THE SYLVANIA ASSOCIATION.
This was the first of the PHALANXES. The North American was the last.
These two had the distinction of metropolitan origin; both being
colonies sent forth by the socialistic schools of New York and Albany.
The North American appears to have been Mr. Brisbane's _protege_, if
he had any. Mr. Greeley seems to have attached himself to the
Sylvania. His name is on its list of officers, and he gives an account
of it in his "Recollections," as one of the two Phalanxes that issued
from New York City. In the following sketch we give the rose-color
first, and the shady side afterward. Indeed this will be our general
method of making up the memoirs of the Phalanxes.
The first number of Brisbane's paper, the _Phalanx_, (October 5, 1843)
gives the following account of the Sylvania:
"This Association has been formed by warm friends of the cause
from the cities of New York and Albany. Thomas W. Whitley is
President, and Horace Greeley, Treasurer. Operations were
commenced in May last, and have already proved incontestably the
great advantages of Association; having thus far more than
fulfilled the most sanguine hopes of success of those engaged
in the enterprise. Temporary buildings have been erected, and
the foundation laid of a large edifice; a great deal of land has
been cleared, and a saw- and grist-mill on the premises when
purchased, have been put in excellent repair; several branches
of industry, shoe-making particularly, have been established,
and the whole concern is now in full operation. Upwards of one
hundred and fifty persons, men, women and children, are on the
domain, all contented and happy, and much gratified with their
new mode of life, which is new to most of the members as a
country residence, as well as an associated household; for
nearly all the mechanics formerly resided in cities, New York
and Albany principally. In future numbers we will give more
detailed accounts of this enterprising little Association. The
following is a description of its location and soil:
"The Sylvania domain consists of 2,300 acres of arable land,
situated in the township of Lackawaxen, County of Pike, State of
Pennsylvania. It lies on the Delaware river, at the mouth of the
Lackawaxen creek, fourteen miles from Milford, about eighty-five
miles in a straight line west by north of New York City (by
stage route ninety-four, and by New York and Erie Railroad to
Middletown, one hundred and ten miles; seventy-four of which are
now traversed by railroad). The railroad will certainly be
carried to Port Jervis, on the Delaware, only fifteen miles
below the domain; certainly if the Legislature of the State will
permit. The Delaware and Hudson Canal now passes up the Delaware
directly across from the domain, affording an unbroken water
communication with New York City; and the turnpike from Milford,
Pennsylvania, to Owego, New York, bounds on the south the lands
of the Association, and crosses the Delaware by a bridge about
one mile from the dwellings. The domain may be said, not very
precisely, to be bounded by the Delaware on the north, the
Lackawaxen on the west, the Shoholy on the east, and the
turnpike on the south.
"The soil of the domain is a deep loam, well calculated for
tillage and grazing. About one hundred acres had been cleared
before the Association took possession of it; the remainder is
thinly covered with the primitive forest; the larger trees
having been cut off of a good part of it for timber. Much of it
can be cleared at a cost of six dollars per acre. Abundance of
timber remains on it for all purposes of the Association. The
land lies in gentle sloping ridges, with valleys between, and
wide, level tables at the top. The general inclination is to the
east and south. There are very few acres which can not be plowed
after clearing.
"Application for membership, to be made (by letter, post paid),
to Thomas W. Whitley, Esq., President, or to Horace Greeley,
Esq., New York."
The Executive officers issued a pamphlet soon after the commencement
of operations, from which we extract the following:
"This Association was formed early in 1843, by a few citizens of
New York, mainly mechanics, who, deeply impressed with the
present defective, vice-engendering and ruinous system of
society, with the wasteful complication of its isolated
households, its destructive competition and anarchy in industry,
its constraint of millions to idleness and consequent dependence
or famine for want of employment, and its failure to secure
education and development to the children growing up all around
and among us in ignorance and vice, were impelled to immediate
and energetic action in resistance to these manifold and mighty
evils. Having earnestly studied the system of industrial
organization and social reform propounded by Charles Fourier,
and been led to recognize in it a beneficent, expensive and
practical plan for the melioration of the condition of man and
his moral and intellectual elevation, they most heartily adopted
that system as the basis and guide of their operations. Holding
meetings from time to time, and through the press informing the
public of their enterprise and its objects, their numbers
steadily increased; their organization was perfected;
explorations with a view to the selection of a domain were
directed and made; and in the last week of April a location was
finally determined on and its purchase effected. During the
first week in May, a pioneer division of some forty persons
entered upon the possession and improvement of the land. Their
number has since been increased to nearly sixty, of whom over
forty are men, generally young or in the prime of life, and all
recognizing labor as the true and noble destiny on earth. The
Sylvania Association is the first attempt in North America to
realize in practice the vast economies, intellectual advantages
and such enjoyments resulting from Fourier's system.
"Any person may become a stockholder by subscribing for not less
than one share ($25); but the council, having as yet its
head-quarters in New York, is necessarily entrusted with power
to determine at what time and in what order subscribers and
their families can be admitted to resident membership on the
domain. Those who are judged best calculated to facilitate the
progress of the enterprise must be preferred; those with large
families unable to labor must await the construction of
buildings for their proper accommodation; while such as shall,
on critical inquiry, be found of unfit moral character or
debasing habits, can not be admitted at all. This, however, will
nowise interfere with their ownership in the domain; they will
be promptly paid the dividends on their stock, whenever
declared, the same as resident members.
"The enterprise here undertaken, however humble in its origin,
commends itself to the respect of the skeptical and the generous
cooperation of the philanthropic. Its consequences, should
success (as we can not doubt it will) crown our exertions, must
be far-reaching, beneficent, unbounded. It aims at no
aggrandizement of individuals, no upbuilding or overthrow of
sect or party, but at the founding of a new, more trustful, more
benignant relationship between capital and labor, removing
discord, jealousy and hatred, and replacing them by concord,
confidence and mutual advantage. The end aimed at is the
emancipation of the mass; of the depressed toiling millions, the
slaves of necessity and wretchedness, of hunger and constrained
idleness, of ignorance, drunkenness and vice; and their
elevation to independence, moral and intellectual development;
in short, to a true and hopeful manhood. This enterprise now
appeals to the lovers of the human race for aid; not for
praises, votes or alms, but for cooperation in rendering its
triumph signal and speedy. It asks of the opulent and the
generous, subscriptions to its stock, in order that its lands
may be promptly cleared and improved, its buildings erected,
&c.; as they must be far more slowly, if the resident members
must devote their energies at once and henceforth to the
providing, under the most unfavorable circumstances, of the
entire means of their own subsistence. Subscriptions are
solicited, at the office of the Association, 25 Pine street,
third story.
"THOS. W. WHITLEY, President; J.D. PIERSON, Vice President;
HORACE GREELEY, Treasurer; J.T.S. SMITH, Secretary."
After this discourse, the pamphlet presents a constitution, by-laws,
bill of rights, &c., which are not essentially different from scores
of joint-stock documents which we find, not only in the records of the
Fourier epoch, but scattered all along back through the times of
Owenism. The truth is, the paper constitutions of nearly all the
American experiments, show that the experimenters fell to work, only
under the _impulse_, not under the _instructions_, of the European
masters. Yankee tinkering is visible in all of them. They all are shy,
on the one hand, of Owen's flat Communism (as indeed Owen himself
was,) and on the other, of Fourier's impracticable account-keeping and
venturesome theories of "passional equilibrium." The result is, that
they are all very much alike, and may all be classed together as
attempts to solve the problem, How to construct a _home_ on the
joint-stock principle; which is much like the problem, How to eat your
cake and keep it too.
For the shady side, Macdonald gives us a Dialogue which, he says, was
written by a gentleman who was a member of the Sylvania Association
from beginning to end. It is not very artistic, but shrewd and
interesting. We print it without important alteration. The curious
reader will find entertainment in comparing its descriptions of the
Sylvania domain with those given in the official documents above. In
this case as in many others, views taken before and after trial, are
as different as summer and winter landscapes.
TALK ABOUT THE SYLVANIA ASSOCIATION.
_B._--Good morning, Mr. A. I perceive you are busy among your papers.
I hope we do not disturb you?
_A._--Not in the least, sir. I am much pleased to meet you.
_B._--I wish to introduce to you my friend Mr. C. He is anxious to
learn something concerning the experiment in which you were engaged in
Pike County, Pennsylvania, and I presumed that you would be willing to
furnish him with the desired information.
_A._--I suppose, Mr. C., like many others, you are doubtful about the
correctness of the reports you have heard concerning these
Associations.
_C._--Yes, sir: but I am endeavoring to discover the truth, and
particularly in relation to the causes which produce so many failures.
I find thus far in my investigations, that the difficulties which all
Associations have to contend with, are very similar in their
character. Pray, sir, how and where did the Sylvania Association
originate?
_A._--It originated partly in New York City and partly in Albany, in
the winter of 1842-3. We first held meetings in Albany, and agitated
the subject of Socialism till we formed an Association. Our original
object was to read and explain the doctrines of Charles Fourier, the
French Socialist; to have lectures delivered, and arouse public
attention to the consideration of those social questions which
appeared to us, in our new-born zeal, to have an important bearing
upon the present, and more especially upon the future welfare of the
human family. In this we partly succeeded, and had arrived at the
point where it appeared necessary for us to think of practically
carrying out those splendid views which we had hitherto been dreaming
and talking about. Hearing of a similar movement going on in New York
City, we communicated with them and ascertained that they thought
precisely as we did concerning immediate and practical operations.
After several communications the two bodies united, with a
determination to vent their enthusiasm upon the land. Our New York
friends appointed a committee of three persons to select a desirable
location, and report at the next meeting of the Society.
_C._--What were the qualifications of the men who were appointed to
select the location? I think this very important.
_A._--One was a landscape painter, another an industrious cooper, and
the third was a homoeopathic doctor!
_C._--And not a farmer among them! Well, this must have been a great
mistake. At what season did they go to examine the country?
_A._--I think it was in March; I am sure it was before the snow was
off the ground.
_C._--How unhappy are the working classes in having so little
patience. Every thing they attempt seems to fail because they will not
wait the right time. Had you any capitalists among you?
_A._--No; they were principally working people, brought up to a city
life.
_C._--But you encouraged capitalists to join your society?
_A._--Our constitution provided for them as well as laborers. We
wished to combine capital and labor, according to the theory laid down
by Charles Fourier.
_C._--Was his theory the society's practice?
_A._--No; there was infinite difference between his theory and our
practice. This is generally the case in such movements, and invariably
produces disappointment and unhappiness.
_C._--Does this not result from ignorance of the principles, or a want
of faith in them?
_A._--To some extent it does. If human beings were passive bodies, and
we could place them just where we pleased, we might so arrange them
that their actions would be harmonious. But they are not so. We are
active beings; and the Sylvanians were not only very active, but were
collected from a variety of situations least likely to produce
harmonious beings. If we knew mathematically the laws which regulate
the actions of human beings, it is possible we might place all men in
true relation to each other.
_C._--Working people seem to know no patience other than that of
enduring the everlasting toil to which they are brought up. But about
the committee which you say consisted of an artist, mechanic and a
doctor; what report did they make concerning the land?
_A._--They reported favorably of a section of land in Pike County,
Pennsylvania, consisting of about 2,394 acres, partly wooded with
yellow pine and small oak trees, with a soil of yellow loam without
lime. It was well watered, had an undulating surface, and was said to
be elevated fifteen hundred feet above the Hudson river. To reach it
from New York and Albany, we had to take our things first to Rondout
on the Hudson, and thence by canal to Lackawanna; then five miles up
hill on a bad stony road. [In the description on p. 234 the canal is
said to be "_directly across from the domain_."] There was plenty of
stone for building purposes lying all over the land. The soil being
covered with snow, the committee did not see it, but from the small
size of the trees, they probably judged it would be easily cleared,
which would be a great advantage to city-choppers. Nine thousand
dollars was the price demanded for this place, and the society
concluded to take it.
_C._--What improvements were upon it, and what were the conditions of
sale?
_A._--There were about thirty acres planted with rye, which grain, I
understood, had been successively planted upon it for six years
without any manure. This was taken as a proof of the strength of the
soil; but when we reaped, we were compelled to rake for ten yards on
each side of the spot where we intended to make the bundle, before we
had sufficient to tie together. There were three old houses on the
place; a good barn and cow-shed; a grist-mill without machinery, with
a good stream for water-power; an old saw-mill, with a very
indifferent water-wheel. These, together with several skeletons of
what had once been horses, constituted the stock and improvements. We
were to pay $1,000 down in cash; the owner was to put in $1,000 as
stock, and the balance was to be paid by annual instalments.
_C._--How much stock did the members take?
_A._--To state the exact amount would be somewhat difficult; for some
who subscribed liberally at first, withdrew their subscriptions, while
others increased them. On examining my papers, I reckon that in Albany
there were about $4,500 subscribed in money and useful articles for
mechanical and other purposes. In New York I should estimate that
about $6,000 were subscribed in like proportions.
_C._--When did the members proceed to the domain, and how did they
progress there?
_A._--They left New York and Albany for the domain about the beginning
of May; and I find from a table I kept of the number of persons, with
their ages, sex and occupations, that in the following August there
were on the place twenty-eight married men, twenty-seven married
women, twenty-four single young men, six single young women, and
fifty-one children; making a total of one hundred and thirty-six
individuals. These had to be closely packed in three very indifferent
two-story frame houses. The upper story of the grist-mill was devoted
to as many as could sleep there. These arrangements very soon brought
trouble. Children with every variety of temper and habits, were
brought in close contact, without any previous training to prepare
them for it. Parents, each with his or her peculiar character and mode
of educating children, long used to very different accommodations,
were brought here and literally compelled to live like a herd of
animals. Some thought their children would be taken and cared for by
the society, as its own family; while others claimed and practiced the
right to procure for their children all the little indulgences they
had been used to. Thus jealousies and ill-feelings were created, and
in place of that self-sacrifice and zealous support of the
constitution and officers, to which they were all pledged (I have no
doubt by some in ignorance), there was a total disregard of all
discipline, and a determination in each to have the biggest share of
all things going, except hard labor, which was very unpopular with a
certain class. Aside from the above, had we been carefully selected
from families in each city, and had we been found capable of giving up
our individual preferences to accomplish the glorious object we had in
view, what had we to experiment upon? In my opinion, a barren
wilderness; not giving the slightest prospect that it would ever
generously yield a return for the great sacrifices we were making upon
it. The land was cold and sterile, apparently incapable of supporting
the stunted pines which looked like a vast collection of barbers'
poles upon its surface. I will give you one or two illustrations of
the quality of the soil: We cut and cleared four and a half acres of
what we thought might be productive soil; and after having plowed and
cross-plowed it, we sowed it with buckwheat. When the crop was drawn
into the barn and threshed, it yielded eleven and a-half bushels.
Again, we toiled hard, clearing the brush and picking up the stones
from seventeen acres of new land: we plowed it three different ways,
and then sowed and harrowed it with great care. When the product was
reaped and threshed, it did not yield more than the quantity of seed
planted. Such experiences as these made me look upon the whole
operation as a suicidal affair, blasting forever the hopes and
aspirations of the few noble spirits who tried so hard to establish in
practice, the vision they had seen for years.
_C._--How long did the Association remain on the place?
_A._--About a year and a half, and then it was abandoned as rapidly as
it was settled.
_C._--They made improvements while there. What were they, and who got
them when the society left?
_A._--We cleared over one hundred acres and fenced it in; built a
large frame-house forty feet by forty, three stories high; also a
two-story carpenter's-shop, and a new wagon-house. We repaired the dam
and saw-mill, and made other improvements which I can not now
particularize. These improvements went to the original owner, who had
already received two thousand dollars on the purchase; and (as he
expressed it) he generously agreed to take the land back, with the
improvements, and release the trustees from all further obligations!
_C._--It appears to me that your society, like many others, lacked a
sufficient amount of intelligence, or they never would have sent such
a committee to select a domain; and after the domain was selected,
sent so many persons to live upon it so soon. Your means were totally
inadequate to carry out the undertaking, and you had by far too many
children upon the domain. There should have been no children sent
there, until ample means had been secured for their care and education
under the superintendence of competent persons.
_A._--It is difficult to get any but married men and women to endure
the hardships consequent on such an experiment. Single young men,
unless under some military control, have not the perseverance of
married men.
_C._--But the children! What have you to say of them?
_A._--I am not capable of debating that question just now; but I am
satisfied that a very different course from the one we tried must be
pursued. Better land and more capital must be obtained, and a greater
degree of intelligence and subordination must pervade the people,
before a Community can be successful.
Macdonald moralizes as usual on the failure. The following is the
substance of his funeral sermon:
"There were too many children on the place, their number being
fifty-one to eighty-five adults. Some persons went there very
poor, in fact without anything, and came away in a better
condition; while others took all they could with them, and came
back poor. Young men, it is stated, wasted the good things at
the commencement of the experiment; and besides victuals,
dry-goods supplied by the Association were unequally obtained.
Idle and greedy people find their way into such attempts, and
soon show forth their character by burdening others with too
much labor, and, in times of scarcity, supplying themselves with
more than their allowance of various articles, instead of taking
less.
"Where such a failure as this occurs, many persons are apt to
throw the blame upon particular individuals as well as on the
principles; but in this case, I believe, nearly all connected
with it agree that the inferior land and location was the
fundamental cause of ill success.
"It was a loss to nearly all engaged in it. Those who subscribed
and did not go, lost their shares; and those who subscribed and
did go, lost their valuable time as well as their shares. The
sufferers were in error, and were led into the experiment by
others, who were likewise in error. Working men left their
situations, some good and some bad, and, in their enthusiasm,
expected, not only to improve their own condition, but the
condition of mankind. They fought the fight and were defeated.
Some were so badly wounded that it took them many years to
recover; while others, more fortunate, speedily regained their
former positions, and now thrive well in the world again. The
capital expended on this experiment was estimated at $14,000."
The exact date at which the Sylvania dissolved is not given in
Macdonald's papers, but the _Phalanx_ of August 10, 1844, indicates in
the following paragraph, that it was dying at that time:
"We are requested to state that the Sylvania Association, having
become satisfied of its inability to contend successfully
against an ungrateful soil and ungenial climate, which
unfortunately characterize the domain on which it settled, has
determined on a dissolution. Other reasons also influence this
step, but these, and the fact that the domain is located in a
thinly inhabited region, cut off almost entirely from a market
for its surplus productions, are the prominent reasons. A
grievous mistake was made by those engaged in this enterprise,
in the selection of a domain; but as a report on the matter is
forthcoming, we shall say no more at present."
It is evident enough that this was not Fourierism. Indeed, Mr. A., the
respondent in the Dialogue, frankly admits, for himself and doubtless
for his associates, that their doings had in them no semblance of
Fourierism. But then the same may be said, without much modification,
of all the experiments of the Fourier epoch. Fourier himself would
have utterly disowned every one of them. We have seen that he
vehemently protested against an experiment in France, which had a cash
basis of one hundred thousand dollars, and the advantage of his own
possible presence and administration. Much more would he have refused
responsibility for the whole brood of unscientific and starveling
"picnics," that followed Brisbane's excitations.
Here then arises a distinction between Fourierism as a theory
propounded by Fourier, and Fourierism as a practical movement
administered in this country by Brisbane and Greeley. The constitution
of a country is one thing; the government is another. Fourier
furnished constitutional principles; Brisbane was the working
President of the administration. We must not judge Fourier's theory by
Brisbane's execution. We can not conclude or safely imagine, from the
actual events under Brisbane's administration, what would have been
the course of things, if Fourier himself had been President of the
American movement. It might have been worse; or it might have been
better. It certainly would not have been the same; for Brisbane was a
very different man from Fourier. For one thing, Fourier was
practically a cautious man; while Brisbane was a young enthusiast.
Again, Fourier was a poor man and a worker; while Brisbane was a
capitalist. Our impression also is, that Fourier was more religious
than Brisbane. From these differences we might conjecture, that
Fourier would not have succeeded so well as Brisbane did, in getting
up a vast and swift excitement; but would have conducted his
operations to a safer end. At all events, it is unfair to judge the
French theory by the American movement under Brisbane. The value of
Fourier's ideas is not determined, nor the hope of good from them
foreclosed, merely by the disasters of these local experiments.
And, to deal fairly all round, it must further be said, that it is not
right to judge Brisbane by such experiments as that of the Sylvania
Association. Let it be remembered that, with all his enthusiasm, he
gave warning from time to time in his publications of the
deficiencies and possible failures of these hybrid ventures; and was
cautious enough to keep himself and his money out of them. We have not
found his name in connection with any of the experiments, except the
North American Phalanx; and he appears never to have been a member
even of that; but only was recommended for its presidency by the
Fourier Association of New York, which was a sort of mother to it.
What then shall we say of the rank-and-file that formed themselves
into Phalanxes and marched into the wilderness to the music of
Fourierism? Multitudes of them, like the poor Sylvanians, lost their
all in the battle. To them it was no mere matter of theory or pleasant
propagandism, but a miserable "Bull Run." And surely there was a great
mistake somewhere. Who was responsible for the enormous miscalculation
of times, and forces, and capabilities of human nature, that is
manifest in the universal disaster of the experiments? Shall we clear
the generals, and leave the poor soldiers to be called volunteer
fools, without the comfort even of being in good company?
After looking the whole case over again, we propose the following
distribution of criticism:
1. Fourier, though not responsible for Brisbane's administration, was
responsible for tantalizing the world with a magnificent theory,
without providing the means of translating it into practice. Christ
and Paul did no such thing. They kept their theory in the back-ground,
and laid out their strength mainly on execution. The mistake of all
"our incomparable masters" of the French school, seems to have been in
imagining that a supreme genius is required for developing a theory,
but the experimenting and execution may be left to second-rate men.
One would think that the example of their first Napoleon might have
taught them, that the place of the supreme genius is at the head of
the army of execution and in the front of the battle with facts.
2. Brisbane, though not altogether responsible for the inadequate
attempts of the poor Sylvanians and the rest of the rabble volunteers,
must be blamed for spending all his energy in drumming and recruiting;
while, to insure success, he should have given at least half his time
to drilling the soldiers and leading them in actual battle. One
example of Fourierism, carried through to splendid realization, would
have done infinitely more for the cause in the long run, than all his
translations and publications. As Fourier's fault was devotion to
theory, Brisbane's fault was devotion to propagandism.
3. The rank-and-file, as they were strictly volunteers, should have
taken better care of themselves, and not been so ready to follow and
even rush ahead of leaders, who were thus manifestly devoting
themselves to theorizing and propagandism without experience.
It may be a consolation to all concerned--officers, privates, and
far-off spectators of the great "Bull Run" of Fourierism--that the
cause of Socialism has outlived that battle, and has learned from it,
not despair, but wisdom. We have found by it at least _what can not be
done_. As Owenism, with all its disasters, prepared the way for
Fourierism, so we may hope that Fourierism, with all its disasters,
has prepared the way for a third and perhaps final socialistic
movement. Every lesson of the past will enter into the triumph of the
future.