History of American SocialismsNoyes, John Humphrey
History
History of American Socialisms
Noyes, John Humphrey
Communism -- United States; Socialism -- United States
"Some of us are and have been Methodists, Baptists,
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, etc. Others have never been
members of any church, but (with a very few exceptions) very
readily admit the authenticity and moral value of the
Scriptures. The ten commandments are the sum, substance and
foundation of all true law. Add to this the gospel law of love,
and you have a code of laws worthy of the adoption and practice
of any man or set of men, and upon which Associationists must
base themselves, or they can never succeed. There are many
rules, doctrines and interpretations of Scripture among the (so
denominated) Orthodox churches, that any man of common sense can
not assent to. Even they can not agree among themselves; for
instance the Old and New School Presbyterians, the Baptists,
Methodists, etc. If this difference of faith and opinion is
infidelity or irreligion, we to a man are infidels and
irreligious; but if faith in the principles and morality of the
Bible is the test, I deny the charge. I can scarcely name an
individual here that dissents from them.
"I have been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for
about twenty years, and a Methodist local preacher for over
three years, and am now Secretary of the Association. I
therefore should know somewhat about this matter."
[From the New York _Tribune_, July, 1848.]
"WISCONSIN PHALANX.--Having lately seen running around the
papers a statement that the last remaining 'Fourier
Association,' somewhere in Illinois, had just given up the
ghost, we gladly give place to the following extracts from a
private letter we have just received from a former fellow
citizen, who participated in two of the earlier attempts
(Sylvania and Leraysville) to establish something that
ultimately would or might become an Association after the idea
of Fourier. After the second failure he attached himself to the
communistic undertaking near Skaneateles, New York, and when
this too ran aground, he went back perforce to the cut-throat
system of civilized competition. But this had become unendurably
hateful to him, and he soon struck off for Ceresco, and became a
member of the Wisconsin Phalanx at that place, whereof he has
now for some months been a resident. Of this Association he
writes:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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