“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. CHAPTER III THE SOCIETY The over enthusiastic praise of Texas, its lands, its climate, and its opportunities in an economic sense should stamp Considerant as a promoter, if it were not for the caution with which he approached the formation of the colony. After serious investigation, it will appear to anyone that he was effusive by nature and his praise was sincere; no flattering statement was made by him to induce people to part with their money, or to participate in the Texas adventure. In fact, his first appeal to the French socialists to immigrate in mass to Texas contains a warning to those who contemplated investing money in the venture. He said that he had always with obstinate sincerity exposed the illusion of attributing to a first scientific experimental establishment the character of a profitable investment.[1] Furthermore, he warned that: first, the establishment must be considered as a costly experiment; second, that little or no returns on the money invested could be expected; and third, it would require very extensive co-operation to avoid compromising individual fortunes.[2] All colonization, he declares, develops itself at the expense of those involved and at the risk of each individual participating in the act. However, colonization requires a collective principle at its emergence, as an individualistic principle is altogether too feeble to establish a new home and new economic system in a difficult and distant state. Communism, he says, has failed, except in rare cases where the effort was supported by energetic religious faith, largely because of false theory or poor conduct in the establishment of the colony. Therefore, any effort that the Fourierists should put forth should be worked out completely in theory before the undertaking is started.