OWEN'S GENERAL CAREER.
Confining ourselves strictly to memoirs of Associations, we might
leave Owen now and go on to the experiments of the Fourier school. But
this would hardly be doing justice to the father of American
Socialisms. We have exhibited his great failure; and we must stop long
enough to acknowledge his great success, and say briefly what we think
of his whole life and influence. Indeed such a review is necessary to
a just estimate of the Owen movement in this country.
We accept what he himself said about his early achievements, that he
was under the guidance of the Spirit of God, and was carried along by
a wonderful series of special providences in his first labors for the
good of the working classes. The originality, wisdom and success of
his doings at New Lanark were manifestly supernatural. His factory
village was indeed a light to the world, that gave the nations a great
lesson in practical beneficence; and shines still amid the darkness of
money-making selfishness and industrial misery. The single fact that
he continued the wages of his operatives when the embargo stopped his
business, actually paying out $35,000 in four months, to men who had
nothing to do but to oil his machinery and keep it clean, stamps him
as a genius of an order higher than Napoleon. By this bold maneuver of
benevolence he won the confidence of his men, so that he could manage
them afterwards as he pleased; and then he went on to reform and
educate them, till they became a wonder to the world and a crown of
glory to himself. So far we have no doubt that he walked with
inspiration and special providence.
On the other hand, it is also manifest, that his inspiration and
success, so far at least as practical attempts were concerned,
deserted him afterwards, and that much of the latter part of his life
was spent in disastrous attempts to establish Communism, without the
necessary spiritual conditions. His whole career may be likened to
that of the first Napoleon, whose "star" insured victory till he
reached a certain crisis; after which he lost every battle, and sunk
into final and overwhelming defeat.
In both cases there was a turning-point which can be marked.
Napoleon's star deserted him when he put away Josephine. Owen
evidently lost his hold on practical success when he declared war
against religion. In his labors at New Lanark he was not an active
infidel. The Bible was in his schools. Religion was at least tolerated
and respected. He there married the daughter of Mr. Dale, a preacher
of the Independents, who was his best friend and counsellor through
the early years of his success. But when his work at New Lanark became
famous, and he rose to companionship with dukes and kings, he outgrew
the modesty and practical wisdom of his early life, and undertook the
task of Universal Reform. Then it was that he fell into the mistake of
confounding the principles of the Bible with the character and
pretensions of his ecclesiastical opposers, and so came into the false
position of open hostility to religion. Christ was in a similar
temptation when he found the Scribes and Pharisees arrayed against
him, with the Old Testament for their vantage ground; but he had
wisdom enough to keep his foothold on that vantage ground, and drive
them off. His programme was, "Think not that I am come to destroy the
law and the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill."
Whereas Owen, at the turning-point of his career, abandoned the Bible
with all its magazines of power to his enemies, and went off into a
hopeless warfare with Christianity and with all God's past
administrations. From that time fortune deserted him. The splendid
success of New Lanark was followed by the terrible defeat at New
Harmony. The declaration of war against all religion was between them.
Such is our interpretation of his life; and something like this must
have been his own interpretation, when he confessed in the light of
his later experience, that by overlooking spiritual conditions, he had
missed the most important of all the elements of human improvement.
And yet we must not push our parallel too far. Owen, unlike Napoleon,
never knew when he was beaten, and fought on thirty years after his
Waterloo. It would be a great mistake to imagine that the failure of
New Harmony and of the attempts that followed it, was the end of
Owen's achievements and influence, even in this country. Providence
does not so waste its preparations and inspirations. Let us see what
was left, and what Owen did, after the disasters of 1826-7.
In the first place the failure of his Community at New Harmony was not
the failure of the _village_ which he bought of the Rappites. That
was built of substantial brick and stone. The houses and a portion of
the population which he gathered there, remained and have continued to
be a flourishing and rather peculiar village till the present time.
Several Communities that came over from England in after-years made
New Harmony their rendezvous, either on their arrival or when they
broke up. So Macdonald, with the enthusiasm of a true Socialist, on
landing in this country in 1842 first sought out New Harmony. There he
found Josiah Warren, the apostle of Individualism, returned from his
wanderings and failures, to set up a "Time Store" in the old seat of
Socialism. We remember also, that Dr. J.R. Buchanan, the
anthropologist, was at New Harmony in 1842, when he astonished the
world with his novel experiments in Mesmerism, which Robert Dale Owen
reported in a famous letter to the _Evening Post_, and which gave
impetus and respectability to the beginnings of modern Spiritualism.
These facts and many others indicate that New Harmony continued to be
a center and refuge of Socialists and innovators long after the
failure of the Community. Notwithstanding the unpopularity of
Communism which Macdonald says he found there, it is probably a
semi-socialist village to this day, representing more or less the
spirit of Robert Owen.
In the next place, with all his failures, Owen was successful in
producing a fine family; and though he himself returned to England
after the disaster at New Harmony, he bequeathed all his children to
this country. Macdonald, writing in 1842, says: "Mr. Owen's family all
reside in New Harmony. There are four sons and one daughter; viz.,
William Owen, who is a merchant and bank director; Robert Dale Owen,
a lawyer and politician, who attends to the affairs of the Owen
Estate; David Dale Owen, a practical geologist; Richard Owen, a
practical farmer; and Mrs. Fauntleroy. The four brothers, with the
wives and families of three of them, live together in one large
mansion."
Mr. Owen in his published journal says that "his eldest son Robert
Dale Owen, after writing much that was excellent, was twice elected
member of Congress, and carried the bill for establishing the
Smithsonian Institute in Washington; that his second son, David Dale
Owen, was professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology, and had been
employed by successive American governments as their accredited
geologist; that his third son, Major Richard Owen, was a professor in
a Kentucky Military College; and that his only daughter living in
1851, was the widow of a distinguished American officer."
Robert Dale Owen undoubtedly has been and is, the spiritual as well as
natural successor of Robert Owen. Wiser and more moderate than his
father, he has risen out of the wreck of New Harmony to high stations
and great influence in this country. He was originally associated with
Frances Wright in her experiment at Nashoba, her lecturing career, and
her editorial labors in New York. At that time he partook of the
anti-religious zeal of his father. Opposition to revivals was the
specialty of his paper, the _Free Enquirer_. In those days, also, he
published his "Moral Physiology," a little book teaching in plain
terms a method of controlling propagation--_not_ "Male Continence."
This bold issue, attributed by his enemies to licentious proclivities,
was really part of the socialistic movement of the time; and
indicated the drift of Owenism toward sexual freedom and the abolition
of marriage.
Robert Dale Owen originated and carried the law in Indiana giving to
married women a right to property separate from their husbands; and
the famous facilities of divorce in that State are attributed to his
influence.
He, like his father, turned toward Spiritualism, notwithstanding his
non-religious antecedents. His report of Dr. Buchanan's experiments,
and his books and magazine-articles demonstrating the reality of a
world of spirits, have been the most respectable and influential
auxiliaries to the modern system of necromancy. There is an air of
respect for religion in many of his publications, and even a happy
freedom of Bible quotation, which is not found in his father's
writings. Perhaps the variation is due to the blood of his mother, who
was the daughter of a Bible man and a preacher.
So much Mr. Owen left behind. Let us now follow him in his after
career. He bade farewell to New Harmony and returned to England in
June 1828. Acknowledging no real defeat or loss of confidence in his
principles, he went right on in the labors of his mission, as Apostle
of Communism for the world, holding himself ready for the most distant
service at a moment's warning. His policy was slightly changed,
looking more toward moving the nations, and less toward local
experiments. In April 1828, he was again in this country, settling his
affairs at New Harmony, and preaching his gospel among the people.
During this visit the challenge to debate passed between him and Rev.
Alexander Campbell, and an arrangement was made for a theological
duel. He returned to England in the summer, and in November of the
same year (1828) sailed again for America on a scheme of obtaining
from the Mexican government a vast territory in Texas on which to
develop Communism. After finishing the negotiations in Mexico (which
negotiations were never executed), he came to the United States, and
in April 1829 met Alexander Campbell at Cincinnati in a debate which
was then famous, though now forgotten. From Cincinnati he proceeded to
Washington, where he established intimate relations with Martin Van
Buren, then Secretary of State, and had an important interview with
Andrew Jackson, the President, laboring with these dignitaries on
behalf of national friendship and his new social system. In the summer
of 1829 he returned to England, and for some years after was engaged
in labors for the conversion of the English government, and in some
local attempts to establish "Equitable Commerce," "Labor Exchange" and
partial Communism, all of which failed. Here Mr. Sargant, his English
biographer, gives up the pursuit of him, and slurs over the rest of
his life as though it were passed in obscurity and dotage. Not so
Macdonald. We learn from him that after Mr. Owen had exceeded the
allotment of three-score years and ten, he twice crossed the ocean to
this country. Let us follow the faithful record of the disciple. We
condense from Macdonald:
In September 1844, Mr. Owen arrived in New York and immediately
published in the _Herald_ (Sept. 21) an address to the people of the
United States proclaiming his mission "to effect in peace the greatest
revolution ever yet made in human society." Fourierism was at that
time in the ascendant. Mr. Owen called at the office of the _Phalanx_,
the organ of Brisbane, and was received with distinction. In October
he visited his family at New Harmony. On his way he stopped at the
Ohio Phalanx. In December he went to Washington with Robert Dale Owen,
who was then member of Congress. The party in power was less friendly
than that of 1829, and refused him the use of the National Halls. He
lectured, or advertised to lecture, in Concert Hall, Pennsylvania
Avenue. "In March 1845," says Macdonald, "I had the pleasure of
hearing him lecture at the Minerva rooms in New York, after which he
lectured in Lowell and other places." In May he visited Brook Farm. In
June he published a manifesto, appointing a World's Convention, to be
held in New York in October; and soon after sailed for England.
Stopping there scarcely long enough to turn round, he was in this
country again in season to give a course of lectures preparatory to
the October Convention. After that Convention (which Macdonald
confesses was a trifling affair) he continued his labors in various
places. On the 26th of October Macdonald met him on the street in
Albany, and spent some time with him at his lodgings in much pleasant
gossip about New Lanark. In November he called at Hopedale. Adin
Ballou, in a published report of the visit, dashed off a sketch of him
and his projects, which is so good a likeness that we copy it here:
"Robert Owen is a remarkable character, in years nearly seventy-five:
in knowledge and experience super-abundant; in benevolence of heart
transcendental; in honesty without disguise; in philanthropy
unlimited; in religion a skeptic; in theology a Pantheist: in
metaphysics a necessarian circumstantialist; in morals a universal
exclusionist; in general conduct a philosophic non-resistant; in
socialism a Communist; in hope a terrestrial elysianist; in practical
business a methodist; in deportment an unequivocal gentleman.**
"Mr. Owen has vast schemes to develop, and vast hopes of speedy
success in establishing a great model of the new social state; which
will quite instantaneously, as he thinks, bring the human race into a
terrestrial Paradise. He insists on obtaining a million of dollars to
be expended in lands, buildings, machinery, conveniences and
beautifications, for his model Community; all to be finished and in
perfect order, before he introduces to their new home the
well-selected population who are to inhabit it. He flatters himself he
shall be able, by some means, to induce capitalists, or perhaps
Congress, to furnish the capital for this object. We were obliged to
shake an incredulous head and tell him frankly how groundless, in our
judgment, all such splendid anticipations must prove. He took it in
good part, and declared his confidence unshaken, and his hopes
undiscourageable by any man's unbelief."
The winter of 1845--6 Mr. Owen appears to have spent in the west,
probably at New Harmony. In June 1846, he was again in Albany, and
this time for an important purpose. The Convention appointed to frame
a new Constitution for the State of New York was then in session. He
obtained the use of the Assembly Chamber and an audience of the
delegates; and gave them two lectures on "Human Rights and Progress,"
and withal on their own duties. Macdonald was present, and speaks
enthusiastically of his energy and dignity. After reminding the
Convention of the importance of the work they were about, he went on
to say that "all religious systems, Constitutions, Governments and
Laws are and have been founded in _error_, and that error is the
false supposition that _man forms his own character_. They were about
to form another Constitution based upon that error, and ere long more
Constitutions would have to be made and altered, and so on, until the
truth that the _character of man is formed for him_ shall be
recognized, and the system of society based upon that principle become
national and universal." "After the lecture," says Macdonald, "I
lunched with Mr. Owen at the house of Mr. Ames. We had conversation on
New Harmony, London, &c. Mr. Ames having expressed a desire for a
photograph of Mr. Owen, I accompanied them to a gallery at the
Exchange where I parted with him--perhaps forever! He returned soon
after to England where he remains till the present time." [1854.]
Six times after he was fifty years old, and twice after he was
seventy, he crossed the Atlantic and back in the service of Communism!
Let us not say that all this wonderful activity was useless. Let us
not call this man a driveller and a monomaniac. Let us rather
acknowledge that he was receiving and distributing an inspiration
unknown even to himself, that had a sure aim, and that is at this
moment conquering the world. His hallucination was not in his
expectations, but in his ideas of methods and times.
Owen had not much theory. His main idea was Communism, and that he got
from the Rappites. His persistent assertion that man's character is
formed for him by his circumstances, was his nearest approach to
original doctrine; and this he virtually abandoned when he came to
appreciate spiritual conditions. The rest of his teaching is summed up
in the old injunction, "Be good," which is the burden of all
preaching.
But theory was not his function. Nor yet even practice. His business
was to seed the world, and especially this country, with an
unquenchable desire and hope for Communism; and this he did
effectually.
We call him the Father of American Socialisms, because he took
possession of this country first. Fourierism was a secondary infusion.
His English practicality was more in unison with the Yankee spirit,
than the theorizing of the French school. He himself claimed the
Fourierites as working on his job, grading the track by their half-way
schemes of joint-stock and guaranteeism for his Rational Communism.
And in this he was not far wrong. Communism or nothing, is likely to
be the final demand of the American people.
The most conspicuous trait in all Owen's labors and journeyings is his
indomitable perseverance. And this trait he transmitted to a large
breed of American Socialists. Read again the letter of John Harmon at
the close of our last chapter. He is now an old man, but his faith in
Communism remains unshaken; it is failure-proof. See how the veterans
of Haverstraw, when their Community fell in pieces, moved to
Coxsackie, and when the Coxsackie Community broke up, migrated to Ohio
and joined the Kendal Community; and perhaps when the Kendal Community
failed, they joined another, and another; and probably never gave up
the hope of a Community-home. We have met with many such
wanderers--men and women who were spoiled for the world by once
tasting or at least imagining the sweets of Communism, and would not
be turned back by any number of failures. Alcander Longley is a fine
specimen of this class. He has tried every kind of Association, from
Co-operation to Communism, including Fourierism and the nameless
combinations of Spiritualism; and is now hard at work in the farthest
corner of Missouri on his sixth experiment, as enthusiastic as ever!
J.J. Franks is a still finer specimen. He began with Owenism. When
that failed he enlisted with the Fourierites. During their campaign he
bought five-thousand acres of land in the mountains of Virginia for a
prospective Association, the Constitution of which he prepared and
printed, though the Association itself never came into being. When
Fourierism failed he devoted himself to Protective Unions. For twenty
years past he has been a faithful disciple and patron of the Oneida
Community. In such examples we trace the image and spirit of Robert
Owen.