YELLOW SPRINGS COMMUNITY.
The fame of New Harmony has of course overshadowed and obscured all
other experiments that resulted from Owen's labors in this country. It
is perhaps scarcely known at this day that a Community almost as
brilliant as Brook Farm, was started by his personal efforts at
Cincinnati, even before he commenced operations at New Harmony. The
following sketch, clipped by Macdonald from some old newspaper (the
name and date of which are missing), is not only pleasant reading, but
bears internal marks of painstaking and truthfulness. It is a model
memoir of the life and death of a non-religious Community; and would
serve for many others, by changing a few names, as ministers do when
they re-preach old funeral sermons. The moral at the close, inferring
the impracticability of Communism, may probably be accepted as sound,
if restricted to non-religious experiments. The general career of Owen
is sketched correctly and in rather a masterly manner: and the
interesting fact is brought to light, that the beginning of the Owen
movement in this country was signalized by a conjunction with
Swedenborgianism. The significance of this fact will appear more
fully, when we come to the history of the marriage between Fourierism
and Swedenborgianism, which afterwards took place at Brook Farm.
MEMOIR.
"The narrative here presented," says the unknown writer, "was prepared
at the request of a minister who had looked in vain for any account of
the Communities established by Robert Owen in this country. It is
simply what it pretends to be, reminiscences by one who, while a
youth, resided with his parents as a member of the Community at Yellow
Springs. For some years together since his manhood, he has been
associated with several of the leading men of that experiment, and has
through them been informed in relation to both its outer and _inner_
history. The article may contain some errors, as of dates and other
matters unimportant to a just view of the Community; but the social
picture will be correct. With the hope that it may convey a useful
lesson, it is submitted to the reader.
"Robert Owen, the projector of the Communities at Yellow Springs,
Ohio, and New Harmony, Indiana, was the owner of extensive
manufactories at New Lanark, Scotland. He was a man of considerable
learning, much observation, and full of the love of his fellow men;
though a disbeliever in Christianity. His skeptical views concerning
the Bible were fully announced in the celebrated debate at Cincinnati
between himself and Dr. Alexander Campbell. But whatever may have been
his faith, he proved his philanthropy by a long life of beneficent
works. At his manufactories in Scotland he established a system based
on community of labor, which was crowned with the happiest effects.
But it should be remembered that Owen himself was the owner of the
works and controlled all things by a single mind. The system,
therefore, was only a beneficent scheme of government by a
manufacturer, for the good of himself and his operatives.
"Full of zeal for the improvement of society, Owen conceived that he
had discovered the cause of most of its evils in the laws of _meum et
tuum_; and that a state of society where there is nothing _mine_ or
_thine_, would be a paradise begun. He brooded upon the idea of a
Community of property, and connected it with schemes for the
improvement of society, until he was ready to sacrifice his own
property and devote his heart and his life to his fellow men upon this
basis. Too discreet to inaugurate the new system among the poorer
classes of his own country, whom he found perverted by prejudice and
warped by the artificial forms of society there, he resolved to
proceed to the United States, and among the comparatively unperverted
people, liberal institutions and cheap lands of the West, to establish
Communities, founded upon common property, social equality, and the
equal value of every man's labor.
"About the year 1824 Owen arrived in Cincinnati. He brought with him a
history of his labors at New Lanark; with glowing and not unjust
accounts of the beneficent effects of his efforts there. He exhibited
plans for his proposed Communities here; with model farms, gardens,
vineyards, play-grounds, orchards, and all the internal and external
appliances of the social paradise. At Cincinnati he soon found many
congenial spirits, among the first of whom was Daniel Roe, minister of
the "New Jerusalem Church," a society of the followers of Swedenborg.
This society was composed of a very superior class of people. They
were intelligent, liberal, generous, cultivated men and women--many
of them wealthy and highly educated. They were apparently the best
possible material to organize and sustain a Community, such as Owen
proposed. Mr. Roe and many of his congregation became fascinated with
Owen and his Communism; and together with others in the city and
elsewhere, soon organized a Community and furnished the means for
purchasing an appropriate site for its location. In the meantime Owen
proceeded to Harmony, and, with others, purchased that place, with all
its buildings, vineyards, and lands, from Rapp, who emigrated to
Pennsylvania and established his people at Economy. It will only be
added of Owen, that after having seen the New Harmonians fairly
established, he returned to Scotland.
"After careful consultation and selection, it was decided by the
Cincinnati Community to purchase a domain at Yellow Springs, about
seventy-five miles north of the city, [now the site of Antioch
College] as the most eligible place for their purpose. It was really
one of the most delightful regions in the whole West, and well worthy
the residence of a people who had resolved to make many sacrifices for
what they honestly believed to be a great social and moral
reformation.
"The Community, as finally organized consisted of seventy-five or one
hundred families; and included professional men, teachers, merchants,
mechanics, farmers, and a few common laborers. Its economy was nearly
as follows:
"The property was held in trust forever, in behalf of the members of
the Community, by the original purchasers, and their chosen
successors, to be designated from time to time by the voice of the
Community. All additional property thereafter to be acquired, by
labor, purchase, or otherwise, was to be added to the common stock,
for the benefit of each and all. Schools were to be established, to
teach all things useful (except religion). Opinion upon all subjects
was free; and the present good of the whole Community was the standard
of morals. The Sabbath was a day of rest and recreation, to be
improved by walks, rides, plays, and pleasing exercises; and by public
lectures. Dancing was instituted as a most valuable means of physical
and social culture; and the ten-pin alley and other sources of
amusement were open to all.
"But although Christianity was wholly ignored in the system, there was
no free-loveism or other looseness of morals allowed. In short, this
Community began its career under the most favorable auspices; and if
any men and women in the world could have succeeded, these should have
done so. How they _did_ succeed, and how they did not, will now be
shown.
"For the first few weeks, all entered into the new system with a will.
Service was the order of the day. Men who seldom or never before
labored with their hands, devoted themselves to agriculture and the
mechanic arts, with a zeal which was at least commendable, though not
always according to knowledge. Ministers of the gospel guided the
plough; called the swine to their corn, instead of sinners to
repentance; and let patience have her perfect work over an unruly yoke
of oxen. Merchants exchanged the yard-stick for the rake or
pitch-fork. All appeared to labor cheerfully for the common weal.
Among the women there was even more apparent self-sacrifice. Ladies
who had seldom seen the inside of their own kitchens, went into that
of the common eating-house (formerly a hotel), and made themselves
useful among pots and kettles: and refined young ladies, who had all
their lives been waited upon, took their turns in waiting upon others
at the table. And several times a week all parties who chose mingled
in the social dance, in the great dining-hall."
But notwithstanding the apparent heartiness and cordiality of this
auspicious opening, it was in the social atmosphere of the Community
that the first cloud arose. Self-love was a spirit which would not be
exorcised. It whispered to the lowly maidens, whose former position in
society had cultivated the spirit of meekness--"You are as good as the
formerly rich and fortunate; insist upon your equality." It reminded
the favorites of former society of their lost superiority; and in
spite of all rules, tinctured their words and actions with the love of
self. Similar thoughts and feelings soon arose among the men; and
though not so soon exhibited, they were none the less deep and strong.
It is unnecessary to descend to details: suffice it to say, that at
the end of three months--_three months!_--the leading minds in the
Community were compelled to acknowledge to each other that the social
life of the Community could not be bounded by a single circle. They
therefore acquiesced, but reluctantly, in its division into many
little circles. Still they hoped and many of them no doubt believed,
that though social equality was a failure, community of property was
not. But whether the law of _mine and thine_ is natural or incidental
in human character, it soon began to develop its sway. The
industrious, the skillful and the strong, saw the products of their
labor enjoyed by the indolent, the unskilled, and the improvident; and
self-love rose against benevolence. A band of musicians insisted that
their brassy harmony was as necessary to the common happiness as
bread and meat; and declined to enter the harvest field or the
work-shop. A lecturer upon natural science insisted upon talking only,
while others worked. Mechanics, whose day's labor brought two dollars
into the common stock, insisted that they should, in justice, work
only half as long as the agriculturist, whose day's work brought but
one.
"For a while, of course, these jealousies were only felt; but they
soon began to be spoken also. It was useless to remind all parties
that the common labor of all ministered to the prosperity of the
Community. _Individual_ happiness was the law of nature, and it could
not be obliterated; and before a single year had passed, this law had
scattered the members of that society, which had come together so
earnestly and under such favorable circumstances, back into the
selfish world from which they came.
"The writer of this sketch has since heard the history of that
eventful year reviewed with honesty and earnestness by the best men
and most intelligent parties of that unfortunate social experiment.
They admitted the favorable circumstances which surrounded its
commencement; the intelligence, devotion, and earnestness which were
brought to the cause by its projectors; and its final, total failure.
And they rested ever after in the belief that man, though disposed to
philanthropy, is essentially selfish; and that a community of social
equality and common property is impossible."