AU TEXAS
Considerant, as a leader of the Fourieristic socialists, had always
refused to combine the teaching or propagandizing of the movement with
any attempt to put the phalansterian organization of society into
operation. He thought that the proper promotion of either problem would
require too large an outlay of energy and money ever to combine the two
into one undertaking, and consequently the teaching of Fourierism and
the colonization which would naturally grow out of it should be separate
undertakings. However, Considerant's ideas changed after his first visit
to the United States in 1852; that is, he was willing to merge the two
in a very limited manner.[1]
Considerant's departure to the United States on his first visit seemed
to have been hurriedly made, for he said that he left so quickly that he
did not have time to write to any one concerning his proposed trip. At
first, the trip was planned as only a four months' tour of the United
States, but it later developed into a search for a location suitable for
the establishment of a colony.[2] On November 28, 1852, he left France
and sailed to Liverpool, from whence he sailed for New York on December
1, and reached that port about two weeks later. No one met him at the
port and, as Brisbane was in Detroit, he spent the time visiting some
phalanges near New York. Among these were Lowell's and Lawrence's
colonies near Boston, and the North American Phalanx in New Jersey. The
latter was the most successful and enduring of all the phalanges
established in North America. Considerant, after a six weeks' visit,
pronounced the colony a failure in one sense of the word: the
co-operative efforts in economic and social life were carried out very
successfully, but serial development of other phalanges had been totally
abandoned by the colony. This he regretted very much.[3]
When Brisbane returned to New York from Detroit, he immediately got in
touch with Considerant, and they began to discuss what was best to
advance Fourierism in the United States. Brisbane apparently proposed
the founding of a big paper that would literally cover the United States
with propaganda. Considerant, however, urged that the day of education
had passed and proposed immediate founding of a colony that would show
what actually could be done with Fourierism at work. The idea of
disseminating propaganda should be secondary to the project itself.
Agreed on this part of the program, the two men began to seek a location
for the proposed colony. Brisbane proposed that lands in Ohio or
Illinois be chosen, but the project was subsequently rejected both by
him and by Considerant along with many other places. Finally, the
following was urged: first, that the northern, eastern, and western
states should be excluded because of the length and severity of the
winters, the short seasons and the excessive heat in summer, and by the
high price of land in the Ohio Valley; second, the citizens of the
proposed colony should be of both American and European stock, out of
which Considerant expected the development of a super-race; and third,
the colony must be located in the United States and east of the Rocky
Mountains. They thought of going to Santa Fe, but on the advice of
Captain Macy abandoned this plan because it was too far from the Gulf of
Mexico through which the colonists would have to ship their goods and
produce. Thus, the only possible solution was to locate the colony
somewhere in the South or in Texas. The latter place was finally agreed
upon, and a trip was immediately planned for investigation of the
territory and the location of the colony.[4]
Considerant and Brisbane left Lake Erie April 30, 1853, where ice was
still floating in the lake and the trees had not yet budded, for Texas.
The first day they went to Cleveland, from there to Wellsville, to
Canton, and then to Cincinnati. Here their arrival was announced in the
papers in the following way:
Albert Brisbane and Victor Considerant, two of the most eminent living
Socialists, of the Fourier school, were in Cincinnati on the 5 inst.
Both of these Gentlemen are able, popular advocates of the
Phalansterian system of the great French associationists above named.
They are on their way to Northern Texas and the Red River country, for
the purpose of selecting from twelve to fifteen thousand acres of good
land, with a view to the importation of a colony of French and
American Socialists.[5]
It was here, also, that they met several of their old friends.
Considerant refers to "our good and old friend Gingembre," who was
living in a small house surrounded with large trees, which had been
built in eight days by Gingembre and his two sons. The house was dubbed
"Gingembree--Box." John Allen, another leading socialist, met them and
promised to sell everything within eight days after he had received
notification of the location of the new colony and with his sons join
them immediately.[6]
From Cincinnati their journey led them to Patriot, where they bade
farewell to the last friends they were to meet, as they thought, until
they returned to New York. Carrying with them only saddles and the
barest necessities of a horseback journey to Texas, they embarked on a
steamship for Fort Smith. They sailed down the Mississippi river to the
mouth of the Arkansas and up the Arkansas to Little Rock, and later
continued to Fort Smith, where they purchased horses. Considerant was
amazed at the vast spaces of the West. Again and again he breaks his
narrative to tell of the seemingly impossible stretches of forest,
stream, and mountains. At the frontier, he is charmed by the contrast
between society of the fort and that of the surrounding country. He
says,
Three social periods could not have been traversed more quickly. At
two o'clock that afternoon we were still in the pleasant town which
lies beneath Fort Smith.... Less than two hours afterwards, our horses
were floundering along in the mire, among dead branches and rotten
trunks, through which we traced with great trouble a kind of a road in
the primitive forest, whose dense vaults anticipated night upon the
swampy bottom lands. It was utterly wild, a deep silent virgin
solitude, exhaling rank perfumes, the compact and luxuriant vegetation
of arborescent masses, and gigantic vines embracing the large trees in
one inextricable network, vegetable generations rising without the
interruptions of time and space upon the secular ruins of their dying
and dead predecessors.[7]
At the Choctaw Agency he had supper, consisting of "A piece of fish
perfectly burnt on one side, but, in compensation uncooked on the
other," onions, and corn. Considerant reported that a negro slave was
the instructor of the Indians in the Choctaw country, teaching them the
crude elements of agriculture, how to play on the fiddle, and minor
industries. Here at the agency he apparently became exhausted by the
long rides and was somewhat discouraged over the whole proposition, but
Brisbane soon overcame his discouragement and they went on.
Eight days out of Fort Smith the two travellers came to Preston, located
on the bluffs of the Red River. On approaching the town, Considerant
describes the surrounding country and his personal reactions in the
following manner:
The landscape was classic and charming; its character surprised us
beyond all expression. In all civilized and cultivated America, I have
seen nothing so sweet, so bewitching, so ornate and complete as these
solitudes by which we entered the high basin of the Red River.
Brisbane and I were struck with the same idea; we seemed to behold,
transported into this rich climate and under the splendid firmament of
latitude 34, those admirable parks, created and sustained at so great
an expense by the high aristocracy of England....
Nature has done all. All is prepared, all is arranged: we have only to
raise those buildings which the eye is astonished at not finding; and
nothing is appropriated nor separated by the selfish exclusiveness of
civilized man; nothing is cramped. What fields of action! What a
theatre of manoeuvres for a great colonization operating in the
combined and collective mode! What reserves for the cradle of Harmony,
and how powerful and prompt would be its developments, if the living
and the willing elements of the World of the Future were transported
there! A horizon of new ideas, new sentiments and hopes, suddenly
opened before me, and I felt baptized in an American faith.[8]
Considerant does not describe the town of Preston and his reaction to
frontier life as exhibited there. The town was full of rough and crude
fellows, hijackers, murderers, and adventurers of all types. An army
officer, passing through the country about the time the above named
travelers were there, reported that the town was one of "bad repute."[9]
From other sources it is learned that Considerant and Brisbane remained
in the vicinity of Preston for a few days and then went on toward
Clarksville. A letter from Bourland and Manion, a commercial company out
from Preston, to a Major de Morse says:
Sir:
Messrs. Albert Brisbane of New York, and Victor Considerant of France,
got to our house a few days ago, coming into Texas at Preston, and
thence to our bend. They are on their way through northern Texas for
the purpose of selecting some several thousand acres of land, with a
view to the settlement of a French Colony. They are well pleased with
what they have seen. They remained with us a day and night, and we
sent a guide with them on their way to Gainesville. They are fine
looking, intelligent gentlemen. Their purpose, when they left our
house, was, to examine the Cross Timbers country, and on to Fort
Worth.[10]
Having reached Texas, Considerant immediately began to write his
reactions. "I was expecting something wild and rude, coarse grasses and
weeds of enormous height, etc." However, he was astonished when he found
a "superior richness" of the soil, wild oats, numerous tender grasses,
large forests, and many prosperous, cultivated fields. Even the land
which the Americans rejected as poor, rocky, and of thin soil, which
they refused to cultivate, was exactly what the French needed to grow
their vines. Grapevines grown on such soil were of "lower growth and
much less run to wood and leaf, than the kind which overspreads the
bottoms. The latter reaches forth on all sides its gigantic branches and
climbs to the summit of the largest trees, balancing between them its
clusters of black grapes."[11] Near Dallas, at the junction of the forks
of the Trinity river, Considerant and Brisbane met M. Gouhenans, chief
of the first Icarian vanguard, who gathered these wild grapes and made
wine out of them, which he sold for a dollar a bottle.[12]
The people classified the soil into four kinds: black sandy, red sandy,
mulatto, and black sticky. Considerant explains that the latter is
difficult to work and is more appropriate for cotton than for anything
else.
The reports he gave concerning the crops were very enthusiastic. For
instance, he mentions that he saw beets grown in unfertilized land that
measured two feet six inches in circumference, and tomatoes that put
forth shoots from ten to twelve feet in length.[13] At Fort Worth and
Fort Graham gardens which the soldiers had prepared were very prolific.
Within a few months after they were planted, there were beans of all
kinds, green peas, melons, sweet potatoes, and twenty other plants of
the kitchen garden, which were succeeding perfectly.[14] All of this was
accomplished without manuring the land, an absolute necessity in Europe.
There was no weeding necessary and only one or two plowings were
required. The garden in Fort Worth, so he reported, had been planted and
no further attention given to it, yet it was in very neat order.[15]
From the very first day of their trip, when they left Lake Erie, both
men had feared the Texas climate. They were afraid of the sub-tropic
summers, the fevers, langour, and sun-stroke; consequently, they were
surprised at the favorable reports they received wherever they went. In
Fort Worth, Major Merrill, who commanded the fort, told them that the
winters in Texas were so little feared "that he was in the habit of
making excursions of 15 days, sometime of a month, into the prairie or
forest, without serious inconvenience, and that he and his men did not
often even give themselves the trouble of erecting tents for the
night."[16]
On inquiry they found that the soldiers of Fort Worth were comprised of
English, French, Irish, Spaniards, Russians, Swedes; in fact, a very
large portion of all the soldiers was European. However, there was no
complaint of climate--"one perfect accord, not a complaint, not a
regret." The soldiers were happy and well, in spite of the not very
hygienic life and the sudden long and dangerous expeditions made into
the prairies and forests after the Indians. The settlers, exposed as
they were in cabins open to the wind and rain, were in good health, and
no serious illness was observed, except a few cases of fever in the
district along the coast. Nevertheless, this is not surprising when one
realizes that there are never more than thirty days of really cold
weather in the winter and that the hot summer days not tempered with the
Gulf breeze are few. Reflections of the climatic conditions were
noticeable in the habits of the live stock. There was an utter lack of
shelter for the stock. Horses, cows, sheep, and goats all wandered in
the woods or on the prairies the entire year without forage or shelter
being furnished them. The fowls around the houses had to be fed to keep
them from going "wild," and effort had to be made to raise them, but not
so with the livestock.
Considerant's estimate of the settlers is worth considering. When a new
settler came, he reported, his nearest neighbors, living anywhere from
six to fifteen miles from him, asked him on what day he desired to raise
his building, and at that time they all came to aid him in constructing
his modest home. In the meantime, the family camped in the open in their
covered wagon, the means of transportation used to get to Texas. At
first the settlers intended for the log cabin to be only a temporary
home, but the climate was so mild that they soon forgot to build more
commodious or permanent buildings until a growing town forced them to do
so. Examples of these settlers becoming financially independent in a
very short time are given by Considerant; for example,
One had come with his wagon, his family, two horses and four or five
dollars; another had only a pair of oxen, a third nothing at all, and
the greater part of the immigrants were in this plight. We saw it
everywhere, and yet everywhere at the end of some years, these
families, so lately destitute, were surrounded with oxen, with cows,
with horses, with hogs and fowls of their own, amid their fields which
ripened abundant crops of corn, wheat, Irish and sweet potatoes, etc.,
and gardens where ever they chose to make them.
We saw a man who had thus come without any means, working with a
settler, to earn the team of oxen and the seed with which, three
months later, he was going to commence his farming; we saw the father
of a family already aged, who having begun five years ago with one
cow, had hitherto provided for twelve children, the eldest of whom was
hardly sixteen, and for two women, without other help than his
brother-in-law. Beautiful cattle, horses and fields in full culture
were the conquests of these five years.
A young French wagon maker arrived two years since on the upper
Trinity with a dollar in his pocket for all his worldly wealth; he is
now proprietor of the finest workshop in Dallas, which he has built at
his own cost, and has an industrial capital of $1200....[17]
He characterizes the settlers as ignorant, destitute, without capital,
without instruments of labor, and without reciprocal ties. The social
conditions cannot be matched anywhere else in the world; in fact,
In its elements, its action and effects, it is doubtless superior to
the Savage state, since it is a seed of civilization that germinates
very fast. But in its form, it is inferior, for the Indians at least
unite in hordes, in camps or in tribes, while among the settlers, the
principle of separation is pushed to the extreme degree.[18]
From Fort Graham Considerant and Brisbane returned by the way of the
Colorado River to Austin, perhaps to San Antonio and thence to New
Orleans, and Havana, reaching New York August 5. Considerant immediately
sailed for Europe, reaching Ostend, Belgium, August 29, 1853, having had
in all a nine-months' trip of exploration and investigation.
With great faith in his glowing reports of Texas, and with a firm belief
that he could offer to the colonists the fullest economic liberty and
opportunity, Considerant began to gather his forces from a Europe,
blind, "timorous and enslaved to routine ... despotic even in its aims
of liberty and life."
"We have never been, in Europe, the abettors of disturbance, or the
creators of disorder. We have there been diligent laborers in the good
cause, the devoted soldiers of the interests of humanity. America!
Free and Republican! was it a crime in us to have wished for Liberty
and a Republic for Europe? And would it not be monstrous, should she
repel us because we have been, at home, the martyrs of the very cause
of which she bears the glorious banner in the face of the world?"
Victor Considerant, _European Colonization in Texas_, p. 27.