The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-08-20
REFoRKRRs.

hEfU666ho.
In the history of the human race, there is no
more impressive story than that Of the men and
OF tho associations who have been led from
time to time, by the disorders and expressions
of society, to endesvor the remedy of its evils
by the method cf radical reorganization. They
are thrust out upon the world by an impulse,
and armed With a power, which intimates very
clearly providential appointment to the Office
sf world-redeemers Jesus invites his followers
10 fellowship in his srfferiugs, and an agency
in his Office of Saviour of men, in these remark
able words: /" If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
51LIosr me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose IT; but whosoever will lose his life for
my sake, he same shall save it." This, indeed,
was but the putting of natural benevolence into
commission in the divine services recognition
and a warrant for the great endeavor which ap-
pears like en instinct of the noblest natures,
with or without the light of our revelation.
Moses was an enthusiast Of liberty before he
was appointed to the leadership of Israel. Even
under the Divine guidance, he is scarcely ex-
empted from tie epitbet, in the judgment of
practical wiseacres. He was an immediate
emancipationist, zealot, radical reformer,
and an idealist. He undertook not only a rev.
olution, bat reorganization of society, and an
order of individual rights and system of indi.
vidUal property, which in the end proved as sad
a failure as airy of the Utopias projected by the
dreamers Of philanthropy whose names are the
Jest of practical people. BE is one of the demi'
gods of history, although bis failure proved as
complete as the unftness of his system to the
circumstances IL which Il was attempted could
make it. Bsrharous manners, moral depravity,
social oppression, civil strife, and gross idola
try, disfgure tie records of the community
which he founded, I'll the time in which i. had
= name to live; and ever since, as before, they
have been the gipsies of the nations. The hopes
of is prophets and the visions of its seers were
as distant a. tie close of the national career as
they were fifteen hundred years before.
The communism of the apostolic age, also
stands no better than any other dream of para
disc regsinsd, which has exposed world mend
ers to toe sneers of conservatism. Plato, who
was contemporary with the last of the Jewish
Prophets, who promised that another Elijah
should be sent "to t1-n the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the hearts of the children
to their fathers, lest / come and emi.e the earth
with curse" expecting redemption Of his
people. now long delayed. exposed himself also
to the reproach of philanthropic enthusiasm, by
daring to hope and laboring to induce an order
of society confo.mable to the best and highest
necessities of human nature. Living four hun
dred years before Christ, and without the aid of
either Jewish or CHRISTIAN revelation, his " Re-
public" necessarily reflected not only the phi
losorhy and Theology of bis time, but embraced
also the ideas aad necessities Of the degraded
and disordered age for which it YVES framed. II
was constituted on an MEMORABLE basis of caste.
He separated the three classes Of magistrates,
warriors, and artisans, by barriers which were
cnite insnnn--hle dosiSna.;-,. Al -------,- 1900
the race Of irou-or, otherwise, as the shepherd.
the dog, snd the sheep, which he believed best
symbolized the necessary relations Of men in
community.
The passing evils of his time were the spirit
of anarchy grown from the root of ilI-regulated
liberty, and the absence of all international mo.
for stability Of ORDER as a necessity which over.
rode all other qualities of civil polty; and to
secure it, he abolished the family relation, ex-
tingu;shed the title TO individual property, and
established the implacsb'e divisions of caste.
This was indeed an impracticable project, but
it was another and a brave aspiration of hu.
man soul burdened with the destiny of the race.
Noor1r fuo s1nuca,I Of.
other scheme of perfect society was born of
the ever laboring brsin OF social benevolence.
Sir Thomas Mere, the most ilIustrious of Eng.
Esh Chaucellors, and one of the finest intellects
of any country or age, published his Utopia
This romance of perfect national life wss writ.
ten with such skill of authorship and simili.
tude of facts, that it was received as a crave
report OF an existing commonwealth. Some of
the divines of the day, it is said, were so strong
ly moved by the virtues Of the Utopians, that
they seriously proposed the grand missionary
enterprise of converting them to Christianity.
Restrained or better instructed by Christianity
than Plato, while he retained community of
property, he did no. allow of promiscuous in.
tercourse of the sexes bat be did allow Of Sla-
very, although be enjoined laborious Industry
upon all the Inhabitants, and excluded all
idlere-priests, lawyers, book worms, and gen.
tlemen of leisure, were not to be endured. The
cities were all provided with markets, and the
public tables very literally supplied with nu-
tricious and even luxurious diet. The punish
ment of death was abolished, and criminal
Justice was based upon the reformation of of.
tenders, on the ground that crimes are mainly
due to the injustice of society, which should
therefore first reform itself, and afterwards such
offenders IS might be tempted to error by in
herent tendencies to evil. The form of civil
government was republican, the rights and in.
terests of individuals were respected, and ample
provision made for all necessary education and
advancement.
Harrington followed him, century after.
wards, with his Oceana, romance in which he
gives his ideal Of perfect Christian Common.
wealth. 1t is professedly plan for remodeling
the offices Of the Stste, the encouragement Of
trade, the discipline of armies, the establish
mert of religion, and the right constitution of
the degrees of nobility, and covers generally a
complete reorganization of society.
His fundamental principle was, that power al
ways follows wealth, and agrarisnism is there
fore the pivot OF his system. Something after
the policy of Moses, TO keep power and property
q, ,ha he nda cf tho MANY be distributed tho non