues, as well withstanding. as the sensitive and intellectual, are susceptible of Let us suppose the Dukes of Sutherland and scientific education and progress. The passion of Love, he argues, before it can yield all the results Newcastle, the Archbishop of Canleibuiy, the Of which it is capable, must undergo an organization Bishop of London, & c , could he induced t& by series, to meet all the wants of all the natures that meet and consider earnestly the woes which God sends into existence. The first organization is afflict the millions around and beneath them, DISCUSSED. 53 »au* to devise or adopt comprehensive measures to your over-gorged lusts, what wonder if they foi relief. Before them appear the Courier and would make sure of the remnant by consuming the Tribune, as advocates of their respective it before your rapacity and craft should grasp theories. The Courier, by right of senioaty, that alsol You say they are often idle, and ©pens: " Please your Lordships, the funda- seldom steadily industrious : Can you wonder mental evil in the premises, is the selfishness at this when they are not enabled to work and depiavity of Human Nature, and the only steadily, but only as the avarice or necessities remedy is a radical change of each individual of others shall have occasion for them 1 You character. I counsel you, therefore, to give say they are grossly ignorant: So they are, as libeially in charity to relieve the distresses of their fathers have been before them for many the destitute; to endow a Church in each generations. How could Ignorance, encrusted village, and distribute a Bible and Tracts to by Poverty and Social degradation, ever lift each family, and, thus laboring for, await such itself out of the mire in which it has groveled mitigation of the practical woes afflicting until its nature became thereto assimilated 1 Humanity as the essential Depravity of Man's You and your kin have enjoyed Knowledge, Nature will permit." The speaker pauses; Leisure, ample Means—why have you not imthe rubicund visages of the Christian Peers proved and diffused them ? Have you even and Prelates are lighted up with a glow of habitually set the Poor examples of the Frusatisfaction, and a thrill of self-complacent de- gality, Industry, Temperance, Morality, you light courses from the brain to the toes even require of them 1 You say they are brutish and vicious : So they are : And what have you of the goutiest. " Men and brethren!" the Tribune strikes done to improve and refine them'! Look at the in, " I am constrained to say to each of you, wretched hovels in which they exist, feeding as Nathan said to David, « THOU ART THE MAN?' like dogs and sleeping like hogs, without a All that the preceding speaker has counseled chance to observe the requirements of modesty you to do is very wrell; Do it, and more such and decency. Consider what are the hopes if you will. But he has not touched the heart animating, the environments surrounding, the of the disease, so far as it affects your oppor- influences depressing them, and say whether tunities and your duties. These Millions are their general character is not substantially famishing, Messrs. Dukes and Prelates! be- such as these are naturally calculated to procause you grind their faces by merciless exac- duce. Are they intemperate and grossly sentions of rents and tithes which it is not just sual ? Think of their frames bowed, their that they should pay—which they are yet com- sinews strained by excessive, meagerly-repelled to pay because the robber ancestors of warded toil; think of their lack of education, some of you acquired titles, by violence or of good example, of elevating associates, of fraud, to vast portions of the Soil w7hich God wholesome tecreations, and say whether this made for the sustenance of all His children. too is not just what was to be expected. In They could tolerably live, in the little cottages short, do you what is incumbent on you, by they have built, on the narrow patches you ceasing to be oppressors and becoming true permit them to cultivate, did you not rack them guides and brotherly helpers of these your oT five to twenty-five dollars per acre rent for poor, depressed brethren. I bid you do them their little holdings, to swell the enormous in- JUSTICE and they will not long stand in need comes which you annually squander in useless of alms— pomp and baleful luxury. And you, Reverend •* 'Justice for the young and old ;— Prelates! I grieve to say, make yourselves Give them that—not rich men's gold. * * * parties to this robbery, and clutch your thirty Justice, and no man is poor, pieces of the spoil. Instead of admonishing Though another owneth more.'" the titled monopolists to «let the People go,' Here is the essence and the substance of ASyou are the bulwarks of the system which SOCIATION. I doubt not that the dukes and crushes them. Your enormous revenues could archbishops I have instanced would consider never be realized by preaching and practicing the Tribune's talk Agrarian, Jacobinic, Infidel, the Religion of Him of Nazareth whom you and a great deal more of the same sort. Pereall Master. It is the price of blood ! haps the classes who most nearly approach "What I would have you do, sirs, is this: them in position in this country will so regard First, Recognize the Right of all men to Labor it, at first blush ; yet if they will but calmly —consequently, to the use of such portion of consider—if they will but feel that they are the the Soil as may be essential to their subsist- brethren of the Millions now famishing throughence on such terms as Justice, not Necessity, out Ireland, Europe—alas ! throughout the civshall dictate. Secondly, Recognize and fulfill ilized world—they could not fail to realize that the duty devolved upon you, by teason of your the laws and usages which allow one man to supeiior advantages, mental culture,and general monopolize a portion of the Earth from which resources, to live in truly fraternal relations with hundreds of thousands must gain a subsistence, your poorer and less fortunate fellow-beings, leaving these hundreds of thousands destitute and to minister to their needs, moral or phys- of any home or means of support save at the ical, according to your best ability. Nature sufferance of others—that such laws, and the and Revelation concur in enjoining this upon whole system of clutch-and-hold of which they you ; dare not to neglect it, and then charge are a part, are primary and potent causes of the the consequences upon the heads of your miseries which all now witness, and most provictims ! fess to deplore. " You say the Poor are improvident: I reply I will not waste many words on your treatth?& your wrongs have made them so! Robbed ment of my array of facts intended to prove by you of one half their just earnings, to pander that the condition of the Laboring Class in 54 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. Great Britain is worse now than it was five I sult'? Supposing there are 1000 inhabitants £0 centuries since. If the Statutes, the Prices a township six miles square, the average price Current, Village Registers, the Convent Ac of fair land will not exceed ten dollars peY acre, count-Books, &c , of bygone centuries may not and the rental of the arable portion will pet haps be quoted, where they substantially agree, to average one dollar an acie. But the population prove in a rough, general way, the relative increases to 10,000, and now, other things reprices of Labor and of Food in their times, then maining as before, the soil is worth fifty to one I despair of fixing the truth by any means what- hundred dollars per acre, and will rent for five ever. Many of the facts I quoted (not mainly to ten dollars. In other words, the actual culfrom " officials and placemen") come out in that tivators must now give one-half to three-fourths incidental, unconscious fashion, which adds of the usual product of the soil to landlords, for greatly to their weight with me. What Brit- the privilege of working it. Now let the popuish legislator, for example, in 1847, or at any lation swell to 15,000 or 20,000, and what is time these twenty years, would have named in the natural effect on those who are born landthe preamble of a statute "beef, pork, mutton, less 1 But why do I ask 1 Do I not hear you and veal," and added, " these being the food of say, " I t is a settled principle of Political Econthe poorer sort1!" -I don't believe there is a omy that Subsistence must not only keep pace hereditary blockhead in the House of Lords with Population, but take the lead V We are who could blunder so grossly. all familiar with this sort of logic in the " sound Your M'Culloch and other " soundest writers Political Economists," and sometimes are perI nutted to know what it means. The Edinon Political Economy," a»e the very men whom I have been battling these twenty years, as I I burgh Review tells us frankly that the Poor Understand you to have been for the last four | who find themselves shut out from the soil, and or five years. I deem them most zmsound— I have no assured means of maintaining a family mistaken in their premises, and of course wrong j have no right to marry—that it is a crime in in their conclusions. I am sure they are wrong such to obey God's command to "Be fruitful in assuming that the condition of the mass of and multiply," for which an after-life of privaBritish laborers in our day is better than was tion and famine is the appropriate penalty. To that of their forefathers five centuries ago. repress the sentiment of Love in enduring ceThat there has been some improvement in libacy or drown it in a career of debauchery is the dwellings they occupy is probably true, ' the course pointed out by the " sound Political though I see not how human beings could man- Economists" to those who have the misfortune age to exist in dwellings much more miserable to be born and continue landless and portionor filthy than many now thickly tenanted even less. here. That many materials of their clothing I demur altogether to your doctrine, though are cheaper now than formerly is true. True, quite aware that it is laid down as an axiom also, the progress of invention and improvement by your "sound Political Economists," that have placed some conveniencies and luxuries " When Laborers increase faster than the within the reach of common people which were Capital that employs them, Labor must fall; formerly beyond the reach of the richest, be- when the increase is in favor of Capital, Lahoi cause they had no existence. That " new and will rise." There is no soundness in it, using cheaper kinds of food"—such as watery Pota- Capital to imply Wealth owned by individuals. toes and decayed Turnips—have taken the If the Real Estate of this City had never obplace of the Wheat, Mutton, Beef, Pork, which tained one-half of its actual valuation, the our laboring ancestors ate when a day's wages " Capital" of New York would be vastly less at plowing or reaping would buy four times as than it is, but I do not think its Labor would much Wheat or Beef in England as now, I fully be less generously rewarded—rather the conunderstand. Whether the prevailing tendency I trary. There have been rapidly - succeeding here is to the aggregation or to a more equal duplications of the Labor in Oregon and Calidiffusion of Wealth, is a point which must re- fornia, with no corresponding increase of the main in dispute between us. Let every reader Capital ; but I do not hear that the Labor is look thoughtfully around him, and decide for depressed or likely to "fall" in consequence. himself. Whether, in view of the landless con- Suppose a lake or a river to yield $1,200,000 dition of such multitudes, the causes which j worth offish every year, of which some patroon confessedly deprive many of constant employ-! or landlord claiming to be seignior exacts onement are indeed "accidental and temporary" third for permission to fish, giving him a snug or otherwise, he will also judge. To me it item of income of $400,000 per annum. But seems that, to the landless ancl portionless mil- the fishermen at length grow weary of paying ; lions, being without work is the natural condi- they doubt the rightfulness of the exaction ; tion, and obtaining it is the accident, even j and, putting the matter properly at issue before though it be admitted that those who have work the legal tribunals, they obtain a verdict, and at any time considerably outnumber those who are at liberty to fish rent-free evermore* are unwillingly idle. "Awful destruction of Property!" groans somje I have thus looked through your argument on Courierite; " a Capital of $6,000,000 demolished at a blow by an Anti-Rent decision— the past and present condition of the Laboring Class, to see whether you propose or contem- how will the Poor survive if?" "Tolerably plate any remedy for the master-evil, the Mo- i well, thank you !" reply the fishermen; " w e nopoly of Land, to which I have endeavored to don't find it materially harder to get a living win your attention. You do indeed deny that now than formerly." And so vanishes the the reward of Labor grows more and more whole fog-bank about the reciprocal influscanty and precarious as Population increases, ences of the increase and diminution of Capital but is it not manifest that such must be the re- and Labor. ASSOCIATION But, suppose we admit the evils the Tribune insists on, a n s w e r s the Courier, how will Association remedy them 1 W h y , sir, I have explained this twice already. Association will secure to every member employment at all times, and the fair reward of his labor. It will give every mechanic a comfortable and convenient home, warmed, lighted, &c., for a fraction of the rent he now pays. H e pays one price for his tenement, and another for its proximity to the consumers of his products: in Association, he will pay the former only, while enjoying in unexampled perfection the latter. T h e imm e n s e Economies of Association in regard to buildings, fences, fuel, schooling, traffic, teams, w a s t e ground, & c , will render one thousand acres of land fully adequate to the subsistence of a number for whom three or four thousand acres are required under our present system. Of course, " the pressure of competition for L a n d , " which the Queen's Speech so deplores in reference to Ireland, will be quietly, gradually abated. And the fundamental law that Capital shall receive as its dividend a fixed proportion of the general product, based upon its actual contributions, and not upon arbitrary valuations — a proportion which can never be increased because of the increased value given by Labor to the common property—renders morally certain the Emancipation of honest Toil from the privations, anxieties, sufferings, it is now too generally doomed to endure ; and the immense Economies of Association, which are so obvious that even the Courier can not deny them, will secure to Labor double the comforts and advantages it now enjoys, without diminishing the average income of Capital— possibly increasing it. DISCUSSED. 55 I writings of Associationists" what is the belief j of the school with regard to Love, Marriage, Conjugal Duty, &c , and I will endeavor to repress tlie indignation 1 feel, and speak of it with entire calmness. How utterly all this violates the fundamental condition on which I agreed to debate this subject with you, how paltry is the pretext on which you have assumed to set aside your own solemn compact, our readers I already know. But those who are not familiar with Mr Godwin's " Popular View of the Doctrines of Charles Fourier," can not realize, and will not readily believe, how grossly you have misrepresented him. You had before you his book, in which the broadest line is drawn between those speculations of Fourier, which the Associative School do and those they do not accept, forming two distinct, broadly-defined portions of his work. You have read and ; had your attention called to his " Intermediate" chapter on the " Essential Distinction between the T w o P a r t s of this Work," in which he protests, in advance, against such perversions as you are guilty of, indignantly denies the charge that we who have adopted Fourier's constructive principles of township organization have any design to abolish Property, the Family Relation, or Religion, and proceeds : " Whoever, then, undertakes to criticise or accuse the Phalansterian School, must, to be honest, do so on other grounds than these. He must take up directly and only the project they present, and prove that it is in itself worthless or impracticable. Random charges against opinions which we repel and plans we do not propose, can only expose the authors of them to the contempt of all fair-minded people. "The School of Fourier proposes but one thins; : THB ORGANIZATION OF LABOR I N THE T O W N S H I P . It I thank you for your reference to " t h e has no other object, no other/az7A, as a School. InTribune for example," though its motive is dividuals are, of course, always at liberty to promulgate whatever opinions they may see fit. apparent. It is not true that " the owners pay " L e t a township be once organized according to their laborers the market price for their work :" our principles, and the reform will soon spread over w e pay one-fourth more than the average the whole nation. " m a r k e t price" of similar labor in our city, " Slavery, direct and indirect, will then be aboland one-third more than the lowest price at ished, because labor will have become attractive; which wre could obtain it, which is the price savages and barbarians will more readily adopt' the the " s o u n d Political Economists" say we manners of refined and cultivated life ; science, ait> and will be developed, and the ought to pay It is not true that we clear most industry,order will largely along with; the most1 perfect reign $20,000 per*annum or any thing like i t ; but, on perfect liberty. the other hand, our " unequal competition" with " This is our conviction: this is ALL we teach;" those who obtain labor cheaper than we do, has Again, as if determined not to be misreprenot seriously threatened to " ruin" us yet. sented, except by those who deem nothing un^ W h e t h e r Association dictates that the Tribune [fair nor unjust so that it assails Association,* Establishment should be parceled out to those Mr. Godwin expressly reiterates : who encounter no risk, and expended no capi" We feel the necessity of repeating once mora tal, to create i t ; and if so, whether it should be shared among those who worked on it, and that the Social School, which professes to teach the positive doctrines of Fourier, have but a single and> were paid therefor the first year, the last, or exclusive aim—The Organization of Labor. * *•' *" some intermediate, it would probably require We are not so senseless as to desire the suppression: some one better acquainted with the doctrine of all coercive means, and the full play of thaPasthan him of the Courier to determine As to sions, before a long and satisfactoiy experience of " self-seeking" and "selfishness"—but let such the reformed state of Society shall have shown, to imputations await' their answer. If, on a full future generations, that it would be unattended with and final review, my life and practice shall be dangerous results. " So long as the Passions may bring forth Disorfound unworthy my principles, let due infamy der—so long as Inclination may be in opposition to be heaped on my memory, but let none be Duty—we reprobate as strongly as any class of men, thereby led to distrust the principles to which all indulgence of the inclinations and feelings; and I proved recreant, nor yet the ability of some where Reason is unable to guide them, have no obto adorn them by a suitable life and conversa- jection to other means," &c. tion. T o unerring time be all this committed I need not quote farther to show how utterly I approach that part of your last article in you have perverted Mr. Godwin's book in order which you assume to set forth from " t h e j to strike through him at the Associationists— 5Q ASSOCIATION D I S C U S S E D . as palpably as he who cited the express words I sible, for the time, the equally active vxpre'ise of the Bible to prove that "There is no God." of any other. The Tribune affords an illustration You say, indeed, that all the results you in- very nearly in point. The Editoi's extraordidicate flow logically from the theory of Pas- nary effort to " rept ess the indignation he teels? sional Attraction; but I have propounded no hand to speak with entire calmness" of the arsuch theory; much less asserted that such At- hgument embraced in our last article, developing traction is to be universally followed. I lay the principles and showing the tendencies of slender emphasis on Theories of any sort, save Association, seems greatly to have impaired as their truth and utility have been demonstra- his memory of facts. While we yawn, it is ted by Practice. This thing Association, as I isaid, we are deaf: and so when the Tribune hold and advocate it, is a matter of Practice attempts to be good-natured, it becomes obliviThe Editor "looks through our argualtogether—the simple actualization of the truth ons. of Universal Human Brotherhood. Christ's ment" to see " what remedy we propose for Law of Love is palpably outraged and con- that master-evil, the monopoly of land;" as if temned in a world of palaces and mud hovels ; that, and not Association, were the theme of this T of famished Toil and pampered Uselessness ; Idiscussion. W e do not believe the " monopoof boundless Wealth uselessly hoarded, and ly," that is the ownership, of land, to be an helpless Infancy dying in bitter agony and sup- evil. But whether it be or not, is not the legiplication for "only three grains of corn." Let timate topic of this inquiry. The Tribune asus redress the palpable wrongs before us by serts that existing evils can only he remedied prompt action, and we will consider theories by substituting for the present social forms its and speculations at our leisure. Fourier's idea new system of Association, founded upon disthat God governs the Universe throughout by tinctive principles, aiming at certain results, and Attraction—that this is the law of life and health proposing for their attainment a specific, elabfor all intelligent beings—is a grand and inspir- orate, and well-defined system of means. We ing one : it may possess great practical value deny the feasibility of the system, and assert when we come fully to understand and apply it. that it involves essential principles at war with But, when he concedes that there will be hu- morality, Christianity, and political economy. man beings truly educated and living in a wise- The Tribune challenged us to a discussion of ly ordered Social State, who will deliberately I its merits, upon which we accordingly entered. abandon a life of purity to wallow in inconti- But now the Tribune asserts that " this thing. nence and sensuality, he proves, not perhaps, Association, is a matter of practice altogether," that his Law is fictitious, but that he knows not not a theory, not a doctrine, not a system to be how to apply it. I do not believe that a rightly- d iscussed, hut simply something to be practiced ; trained, truly-developed human beingr will any not a science to be examined, but a machine to more have " a passion for a dozen different wo- be set a-going. Why, then, did the Tribune men," etc., than he will have a passion to com- challenge us to its discussion"? And why has mit a dozen murders, requiring the organiza- | it not sooner made this discovery which, if it tion of murdering groups accordingly. "If a | be well founded, should long since have ended a man comes to have a passion" for doing any this controversy! Why does it not set its act contrary to Morality and General Good, his machine at work, instead of extolling the prin" passion" must be repressed or punished. Such ciples on which it is constructed, and calling is my "logical, inevitable deduction from the upon us to show that it will not succeed 1 We fundamental principles of the system of Asso- trust the Tribune, when its wrath shall have ciation." I know nothing of " Groups and Se- subsided, will recover its memory, and see ries" organized, or to be organized, for the per- cleaily, as it did at first, that Association involves a theory, as well as a practice; and that petration of crimes or the practice of vices. the latter must be impossible, if the former be But why should I be required to interpose a demonstrably false. defense against such accusations'? Why should Of the political economy of Association we I not he permitted to set forth what it is that I advocate, and have that discussed and consid- have but little mure to say. The Tribune asered, as was agreed at the outset 1 Why should i serted that "the laboring classes of England I be required to defend not only myself hut oth- during the last five centuries, have been deers against the grossest misrepresentations! i pressed from comfort to ivretchcdyiess" by the Why, indeed, but that every appeal for Justice natural and necessary operation of the laws of and Humanity has ever been resisted exactly i existing society. The " few words" which the after this fashion 1 " He blaspheme?h !" " He | Tribune "wastes" on our "treatment of its arhath a devil!" " Behold a gluttonous man and j ray of facts" intended to prove this statement, a wine-bibher !" " Away with him !" " Crucify | require but little notice. Tbe question is purehim!" Such have been the vociferations with j ly one of fact, though very difficult to be anwhich every newly-asserted truth of any value j swered ; and we have cited on our side, those has been assailed from the foundation of the | peisons who have given tbe most thorough, inworld. That truth is indestructible by such at- I telligent, and laboiious attention to. the sources tacks, and will triumph over them at last, is the ! of evidence by which it must be settled. TIIQ 1 TI ihune answers that these authorities are " the unshaken conviction of H. G. *my men whom its editor has been battling these twenty years !" They are unfortunate* eertainI ly, and v\e extend to them our sympathy ; and From the Courier and Enquirer of March 19,184?. [yet we think it possible that their conclusions REPLY TO LETTER X. j upon this point are quite as reliable as the asPHILOSOPHERS tell us that the severe exercise sertions quoted by ihe Tribune from a partisan of any one faculty of the mind renders impos- [" article in an old Democratic Review," ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 57 The Tribune declares with oracular empha- j marry in this case is clearly an immoral act, yet it is one which society should not punish. To the punSis :— ishment of nature he should be left, the punishment ^ I am SURE they are wrongs in assuming that the Iof want. All parish assistance should be denied condition of the mass of British laborers in our day him, and he should be left to the uncertain support i& better than was that of their forefathers, five cen- of private charity." turies ago." Here, then, it will be seen that the writer But even this, to our minds, is not perfectly upon whose premises the Tribune builds its conclusive; the writers in question do not " asnew social edifice, himself advocates the policy sume' 1 their point, as the Tribune asserts, but imputed by the Tribune to his opponents. T h e prove i t ; and their conclusion seems to be very "sound political economists" whom we have fully conceded by the Tribune itself, when it quoted, and whom the Tribune pretends to confesses that " there have been improvements quote, deny and discard the premises of Malthus, in the dwellings" of the laboring classes : that which the Tribune accepts. They do not de" t h e materials of their clothing are cheaper nounce marriage as a crime on the part of the now than formerly :" that " the progress of in-1 poor ; but they assert that, as a matter of fact, vention has placed conveniences and luxuries generally true though not without exceptions, within the reach of the common people, which' men do not and will not marry until they can were formerly not enjoyed by the r i c h e s t ; " and support their families ; and that therefore " s u b that " new and cheaper kinds of food" have sistence must not only keep pace with Populabeen introduced. How all these things can be, tion, but take the lead." T h u s M'Culloch consistently with the assertion that " the Britsays:— ish laborer, four centuries ago, enjoyed a degree " Man is not a mere slave of instinct; his conduct, of comfort unknown to his living descendants," the Tribune's sophistical ingenuity can alone speaking generally, is influenced by prospective considerations ; and when we look at bodies of individdetermine. uals, we uniformly find that the period and frequency With regard to the reward of labor, and its of marriages and the rate of increase are determined by dependence on the ratio of supply and demand, the increase of food, and that the latter is never outrun it seems to us, nothing more need be said by the former." W e find it impossible, indeed, to reconcile the M'Culloch, however, is one of the " very Tribune's positions, not only with common m e n " whom the Editor of the Tribune " h a s Thus that paper been battling these twenty y e a r s " upon the s e n s e , but with each other. s a y s \n one paragraph : subject of Free Trade ; and therefore his opin" You deny that the reward of Labor grows more ions upon all other topics will probably be proand more scanty and precarious as Population [or nounced unsound and absurd. W e will therethe number of those who labor] increases: but is it fore quote another writer upon the subject, not manifest that such MUST be the result?" against whose authority, perhaps, the Tribune And in the next paragraph we find this asser- will be less emphatic. William Atkinson, in his "Principles of Political Economy " publishtion : " There have been rapidly succeeding duplications ed in 1843, " with an introduction by Horace of Labor in Oregon and California, with no corre- Greeley," devotes a chapter to the examinasponding increase of the Capital: but I do not hear tion of this fundamental proposition of Malthus that the Labor is depressed or likely to fall in conse- (which the Tribune now in the main adopts), quence" that Population increases in & geometrical ratio, T h e first paragraph asserts that.Labor must] while its means of subsistence increase only in fall as laborers i n c r e a s e : the second asserts an arithmetical ratio. T h e conclusion he reaches that it need not! Both positions can not be is t h i s : — t r u e : yet the Tribune uses one or the other, as " Thus we are necessitated by the facts now colthe exigency of its argument may seem to re- lated to reverse the geometrical and arithmetical quire. That paper, however, still adheres, as ratios, and to assert that the former is more nearly nearly as we can understand its argument, to applicable to the laws of the formation of capital, the doctrine of Malthus, that Population natu- and the latter to the laws of the increase of popularally, inevitably, and universally, increases tion. * * I now submit that I have proved how entirely Mr. Malthus has failed to substantiate faster than its means of subsistence : and that either predicate of his two great propositions ; and the constant tendency of things, therefore, is I can not avoid expressing the utmost astonishment toward destitution and misery. T h e Tribune that these ratios of inciease which were promulassumes that this tendency e x i s t s ; and pro- gated by him as theoiies, should have been received poses to check it by Association: the Editor with ANY PORTION OF CREDENCE, either by statesmen also makes the following assertion as to the or statisticians." means of checking it pointed out by others :— And this excessive " a s t o n i s h m e n t " on the " T o repress the sentiment of Love in enduring part of Mr. Atkinson seems to have been shared celibacy, or drown it in a career of debauchery, is by his American Editor ; for in his introduction, the course pointed out by the ' sound political economists'to the woik Mr. Greeley says :— \ to those who have the misfortune to be born andj continue landless and portionless." | " It can not have needed the horrible deductions of Malthus, who declares that those who can not Now this imputation is utterly unfounded find food without the aid of the community, should Malthus, whose premises the Tribune adopts, | be left to starve, to convince this generation of the is the only original writer on political economy radical unsoundness of the FKEMISES from which such who " points out" any such " course." H e says revolting conclusions can be drawn." expressly that, I Having thus disposed (we hope finally) of the " If any man choose to marry without the pros- crude and absurd positions on which the Politipect of being able to support a family, he should! cal Economy of Association is based, we shall have the most perfect liberty to do so. Though to again turn our attention to its MORALITIES, to 58 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. its fundamental principles and necessary ten- j rigorous demonstration which only willful prejudice dencies as a SOCIAL SYSTEM : and we tiust the rejects." Still more strongly is the same position laid Tribune will renew its effort, and meet with m o r e than its usual success, in " lepressing the down by Mr. Brisbane :— " God, as Supreme Economist," he says, "must indignation" which it always feels, or affects to feel, when this department of the subject is have preferred Association, and reserved for its organization, some means, the Discovery of which approached. W e have full confidence that, in task of genius. * The duly of spite of the Tribune's efforts " t o put out its was theto compose a Social * God, is Code and to reveal it to eyes by an ostrich-like burrowing in the sand, man: it is evident that he has fulfilled this double the world will see notwithstanding," the abyss duty," &c. &c. of sensualism into which the principles of this So in a letter which Mr. Brisbane published new Social System directly lead. And we must in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser of Nov. have some more cogent reasoning than the 25, 1846, he says :-— denunciations of the Tribune have yet afforded, " The social order which Fourier discovered, was before we are convinced that this portion of our not a scheme of his own discovery, but in his belief, argument is not directly in the line of discus- was the social plan, or social code which the Cieatar sion which that paper proposed. At the hazard precomposed and predestined for Man before creating of some repetition, we shall present the leading and placing him upon Earth." points of our argument in a consecutive form. W e might multiply these citations to any 1 Association is offered to the world as a new e x t e n t ; for all the " writings of the AssociaSocial System, intended to embrace all departments tionists" are full of the same pretensions. T h e of Social Life. T h e Tribune pretends, when- Harbinger, published by the Brook Farm Assoever such pretence seems to suit its purpose, ciation, constantly speaks of the System as the that Labor is the only interest which Associa- " divine order of Society." T h e Address of the tion seeks to reorganize : and that all the other | North American Phalanx ." to the friends of interests and relations of life will be left un- Social Re-organization," asserts that they protouched. T h a t this pretence is utterly un- pose a " form of Society harmonious in all its founded, we need not stop to demonstrate. Not relations with Divine law"—a "fitting embodia single writer upon the subject gives the slight- ment of the spirit of Christianity." Mr. Ripley, est support to the assertion; and the Tribune in his Lecture of Monday evening last, as reitself contradicts it in nearly every article it ported by the Tribune,spoke of Fourier as " t h e has written upon this topic. It uniformly speaks discoverer of the laws of Social harmony, and of associated life as well as labor, and has dis- the Scientific expounder of the principles which tinctly asserted, that Education, domestic habits, govern the destiny of man on earth ;" and the religion, and indeed the whole sphere of Social Tiibune asserts that " h e showed that Fourier's existence, would be modified and controlled by system was only an exposition of a divine, social the scheme of Association which it advocates. code, ordained by the Deity for the establishment It quotes also from Mr. Godwin's " P o p u l a r of social order." And the following quotation View," the declaration that " t h e School of from the Tribune of Oct. 4, 1842, is certainly Fourier proposes but one thing, the organization conclusive proof of the position w e have stated of Labor in the Township:" but the very same above. paragraph, which, it also quotes, contains this "Fourier proposes no system of his own—?*» equally explicit assertion :— scheme which is the result of his individual reason. He says that God, before creating man and giving " Let a township be once organized according to our principles, and the reform will soon spread over the wholehim passions, must have adapted them to some sysnation: Slavery will be abolished ; Science, art, and tem of society in which they would produce order, industry will be largely developed : and the most harmony, and justice. Fourier says he has discovered perfect order will reign'along with the most perfect the divine social order. The system of Association is liberty. This is all we teach." [ based upon the great religious idea that God must the human race a social system, And that embraces all that we have charged. [ have composed for of their social regulations and pasfor the regulation Labor in a township is to be organized, in order sions. Fourier himself declaies, on all occasions, that " t h e reform" may " s p r e a d over the whole that he gives no system of his own: he says that nation," and bring within its scope all the rela- he has discovered the laws by which God governs the tions and interests of social life. And if any Universe, that these laws are universal. His discovery farther evidence on this point be needed, it may is the practical continuation of Christ's divine docbe found in the proof of our next position, trine." This extract in the Tribune is accompanied namely:—.. column in which 2. Association is offered to the world as a Social by the editorial remark that the li Science of divine origin, and immutable in its es- it appears had been purchased bythe advocates sential principles. It is not put forward as of Association, in order to lay their principles something to be "demonstrated by practice," | before the public " T h e s e principles are thus as an experiment to be tried, hut as a system distinctly recognized as those of the " advocates devised, calculated, and ordered by God In of Association." And in addition to this, the proof of this, we refer to the uniform language Tribune, on the 29th of January last, quoted as of every one who has written upon it. Thus authority, a resolution passed at what he styles Mr. Godwin declares, in the preface to his book, "our first general convention, held in this city in April, 1844," in which it is'asserted that ihey that are in favor of the " social science which FouI " We wish to rest the claims of the Social Science rier humbly believed to be, and reverently of Fourier upon precisely the same grounds on which Heischell rests the Science of Astronomy. Fouiier taught as, a discovery of Eternal Laws of Divine and his disciples, hold that his social ptinciples are Justice, established and made known by the Qieaentitled to rank as a Science^ being capable of thatj tor.'* Having thus demonstrated that Associa* ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. tion is offered to the world as a social science, intended to reach all departments of social life, and based upon certain definite, immutable, universal principles, w e proceed to show,-— 3. That the law of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION is the fundamental and essential principle of Association ; that the whole system rests upon that; that if that be abandoned, the whole system falls to the ground ; that according to this law, the Passions of Man point out and control his destiny; and that Society is to receive a new form, which shall allow and render easy their perfect development. In proof of this position, w e shall quote freely from t h e " Wiitings of the Associationists," because the Tribune has referred us to them for information concerning t h e system, and because they are the only legitimate source of evidence upon t h e subject. Mr. Brisbane, in his treatise, after stating that " t h e passioiis are implanted by t h e Creator in man, to direct him rightly in the social order precomposed for him, and to which these passions are adapted,'1'' goes on to say that " The special task of the mind, with its faculties, is to discover the law of universal movement, the series which distributes all its harmonies, and apply it to the organization of society, which would guarantee to the passions A FREE AND FULL DEVELOP- 59 sion of the passions, and that reason is given to us to control them. But this harmonic development, answer moralists, is incompatible with virtue. They think so because they believe the passions are naturally depraved," &c. W e might fill our columns with declarations to t h e same effect, but they can not be necessary. It is universally conceded by the writers on Association, that t h e leading principle of Fourier's System is, " T h a t the Creator distributes passions and attractions to all his creatures in exact proportion to their Destiny;'" and it is therefore t h e great Social problem which Fourier has solved, to construct a Society adapted to these passions. T h u s Mr. Ripley, in his lecture of Monday evening, endorsed and extolled by t h e Tribune, declared Association to be t h e " d i v i n e form of Society adapted to the Nature of Man." So, also, Mr. Godwin, in his Popular View, declares (p. 30) that " T h e inclinations of men, like natural forces,can produce good only in so far as they act in their fitting sphere. To attempt to modify those inclinations because they produce evil, is to resist a natural law and stiive after an impossibility. To urge man to suppress them is to renounce the use offire,because it may be the cause of disaster. No ; the duty of man is to study his inclinations in order to arrive at a social form in which they will yield good results." MENT, and to man the attainment of his dest,iny. This is the great problem to be solved. Fourier, in In another part of t h e same work, the s a m e his discovery of the mechanism of the series of writer says that groups, has accomplished this important task."* " Fourier alone has taken man for the invariable Mr. Brisbane then proceeds to set forth what term of the social problem. Seeking a Social methe twelve passions are, and to show how the dium in perfect accord ivith the nature of man, it was system of Association provides for their "full necessary for him to know strictly what man and and fiee development." And he thus states his passions were." the essential difference between this view of And he proceeds to s e t forth the number, nathe passions, and that which generally prevails : ture, and demands of these passions, and then *' Human science declares war against all these to show how the Social order proposed will be springs of action of the Soul, which it wishes to re-1 adapted to their full and free development. press, compress, and suppress. * * * Science W h e n this order shall have been established, wishes to preserve the basis, change the springs of he declares that action, preserve the present social system, and " will perfect accord ; change the nature of man. It has necessarily failed dutyReason and Passion have be insame meaning; and pleasure will the in every respect. W e can not change human na- without inconvenience or calculation, -man will follow ture, we can only change its developments," his bent; hearing only of attraction, he will never And he thus distinctly asserts that the whole act from necessity, and never curb himself by retheory of Association rests upon this view of straints. l< Each man carries in his heart the twelve radt h e Passions as its- basis : ical passions, and the absolute or relative energy of " The science of Association consists solely in his passions in the individual determines his charknowing how to form and develop in full accord a acter, and consequently his natural position in somass or phalanx of Passional series, perfectly free, ciety. * * * Excesses and vices are not an esimpelled by attraction alone. * * * The WHOLE sential part of the passions, but on the contrary de'"PROBLEM of Association is to give free course and de- pend on external circumstances, which may be revelopment to the twelve radical passions; otherwise moved. All that is necessary is to discover a society theie will be oppression, not harmony. These in which every bad route for the action of the pastwelve passions tend to form a series of gioups. * sions will be closed, and in which the path of viitue * * AH the twelve passions being developed and will be strewn with flowers." satisfied in each individual, each one attains to happiNow let us turn to still another authority, ness, which consists in a free development of the passions. This doctrine, opposed to all repressive and " T h e Harbinger," published by the Brook Farm civilized theories, is the only one conformable to the Phalanx, the official paper of the advocates of desire of nature, and the presumable views of the Association in this country. W e find in t h e Creator, who would be an unskillful mechanician number for March 13 an exposition of the syshad he created our passions so that the stronger tem, from t h e French of Laverdant, endorsed should smother the weaker, as they do in the civil- by the editors a s sound and authentic. This ized system. There is nothing arbitrary in the system we propose : we resort to no laws or regulations article sets out thus : " T h e theory of Association is true, simply beof human invention. '* Happiness consists in the continued satisfaction cause it is true that attractions are proportional to of the twelve passions harmonically developed. Mor- destinies [that is, because the Passions of Man point alists having pursued an entirely false route in their out his functions and position in society]. What studies of Nature, have, of course, arrived at ex- constitutes the supieme science of Fourier is the actly a contrary definition; they declare that hap- thorough knowledge of man 'and his attractions. piness is only to be obtained in a continued repres- What constitutes'the discovery of Fouiier is the 60 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. Series, which is the mode of distribution of functions adapted to the human soul. " This proposition of the necessary unity between the motive-spring and its mode of action, between the passion and the series, can cause no question in the School. No one is a Phalansterian in earnest, if he has not penetrated this science of the soul, and if he does not take it for the basis of his doctrines and of his ideas. "We say further: whoever admits the Phalanstery, whoever approves simply the industrial organization of the Phalanx, the S*ME ADMITS, by implication, our psychology, since the Phalanstery is but a mechanism essentially adapted to the soul as described by Fourier. " There are those, peihaps, who say they take the Phalanstery, but reject the psychology. We will wait until it shall be given, by some special grace, to these indolent intelligences to ascend back fiom effects to causes. " Others, we are aware, accept the Phalanstery only as an excellent transition. These (we take a pleasure in informing them) do accept the psychology of Fourier, whether they care about it or not, whether they are conscious of it or not. It is simply | another Monsieur Jordain, who spoke prose without knowing it." to the «' Writings of the Associationists ;" and in those writings we have found the theory of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION ; and they all, without exception, make it the fundamental law of the eniire system. The Tribune may disclaim it, hut if it does so it abandons Association. The Tribune may characterize our compliance with its directions as a "paltry pretext," but it can not deny that, the pretext was furnished by itself. But when it charges us with misrepresenting and perverting those " writings of the Associationists" to which it referred us, it makes a charge which is utterly without foundation, and which is thoroughly refuted by the veiy attempt which the Tiibune makes to prove it tme. The Tribune insinuates, though it does not assert, that the proofs we have drawn from Mr. Godwin's book, of our position, that the law of Passional Attraction is the fundamental law of Association, are quoted from a portion of his book, in which he simply sets forth certain "speculations" of Fourier, which the Associative School do not accept, in distincWe commend this consoling assurance to tion from that which sets forth the principles the Tribune's special attention ; and make but which they do accept. Now it is a sufficient one more quotation, from the same source, reply to state, that every word we have quoted from Mr. Godwin upon this point is from the upon the same point. first part of his book — that in which he lays " I f Attractions are proportioned to Destinies, it down those principles only, "which are," to use is evident that each of the cardinal passions bears in itself a certain type of order. Since these passions his own words, " universally adopted and defended embrace all the mutual relations of men, it follows, by the whole school of Societary Reformers." We with rigorous exactness, that they themselves DETER- established the principle, therefore, upon auMINE THE LAW of these relations ; and, if among the thority which the Tribune itself admits to be forces of the soul they hold the rank of cardinals, if valid. We then applied that principle to one they are the focus of the social life, if they are the department of social life, and demonstrated man himself, then it is incontestible that in their na- that the law of Passional Attraction would tural requirements we ought first to seek the principal overrule and destroy the Family relation, the laws, the necessary conditions of essential order." relation of Marriage, and require the formation These quotations from writers on Association of groups and series for the " full and free deof acknowledged authority, referred to by the velopment of the passions" in the relations beTribune itself, and all asserting the same thing, tween the sexes, as in every other department establish, we submit, beyond a doubt, our posi- of social life. The strict cogency of that argution that the law of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION IS ment the Tribune itself does not deny. And to THE FUNDAMENTAL AND ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE OF fortify it still further, we quoted from Mr. GodASSOCIATION. The organization of Labor, win the explicit statement that Fourier took which is only one branch of the system, is to be precisely the same view of the case ; that he attained through this principle. Laborers are also insisted that the fundamental law of Assoto be guided in their work, by their passional ciation would require such an arrangement; attractions. Groups are to be formed of per- and that he did not hesitate to carry his essensons attracted, or impelled, toward similar tial principles into full effect there, as in every functions. Each man's place in the Phalanx other department of Associated life. He deis to be determined by his special passion or clared explicitly, that, impulse. The same principle is to guide and " The various relations of the Sexes will lead, like all govern all industrial, domestic, and social relations. It is to give shape to the new society. other passional relations, to an organization into groups that " some would stop in a corporaThe entire social problem is, given human pas- and series:" constancy for its rule," while " others are tion having sions, to find a form adapted to their free and full so peculiarly formed that they will join themselves to development. And that is exactly the problem other corporations more or less severe, as may be agreewhich Fourier claims to have solved, and of able to their inclinations or temperaments." which Association is the result. Now the Tribune will please to observe that Now how does the Tribune disprove this ar- we quote this not as authority to show that such gument 1 It says simply : an arrangement is distinctly enjoined, but as " / have propounded no such theory ; much less corroborative evidence of the necessary requireasserted that such attraction is to be universally ments of the fundamental principle of Associafollowed." tion, which is the law of Passional Attraction. This may be true, for the Tribune has pro- We cite it to show that Fourier had the same pounded nothing at all, except unconsciously, view of the necessary operation of this law as in this discussion. Its constant effort has been that which we have taken. If the law be true, to evade every thing, to conceal the principles of it must operate here as well as elsewhere. If the System it challenged us to discuss. But it the law be true, Love as well as Labor must be has referred us for an answer, to our direct in- organized according to its requirements. And quiries concerning the details of this system, if the law is not true, then the'whole fabric of ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED; 61 as the relation between the sexes is concerned, to "future generations:" but " There's a gaud time coming" v* hen the passion ot Love, like all other passional attractions of the human soul, " s h a l l undergo an organization by series to meet all the ivants of all the natures that God sends into existence." This is our clear, necessaiy, inevitable deduction from the fundamental principle of Association. W e are not alone in so regarding it. Fourier himself took exact" I know nothing of groups and series organized, j ly this view of the effect of his essential law. or to be organized, for the perpetiation of crimes or j His disciples almost universally have conceded its logical necessity. And one of the ablest, as the practice of vices." " So long as the Passions may bring forth disor- well as most enthusiastic among them,* whom der," says Mr. Godwin, " w e reprobate their im- we quote not as authority, but as coiroborative proper indulgence." evidence, thus applies the law to the very point "If men," says the Tribune, "come to have a under consideration: passion for immorality, it must be repressed." " I am by no means reconciled to society, and This may seem very plausible, but it begs the ! marriage I regard as one of the most odious instituwhole question, or rather it conceals the real tions. I have no doubt that it will be abolished when question. So long as the passions produce.crime, the human race shall have made some further progress say these men, we would repress them. But, toward justice and reason. But at present men are too and seek a noas we have shown, they also maintain that crime bler gross,than women too cowardly, tolules them. law the law of iron which is never produced by the passions themselves, The improvements of which some geneious spirits but only by the mode of their development. dream, can not. be realized in such an age as ours; They are now repressed, checked, resisted; those spirits seem to forget that they are a hundied therefore, say these w.riters, they pioduce con- years in advance of their cotemporaiies." fusion and crime. But when we have a form In thus rehearsing and fortifying our previous of Society adapted to them ; when we have a argument upon this point, we trust we have Social System shaped by, and of course an- aroused no " indignation" on the part of the swering to, their free action, then that action Tiibune which may not be easily " s u p p r e s s will be harmonious, smooth, a source of con- ed." If our space would allow, we should folstant happiness, which consists in the gratifi- low this demonstration with some remarks upon cation of the passions Then, that is when As- the direct and open hostility of the System of sociation has been established, we can have a Association to the whole spirit and teachings " f t e e and full development of the passions," of CHRISTIANITY. But, in consequence of the though not now Then what seem crimes now, nature and extent of the evidence required to will become virtues Thus Mr. Godwin s a y s : substantiate our position, this article has al<; How could the passions lead to crime, when ev- ready reached an unusual length : and we must ery thing should be arranged to satisfy them in the leave this point, as well as others involved, for most agreeable manner. * * * Thus, inour pres- future inquity. ent Society, Foulier says that Freedom in matteisof -*« Love would lead to a frightful confusion. But if Fiom the Tiibune, March 26th. men lived in a society wheie a larger liberty in marriage and divorce would be without danger, then it would L E T T E R XI. not be obnoxious to the peculiar condemnation with To the Editor of the Courier and Enquirer: which it is now necessarily visited. IN opening this Discussion, on terms which I "These, then, are the views of Fomier on the subject of Love, which will not be satisfactorily ad- need not restate, but which were expressly justed until after society shall have been brought, into a though reluctantly agreed to by you, I set forth state of organic unity and individual independence." very plainly the Principles on which I proposed Or, in other words, until Association shall to demonstrate the expediency, justice, and duty have been established, and Woman made per- of effecting the Social Organization I advocate. fectly independent in name, pioperty, person, From the premises there laid down I deduced the duty of eveiy Chiistian, eveiy Philanand affection. Heie, then, is the whole case. T h e theory thropist, eveiy one who admits the essential of Association, we say, implies and requires ! Brotheihood of the Human Family, to labor full fieedom in m a i t e i s of love, just as in all I earnestly and devotedly for a Social Order, other relations of social life. T h e Association which shall secure to eveiy human being withschool reply, not yet; in the present foim of so- in its spheie the full and true development of ciety it would be dangerous; but that form is the nature wherewith God has endowed kirn, false; we seek to substitute a newom\ founded Physical, Intellectual and Moral. T h e absoon community instead of isolation ; then, when lute, indefeasible Right of every Child to proper this new form has been established, when the nourishment and culture, of every Man to amfundamental principle ol Association shall have ple Opportunity to Labor and to the fair recwrought out its perfect work, these irregulari- ompense of his Labor—the Right, in short, ties will cease to he crimes. W e can not do truly to Live, to cultivate the Soil and enjoy e v e r y t h i n g at once; we must begin with La- the product of his I n d u s t r y — t h e s e are the bor in the township ; " t h e reform"commenced premises on which I now advocate, as I for six thus will spread over the whole nation and em- years have done, the Organization of Society brace all departments of life. W e can not car- on the basis of the Associated interests and ry the law of Passional Attraction into ail rela* This extiact is from "Jacques," by Geoige Sand, one tions now: w e must leave it, therefore, so far J of the deadliest enemies of Fourier and his system.—!!. G. Assoc at ion falls to the ground. W e leave the Tribune to exttieate its system fiom this dilemma. But the Tiibune proceeds to quote Mr. Godwin's declatations, to show that the school of Associationists ' 4 d o not desite the suppression of all coeicive means, and the full play of the passions,'' before * future generations" shall see * that it may be done with safety. And the Tribune says for itself: 62 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. efforts, in contradistinction to that hitherto pre-1 " The duty of Man is to study his inclinations in vailing. If Humanity, Christianity, Social Jus- order to arrive at a Social fonn in which they wilt tice do not demand this, then you have the yield good results"— and u All that is necessary society better position. If I have not shown that they which every bad route for is to discover a Passions in the action of the is require it, then you have of course the argument closed, and in which the path of Virtue will be strewn with you, and will take a verdict against me with flowers." from our readers. But if I have shown this, You have indulged in a statement which, what avail all your attacks on " Passional At- however unintentionally, will grossly mislead traction," the views of Fourier, &c 1 Suppose your readers, in saying that you were to take a verdict by default against " Every word we have quoted from Mr. Godwin them, my argument stands unshaken, for it this point from the does not rest one feather's weight upon theirl uponpart of his [Passional Attraction] islays down first book—that in which he foundations. Until I place myself behind their those principles only, * which are,' to use his own line of defense, by what right can I be asked words, 'universally adopted and defended by the to abandon or maintain its alledged positions 1 whole school of Societary Reformers.' " That there is beneficent and inspiriting truth Your readers will suppose this a contradicin the theory that Man may be so trained and tion of what I had stated on this subject, but directed, so circumstanced and incited, that he you know it is not My complaint expressly will be inclined to Good as generally and as I was that " in that part of your article in which thoroughly as he now appears to be to Evil, 11 you assume to set forth, from 'the writings of do joyfully believe ; but my faith in Association j Associationists,' what is the belief of the School is not based on that theory, for I was an ardent with regard to Love, Marriage, Conjugal Duty, Associationist before I had any such conviction. &c.," you had shameiully misrepresented us, If experience shall conclusively demonstrate quoting from that last portion of Mr. Godwin's that theory, even you could not well resist the book which expressly purports to set forth the argument thence resulting. But I take Man views of Fourier which are not, in contradistincas he notoriouly is, and I say, Look at Gieat tion from those which are, generally accepted by Britain, at Ireland, with their wealth and refine- Associationists, without a word of intimation ment, their civilization and arts, with their of this essential truth. Your readers would famishing tens of thousands and their beggared never have suspected, from your way of handmillions, after fifteen centuries of Christian rule ling the subject, that Mr. Godwin's book was and teaching; then look at any little community so divided into two Parts, and that between of Shakers, so recently commenced in abject them was an " Intermediate" chapter, on the poverty, under such a defective organization, "Essential Distinction between the two Paits with so little intellectual culture or scientific of this Woik." It was this concealment and power; see how they have utterly extinguish- misrepresentation that I ptotested against, and ed Pauperism, Servitude, Caste, Physical Want most justly. —see how many of the destitute they assimilate, If the matter in controversy could only be how few (if any) they cast ofT—see how the shaken free from a film of unfamiliar and misearth becomes green and fruitful beneath their apprehended words and phrases, I am confident steadily advancing footsteps—see the Shakeis I could convince all except the small though of New-Lebanon sending of the surp'us prod- powerful class who mortally hate any suggesucts of their healthful, ungrudged toil, a thousand tion of Social Reform, from a natural and indollars' worth of food and clothing to aid in re- stinctive though short-sighted dread that their lieving Irish destitution—and say, if you can, shaie of this life's comforts and luxuries would that the superiority of Associated Life and be diminished by a more equal distribution. I Labor over the isolated, competitive, no-system am very sure I could, had I half a day's leisure usually prevailing, rests at all on the soundness for examining its files, establish, on the testiof Fouiier's teachings with regard to Passional mony even of the Courier and Enquirer, the Attraction, truth of all the " Pdssional Attraction" that is Having satisfied yourself as to the propriety essential to my argument. For example, I of evading the fundamental basis of our Discus- take up your last issue, and read, in your Edision. I submit that the misnomer of your chosen toiial column and type, from the Paris letter title has become too glaring. Instead of "The of "A * States' Man" on " T h e State of EuSocialism of The Tribune examined,''* I sug- rope," as follows : gest that your articles would be more justly 11 The that the lower entitled " T h e Socialism of everybody else classes is truth isown. land Irishman of the of shift, in. his a poor creature dexterously quoted from, In order to raise a whatever be the cause and whatever may be his good dust of prejudice against that of The Tribune." qualities and disposition to labor when transplanted to a But no matter. I think those who closely read foreign soil." your citations will he able to discriminate beThe tiuth here suggested is abundant for my tween the Passions intended by Fourier (that purpose. Here are Seven Millions of People is, the impulses, affections, faculties of Man) and branded by History and "Sound Political Ecothose perverted and vicious exhibit ions of human nomy" as indolent, improvident, "poor creainfirmity which the term is commonly understood tures of shift/' and living from century to cento imply. They will be likely, I think, to mark tuiy in filthy squalor and horrible destitution in the difference between your statement— the land of their birth, under the eye of all those 44 The entire Social problem is—given Human whose good opinion they value ; yet transplant Passions, to find a form adapted to their full and them to a different region—a region which free development"—-and Mr. Godwin's not exactly ! might be expected to freeze them intotoipor equivalent expressions: * The title given under which Mt. Raymond's aitides | with its atmosphere of sullen countenances and appeared in the Courier and Tiibune throughout.—H. G. I coldly indifferent heaits—-and we see them ASSOCIATION1 DISCUSSED. 63 bound forward at once on a caieer of industrial it? Who does not feel that the Westminster enngy, pecuniary thrift, ami soaring ambition. Review's statement that "there is not a step, No men are better soldiers or heartier workeis but a meie hand's breath, between the condition out of Ireland than they who in their own land ol the Agricultural laborer and Pauperism," are said to be cruel and cowardly in war and must be true? We have abundant testimony invincibly idle and thriftless in peace. What that coarse bread and lard, and far too little of is the cause of this striking contrast? Why that, forms the habitual food of large masses are the Irish so efficient abroad and inefficient of those laborers ; and that in summer, and esat home? I know your conespondent proceeds pecially in harvest time, many thousands have to say, " the root of the evil is in the man him- no choice but to sleep in barns or under sheds, self," and adds, that "Cromwell knew it when scores and hundreds in a flock—men, women, he commenced his aucl but politic scheme of and childien indiscriminately huddled together, wholesale extirpation ;" but I submit that the uni- regardless of every consideration of modesty form history of the Irish out of Ireland emphat- and morality. I am not speaking of peculiar ically contradicts him. Give ihem but Oppor- cases, hut ot the usual and (by the victims) untunity and Hope, and they instantly pioceed avoidable course of things — witnessed and triumphantly to vindicate Irish Character and never heeded by the landlords—the moneyHuman Nature from the calumnies which Ra- lords— the great farmers — the dignitaries in pacity, Tyranny, Rohbeiy, and Bigotry have Chuich and State, who are constitutionally been heaping upon them for centuries. And shocked with Mr. Bumble in "Oliver Twist,'7 the like change, I can not doubt, would lead to —at "the depravity of the lower classes." like results with regard to the enslaved, the be- Turning again to your own Courier and Ennighted, the down-trodden, the despairing all quirer of this day, I read, in your "Slate of over the world. Call it the theory of Passional Europe," alieady quoted from : Attraction, or whatever term you choose, I " Were it for the famine which rages in Ire* maintain that the wretched, the outcast, the land, slaying not thousands outright, and preparing its palpably depraved, could be won to Industry, victims without number for thefirstdisease that may Usefulness, Virtue, if the right means were pass by, more would be said of the destitution, if not used in the right spirit. There would he appa- sta nation, which universally pievails. Only a few rent if not real exceptions to this as to all gen- nights since, for example, it was asseited without eral laws, but in the immense majority of cases contradiction, by a member of the House of Comthe result would vindicate the soundness of the mons, » That in the County of Somerset [England] are subsisting on scanty supply of principle which maintains that evil, physical as people and lotten turnips,apicked up heie andhoisebeans there well as moral, is never inveterate, but may in the fields;' and a Belgian journal of the 24th surely be confionted and overcome by good. ult., says: 'The mortality, already frightful, has Let us briefly review what you have premis- not yet reached the horrible acme to which it will quickly rise, and the reports of seveial phssicians ed on the subject of Political Economy. prove to us that the detestable food of the people I have no sympathy whatever with Malthus, of the countiy'creates diseases, which must inevitaand do not see how you can "undeistand" me bly spread death around.' Fiance, Gennany, and as affhming with him other countries are alike suffering." 11 that Population naturally, inevitably, and univers- This in the middle of the Nineleenth Centually, inci eases faster than its means of subsistence." ry, in the very center of Christian Civilization, So far is this from the truth, that I have been glutted with the wealth of a plundered wot Id, trying hard to show that " the constant tend- and with food enough to subsist amply those ency of things" ought to be toward abundance whom famine and consequent diseases are and increased commit for all—toward better sweeping by thousands into their graves. True, recompense for toil, and ampler leisure for the last crop was helow an average ; but there physical relaxation and mental improvement, is food enough yet, if those who need it could because of the vast and rapid increase of the obtain it; and, if they could sell their labor at productive power and efficiency of Human La- any fair \ ate, they could buy it even at the prices bor. The aveiage day's woik now produces to which Monopoly and Forestalling have raised far mote of the necessaries and comforts of life it The gieat mass throughout the world enthan it did in any former period of the world's dure lives of often excessive, irregular, halfhistory—produces more, that is, to the world, requited toil, are scantily fed, pooriy clad, and infinitely less to the mere laborer alone. He hardly at all taught—not because Production is is starving amid the abundance which his deficient, but because Distribution is imperfect rugged, unremitting toil has created. I have and unjust. Europe might easily support ten admiited that there are some compensating times, America one hundred times, its present circumstances, but the general fact is thus: population, under a wise and true Social Econo" I am sure" it is, because the proof comes from my. Secure Opportunity, skillful Direction, many quarters, and really seems irresistible, in and just Recompense to the present population, spite of M'Culloch and his school. The aver- and their average Production would be quadruage price of Agricultural labor in England is pled. And 1 can not doubt that the progress not above two dollars per week, which is just of Agricultural Science will outstrip the increase about the present price of a bushel of Wheat; of Population for centuries to come. out of this sum the laborer is to board, clothe, You wtench fiom my last article two lines, and lodge himself—to pay his rent and subsist saying that as Population increases the jewanl his family, if married. How can this be done of Labor it must become more scanty and prewith decency, not to speak of comfort, on such carious, without noticing the preceding assera pittance? What is the evidence collected by tion, that this is the result of that "monster Parliamentary Commissioners with regard to evil Hhe, Monopoly of Land,' " and then quote, 64 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. with an air of triumph, my statement, that the I created to steal, forge, and murder, I should population of Oregon and California has been hold, as Fourier appears to do, that, in a perdoubled without prejudice to any. Of course, fect Society, such as can not be hoped for until you only needed farther to show that the virgin after ages of preparation and experience, marsoil of Oregon and California is monopolized riages might be dissoluble without reproach at and held at onerous prices, increased as fast as the mere pleasure of the contracting parties. practicable, by those who seek to realize wealth But, believing most thoroughly that Purity is from other men's labor, and you would have inseparable from Constancy, and that the physimade out a case requiring explanation from me cal and moral nature of Man imperatively reAs it is, I submit that the fads so triumphantly quire them both as vital conditions of healthful grouped by you affoid a striking confirmation existence, I hold that human beings rightly of the truths for which 1 am contending. In developed and faithfully educated in a tiue Oregon the settler pays nothing for wild land, Society will no more desire change in the conwhich is abundant, and no man is allowed to jugal relation than to be continually swapping claim or hold more than a mile squaie. In Cali children with their neighbors. If I am right in fornia, any settler takes almost any unimproved the premise that Constancy is the dictate of land, paying nobody therefor; and such land, Nature and of Providence, then you are wrong if allowed to be claimed in large tracts, has as in confounding Freedom with License, and in yet attained no considerable price. Had the your whole argument on the subject. Fourier, Land System of our State, from its first settle- reared amid the convulsions and license of ment, resembled that of Oregon, I believe its Revolutionaiy France, and living a keen obpopulation might have mote uipidly increased server of the boundless debaucheries of Paris, to Ten Millions with far less destitution of Em- believed that Inconstancy was natural to a part ployment and inadequacy of Recompense than of the human family, and not the result of false has already been experienced among us, though telations and perverse development. Here was our population has not yet teached Three Mil- his error—not that he taught that Crime, or lions. I trust you will see that your citation of whatever tends to produce evil and wretchedAtkinson and Greeley as adverse to Malihns's ness, should be tolerated, but rather that in a notion of Population naturally outrunning Sub- true Society Inconstancy need not be a crime sistence, was quite supeifluous. T{iey never because it would not produce debasement and were any thing else. woe, as it now notoriously does. He held as That the *• Sound Political Economists," so firmly as any one that all individual acts and called, do commonly denounce Early Marriages imputes inconsistent with the highest general among the Poor as not only improvident but good must be repressed: he erred in presuming culpable, I think all who are accustomed to that, in an entirely different Social State, at read the Edinburgh and Westminster Reviews, some period in the indefinite Future, Inconstan&c, and especially their articles on Pauperism cy will be no crime, not because men will be and the Pooi-Laws, will attest My recollec- impelled to it, as they now are to rob, oppress, tion of the fact is distinct and vivid, though I and slay their fellows, but because no evil conhave no time to hunt up authorities on a point sequences would result irom yielding to its impulse. How entirely this differs from " T h e so unessential. But it, as you say, " they assert that, as a matter of fact, generally true Socialism of the Tribune" which you profess to though not without exceptions, men do not and will "examine" you very well understand not marry until they can support, their families ; and And now, since you insist on extending that therefore 'subsistence must not only keep pace your articles immoderately, and your mode of with Population, but take the lead,' " discussing what you choose to combat instead they assert what is not true. The Poor-Law of what 1 propose, has scarcely allowed me a Commission returns and the "Liberal" Reviews chance to present affirmatively my own propoare lull of complaints that the Poor will nol and sitions, I will go on to demonstrate more fully do not act rationally and deliberately in this one important feature of Association. I mainmatter; but, finding their condition desperate tain, then, that at hest, are too apt to act on the assumption LABOR CAN BE AND OUGHT TO BE SO ORGANIZED that Marriage may alleviate its miseries, and AS TO RENDER IT ATTRACTIVE. can not aggravate them. And this is natural, I mean by this that industry in general may however deprecated and denounced by ''Sound he so organized that men and women shall Political Economists " Hence you will find that cheerfully do their respective proportions of nowhere is Early Marriage so general as among Useful Labor gladly, finding pleasure in the the Irish Poor. The only segment of truth in work itself as well as in its results or tecomthe statement above quoted is this:—Those pense. who are actually suffering the agonies of famine That a small portion of mankind now labor in are not likely to marry, if single, nor to have just that capacity wherein they can respectivechildren if married. "Sound Political Econo- ly he most useful, and find their greatest earthly my" has just two real remedies for its fancied pleasure therein, I presume none will dispute. over-populaiion: Stai vat ion and Licentiousness That Productive Labor, humble as is the estiamong the Poor. If the latter fails to check mation in which the mere digger or carver is the too rapid increase of Laborers, the landless ordinarily held by the more fortunate classes, and unskillful drift inevitably toward and are is the source of nearly all material comforts, wrecked upon the former. and indispensable to the subsistence of every A few words on the Relations of the Sexes, human being, I need not waste words to establish. That very few now labor with their hands and I take leave of your last article : If I believed that God created some men for from a hearty love of such labor, or because inconstancy, in any other sense than some are |I they take pleasure in so doing, is a deplorable ASSOCIATION [ D I S C U S S E D . 65 . ruth. But why do men usually hate, and, it Ipense of his toil—an arrangement under which possible, shun Labor? Not, I maintain, be- Labor, so organized as to secure to each workcause it is necessarily^ repugnant, but because er associates and directors of his own free it is pursued under circumstances and upon choice, instead of those thrust upon him by his conditions which make it practically so. Those dire necessities and other men's avarice—the who do the bona fide work of the world are regulation of his own hours of toil, with frequent mainly the hirelings and dependents of others alternations from one employment to another, —the time, place, and manner of their working and from workshops ventilated, beautified, and is dictated by others, who, usually doing little tempered with a primary regard to his own or less than themselves, are yet esteemed their comfort and ease, to the surrounding fields, so social superiors—they must work, if mechanics planned as to give the richest be'auty and diveror artisans, in shops not constructed with a sity to the landscape, and to satisfy and elevate primary view to their comfort, but to others' the taste of the cultivator, laboring in joy and profit, often noisome, gloomy, unhealthy (" If pride on a domain which he loves as the secure you don't like it, you can leave—-there are home of his children and associates, the support plenty more ready to take your place"),v and and stay of his old age. Here, with ample EdAgricultural labor is subject to similar repulsive ucation for the Young, Music, Libraries, Paintconditions. They generally feel, too, that they ings, Sculpture, & c , & c , open to all (the few do not receive the fair and full recompense of enjoying more than at present, but not shutting their labor, and often are in doubt whether they up the trophies of Refining Art from the many), will or will not be recompensed at all. No pains with civic crowns and official distinction awardare usually taken, no outlay incurred, to render ed, not to the destroyers of human lives, but to the workshops pleasant, cleanly, cheerful; if those who excel in Art, Science, Invention, and the capitalist has a library, paintings, statuary, useful effort generally, I can not doubt that La& c , they do not enrich nor ornament his facto- bor will be rendered truly Attractive to the ry, and his workmen are very rarely gratified great body of our Race, so that each shall joywith the sight of them. So in Agriculture, the fully accept and pursue a career of peaceful InHired Laborer finds no provision in the fields dustry, and scorn the devices and shifts by which for shelter against sudden showers ; for the pre- too many now contrive to live uselessly, while vention of offensive exhalations (though they others are repelled from attempting the like only are wasteful as well as offensive and unhealthy); by despair of success. Attractive Industry, no books convenient for a leisure hour or even- once generally established, Pauperism and ing ; no planning of grounds, or arrangement of Starvation are at an end. The rich will not work with a view to his improvement, comfort, grasp; the Poor will not envy; and no man or convenience. Can any wonder that Labor will be impelled to covet that which is his is repulsive 1 Were it possible to have a Ball, neighbor's. In the faith that Association will a Fishing Party, a Concert, under such circum- benificently solve this mighty problem of the stances, to be enjoyed for twelve or thirteen true Organization of Labor, I remain H. G. hours with no cessation hut a short one for dinner, who does not realize that it would be From the Courier and Enquirer, April 16th. even more fatiguing and repulsive than work is 1 REPLY TO LETTER XL What Organization may do to render the reTHERE is very little in the foregoing article pulsive attractive is seen in the case of War and from the Tribune that requires reply. It adArmies. Intrinsically the most revolting em- vances nothing in defense of Association that ployment that can be suggested to a man is has not been already answered, nor does it, in that of maiming and butchering his fellow-men by the wholesale, and taking his chance of being any degree, break the force of our demonstramaimed or butchered in turn. And yet millions tion, that the Law of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION is are found to rush into it, take delight in it, spend the fundamental principle of the System. We their lives in it, in preference to peaceful and bet- proved conclusively that this Law is the sole ter rewarded avocations. And why 1 Because (I foundation of the theory, and would be the speak of the regular soldier, who makes war his supreme rule of practice, in the new Society life-long profession) rulers have given to war which the System aims to bring about. The an Organization, which satisfies two of the " Harbinger," which is the official exponent of senses—that of Hearing by Music, that of the Associationists of America, declares, as Sight by glittering uniforms, precision of move- already quoted, that no man can be an Assoment, and beauty of array. In a few, Ambition ciationist " i n earnest" who does not accept is also excited, while to the mass the assurance this law " as the basis of his doctrines and of of an unfailing though meager subsistence is his ideas:" and that all who advocate the sysproffered. By these simple expedients the im- tem do in fact accept the law " whether they agination is led captive, and millions constantly are conscious of it or not." And the truth of enlisted to shoot and be shot at for an average this remark is admirably shown by the Tribune of not more than sixpence per day. itself when, in the article we have copied above, O that the governments of the world were it speaks of Association as a " Social Order wise enough, good enough to bestow one-half which shall secure to every human being within the effort and expenses on the Organization of its sphere the full and true development of the Labor that they have devoted to the Organiza- nature wherewith God has endowed him, phystion of Slaughter ! We should have enjoyed, ical, intellectual, and moral." Now the nature long since, the blessings of an Industry so or- of man includes, of course, his impulses, appeganized and adjusted that every one who wish- tites, propensities, desires, and passions; and Zed could at all times have work, and every one the aim of Association, according to the Trib[ who worked could not fail of the fair recom-1 une, is, to secure to every man, their " full and M ASSOCIATIOI r DISCUSSED. which exists arises from this attempted suppression, and not from the action of the passions themselves. The remedy, therefore, they say consists in removing this restraint; in taking off this repressive force: in giving to human faculties, propensities, and impulses their full and free development. They are good in themselves: they lead naturally only to good results : they ought, therefore, to have a constant and complete activity. This suppression, they add, is the work of society: it results directly from the social forms in and through which man lives and acts. "This development of souls and their faculties," says Mr. Brisbane, " is not practicable in civilized relations, in isolated households and incoherent industry." Then, he adds, " Civilization should be denounced, and some mechanism entirely opposed to it should be sought." We must have a new social form, which shall provide for, and render possible, this full and free development of the nature of man. Now, isolated households, the laws of society, the Family relation, the constraints of Marriage, individual effort, and the prevailing scheme of labor and of life, impose checks and restraints upon the action of man. We demand a Society which shall break this bondage; which shall take its laws from the nature of man, and not seek to overrule that by another law: in which labor shall be performed because it is attractive ; in which men shall be brought together only according to their mutual likings : in which those only shall work together who like each other and their common labor: in which the Marriage tie shall be binding only while the passional attraction which gave it birth shall continue: in which no law of Society shall overrule the impulse which impels men and women to form new unions: in which children may obey no superiors but those of their own choice : in which, in short, all labor and all life, in all their departments, shall know no other law than that which springs from the tendency of the passions and propensities of individual men. Such a social form, the Associationists contend, is demanded in order " to secure to every human being within its sphere the full and true development of his nature, physical, intellectual, and moral." And that development, it is further held, whenever it can be secured, will lead to universal happiness, because " happiness," in the words of Mr. Biisbane, "consists in the constant satisfaction of the radical passions;" and thus all evil will be forever banished from the world. Then, in the words of the Tribune, " the rich will not grasp, the poor will not envy;" for a covetous or conceited person could no more exist in Association, than a wicked one could in Heaven. (Tribune, Dec. 18.) Association thus proposes to reform man, to banish evil from the world, The theory of Association rejects them alto- and to effect the regeneration of the human gether. Tts advocates maintain, in opposition race, by changing the circumstances under to them, that the heart of man is not depraved : which men live and act. And the possibility that his passions do not prompt to wrong doing, of doing this is repeatedly asserted, and conand do not therefore by their action, produce stantly assumed by the Tribune in this discusevil: but that evil results solely from the at- sion. tempt made to check and control them. This attempt they say, distorts their proper develop- I Now it can not escape attention, that in all ment, and so produces suffering. " Human ' this the Law of Nature is assumed to be the Science" is denounced by Mr. Brisbane, because highest rule of human conduct. Man, with his it seeks to "suppress, repress, and compress passions and impulses, is regarded, in Mr. Godthese springs of action in the soul." The evil win's language, as " the invariable term of the true development," that is, their constant and complete satisfaction, to the full extent of their demands and in strict conformity to their tendencies. This is exactly the Law of Passional Attraction—in its whole length and breadth. The Tribune, therefore, like the Frenchman, " speaks prose without knowing it." Even while professing to disavow the law, it asserts and proclaims it in the broadest and most explicit terms. In this principle, then, lies the germ of the whole theory and practice of Association. We have on the one hand Man with his Passions, as active powers; and on the other Society with its forms, as the medium of their activity. That evil, misery, suffering attend upon and result from Man's action in the existing state of things, is a fact universally conceded : as is also the necessity of providing a remedy. But before a cure can be applied or devised, the cause of the evil must be ascertained : and here at the very outset, the theory of Association comes in direct collision with the teachings of Christianity. No truth is more distinctly taught in the Word of God than that of the sinfulness of the human heart: the proclivity of Man's nature to act. in violation of the rule of right. The origin of sin must always remain a matter of doubt: but the fact of its existence in the human heart is not only most explicitly asserted in the revelation of God, but lies open to universal observation. Christianity assumes it, and teaches also that from this intrinsic depravity of the heart flows all the evil that afflicts the world. It is solely because malice, covetousness, envy, lust, and selfishness in general exist, as active principles, in the heart of man, that their fruits exist in Society. It is solely because the fountain is poisoned, that the streams which flow from it are bitter. Here, then, Christianity says, is the cause of all social evil, in the sinfulness of the heart of Man. The remedy must reach that cause, or it must prove inefficient. The heart must be changed. The law of Man's nature must cease to be the supreme law of his life. He must learn to subject that law to the higher law of righteousness, revealed in his conscience and in the Word of God. All the passions, appetites, affections, propensities, and impulses of his nature, which tend to evil, must be repressed, controlled, and overruled ; must become subject to the law of conscience : and that subjugation can only be effected by his own personal will, with the supernatural aids furnished in the Christian Scheme. These are the plain teachings of the Christian faith ; and are held to be such by the great body of the Christian world. We, of course, make no appeal upon this point to those by whom they are rejected. ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 67 Social problem ;" and a " Social medium is j subject, in all things, to the law of absolute sought in perfect -accord with his nature.'" So,right, which for all men must be supreme. i also, says Mr. Brisbane, " we can not change I There can be no mistake in assuming this as human nature: we can only change its devel- the plain commandment of Christianity • nor is opments." Whatever, then, accords with, and there more room for error in asserting its palHows from the natural impulses and propensities ipable contradiction to the fundamental princi©/ Man, it is assumed, will lead to good results, ple of Association. The latter makes the law and therefore mtist be right. The Law of Na- of Nature supreme: the former makes it subture is the Supreme law, If nature prompts ject to a higher law. No such higher law is man to any act, that act is right, provided it does recognized in this Social Scheme. It never siot lead to suffering. If man's passions impel makes allusion to it, but always takes for granthim, for example, to discard his wife and take ed its non-existence. It does not admit the exanother, it will he right for him to do so, if the istence of Sin, except in the form of suffering. state of Society is such that the act will not oc- Nothing, in its view, is good or bad, right or casion trouble. In the present state of Society, wrong, intrinsically, but only as it produces hapof course, it can not be done : but under a new piness or misery. There is no reference, ever social form its evil consequences could be avert- or anywhere, to a law of right, to a commanded, and then the act would be right, because it ment from God, to an injunction of conscience. would be in accordance with the nature of man. The law of Nature, in this system, supplies the The Tribune thinks that man's nature would place of all these moral and spiritual obliganot prompt him to such action ; that " in a true tions. The institution of Marriage, for examSociety human beings will no more desire change, ple, is not regarded as of divine appointment in the conjugal relation than to be continually and permanent in its character. The fact that swapping children with their neighbors;" but at it was' recognized as such by Christ is disrethe same time, the Tribune holds to the gener- I garded. Association considers it a simple form, al principle that the law of nature must govern the creature of society, and to be changed, human conduct in this as in other respects; modified, or destroyed, as society may allow. and says that if it held that purity and constan- Thus, it is held, a time may come when it will [ be felt as a needless restraint upon the nature cy were not demanded by man's nature, it ! of man. And they have no hesitation in say" would hold, as Fourier appears to do, that in a ing that then it should give way to new and perfect Society marriages might be dissoluble without reproach, at the mere pleasure of the contracting parties."more liberal forms of intersexual relation. Then Society should be so organized that a man Now, as a matter of fact, man's mere nature may have a dozen wives, or a woman a dozen does often impel him to inconstancy. That na- husbands, if their passions prompt, without proture will, of course, be the same in Association ducing suffering and debasement. The intrinas it is now: man's desires, impulses, passions, sic right of the matter is treated as a nullity. will remain unchanged. In Association, then, Christ's injunctions, the teachings of the Bible, it is certain, men will desire to " change their the dictates of Christianity are allowed no wives" far oftener than to " swap their chil- weight. dren ;" and the Tribune's professed belief to the This is a distinguishing feature of the whole contrary is preposterous. But this is immate- system. It has in it nothing religious; nothing rial : whether it be true or false, the Tribune's that even recognizes the existence of spiritual adherence to the principle is equally explicit. and moral laws; nothing that takes any, the It makes the law of nature supreme: if Con- slightest account of the Bible and its injuncstancy is the dictate of that law, then, and only tions. The Law of Nature is its supreme comthen, according to the Tribune, it should be the mandment, both in theory and in practice. It rule of Society. But man's nature should be recognizes nothing higher, and knows no other developed, to whatever it may lead—the great sanctions. The system, we are aware, prelaw of Passional Attraction should be supreme, tends to be religious, and even claims to be the whatever may be its requirements. And the only true Christianity. But, as we have seen, first thing necessary is to devise and put in force it rejects the plainest doctrines of the Bible, a Social form, which will allow this. Here nullifies its most imperative commandments, comes in, as we have already seen, the ma- and substitutes for them its own interpretation chinery of groups and series, to replace the ex- of the laws of nature. Thus the God in whom isting relations of the Family, township, &c. j it professes faith, becomes, in its definition, Now all this is clearly in direct hostility to simply the uprinciple of universal unity." The the teachings of the Bible. No doctrine is ' Trinity in which it pretends to believe, is remore distinctly taught there than that of the de- solved into a trinity of the "active, passive, and pravity of man's nature. The law of his nature neutral principles of life and order." It graveis a law of sin. And it is made the great aim I ly declares that by the " Kingdom of Heaven" of his being to rise above that law; to become is meant Association: and the command of our freed from the bondage to evil which his mere I Savior, " seek ye first the Kingdom of God and nature imposes ; and to repress, deny, and sub- his righteousness," is interpreted to mean "seek ject to the higher law of conscience the pas-1I ye the harmony of the Passions in Associative sions and appetites of his nature—the "lusts of jI unity !" Thus it believes in Christianity, only the flesh which war against the soul." No in- when Christianity has been forced into its likejunction of the Gospel is more definite or reit- ness, only when it reflects its image: and then erated than that of self-denial; of " repressing, I the image of itself, and not the substance of suppressing, antf compressing the passions," in Christianity, becomes the object of its faith. Mr. Brisbane's phrase ; and of making the dic- Its whole spirit is in the most direct hostility to tates of our depraved nature subordinate and I the doctrines of the Bible. It recognizes no- 68 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. absolute distinction between right and wrong, I bonds will be cast aside, and made to yield t& knows nothing of the Jaw of conscience, as- the law of their nature, just as fast and just as cribes no authority to revelation, seeks no ends far as the " false forms" and " subversive instiand knows no Jaws above those of mere nature, tutions" of society will permit. A moment's and aims at nothing beyond the " full and true reflection will convince any one that this must development of the nature of man." To call be the result of faith in such principles. And such a system religious, is a gross abuse of lan- there are among us witnesses of the fact, that guage. It is the exact antagonist of Christian- in specific instances these doctrines have produced ity ; it,starts from opposite fundamental princi- these, their natural fruits. Men and women, in ples and aims at precisely opposite results. It this City and elsewhere, have gradually yielded is, in its essential character, infidel: its princi- assent to the principle of Association, that pasples, its aims, and its means are all those of in- sional attraction should be the supreme law • fidelity. It is very true, as will probably be urged and avowedly under its influence, acting in acin its defense, that Association is not alone in cordance with it, they have throw off or disrethus regarding the law of nature as the supreme garded the restraints of Marriage, and formed rule of human conduct. Phrenology, Mesmer- other relations, in more " perfect accord" with ism, and the countless brood of novel "sciences" the promptings and passions of their nature. which have of late years dawned upon the world, Now the advocates of Association, we fully all agree in this. They all unite in discarding concede, do not aim at such results now: they moral distinctions, in annulling conscience, and contend that the existing form of society is not in rejecting the idea of spiritual laws and even suited to the "full and free development" of of spiritual existences. Every thing is identified man's nature. But they also maintain that sowith the laws of Nature. These laws are re- ciety can and should receive a new form, adaptvealed sometimes in bumps upon the skull; ed to it, and that then the whole theory may be sometimes in the nerves, and by means of gal- carried into full effect. Fourier himself went vanic action ; sometimes in the outward forms no farther than this. He taught that a time of life and matter : but always in Nature. The ! would come when inconstancy would be prolaw of Nature is to them all the only law of God. vided for, and that it would then be no crime, And in this they occupy precisely the ground of because it would cause no suffering, " because Association: but this coincidence by no means no evil consequences would result from yieldvindicates that theory from the charge of infi- ing to its impulse." The Tribune hesitatingly delity to the Christian creed. The principle, intimates that he was in error in thinking that wherever and whenever it manifests itself, is it would produce no suffering; but if not, if the antagonist of revelation. The fact that it he was right in so thinking, then the Tribune insinuates itself into, and wrorks through so has no further scruple; it would then insist many forms ; that it pervades so many different upon such forms as would ".secure the full desubjects, and mingles itself with so many di- velopment of human nature." Here then, is an verse opinions, affords new ground to appre- entire agreement as to the fundamental princihend danger from its prevalence, but it can not ple of the supremacy of the law of nature. And in the least change its character. It is in all both stand in exact hostility to the fundamental its forms the same ; equally hostile to the Christ- doctiine of Christianity, that there is an absoian faith, and equally fitted to destroy all con- lute distinction between right and wrong, by fidence in the established principles of morals which wrong can never become right, whatever and religion. It may seem to be harmless, be- may be its consequences. The doctrine of the cause it appears to be merely speculative : but Bible is, that Marriage is in itself an institution this fact only disguises and thus increases the of divine sanctions : Constancy is a law of didanger. The scheme of Association is the vine injunction Its violation is always wrong, only one which seeks directly and avowedly to no matter what may be the consequences rereduce it to practice : to bring society and life, sulting from it. The moral character of the in all their departments, under its power. But, act does not at all depend upon its results. A like all other fundamental principles, whether " perfect Society" would certainly seem to be true or false, it creates its own form of mani- that in which the law of God should be most festation, and will be practiced as fast and as perfectly obeyed ; that in which, therefore, marfar as it is believed. The Association doctrine riage should never be dissoluble except in those concerning Marriage, for example, can not be cases for which specific provision has been believed without producing its natural results made. Those cases are those of adultery, those If men become convinced that the Law of Na- in which impulses of inconstancy have already ture alone should regulate intercourse between been allowed " free development." If there the sexes; that the bonds of Marriage, as Mr. had been, however, no inconstancy, if the SoGodwin contends, have no sanction except in ciety were perfect, marriage would be, accordthe arbitrary customs and observances of Soci- ing to the law of God, absolutely indissoluble. ety ; that they ought to have no force beyond But the Tribune's theory of a " perfect Societhe consent of the parties whom they bind; ty" is quite the reverse of all this : for in such that the passion of love, being an impulse of na- a society, it says, marriages might be dissoluble ture, ought, therefore, always to have its " full " at the mere pleasure of the contracting parand free development;" and that this law of ties." passional attraction is the highest law which In this respect the scheme of Association man can or should obey, they will inevitably agrees entirely with Owenism, and all the variact upon that conviction. They will come to ous schemes of social reform which have, from consider the restraints of Marriage as unjust I time to time, been propounded, attempted, and and oppressive, whenever they find them in exploded. In some of the minor details of their ^conflict with their own propensities. And those I machinery, there may be an apparent difference ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 69 between them; but they all agree in making | and partly through the agency of the Editor Nature the only supreme law-giver; they all himself: reject the scriptural doctrine of man's depraviFrom the Tribune, March 25, 1843. " We have received a great many letters from alty-^—the Christian atonement—the reality of spiritual laws and divine sanctions, and the oth- most every part of the Union, asking us all manner er fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. of questions with regard to the character, tendencies progress Association. We They all start from this hypothesis : that evil is and not find of the doctrine of but a large pamphprivately, the result of circumstances, and not the fruit of canof eightytime to replybe issued containing a7iswers to let pages will sin in the heart—and then they all attempt re- nearly all of the inquiries and objections which have form in the same direction ; namely, by chang- been put to us. It is prepared by Albert Brisbane, ing the circumstances by which men are sur- an intimate friend of Fourier in life and an ardent, rounded. All these schemes, therefore, in their intelligent apostle of his doctrine since his death. This fundamental principles, are anti-Christian—are woik has been got up in part by subscription of the friends of the doctrine." infidel in their tendencies. We therefore deny entirely the justice of the The Tribune reiterates its disavowal of responsibility for any thing that is objectionable Tribune's charge, that we are not discussing in Association. This, it asserts, is not the Association; that we are quoting from " the " Socialism of the Tribune." Now we have Socialism of everybody else," in order to excite never understood the Tribune to claim the prejudice against that of the Tribune. We authorship of the system it advocates. It does claim to have submitted proof, copious and connot pretend to have invented a new system: clusive, of the fact that the " Socialism of the but simply espouses, advocates, and defends a Tribune" is that of the school of Associationists, scheme already discovered by Fourier, and in- of which Fourier was the founder; and that troduced into this country by one of his personal the fundamental principles of that school are friends and followers. The Tribune, there- j those which we have defined them to be. We fore, can not make of that system whatever it ' are quite willing to submit this point, as well as pleases. It is not working alone in its behalf, i all others involved in the discussion, to the but in conjunction with others. It has no right, judgment of our common readers. therefore, to reject portions of its provisions, ' The Tribune insists upon a distinction beand yet claim to advocate the system. And tween the passions of man (meaning his " imstill less can it repudiate the fundamental prin- | pulses, affections, faculties,") and " those perciple of Association, and yet claim to be an i verted and vicious exhibitions of human infirmity Associationist. We regard it as a most grati- which the term is commonly understood to fying evidence of the utility of this discussion, imply." But is not that very " infirmity" part that it has compelled the Tribune, in form at of man's nature? And yet the Tribune deleast, to disavow and abandon some of the most mands a " Social Order which shall secure its vital and essential elements of the Association full development." What occasions these " vitheory. It sees clearly that they will not bear cious exhibitions 1" What causes this infirmity : inquiry—that when examined and brought to and why is it that, if all man's impulses are the test of established truth, they are found to good, they should so often have " perverted and 9 be false; and that the natural tendency of their vicious exhibitions V The Tribune may reply operation would be toward crime and conse- that Society perverts and vitiates theml But quent suffering. And, therefore, it seeks to how came Society to be vicious, if its individual rid itself of all responsibility concerning them. members were not sol Society is simply a But this can not be done unless the Tribune form, which active principles of life and characalso abandons Association, as it is held and ter have created ; and that form is of necessity urged by the body of American Associationists. determined by the law of its life. An acorn If it chooses to take down that flag, to leave produces an oak, and not a bush, because that their ranks, and espouse some new theory of is the law of its development. Precisely so, its own, avoiding the obnoxious doctrines of good impulses, right motives, just and righteous Association, and presenting simply some plan of principles, in the life and conduct of individual its own for modifying the relations of Capital men, can not possibly create a perverted or and Labor, then it would be entitled to a differ- vicious social form. If that form is bad, it must ent kind of consideration. But until it does be because its vital, formative principle is evil. that, it must in justice be held responsible for •'A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit." the System of which it is the most able and The Tribune's distinction, therefore, fails enefficient advocate in this country. What that tirely ; it only evades, it can not affect, the obSystem is, upon what principles it is based, and jections we make to the "full and free developto what results they tend, we have already ment" of man's impulses and passions. shown at length, and with a copiousness of The Tribune reiterates its assertion, that the evidence that must prove conclusive. Nearly condition of the mass of the population of Engall these facts, as to the nature and tendency land is worse than was tha* of their ancestors of the System, have been drawn from the work five centuries ago ; and repeats its citations in of Mr. Brisbane, published first in a volume, proof of it. But we have already shown that they and then condensed into a pamphlet. The are not conclusive, and the Tribune offers Tiibune seeks now to give the impression that nothing new. It is perfectly clear that great it does not approve of, and is not responsible for, suffering exists among the common people of these positions and sentiments of Mr. Brisbane. Europe at the present time; but that fact by no But the following extract from an Editorial means proves that there has never been greater. article in the Tribune proves this pretense to Much of it, moreover, is owing entirely to temhavg been an after-thought', and proves the porary and fortuitous causes, while the fact is book to have published with the full sanction, only pertinent to this discussion so far as it 70 ASSOCIATIOr [ DISCUSSED. can be traced directly to the working of a gen- strongly civilized man clings to his isolated houseeral principle. If the Tribune, however, will hold, or family life, and what prejudices there are to take the trouble to refer to some authentic source overcome on this point," &c. of information upon this point, it will find But all this is too absurd for argument. Workthat the average length of human life in Great ing by music, plowing in uniform, conferring Biitain, which is the surest possible test of nominal and empty honors, & c , might do for the physical condition of the people, is greater children, but to urge it as a means of making now than it has ever been before. This could not hard labor attractive, is nonsense. The olily be the case if, as the Tribune contends, the thing that can make labor attractive to the mass means of sustaining life, within reach of the of men is the stimulus of reward, the hope of laborer, had been constantly and rapidly dimin- recompense, and above all, the certainty of posishing. More upon this point, though much sessing and enjoying that recompense, whatevmore might be said, can not be needed. In er it may be. So far as these motives operate, fact the Tribune abandons the position, when they make labor attractive. Men now toil first it discards the theory of Mr. Malthus that to obtain a subsistence, and then to acquire the «• Population naturally outruns subsistence." means of comfort for themselves and their chilWith its usual consistency, however, it imme- dren. They labor willingly so long as they diately proceeds to reiterate and prove what it know that what they thus acquire will be their had just disavowed. own. They expect to own it, to retain possesThe Tribune's parallel between the condition sion of it, and have over it the supreme control. of Ireland and that of the Shaker Establish- They desire and expect to " monopolize'1 it, for ment at New Lebanon, is striking enough; but themselves and their posterity. One great purit scarcely warrants the inference which the pose of Law is to secure to them this right; to Tribune would draw from it. If the principles secure the safety of property; to confer upon of this Shaker Association could be applied to and preserve to them their right of absolute Ireland—if all private property were abolished and permanent ownership. Whatever, therethere—all marriages annulled, all intercourse fore, perfects and secures this right, renders of the sexes prevented, and the whole popula- Labor attractive, in the only sense in which it tion brought directly under the despotic control can become so. But the Tribune denounces of a single person whose will was law, even in the " monopoly of land,11 that is its ownership the minutest details of life, and if all who viola- by individuals, as the "monster evil" of Societed any of the imperative commandments by ty : and the premises upon which it bases this which Shakerism rules its subjects, could be at assertion, as has been shown in the early part once expelled and removed—it is quite likely of this discussion, involve a denial of the right the Green Isle would present a different aspect of monopolizing any thing. Destroy the right from that which it now exhibits. We doubt, of owning propeity, or of owning land, and no however, whether Mr. Labouchere and the Im- devices of human ingenuity could render labor perial Parliament will soon be released, by such attractive, in any sense. a substitution, from the cares and duties imposThese remarks, we believe, cover the entire ed upon them by the affairs of Ireland. The ground of the Tribune's article. To one or two Tribune's attempt to reason from one instance of the topics touched upon, however, we may to the other, lacks the first element essential to recur in our next, which will conclude this disthe argument, that of analogy between the two cussion. cases. It would be just as rational to compare the state of Ireland with that of some private family in Ohio or Oregon, and draw inferences From t h e Tribune, April 23. ad libitum therefrom. LETTER XII. But the Tribune says that " Labor can and To the Editor of the Courier and Enquirer : ought to be rendered attractive'1 per se, and not simply from its rewards or results. And it IN the lately-issued North American Review, proceeds to urge that this may be done by dec- for April, 1847, page 280, in the article on the orating workshops, sheltering farmers, and by Intellectual Aspect of the Age, you will find the various other devices, such as are employed in following passage:— war, music, marches, &c. These things As" Let us now cast a cursory glance at the work sociation proposes to provide: it proposes to which remains to be wrought in coming ages, and have groups and series, center and wings, com- in which we trust that our own will begin to bear panies and battalions, for working as for fight- part. " First, the practical skill, which has almost exing : it proposes to have men plow, and reap, and work everywhere in full uniform, to the hausted its resources in the material world, must sound of music, &c. Thus, says Mr. Brisbane: apply itself t o the reorganization of human society. That the social system is out of joint, is only too " If music, uniforms, badges, honors, concerts, and obvious. Here are the vast masses of superfluous rivalries of masses, have made WAR attractive, may and unproductive wealth; there the crowded ranks we not suppose that, applied to production, they of the suffering, the starving, the degraded, the enwould render industry attractive?" * * * "But slaved, for whom no healing or restoring influence all the stimulants of art, of honors, of ambition, of has ever gone forth. These are the valleys to be emulation, are perfectly incompatible with the nar- exalted; those the mountains to be brought low. now, civilized, domestic organization Here is the War, still the scourge of a guilty world, must be radical defect of our Societies, and here it is that a put away, and the principles of peace, forbearance, radical reform must begin. * * * We must com- equity, and good faith brought down to the details bine and associate large masses to develop the har- of domestic and social life, and thence (for it can be monies of human nature. We must free man from only thence) infused into the machinery of governhis present embarrassed and prosaic life, and restore ments and the counsels of nations. Groveling toil, him to the liberty of his being. We know how both among the sordid rich and the hunger-drive® ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 71 p^or, must be made to relax its demands and to Ito God and Man as free-will offerings t-o the equalize its burdens, so that in all classes of socie- cause of Human Well-being. Not merely to ty the mind and heart shall claim their rights, and mitigate the woes of Want and Suffering by liave their dues—their sufficient space and means alms, but to dry up the fountains of human sorfor culture and enjoyment." row—to seek out and eradicate the causes of As the writer proceeds to disparage and de- wide-spread degradation and misery—to renounce Fourierism " and a' that," I think it will place the influences which produce or aggrareadily be seen that " speaking prose without vate evil by such as shall tend steadily and knowing it," is a very common occurrence in strongly to create good—these are within the our day. Again : Le Semeur (The Sower), the clear bounds of your duty. I ask you, thereleading Religious periodical published in Paris j fore, to unite in so recasting Society that it shall of the Calvinistic School, in its leading article be thoroughly adapted to the performance of these of January 27th last, on the Social Discontents duties—so that it shall constitute a true mirror, arid Food Riots of our times, thus discourses : in which the virtues we require of men shall " The last year, if our memory does not deceive be readily and truly reflected—or rather, a true us, the Minister of the Interior jested pleasantly at element, in which they shall be readily and the ideas of some innovators. ' The Organization freely generated and developed." Let any man of Labor,' asked he, * what does that mean ? Do but sit down seriously and impartially to conyou understand any thing by the Organization of sider whether the Social Organization in which Labor?' and he descended from the tribune with the , we live is such a one—whether it is calculated applause of the Center. The flippant tone is not,' in our judgment, the proper one for subjects so se- to develop the good and repress the evil in our nature—whether its natural influences are on rious. ." We have one or two reflections to submit to the the side of generosity, industry, frankness, or friends of the Gospel as to the task they ought to of selfishness, scheming, and duplicity, and he perform. Let us not be in haste to condemn with- can come to but one conclusion. out reserve the obvious weakening of the spirit of I do maintain that, if the Law of Love given patience and resignation in the bosom of the popular masses. Quite as little let us suppose that the through Christ shall ever become in reality the guiding principle of mankind, or of any considonly remedy for it is to preach the Christian Faith. The first fruit of these ideas would be an injustice ; the erable section or community, a Social Reform second, an error—and, we must confess it, an error will be the inevitable result. To call that a which has been* too long maintained." ! Christian State in which the few roll in wealth Whether this is prose or poetry, I leave to j and luxury while the many are pinched by frost the judgment of others. It seems to me to be, j and hunger—where the few own all the Soil, at any rate, very important and seasonable and the many must hire it of them at exorbitruth. Whether it will be heeded in our day tant prices, or cultivate it for them for wages by the Observers, Recorders, Evangelists, & c , which will barely hold soul and body together— who have the ear of the class here of which Le where those who can command work whenevSemeur is the oracle in France, I can not pre- er they choose are under no obligation to do> dict. You will find in it, doubtless, occasion any, and where those who must work or starve for a fresh sneer at the " good time coming." are often unable for weeks to obtain a single If I were to-day blessed with an oppoitunity • day's employment—where the palace of the of speaking intimately and fully to a chief of rich Christian overshadows a hundred hovels that different but powerful class with whom tenanted by ignorance, want, and wretchedness, your paper is an oracle, because it flatters and their inmates forming a class as distinct from justifies their over-mastering impulses—if I his in every Social usage and characteristic as could sit down beside some man who is totter- the Pariahs from the Brahmins of Hindostan— ing down to the grave beneath the burden o*' !is grossly to libel Christianity. I can not see fourscore years, yet eagerly adding hundreds j how a man profoundly impressed with the truth of thousands per annum to a hoard of wealth i and importance of Christ's teaching, as those already counted by millions, and hugging him- of a divinely-sent messenger and guide, can fail self with the conceit of his own generosity, be- to realize and aspire to a Social polity radically cause he gives perhaps thousands each year to different from that which has hitherto prevailrelieve distress, diffuse knowledge, or commend ed. Unless we are to understand as mere rhetreligion and morality, I would wish to plead oric, of the most exaggerated kind, his " How with him after this fashion : " Brother of mine! hardly shall they that have riches enter into the you are madly throwing away the most golden Kingdom of God," (Mark x., 23), " Sell that opportunities ! you are criminally disregarding thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt the most solemn duties ! Talk not of your con- have treasure in Heaven," (Matt, xix., 21), & c , tributions to this or that charity, this or that I do not see how it is possible for any one to missionary or philanthropic society : all that suppose that He contemplated or could fail to may be very well; but it falls immensely short I condemn a perpetuation of the social distincof your whole duty. You hold all your wealth j tions of master and servant, rich and poor, as the steward of the Great Benefactor; you landlord and landless, &c, to any thing like the are bound, by His commands, declared in Na- extent, or in any thing like the spirit, which are ture and in Revelation, to devote all your means, now manifested all around us, and even in (alas, over an adequate support and provision for that it should be so!) the households of many those specially dependent upon you, to the re- among the most exalted and esteemed of the lief of misery, the diffusion of comfort, the in- professed followers of Christ. crease of human happiness. But not your But I have not urged the justice and necesmoney nor your provisions only ; your best ef- sity of a Social Reform mainly from the Reliforts, counsel, influence, deportment, familiar gious point of view, because I was aware of intercourse, are demanded by the law of Love the proneness on your side to make this a ques- 72 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. tion of creeds and catechisms-—to make its decision hinge on dogmatic theology, instead of practical Christianity. I protest against the introduction of sectarian shibboleths wheieby to try the merits of this controversy. " Our fathers worshiped in this mountain"—"We have Abraham to our father"—" Art thou greater than our father Jacob 1" are not tests by which either party to this discussion is to be justified or found wanting. I do, indeed, believe that, if the Bible were the truly-heeded and fairly-construed arbiter, its decision would be emphatically in favor of that side which harmonizes best with the rigid Agrarianism of Moses (Levit. xxv., -23-28, etc ), the stern denunciations of the lust of wealth by the prophets (see Isa. v. 8, etc.), the practical ultra-Socialism of the early Christians (Acts ii, 44-46). But I know how easy it is, how natural it is, for those who seek to be justified in the neglect of unwelcome duty and in their attempts to blend the service of God with that of Mammon, to court the raising of a cloud of theological smoke and dust calculated to obscure the whole field of Duty. Against all this I earnestly protest. I decline to be made a party to it in any way. Make out, if you will, as your argument assumes, that all Unitarians, Universalists, with others who do not deem Man essentially and totally depraved—all who are believers in Mesmerism or Phrenology, are Infidels, and still my positions are unaffected, my arguments unshaken. Prove, if you can, that Nature's laws are not of God but of the Devil—and what then ? Are my positions weakened ? Long before this controversy commenced, you know perfectly well that I advocated Association on my own grounds, and you distinctly assented that I should so advocate it in this discussion, and that you would meet me on the case as I should present it. Have you done so ? Look back on your whole course through this controversy! Look, then, to this passage (already quoted) from Godwin, page 73, and to the whole page asserting, explaining, and enfoicing it. Connecticut and New Zealand, of Union Square ana the Five Points, although the "intrinsic depravity" is necessarily the same in each case. But does any man seriously contend that Scotland, or Connecticut, or Union Square, affords the best possible conditions for the formation of an exalted Human Character? May we not rather fairly presume that what has been done is but a foretaste of what may be? If it be true—as who can doubt?—that a community even so imperfectly and partially supplied with the means of Education, Refinement, Moral and Religious Culture as ours, must naturally exhibit an immense and continual improvement on the Social aspects of Taitary or Abyssinia, why should not a Social Condition affording to every member advantages equal to those enjoyed by the most favored in our present society lead to corresponding results? In short, concede me only that all our Seminaries, Sermons, Sunday Schools, etc , are not empty and intolerable farces—that human beings as they exist throughout the world may rationally and advantageously be instructed, admonished, developed, and you can not bring Human Depravity to bear effectively against Association. If the Divine prayer, "lead me not into temptation," and the not dissimilar entreaty of "Agur the son of Jakeh"—" Give me neither poverty nor riches, * * * lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord ? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain," be not empty words—then it is desirable to call into existence a Social state and Social laws very different from those under which we have hitherto lived and are now living—a condition which shall bridge the gulf now yawning betwixt Wealth and Poverty, and immensely diminish the temptations of Want which Agur states so forcibly and clearly. That there will be Sin and Suffering under the very highest Social condition, speedily or even at all attainable by frail Mortality, does not at all disprove the feasibility or importance of the changes involved in the idea of Association. " The School of Fowier [that is of the Associ- What you say of Marriage and the kindred ationists, who are distinctively tenned Fourierites] topics, in view of all that has already been urged in the course of this discussion, I cheerprofess but one thing : THE ORGANIZATION OF LABOK IN THE TOWNSHIP. It has no other object, no oth- fully leave to the discernment of our readers. er faith, as a School. Individuals are, of course, They know whether I have or not maintained always at liberty to promulgate whatever opinions that, whenever an individual impulse shall they may see fit." prompt to acts inconsistent with general good When, therefore, you tell me that this or •—Theft, Hatred, Adultery, and Murder—that that Associationist makes Passional Attraction impulse is to be obeyed or repressed. I do, his starting-point, I answer, " What is that to indeed, believe that men are daily hurried to me? He is welcome." When you state that shameful graves by dissipation, by suicide, by I " profess to disavow" that law, you state what the gallows, who are intrinsically no worse than J have not warranted. Undoubtedly, I should those who live and die in odor of sanctity, and, dissent from any presentment of that law from with equal opportunities and facilities, would your pen, still more from such deductions there- have been equally respected and honored to the from as you would consider fair and logical; last I may differ from you in disbelieving that but I do not feel called upon either to disavow Human Nature, truly instructed and developed, or affirm that law. I do not deduce the neces- would ever tend to debauchery, theft, or mursity, feasibility, and beneficence of Association der, but we do not. differ on the point that piofrom any abstiact speculation or theory re- pensities to evil are to be sternly repressed, if specting the essential nature of Man, but from they can not otherwise be overcome—repress-what is known of his history and character ed by force and penalty, if necessary. I subWhatever the "intrinsic depravity" of his na- mit to he taught by experience as to how far ture, no one disputes that he who has grown I and under what conditions this necessity shali up from birth to maturity in Scotland, for in- ' be found to exist. I know that it was once stance, is likely to be a far superior being to his necessary, in view of the actual condition of /fellow educated ou the .Slave-Coast, and so of mankind, to threaten and to inflict the mo&% ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 73 tremendous judgments against Idolatry, or the I one Faith, of the Associative School; beyond worship as Divine of man-made images and the which each member of it accepted or rejected, most revolting creatures of diseased human fan- propounded or questioned, whatever commendcies ; I see that, among the very descendants ed itself to his individual reason and conscience. of the nation thus sinning and thus punished All this was perfectly familiar to your mind ; there is now no shadow of necessity for even a and how can I resist the conviction that you condemnation of Idolatry, though theirs is the deliberately intended to prejudice our readers same Human Nature as of old. Is it prepos- against certain propositions for the practical terous to believe that, with a true and thorough melioration of the hard lot of the ignorant, the development of their intellects and their affec- destitute, the depressed, by exciting a theolotions, other vices and crimes now seductive gical odium against a part of the arguments by may in like manner become abhorrent to man- which some of their advocates commended kind 1 Was not " the proclivity of Man's na- those Refoims'? Let Justice decide between ture to act in violation of the rule of Right" the us. same with regard to Idolatry that it now is with You seek to parry the existing contrast beregard to sins still popular among Jewish and tween New Lebanon and Ireland, which I adChristian communities 1 And if yes, How does duced as examples'of the practical working of the fact of Man's depravity, such as it is, prove Associative and Competitive life respectively, that he will always continue prone to Adultery, l by speaking of the Shakers as "directly under or Theft, any more than he now is to Idolatry 1 ,\the despotic will of a single person," &c. I Your assertion that " Mr. Godwin contends" i know no warrant for this charge—do you 1 As that * the bonds of Marriage * * * ought to to Marriage, the Community at Zoar (Ohio), * have no force beyond the consent of the part- cherishes Marriage, yet its increase in wealth ies whom they bind," is, in my confident belief, has been more rapid that that of the Shakers, grossly untrue, but I shall not dwell upon that, and its present command of the means of livhowever obvious and sinister its purpose ; and, ing is as ample as theirs. Surely, all must see as to the prevalence of personal purity or con- that a Social state in which a strong and omnistancy, I will very willingly compare the As- present public sentiment demands that each sociationists with their adversaries, the world able member shall be a producer, and not a over. That individuals among them have erred mere consumer of wealth—which renders each in this respect, as in others, is doubtless true; the ally, none the antagonist of his brother toilthat some have perverted the doctrine of Pas- er—which removes the temptation to lie in wait sional Attraction to subserve illicit desires is for the products of others' industry instead of possible, though I have not heard of such an producing more—must naturally tend to oppoinstance. But where there has been one such site results from those whereof unhappy Ireland case, there are thousands on record where is now the most conspicuous example. " Do the pages of the Bible have been pressed into men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thissimilar service—where the scarcely rebuked I tles V Polygamy and Concubinage of the Old TestaIt is of course easy for you to assert that a ment have been cited as Divine authority for denial of the right to monopolize the Soil in unsimilar conduct in our day. How unjust and limited quantity is equivalent to a denial of any unauthorized this is, I need not stop here to right to Property ; and it would be just as easy exhibit. to say that he who denies the right of one man Your pretence that " this discussion" has to have a thousand wives, and to dispose of "compelled the Tribune to disavow and aban- them as his interest or caprice should dictate, don some of the most vital and essential ele- denies the right to have any wife at all. Such ments of the Association theory," will be read points are not settled by mere assertion. I do by thousands who will freshly remember the indeed hold, that a man has a natural right to express and indispensable stipulation at first produce and acquire property, and I therefore made by me, that the subject discussed should condemn the system of Land Monopoly, which be " Association as I understand it"—the diffi- robs the producer of one-half to seven-eighths culty I had in bringing you to assent to this— I of the fruits of his toil, and often dooms him to the difficulty you had in justifying, even to your-'I absolute starvation on the soil which he has self, your palpable determination from the first faithfully and effectively cultivated. The right to violate your engagement—and the course of owning property, or of owning land, is one you have pursued ever since. You knew well thing; the right to own thousands, and evenat the outset, that I intended to advocate Asso- millions of acres of land, is another. The pubciation from my own stand-point, and that this lic is learning to distinguish the one from the was somewhat different from that of Fourier or other. Brisbane—you knew that I had small regard As to "working by music," & c , which you for abstract metaphysical speculations in com- pronounce so " absurd," and that to " urge it as parison with practical realities—you knew well a means of making hard labor attractive, is nonthat the American Associationists as a body sense," I will barely quote a passage from a not had repeatedly and solemnly disclaimed the very obscure nor Agrarian authority. The hisdoctrines with regard to Marriage, & c , which torian Robertson, in his account of the Aborihad been deduced by their adversaries from the gines of Peru, who were among the most innowritings of Fourier—-that they had declared cent, refined, and happy, of the nations whom generally that they did not adopt all of Fou- (nominally) Christian avarice, lust, and butchrier's speculations, but only such parts as they ery have exterminated or reduced to abject deemed well-grounded—-you knew (for you bad wretchedness, says that they held their lands Mr Godwin's book before you), " The Organiza- as the common property of all, making frequent tion of Labor in the Township" is the one Object, I allotments and ^allotments thereof somewhat 74 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. resembling the land-system of the Israelites i as the dictate of universal Interest and imperunder the Mosaic economy. He proceeds : ative Duty. 3. That such Education for All, such Oppor" All those lands were cultivated by the joint in- tunity to Labor, such security to each of a just dustry of the community. The people, summoned and fair Recompense, are manifestly practicaby a proper officer, repaired in a body to the fields, ble only through the Association of some two and performed their common task, while songs and inusical instruments cheered them to their labor. or three hundred families on the basis of UniBy this singular distribution, as well as by the mode ted Interests and Efforts (after the similitude of cultivating it, the idea of a common interest and of a Bank, Rail-road or Whale-ship, though of mutual subserviency was continually inculcated. with far more perfect arrangements for securEach individual felt his connection with those ing to each what is justly his ; inhabiting a comaround him, and knew that he depended on their mon Edifice, though with distinct and exclufriendly aid for what increase he was to reap. A sive as well as common apartments, cultivating state thus constituted, may be considered as one one common Domain, and pursuing thereon vagieat family, in which the union of the members was so complete, and the exchange of good offices rious branches of Mechanical and Manufacturso perceptible, as to create stronger attachment, ing as well as Agricultural Industry, and uniand to bind men in closer intercourse than subsisted ting in the support of Education, in defraying under any form of society established in America." the cost of Chemical and Philosophical Apparatus, of frequent Lectures, & c , &c. Whether History (and I could quote columns 4. That among the. advantages of this Orlike this) should presume to weigh against your ganization would be immense Economies in dictum that all such notions are " nonsense," Land, Food, Cooking, Fuel, Buildings, Teams, 44 too absurd for argument," our readers will de- Implements, Merchandise, Litigation, Accounttermine. Keeping, &c , &c.; while, on the other hand, a —Midnight draws upon me, and the last vastly increased Efficiency would be given to words permitted me in this discussion are now the Labor of each by concentration of effort to be penned. Let me barely restate, in order, and the devotion to Productive Industry of the the positions which I have endeavored to main- great numbers now employed in unproductive tain during its progress, and I will calmly await avocations, or who are deemed too young, too the judgment to be pronounced upon the whole unskilled, or too inefficient, to be set at work matter. I know well that nineteen-twentieths under our present Industrial mechanism. of those whose utterance create and mold Pub5. That, thus associated and blended in inlic Opinion had prejudged the case before read- terests, in daily intercourse, in early impresing a page with regard to it—that they had sions, in cares, joys, and aspirations, the Rich promptly decided that no Social Reconstruction and Poor would become the brethren and muis necessary or desirable, since they do not per- tual helpers for which their Creator designed ceive that any is likely to promote the ends for them—that Labor would be rendered Attractive which they live and strive. Of these, very few by well-planned, lighted, warmed, and ventilawill have read our articles—they felt no need ted work-shops, by frequent alternations from of your arguments, no appetite for mine. Yet I the field to the shop as urgency, convenience, there is a class, even in this modern Babel of weariness, or weather should suggest; and that selfishness and envious striving, still more in all being workers, all sharers in the same cares our broad land, who are earnestly seeking, in- and recreations, none doomed to endure existquiring for, the means whereby Error and Evil ence in a cellar or hovel, the antagonism and may be diminished, the realm of Justice and of j envious discontent now prevalent would be Happiness extended. These will have gene- banished, and general Content, Good Will, and rally followed us with more or less interest Happiness prevail, while Famine, Homelessthroughout; their collective judgment will ness, unwilling Idleness, the horrors of Bankaward the palm of manly dealing and of be- ruptcy, & c , would be unknown. neficent endeavor to one or the other. For —These hastily and imperfectly condensed, their consideration, I reiterate the positions I are my positions, my convictions. I believe have endeavored to maintain in this discussion, that Christianity, Social Justice, Intellectual and cheerfully abide their verdict that I have and Moral Progress, Universal Well-being, imsustained, or you have overthrown, them. I peratively require the adoption of such a Rehave endeavored to show, then, form as is here roughly sketched. I do not 1. That Man has a natural, God-given Right expect that it will be immediately effected, nor to Labor for his own subsistence and the good that the approaches to it will not be signalized of others, and to a needful portion of the Earth by failures, mistakes, disappointments. But from which his physical sustenance is to be the PRINCIPLE of Association is one which has drawn. If this be a natural, essential Right, it already done much for the improvement of the can not be justly suspended, as to any, upon condition of our Race ; we see it now actively the interest or caprice of others ; and that So- making its way into general adoption, through ciety in which a part of mankind are permitted Odd-Fellowship, Protective Unions, Mutual or forbidden to labor, according to the need felt Fire, Marine, and Life Insurance, and other or fancied by others for their labor, is unjustly forms of Guaranteeism. Already commodious Edifices for the Poor of Cities are planned by constituted and ought to be reformed. 2. That, in a true Social state, the Right of Benevolence, unsuspicious of the end to which it every individual to such Labor as he is able to points ; already the removal of the Paupers from perform, and to the fair and equal Recompense localities where they are a grievous burthen to of his Labor, will be guarantied and provided those where they can substantially support for ; and the thorough Education of each child, themselves, is the theme of general discussion. Physical, Moral, and Intellectual, be regarded j In all these and many like them I see the por- ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. tents of" a good time coming," not for the destitute and hopeless only, but for the great mass of our fellow-men. In this faith I labor and live: share it or scout it as you will. Adieu! H. G. From the Courier and Enquirer, May 20th, 1847. REPLY TO LETTER XII. The Tribune closes its defense of Association by charging us with gross unfairness for the manner in which we have opposed it. We pass unnoticed the offensive terms in which this charge is made, and content ourselves with showing its entire injustice. The Tribune first complains that we have not met the case which it has presented. We appeal to the whole course of the discussion, in refutation of this statement. We are not aware of a single position taken by the Tribune upon this subject, that we have left unnoticed. We have given to every argument it has urged in defense of the system, all the attention it seemed to merit. We began by discussing its fundamental theory of Natural Rights—its primary denial of the right of property in Land ; and we have followed, throughout, the line of argument which it adopted. The Tribune ascribed all existing evil to the false arrangements of Society; we contended that even those false arrangements grow put of the selfishness of the human heart. The Tribune demanded a new Social form which should abolish the cause of existing evil; we insisted that, as evil did not spring from social forms, so no change of those forms could destroy it. The Tribune condemned the present system of isolated households and individual effort, and demanded the substitution for them of a Community of interests and of life; we sought to prove that such a Community would be impossible so long as human nature remains unchanged. The Tribune urged Association as the means of effecting that change in human character which alone would render Association possible; we proved that this confounded cause and effect, and that the personal reform of individual men must precede such a social reform as the Tribune seeks. The Tribune contended that in Association Labor would receive, as its reward, a fixed proportion of its product, and that this would be greater than under the present system • we proved that the reward of labor is regulated by certain principles of permanent force, which Association could not change, and that then, as now, when labor was abundant and laborers scarce, the wages of labor would be high; and that, when laborers increased more rapidly than the work to be done, their reward would diminish. And so we proceeded step by step, meeting every claim urged by the Tribune in defense of the system ; refuting its pretensions to exclusive philanthropy; pointing out obstacles for which it made no adequate provision; and discussing fully and fairly the whole System, in all its details, as presented in its columns. We met the Tribune, throughout, upon its own ground ; yet, in nearly every instance, our objections were denounced as "cavils;" our arguments remained untouched ; and now, in its closing article, the Tribune re- 75 peats all its original positions, and charges us with having failed to meet them. We are quite content to submit this point to the judgment of our readers. But the Tribune complains, further, that we have gone beyond its line of argument; that we have not occupied exclusively the " stand-point" from which it saw fit to view the system. We can perceive no justice in this claim. The Tribune is contending that the shield is made of silver; we assert that it is of brass. Is it not absurd to insist that we shall look at it only from the Tribune's point of view 1 We have examined it from that " stand-point," and now we claim the right to look upon the other side. We met the arguments which the Tribune urged, but we are not bound to stop with that. The Tribune's " stand-point" may be different from that of Fourier and Brisbane ; it may look at the system from other ground than that they occupy; but is not the SYSTEM which they advocate the SAME 1 The Tribune may adopt it for one reason, and they for another; but this difference in no way touches the question—What is its essential character ? This is the point to be determined; and we claim the right to examine its pretensions and principles, not simply with the Tribune's eye-glass, but with the best telescope we can command. Besides, the Tribune should remember that it referred us to the writings of Fourier, and Brisbane, and Godwin, for definite information upon precisely those points, which, it now insists, we had no right to touch. We had made inquiry as to the provisions of Association for the education of children; for religious worship ; for the regulation of domestic and social intercourse, the relations of the sexes, &c , &c. We sought some definite and explicit statement of the modes of life in this new social order, as essential to its full and fair discussion ; and we stated a great variety of obstacles which seemed to us to lie in the way of its success. The Tribune replied (Dec. 28th) in these terms : " With regard to Labor, to Education, to Religiony «fec, had you read attentively any of the writings of the Associationists, you would have seen how your obstacles are surmounted." And subsequently (Jan. 13th) it said : *' I give you trie full benefit of your citations from Mr. Brisbane's book, and of your excuse for them.'' Here is no intimation that our inquiries were irrelevant. Nothing was said then of our having violated an "express engagement" by making them. But when the Tribune saw the answers which its own references had given to our inquiries, it suddenly discovered gross " unfairness" in the course we had adopted. Our readers will have no difficulty in discerning the real cause of the Tribune's dissatisfaction. We have proved in preceding articles of this discussion, that the whole SYSTEM OF ASSOCIA- TION is founded upon, and grows out of, the fundamental principle, known as the Maw of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. The argument by which this position is established remains untouched: and we shall not therefore repeat it. In our last article we proved that, in this system, the Law of Marts Nature is made the supreme rule of his conduct and character;—that it recognizes no higher law than that of inclination, no authority above that of passion, and of course n« 76 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. essential distinction between right and wrong,— I never be better than the principles on which it rests? no standard of duty except that of impulse. Of Its practical operation never can be good, when course the idea of human responsibility is ut- its predominant, ruling principles are false and terly destroyed; and all the sanctions of moral pernicious. There is, therefore, no more proper and leligious truth, as derived from the Word or decisive mode of determining the character of God, are abrogated and cast aside. These of any System, than by bringing to the test of deductions flow inevitably from the law of Pas- established truth the fundamental principles out sional Attraction ; and that law we have proved of which it grows. This is the test,—the experto be fundamental in Association. We have imentum crucis, — by which we would try the not made this, as the Tribune assumes, a mat- character of the SOCIALISM which the Tribune ter of "assertion," but of proof: and we are advocates: and it is precisely the test from entitled to demand that the Tribune shall either which the Tribune shrinks. It protests against acknowledge its conclusiveness or demonstrate having any thing to do with u creeds" and " cateits fallacy. chisms" and the "dogmas of theology"—meanBut the Tribune will do neither. It will ing by these expressions, the doctrines and "neither afifim nor disavow that law," though principles of the Christian faith. it " would undoubtedly dissent from any preNow there are certain fundamental truths, sentment of it" from our pen, and " still more so distinctly set forth in the revealed Word from such deductions therefrom" as we should of God, and so clearly recognized as true by think " fair and logical." Why does not the the moral reason of every man, that they are Tribune state its reasons for such dissent 1 received as fixed and forever established, by Have we presented that law untruly, or made the great mass of the Christian world. These unfair and illogical deductions from it] If so, principles may therefore be most justly used the fact can easily be shown. If not, the fact as absolute tests, in the examination of any of the Tiibune's " dissent" is of but little conse-1 System which has any relation to the moral quence. But the Tribune adds:— and spiritual interests of mankind. The priniC Make out if you will that all who do not deem ciples of the System of Association are in the man essentially and totally depraved, are infidels, and most direct and irreconcilable hostility to They instill my positions are unaffected, my arguments un- these principles of Chiistianity. shaken. Prove, if you can, that Nature's laws are volve, as we have already shown, a denial not of God, but of the Devil—and what then ? Are ' of the existence of Sin, as an active power, in my positions weakened?" the human heart. They teach that the law The Tribune's positions may not be weakened of Man's Nature is the highest rule of bis conby that fact;—but after its arguments have been duct. They recognize no law of duty superior refuted, and its positions demolished, by other to the law of passion and inclination. They considerations, this point, it seems to us, be- subject all truth and all obligation to the comes pertinent and important. We have met dominion of individual impulses, and thus deall the arguments which the Tribune has ad- stroy the essential distinction between right vanced, and proved that they are not sufficient and wrong. They teach that evil is simply to vindicate the System : and now, after that the consequence of attempting to repress has been done, if the System can be shown to human passion,—that it is chargeable upon rest upon principles which are " of the Devil,"— those Social forms which seek that represif its vital and essential elements can .be proved sion ; and they thus deny the responsibility to be those of infidelity, its claims upon the of individuals for their conduct and character. favor of religious people at all events must, in They teach that the great aim of man and our judgment, be somewhat " weakened." The of society should be to develop and gratify Tribune can not escape the responsibility of the the radical passions of the human heart; and System it advocates, by so shallow an evasion they thus contradict directly the Christian inas this. The fact that it chooses to shut its junction of self-denial. The SYSTEM claims to eyes to the religious bearings of the subject,— be adapted to all the wants of humanity: that it prefers not to urge Association " from —claims to be divine in its origin,—based the religious point of view," will not prevent upon fixed and eternal principles, and peifect others, who deem its moral and religious bear- in its provisions for the well-being of man It ings of paramount importance, from examining claims to have made provision for all the inits principles and pretensions fiom that fixed terests of all the members of Society: and yet and abiding platform. Nor will its protest it makes no provision for religious teaching, against testing the merits of Association by discards all reference to higher than human " sectarian shibboleths," by " creeds and cate- sanctions, and assents to the teachings of chisms," by u dogmas of theology," be of more Christ and his apostles, only after it has forced avail. In spite of the contempt thus expressed them to echo its own principles and reflect its by the Tribune, for matters of belief and in spite image. Such a SYSTEM we have no hesitation of the " slight regard" it professes for " abstract in characterizing as infidel in its principles, speculation or theory" upon any point of moral and therefore dangerous to all the best inand religious duty, it will still be held respon- terests of Society and of man, in its operation sible, by all considerate minds, for the infidelity and effect. The Tribune may think this no of faith as well as the licentiousness of life, valid objection to it,~-but others will not so involved in the system which it so earnestly regard it. The Tribune may refuse to look at advocates. Belief, abstract theory, must al- it from this point of view,—may shut its eyes ways go before practical conduct. A man may to the aspect of the scheme when seen from indeed live a correct life and yet entertain a vei y this stand-point, and may assert that all this erroneous faith ;—but generally his belief will has nothing to do with its " immense econofthape his conduct. A SYSTEM, moreover, can mies," its " spacious edifices," its gardens. ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 77 that every man lorn within the limits of New- York has, by a law of nature, a perfect right to his equal share of its soil. This position, as we have proved conclusively, denies the right of owning Land, and includes a denial of the right to own any thing. It strikes at the root of the right of property. Now, with the Tribune, this principle is not a mere abstraction, an opinion enthe Organization of Labor in the Township ;" tertained, but not acted upon. That paper while it suppresses entirely his additional dec- takes it for granted, in all its discussions. It laration, to which, more than once, we have assumes the principle, and shapes its practical called its notice, that, teachings in accordance with it. Its columns " Let a Township be once organized according to teem with denunciations of "Land monopoly." our principles, and the reform will soon spread over It brands the right of property in Land as the the entire nation:" and that «' Law, Government, and " monster evil" of society. It calls upon the Religion, will all be more or less affected by a uni- Legislature to fix a limit to the right of owning tary regime of industry." the soil, and demands of Congress, in complete Thus, the very author cited by the Tribune, abandonment of a principle it once cherished, disproves the position which it seeks to estab- that the Public Lands shall be given away to any lish, and confirms our statement, that " the Or- who may settle upon them. And still more apganization of Labor in the Township" is sought parent is the effect of its advocacy of this prinsimply as the stepping-stone to the entire reor- ciple upon the political and social aspect of this ganization of Society. And equally explicit State. Great numbers of our people live upon upon the same point is Mr. Brisbane's declara- I farms which are owned by others. They have tion: ! been taught by the Tribune, that Land is a " It is evident that the whole question of a uni- " God-created element," which should not be versal social reform, resolves itself into the right or-monopolized; that the right to live is paraganization of one single township." mount to the right of owning land; and that To say that each member may accept or re- they who labor upon the soil, and redeem it ject whatever he pleases of the principles of from its primeval rudeness, are its rightful the System, is simply to say that each member owners. The conclusion from all this is inevimay abandon the System whenever he pleases. table ; they, upon this principle, have a perfect There is nothing in the mere principle of com- right to the farms they hold. And throughout bined exertion, of united effort, for the attain- a very large district in this State, the inhabiment of a common object, which can distin- tants have determined to enforce that right—to guish Association from hundreds of institutions claim and retain the ownership of these farms, already in existence. It is not this which in the face of all Law, and in spite of those marks it as a new scheme for the entire reor- upon whom has been devolved its execution. And in the prosecution of this purpose, sheiiffs ganization of Society. been shot; the owners of But all these points have already been fully have beaten ; their agents have the farms have been met, in the preceding articles of this discus- been armed bands have been organizedmaltreatto sion ; and we refer to them now, only because ed ; the landed estates of others ; andseize the the Tribune reiterates its positions, without the upon, civil and social fabric has been threatenleast reference to the arguments we have urged whole entire destruction.* These are the leed with against them. gitimate fruits of the doctrines proclaimed by We have still to advert to one point of great the Tribune. They may have been acted upon practical importance, which has hitherto been before the Tribune became their advocate ; but but slightly touched : we mean THE INFLUENCE i they are nevertheless its principles, and it is UPON SOCIETY OF THE PRINCIPLES OF ASSOCIAexerting all its power to give them still wider TION, as they are presented and urged in the ! influence and more undoubted sway. columns of the Tribune. Its advocacy of I Then again, under the influence of this prin this Social System is regarded by many as ciple, and under the immediate supervision of wholly unaccountable—as the result of some the Tribune, a political party has sprung into strange whim, for which no reason can be | existence calling itself the party of " National found in its general tone and teaching. This, Reform," and exhorting its members to " vote in our judgment, is a mistaken notion. The themselves a farm." Hostility to what the Tribfundamental principles of Association,—its es- une styles the " Land monopoly," is the fundasential doctrines, as we have set them forth in mental element of their creed : and already is this discussion,—are far more earnestly cher- the Tribune boasting of the political strength ished by the Editor of that paper, than any of they have acquired, and looking forward to the the party measures, or temporary expedients, day when their demands shall be carried into which he advocates. The principles which lie full effect.' The practical results of the Tribat the bottom of this new Social System, in our une's theories may be seen in these organized Iriew, shape the entire policy of the Tribune. movements of the day, and still more clearly in They dictate all its sentiments ; prompt all its the spirit of radical, bitter hostility between the comments upon men and measures; pervade Rich and the Poor, which has rapidly acquired its most trifling notices of the most common strength and vigor, under their constant and t Events ; govern its estimate of all schemes of public concern; and create the very atmosphere in which it has its being. * The history of the Jlnti Rent Rebellion in the State I Take, for example, the principle, as laid down of New York is so well known, in all its details, to the by the Tribune at the outset of this discussion,— public, that no more special reference to its particular orchards, attractive industry, and miscella- | neous but fantastic magnificence; but it can not convince reflecting men that it is either unimportant or irrelevant. But the Tribune again quotes Mr. Godwin s statement, that " The school of Fourier propose but one thing, incidents, is here deemed necessary. 78 ASSOCIATIOI skillful promulgation. These are the direct fruits of this principle of " Association as the Tribune understands it." That paper, indeed, disavows any denial of the right of property: but we have proved that this denial is involved in its fundamental position, and our argument is yet unanswered. The Tribune, moreover, forgets its declaration of a few months since, that *' Mine and Thine are distinctions which inhere in our present relations, feelings, social necessities : yet. they are beginning to be felt as a YOKE AND A BURDEN." This, certainly, is a distinct avowal of the hardship and injustice of a system of property, and alludes clearly enough to the " good time coming" when all distinctions of meum and tuum shall be abolished. In the same way, and to a still greater extent, may be traced the influence upon the Tribune, and through its columns upon Society, of that wry LAW OF PASSIONAL ATTRACTION, which, when stated in a definite form, the Tribune will •' neither affirm nor disavow." We have hitherto so fully and so clearly proved that this Law lies at the very basis of Association, and that, if it be rejected, the entire system must be abandoned, that nothing more need be said upon that point. This law affirms that " the attractions and repulsions of every being in the creation are exactly in proportion to their respective functions and real destinies in the universe :" or, in other words, that the impulses and desires of every man indicate precisely the position he should fill, the actions he should perform, the character he should maintain in society. And it is made the great end of Social Reform to introduce such a form of society as should permit, without disturbance or injury, this full and free development of the passions and impulses of man. In our last article we showed, with sufficient clearness, that this principle recognizes every act as right which is in accordance with the nature of man ; and that those things only are held to be wrong which are not in accordance with his nature, and that they are wrong so far only as they produce evil DISCUSSED; citing the fact that the Jews were once guilty of worshiping idols ; and that, as changed circumstances have banished this sin, so a changed condition may uproot any evil tendency in the human heart. But here is a sophism, founded upon a confusion of terms. The adoration of images was simply the form which an idolizing spirit among the Jews assumed, in its outward manifestation. A change of circumstances may have changed the form, but is the Tribune sure it has destroyed the spirit of idolatry ? Or may not that spirit still make itself apparent in an inordinate love of money, or in some other form? Now in Association, adultery, theft, &c., may not be deemed the crimes they are now considered: but will the lust, the covetousness, the self-seeking out of which they grow, be banished from the human heart ? If not, no reformation of the character will have been effected:—the developments of passion may be modified or changed ; but its inherent character remains the same. Crime is not, as the Law of Passional Attraction would teach, the result of circumstances. It can not be charged upon Society. It s/prings from the heart of man, and each man is individually responsible for it as it exists within him. But the influence of this fundamental principle of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION is also manifest in all the Tiibune's teachings concerning the CONJUGAL and the FAMILY RELATIONS. We have already proved, by a close and logical deduction, that this Law, when carried into this department of social life, utterly abolishes Marriage as an institution of fixed force and abiding sanctions, and substitutes for it the arrangement of groups and series, as being better adapted to the wants and requirements of human nature. We proved also that Fourier himself recognized this necessity, and, in his social system, made provision for the full indulgence of inconstant passion. Those in Association who should choose to remain constant could do so; while those whose impulses should prompt to change, would also have abundant opportunity to gratify their inclinations. This state of consequences. The idea of MORAL GUILT—of things is defended on the ground that the reany distinction between right and wrong aside lations between the sexes are entirely convenfrom their consequences—is entirely rejected. tional—the creatures of society; that inconNo absolute, fixed standard of moral character stancy, being an impulse of nature, is wrong is recognized in this system. The Tribune, in- only because society so considers it, and bedeed, professes to be " in favor of repressing cause, under existing arrangements, it leads to an individual impulse whenever it shall prompt confusion and disturbance; and that in a soto acts inconsistent with the general good:"—but cial form adapted to it, and in an atmosphere even this position tacitly repudiates the idea of of opinion which would permit it, it would any inherent distinction between right and cease to be hurtful, and therefore cease to be wrong, in human conduct, aside from the results wrong. The Tribune, as already quoted, assents to this position, intimating only its belief they may produce. inconstancy, in a true society, would The Tribune's whole theory of CRIME and of thatdesired, but conceding virtually that if not be PUNISHMENT springs directly from this principle. sired in such a state, it should belallowed. deIt regards crime as simply the result of a disThis is a point, we are aware, on which the eased nature: it treats it as involvipg misfortune, but not as implying guilt. Thus it is only Tribune is never explicit; and we shall dwell a few days since (May 5th), that the Tribune upon it, therefore, a little longer. Under tho spoke of thieves as men " guilty of diseased ap- present system, as the Associationists urge, petites and perverted faculties:" and it constant- parties are often brought into conjugal union ly assumes, even when it does not directly as- who have for each other no true affection; and., sert, that crime is produced by circumstances, in many cases, the passion which prompted! and that Society, instead of the individual, is the union dies or changes to some other oby responsible for it. In its last article it seeks to ject. Society now requires the marriage rela1 defend this position, and to show that a change tion, nevertheless, to be maintained, and thus, compels parties to live together after all mutuin condition will destroy the cause of evil, by ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. &1 regard has disappeared. T h i s compulsion, they alledge, is at war with nature—in violation of the principle of passional attraction; and, in a true society, it must, therefore, be done away. Marriage, as a fixed and abiding institution, is thus abolished, and it only remains to provide a substitute. This substitute, as we have already shown, flows naturally from the Law of Passional Attraction. Let those persons, and those only, be united who are impelled to that union by the impulses of their n a t u r e ; let them remain united only while those impulses prompt them to do so ; and let them be released, and allowed to form new connections, in free obedience to the same i promptings of their nature. Of course such an arrangement could be carried out only in a social form adapted to it. Certain conditions are j indispensable to its introduction. T h u s , for example, public sentiment would reprobate such conduct now ; a wife, being dependent upon her husband for support, would, if he should leave her, be left destitute ; their children, under the same circumstances, would be unprotected; and other obstacles exist, under the present social system, which would render impossible such a scheme as is here proposed. Therefore, say the Associationists, we do not seek any such object now: w e do not propose to interfere at all with marriage now: w e leave that whole subject for the present untouched. T h i s is the Tribune's position. T h a t paper, conceding that these are Fourier's views, asserts that they have been expressly disavowed by the American Associationists, " a s a body." W e have never met such a disavowal, nor do we believe it has ever been made. T h e Associationists have, indeed, declared that some of Fourier's speculations individuals among them do r e j e c t ; but what these are they do not say, nor, as a body, do they disclaim any part of the system, or any of the principles on which it is based. Besides, the " SYLVANIA ASSOCIATION," with which the Editor of the Tribune w a s officially connected, in a programme of their faith and proposed practice, declared explicitly that 79 not wish to change or abolish marriage to correct the abuses which we see at present connected or interwoven with it. We wish, first, to change all the social, political, and household evils that surround it; and when this is accomplished, we shall then be in a position to form a clear and correct opinion as to what is to be done next, if other evils still remain. " We believe that it is for the women of a future generation—when all the preliminary reforms of which we spoke are carried out—-when woman possesses her pecuniary independence—when she enjoys all her rights, and gains her own livelihood by her own efforts, in a system of dignified and attractive industry—when she is fully and integrally developed, morally and intellectually, and when the paternal protection of society, or a social providence, is extended to all children; it is, we believe, for the noble women of the future, of a regenerated race, to decide upon this most delicate and intricate question. " In short, we leave this whole question to the soul of fully-developed, fully-educated, and fully-independent woman, in a true social order; we are convinced that that soul will then be noble, pure, and elevated, and that the decrees which go forth from the heart will be the voice of God, speaking through the divine affections which He has implanted in humanity, will be a true guide and a true revelation upon this great subject. These are our intimate convictions ; this is the ground which we take." Now it is clear from this formal statement, 1. T h a t the Associationists contemplate some future change of the Marriage relation, although for the present they leave it untouched; and that they do not, therefore, consider it as a permanent institution, divine in its sanctions, and of abiding obligation. 2. T h a t the character of this future change of the Marriage relation is to be determined by the " decrees of the heart" of woman, in a true social state—that is, in one adapted to the development and dominion of these d e c r e e s ; in other words, that it is to be shaped and governed by the Law of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 3. T h a t certain reforms are needed as preliminaiy to this c h a n g e ; that Labor must be organized ; that woman must enjoy her perfect right of property, and thus become independent of man ; that society must make provision for " The Sylvanians reject NOTHING of Fourier's all children; and that woman must be in a teachings;" but that, after organizing labor, and condition of perfect independence in regard to carrying into effect other preliminary reforms, they property, person, and affection. intend to "proceed to the study of the more meta4. W h e n t h e s e . " preliminary reforms" shall physical and speculative parts of Fourier's doctrine, and have been effected, then the Marriage relation to the application of these to their own upbuilding in the will be brought into perfect accordance with ways of Truth, Wisdom, and Love." the " decrees of the h e a r t . " W e find here no rejection of any part of Now it should be noted that the Tribune, Fourier's doctrines, but a distinctive statement I although it disavows the intention of such a that, at the proper time, they would be applied change, zealously advocates the reforms here set to daily life; and this prospectus bears the j forth as PRELIMINARY to the subversion of the name of H. Greeley, as the T r e a s u r e r of the Maniage relation, and the substitution for it of Association. T h e views and purposes of the i the groups and series dictated by the Law of Pas** American Associationists," in regard to this j sional Attraction. It constantly urges upon the matter, are set forth, in an article written by public, and upon the legislature, the enactment Mr. Brisbane for the Democratic Review (Feb., of laws giving to woman the entire control of 1846), expressly to correct alledged misappre- her property, and making her, in all that rehensions upon the subject, and from which we lates to her support, perfectly independent of m a k e the following e x t r a c t : — I her husband. It boasts of the progress its " L e t me explain briefly the views which the sentiments, on this subject, have already made Associationists hold on the subject of Marriage, and upon the public mind, and of the steps already a few other leading points. taken to give them legal and permanent force. " A s regards Marriage the Associationists have It is thus zealously striving to bring about prenot treated it, scarcely even adverted to it. They cisely that state of things which is preliminary leave marriage as it is, and maintain it in its present condition, for they are fully convinced that it is to a reform of the Marriage relation, in which not a question for the present age. * * * * We do [ the impulses of woman, freed from all depend- 80 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. ence, and from all anxiety, released from all constraint, with all her'passions fully and " integrally" developed, acting solely from the promptings of her nature, shall control the relations between the sexes ; and in which nothing—no influence of any kind or from any quarter, no dread of public censure, no regard for divine sanctions, no fear of evil results, nothing that now operates as a constraint and check upon unbridled impulse—will prevent the intercourse of the sexes from being just as free as the women of an Association, thus educated, and thus surrounded, can be induced to permit! The Tribune may not consciously aim at this result, but it is paving the way for those who are aiming at it; it is clearing the path for its attainment; it is urging the precise steps preliminary to this result; it is gradually and adroitly preparing the public mind for this consummation. It is silently destroying the conviction, at the heart of society, that MARRIAGE is a sacred institution, ordained by God, and intended to be fixed and permanent. It is creating the sentiment that the institution of Marriage imposes unjust restraints on human nature, and that it must, therefore, be modified. It is thus doing the work, and advancing the dominion, of that Law of PASSIONAL ATTRACTION which lies at the basis of the entire system of Association. It may disclaim this law in terms ; it may even be unconscious of its influence; but in all its teachings, in politics, and in morals, it manifests its spirit and assumes its truth. bers from sharing this God-given element, and from working upon it, and enjoying the fruits of their labor. Association proposes, therefore, to abolish private property in land ; to make the soil the joint property of masses of men, all of whom can work upon it and share its fruits, but none of whom can have in it any private and exclusive ownership; and by this means to increase and render fixed the reward of mere labor, without making it, in any degree, dependent upon capital.—We have proved (1.) that Capitalists never can be induced to enter into this arrangement: (2.) that the denial of the right of private property in land involves the denial of the right to own any thing: (3 ) that the very root and foundation of all civilization and progress are thus destroyed : (4.) that such a community of property and labor, if it were feasible, would beget discontent and strife, and so involve the elements of its own destruction: (5.) that the reward of labor can not be made fixed, because it must always, ex necessitate rei, depend upon the fluctuating ratio of the supply to the demand ; and (6.) that the effect of this system of owrning the soil, if carried out, would render Capitalists the sole owners of all the land, and laborers everywhere their tenants £«d serfs. Its only effect would be, therefore, vastly to increase the evils which it seeks to remedy. IV. The ISOLATED HOUSEHOLD is the next false institution of the present Society, to be reformed. As a general thing, each family now inhabits a separate house. Association proposes that this shall be abandoned, as expensive, selfish, and inconvenient; and that all shall live in one common house, having their cooking, washing, and all other domestic service performed in common ; eating, as a general rule, at a common table, and leading in all essential respects a common life. Such an arrangement, we have contended—(1 ) Would destroy that most potent spur to human effort, the desire of creating and enjoying an independent and separate home; (2 ) That it would bring together persons of habits, tastes, convictions, prejudices, motives, and general characters utterly incompatible with each other; (3.) That it would fail to bring such discordant materials into the harmony of feeling, faith, and conduct essential to success : and (4.) that it would, so far as it should prove successful, destroy all individuality of character, and bring all men to a dead level of uniformity. It would be, therefore, in the fij-st place, impossible; and, if not so, injurious to the best interests of all concerned. Here we close the discussion of Association, to which we were challenged by the Tribune. We have not given the system that methodical and complete examination which can alone do justice to its principles and pretensions. Our remarks have been desultory and discursive, because the form of controversy compelled us to follow in the path which our opponent chose to take. Very many points of more or less interest, we are thus enforced to leave untouched. The provisions of the system for civil government; its " sacred legion" for the performance of the " filthy functions" of society ; its asserted power to reclaim deserts, to redeem alike the torrid and the frigid zones from their excessive heat and cold; these claims, like many others which the system presents, must remain unnoticed. Its practical aspects and essential principles have formed the only topic of this discussion; and with regard to them, we think the following leading positions have been established by evidence V. The EDUCATION OP CHILDREN is the next and argument which the Tribune has failed to thing to be reformed. Now, infants are taken shake :— care of by their parents, or by hired nurses :— I. 'Association ascribes all existing evil to they are subjected to their absolute control; what it terms the "FALSE ORGANIZATION of so- they inherit their tastes and dispositions ; there ciety" and it seeks to cure it, therefore, by is no uniformity in their Education, and theregiving to society a new and widely different fore none in their belief or characters—and thus are perpetuated, from one generation to anothorganization from that which now prevails. '•' II. This reorganization of society is to be er, all the evils of the existing social state. Asuniversal, and embrace all departments of so- sociation proposes to commit all the infants to cial life. All social forms and institutions, it is common nurses; to educate young children alledged, are radically wrong; all, therefore, upon a common plan, and under the direction of an Elective Council; to release them from must be radically and completely changed. III. LABOR is the first thing to be reformed. all constraint, leaving them to obey none but Existing society authorizes the " monopoly of " superiors of their own choice;" relieving the land," and thus excludes a part of its mem- parents from all care of them, and the children ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. from all obligation to obey their parents ; and so forming their characters, and guiding their conduct in a way precisely opposite to that which now prevails. This System, we have shown—(1,) neglects entirely to take into account the strong instincts of parental and filial affection; (2,) that it, therefore, would prove impracticable ; (3,) that it aims, avowedly, to annul the DUTY of Filial Obedience ; (4,) that it denies explicitly the RIGHT of Parental Authority; and (5,) that it thus strikes a deadly blow at the very heart of the PARENTAL RELATION, as its nature is set forth and its duties defined in the Word of God. VI. The Relation of HUSBAND and W I F E is now a fixed and permanent one :—yet it often unites parties who have for each other no mutual love, and keeps asunder those whom mutual passion impels to union. Public sentiment, legal enactments, the pecuniary dependence of woman, the embarrassing care of children, and all existing social usages combine to perpetuate and enforce this unnatural and unjust constraint. Association proposes to reorganize the Marriage relation ; to remove all the obstacles to the free sway of natural impulse ; and to commit the intercourse of the sexes to the laws of human nature and individual passion, freed from all the restraints and checks they now encounter. In order to effect this, it imposes on Society the care of the children; repeals all legal disabilities; confers upon women perfect liberty in person, property, and affection ; enlightens public sentiment; and so rendeis easy and unobstructed the full and free gratification of inconstant, as well as of constant, passions. We have demonstrated—(1,) that this is the aim and final purpose of this system of Social Reform; (2,) that, in not regarding Marriage as a permanent institution of divine origin and sanctions, it rejects the teachings of Christ; and (3,) that its result would be the complete destruction of the MARRIAGE RELA- TION, and the substitution for it of a systematized Polygamy, less regulated, less restrained, and therefore far worse than has ever been witnessed in any nation or in any age of the world. VII. The FAMILY, under the present Social system, is an institution narrow in its scope, selfish in its spirit, and injurious to social and human progress. It rests upon, and is sustained by, the Isolated Household, the Parental Relation, and the Relation of Husband and Wife. So long as these exist, it will exist also. But Association proposes, as we have already seen, to reorganize, and in effect, destroy all these relations. When that has been accomplished the 81 of the strongest barriers ever erected against the destructive torrent of vice and misery. VIII. Under the existing System, the R E STRAINT OF HUMAN PASSIONS is made the great end of all Social Institutions. Education, Law, the Church, the Family, all formal provisions for the public good, enforce the duty and necessity of repressing the passions and impulses of human nature. Association denounces this as a false and fruitless method. The natural impulses of man, it asserts, are good: evil results only from their repression. A true Society, therefore, should provide for their perfect and complete development. This is accordingly proposed as the great and controlling object of the new Society which the System seeks to introduce. The impulses of every human being, in the language of Association, point out exactly his real functions and his true position in Society. This law, therefore, is to CONTROL, in every respect, the proposed i eorganization of all Social Forms. Labor, Education, the Family, all modes of Life and of Work, are to be brought under its complete command. (1.) In Labor, men are to work, not under the guidance of necessity, but according to their likings ;—not separately, as their personal interests may dictate, but in groups and series, according to the Law of Passional Attraction. (2.) In Education, children are to learn, not what they are directed, but what they like ;—they are to obey, not their parents, but only " superiors of their own choice ;" and in all things, their path is to be indicated, not by the judgment of older and wiser persons, but by their own " passional attractions." (3 ) In the Conjugal Relation, according to this fundamental law, those persons are to be united whose impulses prompt a union;—if those impulses are constant, the union may be constant also ;—if they die, the union may be dissolved;—if they change to other objects, they may still be gratified ;—and all the obstacles which public sentiment, the care of children, and the fear of consequences now oppose to such an arrangement will be removed; and, in the language of Fourier himself, the author of the System,— " A wife may have at the same time a husband of whom she may have two children :—2. A genitor of whom she has but one child: 3. A favorite, who has lived with her and pieserved the title; and further, simple possessors who are nothing befoie the law. This gradation of the title, establishes a great courteousness and great fidelity to the engagement. Men do the same to their divers wives. This method prevents completely the hypocrisy of which marriage is the souice. Misses would by no means be degraded for having had " gallants," because they had FAMILY RELATION must, of course, fall to the waited before they took them to the age of eighteen. ground, and the Family spirit will be absorbed They would be manied without scruple. * * Our by the spirit of the Association. In all this we ideas of the honor and virtue of women are but prejudices have insisted—(1,) that the System seeks the which vary with our legislation." * destruction of an institution of divine origin— one that lies at the basis of all human improvement, that nourishes and develops all the best affections and sympathies of the human heart, and that does more for the preservation of order, of purity, and of civilization than all human institutions put together; (2,) that its purposes are therefore hostile to the well-being of society; and (3,) that, if carried out, they ^"nild sweep away the best and surest safe~f the public good, and break down one F * It has been repeatedly asserted by some of the advocates of Association, that in after life FOURIER changed his views upon this subject, and disclaimed the opinions set forth in this extract, the authenticity of which is conceded., They were challenged to produce any evidence of this assertion. The only paragraph which has ever been cited in its support, is the following—which we give at length, in order to preclude any eharge of partial or unfair dealing:— " In 1807, my progress in the theory of Harmony, extended only to the relations of material love, which being the easiest to calculate, became naturally the object of the first studies. 82 ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. (4) All the forms, and all the relations of Ihas ever seen. A universal Deluge would not Society, are to be adapted to the wants of hu- more thoroughly change the face of the Earth,, man nature;—to be shaped in exact accord- than would this Social revolution change the ance with the requirements of the law of Pas- face of Human Society. Law, Labor, Educasional Attraction ; so that, instead of RESTRAINT, tion, Social forms, Religion, Domestic life, the complete SATISFACTION of all the passions, every thing in the world as it now exists, the shall be the controlling object of all Social best institutions as well as the worst, would be forms.—It has been our aim, in this discussion, swept into a common vortex, and all Society to prove that these results are actually involved would be thrown back into a worse than primein the principles, and contemplated in the prac- val chaos. Churches, Courts of Law, Halls tice of the SYSTEM. It has not been necessary of Legislation, the Homes of Men, all private to do more than this ; as the Tribune has not rights, and all the forms of Social life, would be seen fit to follow the inquiry into this branch banished from the Earth, and the whole work of the subject. of Social Creation must be performed anew. IX. In all its principles and all its arrange- So momentous a change as this the world has ments, the SYSTEM of Association recognizes no never seen,—one so radical, so sweeping in its higher rule of human conduct, no other stand- nature, so overwhelming in its results. And ard of right and wrong, than that of the LAWS the principles which, if fully carried out, would OF HUMAN NATURE. These laws, in its whole involve these tremendous consequences, when reorganization of Society, are final and imper- partially carried out, produce, of course, correative. In this respect, we contend, it is essen- I sponding injury. They are subtle, plausible, and tially and at bottom, a system of INFIDELITY, to many minds attractive ; and, in our judgment, inasmuch as it discards the vital and absolute by adroitly and zealously pressingthem upon pubdistinction between Right and Wrong;—recog- j lie favor, the Tribune is weakening the foundanizes no such thing as Conscience;—involves j tions and pillars of the Social fabric; is silently a denial of God as a moral being—the governor j poisoning the public mind w.ith false notions of of the universe ;—and is directly hostile, in its natural rights and of personal obligation ; and essence, to the most vital doctrines of the is sowing broadcast the seeds of discontent and hate, of which future generations will reap the Christian Faith. That this is the true outline and character of fruits, if not in the bloody field of carnage and the SYSTEM OF ASSOCIATION, first promulgated terror, in the anarchy and social disorder which by Fourier, and now urged upon the adoption are equally fatal to all human advancement and of the American people by the Tribune, we all Social good. Throughout this discussion the Tribune has claim to have proved in the foregoing articles of this discussion. We do not assert, nor do charged us with being hostile to all Reform, we believe, that the editor of the Tribune aims and especially to every attempt to meliorate at these results. On the contrary, if he believ- the hard lot of the degraded poor. The charge ed that they were involved in the System, we is as unfounded as it is ungenerous. We have no doubt he would promptly discard it. But labor willingly and zealously, as our columns in our judgment, they flow necessarily from the will testify, within our sphere, in aid of every fundamental principle of the System ; and every thing which seems to us TRUE REFORM,— step taken toward its supremacy, is a step to- founded upon just principles, seeking worthy ward their establishment. The Tribune, wheth- ends by worthy means, and promising actual er consciously or not, advocates THE SYSTEM in and good results. We regard it as our duty to which they are involved; and it is justly, there- do all in our power to henefit our fellow-men : fore, held responsible for its principles and their —but we are not of those who " feel personinevitable results. The System of Association, ally responsible for the turning of the Earth if fully carried out, would effect the most com- upon its axis," nor do we deem it our special plete overthrow of existing institutions the world " mission" to reorganize Society. We believe much good may be done by improving the circumstances which surround the vicious and " I t was only in 1817 that I discovered the theory of the wretched:—but the essential evil lies beSpiritual Love, in its simpler and higher degrees. " N o one ought to be astonished, if in a statemenl hind that, and must be reached by other written only eight years after the first discovery, I con- means. We should not differ from the Tribune sidered Love only in its material lelations, the theory of as to the Christian duty of the rich toward the which was still exceedingly incomplete. " A new Science can attain its free development only poor:—but we can not denounce them as the by degrees, and for a long time is subjected to the influence tyrants and robbers of those who have been of the tendencies prevailing around it. Situated as I was in the midst of civilizers, who are all sensualists, or nearly less industrious and less fortunate. We would so, it was almost inevitable that in my first studies of gladly see Society free from suffering, and all Love, as it will exist in the combined oider, I should stop its members virtuous and happy:—but we beat the material part of the subject which alone opens a lieve Social Equality to be as undesirable, as it vast field for scientific calculations. Afterwards, I came to the spiritual part of the theory, which is much more is impossible,—holding, rather, with Plato and difficult to unfold, I could not carry on both these branches Aristotle, that a true Society requires a union together, and was obliged in 1807 to treat the relations of of unequal interests, mutually sustaining and Material Love into the system of which I had at that time aiding each other, and not an aggregation of an insight." It will be seen here, that FOURIER instead of disclaiming identical elements, which could give nothing his former views and asserting that he h a d changed them, like coherence or strength to the fabric. We simply lemarks that his scheme was then "incomplete" believe in human improvement, but not in a and explicitly declares that in 1807 he had " an insight" into the scientific principles of the " System of Material Progress which will have nothing fixed, which Love." Nor have the American Associations ever repu- consists in leaving behind it every thing like diated, so far as w e are aware, or disavowed these opinions. established principles, and which measures its So far as they go, they are held to be just: the only com- ' 1 plaint is that of FOURIER, that the system is incomplete.". rate, by the extent of its departure from a* *• ASSOCIATION DISCUSSED. 83 pillars which wisdom and experience have i might charm wild beasts from their nature, erected. We can not regard with favor any and convert even the furies of the infernal principle or any scheme, no matter how plaus- world into angels and ministers of grace. The ible its pretensions, which involves the de- walls of Thebes may have risen to the sound struction of the FAMILY RELATION, or subjects of Amphion's harp; but he himself was a son the MARRIAGE union to the caprice of indi- of the Highest, and received his lyre and acvidual passion:—for not only the dictates of quired his skill in such creative melody, from wisdom and experience, but the explicit in- the direct teachings of its Sovereign God. So, junctions of God himself, are thus rejected and in these latter days, must the principles of all disavowed. We would not venture upon the true REFORM come down from Heaven. We tremendous experiment of taking off from have no faith in any System that does not aim human passions all the restraints which So- at the extirpation of MORAL EVIL from the heart ciety, Law, and Religion have hitherto imposed, of Man: or that sets aside, in this endeavor, however plausible the plea that the Law of tlje teachings of Revelation; the Eternal prinPassional Attraction will again bring them into ciples of spiritual truth therein proclaimed; more complete harmony, and with " pacific and the method of redemption therein set forth. an & constructive" power, build up, as by en- The CHRISTIAN RELIGION, in its spiritual, lifechantment, a new and more perfect Social giving, heart-redeeming principles is the only form. As soon would we unchain and turn power that can reform Society : and it can aciooee upon unprotected women and children a complish this work only by first reforming the inthousand untamed tigers, or lead mankind, in dividuals of whom Society is composed. Withsearch of its lost paradise, into the very heart out GOD, and the plan of redemption which he of hell,—in the hope that some Orphean lute I has revealed, the World is also without HOPE. T H E END,