CHAPTER XXII.

GREELEY AS A FOURIERITE.

The Sage of Lackawaxen-He Espouses the Philosophy of Fourier-What That Means-Socialism in America-Greeley as its Great Apostle-His First Bull Run-"On to Lackawaxen"-His Colony Fails Miserably and he Calls the Members hard Names-Greeley's Utterances in Favor of Communism-His Discussion with Raymond.

By no means the least interesting part of Horace Greeley's life is his experience as a prominent advocate of Fourierism, and a zealous laborer in the work of planting these unfortunate colonies, or "phalanxes," which began to dot the country about thirty years ago, and the wrecks of which are still to be seen in almost every State. The story of these enterprises would be comical if it were not so sad a record of credulous, crack-brained mortals, duped by designing knaves or (more frequently) misled by others more brilliant, and also more crack-brained than themselves.

GREELEY THE FOUNDER OF FOURIERISM IN AMERICA.

Early in his journalistic career, Mr. Greeley espoused the cause of the Socialists-they who sought to reorganize society on a far better plan than that which the Creator ordained; to abolish, in great measure, the sacred ties of family, and to

substitute the Community in its place; to repeal the natural laws which guarantee personal independence in the enterprise of accumulating wealth and spending it, and to substitute therefor a principle which Mr. Greeley calls interdependence.

John Humphrey Noyes, the leading apostle of the Oneida Community, a strictly free-love association which grew out of these earlier attempts at Communism, says in his "History of American Socialisms" [page 14]:

"Fourierism was introduced into this country by Albert Brisbane and Horace Greeley in 1842, and then commenced another great national movement similar to that of Owenism, [a previously exploded ism] but far more universal and enthusiastic. Many of them never undertook to carry into practice Fourier's theories in full; but they all originated in a common excitement, and that excitement took its rise from the publications of Brisbane and Greeley."

WHAT FOURIERISM MEANS.

Before narrating (chiefly from facts obtained in Noyes's book and from a carefully prepared account by A. J. MacDonald, embodied therei) the career of Mr. Greeley as a Fourierite and Communist, we will quote from Henry J. Raymond—a man noted, in his day, for fairness to his opponents -a statement of the vital tenets of the American Socialists. It is taken from the concluding article of a notable discussion which took place in 1846-7

between Raymond and Greeley, and which was printed in the New York Times and Tribune, commencing Nov. 20, 1846. Mr. Raymond says:

"We have proved, in preceding articles of this discussion, that the whole system of association is founded upon, and grows out of, the fundamental principle known as the law of passional attraction. The arguments by which this position is established remains untouched; and we shall not therefore repeat it. In our last article we proved that in this system the law of man's nature is made the supreme rule of his conduct and character; that it recognizes no higher law than that of inclination, no authority above that of passion; and of course no essential distinction between right and wrong-no standard of duty except that of impulse. Of course the idea of human responsibility is utterly destroyed; and all the sanctions of moral and religious truth, as derived from the Word of God, are abrogated and cast aside. These deductions flow inevitably from the law of passional attraction."

The inevitable particular tendencies of the socialistic theory advocated by Mr. Greeley, not only as elaborated by Fourier and others, but as following logically upon the main principles avowed by Greeley, are further pointed out by Mr. Raymond in his concluding article. He shows how in attempting to reform labor, by breaking down what he calls the monopoly of land, Mr. Greeley would virtually throw all the land into the hands of a few capitalists, and make those less thrifty by nature their de

pendent tenants and serfs. He shows how, in abolishing the isolated households which characterize the natural condition of civilized society, and throwing everybody into droves, Mr. Greeley would deprive men and women of that desire for a comfortable separate home, which constitutes the main spur to industry and good habits. He shows how, in the communistic plan of taking children from the care of their parents and nurses, and entrusting the community with their education from the first, a deadly blow is struck at the parental relation as ordained in the Word of God. He shows how, in the abolition of the marriage relation, and leaving women free from either marital obligation or responsibility for the care of their offspring, Mr. Greeley, or those who defend this communistic theory, introduce into society a worse form of polygamy, or of that and polyandry combined, than has ever been attempted in any nation or any age of the world.

Such is a clear, cool, logical statement of the doctrines of an order of which Albert Brisbane said: "Greeley has created the cause in this country."

THE TRIBUNE THE ORGAN OF FOURIERISM.

How did he do this? Let us follow events in their chronological order.

In 1842, when Brisbane and Greeley introduced Fourierism into America, the New York Tribune

was in its infancy. It was, as Mr. Greeley is accustomed to call the Pennsylvania iron mills, and the New England woollen and cotton factories, a "struggling" institution. A portion of its space was then surrendered to the Communists, who occupied it daily with good effect-that is, good from their point of view. To be sure, there was an editorial explanation on the first day of the Tribune's service in this cause, to the effect that the proprietors of the paper were not to be held responsible for what they printed in these columns. But this was evidently on account of Mr. Greeley's partner, Mr. McElrath, as" it was known," says Noyes, "that Greeley was much in sympathy with Fourierism, so that Brisbane had the help of his popularity" with the laborers, whose organ the Tribune also was). And the historian adds: "Whether the Tribune lifted Fourierism or Fourierism lifted the Tribune, may be a matter of doubt;" but he inclines to the latter opinion.

ON TO LACKAWAXEN !

In May, 1843, we hear of Mr. Greeley as Treasurer of the Sylvania Phalanx, a Fourierite community, which ran a brief and by no means brilliant career at Lackawaxen, Pike county, Pennsylvania, and of which Thomas Whitley was President. An address issued in the form of a pamphlet, and signed by Horace Greeley, amongst others, contained the following announcement:

"This association was formed early in 1843 by a few citizens of New York, mainly mechanics, who, deeply impressed with the present defective,