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can secure the advantages of life, and where the many are condemned to degrading toil; but inevitably and easily obtained, where the whole mighty energy of Society shall be concentrated in the production of this glorious result.

§ VII. RELATION TO OTHER REFORMS.

This reform of the township, then, we recommend to the attention of all classes of men and women; to politicians of every party; to philanthropists of all grades; to Christians of all sects. We say to ALL, because we believe that it possesses all the requisites and characteristics of a universal reform. It covers ground enough to include every variety of interest and all shades of opinion. In its external features it may seem new, but in its inward spirit it is as old as the heart of man. world, for some centuries past, has been preparing for its advent; but especially, within the last few years, have the benevolent aspirations of the Human Race been struggling to realize themselves in some arrangement of society like that we propose.

The

"The many partial projects of Reform," says one of our noblest writers, "which agitate our cities and towns, which send armies of lecturers and scatter snow-storms of papers and tracts over the land, which animate conversation around every private fireside, and in every bar-room, steamboat, rail-car, all naturally and necessarily tend to central Social Reorganization. The Abolitionist finds that his universal principles of Freedom and Human Rights apply to the serfdom of wages as well as to that of chains, to the oppressions of White and Black alike; and sees that nothing but an elevation of Labor to its true dignity everywhere, and an honoring of all men according to their genuine worth, can complete the work of redemption which he longs for. The NonResistant and Peace-Advocate finds that the wars which desolate the fruitful earth, waste national resources, engulf human energies, and make death a less evil than the hell of brutal passions thus set loose, are the final result of the petty wars of competition, which make each man in his own sphere an Ishmael; and sees, that legalized murders and penitentiaries, and the government of force can be put away, only by giving every human being the free development and exercise of his best powers in right and useful directions. The Temperance advocate finds the explanation of his brethren's excesses in the depressing influence of their monotonous employments, in their wretched homes, anxieties, coarse associations; and sees, that to cure society of the madness of intemperance, we must discover and use some healthful and pure stimulants, refining recreations, wider culture, steadier occupation, larger spheres of action and thought, nobler interests, above all, freer access to the most elevating society. The Moral Reformer finds in the dependence of women, the meagre pittance paid for their services, the frivolity resulting from superficial education, the extravagant demands of fashion, the worldly selfishness of many, if not most, marriages, the limited avenues opened for female energies, and the general tone of insincere flattery, an explanation of the hideous maelstrom of licentiousness; and sees, that nothing but the securing for Woman an equally free career with Man will enable her to attain the commanding power, which husbands, sons,

brothers, fathers, need to have for ever poured upon them, to purify and soften their characters. It is seen, too, that the concealments which are possible in society, as now constructed, favor the outrages which pollute it; and that all need to live in the full light of a common conscience, of a common sense. The Physiologist finds, that excessive weariness, deforming labors, ill-regulated hours, bad air, adulterated food, want of abundance of water, wretchedly constructed houses, crowded dwellings, breed such a general miasm of disease and lassitude, that not one in a thousand reaches symmetric manhood; and sees, that rotation of occupations, country air, leisure and recreation, wholesome and well-prepared viands, liberal baths, manly games, are indispensable means to cure the state of half-sickness, which unmans the moral and mental energies of so many, and spreads such a sorry dulness over cheerful spirits. And so we might go round the circle of the noble Reforms, which have stirred. for years past with ever-increasing power the public mind, and show how each and all demand for their fulfilment, associations of men and women, resolute to do perfect justice to human nature, by perfect obedience to the Creator's laws.'

The Political changes of the country tend to the same result of the peaceful establishment of juster relations in all details of social existence. It is seen that the great parties which divide the Country are but the aggregate of the little parties which divide every town, and that these again are but the concentrated expression of strifes which embitter the every-day transactions of all kinds of business. Unjust division of toils, unequal distribution of profits, isolation and opposition of interests, is the radical difficulty which the whole Nation recognises. The Capitalist knows that every day the tenure of his possessions becomes more insecure, his investments less certain, from the restless experiments of those who, confident that they are not duly recompensed for their weary drudgery, resort to any new expedient, any new shift; and either from fear, if he is selfish, or from humanity, if he is generous, inquires for some mode by which he may aid to enrich a larger multitude without impoverishing his own family. On the other hand, the Working Man, longing, under the stimulus of our free Institutions, for social elevation, wishing thorough Education and Refinement for himself and children, sick of the petty frauds which cheat him at every side out of his hard earnings, in unkind relations with his employer, in unnatural competition with his fellow laborer, feels that the rust of jealousy is eating into the golden links of his affections; and either learns to hate the prosperous, while conscious of his dependence upon them, and seeing, too, that the abasement of the Richer Classes would only make the Poor poorer; or, more brave and hopeful, listens to every schemer who proposes some new plan for obtaining "equal chances to equal capacities, and equal rewards to equal works." The endless succession and variety of the bankruptcies, also, which swallow up the Distributing Classes- the Merchants and Traders, wholesale and retail— point to radical errors in our Commercial System, and stimulate Producers and Consumers to demand some mode by which they may be brought into close contact, without this prodigal drain of the means of both to feed these uselessly numerous hosts of go-betweens. And the Commercial

body itself confess what a dreadful waste of energy, talent, character, and, alas! too often of conscience, there is, in this rush of hungry traffickers, hasting to seize on Riches as the stepping-stone to respectability. Our national mania for Wealth, making haggard so many cheeks, wrinkling so many brows, bending with premature cares so many manly forms, and converting life into a mint, where the clink of stamped coin drowns human speech, impels all who respect themselves and their brothers to ask for some less costly mode of gaining those outward goods, which, when obtained, are but the foundation whereon to rear homes of Affection and Beauty, temples of Love and Wisdom, some more certain mode of procuring for the many the advantages which now, with all this merciless expenditure of power, are insecurely possessed only by the few. And finally, the increasing spirit of Liberty, the deepening respect for Man, the conviction of the inevitable necessity of greater equalization of all conditions, give resistless force to this demand for a union of all divided interests. In some manner, civilized States must substitute co-partnerships for wages, and effect a division of gains graduated in proportion to the amount of energy or means expended, and the amount of profit realized. Bank or no Bank, Tariff or no Tariff, we must all co-operate to return to Industry, in fairer ratio, the reward which Industry fairly earns. The Organization of Industry is manifestly the political problem now forced upon all by Providence, and the end must be some form of Association.

When even thus hastily we cast our eye over these many movements of Reform, now mingling their floods in one grand river, may we not, must we not find courage, hope, and calmness in the thought, that it is Divine will, not man's caprice, which has brought this people to their present desire for Social Reorganization. The love and justice which God has inspired, make, in these varied modes, the demand for communities based upon principles of true social order, where the energies of each shall be exerted for the good of all, and the well-being of all shall re-act upon each individual, as in a living body the several members work together, suffer and rejoice together. This hope of peace and kindness, in all our relations of industry, education, enjoyment, intercourse, worship, so strong as it is in many hearts, so universal in its aim, is the prophetic spirit of the age.

The Christian Spirit of this American Nation, wearied by polemics, earnest for fuller actualization of brotherhood in the business and labors of daily affairs, strengthened by endless efforts of benevolence, and yet disheartened at the small results of public and private charities, looks with longing to plans which seek to substitute radical justice in production, distribution, and use, for superficial alleviation of wrongs. The Christian Conscience of our people sees that Society itself causes the very crimes which it punishes, the very wants which it taxes itself so insufficiently to supply. The holding pews in a meeting-house, assembling a few times in the week for devotion, and supporting a teacher and pastor, is felt to be a kind of association too utterly inadequate to deserve the name of church-fellowship. The religious sentiment, concentrating upon the practical application of its professed principles, confesses that the structure of our religious societies is altogether too weak

a bond to unite those whom the necessities and temptations of the world drive into selfish collision. By contrast with the law of love, announced from our pulpits-our actual divisions into castes, separated by accidental circumstances-our daily cheatings, lyings, over-reachings, abuses of power and opportunity-our competitions and rivalries, are admitted to be intolerable hypocrisies. Hospitals, almshouses, prisons, are loud comments upon the universal selfishness of our existing social relations. Strange obliquity! when we point to the very institutions which are the horrible evidences of our accustomed inhumanity in the week-day work of life, as monuments of the brotherly kindness preached about and prayed for on days of rest. Either let us unblushingly assert that love is a visionary abstraction, sentimental nonsense, fit for poets to dream of, but unworthy the thought of practical men, or else let us prove that in fact it can govern every occupation, and our whole intercourse. So says the Christian Heart of Society

to-day.

§ VIII. RELIGION.

The basis of our Reform, therefore, is Religious, although we wish to urge it only on the ground of Science. Our present aim is to conciliate, to a certain extent, all Sects and Parties, both in Church and State, by a plan for introducing Truth and Equity into our Industrial arrangements—which plan we can prove to be in consonance with Revelation, because it is Science. We accept the Book of Scripture as a standard both of Faith and Morals; and the Book of Nature as a test and standard of principles of Science, and by this double standard we require to be judged-received, or rejected.

The American Associationists, the only name by which we wish to be known, are not a sect in Politics or Religion; they ask all sects in Religion to try their principles for rendering Truth and Equity practical, by that universal standard which all Sects adopt, the Bible; and they ask all parties in the State to leave the revolutionary field of party strife, and look dispassionately at universal principles of Scientific and Social progress.

We long for unity among the material interests of men as the necessary groundwork and condition of higher spiritual unities. We wish to see the Truth and Love that are already in the world made practical, that by the very practice of them we may ascend to still superior degrees of Truth and Love. We think that the time for exciting and bitter controversy has ceased, and that the time for harmonious, friendly action has come. We think that the human mind has already run into a sufficient number of ultraisms to develop the infinite variety of its faculties and characters, and that the period has arrived for a general reconciliation. Matter and Spirit, Man and Nature, Earth and Heaven, have been too long at war; henceforth let them be as One.

Associationists are not indifferent to Religious inquiry; they have a profound faith in the religious origin and destiny of the human soul; they believe in the Scriptures as the word of God; they trust in the

* William Henry Channing.

universality of Providence; they hope to see the kingdom of Heaven realized on Earth. But they cannot set up any distinct theological creed, nor can they rely upon mere religious enthusiasm in the propagation of reform. And the reasons for their remaining neutral in these matters are, that in the multiplicity and conflicts of warring sects, they do not know which to adopt as exclusively in the possession of the truth; that they have already recruited to their ranks persons who are individually connected with every existing Church, such as the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, the Unitarian, the Universalist, the New Church, &c.; that they believe it to be the most just and rational policy to remain on the positive grounds of science which they can understand, without adventuring into the uncertain fields of speculation or polemics; and that the true Christian spirit, at this age of the world, demands the toleration of all who conscientiously adhere to religious truth. We recognise the right of every individual to remain connected with any branch of the Universal Church in which he may have been taught, or which he has conscientiously adopted; while we wish to hold up the science of Association as a Universal Science, at the service of every Church and Party.

We do protest, however, against the fanaticism which claims the religious character exclusively for those engaged in doctrinal disputes or sectarian declamation, and which argues that a scientific body must be necessarily material or irreligious in opinion if it does not directly advocate some peculiar religious creed. We wish to promulgate the principles of Science and Order in Society; to neutralize the influence of a deadly selfishness and antagonism, both on the external condition of men, and on their religious and political speculations; we wish to feed and clothe the poor, and harmonize the worldly interests of all parties, that religion may have universal and unceasing influence in reforming moral feeling and preparing souls for spiritual purity here and hereafter; and if for this we are to be accused of want of Faith and Religion, we must consider the accuser as destitute of charity, and a bigot. It is not true religion that opposes Science, nor can it be true Science that opposes true Religion, since they mutually illustrate and assist each other in the redemption of Humanity from ignorance, from disease, from suffering, from wrong, and from spiritual death.

But we take higher than this mere defensive ground; we have positive principles to teach; we are propagandists; and while we steadily refrain from mingling with the peculiar religious feelings of any sect or individual, we yet assert that the true organization of every sect is only to be found in the principle of Association. Religious truth is the principle of unity and harmony, but it cannot be realized in practice universally, without a correspondent unity of action in the sphere of worldly interests. Association is the true form for the practical embodiment of religious truth and love; and while Attractive Industry and Unitary Combination are not themselves Religious Unity, they are the body or collective form in which alone the ordinances of Christianity, the spirit of Religion, the Universal Church can be incorporated, practically and incessantly; for without the Body the Spirit cannot be fully manifested on Earth.

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