History of American Socialisms Part 43

"BRETHREN:

"Your prompt and earnest co-operation is requested in fulfilling the design of a society organized May 27, 1846, at Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, by a general convention of the friends of a.s.sociation. This design may be learned from the following extracts from its const.i.tution:

"'I. The name of this society shall be the American Union of a.s.sociationists.

"'II. Its purpose shall be the establishment of an order of society based on a system of joint-stock property; co-operative labor; a.s.sociation of families; equitable distribution of profits; mutual guarantees; honors according to usefulness; integral education; unity of interests: which system we believe to be in accord with the laws of divine providence and the destiny of man.

"'III. Its method of operation shall be the appointment of agents, the sending out of lecturers, the issuing of publications, and the formation of a series of affiliated societies which shall be auxiliary to the parent society; in holding meetings, collecting funds, and in every way diffusing the principles of a.s.sociation: and preparing for their practical application, etc.'

"We have a solemn and glorious work before us: 1, To indoctrinate the whole people of the United States with the principles of a.s.sociative unity; 2, To prepare for the time when the nation, like one man, shall re-organize its townships upon the basis of perfect justice.

"A n.o.bler opportunity was certainly never opened to men, than that which here and now welcomes a.s.sociationists. To us has been given the very word which this people needs as a guide in its onward destiny. This is a Christian Nation; and a.s.sociation shows how human societies may be so organized in devout obedience to the will of G.o.d, as to become true brotherhoods, where the command of universal love may be fulfilled indeed.

Thus it meets the present wants of Christians; who, sick of sectarian feuds and theological controversies, shocked at the inconsistencies which disgrace the religious world, at the selfishness, ostentation, and caste which pervade even our worshiping a.s.semblies, at the indifference of man to the claims of his fellow-man throughout our communities in country and city, at the tolerance of monstrous inhumanities by professed ministers and disciples of him whose life was love, are longing for churches which may be really houses of G.o.d, glorified with an indwelling spirit of holiness, and filled to overflowing with heavenly charity.

"Brethren! Can men engaged in so holy and humane a cause as this, which fulfills the good and destroys the evil in existing society throughout our age and nation, which teaches unlimited trust in Divine love, and commands perfect obedience to the laws of Divine order among all people, which heralds the near advent of the reign of heaven on earth--be timid, indifferent, sluggish? Abiding shame will rest upon us, if we put not forth our highest energies in fulfillment of the present command of Providence. Let us be up and doing with all our might.

"The measures which you are now requested at once and energetically to carry out, are the three following: 1, Organize affiliated societies to act in concert with the American Union of a.s.sociationists; 2, Circulate the _Harbinger_ and other papers devoted to a.s.sociation; 3, Collect funds for the purpose of defraying the expenses of lectures and tracts. It is proposed in the autumn and winter to send out lecturers, in bands and singly, as widely as possible.

"Our white flag is given to the breeze. Our threefold motto,

"Unity of man with man in true society,

"Unity of man with G.o.d in true religion,

"Unity of man with nature in creative art and industry,

"Is blazoned on its folds. Let hearts, strong in the might of faith and hope and charity, rally to bear it on in triumph. We are sure to conquer. G.o.d will work with us; humanity will welcome our word of glad tidings. The future is ours. On! in the name of the Lord.

WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING, "_Cor. Sec. of the Am. Un. of a.s.sociationists._

"_Brook Farm, June 6, 1846._"

In connection with this appeal, an editorial announced

_The Mission of Charles A. Dana._

"The operations of the 'American Union,' will be commenced without delay. Mr. Dana will shortly make a tour through the State of New York as its agent. He will lecture in the princ.i.p.al towns, and take every means to diffuse a knowledge of the principles of a.s.sociation. Our friends are requested to use their best exertions to prepare for his labors, and give efficiency to them."

A meeting of the American Union of a.s.sociationists is reported in the _Harbinger_ of June 27, at which all the speakers except Mr. Brisbane, were Brook Farmers. The session continued two days, and William H.

Channing made the closing and electric speeches for both days. The editor says:

"Mr. Channing closed the first day in a speech of the loftiest and purest eloquence, in which he declared the great problem and movement of this day to be that of realizing a unitary church; showed how utterly unchristian is every thing now calling itself a church, and how impossible the solution of this problem, so long as industry tends only to isolate those who would be Christians, and to make them selfish; and ended with announcing the life-long pledge into which the believers in a.s.sociative unity in this country have entered, that they will not rest nor turn back until the mind of this whole nation is made to see and own the truth which there is in their doctrines. The effect upon all present was electric, and the resolution to adjourn to the next evening, was a resolution to commence then in earnest a great work."

After mentioning many good things said and done on the second day, the editor says:

"It was understood that the whole would be brought to a head and the main and practical business of the meeting set forth by Mr.

Channing. His appeal, alike to friends and to opposers of the cause, will dwell like a remembered inspiration in all our minds. It spoke directly to the deepest religious sentiment in every one, and awakened in each a consciousness of a new energy.

All the poetic wealth and imagery of the speaker's mind seemed melted over into the speech, as if he would pour out all his life to carry conviction into the hearts of others. He seemed an ill.u.s.tration of a splendid figure which he used, to show the present crisis in this cause. 'It was,' said he, 'n.o.bly, powerfully begun in this country; but, there has been a pause in our movement. When Benvenuto Cellini was casting his great statue, wearied and exhausted he fell asleep. He was roused by the cries of the workmen; Master, come quick, the fires have gone down, and the metal has caked in the running! He hesitated not a moment, but rushed into the palace, seized all the gold and silver vessels, money, ornaments, which he could find, and poured them into the furnace; and whatever he could lay hands on that was combustible, he took to renew the fire. We must begin anew, said he. And the flames roared, and the metal began to run, and the Jupiter came out in complete majesty. Just so our greater work has caked in the running. We have been luke-warm; we have slept. But shall not we throw in all our gold and silver, and throw in ourselves too, since our work is to produce not a mere statue, but a harmonious life of man made perfect in the image of G.o.d? Who ever had such motive for action? The Crusaders, on their knees and upon the hilts of their swords, which formed a cross, daily dedicated their lives and their all to the pious resolution of re-conquering the sepulcher in which the dead Lord was laid. But ours is the calling, not to conquer the sepulcher of the dead Lord, but to conquer the world, and bring it in subjection to truth, love and beauty, that the living Christ may at length return and enter upon his Kingdom of Heaven on the earth.'

"We by no means intend this as a report of Mr. Channing's speech. To reproduce it at all would be impossible. We only tell such few things as we easily remember. He closed with requesting all who had signed the const.i.tution, or who were ready to co-operate with the American Union, to remain at a business meeting.

"The hour was late and the business was made short. The plans of the executive committee were stated and approved. These were, 1, to send out lecturers; a beginning having been already made in the appointment of Mr. Charles A. Dana as an agent of the society, to proceed this summer upon a lecturing tour through New York, Western Pennsylvania and Ohio; 2, to support the _Harbinger_; and 3, to publish tracts."

This report is followed by another stirring appeal from the Secretary, of which the following is the substance:

"ACTION!--Fellow a.s.sociationists, Brethren, Sisters, each and all! You are hereby once again earnestly entreated, in the name of our cause of universal unity, at once to co-operate energetically in carrying out the proposed plans of the American Union:

"1. Form societies. 2. Circulate the _Harbinger_. 3. Raise funds. We wish to find one hundred persons in the United States, who will subscribe $100 a year for three years, in permanently establishing the work of propagation; or two hundred persons who will subscribe $50. Do you know any persons in your neighborhood who will for one year, three years, five years, contribute for this end? Be instant, friends, in season and out of season, in raising a permanent fund, and an immediate fund. This whole nation must hear our gospel of glad tidings. Will you not aid?

"WILLIAM H. CHANNING.

"_Cor. Sec. of the Am. Un. of a.s.sociationists._"

How far Mr. Dana fulfilled the missionary programme a.s.signed to him, we have not been able to discover. But we find that the two most conspicuous lecturers sent abroad by the American Union were Messrs John Allen and John Orvis. These gentlemen made two or three tours through the northern part of New England; and in the fall of 1847 they were lecturing or trying to lecture in Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and other parts of the state of New York, as we mentioned in our account of the Skaneateles and Sodus Bay a.s.sociations. But the harvest of Fourierism was past, and they complained sorely of the neglect they met with, in consequence of the bad odor of the defunct a.s.sociations.

This is the last we hear of them. The American Union continued to advertise itself in the _Harbinger_ till that paper disappeared in February 1849; but its doings after 1846 seem to have been limited to anniversary meetings.

CHAPTER XLI.

BROOK FARM PROPAGATING SWEDENBORGIANISM.

Our history of the career of Brook Farm in its final function of public teacher and propagandist, would not be complete without some account of its agency in the great Swedenborgian revival of modern times.

In a series of articles published in the Oneida _Circular_ a year or two ago, under the t.i.tle of _Swedenborgiana_, the author of this history said:

"The foremost and brightest of the a.s.sociations that rose in the Fourier excitement, was that at Brook Farm. The leaders were men whose names are now high in literature and politics. Ripley, Dana, Channing, Dwight and Hawthorne, are specimens of the list.

Most of them were from the Unitarian school, whose head-quarters are at Boston and Cambridge. The movement really issued as much from transcendental Unitarianism as from Fourierism. It was religious, literary and artistic, as well as social. It had a press, and at one time undertook propagandism by missionaries and lectures. Its periodical, the _Harbinger_, was ably conducted, and very charming to all enthusiasts of progress. Our Putney school, which had not then reached Communism, was among the admirers of this periodical, and undoubtedly took an impulse from its teachings. The Brook Farm a.s.sociation, as the leader and speaker of the hundred others that rose with it, certainly contributed most largely to the effect of the general movement begun by Brisbane and Greeley. But the remarkable fact, for the sake of which I am calling special attention to it, is, that in its didactic function, it brought upon the public mind, not only a new socialism but a new religion, and that religion was _Swedenborgianism_.

"The proof of this can be found by any one who has access to the files of the _Harbinger_. I could give many pages of extracts in point. The simple truth is that Brook Farm and the _Harbinger_ meant to propagate Fourierism, but succeeded only in propagating Swedenborgianism. The a.s.sociations that arose with them and under their influence, pa.s.sed away within a few years, without exception; but the surge of Swedenborgianism which they started, swept on among their const.i.tuents, and, under the form of Spiritualism, is sweeping on to this day.

"Swedenborgianism went deeper into the hearts of the people than the Socialism that introduced it, because it was a _religion_.

The Bible and revivals had made men hungry for something more than social reconstruction. Swedenborg's offer of a new heaven as well as a new earth, met the demand magnificently. He suited all sorts. The scientific were charmed, because he was primarily a son of science, and seemed to reduce the universe to scientific order. The mystics were charmed, because he led them boldly into all the mysteries of intuition and invisible worlds.

The Unitarians liked him, because, while he declared Christ to be Jehovah himself, he displaced the orthodox ideas of Sonship and tri-personality, and evidently meant only that Christ was an illusive representation of the Father. Even the infidels liked him, because he discarded about half the Bible, including all Paul's writings, as 'not belonging to the Word,' and made the rest a mere 'nose of wax' by means of his doctrine of the 'internal sense.' His vast imaginations and magnificent promises chimed in exactly with the spirit of the accompanying Socialisms. Fourierism was too bald a materialism to suit the higher cla.s.ses of its disciples, without a religion corresponding. Swedenborgianism was a G.o.dsend to the enthusiasts of Brook Farm; and they made it the complement of Fourierism.

"Swedenborg's writings had long been circulating feebly in this country, and he had sporadic disciples and even churches in our cities, before the new era of Socialism. But any thing like a general interest in his writings had never been known, till about the period when Brook Farm and the _Harbinger_ were in the ascendant. Here began a movement of the public mind toward Swedenborg, as palpable and portentous as that of Millerism or the old revivals.

"But Young America could not receive an old and foreign philosophy like Swedenborg's, without reacting upon it and adapting it to its new surroundings. The old afflatus must have a new medium. In 1845 the movement which commenced at Brook Farm was in full tide. In 1847 the great American Swedenborg, Andrew Jackson Davis, appeared, and Professor Bush gave him the right hand of fellowship, and introduced him into office as the medium and representative of the 'ill.u.s.trious Swede,' while the _Harbinger_ rejoiced over them both.

"Here I might show by chapter and verse from Davis's and Bush's writings, exactly how the conjunction between them took place; how Davis met Swedenborg's ghost in a graveyard near Poughkeepsie in 1844, and from him received a commission to help the 'inefficient' efforts of Christ to regulate mankind; how he had another interview with the same ghost in 1846, and was directed by him to open correspondence with Bush; how Bush took him under his patronage, watched and studied him for months, and finally published his conclusion that Davis was a true medium of Swedenborg, providentially raised up to confirm his divine mission and teachings; and finally, how Bush and Davis quarreled within a year, and mutually repudiated each other's doctrines; but I must leave details and hurry on to the end.

"After 1847 Swedenborgianism proper subsided, and 'Modern Spiritualism' took its place. But the character of the two systems, as well as the history of their relations to each other, proves them to be identical in essence. Spiritualism is Swedenborgianism Americanized. Andrew Jackson Davis began as a medium of Swedenborg, receiving from him his commission and inspiration, and became an independent seer and revelator, only because, as a son, he outgrew his father. The omniscient philosophies which the two have issued are identical in their main ideas about intuition, love and wisdom, familiarity of the living with the dead, cla.s.sification of ghostly spheres, astronomical theology, etc. Andrew Jackson Davis is more flippant and superficial than Swedenborg, and less respectful toward the Bible and the past, and in these respects he suits his customers."

We understand that some of the Brook Farmers think this view of the Swedenborgian influence of Brook Farm and the _Harbinger_ is exaggerated. It will be appropriate therefore now to set forth some of the facts and teachings which led to this view.

The first notable statement of the essential dualism between Swedenborg and Fourier that we find in the writings of the Socialists, is in the last chapter of Parke G.o.dwin's "_Popular View_," published in the beginning of 1844, a standard work on Fourierism, second in time and importance only to Brisbane's "_Concise Exposition_." G.o.dwin says:

"Thus far we have given Fourier's doctrine of Universal a.n.a.logy; but it is important to observe that he was not the first man of modern times who communicated this view. Emanuel Swedenborg, between whose revelations in the sphere of spiritual knowledge, and Fourier's discoveries in the sphere of science, there has been remarked the most exact and wonderful concidence, preceded him in the annunciation of the doctrine in many of its aspects, in what is termed the doctrine of correspondence. These two great minds, the greatest beyond all comparison in our later days, were the instruments of Providence in bringing to light the mysteries of His Word and Works, as they are comprehended and followed in the higher states of existence. It is no exaggeration, we think, to say, that they are the two commissioned by the Great Leader of the Christian Israel, to spy out the promised land of peace and blessedness.