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 Accession No. /66~6~~/ - cliUS No ' 
 
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Engraved iy H.W. Smith 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY, 
 
 FROM ITS INCEPTION TO ITS VIRTUAL SUB- 
 MERGENCE IN THE HOPEDALE PARISH. 
 
 BY ADIN BALLOU. 
 
 WILLIAM S. HEYWOOD, EDITOR. 
 
 " It seemed good to me, having had perfect understanding of all 
 things from the very first, to write." Luke i: j. 
 
 LOWELL, MASS.: 
 
 THOMPSON & HILL. THE Vox POPULI PRESS. 
 1897. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THIS volume is the second in the list of those prepared by 
 the author and left in manuscript at the time of his 
 decease, with definite instructions in regard to their publica- 
 tion. It contains the story of an undertaking with which his 
 name was more closely identified than that of any other per- 
 son, to which he devoted the best years of his life, and for 
 which, out of a disinterested desire to promote the well-being 
 and happiness of his fellow-men, he was willing to "both 
 labor and suffer reproach." Its acknowledged Founder and 
 the Framer of its Constitutional polity, acquainted with all its 
 members and familiar with its methods of operation through- 
 out its entire career, he, above all others, was qualified to be 
 its historiographer and its ambassador to coming generations. 
 Let his record and testimony concerning it be read, appre- 
 ciated, and honored accordingly. 
 
 That undertaking can be fully understood and its signifi- 
 cance justly estimated only by considering the circumstances 
 under which it was projected and the relation it sustained to 
 certain great currents of thought and conduct prevailing in 
 the general community at the time when it first claimed the 
 attention of philanthropists and the public at large. Such 
 consideration will give it the proper perspective and assign it 
 to its rightful place in the order of human events and in the 
 work of benefiting and blessing mankind. 
 
 The decade of United States history beginning with the 
 year 1840 was characterized, as intimated on a succeeding 
 page, by an unprecedented manifestation among the people at 
 large of that "enthusiasm for humanity" out of which great 
 moral reforms chiefly spring and all endeavors for the ameliora- 
 tion of the condition of the suffering masses of men, and 
 for the betterment of the world. It was during the early por- 
 
IV THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 tion of that period that the so-called Washingtonian movement 
 went sweeping through the country, redeeming multitudes 
 from the thraldom of the inebriating cup and giving fresh 
 impulse to the cause of Temperance, of which it was a most 
 effective and inspiring phase. The Anti-Slavery conflict, in 
 its moral aspect, was at the same time rising into commanding 
 importance, enlisting the friends of freedom throughout the 
 North in uncompromising resistance to the aggressions of the 
 slave-power, and so preparing the way for and making possible 
 that memorable edict of twenty years later which proclaimed 
 " liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof."' 
 Under new and enthusiastic leadership the barbarism of the 
 gigantic war system was exposed, and the claims of the cause 
 of Peace were urged, with a persistency and to an extent 
 unknown before. Moreover, it was during that period that the 
 question of the higher education, the larger opportunity, and 
 the more complete enfranchisement of woman, not only began 
 to be discussed but assumed organic form, thereby inaugurat- 
 ing a work of justice and beneficence the already achieved 
 results of which constitute one of the marvels of this marvel- 
 producing nineteenth century. Other reforms, providing for 
 the abolition of capital punishment, the improvement of 
 prisons and prison discipline, the prevention of crime and 
 poverty, etc., were also agitated with unparallelled energy and 
 zeal, and received a wide and hospitable hearing. 
 
 It was early in the same decade and under the same phil- 
 anthropic impulse that numerous evils pertaining to the 
 existing order of society arrested widespread attention, sug- 
 gesting to generous and noble minds the inquiry whether 
 something might not be done to remedy them to eliminate 
 them from the realm of human life and put them forever 
 away. It was seen and felt upon careful observation and 
 study that many of these evils were not merely incidental to 
 the established social system not simply defects or excres- 
 cences that would be overcome or outgrown with the lapse 
 of time and by the ordinary processes of human development^ 
 but that they were organic, wrought into and forming an 
 inherent part of the social structure itself, and therefore to 
 be exterminated only by reorganizing that structure by 
 devising and putting in operation an essentially new order of 
 society based upon and governed by higher and more equita- 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 ble principles than the old, and relieved of those features and 
 peculiarities which rendered the old system detrimental to the 
 well-being of vast numbers of people and hence worthy of 
 condemnation. Then came, as a logical and practical result 
 of this view of the matter, the work of so-called Social Reform ; 
 experiments in the reconstruction of the social order, efforts 
 to solve the problem of human society in the light of reason 
 and religion, and according to the dictates of a broad and 
 generous humanity. As Emerson in hyberbolic rhetoric wrote 
 to Carlyjle in the autumn of 1840, "We are all a little wild 
 here with numberless projects of social reform. Not a read- 
 ing man but has a draft of a new community in his waist- 
 coat pocket." 
 
 Within a very few years not less than sixty of these efforts 
 or experiments, under the general name of Communities, were 
 entered upon, and systematically operated in different parts of 
 the country. Most of them were projected and carried for- 
 ward on essentially economical grounds ; being designed chiefly 
 to insure relief from the rivalries and competitions of indus- 
 trial and commercial life by which multitudes of human beings 
 are brought to penury and wretchedness, to establish more 
 just and harmonious relations between the employer and the 
 employed, and to unite in the bonds of mutual co-operation 
 and helpfulness all classes and conditions of people. Others 
 were more largely of an educational character and made the 
 matter of intellectual training and superior culture a promi- 
 nent if not the crowning feature of their polity. While a few 
 were distinctively religious in their inception, form of organi- 
 zation, and methods of administration. All professed a stead- 
 fast devotion to high ethical principles, and sought to maintain a 
 lofty standard of personal character and social righteousness, 
 and all claimed to be inspired by a desire and purpose to 
 benefit mankind in some definite, practical, effective way. 
 
 The Hopedale Community was distinctively and emphatically 
 a religious movement. In all essential respects it was the 
 outcome or product of the religion of the New Testament. 
 The first idea of it was generated by a reverent and pains- 
 taking study of the teachings of Jesus, and by a conscientious 
 purpose to make such teachings the ruling forces of thought 
 and conduct in all the manifold concerns of life. It was 
 founded in a spirit of loyalty to Christianity, and that spirit 
 
VI THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 characterized the administration of its affairs from the begin- 
 ning to the end of its history. As stated in the opening sen- 
 tence of the body of this work, " The Hopedale Community was 
 a systematic attempt to establish an order of Human Society 
 based upon the sublime ideas of the Fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of man as taught and illustrated in the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ"; an attempt to actualize in this present world 
 under the limitations of time and sense the Scripture idea of 
 a kingdom of God on earth. 
 
 Though organized in accordance with the provisions of a 
 carefully prepared Constitution and governed in its various 
 activities by formally adopted Rules and Regulations, it was 
 in no proper sense a scheme for uplifting and saving men by 
 external restrictions and expedients, or a device for bringing 
 in the millenneum by a skilfully contrived set of machinery. 
 The problem it endeavored to solve was not whether men 
 could be made personally what they ought to be and be 
 brought into fraternal relations with each other by a just and 
 happy environment, or whether society could be regenerated 
 by an ingeniously formulated plan, outward conformity to 
 which would serve humanity's need. Not at all. But whether 
 men believing in Christianity, avowing faith in the principles 
 and precepts of the New Testament, and professing to be 
 actuated by the spirit of the Prince of Peace, could and should 
 make those principles and precepts and that spirit dominant 
 in all social and civil relations and concerns as well as in all 
 individual acts and responsibilities. It rested and urged its 
 claims on the assumption that ( the legitimate outcome and 
 fruitage of Christianity is a regenerated state of society as 
 well as a regenerated personal character, and that its true 
 disciples ought to unite their energies anef resources in estab- 
 lishing a form of social life which should illustrate the great 
 idea of human brotherhood, rather than in upholding and 
 supporting one under which that idea is systematically ignored 
 or thrust aside as a rhetorical generality or iridescent dream, 
 pleasant to rhapsodize about but utterly impracticable in this 
 mundane world. In this assumption may be found the reason 
 for its existence and the ground on which it made its appeal 
 for respectable consideration to all philanthropic and noble 
 men and women, whetrler living in its own day or in subse- 
 quent periods of human history. 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 It may be questioned, perhaps, whether this endeavor to 
 reconstruct the complicated fabric of human society and 
 initiate the transcendant work of social regeneration will ever 
 be repeated, especially in the exact form in which it appeared 
 at Hopedale, or in the form outlined in the elaborate "Con- 
 stitution of the Practical Christian Republic" with which this 
 volume closes; whether the divine kingdom will come by the 
 particular processes and methods described in the following 
 pages. But that the existing system of society is not to last 
 forever is in the writer's mind beyond all question or per- 
 adventure; a system characterized by incessant rivalries and 
 conflicting interests, by artificial class distinctions and fierce 
 antagonisms, by glaring extremes of wealth and poverty, of 
 ease and slavish toil, of luxury and want, of happiness and 
 misery, by manifold nurseries of iniquity, degradation, and 
 shame, by gigantic military establishments, and vast enginery 
 for slaughtering men and multiplying the sorrows of the 
 world. That such a system, in so many ways hostile to the 
 essential spirit and principles of the Christian Religion, and 
 to the unquestionable primal purpose of a wise and good God, 
 has no guaranty for the future, is no finality, but must some 
 day be superseded by one wherein equity, fraternity, co-opera- 
 tion, harmony shall be in the ascendant, is assured by the 
 highest conclusions of reason, the best aspirations of the 
 human heart, the inherent possibilities of the nature of man, 
 the prophetic intimations of the seers of all ages, and the 
 cheering promises of the Gospel of Christ. And when this 
 sublime consummation is reached it will only be a realization 
 of the comprehensive idea that took form and found expression 
 in The Hopedale Community; the fulfillment of the distin- 
 guishing purpose that animated the breasts and prompted the 
 labors of the men and women who composed its membership 
 and gave it a name worthy of preservation and of transmission 
 to coming generations. 
 
 Of the more than sixty Communities referred to on a former 
 page, not one, so for as is known, now remains. Hopedale 
 was one of the first to be organized and started on its experi- 
 mental way, and one of the last to be finally abandoned. The 
 incipient steps leading to its formation were taken with no 
 knowledge, on the part of those concerned, of the fact that 
 similar projects were contemplated even not far away by other 
 
Vlll THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 laborers in the same field of practical reform- It preserved 
 from first to last a comparatively independent and isolated 
 position, doing its own recognized work in its own way. Soon 
 after organizing, however, it was brought into an acquaintance 
 with several of its contemporaries. The relations between 
 them and itself were of a most friendly and harmonious char- 
 acter, though it differed from them in what were regarded as 
 important details, either of organic form or methods of opera- 
 tion. But this was no obstacle to sympathetic interest, mutual 
 respect, and kindly feeling on either hand. 
 
 The entire membership of the Community was composed of 
 about two hundred persons. Of these only some twenty are 
 known to be living, six or eight of them remaining on what 
 was formerly the domain of the Association, the others being 
 more or less widely separated therefrom. Of the thirty-two 
 men and women who put their names to the original Consti- 
 tution on the 27th of January, 1841, only two, it is believed, 
 are still in the flesh; William W. Cook, now of New York 
 city, and Rev. William H. Fish, who has recently removed 
 from the vicinity of Boston to Colorado Springs in the state 
 of Colorado. After leaving Hopedale he spent a few years in 
 Central New York as general missionary, then returned to 
 South Scituate (Norwell), Mass., where he was more than 
 twenty years the active and highly esteemed Pastor of the 
 First Parish, in the fellowship of the Unitarian branch of the 
 Christian Church. Since leaving there he has resided with 
 his son, Rev. Wm. H. Fish, Jr., at Dedham, Mass. He is now 
 in the 86th year of his age, vigorous and interested still in 
 all good causes, widely known and as widely beloved. 
 
 The Founder of the Community and author of this work, 
 Adin Ballou, continued to reside at Hopedale unto the end of 
 his mortal pilgrimage. He served the Community as its lead- 
 ing minister while it retained organic existence, and when it 
 was submerged in The Hopedale Parish he was elected Pastor 
 of that body, a position which he occupied until he completed 
 the 77th year of his age, April 23, 1880, having been active 
 in his chosen profession nearly sixty years. Subsequently to 
 this date he was accustomed to answer occasional calls to 
 preach in the vicinity, but more frequent ones to officiate on 
 funeral occasions and at the marriage altar. During the later 
 years of his life he was much engaged in literary work of a 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 varied character. A voluminous " History of the Town of 
 Milford" was prepared by him, and published in 1884; also 
 an elaborate "History of the Ballous in America" some four 
 years later. In addition to these, he wrote an Autobiography 
 which appeared in print a year ago; also the present volume, 
 and others in manuscript awaiting publication. A considerable 
 collection of miscellaneous writings in exposition of his views 
 upon religious, moral, and philanthropic subjects, the product 
 of his pen since the dissolution of the Community, testifies to 
 his tireless industry and to the intensity of his devotion to 
 those aims and pursuits which were dear to his heart, and 
 which engaged his thoughts and energies through a long and 
 active life. He died on the 5th of August, 1890, aged 87 years, 
 3 months, and 13 days. He was a man of commanding bodily 
 presence, of superior intellectual ability, of generous and genial 
 social qualities, and of a character above reproach and without 
 guile. An agreeable companion, an earnest philanthropist and 
 uncompromising reformer, an able and impressive public 
 speaker, a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ, he lived to make 
 the world better, and died steadfast in the faith that ulti- 
 mately a divine order of society would be established among 
 men according to his long-cherished ideal, and that so the 
 divine kingdom would at length come and the will of God be 
 done on earth as it is in heaven. 
 
 It may be stated that the steel engraving of the author 
 fronting the title page was copied from a photograph taken 
 about the year 1854, and represents him as he was in the 
 ripeness of middle life, when the Community was passing 
 through its most prosperous days, and when he was most 
 diligently employed in prosecuting his labors as an apostle of 
 Practical Christian Socialism. 
 
 As this book is sent out into the world it is commended 
 to the candid and thoughtful consideration of the ever-increasing 
 number of those who are interested in the well-being of their 
 fellow-men, and in all efforts to improve their condition and 
 enable them to get the best and the most possible out of the 
 life that has been given them. Also of all students of social 
 problems, who, seeing the manifold evils that pertain to the 
 existing order of society, are seeking conscientiously and ear- 
 nestly for some means and methods whereby that order may 
 be transformed into or superseded by a reign of righteous- 
 
X THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ness, justice, equity, brotherly-kindness, charity. By imparting 
 some light, encouragement, inspiration to such, and to all 
 workers for human good and happiness who may read the 
 narrative it contains, it is hoped that it will contribute some- 
 what to the solution of the great question of Social Reform 
 and to the furtherance of the praiseworthy objects for the 
 promotion of which The Hopedale Community was devised 
 and established. 
 
 WILLIAM S. HEYWOOD. 
 Boston, Oct. 26, 1897. 
 
 NOTE. For the benefit of those readers of this volume who may desire 
 to know something of what transpired at Hopedale subsequently to the 
 date when the narrative herein contained closes, and of the present 
 status of the place, a brief statement relating thereto seems desirable 
 and is therefore appended. 
 
 The material prosperity referred to in the closing chapters has con- 
 tinued, with but slight modifications, to this day. The brothers, Eben- 
 ezer D. and George Draper, to whom the bulk of the Community property 
 was transferred, were men of unusual enterprise, business ability, and 
 perseverence in executing their plans. Moreover, they had the control 
 of a fortunate line of manufacture, and knew how to manage it to the 
 best advantage. Upon that they concentrated all their energies and 
 resources. The less productive branches of industry received from the 
 Community, they cut off and set up new ones tributary to their special 
 work. They called into their partnership, or made their coadjutors, 
 persons from elsewhere of inventive genius and capital. They multi- 
 plied their facilities for production, brought out and purchased valuable 
 patents, and rose rapidly to eminence in their particular calling. Their 
 associates and successors, men of like capability and spirit, prosecuted 
 to more signal issues the combined activities so auspiciously begun, and 
 so admirably fitted for their appropriate service. 
 
 Corresponding results appeared outside. The population increased, 
 new dwellings sprung up, the village grew in size and attractiveness. 
 Public improvements were introduced; water, gas, macadamized streets, 
 and a host of minor necessaries, comforts, and luxuries. At length the 
 idea of an incorporated township took possession of the leading minds, 
 assuming definite form in the spring of 1885 and reaching its culmination 
 a year afterward, April 7, 1886. So that Hopedale now, composed of the 
 original Community Domain and much contiguous territory, with the 
 inhabitants thereon, numbering 1000 persons more or less, constitutes 
 one of the most active, prosperous, beautiful municipalities in the Com- 
 monwealth of Massachusetts. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I HAVE assumed the labor and responsibility of writing this 
 History of The Hopedale Community for the following 
 reasons: 1. Because the fundamental principles and objects 
 represented in the undertaking bearing that name were in 
 themselves pre-eminently good, conducive to the welfare of 
 mankind, and worthy of lasting commemoration. 2. Because 
 I confidently believe that the said Community in its essential 
 features will have a resurrection at no distant day and be 
 honored as the progenitor of numerous kindred institutions 
 less imperfect, better conditioned, and far more successful. 
 3. Because the story of its merits, defects, and varied experiences 
 will enlighten a multitude of ingenuous, beneficently-animated 
 minds, stimulate similar enterprises, and afford valuable instruc- 
 tion for the guidance of those engaged in them. 4. Because 
 I was its chief projector, its first President and leading repre- 
 sentative throughout its entire career, and am now the principal 
 mourner over the irretrievable disaster that terminated its 
 existence; as I am also custodian of its records and of all the 
 data pertaining to it. 5. Because I have been prompted and 
 encouraged to the performance of the task by sympathizing 
 and trustworthy friends. 
 
 The great masses of people are not yet sufficiently indoc- 
 trinated and established in pure Christian ethics not yet 
 raised to a sufficiently elevated moral and spiritual plane of 
 thought and conduct to care much about the rise or fall of 
 such Communities as the one whose annals the present volume 
 enshrines aspired to be, and can scarcely conceive the possi- 
 bility of any higher order of human society than that illustrated 
 in the existing civilization of the general community to which 
 they belong. Even the more advanced classes in church and 
 state, seeking the progress, the harmony, and happiness of 
 mankind, propose little if anything more than the gradual 
 
Xll THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 improvement of society on the old basis of egoism, caste dis- 
 tinctions, competitive rivalry, shrewd and cunning practices, 
 jealousy and hatred of race and nation, and dernier resorts to 
 violence and deadly force. Such must be expected to ignore, 
 underestimate, contemn, or, at best, pity all such attempts to 
 benefit and bless the world as that embodied in the Hopedale 
 Community. If they notice their appearance at all it is only 
 to decry the folly of them and predict their failure, and when 
 failure comes they complacently and rejoicingly exclaim: "We 
 told you so." 
 
 There is, however, in the world at large a small but, I have 
 reason to feel, a continually increasing number of morally 
 illumined and noble minds who see farther into the nature of 
 things and into the causes of misrule and misery, who aspire 
 after a radically more fraternal form of social life and under- 
 stand in some good degree what is needed to insure it, and 
 who are groping after some practical and efficient method or 
 system of operations by which it may be actualized. From 
 these there is much to hope. Sooner or later they will find 
 what they seek, and their most ardent longings the travail 
 of their souls will be satisfied; but their search will no doubt 
 be long and their gratification be deferred to a somewhat 
 remote future. It is my wish in this narrative and other 
 similar writings to contribute what I can to the accomplish- 
 ment of the greatly-to-be-desired result. If God has entrusted 
 me with any distinctive mission on earth, it is to aid in show- 
 ing my fellowmen the way into that Christ-like order of social 
 life which shall illustrate in marked degree the great ideas of 
 the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. I would, 
 at least, be among the harbingers and heralds of communal 
 harmony and blessedness, even though I should seem only to 
 re-echo " The voice of one crying in the wilderness, * Prepare 
 ye the way of the Lord ! ' " 
 
 I fondly and confidently trust that my testimonies in this 
 volume and elsewhere will, under the sheltering care and 
 kindly providence of my heavenly Father, be as " good seed, 
 falling," in some cases at least, " upon good ground," and 
 bringing forth fruit accordingly. But I am now too far 
 advanced in life, being more than seventy-three years of age, to 
 behold any harvest therefrom in the flesh. Nevertheless, it will 
 come in its season, not by any sudden and startling transfor- 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 mation, not by the literal and visible letting down of a new 
 Jerusalem out of heaven, but according to the laws of pro- 
 gressive development and growth in the divine kingdom, "first 
 the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." And 
 as I am divinely assured of a spiritual and immortal life in 
 unseen realms of being, I expect to rejoice with the reapers 
 when "the good time coming" shall appear, however distant 
 that blissful consummation may be. Then the truth of the 
 poet's couplet will be realized in my own experience: 
 
 " The blest to-day is as completely so 
 As who began a thousand years ago." 
 
 The reader will find in the consecutive chapters of this 
 work a truthful and sufficiently minute account of The Hope- 
 dale Community and its manifold affairs from the very 
 beginning through all its intervening stages to its final sub- 
 mergence in the organization denominated and known to this 
 day as The Hopedale Parish. " Whoso readeth, let him under- 
 stand," and be profited thereby. 
 
 ADIN BALLOU. 
 Hopedale, Mass., August 5, 1876. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Hopedale Community and its origin Religious position of its 
 Founder The Restorationist Association and its two wings The 
 Progressives Standard of Practical Christianity Its reception 
 Germination and growth of the Community Idea A Peculiar 
 People Arrayed against existing society Three fundamental 
 objections What was to be done New wine must be put in new 
 bottles Another important consideration An organ started 
 First public utterance concerning Communities Important fea- 
 t-ires noted Obstacles Inquiries Memorable decade of American 
 history Experiments in social re-organization The one at Hope- 
 dale unique and independent Overtures between it and Brook 
 Farm Rapid advance towards practical results Plan of organiza- 
 tion adopted Formation of Fraternal Community No. 1 1-37 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 First Community meeting Provisional Committee chosen and its 
 duties prescribed Constitution and a detailed Exposition published 
 and widely circulated Response from the general public Letters 
 of inquiry, sympathy, and encouragement received Also of admo- 
 nition, warning, and scornful rebuke Significant one from Rev. 
 William Ellery Channing, D. D. - Attitude of clergy generally 
 Rev. Paul Dean's dissent Second Community meeting Complete 
 organization affected Rev. David R. Lamson on Communities 
 Third Community meeting Important report of Executive Coun- 
 cilResolves and By-Laws passed Farm purchased for a Commu- 
 nity Domain Name given it Pecuniary resources First Annual 
 meeting The outlook Settlement at Hopedale Getting Started 
 Enthusiastic religious services The Community an established 
 fact 38-69 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Reflections Test of fitness for Community life State of affairs 
 April 1, 1S42 Diversity of habits, manners, tastes, etc. among 
 settlers The children Limited accommodations Superintendence 
 of- domestic concerns False prophecies concerning the women 
 Common fraternal level Journal of Community life Fast day, 
 with Fredrick Douglass as guest Building for schoolroom, printing 
 office, etc. Douglass in Milford Compensation of mothers Indue- 
 
XV THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 tive Conferences Greatness of the undertaking Resources and 
 energies overtaxed Elements of unrest revealed Annoying and 
 inauspicious discussions started Case of personal inharmony 
 First withdrawals Eccentricities of Rev. D. R. Lamson Hostility 
 to existing polity developed A crisis reached The Constitution 
 amended Consequences thereof The Shakers glorified .Discour- 
 agements and e?icouragernents Second Annual meeting 70-105 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Separate households established Dwelling-houses erected Industrial 
 operations Religion, Morals, and Missions provided for Mechanic 
 shop built and occupied Community barns consolidated and 
 improved Hopedale street constructed A combined School-house 
 and Chapel projected Gift of Andrew H. Ernst, Cincinnati, Ohio 
 Cordial relations with other Communities Property Convention in 
 Boston Social Reform Conventions in divers places Social Reform 
 Journals started Religious and Missionary activities Case of out- 
 side depredation Birthdays celebrated Financial summary of 
 1843 The Village Site denned and its streets and squares laid out 
 and named The Community Domain enlarged and new dwellings 
 erected School matters Associational Conferences at Hopedale 
 and Northampton Individualism checked Conditions and pros- 
 pects 106-140 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Change of industrial policy beset with difficulties Rosetta HalJ The 
 Hopedale Cemetery Visit of the celebrated English Communist, 
 Robert Owen Estimate of the man and his work Regretted with, 
 drawal of Rev. G. W. Stacy Spirit of Annual Meeting, 1846 
 Anticipations not realized Weak places in industrial manage- 
 mentSickness and bereavement Signs of promise Co-operation 
 in business affairs encouragnd Personal peculiarities cause annoy- 
 ance and hinder progress Retirement of Joseph Kingman a serious 
 loss Elements of dissatisfaction effervescing Serious results 
 threatened but prevented by adopting a new Constitution Name 
 of Community Changed Organization under the new regime com- 
 pletedImprovements going on Complaints on account of flow- 
 age A Juvenile Community Hopedale a School District Annual 
 meeting, 1848 141-176 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Constitutional guaranty re-affirmed Provision for Education The Com- 
 munity School under Abbie S. Ballou Amusements May-day and 
 Christmas Festivals Industrial annoyances and vexations Meet- 
 ings for Christian discipline and improvement Lay preaching The 
 Practical Christian Ministry Inductive Communions Quarterly Con- 
 ferences Mail facilities Community Lyceum Beautifying the vil- 
 lage Proper care of children enjoined Industrial Army organized 
 Purchase of additional lands Community Treasury constituted a 
 Savings Bank Hopedale Collection of Hymns published Action 
 concerning alien employes and others Council of Religion, etc., 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XVI 
 
 appointed Withdrawal of Rev. D. S. Whitney The Hopedale Water 
 Cure Establishment Rectification of land titles Prevailing feeling 
 at the opening of 1851 177-211 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Provision against future deficits - M. Etienne Cabet and the Icarian 
 Community at Nauvoo, 111. The Community made an Insurance 
 Company Enactment respecting Industry, Purveyance and Trade 
 Prospectus of the Hopedale Educational Home Adin Agustus 
 Ballou Universal prosperity prevailing Annual Meeting, 1852 
 Valedictory Address of the first President and Response Widely 
 lamented death of A. A. Ballou New School of Social Philosophy 
 under Stephen Pearl Andrews Modern Times Raritan Bay 
 Union New Community proposed and aid solicited Tragic Death 
 of Dr. Butler Wilmarth A Free Love episode and case of marital 
 infidelity Community action occasioned thereby President's Ad- 
 dress at Annual Meeting, 1854 Report of Council of Religion, Con- 
 ciliation and Justice 212-252 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Palmy days of Community history Extracts from The Practical Christian 
 General outlook for Social Reform auspicious Significant article 
 in N. Y. Independent Sermon of Rev. J. S. Dennis Plan of a com- 
 prehensive Communal Confederacy formulated Complete Exposition 
 of the system published in a large volume, entitled " Practical Chris- 
 tian Socialism" Spirit of propagandism and expansion rising New 
 Communities in the West proposed West India Emancipation cele- 
 brated and a prophetic resolution passed The Hopedale Home 
 School Fourteenth Annual Meeting and its encouraging Reports 
 Contingent Fund or Bank of Exchange established Missionary oper- 
 ations enlarged Rev. Wm. H. Fish in Central New York Hopedale 
 from the outside The Western Movement materialized A Commune 
 formed Annual Meeting, 1856 Address of President Premonitions 
 of disaster Startling revelations The Community doomed The 
 surrender and its consequences 253-296 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Hopedale Community dismantled and shorn of power What was lost 
 and what saved to the institution Endeavor to make the best of the 
 calamity and seek to recover what had been given up Counsels and 
 encouragements Rapid survey of what transpired subsequently to 
 the year 1856 Membership Official servants Landed property > 
 The Practical Christian discontinued In war time Non-resistant 
 defection and consequent protest Resolutions concerning the Rebel- 
 lion passed and their effect Case of Conscription and the course 
 pursued in regard to it Educational interests Missionary activities 
 declining Old Testament ethics in the ascendant Religious interests 
 and institutions New House of Worship built The Practical Chris- 
 tian Church of Hopedale An Inductive Conference formed The 
 Hopedale Parish constituted residuary legatee of The Hopedale Com- 
 munity The end reached 297-336 
 
XV11 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Retrospective survey Founders of the Community Their logic invinci- 
 bleComposition and character of Community membership Con- 
 tributions to human need, comfort and happiness Fruits of fourteen 
 years' associated industry, economy and practical wisdom Failure 
 notwithstanding Causes thereof not primarily financial but moral 
 and spiritual World not ready for so radical and comprehensive a 
 reform Material for Community life not yet to be found Moral and 
 religious teaching superficial and inadequate Christianity imper- 
 fectly understood and applied Professed reverence for Christ's pre- 
 cepts, but practical disregard and scorn of them Deficiencies and 
 excellencies of the church Secondary causes of failure The still 
 existing need The question involved not settled but postponed 
 Principles and objects of the Community sacred and unimpeachable 
 Some day they will be actualized and the Hopedale experiment will 
 find triumphant vindication 337-367 
 
 Appendix A 368 
 
 Appendix B 397 
 
HISTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1839-1840. 
 
 THE COMMUNITY IDEA ITS ORIGIN AND GROWTH 
 ORGANIC FORM ASSUMED. 
 
 llopedale Community was a systematic attempt to 
 establish an order of Human Society based upon the 
 sublime ideas of the Fatherhood of God and the Brother- 
 hood of Man, as taught and illustrated in the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ. The primordial germ, of which it was the 
 natural outgrowth and consummation, first manifested itself 
 in my own mind about the time of the opening of the 
 year 1839. That germ, in its crude form, was commu- 
 nicated to a few personal friends, interested, as I was, in 
 promoting alike the interests of truth and the enduring 
 welfare and happiness of mankind, who gladly welcomed 
 it, Mini united cordially with me in developing it, in giving 
 il definite form, and in carrying it out to legitimate, 
 practical results in actual life. The evolutionary process 
 by which all this was accomplished, this, the opening 
 chapter of the present volume, is designed to delineate. 
 Succeeding chapters will recapitulate and put on record, in 
 their proper order and relativity, the different character- 
 istics and phases of what subsequently transpired. 
 
 At the date mentioned I was Pastor of the First Church 
 and Parish of the town of Meudon, Mass., a position I 
 
3 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 had occupied during the eight previous years. I had long 
 before outgrown my early belief that the religion of the 
 New Testament was chiefly concerned with the condition 
 of mankind in a future state of being, and that it was 
 the essential office and mission of Jesus Christ, in the 
 plan and providence of the Infinite Father, to save men 
 from damnation and misery aw.aiting the finally impenitent 
 after death. I had come to see that the teachings of the 
 Master were essential to human well-being in this world 
 as well as in the world to come ; that it was one of the 
 declared objects of Christ's labors to inaugurate the king- 
 dom of heaven on the earth; and that it was the impera- 
 tive duty of his disciples to pray .and to work earnestly 
 for that sublime end, as one of the best preliminaries 
 to immortal blessedness. The supreme, universal, un- 
 changeable Fatherhood of God and the universal Brother- 
 hood of Man had become settled articles of my faith, and 
 whatever contradicted either of them, in theory or prac- 
 tice, I was certain must be false and wrong. Consequently 
 the seemingly mighty and almost sole concern of the 
 nominal Christian Church to save souls from the tortures 
 of never-ending fire and secure heaven for them beyond 
 the grave, appeared to me a distortion of the Gospel 
 requirement a delusion of superstition. 
 
 On the other hand, among dissenters from the dogmas 
 of prevailing theological systems, the then dominant Uni- 
 versalism, which magnified the doctrine of the salvation 
 of all men at death and knew of no condition beyond the 
 grave but that of angelic beatitude, had become to me 
 a scarcely less irrational and offensive extreme of so-called 
 liberalism. I belonged to a small Association of Restora- 
 tionists who had seceded from the Uuiversalist denomination, 
 and were in a state of controversial protest against both 
 extremes. About half of this Association felt strongly 
 that their Restorationism meant radical reform in respect 
 to personal and social abuses and evils, and had zealously 
 
PROGRESSIVE RESTORATIONISTS. 3 
 
 espoused the Temperance, Anti-Slavery, and Peace move- 
 ments, as attested by a series of outspoken, uncompromis- 
 ing resolutions passed not long before in public convocation 
 and published to the world. The rest were more prudent 
 and conservative, and sincerely thought their brethren rash 
 and presumptions in their utterances and action running 
 :iliend too fast in that particular direction. 
 
 I was of the progressive wing and longed most ardently 
 to see New Testament Christianity actualized made 
 practically the controlling agency in all the relations and 
 concerns of life. My sympathizing associates were like- 
 minded ; enthusiastic in pressing forward to a wider and 
 more authoritative application of Christian principles to 
 human conduct in all its phases and manifestations, and 
 our private meditations and mutual conferences soon 
 brought us out generations in advance of our former 
 position respecting the absolute requirements of the law 
 of Christian righteousness. The growth of our ideas and 
 convictions in regard to pure Christianity and the obliga- 
 tions it imposes upon its confessors was rapid and 
 intense, perhaps I should say precocious, in view of 
 subsequent disclosures. This will appear from the fol- 
 lowing remarkable Confession or Declaration of Sentiments 
 drafted by me and sent forth as a comprehensive state- 
 ment of the views which we had come to entertain 
 touching the truths and duties included and enjoined by 
 our holy religion, as we understood and believed it. 
 
 "STANDARD OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 "At a conference of Christian Ministers called Restoration- 
 ists holden by special agreement at Mendon, Mass., Feb. 19th, 
 20th, and 21st, and, by adjournment, Apr. 24th and 25th, 1839, 
 there was a free and solemn discussion of the prevailing 
 views, feelings, and conduct of professing Christians in com- 
 parison with the precepts and example of Jesus Christ and his 
 apostles; which discussion resulted in the adoption of the 
 appended testimonial, to wit: 
 
4 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 " Humbly desirous of promoting Christian piety and morality 
 in their primitive purity, the undersigned do solemnly acknowl- 
 edge and embrace the principles, sentiments, and duties declared 
 in the following 
 
 STANDARD. 
 
 f 
 
 " We are Christians. Our creed is the New Testament. Our 
 religion is love. Our only law is the will of God. Our grand 
 object is the restoration of man, especially the most fallen and 
 friendless. Our immediate concern is the promotion of useful 
 knowledge, moral improvement, and Christian perfection. We 
 recognize no spiritual father but God; no master but Christ. 
 We belong to that kingdom of 'righteousness, peace, and joy,' 
 which is ' not of this world,' whose throne is holiness, whose 
 sceptre is truth, whose greatness is humility, whose pre-eminence 
 is service, whose patriotism is love of enemies, whose heroism 
 is forbearance, whose glory is self-sacrifice, whose wealth is 
 charity,' whose triumphs are salvation. Therefore 
 
 "We can make no earthly object our chief good; nor be 
 governed by any motive but the love of right; nor compromise 
 duty with w r orldly convenience ; nor seek the preservation of 
 our property, our reputation, our personal liberty, or our life 
 by sacrificing conscience. We cannot live merely to eat, drink, 
 sleep, display ourselves, acquire property, and be accounted 
 great in this world, but to do good. All that we are and have, 
 with all that God shall ever bestow on us, we unreservedly 
 dedicate to the cause of universal righteousness; expecting for 
 ourselves, in the order of divine providence, only a comfortable 
 subsistence until death, and, in the world to come, eternal life. 
 
 "Placing unlimited confidence in our heavenly Father, we 
 distrust all other guidance and protection. We cannot be gov- 
 erned by the will of man, however solemnly and formally 
 declared, nor put our trust in an arm of flesh. Hence we 
 voluntarily withdraw from all interference with the govern- 
 ments of this world. We can take no part in the politics, the 
 administration, or the defence of those governments ; either by 
 voting at their polls, holding their offices, aiding in the execu- 
 tion of their legal vengeance, fighting under their .banners, 
 claiming their protection against violence, seeking redress in 
 their courts, petitioning their legislatures to enact penal laws, or 
 obeying their unjust requirements. Neither cau we participate 
 
STANDARD OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. 5 
 
 in any rebellion, insurrection, sedition, riot, conspiracy, or plot 
 against any of those governments; nor resist any of their ordi- 
 nances by physical force; nor do anything unbecoming a 
 peaceable submisssion to the existing powers; but will quietly 
 pay the taxes levied upon us, conform to all innocent laws and 
 usages, enjoy all righteous privileges, abstain from all civil 
 commotions, freely express our opinion of governmental acts, 
 and patiently endure whatever penalties we may for conscience' 
 sake incur. We cannot employ carnal weapons nor any physi- 
 cal violence whatsoever to compel moral agents to do right or 
 to prevent their doing wrong not even for the preservation 
 of our own lives. We cannot render evil for evil, railing for 
 railing, or wrath for wrath, nor revenge insults and injuries, nor 
 lay up grudges, nor be overcome by evil, nor do otherwise 
 than ' love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to 
 them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us 
 and persecute us.' 
 
 "We cannot indulge the lust of dominion, nor exercise 
 arbitrary authority, nor cherish bigotry, nor be egotistical, nor 
 receive honorary titles, nor accept flattery, nor seek human 
 applause, nor assume the place of dignity. We cannot be 
 Pharisaical, self-righteous, or dogmatical. We cannot do evil 
 that good may come. We cannot resent reproof, nor justify 
 our faults, nor persist in a known wrong. 
 
 "We cannot excommunicate, anathematize, or execrate any 
 apostate or reprobate person otherwise than by withdrawing 
 our fellowship, refusing our countenance, and declining familial- 
 intercourse . 
 
 "We cannot be cruel, even to the beasts of the earth. We 
 cannot be inhuman, unmerciful, unjust, unkind, abusive, or 
 injurious toward any being of our race. We cannot be indif- 
 ferent to the sufferings of distressed humanity, nor treat the 
 unfortunate with contempt. But we hold ourselves bound to 
 do good as we have opportunity unto all mankind, to feed 
 the hungry, clothe the naked, minister to the sick, visit the 
 imprisoned, entertain the stranger, protect the helpless, com- 
 fort the afflicted, plead for the oppressed, seek the lost, lift up 
 the fallen, rescue the ensnared, reclaim the wandering, reform 
 the vicious, enlighten the benighted, instruct the young, admon- 
 ish the wayward, rebuke the scornful, encourage the penitent, 
 confirm the upright, and diffuse a universal charity. 
 
6 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "We cannot go with a multitude to do evil, nor take part 
 with the mighty against the feeble, nor excite enmity between 
 the rich and the poor, nor stand aloof from the friendless, nor 
 court the great, nor despise the small, not be afraid of the 
 terrible, nor take advantage of the timid, nor show respect of 
 persons, nor side with a friend in what is wrong, nor oppose 
 an enemy in what is right, nor forbid others to do good 
 because they follow not with us, nor set up names and forms 
 above personal holiness, nor refuse to co-operate with any man, 
 class, or association of men on our own principles in favor of 
 righteousness, nor contemn any new light, improvement, or 
 excellence which may be commended to our attention from 
 any quarter whatsoever. 
 
 " We cannot make a trade or emolument of preaching the 
 Gospel, nor be supported therein by unwilling contributions, 
 nor keep back any truth thereof that ought to be declared, 
 nor consent to preach more or les's than God directs us, nor 
 encourage religious devotion in mere worldly show, nor pursue 
 any course of conduct whereby the money, the smiles, or the 
 frowns of corrupt men may overrule the divine testimony. 
 We cannot surrender the right of serving God according to 
 the dictates of our own consciences, nor interfere with others 
 in their exercise of the same liberty. 
 
 "We hold it impossible to cherish a holy love for mankind 
 without abhoring sin. Therefore we can give no countenance, 
 express or implied, to any iniquity, vice, wrong, or evil, on the 
 ground that the same is established by law or is a source of 
 pecuniary profit to any class of men, or is fashionable in high 
 life, or is popular with the multitude; but we hold ourselves 
 so much the more bound to testify, plainly, faithfully, and 
 fearlessly, against such sins. Hence we declare our utter 
 abhorrence of war, slavery, intemperance, licentiousness, covet- 
 ousness, and worldly ambition, in all their forms. We cannot 
 partake in these sins, nor apologize for them, nor remain 
 neutral concerning them, nor refrain from rebuking their 
 various manifestations; but must ever abstain from and oppose 
 them. 
 
 " We cannot promote our own advantage at the expense of 
 others, by deceiving, defrauding, corrupting, degrading, over- 
 bearing, or impoverishing them. We cannot take away their 
 good name by defamation, nor by retailing the scandal of their 
 
STANDARD OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. 7 
 
 enemies, nor by spreading abroad evil reports on mere hearsay 
 authority, nor by wantonly publishing their failings. We can- 
 not be busy-bodies in other people's affairs, nor tale-bearers of 
 domestic privacy, nor proclaimers of matters unsuitable for the 
 public ear. We cannot rashly judge men's motives, nor raise 
 evil suspicious against them, nor join in condemning the 
 accused without a hearing, nor delay reparation to the injured, 
 nor make any one's necessity our advantage, nor willingly 
 render ourselves burdensome to others, nor cause any one 
 unnecessary trouble for our mere gratification; but we will 
 always deem it 'more blessed to give than to receive,' to serve 
 than to be served; sacrificing nothing of holy principle, though, 
 it need be, everything of personal convenience. 
 
 "We cannot live in idleness or be carelessly extravagant; 
 nor, on the other hand, be avaricious, parsimonious, or nig- 
 gardly. We cannot indulge in any feverish anxiety concerning 
 our temporal affairs, nor fret ourselves under disappointment, 
 nor repine at anything which marks our lot. We cannot 
 be austere, morose, or rude ; nor capricious, ungrateful, or 
 treacherous. We cannot practice dissimulation, nor offer ful- 
 some compliments, nor use a nattering courtesy. We cannot 
 follow pernicious fashions, nor encourage [immoral] theatrical 
 exhibitions, nor join in frivolous amusements, nor countenance 
 games of chance, nor array ourselves in costly apparel, nor 
 wear useless ornaments, nor put on badges of mourning, nor 
 distinguish ourselves by any peculiar formalities of raiment or 
 language. 
 
 "We cannot indulge to excess in eating, drinking, sleeping, 
 recreation, labor, study, joy, or sorrow ; nor permit our passions 
 to tyrannize over our reasons. We cannot harbor pride, envy, 
 anger, malice, wrath, ill-will, sullenness, or peevishness; nor 
 cherish any unholy lusts, imaginations, or tempers. 
 
 "We cannot swear by any manner of oath, nor make any 
 rash vow, nor offer any extraordinary protestations of our inno- 
 cence, sincerity or veracity, nor utter any blasphemy, impreca- 
 tion, falsehood, obscene expression, foolish jest, or profane 
 exclamation. 
 
 "We cannot enter into the state of matrimony without 
 grave deliberation and an assurance of divine approval. We 
 cannot neglect or abuse our families, nor evince any want of 
 natural affection towards our bosom companion, our aged 
 
 OF THK 
 
 JNIVERSITY 
 
8 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 parents, or helpless offspring. We cannot imbrute our children 
 by disregarding their education, nor by setting them an evil 
 example, nor by over-fondness, nor by harshness and severity, 
 nor by corporal punishments, nor by petulence and scolding. 
 
 " We cannot desert our brethren in their adversity, nor call 
 anything our own when their necessities demand relief, nor be 
 silent when they are unjustly accused or reproached. We can- 
 not speak of their faults in their absence without first having 
 conferred with and admonished them; nor then, if they have 
 promised amendment. 
 
 "We cannot over-urge any person to unite with us, nor re- 
 sort to undignified artifices of proselytism, nor seek debate 
 with unreasonable men, nor protract a controversy for the sake 
 of the last word, nor introduce sacred subjects for discussion 
 in a company of scorners. Yet we will hold ourselves always 
 ready to give an answer to every one that asketh of us a 
 reason for our faith, opinion, or conduct, with meekness, frank- 
 ness, and patience. 
 
 "Finally, as disciples of Jesus Christ, before whose judg- 
 ment seat all must appear, we acknowledge ourselves bound 
 by the most sublime, solemn, and indispensable obligations, to 
 'be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect' in all possible 
 respects; and whereinsoever we come short thereof, to take 
 shame to ourselves, seek divine pardon, repair to the utmost 
 our delinquencies and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. 
 And for all this, 'our sufficiency is of God,' to whom be glory, 
 world without end. Amen. 
 
 "ADIN BALLOU, DAVID R. LAMSON, GEO. W. STACY, DANIEL 
 S. WHITNEY, WILLIAM H. FISH, Ministers; CHARLES GLAD- 
 DING, WILLIAM W. COOK, Laymen concurring." 
 
 This document was intended to cover the whole ground 
 of personal and social righteousness on the high plane of 
 Practical Christianity. It was accompanied with references 
 to the principal passages of Scripture understood to teach 
 its distinctive principles, sentiments, and duties, and with 
 brief explanatory notes upon the more important and 
 radical points. Thus verified and fortified, it was sub- 
 mitted to the consideration and judgment of those who 
 might deem it worthy of deliberate attention. It was 
 
RECEPTION OF THE STANDARD. 9 
 
 received wit.li widely-varying emotion, and provoked 
 much comment friends, foes, and neutrals expressing 
 in more or less emphatic terms their opinion concerning 
 it. Some condemned it outright as extravagant, unsound, 
 absurd, impracticable, though few of these attempted to 
 show that it was in any wise hostile to, or inconsistent 
 with, the teaching and example of Christ. Others, more 
 appreciative and hospitable, regarded it with favor ; a 
 small number with moral admiration and delight. But 
 the great mass of those claiming to be followers of 
 Christ and believers in his religion gave it little or no 
 heed. As for myself, I accepted it at the time and 
 endorsed it with .all my mind and heart and soul, and 
 have remained a linn and unwavering adherent of it, with 
 a few slight and unessential modifications, until this hour. 
 However faulty I may have been concerning it in prac- 
 tice, it has always expressed substantially my profound 
 and settled convictions of pure Christian righteousness; 
 such as the truly regenerate church of Christ will some 
 day believe in, teach, and exemplify. 
 
 Having devised and formulated the foregoing Standard, 
 the germination and growth of the Community idea in 
 my own mind were as natural and inevitable as are the 
 flowering and fruitage of any productive plant of garden 
 or field when the seed from which it springs is cast into 
 congenial soil. Equally so were its acceptance, develop- 
 ment, and ultimate practical realization, in the minds of 
 those who, with me, had in good faith put their names 
 to that manifesto, and of all in cordial sympathy with 
 us. We were "a peculiar people" in the professing 
 Christian world. We had taken a stand unlike that of 
 any of our contemporaries in either church or state in 
 any existing form of social life. We occupied a new 
 and anomolous situation. We had gathered a fresh and 
 hitherto unknown species of grape from the primitive 
 Christian vintage, and had extracted therefrom a sample 
 
10 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 of the "new wine" of the Kingdom of God. But where 
 were the bottles to hold and preserve it? They were not 
 to be found. Where was the church, the congregation, the 
 social organism, prepared to accept, sustain, and illustrate 
 such principles, virtues, obligations such high and noble 
 ideals of duty to God and man as we had avowed and pro- 
 claimed far and wide as a new revelation from the infinite 
 source of all goodness and truth? Nowhere upon the face 
 of the earth was there one of these one among all the 
 sects of Christendom one among all the schools of 
 philosophy, or orders of philanthropy, or movements of 
 reform, prepared to embrace, maintain, defend, live by 
 them in their entirety in all the length and breadth, 
 height and depth of their far-reaching meaning and obli- 
 gatoriness. As popular Christianity was, in church and 
 state and general society, there was for such ideas, con- 
 victions, principles as ours, no place of shelter, nurture, and 
 practical actualization no congenial and permanent home. 
 They were too radical, too unconformable to the established 
 institutions, customs, practices, and fashions of this world 
 the world of so-called Christian civilization to find, 
 anywhere an open hearty welcome and a ready-made 
 habitation to dwell in and to go forth from as a power 
 of godliness and redemption to mankind. 
 
 In several fundamental particulars w r ere we openly and 
 uncompromisingly arrayed against the prevailing theory 
 and practice of the world at large about us. 
 
 (1) The great overshadowing War System, everywhere 
 deemed essential to the maintenance of public order and 
 the security of the common welfare, with its multiplex 
 enginery of destruction, its appalling record of devasta- 
 tion, bloodshed, and death ; its awful burden of degrada- 
 tion, poverty, and wretchedness, crushing the life out of 
 vast multitudes of people ; its manifold barbarities and 
 cruelties, subversive of the essential principles and vital 
 
A NEW DEPARTURE INDICATED. 11 
 
 spirit of the Gospel of Christ, we unqualifiedly condemned 
 and repudiated. 
 
 (2) The vast complex mechanism of Politico-civil Gov- 
 ernment in its existing form and mode of administration, 
 based upon injurious and death-dealing force as a final 
 resort, and claiming the unquestioning allegiance and sup- 
 port of its subjects, with its ubiquitous agencies, offices, 
 emoluments, excitements, honors, and rewards, its subtle 
 methods of control and usurpations of authority, its dis- 
 regard of the requirements of the moral law and of the 
 rights of the weak and defenceless, the chicanery and 
 corruption that often enter into its management, shaping 
 its policy and dictating its legislation all this was tran- 
 scended and set aside by us in our declared loyalty to 
 that kingdom which is "not of this world," "whose 
 officers are peace and its exactors righteousness," and 
 wherein those that are chief and would be accounted 
 greatest are servants of all. 
 
 (3) The abounding spirit of competition, rivalry, self- 
 aggrandizement, and open antagonism which dominates 
 industry and trade, whereby mammon worship is per- 
 petually encouraged and mutual helpfulness ignored ; 
 whereby the strong make victims of the weak, the cunning 
 and unscrupulous outwit and overreach the honest, simple- 
 minded, and self-respecting, the arrogant and heartless take 
 advantage of the necessities of the poor and unfortunate, 
 resulting in class distinctions, in gross inequalities of 
 condition, in revolting extremes of wealth and poverty, of 
 prodigal luxury and famishing want, of gorgeous display 
 and loathesome destitution, engendering discontent, ill- 
 will, resentment, animosity, hatred, and sometimes the 
 spirit of revenge and open violence; all this, and espe- 
 cially the state of things producing it, we condemned and 
 repudiated as utterly opposed to our doctrine of human 
 brotherhood, which requires that kindly interest, mutual 
 assistance, and friendly co-operation, according to the 
 
12 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 maxim "each for all and all for each," should be the 
 supreme rule of action in all departments and activities of 
 industrial and commercial life. 
 
 Minor points of difference between ns and those of our 
 contemporaries who were generally satisfied with the world 
 as it was, or at least with the social system under which 
 they were living, of which there were many of more or 
 less significance, it is not needful here to enumerate. 
 Enough have been mentioned to indicate the unique, the 
 peculiar, the virtually isolated situation in which w r e found 
 ourselves by reason of the new interpretations and appli- 
 cations of Christian truth which we had adopted and 
 testified to in our "Standard." Realizing our condition, 
 it was a serious question with us what we were going 
 to do about it. We could not renounce our faith, aban- 
 don our avowed principles as false, visionary, chimerical, 
 impracticable, and go back to the position to the eccle- 
 siastical, political, social status and fellowship whence we 
 came. That would be to shut out the light that had 
 dawned upon us from heaven and to deny the Lord to 
 whom we owed allegiance. We could not unite with any 
 existing body of people, religious, reformatory, philan- 
 thropic, or otherwise, with any assurance that we should 
 find sympathy, co-operation, desirable assistance in main- 
 taining our views of truth and duty or in proclaiming 
 them and making them efficacious in enlightening, uplift- 
 ing, and redeeming mankind. Nor could we stand in our 
 separate and unrelated individuality apart from the world 
 and all existing associations, institutions, organizations, 
 and apart from each other. Not at all. We must our- 
 selves, few in numbers as we were, strike hands together, 
 be united in spirit and in action, co-operate, associate our 
 interests, combine our forces, institute a church, a system 
 of society, that should truly represent our convictions ; 
 build a new civilization radically higher than the old, 
 which should be in deed and in truth the realization of 
 
RELIEF FROM AN UNFORTUNATE POSITION SOUGHT. 13 
 
 a divine order of human life founded on the great ideas 
 of the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. This 
 would be to put the new wine of our Practical Christianity 
 into the new bottles of an embryonic kingdom of heaven 
 on the earth. In this way was conceived and quickened 
 in us the germinal principle that in a few months was to 
 become incarnated in Fraternal Community No. 1, after- 
 wards known as The Hopedale Community. 
 
 Another consideration of no trifling importance came in 
 as a factor of the problem whose solution was command- 
 ing our attention, and no doubt had considerable influence 
 in determining our future course. Our acknowledged 
 ''Standard" contemplated and required on our part, not 
 only a devotion to whatever might conduce in a general 
 way and by the more quiet methods of moral enlighten- 
 ment and spiritual regeneration and growth to the pro- 
 gress and redemption of mankind, but also a deep and 
 active interest in those specific reforms which were then 
 agitating the public mind and pressing their claims home 
 upon the hearts and consciences of all those who loved 
 God and their fellowmen. Recognizing and accepting the 
 obligations imposed upon us in that respect, we had 
 heartily espoused the Anti-Slavery, Temperance, and Peace 
 movements, and had borne faithful witness in the pulpit 
 and elsewhere against the great evils they were designed 
 to overcome and banish from the world. Our course had 
 aroused more or less opposition on the part of certain of 
 our parishioners, some of whom threatened to withdraw 
 their support from us and secure our discharge from our 
 post of ministerial duty, as had been done under similar 
 circumstances elsewhere. This was exceedingly embarrass- 
 ing and unpleasant for us and led us to see how unfortu- 
 nate was the position of a minister who was impelled by 
 his conscience to proclaim unpopular truths and to arraign 
 and denounce prevailing errors and abuses while dependent 
 for the means of subsistence for himself and family, in 
 
14 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 part at least, upon those who were brought under rebuke 
 and condemnation by his testimonies. It also suggested 
 the inquiry whether some way could not be devised or 
 plan adopted whereby we. as occupants of such a posi- 
 tion, could not maintain ourselves outside of our profes- 
 sion, by week-day agricultural or mechanical labors, or 
 otherwise and go out into the community at large on 
 Sundays or week-day evenings, as opportunity should offer, 
 and deliver our message upon questions affecting the 
 interests of humanity, freely and independently, in fidelity 
 to our highest convictions, whether men would hear or for- 
 bear. The proposition to establish a Community seemed 
 to be in line with that inquiry and to furnish a satisfactory 
 answer to it. Under such a system as that to which our 
 declaration of faith was impelling us, all our material 
 wants would be adequately provided for and we could 
 proclaim our Gospel of Reform as the Lord's freemen, 
 uninfluenced by any financial or other worldly considera- 
 tions, and make war against reigning abominations, fash- 
 ionable iniquities, and spiritual wickedness in high places, 
 regardless of the favor or hostility, the smiles or the 
 frowns of men. So were we confirmed and strengthened in 
 our purpose to move forward in the way already indicated 
 a way which appeared to our thought and faith provi- 
 dentially opened to us. 
 
 While in the midst of the inquiries and deliberations 
 set forth in the foregoing pages, seeking after and wait- 
 ing for any new light that might be thrown upon our 
 uncertain path, we commenced the publication of a small 
 semi-monthly sheet, entitled, The Practical Christian, its 
 first number being dated, "Mendon, Mass., April 1, 
 1840." It had fora standing motto, "Devoted to Truth 
 and Righteousness." As stated in the prospectus, its 
 leading design, in general terms, was to be an organ for 
 "a faithful exposition, defence, and promulgation of 
 
THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN. 15 
 
 Primitive Christianity, in all the prominent character- 
 istics, aspects, and bearings of its theology, piety, and 
 morality," and "to bear aloft and magnify the standard of 
 religious truth and duty for which Jesus of Nazareth died 
 on the cross." Though naming the town of Mention as its 
 phu-e of publication, it was not at first printed there, but 
 at such localities as were most convenient. Its Editor in 
 Chief and Publishing Agent was AIMS BALLOU ; with 
 DAVID K. LAMSON, GEORGE W. STACY, DANIEL S. WHIT- 
 NEY, and WILLIAM II. FISH, Contributors. These assistants 
 for several years furnished a goodly proportion of the 
 matter that appeared in its columns. On the last page 
 of No. 1, was presented in full our "Standard of Prac- 
 tical Christianity" adopted a year before, with all its 
 Scripture verifications and explanatory notes. In the 
 same issue I began a series of articles entitled Malposition 
 of Faith, in which I endeavored "to furnish inquiring 
 minds with a well digested, systematic, and comprehensive 
 view of Christian theology, as understood by me and 
 generally by those sympathizing with me in matters of 
 religious faith and practice." It ran through the entire 
 volume and near to the middle of the succeeding one. 
 Concurrently therewith, both my brethren and myself, with 
 now and then an outside correspondent, were unfolding, 
 illustrating, and applying the general moral and spiritual 
 ideas and sentiments that had been imparted to us, in 
 such a manner as seemed calculated to instruct our read- 
 ers in the things of the Divine Kingdom, to show them 
 their duty to both God and man, to arouse in their 
 breasts a sense of personal responsibility, and so build 
 them up in the faith and life of Christ. A rational, a 
 practical, a spiritual interpretation and application of the 
 Gospel in its relation to the individual and social needs 
 of our fellowmen constituted the principal theme of our 
 discussions, the burden of our testimonies. All the virtues 
 that dignify and adorn human character, all the graces 
 
16 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 that enter into the Christian life, all helpful ministries of 
 good, all disinterested philanthropies, all salutary reforms, 
 received encouragement at our hands and the commenda- 
 tion which we felt to be their due. 
 
 Meanwhile the Community idea in our minds was strug- 
 gling to make itself felt, and to gain a commanding 
 place in our thoughts and deliberations. It entered more 
 and more into our social intercourse as we met from 
 time to time, and grew in importance as we dwelt upon 
 it and suggested practical measures to one another in 
 friendly conversation. But it did not seem advisable in 
 its yet immature, undigested state, to make it the subject 
 of deliberative discourse in any of our public convoca- 
 tions, nor even to mention it in our paper, and for quite 
 a while it was scarcely heard of outside our own little 
 circle. At length, having as I thought sufficiently pon- 
 dered it in my own private meditations and talked about 
 it with my brethren, I was moved to make known our 
 views and feelings upon it. more in the spirit of sug- 
 gestion and inquiry than of positive conviction, through 
 the columns of The Practical Christian, in its issue of 
 Sept. 15, 1840: Vol. 1, No. 10. The article will show 
 the still rudimental phase of the matter involved at that 
 date, but as it was the first proclamation of what was 
 fomenting in our own breasts and seeking an outward 
 expression, ere long to be actualized in an organic form 
 and stand forth before angels and men as a noteworthy 
 achievement among the hurnanitary movements of the 
 middle of the 19th century, it is given here complete. 
 
 " COMMUNITIES. 
 
 " A good deal has been said among our brethren in their 
 social interviews at various times about the establishment of 
 Practical Christian Communities. We have been frequently 
 requested of late to lay the subject before the readers of this 
 paper with a view to a free discussion of the general proposi- 
 tion and its details. We have at length concluded to comply 
 
IDEA OF A COMMUNITY ANNOUNCED. 17 
 
 with this repeated request, but in doing so would respectfully 
 premise that the whole matter is in a mere embryonic state 
 as yet, and that little more can be done at present than to 
 suggest, discuss, and consider. Whether in the end any enter- 
 prise of the kind will be deemed desirable, or, if desirable, 
 practicable, remains to be seen. We shall submit a rough 
 sketch of a general plan for a Community, and leave it to the 
 criticism and amendment of the brethren at large. The 
 Shakers and the Moravians have established and maintained 
 Communities after their peculiar fashion, neither of which we 
 should at present wholly approve as models, though much 
 might be selected from both worthy of adoption. With us. at 
 present, perfect individuality is a fundamental idea of the true 
 man. We believe that by setting the individual right with 
 his Creator, we shall set social relationships right. We there- 
 fore go for unabridged independence of mind, conscience, duty, 
 and responsibility; for direct divine government over the 
 human soul; and, of course, for as little human government 
 as possible. We wish to know whether there is any such 
 thing as man's being and doing right from the law of God 
 written on his heart, without the aid of external bonds and 
 restraints. We believe this is possible, and that it is every 
 man's privilege, by the grace of God, to attain to such a state. 
 And more than this, we believe that men in the flesh will yet 
 by thousands actually arrive at that blissful state. Hence, our 
 notions of a Practical Christian Community preclude very 
 much of the governmental machinery employed in both the 
 Shaker and Moravian establishments. 
 
 " We are not prepared to embrace the doctrine of the 
 Shakers respecting marriage, nor their plan of entire common 
 property. The Moravians, it is true, retain marriage, preserve 
 family integrity, and secure the inclividual rights of property, 
 etc. But there is too much detail and complexity in their 
 government. Both of these classes of Christians have taken a 
 noble stand in favor of many points of Practical Christianity, 
 as have also the Friends, Mennonites, and others. They are 
 lights of Christian excellence to which we should do well to 
 give heed: not implicitly as unto perfection itself, but judi- 
 ciously, as unto lamps lighted at the great sun, Jesus Christ, 
 which yet may be excelled in some respects by still brighter 
 luminaries. Especially would we recommend, should our 
 
18 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 brethren ever attempt to found a Community, that some suit- 
 able persons be sent to the Shaker and Moravian settle- 
 ments, for the purpose of investigating the practical working 
 of their respective systems, in order that whatever is good in 
 them might not be overlooked or rejected. We say this the 
 more earnestly because we have made the foregoing remarks 
 respecting their Communities wholly from book knowledge 
 and not from actual observation, which last might perhaps 
 render it necessary to modify our judgment in some respects. 
 With these preliminary observations, we proceed to the busi- 
 ness in hand. 
 
 "(1) What is the great leading idea of the proposed Com- 
 munity? Ans. A compact neighborhood or village of practical 
 Christians, dwelling together by families in love and peace, 
 insuring to themselves the comforts of life by agricultural and 
 mechanical industry, and devoting the entire residue of their 
 intellectual, moral, and physical resources to the Christianiza- 
 tion and general welfare of the human race. 
 
 "(2) What is the basis on which members are to be admitted 
 into this Community? Ans. Assent to the document known 
 among our friends by the title. Standard of Practical Chris- 
 tianity. Those who profess the principles and acknowledge the 
 duties declared in that Standard (together with their families 
 and dependents) are to be the inhabitants of the Community, 
 village, or neighborhood. 
 
 "(3) How is a tract of land, or proper quantity of real 
 estate, to be obtained for such an establishment? Ans. By 
 means of a joint stock fund raised by subscription in definite 
 shares and judiciously expended in the purchase of the 
 requisite real estate; which estate, having been secured, should 
 be afterwards partly or wholly divided among the joint pro- 
 prietors according to the value of their several subscriptions 
 unless all were agreed to hold it in common. 
 
 "(4) Where shall the Community be located? Ans. In the 
 East or West, according to circumstances. It should be on 
 land capable of the highest degree of improvement at the 
 least expense, in a healthful location, a little retired from the 
 bustle of the world, with a good mill privilege, and within 
 reach of a ready market for vegetable productions. 
 
 "(5) What should be the maximum size of the Community? 
 Ans. We think it should not comprise more than one hun- 
 
GENERAL PLAN OF ORGANIZATION OUTLINED. 19 
 
 dred families, and perhaps not so many. More good might 
 probably be done by planting new colonies when those wishing 
 to unite in such an enterprise should exceed fifty families, 
 especially if it were to be undertaken in a part of the country 
 where land is not easily obtained. Unforseen circumstances, 
 however, would more definitely settle the question of size. It 
 might vary in different localities. No precise limits can now 
 be prescribed. 
 
 "(6) What sort of a Constitution or Compact would be 
 proper for such a Community? Ans. Something like the 
 following, viz.: 
 
 " We, the undersigned, professing the principles and acknowl- 
 edging the duties declared in the document entitled Standard 
 oj Practical Christianity, do covenant with each other and agree 
 as follows: 
 
 "That by divine permission and favor we will unite in the 
 formation and establishment of a Community to be called 
 THE FRATERNAL COMMUNION. 
 
 " That we will purchase a suitable tract of land, lay out the 
 site of a village, and, as soon as may be, settle thereon by 
 families in a compact neighborhood. 
 
 "That to this end we will create by subscription a joint 
 stock fund in shares of fifty dollars each. 
 
 " That said shares shall be transferable by the holders at 
 their pleasure, provided only that no share shall be sold out 
 of the Communion until the purchase thereof shall have been 
 refused by all within its membership. 
 
 "That when the joint stock fund shall have been invested 
 in real estate, any stockholder shall be entitled, upon demand, 
 to have his or her just portion of the joint property, or any 
 specified part thereof, set off to his or her exclusive posses- 
 sion. And that it shall forever be at the option of the stock- 
 holders, as individuals, to continue in joint partnership with 
 each other, wholly or in part, or to dissolve the same by an 
 equitable division. 
 
 "That this Communion shall from time to time elect such 
 official servants as may be deemed necessary, all of whom 
 shall be directly accountable to their constituents, and subject 
 to their instructions and removals at their pleasure. 
 
 "That any person professing the principles and acknowledg- 
 ing the duties set forth in the forenamed Standard, may 
 become a member by subscribing this Compact. 
 
20 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "That any membar of this Communion may be dismissed, 
 or withdraw from the same, at any time, by expressing a 
 desire or purpose to do so in writing. 
 
 "That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to 
 countenance the slightest interference with the conscience, 
 rights, duties, or responsibilities of any individual member. 
 
 "That this Communion may at their pleasure amend this 
 Compact, or adopt any rules or regulations for the transaction 
 of business under the same not repugnant to its general object 
 and spirit. 
 
 "(7) Finally, What important advantages may be expected 
 from the establishment of the proposed Community? Ans. 
 Such a Community would furnish a happy home to many 
 pure-hearted Christians now scattered abroad, insulated from 
 each other, enthralled by a corrupt church, and oppressed by 
 the world. It would enable them to secure, with less severe 
 toil and more certainty, a comfortable subsistence for them- 
 selves and their family dependents. It would render it much 
 easier for them to reform pernicious habits of living and pro- 
 mote the true physical health of themselves and their children. 
 It would remove them from the dominion of many corrupt 
 and demoralizing influences to which they are now exposed. 
 It would enable them to set up and maintain a purer religious 
 worship, a holier ministry, a more salutory moral discipline, and 
 a better spiritual culture. It would enable them to send forth 
 devoted religious, moral, and philanthropic missionaries into 
 the world for its conversion men and women who could not 
 be bribed nor frightened into subserviency to popular iniquities, 
 and who, when weary, might return like Noah's dove to the 
 shelter of a peaceful ark and find repose. It would enable 
 them more effectually to prosecute every work of moral reform 
 arid improvement, by means of the press, of well-ordered 
 schools, and of trained teachers going out to inculcate their 
 holy principles wherever the people might welcome them. It 
 would enable them to 'bring up their children in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord,' away from those loose and de- 
 grading influences so prevalent in existing society. It would 
 enable them to build asylums for the orphan, the widow, and 
 the outcast, wherein they might be led into the paths of life. 
 
 "In fine, it would be a powerful concentration of moral 
 light and heat which would make Practical Christianity known 
 
PROMINENT FEATURES OF THE PLAN. 21 
 
 and felt by all beholders. It would be in the moral and 
 religious world what the sun glass and steam engine are in 
 the physical. If one such Community could be established, 
 ,the number might be indefinitely multiplied till at length the 
 kingdoms of this world should be absorbed in the glorious 
 kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the reign of ignor- 
 ance, selfishness, pride, and violence would be terminated 
 among men, and the whole great brotherhood of our race 
 would dwell together in unspeakable peace under the govern- 
 ment of Him to whom belongeth the kingdom, power, and 
 glory, forever. 
 
 "Shall the experiment be made? Who has faith in such 
 small things? Let the believers speak." 
 
 The above article, though the product of my pen, was 
 in its general character a consensus of the sentiments and 
 aspirations of all those whose names had been appended 
 to the Standard. It is worth while to call attention to a 
 few of its distinguishing features. It exhibits a strong 
 determination to maintain unabridged individuality of per- 
 sonal rights and responsibilities, the integrity of the mar- 
 riage and family relationship, and the great safeguards 
 against communal tyranny and absorption; yet at the 
 same time it holds up the grand desideratum of fraternal 
 unity and co-operation. It contemplates no unnatural, 
 exclusive, monastic retreat from society at large, but only 
 such a concentration of the benign social forces represented 
 by us as should enable us most effectually to reach out a 
 religious and philanthropic hand to all mankind. It pro- 
 poses a definite moral and religious test of membership, 
 but not a theological, dogmatic, sectarian one. It sup- 
 poses those entering the association suggested to be 
 Christlike enough to stand upon his super- worldly plane, 
 sullicieiitly above the common level of existing civilization 
 not to be involved in its semi-barbarism ; thus to uplift 
 it instead of being debased by it, as has so long been 
 the case with the nominal Christian Church. The weakest 
 point of the proposition, perhaps, was its over- sang nine 
 
22 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 assumption that such persons could be found, wilh the 
 attainments, resources, and noble devotion requisite to 
 the realization of the end in view, the formation of 
 practical Christian Communities in those times or at some 
 time not far away. The credulity on which such assump- 
 tion was based may be regarded as a weakness, but can 
 be no crime, and is morally far preferable to that pseudo- 
 Christian skepticism which is forever postponing the advent 
 of a truly Christian dispensation under the plea that in 
 our day it is utterly impracticable. Whatever may be 
 said of the article, it shows very plainly the drift of 
 myself and brethren towards Community life. 
 
 But as we advanced in that direction and began to 
 confer together in regard to a plan of organization, almost 
 insuperable obstacles hindered our progress. In the first 
 place we were hardly more than novitiate confessors of 
 our exalted Standard. And yet our understandings, con- 
 victions, and consciences were far in advance of our 
 circumstances, our habitual spiritual states of mind, and 
 aptitudes for the exemplification of our sublime ideal. 
 Hence we were very liable to trip and stumble in the 
 presence of temptation. Moreover, our knowledge, skill, 
 and experience as social architects was sadly inadequate 
 to the designing and construction of the needed edifice. 
 And then we could command but a fraction of the requi- 
 site pecuniary means. Furthermore, we could muster 
 only a handful of coadjutors, and most of these were 
 untrained and undisciplined, and of doubtful capability 
 for the work we were about to undertake. And finally, 
 it was by no means certain that any of our families were 
 disposed to enter heartily with us upon the untried and 
 hazardous experiment. Under these circumstances what 
 was to be done? Our ardent aspirations, our zeal and 
 enthusiasm could not be repressed. Something we must 
 do, if it were only to grope and flounder toward our well- 
 determined object. We could meditate, we could plan, 
 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 23 
 
 we could agitate the subject if we could do nothing 
 more, aud so prepare the way for systematic action when 
 the proper time should seem to have come. 
 
 After the publication of the article quoted, which brought 
 the whole matter before our friends scattered abroad and 
 the general public, it came under frequent and earnest 
 consideration at our conferences and social meetings, as 
 well as in our private interviews. Letters of inquiry 
 from interested persons near and far away began to 
 reach us, to one of which 1 responded in The Practical 
 Christian of December 1, 1840, thus: 
 
 " I wish the good and the true would give it (the Community 
 question) their most serious and deliberate consideration. I 
 look forward with high expectations of good to mankind 
 through this instrumentality. The matter is maturing and 
 will in due time ripen into cheering results. Encouraging- 
 letters have been received from our friends at a distance in 
 relation to the general proposition. T wish to hear from more 
 of those who, I am sure, would be glad to take part iu such 
 an enterprise. It has been deemed inexpedient to enlarge 
 much on the topic in our paper, but all persons interested 
 may rest assured that the discussion is going on, and that the 
 project will not be abandoned without some attempt to carry 
 it into execution. I would invite those of our brethren and 
 sisters in various places who think favorably of it to com- 
 municate with me on the subject, and especially to signify 
 what amount of means they are prepared to invest in the 
 undertaking, if they can see a rational prospect of success." 
 
 In other ways than by correspondence were things 
 moving on towards the practical realization of our fondly 
 cherished hopes. Meetings were held in different locali- 
 ties for the special purpose of bringing together persons 
 known to be favorable to our particular movement, or to 
 the general cause of Social reform, for mutual consulta- 
 tion and suggestion ; many individuals, devoted to works 
 of philanthropy and human improvement in a large and 
 unsectarian way, were interviewed and consulted for the 
 
24 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 purpose of securing their encouragement and moral sup- 
 port, even when they were not prepared to co-operate 
 personally with us or aid us with pecuniary assistance ; 
 and certain localities were visited and examined somewhat 
 in order to ascertain their fitness as a site for a Com- 
 munity. Moreover, I had spent much time, thought, and 
 energy upon drafting the form of a Constitution to be 
 submitted to the brethren and sisters when the time for 
 a permanent organization should come. An event of 
 great significance to me personally had also occurred, 
 the acceptance of the Community idea by my wife. She 
 had demurred for some time, but at length, after a long 
 conversation with me upon the subject, confessed herself 
 satisfied and ready to second my efforts in carrying my 
 plans into execution. This gratified me exceedingly and 
 gave me fresh courage and zeal in pressing forward 
 toward what had become the goal of my most cherished 
 ambition and desire. 
 
 It should be remembered by the reader of these pages 
 that the year of which I am now writing, 1840, opened 
 a decade of American history pre-eminently distinguished 
 for the general humanitarian spirit w r hich seemed to per- 
 vade it, as manifested in numerous and widely extended 
 efforts to put away existing evils and better the condi- 
 tion of the masses of mankind ; and especially for the 
 w<ave of communal thought which swept over the country, 
 awakening a very profound interest in different directions 
 in the question of the re-organization of society ; an 
 interest which assumed various forms as it contemplated 
 or projected practical results. There were a considerable 
 number of what were known as Transcendentalists in and 
 about Boston, who, under the leadership of Rev. George 
 Ripley, a Unitarian clergyman of eminence, planned and 
 put in operation the Roxbury Community, generally 
 known as the "Brook Farm" Association. A company 
 
EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL ENTERPRISES. 
 
 of radical reformers who had come out from the church 
 on account of its alleged complicity with Slavery and 
 other abominations, and hence called Come-outers, insti- 
 tuted a sort of family Community near Providence, R. I. 
 Other progressives, with George W. Benson at their head, 
 founded the Northampton Community at the present 
 village of Florence, a suburb of that city. During the 
 same period Mr. Albert Brisbane of Philadelphia, an 
 enthusiastic disciple of Charles Fourier, a celebrated 
 French philosopher and inventor of a new system of 
 society, published a work entitled "Social Destiny of 
 Mn," etc., which, seconded by the writings and lectures 
 of such men as Horace Greeley, Parke Goodwin, and 
 Hev. Win. Henry Chauning, stimulated the rise of several 
 Phalansterian Associations, as they were termed, in the 
 middle and western states, chiefest of which was "The 
 North American Phalanx " in Moumouth Co., N. J. 
 These and other similar movements of varying type and 
 character, ovnerated by the spirit that was abroad, made 
 the land, especially the Northern portion of it for some 
 years, one vast theater of social theorizing and experi- 
 mentation. 
 
 The undertaking of which I am writing was among the 
 earliest of these referred to, and its origin was wholly 
 independent of them all. Jt was strictly of Practical 
 Christian genesis, and for some time we who were inter- 
 ested in it scarcely knew of contemporaneous projects of 
 a like nature. We very soon, however, became informed 
 of the ideas and prospective designs of Mr. Ripley and 
 his associates, and entered into correspondence with them, 
 for the free interchange of views and feelings upon the 
 subject of absorbing interest to both parties. It was 
 found that we stood in most friendly relations towards 
 each other, and that in many things we occupied common 
 ground, with common objects to be attained. To such an 
 extent was this the case, with such a mutual attraction 
 
26 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 between us, that at one time, before we or they were 
 fairly organized for future operations, a proposition for 
 a formal coalition and union of resources and forces was 
 seriously considered. Upon conferring together, however, 
 and going into details, this was decided to be impracticable 
 and undesirable. They would have nothing to do with 
 our Practical Christian Standard, upon which our proposed 
 action was based, and we were unwilling to relinquish its 
 tests and obligations. So we parted, amicably but un- 
 " compromisingly. They abounded in educational resources, 
 in literary accomplishments, and aesthetic tastes : and also 
 had in cheering prospect a gratifying amount of capital. 
 In these respects we were poor. But we had a resolute 
 spirit and a determined will. Moreover, we knew what 
 it was to work hard, to live on small means, and to deny 
 ourselves for conscience' and righteousness' sake. But as 
 we could not agree heartily upon what we each deemed 
 vital to our movement, we went respectively our own 
 ways, faithful to our convictions of truth and duty and 
 wishing each other well in the premises. They were 
 nearly a year ahead of us in securing a location and 
 commencing Community life, and about ten years our 
 predecessors in terminating their experiment. 
 
 As for ourselves, we made advances towards the organ- 
 ization of our forces and a settlement upon our communal 
 estate as rapidly as circumstances would permit, and more 
 rapidly, perhaps, than wisdom and prudence dictated. 
 Before the meeting of our Quarterly Conference in Janu- 
 ary. 1841, we held several preliminary gatherings of from 
 ten to thirty persons, discussed means and methods of 
 operation, considered and amended a Constitution which I 
 had drafted, and had given it our approval. So that when 
 that body convened on the 27th of the month, everything 
 was ready for provisional action. Immediately following 
 the customary religious exercises of the occasion came 
 the deliberate and careful consideration of the proposed 
 
CONSTITUTION OF A COMMUNITY. 27 
 
 plan of organization. It was examined, article by article, 
 section by section, discussed in all its details, and, after 
 successive adjournments, unanimously adopted by those 
 prepared to unite together in an attempt to actualize the 
 object it contemplated and carry its several provisions 
 into effect. Its reproduction here will close the first 
 chapter of this History. 
 
 "CONSTITUTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FRATERNAL COMMUNION. 
 
 " Know all men : 
 
 "That in order more effectually to illustrate the virtues and 
 promote the ends of pure religion, morality, and philanthropy; 
 to withstand the vices and reform the disorders of the present 
 social state; to secure to our posterity the blessings of a more 
 salutary, physical, intellectual, and moral education : to establish 
 a more attractive, economical, and productive system of indus- 
 try; and to facilitate the honest acquisition of individual 
 property for laudable purposes; We whose names are here- 
 unto annexed do unite in a voluntary Association to be called 
 
 THE FRATERNAL COMMUNION; 
 
 And we do adopt and ordain for our Association the following 
 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 "SECTION 1. This Association shall be organized in distinct, 
 independent Communities, unitedly maintaining a general fellow- 
 ship, but exercising within themselves respectively all the social 
 powers, rights, and immunities of Christian commonwealths. 
 
 "SEC. 2. The members of this Communion shall meet in 
 Quarterly and General Conferences, for religious improvement 
 and fraternal counsel, at such times and places as may in the 
 progress of events be found expedient. 
 
 " SEC. 3. The general meetings shall be regulated and con- 
 ducted according to such rules of order as two-thirds of the 
 members in attendance for may the time being agree to adopt. 
 
28 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 "SEC. 1. Membership in this Association shall be acquired 
 only by admission into some one of its Communities. 
 
 "SEC. 2. No person shall be a member of any Community 
 who does not deliberately and cordially assent to the annexed 
 
 DECLARATION. 
 
 " I believe in the religion of Jesus Christ, as he taught and 
 exemplified it according to the Scriptures of the New Testa- 
 ment. I acknowledge myself a bounden subject of all its 
 moral obligations. Especially do I hold myself bound by its 
 holy requirements, never, under any pretext whatsoever, to 
 kill, assault, beat, torture, enslave, rob, oppress, persecute, 
 defraud, corrupt, slander, revile, injure, envy, or hate any 
 human being, even my worst enemy; never in any manner to 
 violate the dictates of pure chastity; never to take or adminis- 
 ter an oath; never to manufacture, buy, sell, deal out, or use 
 any intoxicating liquor as a beverage; never to serve in the 
 army, navy, or militia of any nation, state, or chieftain ; never 
 to bring an action at law, hold office, vote, join a legal posse, 
 petition a legislature, or ask governmental interposition, in 
 any case involving a final authorized resort to physical violence; 
 never to indulge self-will, bigotry, love of pre-eminence, covet- 
 ousness, deceit, profanity, idleness, or an unruly tongue ; never 
 to participate in lotteries, games of chance, betting, or perni- 
 cious amusements; never to resent reproof nor justify myself 
 in a known wrong; never to aid, abet, or approve others in 
 anything sinful; but through divine assistance, always to 
 recommend and promote, with my entire influence, the holiness 
 and happiness of all mankind. 
 
 "SEC. 3. Any person eighteen years of age, thus assenting 
 ( to the foregoing Declaration, may be proposed for membership 
 1 at any regular meeting of a Community, and admitted by 
 vote. 
 
 " SEC. 4. Anj T person may cease to be a member by com- 
 municating to the Secretary of his or her Community a written 
 notice to that effect. 
 
 "SEC. 5. Any unworthy member, having proved incorrigible, 
 may be disowned by vote. 
 
 "SEC. 6. Every Community shall be distinguished by num- 
 ber, according to the date of its formation, and shall be 
 
CONSTITUTION CONTINUED. 29 
 
 uniformly entitled, in all written instruments, records, and 
 addresses, Fraternal Community No. 1, 2, 3, etc., as the case 
 may be. And every such Community shall keep a book con- 
 taining this Constitution, with a general Register of all its 
 members annexed ; which Register shall exhibit in distinct 
 columns the following particulars, viz.: their names at full 
 length, place of nativity, time of birth, date of admission, and 
 general calling, together with blank space sufficient to minute 
 their death or disconnection however effected. A book shall 
 also be kept by every Community in which all births, mar- 
 riages, and deaths shall be carefully recorded. 
 
 "SEC. 7. All members of every Community shall stand on 
 a footing of personal equality, irrespective of sex, color, occu- 
 pation, wealth, rank, or any other natural or adventitious pecu- 
 liarity. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 "SEC. 1. The members of each Community in this Associa- 
 tion shall own and manage such and so much real and mova- 
 ble estate in Joint-Stock proprietorship as they may from time 
 to time deem best. 
 
 "SEC. 2. This Joint-Stock property shall be created by sub- 
 scription, in negotiable shares of fifty dollars each, and may 
 be increased by new subscriptions indefinitely at the discretion 
 of the Community. 
 
 " SEC. 3. All Joint-Stock property thus created shall be con- 
 sidered as existing in the two following named distinct funds, 
 viz. : the consolidated fund and the floating fund. The consol- 
 idated fund shall cover all investments in real estate of every 
 description whatsoever. The floating fund shall cover all unex- 
 pended cash, moneys due the Community, and movable prop- 
 erty in possession of every description. And all accounts shall 
 be kept with strict reference to these two funds. . 
 
 " SEC. 4. No Community shall invest more than five-sixths 
 of its Joint-Stock property in real estate, except for temporary 
 safe keeping under peculiar circumstances. At least one-sixth 
 shall ordinarily remain in the floating fund; and sufficient cash 
 be retained on hand to meet all probable necessities. 
 
 "SEC. 5. A regular subscription book shall be opened and 
 kept in every Community, which shall exhibit the terms of 
 subscription, the names of all subscribers, the amount sub- 
 
30 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 scribed, the number of shares taken, the time when, a record 
 of all certificates of stock at full length, and a minute of all 
 transfers of shares. 
 
 "SEC. 6. Every person, on payment of his or her subscrip- 
 tion to the Joint-Stock property of any Community, shall 
 receive a certificate of title to the number of shares taken, 
 signed by the presiding executive officer thereof, and counter- 
 signed by the Secretary; which certificate sjiall be in the form 
 following, to wit : 
 
 " ' For value received, A, B, or order, is hereby entitled to 
 
 shares in the Joint-Stock property of Fraternal Commun* 
 ity No. , valued at dollars, etc., together with such divi- 
 dends as may from time to time be declared thereon. 
 
 " ' Given under our hands at - - this day of 
 
 A. D., . 
 
 C. D., Pres't. 
 
 E. F, Sec'y.' 
 
 "SEC. 7. Whenever any stockholder shall be desirous of 
 converting his or her stock, or any part thereof, into cash, and 
 no purchaser readily appears to take the same, the Community 
 shall, if. possible, purchase it at the par value thereof, and pay 
 the amount out of the money on hand in the floating fund. 
 
 "SEC. 8. No member shall ever sell any share of the Joint 
 Stock except to fellow members, without first offering it to 
 the Community. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 "SEC. 1. The members of every Community in this Asso- 
 ciation shall, if practicable, dwell together, on their own soil, in 
 a compact neighborhood. 
 
 " SEC. 2. They shall erect in each Community, at their 
 earliest convenience, one or more spacious, well-constructed 
 mapsion-houses, with such appurtenant barns, granaries, work- 
 shops, mills, manufactories, and other buildings, as they may 
 be able, and deem necessary. These mansion-houses, with their! 
 appendages, shall be called Habitations, and shall be capable j 
 of affording comfortable accommodations to one hundred per- 
 sons, at least, and as many more as may be found expedient. 
 
 " SEC. 3. All Habitations, with their surrounding lands and 
 buildings, shall be owned and controlled solely by the Com- 
 munity within whose limits they are comprised. 
 
CONSTITUTION CONTINUED. 31 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 " SEC. 1. It shall be considered the duty and the privilege 
 of all members of this Association in every Community, and 
 of their family dependents, unless absolutely incapacitated, to 
 perform a reasonable amount of productive labor, either 
 manual, mental, or mixed, in some department of useful 
 industry. 
 
 "SEC. 2. To this end each Community shall endeavor to 
 provide suitable employment for every individual connected 
 with it; which various employment shall be adapted, as nearly 
 as the case will admit, to the genius and taste of the several 
 operatives. 
 
 " SEC. 3. All operatives of every description, whether em- 
 ployed at home or abroad, in manual labor, or as business 
 agents, teachers, or missionaries, eighteen years of age and 
 upwards, shall be allowed one uniform rate of wages, not ex- 
 ceeding fifty cents for every eight hours of actual service. All 
 persons sent out on business agencies shall be furnished with the 
 means of defraying their extra expenses. All literary, philan- 
 thropic, moral, and religious teachers, going out into the sur- 
 rounding world with the approbation and under the direction 
 of the Community, shall be considered as serving forty -eight 
 hours per week, and be credited accordingly. And for all 
 moneys, or other goods, received from the people among whom 
 they may exercise their gifts, they shall account to the Com- 
 munity retaining to themselves a sufficient amount to cover 
 their reasonable extra expenses. 
 
 " SEC. 4. All children and youth under eighteen years of age 
 connected with any Community, shall be allowed wages for 
 all labors performed not exceeding the following rates, viz.: 
 From five to seven years of age, half a cent an hour; from 
 seven to nine, one cent an hour; from nine to eleven, two 
 cents an hour; from eleven to fourteen, three cents an hour; 
 from fourteen to sixteen, four cents an hour; and from sixteen 
 to eighteen, five cents per hour. 
 
 " SKC. 5. Time shall always be reckoned only for actual 
 employment, excluding the necessary intermissions of rest and 
 refreshment, and shall be accounted for on settlement by the 
 year, or the quarter, or the next longest term practicable. 
 Where wages are agreed on by the year, quarter, month, or 
 week, the average of eight hours to the day, or forty-eight 
 
32 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 per week, shall be the common measure. All lost time worthy 
 of notice shall be deducted, and all extra time added, each at 
 the allowed rate. 
 
 " SEC. 6. All work executed by the members of every 
 Community shall be wrought in a thorough, faithful, and 
 neatly finished style, according to its kind; so that it may 
 reflect honor on the Association and command the confidence 
 of the public. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 " SEC. 1. All the children and youth connected with any 
 Community in this Association shall be educated in the most 
 approved manner. Their physical education shall commence 
 in_a common nursery, furnished and attended in the most 
 appropriate and judicious way; into which they may be re- 
 ceived, with the consent of their parents, at the earliest age. 
 From the nursery, at the age of two or three years, they shall 
 be introduced into well-ordered infant school classes, and thence- 
 forth advanced from stage to stage of physical, intellectual, and 
 moral improvement till maturity. 
 
 " SEC. 2. All education in this Communion shall be con- 
 ducted on the manual labor principle, and with a view to 
 qualify every youth for the actual business of life, each 
 according to natural genius, taste, and passion. 
 
 " SEC. 3. No charge shall be made by any Community, 
 (except for books and stationery,) on account of education, 
 literary advantages, or religious instruction. These, and all 
 privileges naturally connected with them, shall be free to the 
 individual members with their respective family dependents, 
 and shall be supported by each Community at large, out of 
 its floating fund or ordinary resources. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 "SEC. 1. All persons connected with any Community in this 
 Association, except as designated in the 5th section of this 
 article, shall be considered regular boarders and charged a 
 certain price per week for their accommodations. 
 
 " SEC. 2. Board shall include suitable house-room, food, 
 lodging, bathing, light, heat, washing and ironing, medicine, 
 medical attendance, (unless called from abroad,) and proper 
 nursing when necessary; and shall be afforded at prices not 
 
CONSTITUTION OF FRATERNAL COMMUNION. 33 
 
 exceeding the following-named per week, viz.: From birth until 
 seven years of age, fifty cents; from seven years till twelve, 
 seventy-five cents; from twelve years and upwards, one dollar. 
 
 "SEC. 3. An ample fare shall be agreed on, provided, and 
 served, by each Community to all its boarders, either in com- 
 mons, in select messes, or private families, as may have been 
 stipulated. 
 
 " SEC. 4. Families served with their food in private apart- 
 ments or separate tenements, shall furnish their rooms with 
 bedding, chairs, tables, crockery, and every other necessary 
 article of household convenience, at their own expense. In 
 all other respects they shall fare and be treated like those 
 who take their meals in the public eating rooms. 
 
 "SEC. 5. Whenever any family belonging to a Community 
 shall anxiously desire to keep house, cook, and board them- 
 selves in a separate tenement, they shall be furnished with 
 house-rent, fuel, bread-stuffs, and all the staple necessaries and 
 comforts of subsistence at a fair price. 
 
 " SEC. 6. Each Community shall endeavor to grow, manu- 
 facture, or purchase at wholesale, all articles of necessary 
 consumption ; so as to keep in store an adequate supply for 
 the wants of all its members and dependents. And every item 
 sold out of the Community stores, or furnished at a price, to 
 any member of this Communion, or to any family dependent 
 of such member, shall be afforded at cost, as nearly as the 
 same can be ascertained. 
 
 "SEC. 7. All labor performed for any Community shall be 
 credited; board and all other articles furnished shall be 
 charged; and a complete settlement shall be made with every 
 individual, at least once a year. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 " SEC. 1. All losses of real estate from any cause whatso- 
 ever, exceeding the sum of three hundred dollars in any one* 
 year, shall be borne by the stockholders of a Community, and 
 repaired by an equitable assessment on their shares. All other 
 losses, whether of real or movable estate belonging to the 
 Community, shall be borne by such Community out of its. 
 floating fund. The public taxes, ordinary repairs of buildings,, 
 and all other incidental current expenses of every description^ 
 shall be paid out of the floating fund. 
 
34 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 " SEC. 2. The clear profits of every Community shall be 
 divided among the members thereof, and members only, ac- 
 cording to capital invested and labor performed. The shares 
 of Joint-Stock shall receive five-twelfths of such profits, and 
 labor seven-twelfths. Every member owning shares shall re- 
 ceive a dividend of the profits accruing to capital, according 
 to the number of such shares: and every member shall receive 
 a dividend of the profits accruing to labor, according to the 
 time credited to him or her on the books of the Community. 
 
 " SEC. 3. Provided, nevertheless, that capital shall never 
 receive profits exceeding an amount equal to six per cent, per 
 annum, simple interest, for the whole time of its investment 
 in the funds of the Community. Nor shall labor beyond the 
 average of forty-eight hours per week, nor that of minors 
 under eighteen years of age, nor the services of any other 
 person, ever entitle any member to profits. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 " Every Community in this Association shall stand forever 
 pledged to the relief and comfortable maintenance of all its 
 members who may become destitute of pecuniary resources; 
 and also of their widows and orphans, so long as they shall 
 conform to wholesome rules and regulations. 
 
 ARTICLE X. 
 
 " SEC. 1. Each Community in this Association shall hold 
 an annual meeting for the choice of official servants, the hear- 
 ing of reports, and the transaction of other necessary business. 
 
 " SEC. 2. All official servants shall continue to discharge the 
 proper duties of their offices till others are chosen and prepared 
 to serve in their stead. 
 
 " SEC. 3. Special meetings may be called and holden on 
 seven days notice. And such meetings shall be called and 
 holden whenever seven members may request the same in 
 writing. 
 
 " SEC. 4. The manner of calling, notifying, and conducting 
 meetings shall be prescribed by vote of the Community. 
 
 " SEC. 5. Every member shall have one and but one vote 
 on all questions; and the concurrence of two thirds of all the 
 members present and acting shall always be necessary to a 
 decision. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF FRATERNAL COMMUNION. 35 
 
 " SEC. 6. Nine members shall be requisite to constitute a 
 quorum for the transaction of business, but a less number 
 may adjourn. 
 
 AUTICLE XL 
 
 " SEC. 1. The official servants annually chosen by every 
 Community in this Association, shall be a President, Secre- 
 tary, Auditor, and six Intendants, viz.: an Intendant of 
 Finance and Exchange, an Intendant of Agriculture and 
 Animals, an Intendant of Manufactures and Mechanical In- 
 dustry, an Intendant of Health and Domestic Economy, an 
 Intendant of Education, Arts, and Sciences, and an Intendant 
 of Religion, Morals, and Missions. 
 
 " SEC. 2. The President and these six Intendants shall 
 constitute, ex officio, a Board of Trustees, in whose name the 
 whole property of their Community shall be holden and man- 
 aged for the common benefit. 
 
 "SEC. 3. These official servants shall also constitute, ex 
 officio, the Executive Council of their Community, with plenary 
 authority to select and appoint all managers, foremen, over- 
 seers, directors, and agents, necessary to its complete industrial 
 organization. Also to approve and recommend all teachers, 
 lecturers, ministers of the Gospel, and missionaries, going out 
 from the Community under its direction or in its general 
 service. 
 
 " SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the Executive Council to 
 arrange all the business interests and affairs of their Commu- 
 nity into six general departments, each having its appropriate 
 branches, in such a manner that every person, thing, and 
 particular matter of concern, may be under the oversight of 
 the Intendant to whom the same most naturally belongs. And 
 the several Intendants shall be considered responsible for the 
 orderly management and good condition of their respective 
 departments. 
 
 "SEC. 5. The Executive Council, through the President, 
 shall make a clear detailed report of the standing of their 
 Community in all its departments, at least once a year, and 
 as much oftener as the members may by vote demand. 
 
 "SEC. 6. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to act as 
 Clerk of the Community, the Board of Trustees, and the 
 Executive Council, and to keep full, fair, well-ordered records 
 
36 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 of their proceedings, and of all other matters properly coming 
 within his province. 
 
 " SEC. 7. It shall be the duty of the Auditor to examine 
 and attest all pecuniary accounts kept by the Community, and 
 to guard its financial statistics, if possible, from error. 
 
 " SEC. 8. The proper duties of the Treasurer, as well as of 
 general Purveyor and Accountant of the Community, shall be 
 performed by the Intendant of Finance and Exchange. He 
 shall receive, safely keep, and justly account for all moneys 
 accruing to the Community, and pay them out, under such 
 regulations as may from time to time be ordained. He shall 
 keep all his accounts by the most approved method, and in 
 such a form and state that his books may at all times exhibit 
 the true financial standing of the Community in its several 
 funds and interests. 
 
 " SEC. 9. No official servant, manager, foreman, overseer, 
 director, or agent of a Community, shall ever receive any 
 salary, or other compensation whatsoever, exceeding the estab- 
 lished rate of wages allowed to. the members at large. 
 
 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 " SEC. 1. It shall be the settled policy and a fundamental 
 principle with every Community in this Association, never to 
 contract any debt or obligation of suretyship out of the pale 
 of its own membership, nor within that pale beyond temporary 
 occasional necessity in the management of its internal affairs. 
 Nor shall the goods or productions of any Community ever 
 be sold on credit to the surrounding world. 
 
 " SEC. 2. All moneys to be expended for land, stock, goods, 
 or any other object, by the Trustees, Executive Council, or 
 Intendants of any Community, shall first be appropriated by 
 vote thereof at some regular meeting. 
 
 ARTICLE XIII. 
 
 " All matters of serious controversy arising in any Commu- 
 nity of this Association, shall be tried and determined in the 
 first instance by a mutual council, and upon failure thereof, 
 finally, by a jury of twelve impartial members. 
 
 ARTICLE XIV. 
 
 " Every Community in this Association may enact and estab- 
 lish such By-Laws, Rules and Regulations, not inconsistent 
 
FRATERNAL COMMUNITY NO. 1 FORMED. 37 
 
 with the general spirit and object of this Constitution, as may 
 be found necessary to its good order and general welfare. 
 
 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 " The Constitution of this Communion may be altered or 
 amended by a vote of three-fourths of all its members specially 
 convened for that purpose, either in their respective Commu- 
 nities or in general Conference: provided, always, that every 
 such alteration or amendment shall be proposed in writing, 
 and publicly announced to the members at least thirty days 
 preceeding the time of its regular consideration. 
 
 "Now, therefore, in solemn ratification of this Constitution 
 in all its Articles and Sections, and for the formation of 
 Fraternal Community, No. 1, we have severally caused our 
 names to be hereunto annexed. 
 
 u Adin Ballou, Lucy Hunt Ballou, David Rich Lamson. Mary 
 Lamson, George Whittemore Stacy, Daniel Sanderson Whitney, 
 William Henry Fish, Ann Eliza Fish, Levi Tower. Henry 
 Lillie, Caroline Hayden Lillie, Samuel Silsbee Brown, Mary 
 Louisa Brown, Amos Wood Pitts, Mary Ann Pitts, Perry 
 Thayer, Charlotte Taft Thayer, Nathan Harris, Martha Harris, 
 William Walker Cook, Abigail Draper Cook, Charles Gladding, 
 Ruth Shove Gladding, Jemima Sherman, Ebenezer Daggett 
 Draper, Anna Thwing Draper, John Wheeler, Miriam P. 
 Wheeler, Lemuel Munyan, Emily Gay, Samuel Colburn, Barbara 
 Earker Colburn." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 1841. 
 
 PLANS OF COMMUNITY ACTION COUNSELS AND CAUTIONS 
 A HOME SECURED, CHRISTENED, AND OCCUPIED. 
 
 TT will have been observed by the careful reader, that, 
 * according to the terms of the final clause of the Con- 
 stitution presented on the last few pages, the act of 
 ratifying that instrument, accompanied by the formal sign- 
 ing of the same, was also the act of forming a working 
 body under its general provisions to be called Fraternal 
 Community No. 1, of which the persons whose names 
 are appended to it, thirty-two in number, were the origi- 
 nal! members. This being accomplished, those composing 
 the new organization resolved themselves at once into a 
 special deliberative assembly, for the purpose of transact- 
 ing such other items of business as at the time seemed 
 calculated to promote still further the great objects they 
 had in view. A record of the proceedings of that first 
 meeting of the Community after it was regularly insti- 
 tuted was made and preserved, and is herein presented 
 in full: 
 
 "At a regular meeting of the members of Fraternal Com- 
 munity, Xo. 1, holden in Mendon, Mass., Jan. 28, 1841, David 
 R. Lamson acting as President, and Adin Ballon as Secretary,, 
 the following votes were passed unanimously: 
 
 "Voted, That the choice of our regular official servants be 
 deferred for the present, and that a Provisional Committee of 
 seven members be chosen, with the following special instruc- 
 tions and powers, viz. : 
 
RECORD OF FIRST COMMUNITY MEETING. 39 
 
 "(1) To procure suitable Record and Account Books, or so 
 many as may for the present be found necessary, and cause 
 the Constitution to be properly inscribed. 
 
 "(2) To receive subscriptions to the Constitution and to the 
 Joint-Stock. 
 
 "(3) To receive and account for any moneys that may be 
 paid into the treasury. 
 
 "(4) To prepare a suitable Exposition of the Constitution. 
 
 "(5) To cause 500 copies of the Constitution and Exposition 
 to be printed in The Practical Christian, and an equal number 
 in the form of a tract or pamphlet. 
 
 "(6) To collect such information as they may be able re- 
 specting a location for this Community; respecting the form 
 and construction of building's; respecting the internal economy 
 of social communities, hospitals, and large boarding establish- 
 ments; respecting agriculture, manufactures, and education ; and 
 respecting any other matters likely to promote the prosperity 
 of our enterprise. 
 
 "(7) To purchase such books and treatises, not exceeding 
 the cost of ten dollars, on agriculture, manufactures, education, 
 and other subjects, as they deem particularly necessary. 
 
 "(8) To call a meeting of the Community and report their 
 doings as soon as circumstances will in their opinion warrant. 
 
 "Voted, That the following named members do constitute 
 said Committee, viz.: Adin Ballou, Nathan Harris, AA4m. H. 
 Fish, Henry Lillie, David R. Lamson, Daniel S. Whitney, and 
 Geo. VV. Stacy. 
 
 "Voted, That the sum of one hundred dollars be appropriated 
 to the use of the Provisional Committee for the purposes of 
 their appointment. 
 
 Voted, That the Joint-Stock subscription terms of this Com- 
 munity be in the form following, to wit: 
 
 "SUBSCRIPTION TO THE JOINT-STOCK PROPRIETORSHIP 
 
 OF 
 FRATERNAL COMMUNITY, NO. 1. 
 
 "In conformity to the Constitution adopted, ordained, and 
 ratified by the members of Fraternal Community, No. 1, we, 
 the undersigned, do severally subscribe to the Joint-Stock 
 property of said Community and promise to pay into the 
 treasury thereof in current money or some acceptable equiva- 
 
40 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 lent at our earliest convenience after demand, the sums 
 designated and covering the shares noted opposite our respec- 
 tive names; the said Joint-Stock property and every share 
 thereof to be forever holden, controlled, regulated, subjected, 
 privileged, and entitled, in all respects, strictly according to 
 the provisions and specifications of said Constitution. 
 
 " Names . Sums . Xo. Shares . Place and 
 
 Date - . 
 
 "Voted, That this meeting be now dissolved." 
 
 At a meeting of the Provisional Committee subsequeDtly 
 holden, Adiii Ballon was chosen a sub-committee to draft, 
 prepare for the press, and publish an Exposition of the 
 Constitution. I at once addressed myself to the task 
 thus assigned me by my associates, producing a document 
 of great length, explaining and illustrating in detail every 
 article, section, and phrase almost of the instrument, in. 
 order that it might be intelligible to the average mind of 
 those likely to be interested in it and in the cause it was 
 designed to advance. Though serving well in its time 
 the purpose for which it was designed, it does not seem 
 needful to reproduce it in the present volume. It was 
 printed as a supplement to the Constitution in The Prac- 
 tical Christian of February 15, 1841, and both were 
 reprinted in pamphlet form directly afterward, and scat- 
 tered far and wide among the friends of reform and in 
 the general community. In this way was our movement, 
 now fairly inaugurated, advertised extensively throughout 
 large sections of the country, intensifying the enthusiasm 
 of those who sympathized with us, exciting the curiosity 
 of strangers, and calling out in various ways the adverse 
 criticism and sometimes scorn of unbelievers and oppos- 
 ers. Besides the publicity which we ourselves gave it, the 
 knowledge of it was considerably extended by the early 
 appearance of our Constitution in the columns of The 
 Liberator, through the unsolicited favor of our friend, the 
 editor, William Lloyd Garrison. 
 
HOW THE MOVEMENT WAS REGARDED. 41 
 
 It may be Questioned whether it was wise to make our 
 humble experiment so generally known at the outset, 
 inasmuch as it naturally raised expectations in many 
 quarters that could not possibly be realized, and multi- 
 plied applications for membership with us to an extent 
 beyond our ability to accept them and of a character 
 sometimes calculated to hinder rather than help in our 
 contemplated work. But our hope and zeal overmastered 
 our prudence, and we pressed forward more rapidly, per- 
 haps, than a more cautious sagacity would warrant. And 
 yet had we not done so, our undertaking would very 
 likely have been deferred to an indefinite future, or, more 
 probably, abandoned altogether. This, in my judgment, 
 would have been most unfortunate for the cause of truth 
 and for humanity, because the attempt with all its experi- 
 ences and lessons was a providential step in the march 
 of human progress and a needful preparation for more 
 wisely-planned and better-conditioned efforts yet to be 
 put forth in behalf of the regeneration of society efforts 
 which, I believe, are some day to achieve a richly merited 
 and glorious success. 
 
 No sooner had our Constitution and the accompanying 
 Exposition reached the great public to which they were 
 sent, than letters of inquiry, sympathy, and encourage- 
 ment, as also of caution and admonition, poured in upon 
 us from all directions. They were largely from persons 
 of philanthropic spirit, who were ready to welcome and 
 befriend any new method or movement which had in it 
 the potency and promise of succor and redemption to man- 
 kind. The devotees and representatives of the churches, 
 orthodox and heteradox alike, gave us little heed in their 
 published journals, by correspondence, or otherwise. They 
 were bound to a theoretical and dogmatical Christianity, 
 not to a practical one ; and held fast to traditional 
 methods of saving men and bringing in the kingdom of 
 heaven, caring little or nothing for any freshly devised 
 
42 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 schemes or plans whereby those devoutly-to-be-wished-for 
 ends were to be achieved. In their judgment, there was 
 no new light of this sort to break forth from the word 
 of God. 
 
 There were, however, some very notable and gratifying 
 exceptions to this generally prevailing indifference and 
 silent disregard or contempt. Chief est among these and 
 pre-eminently important and valuable, was a communica- 
 tion from a no less distinguished scholar, philanthropist, 
 and divine than Rev. William Ellery Chauniug, D. D., of 
 Boston, to which I am moved to give a place in this 
 connection. It appears in full in his "Memoirs," pre- 
 pared by his nephew, William Henry Channing, pp. 119 
 122, Vol III. It was addressed to me personally and 
 reads as follows : 
 
 "BOSTON, Feb. 27, 1841. 
 
 "My Dear Sir: I received your 'Constitution and Exposi- 
 tion ' yesterday, and my early reply will prove my interest in 
 your proposed ' Fraternal Community.' 
 
 "Your ends, objects, seem to me important. I see, I feel, the 
 great evils of our present social state. The flesh predominates 
 over the spirit, the animal over the intellectual and moral life. 
 The consciousness of the worth of the human soul, of what 
 man was made to be, is almost wholly lost; aud in this igno- 
 rance all our social relations must be mournfully defective, and 
 the highest claims of man very much overlooked. I earnestly 
 desire to witness some change by which the mass of men may 
 be released from their present anxious drudgery, may cease 
 to be absorbed in cares and toils for the body, and may so 
 combine labor with a system of improvement that they will 
 find in it a help, not a degrading burdsn. I have for a very long 
 time dreamed of an association, in which the members, instead 
 of preying on one another and seeking to put one another 
 down, after the fashion of this world, should live together as 
 brothers, seeking one another's elevation and spiritual growth. 
 But the materials for such a community I have not seen. 
 Your ends, therefore, are very dear to me. 
 
 " How far you have adopted the best means of realizing 
 them, and whether they can be realized in the present low 
 
LETTER OF REV. WM. ELLERY CHANNING. D. D. 43 
 
 condition of individual Christians, are different questions, and 
 most men would give a negative answer. I do not, however, 
 discourage any sincere efforts for social or individual improve- 
 ment, but would say, God speed you! There is a tone of faith 
 and sincerity in your document which gives me hope, and yet 
 I cannot say that I am without fear. I have lived so much 
 out of the world of business, I have had so few connections 
 with society except those of a religious teacher, that I cannot 
 judge of the obstructions you are to meet. The grand obsta-' 
 cle to success, however, I do understand, and you ought to* 
 look at it fully. It consists in the difficulty of reconciling so 
 many wills, of bringing so many individuals to such a unity 
 of feeling and judgment as is necessary to the management of 
 an extensive common concern, in the difficulty of preventing 
 the interference, inter-meddling, harsh-judging, evil-speaking,, 
 self-will, jealousies, exaction?, and love of sway, which scatter 
 discord and woe through all our social relations. The Catholics 
 have provided against these evils in their religious communities 
 by establishing absolute power, and teaching the members 
 that the first duty is obedience. Whether sufficient unity can 
 be preserved in a free institution built on the foundation of 
 brotherhood and equality, remains to be proved. I wish you 
 to try it, and, in order to success, I wish you all to look the 
 difficulty in the face and to feel that it is indeed a great one r 
 one to be overcome only by habitual self-denial, by the 
 special culture of humility, meekness, and charity. 
 
 " There are undoubtedly dangers attending every social 
 condition. These we are to understand that we may watch 
 against them. The evils to be feared in a Community like 
 yours are, the loss of individual energy in consequence of 
 dependence on the Community, the increased facility given 
 to the sluggish of throwing the burden of toil on their better- 
 disposed brethren, the relaxation of domestic ties in conse- 
 quence of the virtual adoption of the children by the Com- 
 munity, the diminution of free thought and free action in 
 consequence of the necessity of conforming to the will of the 
 majority or the intendant, the tendency to narrowness and 
 exclusiveness, and the tendency to a dull monotony of mind 
 and life in. consequence of confinement to a few influences. 
 These evils are not imaginary. There is danger of losing, in 
 such establishments, individuality, animation, force, and enlarge- 
 
44 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ment of mind. Your security must be sought in carrying out 
 the principles of freedom and philanthropy to which you 
 attach so much importance. 
 
 "1 am aware of the many economical advantages arising 
 from the gathering of the Community into one habitation; but 
 there are disadvantages. There is reason to fear that families 
 will not be sufficiently separate, and that the domestic feelings 
 may be thus impaired; and, perhaps, still more, that individuals 
 will lose that spirit of solitude, retirement, secret thought, and 
 secret piety, without which social relations are full of peril and 
 the character loses strength and dignity. These dangers seem 
 to me to require distinct guards. 
 
 " I should have been pleased to see in the articles some 
 recognition of the importance of courteous manners. The im- 
 portance of these in keeping alive mutual respect and kindness 
 is great. In this country we suffer much from coarseness of 
 manner. Refinement, .mutual deference, delicacy of inter- 
 course, are among the fruits of Christianity, and very needful 
 in such a gathering as you propose. If I were to visit a 
 Community and see the floor defiled by spittle, I could not 
 easily believe that the members respected one another, or that, 
 with such violations of neatness and decorum, there could be 
 much aspiration for inward purity. Just in proportion as 
 Christians come to recognize in one another the spiritual, im- 
 mortal children of God, an unaffected deference will mark the 
 tones of the voice and the manners, and the reaction of this 
 deference on the sentiment from which it springs is very great. 
 Where such deportment prevails, there will be no difficulty 
 about reproof. Kind, courteous reproof, which is seen and 
 felt to come from love, does not wound. Indeed, in such 
 a society there will be little to reprove. 
 
 "I trust that this letter will be a testimony of my sincere 
 interest in your movements. I pray God to bless you. I 
 should die in greater peace, could I see in any quarter the 
 promise of a happier organization of society. I am burdened 
 in spirit by what I see. May the dawn of something better 
 visit my eyes before they are closed in death! 
 
 "When you visit Boston I shall be glad to see you. 
 
 " YOUR FRIEND AND BROTHER. 
 
 " P. S. I ought, perhaps, to say that I am not prepared to 
 subscribe to all the articles of your 'Declaration,' but I do not 
 
COMMENTS ON DR. CHANNING'S LETTER. 45 
 
 blame those who hold them for making them the foundation 
 of the Community. It should be understood, however, that 
 you do not limit your Christian communion to those who agree 
 with you on all these points. You can and ought to recog- 
 nize as Christians very many with whom you have no desire 
 to live on the same farm and in the same < habitation.' " 
 
 How Doble, elevated, wise, benevolent, and fraternal the 
 utterances of this epistle ! Dr. Chanuing was centuries 
 in advance not only of the great mass of the nominal 
 Christian church, but of the majority claiming to be 
 Liberal Christians. What a confession he made in say- 
 ing, "The materials for a such a Community I have not 
 seen;" that is. one in which the members "should live 
 together as brethren, seeking one another's elevation and 
 spiritual growth." And yet he had known thousands of 
 professed Christians in the course of Ms life. During 
 his earlier years he must have been acquainted with large 
 numbers of New England church members who claimed 
 to have been "born again" and to have become "new 
 creatures in Christ ; " and later on he was intimate with 
 the very flower of dissenters from the "orthodox" 
 standards, who gloried in the sublime doctrines of the 
 fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Never- 
 theless, the materials of a truly fraternal Community 
 composed of people honestly striving to live by the 
 principles and precepts of the Gospel of Christ he had 
 never beheld ! What a commentary on the nominal 
 Christianity of the world ! ! 
 
 That the counsels and admonitions which Dr. Charming 
 by his sagacity and candor was prompted to offer us were 
 well founded and appropriate, was demonstrated in our 
 Hopedale experience at an early day. The very difficul- 
 ties which he suggestively pointed out in his letter, we 
 were obliged to encounter, spite of all our sanguine hopes 
 and resolves, and they finally proved too much for our 
 virtue and wisdom. Instead of rising above and over- 
 coming them, we were in the end overcome by them. 
 
46 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 It is proper to state that beside the sympathy and best 
 wishes of the eminent and world-renowned clergyman men- 
 tioned, we had also those of Revs. Samuel J. May, Wm. 
 P. Tilden, and a few others of the Unitarian ministry, 
 Imt the mass of them probably regarded us as pitiable 
 fanatics and gave us no heed. Much the same was true 
 of the occupants of the Universalist pulpit : a few hoped 
 for our success and bade us God speed, but the many 
 were utterly skeptical in respect to our movement, even if 
 they did not contemn it, and kept silent. The preachers 
 among us had all belonged to the Massachusetts Associa- 
 tion of Restorationists, and consequently were not in very 
 good repute with the Universalist denomination from 
 which most of them had aforetime seceded. 
 
 But we were in no better standing with the conserva- 
 tive wing of the Restoratiouist body, which actually 
 outnumbered ours. We had outrun them in rigidly in- 
 sisting upon the practical application of the principles of 
 our liberal Christian faith, which 'they professed to hold 
 in common with us, to all the activities and relations of 
 life ; not only espousing, as we had done, the Temper- 
 ance, Anti-Slavery, and Peace reforms, but adopting the 
 ' ' Standard of Practical Christanity " against their emphatic 
 protest, and finally enlisting in the cause of social recon- 
 struction, thus severing the last ligament of the cord that 
 bound us together. Our radicalism blasted the promise 
 of building up a Restoratiouist sect, which was the am- 
 bition of some of the leaders, and this cooled the ardor 
 of their friendship for us and sorely tried their patience. 
 Honest in their intentions and convictions, they were not 
 to be blamed for manifesting their repugnance toward us 
 in a way not to be mistaken. Our worthy elder brother, 
 Rev. Paul Dean of Boston, in August, 1841, addressed 
 me a long letter expressive of his dissent from, and 
 disrespect for, our whole Community scheme. It was not 
 meant in unkindness, but it was in striking contrast with 
 
RECORD OF SECOND COMMUNITY MEETING. 47 
 
 the communication of Dr. Chanuing, as to both its form 
 and its spirit. It was tinged with sarcasm, and pre- 
 dicted, of course, with apparent glee, the ultimate utter 
 failure of our vain-glorious undertaking. The result in 
 our particular case may seem to justify his view. But 
 the main question is not yet finally settled. 
 
 The second meeting of the new Community was held 
 in connection with our Quarterly Conference, April 28th 
 and 29th, 1841, at Boylstou, Mass., the then parochial 
 home of Br. George W. Stacy. The character and signi- 
 ficance of it may be the better understood by giving a 
 full report of its proceedings as found in the record book 
 of the Secretary. 
 
 "Heard the document entitled 'Standard of Practical Chris- 
 tianity,' of which our test ' Declaration ' is an epitome, read 
 by Adin Ballou, with accompanying remarks. 
 
 " Heard sundry letters of friendly sympathy read, addressed 
 by Wm. Ellery Charming, Edmund Quincy, Gerritt Smith, and 
 others, to Adin Ballou, on the movements of our Community, 
 much to the satisfaction and encouragement of the members 
 present. Adjourned till 10 A. M. tomorrow. 
 
 " Met Thursday, April 29th, according to adjournment. 
 
 " Heard the report of the Provisional Committee as follows, 
 viz.: That the Committee have procured four Record books 
 for Community use: one for the General Proceedings of the 
 Community; one for Subscriptions and Transfers of Stock; 
 one for the Constitution and General Registry; and one for 
 the Doings of the Executive Council: That they have received 
 several subscriptions to the Constitution and to the Joint-Stock: 
 That they have received no moneys into the treasury, having 
 deemed it inexpedient to do so under existing circumstances: 
 That they have prepared and published an Exposition of the 
 Constitution as instructed: That they have collected some in- 
 formation touching the subjects referred to them by the visits 
 of some of their number to the Lunatic Hospital at Worcester 
 and to the Shaker Communities at Shirley and Harvard, 
 Mass., and that such information is entirely favorable to the 
 objects of the Community: That they have deemed it inexpe- 
 
 TNIVERSITY 
 
 T r77 ^Tuvl 
 
48 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 dient to purchase books on Agriculture, Manufactures, and 
 Education at present: That they have made inquiries about 
 locations for this Community, and have partially examined 
 several but are not prepared to recommend any one in par- 
 ticular, though it is their persuasion that a suitable one may 
 be found and should be chosen in the neighborhood of Men- 
 don, Mass. : That they have the means of defraying all 
 expenses incident to their commission in their own and others' 
 voluntary contributions, without charge to the Community 
 itself: And that they have deemed it their duty to call the 
 meeting here convened and report their doings. All of which 
 they respectfully submit by their chairman. 
 
 "Report unanimously accepted and the Committee discharged. 
 
 "After admitting several new applicants it was unanimously 
 
 "Resolved, That the members of this Community individually 
 
 will appropriate all the means they can reasonably command 
 
 to the purchase of a farm for the same on or before the first 
 
 day of March next. 
 
 "Voted, That this Community do now proceed to organize 
 itself by the choice of its regular official servants. Whereupon 
 the following named persons were chosen viva voce, to wit.: 
 
 "ADiN BALLOU, President; WILLIAM W. COOK, Secretary and < 
 Auditor; LEMUEL MUNYAN, Intendant of Finance and Ex- 
 change ; EBENEZER I). DRAPER, Intendant of Agriculture and 
 Animals: HENRY LILLIE, Intendant of Manufactures and Mechani- 
 cal Industry; DAVID K. LAMSON, Intendant of Health and 
 Domestic Economy; DANIEL S. WHITNEY, Intendant of Educa- 
 tion, Arts, and Sciences; WILLIAM H. FISH, Intendant of Reli- 
 gion, Morals, and Missions. 
 
 "Voted, That the regular Annual Meeting of this Commu- 
 nity be held on the first Wednesday of January in each year. 
 "Voted, That this meeting be now dissolved." 
 
 The Community was now fully organized and equipped 
 for service whenever an opportunity for service, by the 
 purchase and occupancy of a proper domain, should occur. 
 Meanwhile the President and Intendants, both as a Board 
 of Trustees and as Executive Council, were in frequent 
 consultation by personal interview or by letter in regard 
 to the general affairs of the body they represented, as 
 
PROGRESS MADE SILENTLY. 49 
 
 well as in mgard to the particular duties of the positions 
 they respectively occupied. They were united in the 
 determination to commence practical operations at the 
 earliest possible date. The first thing to be done was of 
 course to secure a location, and a large section of coun- 
 try Avas brought under consideration as the field from 
 which a selection was ultimately to be made. This field 
 was narrowed down very much by a critical examination, 
 until the judgment of the Council settled upon a single 
 farm, which seemed to offer more advantages and fewer 
 disadvantages than any other and which was in due time 
 made the site of the Community. 
 
 Much thinking and much planning was done subse- 
 quently to the meeting in April, of which the public knew 
 nothing. It was regarded as good policy for us to keep 
 our own counsels and noise our doings abroad as little as 
 possible, until something definite was decided upon and 
 we were prepared to go forward with our work in a well- 
 ordered, systematic, effective way. The doings of our 
 April meeting even were not published in The Practical 
 Christian, and the fact of our organization was known 
 only t to those immediately concerned and a few of our 
 more deeply interested and intimate friends. At length, 
 just before our next meeting, on the 21st of August, 
 Br. David R. Lamson, in the leading editorial of our 
 little journal, discussed the subject of ''Communities" in 
 a general way, treating of the advantages to be derived 
 from the mode of life which they provided for, and setting 
 forth in a few particulars its 'superiority when compared 
 to that existing under the established order of society. 
 Only a few hints were thrown out in the article of what 
 had been already done by us, or of what we had planned 
 and were preparing to do at an early day. 
 
 The third meeting of the Community was held at Mill- 
 ville, Mass., where Bro. William H. Fish was pastor of 
 the Restorationist Church, on Thursday, the 26th day 
 
 4 
 
50 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 of August, 1841. The first business transacted was the 
 consideration of a Report from the Executive Council 
 relating to the purchase of a farm and the incipient 
 steps taken toward a settlement of the members upon 
 it. That Report gave a detailed statement concerning 
 two estates that were for sale, both of which had been 
 carefully examined and were deemed desirable. It said : 
 
 " They are both situated on Mill River in the westerly part 
 of Milford adjacent to the Mendon line, about a mile distant 
 from each other, and have respectable mill privileges. The 
 most southerly of them had formerly been known as ' the 
 Green Farm,' but latterly as 'the Grady place.' The other 
 lies . . . higher up the stream and was formerly called 
 the 'Jones Place,' but later the 'Hastings Daniels place.' The 
 last contains over 258 acres in one body, inclusive of the 
 old roads which run through it. Some 35 acres are wood- 
 land, 13 of which are said to contain well-grown wood; the 
 rest is mostly sprout land of from three to six years growth 
 and generally very thrifty. Large quantities of wood have 
 been cut and sold off this farm within the past few years. 
 There are from 10 to 20 acres of very young sprout laud on 
 another part of the farm. It has from 50 to 75 acres of mow- 
 ing and probably cuts not less than forty tons of hay, much 
 of it good English hay. It has been rented for the last thirty 
 years, and its productions cannot be definitely stated, though 
 always respectable. It keeps from sixteen to twenty head of 
 cattle, and has au abundance of good pasturage. It has a 
 large amount of orcharding and smaller fruitage. The land is 
 naturally divided into sandy, ledgy, and gravelly loam. A fair 
 proportion is tolerably smooth and free. It has great capa- 
 bilities and advantages as a farm, aud would, with good man- 
 agement, produce a large income. The buildings are old and 
 in rather poor repair, though comfortable for the present. 
 There is a dwelling-house two stories high, some 30 by 38 feet 
 ground measurement, with back kitchen and other appur- 
 tenances. It has two barns of perhaps 30 by 40 feet in size, 
 .a cider house, aud various outbuildings. There is no mill on 
 the premises, and only the remains of au old dam. But the 
 fall of the river is 24 feet, affording fine opportunities for 
 applying it to various mechanical establishments. It was ascer- 
 
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. 51 
 
 tained that this property was in the market and could be bought 
 at the comparatively moderate price of $3800, less than $15 per 
 acre, to be paid on coming into possession of it, April 1, 1842. 
 
 " Taking into consideration the great capabilities and advan- 
 tages of this estate, together with the price and the probability 
 that it might be purchased by some other party at an early 
 day, the President deemed it his duty to buy it in his own 
 name and assume the responsibility of securing it for the 
 Community. He accordingly entered into a contract for it with 
 Mr. Cyrus Ballou, who had recently bought it; which contract 
 was ratified by the proper writings being passed between them 
 on the 30th day of June last. This act has received the cor- 
 dial approbation and sanction of the Council, who take pleasure 
 in declaring unanimously that it has greatly enhanced the pros- 
 pects of the Community and opened the way for the successful 
 settlement in compact form and the industrial organization of 
 its now widely scattered members. 
 
 "It would be very desirable, if the Community had the pecun- 
 iary means, to purchase the 'Grady place' and other adjacent 
 lands immediately. But the Council cannot express any hope 
 that the necessary funds will be forthcoming at present. They 
 therefore recommend the abandonment of any attempt to make 
 further real estate purchases till the assurance of more capital 
 shall warrant it. They are confident that the Community will 
 be able to pay for the estate bought by the President and begin 
 improvements thereon in a few months. They therefore advise 
 that all its energies and resources be forthwith concentrated on 
 this estate ; to pay for it, erect buildings and other works there- 
 on, and cultivate the land. They are not without hopes that 
 some kind of a beginning may be made on the premises during 
 the ensuing autumn. If the property could be paid for and 
 improvements on it commenced this fall, it would be highly 
 auspicious and advantageous to the fraternity. It is, however, 
 recommended to proceed with all due caution, and to enter upon 
 no measures of expenditure not fully warranted by our resources 
 and all the circumstances of the case. 
 
 "The Council are happy to assure the Community that the 
 number of persons anxious to unite with them in this enter- 
 prise is rapidly increasing. One here and another there of the 
 pure and good, the honest and the oppressed, are eager to join 
 in one energetic, industrious brotherhood as soon as a home 
 
52 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 and profitable employment can be furnished them. There are 
 several individuals and families so situated that it is quite 
 inconvenient for them to wait till we can provide for them. 
 It is therefore suggested whether measures might not be taken 
 to fit up and furnish the Community dwelling-house at the 
 earliest possible day, with a view to locate such members and 
 organize the industry of as many operatives as can be boarded 
 on the estate. It is also suggested whether tenements in the 
 surrounding neighborhood might not be secured for such fami- 
 lies as cannot be sheltered there, and whether a school cannot 
 be commenced at an early day. If the members could thus be 
 approaching a centre, and be employed a part or all of the 
 time in the service of the Community; if a school could be 
 opened, a library founded, a printing office established, and 
 other humble beginnings made, our social fabric would gradu- 
 ally rise to its intended height without conflicting effort or 
 perceptible difficulty. 
 
 " Should the Community deem it proper to entrust the Coun- 
 cil with discretionary power to act in accordance with their 
 own judgment relative to all these matters, and guarantee the 
 necessary appropriation of funds, it is believed that measures 
 might be taken to accomplish much for the common interest. 
 
 " The Council would respectfully suggest that the time has 
 now arrived when it is necessary for the Community to enact 
 certain important By-Laws. They have accordingly appended 
 to this Report the draft of a series of Resolves and By-Laws 
 which they believe ought to be passed immediately. 
 
 "All which, being reported for consideration, they now respect- 
 fully submit to the disposal of their constituents. 
 " By order of the Council, 
 
 "Amx BALLOU, Pres't." 
 
 The report was unanimously accepted and its several 
 
 recommendations and suggestions were taken up and 
 
 freely discussed ; the discussion resulting in the adoption 
 without dissent of the following 
 
 "RESOLVES AND BY-LAWS. 
 
 "RESOLVE TO RAISE FUNDS. 
 
 "Resolved, (1) That this Community will forthwith proceed 
 to raise by subscription the sum of six thousand dollars, and 
 as much more as possible. 
 
RESOLVES AND BY-LAWS. 53 
 
 " (2) That every member of this Community is called upon 
 "by the exigencies of our common cause to make the utmost 
 reasonable exertions to advance money and other needful equiv- 
 alents for the augmentation of our available funds. 
 
 " (3) That the Executive Council be instructed to urge for- 
 ward all judicious measures for the increase of subscriptions 
 to our Joint-Stock, and for the speedy collection of moneys 
 thereon into the Treasury. 
 
 " (4) That the President and Secretary be instructed to fur- 
 nish themselves at the common expense with the requisite 
 books, printed blanks, and stationery, for the discharge of 
 their official duty relative to subscriptions, and to issue certifi- 
 cates of title as occasion may offer. % 
 
 " RESOLVE ACCEPTING THE FARM. 
 
 "Resolved, (1) That this Community do heartily approve of 
 the late proceedings of their President, in purchasing, on his 
 own responsibility, for the common advantage, the estate in 
 Milford formerly called 'the Dale,' afterwards 'the Jones' farm,' 
 .and latterly 'the Hastings Daniels' place.' 
 
 " (2) That the said estate be cordially accepted by this Com- 
 munity for its future use and possession. 
 
 " (3) That this Community do guarantee the necesssary pecun- 
 iary means to pay for said estate and to fulfil all the obligations 
 .assumed by the President in his contract with Mr. Cyrus Ballou. 
 
 " (4) That the Executive Council be instructed to carry this 
 Resolve into full effect, by ordering payment out of the Treas- 
 ury at the proper time, and taking a Deed of the estate in 
 their capacity of Trustees, according to Article IT, Sec. 2, of 
 our Constitution and agreeably to the laws of the land. 
 
 "RESOLVE ENTRUSTING CERTAIN DISCRETIONARY POWERS TO 
 THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. 
 
 "Resolved, (1) That this Community do authorize and em- 
 power their Executive Council, if they shall judge the same 
 to be warrantable in view of the resources at command, as fol- 
 lows, viz. : 
 
 "To make repairs on our dwelling-house and other buildings. 
 
 " To convert any of our frame buildings, by alterations and 
 repairs, into temporary tenements, school-rooms or other neces- 
 sary apartments. 
 
54 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "To provide ample furniture for the dwelling-house, with a 
 view to the accommodation of as many boarders in commons 
 as may healthfully occupy the same during the ensuing year 
 and until other accommodations can be afforded. 
 
 " To provide oxen, horses, and other live stock, together with 
 all necessary vehicles, implements, and conveniences, for carry- 
 ing on the farming business or other labor on the estate. 
 
 " To commence improvements on the land, or the erection of 
 a dam across Mill river, or the construction of trenches, or 
 any other work whatever for the common benefit. 
 
 "To make arrangements for opening a school in accordance 
 with our general design. 
 
 " To provide the foundation of a Library for the Community.. 
 
 " To purchase a small printing establishment suitable for the 
 publication of The Practical Christian and doing common job work. 
 
 " To engage tenements for members of the Community within 
 two miles of the farm for the year 1812, if really necessary. 
 
 "Finally, to do or commence doing any other thing, work,, 
 or enterprise, constitutionally proper, as they may judge most 
 conducive to the prosperity of the Community. 
 
 " (2) That this Community pledge all their available resources 
 to the Executive Council, to sustain them in the discharge of 
 their duties and for the accomplishment of all the undertakings, 
 authorized by this Resolve. 
 
 " (3) That the Executive Council be instructed to report to> 
 the Community from time to time the progress of their proceed- 
 ings under this Resolve, as the general safety and satisfaction 
 may in their opinion require. 
 
 "RESOLVE TO GIVE A NAME TO OUR LOCATION. 
 
 "Whereas it is convenient that the location of this Commu- 
 nity should be known by some appropriate name ; and whereas 
 we have been hoping anxiously for a home suitable to our 
 wants, which now our heavenly Father has providentially 
 granted us; and whereas hope in His wisdom and goodness 
 is the great support of our souls in beginning and carrying 
 forward our glorious enterprise for the regeneration of human 
 society amid the contempt of scorners and the fears of doubt- 
 ing philanthropists, Therefore 
 
 " Resolved, (1) That our said location, formerly called ' the 
 Dale,' afterwards 'the Jones' farm,' and latterly 'the Hastings. 
 
RESOLVES AND BY-LAWS. 55 
 
 Daniels' place/ be hereafter called, known, and distinguished 
 by the name of HOPE DALE. 
 
 " (2) That we do humbly acknowledge our gratitude to 
 Almighty God for the success with which He has thus far 
 sped the cause of the Fraternal Communion; that we reconse- 
 crate our all to His service for the living out and extending 
 the principles of pure practical Christianity among mankind; 
 that our hearts are more than ever confirmed in these divine 
 principles, both as to their holy excellence and their final 
 triumph; and that we do unreservedly commend our bodies 
 and souls, our property and lives, our welfare and happiness, 
 to His guardianship, now and forevermore. 
 
 "BY-LAW TO PRESCRIBE THE MANNER OF ENACTING 
 LAWS, ETC. 
 
 " Whereas it is proper that all our laws should be fitly 
 arranged into sections, and also that they should be authori- 
 tatively attested, therefore it is unanimously agreed and deter- 
 mined, 
 
 "SECTION 1. That in all cases where a law comprehends 
 several consecutive specifications or prescriptions, it shall be 
 divided into sections numerically designated. 
 
 "SEC. 2. That all By-Laws, Resolves, Rules, and Regula- 
 tions, passed or ordained by this Community, shall be attested 
 by the signatures of the Prasident and Secretary under date 
 of time and place, in form following, to wit: Passed in reg- 
 ular meeting at 18 . 
 
 Secretary. President. 
 
 "SEC. 3. That all such Laws, Resolves, Rules, and Regu- 
 lations shall be duly published by the President and Secretary 
 in the official periodical of the Community or in some other 
 printed form, and all the members served with one copy each 
 at the common expense. 
 
 "BY-LAW PRESCRIBING THE MANNER OF CALLING, NOTIFYING, 
 AND CONDUCTING BUSINESS MEETINGS. 
 
 SECTION 1. "All meetings of this Community for the transac- 
 tion of regular business, whether annual, stated, or special, shall 
 hereafter be called by written notification of the Executive 
 Council, specifying the time and place of meeting with the 
 
56 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 principal subject matters of business to be acted upon, signed 
 by the President and countersigned by the Secretary. 
 
 " SEC. 2. Every notification of a meeting as aforesaid shall 
 be published in the official periodical of the Community at 
 least seven days previous to the time appointed for holding 
 the same. Provided, nevertheless, that personal information 
 given to each member by the President or Secretary, seven 
 days previous to holding any meeting, shall be deemed sufficient. 
 
 " SEC. 3. The President or some one of the Intendants shall 
 preside at all meetings. He shall call the members to order 
 at the proper time, direct the Secretary to read the notification, 
 and after a suitable season of prayer, silent or audible, declare 
 the meeting duly opened for the dispatch of business. 
 
 " SEC. 4. Every important motion shall be reduced to writ- 
 ing and seconded by some member in the usual form; where- 
 upon, after satisfactory deliberation, the question shall ordinarily 
 be taken by Ayes and Noes. If there be doubt, it shall be taken 
 by Yeas and Nays', also, when one-fourth of the members pres- 
 ent demand it. And the choice of all official servants shall 
 uniformly be by written or printed ballots. 
 
 " SEC. 5. Any meeting called and notified as aforesaid may 
 be adjourned from time to time at the pleasure of the members 
 present, until the business matter of the notification shall have 
 been fully discharged. 
 
 " SEC. 6. Every meeting shall be closed with a brief season 
 of prayer, audible or inaudible, as at the opening thereof. 
 
 "BY-LAW REGULATING THE ADMISSION OF MEMBERS. 
 
 " SEC. 1. All applications for membership in this Community 
 shall hereafter be made in writing through some actual member 
 thereof, whose duty it shall be faithfully to question the appli- 
 cant in manner hereinafter prescribed and upon obtaining 
 satisfactory answers, to propose him or her as a candidate for 
 admission substantially in the form following, to wit: 
 
 [ It is not deemed advisable to insert the document 
 here on account of its length, but refer those desirous of 
 learning its contents to The Practical Christian, Vol. II, 
 No. 11, in the Hopedale Public Library. Ed.] 
 
 "SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the President and Secre- 
 tary of this Community to get printed and keep constantly on 
 
RESOLVES AND BY-LAWS. 57 
 
 hand an adequate supply of the blank applications specified 
 in the preceding section. 
 
 "SEC. 3. [As subsequently amended.] Upon presentation of 
 any application for membership, the Community shall proceed 
 to consider and determine, in the first place, whether they will 
 entertain the same; next, whether they will receive the appli- 
 cant as a candidate for probationary residence; next and 
 finally, whether admission to full membership shall be granted. 
 Persons received as candidates for probationary residence, if 
 not already connected with some Inductive Conference, shall 
 be invited to join one at Hopedale. And no person shall be 
 admitted to full membership until he or she shall have actually 
 resided in the Community one complete year, nor then with- 
 out good evidence of worthiness, according to the true spirit 
 and intent of the Constitution. 
 
 " SEC. 4. All applications for membership shall be carefully 
 preserved on file in the Secretary's office for future reference 
 and perpetual memorial. 
 
 " SEC. 5. Every candidate finally admitted into the member- 
 ship of this Community, after having been put on probation, 
 shall, upon settlement of accounts, be dealt with in all respects 
 precisely as if actual membership had commenced on the first 
 day of such probation. And in order that no misunderstanding 
 or serious difficulty may arise in cases of rejection, the Presi- 
 dent, or some one of the Intendants, shall enter into special 
 written contract with every probationer, attested by two com- 
 petent witnesses, which contract shall clearly express, in as 
 few words as the nature of the case will admit, the terms on 
 which the probationer is to live and labor with the Commu- 
 nity. And every such written contract shall be preserved on 
 file in the Secretary's office. 
 
 " SEC. 6. Every present member of the Community, on being 
 furnished with a copy of the blank application prescribed in 
 this act, shall make answer to the questions therein contained, 
 precisely as applicants are required to do; and the same shall 
 be placed on file by the Secretary in his office in a distinct 
 package marked, 'Memorials of Original Members.'' 
 
 ' BY-LAW REGULATING THE ENUMERATION AND RECORD OF 
 SHARES. ETC. 
 
 "All the shares of Joint-Stock, for which certificates are 
 issued by the President and Secretary, shall be carefully num- 
 
58 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 bered in the order of their issue. The number thereof shall 
 be specified somewhere in the margin of the certificate and 
 full record made accordingly. The certificate itself shall also 
 be numbered. 
 
 " BY-LAW TO REGULATE THE APPRAISAL OF PROPERTY, ETC. 
 
 " SEC. 1. Whenever any subscriber to the Joint-Stock shall 
 wish to turn in any kind of property instead of money, and 
 the Executive Council shall deem it expedient to receive the 
 same, they shall appoint three competent persons to act as 
 appraisers thereof. 
 
 " SEC. 2. Such persons shall carefully appraise every article, 
 item, or parcel of such property, make out an inventory there- 
 of, duly certified under their hands, and lodge the same in 
 the Secretary's office for the use of the Council; who shall 
 thereupon, if all parties be satisfied, take a bill of sale of such 
 property and order the proper certificate to be issued. 
 
 "Passed in regular meeting at Millville, Mendon, Mass.,. 
 Aug. 26, 1841." 
 
 It will throw some light upon the history of our move- 
 ment in the constructive period of its existence, and per- 
 haps interest the reader, to have some account given of 
 the success attending our efforts to raise the six thousand 
 dollars contemplated in the first of the foregoing Resolves. 
 When we left the place of meeting, the pledged sub- 
 scriptions received from those present amounted to three 
 thousand dollars, just one-half of the desired sum. Six- 
 teen persons had united in making them, no one of whom 
 promised more than five hundred dollars, and several only 
 fifty dollars each. None of us were rich, even in the 
 moderate, rural estimate of wealth ; the majority were 
 comparatively poor. And those approaching what might 
 be termed under frugal management a competency were 
 so conditioned that they could not readily convert even a 
 small portion of their possessions into money. As to 
 people of means outside who might be reckoned among 
 our friends, they had too little faith in our untried 
 scheme to risk anything in it. They wished us well and 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 59" 
 
 hoped we should succeed, but at our own cost. While 
 the more unfriendly and worldly inclined used their influ- 
 ence to deter those who in their hearts were disposed to 
 uid us, from doing so. All this was natural and to a 
 certain extent excusable at any rate, it was in accord- 
 ance with the common course of the world. Wind and 
 tide were against us in the matter of raising funds and 
 we advanced slowly in that behalf, bringing us ere long 
 to the conclusion, which was very repugnant to our feel- 
 ings, that we should be obliged to resort to borrowing in 
 order to realize the requisite amount. Fortunately my 
 own personal credit was good for any ordinary emergency, 
 as was that of others of our company ; and, if worse came 
 to worse, we could give a partial mortgage of the farm we 
 had purchased as security for a loan, should circumstances 
 compel us to obtain one. And this was what was finally 
 done as a means of putting us upon our feet and getting^ 
 us ready for effective work. 
 
 FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 
 
 This took place at my residence in Meudon, Jan 5, 
 1842. The first business done was that of considering 
 and acting upon applications for membership and for pro- 
 bationship in our body. As a result eight persons were 
 received into full fellowship and three were placed on 
 probation for the time being; their cases respectively to- 
 be finally adjusted at a future date. 
 
 The report of the Executive Council, which was a full 
 expose of the affairs, the standing, and the prospects of 
 the Community as related both to its internal economy 
 and to the public at large, was then presented. Only 
 those portions which have a direct bearing upon the con- 
 dition of things within the body, testifying to what had 
 been accomplished and what was in process of accom- 
 plishment, are hereinafter given, the more discursive and 
 hortatory passages being omitted. 
 
60 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 " The Executive Council, at the close of their official term, 
 respectfully submit the following report: 
 
 " They are happy to announce that the aifairs and prospects 
 of this infant Community, notwithstanding the many obstacles 
 that impede its progress, are decidedly encouraging and demand 
 acknowledgment of profound gratitude to the Author of all 
 good. From the smallest possible beginning it has slowly ad- 
 vanced to its present hopeful stage. It is, indeed, but * a little 
 one ' yet creeping till it can walk. We trust, however, that 
 the day is not far distant when it will stand erect in the full 
 vigor of youth, master of its feet a*nd able to provide for all 
 its wants. Friendly inquiries continue to come in from differ- 
 ent parts of the country, whither the report of our enterprise 
 has been carried; new applications for membership are made 
 by worthy men and women from time to time; and there is 
 little reason to doubt that another year will witness large 
 accessions to our numbers and resources. When operations 
 shall have actually commenced at Hopedale by those intending 
 to locate there in the spring, and it is seen that even the 
 * lazy ministers ' are hard at work under a wise plan of opera- 
 tions, a powerful impression in our favor will be made on the 
 public mind. Many will then know what they dare not now 
 believe, that the projectors and wool-dyed friends of this cause 
 are in earnest. 
 
 ******* 
 
 "We now turn our attention to the present and prospective 
 financial condition of the Community its internal affairs. 
 Under the resolve of August last, ' entrusting certain discre- 
 tionary powers to the Executive Council,' we bought out Cyrus 
 Ballou, as lessee of the Hopedale farm, together with all the 
 hay in the barns, 150 bushels of potatoes in the cellar, one 
 yoke of oxen and ten cows. For the potatoes we paid him 
 $37.50 in cash. For entire possession of the premises from 
 December 1st to April 1st we are to pay him $554.00 on the 
 first of April next, without interest. For this we have given 
 him private security. The hay of all kinds was estimated at 
 thirty to thirty-five tons. The oxen were reckoned at $60.00; 
 six cows at $16.00 each, and four others at $13.50 each. Four 
 head more of young cattle have been purchased for $50.00 
 cash. The whole co?t of property bought amounts to 
 $641.50. Besides this $9.00 have been paid for printing blank 
 
REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. 61 
 
 applications and certificates. Bro. Henry Lillie now resides 
 upon the farm and takes the entire charge of the Community 
 property. 
 
 "Having ascertained that it would be injudicious to begin 
 any important improvements or outlays during the autumn, it 
 was deemed unnecessary to urge the collection of funds; espec- 
 ially as most of our friends could use their money to advan- 
 tage in their business. Therefore one subscription of two shares 
 $100.00 is the only money yet received into the treasury. 
 Nearly all this has been paid out for the items above men- 
 tioned. 
 
 "The Practical Christian, which may be now considered the 
 property of the Community, will just about clear itself, leav- 
 ing, perhaps, a little in fund. About five hundred copies are 
 printed, most of which are in circulation. The paying sub- 
 scribers must exceed four hundred without a close count. The 
 whole expense of the first volume was $113.43, nothing being 
 charged for editorial services. The present volume will cost 
 about $366.00. The whole sum received by the Publishing 
 Agent from the outset to Jan. 1, 1842, is $650.90. This leaves- 
 a balance on hand of $54.00, which, with what is due and 
 collectable on subscriptions, will certainly defray the remain- 
 ing expenses of the volume. It is hoped that new and suc- 
 cessful efforts will be made another year for the increased 
 circulation of this periodical. 
 
 "Setting The Practical Christian aside as balancing its own 
 debit and credit, the Community finances will stand thus: 
 Farm, as contracted for, $3800.00; hay and stock, $604.00;. 
 potatoes in cellar, $37.00; printed blanks, $9.00; making a total 
 of $4450.00. Owing or due the first of next April, $4353.50, 
 Cash actually received, $100.00; paid out, $96.50; on hand, 
 $3.50. So that to meet our existing liabilities, according to 
 contract, we must raise during the next quarter, $4350.00. 
 Besides this, it is estimated that we shall need, to furnish our 
 house, stock our farm completely, and provide for other indis- 
 pensible wants, not less than $3000.00, in goods or cash; mak- 
 ing, in all, about $7500.00. Much more than this is exceedingly 
 necessary, and twice as much is desirable, for successful 
 operations on even our small scale. But with less than $7500.00 
 we cannot get on to advantage and build what seems abso- 
 lutely essential for the humblest commencement. We have 
 
62 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ;strong hopes that a much larger sum than this will come into 
 our treasury during the next nine months, and that the year 
 on which we are entering will see a substantial and respecta- 
 ble beginning of our Community life. 
 
 "Without anticipating the duties of the Council about to be 
 elected or recommending measures which will belong to them 
 to mature, we will only add, in conclusion, that we have 
 caused the survey of a site and a building plat for a Commu- 
 nity village; a plan of which is herewith submitted, in the 
 hope that it will receive the general approbation. In executing 
 this survey, as on a former occasion of leveling the water 
 privilege, our friend, Newell Nelson, Esq., of Milford, prac- 
 tical surveyor, kindly made the Community welcome to his 
 .services; for which he is entitled to their cordial thanks. 
 
 " And now, beloved associates, may the love of God continue 
 to animate us, his wisdom guide us, and his grace finally crown 
 us with eternal joy. 
 
 " In behalf of the Council, 
 
 ADIN BALLOU. 
 
 " After accepting the Keport, it was Voted, to proceed to the 
 choice of our official servants for the year ensuing. This was 
 accordingly done with the following result, the brethren named 
 being declared unanimously elected: 
 
 " ADIN BALLOU, President; WM. W. COOK, Secretary; DAVID 
 R. LAMSON, Auditor; Intendants : LEMUEL MUNYAN, Finance 
 and Exchange; EBENEZER D. DRAPER, Agriculture and Animals; 
 HENRY LILLIE, Manufactures and Mechanical Industry; BUTLER 
 WILMARTH, Health and Domestic Economy; DANIEL S. WHITNEY, 
 Education, Arts, and Sciences; WM. H. FISH, Religion, Morals, 
 and Missions. 
 
 " The meeting then dissolved." 
 
 Settlement at Hopedale. No other meeting of the Com- 
 munity was held until after a substantial settlement had 
 been made on our Hopedale domain and practical opera- 
 tions effectively inaugurated. Br. Henry Lillie had already 
 gone thither with his family, having taken possession of 
 part of the ancient dwelling-house the previous October, 
 and assumed charge of the Community property on the 
 premises. He was our pioneer settler. On the 28th of 
 
ERSITY 
 EARLY SETTLERS AT HOPEDALE. V 63 
 
 X^^C 
 
 the same month a daughter was born to himself and wife, 
 the first Hopedale child, who was named Lucy Ballou 
 Lillie in honor of my wife. This made the family, par- 
 ents and children, six in number. On the 20th of Janu- 
 ary, three weeks after the annual meeting just spoken of. 
 the second family arrived, that of Br. Nathan Harris, 
 consisting of himself, wife, and four children. Next 
 appeared Br. Ebeuezer D. Draper, his wife, Anna T. 
 Draper, and Wm. T. Stacy, a lad they had taken to 
 bring up, about the middle of March. A few days later, 
 on the 22d, I removed my family there, four of us, and 
 also Mrs. Charlotte P. Hootou, to whom I had sub-let 
 a portion of my house in Mendon some months before in 
 anticipation of locating at Hopedale about this time, with 
 her children, four more. Br. Daniel S. Whitney, Br. 
 Wm. W. Cook and wife, and Brother Reuben H. Brown 
 and wife, soon followed ; so that on the 1st of April, 1 
 1842, the Community family numbered twenty-eight per- 
 sons. 
 
 Meanwhile myself and the more responsible members 
 of the Executive Council had been moving under high 
 pressure to raise the funds indispensably requisite to 
 enable us to meet our obligations and set in order a 
 multitude of preliminary appointments. We were disap- 
 pointed by the failure of several fair promises on the 
 score of Joint-Stock capital, and were notified that some 
 hundreds of dollars actually paid into our treasury would 
 have to be refunded in order to meet sundry unexpected 
 contingencies in the private affairs of subscribers. Under 
 these circumstances borrowing on mortgage of the farm 
 became an absolute necessity. Accordingly, I, in behalf 
 of the Council, negotiated a loan of two thousand dollars 
 ($2000.00) with Mr. William Cargill of Cumberland, 
 R. I. This loan, with considerable sums obtained from 
 several of my personal friends as stock, but which I 
 guaranteed, enabled us to meet all just claims against us 
 
64 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 on the first of April and to enter upon some of our con- 
 templated improvements. But oui beginning was a hard 
 rub. Our reliable Joint-Stock capital uncontingently paid 
 in did not exceed four thousand dollars ($4,000.00) ; 
 what seemed a formidable debt had been imposed upon 
 our domain by the above-mentioned mortgage ; our time- 
 shattered dwelling-house could afford but stinted accom- 
 modations for our increasing Community family ; our 
 outbuildings needed substantial repairs ; our water privi- 
 lege w r as yet without dam or mill-structure ; we had 
 a meagre amount of wood to be disposed of, or other 
 salable productions that could be converted into money ; 
 little profitable employment for those needing work was 
 immediately available ; consumers among us greatly out- 
 numbered our producers ; in fine, a host of disadvan- 
 tages and hindrances beset us and taxed us sorely at 
 the very start. And I would forewarn and counsel all 
 who may hereafter propose to inaugurate kindred experi- 
 ments to postpone them indefinitely rather than attempt 
 them under so many untoward and embarrassing condi- 
 tions. Nevertheless, our Community pressed forward, 
 defying all hostile and discouraging circumstances and 
 triumphing for the time being over all hostile elements 
 and forces, though brought to disastrous failure at the 
 last, even in the midst of comparative prosperity, not so- 
 much by reason of unpropitious external causes, as from 
 complex, subtle, internal ones: all of which will be 
 made to appear in the sequel. 
 
 On Wednesday, March 23d, the day after I took up 
 my abode on the community domain, we began the work 
 of appraising the household furniture and other personal 
 property brought together by the several members already 
 located there, which it was deemed mutually advantageous 
 and desirable to have transferred to the ownership of th& 
 Community ; crediting the amount of the valuation in 
 each case to the proper person as so much Joint-Stock 
 
FIRST RELIGIOUS MEETING. 65 
 
 actually paid in and causing certificates for the same to 
 be issued accordingly. On the evening of Thursday, the 
 24th, we held our first religious meeting a social con- 
 ference for devotional exercises, counsel, and exhortation 
 in the large front room on the west side of our ancient 
 domicile, the very apartment in which what was afterward 
 the First Church in Milford (Orthodox Congregational) 
 was organized one hundred and one years and nine days 
 before, that is, April 15, 1741. We were all weary with 
 the labors and cares of removal to our new home, and 
 with the difficulties attendant upon adjusting ourselves to 
 our incommodious and crowded quarters ; but mentally 
 we were in a state of impassioned ecstacy in the honey- 
 moon of our new social life and our enthusiasm was at 
 fever heat. We felt that we had entered the promised 
 laud, and our humble sanctuary, which was also our 
 temporary abode, was better to us than the palaces and 
 temples of Egypt. So we sang, prayed, exhorted, and 
 glorified with all our heart. It was a melting and joyous 
 occasion ; none of us dreaming for a moment that any 
 root of selfishness and discord would ever spring up among 
 us to chill the ardor of our hope and zeal, or that daily 
 familiar acquaintance with each other would ere long soil 
 the gilt edges of the volume of our history we were just 
 beginning to write. Thenceforth the Thursday evening 
 conference meeting was an established community institu- 
 tion and an effective and much-prized instrumentality for 
 promoting the moral and spiritual life of our people. 
 
 The Sunday following, March 27th, was my last as 
 Pastor of the First Church and Congregation in Mendon, 
 in the afternoon t of which I delivered a written valedic- 
 tory discourse to a large and deepty interested audience, 
 from the text in II Corinthians, 13:11: "Finally, breth- 
 ren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one 
 mind, live in peace ; and the God of love and peace shall be 
 with you." It was published in The Practical Christian, 
 
 5 
 
66 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 June 25th following, Vol. Ill, No. 3. Most of our Hope- 
 dale adult residents were in attendance on the occasion. 1 
 had preached in the pulpit occupied that day for the last 
 time as a settled minister for more than eleven years, 
 and had gathered about me many kind friends, who still 
 clung to me with a cordial attachment and earnest good 
 wishes as I left them to embark with my all upon a 
 strange, uutraversed sea. 
 
 The next Sunday, April 3d, witnessed our first services 
 of public worship on our chosen territory. They were 
 held in the "Old House," a goodly number of interested 
 friends from the general vicinity joining our own little 
 company to make a respectable audience. I preached an 
 earnest discourse in the morning from Psalms 133 : 1 : 
 4 ' Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to 
 dwell together in unity." Br. Daniel S. Whitney deliv- 
 ered a sermon in the afternoon. These exercises were 
 accompanied by appropriate singing, praying, and exhor- 
 tation, all being rendered under high inspiration from 
 above and with marked impression upon all present. It 
 was in its way a day of public and solemn dedication, 
 on which our community domain with all pertaining there- 
 to was consecrated to God and Humanity. Three days 
 later I solemnized the first Hopedale marriage in the old- 
 fashioned " East Room," which for many months served 
 not only as our general reception voom, but as our 
 Council Hall, our place of public convocation, and our 
 Sabbath sanctuary. 
 
 And now the Hopedale Community had become an 
 established fact a bona fide institution a practical 
 attempt to realize in individual and social life a grand 
 idea of fraternal unity, co-operation, harmony, peace, on 
 the broad Christian basis of "love to God and man." 
 It had passed beyond the theoretical stage of its develop- 
 ment, beyond a mere existence upon paper and in the 
 speculations of its projectors, to the experimental stage, 
 
LETTER TO COMMUNITY ASSOCIATES. 67 
 
 to the actualization of its principles and promises in an 
 undertaking which took its place in the great arena of 
 human activity with other agencies designed to promote 
 the well-being of mankind, challenging the attention of 
 the world and ready to stand or to fall by what it might 
 or might not accomplish in the broad field of human 
 endeavor and attainment for human good and the upbuild- 
 ing of the kingdom of God. 
 
 This Chapter I bring to a close by copying the last of 
 a series of seven ' 4 Familiar Letters " written about the 
 time of our locating at Hopedale to the members of the 
 Community, for the purpose of awakening in them a sense 
 of the grave responsibilities they had assumed by cove- 
 nanting together, and of preparing them for their new 
 position and the duties it imposed upon them. The one 
 inserted below appeared under date of April 16, 1842, 
 just after the settlement on our domain had been effected. 
 It speaks for itself : 
 
 "Beloved Associates: Since my last 1 have gone through the 
 bustle and fatigue of removal from Mendon to Hopedale in 
 Milford, the selected home of our expected labors and enjoy- 
 ments. There I have met a goodly number of dear brethren 
 and sisters from the East, West, North, and South, and 
 assisted them in organizing a Christian family and laying the 
 foundation of our social fabric. We have been carried more 
 pleasantly and quietly through the peculiar difficulties, toils 
 and trials incident to the assembling of near thirty persons in 
 one old house, than we had any reason to expect. Our heavenly 
 Father has sustained iis by his grace and strength; and now 
 that we are getting settled in our chosen dwelling-place, I 
 once more take my pen in hand to address you. A throng of 
 emotions crowd upon my soul and retard utterance of thought. 
 The great era has actually commenced. We are no longer a 
 Community on mere paper. Anticipation gives place to reali- 
 zation and theory to experimental practice. Poor and humble 
 as our beginning is, do we not find it good to be here? Are 
 our ills greater or our privileges less than we expected? Not- 
 withstanding the unavoidable inconveniences, discomforts, and 
 
68 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 burdens of our pioneer service, who among us would go back 
 to the Egypt of the old social state? Not one. We have been 
 able to dissolve our former connections, to adjust our property 
 affairs, to arrange our business, to spread a common table, to- 
 institute the true worship, and to make an auspicious begin- 
 ning of the new moral world, without any of that selfishness,, 
 contention, and dissatisfaction which so many have always been 
 predicting. Love, condescension, forbearance, patience, and the 
 generous spirit of Christian self-sacrifice have gloriously reigned 
 in our midst. We had faith that it would be so; and according 
 to our faith hath it been unto us. Will it not be so in all 
 time to come? Shall we not be and do all that with such a 
 faith we strive for? Then let us not be weary nor faint in 
 our minds. * Time, patience, and perseverance accomplish all 
 things.' What happy meetings, what holy communion of soul, 
 what deep and thrilling religious feelings, have we thus far 
 enjoyed! How applicable to our case have been the words of 
 the Psalmist: 'Behold how good and how pleasant it is for 
 brethren to dwell together in unity! ' We may now reasonably 
 look for a diminution of our temporary disadvantages and the 
 increase of those conveniences which result from rational 
 industry and wholesome domestic economy. 
 
 "But let us not feel that we are living and laboring wholly 
 for ourselves. We are not of the world, even as Christ was and 
 is not of the world. We have come out and separated ourselves 
 from it. But we have done all this for the reformation and 
 salvation of the world. Christ in us seeks as ever the redemp- 
 tion of poor self-destroyed man. May He live Himself out 
 afresh in our thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. Let this 
 great idea never depart from our minds, that the good we are 
 toiling and suffering for is the good of all humanity. Thus 
 we shall not only impart happiness of the purest kind to our 
 fellow-creatures, but enjoy it in full measure, 'pressed down 
 and running over,' in our own bosoms. Let the day never 
 arrive when we become selfishly exclusive and affluently sordid. 
 That day would be the funeral period of our holiest and 
 sublimest purposes. ' The kingdom of God is at hand ' ; not. 
 that kingdom which some are looking for of personal display 
 and physical observation, but the reign of God in men's souls 
 and over all their interests; the spiritual dominion of the 
 Word once made flesh; the kingdom of 'righteousness, peace,. 
 
LETTER TO COMMUNITY ASSOCIATES. 69 
 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost.' It has already come within us 
 and it is our mission to proclaim its laws by precept and 
 example united to all around us. We are doing so with great 
 power and effect. What a change is there in the views, feelings, 
 and convictions of those who behold our onward movement since 
 we first announced our general design! What inquiry has been 
 awakened! What a press of souls towards the door through 
 which we have passed! What a Community spirit is breaking 
 out in different parts of our land! The bright morning star is 
 already beginning to lose its lustre in the growing brightness of 
 the dawning day. There are wonders before us glorious events 
 most salutary and sweeping revolutions in the moral world. 
 O, that we may be faithful to our light, true to our principles, 
 and worthy of our high calling in Christ Jesus! You that are 
 at Hopedale, you that are anxiously waiting for the first oppor- 
 tunity to come, and all who are intending to dwell together in 
 Fraternal Community, let your lamps be kept trimmed and burn- 
 ing and the loins of your minds be girded about with truth and 
 righteousness. Watch unto prayer and continue instant in good 
 works. Publish the glad tidings of the true gospel and perse- 
 vere with all patience unto the end in illustrating the divine 
 life. Thousands of eyes are upon you, to scrutinize your con- 
 duct and behold your progress. Walk as children of the light 
 and that Redeemer, who has led you by a way you know not, 
 will dissipate all darkness, make crooked things straight, and 
 spread out before you in due time the new heaven and new 
 earth to dwell in forevermore. 
 
 " Affectionately yours, 
 
 "A. B." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 1842. 
 
 A BEGINNING MADE EMBARRASSMENTS DISCORDANT 
 
 NOTES PASSING A CRISIS HUMBLED 
 
 BUT UNDISMAYED. 
 
 TN the development of the family the incipient stages, 
 -^ collectively denominated courtship, culminate in mar- 
 riage, which is followed by the so-called honeymoon, 
 whose poetry ere long is transformed into sober prose. 
 Similarly was it in our Community experience. Having 
 entered upon the common-place realities of closely asso- 
 ciated life and become familiar with the details and 
 drudgery of daily activities, as well as with each other's 
 personal peculiarities, many of our dreams vanished 
 utterly while others lost not a few of their illusory 
 charms. It was inevitable not only that our theories and 
 hopes should be tested, but our own fitness or capability 
 for realizing them. And there could be no severer test 
 than the intimate and complex relationships of social, 
 domestic, industrial, and financial economy into which we 
 had entered. A hundred people can enjoy the society of 
 each other occasionally under favorable conditions, without 
 suspicion of inharmony or serious defects of character, 
 where ten can live together in familiar intercourse a year 
 undisturbed by feelings of mutual repulsion or perhaps 
 disgust. This is true not only of common worldiugs 
 but of the so-called refined classes, and even of professing 
 Christians. Whoever can summer and winter each other 
 without friction or alienation of feeling may be deemed 
 
STARTING OUT IN COMMUNITY LIFE. 71 
 
 reasonably fit for a practical Christian Community, such 
 as we were attempting to inaugurate. And whoever 
 cannot stand this test ought to be ashamed to profess 
 either Christianity or true refinement of character. It 
 has been said that ordinary civilized society with its 
 partition walls, its class distinctions, its conventional 
 barricades, and compulsory insularities, allows mankind 
 quite as much unit} 7 and closeness of association as 
 they will safely bear; and therefore that it is presump- 
 tuous to propose bringing them into more fraternal and 
 harmonious affiliation and co-operation. And the incred- 
 ulous cynic might upbraid me and my coadjutors for not 
 knowing this before venturing upon our untoward and as 
 it proved calamitous experiment. We did know it so far 
 as respected the generality of our race who make no 
 pretence to the ideals, the principles, the aspirations, or 
 the moral and religious obligations of our distinctive form 
 of Christian faith. But we did not know theu, nor do I 
 know now or believe, that sincere and high-minded per- 
 sons, intelligently acknowledging such ideals, principles, 
 aspirations, and obligations, ought not to associate and 
 live together on a more elevated, Christlike plane than 
 that of the existing order of civil society. If they ought 
 not to do this to transcend the prevailing civilization 
 of the world, then I am confident, beyond all perad ven- 
 ture, that the religion of the New Testament is theo- 
 retically and practically false and worthy only of being 
 ignored and reprobated. 
 
 I have stated that the number of those resident upon 
 the Community domain April 1, 1842, was twenty-eight. 
 These were all congregated and living together as a com- 
 bined household in the old dwelling already mentioned, a 
 portion of which had been standing about one hundred 
 and forty years and the remainder more than a century. 
 Several of them were entire strangers to each other and 
 scarcely any of the families had been more intimately 
 
72 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 acquainted than as occasional visitors of one another, 
 occupants of adjacent buildings, or worshipers together at 
 the same house of public religious service. A few of us 
 had enjoyed personal, domestic, social, and educational 
 advantages open to the respectable middling classes of 
 New England. But the larger number had lived and 
 moved on a humbler, but in no wise dishonorable, level. 
 There was, naturally, a corresponding diversity of man- 
 ners, habits, and tastes, in addition to the varied per- 
 sonal peculiarities of each individual. These manifold 
 dissimilarities, and sometimes incongruities, though all 
 our adult population had confessed the same fundamental 
 truths, objects, and duties, had to be harmonized and 
 reconciled, so that all would work together with as little 
 attrition or confusion as possible for the common good 
 and the accomplishment of the great end we all nominally 
 had in view. One third of our residents were children 
 and youth from the very beginning onward, and many 
 of the characteristics of these needed important modifica- 
 tions or transformations. Yet we were all domiciled under 
 one roof, lived as one family, stocked a common larder, 
 spread and sat at a common table, organized common 
 industrial activities, placed our children under common 
 regulations and restraints, and constituted to all intents 
 and purposes a Community in fact as well as in name. 
 
 In addition to the several appointments to places of 
 responsibility by popular vote, as already recorded, the 
 Executive Council had commissioned Lucy H. Ballou 
 Director of house-keeping for the current year, while I, 
 by common consent, became the governing father of the 
 younger members of the household. Some of these were 
 rude and uncouth in their manners, and unused to self- 
 regulation and self-discipline. Finding themselves massed 
 suddenly together without the immediate oversight of their 
 parents or guardians, they very naturally were disposed 
 to have good times together, roaming the whole house 
 
LIMITATIONS AND EMBARRASSMENTS. 73 
 
 over and making it ring with their clatter of feet and 
 loud voices of merriment. Happily they all seemed to 
 reverence and love me and to have respect for my 
 wishes and requirements. I organized them into what 
 was called the silent band; so that at a given signal from 
 me their noise was instantly hushed, and their necessary 
 movements up and down stairs or about the house were 
 made with marked quietude and an almost inaudible tread. 
 When I was at home I could always and with little 
 effort secure their willing and orderly obedience. 
 
 But how limited were our accommodations and conven- 
 iences ! They were none too ample for the needs of two 
 middling-sized families of working people. We had only 
 a single, old-fashioned, two-story house, with a time- 
 beaten ell in the rear containing simply a kitchen, which 
 possessed the most inadequate facilities for cooking, laun- 
 dry work, and other ordinary domestic uses ! Next to 
 the kitchen, in the main building, was a long narrow 
 apartment for our common table, and a pantry adjacent. 
 The large west room in front we made a general sitting- 
 room, while the corresponding east one served as a parlor, 
 a council hall, and place of worship, as stated, and a 
 guest chamber for visitors, having in it a folding bed of 
 a rude sort and other conveniences. These, with a small 
 entry and a few cupboards, were all that had place on 
 the lower floor. The second story was partitioned off 
 into as many lodging rooms as was practicable, and like- 
 wise the attic. The President, his wife, and little boy, 
 occupied a small bed-chamber at the northeast corner of 
 the house, which was crowded with their indispensable 
 personal effects and which served as a study and office 
 wherein to prepare editorials, records, documents, and 
 memoranda of various kinds requisite to the satisfactory 
 prosecution of his multiform labors. This, too, was his 
 only indoor retreat and place of refuge from the general 
 din. 
 
74 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Such were some of the difficulties and inconveniences 
 under which our Community family started out in the 
 house-keeping business. The case would have been suffi- 
 ciently onerous and trying with our original smallness of 
 numbers. But we could not be held to those limits. 
 Every week almost from the outset fresh accessions 
 pressed into our over-crowded camp, while plenty of 
 transient callers and sojourners appeared among us all 
 unawares, to occupy our room, take up our time, and 
 tax our hospitality. Meanwhile, my wife, in her own 
 quiet, unpretentious way, led off in the management of 
 domestic affairs, with good Anna T. Draper for her 
 faithful right-hand coadjutor, bringing order out of 
 chaos, and putting the entire household machinery in 
 running condition despite seeming impossibilities. As a 
 matter of fact, our in-door family affairs were managed 
 most efficiently and satisfactorily, and without the least 
 friction or complaint. It had been confidently predicted 
 by carping critics that however it might be with the men 
 among us, our women would soon fall out with each 
 other and come to open strife. Never were ill-omened 
 prophecies proved more unfounded and misapplied, for 
 through all the discouragements, privations, and misfor- 
 tunes incident to those early days, no unkind word or 
 grumbling wail was heard among our female associates ; 
 to their perpetual praise let this testimony be remembered. 
 They bore their burdens, vexations, and trials with most 
 exemplary patience and fortitude ; though probably not 
 without a frequently keen sense of unpleasantness if not 
 of disgust. This must have been the case with the 
 more sensitive and refined of them, who could 'but realize 
 the striking and in some respects painful contrast between 
 the pleasant, comfortable homes they had left behind and 
 the multiform inconveniences and disagreeabilities of this 
 to which they had come. But like most of their com- 
 panions they calmly endured, as unavoidable, the tempo- 
 
PREVAILING SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD. 75- 
 
 rary discomforts of this pioneer life for the sake of the 
 cause of social reform and in hope of better times pro- 
 spectively in sight. And when disquietudes and bickerings 
 at length arose, it was the men and not the women who 
 first proved weak, and wavered from the sacred standard 
 of Christian amity and brotherhood. Nevertheless, during 
 the early stages of our Community life, neither male nor 
 female uttered a murmur of discontent or regret. All 
 were genial, harmonious, and united; all were heroic and 
 steadfastly persistent in their noble struggle for a better 
 type of individual and social life. * 
 
 To appreciate this fidelity to high ideals, their chivalric 
 spirit, it must be remembered that several of us had left 
 behind us prominent salaried positions, many professional 
 advantages, alluring prospects of honorable success on the 
 common plane of human affairs, and much of personal 
 ease and enjoyment in our various relationships, dropping 
 down voluntarily and cheerfully to a common fraternal 
 level with those who had far less to share or hope for 
 in the condition from which they had migrated. We were 
 all here in one household, professionals, mechanics, farm- 
 ers, ordinary laborers, male and female, agreeing alike to 
 serve the Community if able, eight hours per day for 
 fifty cents, and to pay for our board, lodging, etc., one 
 dollar per week. Also to pay cost prices for clothing, 
 livery, and other necessaries not included in the above. 
 If ministers or others received any moneys -from the 
 outside world for special services rendered, all above 
 incidental expenses went into the general treasury.. 
 Thus worldly and conventional superiority was abolished 
 and the strong bore the infirmities of the weak. In 
 these particulars the feeble and less productive classes 
 among us were the only gainers by our peculiar arrange- 
 ments, whilst the weight of responsibility and care must 
 necessarily rest with intensified pressure upon those who 
 elsewhere might have shared and profited by unusual 
 
76 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 worldly opportunities, preferments, and benefits. Yet 
 many weeks passed by without faltering or murmur of 
 dissatisfaction. Enthusiastic hope, ardor, and firmness 
 of purpose reigned universal and supreme. 
 
 Perhaps I can best realize to the reader how we started 
 out in our experiment at Hopedale by making a few- 
 extracts from the Community Journal and Record Book 
 as they appear during the first mouth of our residence 
 there. Having already spoken of the removal of myself 
 and family to the place on the 22d of March, 1842, 
 when our unitory life actually began, and of the 
 appraisal of goods on the 23d, I proceed with my quota- 
 tions from and after that date, as follo^vs : 
 
 " The 24th was the day appointed by the Council to pay for 
 the farm and take a Deed. But the money not coming in as 
 expected, and there being an old mortgage to discharge by 
 Claflin and Daniels (our grantors), the matter was postponed 
 till Saturday the 26th. The President, however, paid John 
 Claflin, Esq., $1900.00 and took receipt accordingly. A Mr. 
 Howard came down from Leverett bringing $200.00 from Bros. 
 Butler Wilmarth and Phineas Field. He was taken ill and had 
 to be provided for to the best of our ability. On the 25th the 
 President went to Woonsocket, R. I., via Mendon and Chestnut 
 Hill, bought various articles, called on his friend, Carlisle W. 
 C apron, to see about promised money, got meal of Kelley, etc. 
 Saturday, 26th, he attended funeral of Noah Cole's wife in the 
 forenoon, p. M., he completed payment for the farm to John 
 Claflin, Esq., $3500.00 (excepting the $300.00 due Cyrus Ballou), 
 received the Deed and went to Worcester to enter it for record. 
 Agreeably to vote of Council the title was taken in the sole 
 name of the President. As agreed with William Cargill of 
 Cumberland, R. I., a mortgage was executed to secure the 
 payment of $2000.00 borrowed of him for two years. This 
 instrument was also put on record for the satisfaction of Car- 
 gill, who is to furnish the money next week. The President 
 purchased sundry account books for the Community in Worces- 
 ter before returning home, which he reached about midnight. 
 
 " Sunday, 27th. He preached his valedictory discourse in 
 Mendon (as before stated). Monday, 28th. Mr. Howard, hav- 
 
EXTRACTS FROM COMMUNITY JOURNAL. 77 
 
 ing recovered from his illness, left for his home. Tuesday r 
 29th. A. B. went to Upton and married John C. Sweet and 
 Sarah Redfield. Afterwards gave a lecture in the school-house 
 near by on 'The Spirits in prison.' 30th. Mr. Cargill, a 
 brother of William, called on his way to Worcester to examine 
 Registry of Deeds and see that everything was safe. Next 
 day he returned, delivered to the President the $2000.00, and 
 went his way. Friday, April 1st, was spent by the President 
 in paying out money on contracts falling due: to Cyrus Ballon,. 
 $854.00 $300.00 to complete payment on farm, which had 
 been bought through him, and $554.00 for hay, cattle, etc.; 
 to Hiram Hunt and Co. for goods from store; to Millens Taft 
 for yoke of oxen, etc.; in all over $1000.00. We have some 
 confusion and many inconveniences, all of which we endure 
 like good soldiers for the sake of the great good we propose 
 and hope to accomplish. God blesses and sustains us, for which 
 all praise and thanksgiving be rendered to his holy name. 
 
 "Sunday, April 3d. Our first public meeting in the old 
 house (as described). Wednesday, 6th. A. B. married Amasa 
 Parkhurst and Hannah P. Brown of Milford in the common 
 parlor. Thursday, 7th. Annual Fast; Frederick Douglass, the 
 fugitive slave, with us. O, what a fast! A Fast indeed! Such 
 an one as we never observed before. All hearts were moved 
 and melted. The Father and the Son were with us by the 
 communion of their one Holy Spirit, p. M., A. B. went to 
 Mendon and married Micajah C. Gaskill and Hannah Taft at 
 the residence of her father, Leonard Taft. Sunday, 10th. A. 
 Ballou preached at Bellingham to a large audience, and lec- 
 tured at 5 p. M. in E. Mendon school-house. Meeting at home r 
 small but good. Several brethren spoke to edification. 
 
 "From 10th to 17th much business done and good progress 
 made towards order and settlement of affairs. Preparations 
 were completed for erecting a building for school-room, print- 
 ing office, etc., at the south-west extremity of Water St. The 
 frame is that of an old wood-shed to be vamped up. E. C* 
 Perham and Samuel Taft helped our workmen: Perham as 
 carpenter for several days, Taft as stonelayer for one day. 
 Wednesday the 13th. A. B. married a couple a H. Nelson's, 
 Milford, viz.: Daniel S. Chapin and Angeline P. Nelson. Sun- 
 day, 17th. Clother Gifford, a phrenologist, visits us. Good 
 meeting, A. M., A. Ballou and D. S. Whitney principal speak- 
 
78 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ers. P. M., A. Ballou went to Mendon to attend funeral of 
 widow Nabby Aldrich. Brief sermon in meeting-house. Br. 
 D. R. Lamsom preached at Mendon A. M., and was at Hope- 
 dale P. M. John Hawkins, the celebrated Washingtonian chief, 
 lectured at 4 p. M. in Mendon, most of our Hopedalians being 
 there. He came fully up to the highest expectations; had a 
 great audience and carried his hearers away like a flood, speak- 
 ing two hours. Br. Whitney went to Millville in the evening, 
 partly to attend a meeting with the friends there but more 
 especially to marry a couple on the morrow. 
 
 "Monday, April 18th. A severe northeast storm. Not much 
 outside business done to-day. Bro. Gifford still here, and 
 Phrenology and Animal Magnetism occupied most of our time 
 and attention. He examined nearly all our heads and tried to 
 put Barbara Colburn into a magnetic sleep but failed. Dis- 
 cussion in the evening about the children. Settled it as a rule 
 that they should not take lights by themselves to their sleep- 
 ing apartments at night, but be accompanied by some one of 
 proper age to attend to both them and their lights. 19th. Still 
 stormy. C. Gifford goes to Milford town to prosecute his 
 phrenological business. Our good friend, David Stearns God- 
 frey, called and informed us of the triumphant success of 
 Frederick Douglass last evening at his lecture in Milford 
 Academy Hall. Great excitement; the 'baser sort' active; 
 people turned out numerously; but they were wonderfully 
 overcome by his ingenuity and eloquence. The tide (which 
 was turbulent against him at first) turned strongly in his favor. 
 He lectured again this evening at Milford town-hall. Eleven 
 from Hopedale to hear him. A glorious lecture to a full 
 house. Package made up by A. B. for Whitmarsh, Boston 
 (our printer), with copy for Practical Christian and $15.00 
 enclosed. Wednesday the 20th. Stormy. Discussed at table 
 the matter of division of labor and settled it more definitely 
 so far as related to out-door work. Colburn takes care of the 
 cattle, Cook of the garden, Draper of the farming proper, 
 Whitney of the orcharding, while the carpenters confine them- 
 selves to their distinctive calling. A. B. lectured in the even- 
 ing at the Orthodox Meetinghouse, Milford, on Temperance, 
 several of our people being present. 
 
 "Thursday, April 21. Bright and lovely. Business brisk. 
 p. M., raised the frame of the first new building at Hopedale. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL CONTINUED. 79 
 
 Dr. Wm. P. Metcalf, who had dined with us, and friend Hiram 
 A. Morse of Holliston were present. A. B. subsequently went 
 into town with the farm wagon and after doing business at 
 Hunt & Co.'s store bought a logging axle and pole of Perley 
 Hunt, Esq., at a cost of three dollars, to be hereafter paid. 
 All hands busy at their proper work except the little time 
 spent in the aforesaid raising. Lamson has gone to Provi- 
 dence, R. I., to procure for himself a .new wooden leg (he 
 having lost one of his lower limbs). In the evening our 
 neighbors, Daniel Scammell and wife, called upon us and as 
 we had our weekly Conference meeting they remained through 
 its exercises. 
 
 " Friday, 22d. Br. Draper was obliged to go to Blackstone 
 on business in the morning. In the afternoon he and A. B. 
 perambulated the farm, inspected the fences and pastures, and 
 let off the cranberry swamp pond. Br. Lamson returns with 
 his wife and children. Saturday, 23d. Pleasant. A. Ballou's 
 39th birthday. No ceremony; too much business in hand. 
 Got home six bushels of potatoes from Eli Chapin's; paid 
 $2.00. Charles Gladding, now with us, sends for his family to 
 come here for a visit. An old acquaintance, Clark Jillson, 
 calls with his son Orison, who look around and make inquiries. 
 Br. Whitney off to Mendon in quest of materials for grafting 
 purposes. Thos. J. Dunbar from Portsmouth, N. H., arrived to 
 spend the Sabbath with us as an interested inquirer. Henry 
 Chapin called to show us where we may cut birches on his land 
 for pea-brush. President out with him noting the clumps and 
 agreeing upon an estimated cord, for which we are to pay $2.00. 
 "Sunday, 24th. Pleasant. A. B. at home. Spoke at length 
 A. M. and P. M. Brs. Gladding, Cook, and Brown followed. 
 Preached in So. Milford school-house at 5 o'clock; Brs. Brown 
 and Draper exhorted. Br. Whitney was at Millville with Br. 
 Fish; Br. Lamson at Mendon. Monday, 25th. Rainy. T. J. 
 Dunbar left by stage for Boston. Sent by him $150.00 to 
 Jos. A. Whitmarsh in advance for printing-press, materials, 
 etc., before bargained for. Also a letter, and copy for next 
 No. of P. C. Br. John Wheeler, one of our non-resident mem- 
 bers, called and paid into our Joint Stock $50.00. In the eve- 
 ning A. B. went to Hopkinton, nine miles, and married Adams 
 Chapin to Polly R. Stone. Called at friend Perry Daniels on 
 his way home, which he reached a little before midnight." 
 
80 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 I will go no further with these quotations. What I 
 have presented will furnish glimpses at the various activi- 
 ties of the Community during the first few weeks of its 
 existence and thereby afford a clearer and more complete 
 insight into its practical experiences than any number of 
 general statements could possibly do. I now proceed to 
 subsequent occurrences. 
 
 The next regular meeting of the Community was noti- 
 fied to be held in Gardner, May 5, and 6, during the 
 sessions of the Quarterly Conference at the same dates ; 
 but failing of a quorum it adjourned to the 12th at Hope- 
 dale. It took place there accordingly and was continued 
 by subsequent adjournments to numerous dates through 
 the summer, as the exigencies of the case seemed to 
 require. Only the more important items of business, 
 those relating chiefly to the management of Community 
 affairs and the general economy of the enterprise, will 
 be noted in these pages, a multitude of minor incidental 
 details being for obvious reasons omitted. And so far 
 as the admission of new members and probationers is 
 concerned, it is deemed sufficient to state once for all 
 that this was continually going on at longer or shorter 
 intervals through our entire history, without mentioning 
 each individual instance as it transpired, with the name 
 and date belonging thereto. At some one or another of 
 the several adjourned sessions of the meeting of May 5th,, 
 the following Votes and Resolves were passed, to wit f 
 
 "Voted, That the communion of the Christian Supper be ob- 
 served without the use of wine for the edification of all who deem 
 the same a religious privilege, on the 4th Sunday of every month. 
 
 "Voted, That mothers, resident members of this Community, 
 having nursing infants be regularly credited forty-eight hours 
 per week; it being understood that they select certain portions 
 of each day, amounting to eight hours, during which, if their 
 health and the comfort of their children permit, they shall 
 hold themselves in readiness to perform such labor as may 
 reasonably be required of them. 
 
BY-LAWS, RESOLVES, ETC. 81 
 
 "Voted, To defer the erection of a dwelling-house for the. 
 present, and proceed with all convenient dispatch to build a 
 mechanic shop, 30 feet by 40, two stories above the basement, 
 with dam and water-power sufficient to operate the more neces- 
 sary labor-saving machinery usual in such establishments. 
 
 "Voted, To accept the right to use a patent shingle machine 
 purchased by the President and Intendant of Manufactures, 
 etc., for SI 00.00. 
 
 "Voted, That Tuesday evening of each week be devoted to 
 improvement in singing; Thursday evening to religious confer- 
 ence ; and Saturday evening to the reading of such public 
 papers and periodicals as may be taken by the Community. 
 
 "RESOLVE RESPECTING THE ADMISSION OF MEMBERS TO 
 RESIDENCE. 
 
 "Resolved, That no person shall hereafter be entitled to resi- 
 dence on the Community domain in mere virtue of having 
 been received to membership; but the question of residence 
 shall in all cases be determined by the Community at some 
 regular meeting. 
 
 "BY-LAW REGULATING RECEPTION AND REPAYMENT OF 
 MONEYS. 
 
 " Hereafter no moneys shall be received into the Treasury 
 of this Community either on subscription to the Joint Stock 
 or on special deposit for gratuitous use, except on condition 
 that the same shall not be withdrawn without at least ninety 
 days' notice for all sums under five hundred dollars, six months' 
 notice for all sums over five hundred and less than two thou- 
 sand dollars, and one year's notice for all sums exceeding two 
 thousand dollars. And this condition shall be expressed in 
 the body or on the back of all certificates and receipts issued 
 for moneys so received. 
 
 "RESOLVE RESPECTING INDUCTIVE CONFERENCES. 
 
 " Whereas, no eifectual measures have been taken to carry 
 into effect the plan heretofore proposed for gathering our scat- 
 tered friends into Inductive Conferences; and whereas the prog- 
 ress of our cause demands the immediate prosecution of that 
 plan slightly modified; therefore 
 
 "Resolved, That wherever there are three or more persons 
 seriously disposed to promote the principles of Practical Chris- 
 
 6 
 
82 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 tianity as professed by the Fraternal Communion, they be advised 
 to form themselves forthwith into a religious class or confer- 
 ence inductive to this Community; and that to facilitate their 
 organization the following be recommended as a suitable Con- 
 stitution: 
 
 " We, the undersigned, heartily desiring to promote in our- 
 selves and others the growth of pure Christianity as professed 
 by the Fraternal Communion in their 'Declaration' of princi- 
 ples and duties, do form ourselves into a religious class, to be 
 
 called 'The Practical Christian Conference, inductive to 
 
 Fraternal Community No. 1. ' 
 
 "1. Any serious person may become a member of this Con- 
 ference by subscribing its Constitution. Any person may cease 
 to be a member by requesting his or her name erased. Any 
 unworthy member may be disowned after ineffectual admoni- 
 tion. 
 
 "2. This Conference may from time to time choose such 
 official servants as shall be found necessary to the orderly con- 
 duct of its affairs. 
 
 "3. The members of this Conference shall meet regularly 
 for Christian worship and edification at least once on the first 
 day of every week, and by agreement at such other times as 
 may be deemed proper. 
 
 "4. This Conference, by a vote of two-thirds of the mem- 
 bers present at any regular meeting, may amend this Constitu- 
 tion or may establish such regulations not inconsistent with 
 its spirit and design as shall at any time be found necessary. 
 
 "In full ratification whereof we have hereunto severally sub- 
 scribed our names under date of time and place of residence. 
 
 "Resolved, That whenever any Inductive Conference may be 
 organized in accordance with the advice and recommendation 
 herein given, the proper official servant thereof be requested to 
 report such organization immediately to the Secretary of this 
 Community, in order that our Missionaries may visit it and 
 a regular correspondence be maintained." 
 
 The foregoing Votes, Resolves, etc., are for the most 
 .part self-explanatory and hence can be easily understood 
 by the reader. The one concerning Inductive Conferences, 
 however, may need some further elucidation in order to 
 be perfectly clear and comprehensible. It will have been 
 
INDUCTIVE CONFERENCES. 83 
 
 noticed that only a part of the members of Fraternal 
 Community No. 1 were located on its central domain at 
 Hopedale. Others of them, and for some time a major- 
 ity, were scattered abroad here and there in general 
 society, prevented from coming to us, either by our ina- 
 bility to accommodate them with suitable housing and 
 remunerative employment or by their own condition and 
 circumstances in life. Besides these there were also 
 many other persons in different directions, sympathizing 
 friends and interested inquirers, who believed and felt 
 that our principles and aims were nearer the true Chris- 
 tian standard of faith and duty than those of the pro- 
 fessing Christian world. They had lost confidence in 
 the prevailing fashionable and conventional religion and 
 morality. They were tired of the existing condition of 
 things in church and state. They longed for something 
 better. They desired and prayed for a higher, diviner 
 type of individual, social, and civil life than was to be 
 found in the world at large. They had heard of us and 
 of our movement, and were inclined towards us and it. 
 They would like to know more of both. They would be 
 happy to become in some way associated with us and 
 with kindred spirits for the purpose of learning more 
 about us, about our views of truth and duty, about what 
 we were doing and trying to do at Hopedale, and of 
 improving themselves in the things that pertain to a 
 noble character and a Christian life. And this they 
 desired with an expectation of sometime actually joining 
 us in our work, if, upon better acquaintance with us and 
 it, they should feel bound in conscience to do so. 
 
 It was for such as these detached members, special 
 friends, and miscellaneous inquirers that the system of 
 Inductive Conferences was devised and in a few instances 
 put into practical operation. Under that system, the 
 .several parties indicated, dwelling in the same town, 
 village, or general neighborhood, could be associated with 
 
84 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 each other and with us in an effective way for mutual 
 counsel, instruction, and encouragement, for nurturing in 
 themselves and each other the religious affections and 
 capabilities, and for building up ultimately a fraternal 
 order of human society among men and the kingdom of 
 God upon the earth. They would be helped by affilia- 
 ting with us, and we be strengthened and inspired by 
 having them as allied co-workers, as fellow-devotees of 
 a common faith and hope, and as possible members in 
 full fellowship of our own or some similar Community. 
 The Conferences thus formed were to be missionary sta- 
 tions, to be regularly visited by our ministerial brethren 
 and made candlesticks of truth and righteousness to 
 all the region round about. Members of them would 
 receive and distribute our writings, would assemble with 
 us on public occasions, would be living testimonies to 
 the excellence of our ideas and aims, and so help to 
 extend our influence in the world. They would, moreover, 
 be supplied with the means of educating their children 
 and youth in the doctrines and precepts of the unadulter- 
 ated Gospel of Christ, whereby they would be qualified to 
 enter upon and carry forward to a triumphant success 
 in years to come the work which we had inaugurated and 
 which was so full of promise for mankind. Under these 
 prepossessions and auspices was established the system of 
 Inductive Conferences, first announced to the public by 
 the Intend ant of Religion, Morals, and Missions, Br. Wm. 
 H. Fish, in The Practical Christian of Oct. 2, 1841, but 
 modified, perfected, and finally adopted by the Community 
 as a part of its comprehensive polity, Aug. 8, 1842. 
 
 In order to show still further how we were getting on 
 as a Community during the first few months of our life 
 at Hopedale, more especially in the matter of our indus- 
 trial activities, I will make a quotation from an article 
 which appeared in our little paper, June 11, 1842, enti- 
 tled, " Community Affairs " : 
 
CONDITION OF THINGS AT HOPEDALE. 85 
 
 "We have now on the Hopedale estate forty-four persons, 
 all boarded in one general family; ten men, twelve women, and 
 twenty-two children under fifteen years of age. We have 13 
 cows, 4 yokes of oxen and steers, 2 horses and 6 swine. We 
 have planted with garden vegetables for market and our own 
 use some 3 acres, with indian corn 4 or more, and with pota- 
 toes and beans 10 or more; in all from 17 to 20 acres. We \ 
 have made numerous repairs in and upon our old buildings; j 
 erected a new one 32 by 14 feet, one and a half story above 
 the basement, calculated for a printing office, school room, 
 two sleeping apartments on the upper floor and two rooms for\j/ 
 .shops in the basement; all, of course, on a small scale. The 
 brethren have just commenced a dam and the foundation of a 
 mechanic shop, to be 30 by 40 feet in size, two stories high 
 with a basement designed for various machines to be operated 
 by water power. The erection and furnishing of this estab- 
 lishment will require all the labor and resources we can spare 
 from other demands for several months to come. Our business 
 is multiform and arduous. There is everything to do and 
 small means with which to operate. Division of labor is also 
 difficult to arrange properly ; but we have got along better than 
 most people might imagine and hope for better days ahead. 
 
 "Our school is now in running order. We might have many 
 boarding pupils if we could accommodate them, but that is 
 not possible at present. A few children in the neighborhood 
 who can come from their homes will probably be taught in 
 the school. The printing establishment was started during 
 the last week in May. We print The Practical Christian every 
 fortnight, and are prepared to do most kinds of job work, for 
 which we already have several orders. Regular meetings for 
 religious instruction and worship are kept up in our own house 
 twice on Sunday, and a conference for social prayer, praise, 
 and exhortation on Thursday evenings. These meetings are 
 free for all our neighbors and friends to attend who choose. 
 They are also free for all the attendants to speak as they feel 
 impressed with a sense of duty. 
 
 " We are happy to say that the great body of the people in 
 the region immediately around us evince a kind and friendly 
 feeling toward us, and though the stand we have taken is new, 
 strange, and doubtful to them, yet they seem to wish us nothing 
 but success. And if there are others who feel hostile to us and 
 
86 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 would be glad to see us explode, may God enable us to live 
 down their opposition by righteousness and to overcome all 
 evil by the unwearied exercise of love and meekness. Thus 
 far we rejoice to know that our influence is salutary on one 
 another and those around us. 
 
 "Our internal affairs are getting along as well as could have 
 been expected, especially when we consider the very great dis- 
 advantages under which we are placed for want of funds, house 
 room, and other conveniences. We have found ourselves in 
 close contact with each other, and of course had ample oppor- 
 tunities to find out each others weaknesses, failings, and beset- 
 ting sins. It has been a most salutary school, in which the 
 pupils have been unlearning old dispositions, habits, tastes,, 
 and manners, and acquiring new ones, as we trust for the 
 better. We have found the great principles and well-defined 
 duties of our declaratory test equal to every emergency a 
 bond of union and a correcting power for all errors of feeling 
 and conduct. Our faith is therefore unwavering that by the 
 help of God we shall one day realize our highest aspirations 
 after a right social state. In the meantime our numbers and 
 resources are gradually increasing, inquiries are becoming more 
 frequent and urgent from all quarters, and we press forward 
 to the fulfilment of our high mission." 
 
 As the days, weeks, and months of that first summer 
 came and went, we extended our stakes and strained 
 our cords to the utmost. We in due time learned that 
 both internally and externally we had undertaken over- 
 much that we were overtaxing our resources and our 
 energies. But we could not turn back ; we could not 
 suspend our activities ; we must go forward, but more 
 cautiously, more deliberately, more wisely. We had 
 learned that nothing was to be feared from abroad, from 
 the surrounding world. Whatever threatened us in that 
 direction at the outset had practically disappeared and 
 all motives or incentives to unity and fidelity originating 
 in an external pressure of hostility had been shorn of 
 their strength. Our chief if not only danger was of an 
 internal nature from enemies within our own gates. 
 Our prosperity, success, and happiness depended largely 
 
ELEMENTS OF UNREST EFFERVESCING. 87 
 
 upon reconciling domestic incongruities and preserving a 
 healthy social core. As we were all human, possessed of 
 the frailties and imperfections, to say nothing of the 
 follies and sins, of our common nature, we had within 
 us the elements of unrest, disorder, confusion, in embry- 
 onic if not in nascent, active state. And it was not long 
 under the trying circumstances of our lot before those 
 elements began to effervesce. We had started out with 
 too many raw recruits with too many undisciplined 
 minds, hearts, and wills. There were whims, fancies, 
 crotchets, in the heads of some of our members, which, 
 after becoming somewhat acquainted with their associates, 
 they were ambitious to ventilate, and magnify. This 
 they sought to do by questions or propositions involving 
 them, calculated and probably designed to elicit a reply or 
 provoke discussion. The hour of eating was their opportu- 
 nity and they improved it, modestly and suasively at first, 
 causing only light and dispassionate table talk, chaffing 
 or repartee. But this soon grew into something more 
 serious and earnest into eager debate and sharp dispu- 
 tation. From the table conversation or discussion was 
 transferred to regular Community meetings held for busi- 
 ness and other important purposes. For awhile the 
 themes of inquiry, remark, or controversy were chiefly 
 dietetic, physiological, and economic, and though pos- 
 sessed of a certain intrinsic value and significance were 
 not urged or maintained as of vital or even weighty 
 import as related to the great problem of social recon- 
 struction we were trying to solve. So long as this was 
 the case so long as the talk was novel and suggestive 
 or inquisitive, no harm came of it and no one was dis- 
 turbed by it or complained of it. But when, as was the 
 case after a time, the topics were magnified into matters 
 of indispensable concern, entitled to paramount considera- 
 tion like that given to the primary principles of moral and 
 social order and the divinely imposed duties of life, and 
 
88 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 were put forward in a dogmatic spirit and form, then the 
 matter appeared in a new phase, assumed a more threat- 
 ening aspect, and awakened apprehensions of coining ill 
 to all concerned in the minds of our better and more 
 responsible members. And when these, roused to a sense 
 of impending danger, raised a firm but calm protest 
 against the unwarrantable assumptions and claims that 
 had been put forth, they were met, not with kindly and 
 reasonable consideration, but rather with resentful petu- 
 lance and with insinuations that after all the professions 
 of fraternal equality made to the world, there was a 
 smattering of aristocracy to be found even in that lowly 
 old house. Under that pretence there were some attempts 
 set in motion to draw our poorer and humbler members 
 into a sort of democratic cabal for the maintenance of 
 their proper rights under the Constitution. This move- 
 ment, however, was of little avail, those thus appealed 
 to realizing instinctively who were their real friends and 
 under whose leadership they would be likely to fare 
 best. Nevertheless, the uneasy elements, unwilling to 
 yield or to be silenced, began to inveigh against our 
 Joint-Stock system of finance and to glorify that of com- 
 mon property as much more to be preferred in founding 
 a new social state. This proved a more serious matter 
 in the end, as will ere long be made to appear. 
 
 Meantime a case of personal inharmony and unpleas- 
 antness arose between two of our original number from 
 whom we never expected anything but the most amicable 
 relations. These were our carpenters whose business it 
 was to build our projected Mechanic Shop in mutual 
 co-operation. All at once it transpired that they could 
 not agree in their consultations and operations and that 
 considerable unhappy feeling existed between them. I 
 was most painfully surprised when informed of this, as 
 I had a high regard for both of the men. But the 
 trouble sprang very naturally from their dissimilar tern- 
 
NOVELTY YIELDS TO REALITY. 89 
 
 pers, tastes, and judgments. One of them, the official 
 he ad of the work, was a plain, unpolished, rustic sort of 
 man, extremely sensitive, retiring, and secretive ; the 
 other was more fanciful and sanguine, blunt and sarcas- 
 tic in speech, and ambitious to direct withal, feeling no 
 doubt a little chagrined that his associate held a higher 
 position than he. The result was that they became 
 mutually disagreeable and repellant, drawing apart from 
 each other. This was the first palpable instance of dis- 
 cord among us and was most mortifying to my feelings 
 on the score of acknowledged principles, but no less so 
 to my Community ambition. The inharmony was molli- 
 fied and quieted down somewhat by our pacific social 
 discipline, though never entirely healed. 
 
 As the tinsel of novelty wore off and the hard actuali- 
 ties of our uncomfortable domestic situation began to 
 overtax our nerves, we lost a portion of our spiritual 
 enthusiasm, firmness, and patience. Our religious natures 
 no less than our physical suffered for want of needed 
 solitude and repose, as they did for lack of wholesome 
 nurture and stimulus to holy aspiration and endeavor. 
 Social, secular, a^ud financial matters engrossed so much 
 of our attention and energy that our higher faculties 
 were partially starved. We suffered in the very partic- 
 ular of which we were forewarned in the letter of 
 Doctor Channing. As a consequence, every temptation 
 that assailed us was less resistable than would otherwise 
 have been the case. 
 
 In such states of mind we were beset by those dis- 
 cussions referred to a few pages back, which, though 
 held somewhat in check by the controlling minds among 
 us or rendered partially nugatory, nevertheless, could not 
 be wholly suppressed or shorn of mischievous influence. 
 Indeed, on the whole, they rather increased, growing 
 from bad to worse, from mere annoyances to threat- 
 ening perils. So that when they were met on this 
 
 \BRAfTy 
 
 OF THB 
 
 /ERSITT 
 
90 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ground and when the points contended for by those lead- 
 ing off in them were repudiated by the better sentiment 
 of the Community, a crisis was brought on which resulted 
 in the withdrawal of four of our new members. Reuben H. 
 Brown and wife, Clother G-ifford, and Lorenzo Smith ; the 
 first secession that had occurred among us. They were 
 displeased with our general system, and when they left 
 avowed a determination to start a new movement, basing 
 it upon better principles and administering it in a more 
 fraternal spirit ; a task, however, for which they had 
 neither the capacity, the character, nor the pecuniary 
 means. There was more rejoicing than sorrow at their 
 departure, and their promised El Dorado was never heard 
 of afterwards. 
 
 Unfortunately, the leaven which wrought their disaffec- 
 tion and separation from us was not all taken with them 
 when they went away. Enough of it remained to work 
 further trouble, and all the more trouble because it had 
 found a lodgment in better and more influential minds. 
 Even our ministering brother, David R. Lamson, from 
 whom only the best things had been anticipated, became 
 infected with it, causing him at length to follow on after 
 those who had gone before. In his case it manifested 
 itself in a resolute zeal in behalf of the poorer and more 
 dependent members, for whom he demanded in the name 
 of the Constitution greater privileges and more favors 
 than they were in the way of enjoying. His first open 
 demonstration in this direction was in the form of a 
 claim that his own wife who had a nursing child, and 
 other mothers similarly situated, should be allowed regular 
 wages for taking care of their little ones, on the ground 
 that a common nursery w r as guaranteed in our funda- 
 mental law, and that, notwithstanding it was as yet an 
 impossibility in form, its provisions should in substance 
 be insured to those they were designed to benefit. Upon 
 being questioned as to how many hours per day ought 
 
ECCENTRICITIES OF D. R. LAMSON. 91 
 
 to be credited to nursing mothers, be replied that in the 
 case of his own wife sixteen would be no more than 
 just. This would be twice as many as were allowed our 
 common working men and women ; that is, one dollar per 
 day while they received only fifty cents. Some of us 
 were hardly in a mood to accept such an interpretation 
 of the principle of justice or to grant the claims based 
 upon it. After long consideration of the matter and 
 much tedious discussion, I proposed a compromise regu- 
 lation, which was duly approved by the Community, to 
 the effect that nursing mothers be regularly credited for 
 eight hours' service a day, provided, that if the nature 
 of the case reasonably admitted of it they should perform 
 more common domestic labor occasionally. 
 
 Another manifestation of Brother Lamson's peculiar- 
 cast of mind or eccentricity of judgment appeared in his 
 proposition, or perhaps suggestion, that such of our min- 
 isters as had occasion to go abroad to preach or lecture 
 should offer rides to the mothers who were ordinarily 
 confined and care-worn at home, especially when they 
 went alone and when nothing would be added to the 
 expense thereby. Brother Lamson seemed to have a 
 special interest in and sympathy for the particular class 
 of persons indicated, and to put himself forward as the 
 guardian and champion of their rights and privileges, 
 although, so far as ever came to the public ear, they 
 never asked for or desired such interposition in their 
 behalf. He even went so far as to admonish me 
 directly in open Community meeting for calling on those 
 referred to so seldom and paying them so little personal 
 attention. This implication of neglect of duty and viola- 
 tion of solemn pledges of fraternal interest and regard 
 was as unreasonable as it was humiliating, inasmuch as 
 the multitude of my cares and labors, keeping me busily 
 employed from early dawn till late at night not infre- 
 quently till near midnight and sometimes after together 
 
92 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 with the wear and tear of my anxieties for the success 
 of our common cause, was taxing my energy and 
 strength to the utmost limit, as was obvious enough to 
 every reflecting observer. Still, I did not presume to 
 deny my sins of omission in the particular named ; I 
 only offered what I felt to be sufficient excuses in vindi- 
 cation of my course. This little breeze presently sub- 
 sided. It was sometimes hard to feel that the brother 
 who caused it was altogether disinterested and magnani- 
 mous in his action, since his own wife was one of the 
 few who were to be particularly favored by his scheme, 
 while other women there were among us, as worthy of 
 consideration as she, weighed down and worn to utter 
 exhaustion almost by the toil and drudgery of twelve or 
 fifteen hours per day imposed upon them by their position 
 in the administration of household affairs, for whom he 
 offered no method or proposition of recreation or relief. 
 
 Another exhibition of Brother Lamson's solicitude for 
 the well-being and protection of our humbler and more 
 dependent ones was far graver in both its nature and 
 results than those mentioned, and drew to his side several 
 members of good esteem. It was made in , connection 
 with the discussions that were carried on respecting the 
 erection of new dwelling-houses for the general conveni- 
 ence and comfort, and their permanent occupancy. Inci- 
 dent to those discussions arose the question as to who 
 should be put in possession of the new habitations and 
 enjoy the many privileges they would offer when they 
 were completed. There were of necessity but few of 
 them at first and it was a foregone conclusion forced 
 upon us by our limited means, that a considerable num- 
 ber of us must for some time yet remain in the old 
 quarters and share still longer the discomforts existing 
 there, though the contemplated reduction of numbers 
 would afford partial relief. And the question referred to 
 elicited much difference of opinion and a sharp coutro- 
 
INGENIOUS ARGUMENTS. 9 
 
 versy. Brother Lamson was foremost in the field, declar- 
 ing that our principles and constitutional pledges bound 
 ns to give the poorest and least efficient the preference 
 in the matter, and that the most talented and responsi- 
 ble should be the last to receive favors and advantages 
 of any sort at the hands of the Community. His argu- 
 ments were elaborated with much ingenuity on the basis 
 of those divine precepts to which we all bowed, viz. : 
 "He that is chief among you let him be the servant of 
 all"; "It is more blessed to give than to receive"; 
 "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities 
 of the weak, and not to please ourselves," etc. 
 
 His plea was plausible and worn the endorsement of 
 several of our most worthy associates. It would have 
 been deemed more conclusive by others had not a few 
 glaring and significant facts been closely connected with 
 it; facts too apparent to escape notice. (1) That 
 Brother Lamson and his warm sympathizers were inter- 
 ested expectants of the preferments contended for; (2) 
 That those of us who under his contention must endure 
 yet longer indefinitely the existing discomforts were to 
 furnish, either by subscription or personal credit, the 
 capital requisite for the erection of the new structures 
 and assume all the responsibility involved; (3) That 
 some of us who would by his proposal be shut out of 
 the prospective dwellings and deprived of the better 
 accommodations they would offer, were in danger of 
 sinking under the burdens we were voluntarily bearing 
 for the good of all our members, and that our whole 
 enterprise was likely to suffer great detriment, if not put 
 in imminent peril, unless some relief could be furnished 
 them like that which the new residences and the retire- 
 ment and quiet of them would supply. 
 
 In reply to Brother Lamson' s argument it was said 
 that while the principles upon which it rested were sound, 
 the application made of them was unwarrantable and 
 
THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 misleading ; that we, who must take the heavy responsi- 
 bilities of erecting the prospective dwellings claimed no 
 exclusive accommodations but were justly entitled to a 
 reasonable share of them ; that we had made and should 
 continue to make willing sacrifices for the comfort and 
 happiness of all our associates ; that there was no just 
 occasion for setting up class distinctions and preferences 
 in the matter under discussion ; and finally, that it was 
 absolutely painful and disheartening to find that past 
 labors and sacrifices in behalf of our common cause and 
 our more dependent fellow-members inspired them with 
 so little confidence, love, and gratitude. Brother Lamsou 
 took such umbrage at this last remark and its implied 
 censure of some of our numbers for lack of appreciation 
 of what had been done gratuitously and with no expecta- 
 tion of payment or reward, that he warmly denounced it 
 as contrary to our covenant obligations, and protested 
 that the word ''gratitude" had no place in our Commu- 
 nity vocabulary. We had come together as equals, to 
 enjoy co-ordinate rights, and to do what each could for 
 the other and for all concerned. And to talk of favors, 
 sacrifices, and above all of gratitude, was wholly out of 
 place and inexcusable. I as the mouthpiece of the 
 majority replied that our whole movement recognized the 
 primary right of the individual to whatever property, 
 talents, and gifts of any sort were justly his or her own, 
 and that the social fabric we were trying to build did 
 not presuppose or require the annihilation of the distinc- 
 tive personality of its members ; consequently, what was 
 put into the Community for the benefit of all concerned 
 and for the special benefit of the weaker and more needy 
 persons among us was so contributed under the law of 
 brotherhood and charity, not of arbitrary justice, and 
 should be so understood. Appreciation of and gratitude 
 for favors received imply no humiliation or degradation on 
 the part of those upon whom they are conferred and no 
 
DIVERGENT TENDENCIES DEVELOPED. 95 
 
 condescension of assumed superiority on the part of those 
 from whom they come ; but a reciprocal respect, affection, 
 and confidence. When, in urging the merits of our cause 
 before the public, I added, I have been met with the 
 objection that the more dependent and less responsible of 
 our number would claim every advantage extended to 
 them as a right, and be made by the generosity of 
 those able and willing to help them more discontented 
 and exacting, I have denied the statement as an impu- 
 tation upon the better impulses of human nature and 
 upon the Christian spirit of brotherhood in the human 
 soul. And I am disappointed and made heartsick at 
 these contrary developments by these indications that 
 our critics and detractors had a surer basis for their con- 
 clusions than I dreamed of. 
 
 And so the discussion went on for some time during 
 that first summer and the succeeding autumn of 1842. 
 There was nothing in it that could be deemed discourte- 
 ous, caustic, or bitter, at least that savored of hatred 
 and animosity, but it was earnest, determined, sharp at 
 times, and unpleasantly personal. The general tendency 
 and effect of it were to produce more or less of irritation, 
 unrest, alienation. To the better minds among us it was 
 a source of deep regret and discouragement. But it could 
 not be suppressed or avoided. There was such a radical 
 difference of views and feelings, convictions and judg- 
 ments, between the two parties that had sprung into 
 being, and withal such strength of purpose and pertinac- 
 ity of will on both sides, that neither would or could in 
 conscience yield to the other and so end the controversy. 
 For the same reason no compromise could be made and 
 no harmonious combination or warmhearted co-operation 
 effected. 
 
 As will have been observed, the trend of Brother Lam- 
 son's mind and of his arguments as well as that of his 
 sympathizers, was in the direction of an absolute extinc- 
 
96 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 tion of what may be termed individualism in the Com- 
 munity a denial of all exclusive right to property, to 
 privilege, to the use and voluntary disposal of one's time, 
 talent, endowment of any sort, on the part of any of its 
 members. His interpretations of the Constitution were in 
 that interest and behalf, as were also his pleas for nursing 
 mothers who could perform no remunerative labor for an 
 equal distribution of wages without regard to competency, 
 fidelity, or efficiency, and for the assignment of the newly 
 built houses to those who had assumed no responsibility 
 and contributed neither money nor work in the construc- 
 tion of them. But the Community was not established on 
 any such foundation as that, and was never designed or 
 calculated to foster, promote, and represent before the 
 world such ideas, nor had its administration thus far been 
 carried on in accordance with such principles and methods 
 of operation. Moreover, the leading minds in our fellow- 
 ship, with the exception of the brother named, were loyal 
 to the original purpose of the movement and to the gen- 
 eral system of Joint-Stock proprietorship and of personal 
 rights, duties, and obligations which had thus far pre- 
 vailed, and consequently averse to all theories or claims 
 calculated to subvert them or in any way discredit or 
 ignore them. And a large majority of our number were 
 of the same way of thinking and acting. 
 
 At this juncture and crisis of affairs we were con- 
 fronted with this alternative : either the Community must 
 be dissolved or its Constitution must be amended on the 
 points relating to the dead level of wages, board, etc., 
 and to some of its extreme and indiscriminate guarantees ; 
 for on these points had most of the discordant issues 
 been raised. The only third course that could be sug- 
 gested was to follow Brother Lamsou's lead and transform 
 our Joint-Stock Community into a Common-Stock Com- 
 munity, making all the other changes in our organization 
 and polity which such a transformation would necessitate. 
 
AMEMDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 97 
 
 But that was out of the question utterly impractica- 
 ble, for various substantial reasons, and not to be con- 
 sidered for a moment. So we were thrown back upon 
 the alternative mentioned. But what was to come of 
 dissolution? Nothing but shame, blasting, disaster to 
 all our avowed principles and most sacredly cherished 
 hopes ; a virtual denial of our much vaunted faith ; a 
 trampling in the dust of our blessed Standard of Prac- 
 tical Christianity. On the other hand, if the amend- 
 ments of the Constitution necessary to save our little 
 craft were made, several of our worthy, albeit mistaken 
 members, as we thought, would be likely to secede, 
 and that would impair our standing and lessen our 
 influence with the outside public. Besides, in striving 
 to escape the Scylla of threatening Communism, we 
 might fall into the Charybdis of selfish, unscrupulous, 
 and hard-hearted Individualism, which would be no less 
 fatal to our highest purposes and noblest aims, to all 
 we were trying to stand for before God and men. We 
 were in a critical and dangerous strait. 
 
 Nevertheless, after much painful reflection on my own 
 part and numerous earnest conferences with several of 
 my fellow-members, some of whom were also deeply exer- 
 cised in regard to the matter, I addressed myself to the 
 task of preparing such amendments of the Constitution 
 as would meet the exigencies of the case and enable us 
 to go on harmoniously and successfully with the work to, 
 which we had sacredly pledged our lives, our fortunes, 
 and our sacred honor. This was accomplished in due 
 time and the result was submitted to the consideration, 
 emendation, and final action of the Community in regular 
 meeting assembled on the 16th day of November. The 
 several changes made, approved, and adopted appear in 
 the following form : 
 
98 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 " AMENDMENTS. 
 " ARTICLE IV. 
 
 " Add one Section: 
 
 "SEC. 4. For the accommodation of such members as may 
 prefer to build houses and transact business independently of 
 the Joint-Stock Proprietorship, each Community shall select a 
 Village Site, lay off house-lots and sell the same, as oppor. 
 tunity may offer, to any members who will come under obliga- 
 tions that such lots with all their buildings and betterments 
 shall revert to the Community at a fair appraisal whenever 
 they shall cease to be owned within the pale of its member- 
 ship, or whenever they shall be abused to purposes notoriously 
 inconsistent with the principles of this Association. 
 
 " ARTICLE V. 
 
 "Strike out Sees. 3, 4, 5, and insert as follows: 
 " SEC. 3. All operatives of every description belonging to 
 any Community, whether employed at home or abroad by the 
 Community or by individual members on their own account, 
 shall be allowed a fair compensation according to the nature 
 and productiveness of the service rendered as may be mutu- 
 ally agreed on between the parties, never exceeding one dollar 
 per day, six dollars per week, twenty-four dollars per month, 
 or three hundred dollars per year. 
 
 " ARTICLE VI. 
 
 " Strike out at the end of Sec. 3 these words, ' its floating 
 fund or ordinary resources,' and in lieu thereof insert the fol- 
 lowing: 'funds raised by voluntary contribution.' 
 
 " ARTICLE VII. 
 
 "Strike out the whole Article and insert the following : 
 " Every Community in this Association shall endeavor to 
 grow, manufacture, purchase at wholesale, or otherwise provide, 
 all articles of ordinary use and consumption, so as to supply 
 the personal necessities of all its members and dependents. 
 And every item furnished at a price for the supply of such 
 necessities, whether by the Community or individual members, 
 hall be afforded at cost as nearly as the same can be ascer- 
 tained. 
 
NATURE OF CHANGES MADE. 99 
 
 "ARTICLE VIIL 
 
 "Strike out the whole Article and insert: 
 
 " The clear profits of every Community in this Association 
 not exceeding four per cent, per annum on capital for the 
 whole time of its investment, shall be divided among the 
 Stockholders according to the amount by them severally in- 
 vested. And all excess of profits over the said four per cent. 
 shall be devoted to such religious, educational, or charitable 
 purposes as the Community may from time to time determine. 
 
 "ARTICLE IX. 
 
 "Add the following words: 
 
 "This article shall be carried into effect by voluntary con- 
 tribution. 
 
 "ARTICLE X. 
 
 "Sec. 4, fourth line, strike out 'established' and insert 
 * highest."' 
 
 The intent and practical effect of these Amendments 
 had been stated in The Practical Christian of October 
 29, and were elaborated more fully at the meeting in 
 which they were finally adopted. I copy them as they 
 appeared in their more condensed form, as follows : 
 
 "1. They restore a large amount of individuality to the 
 members of a Community and leave every one at liberty to 
 associate his capital and labor in the Joint-Stock operations 
 to such an extent from year to year as he may feel to be a 
 duty and a pleasure; or, on the Bother hand, ^to dwell and 
 transact business by himself, as he may prefer; in either case 
 acknowledging himself bound to educate his children, trade, 
 and assist his feeble brethren, on the same general principles 
 as before. 
 
 "2. They enable a Community to combine all the privileges 
 of a well-ordered village of free-minded, conscientious individ- 
 uals and those of a close association of capital and labor with- 
 out the disadvantages of either. They adapt the Community 
 organization to the wants of all classes of Practical Christians 
 without imposing excessive burdens or restraints upon any, 
 and thus give association the vantage ground of a fair experi- 
 ment on its own merits. If it prove to be as pleasant and 
 
100 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 economical as we have all hoped, it will tend to bring over 
 the lovers of individuality and make them willing co-operators. 
 If not, the same principles of justice and charity may be 
 carried out in the other way. 
 
 "3. They break up all unreasonable dependence on the 
 capital and industry of the provident part of a Community, 
 quicken self-reliance, induce economy, and make a just distinc- 
 tion between alms and wages, gifts and debts. 
 
 "4. They place all the members of a Community, whether 
 resident or non-resident, having much or little in the Joint- 
 Stock, on a common level, under the same reciprocal obliga- 
 tions and responsibilities. Justice is done to all and charity 
 is required of all. No one can hide behind the mass; none 
 can screen themselves under constitutional prescriptions from 
 voluntary contributions to support schools and relieve the 
 needy. Every one will appear in his own true light. 
 
 "5. They will disencumber capital of its present great risks 
 and dangerous liabilities, give it a moderate but sure profit, 
 and at the same time secure to labor its just compensation. 
 
 " 6. Finally, they simplify our whole social machinery, make 
 the experiment perfectly safe on a large or small scale, and 
 render the Community relationship more equitable, more pleas- 
 ant, and more practicable to all free, honest, and unselfish 
 minds." 
 
 The reader will naturally infer that such important 
 changes as those specified could not have been consum- 
 mated without serious opposition on the part of those 
 whose unwarrantable claims under the original Constitu- 
 tion had jeopardized both our harmony and hopes, and 
 thereby rendered them necessary. Such inference is cor- 
 rect. Long and earnest debates were carried on before 
 the final decision was reached, but the requisite three- 
 fourths majority was at length secured and the new 
 policy was made imperative and obligatory. Whereupon, 
 several of the opposition were so aggrieved as to imme- 
 diately resign their membership and several others delayed 
 doing so only for a short time ; while a few, not ready 
 to take such a step and abandon the cause altogether, 
 still felt that the Community had backslidden lamentably 
 
GLORIFICATION OF THE SHAKERS. 101 
 
 from its primal virtue. About a dozen in all seceded by 
 reason of the action taken, some of whom, however, 
 upon further deliberation, rejoined us. But the larger 
 portion left us to return no more, carrying with them an 
 ^vil report which no doubt for a time affected unfavora- 
 bly our standing and influence wherever we were known. 
 Of these, the principal, Brother Lamson, soon after went 
 to reside with the Shakers at Pittsfield, thinking to find 
 in their midst that heaven upon earth which he had 
 hoped for in Hopedale but had not realized. For a 
 while all went happily with him there, so that at the end 
 of six weeks he wrote a letter to Brother Stacy extolling 
 the situation in which he was placed and the people with 
 whom he had cast his fortunes to the highest degree. The 
 letter was given a place in the columns of our little 
 paper. It was and still is interesting reading. A few 
 extracts will indicate its spirit and character. "-They 
 (the Shakers) are what they profess to be. And this 
 1 never could say of any other denomination of Chris- 
 tians. They are in a very eminent sense Practical Chris- 
 tians." "This people live under the divine government; 
 and the greatest harmony and Christian affection prevail 
 among them." "Their property is held in common; they 
 do their own labor ; a personal equality prevails through- 
 out, except that the sick, the feeble, and the aged receive 
 the utmost care and tenderness. The intercourse among 
 them is like that of a well-regulated family of natural 
 brothers and sisters." "In order to know them and 
 appreciate their religion and its blessed influence upon 
 the life it is necessary to live with them." And yet, 
 after a more conclusive trial, Brother Lamsou withdrew 
 from these eminent Practical Christians, returned to gen- 
 eral society, which he had professedly renounced and 
 often denounced unsparingly for its unchristian charac- 
 ter, purchased and settled upon a little farm in West 
 Boylstou, and was never heard from afterwards ; cer- 
 
102 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 taiuly not as a Social Reformer and an Apostle of 
 Human Brotherhood. He died July 2, 1886, aged 80 
 years. His wife, an estimable woman, shared his varied 
 fortunes sympathetically and devotedly while she lived, 
 passing to the world of spirits some years before him. 
 
 Our movement could but suffer more or less by the 
 trying experiences which have just been narrated. Not 
 only by loss of reputation and confidence in the public 
 mind, but by the saddening, depressing effect produced 
 upon those of us who had done so much for it, and who 
 were resolved to stand by it still and to spend and be 
 spent in its blessed behalf. As the prime mover in 
 starting it and the accepted leader in the administration 
 of its manifold activities, I was personally humiliated and 
 weakened by what had transpired. I felt less confidence 
 in my own moral competency for the work I had under- 
 taken, less in the fitness of others for the kind of life 
 upon which we had entered, and less in our desired 
 speedy success. The more intelligent and conscientious 
 of my associates sympathized with me in this regard. We 
 were all of us shorn somewhat of our former strength. 
 Our principles were as true as ever and as obligatory,, 
 our cause was as sacred, our standard of duty as high> 
 and our Heavenly Father as much our Friend and Helper 
 in time of need. 
 
 And so we tried to make the best of our adversities- 
 and of our still imperfect conditions, and despite some 
 heart-heaviness girded up our loins for renewed effort 
 and an onward march. Though cast down we were not 
 destroyed. There was a silver lining to the cloud that 
 had cast its shadow upon us. Encouragements there 
 were as well as discouragements. Many of our interests 
 had been well fostered ; many of our activities had been 
 fairly prosperous. Our field culture, gardening, haying,, 
 etc., had gone on to general satisfaction. The harvest 
 had yielded us, if not abundant, yet satisfactory returns* 
 
TOKENS OF PROSPERITY. 103 
 
 Our barns, our cellars, our larders, were by no means 
 empty. Improvements upon our domain had been going 
 on. The dam with its appurtenances was approaching 
 completion. The basement of the mechanic shop had 
 been finished and the frame of the superstructure was so 
 far advanced as to admit raising on the 27th of October, 
 which was followed immediately by the enclosing of the 
 body of the structure and the putting on of the roof. 
 The building designed for a school-house and printing 
 office was considerably under way. A baker and a hat- 
 ter had joined us and commenced operations in their 
 respective callings, thus enlarging the field of our indus- 
 trial activity. The general health of members and resi- 
 dents had been good, though some sickness had prevailed 
 among the children but not of serious or alarming nature. 
 No death had occurred on our premises since settlement. 
 Winter set in at length finding us comfortably housed 
 and provided for, all the more so that its inmates were 
 somewhat reduced in numbers, the withdrawals men- 
 tioned having sensibly depleted our population and removed 
 the pressure in that respect. Soon came our reckoning 
 day with its itemized account of the year's operations 
 and their results. The Annual Meeting was held Jan. 4, 
 1843, at which the Executive Council submitted to their 
 constituency the following 
 
 ANNUAL REPORT. 
 
 " The Executive Council of Fraternal Community, No. 1, 
 respectfully submit the following financial report: 
 
 "The whole amount of property on hand is: Consolidated 
 Fund, $4,300.00; Floating Fund, $2,504.40; Total, $6,804.40. 
 Our debts to members, over dues is $1,298.85; leaving the 
 present value, $5,505.55. The whole amount of Joint-Stock 
 invested and for which Certificates have been issued is 
 $5,600.00, showing an absolute loss of $94.45. But this loss 
 would have been $597.54 had we not appraised our two new 
 buildings $503.09 above their nomimal cost. We believed 
 this to be a fair estimate and have therefore made it in the 
 
104 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 confidence that future years of ordinary success will justify us 
 in doing so. 
 
 " The whole amount of labor employed has cost us $2,722.62, 
 according to the following items: Agriculture and Animals, 
 $739.47; Health and Domestic Economy, $999.00; Manufac- 
 tures and Mechanical Industry, $577.00; Education, Arts, and 
 Sciences, $31.92; Religion, Morals, and Missions, $78.00; Hat- 
 ting, $74.39; Printing, $222.84. 
 
 " The profit and loss account in the several departments and 
 branches is as follows: Dr. Incidental Expenses, $104.12; Edu- 
 cation, etc., $45.77 ; Tailoring, $2.51 ; Health and Domestic 
 Economy, $475.24; Agriculture and Animals, $231.38; Printing, 
 $46.33; Total, $905.35. Cr. Hatting, $21.72; Manufactures and 
 Mechanical Industry, $503.09; Donations, $111.90; Religion, 
 Morals, and Missions, $45.27; Practical Christian, $50.82; Fi- 
 nance and Exchange, $36.00 ; Cash in Treasury, $42.10; making 
 a total of $810.90. The balance shows the amount of loss as 
 before stated, $94.45. 
 
 " All of which is respectfully submitted in behalf of Council. 
 
 IN BALLOU, Pres't. 
 "Hopedale, Jan. 4, 1843." 
 
 This was a small showing for our much vaunted enter- 
 prise, exhibiting close calculation and leaving capital no 
 dividend. But all things considered the loss was much 
 less than might have been expected much less than we 
 actually feared. We therefore waived any discourage- 
 ments the result of our year's operations was calculated 
 to create and set our faces hopefully and steadfastly 
 towards the future. When we considered how much we 
 had to learn by dear experience and anxious vigils, the 
 theoretic errors we had to correct, and the injudicious 
 attempt to accommodate and employ from April to Octo- 
 ber so many persons at equal wages, we felt that we and 
 all true friends of the Community had reason to be satis- 
 fied with what had been accomplished and with the con- 
 dition in which we found ourselves at the opening of a 
 new year. 
 
OFFICIAL SERVANTS FOR 1843. 105 
 
 The official servants chosen at this second Annual 
 Meeting of the Community were : ADIN BALLOU, Presi- 
 dent ; ABBY H. PRICE, Secretary; EDMUND PRICE, Auditor; 
 EBENEZER D. DRAPER, Intendant of Finance and Exchange; 
 AMOS J. BALLOU, Intendant of Agriculture and Animals; 
 HENRY LILLIE, Intendant of Manufactures and Mechanical 
 Industry; BUTLER WILMARTH, Intendant of Health and 
 Domestic Economy; DANIEL S. WHITNEY, Intendant of 
 Education, Arts, and Sciences; WM. H. FISH, Intendant 
 of Religion, Morals, and Missions. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1843, 1844. 
 
 STEPS OF PROGRESS SOCIAL REFORM CONFERENCES 
 NEW INDUSTRIAL SCHEME CHEERFUL OUTLOOK. 
 
 /COMMENCING on the day following the Annual Meet- 
 ^ ing, which took place on the 4th of January, 1843, 
 the present Chapter will outline the operations and pro- 
 gress of the Community under the provisions of its modi- 
 fied Constitution during the two succeeding years. This 
 may be done more intelligibly and satisfactorily perhaps 
 by a classified arrangement of the topics of chief interest 
 indicated in convenient order by their respective titles. 
 
 1. Domestic Economy. Now that the opportunity was 
 opened to such of our members as might desire it to 
 establish and live in separate households, several families 
 that preferred to do so and found it possible, at once 
 began to form plans for leaving the hitherto unitary 
 domestic mode of life and locating by themselves in the 
 the usual order of the home. The facilities for doing 
 this on the Community domain, however, were extremely 
 meager and unsatisfactory. But almost anything was 
 better than the incommodious and crowded condition 
 which had been endured thus far by a severe tax upon 
 human patience and fortitude, and the most contracted 
 and unpropitious quarters were gladly accepted. Bros. 
 E. D. Draper, D. S. Whitney, and Edmund Price, whose 
 families were small, managed to set up their respective 
 penates in the new building on Water Street, the school 
 and printing press having been removed to the mechanic 
 
ut* K **)7 
 
 OF THB 
 
 DOMESTIC CHANGES MADE. 
 
 shop then approaching completion. The ,Old House was 
 divided into three tenements ; one of which was occupied 
 by Brother Lillie, another by Brother Harris, while the 
 third, much the largest, sheltered the still existent Com- 
 munity family, which, though greatly depleted, was yet 
 of considerable size. There I remained, as did also Bro. 
 Amos J. Ballou, with our wives and children and such 
 other members and dependents as were not provided for 
 elsewhere. There, too, all new comers took up their 
 abode, and there visiting friends, inquirers, etc., were 
 received and entertained as time went on. Meanwhile 
 two new dwelling-houses were projected and put in 
 process of construction my own humble cottage and a 
 two-story double house belonging to A. J. Ballou and 
 Edmund Price. They were able to move into their new 
 quarters about mid-summer and I into mine early in 
 September, where I and my family have ever since 
 resided. Sr. C. P. Hooton was married to Elkauah Taft 
 of Uxbridge, Feb. 27, and soon after left the premises 
 with her children. Vacancies thus occurred from time to 
 time in the common household, but only to be filled or 
 more than filled by incoming members, probationers, and 
 hired workmen needed to assist in the erection of the 
 up-going buildings. All desired and aimed at a home of 
 their own, and such as were able secured a half-acre 
 house-lot in the Village Site to be built upon as soon as 
 circumstances would permit Delays on the part of these 
 were unavoidable, yet three were finished and taken pos- 
 session of before winter set in. Besides those mentioned 
 was one for Br. Geo. W. Stacy, in which he resided 
 until his departure from Hopedale, his successor for 
 many years being Br. Almon Thwing. Br. Dr. Wilniarth 
 put up the ell part of his house, enabling him to occupy 
 it during the succeeding winter or early spring in anticipa- 
 tion of the completion of the main structure. To answer 
 the call of applicants, A. J. Ballou and Edmund Price 
 
108 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 fitted up a tenement each on the second floor of their 
 spacious dwelling as soon as they were fairly settled in 
 it. Such was the new order of domestic life with us 
 separate families in a compact neighborhood. 
 
 2. Industrial Interests. There was no general uniform 
 system adopted concerning them. They were all provided 
 for and supervised by the Community under the direction 
 of the proper Intendant, and most of different kinds of 
 business were carried on through his direct personal man- 
 agement. But exceptions were allowed in certain cases 
 out of deference to individual enterprise and choice, 
 abuses and dangers being guarded against by what were 
 supposed to be adequate provisions and restrictions. 
 Nathan Harris was permitted to engage in carpentry on 
 his own account and in that capacity erected by contract 
 the three dwellings heretofore mentioned. Printing was 
 done by Brother Stacy, mainly at his own discretion, for 
 several months ; at first in the new Water street house and 
 afterwards at his own home in Mendon ; he being paid 
 twelve dollars per number for bringing out The Practical 
 Christian. Later, about the 1st of June, the press was 
 located in an upper room of the mechanic shop, and 
 thenceforth was run as a Community branch of industry. 
 The department of Agriculture, which the previous year 
 was managed under four heads, Farming, Gardening, 
 Orcharding, and Stabling, was this year comprised in two 
 divisions, Agriculture and Livery. A small amount of 
 traffic was carried on by the Intendant of Finance and 
 p]xchange. The manufacture of hats was continued ; the 
 Boot and Shoe business started, also the making of 
 boxes, Painting and Glazing, Tin and Sheet Iron work- 
 ing, all on a small scale and all under Community 
 management. What was called " General Service" was 
 regarded as a distinct industry and had a separate 
 accounting. This covered my own official and miscel- 
 laneous labors as President of the Community, and also 
 
MULTIPLICITY OF INDUSTRIES. 100 
 
 those of others similarly employed for the common good. 
 The department of Religion, Morals, and Missions in- 
 cluded all the professional labors of our ministers and 
 lecturers, whether rendered within or without our terri- 
 torial boundaries. These brethren were active during 
 most of the year, on Sundays generally and occasionally 
 during the week, but their work brought in little pecun- 
 iary revenue. The Practical Christian with its accom- 
 paniments constituted an independent business enterprise 
 and had its own distinctive reckoning. Also the depart- 
 ments of Domestic Economy, the chief interest of which 
 was the maintenance of the combined household, and 
 Education, which concerned the proper schooling of our 
 children, of which little was done systematically during 
 the year under notice. 
 
 There was considerable complexity, as can be readily 
 seen, in our industrial management, and great skill and 
 care were requisite to the proper keeping of our account 
 books so as to render them at once intelligible and trust- 
 worthy. It was perhaps a mistake, it was certainly a 
 misfortune, that we felt ourselves obliged to establish or 
 authorize so many business undertakings, but the skill, 
 capacity, taste, and previous training of our members- 
 were so diversified, and our anxiety to give each and 
 every one remunerative employment at the earliest practi- 
 cable date was so intense, that we did not feel at liberty 
 to limit the introduction of new industries as we ought 
 to have done. When a person apparently every way 
 qualified to become a worthy, useful member of our fra- 
 ternity proposed to join us, and, having been accepted,, 
 wished to establish a business for which he was well 
 equipped by natural aptitude and experience ; a business 
 that would enable himself and family to be self-support- 
 ing and furnish the opportunity of self-support to others, 
 we were quite ready to hear his plea and yield to his 
 solicitation, sometimes to our detriment and subsequent 
 
110 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 regret and grief. It was chiefly in this way that our 
 industries multiplied upon our hands and that we were 
 made subject to many perplexing problems which under 
 a more reserved and cautious regimen we should have 
 escaped. Our desire to make as rapid progress as possi- 
 ble and to help as many as possible to a better life led 
 us into many errors. 
 
 3. Material Advancement. The mechanic shop was 
 completed in the early Spring, and the first story and 
 basement were supplied with a considerable amount and 
 variety of labor-saving machinery for facilitating work in 
 carpentering, joinery, box-making, and kindred callings. 
 The story above was so partitioned and fitted up as to 
 afford tolerable accommodations in its southern part for 
 the printing press and its accessories, while the northern 
 was made convenient and comfortable for school purposes 
 and for services of public worship ; in which twofold 
 capacity it met our needs, in a rude fashion to be sure, 
 until we were in a condition to erect a building for the 
 same purposes the following year. In the ways indicated 
 the structure was at once put to use both above and 
 below, and proved of great value to the Community in 
 many respects. Nine half- acre lots were sold at an early 
 day to individual members of our body, for which by com- 
 mon consent and mutual agreement they were to pay 
 $100.00 each into the common treasury, without pausing 
 to estimate their comparative natural worth. This was a 
 good beginning in that direction and an augury of better 
 days ahead. 
 
 During the season very considerable and important im- 
 provements were made upon what were collectively desig- 
 nated as the Community barns, though one of them was 
 used up to the time of our occupancy of the premises as 
 a cider house, the other two only having been devoted 
 to the sheltering of cattle, horses, hay, grain, etc. They 
 were somewhat remote from each other, inconveniently 
 
IMPROVEMENTS GOING ON. Ill 
 
 arranged, and in a considerably dilapidated condition. 
 Their frames, however, were heavy, firm, and strong, ren- 
 dering them capable of being moved without serious detri- 
 ment to them or danger to the movers. A basement cellar 
 for them was excavated at the southwest corner of Union 
 and Water Streets, diagonally opposite the ancient farm- 
 house of the estate, and suitable foundations were laid, 
 upon which they were in due time located in such prox- 
 imity to and connection with each other as would best sub- 
 serve the several purposes for which they were designed 
 and needed. They were then put in respectable condition 
 externally, and so fitted up internally as to contribute to 
 the comfort and convenience of whomsoever might use 
 them, and afford the proper protection and shelter for 
 the animals and products of the earth that might thence- 
 forth be housed in them. In their transformed condition 
 they presented a somewhat straggling, unsymmetrical, inar- 
 tistic, and withal unattractive appearance, but the change 
 was a most desirable one, and one fully justified by the 
 results secured. The conglomerate structure not only 
 supplied the immediate needs of the Community, but has 
 served important uses through all the intervening years 
 down to the present time, and promises to do the same 
 indefinitely in the time to come. 
 
 Mention should be made in this connection of what was 
 done the same year towards the construction of our main 
 thoroughfare through the village, now called Hopedale 
 Street. It had been laid out in a northwesterly and 
 southeasterly direction in the original survey of the resi- 
 dential portion of our territory without regard to any 
 pre-existing highways, cutting across the old tortuous 
 Magomiscock road near the junction of Hopedale and 
 Union Streets, but little had been done towards making 
 it passable. It ran over an uneven surface, rocky and 
 considerably elevated in some places but low and marshy 
 in others. Material excavated from the higher portions 
 
112 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 of it was transferred to the more depressed and wet 
 localities, and before winter set in a tolerably good 
 wagon-way was opened and a promising beginning made 
 of a future excellent thoroughfare. People of the pres- 
 ent generation little dream of the labors undergone in 
 those early days and afterward to make the rough places 
 of Hopedale smooth and its uncomely areas fair and 
 beautiful. 
 
 An enterprise of still greater significance was set on 
 foot early in the year and considerably advanced before 
 its close, viz. : the erection of a building which should 
 serve the purposes of a School-house and Chapel for our 
 immediate and prospective needs. As early as February 
 4th, the following editorial and prospectus appeared in 
 The Practical Christian, a copy of which will explain the 
 matter. 
 
 " SCHOOL-HOUSE AND CHAPEL. 
 
 "We are very much in need of a School-house and Chapel 
 at Hopedale. The establishment of a good permanent Semi- 
 nary has always been a darling object with the founders of 
 this Community. Scarcely less necessary is a comfortable 
 room for our religious meetings, lectures, etc. The time has 
 arrived when these objects must be attempted. Many friends 
 have been advising us for months to this movement and have 
 assured us of their readiness to lend a helping hand. The 
 Community is too young and too poor to carry out any splen- 
 did design. We must be content for the present with a build- 
 ing which will answer the double purpose of School-house and 
 Chapel. Might not such a one be erected for $800 or $1000? 
 We think it might. And may we not confidently appeal to 
 our friends in this general region for handsome contributions 
 in money, materials, and labor towards the undertaking? There 
 are many who ardently desire to see a good school and con- 
 venient house of worship in this place. We have drawn up 
 a paper for the purpose of providing these, which we shall 
 circulate among those who, we believe, take a friendly interest 
 in our general cause. In the meantime we wish them to be 
 thinking upon the subject; and any friends at a distance, who 
 
PROPOSALS FOR A CHAPEL. 113 
 
 have the heart to aid us by donations, will Jay us under great 
 obligations by communicating their kind intentions to the editor 
 immediately. Who will speak and act? Shall the suggestion 
 be taken up and carried into effect? 
 
 " The following is a copy of the subscription prospectus 
 drawn up for circulation: 
 
 " PROPOSALS 
 ''For the Erection of a Chapel and School-house at Hopedale. 
 
 "In the name and behalf of Fraternal Community, No. 1, 
 Adin Ballou proposes the erection of a decent and commodious 
 building at Hopedale, to be used as a Chapel until a more 
 suitable one shall be provided, and as a school-house perma- 
 nently, to be under the general charge and regulation of said 
 Community for preservation, proper use, and safe keeping. 
 And the said Ballou, in said name and behalf, proposes and 
 engages as follows, to wit: 
 
 " 1. That the building to be erected shall be devoted to 
 the purposes above specified, and to no others therewith incon- 
 sistent. 
 
 " 2. That, as a Chapel, its seats shall be free to all persons 
 of peaceable behavior who choose to attend religious meetings 
 therein so far as its accommodations may extend. 
 
 "3. That a respectable and well ordered school or course 
 of useful instruction and discipline, under Community regula- 
 tions, shall be therein maintained for at least three-quarters of 
 every year. 
 
 "Now, therefore, all persons friendly to the object herein 
 proposed, and willing to promote the same by contribution of 
 money, materials, or labor, are respectfully invited to subscribe 
 their names with the amount of their several offerings. Said 
 subscriptions shall be paid to the said Adin Ballou, to be 
 applied economically in the name and behalf of said Commu- 
 nity to the purpose herein specified." 
 
 In answer to this appeal about $200 were subscribed 
 by outside friends, in sums of from $12 to 75 cents; 
 individual members subscribed over $140 more, and the 
 needful balance was guaranteed by the Community as 
 such. So ground was broken, a basement with suitable 
 
 8 
 
114 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 foundations for the superstructure prepared, and the frame 
 of an edifice 26 feet square, exclusive of an appropriate 
 vestibule portico in front, raised, the intention being to 
 provide for immediate needs and add to the structure in 
 the rear as future necessity, convenience, and ability 
 might warrant. The portico was to be surmounted with 
 a tasteful cupola and belfry. The project was well under 
 way before severe weather came, and made ready for 
 occupancy the ensuing spring. 
 
 Another interesting item worthy of mention comes prop- 
 erly under the present head. A warm and generous per- 
 sonal friend in Cincinnati. O., Andrew H. Ernst, Esq., who 
 was engaged in the Nursery business at Spring Garden, 
 on the outskirts of that city, being kindly disposed 
 towards the Community, made us a valuable donation, 
 the receipt of which was acknowledged in our fortnightly 
 publication of June 10, as follows : 
 
 " The undersigned, in behalf of Fraternal Community, No. 1, 
 gratefully acknowledges the receipt of 325 young apple trees, 
 carefully packed in four boxes, comprising thirty choice vari- 
 eties, sent as a donation by our kind friend and brother, A. H. 
 Ernst of Cincinnati, Ohio. They arrived in good condition 
 
 and promise to do well. 
 
 " ADIN BALLOU." 
 
 This much prized gift was heralded by a lengthy epis- 
 tle from the donor and his estimable wife, expressing a 
 most heartfelt interest in our endeavor to realize a true 
 Christian order of society, promising future favors like 
 that now shown us, and giving good practical advice in 
 regard to setting out and caring for the trees. We were 
 not in a condition to make the wisest use of them by 
 reason of the unprepared state of the grounds where they 
 were put and our want of skill in managing them, but 
 those properly attended to did well and have been pro- 
 lific of good fruit unto this day. We had ourselves 
 started an infant nursery of our own, comprised of an 
 
RELATIONS WITH OTHER COMMUNITIES. 115 
 
 abundance of apple and pear sproutliugs, and had put a 
 thousand or more peach and plum stones in the ground, 
 but as yet these were of no avail to us in planting 
 orchards or fitting up our little homesteads ; and hence 
 the kindly thoughtfuluess of Mr. and Mrs. Ernst at that 
 date was all the more timely and acceptable. 
 
 4. Relations ivith other Communities. As already stated, 
 several Communities or Co-operative Associations besides 
 our own were founded about the time we located at 
 Hopedale. Others were in process of gestation merely. 
 They all differed from each other very considerably, either 
 in organization or method of administration, and they 
 were too unlike ours in both respects to admit of any 
 very close affiliation. Yet our principles and our polity 
 disposed us to maintain a friendly attitude towards them, 
 even towards those whose leading characteristics were 
 radically dissimilar to ours, and whose controlling spirits 
 were moved to criticize and denounce what we deemed 
 most fundamental in theory and most vital to ultimate 
 -success. 
 
 Mention has already been made of the cordial feeling 
 that existed at Hopedale towards Brook-Farm, the 
 Northampton Community at Florence, both in this State, 
 and the North American Phalanx in Monmouth Co., 
 N. J., and of the overtures looking towards a combina- 
 tion of interests and forces which were made and seriously 
 considered between us and the former. There were many 
 things that were common to us and to all these move- 
 ments, and our intercommunication with each other was 
 tilways amicable and kindly. Other movements there were 
 mostly in the West, with which, though we were much 
 interested in them and wished them well, we were less in 
 sympathy, and of which we had less hope as agencies 
 for fraternizing and blessing mankind. With the pro- 
 jectors and apostles of some of these I was personally 
 brought into verbal collision, as will be seen, as will also 
 
116 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 the occasion and ground of it, by a brief account of 
 what was called a Property Convention, held in Chardou 
 St. Chapel, Boston, on the evening of June 8. It was 
 gotten up by John A. Collins, sometime General Agent 
 of the Mass. Anti-Slavery Society, and a few friends 
 who agreed with him in certain ideas which he entertained 
 respecting the rights of property and the true basis of 
 social reconstruction. I was invited to be present and 
 participate in the debates, an invitation that I cheerfully 
 accepted. I give a few extracts from my report of what 
 transpired, published in The Practical Christian: 
 
 " Quite an audience convened. The meeting was addressed 
 by John O. Wattles, Nathaniel Whiting, and John A. Collins. 
 Friend Wattles, an amiable and benevolent man from the 
 West, spoke in rather a poetic strain against the evils of the 
 present social state as flowing from the assumed right of indi- 
 vidual property, and painted in glowing colors the beauties of 
 that proposed social state wherein no person should claim to 
 own anything; where each individual should be a perfect com- 
 munity in himself and the congregated whole a heavenly com- 
 munion of wisdom, goodness, and enjoyment. He took it for 
 granted that the abolition of all individual property would cer- 
 tainly lead to these happy results, without any very careful 
 analysis of facts or effort at argument. He was too indefinite 
 in his speech to render an answer pertinent. Friend Whiting 
 followed on the same side in a calm and candid style of 
 address, yet with too little logical point to elicit an interesting 
 debate. By this time it was 9 o'clock and the people began 
 to think of going home. Friend Collins called on me to give 
 my views, which I declined to do until he should state more 
 definitely the positions he and his allies intended to maintain,, 
 with a few of the more important reasons therefor. He 
 thought this had already been done but concluded to attempt 
 a further explication. When he had closed, I took up the 
 subject and attempted to show that individual property grew 
 directly out of individual existence, was inseparably connected 
 with it, and could never be wholly abolished so long as man 
 had a stomach which must appropriate food exclusively to 
 
PROPERTY CONVENTION AT BOSTON. 117 
 
 itself, and a body which must have raiment exclusively for 
 itself, or so long as God and nature decreed the union of one 
 man and one woman in marriage, devolving upon them the 
 duty of nourishing and protecting their offspring through 
 helpless infancy. That to perform these duties, mankind are 
 endowed with faculties and furnished with means, in the right 
 use of which by honest industry they may ordinarily avoid 
 being burdensome to one another. That he who has produced 
 food, or raiment, or any other good thing by such industry, 
 has a natural right of property in such production. That he 
 who can produce the necessaries and comforts of life and yet 
 will not, has no right to consume the fruits of another's indus- 
 try. That if he claims any such right he is virtually a rob- 
 ber; but that by the law of universal benevolence all men are 
 bound to relieve the personal necessities of their fellow-men 
 as the dictate of charity, whether there be any demand of 
 justice or not. That the right of individual property being a 
 natural, inherent, and necessary one to a greater or less extent, 
 the question could not be, shall we abolish it? but rather, 
 what are its proper limitations and uses? That we are not 
 warranted in ascribing all the evils of society to individual 
 property, nor in concluding that its abolition would necessarily 
 do way with these evils; such not being the primary cause of 
 social disease, nor such the remedy. The cause lies in the 
 heart of individual man, and can never be removed but by 
 enlightening the mind and subordinating the will to right 
 moral principles. Individuals do as much to make society 
 what it is, as society does to form the character of individuals. 
 Any reorganization of society which will more directly, ener- 
 getically, and certainly, discipline the individuals composing 
 it into obedience to the dictates of right moral principle, is 
 desirable and will prove successful. But any reorganization of 
 society which starts with the assumption that man is a mere 
 creature of circumstances, or that anything short of the enthrone- 
 ment of right moral principle in the individual mind will 
 secure human happiness, is both undesirable and impractica- 
 ble. And finally, I said, that as the kind of reorganization 
 proposed by friend Collins and his coadjutors is of the latter 
 description, its fundamental principles are essentially vicious, 
 and all experiments for its practical illustration must inevita- 
 bly fail." 
 
118 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 The meeting adjourned to the next day. Imperative 
 duties prevented me from being present only at the morn- 
 ing session. The same general ground was again trav- 
 eled over by the different speakers, with about the same 
 variety of argument and conclusion. At one stage of the 
 discussion, friend Collins undertook to explain the doc- 
 trine of circumstances as he held it, that being a point 
 in his general theory of social reform scarcely less import- 
 ant and vital than that of common property. He affirmed 
 with great emphasis that the lazy and vicious in the world 
 at large were only what society made them, and that, if 
 surroundings were right, they would be the good and use- 
 ful men and women which they ought to be and which we 
 all very much desired. As the talk was somewhat collo- 
 quial, I asked him if he was prepared to contend that no- 
 man can behave better than he does under the present 
 condition of things in social life. His answer was that he 
 did not wish to be forced into the minutiae of the ques- 
 tion and be compelled by his argument to say that no one 
 could possibly behave better then he did in any respect, 
 yet he would maintain as a general affirmation that every 
 man is in the main just what society makes him and 
 there he would leave the matter. In this feature of his 
 system he had taken the position that man is a creature 
 of external circumstances, and he built his whole hope of 
 ameliorating the condition of the unfortunate and suffer- 
 ing classes of mankind and of bringing in the era of uni- 
 versal equality and fraternity on so reorganizing society 
 as to necessitate right action and consequent happiness ; 
 on so ordering the externals of life, the environing cir- 
 cumstances of men, as that they could not help being 
 wise, good, and happy. I told him and his brethren to go 
 ahead and live out their theories, but I could not accom- 
 pany them though I wished them well. They heeded my 
 counsel, went out to Central New York, established the 
 Skaueatales Community, struggled along under great diffi- 
 
CONVENTION AT WORCESTER. 119 
 
 culties for a few years, and at length yielded to fate and 
 went to pieces, the victims of their own delusions. 
 
 A more congenial and gratifying occasion was enjoyed 
 later in the season. It was a Convention called by George 
 W. Benson and fourteen others to meet at Worcester on 
 the second Tuesday and Wednesday of December, u to 
 examine and discuss the propriety of reorganizing society 
 into Associations or Communities in which all may have 
 a common interest in whatever appertains to a physical, 
 intellectual, and moral culture ; a common interest in all 
 the advantages arising from the production and posses- 
 sion of property." Of this gathering The Practical Chris- 
 tian said : 
 
 " Quite a number of the members from the Northampton 
 and Hopedale Communities were in attendance, besides volun- 
 teer friends from various quarters. We had hoped to meet 
 delegates from West Roxbury also; but we believe none were 
 present from that Association. The convention was animated 
 by a good spirit and awakened an encouraging interest among 
 the common people of the town. The evening sessions called 
 out the best audiences, and we could but admire the very 
 respectful, eager, and unfaltering attention of those present on 
 the last evening. At the close notice was given that Mr. D. 
 II. Barlow would deliver three lectures on the subject during 
 the ensuing week. We hear that those lectures have been well 
 attended and cannot doubt that they will leave a strong and 
 salutary impression. Another convention was holden in Leomin- 
 ster the same week which we learn was an interesting meeting. 
 None of our people were present." 
 
 A week later a meeting was held in Boston in response 
 to "A Call to the Friends of Social Reform in New 
 England " issued by David Mack, George W. Benson, 
 James N. Buff urn, Oliver Johnson, William C. Nell, 
 H. C. .Wright, William Bassett, and many others, u to aid 
 the progress of the great cause of Social Reorganiza- 
 tion " ; "to cheer each other's hearts by taking note of 
 the advance of the Social Scheme discovered by Charles 
 
120 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Fourier"; and to enable those "who believe that Asso- 
 ciation is to succeed the conflict and isolation of our 
 present Social Order" and that through it "Man will 
 achieve his destiny and our world be purified from vice, 
 crime, and misery," " to concert means to actualize their 
 idea and build a Home on the broad basis of Attractive 
 Industry a Home where all who love Truth and would 
 live it may find a refuge." 
 
 As a. further indication of the widespread interest in 
 the cause of Social Reconstruction that had been awak- 
 ened in the breasts of philanthropists and reformers and 
 through them in the general public mind, it may be 
 stated that during the year 1843 a new Quarterly Peri- 
 odical, entitled The Reformer, or Advocate of Industrial 
 Association, was started at Pittsburg, Perm., designed 
 "to discuss the general principles which underlie the 
 movement for a better order of Society, to suggest and 
 consider different systems of organization and methods of 
 administration, to report what was going on in the differ- 
 ent localities where experiments had been undertaken, to 
 note the signs of progress that were to be seen in vari- 
 ous directions, and stimulate endeavor in behalf of the 
 great uprising in all possible ways." During the same 
 year another publication The Phalanx was launched 
 upon the tide of American Journalism. It was intended 
 to be the organ of the Fourier Associationists in the 
 United States, those who were either believers in or 
 students of the plan of Social Reorganization devised 
 or discovered by the distinguished French Philosopher 
 and Reformer, Charles Fourier, of whom Horace Greeley 
 and Parke Godwin of New York were noted disciples, and 
 Albert Brisbane of Philadelphia a distinguished represen- 
 tative and interpreter. Rev. Wm. H. Charming of Bos- 
 ton, nephew of the renowned Rev. William Ellery 
 Channing, D. D., was also a devoted follower of Fourier 
 and an eloquent expounder of his system. 
 
RELIGIOUS AND MISSIONARY MATTERS. 121 
 
 All these things were not only for our edification but 
 for our encouragement, and we made the most we could 
 of them in both particulars. We were desirous of learning 
 all we could of other theorists and experimenters in order 
 to make our progress more rapid and sure, and we cer- 
 tainly took heart and hope at every indication which we 
 saw or thought we saw in any direction that the old 
 order of human life was passing away and a new order 
 was coming in that the kingdom of righteousness, broth- 
 erhood, unity, peace, which is the kingdom of heaven, was 
 at hand. So we girded the loins of our strength about 
 us, became inspired with fresh zeal, and pressed forward 
 toward the mark for the prize of our high calling. 
 
 5. Reliijious and Missionary Matters. Within the 
 Community regular meetings for public worship on Sun- 
 day were maintained morning and afternoon, without 
 intermission or relaxation of interest and fervor, in the 
 northerly upper half of the mechanic shop. Likewise the 
 established Thursday evening Conference, usually, for con- 
 venience and economy's sake, in the old house. If our 
 ministerial brethren were engaged elsewhere, the exercises 
 at both places were conducted by laymen and -women, of 
 whom we had several qualified to serve in that capacity 
 efficiently and acceptably. In those days there were 
 among us few stay-at-homes or iudiffereutists. It was the 
 joy and the security of our people that they were domi- 
 nated largely by the religious sentiment, that the relig- 
 ious life had been awakened in their souls, that the 
 religious motive influenced their conduct and shaped their 
 character, and that religious exercises singing, prayer, 
 instruction, counsel, exhortation were sources of satisfac- 
 tion and enjoyment to them. Outside of our boundaries, 
 our preachers and lecturers labored vigorously ; seldom, 
 however, going more than thirty or forty miles from 
 home. Rarely did a Sunday pass by without an engage- 
 ment in some church, hall, or school-house, ' and often 
 
122 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 during the week were they in attendance upon some gen- 
 eral public convocation or conducting the service in some 
 gathering where they were the chief if not the only speak- 
 ers respectively. Quarterly Conferences of sterling inter- 
 est and of unquestioned profit continued to take place in 
 various localities, as aforetime. The Anti-Slavery, Tem- 
 perance, and Non-resistance reforms, enlisted much atten- 
 tion and effort on our part, and called us frequently into 
 the general field throughout our vicinage and sometimes 
 far away. Moreover, this was the year of the great 
 Millerite excitement, under which many were looking for 
 the speedy coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven and 
 the accompanying end of the world, and I was personally 
 drawn into several public discussions upon the subject as 
 I was also led to prepare and publish a large leafed 
 pamphlet of 32 pages, entitled The True Scriptural Doc- 
 trine of the Second Advent, an Effectual Antidote to 'Mil- 
 lerism and all Kindred Errors. It was issued from the 
 Community press and was widely called for up to the 
 time of the bursting of the bubble in October, when all 
 concern and interest in the subject suddenly subsided. 
 The Practical Christian went forth from the printing office 
 regularly on its mission to its readers at home and 
 abroad, its columns well filled with interesting articles 
 upon topics it was wont to discuss, myself being Editor- 
 in-Chief, with Bros. Stacy, Whitney, and Fish, Assistants. 
 6. Other Incidents. There was little sickness with no 
 fatal or serious cases on the Community domain during the 
 entire twelvemonth. A single death occurred among our 
 non-resident members, that of Mrs. Barbara Colburn, wife 
 of Samuel Colburn, at Dedham, where they were tempo- 
 rarily residing. Few new members joined us, owing largely 
 to the doubt and distrust engendered by the withdrawals 
 of the previous autumn. The places vacated at that time- 
 were slowly filled. Several probationers entered our pre- 
 cincts and three or four families of permitted residents. 
 
DEPREDATION BY LAWLESS OUTSIDERS. 12& 
 
 The first ad only depredation that for some years was 
 committed by lawless outsiders on Community property 
 occurred, if my memory is not at fault, during the 
 autumn of 1843. A gang of hen-roost robbers that had 
 prowled about Milford and vicinity for some mouths, 
 seizing poultry and carrying it away to some secluded 
 place for a nightly feast, visited us and took a turkey 
 and two chickens that they found on the branches of 
 one of our old apple trees. I think they dug a few hills 
 of potatoes to roast as a part of their surreptitious bill 
 of fare. It had been predicted by our enemies that, by 
 reason of our well-known Non-resistant principles and our 
 published pledge not to prosecute offenders and bring 
 them before the courts, we should be the victims of fre- 
 quent burglaries and other offences ; in fact, that nothing 
 of ours would be safe from the ravages and spoliation of 
 the mischievous and criminal classes around us. Experi- 
 ence proved the reverse of this, as we had confidently 
 argued beforehand. We made no ado about this act of 
 petty larceny, but learned that two of the offenders were 
 overheard talking upon the matter not long afterward, the 
 gist of their conversation being that while they did not 
 care for those who kept dogs, set traps, and were ready 
 to send them to jail if they could be caught, it was too 
 bad to steal from the kind, peaceable people in the Dale, 
 and they should not do it again. 
 
 Two birthdays were celebrated during the year under 
 notice, some account of which will give a fairly intelli- 
 gible idea of those festal occasions which were observed 
 from time to time among us, serving to relieve the tedium 
 and tiresome drudgery and nerve-strain of our common life. 
 They were not characterized by much display but were 
 full of good cheer and innocent pleasure. The first was 
 my own, and was described by Sr. Abby H. Price, who 
 wielded a facile pen and who was a sort of poet-laureate 
 to the Community for several years, in The Practical 
 Christian of April 29th. The article is subjoined : 
 
124 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "Sunday, April 23d, was Brother Ballou's 4.0th birthday. 
 The evening celebration was a happy time for Hopedale. Not 
 with the festival and dance, not with merriment and feasting, 
 but with one spontaneous feeling of grateful and fervent con- 
 gratulation did the friends and associates gather around him. 
 The communion of soul that we enjoyed was sweet. It was a 
 bright oasis in the desert of earth. The full feelings of affec- 
 tionate confidence that gushed forth must have been as cheer- 
 ing as the union the assurance we all realized that we were 
 indeed of one heart and one mind was to us. May our 
 brother be spared to carry forward the enterprise so happily 
 begun. May we be refreshed by many such birthday seasons, 
 the harp that is then tuned be ever as harmonious till its 
 numbers swell on the eternal shore. The following hymn, 
 written for the occasion, was sung with enthusiasm: 
 
 " Sing, Hopedale, sing ! your voices raise, 
 Let every heart attuned to praise 
 
 Sound forth the cheerful lay; 
 Praise God who gave our brother dear 
 Who spares his life from year to year 
 
 To cheer us on our way. 
 
 "United let our songs arise 
 In grateful accents to the skies 
 
 To God's almighty love; 
 He gave our friend the power to bless, 
 He turned his heart to righteousness, 
 
 And raised his hopes above. 
 
 "While passions raged and sin was rife, 
 When earth was filled with war and strife, 
 
 He sought a better way; 
 His panting spirit sighed for peace, 
 From all the crimes of earth release 
 Sighed for a perfect day. 
 
 "No flag was raised, no banner streamed, 
 The light through fog and darkness gleamed 
 
 Weak were true souls and sad; 
 In this sweet vale he found a place, 
 The standard raised of truth and grace 
 
 To make the nations glad. 
 
BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARIES. 125 
 
 " Now let these trees luxuriant grow, 
 Let this sweet stream more sweetly flow ; 
 
 A work is here begun 
 We trust will bless earth's distant shore 
 Till war and sin are known no more, 
 
 And Satan's work is done." 
 
 Another record of a similar event which occurred a 
 few weeks later was from the same pen. 
 
 " Last Wednesday, June 14th, was Brother Draper's birthday. 
 The meeting in the evening was pleasant and we trust profit- 
 able. How much it becomes us on such occasions to look 
 back in solemn reflection upon our past lives ; to let the bitter 
 tears of penitence wash away every trace of our wandering 
 from the straight path; and although shadows and fear may 
 gather around us as we see our winding way through the 
 wilderness, yet the kind encouragement of friends and new 
 resolutions for the future may in a measure dispel our sorrow, 
 and refreshed and invigorated we may begin anew the journey 
 of life. The following was one of the hymns written for and 
 sung on the occasion : 
 
 "How sweet our birthdays are 
 
 When spent with those we love, 
 Kind words like sunbeams fair 
 Make all our gloom remove, 
 And love for friends so true and strong, 
 Will cheer our pathway all along. 
 
 "Then let us all unite 
 
 To pray that this new year 
 May shed a halo bright 
 
 Around our brother dear; 
 That still in grace he may improve, 
 And ever onward humbly move. 
 
 " And when his days shall end, 
 
 And he have done with time, 
 Find God a smiling friend 
 
 Bliss in a holier clime; 
 Join with the bright celestial choirs 
 Where angels tune immortal lyres." 
 
126 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Financial Summary of 1843. Reaching the close of 
 the year, the Community listened with much interest and 
 satisfaction to the Report of the Council made at its 
 Annual Meeting, Jan. 3, 1844. Without going into 
 details as before and itemizing the several departments 
 representing industrial and monetary interests it may be 
 sufficient to state that the Joint-Stock property amounted, 
 in the two funds representing it, to $6258.19 above all 
 indebtedness ; and that, besides cancelling the old deficit 
 of $94.45 there had accrued net profits estimated at 
 $658.19, making the entire gain arising from the year's 
 operations, $752.64. The individual property of the mem- 
 bers invested in house lots, dwellings, business, etc., on 
 the domain, never appeared in the Summary of Commu- 
 nity affairs, nor was any statement ever made of their 
 gains or losses. The yearly exhibit included only what 
 had been done by the Community as such in its strictly 
 unitary character, and the results thereof. 
 
 Provision was made for the funds that might be required 
 in carrying on the several departments of business for 
 the year to come and for meeting all pecuniary obliga- 
 tions, by instructing the Executive Council to raise by 
 an equitable method of taxation such sums of money as 
 in their judgment would be required, and direct the 
 expenditure of the same. 
 
 The following named official servants were chosen to 
 fill the positions respectively indicated the ensuing year : 
 ADIN BALLOU, Pres. ; ABBY H. PRICE, Sec.; EBENEZER 
 D. DRAPER, Intendant of Finance and Exchange; AMOS 
 J. BALLOU, of Agriculture and Animals; EDMUND SOWARD, 
 of Manufactures and Mechanical Industries; DR. BUTLER 
 WILMARTH, of Health and Domestic Economy; D. S. 
 WHITNEY, of Education, Arts, and Sciences; WM. H. 
 FISH, of Religion, Morals, and Missions. 
 
 The meeting was a harmonious, enthusiastic, and highly 
 gratifying one in all respects ; far different from that of 
 
AUSPICIOUS CONDITION AND PROSPECTS. 127 
 
 41 year before, when a cloud of uncertainty and fear hung 
 over our deliberations, and cast a dark and depressing 
 shadow upon all our hearts. Now the skies were bright 
 above us, the future seemed full of promise, and we were 
 ready to press joyfully onward in our great and benefi- 
 cent work. The prevailing feeling on the occasion found 
 expression in a stirring hymn sung with much earnestness 
 and exultant joy, a single verse of which will convey a 
 good idea of the spirit animating the whole : 
 
 "Where are the dangers and quicksands we feared? 
 
 All by his (God's) grace were removed; 
 Where are the mountains our enemies reared? 
 
 Transient as mist they have proved. 
 Now on the sky see the rainbow of hope, 
 
 Now let the brother desponding look up, 
 Soon will our temple its pearly gates ope, 
 
 People come in and be glad." 
 
 Affairs in 1844. The general order and management 
 of Community affairs during the year named continued 
 substantially the same as they had been the twelvemonth 
 before, though the tendency was to discountenance indi- 
 vidualism in conducting business, and bring everything of 
 that nature more and more within the sweep of Joint- 
 Stock industrial operations. This policy was not univer- 
 sally acceptable, and one of our early members, Nathan 
 Harris, resigned his membership and erected himself a 
 residence just outside the boundaries of our estate, on the 
 northerly road to Milford. His wife, however, retained 
 her connection with us, and our relations with him con- 
 tinued cordial and friendly to the time of his death five 
 years afterward. The Executive Council held weekly 
 meetings with infrequent interruptions, being intrusted 
 with large powers and weighty responsibilities as mana- 
 gers of the industrial interests of the Association, the 
 duties of which they discharged with untiring watch- 
 fulness, diligence, and vigor. Measures beyond their 
 
128 THE IIOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 authority, yet deemed essential to the common welfare, 
 were recommended by them to their constituents, and, for 
 the most part, promptly sanctioned agreeably to consti- 
 tutional requirements, thus becoming an integral part of 
 oar established economy. 
 
 Principal Events. 1. The village site was more com- 
 pletely defined as to its boundaries, thoroughfares, public 
 squares, etc. The names of streets and the designation 
 of house- lots were determined upon, and a plan of the 
 whole was drawn, properly representing the same, in 
 accordance with which prescribed titles of conveyance 
 should be made and recorded. This was done pursuant 
 to a vote of the Council, passed March 18th, as follows: 
 
 "Voted, (1) To name the Streets of the Village Site prepara- 
 tory to drafting a |plan of the same. The following names 
 were severally proposed and adopted, viz.: For the Street 
 nearest the water privileges running from the horse-barn to 
 the old dam, two rods wide, Water Street; for the next parallel 
 Street east, running from Geo. W. Stacy's house by the school- 
 house, three rods wide, Main Street; for the next parallel 
 Street east, two rods wide, High Street; for the Street running 
 from road to road across the old dam, or across the intended 
 new dam, a little above the old one, 'Freedom Street. [The old 
 road came down the hill from the northerly part of Mendon 
 till it approached the river near the former dam, then by a 
 sudden turn south swept downward around the front of the 
 farm-house, thence northeasterly up the hill to the Scammell 
 place on the Upton highway. Hence the phrase "from road 
 to road" indicates a line forming a base to said bend.] For 
 the next cross Street south, passing in front of the Chapel 
 Site [where the public school-house now stands] arid north of 
 the intended square, Chapel Street. [ This intended square was 
 subsequently superseded by the one on which the Hopedale 
 (Unitarian) House of Worship is now located.] For the next 
 cross Street south, passing over the new dam by the mechanic 
 shop and south of the square, Social Street; for the next cross 
 Street south, passing in front of the old house and by A. J. 
 Ballou's, Union Street: for the next cross Street south, passing 
 by Adin Ballou's house, Peace Street; for the next cross Street- 
 
ENLARGEMENT OF COMMUNITY DOMAIN. 129 
 
 ^V 
 
 south, passing by Geo. W. Stacy's house, Hope Street. [These 
 cross streets were all two rods wide.] 
 
 "Voted, (2) That Adin Ballou be a Committee to number 
 the lots and draft a Plan of the Village." 
 
 2. An important transaction of the year was the pur- 
 chase, through authorized agents, of several parcels of 
 laud whereby the Community domain was very consider- 
 ably enlarged in extent and enhanced in value. The first 
 of these was mostly woodland adjoining the original 
 Jones' farm on the northwest. It formerly belonged to 
 Seth Davenport and was bought of his sons. It con- 
 tained about nineteen acres for which we paid $362.38. 
 The second piece was a detached lot of woodland con- 
 taining six and a quarter acres lying on the westerly 
 slope of Magomiscock Hill, purchased of Dana Perry for 
 $270.00. The third and much the most important tract 
 was the Amos Cook farm of 108 acres lying directly south 
 of and contiguous to our territory with an outlying wood 
 lot of twenty three and a half acres, for which we paid 
 $3000. In order to make these new investments, more 
 money had to be borrowed and secured by personal credit 
 and mortgage. Our landed property was thus expanded 
 more rapidly than our needs and pecuniary ability at the 
 time would warrant. 
 
 3. Four new cottages were erected in 1844; those of 
 E. D. Draper, Butler Wilmarth, Daniel S. Whitney, andl 
 Henry Fish. Several additional lots were taken up and 
 preparation for building on them the next season was. 
 commenced. The School and Chapel building was com- 
 pleted, having one large room and two ante-rooms on the 
 main floor with a basement suitable for a small store.. 
 The school and assemblies for worship were transferred 
 to their new quarters in April, and soon after the room 
 below was stocked with groceries and dry goods for the 
 common convenience by the Community authorities. An 
 old corn-house was removed to Water Street, extempo- 
 
 9 
 
130 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 rized into a blacksmith shop, and supplied with the 
 necessary equipment. A lead pipe aqueduct was laid 
 from a reservoir on the northerly high land of our terri- 
 tory, a fourth of a mile away, into our young village, for 
 sundry public and private uses. The streets were con- 
 siderably improved and the general external condition of 
 our little settlement assumed a more orderly, refined, and 
 attractive appearance. 
 
 4. The School for several months of the year was in 
 charge of Br. Daniel S. Whitney aud during the remain- 
 der, of Sr. Mary Jackmau, who became the wife of Br. 
 Samuel Colburn ou the 23d of June, their marriage being 
 the first one solemnized in the new Chapel and hence a 
 somewhat notable event. A committee of two, Butler 
 Wilmarth and Edmund Soward, under the direction of 
 the Intendant of Education, was appointed to have the 
 general oversight of school affairs, furnish needed sup- 
 plies, provide teachers, examine classes, see that proper 
 discipline was exercised, etc. Some difficulty was expe- 
 rienced in adjusting the hours of juvenile labor, tuition, 
 and recreation, as well as in maintaining salutary govern- 
 ment over our heterogeneous brood. We might have sent 
 our children and youth to the public district school of 
 the town of Milford, for the support of which we were 
 obliged to pay our due share by legal taxation. But we 
 aspired to something better at our own additional expense ; 
 besides, the public school-house was too far away and too 
 small for our accommodation. We petitioned the town 
 to be set off as a new district, but satisfactory terms 
 could not be arranged and the matter went over to a 
 later day. 
 
 5. Our promulgatory and missionary operations went 
 forward in all directions with unabated activity without in 
 any wise restricting or neglecting the established means 
 and facilities for moral and religious instruction and 
 quickening within our own borders. The Practical Chris- 
 
ASSOCIATIONAL CONFERENCES. 
 
 tian and our several preachers proclaimed their testi- 
 monies in all the old and in some new localities. The 
 claims upon us of all the great moral reforms, as well 
 as of our own distinctive Practical Christianity, sum- 
 moned all our energies forth and put them to active 
 aud unremittaut service. We had more irons in the fire 
 than we were able to handle to advantage. And yet we 
 were induced towards the close of the year to undertake 
 the resuscitation of the suspended Non- Resistant, the 
 organ of the New England Non-resistance Society. It 
 was not a wise thing for us to do, as it increased to no 
 little extent our burdens without contributing correspond- 
 ingly to the advancement of the cause. The effort was 
 :in a line with much of our experience. Our ambition to 
 disseminate the truth as it had been made known to us 
 and to aid in emancipating our fellow-men from the evils 
 and disabilities under which they suffered, was continu- 
 ally outrunning our ability and means of accomplishment. 
 So we had to live and learn, and yet in this particular 
 we learned but slowly. 
 
 6. Our interest in social reorganization and our friendly 
 intercommunication with other laborers in the same field 
 suffered no decline as the months went by. We watched 
 what was going on in different localities under the direc- 
 tion of various experimenters with sleepless eye, studied 
 their systems and methods in so far as they were at vari- 
 ance with ours, and occasionally met with those theoreti- 
 cally and practically engaged in attempts to solve the 
 same great problem which was so dear to our hearts and 
 was taxing so severely our mental, moral, and physical 
 energies and resources. We were represented in two or 
 three Conventions of Associationists during the year. 
 Of one of them the following notice appeared in our 
 paper : 
 
 " ASSOCIATIONAL CONFERENCE. 
 
 "In accordance with an arrangement made last winter in 
 Boston a Conference consisting of two delegates from each of 
 
132 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 the three Associations in Mass., viz. : Northampton, Brook 
 Farm, and Hopedale, met at Hopedale on the 24th ult. (May)^ 
 Present the following delegates: Brook Farm, George Ripley 
 and Ephraim Capen; Northampton, James Boyle and Josiah 
 Hay ward; Hopedale, Adin Ballou and Butler Wilmarth. The 
 object of this Conference was the promotion of a friendly 
 intercourse between the several Associations and a careful 
 inquiry into the practical working of their respective internal 
 economies with a view to mutual correction and improvement. 
 These Associations differ widely in some respects and are per- 
 fectly independent of each other. It is not intended to bring 
 them into any organic compact, but, by means of these friendly 
 Conferences holden three times a year at each location in suc- 
 cession, to maintain a good understanding, and especially to 
 enable all of them to profit by a mutual comparison of merits 
 and defects. The delegates and volunteers met at 9 A. M. 
 and proceeded to institute a close inquiry into the statistics, 
 resources, industrial arrangements, methods of education, and 
 particular operations of the three Associations, whereof minutes 
 were taken for preservation and future use. Interesting state- 
 ments and remarks were made by George Ripley, James Boyle, 
 and others, unfolding the peculiar organization and workings 
 of the Brook Farm and the Northampton Associations. The 
 Conference throughout was very pleasant and profitable. Prob- 
 ably more solid practical instruction was interchanged than 
 the inexperienced could acquire from a hundred theoretic 
 lectures." 
 
 The next meeting of these three bodies was held at 
 Broughton Meadows (now Florence), Northampton, Mass., 
 on the 31st of August. The call for it was issued by 
 the officers of the Community located there, the organic 
 name of which was " Northampton Association of Edu- 
 cation and Industry," and was addressed "To the Friends 
 of a Reorganization of Society that shall Substitute Fra- 
 ternal Co-operation for Antagonistic Selfishness; a Relig- 
 ious Consecration of Life and Labor, Soul and Body, 
 Time and Eternity, in Harmony with the Laws of God 
 and of Life, instead of Fragmentary, Spasmodic Piety." 
 This call was published widely in reformatory journals 
 
NORTHAMPTON ASSOCIATION. 133 
 
 and brought together a large company of the friends of 
 Truth and Humanity. A few extracts from the account 
 of the meeting in The Practical Christian given under 
 the heading of "Northampton Association" will indicate 
 its character : 
 
 "Br. E. D. Draper and myself (Adin Ballou) as Delegates 
 from Hopedale to the Associational Conference at that place, 
 reached our destination about noon of Aug. 30th, and were 
 most cordially welcomed by generous friends who did all in 
 their power to render our visit refreshing and pleasant. We 
 were conducted over the fields, meadows, and various industrial 
 establishments of the Domain, which exhibited great natural 
 ^capabilities and many creditable improvements." " They have 
 much excellent land and a capital water privilege. We had 
 ;small opportunity to get acquainted with the Associates indi- 
 vidually, but we were abundantly confirmed in our previous 
 opinion that they have among them many high-souled, pure 
 principled, generous men and women. They have had many 
 trials to encounter, and like other Associations no doubt have 
 committed some errors by which to profit in the future. May 
 they struggle through every difficulty and from the mount of 
 ultimate triumph pour down abundant blessings on humanity." 
 " The Convention of Saturday and Sunday abounded with 
 most important and animated discussions. A Mr. Rykeman 
 from Brook Farm ably represented and defended the Fourier 
 system; Henry Clapp, Jr., of Lynn, the anti-organization and 
 anti-moral-test doctrine ; while Wm. Loyd Garrison and the 
 writer of this notice earnestly contended that no Association 
 oould ultimately prosper without making the fundamental 
 principles of practical Christianity the test of action, charac- 
 ter and fellowship." 
 
 Individualism Checked. By the changes made in our 
 Constitution near the close of 1842 much larger privileges 
 were granted to members in the way of owning their own 
 houses, carrying on business, and acting generally on 
 their own account without being held amenable to Com- 
 munity authority, than were allowed previously under our 
 original compact. The experiences of 1843 and 1844. 
 
134 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 however, did not wholly justify our course at that time 
 and so a reaction came before the expiration of the last 
 named year. I was myself obliged to confess that in 
 trying to shun Scylla we had steered the ship dangerously 
 near Charybdis. The difficulty lay in the sad fact that too 
 many of us were insufficiently disciplined in our acknowl- 
 edged principles of Practical Christian wisdom and right- 
 eousness. Hence if we communitized very strongly some 
 claimed too much at the expense of the whole, and if 
 we encouraged individualism beyond a certain point there 
 was presently an annoying and reprehensible manifesta- 
 tion of selfish egoism. Finding ourselves in this latter 
 condition we tried to get back to the center of the nar- 
 row strait in which we were obliged to sail. To effect 
 this we made such new alterations in our Constitution 
 and By-Laws as seemed necessary to save us from newly 
 threatened perils. The former remained much as it had 
 been for two years, and need not be reproduced at thi& 
 time ; the most radical change being incorporated in a 
 By-Law which introduced an entirely new feature into our 
 industrial system. It is therefore inserted entire : 
 
 "BY-LAW RESPECTING INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION. 
 
 "SECTION 1. All the resident members of this Community 
 with their family dependents shall be organized as far as- 
 practicable into Bands and Sections. 
 
 " SEC. 2. Each Band shall have charge of a particular inter- 
 est and prosecute a definite subdivision of industry during a 
 specific portion of each day, week, or month, and shall elect 
 their Monitor once every fortnight. 
 
 " SEC. 3. Sections shall consist of several Bands engaged in 
 branches or sub-branches of the same general business, and 
 shall elect their Director once in two months, subject to a 
 negative of the Executive Council. 
 
 " SEC. 4. The Bands shall be formed as far as possible by 
 elective affinity; and no person over ten years of age shall be 
 a member of any Band by constraint or against the will of 
 a majority of the Band. 
 
INDUSTRIAL RE-ORGANIZATION. 135 
 
 " SEC. 5. No Band shall be formed (except for a temporary 
 service) or dissolved without the approbation of the Executive 
 Council, who shall determine all questions in dispute not sea- 
 sonably adjusted by the members of the Bands and Sections 
 among themselves. 
 
 "SEC. 6. The average amount of time required of each 
 individual for the service of the Community shall be forty- 
 eight hours per week from the first of October to the first of 
 April, and sixty hours per week during the other half of the 
 year, abating for private use one day in each quarter. 
 
 "SEC. 7. The hours of service for the different Bands shall 
 be so arranged as to insure proper attention to all the various 
 interests of the Community, day and night, at home and 
 abroad, throughout the year. Also in such a manner as to 
 allcw each individual reasonable opportunities to go abroad 
 and to entertain visiting friends. Also in such a manner as 
 to allow each individual an equal participation, if possible, in 
 all the social privileges of the Community. 
 
 " SEC. 8. The time pledged by individuals to the service of 
 the Community covering certain specified portions of the day, 
 week, or month, shall be held sacred to that purpose. If 
 lost, except by severe sickness or unavoidable casual ity, it 
 shall be made up in labor or cash to the satisfaction of the 
 Executive Council. If used for the transaction of private 
 business whereby the individual receives money or acquires 
 gain, the entire net profit of -such business shall belong to 
 the Community. But moneys received or profits acquired by 
 business transacted in unpledged time shall belong to the 
 individual. 
 
 " SEC. 9. The operatives shall ordinarily pledge their time 
 and perform their services between 4 o'clock in the morning 
 and 9 o'clock in the evening, according to the necessities of 
 business and their individual inclination. But to meet extra- 
 ordinary emergencies the Executive Council or any one of the 
 Intendants may request and accept service at any hour of the 
 day or night. 
 
 "SEC. 10. Each individual shall furnish him or herself 
 with lodging, furniture, and all handicraft tools necessary to 
 efficient industry, except such as general convenience may 
 require the Community to furnish. And on the value of such 
 furniture and tools the operative shall be allowed a fair per 
 
136 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 cent, per annum. Otherwise the Community shall charge a 
 fair per cent, per annum for the use thereof. 
 
 SEC. 11. All who cheerfully concur in this organization 
 shall be insured, as a fair compensation for their services, the 
 following specified provisions, stipends, and contingent divi- 
 dends, viz.: 
 
 "Each operative over sixteen years of age shall be allowed 
 for clothing and pocket money, payable in acceptable goods, 
 cash or credits, at the option of the individual, twenty-five 
 dollars per annum. Each operative under sixteen and over 
 eight years of age shall be allowed for the same purpose in 
 acceptable goods, cash or credits, fourteen dollars per annum. 
 Children under eight years of age shall be provided with suit- 
 able clothing to the value of eight dollars per annum. And 
 the making up of said clothing, so far as the same may be 
 done by Community operatives, shall be without charge. 
 
 "Each family and individual shall be provided with house- 
 room, fuel, light, food, washing and mending, medicine, medi- 
 cal and nursing attendance, and conveyance by horse and 
 carriage (reckoning only persons over sixteen years of age) 
 fifty miles each per annum. 
 
 "All State*, County, Town, and School District taxes on 
 polls and on real estate situated within the limits of Hope- 
 dale, not exceeding in value one thousand dollars, shall be 
 paid by the Community. Also all governmental fines neces- 
 sarily incurred by fidelity to the principles of our Declaration. 
 
 " Such individuals as own houses and lots in the village 
 which they intend to occupy and improve shall be allowed 
 four per cent, per annum on the just valuation thereof, not 
 exceeding one thousand dollars, and a reasonable amount of 
 team work, manure, and manual labor, for the cultivation of 
 their gardens. Provided, always, that they consume in their own 
 families whatever they may need of the production of their 
 lots, and, after making such friendly presents out of the same 
 as they may desire, deliver the surplus to the Community for 
 a fair equivalent; and provided also that they furnish their 
 houses and keep them in repair at their own expense. 
 
 "Each member shall receive of the net profits of the Com- 
 munity after the Joint-Stock shall have been paid its constitu- 
 tional four per cent., an equal proportion with all the other 
 members not exceeding fifty cents for every ten hours of 
 
REGULATION CONCERNING CHILDREN. 137 
 
 service credited to him or her on the books of the Commu- 
 nity. The services of dependents shall draw no dividend 
 except by special vote of the Community. 
 
 "SEC. 12. The Monitor of each Band shall keep a correct 
 account of the time spent by each individual in service apper- 
 taining to the province of his or her Band and report the 
 same weekly to the Director of his or her Section, who shall 
 make a monthly report of the whole to the Intendant of 
 Finance and Exchange; and he shall prepare a quarterly 
 abstract both of services rendered and of the pecuniary stand- 
 ing of the Community for the inspection of the Executive 
 Council. 
 
 "SEC. 13. All children and youth under eighteen years of 
 age connected with this Community shall be considered pupils, 
 and after leaving the nursery shall be regularly instructed in 
 the useful arts and sciences four hours per day through the 
 year except on Saturdays and Sundays, and excepting also 
 vacations of one week in each quarter. The infant class shall 
 receive instruction two hours in the forenoon and two in the 
 afternoon. The older pupils shall receive instruction wholly 
 in the forenoon or in the afternoon so as to be regularly 
 employed without interruption during the remaining half day 
 in the industrial organization. No pupil shall be allowed to 
 attempt more than three scholastic exercises in the same half 
 day or to pursue more than four branches of study requiring 
 recitation, analysis, or special instruction, during the same 
 quarter. And it shall be the duty of the teachers to render 
 every pupil as thoroughly proficient as possible in the studies 
 attempted before permitted a transition to new or higher 
 studies. It shall also be the duty of the teachers carefully to 
 supervise the morals of the children and youth under their 
 instruction, to check their vicious tendencies, refine their man- 
 ners, oversee their recreations, and guard them against all evil 
 habits. 
 
 " Passed in regular meeting at Hopedale, Dec. 17, 1844. 
 
 ADIN BALLOU, Pres't. 
 
 We now arrive at the Community's Fourth Annual 
 Meeting held in their School-house Chapel, Jan. 8, 1845. 
 At that time what was called the Consolidated Fund of 
 the Community covered four hundred acres of laud with 
 
138 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 valuable mill privileges, three dwelling-houses, one large 
 mechanic shop, a School-house Chapel, barns, and other 
 out-buildings. Besides this property, which was owned 
 in Joint-Stock, individual members owned and occupied 
 in the village seven dwelling-houses built within the 
 previous two years. These dwelling-houses and their 
 respective half acre lots, with all improvements and 
 appurtenances, though under the general control of the 
 Community and for all practical purposes a part of its 
 serviceable capital, were not included in the report of the 
 Executive Council as belonging to its proprietorship. 
 That report related solely to what was strictly associated 
 capital and operations carried on with it under the direc- 
 tion of Community officials. An abstract of that portion 
 of it which pertained to financial matters is subjoined : 
 
 " Whole amount of cash received into the Treasury during 
 the year, $9,094.38; disbursed, $9,109.57; due the Treasurer, 
 $15.19. Amount paid for labor during the year, $5614.53. 
 The amount of property in the Consolidated Fund, $12,364.68; 
 deducting debts owing on mortgage, $5,300.00, leaves an unin- 
 cumbered amount of $7,064.68. Amount of Floating Fund 
 clear, $2,992.23 ; making the entire Joint-Stock property free of 
 all indebtedness, $10,056.91. The amount of Joint-Stock covered 
 by certificates, $9,600.00 ; giving a net profit on the year's oper- 
 ations $456.91. 
 
 " Considering all the unfavorable cirumstances under which 
 the Community has hitherto labored," the report concludes, 
 " the Council can but congratulate themselves and their asso- 
 ciates on so cheering a result. They can not doubt that future 
 operations going on under the present auspicious arrangements 
 will realize, by the divine blessing, a constantly increasing 
 prosperity. 
 
 " Per order of the Council. 
 
 " A. BALLOU, Prest." 
 
 The official servants elected in due form for the ensu- 
 ing year were : President, ADIN BALLOU ; Secretary, 
 LEMUEL MUNYAN ; Auditor, HENRY FISH ; Intendants :. 
 
FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. 139- 
 
 Finance and Exchange, E. D. DRAPER; Agriculture and 
 Animals, A. J. BALLOU; Manufactures and Mechanical 
 Industries, HENRY LILLIE; Health and Domestic Economy, 
 BUTLER WILMARTH ; Education, Arts, and Sciences, WM. 
 H. FISH; Religion, Morals, and Missions, GEORGE W. 
 STACY. 
 
 An article iii The Practical Christian of Feb. 1, 1845,, 
 written by the Editor-in-Chief, giving an account of this- 
 meeting, has the following passage : 
 
 " Nearly all the other Associations and Communities started 
 off with more ample resources, operated on a larger scale, and 
 of course put in stronger claims to the attention of the public 
 than ours. Our object was grand, our aim high, our funda- 
 mental principles sublime. In these respects our Institution 
 is second to no other. But in respect to numbers, pecuniary 
 resources, and all that gives worldly distinction, it is compara- 
 tively a diminutive thing. Incited by deep religious convic- 
 tions of duty, impelled by the ardor of enthusiasm, sustained 
 by the energies of hope and crowned with the blessing of God, 
 our members have surmounted all obstacles and laid the foun- 
 dation of a social structure which promises, in compensation 
 for the slowness of its growth, strength, durability, and ulti- 
 mate importance. The undertaking was a great one. It was 
 surrounded with a host of difficulties, more heterogenous and 
 complex than could easily have been anticipated. They still 
 array themselves in formidable groups along our pathway, but 
 the achievements of the past assure us of future victory and 
 are a presage of our final triumph. And what a triumph will 
 that be when we can behold religion, talent, skill, capital, and 
 industry combined in sufficient force, even in one single loca- 
 tion, to insure domestic independence, and to diffuse around it 
 the salutary influence of a truly Christian Commonwealth. We 
 will hope on and labor ever for the results which illuminate 
 the prospects of the future. Who can devote life to a nobler 
 end? It is a pleasure to toil and struggle under the inspira- 
 tions of so glorious an expectation. With our present convic- 
 tions of duty and tone of feeling no worldly advantages or 
 distinctions would reconcile us to the abandonment of this 
 enterprise, though comparative insignificance and obscurity 
 
140 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 under the continuous pressure of anxious cares will in all 
 probability be the lot of a life devoted to its support." 
 
 Remarkably good health prevailed at Hopedaie through- 
 out the entire year 1844, and no death occurred among 
 either our resident or non-resident members. A former 
 member, mentioned several times on the foregoing pages, 
 Mrs. Charlotte P. (Hooton) Taft of Uxbridge, died by 
 her own hand on the 5th of February. She had some 
 months before fallen into a state of deep despondency, 
 which ripened into partial insanity leading to the sad 
 result. A great bereavement which befel my wife and 
 her family connections, and indeed the public at large 
 this year, must not be left unrecorded in these annals. 
 It was the sudden decease of her honored and beloved 
 father, Pearley Hunt, Esq., of Milford, who was fatally 
 stricken with heart disease on the 29th of March in the 
 73d year of his age. He was a kind and devoted hus- 
 band and father, a good friend to our Community, 
 besides illustrating many excellent characteristics which 
 entitled him to the distinguished respect so generally 
 accorded him in the town where he had spent his life 
 and the region round about. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 1845-1847. 
 
 VARYING FORTUNES NOTABLE EVENTS INCREASING 
 ACTIVITY NEW PERILS A RECON- 
 STRUCTED POLITY. 
 
 IT will have been noted by the thoughtful reader that 
 the economical polity provided for in the By-Law 
 which was given entire near the close of the last Chap- 
 ter and soon after put into operation among us, indicated 
 a swing again towards a more closely associated and also 
 a more complex administration of Community affairs. To 
 those at all familiar with the elaborate and somewhat 
 mystical system of social reconstruction devised by the 
 French philosopher, Charles Fourier, already adverted to, 
 and urged upon the attention of philanthropists and 
 reformers of the country by Albert Brisbane, Horace 
 Greeley, Parke Godwin, and others, it will suggest our 
 acquaintance with, and perhaps a distant imitation, after 
 a bungling fashion, of some of his unique and fanciful 
 methods. At any rate, it put the previously dominant 
 individualism, with all its annoying and dangerous excesses- 
 of personal angularity, arrogance, and self-aggrandize- 
 ment, for the time being under the ban, and made the 
 idea of unitary interests and affiliated responsibilities the 
 idea of "each for all" prominent and controlling. But 
 this new arrangement we soon found to be beset by three 
 difficulties which predetermined it to an early failure : 
 First, smallness of numbers ; second, lack of skillful,, 
 experienced leaders ; third, a continual influx upon us of 
 
142 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 raw, undisciplined recruits. These were by no means 
 novel with us. We had been encountering them from 
 the outset, and they were our bane under whatever plan 
 of operation we were tempted to act all because we 
 began to build without patient, adequate, pecuniary means 
 and suitable materials. Yet, go on, awhile at least, in 
 the way the change required, we must. We could not 
 stop the momentum of our social movement now turned 
 in that direction if we would, and we flattered ourselves 
 that the wheel-horses of our omnibus had become way- 
 wise and reliable equal to all emergencies and so 
 pressed forward with our continually increasing freight. 
 Nor were we altogether unsuccessful, though our burdens 
 and hindrances were great. 
 
 The change of policy on our part seemed for a while 
 to stimulate rather than check enterprise among us. 
 Applications for membership or for probationship in our 
 organization multiplied ; as also did applications for resi- 
 dence in our midst with a view of learning something of 
 our ideas, objects, manner of life, etc., and of joining 
 us if all proved satisfactory. Indeed, this feature of our 
 experience was one of our trials one of the burdens of 
 responsibility that weighed upon us exceedingly. 
 
 A considerable number of house-lots were sold during 
 the summer of 1845, upon some of which dwellings were 
 erected before the year expired, wholly or in part, and 
 other improvements made. Gardens were cultivated, fruit 
 and other trees were planted, streets were extended, 
 operations on the Community farm were carried on vigor- 
 ously, new industries were introduced, and a growing 
 appearance of thrift and contentment was manifest in all 
 directions, in all departments of our widely diversified 
 undertaking. 
 
 An interesting incident illustrative of the times and of 
 the attitude of the Community towards a wronged and 
 outcast race, is brought to notice in a vote passed the 
 
IIOPEDALE CEMETERY LOCATED. 143 
 
 28th of June, "to allow Rosetta Hall to reside at the 
 Community house for an indefinite length of time and 
 work for her board, education, etc." Rosetta was a 
 protege of Frederick Douglass, the two having known 
 each other as slaves some years before she appeared in 
 our midst. On escaping from the house of bondage she 
 appealed to him for aid in her forlorn condition. He 
 kindly responded to her appeal and in due time brought 
 her to Hopedale, where she would be among friends who 
 would see that no harm came to her, and do all they 
 could to educate her and help her in other possible ways. 
 She was made welcome by our people, and treated with 
 all due consideration and kindness while she remained 
 within our borders. She proved herself a girl of most 
 amiable disposition, of engaging manners, and of refined 
 nature generally, winning the respect, confidence, and 
 love, as she won the compassionate pity of all who knew 
 her. Her stay with us was comparatively brief and she 
 left with the best wishes of all our people for her future 
 welfare and happiness. 
 
 The Hopedale Cemetery. Although no death had as 
 yet occurred on our territory, yet it was deemed advisa- 
 ble early in the year 1845 that a suitable tract of land 
 somewhere within our borders should be selected for 
 burial purposes and properly laid out for use when occa- 
 sion should require, and a vote to that effect was passed 
 by the Community at a meeting held on the 8th day of 
 April. Pursuant to that vote several parcels of ground 
 that had previously been suggested were carefully 
 examined, but found by reason of the rocky nature of 
 the soil or an underlying ledge to be unfit for the pur- 
 pose. These were located upon the original Jones farm 
 and were first spoken of before we had made any out- 
 lying additions thereto. But the recent purchase of the 
 Amos Cook estate had brought a more favorable site 
 into notice, to which the attention of the Council was in 
 
144 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 due time directed. It commended itself to their best 
 judgment and upon their recommendation the Community, 
 on the 27th of September, 
 
 " Voted, (1) That the lot of land situated on the Cook farm 
 between the wood-lot of Henry Chapin on the west and the 
 widow Amasa Parkhurst's meadow on the east, as the same is 
 now fenced, be set apart, or so much thereof as may be deemed 
 necessary, as a Cemetery for this Community. 
 
 " (2) That the Executive Council be instructed to designate 
 as soon as possible the particular part of said Cemetery ground 
 on which it is proper to commence burying. 
 
 "(3) That they cause a suitable portion of said ground to 
 be surveyed and laid off into lots. 
 
 " (4) That they enter a report of their doings, with a Plan 
 of their survey designating all the avenues by name and the 
 lots by number, in the Community Registry." 
 
 Thus was set apart and devoted to its proper uses the 
 tract of land where as time went on all that was mortal 
 of our dearly beloved was to be consigned "earth to 
 earth and dust to dust," and where we ourselves, or so- 
 many of us as continued to reside in Hopedale to the 
 end of our days, should finally, as to our material frames, 
 sleep the last long sleep of earth and time. The location 
 was happily chosen as not very far away and yet suffi- 
 ciently removed from the bustle and toil of our common 
 every-day life to insure that quiet which is becoming a 
 place of sepulture and conducive to self-recollection, medi- 
 tation, and communion with the spirits of those who are 
 "not lost but gone before," and with the infinite Spirit,, 
 the heavenly Father of all mankind. 
 
 For some reason which does not now appear, but proba- 
 bly because there was no immediate need of a burial 
 place for any of our people, no death occurring for some 
 time after the above votes were passed, and because of 
 the urgent demands made upon the time and energy of 
 the members of the Council in other directions, the care-- 
 
NEW POLICY UNSATISFACTORY. 145 
 
 ful survey and laying out of lots, etc., with an accurate 
 plan of the same were not completed for some two years 
 after, as will be noted in its proper place. 
 
 By recurring to the records of Community action during 
 the latter part of the year under notice, it is found that 
 the industrial and economical policy inaugurated at its 
 opening did not work so harmoniously and advanta- 
 geously as was confidently anticipated. Like many other 
 things, not only in Community life but in ordinary human 
 affairs, it looked much better in theory than it proved to 
 be in practice, its glowing promise not ripening into a 
 happy fulfillment. In September the Executive Council 
 was called upon "to make a special report of the finan- 
 cial state of the Community up to this date " ; a very 
 unusual occurrence, and one showing that an emergency 
 had arisen demanding unusual action on the part of the 
 members. Ten days later the required report was made 
 through the Intendant of Finance and referred to a 
 " select committee, who shall investigate the affairs of the 
 Community in order to arrive at some method of obvi- 
 ating present difficulties." That committee after a brief 
 interval reported, recommending certain modifications in 
 the existing system of operations and the suspension of 
 certain questionable methods of management till the fol- 
 lowing January. The report was accepted and the recom- 
 mendations ordered to be carried into effect, a committee 
 or board of direction being chosen to superintend the 
 matter. From that time forward our social machinery 
 ran smoothly and effectively, to the relief and satisfaction 
 of most of those concerned, though one of our principal 
 members had become so seriously disaffected that he soon 
 after resigned and separated himself from us thenceforth s 
 as will soon be seen. 
 
 Visit of Robert Owen. An event of great interest to 
 us, and of considerable significance to the friends of 
 Social Reform generally, was a two days' visit in the 
 10 
 
146 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 month of November from the renowned English Socialist, 
 Robert Owen. He was the author of several works on 
 the subject with which his name is identified, the most 
 important of which was entitled 4 4 The Book of the New 
 Moral World," in which he promulgated an original sys- 
 tem of Religion and Ethics, founded, as he claimed, on 
 reason, and applicable to the needs of individual and 
 social life. He was also the projector of an interesting 
 and temporarily successful social experiment at New 
 Lanark, Scotland, and also at New Harmony, Ind., 
 where, in 1824, he purchased of the Rappites, a colony of 
 German Socialists, their entire estate consisting of 30,000 
 acres of land and dwellings for 2,000 persons. This ven-. 
 ture proved a failure and he returned to England after a 
 few years to experiment still further though with no 
 better success, and write and lecture upon his favorite 
 theme. His system was a modified communism based 
 upon an absolute equality of all human beings in rights 
 and duties, and the abolition of all superiority even that 
 of capital and intelligence. He had immense wealth, a 
 large part of which he spent in proclaiming his views to 
 the world and in putting them to the test of practical 
 application. 
 
 At the time of his brief sojourn at Hopedale he was 
 making a tour of the United States for the purpose of 
 promulgating still further his views and of visiting the 
 different Communities then recently started out in their 
 varied and problematical career. Of him and his distinct- 
 ive characteristics the editor of The Practical Christian 
 spoke in the issue succeeding his call upon us, thus : 
 
 "He is a remarkable man. In years, nearly seventy-five; in | 
 knowledge and experience, superabundant; in benevolence of | 
 heart, transcendental; in honesty, without disguise; in philan- 
 thropy, unlimited; in religion, a skeptic; in theology, a 
 Pantheist; in metaphysics, a necessarian circumstantialist; in 
 morals, a universal excusionist; in general conduct, a philo- 
 
ESTIMATE OF ROBERT OWEN. 147 
 
 sophic non-resistant; in socialism, a communist; in hope, a 
 terrestrial elysianist; in practical business, a methodist; in 
 deportment, an unequivocal gentleman. We have enjoyed his 
 visit, conversation, and public addresses much. We cannot 
 sympathize with his Pantheism, skepticism, necessarianism, or 
 universal excusionism, nor with all his hopes of speedily resolv- 
 ing this ignorant and wretched world into a Community Elys- 
 ium. We expect as much good and as complete happiness as 
 he does for the human race, but not so soon, nor through the 
 same philosophy, nor by precisely the same practical arrange- 
 ments and operations. 
 
 " And now for what we admire and sympathize with in the 
 man. His benevolence and philanthrophy. He embraces the 
 whole human race in ardent affection. He holds no human 
 being an outlaw, an alien, a stranger, to be cast off, over- 
 looked, or injured. He knows no enemies to hate, persecute, 
 or punish. He loves all, seeks the good of all, labors for all, 
 hopes for all. In this we admire him, agree with him, sympa- 
 thize with him. We admire his frank, straight-forward honesty, 
 coupled with tolerance, forbearance, courtesy, and kindness to 
 opponents. He conceals nothing; he even dogmatises about his 
 'three errors' and their counter truths; he declares his abhor- 
 rence of the evils of existing society and denounces them; he 
 proclaims himself the uncompromising apostle of his new dis- 
 pensation, and declares that his whole life and substance are 
 devoted to radical reform ; and yet he is uniformly kind, calm, 
 patient, conciliatory, and courteous in all his conversation, 
 addresses and proceedings. This is noble, excellent. 
 
 " His knowledge of men and things ; his extensive general 
 reading and observation; his long and varied experience in 
 the methods of conducting productive industry, manufactures, 
 trade, education, and government; his accumulation and ready 
 command of European statistics; his doctrines, schemes, and 
 detailed plans for bringing mankind into a new social order; 
 these render him one of the most intelligent, instructive, and 
 entertaining conversationists and lecturers with whom we have 
 ever met. Notwithstanding all our differences about matters 
 of religion, philosophy, ethics, etc.. we shall always be thankful 
 for his visit to Hopedale and are sure of having derived much 
 valuable practical information from his communications. These 
 we hope to turn to good account in carrying forward the great 
 
148 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 enterprise to which we are devoted. One fact in his career will 
 we mention which goes to confirm our confidence in the abso- 
 lute practicability of Non-resistance. Mr. Owen testifies that 
 he superintended at New Lanark in Scotland for thirty years 
 a manufacturing establishment with 2500 population attached 
 to it, originally from the dregs of the country. These he 
 gradually rendered the best, the most orderly society of work- 
 ing people in Europe. Yet he never had one person, old or 
 young, prosecuted at law, corporally punished, imprisoned, or 
 fined in all that time. This means something and deserves to 
 be taken note of and remembered. 
 
 "Mr. Owen has vast schemes to develop and vast hopes of 
 speedy success in establishing a great model of a new social 
 state which will almost instantaneously bring the race of man 
 into a terrestrial paradise. He insists on obtaining a million 
 dollars capital to be expended in lands, buildings, machinery, 
 conveniences, and beautifications for his model Community;, 
 all to be finished and put in perfect order before he introduces 
 into their new home the well-selected population who are to 
 inhabit it. He flatters himself that he shall be able, by some 
 means, to induce capitalists, or perhaps the U. S. Congress, ta 
 furnish the requisite means for attaining this object. We were 
 obliged to shake an incredulous head and tell him frankly how 
 groundless, in our judgment, all such anticipations must prove."" 
 
 This nobly-endowed, great-hearted, sublimely enthu- 
 siastic lover of his kind, labored on, struggled on. for 
 thirteen years after this visit to Hopedale, with all the 
 ardor, courage, and zeal of an inspired prophet, for the 
 actualization of his "New Moral World," but "died 
 without the sight"; breathing his last in his native place, 
 Newton, Montgomeryshire, England, Nov. 19, 1858, at 
 the advanced age of 87 years. 
 
 Withdrawal of Bro. Geo. W. Stacy. Another but sadly 
 interesting incident in the year's experience was the resig- 
 nation of Bro. George W. Stacy from Community mem- 
 bership, followed not long afterward by his removal to 
 the neighboring village of Milford. The domestic and 
 industrial arrangements under which we were operating 
 
WITHDRAWAL OF GEORGE W. STACY. 149 
 
 bad become increasingly distasteful to him, and probably 
 some features of their administration decidedly offensive. 
 Moreover, there had arisen occasional friction between him 
 and other brethren concerning the management of affairs, 
 resulting at times in sharp disputes, and he with his 
 temperament naturally began to sigh for a larger liberty 
 and a more unchallenged exercise of his individual rights 
 of thought, of speech, and of action. His wife had 
 never formally united with us, having no real sympathy 
 but rather an instinctive aversion to such close social 
 relations and- orderly methods of operation. This may 
 have quickened his growing dislike of the existing policy, 
 though he never pleaded it among the reasons for his 
 course. Matters were brought to a crisis by certain arti- 
 cles, pro and con, in The Practical Christian, the first 
 entitled "Devotion to Principle" appearing over his 
 name in the issue of Nov. 29. It clearly indicated what 
 some of us had more than suspected was the drift of his 
 thought, as it did the loosening of the hold of the Com- 
 munity idea upon his mind and heart. A responsive 
 article in the next number, from the pen of Clement 
 O. Reed, reflected somewhat severely on Bro. Stacy's 
 insinuations, and called for more specific statements of 
 grievance, if grievance there really were, in the organ- 
 ization or administration of Community affairs. This 
 brought out an immediate reply from the aggrieved 
 brother, which contained such grave charges against the 
 existing order of things, that I, though referred to by the 
 author in a most fraternal manner and absolved from all 
 blameworthiness, felt it to be my duty to meet the accu- 
 sations with a deserved denial and refutation; and this I 
 clid in the same issue that contained Bro. Stacy's second 
 article. A rejoinder on his part followed, with an accom- 
 panying "Omega" from me. All this was done in plain 
 frankness on both sides, but without bitterness or personal 
 reproach. It was, nevertheless, exceedingly unpleasant, 
 
150 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 nay, painful to me, as possibly it was to him. The 
 newspaper controversy, which might as well have been 
 omitted perhaps, no doubt hastened the final act of with- 
 drawal though it could not under the circumstances have 
 been long deferred. Thus the second of my brother 
 ministers on whom I placed great dependence at the out- 
 set of the enterprise, abandoned it at a critical hour of 
 its history and remained permanently alien to it, though 
 on quite dissimilar grounds from those upon which the 
 first left us. Whatever of ungenerous feeling or harshness 
 of spirit was aroused in these cases at the* time, has, I 
 trust, long since been assuaged and overcome. Bro. 
 Stacy has been our neighbor ever since he removed from 
 our midst, and our relations to each other for these 
 many years have been cordial and friendly. 
 
 The infelicities and disturbances that agitated us dur- 
 ing the early autumn and awakened gloomy apprehensions- 
 in the minds of some of us, had for the most part passed 
 by before the close of the year, and we came to our 
 annual meeting in a calm and hopeful mood, with confi- 
 dence restored and harmony prevailing throughout our 
 entire membership. The report of the Executive Council 
 for the year ending Dec. 31, 1845, presented an encour- 
 aging and satisfactory condition of the financial affairs of 
 the Association, as the subjoined statement witnesseth : 
 
 "Property in the Consolidated Fund, $12,833.05 ; from which 
 deduct mortgages, $5,300.00; leaving present value $7,533.05, 
 Property in the Floating Fund is as follows, viz.: Stock on 
 hand in the several departments, $7,664.64; due from individ- 
 uals, $1,085.56; bills receivable, $884.03; profits on village site, 
 $375.00; due from individuals on lost time, $193.72; making a 
 total of $10,202.95. From this amount deduct debts owing to 
 individuals, $3,772.91; bills payable, $1,396.23; Savings Insti- 
 tute, $24.48; interest on borrowed capital, $464.87; due indi- 
 viduals on gained time, $83.82; making a total to be deducted, 
 $5,742.31; present worth, $4,460.64. Total property clear in 
 the two funds, $11,993.69. Amount of Joint-Stock, $10,850.00; 
 making the profits, $1,143.69." 
 
FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 151 
 
 A generous donation of $124.61 from E. D. Draper 
 made the net gain for the year $1,268.30. This enabled 
 the Community to pay a dividend of four per cent., 
 agreeably to the provisions of the Constitution, on all the 
 Joint-Stock for the entire time of its investment, and 
 such dividend was accordingly declared ; so that we 
 started out on the year 1846 with no incumbrance of 
 arrearage, debt, or deficit whatever, a financial condition 
 never before attained and truly gratifying. 
 
 The official servants for the year ensuing were : ADIN 
 BALLOU, President; EDMUND SOWARD, Secretary, HENRY 
 FISH, Auditor; and the following Intendants: EBENEZER 
 D. DRU-KK, Finance and Exchange; ABNER ADAMS, Agri- 
 ami .-In unals; CLEMENT O. REED, Manufactures 
 ^fr</t a /'</ Industry; BUTLER WILMARTH, Health and 
 Domestic Economy; WILLIAM H. FISH, Education, Arts, 
 < i nd Sciences; DANIEL S. WHITNEY, Religion, Morals, and 
 Missions. 
 
 A considerable portion of my annual address as Presi- 
 dent was devoted to a review of the proceeding four 
 years' activities in the various departments of our under- 
 taking, with a presentation of the grounds upon which 
 those engaged in it could well rejoice together and gird 
 up the lions of their strength, courage, hope, and zeal, 
 for the continued efforts in behalf of the cause to which 
 they were sacredly committed before God and their fel- 
 lowmeu. The more important passages may not be out 
 of place in this connection : 
 
 "Beloved Associates: This is our fifth annual meeting; the \ 
 fourth that has been held since our settlement on these prem- 
 ises. 1 congratulate you on its arrival. We welcome it amid 
 blessings that ought to inspire our hearts with profound glad- 
 ness, gratitude, confidence, and zeal. It comes to us replete 
 with satisfactions and hopes. It is a green eminence in the 
 progress of our enterprise from which we may survey compla- 
 cently the past and the future. Never before were our affairs 
 
152 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY". 
 
 so prosperous, our foundations so firm, our prospects so cheer- 
 ing. This day's Financial Report will inform you that for the 
 first time in our history we are prepared to declare a dividend 
 of nearly or quite the constitutional four per cent, on all our 
 Joint-Stock from the time of its investment. This will clear 
 us of all our arrearages on that account and enable us to 
 commence the new year with a fair probability of being able 
 at its close to declare at least a moderate dividend on labor 
 itself. Such a result is the more probable from the fact that 
 under our present improved industrial organization, all branches 
 of business are conducted with increasing efficiency, regularity, 
 and order. And also from the fact that some important 
 branches for which we have made considerable outlays are just 
 beginning to render a profitable return. 
 
 "A brief review of the past will impress us with a just 
 appreciation of our present highly auspicious circumstances. 
 We commenced this great undertaking with less than four 
 thousand dollars clear capital. We have now four times that 
 amount, including, with our Joint-Stock, private property equally 
 useful to the Community, besides our borrowed capital which 
 we are prepared to employ to good advantage. We commenced 
 with one time-shattered dwelling-house and two or three rick- 
 ety old barns, without a single mill-dam, manufactory, or shop 
 of any kind for mechanical business, or school-room for the 
 comfortable accommodation of our children. We now have 
 a thriving little village of a dozen dwellings, highly improved 
 and comfortable barns, two valuable mill-dams, a commodious 
 mechanic shop filled with useful tools, labor-saving machines, 
 and various facilities for carrying on several branches of busi- 
 ness; a convenient building for schools, religious and other 
 public meetings, and numerous other fixtures and accommoda- 
 tions for the public advantage. The farm was completely run 
 down, but is now in the way of material improvement, prom- 
 ising continually increasing returns for the labor bestowed 
 on it. 
 
 "All this time we have had a large proportion of children 
 to provide for and to educate, who till recently could not be 
 employed to any tolerable advantage. Yet we have maintained 
 schools for them from four to six hours per day, five days in 
 the week, forty-eight weeks to the year, for at least three years 
 out of the three years and nine months of our inhabitancy of 
 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT. 153 
 
 this domain. And all this has been done entirely at our own 
 expense, while we have been paying hundreds of dollars out of 
 our hard earnings into the town treasury in the shape of taxes 
 not a cent having been refunded. Our direct and indirect 
 taxes to the government of the old order of society to main- 
 tain its paupers, its prisons, its criminal code, its army and 
 navy, its civil list, and its education (leaving its roads, which 
 are directly beneficial to us, out of the account), you will per- 
 ceive are of some consequence to us as items in the cost of 
 living. But to that government, or rather to the old order of 
 society which is taxing us, we are no expense whatever. But 
 by precept and example we are promoting those salutary moral 
 reforms which tend constantly to the diminution of its public 
 expenses. So far as we are concerned we make no paupers, 
 and can make none. We make no criminals to punish, nor 
 put the public to any expense for punishing their criminals on 
 our account. We bring no actions at law to be tried in their 
 costly court-houses by liberally salarized judges, extravagantly 
 feed lawyers, and well-paid officers and attendants. We edu- 
 cate our own children and youth. We govern ourselves by the 
 divine law; and the Almighty, in whom we trust, protects us 
 without the intervention of military and naval forces. Consta- 
 bles, sheriffs, magistrates, and prisons are rendered unnecessary 
 by us. Our principles and our arrangements prevent all neces- 
 sity for such appliances. The world cannot do without these 
 things because it has no faith in any thing higher than its 
 own standard, and no willingness to conform to the conditions 
 on which alone it can ever be free from its present curses. We 
 can do without them for the contrary reasons. 
 
 "During the nearly four years of these operations we have 
 been able to meet our pecuniary liabilities to the satisfaction 
 of all concerned, and to maintain an unsullied credit. Our 
 seceding members, to the number of nearly twenty in all, have 
 been honorably settled with at their departure, and paid, either 
 in cash or acceptable securities, every cent due them. This 
 has been a draft upon our resources of several thousand dol- 
 lars. But we have sustained it with firmness. And now we 
 stand up in every possible respect better conditioned for future 
 operations than at any former period. Without hard toil, inces- 
 sant anxiety, and peculiarly favorable providences of God, it 
 would have been impossible for us to reach our present hope- 
 
154 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ful position. Let us therefore humble ourselves in view of .all 
 our unworthiness and ascribe the glory, the whole glory to our 
 Father in heaven. 
 
 "We really occupy an illustrious position. This now humble 
 Hopedale is a Bethlehem of salvation to the glorious social 
 future. If others despise it or protrude at us the lip of scorn 
 because we thus esteem it, let them do so. It becomes us to 
 stand erect in faith, firm in purpose, determined in zeal, immov- 
 able, uncompromising, intrenched behind our impregnable ram- 
 parts of divine strength, intent only on that sublime destiny 
 which time will assuredly prove to have been decreed to our 
 Community. Our only concern should be to do our duty, our 
 whole duty, manfully, cheerfully, unfalteringly. God will take 
 care of the rest." 
 
 On looking back thirty years on this fair exhibit of our 
 Community affairs, the glowing hopefulness which animated 
 my words, and the confident assurance of the divine favor, I 
 cannot repress the sadness which subsequent reverses and 
 ultimate failure on the eve of seeming triumph cast like 
 a dark shadow over my life. I wonder at the enthusi- 
 astic rhetoric in which I arrayed my public addresses in 
 the face of so many disappointments and drawbacks. 
 The truth is, I was so certain I was right in principles 
 and aims, so largely endowed with the organ of hope, 
 and had such a persistent will, that I could not lie down 
 in the furrow of weariness and disappointment, nor cease 
 to paint my horizon with auroral hues, even when many 
 clouds were flitting across my field of vision. But they 
 all had a silver lining and would be soon dissipated by 
 the rising sun. So holy and grand a cause must surely 
 triumph. Therefore if one form of polity or mode of 
 administration or set of coadjutors failed, I resorted to 
 others and was fruitful of new expedients even to the 
 last. And when the inevitable shipwreck came, I floated 
 away on the last available plank of our shattered ark, and 
 have been spared to tell the story of our unfortunate 
 venture and blasted expectations to succeeding genera- 
 
FLUCTUATING FORTUNES. 155 
 
 tions, and bequeath the fruits of our sorrowful experience 
 to a happier age. So I proceed with my narrative which 
 has many lights and shadows yet to be portrayed. 
 
 The Year 1846. It might amuse and surprise, if it did 
 not instruct, the curious reader of these pages were I to- 
 open still further the casements of our social establish- 
 ment and point out the movements of the complicated, 
 and, to an outside observer, perplexing mechanism con- 
 cealed therein wheels succeeding wheels and wheels within 
 wheels in elaborate and manifold combination. But the 
 glimpses already permitted must suffice. They will convey 
 a reasonably correct idea of what existed and transpired, 
 so far as industrial organization and management were 
 concerned, for some time to come. Only that instead of 
 improving and running more smoothly, there seemed in 
 many directions to be more friction and more cause of 
 dissatisfaction with existing methods and arrangements. 
 Unforseeu difficulties were developed requiring modification 
 of the prevailing policy or new expedients and modes of 
 operation. Instead of the hoped for increase of industrial 
 and financial prosperity, or at least continuance of the 
 previous year's success, there was serious decline, result- 
 ing in an actual loss of several hundred dollars on our 
 invested capital. Not only were we unable to pay divi- 
 dends on labor as we had fondly anticipated but were 
 obliged to forego the four per cent, returns to our Joint- 
 Stock. This was a state of things exceedingly disheart- 
 ening and led us to enter upon a rigid examination of 
 our affairs in order to determine the cause or causes of 
 our reduced revenues that we might remove or overcome 
 them and so be put upon the upward way again. Some- 
 thing must be done to render our industry more efficient 
 and remunerative. A careful inspection of the reports of 
 our managers revealed the fact that the actual production 
 of their several departments was not what reasonably 
 might have been expected was not in average proper- 
 
156 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 lion to the amount of time credited for labor. This 
 demonstrated either that suitable employment had not 
 been assigned to our operatives, or that the fruit of their 
 labor had not been judiciously husbanded, or that the 
 amount of time credited to them had not been produc- 
 tively employed. In whichever particular a defect might 
 be found, or if it should appear that there existed some 
 defect in all of them, it was evident that measures should 
 be at once taken to remedy it. This was accordingly 
 clone as will soon be shown. 
 
 Another weak spot in our industrial management came 
 to light upon careful examination, and that was, that the 
 services of children and supernumeraries had not been 
 made to accrue as they ought to the financial advantage 
 of the Community. It was supposed that appropriate and 
 remunerative employment of a sufficient amount had been 
 provided for these, but for some reason or other it had 
 not yielded satisfactory returns to the common treasury, 
 and this called for some definite and wise action on the 
 part of the proper authorities in the case. 
 
 Moreover, the year proved to be one of solicitude and 
 trial nay of bereavement and distress, by reason of much 
 sickness within our borders. In the late summer, fever 
 of a typhoid nature broke out in several of our families, 
 causing great anxiety and much extra labor therein, 
 and awakening more or less of apprehension and fear 
 throughout our entire population. Three children and 
 one adult died ; and a number of other persons were 
 confined to their beds for varying lengths of time, from 
 which they arose mere shadows of their former selves, 
 returning- to their accustomed places and occupations 
 after a lingering convalescence. This very naturally had 
 a depressing effect upon the spirits of all of us, and 
 taxed to an unusual degree our energies, our ambition, 
 .and our hope, as it did also our financial ability and 
 resources. 
 
THE CLOUD WITH A SILVER LINING. 151 
 
 But our numbers had suffered no diminution but rather 
 increase, notwithstanding the four deaths and the removal 
 of one family, which left us not from any disaffection, 
 but at the call of duty to minister to an aged and infirm 
 relative who was in great need of their varied help. We 
 began the year with eighty-three members, dependents, 
 and candidates ; we closed it with one hundred and seven. 
 Our Joint-Stock capital increased from less than twelve 
 to more than fourteen thousand dollars and was soon to 
 be augmented several thousand more by absorbing the 
 credits due to individual members. Our private capital 
 invested in dwelling houses, landed improvements, etc. 
 had increased proportionally. We erected three new fam- 
 ily habitations, a commodious shop for machinists and 
 blacksmiths with a combined wash-house appended, and 
 a saw-mill for the manufacture of lumber for home 
 and outside consumption. Besides, some new branches 
 of industry had been started, affording a wider scope for 
 individual capability, taste, and choice, and a larger 
 opportunity for remunerative employment. At the same 
 time we had obtained an increasing run of custom from 
 the immediate neighborhood and some recognized foothold 
 in the markets of the general community. Our credit 
 was deservedly sound and satisfactory in the entire region 
 round about, and a growing confidence and friendliness 
 toward us was manifest on every hand. Furthermore, 
 the laying out of a much needed road to the southward 
 of our village, to be built the following spring, opening 
 communication with people and towns beyond, gave prom- 
 ise of advantage to our industrial interests, as did the 
 approaching completion of the Providence and Worcester 
 Railroad to Blackstone and Uxbridge, and of the branch 
 line from So. Framiugham to Mil ford. So with all our 
 disappointments and adversities, we had our encourage- 
 ments and persuasives to renewed diligence, steadfastness, 
 and zeal in our chosen work, and we governed ourselves- 
 
158 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 accordingly. We certainly had no occasion by what we 
 had experienced of ill-fortune, pecuniary loss, or personal 
 and domestic bereavement, to question our own motives 
 and ambitions, to distrust our principles or the righteous- 
 ness of our cause, or to doubt that doing our duty as 
 we understood our duty, trusting in Him who had thus 
 far, we believe, guided us on our way, we should in due 
 time be crowned with triumphant success. 
 
 The spirit which animated and cheered us as we carne 
 to our Annual Meeting on the 13th of January, 1847, 
 may be learned from the account of the proceedings 
 given in our paper, which I quote entire. 
 
 " The Annual Meeting of this Community took place accord- 
 ing to notification. It was an interesting, harmonious, profita- 
 ble occasion. The President's address, several reports, choice 
 of official 'servants, discussion of proposed measures, and busi- 
 ness transactions occupied most of the afternoon and evening. 
 Great unanimity and determination of mind prevailed through- 
 out the proceedings, and important regulations for the improve- 
 ment of our industrial, economical, educational, and moral 
 affairs were adopted. The somewhat untoward results of last 
 year's operations were contemplated without a murmur and 
 seemed to serve only as a stimulus to more resolute and 
 judicious efforts for the future. It was felt that it became us 
 to bear with resignation the pecuniary losses of our great 
 sickness, amounting, according to the best estimate of all the 
 items that ought to be included in the reckoning, to at least 
 a thousand dollars ; especially as we had been so greatly favored 
 in this respect during all our previous years of community 
 life. And as to deficiencies arising from injudicious methods 
 of operation, imperfect management, or individual short-com- 
 ings, all seemed determined to enter vigorously on the work of 
 reform and self-improvement. Whether we shall be able to 
 give a more cheering account of ourselves at the commence- 
 ment of another year remains among the uncertainties of the 
 future. But we have the utmost confidence that the issue will 
 be creditable to the Community. Time will show. 
 
 " The residents at Hopedale, unwilling that non-resident 
 stockholders should fail of their four per cent, interest on 
 
SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING. 159 
 
 capital, instantly raised by private subscription the requisite 
 sum to pay them their full dividends. On our own capital we 
 will be content to draw profits when the Joint-Stock operations 
 shall have fairly produced them. We wish our stockholding 
 friends residing outside of our domain, not to construe this 
 eagerness to pay them their profits into any distrust of their 
 generosity and confidence, but rather as a dictate of our own 
 (perhaps excusable) pride, which prefers not to see their inter- 
 ests compromised by our misfortunes or ill management. Most 
 of them have been uniformly patient, generous, and confiding 
 towards us friends indeed; and we have no reason to suppose 
 them changed for the worse. 
 
 "The official servants for the current year are: ADIN BAL- 
 LOU, President and Auditor; EDMUND SOWARD, Secretary; In- 
 tendants: E. 1). DRAPER, Finance and Exchange; CLEMENT O. 
 REED, Manufactures and Mechanical Industry; HORATIO EDSON, 
 Health and Domestic Economy: D. S. WHITNEY, Education, Arts, 
 and Sciences; WM. H. FISH, Religion, Morals, and Missions. 
 
 " These constitute the Executive Council. The election of 
 an Intendant of Agriculture and Animals was postponed by 
 general consent to a future meeting, and the Council were 
 instructed to supply the temporary vacancy till regularly filled." 
 
 At this same meeting- a By-Law was enacted making 
 very radical changes in the organization and government 
 of the industries of the Community. Under its provisions 
 the operatives in each branch of business were constituted 
 a co-operative association having a voice in the control 
 of their own distinct affairs and in the arrangement of 
 details, subject to the supervision of a Manager appointed 
 by the Executive Council, who was himself responsible to 
 the Council for the faithful discharge of the duties of his 
 position as specifically set forth in one section of the 
 enactment. There was also a set of Regulations, three 
 in number, adopted, defining still futher the obligations 
 and powers of the several Managers in their respective 
 departments of official activity. And still further a 
 Resolve was passed designed to regulate and make avail- 
 able to the profit of the Community, the family, and the 
 
 OK THE 
 
 IVERSITY 
 
160 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 individuals concerned, the labor of the women of each and 
 every household, and all children under twelve years of 
 age connected therewith, under a general system of what 
 was termed Domestic Industry. As these acts of the 
 Community were only tentative and of temporary service, 
 it is not needful that they should have a place in these 
 pages. They could in no proper sense be regarded as a 
 part of the settled industrial policy of the undertaking. 
 They were soon superseded, as will be presently seen, by 
 others of more permanent value and use. 
 
 Incidents and Events of 1847. The Community started 
 out upon this year's experiences, notwithstanding the 
 resolute and somewhat elated tone of the annual meet- 
 ing, under inauspicious skies and with wind and tide, so 
 far as regarded its material interests, setting in the wrong- 
 direction. Despite the determination to go forward and 
 meet all annoyances and obstructions with a courageous 
 heart, despite the new expedients that were expected to 
 serve a good purpose in the existing emergency, things 
 went from bad to worse from remote omens of coming 
 disaster to imminent perils requiring immediate atten- 
 tion and a most vigorous and effective stroke of public 
 policy. The complexities and perplexities of the newly- 
 devised industrial and economical system, though appar- 
 ently judicious in itself, and though operated with as 
 much consideration as seemed possible, interfered practi- 
 cally so much with individual tastes, feelings, and wills, 
 that murmurs of dissatisfaction and even of revolt became 
 at length so frequent and so bitter as to embarrass and 
 obstruct the orderly and efficient management of our busi- 
 ness activities. We still had among our workmen and 
 operatives too many persons both unaccustomed and indis- 
 posed to methodical habits of industry and regularity of 
 action in any direction too many undisciplined recruits 
 in our industrial army persons unfitted by lack of sagac- 
 ity and training, by their loose and heterogeuous ways, to- 
 
ANNOYANCES AND IRRITATIONS. 161 
 
 render service satisfactorily in decently managed estab- 
 lishments anywhere in the world. They failed to observe 
 proper hours, to care for their tools or implements, to 
 execute nice work, and in general to conform to the 
 necessary conditions of success in their respective call- 
 ings. In the matter of domestic supplies and culinary 
 tastes, they were equally eccentric, fitful, and unreason- 
 able. The most salutary rules, the most wisely arranged 
 plans, the most indispensable requirements, with such, 
 availed nothing. They were not respected and could 
 not be enforced to any such extent as would make it 
 pleasant in any voluntary, co-equal, fraternal association. 
 Under such circumstances, both managers and managed 
 were annoyed, irritated, disgusted. And though, for a 
 time, most of them suppressed their real feelings and 
 uttered no word of remonstrance or complaint, yet the 
 trouble existed and was destined sooner or later to come 
 out ; at first occasionally and mildly perhaps, but after- 
 wards more frequently and emphatically, and in time with 
 displays of ill-will and bitterness. 
 
 This state of things was not calculated to increase the 
 felicity of our Community paradise. And neither legisla- 
 tion nor official interposition could afford relief in the 
 matter. The difficulty was not in the intention or purpose 
 of those more immediately implicated. They meant no 
 wrong and no harm. As a rule they were animated by 
 worthy motives and exemplified many excellent traits of 
 character. Else we could have summoned them to answer 
 for their faults before the Community tribunal, and, if 
 need be, cut them off from our fellowship. But their 
 virtue saved them from such a fate. The preponderance* 
 of honesty, integrity, kindness of heart, honor, in them! 
 made us all slow to condemn them, slow to institute stern 
 measures against them. And so the difficulty remained 
 and increased, affecting more and more unfavorably those s 
 directly involved, and causing unrest and disquiet gen-. 
 
 11 
 
162 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 erally within our boundaries. Even the more unexcep- 
 tionable in the respects indicated, the more orderly and 
 carefully trained and thoroughly disciplined, could not but 
 be affected and disturbed by the annoyances and vexations 
 referred to. I myself walked miles upon miles and spent 
 days and weeks in looking after things that were lost, in 
 putting to rights things that were displaced, in bringing 
 order out of confusion, by reason of the thoughtlessness, 
 neglect, slovenly ways, and general lack of responsibility 
 on the part of those whom I have portrayed. Under such 
 circumstances, the more thoughtful and far-seeing must 
 have realized that a crisis in our affairs could not be far 
 away that there must ere long be a recasting of our 
 policy, a re-adjustment of industrial methods, and a new 
 regime established. This in the very nature of things 
 was a foregone conclusion. But before it was reached 
 certain events occurred of considerable importance which 
 were calculated to embarrass still more the situation and 
 hasten the impending crisis. 
 
 The first of these, and the precursor or occasion of 
 some of the others, was the voluntary retirement from our 
 midst of our esteemed brother and efficient co-laborer, 
 Joseph Kiugmau. who came to us from West Bridgewater 
 and who proposed returning thither. He had not formally 
 joined our membership nor was he even a probationer of 
 the Community. But he had been from the outset an 
 adherent of our distinctive ideas and principles and a 
 sympathetic friend of our movement. So much interested 
 was he in it and so much inclined to cast in his lot with 
 us, that he had solicited and obtained the privilege of 
 residence on our domain in order to become better 
 acquainted with us and make trial of our polity and 
 social status. When he came, he fully expected to 
 become one of us, and very soon selected a house-lot for 
 a permanent residence. He was a man of intelligence, 
 sound practical judgment, high moral character, and con- 
 
A MUCH REGRETTED DEPARTURE. 163 
 
 genial social qualities. He possessed a respectable prop- 
 perty and could be a much-to-be-desired help in that 
 respect. In short, he combined in himself every qualifi- 
 cation almost that would render him a very useful and 
 influential coadjutor in our work. We reposed great 
 confidence in him, sought his counsel on many important 
 measures, and made him pro tempore Inteudaut of Agri- 
 culture and Animals. We had come to regard him and 
 his family as an extraordinarily desirable acquisition to 
 our fellowship. But he was not satisfied with the practi- 
 cal working of our industrial system and the condition 
 of things under it, and felt that he could not be contented 
 and happy in our midst that he could do more good, 
 fill a wider sphere of usefulness in the world, exert a 
 more salutary influence, and find greater enjoyment, in 
 his native town and vicinity than he would if he remained 
 permanently with us. He therefore signified his intention 
 of leaving Hopedale in the mouth of February, and a few 
 weeks later bade us farewell. Our loss was great, and 
 our sorrow heartfelt. 
 
 This left our Agricultural department without a man- 
 ager at the opening of the most busy season of the year. 
 The springtime was at hand. Work on the large Com- 
 munity farm was abundant and urgent. All the village 
 gardens had claims for plowing and enrichment. Several 
 cellars for new dwellings were to be dug and stoned. 
 Moreover, a contract had been made to fell and clear off 
 the wood and timber on a ten acre lot in the vicinity 
 before a certain day in early summer. These and many 
 incidental labors devolved upon this department and were 
 demanding immediate attention. And now by the removal of 
 Br. Kingman it had lost its executive head, and there was not 
 a man in all our subordinate ranks whom the Council could 
 appoint to fill the vacant place. What was to be done? 
 
 At this juncture of affairs I consented, as I had been 
 wont to do before in similar exigencies, to take the man- 
 
164 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 agemeut of the interests involved into my own hands. 
 This was more generous than wise, for I was already 
 overtasked, loaded down with manifold labors of various 
 sort, at home and abroad, by day and by night. But I 
 addressed myself to the responsibilities of the position 
 with all the ardor and zeal I could command, which, in 
 addition to my other cares as preacher, lecturer, editor, 
 and President of the Community, soon exhausted my 
 physical energies, impaired my usual mental buoyancy, and 
 seriously threatened an utter collapse of my entire system. 
 
 Meanwhile there was a gradual demoralization going 
 on in all directions, among all grades of our Community 
 forces. The unrest, irritation, and discontent, under our 
 general industrial policy already adverted to, increased 
 continually and assumed more menacing forms. Financial 
 resources were running low. More money was needed 
 than could be easily obtained. Our expenditures exceeded 
 our income. To meet the demands made upon us, we 
 had to fall back upon one of our more fortunate mem- 
 bers, who was engaged in business outside of Community 
 jurisdiction that yielded him a sufficient revenue to enable 
 him to help us in every emergency by additional subscrip- 
 tions to our Joint-Stock. He had already become the 
 largest investor in such stock. While his kindness and 
 generosity were duly appreciated as rendering us a most 
 indispensable service, it was generally felt that it was by 
 no means a healthy state of affairs which made it neces- 
 sary for us to call for or receive the aid he was so 
 willing to give. 
 
 And so in many a quarter the elements were fomenting 
 and conspiring, unconsciously perhaps in some instances, 
 to bring on a crisis to compel a readjustment of the 
 different parts of our social machinery to necessitate 
 the adoption of new and more harmonious, effective, and 
 satisfactory methods of administration. Measures of relief, 
 plans of action, devices of many a kind, were offered 
 
ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION SUPERSEDED. 165 
 
 and discussed between individuals, in private circles, by 
 the Executive Council, and at regular Community meet- 
 ings. But nothing definite was done ; no final conclusion 
 for some time reached. 
 
 After much fruitless talk, and long deliberative sittings 
 which accomplished nothing, it was at length felt by a 
 sort of common instinct, and determined by common con- 
 sent, that the elaborate, complicated, overgrown mechanism 
 under which, with repeated modifications, eliminations, and 
 additions, we had been living and operating from the very 
 beginning should be abandoned altogether, and that we 
 should build anew our social edifice from the bed-rock 
 foundation of our Preamble and Declaration in a more 
 simple, direct, laconic, unpretending, comprehensible fash- 
 ion, and order all our activities and operations accord- 
 ingly. And so with little more ado we proceeded to set 
 aside the original Constitution of the Community, with all 
 the By-Laws, Regulations, Rules, Resolves, and arrange- 
 ments then in force, and to reconstruct the entire concern 
 after a new and altogether untried model. On the 17th 
 of July this work of reconstruction was inaugurated and 
 put in process of practical development by the adoption 
 of the following 
 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 "In order to establish a state of society governed by divine 
 moral principles, with as little as possible of mere human con- 
 straint, in which all the members may be perfectly free to 
 associate or separate their secular interests according to incli- 
 nation and congeniality, but in which no individual shall 
 suffer the evils of oppression, poverty, ignorance, or vice, 
 through the influence or neglect of others, we, whose names 
 are hereunto subscribed, do unite in a voluntary association to 
 be called 
 
 "THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "ARTICLE I. 
 
 " SECTION 1. No person shall be a member of this Commu- 
 nity who does cordially assent to the following 
 
166 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "DECLARATION. 
 
 "I believe in the religion of Jesus Christ as he taught and 
 exemplified it according to the Scriptures of the New Testa- 
 ment. I acknowledge myself a bounden subject of all its 
 moral obligations. Especially do I hold myself bound by its 
 holy requirements, never, under any pretext whatsoever, to 
 kill, assault, beat, torture, enslave, rob, oppress, persecute,, 
 defraud, corrupt, slander, revile, injure, envy, or hate any 
 human being even my worst enemy; never in any manner 
 to violate the dictates of pure chastity; never to take or 
 administer an oath; never to manufacture, buy, sell, deal out y 
 or use any intoxicating liquor as a beverage; never to serve in 
 the army, navy, or militia of any Nation, State, or Chieftain; 
 never to bring an action at law, hold office, vote, join in a 
 legal posse, petition a legislature, or ask governmental inter- 
 position, in ang case involving a final authorized resort to physical 
 violence; never to indulge self-will, bigotry, love of pre-eminence, 
 covetousness, deceit, profanity, idleness, or an unruly tongue ; 
 never to participate in lotteries, games of chance, betting, or 
 pernicious amusements; never to resent reproof or justify 
 myself in a known wrong; never to aid, abet, or approve 
 others in anything sinful; but through divine assistance always 
 to recommend and promote with my entire influence the 
 holiness and happiness of all mankind. 
 
 " SEC. 2. Any person assenting to the foregoing Declaration 
 and recommended in writing by seven members as sponsors, 
 may be admitted into the membership of this Community by 
 vote at any regular meeting, provided he or she shall there- 
 upon subscribe this Constitution. 
 
 "SEC. 3. Any person may resign membership at discretion 
 by entering a minute on the Records to that effect. 
 
 "SEC. 4. Any unworthy member may be discharged at any 
 regular meeting by a vote requesting him or her to resign. 
 
 " SEC. 5. Any meeting reasonably notified in respect to 
 time, place, and leading subjects of consideration, shall be 
 deemed regular. 
 
 " SEC. 6. Every member shall have one and but one vote 
 on all questions, and the concurrence of two-thirds of the 
 members present and acting shall be necessary to the decision 
 of every question. 
 
 "SEC. 7. Nine members shall constitute a quorum. 
 
A NEW CONSTITUTION. 167 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 "SECTION 1. The members of this Community shall own 
 and manage such real and movable estate in the Joint-Stock 
 Proprietorship as they may deem necessary to the maintenance 
 of a neighborhood exclusively inhabited and controlled by 
 persons honestly endeavoring to conform to the principles of 
 the foregoing Declaration. And no person habitually setting 
 at nought those principles shall permanently reside within the 
 territorial limits of the Community by public consent. 
 
 " SEC. 2. This Joint-Stock property shall consist of shares 
 of the value of fifty dollars each, for which the owner shall 
 hold Certificates responsibly signed in the form following, to 
 wit: 
 
 "For value received, A. B. or order is hereby entitled to 
 shares in the Joint-Stock property of the Hopedale Com- 
 munity valued at dollars, together with such dividends as 
 
 may from time to time be declared thereon. 
 
 " SEC. 3. The general management, safe keeping, and dis- 
 posal of this Joint-Stock property shall be vested in a Board 
 of Trustees consisting of not less than three nor more than 
 five responsible members of the Community chosen for that 
 purpose. 
 
 "SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of this Board of Trustees to 
 sell off, rent out, or improve, under their official superintend- 
 ence, the Joint-Stock property in such a manner as to afford, 
 if possible, every individual belonging to the Community a 
 fair opportunity to realize the objects of this Association, and 
 at the same time to secure to the Stockholders unimpaired 
 their capital, with a clear annual profit thereon of four per cent. 
 
 " SEC. 5. Any accidental excess of profits on the Joint- 
 Stock capital over the said four per cent, shall be devoted to 
 educational purposes for the benefit of the Community. 
 
 "SEC. 6. The Board of Trustees shall have power to lay 
 out and improve the Village Site, to open and keep in order 
 streets, commons, and cemeteries, and to sell house-lots to 
 members who will come under obligations that such lots with 
 all their buildings and betterments shall revert to the Joint- 
 Stock Proprietorship at a fair appraisal whenever the same 
 shall cease to be owned within the membership of this Com- 
 munity or be perverted to uses obviously repugnant to the 
 principles of the foregoing Declaration. 
 
168 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "SEC. 7. It shall be the duty of the Board of Trustees to 
 keep accurate accounts and permanent records of their official 
 transactions, and to hold their books always subject to the 
 inspection of any member or stockholder who may desire to 
 examine them. And they shall present to the Community an 
 explicit report of the Joint-Stock finances at least once every 
 year. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 " SECTION 1. This Community shall elect a Recorder to 
 serve during mutual satisfaction, and may from time to time 
 appoint such other officers as occasion shall require. 
 
 " SEC. 2. Legislation and government shall be confined to 
 matters of obvious public necessity and never be brought into 
 conflict with the declared objects and fundamental principles 
 of this Association. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 " Ail the titles of property and all obligations entered into 
 respecting the same under the Constitution and By-Laws of 
 Fraternal Community No. 1, as may in any wise appear from 
 records or documents, shall be held inviolate under this Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 " This Constitution may be altered or amended by two- 
 thirds of the members present and acting at any regular 
 meeting of the Community notified for that purpose." 
 
 This Constitution was published in The Practical Chris- 
 tian of August 7th, accompanied by a detailed statement 
 of the reasons for the radical change in the disposition 
 and management of our secular affairs which it was 
 designed and calculated to effect, or at least to make 
 possible. Experience had brought the more practically 
 sagacious and responsible of our members to the convic- 
 tion that it was impossible to attain the objects contem- 
 plated by our association and most ardently sought after 
 by us under the former arrangement and mode of admin- 
 istration. "We had tried to escape certain dangers that 
 threatened us from different quarters by a variety of 
 
OPINIONS OF THE CHANGE. 169 
 
 devices which involved us in others of equal or greater 
 moment in an opposite direction. The more enterprising, 
 reliable, and efficient among us, to whom was entrusted 
 the conduct of manifold secular affairs were overloaded 
 with care, anxiety, and excessive toil, and embarrassed 
 by complex managementa! machinery, multifarious coun- 
 sel, adverse criticism, and tardy, half-hearted co-operation. 
 While others less capable of planning, directing, and 
 executing, were becoming less submissive to orderly 
 methods, less contented and happy. The change was 
 therefore not simply desirable or expedient, but indispen- 
 sable indispensable to our harmony and prosperity, 
 and indispensable to our continued existence. Without 
 it we should have gone to pieces. 
 
 As it was, the word went abroad and was heralded far 
 and wide that the Community had virtually come to an 
 end, been wrecked, exploded, disappeared altogether from 
 among the things of earth and time. One well-meaning 
 brother with strong leanings to the dead-level Communism 
 of Robert Owen, who had come to us from New Bruns- 
 wick expecting to enjoy here the beatitude of a renewed 
 garden of Eden, gave vent to his ill-temper and disgust 
 at what had transpired in a crisp notice of withdrawal 
 from our no longer agreeable fellowship, of which the 
 following is a copy : 
 
 " As the Fraternal Community, No. 1, of Hopedale, although 
 a mongrel from the beginning, has ceased to be is dead; 
 but professes to be a Community, which is too bad too 
 barefaced to be thought of for a moment; therefore I can 
 have no fellowship with it, but call for what means I have 
 here to be paid as soon as possible so that I can remove as 
 soon as health will permit. 
 
 "Hopedale, Aug. 13, 1847. JOHN HILL." 
 
 Similar ebullitions of a contemptuous spirit mingled 
 with pride and exultation burst forth here and there in 
 the outside world among the bigoted sectarists whose 
 
170 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 pseudo-piety and anti-Christianity were rebuked by an 
 institution claiming to make the principles of the Gospel 
 supreme in all human relations and concerns, as well as 
 from the vulgar and godless crowd to whom the simple 
 practical precepts of the sermon on the mount were as 
 unintelligible and meaningless as the hieroglyphics of the 
 Nile. To these carping critics of every grade and name, 
 I made what I deemed a fitting response in our paper 
 of October 2, under the ironical caption "-Another Humbug 
 Exploded," which, however, I coined from the current 
 disparaging, captious, literature of our over-jubilant 
 adversaries at the time. The article need not be quoted 
 here as its contents are not essential to the purposes of 
 this volume, but the interested and curious are referred 
 to the issue of The Practical Christian named, to be 
 found in the Hopedale Public Library. 
 
 It will have been observed that in the re-construction 
 of our social edifice the name by which we had been 
 designated as an independent body from the beginning, 
 Fraternal Community, No. 1, was superseded by The 
 Hopedale Community, which we were destined to bear 
 ever afterward. This was done in the interest of greater 
 directness and simplicity. Our original scheme, in its 
 over-confident comprehensiveness, provided for an indefinite 
 number of Communities, scattered far and wide through- 
 out the land and world, which were to be co-ordinated 
 and organically united in a great ecumenical federation 
 styled "The Practical Christian Communion," of which 
 each Community was an integral, subordinate part, with 
 certain rights, privileges, and immunities distinctively its- 
 own. (See page 27.) We had now come to the conchP 1 
 sion that we had attempted to build on too large a scale ;. ' 
 that it were the part of wisdom to be more modest in 
 our pretensions and claims ; that it were better for us 
 with our limited resources of men and means, and with 
 our none too large equipment of moral and spiritual 
 
NEW REGIME INAUGURATED. 171 
 
 ammunition, to confine our ambition and our efforts for 
 the present to our own single experiment, and to address 
 ourselves chiefly if not wholly to the task of carrying that 
 forward to an ultimate triumphant and universally acknowl- 
 edged success. And as a step the first step perhaps 
 in the line of that policy we deemed it advisable to 
 count ourselves no longer the initial or head of a vast 
 procession of regenerated social enterprises, placarding 
 that assumption on the very frontlet of our petty under- 
 taking, but to stand in our own lot, independent and 
 unrelated, attending to our own duties, working out our 
 own destiny, under our own unpretentious, proper name, 
 "The Hopedale Community," leaving all succeeding move- 
 ments in the same behalf to the efforts of other laborers 
 in the vineyard of the Lord, to the activities of a wiser 
 and better future, and to the beneficent providence of 
 Almighty God. 
 
 Under the newly adopted Constitution, a Board of 
 Trustees consisting of Adiu Ballon, E. D. Draper, Hora- 
 tio Edson, and Almou Thwing, was immediately elected 
 to take the place of the old Executive Council in the 
 general conduct of secular affairs, their term of service 
 expiring at the next Annual Meeting, Jan. 12, 1848. 
 Daniel S. Whitney was chosen Recorder for the same 
 period. The Trustees entered at once upon the discharge 
 of the difficult duties to which they were called. They 
 organized on the same day they were chosen by making 
 ADIN BALLOU, President; ALMON THWING. Secretary; and 
 E. D. DRAPER, Treasurer; and voted to appraise such 
 property of the Community as might be rented or sold 
 for the common benefit. They also decided that the new 
 industrial regime should go into operation on Monday, 
 the 26th inst., nine days afterward. Meanwhile they sold 
 outright the printing press, stock, and fixtures, to Adin 
 Ballon ; the card-setting machines, stock, and appliances, 
 to Clement O. Read ; the stock and tools of the boot 
 
172 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 and shoe department, to David Beal ; the transportation 
 business, including horses, carriages, and appurtenances, 
 to Charles H. Price ; the painting and glazing department 
 with its belongings, to Samuel S. Brown ; the medical 
 department with its dues, to Butler Wilmarth, M. D. ; 
 and The Practical Christian with its subscription list and 
 what was owing thereon, also to Adiu Ballou. The 
 mechanic shop with its machinery and fixtures, they 
 rented for a definite period to Horatio Edson ; the saw- 
 mill and fixtures, to E. D. Draper; the machine shop, 
 etc., to Almon Thwiug and Joseph B. Bancroft. The 
 farm they retained for their own general management by 
 the appointment of a proper agent or overseer, also the 
 Community store. A few members or approved residents 
 carried on business on their own account. 
 
 Soon afterward steps were taken to have the Commu- 
 nity shops and other buildings with their contents insured, 
 and Adiu Ballou was chosen a committee to complete the 
 laying out, plotting, and numbering of the cemetery lots, 
 and to put everything pertaining thereto into proper and 
 permanent form, agreeably to the orders passed some two 
 years before. Certain new roads were laid out and sub- 
 mitted to the authorities of the town of Milford for 
 acceptance as public highways ; and some pieces of old 
 road rendered needless thereby were discontinued. 
 
 Flowage Complaints. Two of our neighbors, Mr. Eli 
 Chapiu on the north and Mr. Nathaniel Bennett on the 
 south, complained of the injury done to their lands by 
 reason of the Community mills and the dams connected 
 therewith, both of the parties placing the damages at 
 what we deemed an unreasonably high figure. The con- 
 tention of the former was that the water in our upper 
 pond submerged a considerable tract of valuable meadow, 
 killing out the grass and working harm to the growth of 
 small wood along its borders. That of the latter was 
 that the saw-dust, shavings, and other refuse matter, were 
 
AGGRIEVED NEIGHBORS. 173' 
 
 floated down stream from our shops and lodged 011 his 
 premises along the banks, to his serious annoyance and 
 detriment. Adin Ballou and E. D. Draper were chosen 
 a Committee to see the parties and effect if possible a 
 settlement, either by the purchase of the lauds or by 
 satisfactory pecuniary indemnification. Friendly negotia- 
 tions were opened with Mr. Chapiii and an amicable 
 arrangement was made with very little difficulty the land 
 in question, some ten acres, being purchased by us at a 
 price mutually acceptable. We were less fortunate with 
 our other neighbor, Mr. Bennett. We had some time 
 before tried to buy his land but he was unwilling to sell. 
 We had offered him peace-money, believing that he had 
 suffered no real loss, but he refused to take it. We had 
 then agreed to leave the matter to three referees, allow- 
 ing him virtually the choice of persons. We now met 
 the referees with him, each party presenting its side of 
 the case. The decision was that he had no claim against 
 us. Though in honor bound to accept it, he refused, and 
 the difficulty remained a cause of irritation and vexation 
 for several years afterward. Another reference and its- 
 award resulted in our obtaining possession of the territory 
 involved. 
 
 Hopedale Juvenile Community. Early in the year now 
 being reviewed there was effected at my suggestion and 
 with my assistance an organization among our older and 
 more mature boys bearing the above somewhat ostenta- 
 tious designation. The occasion of this action was that 
 considerable disquietude had arisen among this class of 
 our population and some of their seniors, on account of 
 their irregular employment when out of school, and fre- 
 quent complaints of their lawless ways and growing disre- 
 gard of proper authority. As they were always respectful 
 toward me and ready to listen to my advice, I called 
 them together for consultation upon the matter, proposing 
 to them a scheme for employing themselves in some effec- 
 
174 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 tive way when not otherwise engaged. They readily 
 assented and an association was formed accordingly, 
 duly officered, and put in working order. Several acres 
 of land for gardening and tillage were set apart for their 
 use and other facilities granted as an encouragement in 
 their undertaking. The project worked well and happily 
 for a few years, fulfilling all reasonable expectations and 
 then passing away amid the fluctuations with which we 
 were unescapably beset. 
 
 Hopedale School District. Two or three years after the 
 settlement at Hopedale application was made to the town 
 of Milford, to whose taxable property we were making 
 substantial annual contribution, for some act on its part 
 whereby we might receive a portion of the money we paid 
 into its treasury to aid us in the education of our chil- 
 dren under our own management, or be set off as a 
 separate school district, with such restrictions as should 
 be just and equitable in respect to all concerned. A 
 vote was passed to return us three fourths of the amount 
 of our taxes, as nearly as it could be ascertained. At 
 a subsequent meeting the vote was rescinded on the 
 ground that it was illegal to disburse school money in 
 any way except to regularly constituted school districts. 
 Several attempts were afterward made in the same behalf, 
 but to no effective purpose. At length in the autumn of 
 the year now in review a new petition was presented to 
 the town, asking that the village of Hopedale and the 
 surrounding territory within certain limits with the inhabi- 
 tants dwelling thereon might be set off as a district by 
 itself for educational purposes, agreeably to the established 
 forms of law. The question of granting the request 
 came up for consideration at a meeting held Nov. 22d, 
 when, after a lengthy discussion in which I as represent- 
 ative of the Community took part, it was decided in the 
 affirmative by a very large majority, thus consummating 
 a long-delayed act of justice to a peaceable, law-abiding, 
 
THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN. 175 
 
 and every way honorable portion of its population. Our 
 entire Community truly appreciated this token of friend- 
 liness on the part of their fellow-townsmen and lost no 
 favorable opportunity of reciprocating the same. 
 
 As a matter of personal interest to myself and for the 
 general information of my readers, I may say that The 
 Practical Christian and everything appertaining thereto, 
 as before indicated, came with the new regime into my 
 sole and individual possession, and that thereafter for a 
 time I had the management, not only of the editorial 
 department but of its publication and financial interests, 
 entirely in my own hands. Yet I was always disposed 
 and happy to give place in its columns to the contribu- 
 tions of my ministerial brethren and former associates on 
 its staff of writers, as I was to other reputable corre- 
 spondents at home or abroad, even though they played 
 the part of critics and detractors of myself personally or 
 of the cause which I felt myself called upon to uphold and 
 defend. Having been relieved for the most part of those 
 secular cares and labors which for some months had en- 
 gaged so much of my time and attention and which came 
 near crushing me utterly, I was in a position to devote 
 myself more exclusively, as was my desire, to the general 
 service of my fellow-men, by the proclamation of the 
 great principles of Practical Christianity far and wide as 
 possible through the press, the pulpit, and the lecture 
 platform, and by urging their application to all the 
 activities and relationships of human life. To the labors 
 thus opened anew to me I addressed myself with all the 
 diligence, single-miudness, and enthusiasm I could com- 
 mand. 
 
 The year 1847 was one of general health on our Com- 
 munity domain, although one of our number, Mrs. Abigail 
 Draper Cook, wife of Br. Wm. W. Cook, who had never 
 been vigorous and strong, fell into a confirmed decline 
 in the spring which resulted fatally on the 22d of July. 
 
176 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 She was but 27 years of age, a most estimable woman,, 
 of an amiable, devout, Christlike spirit, much beloved in 
 life, and in death deeply lamented. 
 
 The sixth Annual Meeting of the Community was 
 held on the 13th day of January, 1847. It passed off 
 quietly, a somewhat subdued and undemonstrative tone 
 characterizing its various proceedings. The experiences 
 of the preceding year, though in no wise undermining or 
 weakening our faith in the justice and intrinsic excellence 
 of our cause or in its ultimate triumph in the world, did 
 have a tendency to awaken no little distrust of ourselves, 
 of our adaptation to and fitness for the sublime work in 
 which we were engaged, and of the material at our com- 
 mand with which to build, upon the sure foundations laid 
 in our "Declaration," the divine kingdom of " righteous- 
 ness, peace, and joy." So we received and accepted the 
 simple financial statement of the Board of Trustees, 
 Reports of Committees, etc., in a calm, dispassionate 
 state of mind, reserving our enthusiasm and manifesta- 
 tions of confidence and hope to a more auspicious day. 
 
 Our official servants under the new administration of 
 affairs were few in number and their election was easily 
 and quickly effected. On the first balloting, ADIN BAL- 
 LOU, EBENEZER D. DRAPER, HORATIO EDSON, and ALMON 
 THWING, who as members of the old Board of Trustees 
 had inaugurated and directed thus far satisfactorily the 
 existing system of operations, were unanimously chosen 
 to fill the same position for the ensuing year, while 
 DANIEL S. WHITNEY was re-elected Recorder. Thus 
 equipped for active service the Community started out. 
 on the seventh year of its history. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1848-1850. 
 
 EDUCATION AMUSEMENTS P. C. MINISTRY LYCEUM 
 INDUSTRIAL ARMY SAVINGS BANK WATER 
 CURE INFIRMARY, ETC. 
 
 UNDER the newly adopted Constitution, which was 
 much briefer and more general in its provisions 
 than the preceding one, the management of the secular 
 affairs of the Community was assigned almost exclusively 
 to a Board of Trustees, who were to account directly to 
 the whole body of their fellow-associates for the faithful 
 discharge of the duties pertaining to their official position. 
 Other interests were to be guarded, conserved, and pro- 
 moted by such acts of special legislation in the form of 
 Resolves, By-Laws, Rules and Regulations, from time to 
 time, as the public and private need, determined by prac- 
 tical wisdom and experience, might seem to demand. 
 Some of these were held to be of primary and indispen- 
 sable importance, requiring early attention, and they were 
 brought to notice, duly considered, and definitely acted 
 upon accordingly. It was not our intention or our habit, 
 at any period of our history, to allow any important 
 matter of whatever nature to suffer detriment by neglect 
 or default. 
 
 Pursuant to that policy, the Community at its Annual 
 Meeting spoken of at the close of the last chapter, in 
 consideration of the mutual obligations understood to be 
 imposed upon and voluntarily assumed by the members in 
 their organic relations to each other and to the whole 
 
 12 
 
178 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 body, passed a declaratory resolve establishing that point 
 of duty beyond all question, doubt, or peradventure. It 
 affirmed that the Constitution in its essential spirit, char- 
 acter, and purpose, "is a mutual guaranty between all 
 its members and a solemn pledge that they will never 
 permit one of their number to suffer any serious evil 
 for want of fairly compensated employment, or the neces- 
 saries of life when unable to earn them, or the decent 
 education of children." 
 
 At the same meeting a special By-Law was enacted 
 providing for the education of all the children resident 
 on the Community domain and such others in the vicinity 
 as might be received by the proper authorities under 
 suitable restrictions, as a matter of public policy, at the 
 public expense. The Preamble asserted the general duty 
 enjoined upon the members in this regard by the Constitu- 
 tion, while the enactment proper prescribed " that a uni- 
 form and perpetual contribution of one per cent, should 
 be levied annually on the net income of all the members 
 and dependants over twenty-one years of age, for educa- 
 tional and kindred purposes." Also. 4i that a Board of 
 Education and Mental Improvement consisting of at least 
 three responsible persons should be annually chosen to 
 have charge of these matters." This Board was designed 
 to supersede the " Intendaut of Education, Arts, and 
 .Sciences" provided for in the original plan of the under- 
 taking and holding office during the preceding years. 
 Its first members consisted of Adin Ballou, Daniel S. 
 Whitney, and Clement O. Read. The new regime served 
 to distribute the responsibility pertaining to the educa- 
 tional department of the Community somewhat while 
 placing it at the same time under more active and 
 efficient supervision. 
 
 With the inauguration of the new system in the admin- 
 istration of our educational interests and instrumentalities, 
 our public school was placed in the immediate tuitional 
 
IMPROVEMENT IN SCHOOL AFFAIRS. 179 
 
 <?harge of my daughter, Abbie S. Ballou, under whose 
 direction it began at once to manifest signs of marked 
 improvement, and ere long attained a rank second to 
 none in all the region round about for efficiency of disci- 
 pline, for thoroughness of instruction, and for arousing in 
 the minds of the pupils an interest in study and an ambi- 
 tion to excel, not only in book knowledge and the essentials 
 of intellectual culture, but no less in morals and manners, 
 in whatsoever pertained to an enlargement and ennoble- 
 ment of character and life. The school, which had been 
 in continuous operation from an early date in our history, 
 had suffered somewhat from inexperienced and unskillful 
 teachers, but more from frequent changes in the instruc- 
 tor's chair ; such changes interfering with orderly methods 
 of training in every department of school activity and 
 indisposing the children to that regular, systematic, per- 
 severing, continuous application of the faculties concerned 
 to the work in hand which is essential to success. The 
 new teacher was fresh from the State Normal School at 
 West Newton, since removed to Framiugham, then in 
 charge of one of the foremost educators of his time in 
 Mass., Rev. Cyrus Pierce. To her natural fitness for 
 the position and her previous attainments in scholarship 
 she had added the results of a full course of instruction 
 in the art of teaching at that admirable institution, the 
 whole being reinforced by an enthusiasm which that 
 renowned preceptor was wont to impart to or awaken 
 in those who come under his inspiring influence. She 
 remained at the head of the school not only during the 
 entire period covered by this chapter but for several 
 years thereafter, acquiring for herself in her chosen call- 
 ing and for her school a reputation highly commendable 
 and rarely equaled in those days. Both received the 
 cordial approbation and praise of our own Board of 
 Education from year to year, as they did of the Super- 
 vising Committee of the town of Milford, who were by 
 
180 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 no means predisposed to overestimate anything pertaining* 
 to Hopedale, educational or otherwise. 
 
 Amusements. The subject of amusements was intro- 
 duced among us at an early day and became a somewhat 
 frequent theme of private and public discussion, though 
 at no time one of excited and sharp controversy. The 
 necessity of some kind of recreation or merry-making, 
 especially for our children and youth, was generally 
 acknowledged, though we were inclined to regard many 
 of the popular forms of entertainment and frolicry with 
 suspicion and hesitancy some of them with extreme 
 aversion on account of what was deemed their immoral 
 tendency and effect. We felt that whatever practices of 
 this sort were instituted or allowed within our jurisdiction 
 must be at least innocent and morally heathful, and, if 
 possible, conducive of elevating and salutary effects upon 
 those engaging in them in happy accordance with our 
 professed standard of faith and righteousness. But we 
 learned by experience that it -was no easy task to realize 
 our ideal in this respect. We found it difficult to devise 
 modes of diversion and merriment wholly unobjectionable 
 in themselves and satisfactory to the participants ; still 
 harder to regulate them and prevent them from running 
 into reprehensible excesses and abuses ; and almost impos- 
 sible to thoroughly Christianize them in all their bearings. 
 The great desideratum was to exclude all enervating 
 frivolity, all unseemly vulgarity, all rough and brutal 
 conduct, and to so combine physical, intellectual, and 
 moral exercises and gratifications as to promote and not 
 subvert the great ends of personal improvement and social 
 order. We succeeded in this particular fairly well ; not 
 as perfectly as we wished, but about as we did in other 
 departments of activity pertaining to our comprehensive 
 undertaking. 
 
 By a sort of elective affinity or personal fitness for the 
 position as well as by general consent, Br. Daniel S. 
 
RECREATION AND AMUSEMENT. 181 
 
 Whitney, while lie remained with us, became a kind of 
 Purveyor of Amusements ; providing ways and means of 
 interesting and pleasing both young and old, getting up 
 entertainments, festivals, and gala-days at irregular inter- 
 vals as circumstances might permit or suggest, and arrang- 
 ing exercises of various kinds sports, games, recitations, 
 tableaux, dramatics, singing, etc., to gratify and delight 
 whomsoever might be in attendance to participate in or 
 witness them. While most of these were of incidental or 
 casual occurrence, two of them had a more fixed and 
 institutional character, taking place on the first day of 
 May and at Christinas time annually, and hence called 
 our May Day and Christmas Festivals respectively. A 
 long account of one of the first of these, held May 1, 
 1848, was given in a letter from the then widely-known 
 reformer, Henry C. Wright, who was present, to his 
 friend and fellow-laborer in the cause of humanity, Philip 
 P. Carpenter of Warrentou, England, and published in 
 The Practical Christian of May 13. After detailing and 
 commenting upon what he sees and hears and feels, the 
 writer near the close says : " It is pleasant to witness 
 and enjoy the scene. Children and parents are here 
 sympathizing together in their amusements. How much 
 more rational, useful, and Christian these than others in 
 which men and women often indulge with the justification 
 of the orthodox world." "I believe this is as innocent 
 as any meeting and far more improving and Christianizing 
 than those in which a pro-war, pro-slavery, brutalizing 
 religion is instilled into men's minds and hearts. Scenes 
 like those of this occasion make us all better men and 
 women." "The Festival is about to close. It has been 
 a warm and kindly interchange of true, tried, and loving 
 hearts. They are blest in themselves, in each other, and 
 in Grod ; and may they ever remain so." 
 
 The following hymn written for this particular occasion 
 by D. S. Whitney was sung with great enthusiasm and 
 
182 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 glee, the children dressed in white with bouquets in their 
 hands taking the principal part, while the congregation 
 at large joined in the chorus. 
 
 "WILD WOOD FLOWERS. 
 
 "We've been in search of wildwood flowers 
 In Hopedale glens and shady bowers, 
 And gathered each a fair bouquet 
 To celebrate this festal day. 
 
 "CHORUS: 
 
 "And why should we not love the flowers 
 That grow about this Dale of ours; 
 Sweet tokens they will ever prove 
 Of our dear Father's precious love. 
 
 " How beautiful the flowers that spring ! 
 What rapture to our hearts they bring ! 
 And silent though their language be, 
 It ever teaches purity. 
 
 "CHORUS: And why should we, etc. 
 
 "We hope by patient toil to know 
 Where each one dwells and when in blow, 
 Its order and its class declare, 
 And what its curious habits are. 
 
 "CHORUS: And why should we, etc. 
 
 " We've twined these wreaths of flowers to be 
 A symbol meet of unity; 
 
 With cords of faith and bonds of love 
 We're girt around and interwove. 
 
 "CHORUS: And why should we, etc. 
 
 " The rose when crushed gives back perfume 
 To blossoms, fragrance follows soon; 
 Fair rose, thou lovely Christian flower, 
 Like thee we'd be in trial's hour. 
 
 "CHORUS: Then why should we, etc." 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM. 183 
 
 Industrial Affairs. These were administered during the 
 period now in review under a mixed but not altogether 
 satisfactory policy, and various changes and modifications 
 were made from time to time to meet some special 
 exigency that had arisen, to promote the general har- 
 mony, and secure desirable financial results. A few 
 branches of business were carried on in the name of the 
 Community under the direction of managers appointed 
 and supervised by the Trustees, but most of them by 
 private parties or co-partnerships to which they had been 
 rented or sold, as provided for by recent enactments. 
 But human imperfection in its various forms and mani- 
 festations could not be suppressed or transcended by any 
 legal or artificial devices, nor by any manipulation of 
 social arrangements. The troubles that confronted us 
 were generated, not by our general system or prescribed 
 industrial polity ; they were the spontaneous outcome of 
 human nature itself, in its then existing stage of devel- 
 opment, under the then existing circumstances amid which 
 it was placed. There were so many interests to be 
 guarded and conserved, so many wheels of activity to 
 be kept in motion, all liable to more or less friction in 
 some of their bearings, that abrasion, inharmony, and 
 consequent difficulty, were sooner or later inevitable. 
 Temptations from within one's own breast or from the 
 prevailing social status round about us were likely to 
 cause one to swerve, perhaps unintentionally and uncon- 
 sciously, from that straight unwavering line of duty to 
 which we had each and all of us pledged steadfast and 
 unfaltering allegiance. Persons favored with the privilege 
 of conducting business on their own account and entrusted 
 with facilities for doing so were easily led to adopt the 
 questionable customs of the outside world, seek profitable 
 jobs without regard to their moral quality, employ objec- 
 tionable help, and turn out defective work ; or indulge in 
 sharp practices with their brethren and employes. Com- 
 
184 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 munity managers were sometimes thought to require too 
 much of their subordinates or to be too domineering and 
 ungracious towards them. Members and probationers were 
 admitted to our fellowship from unworthy motives 
 motives other than devotion to our test principles, love 
 for the cause we had espoused, and a desire to attain a 
 better life for themselves and for all mankind. Moreover, 
 our lack of money to carry on business successfully, to 
 meet our obligations promptly, to relieve the burden of 
 debt we had injudiciously incurred, to introduce new and 
 promising industries, and to purchase desirable lands 
 offered us on the outskirts of our domain, was a cause 
 of embarrassment, sometimes of irritation and ill feeling. 
 These and other matters not needful to mention furnished 
 occasion for frequent comment, criticism, long-drawn-out 
 discussions, dissatisfactions, and even for withdrawals 
 from our membership. There were connected with them 
 no open and flagrant wrongs to be rebuked and con- 
 demned, very few small ones, and scarcely any that could 
 be regarded as intentional and reprehensible. In most 
 cases a little reasonable consideration, forbearance, and 
 patience would have obviated all difficulty and healed 
 every breach of confidence and good feeling. A careful 
 and conscientious personal application and use of our test 
 principles would have smoothed many a rough place in 
 our Communiiy experience and carried us safely and 
 happily over many a turbulent and distressful tide. It 
 was largely for the purpose of promoting such an appli- 
 cation and use of our test principles and to secure a 
 greater self-control and a greater equipoise of character 
 that the Community voted, Oct. 28, 1848, to "hold 
 monthly meetings hereafter for Christian discipline and 
 improvement." Unlike our regular gatherings for purposes 
 of public worship on Sunday, or our Thursday evening 
 conferences, these monthly convocations were designed to 
 consider and take action upon such instances of more Or 
 
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CULTURE. 185 
 
 less reprehensible conduct on the part of members as 
 might have been made public, to correct existing abuses, 
 to allay strife and bitterness, to reconcile alienated feel- 
 ing, to restore harmony when broken or disturbed, and to 
 apply the proper remedy to all known offences and mis- 
 demeanors ; and also to talk over in an informal, friendly, 
 and confidential way whatever was calculated to help 
 repress and hold in check the lower tendencies of human 
 nature, overcome bad habits, resist temptation, stimulate 
 the better nature, and develop in all our souls the graces 
 and powers of the Christian character and life. They 
 were to be fraternal tribunals for obtaining judgment 
 upon overt acts of folly and wrong, and at the same time 
 schools for mutual discipline and culture in the things 
 that pertain to the kingdom of God. 
 
 It w r as in the year 1848 that a Steward was elected 
 for the first time, whose duty it was to provide for the 
 proper accommodation and orderly convenience of our 
 regularly established public meetings, and for all gather- 
 ings of a distinctively moral, religious, or philanthropic 
 character. And to bring out whatever latent talent there 
 might be among us, and especially if it was associated 
 with religious conviction and aspiration, it was at the 
 same time voted "that all members of this Community 
 who feel it a privilege or a duty to deliver original or 
 selected discourses in our Chapel on the first day of the 
 week be invited to do so at their convenience, communi- 
 cating a notice of their wishes to the Steward in season 
 to have announcement of the same made two weeks in 
 advance." This action resulted in securing a considerable 
 amount of lay preaching to supplement and reinforce 
 that of the regular ministry, as long as the Community 
 continued to exist. It was also voted "that regular 
 discourses, original or selected, not exceeding ordinarily 
 thirty minutes in length, be delivered morning and after- 
 noon every first day of the week" and that " all the mem- 
 
186 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 bers and dependants of the Community young and old not 
 prevented by indispensable duties or otherwise justifiably 
 excused ought to attend our religious meetings " regularly. 
 
 In order to secure systematic and effective methods of 
 operation in the department of Religion, Morals, and 
 Missions at home and abroad, and for the purpose of 
 establishing a body to which young men and others sym- 
 pathizing with our distinctive form of Christian faith and 
 duty and desiring to become teachers and promulgators 
 of its ideas, principles, and requirements, could attach 
 themselves by appropriate formalities and so be legiti- 
 mately inducted into the work of preaching the Gospel, 
 our already ordained clergymen early this year formed an 
 Association to be called TJie Practical Christian Ministry. 
 Their position as religious, moral, and philanthropic prop- 
 agandists was clearly set forth in the Preamble of a 
 Constitution under which they organized for active service 
 in their chosen field of labor, as follows : 
 
 " In establishing this Ministry we assume no spiritual suprem- 
 acy, exclusive dignity or ecclesiastical authority whatsoever over 
 others; disclaiming all right of forbidding them to teach or 
 obliging them to hear us; and asking no other countenance 
 in the prosecution of our mission than such as the reason and 
 conscience of kindred minds shall freely accord. Nor in enter- 
 ing this Association and declaring our present convictions of 
 truth, duty, and expediency, do we foreclose future progress 
 or merge individual responsibility in the organization or make 
 secession from us a sin." 
 
 The instrument then proceeds to state in detail the 
 essential beliefs or doctrines which the Ministry was 
 intended to represent and proclaim, its primary objects, 
 its leading measures, and its order of membership, organ- 
 ization, and internal discipline. It also provided that 
 a General Convention of the body should be held once a 
 year during the week next proceeding the Autumnal Equi- 
 nox and that its officers should be a General Directory,, 
 
' 
 
 PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 187 
 
 to consist of at least three persons, a Secretary, Treas- 
 urer, and such others as might from time to time be 
 deemed necessary. At its original organization Adin Bal- 
 lon, Win. H. Fish, and Daniel S. Whitney were chosen as 
 the Directory ; Win. H. Fish as Secretary ; and Adin 
 Ballon as Treasurer and General Agent. 
 
 Among the primal duties and paramount objects of 
 this Ministry, next to that of promulgating the essential 
 truths and insisting upon the practical exemplification of 
 the absolute duties taught by Jesus Christ, was that of 
 uniting in one general Practical Christian Communion all 
 those in the community at large who should heartily 
 embrace and be ready to make open confession of those 
 truths and duties. In the practical development of thi& 
 scheme, those members of the general Communion dwell- 
 ing in any given town or neighborhood, and hence in 
 convenient nearness to each other, formed a subordinate 
 branch of the main body, called an Inductive Communion 
 which was designated by the name of the locality where 
 it existed. The Inductive Communion was a sort of 
 primary school of personal religious culture and of Prac- 
 tical Christian Sociology, in which the several members 
 formally enrolled expressed a desire to place themselves- 
 under social religious influences calculated to enlighten 
 their minds, quicken their consciences, regenerate their 
 hearts, and conform their moral characters to the divine 
 requirements. They also accepted the statement of faith 
 and duty embodied in the "Declaration" of the original 
 Practical Christian Communion organized Jan. 27, 1841, 
 (see page 28) with the following definite pledge appended,, 
 to wit : 
 
 "And, trusting that the work of spiritual regeneration has 
 effectually commenced in my heart by the exercise of sincere 
 repentance toward God and faith in his Son, Jesus Christ,. 
 I will earnestly endeavor to lead a true life according to the 
 foregoing acknowledgement of duty; to walk in unity with all 
 
188 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 my fellow disciples of this Communion wherever I may have 
 intercourse with them; to contribute liberally of my temporal 
 goods toward the prevention of poverty, ignorance, and vice, 
 and for the dissemination of the principles and spirit of 
 Practical Christianity; and to co-operate cordially in establish- 
 ing local Practical Christian Communities so constituted as to 
 harmonize the interests and obligations of the members with- 
 out destroying their proper individual freedom, enterprise, and 
 responsibility." 
 
 Several organizations were formed under this general 
 plan and entered at once upon the specific lines of 
 activity respectively belonging to them. They flourished 
 for several years or until the fatal collapse of the Com- 
 munity itself in 1856, and indeed for some time after- 
 ward, and wrought an excellent and most beneficent work, 
 both within our own borders and throughout a wide extent 
 of territory in the world outside, in behalf of a purer 
 form of Christian doctrine and a grander type of a 
 Christian life, personal and social, than had ever been 
 proclaimed among men since the days of the great Teacher 
 himself. 
 
 The Practical Christian Ministry, taking the place of 
 the Intendant of Religion, Morals, and Missions, had 
 charge of the various meetings and appliances established 
 and employed at home for the quickening and nurture of 
 the moral and spiritual energies of all classes of our 
 population, while frequent and sometimes widely extended 
 -excursions abroad in the interest of the principles and 
 -cause for which it stood distinctively and of universal 
 Reform, were planned and consummated under its general 
 supervision. Our system of Quarterly Conferences passed 
 into the hands of the General Communion, and was main- 
 tained with no falling away of numbers, of interest, and 
 of enthusiasm. The convocations held under its auspices 
 as aforetime were seasons of refreshing and of a renewed 
 life to those attending them and to the communities 
 where they were held; the preaching, the exhortation, 
 
EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING. 189> 
 
 the singing all the exercises being " not "with enticing 
 words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the 
 Spirit and of power; That our faith should not stand in 
 the wisdom of men but in the power of God." The 
 Inductive Communions which were instituted wrought effec- 
 tually among young people, inquirers, novitiates, and 
 sympathizing friends, in the way of indoctrinating them 
 in the things of the divine kingdom and of qualifying 
 them for efficient service in the work of building up that 
 kingdom on the earth. The design of all these associations 
 was highly useful and commendable, and their organic 
 mechanism in our comprehensive scheme of human regen- 
 eration was well fitted to carry that design out to a full 
 accomplishment. They only lacked the men and the means 
 adequate to that humane and sublime result a lack 
 which a wiser and better future in the providence of God 
 will no doubt supply. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting of the Community held Jan. 
 10, 1849, it appeared from the Financial Report of the 
 Board of Trustees that the industrial operations for the 
 year ending Dec. 31, 1848, had been fairly successful, 
 furnishing no occasion on that score for lamentation or 
 regret no occasion to doubt that under wise and pru- 
 dent management we were in the way of acquiring a 
 well-earned and assured material success; indeed we had 
 already acquired such a success, notwithstanding all the 
 hindrances and drawbacks we had encountered. To be 
 sure, the figures of the report as it was first presented 
 did not give a sufficient balance of receipts over expen- 
 ditures to enable us to pay our Joint-Stock capital the 
 stipulated interest of four per cent. But no account had 
 been taken of the considerable increase in value of our 
 real estate by reason of the improvements made thereon, 
 and when this had been duly estimated an act that was 
 justified by a sound financial policy and the facts in the 
 
190 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 -case the deficit was cancelled and the prescribed divi- 
 dend was declared. The Community officials for the 
 ensuing year were : ADIN BALLOU, President ; LEMUEL 
 MUNYAN, Recorder ; ADIN BALLOU, EBENEZER D. DRAPER, 
 HORATIO EDSON, ALMON THWING, and WILLIAM W. COOK, 
 Trustees; ADIN BALLOU, CLEMENT O. REED, and EDMUND 
 SOWARD, Board of Education; ASAPH G. SPALDING, Stew- 
 ard. 
 
 At an adjourned meeting held the second Wednesday 
 in February it was " voted, that the order, prosperity and 
 good faith of the Community demand that the rule adopted 
 last year requiring monthly settlements be strictly adhered 
 to in all business transactions." Also, "that the Trus- 
 tees be requested to make arrangements for the regular 
 transportation of the mail, and that letters and papers be 
 taxed to pay the expense thereby incurred." The nearest 
 U. S. Post Office was in the village of Milford, a mile 
 and a half distant, and the plan hitherto adopted for the 
 transmission of our mail matter to and fro having become 
 inadequate and unsatisfactory it was deemed advisable 
 to institute measures that would insure a more regular, 
 definite, and acceptable administration of this department 
 of the public service. A fixed Post Office pursuant 
 to the foregoing vote was established, a Post Master 
 appointed, and this important interest was thereafter 
 cared for in a business-like way, though of course at the 
 expense of those conveuieuced thereby, as before indi- 
 cated. 
 
 In order to supplement the amount of money received 
 from the town and other sources for educational purposes 
 and extend the length of our school, as well as to supply it 
 with greatly needed apparatus, the Trustees were instructed 
 "to levy a tax of one and one-half per cent, instead of one 
 per cent, as heretofore, upon the net income of members 
 and probationers, to be expended under the direction and 
 according to the best judgment of the Board of Education." 
 
COMMUNITY LYCEUM. 191 
 
 Steps were also taken at this time which shortly after 
 resulted in the establishment of a Community Lyceum, an 
 institution that continued in active operation many years and 
 proved to be an efficient and highly creditable educational 
 force among all classes of our population. It was carried 
 on under the auspices of the Community and by direction 
 of the Board of Education, though it had its own inde- 
 pendent organization, electing its own officers, and man- 
 aging, within proper limits, its own distinctive affairs. 
 The Board was authorized to furnish it with accommoda- 
 tions and facilities for carrying on its legitimate work, 
 expending money in its behalf, if their judgment so 
 dictated ; but they were to see that it performed its 
 legitimate functions, maintained a wholesome discipline, 
 and so conducted its activities as to promote the real 
 progress of its members in useful knowledge. Its meet- 
 ings were held once a month from the first of April to 
 the first of October, and once a week during the remain- 
 der of the year, the exercises of which were many and 
 various, consisting of Lectures, Debates, Compositions, 
 Readings, Recitations of Classes pursuing different branches 
 of study, etc., interspersed with vocal and instrumental 
 music. This institution was maintained for many years 
 among us, received the encouragement and support of 
 most of our people, and proved of great value as a 
 means and stimulant of intellectual training and culture. 
 As a matter of permanent public policy and for the 
 purpose of beautifying and rendering attractive our young 
 and growing village, a Resolve was passed Feb. 20, 1849, 
 requiring the owners of house-lots therein to set out and 
 properly care for either forest or fruit trees along that 
 portion of the street upon which their several estates 
 respectively fronted. The same rule was observed by 
 those having in charge lots belonging to the Community 
 itself. As a result of this' action our village in a few 
 years became a gem among the rural boroughs of the 
 
192 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, its streets, well-graded 
 avenues overarched with the outstretching branches of 
 thickly planted maples, elms, etc., on either hand; its 
 dwellings, embowered in the abundant foliage amid which 
 they stood and thickly engirdled with shrubbery and 
 flowers of multiform kind and coloring. The passing 
 years lying between then and now, with the continued 
 growth, culture, and improvement that have been going 
 on, have only argumented and heightened the prevailing 
 loveliness and fascination of the scene. 
 
 In the interest of morality, good manners and the 
 truest culture it was enacted on 8th day of April 4 that 
 the parents of children and those who have children from 
 abroad residing in their families be required to see that 
 those under their care refrain from all profanity, from all 
 vulgarities in word or action, and from all obscene utter- 
 ances or writings ; that in their recreations they indulge 
 in no habits of injuring, annoying or vexing their play- 
 mates ; that they never leave the Community domain 
 without the consent of their parents or guardians ; that 
 they retire from their sports to their respective homes by 
 8 o'clock P. M. " Parents and guardians were also enjoined 
 4 ' to have a watchful care over their children during hours 
 of meeting both in and around the house where it is 
 held, and to see that their conduct is such as becomes 
 the place and occasion, such at all times as will reflect 
 honor upon themselves and the Community." 
 
 About this time incipient measures ripening into an 
 early fulfilment were instituted for the formation of what 
 was at first termed an Industrial Army, afterwards changed 
 to Industrial Union, the nature and purpose of which may 
 be understood by presenting a copy of the more important 
 portions of the Enactment establishing the same, which 
 reads as follows : 
 
 "SECTION 1. In order to promote the cheerful prosecution 
 of public improvements and a generous assistance of persons 
 
HOPEDALE INDUSTRIAL ARMY. 193 
 
 needing occasional aid, all the members, probationers, and 
 dependants of this Community capable of useful service, are 
 hereby constituted a co-operative body to be called The Hope- 
 dale Industrial Army. 
 
 " SEC. 2. This Industrial Army shall be organized in two " 
 general Departments: a Male and Female Department. Each 
 Department shall have power to determine and adjust its own 
 roll of members, form such divisions, elect such officers^ and 
 establish such rules as may from time to time be deemed pro- 
 motive of its orderly, energetic, harmonious and successful 
 operation 
 
 "SEC. 3. Whenever the Male Department of this Army 
 shall make requisition for the use of any working vehicles, 
 teams, implements, or alien employees of the Community, such 
 requisition shall be promptly complied with ; provided, always, 
 that at least three days' notice shall be given to the superin- 
 tendent or manager in charge of such vehicles, etc.; and pro- 
 vided also that no serious detriment shall be done to the 
 Community property by insisting on such requisition." 
 
 The agency thus created and empowered came to be of 
 great service in developing plans promotive of the public 
 welfare and in carrying into effect the stated or implied 
 pledges of the Constitution. Its Female Department found 
 much to do iu caring for and helping individuals and 
 families that, by reason of sickness, misfortune, or other- 
 wise, were brought into circumstances of dependence and 
 need, thus obviating the necessity in numerous cases of 
 presenting demands upon the common treasury for means 
 of relief or in any way making public the exigencies to 
 which improvidence or adversity or injustice may have 
 brought those who silently or openly appealed to our sym- 
 pathy and friendliness for aid. While the Male Depart- 
 ment was even more busy in projecting and executing 
 improvements of one sort or another calculated to con- 
 tribute to the convenience, comfort, pleasure, and happiness 
 of all classes of our people. By this instrumentality most 
 of our sidewalks were originally laid, numerous rough 
 places about the village made smooth, and ugly features 
 
 13 
 
194 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 of the landscape removed. Many trees on public grounds 
 and in the streets were planted, and betterments multi- 
 plied on every hand. The most notable achievement of 
 this arm of the public service was the laying out, grad- 
 ing, terracing, and adorning with trees and shrubbery, of 
 Community Square, making it in most respects suitable 
 and ready for the building of the then proposed house of 
 worsliip upon it in 1860, some years afterward. 
 
 During the year now under review considerable addition 
 was made to the Community Domain by the purchase of 
 divers lauds contiguous to our previous estate, amounting 
 in the aggregate to about 130 acres, thus increasing our 
 territorial possessions to more than 500 acres. The largest 
 and by far the most important of these additions was 
 that of the so-called "South Cook farm," containing with 
 its outlying wood-lots some 65 acres. This lay directly 
 south of our before acquired landed property, on the 
 opposite side of the Meudon and Milford road, and was 
 divided by the highway leading to South Milford, Belling- 
 ham, etc., and hence conveniently located for agricultural 
 and horticultural purposes, to which it was admirably 
 adapted by the nature of the soil and by careful hus- 
 bandry in later years. We were now sole masters by 
 legal title deeds of our little Mill River and nearly all 
 the territory skirting it on both sides for about a mile 
 in length, north and south, snugly ensconced between 
 Magomiscock Hill in Milford on the east and Neck Hill 
 along the border of Meudon on the west ; as pleasant a 
 location as could be reasonably desired for the purposes 
 to which it was consecrated by us. 
 
 Another measure of public utility and of private thrift 
 devised and put into practical operation this year was 
 that comprised in an Enactment constituting the Commu- 
 nity Treasury a Savings Bank "in which all persons 
 residing on the general domain may deposit such parts 
 of their earnings and income as they can conveniently 
 
HOPEDALE HYMN BOOK. 195 
 
 lay aside for future use," subject to certain prescribed 
 conditions and regulations, with a promised interest of 
 four per cent, per annum. This was a wise and justly 
 appreciated expedient, the beneficent results of which were 
 equally apparent proportionally as are those of similar 
 institutions in the financial economy of the world at 
 large. 
 
 About the first of June there was issued from the 
 Hopedale press a small volume of 224 pages, entitled 
 "Tlie Hopedale Collection of Hymns and Songs for the use 
 of Practical Christians." It was compiled by myself and 
 contained 316 devotional, moral, philanthropic, and reform- 
 atory pieces suitable for musical expression, arranged under 
 eighteen different heads, and well adapted to further the 
 great ends we were seeking to secure, and to fill an 
 important place on all occasions of public convocation 
 and in the more private circles of Christian nurture, 
 instruction, and worship. The contents were mostly selec- 
 tions from the Hymnals and Psalmodies commonly used 
 in the various branches of the Christian Church, though 
 about fifty of them were written by different members of 
 the Community, usually for some special occasion or to 
 serve some special purpose. Some twenty of these were 
 from my own pen and about a dozen each from the pens 
 of Srs. Abby H. Price and Mary J. Colburn ; the remain- 
 ing six or eight coming from still other persons in our 
 fellowship. Though urging no claims in their behalf to 
 popular favor, on the ground of either poetical or literary 
 merit, I yet deem it proper and fitting to put on record 
 in these pages a few of these original productions, as 
 illustrative of the spirit in which the work at Hopedale 
 was carried on and of the means employed to nourish the 
 better life in our own and each others souls, and to stim- 
 ulate ourselves and others to a faithful discharge of the 
 duties and obligations set forth and enjoined in the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ. I present them as they stand 
 
196 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 in the volume from which they are taken, the number 
 in the collection, the meter, and name of the author 
 being prefixed. 
 
 "123. C. M. Adin Ballou. 
 
 " O Lord, our scanty faith we mourn, 
 
 So languid weak and dim; 
 We scarce perceive the heavenly bourn, 
 And faint in every limb. 
 
 " Far down thy holy mountain side, 
 
 With Alps on Alps above, 
 Vast distances our tents divide 
 From thy bright throne of love. 
 
 " How can we climb those rugged heights 
 
 And gain those sinless skies, 
 Till grace our dormant will excites 
 To grasp th' immortal prize. 
 
 " Rend off, O Lord, this sensual shroud 
 
 That binds the torpid soul; 
 By faith eternal things uncloud 
 And speed us to our goal. 
 
 "Then shall our darkness turn to light, 
 
 Our rough ascent grow smooth, 
 And tottering weakness clothed with might 
 At length triumphant prove." 
 
 "157. P. M. A. Ballou. 
 
 "God shall be all in all 
 
 And then shall marshalled warriors 
 
 No more upon the plain 
 
 Renew their battle fury 
 
 To multiply the slain; 
 
 Then shall the peaceful era 
 
 By Zion's bards foretold, 
 
 With all its promised glory, 
 
 The ransomed world enfold. 
 "God shall be all in all 
 
 And then the horrid slaver 
 
 Shall cross the waves no more, 
 
 Defenceless men to ravish 
 
 From Afric's injured shore; 
 
ORIGINAL HYMNS. 197 
 
 And all the sable millions, 
 In bondage held abroad, 
 Present a grateful tribute 
 To their redeeming God. 
 
 "God shall be all in all 
 
 The church long torn with faction 
 Will lay each quarrel by, 
 And all her jealous watchmen 
 See clearly eye to eye; 
 Attired in bridal garments 
 She'll take her Lord's right hand, 
 And, free from spot or wrinkle, 
 Fulfil his high command. 
 
 "God shall be all in all 
 
 And then shall dark rebellion 
 Against his holy throne 
 Be hushed in endless silence 
 Where'er his name is known; 
 The ail-prevailing Victor 
 Will make an end of sins, 
 And only yield the scepter 
 When perfect love begins." 
 
 "212. P. M. 0. Johnson. 
 
 "The bondmen are free in the isles of the main, 
 The chains from their limbs they are flinging; 
 They stand up as men never tyrants again 
 Their God-given rights in proud scorn shall profane 
 
 It is Liberty's song they are singing. 
 Hark, loud swells their strain o'er the foaming sea, 
 'Freedom! holy freedom! freedom, our joy is in thee.' 
 
 "That shout of the freed-men bursts sweet on our ears; 
 
 Their hymn full of joy hear it swelling; 
 Their hearts throb with pleasure, their eyes fill with tears 
 As ends the hard bondage of many long years; 
 
 Now exulant with pride they are telling, 
 * Free, free are we from the slave's hard yoke, 
 Freemen, faithful freemen freemen, our fetters are broke.' 
 
198 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "Now praise to Jehovah, the might of his love 
 
 At length o'er the foe is prevailing. 
 His truth was the weapon and by it we strove 
 In the light of his spirit sent down from above 
 
 Of his truth and his love never failing. 
 Thanks, thanks unto God! now the slave is free; 
 Freedom ! holy freedom ! Father, our thanks are to thee. 
 
 "O ye who are blest with fair Liberty's light, 
 
 With courage and hope all abounding, 
 With weapons of love be ye bold for the right; 
 By the preaching of truth put oppression to flight; 
 
 Then, your altars triumphant resounding, 
 Loud, loud let the anthem of joy ring out; 
 * Freedom ! holy freedom ! ' let all the world hear the shout."" 
 
 " 254. P. M. Mary J. Colburn. 
 
 "Onward, though the world's impeding. 
 Onward, every foe unheeding, 
 Jesus now the cause is leading 
 
 He will be our guide; 
 In his strength we'll conquer, 
 In his strength we'll conquer, 
 In his strength we'll conquer, 
 
 For his truth is on our side. 
 
 "Not with earth's proud armor shielding, 
 Not with carnal weapons wielding, 
 These to mightier ones are yielding, 
 
 Furnished from above; 
 And we'll surely conquer, 
 
 For our sword is truth and love. 
 
 " See the man of noble daring, 
 Earth's proud laurels richly wearing, 
 Leaving all and meekly sharing 
 
 In this work of peace; 
 Love will surely conquer, 
 
 And all hate and war shall cease. 
 
 "Yes this earth though stained and gory, 
 Filled with scenes of woe her story, 
 Shall arise to former glory 
 
 And God's light shall see; 
 Light will surely conquer, 
 
 Earth will have a Jubilee." 
 
INDUSTRIAL REACTION. 199 
 
 "262. 10's M. AbbyH. Price. 
 
 " O thou blest Comforter ! pure Spirit, hear ! 
 Bend we thy shrine before, trembling with fear; 
 Hate like a shadow dark clouds all below, 
 Love floats her shining bark o'er waves of woe. 
 
 "Spirit of Holy Power! give us thy light; 
 And in the trial-hour guide through the night; 
 Gird us with strength and will, mighty to save, 
 Striving with error still, valiant and brave. 
 
 "Keenly oppression's pain pierceth the weak; 
 Help us the galling chains quickly to break; 
 Earth's bitter founts of woe soon may we close, 
 Making this world below bloom as the rose. 
 
 " Give thou thy Spirit free, Savior and Lord ! 
 Peace, love, and liberty follow thy word; 
 While as a brother-band onward we move, 
 Joy shall fill all the land gilded with love ! " 
 
 The perplexities and disadvantages arising from the 
 great diversity of interests represented in the management 
 of business as it was carried on among us, causing more 
 or less friction between the several branches and the 
 different parties to whom they had been sold outright or 
 rented for a definite period, became so apparent towards 
 the close of the year and provoked so much criticism, 
 that, on the 28th of December, it was resolved that "it 
 is highly desirable that all kinds of business dependent 
 on Community facilities should as soon as practicable be 
 placed under Community management, and the Board of 
 Trustees are hereby instructed to govern themselves accord- 
 ingly." It was exceeding difficult to find the exact mean 
 between too much and too little individual control in the 
 conduct of our leading industries, which would prove 
 pecuniarily advantageous to both the Community and the 
 employes, and whatever policy was at any time adopted, 
 despite all the reason, the persuasion, the diplomacy we 
 could bring to bear upon the matter, was likely to offend 
 
200 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 the judgment, the taste, the idiosyncrasy, or perhaps the 
 selfishness of some of the brethren and cause disaffection 
 and loss of members. But this could not by any possi- 
 bility be avoided, and we who were thoroughly and wholly 
 committed to the cause of Social Reconstruction were 
 obliged to submit with the best grace we could, though 
 often to our great regret and sorrow. All this was illus- 
 trated in the case just spoken of, as will soon appear. 
 
 Another cause of trouble and anxiety was brought to 
 notice about this time, requiring thoughtful consideration 
 and decisive action on the part of the Community^ The 
 gradual multiplication and enlargement of our industrial 
 activities on the farm, in the gardens, and in the shops, 
 made it necessary to increase the number of workmen, 
 who were often employed with too little regard to their 
 moral character and the influence that they might exert 
 upon our children and youth and even upon some of our 
 adult population. It was found that in this way mischief 
 was being done among us and that some of our most 
 sacred interests were likely to suffer serious detriment 
 unless a more careful and discriminating course was 
 pursued in the matter. Whereupon, after due delibera- 
 tion, the Community on the date last named 
 
 "Resolved, (1) That the protracted residence on the Commu- 
 nity domain of persons who are not sympathetically interested 
 in our objects, principles, and social order has a demoralizing 
 tendency and ought not to be encouraged. 
 
 "Resolved, (2) That from and after the first day of April next 
 no person, besides members, probationers, dependents, visiting 
 friends, medical patients, nurses, or tenants holding under a 
 contract prior to this date, shall be employed, boarded or har- 
 bored on the Community territory for a longer term of time 
 than one month, unless by special vote of the Community. 
 
 "Resolved, (3) That the Recorder be instructed to open and 
 keep a Book of Record with appropriate designations in which 
 the names of all probationers and dependents (including all 
 employes, whether engaged by the Community or individuals) 
 
NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 201 
 
 of this Community shall be duly entered, either by their own 
 orders or those of their responsible friends, and also a minute 
 of their discharge and the date when they ceased to sustain 
 such relation." 
 
 Other less important resolves of the same nature aim- 
 ing at the purification, homogeneity, harmony, and proper 
 moral status of life within our borders were passed at 
 the same meeting. We learned by repeated experience 
 that in the new social order as in the old, ''eternal 
 vigilance is the price of liberty," especially of that " liberty 
 wherewith Christ maketh free." 
 
 At the annual meeting held Jan. 9, 1850, the regular 
 routine of business was followed with promptness and 
 dispatch. Various reports of officers and special com- 
 mittees were read and accepted as conclusive and satis- 
 factory. That of the Treasurer in behalf, of the Board of 
 Trustees represented our industrial affairs as in a health- 
 ful and promising condition, justifying existing methods 
 of operation and inspiring confidence in the financial 
 success of the movement. The old President, ADIN BAL- 
 LOU, was re-elected, and ADIN BALLOU, E. D. DRAPER, 
 and WM. H. HUMPHREY were chosen Trustees; WM. S. 
 HEYWOOD was made Recorder; WM. H. FISH, C. O. REED, 
 and EDMUND SOWARD constituted the new Boardr of Educa- 
 tion; while A. G. SPALDING became Steward for another 
 year. A Relief Committee was determined upon as a 
 needed supplement to the pre-existing corps of official 
 servants, and ADIN BALLOU, BUTLER WILMARTH, ALMIRA 
 B. HUMPHREY, and ANNA. T. DRAPER were elected to that 
 position. At an adjourned meeting it was deemed advis- 
 able to have a Standing Community Auditor, * ' whose 
 duty it should be to make frequent examination of the 
 accounts of all branches of business carried on under 
 Community auspices, keep himself informed concerning 
 their actual and prospective condition, and once in three 
 months report in detail to the Board of Trustees." Lem- 
 uel Munyan was chosen to the office. 
 
202 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 In view of the increasing number of residents on our 
 Community domain as members, probationers, family 
 dependents, hired workmen, household servants, etc., and 
 therewith the increasing liability to the introduction among 
 us of some of the prevailing evils of ordinary human 
 society, whereby our children and youth would be con- 
 taminated, private and public virtue and happiness under- 
 minded, and our whole movement imperilled, it was about 
 this time deemed advisable to established a new Board 
 of officials, which should act as a kind of moral police 
 and judiciary in our social and civil economy. This was 
 accordingly done, the name of this Board being " The 
 Council of Religion, Conciliation, and Justice." It was 
 the prescribed duty of the Council to examine all appli- 
 cants for membership and probationship in our body and 
 approve or disapprove them as they were deemed worthy 
 or unworthy, to recommend persons as permitted residents 
 on our territory, to maintain a scrupulous watchfulness 
 over the morals and manners of our entire population, to 
 apply proper restraints and correctives of existing wrongs 
 and misdemeanors, to hear and pass judgment upon 
 charges of ill-conduct of any sort, to arbitrate in cases 
 of controversy or serious disagreement, and in a general 
 way to exercise fraternal supervision and authority in all 
 matters pertaining to the moral and religious status and 
 welfare of all classes and conditions of people within our 
 borders. This official Board was accustomed to hold 
 monthly meetings for the proper discharge of the duties 
 assigned to it, and proved to be, while the Community 
 had a name to live and a power to exercise the functions 
 of a self-governing institution, an efficient and most helpful 
 arm of the public service. Its first members were Butler 
 Wilmarth, Lemuel Munyan, Wm. S. Heywood, Anna T. 
 Draper, and Phila O. Wilmarth. 
 
 In consequence of the new managemental policy adopted 
 the preceeding autumn as outlined a few pages back and 
 
A MUCH REGRETTED WITHDRAWAL. 20S 
 
 the modifications consequent thereon, six of our much 
 esteemed and highly useful members withdrew from our 
 membership and ere long removed from the place. The 
 ground of their action was not loss of faith in the dis- 
 tinctive principles on which our movement was based a& 
 expressed in our "Declaration," nor in the Community 
 Idea as a solution of the great problem of Social Reform, 
 but, as one of them was pleased to phrase it, "too much 
 industrial consolidation, complexity and govemmeiitalism." 
 Among those parting company with us at this time was 
 Bro. Daniel S. Whitney, the third of my original minis- 
 terial colleagues, and one upon whom I had relied with 
 great confidence as a man of intelligence, sterling recti- 
 tude, and honor, and as a reliable, trustworthy, unfaltering 
 co-worker in the cause of Practical Christian Socialism. 
 This step on the part of Bro. Whitney was the occasion 
 of profound regret, disappointment, and grief, on my part 
 and on the part of all his fellow-laborers, towards whom 
 he professed to cherish only sentiments of respect and 
 affection, charging none with any unfaithfulness to prin- 
 ciple or duty as a reason for leaving them but ascribing 
 his act of retirement from Community membership to 
 "the industrial organization" which in his judgment was 
 productive of many evils and "cost more than it was 
 worth." Of the principles underlying the Hopedale move- 
 ment he said, "I most thankfully accept them as the 
 truth of God. They are alike needful in their spirit and 
 power to redeem mankind, individually and socially." 
 
 And yet while he could not remain with the Community 
 in which those principles were acknowledged and made, 
 according to his own confession, the supreme law, by 
 reason of some real or supposed defect in their applica- 
 tion and use, arising, not through any infidelity on the 
 part of his brethren but by error of judgment or lack of 
 insight into the bearing and tendency of things, which > 
 if it existed, they were most anxious to have remedied^ 
 
204 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Cither by his superior wisdom and virtue or in some other 
 way, while he could not conscientiously remain with us 
 under such circumstances, he could go back into existing 
 society, where, as he had often asserted, they were sys- 
 tematically and persistently set at defiance and openly 
 violated, engaging actively and without the least apparent 
 scruple in the support or administration of a government 
 whose fundamental law he had repeatedly declared to be 
 hostile to and subversive of the government of God 
 "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." 
 His Hopedale brethren, kindly disposed as they were 
 towards him, were hardly able to see the consistency, 
 wisdom, or moral perspicuity of this, but he seemingly 
 did, and acted accordingly. He continued much interested 
 in special reform questions, became a frequent participant 
 in local and general politics, was for a long time an 
 earnest member of the Republican party, though for 
 several of the last years of his life he affiliated as ally 
 and adviser with the political Prohibitionists or Third 
 Party men. He had the distinction of representing the 
 town of Boylston, where he located about a year after 
 leaving Hopedale, in the State constitutional convention 
 of 1853, gaining therein considerable notoriety and honor 
 for his manly and persistent advocacy of the claims 
 of woman to the free exercise of the right of suffrage. 
 Removing subsequently to Southborough, he was there a 
 highly esteemed citizen, and held for many years the office 
 of postmaster under the Republican supremacy at Wash- 
 ington. He died March 14, 1894, leaving a wife and two 
 daughters, all of whom still survive. 
 
 The Hopedale Water Cure Establishment. The method 
 of treating disease by a free and judicious use of pure 
 water accompanied by a greatly diminished resort to drugs 
 and medicines, usually termed Hydropathy, had a few 
 adherents among us at an early day. Our genial, cau- 
 tious, openminded, conscientious physician, Butler Wil- 
 
WATER CURE ESTABLISHMENT. 205 
 
 marth, M. D., a skillful, successful practitioner of the 
 Allopathic school, quite incredulous at first of the uew 
 system, was led to look carefully into its workings and 
 merits by witnessing the somewhat wonderful cure through 
 its agency of a little boy the four year old son of 
 Bro. Wm. H. Fish who had been stricken down with 
 a severe and alarming attack of scarlet fever. The result 
 of his investigation was a thorough conversion to and sub- 
 sequent championship of its claims at home and abroad 
 wherever his voice could be heard. Having become fully 
 convinced of the essential efficacy of water as a remedial 
 agent, and the antidotes and restoratives employed in 
 connection therewith, he very soon started the project of 
 founding an Infirmary at Hopedale for the accommodation 
 and treatment of patients, however afflicted, according to 
 the principles and requirements of the Hydropathic sys- 
 tem. The Community, to whose members he made an 
 appeal for approval and help as soon as his plans were 
 sufficiently mature, being favorably disposed towards the 
 undertaking, voted in April, 1850, "to appropriate $600.00* 
 to establish a Water Cure Infirmary, provided new Joint- 
 Stock can be obtained " for that purpose. The funds 
 were forthcoming and the large double house built by 
 Amos J. Cook and Edmund Price, which had come into 
 the possession of the Community, was remodeled and 
 fitted up for the purpose indicated during the ensuing 
 summer. In the month of September it was opened to 
 the public agreeably to the terms stated in the following 
 advertisement : 
 
 " This Establishment is situated in the pleasant and peace- 
 ful village of Hopedale (Milford), Mass., and is under the care 
 of Dr. Butler Wilmarth, who, with his wife, will devote their 
 constant attention and services to restore to health all who 
 place themselves under their care as patients. Terms: $4 to $5 
 per week (payment weekly) exclusive of washing. Extra privi- 
 
206 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 leges or attention will subject the patient to extra charges. 
 Patients will furnish the usual articles for treatment. 
 
 B. WlLMARTH, M. D. 
 
 Hopedale (Milford), Sept. 28, 1850. 
 
 This institution was something entirely new in this 
 part of the country, as was its mode of treatment for 
 the various ills which flesh is heir to, and hence failed 
 of sufficient patronage to render it pecuniarily successful. 
 It was therefore deemed expedient, after it had been open 
 a few months, to close it and restore the building to its 
 original uses. This decision was made with the entire 
 approval of Dr. Wilmarth who had received a somewhat 
 flattering offer to take charge of a similar establishment 
 at New Graefenburg, N. Y., which had already acquired 
 a good reputation and standing with the general public, 
 and to that place he removed with his family in the 
 spring of 1851, much to the regret of all of us, by whom 
 he was held in sincere esteem as a truly Christian man 
 and a physician of high degree. 
 
 Reconstruction of Land Titles. Early in the year now 
 under notice it began to be feared by some of our num- 
 ber that the manner of transferring house-lots and other 
 pieces of real estate in the Community was not altogether 
 legal and sufficiently guarded to insure the holders against 
 all possible future misunderstandings and complications. 
 It was therefore deemed advisable to refer the whole 
 matter to Ellis Gray Loriug, Esq., of Boston, one of the 
 most competent and experienced conveyancers in the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a good friend to 
 all humanitary undertakings. This was accordingly done, 
 and after a thorough investigation of the case in all its 
 bearings, he gave it as his opinion that there was good 
 reason for the growing disquietude in regard to it, and 
 that there should be an entire recasting of our method 
 of acquiring and transferring our lauded property and its 
 appurtenances. The titles by which I had come into 
 
RECONSTRUCTION OF LAND TITLES. 207 
 
 possession of the original Jones' farm were good beyond 
 all question, as were those by which I and others had 
 obtained additional territory by subsequent purchases. 
 There was no occasion for disturbing them or in any way 
 tampering with them. But all later action needed revi- 
 sion needed to be put upon a new and invulnerable 
 basis. He therefore recommended that the Community 
 choose five of its most reliable members to be known as 
 Trustees of Real Estate, who, in their official capacity, 
 should execute a Declaration of Trust setting forth their 
 distinctive powers and obligations in due and lawful 
 form, and have it recorded in the Registry of Deeds for 
 the county of Worcester. These Trustees were to be the 
 legally constituted and recognized financial Agents of the 
 Community in all real estate transactions. He also recom- 
 mended that all the members of the Community and others 
 concerned, whether nominal laud owners or not, give a 
 quit-claim deed conveying all their right, title, and interest 
 in and to real estate within the limits of the town of 
 Milford, to some disinterested person, who should at once 
 quit-claim back again whatever of said property was out- 
 side of the Community to its respective and proper owners, 
 and all the rest pertaining to the Community domain to 
 the aforesaid Trustees, as joint tenants and not as tenants 
 in common. These Trustees should then distribute to the 
 previous purchasers of house-lots and other real property, 
 the pieces belonging to them, by regular legal convey- 
 ances, as they should whatever pieces might be disposed 
 of by regular sale in time to come. In this way each 
 land owner would be made secure in his title to his 
 estate, beyond all doubt or peradventure. Before pre- 
 senting this plan of obviating the existing difficulty to 
 the Community, Mr. Loriug submitted it to the careful 
 examination and judgment of three other eminent convey- 
 ancers of Boston, who pronounced it adequate to the 
 exigencies to be provided for, and absolutely irrefragable. 
 
208 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 These recommendations were gladly accepted and meas- 
 ures were at once taken to have them carried into effect. 
 At a regular meeting of the Community, held May 1, 
 the Board of Real Estate Trustees was chosen, consisting 
 of ADIN BALLOU, E. D. DRAPER, WM. H. HUMPHREY, 
 BUTLER WILMARTH, and ALMON THWING, who entered 
 immediately upon the discharge of the duties assigned to 
 them, and on June 1 the required instruments had been 
 executed and transfers made and the entire real estate 
 possessions pertaining to the Community were lodged in 
 the hands of the legally constituted authorities, to be 
 distributed, disposed of, and controlled, as equity and 
 their best judgment might dictate. Thenceforward there 
 was no trouble or anxiety on that score. 
 
 The service done to the Community in this matter by 
 Mr. Loring was of great value and highly appreciated, 
 but he rendered it gratuitously, out of a sincere friend- 
 ship for us and our cause, refusing utterly the compensa- 
 tion we cheerfully proffered him. We could do no less 
 than vote him an expression of heartfelt gratitude. 
 
 The establishing of a Trusteeship for the proper holding 
 and management of real estate made it necessary for us 
 to amend or change our Constitution and By-Laws some- 
 what, in order to have them conform to the new system 
 and prevent all confusion and annoyance in respect to 
 names of official Boards, etc. The most essential of 
 these occurred in the third article of our fundamental 
 basis of organization which was so modified as to read 
 as follows : 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 " SEC. 1. The Legislative powers of this Community shall 
 be vested in the members thereof present and acting in regu- 
 lar Community meeting. The Executive powers not necessarily- 
 appertaining to the Trustees shall be vested in a President and 
 Directory. The Directory shall consist of at least three mem- 
 bers besides the President. The Judicial powers shall be 
 
SETTLEMENT WITH MR. BENNETT. 209 
 
 vested in such tribunals as the Community may from time to 
 time establish. 
 
 " SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the Directory to conduct 
 the prudential affairs, industrial operations and general inter- 
 ests of the Community in such a manner as to insure to every 
 member, probationer and dependent, adequate employment, 
 educational advantages and exemptions from the evils of pov- 
 erty, ignorance and vice, and also at the same time, if possi- 
 ble, to secure to the Stockholders their capital unimpaired, 
 with a clear annual profit thereon of four per cent." 
 
 Agreeably to the provisions of this Amendment the 
 following named persons were on the 13th of July elected 
 to serve in the official positions respectively indicated 
 until their successors should be chosen at the next Annual 
 Meeting in January, 1851, viz. : ADIN BALLOU, President; 
 E. D. DRAPER, W. H. HUMPHREY, ALMON THWING, Direc- 
 tors; E. D. DRAPER, Treasurer. 
 
 Under the new auspices and methods of administration 
 the Community became more homogeneous and consoli- 
 dated than ever before, was more admirably and efficiently 
 organized for the varied work it had in hand, and went 
 forward on its mission with more substantial assurance of 
 final success than had characterized any previous period 
 of its history. 
 
 Tlie Bennett Imbroglio Settled. One of the first acts of 
 the new administration was to bring the long pending 
 controversy with our neighbor, Nathaniel Bennett, already 
 mentioned, to a successful termination. Time and reflec- 
 tion had mollified his temper considerably and led him to 
 change his policy toward the Community. He had become 
 willing to sell the so-claimed injured laud to us, and to 
 sell it for a sum, including the then present value of the* 
 property and past damages, to be determined by a Board, 
 of three Referees mutually agreed upon by both parties,, 
 their decision to be accepted and submitted to as final 
 in the case. The Directory concurred in the proposition, 
 and united heartily with Mr. Bennett in securing the endi 
 14 
 
210 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 in view at the earliest practicable date. The Referees 
 were Henry Chapiu of Milford, Amariah Taft of Meudon, 
 and Wm. H. Gary of Medway. Pursuant to their award 
 of $272.67, rendered July 15, which included the 
 appraised value of four and a half acres of land, all 
 previous damages, and all possible future ones to adjoin- 
 ing property, we paid the sum named and received the 
 proper title deeds, and therewith exemption from any and 
 all contingent claims in time to come. The whole expense 
 to us, reckoning surveyor's fees, referees charges, and a 
 gratuity to Mrs. Bennett, was less than $280.00. The 
 conclusion of the matter was satisfactory to both parties 
 and was reached by a process much cheaper no doubt 
 for us, and probably for him, and better morally for all 
 concerned, than the world's stubborn, litigious method of 
 settling such controversies. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting of the Community, held Jan. 8, 
 1851, the opening exercises being concluded, the customary 
 required Reports were read and accepted. That of the 
 Treasurer, which was supplemented by statements from 
 the managers of the several branches of industry operated 
 -under Community direction, represented the financial affairs 
 of the body as in a fairly prosperous condition, although 
 the profits accruing from the business activities of the 
 previous year were not sufficient to enable the Directory 
 to pay to Joint-Stock the contingently stipulated dividend 
 of four per cent, due for the past two years. The indus- 
 trial and economical interests of the Community had been 
 well guarded and the several departments having them in 
 ^charge had worked harmoniously and efficiently, giving 
 promise of larger results and returns in the immediate 
 future. Good feeling prevailed and a hopeful spirit, 
 which were manifested by a cheerful readiness to adopt 
 measures for meeting all existing obligations and for 
 providing against possible deficits in years to come, as 
 will appear in the next chapter. 
 
OFFICIAL SERVANTS FOR 1851. 211 
 
 Officers elected at this meeting for the year 1851 were : 
 ADIN BALLOU, President; E. D. DRAPER, W. H. HUMPHREY, 
 A. THWING, D. B. CHAPMAN, Directors; E. D. DRAPER, 
 Treasurer; WM. S. HEYWOOD, Recorder; ADIN BALLOU, 
 WM. H. FISH, E. SOWARD, Board of Education; D. H. 
 CARTER, Steward; W. W. COOK, HENRY FISH, LUCY H. 
 BALLOU, B. WILMARTH, SYLVIA W. BANCROFT, Council; 
 EDMUND SOWARD, ALMIRA B. HUMPHREY, S. S. BROWN, 
 ABBIE J. SPALDING, Relief Committee. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1851-1853. 
 
 ICARIA NEW LEGISLATION EDUCATIONAL HOME 
 RETIREMENT OF A. BALLOU BEREAVE- 
 MENTS FREE LOVE. 
 
 TTTHEN it was made to appear by the Report of the 
 Treasurer presented at the meeting referred to on 
 the last two pages that the proceeds of the industrial 
 operations for the year just closed were insufficient to 
 pay the dividends then due on the Joint-Stock of the 
 Community, it seemed to be the spontaneous and earnest 
 feeling of the members convened that some measures 
 should be devised and adopted, not only for the liquida- 
 tion of obligations of that sort, but also for the prevention 
 of similar emergencies thereafter. In order to provide 
 for the immediate and prospective need in this regard 
 and secure speedy, and efficient action, our faithful and 
 generous brother, Ebenezer D. Draper, submitted a prop- 
 osition for the consideration of his associates, offering, 
 to contribute a certain percentage of what was then 
 required to enable the Community to fulfil its promise to 
 the stockholders, on condition that the remainder should 
 be furnished by others of the brethren and that provision 
 should be made whereby no such exigency could possibly 
 arise in the years ahead. The proposition was favorably 
 and gratefully received, and a committee was appointed 
 to give it careful and thorough consideration, and report 
 at a future meeting some plan by which the conditions- 
 
PLAN TO PREVENT FUTURE DEFICITS. 213 
 
 -specified could be met and the offered gift be rendered 
 available. 
 
 The Committee in due time reported, submitting and 
 recommending a plan deemed adequate to the accomplish- 
 ment of the end in view, which plan was freely discussed 
 and finally adopted. It was embodied in the following 
 resolutions, to wit : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Treasurer of the Hopedale Community 
 be instructed to assess 50 per cent, of the dividends due, on 
 the Joint-Stock owned by members and others resident on the 
 Community domain (the Stock of E. D. Draper, Matthew 
 Sutcliffe and Charles May excepted), and a sum not exceeding 
 8 per cent, of the whole on all wages paid under the opera- 
 tions of said Stock for the past year to members, probationers 
 and dependents, for the purpose of creating a fund to be 
 devoted to the payment of the dividends now due on Stock; 
 Provided that the Directory have power to make any abate- 
 ment on said assessment that in their judgment may appear 
 necessary and proper. 
 
 "Resolved, That the managers of the several branches of 
 industry in the Community be hereby instructed to enter into 
 such an agreement with the employes in their respective 
 departments as that, from and after the first day of January, 
 1851, 10 per cent, of all wages agreed upon shall be retained 
 in the hands of the Treasurer of the Community, for the 
 purpose of establishing a contingent fund from which to 
 liquidate any deficit that may exist in respect to the dividends 
 due on Joint-Stock at the end of the year; with the under- 
 standing that the said employes have the right to demand 
 whatever portion of the sum retained has not been used for 
 the purpose specified, and nothing more." 
 
 These resolutions having been made a part of the eco- 
 nomical policy of the Community, the Treasurer was then 
 instructed "to declare a dividend on Joint-Stock of four 
 per cent, per annum for the two years ending Dec. 31. 
 1850, payable in Stock or equivalent credits on account, 
 subject to the reductions and offsets prescribed in the 
 foregoing resolves." 
 
214 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 In order to secure unity of action on the part of the 
 several managers of business in respect to the carrying 
 into effect the newly established policy towards employes, 
 and gain the end sought with the least possible friction 
 or cause of complaint, it was at an adjourned meeting 
 ordered that they hold quarterly gatherings for mutual 
 conference and counsel touching the condition and pros- 
 pects of the particular branches of industry under their 
 charge and the general monetary affairs of the Commu- 
 nity. 
 
 It has already been indicated that we of the Hopedale 
 Community were sympathetically disposed towards all the 
 movements and enterprises of our day and time which 
 contemplated a radical transformation of the social rela- 
 tions of men a reconstruction of human society. Of 
 these there were many, of many a kind and name. With 
 some of them we were largely in agreement as to princi- 
 ples and methods, with others we were as largely in 
 disagreement, though our ends were avowedly the same. 
 Occasional correspondence was carried on between us and 
 them, an instance of which may properly be given here 
 as illustrative of the feeling of other workers in the same 
 field with ourselves, though on quite different lines, towards 
 us. It is in the form of a letter from M. Etienne Cabet, 
 an eminent French Communist, who, about two years 
 before it was written, with some three hundred others 
 men, women and children had taken up his abode upon 
 the vacated Morman estate at Nauvoo, Ills., and estab- 
 lished there a Community according to his own distinctive 
 ideal. The original was in the French language, a trans- 
 lation of which by Edmund Soward, one of our scholarly 
 members, reads as follows : 
 
 "Nauvoo, March 31, 1851. 
 "To our Friends at Hopedale: 
 
 " Dear Brethren : I have received the letter which you 
 wrote me last June; likewise your Constitution and the pam- 
 
THE ICARIAN COMMUNITY. 215 
 
 phlet accompanying it. I was desirous of answering it imme- 
 diately but was so overwhelmed with business that it was not 
 possible. 
 
 "I perceive with much satisfaction that the object of your 
 Community is the same as ours, though our methods may be 
 somewhat different; for you aim as we do at the improvement 
 of mankind. Therefore we extend to you the hand of brotherly 
 love and pray for your success. 
 
 "We publish an Icarian paper called the 'Popular Tribune,' 
 ten numbers of which have appeared and been sent to you. 
 The next number will contain the- sketch of your history, your 
 Declaration of Principles, forming the first article of your 
 Constitution, and your letter of June last. 
 
 "As soon as we get one of our works translated into English 
 we will send it to you. If you desire it, we will send you in 
 French our two principal works, * Travels in Icaria ' and * True 
 Christianity.' 
 
 " Accept, I pray you, my fraternal salutations. 
 
 " CABET." 
 
 Nearly a year before this letter came to hand the 
 author had written to Uro. A. G. Spalding acknowledging 
 the receipt of several numbers of our little paper and 
 giving some little account of himself and of his labors 
 in behalf of a new social state. Jn that communication 
 he says : 
 
 " I am a Communist. My doctrine is the same as that of 
 Christianity in its primitive purity. Our fundamental princi- 
 ple is, 'The Fraternity of man and of nations,' the essential 
 outcome of which is * Equality, Liberty, Unity.' Our society is 
 based upon Education and Labor, upon Marriage and the Family. 
 We admit fully the epitome of your doctrines. According to 
 our views, God, or the Supreme Being, or Nature, is Love, 
 Goodness, Kindness, Justice, etc. . . . 
 
 "We call our society 'The Icarian Community,' or 'Icaria.' 
 I have unfolded my system in a large work, entitled ' Travels 
 in Icaria,' written in London during an exile of five years, and 
 published in Paris in 1840. I have published forty other works 
 for the purpose of developing and maintaining my theories, and 
 a large volume, entitled ' True Christianity,' to prove that our 
 
216 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Communism is the same thing as Christianity at its origin. I 
 have published also a Journal under the name of ' Le Popu- 
 laire,' and a propagandism of ten years has procured me a 
 host of supporters in France and Europe. . . . 
 
 "We (at Xauvoo) are about 300 men, women, and children; 
 we expect many others in the autumn and we are told that a 
 very large number will follow later. . . . We live in com- 
 munity, having separate apartments, but eating, laboring, pro- 
 ducing together. We have among us workmen in the principal 
 branches of business, and lands that we cultivate. We have 
 purchased the remains of the Mormon temple and intend to 
 reconstruct it for the purpose of establishing in it our schools, 
 our assembly rooms and debating hall, a great refectory for a 
 thousand persons, and sleeping apartments. Our government 
 is radically republican, founded on Fraternity, Equality, and 
 Liberty." 
 
 M. Cabet was a man of eminent ability, of high char- 
 acter, and of a broad, generous, humanitarian spirit. 
 He made great sacrifices for the sake of his principles, 
 and gained a large following as an advocate of social 
 reform. His chief work, Travels in Icaria, passed through 
 five editions in about the same number of, years, and 
 exerted a widely extended influence among his fellow-coun- 
 trymen. He gathered about him persons of exemplary 
 habits and noble instincts, and the colony he established 
 at Nauvoo was noted for the high moral tone that pre- 
 vailed in it, and for the industry, purity, and honor of 
 its population. Nevertheless, differences of opinion in 
 regard to details of administration and matters of public 
 policy soon sprang up, which, fostered by persistent 
 discussion, at length produced such disaffection and 
 alienation of feeling as to embarrass, confuse, and work 
 injury to the whole undertaking, and finally cause its 
 dissolution. Cabet retired to St. Louis, Mo. where he 
 died in 1856, his disappointment, mortification, and grief 
 at the failure of his magnificent plans and ambitions, 
 hastening, it is said, the event. 
 
INDUSTRY, PURVEYANCE, AND TRADE. 217 
 
 During the year 1851 action was taken making the 
 Community an Insurance Company for the protection of 
 members, probationers, and others against loss or damage 
 by fire and other casualties, and somewhat stringent regu- 
 lations respecting the care of buildings and other property 
 liable to loss or damage, the use of inflammatory articles 
 and substances, the exercise of suitable precautions, etc., 
 were adopted. Provision was also made for the appoint- 
 ment of three Wardens who should have sole charge of 
 men and means employed to suppress any given confla- 
 gration or to rescue property at any time exposed to 
 calamitous destruction. And all persons present on such 
 occasions were admonished to yield cheerful and ready 
 obedience to these Wardens. 
 
 An ordinance was also passed u Respecting Industry, 
 Purveyance, and Trade," the purpose of which was "to 
 distribute, define, and intensify, the oversight of business ; 
 to encourage useful talent and skill ; to give every member 
 of the Community, if possible, an appropriate sphere of 
 enterprise ; to increase productive industry and income ; 
 to facilitate the necessary purveyance and exchange ; and 
 to establish a well-ordered system of trade." Under this 
 enactment regulations were adopted calculated to afford 
 every one so disposed and -competent, either by himself 
 or in company with others, an opportunity to set up and 
 carry on any industry or handicraft pleasing to him ; to 
 have all work in the several branches operated under 
 Community auspices done by the piece, the quantity, the 
 job, etc. ; to allow persons qualified to exercise greater 
 skill or responsibility than they were ordinarily doing, the 
 privilege of such exercise and furnish facilities therefor ; 
 thus developing in all craftsmen and employes whatever 
 latent capabilities they might possess and a deeper 
 sense of personal accountability, thereby contributing to 
 a more complete and self-respecting manhood and so to 
 the great ends for which the Community was founded. 
 
218 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 The regulations also provided for the establishment of 
 what was called 4 'The Hopedale Commercial Exchange," 
 which was to act as a sort of Commission and Clearing 
 House, for the distribution and sale of the various prod- 
 ucts of industry made ready for market on the Commu- 
 nity domain and for the supply of material entering into 
 the same, together with the multiform necessaries of 
 human consumption ; and also for the transaction of any 
 other kind of business in the way of traffic, barter, or 
 mercantile agency, conducive to the financial, economical, 
 industrial prosperity and well-being of the Community 
 and of all those connected with it. 
 
 TJie Hopedale Educational Home. The year now in 
 review was especially memorable for the inauguration of 
 a project, blasted, alas, in its very budding, which, in its 
 nature, its constructive form, and contemplated results, 
 was among the most important and ambitious ever gen- 
 erated under Community auspices and devised as a 
 constituent part of our general system of social regenera- 
 tion and of our ideal type of rightly-ordered human 
 society. It was nothing less than the founding of a 
 great Educational Establishment, the characteristic feat- 
 ures and predominating purpose of which may be learned 
 from the Prospectus, published and widely distributed 
 among the friends of moral and social reform and phil- 
 anthropists, wherever residing, the more essential and 
 explanatory portions of which are herewith given to the 
 reader. 
 
 " PROSPECTUS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE HOPEDALE EDUCATIONAL HOME. 
 
 "One great want of the age is an Educational Institution,, 
 in which the sons and daughters of the common people, espec- 
 ially those friendly to the great Reforms and to constructive 
 Progress, may receive a comprehensive and well-balanced devel- 
 opment of all their natural faculties. An Educational Home 
 
HOPEDALE EDUCATIONAL HOME. 219 
 
 for children and youth is demanded one pre-eminently worthy 
 of the confidence of good parents and guardians; where they 
 can trust their young without hesitation; where by day and 
 night, in study, in active exercise, in recreation, in the parlor, 
 in the dining-room, in the dormitory, in social intercourse, and 
 in public places, they may be judiciously cared for with parent- 
 al fidelity; where they may be trained to useful industry, 
 provident economy and self-subsisting enterprise; where their 
 moral principles and character will be regarded as of funda- 
 mental importance; where every requisite attention will be 
 paid to their physical health, whether in the way of preserva- 
 tion or recovery; and where, by due processes, they may be 
 inducted into a thorough knowledge of all the scholastic arts 
 and sciences necessary to give them a reputable standing in 
 the intellectual world. Such an institution was contemplated 
 by the projectors of the Hopedale Community as an integral 
 department of their operational system. It has been deferred 
 only till the material interests and social arrangements of the 
 Community should become sufficiently consolidated to insure it 
 a good foundation. That time has at length arrived. Mean- 
 while the urgent inquiry has come in from every quarter, 'Can 
 you receive into your charge for education, my son or daugh- 
 ter, my nephew, niece or grandchild, my brother, sister, or 
 ward?' We have been obliged to reply, 'Not yet! We can 
 do nothing like justice to your child. We have no suitable 
 establishment, accommodations or means, but we will have the 
 institution needed when our preliminary work shall have been 
 performed.' . . . The thing is now to be undertaken in 
 earnest; and by the favor of Heaven it shall be accomplished. 
 We offer you our plan and solicit your pecuniary aid. Are 
 you ready to give us a helping hand? 
 
 " To erect a suitable edifice and furnish the accompanying 
 indispensables for two hundred pupils and students, we must 
 raise Twenty-Jive Thousand Dollars. We are sure this can be 
 done. Let every friend of the cause make ready accordingly. 
 The practicability of this will be more credible to some when 
 they understand the details of our plan. A responsible Asso- 
 ciation has been formed with the full sanction of The Hopedale 
 Community, and lands assigned to our permanent use for the 
 purposes of a building site, public grounds and cultivation. 
 The Constitutional Compact of our Association is herewith 
 
220 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 presented as explanatory of our grand aim and general method 
 of carrying forward the enterprise. Let it be carefully read 
 and considered. 
 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 "Under the auspices of the Hopedale Community and in 
 harmony with the various operative branches thereof, the 
 undersigned hereby unite in an Educational Association to be 
 called THE HOPEDALE EDUCATIONAL HOME. And we do 
 ordain for the organization and government of the said Asso- 
 ciation the following CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 'SECTION 1. The grand aim and work of this Association 
 .shall be to educate the young who may be entrusted to its 
 care for that purpose; to develop properly, thoroughly, and 
 harmoniously all their natural faculties, moral, intellectual, and 
 physical; to give them, if possible, a high-toned moral char- 
 acter based on scrupulous conscientiousness and radical Chris- 
 tian principles a sound mind, well cultivated, stored with 
 useful knowledge, and capable of inquiring, reasoning, and 
 judging for itself a healthful, vigorous body, suitably fed, 
 exercised, clothed, lodged, and recreated good domestic habits, 
 including personal cleanliness, order, propriety, agreeableness, 
 and generous social qualities industrial executiveness and skill 
 in one or more of the avocations necessary to a comfortable 
 subsistence, and withal practical economy in pecuniary matters. 
 In fine, to qualify them, so far as a thorough and comprehen- 
 sive education can do it, for solid usefulness and happiness in 
 all the rightful pursuits and relations of life. 
 
 " SEC. 2. Nothing shall be taught, encouraged, or allowed 
 within the province of this Association, obviously repugnant to 
 the Constitution, By-Laws, and Regulations of The Hopedale 
 Community. 
 
 " SEC. 3. This Association acknowledges its obligation as a 
 regularly organized branch of Community operations, to aid 
 equitably all the other branches in fulfilling the general guar- 
 anties respecting employment, education, moral order, and 
 succor to the needy." 
 
 Articles II, III, IV, and V, of this Constitution pro- 
 vide for the membership and organization of the Associa- 
 
HOPEDALE EDUCATIONAL HOME. 221 
 
 tion, the mode of raising and using money, of holding 
 and managing real estate and other kinds of property, 
 and for the proper ordering of the Institution which it 
 proposed to build and equip after it should have been 
 made ready for practical operation, the minutiae of which 
 need not be recited here. The document closes with the 
 following appeal : 
 
 " Thus, friends, you have a full view of our general plan and 
 system of operations. We trust the undertaking commends 
 itself to your hearts and understandings as at once benevolent, 
 noble, and practicable. What more need be said? Pardon a 
 word from the General Agent (an office to which I was appointed 
 November 25, before the Prospectus was issued) on his own 
 individual responsibility. I make my appeal to all over whom 
 it is my good fortune to possess personal influence. My heav- 
 enly Father, the All-wise Lover of Humanity, has set my heart 
 on the accomplishment of this work. He has impressed on 
 my soul the assurance that He will open the way before me, 
 give me the favor of many willing patrons, guide me by His 
 suggestive wisdom in the adjustment of details, and crown the 
 enterprise with a glorious success. Therefore have I made it 
 the next, perhaps the last, leading object of my life. I shall 
 give myself to it with all the zeal and judgment of which I 
 am capable, firmly persuaded that the Guardian Hand which 
 has hitherto sustained me in my labors for the good of man- 
 kind will carry me triumphantly through. Who, then, will 
 remember THE HOPEDALE EDUCATIONAL HOME in their wills? 
 Already liberal bequests have been made to it. Who will come 
 forward ungrudgingly to donate or loan it money? Already a 
 single friend has pledged it one tenth of the twenty-five thou- 
 sand dollars asked for; . . . who will follow this example 
 of liberality? Who on visiting the Institution a few years 
 hence, admiring its edifice, passing through its well-ordered 
 apartments, beholding the cheerful faces of its youthful inmates 
 at their recitations, studies, or innocent recreations, and con- 
 templating the blessings to follow, will have secured the heart- 
 thrilling satisfaction of saying, as he pronounces a fresh 
 benedication on the establishment, ' /, also, was an original 
 and willing patron of THE HOPEDALE EDUCATIONAL HOME.' 
 
 "AoiN BALLOU, Gen'l Agent." 
 
222 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 It will be evident to all readers of these pages, that 
 this enterprise, though crudely anticipated and dimly fore- 
 seen by my brethren in common with myself at the outset 
 of our social experiment, and though projected under the 
 favoring approval and assistance of our Community, many 
 of whose members were profoundly interested in it and 
 joined me in the endeavor to make it a notable feature 
 of our general polity at Hopedale, was largely a child of 
 my own begetting a creation of my own forming hand. 
 To me had fallen the lot of putting into definite form 
 the idea from which it had sprung of devising the plan 
 by which our original purpose in this behalf was to be 
 at an early day realized. Long time had we waited for 
 our Community to attain a position in which it could 
 foster and promote so gigantic an undertaking, but the 
 hour had now struck when it seemed as if a beginning 
 should be made in the work of putting our long deferred 
 purposes in the matter into execution. And this feeling 
 was confirmed in my own mind as also in the minds of 
 others by the fact that my dear son, Adiu Augustus, was 
 just entering upon active life, and that the founding of 
 the proposed Educational Home at Hopedale, the princi- 
 palship of which he was amply qualified to assume, would 
 open to him a sphere of activity for coming years every 
 way gratifying to his tastes and ambitions, pleasing to 
 his parents and friends, and most inspiring in its promise 
 of usefulness and happiness to the world. He was the 
 only sou of his mother and myself dwelling with us upon 
 the shores of mortality. Upon him we had lavished the 
 warmest affection of our hearts and built our fondest and 
 sublimest hopes for the future. We had given him the 
 best home training of which we were capable ; we had 
 furnished him with such opportunities for attending school 
 as were at our command, and had rejoiced at the con- 
 scientious fidelity with which he had discharged the duties 
 devolving upon him there and at the evidences of native 
 
ADIN AUGUSTUS BALLOU. 223 
 
 talent and thorough scholarship he had there displayed ; 
 he had passed through the regular course of study at the 
 State Normal School at Bridgewater, Mass., graduating 
 with honor and winning for himself the confidence and 
 high regard of his instructors ; he had taken a supple- 
 mentary course of a single term under the same tuition 
 and had so commended himself to the authorities in 
 charge of the Institution as to have been invited to the 
 position of Junior Assistant Principal on the Board of 
 Instruction, the duties of which he had already taken up 
 and was discharging with praiseworthy ability and success. 
 What reason and occasion had we all, parents and friends, 
 to look forward with high expectation and exulting joy 
 to the near future, when his brilliant talents and scholarly 
 attainments would shine forth resplendent at the head of 
 an Academic Establishment in our very midst ; an estab- 
 lishment in which he had already manifested a profound 
 personal interest, and to the development of which he 
 had lent a helping hand, and for the promotion of which 
 his last manual labor on earth was expended. Alas ! how 
 little did any of us dream that two brief months, as 
 time is measured by us, would give his mortal body to 
 the grave, translate his spirit to immortal abodes, and 
 blast all our grand and noble schemes built on the 
 promise of his long-continued earthly career. Yet so it 
 was, as will be duly seen a few pages farther on. 
 
 The Community was at this time near the close of 
 1851 enjoying a season of unusual prosperity, and 
 those who were at the head of its affairs indulged once 
 more in emotions of exuberant self-gratulatiou and in 
 pgeans of enthusiastic rejoicing. They felt that all seri- 
 ous obstacles to the final triumph of their cause had been 
 effectually overcome and that the future of their enterprise 
 at Hopedale was assured beyond all doubt or peradven- 
 ture. With them, virtually, "Hope had changed to glad 
 fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise." It takes 
 
224 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 many dark waves of adversity to drown the extravagant 
 expectations of such people and suppress their surcharged 
 aspirations. I was myself much elated at our condition 
 and prospects, and deemed it a suitable time to retire 
 from the Presidency, a position I had occupied from the 
 beginning, feeling that I was no longer essential to the 
 wise and safe management of affairs, and trusting that 
 all would go well with another at the helm to direct our 
 richly-freighted bark on a favoring tide to its destined 
 haven of successful security and untroubled peace. I 
 therefore signified to my brethren my determination not 
 to allow my name to be used in the canvass for official 
 servants of the Community at the approaching Annual 
 Meeting in January, 1852, and prepared an elaborate 
 Valedictory Address to be delivered on that occasion. 
 An account of the meeting as it appeared in the columns 
 of The Practical Christian is for obvious reasons given 
 entire. 
 
 " ANNUAL COMMUNITY MEETING. 
 
 " The annual meeting of The Hopedale Community for 1852 
 took place on January 14th at the Chapel. An unprecedented 
 attendance, interest, unanimity, and cheerfulness characterized 
 the occasion. The proceedings commenced between nine and 
 ten o'clock A. M. and continued, with a brief intermission, till 
 late in the afternoon, when an adjournment was made to the 
 23d inst. for the completion of miscellaneous business. The 
 general Financial Report, presented by Bro. E. D. Draper, the 
 Treasurer, exhibited a more successful year's operations than 
 ever before, and gave promising indications of increasing pros- 
 perity in the future. For the first time in the history of the 
 Community it had handsomely sustained itself compensated its 
 operatives, cleared its incidental expenses, borne its losses, been, 
 able to declare the highest dividend allowed by its Constitution, 
 to Joint-Stock capital, viz., four per cent., and secured a small 
 excess of clear profits. We are permitted to make the following 
 Extracts from the Report. 
 
 "'Beloved Friends and Associates: I have the pleasure of 
 making a more favorable report of the Community's, standing. 
 
ANNUAL KEPORT OF TREASURER, 1852. 225 
 
 financially, than ever before. That word, Deficit, which has 
 been rung so much among us, and especially among the enemies 
 of our enterprise, will not have to be used by me as applicable 
 to the operations of the past year. It is true that the sale of 
 hcuse-lots has been a greater source of income than for some 
 years before. But there has been decided improvement in 
 several branches of business, which will be shown in the 
 reports to be given by the managers. I think the gains made 
 are attributable to several causes. The plan of jobbing, or 
 piecing out the work has been one of the greatest of these; 
 and in all cases has given better satisfaction to those who 
 have done the work, and has taken much responsibility from 
 the managers. 
 
 " ' Having stated the present financial standing of the Com- 
 munity, let me anticipate a little. I think it safe to prophesy 
 that very few deficits will come hereafter, unless by fire or 
 flood or some other casualty we suffer loss, and for several 
 reasons: First and foremost are the new arrangements adopted 
 by the Community in November last and now being put into 
 operation, and also the formation of several new branches of 
 industry. Among these, and not the least is The Commercial 
 Exchange. This branch, I think, will greatly extend the busi- 
 ness of the Community with a very small addition of capital, 
 and furnish employment for many more operatives than we 
 now have on our domain. 
 
 " ' The new arrangements will give a very decided improve- 
 ment to the Agricultural branch which has now to stagger 
 under a heavy load, viz. : its four per cent, and taxes amounting 
 to about $850.00 per annum, with large tracts of land unim- 
 proved. The present policy separates it into several depart- 
 ments which will divide the responsibility very much, and it 
 is hoped increase the profits. Heretofore one man had the 
 whole to manage and all the accounts (which were legion) to 
 keep, and this has left him but little time to perform manual 
 labor with those employed or to prosecute the different improve- 
 ments as ought to have been done and as will be done when 
 the division is completed and several responsible persons are 
 put in charge of the different departments. In consequence 
 of having large tracts of land without men or means to culti- 
 vate them, we have run behindhand in this branch ; and some 
 of our brethren have sighed for a new location a fatter estate. 
 
 15 
 
226 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 But I contend that on our domain we have resources hitherto 
 undeveloped and unused, which, with our proximity to good 
 markets, will yet pay our landed investments well. We have 
 from 75 to 100 acres of cranberry meadows, which, with small 
 outlay, can be made to yield in a few years greater profits 
 than we now realize from our entire territory, woodlands and 
 all. " Wait a little longer," and with the blessing of heaven 
 we will demonstrate to all that we have a good agricultural 
 basis for our Community, and that agricultural activities will 
 pay well, even here. Then the principal objection urged by 
 some against our present location will have been done away.' 
 
 "Interesting Reports were made by many of the Managers 
 of Branches, by the Board of Education, etc., all evincing the 
 growing intelligence, business talent, order and consolidation 
 of our social superstructure. Before proceeding to the choice 
 of officers for the ensuing year, Adin Ballou, hitherto President 
 of the Community, delivered a valedictory address, declining a 
 re-election to any of the active executive stations heretofore 
 occupied by him; which address, with the response thereto, is 
 published below. 
 
 "Next followed the election of official servants for the year 
 ending with the second Wednesday of January, 1853, viz.: EBEN- 
 EZER D. DRAPER, President; ALMOX THWING, WILLIAM H. HUM- 
 PHREY, DUDLEY B. CHAPMAN, WILLIAM W. COOK, Directory; 
 CATHARINE G. MUNYAN, Recorder; LEMUEL MUNYAN, Treasurer; 
 WILLIAM H. FISH, CAROLINE M. MAY, EDMUND SOWARD, Board 
 of Education; DANIEL H. CARTER, Steward; ABBY J. SPALDING. 
 HENRY LILLIE, WM. G. COMSTOCK, EMELINE H. BEAL, ANNA T. 
 DRAPER, Council: ALMIRA B. HUMPHREY, ALMON THWING, 
 CATHARINE G. MUNYAN, EDMUND SOWARD, Relief Committee. 
 
 " VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 
 
 " 'Beloved Associates: Having presided for more than ten 
 years over the affairs of this young Commonwealth as its chief 
 executive servant, besides occupying sundry minor official 
 stations therein, I now deem it my privilege to decline for 
 the future these honors and responsibilities. I consent only 
 to retain, during your convenience, the less changeable ami 
 active office of Trustee. In retiring from official authority and 
 direction, I may be permitted to state the motives that actuate 
 me, and to offer a few words of valedictory reflection and 
 counsel. 
 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 227 
 
 " * My first motive is a desire to promote your improvement 
 and solidity in self-government. As a local Community you no 
 longer need my personal superintendence or official services. 
 The difficulties of your experimental era have nearly passed 
 away. You are well organized under a polity of arrangements 
 at once judicious, practical and flexible to your further growth. 
 You have become accustomed somewhat to orderly methods of 
 procedure and you have a sufficiency of material in your 
 membership for all official purposes. It is best for you to 
 bring that material into use, to develop your own internal 
 capabilities and to exercise all your talents for self-government. 
 I stand out of your way that I may not be a hindrance to such 
 progress and consolidation. 
 
 " ' My second motive is a desire to witness results. I have 
 assisted in constructing and setting in motion a system of 
 social machinery which I feel confident will operate happily 
 for mankind under the superintendence of any fairly honest 
 and intelligent management. Some have predicted that it 
 must soon fall into disorder and become impracticable when 
 I shall have ceased to be at the head of it. I do not believe 
 them and I wish to see their predictions falsified by demon- 
 stration to the contrary. I wish to see the intrinsic merits of 
 our social system vindicated against all such suspicions. 
 Therefore let me stand aside and cease to exercise official 
 authority. Let me not even be called to interfere by counsel, 
 except in unusual emergencies. Let me become, as nearly as 
 the nature of the case admits, what I expect to be after death, 
 a silent spectator of your proceedings, though still a suggestive 
 guardian in the hour of danger. Go forward, then, and act 
 yourselves. Show forth the measure of your love and wisdom. 
 Prosecute your well-begun undertaking to a glorious consum- 
 mation. Fall not out by the way. Disappoint not the hopes 
 that cluster around your social standard. Justify my confidence 
 in you; actualize my ideal; and by your fidelity realize to me 
 my cherished anticipations of a better day for humanity's 
 unfortunate and perishing classes. 
 
 " My third motive is a desire to devote my energies more 
 concentratively to important labors in other departments of our 
 great regenerative enterprise. Think not that I consign myself 
 to indolence or to the indulgence of a curious spectatorship. I 
 retire from one sphere of duty that I may enter the more 
 
228 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 undistractedly on another. Our excellent social system is to be 
 extended to the ends of the earth. Its great basilar principles 
 are to be promulgated. The minds of men are to be enlight- 
 ened and their hearts animated by the true faith, piety, 
 philanthropy and morality of Jesus, as comprised in what we 
 call Practical Christianity. The Word is to be preached, written 
 and published abroad. A new order of Educational Institutions, 
 is to be founded. Other Communities, in close confederation 
 with yours, are to be established, wherever practicable. The 
 kingdom of God's righteousness and peace is to be developed 
 on earth as never before. I am called to contribute my mite 
 of instrumentality to the accomplishment of all this. I shall 
 have no excuse for standing idle. I do not ungird myself 
 from labor. I only obey the Master's orders to serve in other 
 fields. Dismiss me then cheerfully from positions where I am 
 no longer needed. Apply yourselves with renewed zeal to your 
 duties and send me mantled with your blessing to the discharge 
 of mine. 
 
 " * A few reflections. The universal Father moved us to- 
 undertake the establishment of this Community. We were 
 bondmen in the midst of the old social Egypt. He caused 
 the light to shine through our heavy eyelids. He called us to 
 seek a better land to find the place of a more peaceful city. 
 His Holy Spirit brought unto us the maturer things of Christ's 
 Kingdom. He showed us the true social significance and 
 bearings of Christianity. We beheld and appreciated the out- 
 lines of a divine government to be established on earth. We 
 took our scanty substance in our hands and departed from the 
 old church and state. We passed through the sea and the 
 desert, led on by protecting angels. But like Israel of old we 
 had much to learn by dear experience. We had many trials 
 to endure, many difficulties to overcome, before we could plant 
 ourselves in the goodly heritage which now is spread around us. 
 
 " ' The voice of the murmurer, the despiser and the prophet of 
 failure pained the ears of the faithful and turned away from 
 us the feet of the unstable. A new social birth had to take 
 place, fraught with pangs and struggles and haltings between 
 life and death. But the issue was one of grateful joy. By 
 degrees the infant learned to breathe the vital air and evinced 
 an assured existence. And now, grown robust by wholesome 
 discipline, the child enters on its youthful stage, able to tell 
 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 229 
 
 in triumph the story of its own precarious nativity. Yes, our 
 Community proclaims itself established. 
 
 " ' Who hath watched over us all this while, wrought all these 
 deliverances and secured to us all these blessings? Who hath 
 led us by a way we knew not, smoothed the rough places, 
 straightened every crookedness and turned darkness into light 
 before us? Who hath sent the false prophet away ashamed, 
 and silenced the croakings of the murmurer, and caused the 
 scorner to withold his reproaches, and plucked up the roots 
 of bitterness from our midst, and bruised the heel that lifted 
 itself against the faithful, and saved us from ourselves when we 
 unadvisedly fell into error and sin? It is the Lord our God, 
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ' the Giver of every good 
 and perfect gift.' To him alone be all praise, thanksgiving 
 and glory. He hath not done all things for our sakes alone 
 but for the sake of our common humanity. Not because of 
 our worth or wisdom but of his own spontaneous love and 
 wisdom. Our cause was not our own but His. His name was 
 engraven as with steel on all the foundations of our social 
 fabric. We were but instruments in His hand for the begin- 
 ning of a superstructure in which He purposes to bless the 
 world. Therefore for His own infinite love's sake towards 
 our race hath He wrought out our success, and crowned us 
 with all our prosperities. Let us re-echo the chant of the 
 angels, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
 good will among men.' 
 
 " 'Accept, beloved associates, my grateful acknowledgments 
 for the almost unanimous and uniform confidence, sympathy 
 and co-operation which you have accorded me during these 
 ten eventful years. As your elder brother and fellow servant, 
 I have been with you from the beginning. I have participated 
 with you in all your experiences of woe and weal. I have not 
 coveted your silver or gold or goods; but have sincerely aimed 
 always at your highest welfare as a Community. I have never 
 sought to enrich or aggrandize myself at your expense. Thus 
 far I have a conscience void of offence. But it was impossible 
 that I should not sometimes betray the weaknesses and infirmities 
 of a man possessing like passions with yourselves. I have 
 done so many times. Yet you have borne with me; you have 
 trusted me; you have respected and honored me. You have ral- 
 lied at the sound of my voice and deferred to my counsels in 
 
230 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 every trying emergency. You have sustained my humble efforts 
 with a fraternal constancy which I shall remember with affec- 
 tionate gratitude forever. I thank you, I thank the Highest, 
 for it. Whereinsoever I have wronged you, or neglected you, 
 or aggrieved you in anything, let me feel that you have for- 
 given me, as God, I trust, has forgiven me my greatest sins, 
 and as I desire to forgive all that have or ever shall have 
 trespassed against me. If I have been instrumental of any 
 good to you or to our common cause I demand no thanks for 
 it. It has all come from Him of whom I received the ability 
 to be useful. I have done only that which it was my duty 
 to do and that but imperfectly. What have at the moment 
 seemed hardships or sacrifices, all dwindle into nothingness 
 when compared with those internal satisfactions which I feel 
 in surveying the results of our common efforts, and in antici- 
 pating the thousand times greater ones yet to follow. To see 
 what I daily behold in this orderly, tranquil, thriving, hopeful 
 Dale abounding in privileges and comforts and quiet dwell- 
 ing-places and to hear the whisperings of angels assuring 
 me that this is but a single cluster of unripe grapes compared 
 with the luxuriant vintage of numerous vineyards yet to be 
 planted surely this is a reward not to be estimated in dollars 
 and cents. And my joy is, not that these lands and houses 
 and good things are mine, to be bequeathed to my personal 
 heirs, but that, without enriching myself, I have labored with 
 you to render them blessings to many who else had been 
 crushed under the huge car of that Juggernaut of selfishness 
 which is continually rolling over the perishing classes of society. 
 My portion is not with the world's successful adventurers who 
 glory in fortunate battles, or in political triumphs, or in huge 
 estates piled up at the cost of ten thousand ruined competitors, 
 to be a curse to lazy and quarrelsome children. I fall back on 
 those interior moral possessions which the world can neither 
 give or take away; the untarnishable and indestructible treasures 
 which I can carry with me through all the mutations of time 
 and eternity. Give me these, O my God, and I can well afford 
 to be laughed at for my simplicity by all the worshipers of 
 Mars, Mercury and Mammon. Let me feel that I share, as a 
 rightful partaker, in the inheritance of them that serve God 
 by doing good to humanity, and it shall be enough. I shall 
 lack nothing essential to true happiness. Be it then our com- 
 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 231 
 
 mon consciousness, beloved associates, whatever our incidental 
 failures and shortcomings may have been, that in laboring 
 together to build up this Community, we have not lived merely 
 for self but withal to better the condition of the human race. 
 
 " ' It remains only that I offer a few words of valedictory 
 counsel and fraternal admonition. 
 
 "'1. Be true to your acknowledged Religion. That is the 
 beginning, middle and end of your welfare. Succeed in this, 
 and all will be well. Fail in this, and you perish. Remember 
 that this religion is the one taught and exemplified by Jesus 
 Christ. It came from the bosom of the Infinite Father and 
 there is nothing that can be substituted for it. Remember 
 that it is an absolute religion, not a temporary contrivance 
 inductive to a higher; that it is a religion of fundamental, 
 immutable principles, not one of external ceremonies, nor of 
 subtle, scholastic dogmas, nor of technical formulas, nor of 
 philosophical niceties, nor of poetical sentimentalities, nor of car- 
 nal flexibility, nor of disfigured countenances, nor of solemn, 
 cant phrases, nor one of exclusively holy places, times and 
 seasons. It is a religion, not of the letter but of the spirit 
 not a religion for the soul only, nor for the body only, nor 
 for the next world only, nor for this world only, nor for indi- 
 viduals only, nor for society only, nor for one people only, 
 nor for one age only. But it is a religion for both soul and 
 body, for the next world and for this world, for individuals 
 as such and for society as such, for all peoples throughout all 
 ages, for all the interests of mankind of whatsoever nature, 
 world without end. It is a religion of faith and also of works, 
 of the feelings and also of the reason, of piety and also of 
 philanthropy, of truth and also of kindness, of justice and also 
 of charity. It is a religion of divine truth, applicable by an 
 enlightened conscience and understanding to all times, places, 
 pursuits, occasions, and cases wherein man acts or suffers. 
 Interpret this religion justly, truthfully, practically. Distin- 
 guish carefully between essentials and non-essentials, between 
 fundamentals and incidentals, between what is possibly allow- 
 able to individuals on their own responsibility and what is 
 absolutely prohibited to any and every human being. For the 
 essentials of this religion be ready to sacrifice all earthly good, 
 even life itself; in non-essentials be tolerant and accommodating 
 to the last degree. Be a truly religious people in the highest 
 
232 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 and best sense ; not superstitiously, f ormalistically, pharisaically, 
 cantishly, heartlessly, laxly; but rather spiritually, cheerfully, 
 artlessly, earnestly, piously, and humanely religious. This is 
 your all-important concern. Make sure of this and all things 
 else shall be added unto you. 
 
 "'2. Make progress. Be characteristically an advancing 
 people. Do not crystalize, do not petrify. Great principles 
 you will have no occasion to change. Those you have acknowl- 
 edged are eternal and perfect as the divine attributes. Your 
 grand object, the regeneration, holiness and happiness of all 
 mankind, you can never change for a nobler. But applications 
 of principles, particular arrangements, ways, means, forms, 
 methods and minor details, may be susceptible of improvement 
 ad infinitum. I would not have you unstable, fickle-minded 
 and ready to be carried about by every wind of novelty. There 
 is no need of this in order to progress. Your land-marks may 
 be permanent as respects everything essential in religion, grand 
 objects, and moral order. Only welcome new light; keep your 
 minds open to conviction; cultivate knowledge; hail advance- 
 ment; 'prove all things, and hold fast that which is good.' 
 Never sacrifice the substance to the shadow of anything. 
 
 " ' 3. Hold the Community in sacred regard. Be reverently 
 and devotedly attached to it. Consider every merely individual 
 and ordinary interest as subordinate to the honor, the welfare 
 and the prosperity of the Community. Never place anything 
 but God, divine principle and conscience above it. Why do I 
 say this? Because your Community is founded on divine 
 principles, aims at divine objects, and solemnly forbids injury 
 to any human being, even your worst enemy. You cannot 
 uphold such an institution, nor promote its welfare, nor sub- 
 serve its honor, by doing anything which insults God or 
 injures man. Therefore have I enjoined you to reverence it 
 so supremely. I have so felt and acted from the beginning. 
 I have regarded him who respected, befriended, and upheld 
 the Community, as respecting, befriending, and upholding me; 
 him who despised it as despising me; him who forsook it as 
 forsaking me; him who slandered it as slandering me; and 
 him who injured it as injuring me. Bound by its blessed 
 principles to love my own enemies and to forgive my own 
 offenders, I have endeavored to do the same by those of the 
 Community. Thus have I indemnified myself with it at all 
 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 233 
 
 times and held its welfare and honor as sacred as my own. 
 I exhort you to do the same and never to leave its existence 
 or any of its great interests in the hands of those who can 
 justly be suspected of a readiness to betray or desert it in the 
 hour of temptation. Be true to your Community until itself 
 has ceased to be true to its fundamental ideas. Then you 
 may and ought to abandon it. If at any time you feel that 
 those who manage its affairs are unjust, or unwise, or unfaith- 
 ful, seek friendly explanations, apply frank and fraternal cor- 
 rectives, and do all you can in honesty and kindness to restore 
 matters to a healthy tone. But do not fly off in a tangent 
 from a noble institution, nor punish the innocent for the offences 
 of the guilty, nor stealthily plot faction, nor work by intrigue 
 to break down influences which you dislike, nor be alienated 
 from your allegiance by accidental interferences of Community 
 enactments with your individual peculiarities. Consider always 
 whether what you happen to be crossed in is really anything 
 worth contending for against the general welfare. Be humble, 
 self-denying, generous, public spirited. Be true, practical Chris- 
 tian Communitists, and you shall find yourselves unselfishly 
 happy together. 
 
 " * 4. Maintain and cultivate order in all things. This is the 
 dictate of wisdom. All the love, good-will and kind intentions 
 you can cherish will be insufficient, without method, system, 
 regularity, order. Remember that Love must be married to 
 Wisdom for the bringing forth of blessed offspring. Order is 
 the eldest born of these parents. Therefore let there be order 
 in your public assemblies, in your discussions, your delibera- 
 tions, your legislation, your official proceedings, your public 
 documents, your records, your accounts, and in all your organic 
 transactions. Let there be order in your streets, your public 
 grounds, your cemetery, your industrial operations, your work- 
 shops, fields and gardens. Let there be order in your families, 
 your private affairs, and in your individual souls. Xot an 
 overstrained, unnatural, oppressive order; but a rational, benefi- 
 cent, pleasant order, which shall commend itself to God, con- 
 science and reason. Thus will you be happy in yourselves, 
 happy in all your associate relations, and happy in commending 
 your Community as a model one to the thousands that shall 
 yet come from the east, west, north, and south, to learn its 
 -excellences. See that you do nothing in a loose, confused, 
 
234 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 disorderly manner, lest you bring reproach either on the 
 Community or yourselves. 
 
 " * 5. Finally, ' Endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the 
 bonds of peace.' Be of one mind; be conciliatory; be forbear- 
 ing; be frank and forgiving; have compassion one of another; 
 love as brethren; be pitiful; be courteous. And 'whatsoever 
 things are true, whatsoever things ara honest, whatsoever things 
 are just, whatsover things are pure, whatsoever things are 
 lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any 
 virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.' The 
 things that ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and 
 seen in rne (always excepting what has been amiss), do; and 
 the God of peace shall be with you and your children for- 
 evermore.' " 
 
 At the conclusion of the above address a committee 
 consisting of Bros. Wm. H. Fish and Edmund Soward 
 was chosen to make an appropriate response to it, which 
 was done at an adjourned meeting in form following, to 
 wit : 
 
 "Dear Brother Ballou: Though your resignation of the 
 Presidency of The Hopedale Community tendered at our late 
 Annual Meeting was not unexpected by any of our Fraternity, 
 it was nevertheless received with much general reluctance and 
 a most sincere wish that you might change your purpose, and 
 still continue in the position which you have so long filled 
 with great ability, fidelity and usefulness. But we know that 
 the duties of the office have been many and arduous, absorbing 
 so much of your time, your thought and your energies, that 
 there was left to you little leisure for study and other pursuits 
 in which you have a deep interest; and we did not feel, there- 
 fore, that we could justly insist upon your longer serving us 
 in a capacity demanding so much labor. Whilst, then, we have 
 submitted to your desire and decision, we have deemed it a 
 duty and a pleasure to express the deep sense of obligation 
 and gratitude which we feel towards you for your important 
 services in our common cause. This we most cordially now 
 do, as a Committee of the Community, and in accordance with 
 the vote unanimously passed immediately after the hearing of 
 your able, interesting and excellent farewell address. Of that 
 address, though we were chosen partly for the purpose of 
 
RESPONSE TO VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 235 
 
 responding to it, we deem it unnecessary to say anything at 
 length, as it will go forth into the world to speak for itself. 
 You know that it was appreciated and heartily responded to 
 by all who heard it, and that they were prompted by its 
 impressiveness and intrinsic worth to call for the publication 
 of it. Such a response must be of far greater value than any 
 formal eulogy our feeble words could pronounce; and those not 
 of us will judge it by its own character, and therefore pass 
 upon it a sentence of approbation. 
 
 " We only add, that though you are succeeded in the Presi- 
 dency by one competent and worthy to occupy the position,. 
 being a pioneer and a constantly devoted and generous laborer 
 in the cause of Christian Socialism, we shall still regard you r 
 as you will naturally be regarded by the world, as really the 
 leader in our enterprise, to whom we shall constantly look 
 with fraternal sympathy, confidence and hope, certain of all 
 the aid you can render us whenever needed and called for* 
 We therefore take an affectionate leave of you as our nominal 
 head, wishing you continued health and prosperity both tem- 
 poral and spiritual, and, what will be still better for you r 
 success in all your philanthropic and Christian labors; and 
 after this earthly life a still higher and broader mission of 
 love and usefulness, in association, under the Infinite Father, 
 with the good and faithful who have gone before us, and whose 
 rest is unwearied activity. 
 
 "WM. H. FISH, 
 EDMUND SOWARD, 
 
 Committee." 
 
 This response was unanimously adopted by the Com- 
 munity as expressive of the most earnest and sincere 
 sentiments of its members towards the retiring President. 
 
 LAMENTABLE BEREAVEMENTS. 
 
 Following closely upon these heartfelt, tender, impres- 
 sive, jubilant exercises, were there occurrences of a far 
 different nature scenes of trial, bereavement, calamity, 
 and distress, which cast a deep shadow over our happy 
 vale and pierced many of our bosoms with a sorrow that 
 left a scar never wholly obliterated. The first of these 
 occurrences was the decease, at Worcester, on the 21st of 
 
236 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 January, of our excellent and much esteemed Sr., Susan 
 Fish, in the 63d year of her age. She was for some 
 years a resident member of the Community, of most 
 exemplary character and life, endearing herself to all who 
 knew her by her gentle and loving spirit, her devotion to 
 high things, her self-forgetting usefulness, her calm and 
 hopeful trust in her heavenly Father even to the last 
 hour of her mortal pilgrimage. She was ever loyal to 
 Hopedale, bequeathing a goodly portion of her worldly 
 possessions to the promotion of some of its most cher- 
 ished interests, and requesting with her almost dying 
 breath that her body might have a final resting place in 
 its peaceful cemetery. A tender tribute to her name and 
 memory was written by our chief poet, Abby H. Price, 
 a few stanzas of which are subjoined : 
 
 "Weep not for the sleeper a gentle repose 
 
 Spread over her form as she yielded her breath; 
 
 As calm as a summer day comes to its close 
 She laid her tired head on the pillow of death. 
 
 "Her life like the sunbeam was radiant with love; 
 
 In the pathway of peace, her true feet ever trod ; 
 The joys that she sought were all born from above, 
 
 And the pleasure she asked was the smile of her God. 
 
 "The cause we here cherish was dear to her heart; 
 
 Her prayer oft ascended that we might be blest; 
 Though absent at last and dwelling apart. 
 
 She longed in the peace of our valley to rest. 
 
 * # * * * * * 
 
 " As we pass one by one through the fathomless wave, 
 Perhaps she will meet us with welcoming hand; 
 
 With angels will come to the verge of the grave, 
 And lead us away to the bright Spirit-land." 
 
 The same number of The Practical Christian that con- 
 tained the obituary of our departed friend just named, 
 conveyed to its readers the startling announcement of a 
 fresh and overwhelming affliction which had come to us 
 
DEATH OF ADIN AUGUSTUS BALLOU. 237 
 
 all in the sudden death of our own dear son. It was 
 from the pen of Bro. Wm. H. Fish, whose communication 
 is given entire : 
 
 " ADIN AUGUSTUS BALLOU is DEAD. 
 
 "Our esteemed friend, Samuel May, Jr. writes to us under 
 date of the 10th inst. (Feb.), 'Is it possibly true as we see 
 announced in to-day's Commonwealth that Augustus Ballou is- 1 
 dead?' and the answer to his question we have put at the 
 head of this article. He died at Bridgewater, where he was 
 connected with the Normal School as a teacher, on Sunday 
 last, February 8th. He was attacked very violently with typhoid 
 fever, of which disease he was sick only a little over a week. 
 His father and mother were summoned to his bedside in time 
 to be recognized by him, to exchange affectionate greetings 
 and minister to his expiring wants. He lived two days after 
 they reached him, when they returned home with his remains; 
 which was the first intimation any of us had received of his 
 departure. Our friend May exclaims, ' What a terrible blow 
 it must be to his father and mother! The shock must have 
 fallen upon them like a thunder-bolt from a clear sky!' And 
 indeed it is so. We are prompted to say, 'No grief can be 
 equal to their grief ! ' They are bowed in sorrow as never 
 before. 
 
 "Augustus by this name we always called him was a 
 young man of uncommon ability and excellence, and of great 
 promise; and he has gone down to his grave just as he was 
 passing, early developed, into the man, and entering upon public 
 life for himself. He had pure and high aspirations within 
 him and noble objects before him, for the realization of which 
 he had already marked out some of his life plans. He was only 
 in his nineteenth year and yet as mature as many at twenty- 
 five. But as he was, he has gone from us not dead but still 
 living unto God, no doubt, and to great ends. He leaves a 
 revered father, a most devoted mother, and an ardently affec- 
 tionate sister, to mourn in sadness his early departure and the 
 burial of many hopes garnered up in him, and without the 
 Christian faith and trust they would be inconsolable. But their 
 sorrow is not unto despair deep, overwhelming as it is. They 
 have consolations not few nor small, and can rejoice even in 
 their tribulation at least can be calmly, patiently, humbly sub- 
 
238 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 missive. All the members of our Community are afflicted with 
 them, as is also a wide circle of acquaintances here and else- 
 where. 
 
 "The funeral was attended by as large an assembly of rela- 
 tives and friends as could possibly be accommodated in our 
 Chapel, and it surely was an impressive and affecting occasion. 
 The writer of this delivered a discourse appropriate to the 
 event, and was followed with interesting remarks of sympathy 
 and consolation by Revs. Henry A. Eaton, Samuel H. Lloyd, 
 and Geo. W. Stacy of Milford, and Bro. Wm. W. Cook of our 
 Community; Bro. Ballou simply saying from a full heart and 
 in a most impressive and touching manner as he took leave 
 of the corpse, * We bless the Lord God that He gave us such a 
 son as this; we bless Him now that He has taken him away; 
 and we bless Him that he liveth evermore.' " 
 
 The discourse of Brother Fish, with accompanying trib- 
 utes, hymns, etc., was published in the next number of 
 the Christian and did it seem proper in this work I 
 should follow my own strong personal inclination to insert 
 here a full account of our dear sou's last sickness, death, 
 funeral testimonials, and obituary eulogies. I, however, 
 forbear, but warmly commend to my readers the little 
 volume, entitled " Memoir of Adin Augustus Ballou." 
 I prepared and published that work during the year 1853, 
 :and I have never seen the person who read it that did 
 not profess to have done so with much satisfaction and 
 profit. I pass to other scenes of the sad year now in 
 review with one of the poetical tributes of the funeral 
 occasion from the pen of Abby H. Price : 
 
 "As fair as the beams of the morning wert thou, 
 
 As sweet as the fragrance of May: 
 Love shone like a gem on thy frank, open, brow, 
 And thy smile was as bright as the day. 
 
 "Oh yes, we loved thee, a treasure so dear, 
 
 We were glad as we thought thee our own; 
 But selfish a love that would fetter thee here; 
 Let us smile that the prisoner hath flown. 
 
HOPEDALE EDUCATIONAL HOME. 239 
 
 "Not far will he leave us, his bright soul will bend 
 
 To breathe the soft whisper of love; 
 As a guardian power he will gently attend 
 To woo each grieved spirit above. 
 
 " Adieu, then, our fairest ones, pass ye away, 
 Lest we love this poor earth-home to well; 
 Bereft of our jewels as longer we stay, 
 It shall fit us with them yet to dwell." 
 
 The tragic event thus depicted not only had a most 
 depressing effect upon my health and spirits, rendering 
 me for months almost wholly incapable of active service 
 in any department of usefulness, but it crushed many of 
 my most sacred and ardent hopes to the earth, and 
 brought some of my most carefully devised and strongly 
 cherished plans to speedy destruction. This was espec- 
 ially true of 4 4 The Hopedale Educational Home " spoken 
 of a few pages back, an enterprise " upon which I had 
 lavished an incalculable amount of thought and labor, and 
 in which centered so many glowing anticipations on niy 
 part and on the part of our ascended sou." The proposi- 
 tion to found such an institution had met a hearty recep- 
 tion from the friends of progress and reform at home and 
 abroad had indeed been hailed with delight by many of 
 these and they could not well bear the thought of 
 having so noble a project given up altogether. come to 
 naught in its very budding. They appreciated the situa- 
 tion in which I was placed by my bereavement in respect 
 to it, and sympathized deeply with me, but had faith to 
 believe and feel that with the aid that would be gladly 
 furnished by those interested in the undertaking and the 
 blessing of Heaven, the way would open to a grand 
 success, if I and my immediate co-adjutors would press 
 forward in the work that had been so auspiciously inau- 
 gurated and received so cordial a welcome from those 
 seeking a higher education and a nobler life for them- 
 selves and for humanity. The feeling of such was fitly 
 
240 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 voiced in a resolution passed at the Quarterly Conference 
 of the general Practical Christian Communion held at 
 Hopedale on the 20th and 21st of March, and appended 
 hereto. 
 
 "Resolved, That in this present day of darkness to 'The 
 Hopedale Educational Home,' and particularly to the General 
 Agent thereof, our beloved and revered Brother Ballou, we will 
 pronounce upon it our holiest benedictions and express our 
 most earnest desire that it may be carried forward with all 
 the wisdom and efficiency that its immediate co-operators, 
 under the direction of the Divine Wisdom, can bring to its 
 aid; that so far as in us lies we will stay their hands and 
 cheer their hearts, hoping, praying and believing that the 
 Great and Good Father will never leave or forsake them, 
 but will raise up true and faithful souls to fill the void that 
 has been made in their expectations and plans, and by His 
 overruling and fatherly Providence bring their and our eyes 
 to see what we have so long desired to see, and our ears to 
 hear what we have so long desired to hear; to the permanent 
 good of our common brotherhood, to the honor of our cause 
 the cause of Christ, and to the glory of His ever-blessed 
 name." 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding these and other expressions 
 of sympathy and encouragement, of faith and confidence, 
 with the accompanying assurances of kindly assistance, 
 for which I am truly grateful, I had not the heart to go- 
 on with the undertaking. The "staff of accomplishment," 
 so far as early practical results were concerned, was gone, 
 and I knew not where to look for what, was most needed 
 to insure success. I therefore yielded, though with pro- 
 found regret, to what seemed to me to be the inevitable,, 
 and with many a sigh and pang saw one of my most 
 sacredly cherished schemes for benefiting my kind pass- 
 forever from my sight. 
 
 Of Community affairs in general much more might be 
 said than seems to be required in a work like that now 
 in hand, the more marked and notable occurrences only 
 
NEW SCHOOL OF SOCIAL PHILOSOPHERS. 241 
 
 being of interest to historical readers. Some tolerable 
 idea of the ordinary course of operations from month to 
 month and from year to year must have been gleaned 
 from what has been presented in the foregoing pages, and 
 it is not desirable that further particulars be given. Suffice 
 it to say that great activity prevailed in every department 
 of our social economy during the period of which we are 
 now writing industrial, educational, religious, promulga- 
 tory ; that there was a constant influx of new comers to 
 our domain, with frequent accessions to our membership, 
 and some withdrawals and departures ; that our capital 
 steadily increased and therewith business enterprise ; and 
 that there was, moreover, sufficient friction in our com- 
 plex machinery to require untiring watchfulness with some 
 disciplinary treatment, and to awaken in the minds of the 
 more far-seeing and thoughtful more or less anxiety for 
 the future, although in a constantly diminishing degree. 
 
 About this time there sprang up in and around the 
 city of New York a new school of social philosophers 
 under the leadership of one Stephen P. Andrews, a man 
 of considerable ability and culture, of whom the present 
 distinguished President of Brown University is a nephew, 
 whose proposed system was denominated ' ' Equitable Com- 
 merce," based upon two fundamental doctrines, "Indi- 
 vidual Sovereignty" and "Cost the limit of price." These 
 doctrines were originated by one Josiah Warren of Indiana, 
 who started a Community in that state in illustration of 
 them and also one at a place near Thompson's Station, 
 L. I., some 40 miles from New York city, which was 
 christened Modern Times. The primary idea of the move- 
 ment, " Individual Soverignty," which made every man 
 and women not only his own prophet, priest, and king, 
 but virtually his own law-giver and law-maker his own 
 God in fact captivated several of our Hopedale people 
 and interested for a time quite a number of others. 
 Two or three of the former falling into disrepute among 
 16 
 
242 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 us, not by reason of their opinions but on moral grounds, 
 finally left us and went to join this new Elysium on Long 
 Island. The practical attempts to actualize that idea, 
 East and West, were of brief continuance, the funda- 
 mental postulate mentioned proving a rope of sand when 
 brought to a practical test and made subject to any 
 considerable weight or tension. 
 
 A movement with which we were more in sympathy was 
 projected in the autumn of 1852, at Raritan Bay, N. J., 
 in which Rev. Win. H. Charming, already spoken of, was 
 much interested, as a devoted apostle of social reform, 
 and of which our good brother. Clement O. Read, for- 
 merly of Hopedale, was one of the responsible originators. 
 It claimed to be simply an Industrial and Educational 
 enterprise, with no definite moral and religious standard 
 or test of membership, though it courted the co-operation 
 and support only of persons of high character and of 
 humanitary aims in life. A public meeting in its aid and 
 for the furtherance of its objects was held at Clinton 
 Hall, New York City, Dec. 8, at which Bro. E. D. Draper 
 and myself were present by invitation as delegates from 
 our Community, the North American Phalanx also being 
 represented on the occasion. The gathering was not large 
 but made up of choice spirits, desirous of helping any 
 and every effort calculated to improve the condition and 
 uplift the life of their fellowmeu. The general plan and 
 purpose of "The Raritau Bay Union," as the Association 
 already formed to carry the project into execution was 
 called, were stated and commented upon by Mr. Charming, 
 and several others spoke words of sympathy and encour- 
 agement, even though in some instances the proposed 
 undertaking was not regarded as sufficiently radical and 
 comprehensive to insure the most far-reaching and desir- 
 able results. This was my own feeling, as 1 frankly 
 stated, but I had nevertheless only the best of wishes for 
 those engaged in it, who had already purchased lands, 
 
ANNUAL MEETING, 1853. 243 
 
 tc., to the value of $27,000.00, and who were resolved to 
 press forward to the accomplishment of the laudable ends 
 they had in view. I am happy to be able to say that 
 their labors were crowned with a good degree of success. 
 They were never very large in numbers, but they built 
 up a Community on its own plane of rare excellence, 
 founded a school of superior standing in the educational 
 world, at the head of which was that distinguished scholar 
 and reformer, Theodore D. Weld, illustrated a high type 
 of private and public morality and showed to all thought- 
 ful observers "what might be done if men were wise" 
 to make the world better and happier. It filled a place 
 in the procession of human advancement, made an honor- 
 able record, and passed away. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting held Jan. 12, 1853, and by 
 adjournment at several succeeding dates, it appeared from 
 the report of the Treasurer that the total amount of 
 Community property Dec. 31, 1852, was $58,264.18; and 
 the entire liabilities, including the maximum dividend of 
 four per cent, on the Joint-Stock, $58,553.07; showing a 
 deficit on the operations of the proceeding year of $288.89. 
 This sum was duly cancelled by individual contributions 
 and the Community started out on its career for 1853 
 free of all incumbrances from the past and hopeful of 
 success for the future. Its newly elected official servants 
 were : EBENKZKR D. DRAPER, President; WM. H. HUM- 
 PHREY, ALMON THWING, WM. S. HEYWOOD, ALONZO A. 
 COOK, Directory; MARY A. WALDEN, Recorder; LEMUEL 
 MINYAN, Treasurer; DUDLEY B. CHAPMAN, WM. G. COM- 
 STOCK, ANN E. FISH, ANNA T. DRAPER, HENRY LILLIE, 
 Council; WM. H. FISH, EDMUND SOWARD, CAROLINE MAY, 
 Board of Education; ABNER ADAMS, Steward; EDMUND 
 SOWARD, JOSEPH B. BANCROFT, ABBY H. PRICE, ALMIRA 
 B. HUMPHREY, Relief Committee. 
 
 In the early part of this year a formal and definite 
 proposition came to me, as representative of our Commu- 
 
244 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 nity, from A. C. Church of Kingston, Lucerne Co. Pa. 
 contemplating the establishment of a Community similar 
 to our own, in the vicinity of his home. He had learned 
 of us through Horace Greeley of the N. Y. Tribune, and 
 was desirous of securing our co-operation in the projected 
 enterprise. A tract of laud, 700 acres in extent, of 
 excellent quality, capable of producing all kinds of grain, 
 having upon it large areas of timber, with three saw-mills 
 and other improvements, admirably adapted, as he thought, 
 to Community purposes, could be had for a reasonable- 
 sum, to the purchase and development and utilization of 
 which in the way indicated, he was willing to contribute one 
 thousand dollars. But we were not large enough to colo- 
 nize, still needing all the capital, talent, skill, and moral 
 vigor we could command for our own enlargement and 
 consolidation, and were obliged to decline the proffered 
 opportunity. We, however, commended it to the consider- 
 ation of our friends scattered abroad but nothing came 
 of it. 
 
 This year like the proceeding one was marked by the 
 decease of two of our most estimable associates. The 
 first was that of Sally Borden, who passed on at Charlton 
 on the loth of April, in the 44th year of her age. She 
 was one of the original members of the Community and' 
 paid the first hundred dollars into its Joint-Stock Fund. 
 A noble-hearted, generous-spirited, outspoken friend of 
 human reform and progress, she was also characterized by 
 the affections and virtues that shine in the domestic circle,, 
 and was deservedly dear to those who knew her best. 
 Her health gave way some ten or twelve years before, 
 and her active nervous system became sadly shattered and' 
 deranged, producing insanity of a distressing and hopeless 
 type from which she found no relief till death severed 
 the chords that bound her to earth and time, and set her 
 imprisoned spirit free. 
 
VICTIM OF RAILROAD CATASTROPHE. 245 
 
 Early the following month a terrible bereavement befell 
 us in the calamitous death of one of the oldest, best 
 known, most distinguished, and most beloved of our 
 number, Dr. Butler Wilmarth. It occurred in the mem- 
 orable railroad catastrophe at Norwalk Bridge, Conn, on 
 the 6th of May, when many valuable lives were lost and 
 a multitude of fond and loving hearts were overwhelmed 
 with the tide-beats of indescribable distress and anguish. 
 An article m TJie Practical Christian from the pen of 
 Bro. Win. H. Fish, after announcing in appropriate terms 
 the awful tragedy, due largely to reprehensible reckless- 
 ness, speaks of our friend's death as follows : 
 
 " One of our own and earliest Community members, greatly 
 respected and beloved by us all and by hundreds of others, 
 was whelmed in that wreck of ruin, and brought to us a 
 corpse to be buried in our peaceful cemetery! We knew he 
 had gone to New York to attend a Water Cure convention 
 of physicans, but thought it more than probable that at the 
 close he had visited the new Community at Raritan Bay as 
 he proposed, and would return to his home on Saturday even- 
 ing. But, alas! to what disappointment and anguish of spirit 
 were his family and friends destined! On the Monday follow- 
 ing that tragic and memorable Friday, his lifeless remains 
 were brought to Westboro' (where he was residing for a season 
 and fitting up a Water Cure establishment) by Dr. Welling- 
 ton of New York, who very kindly and humanely took upon 
 himself the service, leaving his home on purpose to see if he 
 could find, as he feared he might, our lamented brother among 
 the dead. He did find him! And we must leave our readers 
 to imagine the distress of his family and friends which followed 
 the first intelligence received of him after his departure. 
 
 "On Tuesday, the body of Bro. Wilmarth was brought to 
 Hopedale for interment, where the funeral was attended by a 
 large concourse of people, many coming from adjoining towns 
 to give expression to their respect, their sympathy and their 
 sorrow. Brother Ballou gave the principal address which though 
 brief was appropriate and impressive and worthy of the occa- 
 sion. Remarks were also made by the writer of this, by a Mr. 
 Campbell, a clergyman who had come from New York to put 
 
246 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY 
 
 himself under the medical care of the deceased, and who was 
 greatly affected by the event, and by Brother Stacy. 
 
 u Dr. Wilmarth was fifty-five years of age, and he died in. 
 the Christian faith which he had honored for thirty years at 
 least, not only by profession but by practice. * Blessed are 
 the dead who die in the Lord.' ' Blessed are they that mourn, 
 for they shall be comforted.' " 
 
 A memoir of this excellent mau was prepared by Brother 
 Fish arid published not long afterward, and the interested 
 reader is respectfully referred to that volume for further 
 particulars of a character and career worthy of emulation. 
 
 A Free Love Episode. As we at Hopedale, wherever 
 we were known, had a reputation for hospitality to new 
 ideas and a friendliness towards everything calculated to- 
 benefit our fellowmen, we were frequently confronted with 
 theories and doctrines, good, bad, and indifferent, claim- 
 ing, through their apostles, consideration and acceptance 
 on the ground that they were helps to human progress or 
 panaceas for the maladies of mankind. Some of these 
 were thoroughly false in principle and mischievous in 
 tendency and effect. It was impossible to prevent the 
 introduction of these pernicious theories and doctrines 
 within our borders and the discussion of them among 
 our people. It was no part of our policy to attempt ta 
 do this ; but it was a part of our policy to prevent them 
 from doing any of us harm ; it was a part of our policy 
 to be continually watchful concerning them, lest they get 
 a foothold among us, captivating the unwary and causing 
 injury to personal character and the social well-being. 
 
 Among these reprehensible speculations was that, which, 
 under a plea for the broadest and largest liberty, contem- 
 plated the removal of all conventional restraints pertaining 
 to the relation of the sexes' to each other, and especially 
 in the matter of marriage, and granting to each and 
 every one the privilege of forming connubial alliances and 
 dissolving them at will, as inclination, pleasure, conven- 
 
CASE OF MARITAL INFIDELITY. 247 
 
 ience, or whatever else, might dictate, under the general 
 name of Free Love. But notwithstanding our vigilance, 
 and in utter contravention of our solemn declaration con- 
 cerning chastity and of our well-known adherence to the 
 principle of monogamic marriage, there arose in our midst 
 during the year 1853, a case of marital infidelity and 
 illicit intercourse that caused great unpleasantness, per- 
 plexity, and scandal, and that required, at length, Com- 
 munity intervention. 
 
 The story is simply this : One of our male members, 
 the head of a family, became enamoured of a woman 
 also a member who had for sometime resided in his 
 household, and proportionally estranged from his faithful 
 and worthy wife. Suspicions of something wrong arose 
 among outsiders, causing considerable talk of a scurrilous 
 nature, though nothing was absolutely known or could be 
 proved to that effect. At length the unhappiness of the 
 wife was revealed, and the cause of it, upon investigation, 
 made public. The matter then very properly received 
 attention from the Council, who summoned the delinquents 
 before them for examination and discipline. Upon being 
 questioned and confronted with proof of misconduct, they 
 acknowledged culpability, professed regret, and penitence, 
 and promised amendment. But these professions proved 
 insincere, or at least, transient, and the parties were again 
 called to account. They then did not deny or attempt 
 to conceal their criminality, but rather justified it on the 
 ground that it was consonant with the principles of the 
 new philosophy touching personal liberty, sexual relations, 
 and the conjugal bond, which they had embraced in a 
 word, they openly and unhesitatingly avowed themselves 
 to be Free Lovers, from conviction and in practice also. 
 Having taken that position they could not do otherwise 
 than withdraw from Community membership and leave the 
 locality where both their theory and their action were held 
 in almost universal derision and abhorrence. They went 
 
 :1 
 
248 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 from us to the settlement of kindred Individual Sovereigns 
 on Long Island already adverted to "-Modern Times," 
 where they undoubtedly found congenial companionship, 
 and unbridled liberty to carry their doctrines out to the 
 farthest possible limit, with no one to question or reproach 
 them, or say them nay. For, as one who had been unwit- 
 tingly induced to take up his residence among that 
 ''peculiar people" for a time, and who knew them well 
 a man of ability and character, well qualified to judge 
 and to judge wisely said: "There is a lurking combina- 
 tion among the leaders to do away entirely with the name 
 and essence of marriage and to introduce instead an open 
 and respectful sanction of promiscuous co-habitation. They 
 not only cut the bonds of legality and set at nought the 
 proprieties of custom, but they also scout the idea of 
 constancy in love, and ridicule the sensitiveness of one 
 who refuses to barter counubialities. Wife with them is 
 synonymous with slave and monogamy is denounced as a 
 vicious monopoly of affection." 
 
 This case of marital infidelity and contempt of the 
 marriage covenant occurring in our very midst and at a 
 time when the most lax, corrupting, and dangerous senti- 
 ments concerning the general subject to which they relate 
 were bruited abroad and extolled throughout the general 
 community under the specious and captivating guise of 
 Liberty and Reform, led us at Hoped ale to declare our 
 views and make our position known to the world beyond 
 all doubt or peradventure. This we effected in a series 
 of resolutions covering the whole ground involved in the 
 divinely appointed distinction of sex, so far as it applies 
 to the human race, which was passed in Community meet- 
 ing held July 10, 1853. The series culminated in the 
 last one which records most unequivocally and emphati- 
 cally our conviction concerning the pernicious assumption 
 adverted to, as follows : 
 
TESTIMONY CONCERNING "FREE LOVE." 249 
 
 "Resolved, (10) That, with our views of Christian Chastity, 
 -we contemplate as utterly abhorrent the various 'Free Love' 
 theories and practices insiduously propagated among susceptible 
 minds under pretext of higher religious perfection, moral 
 exaltation, social refinement, individual sovereignty, physiologi- 
 cal research and philosophical progress; and we feel bound to 
 bear our uncompromising testimony against all persons, commu- 
 nities, books and publications which inculcate such specious 
 and subtle licentiousness." 
 
 The occurrence which has formed the subject of com- 
 ment in the last few pages and which in justice to the 
 truth of history could not have been omitted from the 
 present volume was the only one of its kind that ever 
 transpired during our entire existence the only one in 
 which the inculpated parties justified themselves and took 
 refuge under the bewitching sophistries of "Free Love." 
 In the other few cases of indiscretion, similar in nature 
 though by no means in degree, that came to light, 
 the erring ones, when called to account, bowed to their 
 acknowledged standard of duty, made due confession of 
 their wrong, and in Scripture phrase "brought forth 
 fruits meet for repentance." But on the whole, and to 
 the credit of our young men and women as well as of 
 those of riper years, it is to be put on record and kept 
 in lasting remembrance that we were singularly exempt not 
 only from positive scandal touching matters pertaining to 
 the sexes, but also from covert suspicion and innuendo. 
 Great freedom there was between male and female in the 
 home, in the social circle, and in all public places, but 
 few instances of excess, undue liberty, or impropriety, 
 calling for reproof and reprehension. 
 
 The Address of the President made at the end of the 
 year 1853, which I have before me in the original manu- 
 script, gave a comprehensive but succinct review of Com- 
 munity affairs for the preceeding twelvemonth. It bore 
 & good moral and financial tone, affirming that progress 
 
250 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 had been made in most if not in all departments of public 
 activity and service, and that the outlook for the future 
 was auspicious of good to all interests and concerns. It 
 would seem that a new basis of valuation of Community 
 property was established at this time, the former one 
 having been adjudged too high as compared with that 
 upon which the estimates of similar property similarly con- 
 ditioned elsewhere were made. This statement will suggest 
 the reason why there is a reduction from the previous year's 
 figures in the financial report of the year under notice, 
 and how it happens that there is an appearance of finan- 
 cial decline when it is claimed that there has been con- 
 tinued advance in this no less than in other particulars. 
 It is simply due to the fact that inflated values values 
 determined by regarding simply the relation of property 
 to business what it is worth to use gave place to 
 market values what it would bring if offered for sale. 
 With these comments and explanations, a few interest- 
 ing and suggestive extracts from the President's Annual 
 Report are introduced : 
 
 "Total present valuation of Community property $55,225.22;. 
 present liabilities $54,236.45. Leaving towards paying dividends 
 on the Joint-Stock, $988.77. The operations of the year will 
 pay all expenses and 3 1-2 per cent, on Stock, being only 1-2 
 per cent, less than its constitutional claim. The 10 per cent, 
 reserve due from the several branches of business will amount 
 to about enough to make up the deficiency, so that there will 
 be little or no deficit. 
 
 "I find by referring to the Community books that its prop- 
 erty has increased rapidly since Jan., 1844, a period of ten years. 
 The present valuation is $55,225.00; that of 1844, $8,658.00, omit- 
 ing the decimals. Increase in ten years, $46,567.00. Add to this 
 sum, the value of tools, machinery, etc., in the several branches 
 of business not now appearing in the Treaurer's statement, 
 which is $7,499.00 and the whole gain is $51,066.00. 
 
 " The property invested in houses owned by individuals clear 
 of debt Jan. 1, 1854, is $27,400.00; the same Jan. 1, 1844, was 
 $3,200.00. Gain in this particular in ten years, $24,200.00. 
 
REPORTS OF ANNUAL MEETING, 1854. 251 
 
 The gain therefore in Community property and in private 
 real estate is $78,266.00. And the amount of property now in 
 Hopedale according to these estimates is $90,124.00. [This, of 
 course, did not include the personal property of members, 
 probationers, and others, residing on the domain. Ed.] 
 
 "The following is an estimate of the increase of property 
 in Community buildings and business equipments, during the 
 year 1853. Houses and shops erected, $10.150.00: implements 
 and fixtures in Machine Branch, $2,000.00; in Soap and Candle 
 Branch, $800.00; in Printing and Publishing Branch, $1000.00; 
 in Transportation Branch, $300.00; in Agricultural Branch, 
 $850.00 ; in Boot and Shoe Branch, $1,600.00 ; in Division Store, 
 $400.00; making a total of $17,100.00." 
 
 The following paragraphs are copied from the Report 
 of the Council made at the same time : 
 
 "Of the thirty-one persons examined by the Council for 
 probationship in the Community during the past year, twenty- 
 three were approved; and of the nine persons examined for mem- 
 bership, seven were approved. Of the twenty-three approved 
 by us as probationers, only eleven have been received by the 
 Directory; while of the seven approved for membership, all 
 have been received by the Community. 
 
 " One of our fellow-members has been removed by death 
 during the year, three have withdrawn, and one has been dis- 
 charged. The Community now numbers seventy-six resident 
 and six non-resident members, twenty-two probationers, seventy- 
 nine family dependents, and fifty-two permitted residents. So 
 that the present population of Hopedale is two hundred and 
 twenty-nine persons. Among these we are happy in expressing 
 the belief that a good degree of harmony and fraternal feeling 
 prevails. We do not think that the Community for a long 
 time has exhibited a phase in which so much unity, kindliness 
 and good feeling has existed as at the present time. 
 
 " We think it proper to remind you in this connection that 
 we are not here in this Community as mere neighbors, dwell- 
 ing together for no other reason than because it is mutually 
 convenient. But we are here as a great family of brothers 
 and sisters, bound together by a common interest, pursuing 
 together a common end. And no one of us can suffer essen- 
 tially unless all suffer, neither can one of us do a wrong with- 
 
252 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 out all in a greater or less degree feeling the effect of that 
 wrong. And under these circumstances we ought always to 
 feel free to advise, counsel and admonish one another as 
 we would if bound together by the ties of consanguinity. 
 Indeed, we are bound together by a far holier tie ; even that 
 bond of spiritual union that embraces the entire Church of 
 the redeemed and unites them in the service of Him by whose 
 name they aspire to be called. 
 
 " What we all need, is to be quickened in Spirit, and as an 
 important means to the attainment of this end, we would 
 recommend to your special favor our Conference Meetings and 
 the Inductive Communion Meeting, together with all the oppor- 
 tunities of moral and religious improvement provided by the 
 Community; and that beside these you should not forget to 
 seek for divine illumination and strength by earnest prayers 
 made in the recesses of your own closets." 
 
 Officers for the year 1854 : EBENEZER D. DRAPER, Presi- 
 dent; MARY A. WALDEN, Recorder; DUDLEY B. CHAPMAN, 
 ANNA T. DRAPER, ANN E. FISH, WM. H. HUMPHREY, 
 ELIJAH S. MULLIKEN, Council; WM. S. HEYWOOD, ALMON 
 THWING, Jos. B. BANCROFT, ALONZO A. COOK, Directory; 
 LEMUEL MUNYAN, Treasurer; WM. H. FISH, CAROLINE M. 
 MAY, CATHARINE G. MUNYAN, NOYES S. WENTWORTH, 
 JEROME WILMARTH, Board of Education ; ALMIRA B. HUM- 
 PHREY, NANCY M. COOK, HENRY LILLIE, DAVID BEAL, 
 Relief Committee; ABNER ADAMS, Steward; WM. S. KEY- 
 WOOD, DUDLEY B. CHAPMAN, WM. W. COOK, SARAH B. 
 H. RICH, ANNA T. DRAPER, Promulgation Committee. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1854-1856. 
 
 SIGNS OF PROMISE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC 
 
 NEW COMMUNITIES THE FATAL ISSUE 
 
 THE INEVITABLE ACCEPTED. 
 
 nPHE Hopedale Community was now, at the opening of 
 --the year 1854, passing through the palmiest period of 
 its history. Nothing for a long time had transpired to 
 seriously disturb the on- flowing tide of its prosperous 
 career. Perplexing questions were, of course, continually 
 arising, to tax our mental energies and sometimes our 
 patience and our faith, as there were also differences of 
 opinion, personal grievances, clashing of interests, irrita- 
 tions of temper, outbursts of feeling, etc., showing that 
 we had not yet risen above the infirmities and faults of 
 our common human nature and were in no proper condi- 
 tion to boast, as individuals, of our superior, unexcep- 
 tionable moral and spiritual attainment. But these we 
 regarded as purely incidental matters as eddies in the 
 current grievous enough and regretful, to be sure, yet 
 not of serious and threatening moment not deep-seated 
 and virulent enough to worry or oppress us, or awaken 
 apprehensions of coming disaster and woe. We felt, too, 
 that they were sufficiently under the ban of both the 
 private and public conscience, were sufficiently held in 
 check, restricted, and watched by our Council and the 
 guardians of our virtue and peace generally, and suffi- 
 ciently subordinated to our distinctive principles, to the 
 prevailing morality of the place, and to the influence of 
 
254 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 our religious teachers, to be not only comparatively harm- 
 less for the time, but to be gradually disappearing from 
 our borders. So, despite our minor imperfections and 
 defects, we were hopeful as never before and more expect- 
 ant than ever before of good and happiness to our kind 
 through the movement of w r hich we deemed ourselves the 
 especial guardians, prophets, and apostles, called of God 
 to the position we occupied and to the work we had 
 undertaken to do. Of the thriving, perhaps I may say, 
 felicitous condition of affairs with ~us at this time, no 
 better idea can be given than by copying a few extracts 
 from contemporaneous articles, entitled "Local Intelli- 
 gence," appearing in our organ over the signature of 
 W. S. H, (William S. Hey wood). 
 
 "The condition and prospects of the Community in all out- 
 ward concerns is as favorable and promising as has been the 
 case at any former period of its history. There have been no 
 recent withdrawals from our membership. Quite a number of 
 probationers are residing on our domain, some of whom are 
 nearly or wholly ready to be presented for admission to our 
 fraternity, and will no doubt ere long be welcomed there. 
 Besides, numerous families now abroad in the world are wait- 
 ing with expectant hearts for an opportunity to locate in our 
 midst and unite their energies and resources with ours in the 
 endeavor to realize a new and divine social order. There is 
 no lack of numbers, here and elsewhere, who profess to be 
 prepared to help on by their means, efforts, and personal 
 influence, our work. There is nothing to fear on that account. 
 The occasion for apprehension has been and is, not that the 
 Community will die or suffer from want of men and women 
 to unite with and support it, but rather for want of those of 
 the right kind to be co-laborers in it. And special care, watch- 
 fulness and anxiety are now arid will always be needed in 
 respect to that matter." 
 
 " The general external appearance of the village is improv- 
 ing from year to year. New dwellings are going up; new 
 streets being opened ; new sidewalks laid ; new house-lots taken 
 up and cultivated; fruit and ornamental trees appear along 
 the public ways, in private gardens, and on the general domain; 
 
CURRENT EVENTS IN THE SPRING OF 1854. 255 
 
 shrubbery and flowers are constantly increasing in amount and 
 beauty around family residences; the public square is gradually 
 assuming a more pleasing aspect, preparatory to the erection 
 of a more commodious and imposing Chapel than we now have 
 and the laying out of lawns, walks, avenues, terraces, etc., 
 all these things, contributing to the loveliness and charm of 
 our beloved Dale, are receiving a due share of attention. 
 Cellars are already dug and foundations are going in for two 
 new cottages, while plans are in preparation for two others to 
 be erected this season." 
 
 " Aside from these, which are the work of individuals, the 
 Community is about building a large barn, eighty feet long 
 by forty wide with twenty-two feet posts, mainly for the use 
 of the department of Agriculture. When it shall be ready for 
 occupancy, the old barns will be devoted exclusively to the needs 
 of the Tran sportation, Livery, Horticultural, and other Branches 
 that can profitably use them." " In addition to this, it is deter- 
 mined to enlarge the building hitherto assigned to school, 
 chapel, and other purposes of a public nature. An extension 
 of some twenty feet is proposed, to be so arranged internally 
 as to have two rooms for schools, with folding doors between 
 that can be thrown open when occasion requires, making a 
 commodious auditorium for larger gatherings." 
 
 " The various Industrial Departments are prosecuting their 
 several distinctive activities with a good degree of attention 
 and vigor. In many of them the demands are even greater 
 than can be answered without overtasking the employes. The 
 Agricultural Branch is in a remarkably prosperous and hope- 
 ful state. The Orcharding Branch has had a good run of 
 business in its nursery, which is stocked with a large number 
 and variety of fruit, shade, and ornamental trees, shrubbery, 
 etc., including an extensive assortment of flowers and foliage 
 plants. Horticulture has some eight acres in garden vegetables, 
 and will soon be running a wagon to the neighboring town of 
 Milford, where a ready market can be found for all it can 
 produce. The Machine Branch, which manufactures hatchets, 
 picks and similar implements, together with power-loom tem- 
 ples, boot lasting apparatus, etc., though not so well supplied 
 with advance orders as last season has thus far kept all its 
 operatives employed. The Soap-making business is brisk, and 
 Hopedale is getting quite a reputation for this kind of manu- 
 
256 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 facture. Boot and Shoe making is dull, but fortunately those- 
 formerly engaged in this calling are able to find and execute 
 other kinds of employment. The Box, Cabinet, and other 
 Branches belonging to the Community, are flourishing, and 
 promise a fair compensation to labor, above rents, expenses, 
 etc., besides an equitable return to the capital invested in 
 them." 
 
 "Notwithstanding the general industry of the Hopedalians, 
 and a devotion to business running almost to excess, there is 
 unusual attention given to Education, General Culture, Corre- 
 spondence, Moral and Religious Training, and the Nurture of 
 the Spiritual Life among us. I doubt whether any neighbor- 
 hood of the same population in the world furnishes so many 
 subscribers to newspapers, magazines, etc., as ours. Besides, 
 the P. C. exchanges, to the number of forty or fifty per week, 
 mostly of a religious or reformatory character, are distributed 
 among our different households. Nearly every family has a 
 liberal supply of books of its own, supplemented by the Public 
 Library containing six or seven hundred volumes, which is 
 opened every week to applicants, and well patronized. Our 
 regular School Year is of forty weeks' duration, while, during 
 the Fall and Winter seasons, classes are formed by those not 
 in the school for the acquisition of useful knowledge or for 
 private instruction in some special lines of study. Our Lyceum, 
 which is required by the enactment establishing it to meet 
 every Tuesday evening for six months in the year and once a 
 month for the remainder, has, for awhile past, given way to a 
 Singing School, under the direction of one of our probationers. 
 For moral and religious edification and nurture we have two 
 regular meetings on the first day of the week, at each of which 
 a discourse is usually delivered, with accompanying exercises 
 of devotion and praise, perfect freedom of utterance being 
 maintained for all present, whether agreeing with or dissenting 
 from the regular speaker. Also, a Thursday evening Confer- 
 ence for mutual improvement in spiritual things, a Monday 
 evening meeting for young people presided over by Brother 
 Ballou, and a monthly Sunday evening meeting for admonitory 
 and disciplinary purposes, under the supervision of the Council 
 of Religion, Conciliation, and Justice." 
 
 So much for the state of things within our own borders 
 in relation to the special work in which we were engaged 
 
THE GENERAL OUTLOOK ENCOURAGING. 257 
 
 and to the cause of Christian Socialism. Nor was the 
 wider outlook upon the world around, and especially upon 
 the world of general Reform and Moral Progress, less 
 auspicious and inspiring. To be sure, a considerable 
 number of social experiments which commenced operations 
 about the time of our locating at Hopedale or soon after, 
 ward had come to irretrievable disaster, so that the 
 places that once knew them knew them no more ; to be 
 sure, there was still abroad the same deep-seated and 
 contumelious distrust of all forms of Associationism 
 the same indifference or hostility to all radical, uncom- 
 promising, high-principled methods of bringing the king- 
 dom of God into the world among the dignitaries and 
 acknowledged leaders in both Church and State; and yet 
 there were on all sides signs of promise to the friends of 
 Social Reform, and from diverse directions light streamed 
 in through the dark, chronic conservatism of the day. 
 A few particulars warranting such a statement may be 
 noted. 
 
 In the New York Independent of Feb. 16, 1854, an 
 Orthodox Cougregationalist paper of distinctively progress- 
 ive tendencies and aspirations, appeared an article under 
 the caption of " Christian Colonies in the West," in which 
 the essential principles of Christian Socialism were stated 
 and urged much in the same fashion and for the same 
 reasons that we had stated and urged them from the 
 beginning. After descanting upon the kind of persons 
 needed in those portions of our common country lying 
 mostly beyond the Mississippi River to restore to their 
 former allegiance " thousands of families lost to the 
 Church by removal," to save " the once fair and flourish- 
 ing professor who is seen relapsing in his principles, and 
 with perverted taste conforming to the irreligious habits 
 of frontier life," to stay the tide of demoralization sweep- 
 ing over that fair and fertile region, and build up on 
 sure foundations a Christian civilization there after 
 
 17 
 
258 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 affirming that a high-minded, noble- hearted, consecrated 
 class of people should emigrate to those far-off latitudes, 
 the question of the manner of their going was considered 
 at considerable length, indicating the extent to which the 
 socialistic idea had taken possession of the author's mind 
 and heart. Mark his words : 
 
 "How then should such persons (as he had described) go 
 West? Observation in the West, and a careful study of the 
 whole question prompts this answer: In companies, with per- 
 sons of congenial, moral, and religious sentiments, embracing 
 mechanics and others of pecuniary ability to make the school 
 and the church paramount institutions from the outset. To 
 name the reasons for this opinion is enough. It will contribute 
 to the protection of those emigrating." "If it be said that 
 the Christian should be a light everywhere and as leaven 
 among the ungodly, the position will not be denied; but the 
 facts are, the few yield to the many, and a single Christian 
 family or a few poor families can effect little in a community 
 where there is a strong pre-organized irreligious sentiment. 
 A weak "society may be formed with the best of principles, 
 but, from its pecuniary dependence, only be led and perverted 
 by designing men to the dishonor of religion, thus, as numer- 
 ous localities evidence, inflicting a blow on a given denomina- 
 tion from which it will require years to recover." 
 
 " Organized emigration becomes a Christian duty if a new 
 home is sought." " Fitful, chance lights on the shore will not 
 suffice in the nights of darkness and storm; no more will 
 single Christians, mostly poor, and of necessity secular in their 
 pursuits, scattered through the West, effect that which requires 
 to be done by a combination of influence. If Christians, then, 
 would unite to this end, ' the solitary place would be glad for 
 them,' and the report would go out through the land, * there 
 are profits of godliness and conquests for Christ.' " 
 
 " There are social and material bearings of this question 
 which deserve a brief mention. We are made for society; but 
 society is not ' got up to order ' like a military company for 
 an emergency. Persons of the same faith, with a common aim 
 and a free will, embarking together, will find a variety of 
 pleasing correspondences in a new home where all are called 
 to the same trials and inspired by kindred hopes. Construct- 
 
DRIFT OF HUMANITARIAN THOUGHT. 259 
 
 ing a social and religious fabric, and not complaining over 
 that which cannot be remedied, is the proper employment, and 
 contributes to real affinity, happiness and strength of charac- 
 ter." "The economies of the question are evident." 
 
 These passages are but samples of what was appearing 
 with increasing frequency at that time in the more pro- 
 gressive and reformatory publications of the land. They 
 indicated a growing conviction in many directions of the 
 insufficiency of the hitherto employed methods of alleviating 
 the woes of mankind and bringing in the reign of right- 
 eousness, and of the need of a radical change in that 
 regard of some more comprehensive and unitary move- 
 ment for human elevation and happiness than either the 
 church or reformers generally had yet devised of some- 
 thing indeed quite like what we were endeavoring to make 
 a factor in the affairs of men at Hopedale. To our 
 minds they were proofs that the drift of the better thought 
 of the age of the deepening humanitarian spirit that 
 was abroad was towards a reorganization of the entire 
 social fabric, and we rejoiced and took courage, and 
 pressed forward with new heart and hope in our work. 
 
 Nor were these the only tokens of a widely growing 
 interest in the cause we held so dear the only gleams 
 of light shining out through the rifts of selfishness and 
 sin to illumine our pathway and give us good cheer. The 
 pulpit in certain directions began to utter itself in the 
 same behalf, and to bear testimony to the glaring defects 
 of the existing social system, though it rarely proposed 
 any remedy save that of a slow outgrowth, produced by 
 a wider diffusion and application of the principles and 
 spirit of the Gospel to human life through individual 
 responsibility and agency, like leaven, leavening, in the 
 process of time, the whole lump of humanity. Neverthe- 
 less, there were a few instances of clergymen who, pene- 
 trating more deeply into the causes of human ill and 
 comprehending more fully the remedy, openly and boldly 
 
260 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 announced and defended the essential principles of Social 
 Reform, or commended the efforts and sacrifices of those 
 engaged in applying those principles practically to the 
 manifold relations and activities of life. One of these, 
 Rev. J. S. Dennis, a Uuiversalist minister, in a sermon 
 upon "The State of the Times," after depicting the dis- 
 abilities, the evils, and miseries pertaining to the existing 
 order of society, proceeded to affirm that the only sure 
 remedy for such a state of things ' ' lies in the adoption 
 of such social and industrial arrangements as will do for- 
 ever away our fierce competitions and strifes, and secure 
 to the laborer the certain and full reward of his toil ; 
 such arrangements as will preclude the possibility of any 
 becoming immensely rich while multitudes are held in 
 degrading poverty; such arrangements as will cause the 
 wealth that industry produces to flow equally to all and 
 secure to all a certain and never-failing abundance."" 
 He then adds : 
 
 "Do not let it be said that this state of things cannot be 
 realized and that most easily. Above all let it not be said by 
 any one who has studied the sublime principles of the Chris- 
 tian Religion. When the lofty meaning of these principles 
 is understood, there will be no doubt of what I have been 
 asserting. When Christianity shall have been made practical, 
 in the manner in which a noble Christian man whose name I 
 delight to mention here to-day is endeavoring to make it 
 practical, then truly the ills of our present social life will be 
 removed. 
 
 " * And poverty and wealth, the thirst of fame, 
 
 The fear of infamy, disease, and woe, 
 War, with its million horrors and fierce wrong, 
 Shall live but in the memory of time.' 
 
 "I refer to Rev. Adin Ballou, who, with a few kindred 
 spirits, is working out at their Community at Hopedale the 
 problem of unity and harmony in labor, by which man is to 
 be led from want and misery to the blessings of abundance 
 and to happiness." 
 
PROPOSALS FOR NEW COMMUNITIES. 261 
 
 In closing his discourse the preacher exhorted his 
 hearers to give the subject he had discussed serious 
 consideration, for " in it," he said, " is contained the 
 wisdom that hereafter shall work our social regeneration 
 tind restore the lost Eden." In calling the attention of 
 the readers of The Practical Christian to this sermon 
 which was published in its columns I said : " I hope 
 we shall hear from him (the author) often. It greatly 
 encourages us to see the flower of the progressive min- 
 istry in various religious denominations advancing into 
 the field of Christian Socialism. There is an elect host 
 of them gradually ripening for the advocacy of this great, 
 comprehensive and crowning reform." 
 
 Facts like these, continually occurring, could not but 
 make a very decided impression upon the minds and 
 hearts of all our more thoughtful and aspiring members, 
 find the friends of Social Reform generally. Moreover, 
 letters from far and near were multiplying expressing 
 faith in our distinctive principles and methods of uplift- 
 ing, harmonizing, and blessing in many respects, our 
 fellowmeu ; and repeated offers of lands and moneys were 
 made to us in aid of movements kindred to our own that 
 we or others might be moved to inaugurate. I have 
 already referred to a proposition coming from the state 
 of Pennsylvania, in which the writer was willing to put 
 a thousand dollars into a Community enterprise and 
 furnish seven hundred acres of land possessing unusual 
 capabilities and resources at a merely nominal price. 
 Another from the fertile areas of Wisconsin tendered the 
 gift of a hundred acres and personal co-operation for the 
 same purpose. A third interested party in Ohio would 
 invest his entire property lauds, mills, etc., worth some 
 eight or ten thousand dollars in a Community if one 
 could be started where he resided. 
 
 These and other considerations, added to my own never- 
 tiring ambition and desire and the prevailing prosperity 
 
262 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 of Hopedale affairs, induced me to undertake the elabora- 
 tion and consummation of a scheme which I had for a 
 long time contemplated. This was nothing less than the 
 formation of a plan for a communal confederacy for 
 the development of a grand system of society, which 
 should bring the various kinds of Community that might 
 be established agreeably to its provisions into close affili- 
 ation and helpful co-operation with each other, as agencies 
 in promoting the economical, industrial, domestic, social,, 
 moral, and spiritual well-being of the children of men. 
 This I was able to bring to a satisfactory conclusion) 
 during the spring of 1854, in the production of a form 
 of organization and government for such a union or con- 
 federacy under the title of A Constitution of The Practi- 
 cal Christian Republic. The Document was submitted to 
 my brethren for examination, criticism, emendation, and 
 perfecting, at a meeting held for that purpose May 7 r 
 and, after long and patient consideration resulting in 
 sundry alterations and amendments, was approved and 
 adopted by a practically unanimous vote. 
 
 By this action of the Community a well-defined public 
 policy and the line of confidently expected progress for 
 the future were clearly sketched and authoritatively pre- 
 scribed. The accepted Constitution was formed on the 
 most comprehensive and inclusive plan, making provision 
 for a wide diversity of methods and activities in the 
 direction of social reconstruction. It granted the right 
 and privilege of forming, as conviction, inclination, or 
 circumstances might suggest and allow, four different 
 kinds of Fraternal Associations under the same general 
 head and as co-equal constituent parts of the same great 
 system, to be denominated, respectively, Parochial, Rural,. 
 Joint-Stock, and Common-Stock Communities. All the 
 needful details of organization and administration pertain- 
 ing to each of these were set forth in due form according 
 to the light I then had and to the best of my ability. 
 
TRUE SYSTEM OF HUMAN SOCIETY. 263 
 
 An unabridged copy of this document will appear in the 
 Appendix of this volume, and to that the reader is 
 referred for further knowledge of its nature and purpose. 
 Another important and laborious achievement of the 
 year 1854 in the interest of the cause with which our 
 Hopedale undertaking was identified and for the further- 
 ance of which we were devoting time, effort, money, 
 energy, all we had of executive power and skill, is 
 briefly delineated on pages 391, 392 of my Autobiography, 
 from which I venture to copy herein a single paragraph 
 as serving sufficiently the ends I have now in view. 
 
 " This (the framing and adoption of the Constitution of the 
 Practical Christian Republic) being accomplished, I felt the 
 importance, as it was sent out into the world, of having it 
 accompanied with some explanation or elucidation of its dis- 
 tinctive characteristics and methods of operation; and this 
 feeling grew upon me until I resolved upon preparing and 
 having published a complete exposition of what I deemed the 
 true system of human society, comparing it carefully with the 
 prevailing system and with certain proposed new ones that 
 were claiming the attention of philanthropists and reformers 
 in both our own and foreign lands. I then addressed myself 
 to the assigned task, devoting my time and strength, so far as 
 they were not demanded by more urgent duties, for several 
 months to the preparation of such a work. As a result there 
 issued from our Community press towards the end of 1854, an 
 octavo volume of six hundred and fifty-five pages, entitled, 
 PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM: A Conversational Exposition 
 of the True System of Human Society. In Three Parts, viz. : 
 I. Fundamental Principles; II. Constitutional Polity; III. Supe- 
 riority to Other Systems." 
 
 Under the circumstances indicated on the foregoing 
 pages it was most natural and legitimate that the spirit 
 of propagandism a determination to enlarge the field of 
 our missionary operations a purpose to expand our work 
 even to the extent of taking possession of new localities 
 and of founding therein new communities, should be 
 
264 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 engendered among us and prompt us to definite action in 
 regard thereto. After the adoption of the Constitution 
 of the Practical Christian Republic by the Community 
 and subsequently by our Quarterly Conferenc^ at West 
 Wrentham on the 25th of June, a leading subject of 
 discussion among us was, What shall we now do to carry 
 forward this Social Reform movement in the world at 
 large ; to make its merits known and to give it increased 
 power as an effective means of redemption to mankind? 
 At a meeting of the Conference held at Hopedale Sept. 
 16 and 17, it was 
 
 "Resolved, That the time has now come for this Conference 
 to institute and put in operation an efficient system of pro- 
 mulgation, and the Executive Council are hereby instructed to 
 prepare and present to the next Quarterly Meeting of this 
 body a draft of some definite plan for consideration and action." 
 
 At the same meeting Wm. S. Hey wood delivered a 
 "Discourse suggestive of efficient measures for proclaim- 
 ing The Practical Christian Republic, disseminating its 
 principles, and promoting its expansion," and Adin Bal- 
 lon one in exposition of the said Republic, in its objects, 
 principles, and polity, and of its claims upon all who 
 accept the Religion of the New Testament. 
 
 Pursuant to the action of the Conference and in illus- 
 tration of the spirit that animated it, one thousand dollars 
 were pledged to the prosecution of the proposed work for 
 the coming year, provided an efficient system of mission- 
 ary operations could be established as contemplated. At 
 the next meeting the Executive Council reported that 
 several tracts relating to the work in hand had been 
 published arid were ready for distribution, but that 
 endeavors to put lecturers into the field had not been 
 crowned with success. 
 
 Meanwhile, under the inspiration of the times, I had 
 made announcement that I intended to devote myself 
 
/fJRSITY 
 
 WESTERN COLONIZATION. 
 
 thereafter (so far as domestic duties, health, strength, 
 opportunity, and Divine Providence permit) to the Expan- 
 sion and Consolidation of The Practical Christian Repub- 
 lic, entering the field as a determined advocate of the 
 New Order of Society, my plans and methods of opera- 
 tion being in a general way outlined. 
 
 Under the same inspiration the subject of Western 
 Colonization began to be agitated in our borders, as it 
 was being agitated in other localities, near and far away. 
 Bro. Wm. H. Fish became deeply interested in the matter 
 as one that commended itself to our people on the ground 
 that it opened to us a way in which we could advance 
 our peculiar work and make our influence felt more widely 
 for good among our fellowmen. In several articles pub- 
 lished in The Practical Christian during the autumn of 
 1854 and afterward, he enumerated the advantages to be 
 derived from such colonization to those engaging in it, 
 and the benefits that might accrue to humanity thereby. 
 He made a special appeal to those interested in the cause 
 of Social Reform and besought a favorable response. In 
 the issue of our paper for November 4, he states the 
 case and urges his plea thus : 
 
 "It has long been a favorite idea of mine, and I think of 
 the leading members of the Hopedale Community, to have 
 some of God's acres in the far West redeemed from the curses 
 of present civilization and devoted to the purpose of realizing 
 upon them a more fraternal and Christian order of social life. 
 And it would gladden my heart to know that something was 
 being done to secure permanently that result. If I could aid 
 such an undertaking in no other way, it should have my good 
 will and my word of encouragement and hope. I doubt not 
 that the right sort of persons, with right principles, though 
 with moderate means, might in a few years attain to such a 
 position of prosperity, excellence, harmony and happiness, 
 as to receive the respect and commendation of all decently 
 worthy beholders, and to teach by a living example and with 
 powerful effect a more excellent way of life in its various 
 
266 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY 
 
 relations. The time, I believe, is not far distant when this 
 Community or the Hopedale Quarterly Conference will take 
 specific action in this direction." 
 
 The subject discussed in the foregoing paragraph was- 
 kept before the readers of our paper and the public at 
 large by successive articles from the same pen and from 
 the pen of others during the following two years. Unprec- 
 edented interest was awakened in different 'directions and 
 meetings of friends of the Western movement were held 
 for the purpose of urging its claims, enlisting recruits for 
 its service, and devising ways and means of securing its 
 actualization. At one held in Millville early in 1855, 
 which was largely attended, an advance was determined 
 upon, an organization effected, a Constitution adopted, 
 and two agents appointed to visit the West for the pur- 
 pose of selecting a location and making needful prepara- 
 tions for occupying it. Iowa, Minnesota, and perhaps 
 Kansas and other states were to be visited in the search 
 for the most desirable section in which to make a begin- 
 ning. Some twenty or thirty families were said to be 
 ready for immediate emigration, while letters from friends 
 in the West itself gave assurances that goodly numbers 
 there would gladly join the movement as soon as it should 
 begin practical operations, and aid in carrying it forward 
 to a successful issue. The outcome of all this agitation 
 and action will be reported on a succeeding page. 
 
 Celebration of West India Emancipation. It was our 
 custom at Hopedale, as radical Abolitionists, to celebrate 
 from year to year the Anniversary of the Emancipation 
 of 800,000 slaves in the British West Indies ; an event 
 which took place by a decree of the English Government 
 on the 1st of August, 1834. This was done on the year 
 in review in a pleasant grove near the southerly borders 
 of our domain, half a mile from the central part of our 
 village. It was estimated that an audience of about eight 
 
CELEBRATION OF W. I. EMANCIPATION. 267 
 
 hundred persons was in regular attendance upon the 
 exercises and that not less than a thousand visited the 
 grounds during the day. Besides speakers of our own, 
 Adin Ballou, Wm. H. Fish, and Wm. S. Heywood, there 
 were present from outside, Rev. James T. Woodbury of 
 Milford, Rev. Robert Hassell of Mention, Rev. John Boy- 
 den of Woonsocket, R. I., Rev. Geo. S. Ball of Upton, 
 Rev. Daniel S. Whitney of Southboro', and those well- 
 known redoubtable champions of Impartial Liberty, Henry 
 C. Wright and Charles C. Burleigh. There was also with 
 us a remarkable colored woman, once a slave in the State 
 of New York, Sojourner Truth, whose impassioned utter- 
 ances on the occasion were like the fiery outbursts of 
 some ancient prophet of God " lifting up his voice like 
 a trumpet and showing the people their transgressions 
 and the house of Jacob their sins." The general tone of 
 the meeting and the nature of the testimonies given may 
 be inferred from one of the seven resolutions passed, 
 which, in view of what afterward transpired, seems like 
 a veritable prophecy written by inspiration from on high, 
 as evidenced by its reproduction here : 
 
 "Resolved, That the celebration of this day naturally turns 
 our eyes to the horrible abominations of American slavery 
 and inspires us with fearful forebodings of the tremendous 
 retribution which our professedly Republican nation is treas- 
 uring up for itself by obstinately persisting in the perpetration 
 of its unparalleled crimes against God and humanity; that 
 we abhor and deplore the brazen impudence with which its 
 government justifies the wickedness of enslaving millions of 
 beings confessedly endowed with uualienable human rights; 
 that we behold in its merciless Fugitive Slave Laws, in its 
 insatiable ambition to extend the ravages of slavery into new 
 territories, in its daily declension from all its former professed 
 love of liberty, in its utter contempt of British emancipation, 
 in the recklessness of its aspiring politiciaus, in the subservi- 
 ency of all its departments to the dictation of slaveholders, in 
 its constitutional, inherent, habitual, confirmed, and inveterate 
 
"268 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 pro-slavery tendencies, unmistakable evidence that it is ripen- 
 ing for some terrible convulsion some overwhelming visita- 
 tion of calamity, in which the whole nation must inevitably 
 .share." 
 
 Hopedale Home School. During this year 1854 plans 
 were elaborated and put into execution for the establish- 
 ment within our borders of a private Boarding and Day 
 School which should provide tuition in all the various 
 branches of study that range from the first lessons for 
 juveniles to those requisite for admission to the college 
 and other educational institutions of equal grade. It was 
 also designed that in connection with this scholastic train- 
 ing the pupil should be taught the laws of health, in order 
 that a symmetrical development of the body be secured; 
 also the conditions and laws of moral and spiritual life, 
 so that the roots of selfishness and sin should be elimi- 
 nated from the nature of the child, and all the higher 
 faculties of the soul be nurtured and inspired, to the end 
 that he become amiable, kind, and loving to his fellow- 
 creatures and grateful and obedient to our Father in 
 heaven. And this was to be accomplished under influ- 
 ences and amid surroundings which would in no wise 
 hinder but help the attainment of the contemplated object. 
 The active agents in this new and praiseworthy enterprise 
 were Mr. and Mrs. Morgan L. Bloom, a young couple 
 from New York City, well-fitted for the work by native 
 endowment, scholastic training, refined manners, and a 
 restless ambition to make themselves useful in the world 
 and help bring a better kingdom in. 
 
 The institution opened as a juvenile and rudimental 
 Seminary in October, 1854, furnishing instruction only of 
 an elementary character, but taking on its higher phases 
 and more complete form the following spring, its curricu- 
 lum including not only the studies usually belonging to a 
 regular academic course, but also the Elements of Agricul- 
 ture, Book-keeping, Vocal and Instrumental Music, Drawing 
 
ANNUAL COMMUNITY MEETING. 
 
 and Painting, etc. It was the initiative of what afterward 
 became a somewhat notable educational instrumentality in 
 Hopedale and vicinity and throughout the reformatory 
 public under the superinteudency of Wm. S. and Abbie 
 B. Hey wood, continuing in operation about eight years, 
 acquiring for itself an enviable reputation for scholarship, 
 effective service, and moral standing, and leaving behind 
 it, when by reason of the breaking out of the Civil War 
 it was finally given up, a grateful and enduring memory. 
 
 FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 
 
 The Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Community wa& 
 held at the Chapel Jan. 10, 1855. Wm. S. Heywood 
 was chosen Moderator, and Helen L. Mullikeu, Secretary 
 pro tern. After an invocation of the divine blessing and 
 the transaction of a few items of incidental business, the 
 President, Ebenezer D. Draper, delivered an address 
 embodying a general statement of the moral, social, and 
 industrial standing of the Community, with such supple- 
 mentary suggestions and recommendations as seemed to 
 him wise and necessary to healthful progress and perma- 
 nent prosperity. 
 
 The Annual Report of the Treasurer was presented > 
 accompanied by corroborative and explanatory statements 
 from the Managers of the several branches of industry 
 in the order named : Post Office, Livery, Transportation, 
 Agriculture, Box-Making, Soap and Candle Factory, Boot 
 and Shoe Manufacture, Painting, Machine Business, Horti- 
 culture, Orcharding, Printing, Grist Mill, Cabinet Shop. 
 From that Report it appeared that the whole amount of 
 Community property, Dec. 31, 1854, was $60,441.08; of 
 liabilities $59,090.87. There was, therefore, left to pay 
 dividends, $1,350.21. Adding to this the sum of the 
 deficits for 1852 and 1853, $471.23, which had been 
 cancelled during the last year, and it made the net profits 
 on the operations of 1854, $1,821.44. Deducting the 
 
270 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 amount of dividends on the Joint-Stock, $1,574.00 and 
 there remained a final net gain over all expenses and 
 obligations of $247.44 a sum which, though small, was 
 larger than ever existed before. 
 
 From the statements of the Managers it appeared that 
 the amount paid for labor within the jurisdiction of the 
 Community was $18,341.68. Of this, residents on our 
 territory received $15,090.50; non-residents, $3,251.18. 
 The amount paid for labor on individual account was 
 $3,039.00. Of this sum, there went to residents, $1,320.00 ; 
 to non-residents, $1,719.00. The entire amount there- 
 fore, paid for labor within our proper boundaries was 
 $21,380.68; to residents, $16,410.50; to non-residents, 
 $4,970.18. By this showing it was made evident that 
 from a financial point of view the year 1854 had been 
 advantageous to all concerned to the employed, who 
 had received satisfactory compensation for their services, 
 and to the Community, which, out of the proceeds of 
 its industrial activities, had paid all its expenses, met all 
 its obligations, returned the stipulated four per cent, to its 
 stockholders, and was read} 7 to start out on another year 
 owing no man anything but love and goodwill. 
 
 The several Boards of Official Servants, the personnel . 
 of which differed little from year to year, were filled at 
 this meeting as detailed: E. D. DRAPER, President; ABBIE 
 J. SPALDING, Recorder ; ALMON THWING, WM. S. HEYWOOD, 
 JOSEPH B. BANCROFT, STEPHEN ALBEE, Directory ; WM. H. 
 HUMPHREY, ANN E. FISH, E. S. MULLIKEN, LUCY H. 
 BALLOU, SARAH B. HOLBROOK, JOHN LOWELL HEYWOOD, 
 Council; LEMUEL MUNYAN, Treasurer; WM. H. FISH, 
 NOYES S. WENTWORTH, CATHARINE G. MUNYAN, Board of 
 Education; ALMIRA B. HUMPHREY, WM. W. COOK, ANNA 
 T. DRAPER, HENRY LILLIE, Relief Committee; WM. S. 
 HEYWOOD, ANNA T. DRAPER, WM. H. FISH, HELEN L. 
 MULLIKEN, SYLVIA W. BANCROFT, Committee of Promulga- 
 tion; ABNER ADAMS, Steward. 
 
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 271 
 
 A few extracts from the Address of the President may 
 not be out of place in this connection. It is significant 
 as showing how unreservedly he at the time felt himself 
 committed to the cause which the Community represented, 
 and how unwavering was his faith in the ultimate triumph 
 of that cause as a regenerating agency in the world of 
 mankind. 
 
 "Beloved Associates: We come together to-day, all things 
 considered, under favorable circumstances. I think we are as 
 united and harmonious in our various relations as ever before 
 and that there is a growing interest in the welfare and suc- 
 cess of our holy enterprise. I have reason to believe that on 
 the whole selfishness is decreasing, and that the experience we 
 have had is drawing us nearer and nearer to each other in 
 the bonds of a true Christian Fraternity, where brotherly love 
 shall more and more abound. Still we have many imperfections 
 to outgrow and great progress to make before reaching that 
 condition of individual and social excellence which our divine 
 principles are capable of superinducing in our hearts and lives. 
 May we now and ever seek the aid of our Heavenly Father 
 the aid which we must have in order to fulfill the duties incum- 
 bent upon us as members of this Community." 
 
 " The present crisis in financial aifairs around us, compelling 
 business men and men of wealth to pay 18, 20 and even 30 per 
 cent, for money, suspending industrial operations, throwing 
 hundreds into bankruptcy and thousands out of employment, 
 suggests to us the importance of looking about us and of 
 ascertaining, if possible, the causes of this state of things. 
 And especially are we reminded of the necessity of looking 
 at home, to see if we cannot improve our condition by more 
 labor, more economy, and by more knowledge of the things in 
 w hich the financial success of an individual and of a Commu- 
 nity consists. I think the meetings held of late to discuss 
 matters relating to expenditures and modes of living, and to 
 consider the obligations of the Community to the individual 
 and of the individual to the Community, have been and will 
 be productive of much good. I am glad to see the improve- 
 ment there is in the spirit which prevails at such meetings; 
 that it is more fraternal and Christian. When we can come 
 together and talk plainly concerning what we shall eat, drink, 
 
272 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 and wear talk of economizing in a way that shall be under- 
 stood by those at fault, and all preserve a loving disposition 
 and maintain a proper self-control, I think it speaks much 
 for our good. May we ever be wise in what we say and in 
 what we hear." 
 
 "May we learn wisdom by the experiences we are passing 
 through as we labor together here in the great cause of Social 
 Reform. May we be faithful to our high calling. As for me 
 and my house, we have enlisted for life, and I thank God that 
 he called me so early into the work and that he has blessed 
 me with means to help it forward. That I may be more 
 worthy of it and more worthy of your love and confidence, is 
 the prayer of your friend and brother. 
 
 "E. D. DRAPER." 
 
 Brief extracts from the Report of the Board of Educa- 
 tion are introduced to show what provision was made by 
 us during those busy, responsible years for the proper 
 intellectual and scholastic training and nurture of our 
 children and youth, such training and nurture being 
 always accompanied by sedulous care for their moral and 
 spiritual well-being. 
 
 "Our school has not been open as many months the past 
 year as it ordinarily is, in consequence of the remodeling of 
 the building in which it has been kept; but it has, neverthe- 
 less, been making a commendable and encouraging improve- 
 ment, both in education and deportment. It has been divided 
 within the year into two departments, Mrs. Abbie S. Heywood 
 having charge of the older and more advanced pupils, and 
 Mrs. Helen L. Mulliken, the care of the younger ones. The 
 former has been the teacher for several years and stands 
 deservedly high among us for her varied qualifications for her 
 work; and the latter though comparatively a new teacher is 
 doing remarkably well and giving general satisfaction. They 
 receive their remuneration from the school appropriation of 
 the town of Milford for a part of the year, and from the 
 Community for the remainder; the town and town's committee- 
 always seeming to be disposed to do full justice to us." 
 
 " There was a brief season when we did not get back any of 
 our taxes in this way ; but now that an understanding is estab- 
 lished between us, we anticipate only satisfaction and harmony^" 
 
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 273 
 
 " The division of our school before referred to has worked 
 well and has fully compensated for the extra cost consequent 
 upon it. Our educational facilities and prospects were never 
 before so good. And with our greatly improved accommoda- 
 tions, with two such teachers as we have, teachers who are 
 well qualified for their chosen mission and deeply interested in 
 it it cannot be otherwise than that a more manifest improve- 
 ment than heretofore will be constantly made. We shall be 
 justified in expecting much and if visible progress is not real- 
 ized during the year upon which we have entered we shall 
 have sufficient cause for complaint. But whoever visits these 
 schools will, we confidently believe, find them speaking for 
 themselves and reflecting deserved honor upon the teachers, 
 the pupils and the Community." 
 
 " If parents and guardians do their duty, as we do not doubt 
 they will do according to their knowledge and ability, then 
 there will be nothing in the way of our yet having a ' model ' 
 school a school in which each pupil will be able to receive 
 the elements at least of that kind of education adapted to the 
 peculiar calling in life which he or she may select, whether 
 that of scholar, artist, mechanic, teacher, farmer, or whatever 
 other employment a man or woman can honorably engage in. 
 And gradually to create such a model school is our aim and 
 ambition, and we shall ultimately accomplish our object." 
 
 Under such flattering auspices as are indicated in the 
 foregoing pages, the Community once more entered upon 
 its annual career. All things conspired to invigorate our 
 purposes and aims, to fill our hearts with gladness and 
 gratitude, and to make us feel that our great humanitarian 
 venture had reached the "full tide of successful experi- 
 ment." Our activities, industrially and otherwise, as well 
 as our ambitious hopes, were multiplied and intensified, 
 and we pressed forward in our course with renewed and 
 unquestioning courage and zeal. Our faith seemed chang- 
 ing rapidly to sight; our victory drew near. 
 
 At a meeting held on the 7th of February, an Enact- 
 ment was passed providing for the creation of a Contingent 
 
 18 
 
274 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Fund by increased subscriptions to the Joint-Stock, the 
 design of which was to insure the more prompt, effective 
 and satisfactory conduct of the financial affairs of the 
 Community and of individuals connected with it, in the 
 carrying on of business, the payment of debts, and 
 the meeting of all claims of a pecuniary nature. It was 
 virtually the establishment of a sort of Bank of Exchange, 
 to be in charge of the Directory and Treasurer, from 
 which both the managers of Community industries and 
 private parties could draw, in any case of emergency or 
 special demand, for money with which to serve their 
 temporary needs and relieve them of anxieties and per- 
 plexities to which under ordinary circumstances they would 
 not only be liable but frequently subjected. It was 
 believed that this arrangement would contribute both to 
 business efficiency and ease, and to the general harmony 
 and contentment. 
 
 An industrial enterprise of the early part of the year 
 was the starting of a Book-bindery and Blank Book 
 Manufactory under Community auspices and with the 
 sanction of Community authorities. This establishment 
 was equipped with the best modern machinery and other 
 appliances for prosecuting the work to be done, and men 
 competent to use the same. Our faithful and trustworthy 
 brother, Lemuel Munyan, was chosen General Agent of 
 the company interested in it. 
 
 Our missionary operations, carried on with special refer- 
 ence to Community expansion, were considerably enlarged 
 and distributed over a continually widening area. I was 
 myself busy in the general neighborhood of Hopedale, 
 going hither and thither over a territoiy having a radius 
 of some forty or fifty miles, with occasional visits to 
 more distant localities, proclaiming the principles and 
 polity of the Practical Christian Republic, and preparing, 
 as I thought and believed, the way for its speedy upbuild- 
 ing on the earth. Rarely a Sunday passed, when I was 
 
MISSIONARY LABORS. 275 
 
 not by permanent arrangement at home, that I did not 
 hold two and frequently three services elsewhere, while 
 many week-day evenings were employed in lecturing, either 
 upon my distinctive chosen theme or subjects tributary 
 to it. As all roads in the ancient time led to Rome, so 
 in my philosophy and in my practice all specific moral 
 reforms were suggestive and helpful of Social Reform 
 pointed to and culminated in a new and divine order of 
 society. 
 
 At the same time Bro. Win. H. Fish was laboring 
 diligently and conscientiously in the same blessed behalf. 
 For a while we both occupied the same general field the 
 region round about home. But in the month of April, he 
 went out on a preaching and lecturing tour to the central 
 part of the state of New York, in execution of a plan 
 previously arranged and announced through the columns of 
 The Practical Christian. The paper had many subscribers 
 scattered here and there through that general region, and 
 these gave him, as he journeyed from place to place, most 
 hearty welcome, and provided facilities whereby he was 
 enabled to deliver his message to large numbers of people 
 interested in whatever proposed to ameliorate the condi- 
 tion of mankind and bring in a better future to the world. 
 He spent the greater part of the remainder of the year in 
 the section of country named, and his letters to our organ 
 bore abundant testimony to the unwavering fidelity and 
 tireless industry with which he proclaimed the gospel of the 
 new era to the children of men. He was occasionally wel- 
 comed to Unitarian and Universalist pulpits, as he was 
 to those of congregations which had seceeded from some 
 of the more popular denominations on account of their 
 complicity with American slave-holding and were main- 
 taining the institutions of religion under the name of 
 Christian Unionists the distinguished philanthropist and 
 statesman, Gerritt Smith, being prominent in the move- 
 ment. But much of his labor was performed in public 
 
276 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 balls or school-houses, and in the homes of people hospi- 
 table to progressive and reformatory ideas. 
 
 Just how life at Hopedale in those days appeared to 
 an outside observer may be gleaned from an editorial 
 published in The Wbonsocket Patriot in the month of 
 May, which reads as follows : 
 
 "Hopedale Community. On Tuesday we made a flying visit 
 to this home of Associated Industry located in the neighbor- 
 ing town of Milford. The village is one of the pleasantest in 
 this section of country, presenting an inviting, homelike aspect. 
 The pretty dwellings and their surroundings give evidence of 
 order and neatness ; while the inhabitants looked like pictures 
 of happy content. All were busy; we saw not an idler in the 
 village, notwithstanding the Community suffers, in common 
 with all of us, by the general dullness of the times. There 
 are sixteen branches of business carried on under Community 
 auspices, among them a printing office and three occupied mill 
 privileges. Of dwelling-houses there are forty-one, including 
 three concrete octagons. The presiding genius of this * Happy 
 Valley' is Adin Ballou, who has spent the prime of his man- 
 hood in efforts to practically demonstrate the advantages of 
 associated labor. He is a man of enlarged, philanthropic 
 views, guided by a clear head, and governed by principle. We 
 think he is not fully appreciated by the great world and 
 perhaps this is consequent upon his being shut up in his little- 
 world of 'Hopedale.'" 
 
 The matter of emigration to the West was kept con- 
 stantly in mind, forming a theme of frequent conversation 
 and discussion with us and our friends at home and 
 abroad, and entering more or less into the addresses of 
 our ministers and lecturers. It had come to be taken 
 for granted that new Communities were to be started 
 at an early day, under which assumption some of our 
 brethren who had the time and means visited the states 
 of Minnesota, Iowa, etc., in quest of a suitable location 
 for the same, though without any immediate definite 
 results. At a Conference held in Hopedale on June 9, 
 
PLANS FOR COLONIZATION MATURING. 277 
 
 our President, E. D. Draper, who had recently returned 
 from such an expedition, stated that while his search had 
 not, for various reasons, been as successful as he and 
 others had hoped, yet he felt that the time was near at 
 hand when a site for a settlement should be secured. 
 Through the columns of TJie Practical Christian its readers 
 and the interested public were kept advised in regard 
 to what was taking place respecting this contemplated 
 forward step of our general cause. In its issue of 
 June 30, one of our editors, over the signature of "H.," 
 referring to it, says: "As yet, but little has been 
 accomplished, either in the way of securing territory or 
 of bringing forward persons suitable in responsibility or 
 numbers for the undertaking. Nevertheless, it is quite 
 certain that another year will not roll round before a 
 domain will be obtained, either in Wisconsin or Iowa, 
 and consecrated to the Divine Kingdom." In that of 
 August 11, " W. H. F." says : " The project is not given 
 up and its prospects seem to us better than ever. Our 
 esteemed friend, David Campbell, of the New Lebanon 
 Springs Hydropathic Establishment, has taken great 
 interest in the matter, and, having three sons in Minne- 
 sota, has given us such information respecting that terri- 
 tory that we are now thinking seriously of going there, at 
 least to explore. Let not our friends, therefore, whose 
 faces are westward, despair, but be patient and hopeful 
 awhile longer. And let those who are in earnest to go 
 send us their names to record as prospective pioneers." 
 
 Six weeks later, the same writer, who believed 
 thoroughly in the movement and was its most active 
 promoter, was authorized to announce that " a Commu- 
 nity in Minnesota is a probable fact in the not distant 
 future. Two of our enterprising and excellent brothers, 
 George O. Hatch and Elijah S. Mulliken, young men, 
 both carpenters, are to start from Hopedale for the 
 above-named territory on the first day of October with a 
 
278 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 view of spying out the laud and finding a good place to 
 locate upon. They will probably spend the winter there 
 and therefore be able to give us accurate information 
 respecting that most dreaded season of so northern a 
 latitude. Some other friends will probably join them on 
 the way or follow them." 
 
 The immediate result of this initiative step was reported 
 November 1 7 as follows : 
 
 "It is with great satisfaction that we announce to our 
 friends abroad the success attending the explorations of Bros. 
 Hatch and Mulliken, who left Hopedale some weeks since for 
 the purpose of procuring and settling a domain for a new 
 Community in the great West Recent letters from them 
 inform us that they have succeeded in finding a location pos- 
 sessing almost every conceivable natural advantage desirable 
 for such an undertaking. Operations are to be commenced 
 immediately. They are providing themselves with equipments 
 for a winter's campaign in an entirely new territory twenty- 
 five or thirty miles away from any human settlement or habi- 
 tation. They are full of hope and zeal. Heaven prosper them. 
 
 " The place selected is now government laud and not yet in 
 the market. It can be obtained only under the U. S. Pre- 
 emption Law every actual settler claiming and holding 160 
 acres aud no more. It is desirable, therefore, that a goodly 
 number of persons join our friends as soon as practicable in 
 order to secure a large tract for the purposes in view. They 
 have accordingly called upon us for recruits. Several persons 
 will leave Hopedale on the 19th inst. in response, and it is 
 hoped that if there are any friends abroad favorable to this 
 new movement they will do what they can to aid it. It would 
 give all concerned great pleasure to have ten, fifteen, twenty, 
 or more good men true Reformers go out at this time and 
 take up "claims" with those from this place, holding them 
 for the general purposes of the enterprise, at least until they 
 can be secured by title deeds. What say you, friends? Those 
 who go should be willing to enter into a mutual obligation 
 whereby any certain portion or the whole of the land taken 
 up shall be hereafter devoted to Community uses if a majority 
 so decide, each individual being guaranteed a fair compensa- 
 
EXPERIENCES OF WESTERN COLONISTS. 279 
 
 tion for all improvements made by him previous to such 
 appropriation. Will any come to our aid? Now is the time 
 for action." 
 
 The party referred to in the above quotation as in 
 preparation for leaving Hopedale November 19 to join 
 the one which went before, bade farewell to friends there 
 as proposed, and hastened on their way as fast as rail- 
 car and steamer could carry them. It consisted of four 
 persons, thoroughly in earnest, looking forward with fond 
 expectation to meeting those who had preceded them, and 
 uniting with them in founding a new home for them- 
 selves and their dependants on the virgin soil of the 
 Minnesota prairies, so full of promise to the industrious 
 and skillful husbandman. They hoped to reach their place 
 of destination before cold weather should impede trans- 
 portation or hinder them seriously in getting established 
 in comfortable winter quarters. They confidently expected 
 that their forerunners would have at least one cabin 
 erected, a supply of provisions on hand, and other neces- 
 saries for their protection and sustenance until they should 
 be able to make ample provision in these regards for 
 themselves. But all phases of human life have their 
 difficulties, disappointments, and reverses, and a pioneer 
 experience, beyond the sound of human habitation, in an 
 unexplored region, with a bitter winter coming on, is not 
 without its full share of them, as the sequel in this case 
 fully showed. 
 
 It is sufficient for the present to state that the plans 
 and efforts of these resolute, high-purposed emigrants, 
 going forth from their pleasant, cheerful, well-furnished 
 homes, seeking what they believed would ultimately be 
 to them a better inheritance, were destined to a complete 
 temporary failure. The first party in their attempt to 
 reach their chosen location a second time with teams 
 purchased at St. Paul and loaded with lumber, household 
 goods, provisions, and the like for immediate use, were 
 
280 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 obliged, by reason of the severity of the weather, the 
 irnpassableiiess of the country across which their journey 
 ran, and their ignorance of the proper or best route for 
 reaching their chosen place of settlement, to make a retreat 
 and defer all further efforts till the coming spring. Seek- 
 ing employment at different localities for the interim and 
 failing to find it, they disposed of their team, goods and 
 chattels, and the principals, Messrs. Hatch and Mullikeu, 
 returned very soon after to Hopedale. 
 
 Meanwhile the second party, of which J. Lowell Hey- 
 wood and Lyman Allen were the responsible leaders, 
 knowing nothing of their predecessors' discomfiture, hurried 
 along their way with many hindrances and vexations, 
 reaching Monticello, forty miles above St. Paul, some 
 days after the others had turned their faces eastward, 
 and learning there for the first time of the actual status 
 of affairs and of the consequent dilemma in which they 
 themselves were placed. After reviewing thoughtfully the 
 situation and taking counsel of friends at Hopedale and 
 elsewhere, they decided to remain where they were, get 
 what they could of employment during the intervening 
 months, and prepare for active preparations in the early 
 spring. What they finally did will be detailed hereafter. 
 
 In the undoubting expectation that these brethren and 
 friends would be successful in their laudable venture, and 
 that an offshoot of the Hopedale Community was to be 
 planted in the western soil without further delay, I spent 
 much time and thought during the summer and early 
 autumn in devising and putting in proper form a Consti- 
 tution suited to the needs of a Community formed and 
 operating under circumstances like those amid which the 
 one contemplated would be placed. It was published in 
 full in The Practical Christian, and thereby submitted to 
 the considerate judgment of whomsoever it might con- 
 cern. But the progress of events and the convulsion 
 that even then was hastening us on to irretrievable dis- 
 
NEW FEATURE OF COMMUNITY LIFE. 281 
 
 aster rendered such service oil my part, and many of my 
 other labors, null and void. 
 
 Ignorant as I was of the drift of things and iuappre- 
 hensive of approaching doom, I later in the season con- 
 ceived and elaborated into a definite plan a new idea 
 concerning the constitutional structure and working policy 
 of the general Community system. It was that provis- 
 ion should be made for the organization of subordinate 
 associations among the members wheels within the 
 main wheel to be called Communes, composed of per- 
 sons of similar tastes, inclinations, and pursuits, drawn 
 together by elective affinity and acting under a simple 
 compact or bond of agreement for the accomplishment of 
 an object or of objects mutually agreeable and satisfac- 
 tory, responsible to the parent Community only in matters 
 pertaining to fundamental principles, interests of universal 
 concern, and the common organic polity which it had 
 established. It seemed to me that such Communes, prop- 
 erly related to each other, would strengthen the Commu- 
 nity itself and secure several very important results : 
 1. Variety in unity ; 2. Freedom from undue centralization 
 of power and from prescribed uniformity of rules, formali- 
 ties, and methods, in matters really unessential and extrin- 
 sic ; 3. Congenial companionship in business affairs and in 
 other cherished interests common to those associated 
 together. 
 
 To give this new feature of Community life the benefit 
 and test of practical experimentation and to meet certain 
 existing needs among our people, I myself led off in the 
 formation of an association thus provided for. partly for 
 the purpose of carrying on certain industries that had 
 recently been introduced within our borders by some of 
 our incoming members, and that were in rudimeutal and 
 semi-chaotic condition, and partly to aid some of my 
 fellow-associates in acquiring the means of independent 
 and honorable self-support said association to be called, 
 
282 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 as it was called during the brief period of its existence, 
 Hopedale Commune No. 1, similar co-partnerships being 
 expected to follow and to be designated by numerals 
 in their proper order. An Act was passed by the Com- 
 munity December 14 authorizing this new departure in 
 our general polity, signatures were obtained to a Special 
 Compact or Bond of Union, an organization was effected, 
 and operations shortly after began. The body started 
 with some six or eight members, myself included, and in 
 order that the venture might be wisely inaugurated, I 
 consented to act as its President and virtually to father 
 its financial obligations. Several kinds of business were 
 established by us, the principal of which was the manu- 
 facture of a tackle-block, or device for lifting in a per- 
 fectly safe way heavy bodies in warehouses, on board 
 vessels, and elsewhere a contrivance invented and 
 patented by one of our number. The required mone- 
 tary investment exceeded our calculations and available 
 resources, and we found ourselves at the outset heavily 
 burdened with debt. Our chief article of production did 
 not secure the market we anticipated, which, with the 
 crisis that not long after came in Community affairs, 
 produced confusion in our ranks and plans, the result of 
 which was the dissolution of the Commune ere its impor- 
 tance and value as a factor in our general movement 
 had been fairly tested. 
 
 And so the year 1855 was brought to its close a 
 year of unusual activity in every department of our com- 
 plex and comprehensive undertaking a year in which all 
 our leading and most responsible members were taxed to 
 the utmost ; in which great expectations were raised and 
 great plans laid for the future ; in which we were reaching 
 out into new territory whereon to build new outposts for 
 the prosecution of the work ; in which our labors and 
 prayers, our aspirations and self-denials, our faith and 
 our hope seemed nearing their consummation, and our 
 
FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 28S 
 
 cause its triumph and its crown; but a year alas! whose 
 weeks and months were hurrying us on as fast as time 
 could carry us, to the end of our communal career. For 
 the day of reckoning was at hand the day that sealed 
 our fate as a Community, and visited us with disastrous 
 overthrow ! 
 
 The fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Community was 
 held in our Chapel, Jan. 9, 1856, its sessions continuing 
 through the day and evening. The President, E. D. 
 Draper, presented his customary Address, embodying, in 
 a general way, from his point of view, a summary of 
 Community operations during the preceding year in its 
 several departments, its then present condition, and its 
 prospects for the time to come. The Treasurer, for rea- 
 sons that were satisfactory at the time, asked leave to 
 defer his yearly statement of the public finances for a 
 month, and his request was granted. The Board of 
 Education through Win. S. Heywood (the Chairman, 
 Wm. H. Fish, being absent), made their Report, which 
 was accepted. The Relief Committee also made a state- 
 ment of the amount expended by them during the year, 
 the names of beneficiaries and the sums received by them 
 being, as was our custom, withheld. The balloting for 
 Community Officers for the ensuing year, including that 
 of Vice President, which had been added to the list by 
 recent Enactment, resulted in the election of the follow- 
 ing-named persons, viz. : E. D. DRAPER, President; WM. 
 S. HEYWOOD, Vice President; CYRUS BRADBURY, Recorder; 
 WM. H. HUMPHREY, ANN E. FISH, LUCY H. BALLOU, 
 GEORGE GAY, ANNA T. DRAPER, Council; JOSEPH B. BAN- 
 CROFT, STEPHEN ALBEE, WM. W. COOK, Directory ; LEMUEL 
 MUNYAN. Treasurer; WM. S. HEYWOOD, ANN E. FISH, 
 CATHARINE G. MUNYAN, MELISSA M. INMAN, GEORGE GAY, 
 Board of Education; ALMIRA B. HUMPHREY, PHILA O. 
 WILMARTH, RICHARD WALKER, DANIEL H. CARTER, Reliej 
 Committee; WM. S. HEYWOOD, ANNA T. DRAPER, GEORGE. 
 
THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 O. HATCH, ELIJAH S. MULLIKEN, PHILA O. WILMARTH, 
 Committee of Promulgation. 
 
 The meeting passed off harmoniously and quietly, no 
 one even suspecting that any peril to our organization 
 and its interests was impending much less that we were 
 on the brink of a precipice from which we were soon 
 to be hurled to our doom. The reports generally were 
 enlivened by a tone of cheerfulness, and that of the 
 President was especially encouraging in its closing passages 
 and calculated to allay any apprehension of coming ill 
 that might have arisen in the minds of any of us. The 
 more important portions of it are subjoined : 
 
 "Beloved Associates: I have but a very brief and some- 
 what imperfect statement to make to you of the affairs and 
 operations of the Community in its various departments and 
 dependencies during the past year. The Treasurer has not 
 had time and assistance sufficient to render it possible for him 
 to so audit his accounts as to make his usual statement with 
 any degree of confidence and certainty, and proposes to ask 
 your indulgence for a short time to enable him to finish up 
 his work with due care and to his own satisfaction. The 
 reports of the several branches of business operating under 
 the auspices of the Community are made up, and will be read 
 to you in their proper time and place. 
 
 " The Directory acting concurrently with the Trustees have 
 just obtained of each member, probationer, and responsible 
 dependant, a detailed and definite statement of his or her 
 financial standing, which they design to repeat in years to 
 come. This plan will, I think, be of great advantage, if 
 judiciously managed, to all parties concerned to the persons 
 themselves and to the Community. It will enable the Direc- 
 tory to know how each and all are getting along from year to 
 year, to make their assessments justly, to favor and relieve 
 those whose conditions and circumstances demand it, and to 
 accept or require responsibilities and risks of those, and only 
 those, who are able to take them without endangering the 
 stability of their own or the Community's financial affairs. I 
 think that this plan will be of especial service to the individ- 
 ual. It will help all to know for themselves every family 
 
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 285 
 
 to know for itself just where they stand in respect to the 
 means and resources of subsistence, and to their worldly pos- 
 sessions. They will ascertain how much their income is and 
 how much are their outgoes. They will then be able to tell 
 definitely whether they live within their means or not, and be 
 led thereby to institute such inquiries in regard to industry, 
 economy, and the like, as cannot be otherwise than salutary 
 upon themselves and upon the whole body. I hold it to be 
 the duty of every one to know his or her pecuniary standing, 
 and whether their income is sufficient to cover their expendi- 
 tures or not, and it seems to me that this new and more 
 precise tnethod than any heretofore pursued will aid much in 
 the way of discharging that duty. 
 
 " From the statements obtained from individuals under this 
 new method we find the whole amount of individual property 
 to be $146,386; the whole amount of individual indebtedness, 
 $53,479; making the individual property free of debt, $92,907. 
 Amount of gains in the Community, $2,144; in business abroad, 
 $6,574; total gains for the year of $8,718. Amount of losses 
 
 for the year, $1,416; showing a net gain of $7,302 
 
 The whole amount paid for labor for the year past in the 
 general operations of the Community, aside from what individ- 
 uals may have expended on their own account, was $18,114.46 ; 
 of which foreigners received about $2,400.00." 
 
 "We may rejoice together in considering the degree of 
 harmony that exists at the present time in the Community; 
 greater I think than ever before. And I hope and believe 
 that with our past experiences and present advantages we shall 
 continue to increase in love and wisdom, and so become more 
 and more a light to those around us, proving to the world 
 that Christian Socialism opens a more excellent way in which 
 men may live together, and that it gives us, as it will all who 
 yield to its saving power, ' peace and good will ' to one another 
 and the whole human race. May the good God prosper and 
 bless us all. 
 
 "E. D. DRAPER." 
 
 In listening to these utterances one could hardly antici- 
 pate that in less than two months it would be deemed 
 necessary to abandon the Joint-Stock Proprietorship and 
 
286 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Industrial System of the Community, and so virtually give 
 up the ship in which our hopes our fortunes and our 
 destinies were launched. And yet to that inexorable con- 
 clnsion were we brought and by processes not difficult of 
 apprehension, as will be presently seen. 
 
 It is to be observed that the cheering picture of the 
 condition of property affairs presented in the President's 
 address and of the gains made during the year 1855 did 
 not relate to Community affairs at all,, but to those of 
 individuals. And it should be understood that at least 
 three fourths of the $7,302.00 net gain were made by 
 himself and his brother George, in profitable business 
 operations carried on entirely outside of our associated 
 industries, in which neither the Community nor other indi- 
 viduals had any direct interest whatever. It was a piece 
 of good fortune for the brothers named and every way 
 honorable on their part, but it concerned the rest of us 
 no further, and was no further encouraging to us, than 
 that it would enable them, out of their generosity and 
 regard for the Community, to render it substantial aid in 
 any unprovided for emergency or time of special need. 
 
 At an adjournment of the Annual Meeting, held Feb- 
 ruary 5, the Treasurer, Lemuel Munyan, submitted his 
 deferred report, a summary of which is given to our 
 present readers. 
 
 "The amount of property on hand (Dec. 31, 1855) is as 
 follows, to wit: Dues from branches including lands charged 
 to Horticulture, Orcharding, and Agriculture, $25,117.92; Real 
 Estate, including wood-land and buildings, $24,471.98; Sundry 
 Book Accounts, $6,010.40; Bills Receivable, $8,053.41; Box 
 Branch Tools, $290.25; Dues to Transportation and Saw Mill, 
 $741.56; Interest on Bills Receivable, $469.57 ; Ten per cent, on 
 Machine Branch gains, $120.00; total, $35,275.09. The liabilities 
 of the Community are: Joint-Stock, $41,300.00; Bills payable, 
 $14,792.14; Sundry Book Accounts, $8,042.40; Interest due, 
 $990.67; Transportation Debts, $60.03; Taxes unpaid, $235.03; 
 Total, $65,420.24. Deducting the Assets, $65,275.09, shows a 
 deficit of $145.15." 
 
UNANTICIPATED REVELATION. 287 
 
 This statement was no doubt correct so far as it went, 
 but it made no mention of what was required to meet the 
 four per cent, dividends due on Joint-Stock, amounting to 
 $1,652.00; nor is there in it any allowance or estimate 
 for depreciation in the value of buildings, machinery, tools, 
 etc., which had taken place during the twelvemonth pre- 
 ceding, but which had not been cancelled by repairs, 
 purchases, or improvements. 
 
 The upshot of the whole matter, which could no longer 
 be disguised or kept out of sight, was, that the Commu- 
 nity had been running seriously behindhand in its indus- 
 trial departments and that its financial condition was 
 sadly demoralized. A shrewd business man or an expert 
 in finance could easily see by looking over the situation, 
 that the Community liabilities actually exceeded its assets 
 by several thousand dollars, and that under our peculiar 
 circumstances we were pecuniarily in a very bad way. 
 Of this fact, I presume, Bro. George Draper was abun- 
 dantly satisfied, or, at least, was convinced that as things 
 ivere going, either the Community would ere long become 
 bankrupt or be obliged to draw upon him and his brother 
 Ebenezer for a greater sum to extricate it from its diffi- 
 culties and meet its obligations than he was disposed to 
 give it. At any rate it soon transpired that he was 
 becoming weary of Community financiering, especially when 
 his capital was involved and when it blocked the way of 
 his money-making ambition. 
 
 Nevertheless, when the situation was made apparent to 
 us and it was seen that something must be done to meet 
 the emergency, we set ourselves about devising some 
 expedient by which that end could be gained. The one 
 that finally obtained favor and secured adoption was that 
 of assessing the members of the Community to an extent 
 sufficient to liquidate the four per cent, dividends and 
 cancel the nominal losses that had been experienced, and 
 this was carried into effect, so far as outside parties were 
 
288 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 concerned all such being paid their rightful claims in 
 full. 
 
 In accomplishing this result and therewith arranging 
 many kindred matters, there were, as may be supposed, 
 protracted and drastic discussions both inside and outside 
 of our public meetings, which, on the whole, had no 
 tendency to promote harmony and confidence but rather 
 distrust and ill-feeling. If there were blame in the man- 
 agement of business, as many believed to be the case, it 
 was difficult to locate it, although the head of one branch 
 openly confessed to what was at least a semi-betrayal of 
 the trust reposed in him, practiced for several years and 
 causing a considerable percentage of the existing losses ; as 
 an idemnity for which he surrended his private property 
 house, lot, furniture, tools, etc., to the Community. 
 
 Failing to discover definitely, save in this instance, 
 where the fault was, it was natural and easy to attribute 
 it to the system, and this was the culminating accusation. 
 In making it the lead was taken by George Draper, 
 before-named, who had been with us but a short time,, 
 and who probably never had more than a half-faith in 
 Community life or in the fundamental principles which 
 constituted the basis of our movement. He was a man 
 thoroughly honest in his opinions, upright in his dealings, 
 and of undoubted integrity and honor. A man, however, 
 of inflexible will, and one not to be turned from his pur- 
 pose if its attainment were within the realm of possibility. 
 Hence, when he came to feel that our socialistic under- 
 taking was financially impracticable, that it stood in the 
 way of his success as a business man of the world, and 
 that therefore it must be abandoned, so far at least as 
 he was concerned, all his energies were directed to the 
 accomplishment of that result. Inasmuch as he and his 
 brother were intimately associated in an important indus- 
 try, and must act concurrently in all matters affecting: 
 that industry, it was his first concern, in taking measures 
 
PROFOUND DISAPPOINTMENT. 289 
 
 to gain the end he had in view, to win his brother to 
 his own way of thinking and secure his co-operation in 
 withdrawing their joint capital from the Community treas- 
 ury. It was some time before he succeeded in doing this, 
 but at length by argument and appeal urged with unre- 
 lenting persistency, his point was gained, and this point 
 gained the destiny of the Community was sealed. The 
 two owned three-fourths of its Joint-Stock and the with- 
 drawal of that from our working capital would cripple us 
 beyond power of recovery. 
 
 This I saw clearly as soon as I learned that these two 
 men had decided to take the position indicated, and a 
 deathlike chill settled upon and almost froze my heart. 
 What I then and for months afterward suffered of 
 disappointment, mortification, and grief, it would be 
 alike difficult and useless to describe. But I was able 
 finally to rise above it and am now not only reconciled to 
 my seeming calamity but rejoice in it. Regarding things 
 as I do at present. I would not lift a finger to save such 
 a Community from its legitimate, predetermined fate. It 
 served as a school of valuable experience to its members 
 and others connected with it, and as an instructive lesson 
 to those who looked upon it and knew of its varied for- 
 tunes, and to coming generations. Such, in the Provi- 
 dence of the all-wise, all-loving Father, was its mission, 
 and that mission it fulfilled. 
 
 I have stated that the decision of the Brothers Draper 
 to withdraw their proportion of stock from the available 
 funds of the Community was the culmination of the 
 tragedy the verdict which pronounced the Community's 
 doom. The rest of us, with our limited resources, were 
 practically powerless. We were in no condition to pur- 
 chase their interest in the property, except by using our 
 credit, as we might have done, and raising the requisite 
 means among our outside sympathizing friends or the 
 
 19 
 
290 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 money-lending public. Some of our number were desirous 
 of pursuing this course, and urged it with considerable 
 persistency and zeal with a determination born of their 
 faith in the underlying principles of our cause and 
 worthy of the devotion with which they had ever sus- 
 tained and defended it. But to have done this would 
 have been alike fool-hardy and perilous would have 
 loaded ourselves with a burden of debt, which, in all 
 probability, would sooner or later not only have crushed 
 the life out of us, but would have defrauded those who 
 might yield to our appeal and befriend and help us. 
 The proposition therefore was not to be entertained for 
 a moment longer than was necessary to see its bearings 
 and reject it. The only thing for us to do was to yield 
 to the inevitable and make the best of it. 
 
 Forced to this conclusion we at once set about arrang- 
 ing the conditions and details of a transfer of the Com- 
 munity property to the Draper brothers, agreeably to their 
 wishes, and of adjusting all our financial and industrial 
 affairs in a manner every way equitable and honorable. 
 My position in respect to our movement from the begin- 
 ning, among my associates and before the world, was 
 such as to make me specially interested and responsible 
 in this matter, and I determined that in the final settle- 
 ment the Drapers should obligate themselves to take the 
 entire Joint-Stock property at an appraisal that would 
 enable them to cancel all the liabilities of the Community t 
 which they were to assume, so that no further assess- 
 ments should be made, or further losses fall, on any of 
 our members or our friends and creditors outside. To 
 this they willingly agreed and entered into written bonds 
 for the execution of the contract ; and these they in due 
 time discharged to the satisfaction of all concerned. 
 
 The many preliminaries to this final arrangement of 
 affairs were gone through with and decided upon in regu- 
 lar Community meetings, held at frequent intervals during 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE. 291 
 
 the month of February, and by the agency of Committees 
 chosen to aid in the work. When everything was at 
 length settled in these regards, it became necessary to 
 take further definite Community action, in order to com- 
 plete the revolutionary process and establish the changed 
 regime in the History of Hopedale. 
 
 These things were required : 1 . To decide by Consti- 
 tutional vote that the change verbally provided for and 
 agreed upon should be made. 2. To alter and amend 
 the Constitution, By-Laws, and several Enactments of 
 the Community, so as to conform them in all respects 
 to the new order of things respecting property-holding, 
 business .management, and other secular interests and 
 concerns. 3. To institute measures for the appraisal of 
 the property that was to pass into the possession of the 
 Drapers, for its proper legal conveyance to the same, 
 and for protecting the rights of each and every one in 
 any way involved in the transactions that were taking 
 place. All this was accomplished at a meeting held on 
 the evening of Saturday, March 8, and before the month 
 closed everything pursuant thereto was adjusted and per- 
 manently settled. So that on the 1st of April, 1856, the 
 new industrial and economical system in our village was 
 fully established, and The Hopedale Community, as the 
 type of a regenerated form of .human society, and an 
 attempt to realize the Kingdom of God on earth, for 
 which so many of us had prayed and toiled and sacri- 
 ficed for so many years, had become a thing of the 
 past had been transformed into a mere religious, moral 
 reform, and mutual guaranty association. Its glory had 
 departed ; its sun had set forever. 
 
 From that time forward our beloved Hopedale village 
 became gradually secularized and conformed to the habits, 
 customs, and usages of similar boroughs elsewhere, losing 
 that distinctive character and the well-earned reputation 
 which its founders and responsible guardians always felt 
 
292 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 was "rather to be chosen than great riches." Business- 
 enterprise and management, having now assumed the 
 scepter and the control of the fortunes of the place, 
 returned to the methods and maxims of the unregenerate 
 world, no longer subject, except as individual conscience 
 might suggest and demand, to the principles of Practical 
 Christianity dominant there from the beginning. Employes 
 were engaged or discharged, as interest or convenience 
 dictated with little regard to higher considerations. Old 
 residents, whose services for any reason were not wanted, 
 or who could do better elsewhere, departed, and new 
 comers multiplied, not always of a moral type agreeable 
 to the tastes and convictions of previous settlers. All 
 that was left to the Community, as such, was moral 
 power. 
 
 This, to be sure, was very considerable at the outset,, 
 and, although it perceptibly waned from year to year, 
 somewhat of it has remained for good unto the present 
 day. How long it will last and be availing to any 
 appreciable extent, I cannot foresee. But from the moment 
 that Community control over the general domain, over 
 property, industry, labor, inhabitancy, etc., was surren- 
 dered, it could, in the nature of things, be only a ques- 
 tion of time when the last vestige of our undertaking must 
 be obliterated, and when all its distinguishing ideas and 
 principles so precious to many of us would be deemed of 
 little account, even if they were not looked upon as an 
 impertinence and an offence in the very places where they 
 were once exalted and glorified. Some of our members did 
 not see that such would be the ultimate result of what had 
 transpired, and were disposed to hold on to our organiza- 
 tion, to struggle on, and labor on, and pray on, in the hope 
 that we should be able after a few years to regain what 
 we had lost, take up once more the work that had been 
 laid down, and go forward to a long deferred victory. 
 I was myself inclined at first to take this view of the 
 
HOPE OF RECOVERY GONE. 293 
 
 situation ; but I soon came to understand from the revolu- 
 tionary character of the change, from the spirit and 
 ambition of those to whose demands we had yielded and 
 in whose hands we were as potter's clay, and from many 
 other considerations, that this could not be that all 
 such hope was illusory and vain. I saw that if The 
 Hopedale Community was ever to be resuscitated that 
 if ever the truth it stood for, the principles it represented 
 and held sacred and inviolable, were ever to be made the 
 basis of a similar endeavor to set up the kingdom of 
 righteousness, brotherhood, and peace on the earth, it 
 must be in some new locality ; not on the ruins of our 
 former venture, not where all our purposes, and plans, 
 and expectations had gone down in disastrous overthrow, 
 but on virgin soil, beneath more favoring skies, amid 
 better surroundings, and with material better fitted by 
 nature, by culture, by consecration, to the sublime, 
 divinely appointed work. God in his great mercy grant 
 that in his own good time that place may be found and 
 that work be done. So shall The Hopedale Community 
 have a glorious resurrection, an apotheosis, of which its 
 earlier manifestation was but the harbinger and prototype. 
 With the decadence of the Community, as an exponent 
 and practical illustration of Christian Socialism, passed 
 into oblivion or into a state of arrested development, 
 many plans and schemes dependent upon or supplement- 
 ary to it, while our whole system of propagandism 
 received a shock and a set back from which it has never 
 been able to recover. If our missionaries went abroad 
 to proclaim the gospel previously represented by it, their 
 words were shorn of much of their pertinency and power 
 by the failure of our efforts to actualize that gospel in 
 the manifold relations of life at home. As a moral and 
 religious teacher, called of God, as I believed, to fill that 
 office, I could not wholly cease from my ministrations in 
 behalf of what, notwithstanding all disappointments and 
 
294 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 failures, I still believed to be true and right, and, as a 
 consequence, essential to the enlightenment, regeneration, 
 and happiness of mankind ; yet I felt that I was seriously 
 handicapped by what had transpired and that rny utter- 
 ances had lost much of the vitality and effectiveness which 
 formerly characterized them and made them acceptable 
 and profitable to my fellowmen. Nevertheless, I must go- 
 forward in the same general way as before, following the 
 same lines of thought and discourse, though obliged by 
 the circumstances of the case to deal more with the theo- 
 retical than with the practical aspects of divine truth, 
 save in its application to individuals in their more imme- 
 diate personal relations to God and man, and to treat of 
 it in its larger phases and applications, as a means of 
 building up the divine kingdom on the earth, and of the 
 obligations it imposed upon men in that regard, ideally 
 and prophetically rather than otherwise as something 
 to aspire after and to be realized in the sometime future, 
 but not in the living present of the world's history. 
 
 My brethren in the ministry felt much as I did in this- 
 matter, and were impelled to adopt . essentially the same 
 ministerial policy and pursue the same lines of ministerial 
 service. To be sure, there was enough for us to do in the 
 way of seeking to " turn men from darkness to light and 
 from the power of Satan unto God " ; enough to do in war- 
 ring against the great evils of social and civil life, Slavery, 
 War, Intemperance, Licentiousness, Commercial Fraud, 
 Political Corruption, etc., and in urging forward the 
 specific reforms that were calculated to overcome these 
 iniquities and banish them from the world ; but at the 
 same time we still believed that pure Christianity meant 
 more than these things, more than individual enlighten- 
 ment and sanctificatiou, more than the abolition of social 
 abuses and abominations and the triumph of great and 
 good causes ; we believed it meant a Redeemed Order of 
 Human Society, the Kingdom of God on the Earth. And 
 
WESTERN MOVEMENT POSTPONED. 295 
 
 tins belief must still come in to shape more or less our 
 testimonies, to give direction to our endeavors, to fill the 
 measure of our heart's desire for humanity and keep alive 
 in our souls a sense of God's presence and providence in 
 the world and of his beneficent purpose touching the 
 children of men. So we wrought on as best we could in 
 the places that opened to us here and there, trusting that 
 though our fondest expectations were not to be realized 
 by us or perhaps by any in the near future, our efforts, 
 put forth in all sincerity and earnestness, would yet be 
 to some extent efficacious in urging forward the cause of 
 human progress and redemption and would contribute in 
 some humble degree to the bringing in of that long 
 prophesied era when the blessed doctrine of human broth- 
 erhood should animate all hearts and bind men and 
 nations together in amity, concord, and peace ; when 
 they should "beat their swords into ploughshares and 
 their spears into pruniug-hooks and learn war no more " ; 
 and when God, even in this world, should be " all and 
 in all." 
 
 As a result of the changed conditions and circum- 
 stances under which we were placed at Hoped ale, the 
 enthusiasm that had been growing among us for a year 
 or two in favor of colonization rapidly subsided, and the 
 so-called ' i Western Movement " which seemed so near its 
 culmination in the establishment of a branch Community 
 in the state of Minnesota at the very moment of the fatal 
 collapse, was postponed forever. If anything of the kind 
 contemplated should be undertaken in the indefinite future, 
 as I still believe, it will be substantially a new experiment, 
 wholly independent organically of that at Hopedale, though 
 it would undoubtedly derive some important lessons for 
 its guidance from Hopedale's experience and history, 
 from its failure as well as from its temporary success. 
 It may be proper to state that our brethren who went out 
 from us in the autumn of 1855 and who through divers 
 
296 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 difficulties and disappointments were obliged to suspend 
 their labors and spend the succeeding winter at Monticello, 
 as noted a few pages back, resumed them again at the 
 opening of the spring. They soon found a satisfactory 
 locality on the open rolling prairie about forty miles due 
 west from Monticello, some eight Hundred acres of which 
 they immediately took measures to secure under the U. S. 
 Preemption Act, and proceeded to erect dwellings for the 
 shelter, convenience, and comfort of themselves and their 
 dependents. These they completed in the early summer, 
 when, joined by the other members of their households, 
 they re-established their home-life, and went on in the 
 discharge of those duties and the performance of those 
 labors, incident to pioneer experience in that then almost 
 wholly uninhabited region. There they remained but a few 
 years, one of the number dying meanwhile, when they left 
 some of them on economic grounds, the others because 
 driven away by Indian invasion returning to the East, 
 and taking up their abode once more in the old Bay State. 
 They christened their little settlement Union G-rove, from 
 the fact that their habitations stood within the precincts 
 of a sparsely wooded tract of land which skirted one end 
 of their otherwise unshaded farms, which name it bears 
 to the present day. It constitutes the northwest portion 
 of Meeker County. 
 
 It is needless to go into further details of what took 
 place within our borders during the year 1856. It may 
 be readily inferred from the delineations and intimations 
 contained in the last few pages. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1857-1876. 
 
 DISMANTLED CONDITION INCREASING PARALYSIS IN WAR 
 
 TIME RELIGIOUS ASPECTS THE HOPEDALE 
 
 PARISH CONCLUSION. 
 
 BEFORE proceeding to sketch the last act of the 
 drama which this volume is designed to present to 
 the reader, or, in other words, to recall and record the 
 principal features of that process of deterioration which 
 terminated at length in the utter extinction of The 
 Hopedale Community, it seems fitting and desirable to 
 set 'forth the exact status of its affairs at the opening of 
 the year of 1857 to show, with considerable degree of 
 precision, what was taken away from its original powers, 
 rights, immunities and obligations by the revolution of 
 the previous year, and what was left as an equipment 
 for further service in the cause of Christian Socialism. 
 It has already been stated that thereby the enterprise 
 had cast off many of its former cardinal characteristics 
 and become a merely religious, moral reform, and mutual 
 guaranty society. This was in a certain way and in a 
 large measure true. But something more specific and 
 positive is requisite to a clear comprehension, on the 
 part of the average reader, of the condition of things 
 with us at that date. And hence a few paragraphs at 
 the beginning of the present chapter are properly devoted 
 to the elucidation of the matter. 
 
 It must be obvious to the thoughtful mind that the 
 abandonment of the united proprietorship of the Cornmu- 
 
298 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 nity capital, including lands, buildings, machinery, money,, 
 and other forms of real and movable estate, together with 
 the surrender of the supervision and management of its 
 multiform branches of industry and the operations they 
 represented, was the obliteration of one of the most 
 essential and distinguishing features of our movement, 
 as it was of other movements of that period contemplat- 
 ing the radical reconstruction of the existing order of 
 human society. It was indeed so. The great watchwords 
 of all Social Reformers then before the world, from 
 Fourier to Robert Owen, were "Co-operation," " Com- 
 bined Industry," "The Harmonization of Capital and 
 Labor " ; some of them making the thing these terms 
 stand for the leading, if not the only, object and end of 
 their efforts. With us, this was not the only or the main 
 desideratum, and yet it was a very important and vital 
 one so important and vital, indeed, that when it was 
 given up with us our whole structure was weakened and 
 imperilled from foundation stone to topmost spire. Taken 
 in connection with other things that went with it, its 
 relinquishmeut was, as the sequel showed, the virtual 
 overthrow and demolition of our entire system; at least 
 the precursor and occasion of such overthrow and demo- 
 lition in those respects that differentiated it from the 
 prevailing civilization of the world. For with it went 
 the control over residents on our domain, the regulation 
 of trade and of the contraction and payment of debts, 
 most of the restrictions upon the sale and uses of lands, 
 the Community Post Office, Savings Bank, Fire Insurance 
 Company, The Industrial Union, Enactments relating to 
 the Employment and Supervision of Children, etc., etc. 
 In all these things the Community, as such and in its gov- 
 ernmental capacity, was rendered practically powerless. 
 All these things, which had cost us infinite study, labor, 
 care, and which constituted some of the most salutary 
 and valuable characteristics of our undertaking, were gone,, 
 and gone beyond the possibility of recovery. 
 
SAVED FROM THE WRECK. 299 
 
 On the other hand, what had we saved? What was 
 left as a foundation upon which to build anything prom- 
 ising and durable for the future? What, to prize, to 
 conserve, to use, as agencies or working forces where- 
 with to promote the great objects for which we had 
 toiled so hard and sacrificed so much in the past for 
 the furtherance of which we still felt ourselves bound in 
 conscience and in fealty to our Practical Christian prin- 
 ciples to labor and to pray, notwithstanding our disap- 
 pointment and discomfiture? We had 
 
 1. Our organic fraternity and pledged fidelity to each 
 other and to our common cause. A few of our associ- 
 ates left us soon after the great change took place, and 
 the number increased as time went on, but yet at the 
 date named there had been but few withdrawals ; the 
 great majority remained, a loyal band of brothers and 
 sisters, animated by a common spirit and ambition, cheiv 
 ishiug a common faith and hope, and seeking by united 
 effort the attainment for ourselves and for humanity com- 
 mon laudable and beneficent ends. 
 
 2. Our name The Hopedale Community; which was 
 very dear to us by reason of the circumstances under 
 which we first assumed it; by reason of what it repre- 
 sented to us of truth, of righteousness, of a broad world- 
 wide humanity, of what is noblest and best in individual 
 and social life ; and because it stood in our thought and 
 affections as a type an imperfect one, to be sure and 
 yet a type of the kingdom of God. 
 
 3. Our distinctive ideas, principles, purposes, and 
 aims, with dependent duties, as announced and avowed 
 by us in the Preamble and Declaration of Article I of 
 our Constitution. These were as true, as sacred, as 
 obligatory upon us as when we first acknowledged them. 
 By the change that had taken place we had in no proper 
 sense disowned, renounced, or abandoned them. We still 
 stood by them and were still bound to be governed by 
 
300 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 them in all the interests and relations of life. We had 
 only given up certain applications of them to certain 
 economical concerns, holding them in abeyance for the 
 time being as impracticable in such applications in the 
 present moral and spiritual stage of human development. 
 
 4. Authority and control over certain kinds of prop- 
 erty that were retained in our possession when the bulk 
 of our estate passed into other hands. Of these there 
 were several dwelling-houses, the School-house and Chapel, 
 the village site, the public squares and other common 
 lands, our Cemetery, etc. 
 
 5. Our religious meetings and their exclusive manage- 
 ment ; the care of all our means and appliances for moral 
 and spiritual culture, missionary operations, promulgatory 
 agencies, etc. 
 
 6. A restricted supervision of our educational interests 
 and institutions, subject, so far as our legally established 
 School District was concerned, to the management of the 
 general Committee of the town of Milford. All instruc- 
 tion in excess of that provided for by them, and all 
 extra apparatus, appliances, etc., were in our own hands. 
 
 7. Our Community Lyceum, which for several years 
 was an important educational agency among our people, 
 with its lectures, discussions, recitations, essays, classes, 
 and other activities, established and maintained by Com- 
 munity enactment, and provided for by special Commu- 
 nity action from year to year. Also the Public Library, 
 already well established and supplied with six or eight 
 hundred volumes of well chosen books, representing every 
 department of literature and a wide field of knowledge. 
 
 8. Our general Constitutional Guaranty against the 
 evils of poverty, which made us organically a Mutual 
 Aid Society for the help of one another, pecuniarily 
 or otherwise, in times of misfortune, need, or distress. 
 Eor the proper fulfillment of this Guaranty a Relief Com- 
 mittee was chosen from year to year, and money was ap- 
 
PERPLEXED BUT NOT IN DESPAIR. 301 
 
 propriated and placed in their hands, to be used as their 
 wisdom and sympathy should direct. 
 
 9. Certain funds, coming to us by donation or bequest 
 and held in trust for the promotion of definitely specified 
 objects ; said trust to be honestly administered and hon- 
 orably discharged according to the best of our judgment 
 and ability. 
 
 10. Our reputation, which, by fair dealing, regard for 
 the rights and welfare of our fellowmen, interest in good 
 causes, promptness and cheerfulness in meeting our obli- 
 gations, and an exemplification in good degree of manly 
 and womanly worth, secured us the confidence of the 
 public and a host of faithful devoted friends through^ all 
 the exigencies, transmutations, and diversified fortunes of 
 our checkered and finally disastrous career. 
 
 Such, in detail, was what was left to us and for us 
 as a Community after the crisis of 1856 ; what was saved 
 from the wreck of our ill-fated bark, which had been 
 laden with most precious freightage, launched amid great 
 hope and rejoicing, and been borne bravely along upon a 
 now prosperous and now adverse tide for fourteen eventful 
 years, only to founder at last on the shallows of worldly 
 ambition and desire. In view of this condition of things 
 in view of what remained of our former possessions, 
 and of the opportunity still open to us at home and 
 abroad for effective service of God and men, w r e all, with 
 few exceptions, resolved to stand by each other and by 
 our unfortunate experiment, making the most and the 
 best of what we had at our command, and using it, as 
 Providence should direct us, for our own and each other's 
 good and for the good of the world. 4t We were per- 
 plexed, but not in despair"; " cast down, but not de- 
 stroyed." Our Vice-President, Bro. Wm. S. Heywood, 
 who, in place of the President, made an address at the 
 Annual Meeting held Jan. 14, 1857, voiced the general 
 feeling of his associates and awakened a ready response 
 
302 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 in all their hearts, when, after recapitulating the blessings 
 we still enjoyed and the means of uplifting and benefiting 
 our fellowmeu still at our command, he concluded his 
 counsels and exhortations as follows : 
 
 "Is it not certain that whatever is lovely and of good 
 report among us, whatever is wise and advantageous, whatever 
 is beneficent and salutary, can be sustained and perpetuated 
 altogether better by union, by mutual co-operation, by the 
 maintenance of our organization, than in any other way? In 
 my judgment, if our organic connection, the bond that unites 
 us in Community relationship, be given up, all is sooner or 
 later gone; while, by continuing it and being faithful to its 
 obligations, we shall accomplish much for ourselves, for each 
 other, and for the world in the way of preserving the things 
 that are desirable and good, and do it far more freely, effect- 
 ually, heartily, and happily, than could be done in any other 
 way. 
 
 "In conclusion, then, I would most earnestly call upon you 
 who still love our great and good cause, who still reverence 
 the everlasting principles which it embodies, to stand by each 
 other, and co-operate cheerfully and unitedly for the promo- 
 tion of our declared objects, here and in the world. Failing in 
 certain things, we have not lost all. What we need is a 
 quickened sense of our individual and social obligations the 
 mind and the heart to do. With a united purpose, a deter- 
 mined resolution, and a reliant faith, we can realize to our- 
 selves and to each other much of divine good, and make our 
 Community still a light to them that sit in darkness. Shall 
 it be done? God still lives; there is to us all the same 
 inspiring presence as of yore; the loving angels bend down 
 yet to bless us; our aspirations for a better state continue 
 quick within us; the eternal truth is even now held out to 
 us; humanity, as in days that are past, cries for help and 
 salvation with her ten times ten thousand voices; the cause of 
 Non-resistance, almost abandoned by her professed friends, 
 urges us to renewed effort and to faithful service. In the 
 name of all these I exhort you to a revival of hope, to union, 
 to vigorous, manly, Christian exertion, to self-sacrificing fidelity 
 in the work of Practical Christian Socialism. In their name 
 I pledge my influence, my means, myself, anew to you, to the 
 
WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT. 303 
 
 Community, to our common cause. Let no mistakes entirely 
 overcome us; let no disappointment drive us to despair; let 
 no failures make us apostates; but, rising above all these, may 
 we still do our duty, still cherish our sublime faith and hope, 
 which are to us an earnest of the blessed era when "the 
 kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdom of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 In much the same strain and to the same general 
 effect did I myself write a few weeks afterward, and 
 publish in our organ, the brief article which follows, 
 under the caption, "Our Cause What Is It?" 
 
 "Do any ask what is proposed to be done? I answer, to 
 establish the Practical Christian Republic at least to prepare 
 the way for its establishment. Friends and fellow-laborers, 
 calmly re-examine its objects, principles, polity. What noble 
 aspiration of the immortal spirit does it not encourage ! What 
 grand truth does it not recognize! What cardinal duty does 
 it not magnify ! What needed reform does it not include 
 and urge! What fundamental idea or measure of human 
 regeneration does it not embrace! Shall we abandon it? 
 Where are we to look for anything better anything half so 
 worthy of our undying devotion? To what sect or anti-sect 
 in religion shall we go? To what party or anti-party in poli- 
 tics? To what progressive, reformatory, or socialistic enter- 
 prise in the wide world? W r here can we find higher aims, 
 diviner principles, or a wiser polity? We can find fragments 
 of wisdom and goodness in all sects, parties, societies, and 
 coteries; but where else so much of truth and good mixed 
 with so little evil and falsity. 
 
 " What if we cannot at present organize the higher kind 
 of Communities! Are not Rural and especially Parochial 
 Communities practicable? What if we cannot do much toward 
 founding and multiplying even these? We can at least hold 
 fast what we have already gained; we can foster true educa- 
 tion; we can elevate individuals and families; we can discipline 
 and purify our membership; we can be making new converts 
 and steadily enlighten the public mind. All this must be 
 done in order to ultimate success. It is our duty and 
 privilege to labor faithfully in these ways; which, if done, the 
 
 OF THB 
 
 :/NIVERSITT 
 
304 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 stones and cedars will have been prepared for a glorious Social 
 Temple that will at length rise in symmetrical majesty 'with- 
 out the sound of axe, hammer, or any tool of iron.' " 
 
 With such words as these did I and my ministerial 
 brethren strive to cheer the hearts and keep alive the 
 faith and stimulate the fidelity and zeal of our fellow- 
 associates, prompted by the earnest desire to preserve, as 
 far as possible, whatever of good pertaining to the Com- 
 munity we had at our command, and by the lingering 
 hope that such good might be used, as a means or motive 
 for renewing at some uot-far-distant day the struggle for 
 a lost cause ; or as a basis for a new enterprise in some 
 more favorable locality and under circumstances that 
 would give us greater promise of success. But no efforts 
 in that behalf seemed to be of any permanent value or 
 practical use. The decree seemed to have gone forth that 
 I and my generation should never enter the promised land; 
 our eyes being merely privileged to look upon it from the 
 mount Nebo of faith as it lay outspread in the dim dis- 
 tance beyond Jordan. For, do what we could to stay its 
 progress, the work of disintegration and spoliation went 
 on around us as the years swept by one stone after 
 another of our social structure being thrown down until 
 now scarcely one is left resting upon another the last 
 vestige almost of what was once so beautiful and fail- 
 having either been carried away or defaced beyond recog- 
 nition. 
 
 The remaining portion of this History, which is the 
 narrative of the Community in its dismantled condition, 
 shorn of many of its most prominent and praiseworthy 
 features shorn too of much of its power for good both 
 at home and abroad of the Community in its "decline 
 and fall," requires but little attention to details or to the 
 regular methodical flow of its outgoing but never- returning 
 tide. It might perhaps have been brought to a close 
 with a recital of the incidents and resultants of the crisis 
 
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION CONTINUED. 305 
 
 of 1856, since that was virtually and practically the end 
 of its existence as au experiment in the science of a 
 divine order of society, or an attempt to actualize in an 
 organic form the kingdom of God on the earth. But 
 certain things transpired in its subsequent career which 
 in my judgment possess moral and spiritual value of their 
 own and are calculated to throw some additional light 
 upon the great problem we endeavored to solve. Even 
 in its decline and disappearance from the face of the 
 earth, the Community had some important lessons for 
 individual souls and for students of the great questions 
 that relate to the progress of the race and to the final 
 enfranchisement and harmonization of the world. What 
 is to follow will be presented topically rather than chrono- 
 logically, as a matter of convenience and as serving 
 equally well the ends just indicated and the general pur- 
 poses of historical literature. 
 
 Membership. The membership of the Community was 
 at about its maximum when the change of 1856 was 
 made, numbering some one hundred and ten persons. 
 But for obvious reasons it at once began to decrease, 
 the process of disintegration and excision going on by 
 slow degrees until at the expiration of a dozen years 
 scarcely more than forty remained, of whom not more 
 than half were residents of Hopedale. The organization 
 was preserved intact for that period, and such common 
 interests and responsibilities as it represented were care- 
 fully and systematically guarded and provided for by those 
 of our number who continued to dwell on the original 
 Community domain. In process of time, however, the 
 last hour of organic existence came to the body, and 
 membership in it ceased forever. 
 
 Business Meetings, Official Servants, etc. Annual Meet- 
 ings of the Community were held regularly on the second 
 Wednesday of January from year to year until the 8th 
 of that month, 1868, when the last one on record occurred. 
 20 
 
306 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Others also took place occasionally for several years, for 
 the transaction of such special business as required atten- 
 tion. At the former, reports from the several Boards 
 of Officers the Directory, Treasurer, Council, Board of 
 Education, Relief Committee, and Promulgation Commit- 
 tee were presented, considered, and acted upon, in due 
 order. Official servants were also elected for the ensuing 
 year and business matters of interest and importance 
 were formally introduced, discussed, and settled. Of 
 these nothing requires notice in this connection, and only 
 the more prominent officers elected subsequently to 1856 
 need be enumerated. E. D. Draper remained in the 
 Presidency till Nov. 14, 1859, when he resigned and was 
 succeeded by Wm. S. Hey wood, who held the position 
 till 1863, declining re-election at that date as he was 
 making arrangements for removing from the village. Wm. 
 H. Humphrey was chosen in his stead, and served by 
 successive re-elections to the end. The Vice-Presidents 
 in their order were Wm. S. Heywood, from 1856 to 
 1859; Wm. H. Humphrey, from 1860 to 1863; and 
 Wm. W. Cook, from 1863 to 1868. The Recorders were 
 Cyrus Bradbury till 1863 and J. Lowell Heywood thence- 
 forth. Cyrus Bradbury was Treasurer after the retire- 
 ment of Lemuel Munyan in 1856 until the office was 
 rendered needless and abandoned. The original Real 
 Estate Trustees, appointed May 1, 1850, were Adin 
 Ballon, Ebenezer D. Draper, Wm. H. Humphrey, Butler 
 Wilmarth, and Almon Thwing. The first three continued 
 in office to the last. In 1853 Stephen Albee took the 
 place of Butler Wilmarth, deceased, and was succeeded, 
 upon his resignation in 1858, by J. Lowell Heywood. 
 Almon Thwing relinquished his place on the Board in 
 1861, and the vacancy was filled by Jerome Wilmarth. 
 A few years later the last two removed to other locali- 
 ties, the remaining three, who had been on the Board 
 from the beginning and who constituted a legal majority, 
 
DISPOSAL OF LANDED PROPERTY. 307 
 
 discharging the required duties of the office as long as 
 there were such duties to discharge. 
 
 Landed Property, Buildings, etc. At the time of the 
 dissolution of the Joint-Stock Proprietorship in March, 
 1856, and the consequent settlement of affairs pertaining 
 thereto, nearly the entire bulk of our Real Estate posses- 
 sions, including lands, mill-sites, streets, shops, barns, 
 and other buildings, was transferred by legal conveyance to 
 the firm of E. D. & Gr. Draper, for their sole use, behoof, 
 .and disposal forever. The Community, however, retained 
 the ownership of several parcels of similar property, as 
 before stated, the aggregate appraisal of which was about 
 $10,000. It consisted of three dwelling-houses and the 
 lots on which they stood, the School-house and Chapel,- 
 the village site. Community Square (so called), and the 
 Hopedale Cemetery. The dwelling-houses were not long 
 after disposed of to individual purchasers, the School- 
 house and lot (the use of the building as a place of 
 worship having been relinquished) to the town of Milford 
 at a later date, and the village site was in process of 
 time surrendered to the proper authorities of the resident 
 population. The final act of transfer was executed on 
 the 15th of December, 1873, when the Trustees of the 
 Community conveyed to the Trustees of the Hopedale 
 Parish, a religious body formed a few years before, " all 
 right, title, interest and control in, unto and over Com- 
 munity Square, the Meeting-house standing thereon and 
 the Hopedale Cemetery." This transaction virtually con- 
 cluded the real-estate operations of the Community and 
 cancelled the last claim it had upon that once widely 
 extended domain, which, more than thirty years before, 
 we, in devout thanksgiving to the giver of all good and 
 with abounding faith and hope, consecrated to God and 
 humanity. 
 
 The Practical Christian. The publication of this semi- 
 monthly sheet, which commenced May 1, 1840, was 
 
308 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 continued with varying fortunes and to little pecuniary 
 advantage through manifold vicissitudes for twenty years, 
 or until May 1, 1860. I had always been its leading 
 editor, though receiving substantial assistance from my 
 clerical brethren at home, and from valued contributors 
 and correspondents abroad. From an early date it had 
 been printed at our own Community printing office, which,, 
 for my special convenience, was attached to my own little- 
 cottage at the corner of Main and Peace Streets. For 
 some years its business interests were cared for by Asapb 
 G. Spalding and Wm. S. Heywood successively as Pub- 
 lishing Agents ; the latter holding that position at the 
 time of the great change and through the then current 
 and succeeding volume. But on the 1st of May, 1857,, 
 I, by definite arrangement with the Community, became 
 sole proprietor and manager of all its interests and virtu- 
 ally the sole occupant of its editorial columns, except as 
 I still welcomed to them acceptable articles from corre- 
 spondents, of which there were not a few, especially at 
 at the time of the "John Brown Raid" and subsequently 
 thereto. With the decadence of the Community and the 
 waning, at home and abroad, of interest in or care for 
 the principles and objects to the furtherance of which the 
 paper had always been devoted, there was a correspond- 
 ingly diminishing inducement to continue its issue. The 
 growing unrest of the country touching the great question 
 of American Slavery, which was already assuming most 
 menacing forms, and the concentration of the thoughts 
 and energies of the people at large upon the impending 
 crisis in national affairs, attended by an intensified 
 arousal in all directions of the war spirit, to whose 
 unhallowed sway many professed Non-resistants seemed 
 to be giving way. led me to see that there must be a 
 decided falling off from the subscription list at an early 
 day and an utter failure thereby of pecuniary support ; 
 led me to see furthermore that the ideas and principles 
 
THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN. 309 
 
 which it was commissioned to disseminate among men, 
 though constituting the very essence of the Gospel of 
 Christ, were likely to become ere long the scoff and the 
 scorn of men and to fail of a hearing even among the 
 great masses of the people, and that consequently the 
 continued publication of the Christian was largely a work 
 of supererogation, and therefore, all things considered, 
 inadvisable. Moreover, it appeared to me that whatever 
 was demanded or warranted in the way of disseminating 
 the truth we stood for could be accomplished satisfactorily 
 through the agency of occasional tracts, which would 
 impose but a light burden upon us, and one that could 
 be assumed or laid aside at pleasure. So, after thor- 
 oughly canvassing the whole matter and coming to an 
 intelligent conclusion concerning it, I recommended the 
 discontinuance of the paper at the close of the 20th vol- 
 ume and the formation of a Promulgation Society, the 
 work of which should be the preparation, printing, and 
 distribution of such treatises, essays, dissertations, exposi- 
 tions, lectures, and sermons, in the form of leaflets and 
 pamphlets, as might at any time be deemed needful 
 or desirable. My recommendation was accepted by the 
 brethren upon whom I had relied for financial support, 
 the suggested Promulgation Society was organized, and 
 The Practical Christian became a thing of the past with 
 No. 26, Vol. XX, April 14, 1860. 
 
 The suspension of the paper, which was born out of 
 an overmastering love for the truth and for humanity on 
 the part of myself and my brethren, gave me not a littte 
 pain, and was an occasion of regret to a large number 
 of subscribers, personal friends, and friends of radical 
 reform scattered up and down the land. Many letters 
 were received from these, expressing a grateful apprecia- 
 tion of the high character and salutary influence which 
 the periodical had maintained, with sentiments of sincere 
 esteem for the editor. The press also, especially the 
 
310 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 progressive journals, philanthropic and religious, added 
 testimonials equally kind and commendatory. To one of 
 these, from the pen of Rev. Thomas Whittemore, D. D., 
 editor of The Trumpet and Universalist Magazine a 
 redoubtable dialectician and former antagonist of mine in 
 the Restorationist controversy, was appended the follow- 
 ing encomium upon our movement and its representatives : 
 
 "One word as to the Hopedale Community. So far as we 
 know they are a band of brothers and sisters who seek to 
 honor God by good lives. They are good citizens: they live 
 quietly and peaceably, and the Lord blesses them. Often when 
 we have been in Milford, we have desired to visit their houses, 
 but we felt (perhaps more than we ought) that in their sight 
 we were a heretic, and they would not receive us. Never 
 have we had an unkind word from them, however. Perhaps 
 it was a mere suspicion on our part. We will yet go to 
 Hopedale. We should love to live where Practical Christianity 
 reigns." 
 
 In War Times. The position of the Hopedale Com- 
 munity as the great War of the Rebellion came rushing 
 on and during its continuance, was unique and trying 
 crucial even, to the utmost extent. We were tested by 
 it as to our faith as never before, and some of us were 
 found wanting. From the beginning we had been avowed, 
 uncompromising Abolitionists, doing what we could to 
 overthrow the system of American Slavery and hailing 
 with gratitude and joy every indication that the day was 
 drawing near when the last shackle should be riven from 
 the limbs of the bondmen and when 4 ' liberty should be 
 proclaimed throughout all the land to all the inhabitants 
 thereof." We had hoped and prayed that this great 
 consummation might be reached by peaceable means and 
 without violence and war, by the proclamation of the 
 principles of freedom and equity, and the consequent 
 enlightenment of the understanding and awakening of the 
 conscience of the people. But as time passed on and 
 
INCREASING NATIONAL DISTURBANCE. 311 
 
 the auimus of the slave power became more and more 
 rampant and diabolic, we were gradually brought to the 
 conviction that this could not be ; that the only way the 
 gigantic iniquity would ever be brought to an end was by 
 the effusion of blood by the avenging judgment rather 
 than the tender mercy of Almighty God. The nation had 
 sinned away its day of grace. Its crime and guilt had 
 become too virulent, too deep-seated, too much a part of 
 its very life, to be expiated and put away except by 
 commotions and upheavals involving immense sacrifice of 
 men and treasure, and imperiling, in fact, the very exist- 
 ence of the Republic. 
 
 Even under these circumstances and with such a pros- 
 pect before us, we could but rejoice in what we felt 
 assured would be the outcome of the increasing disturb- 
 ance Emancipation though it was to be accomplished 
 by means which we could not in conscience approve and 
 through agencies against which we were pledged by the 
 most sacred of vows. Yet it was not without more or 
 less of apprehension and solicitude that we watched the 
 gathering storm and awaited the unfolding of events 
 whose progress we had no power to withstand or direct. 
 We could do little more than keep silence and possess 
 our souls in patience, trusting that He who hath all des- 
 tinies in His keeping, who bringeth light out of darkness 
 and good out of evil, would overrule the threatened clash 
 of arms to the ultimate deliverance of the oppressed and 
 to the honor of His most holy name. 
 
 The question of American Slavery, which, in its primary 
 and most radical aspects was of a moral and religious 
 character, had for years obtruded itself into the political 
 arena and affected to a continually increasing extent the 
 organization and the policy of all political parties. With 
 the growing aggressions of the Slave Power the agitation 
 of it had increased in strength and in determination, until 
 the time had come when the opposing forces were taking 
 
312 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 011 a distinctively belligerent aspect and assuming a 
 decidedly warlike attitude. The ill-advised raid of John 
 Brown served to intensify the existing feeling in that 
 respect, inflaming the war-spirit in all directions, and 
 hastening the bloody outbreak, which, under any circum- 
 stances, could not long have been held in check. One 
 after another of the old line Abolitionists seemed to be 
 carried away from their moorings by the growing excite- 
 ment, either renouncing outright their long professed Non- 
 resistant principles or holding them in abeyance to such 
 an extent as to enable them to eulogize and glorify the 
 promoters of bloodshed and slaughter, and even the war 
 system itself when employed for the emancipation of the 
 slave. I was myself impelled to raise my voice in protest 
 against and condemnation of such action on the part of 
 my old friends and coadjutors, deeming it a violation of 
 plighted faith and a practical adoption of the so-called 
 Jesuitical maxim, " The end sanctifies the means." Never- 
 theless, the tide was against me, not only in the world 
 at large but among Anti-Slavery Reformers, including 
 some of my Hopedale brethren, and my favorite doctrine 
 of Non-resistance, with its scruples against voting "in 
 any case involving a final authorized resort to physical 
 violence," was almost wholly swept away and submerged 
 by the rising tide of brutality and blood. So that when 
 the insane wrath of slave-holding secessionists lighted the 
 flames of rebellion on Carolina's soil and 4 ' let slip the 
 dogs of war " against the Federal Government, and the cry 
 of military patriotism went through all the land calling 
 men to arms in the support of the Union, several of 
 our members, struck by the fell contagion, resigned their 
 positions in our fellowship, thus honorably relieving them- 
 selves of their former acknowledged obligations 4 ' never 
 under any pretext whatsoever to kill, assault or injure 
 any human being, even their worst enemy," and also of 
 the inconsistency of professing principles which they 
 
POSITION OF THE COMMUNITY. 313 
 
 deemed impracticable and of no account in the existing 
 crisis. 
 
 What now, in such a crisis, could the still adhering 
 Community members do, those who were still loyal to 
 the Declaration which was the corner-stone of their 
 structure and the summary of their religious faith? 
 Their movement was wrecked at least stranded on the 
 shallows of time's outstretching sea and mid the thick- 
 ening gloom they could see little to hope for in its behalf 
 within the sweep of their vision. They could scarcely 
 keep their standing as the tempest raged around. Their 
 only safety consisted in being true to their principles and 
 true to each other, bearing aloft the white banner of 
 ' ' Peace and Good Will " while battle-flags were fluttering 
 011 every hand, and pledging themselves anew to each 
 other and to the cause which they had in good conscience 
 espoused, not for the passing hour or for peaceable and 
 prosperous times alone, but for life. And so to keep 
 their own record clean and their escutcheon immaculate ; 
 to bear a united testimony for their avowed principles to 
 their fellowmeu, and protect themselves against any charge 
 of treason to their native laud or of indifference to its 
 enduring welfare ; to make known in unmistakable terms 
 their utter abhorrence of the Rebellion and of any and 
 every measure, open or covert, North or South, which 
 was seeking by force and arms to undermine and over- 
 throw the Federal Government; and to have their exact 
 position in respect to the suppression of the Rebellion, 
 as was attempted on the part of said Government, duly 
 understood, the faithful remnant of our number, in regular 
 meeting assembled on the 16th of Sept., 1861, passed a 
 series of resolutions, seven in number, the first, second, 
 and last of which, with the preamble, contain the gist 
 of the whole and hence are given herein entire, to the 
 exclusion of the others. 
 
314 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 " DECLARATORY RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 " Whereas, a great and deplorable civil war has broken out 
 between the Northern and Southern sections of the United 
 States of America, the people of the latter being in organized 
 revolutionary insurrection against the constitutional govern- 
 ment of the Federal Union; and, whereas, we, the members 
 of The Hopedale Community, are peaceable subjects of said 
 constitutional government, though for reasons of conscience 
 not active participants therein, nor martial combatants in 
 any behalf; and, whereas, in the present momentous crisis 
 our peculiar principles and position ought to be distinctly 
 understood; therefore we the members of said Community, in 
 regular meeting assembled, do adopt and publish the following 
 Resolutions, viz.: 
 
 " 1. Resolved, That we unanimously adhere with unwavering 
 firmness to our fundamental religious principles as originally 
 set forth by solemn Declaration in the year 1841 in the pub 
 lished Constitution of our Community, and as again set forth 
 with some enlargement by a like solemn Declaration in the 
 year 1854 in the published Constitution of The Practical 
 Christian Republic, whereof we are also members. 
 
 " 2. Resolved, That we unanimously adhere with unwavering 
 firmness to the declared fundamental objects, positions, and 
 policy set forth in the two said Constitutions, and especially 
 in respect to the governments under which we live as peace- 
 able subjects thereof yet non-participants therein, being 
 conscientiously scrupulous against all chattel slavery, death 
 penalties, injurious force, war, and dernier resorts to carnal 
 weapons. 
 
 ******* 
 
 " 7. Resolved, That in the light of the foregoing Resolutions 
 our first and highest allegiance is due to the sovereignty of 
 divine principles as taught by Jesus Christ: 
 
 " That our first and highest attachment must be to the 
 glorious white banner of His kingdom, with the cross of self- 
 sacrifice in the center, radiating a benignant halo in all direc- 
 tions, with a dove surmounting that cross, spreading her wings 
 and bearing in her mouth an olive branch, and with a wolf 
 and a lamb at its foot harmlessly resting together: 
 
DECLARATORY RESOLUTIONS. 315- 
 
 "That we cannot aid the best existing government on earth 
 in destroying human life though our refusal should subject us 
 to the bitterest martyrdom: 
 
 "That we are bound by our religious principles to be 
 orderly, peaceable subjects of the governments under which we 
 live, and to relieve the sufferings of our fellow-creatures around 
 us to the utmost extent of a reasonable charity: 
 
 "That we can neither excite nor encourage any mob, riot, 
 rebellion, insurrection or war-like revolution even for an 
 ostensibly good object much less such an abhorent insurrec- 
 tion as the one now raging at the South for the extension 
 and perpetuation of human slavery: 
 
 " That while we deeply deplore the war itself now in pro- 
 cess, we deplore still more the sinful causes which have ren- 
 dered this great calamity inevitable under the eternal laws of 
 divine order, as a just retribution for national transgressions, 
 to wit: lust of wealth, lust of power, and lust of sensual 
 pleasures, all culminating in the persistent upholding, by law 
 and by force, of the gigantic institution of Africo-chattel 
 slavery : 
 
 "That though we have no moral sympathy whatever with 
 the insurrectionists, but much with the Federal Government 
 and its loyal adherents, and though we see that the loyalists 
 on their own worldly plane of action must conquer the rebels 
 by overwhelming deadly force or ignominiously abandon their 
 constitutional government and falsify their solemn obligations 
 of allegience; yet we feel none the less bound to abide with 
 Christ on his high plane of peaceful righteousness, and thereby 
 endeavor, however gradually, to leaven the minds of mankind 
 with those benignant principles which alone can put an end 
 to all disorder and violence: 
 
 " That in the meantime we should be unfaithful to our 
 convictions of truth and duty if we recognized this as a war 
 for the emancipation of our down-trodden American bondmen, 
 whatever may chance to be its actual results, and if we did 
 not unequivocally reiterate our testimony against the afore- 
 mentioned great national sins, especially the upholding of the 
 slave system by both the Xorth and South, which has brought 
 on our country this calamitous scourge; and if, also, we did 
 not earnestly entreat the people of all parties concerned to 
 hasten their repentance and make all possible reparation to 
 
316 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 the injured millions whose cries are still going up to the 
 infinite Father for redress: 
 
 " That we do not deem ourselves in any wise responsible 
 for this terrible conflict, having done what we could in our 
 humble way, by warning and example, to prevent it, and to 
 avert the storm of retributive sufferings with which it comes 
 down on the nation; so that nothing now remains for us in 
 relation to it but to abstain from all complicity with it, to 
 bear patiently our portion of its ills, to relieve where we can 
 the distresses of its victims, and to look forward with unwaver- 
 ing confidence in the all wise providence of God to better 
 days, when He shall have overruled all its wrath and woe for 
 ultimate good: 
 
 " And, finally, that we deem it our proper mission under 
 Jesus Christ to bear such testimonies and lead such lives as 
 will tend to regenerate mankind, elevate them to the true 
 Christian plane of personal and national righteousness, con- 
 form all human governments to the divine, abolish all dernier 
 resorts to carnal weapons, supersede all deadly forces by 
 beneficient ones, and thus consummate the reign of universal 
 love and peace. 
 
 " WM. S. HEYWOOD, President. 
 
 * CYRUS BRADBURY, Recorder." 
 
 These resolutions were printed in tract form and dis- 
 tributed extensively among our friends and in the general 
 community, serving no doubt a good purpose in making 
 our attitude respecting the conflict that was already being 
 vigorously waged and those engaged in it on both sides 
 better understood than it could possibly have been before. 
 And yet, however truthful, just, and meritorious the pro- 
 uunciamento was, it was but a pebble thrown against the 
 rushing tide of popular militant patriotism deluging the 
 Union-loving but not yet slavery-hating North. And its 
 effect was still less potent and salutary because it was 
 cast by a palsied hand by the remnant of a Community 
 which had confessed itself incapable of putting into prac- 
 tice its own much vaunted principles of equity, brother- 
 hood, and peace ; especially in their application to the 
 
COMMUNITY PRINCIPLES TESTED. 317 
 
 ownership and use of property, the management of busi- 
 ness, the organization and right ordering of industry, and 
 the maintenance of a miniature Christian commonwealth 
 on its own proper domain. It served to appease the 
 conscience of a few. devotees of an ideal, to which, 
 notwithstanding the violence of the storm the wrath and 
 scorn of men, they still could not be restrained from 
 clinging, and to satisfy a small number of those who,, 
 although they were in full sympathy with the loyal North 
 and saw no way out of the trouble but that of the battle- 
 field, could yet appreciate the motives and respect the 
 moral and religious scruples of devout and sincere men 
 and women striving to be faithful followers of the great 
 Prince of Peace ; but it did not save those issuing it 
 from the reproaches of the unthinking minions of the 
 war-god, nor from the machinations of the agents of 
 inexorable military power, than which no usurpation or 
 despotism of autocrat or czar is more imperious, insolent, 
 heartless, and unrelenting. This will appear from the 
 following occurrence, which took place among us during* 
 the continuance of hostilities. 
 
 Case of Conscription. In the summer of 1863 one of 
 our faithful and worthy members, J. Lowell Hey wood r 
 was drafted into the military service of the United (?) 
 States under the Conscription Act of March 3 in the 
 same year. This was a sore trial and a cause of much 
 anxiety to himself and family, and scarcely less so to 
 all the rest of us. That he could not enter the army and 
 serve as a soldier there, was a foregone conclusion. 
 The only question was whether he should pay the pre- 
 scribed $300.00 commutation money, as the law allowed 
 him to do, or submit to such military penalties as might 
 be pronounced against him, however severe they might 
 be. Public opinion among us was divided upon that 
 question. A strong feeling prevailed that absolute con- 
 sistency required that he should suffer a heroic personal 
 
-318 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY 
 
 martyrdom, and thus bear the most effective testimony 
 to his religious principles ; but it was also thought that 
 the commutation money might be paid by himself and 
 friends in good conscience and without blame, if it were 
 done under protest, thus saving him from indefinite incar- 
 ceration in fortress or prison, or from possible death, 
 should military infatuation or madness, as might be the 
 case, carry the matter to such an extreme. My personal 
 sympathies for his family in their distress overruled my 
 sterner convictions, and I gave my adhesion to the latter 
 view, drawing up a paper in remonstrance for presenta- 
 tion at martial headquarters, which, at the time, I per- 
 suaded myself met the moral demands of the case. This 
 course was finally approved by a majority of our mem- 
 bers and carried into effect. As a further token of our 
 position at that great crisis of our national history, and 
 of our adherence to our standard of faith under per- 
 plexing circumstances, the document is herewith sub- 
 mitted : 
 
 " To the Governmental Authorities of the United States and 
 their Constituents: The undersigned, John Lowell Heyw6od of 
 Hopedale, in the town of Milford, in the eighth Congressional 
 District of Massachusetts, respectfully maketh solemn declara- 
 tion, remonstrance and protest as follows, to wit: 
 
 " That he has been enrolled, drafted and notified to report 
 himself as a soldier of the United States, pursuant to an Act 
 of Congress, approved March 3, 1863, commonly called the 
 Conscription Law: 
 
 " That he holds in utter abhorrence the Rebellion which 
 the said law was designed to aid in suppressing, and would 
 devotedly fight unto death against it if he could conscientiously 
 resort to the use of deadly weapons in any case whatsoever: 
 
 " That he has been for nearly nine years a member in good 
 and regular standing of a Christian Community whose religious 
 confession of faith and practice pledges its adherents never 
 to kill, injure or harm any human being under any pretext, 
 even their worst enemy: 
 
COMMUNITY PRINCIPLES TESTED. 319 
 
 " That, in accordance with his highest convictions of duty 
 and his sacred pledge, as a member of said Community, he 
 has scrupulously and uniformly abstained from participating 
 in the State and National governments under which he has 
 lived not only foregoing the franchises, preferments, emolu- 
 ments and advantages of a constituent co-governing citizen 
 but also the privilege of righting his wrongs by commencing 
 suits at law and of calling on the government for personal 
 protection against threatened violence, in order thereby not to 
 make himself morally responsible for their constitutional dernier 
 resorts to war, capital punishment and other kindred acts, 
 and also in order to commend to mankind by a consistent 
 example those divine principles which prepare the way for a 
 higher order of society and government on the earth: 
 
 " That, nevertheless, it is one of his cardinal Christian prin- 
 ciples to respect existing human government, however imper- 
 fect, as a natural outgrowth and necessity of society for the 
 time being, subordinate to the providential overruling of the 
 supreme divine government, and therefore to be an orderly, 
 submissive, peaceable, tribute-paying subject thereof; to be no 
 detriment or hindrance to any good thereby subserved; to 
 countenance no rebellion, sedition, riot or other disorderly 
 demonstration against its authorities; to oppose its greatest 
 abuses and wrongs only by truthful testimony and firm moral 
 remonstrance; and in the last resort, when obliged for con- 
 science sake to non-comply with its requirements, to submit 
 meekly to whatever penalties it may impose: 
 
 " That, with such principles, scruples, and views of duty, he 
 cannot conscientiously comply with the demands of this Con- 
 scription Law, either by serving as a soldier or by procuring a 
 substitute. Nor can he pay the prescribed three hundred 
 dollars commutation money, which the law declarative ly 
 appropriates to the hiring of a substitute, except under explicit 
 remonstrance and protest that the same is virtually taken from 
 him by compulsion for a purpose and use to which he could 
 never voluntarily contribute it and for which he holds himself 
 in no wise morally responsible: 
 
 " And he hereby solemnly protests, not only for himself but 
 also in behalf of his Christian associates and all other orderly, 
 peaceable, tax-paying, non-juring subjects of the government, 
 of whatever denomination or class, that their conscientious 
 
320 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 scruples against war and human life-taking ought in justice 
 and honor to be respected by the legislators and administrators 
 of a professedly Republican government; and that, aside from 
 general taxation for the support thereof, no person of harmless 
 and exemplary life, who is conscientiously opposed to war and 
 deadly force between human beings, and especially no person 
 who for conscience sake foregoes the franchises, preferments, 
 privileges and advantages of a constituent citizen ought ever to 
 be conscripted as a soldier either in person or property. 
 
 " Now, therefore, I, the said John Lowell Heywood, do pay 
 the three hundred dollars commutation money to the govern- 
 ment of the United States under military constraint and in 
 respectful submission to the powers that be, but earnestly 
 protesting against the exaction as an infraction of my natural 
 and indefeasible rights as a conscientious, peaceable subject. 
 And for the final vindication of my cause, motives and inten- 
 tions, I appeal to the moral sense of all just men, and above 
 all to the inerrible judgment of the Supreme Father and Ruler 
 of the universe. 
 
 " Subscribed with my hand at Hopedale, Milford, Mass., this 
 eighteenth day of August, 1863. 
 
 "JOHN LOWELL HEYWOOD." 
 
 Upon more deliberate and dispassionate examination of 
 this whole matter, I had serious misgivings as to the 
 rightfulness of the course that was pursued. The Protest ,. 
 though inherently just and good, was too weak to meet 
 the moral exigency of the case and produce salutary 
 results. The spirit of conscienceless domination which 
 tramples on such sacred scruples and rights as the docu- 
 ment enumerates, seems to require a more stringent moral 
 resistance in order to be made to feel its culpability and 
 be brought to repentance in order to be regenerated. 
 It is sheer extortion and persecution ; an outrage unwar- 
 ranted, save in the ethics of brutal despotism, to con- 
 script a man of such principles, character, and life as 
 our victimized associate. And when committed, it should 
 be met with unflinching moral heroism and personal 
 martyrdom, even unto death, if need be, in order to 
 
I UNIVERSITY 
 EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS. 321" 
 
 arouse public attention to the enormity of the offence 
 and induce a radical and most necessary reform in the 
 practical administration, not alone of military affairs but 
 of the concerns of states and nations. At least this is 
 my present persuasion. 
 
 Educational Interests. As Hopedale was a School Dis- 
 trict, legally established by the town of Milford as a 
 part of its general educational system, our common public 
 school was properly under the care and supervision of 
 the town's Committee. Nevertheless, we annually elected 
 a Board of Education, which acted in concurrence with 
 said Committee in public school matters, and exerted a 
 positive and salutary influence over the nurture and cul- 
 ture of our children and youth. Moreover, the Com- 
 munity appropriated money from year to year for the 
 purpose of extending the time of operating the school 
 beyond that provided for by the town, and of procuring 
 extra apparatus and supplies that might be deemed desir- 
 able for the more successful prosecution of school work. 
 Over this local appropriation and its expenditure, our 
 Board of course, had entire control. This practice was 
 followed down to the year 1861, our appropriations gradu- 
 ally decreasing meanwhile, until at that date they ceased 
 entirely ; although our School Board was continued and 
 acted on substantially the same footing as before for some 
 years afterward. Our original Chapel-School-house served, 
 with sundry additions and improvements, though with 
 decreasing comfort and convenience, till the year 1868, 
 when it was superseded by the present commodious and 
 better arranged establishment erected on the same square. 
 This was built by the town, into whose hands the old 
 public school property had previously passed. While the 
 Community had a voice in the management of the schools 
 they maintained a high standing, and I am not aware 
 that they have in any essential respect degenerated since 
 that time. 
 
 21 
 
322 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 The Hopedale Home School, under the successful man- 
 agement of Wm. S. and Abbie B. Heywood as joint 
 Principals, was closed soon after the breaking out of 
 the Rebellion, the troubled, uncertain state of things in 
 the country at large contributing chiefly to that result. 
 A private school at a later date was started and put in 
 charge of Miss Lucy Patrick, an accomplished and effi- 
 cient teacher resident among us. It continued some two 
 years and was then given up. 
 
 Missionary Activities. The Practical Christian Commu- 
 nion, the organization which represeutated our cause in 
 the general region covered by our missionary labors, 
 continued to exist for some years after the opening of 
 the period reviewed in the present chapter, and held its 
 Conferences in different localities, though less frequently 
 than before. The local Inductive Communions subordi- 
 nate to it very naturally declined in interest at the sev- 
 eral points where they had been established, and at 
 length were given up altogether. The reasons for this 
 have already been indicated. There was a continually 
 diminishing call for the particular Gospel which our 
 ministers and lecturers deemed themselves commissioned 
 to proclaim and commend to the world, as there was 
 an equally diminishing opportunity to obtain a hearing 
 by any aggressive measures which we ourselves might be 
 disposed to inaugurate. The increasing disturbance in 
 the political world growing out of the multiplying usur- 
 pations and more desperate intrigues of the myrmidons 
 of oppression, unfitted the popular mind and heart for 
 the serious consideration of any great moral question or 
 theme of reform of any weighty subject indeed, save 
 what related in one way or another to the essential cause 
 of the existing trouble and to the evidently approaching 
 crisis in the affairs of the nation. All else seemed out 
 of place and could get no hearing. The usual popular 
 ministrations of religion in all denominations were sensi- 
 
MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES. 323 
 
 bly affected by the prevailing excitement, and became 
 to a very large extent charged with a politico-military 
 spirit. The Old Testament rather than the New furnished 
 texts for sermons and maxims for human conduct. The 
 Jewish God of battles was the Deity to whom worship 
 was rendered rather than the Christian Father of all 
 mankind. And Joshua, leading the armies of the Lord 
 against the Canaanites, was deemed more worthy of emu- 
 lation and imitation than Jesus, going about doing good 
 and teaching his disciples and all men to "love their ene- 
 mies, bless those that cursed them, etc." What were we 
 who were left of The Hopedale Community to do at such a 
 time as that with our Practical Christianity and message of 
 * 4 Peace on earth and Good Will" to all mankind? What 
 could we do but wait until the storm had passed by, till 
 -calmer days should come again and men were in a fitter 
 frame of mind and in a better temper to receive and profit 
 by the pure Gospel of the Son of God ? To have attempted 
 anything else to have kept up our missionary activities, 
 the instrumentalities of former days would have been 
 as unwise as ineffectual an utter waste of energy and 
 strength, of time and effort, on our part. And so our 
 Conferences were given up, our Inductive Communions 
 ceased to be, and our Promulgation Society, formed after 
 the suspension of The Practical Christian for the purpose 
 of issuing tracts and pamphlets when deemed advisable, 
 soon fell into dreamless inactivity. Whoever of us was 
 moved to go abroad, proclaiming the truth as he had 
 received it and applying it to human life as he thought 
 it wise and productive of good, did so on his own per- 
 sonal account, but the missionary feature of our socialistic 
 movement our Community propagandism, with its various 
 appliances for service in the field of Humanity, was dead, 
 without hope of resurrection. 
 
 Religious Interests and Institutions. As was clearly indi- 
 cated in the earlier chapters of this volume, The Hopedale 
 
324 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Community had a distinctively religious origin, and was- 
 from the beginning to all intents and purposes a Christian? 
 Church. So it was understood to be by its founders, and 
 so it was represented to the outside world. Its real basis 
 was an acknowledged Declaration of Faith, and its char- 
 acteristic features and multiform activities were shaped 
 and directed by fundamental religious principles. Its 
 members all regarded themselves as pledged to loyalty to- 
 Jesus of Nazareth, and to an earnest endeavor to lead a 
 life conformed to his precepts and example. They regarded 
 its various secular interests educational, industrial, finan- 
 cial, social, civil, ail its administrative functions, as sub- 
 ordinate to the dictates of divine and everlasting truth. 
 Its crowning purpose was to institute an order of society 
 conformed in all respects to the requirements of the Gos- 
 pel of Christ. 
 
 One of its first concerns, therefore, after securing a 
 " local habitation and a name," was to provide for the 
 religious culture and nurture of all classes of our people. 
 As noted in its proper place, we established regular meet- 
 ings on the first day of the week at the very outset for 
 purposes of worship and instruction in the things of the 
 spiritual life, and these were kept up during the entire 
 period of our history. An active and highly prosperous 
 Sunday School was opened early and became one of our 
 cherished and permanent institutions and an effective 
 instrumentality for good to our children and youth. The 
 Thursday evening Conference was a source of refreshing 
 and inspiration to considerable numbers of our population, 
 outside as well as inside our membership. The Monday 
 evening Meeting, designed more particularly for young 
 people but hospitable to all comers, prospered for many 
 years under my personal superintendence, and wrought a 
 most excellent work in the way of imparting to those 
 attending it a knowledge of religious truth and of nour- 
 ishing the divine life in many souls. Even after the 
 
THE HOPEDALE PULPIT. 325 
 
 change of 1856, although the more secular affairs of our 
 people were subjected to a system of management radi- 
 cally different from what existed before, the religious 
 activities remained virtually the same. And they contin- 
 ued much the same until circumstances and justice to all 
 parties concerned seemed to warrant a readjustment in 
 this respect, as will soon be made to appear. 
 
 In our early days nothing was paid as a pecuniary 
 remuneration for preaching or otherwise conducting the 
 services of public worship. There was a goodly number 
 of professional clergymen, exhorters, and free-meeting 
 talkers, in our home ranks, besides wayfaring public 
 speakers from abroad, ready to serve us, both on Sun- 
 days and on other religious occasions. At a later day 
 the Community adopted a more systematic method and 
 selected certain responsible persons to take charge more 
 particularly of our Sunday gatherings, an allowance of 
 $1.25 being appropriated for each discourse delivered, the 
 sum being afterwards increased to $3.00 per Sunday. 
 Until the year 1856. the duties of the position were 
 performed by the several ministers whose names have 
 been repeatedly mentioned in the foregoing pages, although 
 there was always provision made for such speakers from 
 outside as might be acceptable to those having the matter 
 in charge. Subsequently to that date, Bros. George Gay, 
 ti regularly ordained clergyman of the Uuiversalist denom- 
 ination, and Byrau J. Butts, a graduate of the Meadville 
 (Unitarian) Divinity School, both recent comers to our 
 fellowship, shared the responsibilities of public relig- 
 ious teachers with Bros. Fish, Heywood, and myself. 
 Bro. Fish soon after removed from the place, Bro. Gay 
 later, and subsequently Bro. Butts retired from active 
 ministerial service. This left Bro. Heywood and myself 
 ^occupants of the field for several years, when, the former 
 having gone from Hopedale and entered upon the work 
 of the ministry elsewhere, I became the only approved 
 
326 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 preacher of the Community and continued so to the end 
 of its days. The amount appropriated for the support of 
 preaching rose from $150.00 a year in 1856, or about 
 $3.00 each Sunday, to $6.00 dollars per Sunday in 1860, 
 $8.00 in 1864, and $12.00 in 1866. Two years later the 
 Community was virtually submerged in what has since 
 been known as "The Hopedale Parish," and its agency 
 in the management of the religious affairs of the village 
 came to an end. 
 
 The original school-house and Chapel building, com- 
 pleted in 1844, was made by enlargement and improve- 
 ment to serve the public need as a place of worship and 
 general religious convocation until the year 1860, when 
 it was supplanted by the neat and commodious structure 
 which was erected on a commanding eminence at the rear 
 of Community Square, so called, near the center of our 
 growing village. The plot of land upon which it stood, 
 consisting of about two acres of rough wild pasture to- 
 begin with, had been in process of improvement for sev- 
 eral years, chiefly by the labors of our Industrial Union,, 
 and of being made ready for the completed edifice by 
 grading, terracing, the planting of trees, etc. The build- 
 ing was provided for by subscription, a paper circulated 
 for the purpose of raising the requisite funds receiving 
 signatures and pledges of money varying from $1,800.00 
 appended to the names of E. D. and Anna T. Draper, 
 to $4.00 donated by one of our humbler members, the 
 whole amounting to $4,423.00. Its entire cost, including- 
 slips and furnishings, was somewhat over $6,000.00 the 
 excess above the subscription pledges being generously 
 supplied by the brothers, E. D. and George Draper. 
 The structure was in rectangular form, according to the 
 type of ecclesiastical architecture in vogue at that date, 
 measuring 58 feet in length by 44 feet in width with 30 
 feet posts, the front being surmounted by an appropriate 
 bell-tower. The Building Committee consisted of Wm. 
 
DEDICATION OF NEW MEETING-HOUSE. 327 
 
 H. Humphrey, E. D. Draper, and Wm. S. Hey wood. 
 Mr Lewis Fales of Milford was the architect ; and Mr. 
 Lowell Fales, the superintending carpenter until near com- 
 pletion ; Bro. Wm. H. Humphrey succeeding him. The 
 enterprise was brought to a fortunate conclusion in the 
 autumn of the year named, and dedicatory services were 
 held in the new sanctuary on the loth of November. An 
 account of what transpired on the occasion from the pen 
 of Rev. Samuel May of Leicester, who was present, was 
 published in The Anti-Slavery Standard of New York, 
 from which the following extracts are copied : 
 
 "To the Editor, etc.: It is not often in this slavery-ridden 
 country that the dedication of a new church building can have 
 any special interest for the true anti-slavery reformer, or for 
 the lover of Christianity in its genuine and incorrupt form. 
 Very rarely would one of these receive an invitation to attend 
 such an occasion and participate in its exercises. But the 
 dedication of the new church edifice at Hopedale (Milford, 
 Mass.) forms an exception to the rule on this subject; and as 
 the Community there established is of a character to interest 
 all true lovers of their kind, and all Abolitionists in an espe- 
 cial manner, a notice of the occasion becomes appropriate to 
 your columns and may also prove interesting to your readers." 
 " Your correspondent was one of the numerous friends present 
 and believes that all true Anti-slavery reformers may have a 
 word of congratulation and God-speed for the Hopedale friends 
 at this time." 
 
 "A particular description of the house will not be attempted. 
 In a basement story, but entirely above ground, is a large and 
 commodious room for vestry purposes; over that, the entire 
 second story of the building (with the exception of two ante- 
 rooms at the sides of the platform and from which there is 
 communication with the vestry ante-rooms below), is devoted 
 to the meeting-house proper. This is large enough to seat 
 comfortably five hundred persons. It is neatly carpeted and 
 the seats are cushioned uniformly throughout the house. The 
 walls are simply but tastefully painted in fresco, and the entire 
 interior has a very pleasing effect. It proves to be as favora- 
 ble for the purposes of speaking and of musical expression as 
 could be desired. 
 
328 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "On Thursday the 15th inst., at 10 o'clock A.M., an audi- 
 ence was collected from Hopedale and vicinity, which, with 
 friends from greater distances, well filled the house. After an 
 anthem by a choir of about twenty persons, the Building- 
 Committee delivered to the chosen Trustees the title deed and 
 the keys of the house. The statement therewith made by 
 Wm. S. Hey wood was a very interesting one. The house had 
 been built by voluntary subscription and donation; there had 
 been no resort to a compulsory tax; there had been entire 
 harmony and cheerful co-operation in the work; no accident 
 to life or limb had occurred; and the completed building stood 
 unencumbered by any debt. The pews were to be free to all 
 without distinction to old and young, to rich and poor, to 
 black and white and their occupancy would be entirely free 
 of tax or charge; the house to be, in the first place, devoted 
 to the uses of The Hopedale Community and of The Practical 
 Christian Church there, and when not needed by them to be 
 free to any person of good moral character who might desire 
 to utter therein his or her convictions of truth and duty. 
 Adin Ballou (the original mover and guiding spirit of the 
 Community) then, on behalf of the Trustees, accepted the 
 trust on the conditions named, adding that persons not con- 
 nected with the Community were invited to come and take 
 seats and share privileges in the house on the same terms 
 with the members themselves, their contributions towards its 
 expenses being wholly voluntary. After another anthem, an 
 appropriate prayer was offered by Samuel May, and this was 
 followed by the chanting of a hymn written for the occasion. 
 
 " The morning sermon of dedication was then delivered by 
 W. S. Heywood, Principal of the Hopedale Home School, one 
 of the stated preachers of the place. He essayed to define and 
 illustrate religion. No better definition or classification of the 
 duties of religion, he said, could be given than the old one 
 Love to God and love to man. The former of these two great 
 heads he took as the subject of his discourse, the latter being 
 reserved for the afternoon topic. The preacher proceeded in 
 a manner clear, free and reverent, to set forth the being and 
 character of God, the true nature of love to him and the ways 
 of manifesting that love." " The hymn ' Nearer, my God, to 
 Thee ' was then sung very beautifully. The musical exercises 
 throughout the day were under the direction of Mr. Joshua 
 
SERVICES AT THE DEDICATION. 329 
 
 Hutchinson of Milford, N. H., and were admirably arranged, 
 forming a most attractive and impressive feature of the occasion. 
 
 " In the afternoon the numbers of the audience were per- 
 ceptibly enlarged the house being filled to the utmost extent. 
 After a voluntary by the choir. Rev. John Boyden of Woon- 
 socket, R. I., read well-chosen selections from the Scriptures 
 most impressively. Another original hymn, beginning 
 
 1 What house can we rear for the Infinite Mind,' 
 was sung, when Mr. Ballou offered the dedicatory prayer. Mr. 
 Heywood read a summary of the principles held by the Com- 
 munity as sovereign and divine, and was followed by a song 
 entitled ' What I live for,' from Mr. Hutchinson. 
 
 " The second part of the dedication sermon was then given 
 by Rev. Mr. Ballon. It was an admirable exposition of the 
 Apostolic doctrine that ' he who loveth not his brother whom 
 he hath seen cannot love God whom he hath not seen.' Rev. 
 Mr. Boyden and Rev. Mr. May made congratulatory remarks, 
 each enlarging somewhat on the topics treated during the day. 
 
 "The house was then declared to be properly dedicated and 
 set apart to the uses of religion as it had been defined and to 
 the promulgation of those great principles relating to God and 
 man and social life which had been set forth and enforced. 
 
 "In the evening the house was again well filled. Rev. Mr. 
 Boyden offered prayer. A truly good original hymn by Miss 
 Lucy Whitney (of Westminster) was sung; and Mr. Ballou 
 said the meeting was free for addresses and remarks from any 
 friends present, each speaker to be followed by some musical 
 selection from the choir. Rev. Mr. Hassell of Haverhill was 
 the first speaker, touching upon several interesting points in 
 addition to the subjects presented in the day's discourses, 
 opening a discussion in which Messrs. Ballou, Heywood, Hill 
 of Milford, and May took part. 
 
 "Thus closed a series of uncommonly interesting and en- 
 couraging meetings." "And thus was set apart to the best of 
 human uses thereby best honoring the great and good Father 
 of all the new Hopedale Church wherein we trust and believe 
 that many a meeting shall yet be held promotive of human 
 freedom, growth and happiness; many a faithful Anti-slavery 
 meeting, before whose penetrating light and earnest rebuke the 
 hideous darkness of oppression shall be scattered and its 
 apologists and defenders be put to shame and converted to a. 
 
330 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 better mind; many a Temperance meeting, which shall break 
 the soul-bondage of degrading habits and bring him who was 
 dead to be alive again, him who was lost to be found and 
 restored to virtue and peace; many a Woman's Rights meet- 
 ing, where the shackles which tyrannical customs and laws 
 have imposed upon woman's just and rightful action shall be 
 weakened, until, at length, they fall entirely away; many a 
 Christian meeting, in short, where with all boldness the truths 
 of the kingdom of God shall be unfolded and multitudes be 
 brought by the beauty of holiness to lead lives of uprightness,, 
 peace and good-will to man; thus rendering to God the high- 
 est glory. 
 
 " ' My soul shall pray again, 
 
 Peace with this house remain, 
 For here my friends and brethren dwell; 
 
 And since my Father here 
 
 Draws to his children near, 
 My soul shall ever love thee well.' " 
 
 Although the Community in its organic capacity was 
 still in charge of the moral and religious activities of the 
 place, and although the formalities of worship and the 
 means of instruction and culture in the tilings pertaining 
 to the divine kingdom were scrupulously provided for and 
 maintained from year to year, yet, as time went on, there 
 was a manifest falling away from the high plane of 
 thought and conduct formerly occupied by the population 
 of Hopedale, and an unmistakably increasing conformity 
 to the spirit, maxims, customs, and general features of 
 that old social order from which we had been so long 
 striving to be emancipated. Plainly as some of us saw this 
 and deeply as we deplored it we were utterly unable to* 
 prevent it. The gradually diminishing number of our 
 own members, the continual influx among us of individ- 
 uals and families indifferent if not averse to our professed 
 principles and objects, the dominant spirit of secularism 
 and commercialism in our midst, and the spirit of politico- 
 military patriotism that prevailed in the community at 
 
PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 331 
 
 large, combined to relax and weaken the bonds that held 
 the masses of our people to lofty and noble ideals and 
 to cause a decline of the personally religious life on every 
 hand. A realizing sense of this state of things and an 
 ardent desire to stem the downward current, led a few 
 of the more devout and earnest of our remaining associ- 
 ates to propose the formation of a church, distinctively 
 so called, to include those outside our fellowship as well 
 as inside all residents on our former domain who might 
 feel the embers of the divine life burning in their bosom& 
 and be disposed by a formal consecration to God, by 
 mutual pledges and confessions, and by whatever help 
 could be derived from associating together, to have these 
 embers fanned into a vigorous and perpetual flame. The 
 proposition met with considerable favor and measures 
 were taken to have it carried into effect. I hoped less 
 from this movement than some of my brethren but lent 
 it my encouragement, being in no wise disposed to throw 
 cold water upon any scheme which had in it the least 
 promise of promoting the Christian culture of any of 
 those resident within our borders, and especially of our 
 young people who were passing through the formative 
 period of their character and life. On the 29th of Janu- 
 ary, 1860, a church was organized, the nature, purpose, 
 and general tenor of which may be inferred from the 
 following extracts from its adopted 
 
 " COMPACT. 
 
 " In order more effectually to promote our own progress in 
 the Christian life as well as th3 extension of Practical Chris- 
 tianity among men, we, whose names are hereunto subscribed, do 
 unite in a Religious Association, to be called 
 
 THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF HOPEDALE. 
 
 " And we do hereby pledge ourselves to care tenderly for 
 each other's welfare, both temporal and spiritual, and to- 
 endeavor in all things to be to each other true and faithful 
 brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
332 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 " Any person may become a member of this body by a hearty 
 acknowledgment of the following Declaration, and by conform- 
 ing to such regulations as may be established from time to 
 time for purposes of orderly edification and discipline. 
 
 " DECLARATION. 
 
 "We believe that there is one God, the Father, who is the 
 author of all beings and things; who is infinite in Love, Wis- 
 dom, Justice and Power; and who is everywhere present both 
 to will and to do as a self-conscious Spirit. 
 
 "We believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God; that the 
 Father ordained him to be the saviour of the world; that he 
 must reign till all things be subdued unto him; and that no 
 soul can be saved without becoming personally Christlike in 
 spirit, conduct and character. 
 
 " Therefore we acknowledge ourselves imperatively bound to 
 reverence the teachings, obey the precepts, imitate the exam- 
 ple, and cherish the spirit of Jesus Christ, according to our 
 highest light and ability, in all the relations of life. And we 
 further acknowledge ourselves imperatively bound by the pre- 
 cepts, example and spirit of Jesus Christ never intentionally to 
 kill, oppress or harm any human being even our worst enemy. 
 
 " This Church shall from time to time establish or permit 
 .such ordinances as may be deemed promotive of personal holi- 
 ness among its members. Such ordinances, however, shall 
 never be considered as ends to be attained, but as, at best, 
 only means of improvement and tokens of discipleship; and 
 therefore their observance can never be required of any one 
 who does not feel that it would be a privilege; nor can their 
 administration be denied to those, whether in or out of our 
 membership, who may sincerely desire it." 
 
 This movement started out promisingly and seemed to 
 prosper for a year or two, attaining a membership, if 
 my memory serves me, of fifty or sixty persons. But 
 predominating influences were against it, the animus of 
 the place being rather to acquire wealth and worldly 
 -distinction than to seek the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness. Under such untoward circumstances, The 
 Practical Christian Church of Hopedale languished ere 
 long into oblivion. 
 
HOPEDALE INDUCTIVE CONFERENCE. 33$ 
 
 The last struggling effort to revive the Community 
 cause and turn back the tide of events towards those 
 objects and aims which inspired us at the beginning of 
 our career and prompted the labors and sacrifices of 
 those early days, was the formation of what was known 
 as The Hopedale Inductive Conference. This was fash- 
 ioned somewhat after the plan heretofore outlined and 
 adopted many years before by our friends in certain, 
 favorable localities elsewhere. It was organized Sept. 26,. 
 1861, and entered at once upon the work of indoctrina- 
 tion, unification, and consolidation it was designed to 
 accomplish. It held regular weekly meetings, the exer- 
 cises of which were conducted agreeably to a definite and 
 carefully arranged system, devised and elaborated by me, 
 and published the following year under the general title 
 of u MONITORIAL GUIDE; For the use of Inductive Confer- 
 ences, Communities, etc." It was of a liturgical character, 
 and was designed, as may be inferred, to aid in the 
 intellectual, moral, and spiritual quickening and culture 
 of both youth and adults in the principles and objects of 
 The Practical Christian Republic, preparatory to practical 
 efforts in behalf of the system of society represented by 
 that comprehensive name. Its merits were satisfactorily 
 tested by several years' experience in our Inductive Con- 
 ference, which, running well during that period, was at 
 length, for want of interested, hearty, persistent co-opera- 
 tion, indefinitely suspended at the close of the year 1867. 
 The end of the Community was now at hand. That 
 consummation was hastened by the formation of what was 
 called The Hopedale Parish; a name which the organiza- 
 tion still bears. The reason for this new movement can 
 be briefly stated and easily apprehended. With the 
 advance of time the disproportion between the number 
 of Community members resident at Hopedale and non- 
 members had so greatly increased that the latter were 
 largely in the majority. And yet they had no voice what- 
 
334 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ever in the management of matters pertaining to the 
 activities and institutions of religion, in which they took 
 more or less interest, and for the maintenance of which 
 they were year by year asked to contribute. There was 
 an inequality in this which arrested attention a wrong 
 which the common moral judgment recognized and affirmed 
 ought to be righted. 
 
 Measures were therefore initiated looking to some 
 change in the administration of religious affairs whereby 
 all the people of the village at least all who had any 
 care or concern in regard to such affairs should have 
 the right and opportunity of co-operating on equal terms 
 with each other in the superintendence and control of 
 them. These, after due deliberation and consultation with 
 all parties interested, resulted in the organization on the 
 27th of October, 1867, of an association bearing the 
 before mentioned name, under a Constitution setting forth 
 its origin, its relations to the Community, its functions, 
 and general mode of administration. This instrument, 
 though quite unlike that upon which our movement was 
 based, had in it nothing essentially hostile to its spirit or 
 prescriptive requirements, and cduld therefore be approved 
 ,and supported by our remaining members without falsify- 
 ing any of their previous professions or avowals. It had 
 a flavor of religion about it, but contained no creed, 
 confession of faith, or declaration of principles, required 
 no promises from those subscribing it, and imposed upon 
 them no moral and religious obligations not even the 
 obligation to lead an orderly, upright, humane, Christian 
 life ; every one being left free to think, believe, and act 
 according to the dictates of his or her own individual 
 reason and conscience. It simply claimed to establish a 
 Liberal Christian Society, to be called The Hopedale 
 Parish, composed of those resident in the village who 
 were willing "to co-operate, to a greater or less extent, 
 in supporting public worship, religious meetings, a Sunday 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE HOPEDALE PARISH. 335 
 
 school, sacred music and other instrumentalities for the 
 promotion of moral order in the neighborhood." This 
 new body, which three mouths later, with myself as Pastor, 
 was admitted to "The Worcester Conference of Congre- 
 gational (Unitarian) and other Christian Societies," entered 
 directly upon the execution of its proper work, the respon- 
 sibilities and duties of which were cheerfully transmitted 
 to it by the Community, and as cheerfully assumed on 
 its part. The formal act of transmission took place at 
 the Annual Community Meeting held Jan. 8. 1868, the 
 record of which reads thus : 
 
 " Whereas, the inhabitants of Hopedale have recently formed 
 a Liberal Christian Society, entitled The Hopedale Parish, under 
 a Constitution which declares the same to be in general har- 
 mony with this Community, particularly in respect to ' support- 
 ing public worship, religious meetings, the Sunday School, 
 sacred music, and other instrumentalities for the promotion of 
 moral order in the neighborhood ' ; and whereas, said Constitu- 
 tion pledges said Parish to exercise all its powers, rights and 
 privileges in friendly concurrence and co-operation with this 
 Community in the respects aforesaid, and never to make any 
 Constitutional changes unfriendly to our organization; and 
 whereas, with the general consent of our resident members, 
 who are also members of the said Parish, it has accepted the 
 responsibility of managing the principal parochial affairs here- 
 tofore in charge of this Community all of which fully appears 
 in the Parish records: 
 
 "Now, therefore, be it Resolved and Declared by the Hope- 
 dale Community in regular meeting assembled, that we fully 
 assent to, approve of, and sanction the formation, organization, 
 proceedings and measures thus far of the said Hopedale Parish. 
 
 "And be it further Resolved and Declared that, so long as 
 The Hopedale Parish shall discharge the parochial responsibili- 
 ties it has accepted in general harmony with the fundamental 
 principles of this Community and according to its constitu- 
 tional pledges, this Community will not interfere with its 
 management of parochial affairs but quietly acquiesce in the 
 same. Provided, nevertheless, that nothing herein contained 
 shall in any way debar the Community from exercising its 
 
336 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 right to advise or remonstrate, as a co-ordinate body with said 
 Parish, in respect to any future measure which may seem to 
 require Community intervention. 
 
 " Passed in regular Community meeting this 8th day of 
 January, 1868. 
 
 "Attest: E. D. DRAPER, Moderator. 
 
 "J. L. HEYWOOD, Recorder." 
 
 This was the last recorded act of The Hopedale Com- 
 munity in regular meeting assembled, and with it the 
 Community may be regarded as passing into a state of 
 innocuous desuetude and becoming only a memory of bygone 
 times. There had been chosen at a previous stage of 
 this same meeting the usual official servants, but all occa- 
 sion for action on their part had ceased and they had no 
 successors. The Community, as such, now became utterly 
 and forever extinct. Some six years afterward, Dec. 15, 
 1873, its Real Estate Trustees, a permanent Board of 
 Officers and the only surviving representative of the parent 
 body, transferred, as stated on page 307, all right, title, 
 interest, and control in, unto, and over its remaining 
 territorial posessions to the Trustees of The Hopedale 
 Parish; and two years later, Dec. 7, 1875, passed into 
 the same hands the balance of the so-called Soward Fund, 
 which many years before had been donated by our esteemed 
 and faithful brother, Edmund Soward, for the purpose of 
 promoting the mental and moral improvement of the chil- 
 dren and youth of the Community and village through the 
 agency of the Sunday School Library. According to the 
 conditions upon which this gift was made, only the income 
 derived from it could be expended from year to yeai\ 
 and it had been held in trust subject to that restriction ; 
 it was put into the keeping of its new custodians charged 
 with the same inhibition. Thus all transactions pertaining 
 to the affairs of the Community were brought to an end, 
 and the very name of our Hopedale movement became 
 thenceforth only a historical designation. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 FOUNDERS OF THE COMMUNITY MEMBERS GENERALLY 
 ACHIEVEMENTS PRIMAL CAUSE OF FAILURE SUBOR- 
 DINATE CAUSES THE HOPEDALE IDEAL 
 ITS FUTURE REALIZATION. 
 
 THE opening paragraphs of this, the last Chapter of 
 the History of the Hopedale Community, will briefly 
 recount the more notable facts and features of our diver- 
 sified experience in the new order of society we undertook 
 to establish, as a prelude to an exposition of the defects 
 and weaknesses of the enterprise, and especially of the 
 cause or causes of its ultimate failure. During the twenty 
 years that have transpired since it suffered the fatal blow 
 that sealed its doom, I have had time to review the whole 
 matter with painstaking and prayerful deliberation, which 
 lias resulted in the recasting of some of my previous 
 hastily formed opinions, and in reaching conclusions that 
 I desire to put on record for posterity as my final verdict 
 in the case. A rapid survey of the field whereon we 
 toiled and suffered, won victories and sustained defeats, 
 rejoiced and lamented, will aid me in carrying my purpose 
 in this regard into effect. 
 
 The founders of The Hopedale Community, as has been 
 already shown, were so-called Independent Restorationists 
 in speculative theology, and universal moral Reformers in 
 respect to the application of religious truth to human life 
 in its various departments, relations, and manifestations. 
 They believed in the Fatherhood of God and the Brother- 
 hood of Man, and in the principles and precepts of the 
 
 22 
 
338 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 New Testament as taught and exemplified by Jesus Christ. 
 They were animated by a rational and devout ambition 
 to hold their faith, not merely as a dogmatic statement, 
 or an intellectual conception, or a passional sentiment or 
 emotion, but as the rule and the inspiration of life as 
 the power of a renewed personal character and the incen- 
 tive to, and basis for, a divinely ordered form of human 
 society. To their apprehension theory ought to be exem- 
 plified in practice, and the principles and spirit of Chris- 
 tianity should have illustration in, as they were deemed 
 applicable to, all human interests and concerns ; social and 
 civil as well as individual. This view characterized their 
 thought and directed their career. Their premises and 
 conclusion were to their minds indissolubly related and 
 invulnerable to just criticism. If God were their Father, 
 they were to live before him and with each other as rev- 
 erent, dutiful, trusting children. If all men were their 
 brethren, they were under sacred obligations to love them 
 and do them good ; nay, more, all injustice, hatred, vin- 
 dictiveness, cruelty, oppression, violence, wrath, and war 
 was wrong and ought to be overcome and put forever 
 away ; and they were in duty bound to pray and labor to 
 secure that important consummation. They ought, more- 
 over, to espouse and do what they could to advance every 
 good cause, to aid every movement calculated to benefit 
 and bless mankind. If Christianity were a divine religion, 
 charged with that truth and grace which are commissioned 
 of God to redeem the world from sin and bring in the 
 reign of universal righteousness, then it should control all 
 human action ; and the habits, practices, and customs of 
 men -their institutions, laws, and systems, whatever their 
 name and by whomsoever maintained, repugnant to it, 
 should be renounced and abandoned, and the whole com- 
 plex order of society, in its unfraternal and unchristian 
 features, should be reconstructed and made to conform to 
 and represent its holy requirements. In case this could 
 
CHARACTER OF COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP. 339 
 
 not be done, by reason of the ignorance, moral incom- 
 peteucy, or uucbristianized will of those by whose agency 
 these things were practised, upheld, and perpetuated, under 
 the existing social system, then it became the true fol- 
 lowers of the Nazareue to join hands, hearts, and all 
 possible active efforts for the work of building a new 
 system from the foundations upward, which should be in 
 harmony with the Master's teachings and stand before 
 men and angels as the type and imperfect, because human, 
 realization of that kingdom of heaven which he came to 
 establish upon the earth. Under the power and inspira- 
 tion of such logic, which to them was incontrovertible, the 
 founders of The Hopedale Community entered upon their 
 work; under the same power and inspiration did they 
 and their later associates and successors prosecute it to 
 the end. 
 
 The membership of the Community during its entire 
 existence was composed of men and women belonging 
 to the more substantial, self-respecting middle class of 
 American society the rank and file of the American 
 people. It included, first and last, six or eight ordained 
 ministers of the Gospel, two experienced and skillful 
 physicians, several well-equipped and competent teachers 
 in the various branches of useful knowledge, writers for 
 religious and reformatory journals, platform speakers, 
 conference room exhorters. together with numerous farm- 
 ers, gardeners, carpenters, machinists and a goodly num- 
 ber of other handicraftsmen a plain, common sense, 
 intelligent, high-minded population. As a whole, we were 
 in no proper sense such a set of visionary dreamers, 
 deluded fanatics, restless impracticable s, and thriftless 
 incompetents, needing a guardian or some master spirit 
 to take pity on us and save us from our own folly and 
 imbecility, as has sometimes been represented by certain 
 orators and authors, who seemed more desirious of depre- 
 ciating us and our labors, sacrifices and achievements, 
 
340 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 than of telling the truth about us and doing exact justice 
 to us and our cause. To be sure, there were now and 
 then persons who came to us from selfish and unworthy 
 motives, seeking an easy place for themselves and a 
 supply for their own and their family's needs which they 
 were too indolent and shiftless to earn elsewhere. To be 
 sure, we were beset by a great variety of visitors, good, 
 bad, and indifferent, hailing from far and near, profess- 
 ing a friendship for us and our movement; not infre- 
 quently claiming to be philanthropists and reformers par 
 excellence, and bringing with them, it may be, some special 
 device for bettering the condition of world some new 
 panacea for one or more of the manifold ills which human- 
 ity is heir to, the crudest follies or impracticabilities 
 perhaps. But few of either class ever gained an entrance 
 within the pale of our organic fellowship ; or, if they did, 
 were soon convinced that they were out of place and vol- 
 untarily retired, never attaining any appreciable influence 
 in shaping our polity or in the systematic management of 
 any of our affairs. Follies no doubt we had and defects, 
 whereof we had reason to be ashamed and repentant, but 
 they were not of the sort alleged. If we were in any sense 
 dreamers and visionaries, an imputation we were never 
 disposed to take offence at or deny, we were only such 
 as Jesus Christ and his Apostles were and taught us to- 
 be, when they pictured to us a kingdom of righteousness, 
 peace and joy for which we should pray, a coming reign 
 of equity and brotherhood which we should seek to inau- 
 gurate, under whose benignant sway 
 
 "All crime shall cease and ancient fraud shall fail, 
 Returning justice lift aloft her scale; 
 Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, 
 And white-robed innocence from heaven descend." 
 
 As a matter of fact, no one who knew us and was 
 disposed to be just towards us could deny that, with the 
 rare exceptions alluded to, we were a most practical r 
 
NO FOOLISH AND WICKED EXPENDITURES. 341 
 
 self-supporting company, industrious, ecomomical, hus- 
 banding well our resources, and putting our means to 
 good uses. Not a dollar was expended by us for intoxi- 
 cating liquor, for enervating pleasure, or pernicious 
 amusement. Bad habits, always more or less costly, 
 were under proscription, and for the most part absolutely 
 prohibited. Even tobacco, when previously used, was 
 laid aside by those entering our membership, one person 
 only continuing the indulgence, and that after repeated 
 ineffectual attempts to overcome the appetite. We spent 
 nothing on military trappings or displays ; nothing on 
 spectacular and boisterous demonstrations of any sort ; 
 nothing on political manceuvreiug or masquerade ; nothing 
 on police supervision or litigation no occasion for the 
 former ever existing and all differences or controversies 
 Among ourselves or with our neighbors being settled by 
 -amicable conference or peaceful arbitration. As to con- 
 stables, sheriffs, criminal prosecutions, or court proceed- 
 ings outside of simple probate concerns, we had no use 
 for them. 
 
 But it was not our chief ambition or desire to earn 
 and save money for our own necessity, comfort, enrich- 
 ment, or exaltation, with no thought or regard for the 
 acquisition of those riches of the heart and soul which 
 are an eternal possession, or for the contribution we 
 -could make for the promotion of the welfare of our 
 fellowmeu. Our chief labor was "not for the meat that 
 perisheth but for that which endureth unto everlasting 
 life." We sought first "the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousnes." We were, I repeat, a sincerely and ear- 
 nestly religious people : not on the ground of escaping 
 the merciless inflictions of an Almighty avenger after 
 <leath, or of gaining some exceeding great reward in a 
 future endless heaven; but in order to escape the evils 
 and consequences of sin both in this world and in the 
 world to come, and to secure by right-doing the benefits 
 
342 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 and blessings of a heavenly inheritance here as well as 
 hereafter ; and not only for ourselves but for others, to- 
 the utmost extent possible. Pursuant to this predominat- 
 ing purpose, we maintained the institutions and appliance* 
 of moral and spiritual culture and inspiration with scru- 
 pulous fidelity at home ; we sent missionaries out into the 
 surrounding world to preach the Gospel of Chirst as we 
 understood and applied it, calling men to repentance for 
 their follies and sins and to the new life of love to 
 God and man which that Gospel required ; we also created 
 a literature of our own, expository of our interpretations 
 and applications of divine truth, and distributed it far 
 and wide in all directions, as an effective instrumentality 
 of human enlightenment and redemption. All this cost 
 time, thought, effort, money was a continual draft upon 
 the varied resources at our command. 
 
 Nor were these the only contributions we made for the 
 good and happiness of our kind. As Abolitionists we 
 were not only called upon for financial aid in carrying 
 on the general warfare against the giant iniquity of 
 American slavery, but had frequent occasion to extend 
 our hospitality to the apostles and champions of free- 
 dom going up and down the land preaching deliverance 
 to the bondmen, and to furnish food, clothing, and shelter 
 to some poor fellow-human being fleeing as for his very 
 life from the clutch of the oppressor and making an 
 appeal to us for help. As Temperance people we not 
 only gave to the treasury of that movement, but received 
 again and again to our care, protection, and uplifting 
 influence the broken-down victims of the inebriating bowl> 
 sent us by friends or coming of their own accord to find 
 within our borders a refuge from temptation, as also 
 encouragement and aid to reformation. Other good causes, 
 in their time and turn made their appeals to us for money 
 or other means of promotion, nor ever made them in vain. 
 Our reputation for kindness and charity in the general 
 
A SELF-SUPPORTING, BENEVOLENT POPULATION. 343 
 
 neighborhood about us brought us many a supplicant for 
 alms, no one of whom was turned coldly away. We had 
 advertised our Community extensively and were visited by 
 professed inquirers, friends of social reconstruction, and 
 others, from different parts of the country, to all of 
 whom we offered entertainment for days and weeks some- 
 times, usually without pecuniary return occasionally with 
 sharp criticism and cheap advice as a recompense. Taking 
 all things into account, it may be reasonably questioned 
 whether any equal population in the country of corre- 
 sponding pecuniary means gave, during the period of our 
 Community's existence, a tithe of what we did for relig- 
 ious, philanthropic, and reformatory purposes and objects, 
 outside of its own distinctive boundaries. 
 
 Moreover, for several years we educated our children at 
 our own expense, never receiving a dollar from the town 
 of Milford though we paid taxes continually into its 
 treasury ; and through all our history the amount thus 
 contributed to its resources year by year was hundreds 
 and thousands of dollars in excess of what was returned 
 to us under any and every form of expenditure in our 
 behalf or re-imbursement whatsoever. And yet we never 
 made a single pauper or criminal whereby the town was 
 put to the least trouble or cost, or caused it to use any 
 of its funds for the relief of any of our own poor, for 
 police surveillance and protection, or for municipal inter- 
 position and action of any sort. The Community was 
 composed of not simply a busy, thrifty, self-subsisting 
 class of people, but one eminently large-hearted and 
 benevolent, their frequent and generous donations and 
 their open-handed, ungrudging hospitality testifying to 
 their enterprise, practicality, and power of production. 
 
 Further testimony to the same effect may be found in 
 a brief statement of what was actually accomplished by 
 The Hopedale Community during the fourteen years in 
 which it was master of the situation and exercised supreme 
 
344 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 and undivided control over all industrial and business 
 affairs within its recognized jurisdiction. It was organ- 
 ized under the name of Fraternal Community No. 1 at 
 Mendon, Mass., Jan. 28, 1841. The number of original 
 members was 32, to which there were added by subse- 
 quent admissions and at indeterminate intervals, 165, 
 making the entire membership, 196. Of these there are 
 left nominally associated together at this time of writing 
 (1876), about 35, only 14 of whom continue to reside on its 
 former domain ; the others who are still living being scat- 
 tered far and wide over the country. The first purchase 
 of lands at Hopedale for its occupancy and use was 
 effected June 30, 1841, and consisted of what was known 
 as "The Jones' Farm," containing 258 acres. Later addi- 
 tions from time to time, which included two adjacent farms 
 and other contiguous territory, increased the aggregate 
 extent of its domain to nearly or quite 600 acres, com- 
 prising the village site, horticultural grounds, orchards, 
 farming fields, wood and meadow lots, mill-ponds, thorough- 
 fares, etc. The earliest settlement on our territory was 
 made sometime in October, 1841. by a family of five 
 persons. In the latter part of the following March, 
 at which date operations actually began, there was a 
 colony of seven families on the premises, numbering 
 twenty-eight persons. The population, including mem- 
 bers, probationers, dependents, employes, and permitted 
 residents, multiplied by gradual accessions until at the 
 time of the surrender in 1856, it aggregated some three 
 hundred. 
 
 The first Joint-Stock property of the Association actu- 
 ally in hand was $100.00 ; at the time of settlement in 
 the spring of 1842, it was $4,000.00. It increased from 
 3^ear to year until it exceeded $40,000.00. The property 
 of individual members of the Community was estimated to 
 begin with at about $10,000.00; it was not less than 
 $90,000.00 when the dissolution took place. 
 
IMPROVEMENT OF COMMUNITY DOMAIN. 345 
 
 The Community entered upon its career on a much run 
 down estate, in a single ancient farm-house, with two 
 -dilapidated barns and several outbuildings in similar con- 
 dition; access to and egress from which were obtained 
 over narrow, crooked, uneven, wretchedly built high- 
 ways ; it left that estate and the accessions to it in 
 excellent condition for agricultural and horticultural pur- 
 poses, and made the center of its population and activities 
 a neat village of some fifty pleasant dwellings, located 
 amid gardens, orchards, shade-trees, shrubbery, and flow- 
 ers, upon carefully laid out and well-constructed streets, 
 with substantial manufacturing establishments along its 
 western border one of the neatest, most quiet, beautiful, 
 charming little hamlets in the Commonwealth of Massa- 
 chusetts. A most desirable, highly prized, promising 
 possession it was to us, purchased for and consecrated 
 to disinterested, philanthropic, noble uses and objects, 
 preserved, enriched, embellished by us, as the seat and 
 center of a great movement for the bettering of the world ; 
 but which, by force of adverse circumstances and condi- 
 tions, we were compelled to convey to our successors, 
 to become under their skillful management the theatre and 
 vantage ground whereon to gain wealth, social distinction, 
 political honor, and other like emoluments and rewards. 
 The story of its varied experiences, joyous and sad, of its 
 struggles and attainments, of its victories and defeats, the 
 Community now bequeaths to coming generations, that the 
 wise and good and true belonging to them may be instructed 
 by its lessons, and perad venture helped to achieve, on 
 kindred but not necessarily identical lines of effort, far 
 larger, nobler, and more enduring results in the same 
 beneficent and blessed behalf. 
 
 Yes, we failed. Failed just as we had attained an 
 apparently praiseworthy and permanent success ; just as 
 we were feeling assured that we had overcome our most 
 serious difficulties, surmounted our greatest obstacles, van- 
 
346 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY 
 
 quished our most obdurate foes, and were beyond the 
 reach of peril ; just as we had planned and were begin- 
 ning to put into execution schemes of colonization and 
 programmes' for founding new communities offshoots of 
 ours in some of the more attractive and promising 
 sections of our great country. And our failure being a 
 confessed fact, it is both desirable and important to 
 understand the nature of that failure the causes that 
 led to it and the reasons why it transpired. To the solu- 
 tion of that problem the concluding pages of this volume 
 will be chiefly devoted. 
 
 And the point which first demands consideration is that 
 involved in the inquiry whether or not our discomfiture 
 the defeat of all our plans and hopes is to be regarded 
 in any proper sense as a financial or business disaster; 
 or in other words whether or not it was primarily and 
 essentially due to a lack of business capacity on our part 
 and to the special pecuniary straits in which we found 
 ourselves at the opening of the year 1856. Had the 
 Community become bankrupt, as the saying is, and was 
 it compelled to stop operations in order to meet its 
 pecuniary obligations and satisfy its creditors? By no- 
 means. No one who knew the exact status of our several 
 industries, the condition of our treasury, and our standing 
 in the business world at the time, would decide the ques- 
 tion affirmatively. Nor would any one familiar with our 
 industrial and financial history from the beginning as it 
 has been outlined on the preceding pages. Notable facts 
 of that history having a definite bearing upon the matter 
 may be formally recapitulated. 1. Our Joint-Stock invest- 
 ment at the time of the suspension of our consolidated- 
 activities was, as stated, more than $40,000.00, while 
 our individual property was about $90,000.00; nearly all 
 of which had been produced on our own territory since 
 we first occupied it. 2. The Joint-Stock had never depre- 
 ciated in value but remained at par from the beginning ; 
 
NOT A FINANCIAL FAILURE. 347 
 
 not a share having ever been sold, transferred, or surren- 
 dered for one cent less. The final disposal of it was on 
 that basis, and not a single person ever suffered loss by 
 having it in his possession. 3. For the greater part of 
 the time the entire list of stockholders received the stipu- 
 lated four per cent, interest on their money, and outside 
 parties always. 4. Every dollar of the Community indebt- 
 edness from first to last was honorably paid and our credit 
 wherever we were known was never impeached or ques- 
 tioned. 5. The members, probationers, and dependents 
 of the Community were able to secure under its manage- 
 ment or by industries which it established or sanctioned 
 upon its territory, a comfortable home, means of subsist- 
 ence, and an adequate supply for all the material needs 
 of themselves and families ; with money besides for intel- 
 lectual, moral, and religious culture and for benevolent 
 uses, while most of them realized an increase of individ- 
 ual property ; the whole of such increase amounting to 
 $80,000.00; or an average of about $2,000.00 for every 
 household in our membership. 6. The reported deficit at 
 the time of suspension was less than $2,000.00 ; reckoning 
 actual depreciation of property, losses incurred, etc., it 
 might have amounted to $10,000.00 or $12,000.00. But 
 what was that compared with the average losses of the 
 business world, where, as carefully prepared statistics 
 prove, more than 90 per cent, of the enterprises and 
 ventures result in bankruptcy? The deficits incurred by 
 an equal population with ours engaged in similar kinds 
 of industry for the same length of time, under ordinary 
 circumstances, are far greater than we experienced. Sev- 
 eral persons once in our membership and living comfort- 
 ably, with gradually accumulating means while with us, 
 sunk more in ten years after leaving than we all together 
 did in fourteen, and in one instance six or eight times 
 as much. 7. Again, the great majority of our people, 
 both managers and common workmen, gained under our 
 
348 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 regime such habits of industry and frugality, such lessons 
 in handicraft and financiering, such development of pro- 
 ductive ability, as enabled them to become more inde- 
 pendent and successful from a secular point of view 
 after Community administration was given up than they 
 were before or probably would subsequently have been 
 without that experience. They were therefore on this 
 ground gainers rather than losers by the Community, to 
 say nothing of the superior intellectual, moral, social, and 
 religious advantages which, under its wise and generous 
 provision, they were privileged to share. 8. Finally, it 
 is to be noted that the successors of the Community in 
 the ownership and management of business affairs, on 
 the foundation which the Community laid and with the 
 facilities which the Community had provided and passed 
 over to them, proceeded at once, without disaster or 
 serious hindrance, to build up a fortune that in a few 
 years far exceeded the wildest fancies of any of our 
 dreamers in that direction and would have been deemed 
 <x)llossal by all of us would, in fact, have placed us 
 on sure foundations and beyond all danger in that par- 
 ticular. Taking all these things into account it is made 
 to appear that our failure was not like that which so 
 often occurs in business circles not like that of most 
 of our contemporary social experiments, a financial one 
 was not caused by a lack of business capacity among us, 
 or by the pecuniary exigencies and embarrassments to 
 which we had been brought in the conduct of our affairs. 
 What then did produce the fatal crisis? Why was it 
 deemed necessary to suspend the operations of our com- 
 bined industry, surrender our Joint- Stock holdings, and 
 dissolve our peculiar associated relations, going back to 
 the assumption of strictly individual interests and respon- 
 sibilities, to the old competitive, unfraternal, unchristian 
 business methods and to the long-established usages, max- 
 ims, customs, and institutions of the world at large? It 
 
THE WORLD NOT READY FOR IT. 349- 
 
 was because, as a whole, we lacked the Christlike wisdom 
 and virtue necessary to the successful prosecution and final) 
 triumph of such an undertaking, those qualities of mind, 
 heart, and character, without which any comprehensive, 
 all-sided movement for the individual and social uplifting 
 of humanity any organized attempt to realize the divine 
 kingdom on the earth in a radical form, must, in the nature 
 of the case, prove abortive. Our experiment was born; 
 out of due time. It was scores and perhaps hundreds of 
 years ahead of the age in which it was put on trial. 
 The world, even the best part of the world, was not 
 ready for it was not at the stage of moral and spiritual 
 development in which it could understand, appreciate and 
 supply the appropriate atmosphere for a work so thorough, 
 so all-embracing, so superior to all the ordinary aspirations 
 and ambitions of men, so antagonistic to the selfishness, 
 pride, arrogance, contention, belligerancy, and barbarism 
 that characterize existing society ; to say nothing of it& 
 indisposition and lack of desire to enter into, sustain, 
 and carry such a work forward to triumphant issues. 
 And not only was the world, or the best part of the 
 world, notwithstanding all its professions of intelligence, 
 virtue, philanthropy, piety of Christian love and loy- 
 alty not ready for such an undertaking, but we our- 
 selves, who had assumed to enter upon it, were not ready. 
 We had too many of the infirmities of the carnal nature 
 about us, we were too much under the dominion of the 
 worldly mind, we entered too little into the Spirit of the 
 Master, and were entangled with too large a number of 
 the errors and follies of the prevailing religion of the 
 church to win the success of which our cause was intrin- 
 sically worthy. We lacked the wisdom, the grace, the 
 large-mindeduess, the generosity, the nobility of soul, in 
 a single word, the Christlikeness that was requisite to the 
 end we sought, that qualified us to be the builders of a 
 temple on every stone of which was to be inscribed 
 
350 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 "Holiness to the Lord." Probably the best of us lacked 
 these qualities in too great a degree, and it may be that 
 those most wanting in them were as true to their light 
 and capability as their more favored brethren. I judge 
 no one in this matter but refer all judgment, whether of 
 approval or condemnation, to Him who cannot err and 
 whose verdict is righteous and irreversible. 
 
 Some have been disposed to censure severely and blame 
 without reserve the Brothers Draper for their course in 
 the matter-* for their agency in bringing on the fatal 
 crisis, charging them with treachery to the cause they 
 had espoused and with infidelity to their brethren. I have 
 never sympathized with such imputations. To be sure, 
 these men unitedly owned three-fourths of the Joint-Stock 
 of the Community and had a constantly increasing income 
 from their own private business, which was carried on 
 outside of Community superintendence, though in accord 
 with its established polity. To be sure, it was their 
 decision to withdraw their portion of the common funds 
 from the treasury that precipitated our overthrow. And 
 it is also true that they were enabled to erect upon the 
 foundation which had been laid by us with much study, 
 labor, self-denial, and prayer, an enterprise that yielded 
 them personally an ample fortune and enabled their suc- 
 cessors to rise to a commanding place among the opulent 
 capitalists of their day and generation. But I could 
 never yield assent to any charges, open or implied, of 
 infidelity or betrayal of trust that may have been preferred 
 against them, usually from outsiders ; certainly not of 
 perfidy or injustice towards their brethren ; nor could I 
 count them sinners above all others in the competitive, 
 money-making, self-seeking world. For the reason, that 
 neither of them ever sought to enrich himself at the 
 Community's expense, or took advantage of its necessities, 
 or shirked his share of its burdens, or tried to absolve 
 himself from any of its obligations. On the contrary, 
 
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS SACRED. 351 
 
 both helped it in many a time of need, by augmenting 
 its capital, by enhancing its credit, by co-operating cheer- 
 fully with their brethren in maintaining its honor, and 
 not infrequently, especially in the case of the elder, by 
 making it important and gratefully-received donations. 
 
 I did at the time greatly deplore the decisive step on 
 their part by which our associated endeavors were brought 
 to an end. I longed to have them and all my associates 
 prize the cause as I did, see the matter as I saw it, feel 
 as I felt, and be willing and happy to do with their 
 means as I should have done had I been favored as they 
 were use them for the good of our body and for the 
 -continuance and advancement of the work to which we 
 were all sacredly pledged. And I then had, as I have now, 
 no doubt, that if these two brothers had been so minded, 
 the Community would have gone on prospering and to 
 prosper for many years after its career was terminated. 
 
 But as the movement rested wholly on the basis of the 
 inherent and indefeasible individual rights of its mem- 
 bers rights of conscience, of private judgment, of per- 
 sonal possession of property, and of voluntary action in 
 the management of our common affairs, I always held 
 these sacred, and never attempted or desired to dictate, 
 coerce, overrule, or over-persuade any one, even to save 
 the Community from dissolution. I never could respect 
 or love or have confidence in any social experiment that 
 was not undertaken by intelligent, free-minded, willing- 
 hearted men and women persons sincerely and reverently 
 obedient to divine moral principles, and not blindly sub- 
 servient to mere human authority of any sort whatsoever. 
 Much as I desire and pray for a true Community, I want 
 none for the sake of merely temporal and worldly advan- 
 tage, and none in which the individual member loses his 
 identity in the general mass and is made less a man or 
 woman by socialistic organization or polity. Perish all 
 plans of social reform all devices, expedients, schemes, 
 
352 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 systems, that destroy or dwarf the human personality, that 
 limit or enthrall any of the capabilities or possibilities of 
 the children of the infinite Father of all mankind. I do, 
 however, sincerely believe in the practicability and coming 
 actualization of a social order, or system of communal 
 life, under which those capabilities and possibilities shall 
 be exercised, unfolded, and enjoyed inimitably. Only that 
 attainment is far more difficult and demands a far higher 
 development of character and a far fuller and richer 
 experience of the life of God in the soul of man than I 
 formerly conceived. 
 
 Moreover, I am now able to see from my present point 
 of observation, that, if the Brothers Draper had been of 
 the same mind as myself had been willing to devote 
 their rapidly accumulating property to the further develop- 
 ment, growth, and prosperity of the Hopedale Community, 
 it would have sooner or later failed ; and for the same 
 general reason already given ; on account of the same 
 lack of moral qualification which existed at the time of 
 its suspension, and which, I repeat, will forever prove 
 fatal to any enterprise of like character and purpose at 
 any period of the world's history. I at present see no 
 ground for believing that, with the prevailing currents of 
 society setting so strongly in the direction of the accumu- 
 lation of wealth, of political preferment, of fashionable 
 display, of easy-going morality, and of a religion still 
 studiously careful not to offend too seriously the popular 
 taste, or habits of the multitude by arraigning and con- 
 demning giant wrongs and unchristian practices in social, 
 civil, and national life, 1 see no ground for believing 
 under these circumstances that the menbership of the 
 Community would up to this moment have been raised to 
 a higher moral and spiritual level than it occupied at 
 that time, even had it been possible for it to have main- 
 tained its then existing integrity and standing before the 
 divine law and in the presence of Him who is of purer 
 
BETTER MATERIAL COULD NOT BE FOUND. 353 
 
 eyes than to look upon iniquity with favor, aiid whose 
 kingdom in this and all possible worlds is righteousness 
 and peace and joy. No Community can be a success 
 except its membership consist of persons the like of 
 which the world even now possesses very few. 
 
 For it is my profound conviction, formed at the time 
 and confirmed by long and careful observation, experi- 
 ence, and reflection since, that, notwithstanding the 
 weaknesses, faults, and shortcomings of our Hopedale 
 fraternity, it was composed of men and women as well 
 equipped, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, for the 
 realization of their ideal of what human life and human 
 society upon the earth ought to be, as any equal number 
 that could have been brought together from any quarter 
 or portion of the habitable globe. I sincerely believe 
 that if we had gathered our numbers from the rank and 
 file of any church, philanthropic organization, moral 
 reform society, or philosophical club in or out of Chris- 
 tendom, organized them, and put them to the work of 
 social reconstruction under circumstances like those amid 
 which we were placed at Hopedale, we should have met 
 with a no less disastrous defeat than we encountered, and 
 very likely at an earlier date. The religion, ethics, phi- 
 lanthrophy, culture of general society, or of any particular 
 class of reformers or moralists, impose too little self- 
 discipline, self-denial, self-restraint, upon individuals and 
 families to fit them for a voluntary, close intimacy, and 
 union of the manifold secular interests and business 
 activities of life. They leave their subjects too egoistic, 
 angular, self-opinionated, mercenary, combative, belliger- 
 ent, revengeful ; too crude, inconsiderate, capricious, 
 fastidious, uudrilled, in their tastes, tempers, wills, judg- 
 ments, to live with each other or with any number of 
 their fellowmen on terms of equality, fraternal co-oper- 
 ation, and mutual good feeling. The great mass of 
 people, even of reputed good people, find it somewhat 
 
 23 
 
354 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 difficult to get on harmoniously and happily together in 
 existing society for a great length of time, notwithstand- 
 ing all the bars, prohibitions, and restraints imposed 
 upon them there. The} 7 can meet as neighbors and 
 acquaintances, as persons interested in certain common 
 pleasures, pursuits, objects in life, and continue perma- 
 nently in sweet and joyous accord. They can commingle 
 and act together on occasions and for a brief period, in 
 order to promote some cherished intellectual, literary, 
 charitable, scientific, aesthetic, moral, or religious enter- 
 prise or aim they can maintain a conventional round 
 of friendly visitation, of mutual conference, of amuse- 
 ment seeking, of lecture hearing, or of church going, 
 without jeopardizing their good opinion of each other or 
 the general harmony and happiness. Whereas, too fre- 
 quent intercourse, daily contact, seeing each other in 
 all moods, in all costumes, in all habitudes of thought 
 and feeling, and, above all, working side by side, holding 
 property in common, managing business together this 
 is quite another matter; this is leaving the poetry for 
 the prose of life ; it is an ordeal which few can patiently 
 submit to or endure. The intimacy of the relation which 
 must necessarily exist in any form of Community life, 
 whereby the weaknesses, follies, foibles, idiosyncracies, 
 disagreeabilities, and offensive characteristics of each and 
 every individual are disclosed, requires a consideration, a 
 forbearance, a kindly and forgiving disposition, a measure 
 of the true Christ-like spirit, rarely possessed by any 
 considerable number, much less by any associated body 
 of persons, whatever their profession or the name by 
 which they are designated. In taking this view of the 
 matter I can but have brought forcibly to mind a pas- 
 sage from the letter of Dr. Wm. E. Chanuing to me in 
 the early days of our movement, as it appears on page 42 
 of this work : "I have for a very long time dreamed of 
 an association, in which the members, instead of preying 
 
LIMITATIONS OF PROFESSING CHRISTIANS. 355 
 
 on one another and seeking to put one another down, 
 after the fashion of this world, should live together as 
 brothers, seeking one another's elevation and spiritual 
 growth. But the materials for such a community I have 
 not seen." 
 
 Such materials as a matter of fact do not exist at the 
 present stage of human development, save in rare instances, 
 even within the pale of the nominal Christian Church, the 
 more liberal and progressive branches of the Christian 
 Church not excepted. And there are good and sufficient 
 reasons for this. The mass of professing Christians of 
 all schools have no definite and adequate conception of a 
 divine order of society among men no lofty, sublime, 
 inspiring ideal of the reign of righteousness, brotherhood, 
 love, peace, and joy on the earth. If they have any con- 
 ception or idea at all of such an order or reign, it 
 pertains, not to the present but to a future state of 
 existence, not to this world but to the world to come. 
 Christianity is generally preached and believed as culmin- 
 ating in so-called civilization ; in civilization improved, it 
 may be, lifted to a somewhat higher plane of thought 
 and conduct perhaps, but yet a civilization or order of 
 human life in which the essential maxims, usages, cus- 
 toms, institutions of the world as it is shall continue to 
 exercise predominating sway in the affairs of men; in 
 which the existing relations between man and man, 
 between different classes of people, between the great 
 interests of society, shall remain virtually the same as 
 they now are, especially in the more advanced portions 
 of the globe. The notion of a radical change in these 
 regards ; of a social regeneration corresponding to a 
 regeneration of personal character and life, is quite 
 foreign to the thought, the aspiration, and the specific 
 aim of the average church-member of this age. The 
 notion of a dynasty of right principles of justice, 
 mercy, truth, and love, under which self-seeking, mam- 
 
356 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 monism, love of display, scramble for preferment and 
 power, the gross inequalities of social condition, tyranny, 
 national jealously and ambition, and above all, injurious 
 force, vindictive punishment, and the barbarous war sys- 
 tem, shall have no place, seems to be quite above and 
 beyond the apprehension of the common religious teacher 
 of divine truth, save as a beautiful theory, as it is of 
 the great majority of the so-called Christian world. Such 
 notions are deemed fanciful, impracticable, Utopian ; the 
 speculations and vagaries of visionaries and eccentric 
 enthusiasts, not the conclusions of judicious, level-headed, 
 practical, common sense men and women. 
 
 And yet there is all about us a most solemn professed 
 and conventional reverence for Christ and his teachings, 
 and a constant Sabbath-day iteration and reiteration of 
 his injunctions against every type of human selfishness, 
 every form of harmful violence, every degree of cruelty 
 and revenge, every manifestation of the spirit of wrath 
 and war, and a corresponding repetition of his require- 
 ments concerning those kindly sentiments and duties cal- 
 culated to promote gentleness, compassion, unity, peace, 
 and good will among men. Familiar as household words 
 to all bible readers and church-going people are the pas- 
 sages : "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain 
 mercy"; "Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be 
 called the children of God"; "Ye have heard that it 
 hath been said 4 An eye for an eye and a tooth for a 
 tooth,' but I say unto you, Resist not evil ; but whosoever 
 shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other 
 also, etc." "Ye have heard that it hath been said, 
 4 Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy,' 
 but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that 
 curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for 
 them that despitef ally use you and persecute you ; That 
 ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven ; 
 For he maketh his sun to shine upon the evil and the 
 
CHRIST'S TEACHINGS SYSTEMATICALLY IGNORED. 357 
 
 good and sendeth ruin upon the just and the unjust." 
 44 All things whatsoever ye would that men should do 
 unto you do ye also unto them." 44 Put up thy sword 
 into its place, for all they that take the sword shall 
 perish with the sword." "The princes of the Gentiles 
 exercise dominion over them and they that are great 
 exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so 
 among you, but whosoever will be great among you let 
 him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among 
 you let him be your servant." "My kingdom is not of 
 this world, else would my servants fight." '* A new com- 
 mandment I give unto you that ye love one another." 
 
 And all this is done with an air of sincerity and 
 impressiveness, as if people believed in the duties incul- 
 cated and were striving to order their lives by them in all 
 respects ; as if society was not by custom, by law, by gen- 
 eral consent setting those precepts continually at naught ; as 
 if states and nations, even those priding themselves most 
 on being called Christian, in their relations to and treat- 
 ment of each other, in their dealings with the more 
 dependent classes within their borders, in their mainte- 
 nance of capital punishment and the gigantic system of 
 war, which Channing declared to be the last vestige of 
 barbarism, with its complex and mighty enginery for 
 maiming and destroying the children of God and multi- 
 plying the sorrows and distresses of mankind, were not 
 systematically and persistently bidding them defiance, and 
 trampling them without compunction, remorse, or shame 
 into the dust. One may laud Christ to the skies, nay, 
 exalt him to a place in the Godhead, he may lavish 
 encomiums upon his precepts and example without stint, 
 but must not follow him too closely or apply his teach- 
 ings too rigidly, in matters pertaining to the acquisition 
 and use of property, methods of trade, the wage system, 
 the relations between capital and labor, treatment of the 
 criminal and perishing classes, caste distinctions, and 
 
358 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 concerns of kindred nature. Members of different relig- 
 ious sects may vie with each other upon each returning 
 Christmas time in singing anew the angelic song of 
 4 4 Peace on earth and Good Will to men " and in making 
 vocal with anthems and hallelujahs the anniversary of 
 the day when its words of promise and of cheer first 
 echoed "o'er Judea's star-lit plains," even while the 
 nations to which they belong are multiplying the instru- 
 ments and agencies of human slaughter, and preparing to- 
 44 let slip the dogs of war" upon the children of the 
 heavenly Father, with scarce a voice or murmur of pro- 
 test or condemnation on their part. So utterly at vari- 
 ance are so-called Christian profession and practice in 
 this fundamental regard. 
 
 In thus animadverting on what I deem the unfaithful- 
 ness and shortcoming of the Christian Church, as it is 
 called on its failure to comprehend and appreciate the 
 full significance and purpose of the Gospel of its acknowl- 
 edged Lord, and its neglect to make the sacred principles 
 and precepts of that Gospel the rule of conduct in the 
 social and civil affairs and relations of men, I do not intend 
 to be understood as saying or implying that it is of no use 
 in the world a cumberer of the ground, and ought to 
 be abolished. This conclusion is farthest from my thought. 
 I have no doubt that the Church, as a whole, and in its 
 manifold departments and activities, plays a most import- 
 ant part in the drama of humanity and in the providential 
 economy of the world is an indispensable factor in the 
 problem of human progress and redemption. I have no 
 doubt that it is an invaluable agency for holding in check 
 and overcoming the evil and sorrow that exist in the 
 earth, for conserving and promoting the good and happi- 
 ness of mankind, and a most needful instrumentality in 
 improving human condition and human character ; in pre- 
 paring the way for the building up of a true social order, 
 for the coming of the kingdom of God. I only mean to 
 
DEFECTS AND MERITS OF THE CHURCH. 359 
 
 affirm that, from my Practical Christian point of view, its 
 testimonies are too superficial and pretentious ; that its 
 champions and controlling spirits are too well satisfied with 
 an incomplete, fractional righteousesss or too tame and 
 compromising in their testimonies against popular abuses 
 and wrongs ; that its attitude is too subservient to the 
 civil authority and power, too complaisant and indifferent 
 in respect to the vindictive and unchristian features of 
 existing human governments and of society as it now is. 
 Its members are bound by social and civil ties and obliga- 
 tions, no less real and commanding because unwritten and 
 unrecognized, not to uphold or practice an ethical code 
 essentially truer and nobler than that which holds sway in 
 the Community at large, and not to undertake to devise, 
 advocate, or inaugurate any reform or movement which pro- 
 poses to supersede the established system of human society 
 by one radically better and upon a moral plane distinctively 
 higher than that occupied by the ruling forces of the 
 world around, or by the politico-military patriotism of the 
 particular country in which they reside. My depreciation 
 of the Church is of this nature and goes to this extent, 
 but no further. Cheerfully and gratefully acknowledging 
 its importance and value within certain self-appointed 
 limits, and the good it has done and may still do thus 
 circumscribed and handicapped, I yet deny its claims to 
 being a true Church of Christ, a faithful exponent of the 
 religion of the New Testament, a trustworthy representa- 
 tive and teacher of what Christianity was designed in the 
 providence of God to do for the children of men, or of 
 what it is intrinsically capable of accomplishing in the 
 way of enlightening, renewing, and transforming the world. 
 What is needed and what will some day be realized is a 
 regenerated Church, which shall have a clearer insight 
 concerning the truths declared and duties enjoined in the 
 Gospel, which shall proclaim a loftier and more perfect 
 righteousness than is now taught and required by its 
 
360 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ministers and evangelists, which shall assert its freedom 
 from all commercial, political, military domination and 
 entanglements, and which shall enlist its communicants 
 and confessors in the transceudant work of shaping all 
 human institutions, laws, customs, practices, by the infal- 
 lible standard of Practical Christianity, of readjusting the 
 social and civil relations of men and making them con- 
 form to the order of the divine kingdom, of initiating, 
 organizing, and practically illustrating an all-embracing, 
 universal reform movement, based upon the great funda- 
 mental ideas of the Fatherhood of God and the Brother- 
 hood of Man, pursuant to and in fulfillment of the prayer 
 of Jesus, so often repeated by his avowed disciples, * 4 Thy 
 kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven." 
 
 And what I have said in regard to the shortcomings 
 of the Church as now organized, equipped, and operated, 
 and of its incompetency for the work which a true Chris- 
 tian Church would be able to perform for the enlighten- 
 ment, moral uplifting, and harmonization of the children 
 of men, may be affirmed of all classes of so-called 
 Reformers and of the organizations instituted for the 
 more effective prosecution of their respective missions. 
 However much good they do in their chosen fields of 
 effort, (and I would not deny but affirm that they do 
 much) they yet are too limited and fragmentary in their 
 objects and methods to serve the largest needs of human- 
 ity and bring the better era in. Moreover, Reformers, as 
 a rule, are personally unfitted for a task so disinterested 
 and sublime as that we assumed at Hopedale, besides 
 being involved, like the members of the Church, in the 
 maintenance and perpetuation of certain great chronic 
 abuses and wrongs of social and civil life, their own 
 special object of attack and extermination excepted, which 
 render such a task essential to human welfare and happi- 
 ness. To others rather then to them, and to other agen- 
 
THE TROUBLE CHIEFLY BUT NOT WHOLLY MORAL. 361 
 
 oies than they employ, must we look for the world's 
 complete redemption. 
 
 It will be seen by what appears on the foregoing pages 
 that it is my deliberate and solemn conviction that the 
 predominating cause of the failure of The Hopedale Com- 
 munity was a moral and spiritual, not a financial one 
 a deficiency among its members of those graces and 
 powers of character which are requisite to the realization 
 of the Christian ideal of human society, such as that 
 enterprise was designed to represent and exemplify. In 
 other and more general terms, the movement was too far 
 ahead of and above the world, in its then existing or 
 present state of advancement, to be practicable. 
 
 But this, though the chief was not the only source of 
 its weakness and instability was not the only agency 
 concerned in the suspension of its leading organic activi- 
 ties and in its final extinction. Other defects there were 
 that I am persuaded hastened and accentuated the crisis. 
 They were of less moment than the one named, relating, 
 as they did, to means and methods, to organization and 
 general polity, to financial resources and embarrassments, 
 to industrial arrangements and to forms of administration ; 
 but they were of a serious nature, and in due time, I 
 have reason to believe, would of themselves have brought 
 disaster to all our plans, labors, and aspirations. They 
 need not be stated at great length, nor need it be shown 
 by what processes they would have wrought eventually 
 our ruin. It is sufficient to simply tabulate them for the 
 guidance of future explorers of the field on which we won 
 many gratifying victories, as we suffered there also a 
 final deplorable defeat. 
 
 Of the secondary causes of trouble and discomfiture to ; 
 us, against which I would give due warning to all con- 
 cerned, the following are deemed of such importance as 
 to be worthy of mention in this connection, to wit : 
 
362 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 1. We began operations without sufficient funds for 
 our immediate and prospective needs. We incurred a 
 debt at the outset, which, with subsequent enlargement, 
 proved a vexation, a burden, and a hindrance to us 
 during our entire career. And at every stage of our 
 experience we were annoyed and embarrassed by want of 
 means to establish and prosecute our manifold industries 
 advantageously, maintain our educational, religious and 
 missionary activities liberally, build houses, open streets, 
 supply all our public necessity, and meet easily all our 
 obligations. 
 
 2. Our domain was in some essential respects unsuited 
 to the purposes of such an undertaking as that in which 
 we enlisted. Naturally infertile and difficult of cultiva- 
 tion, it had for the most part become exhausted by many 
 years of neglect and imperfect tillage when we took pos- 
 session of it, and so required unusual expenditure of 
 labor and money to render it easy of management and 
 productive to a desirable extent. For this reason our 
 farming interests, which should have contributed largely 
 to our prosperity, were an extra care to us and an obsta- 
 cle in the pathway of ultimate success. 
 
 3. We commenced operations with too few and incom- 
 modious public and private buildings houses, barns, 
 stables, shops, etc., etc., for the convenience, comfort, 
 freedom, seclusion, retirement, essential to the common 
 well-being and happiness. The disorder, confusion, and 
 friction incident to the crowded condition in which we 
 were placed at the start and for a long time afterward, 
 wrought us irreparable injury. 
 
 4. Instead of retaining the management of our do- 
 main in the hands of the Community exclusively, as 
 was our policy, it should have been divided into sections 
 or lots of varying size, for the occupancy and improve- 
 ment of such of our members, probationers, and depend- 
 ents as might desire them, to be loaned at a moderate 
 
SECONDARY CAUSES OF FAILURE. 363 
 
 charge for ground rent. This would have enabled a 
 goodly number of our people whose tastes and capabili- 
 ties fitted them for tilling the soil, to have subsisted 
 themselves and their families more easily and satisfac- 
 torily than they could otherwise do ; it would have devel- 
 oped the spirit of self-reliance and a sense of personal 
 responsibility, and in many ways enhanced the general 
 harmony and happiness. 
 
 5. Our Constitution and general polity* under it were 
 too rigid and inflexible, making too little allowance for 
 individual tastes, capabilies, adaptations, judgments, choice 
 of action and occupation, etc. They should have provided 
 for subordinate associations or communes to be instituted 
 by different classes of persons Individualists, Joint-Stock 
 Proprietors, Communists proper, and Eclectics the mem- 
 bers of each privileged to occupy separate territory, estab- 
 lish industries of their own and manage their business 
 affairs in their own way, while owning a general moral 
 allegiance to the Community itself as the Federal Head 
 of all associated interests and undertakings. 
 
 6. It was a source of complication and embarrassment 
 as well as dissatisfaction and irritation that we allowed 
 seceding members to withdraw invested capital from our 
 treasury without proper and definitely expressed restric- 
 tions. In seeking to be just and honorable in our deal- 
 ings with such, we went to unwarrantable extremes and 
 jeopardized our own safety as well as our own peace. 
 Well understood conditions of investment from the begin- 
 ning would have obviated many difficulties in that respect, 
 as ample means would also have done. In our circum- 
 stances the course pursued was perilous. 
 
 7. There was always a tendency among us, stimulated 
 by contact with the community at large, to subordinate 
 our declared standard of principles and duties to expe- 
 diency, money-making, worldly success, and other forms of 
 self-seeking, which was calculated to sap both our iudi- 
 
364 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 vidual and public virtue and to undermine the sublime 
 structure we essayed to build. A further remove from 
 the allurements, temptations, and downward currents of 
 existing society would have been greatly to our advan- 
 tage. 
 
 8. We allowed too large a percentage of persons 
 among us as employes, boarders, and temporary residents, 
 who were not only incompetent to understand and appre- 
 ciate our work and so commend it to others, but were 
 unwilling to yield cheerfully to Community requirements, 
 thus breaking down respect for Community authority ; and 
 who by their contumacy and criticism incited in others the 
 spirit of unrest and incipient contempt of what we deemed 
 vital and sacred. Moreover, the conversation and conduct 
 of such persons were often such as to corrupt the morals 
 of our children and youth as well as of the more suscep- 
 tible and easily influenced of our adult population. This 
 condition of things necessitated a resort to restrictive 
 legislation, to scrutinizing vigilance, and to a system of 
 moral judicature, which, by a different policy in this 
 particular, would have been avoided, in the interest of 
 good feeling, harmony, and the common welfare. 
 
 Had our Community not fallen into these and kindred 
 errors, and had its membership been composed of men 
 and women firmly established in the principles and thor- 
 oughly imbued with the spirit of the Gospel of Christ, 
 this History would have been very different from what it 
 now is. Instead of being a record of mingled hope and 
 fear, prosperity and adversity, victory and defeat, exul- 
 tation and humiliation the latter of these alternatives 
 predominating at the last and culminating in utter dis- 
 aster, it would have been one of varied experiences no 
 doubt, joyful and sad, but all ending in a grand, trium- 
 phant success. Instead of being as a whole a warning 
 and an admonition to future explorers and laborers in 
 the field of social progress and reconstruction to other 
 
MOST LAUDABLE BUT ILL-FATED EXPERIMENT. 365 
 
 builders of a new order of society, it would have been a 
 guide and an inspiration to more wisely planned and 
 directed efforts than ours and to a sublimer consummation 
 than we ever sought for or conceived. As it is, it will 
 go out to the world and down to coming generations a 
 plain unvarnished tale of a disinterested, noble endeavor 
 to benefit mankind and bring God's kingdom in of a 
 laudable but ill-fated experiment entered upon and prose- 
 cuted, not to advance any selfish or unworthy interest or 
 cause, but rather to show the way of a better, truer life 
 to individuals, communities, peoples, states, and nations, 
 to aid in the re-formation of the social relations of men, 
 the re-adjustment of industrial and commercial affairs, the 
 harmonizing of conflicting class interests, and the fraterni- 
 zation of the world. It has been written and is now 
 commended to all lovers of their fellowmen and especially 
 to all friends of Social Reform in the sincere hope nay, 
 with the assurance, that somehow or other in the divine 
 order it may be * instrumental in promoting the great 
 objects for which the Community was established and to 
 which the author in good conscience towards God and 
 man has devoted his life. 
 
 In bringing to a close the History of a movement with 
 which my name was more closely indentified than that of 
 any other single individual, I desire to re-affirm in 
 positive and unmistakable terms my continued and unwa- 
 vering faith in the principles out of which that movement 
 sprang into being and upon which it was based, and in 
 the excellence and grandeur of the work which it attempted 
 to do in the service of God for the good of mankind. 
 Believing, as I have done from my early youth, in the 
 Religion of Jesus Christ as he taught and exemplified it, 
 I am confident beyond all doubt that the truths inculcated 
 and requirements enjoined by that religion are applicable 
 to human life in all its multiform and complex depart- 
 
366 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ments, activities, and relations, and that only by such 
 application in the broadest and most inclusive sense can 
 God's purpose in the creation of the world be accom- 
 plished or the human race become truly wise, righteous, 
 harmonious, and happy. Moreover, I also firmly believe 
 that, while the progress and ultimate redemption of man- 
 kind are greatly promoted by the broadcast diffusion of 
 divine truth and its gradually renewing and uplifting 
 effect upon the world, like leaven hid in measures of 
 meal, definite and radical methods of reform, similar to 
 that represented in the Hopedale Community, are essential 
 to the highest and most far reaching results and will 
 some day be inaugurated and carried forward to trium- 
 phant issues. 
 
 Nothing is more obvious or incontrovertible to my mind 
 than the need of such methods. The existing order of 
 human society is not simply imperfect and defective 
 it is fundamentally unchristian and wrong in many of its 
 characteristic features, and requires organic reconstruction 
 and an administration of affairs along new lines, in order 
 to bring it into accord with the everlasting law of God 
 and secure to all conditions and classes of men the most 
 perfect equity, and the most permanent enjoyment. The 
 great question involved in our Hopedale experiment is 
 not yet settled ; only postponed to a wiser and better 
 future. The work of Social Reform is by no means 
 abandoned ; it is only suspended till the world is fitted 
 by intellectual growth and spiritual elevation to take it 
 up again and prosecute it to successful results, till 
 some more auspicious day in the slowly but surely advanc- 
 ing years of the calendar of God. To doubt this would 
 be to set at nought the surest conclusions of human 
 reason, the best aspirations of the human heart, the sug- 
 gestions derived from the progress of the race in past 
 ages, the prophetic intimations of the Hebrew Scriptures 
 and of the great seers of all lands and times, and the 
 
HOPEDALE COMMUNITY VINDICATED AT LAST. 367 
 
 glorious promises of the Gospel of Christ. It would be 
 to discredit the unfathomed possibilities hid in the soul 
 of humanity, to remand to the realm of myths and shad- 
 ows the grandest ideals that have ever gladdened and 
 inspired the great teachers and moral heroes of the world, 
 and to deny the significance and potency of the prayer 
 of Jesus, u Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth 
 as it is in heaven." 
 
 When those possibilities are in some large degree devel- 
 oped ; when those ideals are in good measure realized, 
 and that prayer substantially fulfilled in a regenerate and 
 glorified humanity and in a divine order of society, then 
 will the meaning of The Hopedale Community and its 
 place in the ongoings of the Providence of God be fully 
 interpreted and understood, its distinguishing features 
 will have become factors and characteristics of universal 
 human life, and its ultimate purpose will have reached 
 its consummation. Then will unrighteousness be done 
 away, unkindness, hatred, wrath and war will be unknown, 
 and every unhallowed usage, custom, institution be abol- 
 ished ; the reign of justice, love, brotherhood, peace, will 
 be established, men will dwell together as one great 
 family in harmony and happiness, and God even in this 
 world will "be all in all." 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 CONSTITUTION, 
 BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 IN order to establish a state of society governed by divine- 
 moral principles, with as little as possible of mere human 
 constraint, in which, while the members may be sufficiently 
 free to associate or separate their secular interests, according 
 to inclination and congeniality, no individual shall suffer the 
 evils of oppression, poverty, ignorance or vice through the 
 influence or neglect of others, we, whose names are hereunto 
 subscribed, do unite in a voluntary Association to be called 
 
 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 SECTION 1. No person shall be a member of this Commu- 
 nity who does not cordially assent to the following 
 
 DECLARATION, Viz. : 
 
 I believe in the religion of JESUS CHRIST, as he taught and 
 exemplified it, according to the Scriptures of the New Testa- 
 ment. I acknowledge myself a bounden subject of all its moral 
 obligations. Especially do I hold myself bound by its holy 
 requirements, never, under any pretext whatsoever, to kill, 
 assault, beat, torture, enslave, rob, oppress, persecute, defraud, 
 corrupt, slander, revile, injure, envy or hate any human being 
 even my worst enemy ; never in any manner to violate the dictates 
 of pure chastity; never to take or administer an oath; never to 
 manufacture, buy, sell, deal out or use any intoxicating liquor 
 as a beverage; never to serve in the army, navy or militia of 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNITY. 369 
 
 any nation, state or chieftain; never to bring an action at law, 
 hold office, vote, join a legal posse, petition a legislature or 
 ask governmental interposition, in any case involving a final 
 authorized resort to physical violence : never to indulge self-will, 
 bigotry, love of pre-eminence, covetousness, deceit, profanity, 
 idleness or an unruly tongue ; never to participate in lotteries, 
 games of chance, betting or pernicious amusements; never to 
 resent reproof or justify myself in a known wrong; never to aid, 
 abet or approve others in anything sinful ; but, through divine 
 assistance, always to recommend and promote, with my entire 
 influence, the holiness and happiness of all mankind. 
 
 SEC. 2. Any person assenting, after satisfactory probation- 
 ship, to the foregoing Declaration, and recommended in writing 
 by seven members as sponsors, may be admitted into the 
 membership of this Community by ballotrvote at any regular 
 meeting; provided that he or she shall thereupon, in open 
 meeting, subscribe this Constitution. 
 
 SEC. 3. Any .person may resign membership at discretion by 
 entering a minute on the Records to that effect. 
 
 SEC. 4. Any unworthy member may be discharged by vote 
 at any regular meeting. 
 
 SEC 5. Any member having no investment of property in 
 this Community, who shall attend none of its regular meetings, 
 nor otherwise manifest any fraternal interest in its welfare for 
 two years, shall be deemed to have relinquished membership. 
 
 SEC. 6. No meeting shall be deemed regular unless held 
 pursuant to a public Notification from the executive authority 
 of the Community, announcing the time, place and principal 
 purposes of the meeting, and posted seven days previously in 
 one of the Community's places of general concourse. 
 
 SEC. 7. Every member shall have one and but one vote on 
 all questions; and the concurrence of two thirds of the mem- 
 bers present and acting shall be necessary to the decision of 
 every question, except the election of officers after repeated 
 unsuccessful trials, the whole process of which shall be regu- 
 lated by special enactment. 
 
 SEC. 8. Nine members shall constitute a quorum. 
 
 ARTICLE IT. 
 
 SECTION 1. The members of this Community shall own and 
 manage such real and movable estate in Joint-Stock proprietor- 
 
 24 
 
370 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ship as they may deem necessary to the maintenance of a 
 neighborhood exclusively inhabited and controlled by persons 
 honestly endeavoring to conform to the principles of the fore- 
 going Declaration. And no person habitually setting at naught 
 those principles shall permanently reside within the territorial 
 limits of the Community by public consent. 
 
 SEC. 2. This Joint-Stock property shall consist of shares of 
 the value of fifty dollars each, for which the owner shall hold 
 certificates responsibly signed, in the form following, to wit: 
 
 For value received, A. B. or order is hereby entitled to 
 
 shares in the Joint-Stock property of The Hopedale Community, 
 
 valued at dollars, together with such dividends as may 
 
 from time to time be declared thereon. 
 
 SEC. 3. All the real estate of this Community shall be held, 
 managed and disposed of for the use and benefit thereof by 
 five Trustees, always acting in conformity with the Constitution, 
 By-Laws, Rules and Regulations, and Instructions of the Com- 
 munity for the time being. Three of these Trustees, but never 
 a less number, shall be competent to receive and execute con- 
 veyances of real estate. It shall be their duty to take the 
 utmost care that all titles to lands and tenements conveyed 
 to or from them, as Trustees of The Hopedale Community, be 
 so executed and recorded as to preclude all ulterior controversy 
 either at law or in equity. And for the security of all parties 
 concerned in their official transactions, they shall execute and 
 cause to be recorded in the Registry of Deeds for the county 
 of Worcester an explicit Declaration of Trust, setting forth 
 their power and obligations ; which Declaration shall be in the 
 form following, to wit: 
 
 To all persons to whom these presents shall come: We, A. B., 
 C. D, E. F., G. H., I. J., all of the village of Hopedale, in the 
 town of Milford, in the county of Worcester and Common- 
 wealth of Massachusetts, Trustees of The Hopedale Community, 
 send Greeting: Whereas certain lands and tenements in said 
 Hopedale have been conveyed, and certain other lands and tene- 
 ments may hereafter be conveyed, to us, as Trustees as afore- 
 said, or to our successors in trust, as joint tenants; Now this 
 present Declaration of trust witnesseth: That all such lands 
 and tenements, with their appurtenances, are to be held, man- 
 aged and disposed of for the use and benefit of The Hopedale 
 Community, so called and known, and in conformity with the 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNITY. 371 
 
 Constitution, Resolves, By-Laws and Regulations thereof, as 
 the same are now, or may hereafter be duly established. 
 
 Provided nevertheless, that for the purpose of regulating and 
 clearly establishing and defining the rights and powers of our- 
 selves and our successors in trust, and of perpetuating the 
 evidence of the same, more especially with reference to any con- 
 tracts, conveyances or other instruments to be executed, or any 
 processes to be commenced, defended or carried on by us or 
 them, it has been mutually agreed and is hereby declared, that 
 the following are and shall remain fundamental Articles of said 
 trust, viz.: 
 
 ARTICLE 1. Whereas it is contemplated that the number 
 of Trustees shall at all times be five, and that all vacancies 
 therein shall be filled as soon as may be; Now for the purpose 
 of ascertaining at all times in future who the Trustees are, it 
 is declared and agreed that any three or more of the above- 
 named Trustees, or of their successors in trust, may, as often 
 as they shall find occasion, execute and cause to be recorded 
 in the Registry of Deeds for the county of Worcester a Cer- 
 tificate setting forth who the Trustees for the time being are, 
 and the persons so certified as Trustees shall be thenceforth 
 deemed and taken to hold said office until a subsequent change 
 shall be, in like manner, certified and recorded. 
 
 ART. 2. The said Trustees, or their successors (not being 
 less than three in number), shall have the right from time to 
 time, and at all times, as often as they shall think proper, to 
 convey and re-convey in fee simple, or for other less estate, 
 absolutely or conditionally, any of said lands and tenements to 
 such persons, for such valuable or nominal considerations, on 
 such terms of cash or credit, and in trust or wholly discharged 
 therefrom, as they shall in each case think proper ; and their 
 Certificate or recital, in any Deed, Lease or other instrument, 
 that the same is executed under the authority of The Hopedale 
 Community, shall be full and conclusive evidence thereof to 
 all intents and purposes. And in no case shall any purchaser, 
 mortgagee or lessee be bound to see to the application of the 
 moneys paid by him. 
 
 ART. 3. Any Trustee now or hereafter appointed, may divest 
 himself of the trust by executing to his co-Trustees an instru- 
 ment in writing resigning his office, and releasing in due and 
 proper form to them, as joint tenants in fee simple, all his 
 interest in the Trust Property. 
 
372 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 And in testimony of the foregoing we have hereunto set our 
 hands and seals this day of in the year 
 
 A. B. [ L . s.] 
 
 Executed and delivered C. D. [L. s.] 
 
 in presence of E. F. [L. s.] 
 
 K. L. G. H. [L. s.] 
 
 M. N. I. J. [L. s.] 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 SECTION 1. The legislative powers of this Community shall be 
 vested in the members thereof present and acting in regular 
 Community meeting. The executive powers, not necessarily 
 appertaining to the Trustees, shall be vested in a President 
 and Directory. The Directory shall consist of at least three 
 members besides the President. The judicial powers shall be 
 vested in such tribunals as the Community may from time to- 
 time establish. 
 
 SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the Directory to conduct the 
 prudential affairs, industrial operations and general interests 
 of the Community in such manner as to insure to every mem- 
 ber, probationer and dependent adequate employment, educa- 
 tional advantages and exemption from the evils of poverty, 
 ignorance and vice ; and also, at the same time, if possible, to- 
 secure to the stockholders their capital unimpaired, with a clear 
 annual profit thereon of four per cent. 
 
 SEC. 3. Any excess of profits on the Joint-Stock operations,, 
 over the said four per cent., shall be devoted to educational 
 and other purposes, for the benefit of the whole Community. 
 
 SEC. 4. The Directory, concurrently with the Trustees, shall 
 have power to extend and improve the Village Site, to open 
 and keep in order streets, commons and cemeteries, and to sell 
 house-lots to members who will come under obligations that 
 such lots, with all their buildings and betterments, shall revert 
 to the Community at a fair appraisal, whenever the same shall 
 cease to be owned within its membership, or whenever, in the 
 opinion of the Community, expressed through their Trustees, 
 the premises shall have been perverted to uses obviously repug- 
 nant to the principles of the Declaration. 
 
 SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the Directory, as well as of 
 the Trustees, to keep accurate and permanent records of their 
 official transactions, and to hold their books always subject to- 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNITY. 373 
 
 the examination of any member or stockholder desirous of 
 inspecting them. And the Directory shall present to the Com- 
 munity an explicit report of the Joint-Stock finances at least 
 once a year. 
 
 SEC. 6. All contracts and obligations entered into by or with 
 this Community under any former Constitution, so far as the 
 same may affect any right or title to property, shall be held 
 inviolate. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 SECTION 1. This Community shall annually elect, on the 
 second Wednesday in January, their President and Directors, 
 a Recorder, a Treasurer, and all other officers for the time 
 being required. 
 
 SEC. 2. Special elections, rendered necessary by any unusual 
 contingency, may take place as occasion shall require, but no 
 officer thus specially elected, excepting a Trustee, shall hold 
 over the annual election; provided nevertheless, that all Com- 
 munity officers shall continue to discharge their public duties 
 until successors shall have been chosen and consented to serve 
 in their places. 
 
 SEC. 3. Neither legislation, nor the administration of gov- 
 ernment within this Community, shall be brought into conflict 
 with the fundamental principles set forth in the Declaration, or 
 with the explicit stipulations of this Constitution. 
 
 SEC. 4. This Constitution may be altered or amended by 
 two-thirds of the members present and acting at any regular 
 meeting subsequent to the one first notified for the considera- 
 tion of such alteration or amendment. 
 
 Now, therefore, in full ratification of this Constitution in all 
 its Articles, Sections and Clauses, we have hereunto subscribed 
 our respective names; mutually, jointly and severally promising 
 faithfully to observe, respect and support the same, together 
 with all legitimate enactments of the Community thereunder 
 made, according to the best of our knowledge and ability, so 
 long as we shall continue in membership; and especially cove- 
 nanting, each with the Community, for himself or herself, his 
 or her heirs, executors and administrators, never to withdraw 
 property contrary to the stipulations of this Constitution, or 
 of any By-Law, Rule or Regulation thereunder legitimately 
 established. In testimony whereof, witness our respective sig- 
 natures, with the dates indicated. 
 
374 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 
 
 ENACTMENT I. 
 Respecting the Process of Electing Community Officers. 
 
 SECTION 1. All the officers of this Community shall be elected 
 by ballot according to the process hereinafter prescribed. 
 
 SEC. 2. The presiding officer of the Community meeting at 
 which any officer is to be elected, shall distinctly announce 
 the office to be filled and immediately cause to be distributed 
 among the voters an ample supply of blank paper slips suitable 
 for use as ballots. The voters shall inscribe, each on his or 
 her respective slip, the name of the person preferred for the 
 office. The votes shall then be collected, assorted, counted and 
 announced. And if any candidate shall have received two-thirds 
 of all the votes cast, he or she shall be declared elected. 
 
 SEC. 3. If no candidate shall be found to have received 
 two-thirds of the votes cast on the first trial, then there shall 
 be a second trial, with the same order of proceedings. And 
 if the second trial shall fail, then the two highest candidates 
 shall be voted for with white and colored balls. The presiding 
 officer shall distinctly announce for whom the white and for 
 whom the colored balls are to be cast. Thereupon the balls 
 shall be distributed, collected, assorted and counted. And the 
 candidate having a majority shall be declared elected. 
 
 SEC. 4. If, on the second trial, no two, or but one of the 
 candidates shall be found to have the highest number of votes,, 
 so as to be candidates for election by the balls, as contem- 
 plated in section 3, then the presiding .officer shall proceed to 
 determine who are the highest candidates by calling on the 
 nominators of each nominee to rise and be counted. This 
 process shall be continued till the two highest candidates shall 
 have been incontestibly ascertained; and thereupon they shall 
 be balloted for, as prescribed in section 3. 
 
 SEC. 5. If the trial to elect by the balls shall fail in conse- 
 quence of a tie, it shall be repeated until successful; provided 
 that if unsuccessful the third time, the presiding officer shall 
 give the casting vote. 
 
 ENACTMENT II. 
 
 Respecting the Joint-Stock. 
 
 SECTION 1. All Certificates of Joint-Stock issued by the 
 authorities of the Community, shall be carefully numbered in 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 375 
 
 their proper order, and also the shares covered by such Certifi- 
 cates. The numbers of both shall appear on the Certificates, 
 and all Certificates, as likewise all transfers of the same, shall 
 be recorded in a book to be kept for the purpose. 
 
 SEC. 2. This Community shall be considered under no obli- 
 gation whatsoever to redeem its scrip at par to an aggregate 
 amount exceeding four per cent, of its entire Joint-Stock prop- 
 erty per year, commencing with January; nor to redeem over 
 five hundred dollars worth of said scrip for the accommoda- 
 tion of the same stockholder in any one year at whatsoever 
 time commencing. Redemption money shall be so apportioned 
 to the four quarters of the year, as that each quarter may 
 have at least its own equitable share of resources to meet 
 demands, and all disbursements from the Treasury shall be 
 arranged accordingly. 
 
 SEC. 3. The notices of stockholders demanding redemption 
 of scrip shall be made in writing and addressed to the Presi- 
 dent, Directory or Treasurer of the Community. All such 
 notices shall take precedence by the calender month of their 
 date, not the particular day of the month; those of the same 
 month being placed on an equal footing with each other in 
 respect to their proportionate dividends of the then available 
 redemption funds. 
 
 SEC. 4. Hereafter the Treasurer of this Community shall 
 deliver out no scrip for Joint-Stock (unless by authority from 
 the Directory under a special agreement with some non-resi- 
 dent investor) without taking an Obligatory Receipt therefor 
 expressed substantially as follows, viz.: 
 
 Received of A. B., Treasurer of The Hopedale Community, 
 for property invested in the Joint-Stock thereof, the following 
 specified scrip, viz.: [Here shall be inserted an accurate 
 description.] Xow be it remembered that I receive and hold 
 this scrip, knowing, consenting and agreeing that said Com- 
 munity shall be considered under no obligation whatsoever to 
 redeem its scrip at par to an aggregate amount exceeding 
 four per cent, of its entire Joint-Stock per year, commencing 
 with January; nor to redeem over five hundred dollars worth 
 of said scrip for the accommodation of the same stockholder 
 in any one year, at whatsoever time commencing; that redemp- 
 tion money shall be so apportioned to the four quarters of the 
 year as that each quarter may have its own equitable share 
 
376 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 of resources to meet demands; that notices of stockholders 
 demanding redemption of scrip shall be made in writing and 
 addressed to the President, Directory, or Treasurer of the 
 Community at least sixty days before the expected payment 
 of redemption money; and that all such notices shall take 
 precedence by the calender month and not by the particular 
 day of the month. Moreover, I do hereby bind myself, my 
 heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, never to demand 
 or require the redemption of the above specified scrip con- 
 trary to these conditions. 
 
 Signed at this day of A. D. . 
 
 In presence of E. F., G. H. C. D. 
 
 SEC. 5. All Joint-Stock scrip not redeemed by the Com- 
 munity within two years after the prescribed notice of demand, 
 and which shall be due to a claimant not resident on the 
 Community domain, shall draw interest at the rate of six per 
 cent, per annum till redeemed. And nothing in this enact- 
 ment shall be construed to hinder the redemption of Joint- 
 Stock script to any amount, at any time, by the Community's 
 authorities, provided it be done without inconvenience and 
 entirely at their own option. 
 
 ENACTMENT III. 
 
 Respecting the Village Site, House Lots and Reverted Estates. 
 
 SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of the Trustees to arrange 
 and name the Streets, Lanes, Squares and public places of our 
 Village Site; to number all the lots and parcels of land com- 
 prised in said site, and to appraise such as shall be for sale; 
 to prepare an accurate Plan of the whole Site and revise the 
 same as occasion may require; to keep two or more copies of 
 said Plan for exhibition to members and inquiring friends; and 
 to cause the same, with all important additions or changes 
 successively made to be entered for record in the County Reg- 
 istry of Deeds. 
 
 SEC. 2. Whenever any House Lot shall be sold in accord- 
 ance with the Constitution, the Trustees shall execute a con- 
 veyance and title of the same to the purchaser, in the form 
 following, to wit: 
 
 Know all men by these Presents: That we, A. B., C. D., E. F., 
 G. H., I. J., all of the village of Hopedale, in the town of 
 Milford, in the county of Worcester and Commonwealth of 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 377 
 
 Massachusetts, acting as Trustees of The Hopedale Community 
 pursuant to the terms of a certain Declaration of Trust exe- 
 cuted by Adin Ballou and others, Trustees, dated June 1, 
 1850, and recorded in the Registry of Deeds for the county of 
 
 Worcester, in consideration of dollars to us paid by 
 
 of said Hopedale, a member of said Community, the 
 
 receipt of which sum is hereby acknowledged, do hereby grant, 
 sell and convey to the said all our right, title, inter- 
 est and estate in and to a certain parcel of land situated in 
 said Hopedale, bounded, described and measuring as follows, 
 viz.: [Here give full particulars] with all the buildings thereon 
 and all the privileges and appurtenances to the premises 
 belonging; intending hereby to convey a part of the real 
 estate which was conveyed to said Trustees by the Deed of 
 David A. Mundy, dated June 1, 1850, and recorded in Worces- 
 ter county Registry of Deeds. 
 
 To have and to hold the granted premises to the said 
 
 , his heirs and assigns, to his and their use and behoof 
 
 forever; but subject nevertheless to the condition that, if at 
 any time or times hereafter any three or more of the Trustees 
 of The Hopedale Community (for the time then being, their 
 identity and official character being shown in manner stated 
 in said Declaration of Trust) shall, by their certificate in 
 writing, under their hands and seals, to be recorded in the 
 Registry of Deeds for said county of Worcester, set forth and 
 declare, either that, in the opinion of the Trustees and of 
 The Hopedale Community, the premises are then perverted 
 to purposes notoriously inconsistent with the principles of 
 said Community, or that, in said opinion, the premises have 
 then ceased to be owned within the membership of said Com- 
 munity; and if the Trustees for the time then being shall, 
 moreover, within three months after the recording of said 
 certificate, pay, or tender in money, to the owner or owners 
 of the premises for the time then being, his or her guardian, 
 agent or attorney, for a full reconveyance of the granted premi- 
 ses, the reasonable value thereof, to be ascertained as hereinafter 
 stated; and if the owner or owners for the time then being, 
 by themselves or their respective guardians, agents or attorneys, 
 shall upon such payment or tender, fail to release and convey 
 the granted premises to the said Trustees for the time then 
 being, in fee simple, free from all incumbrances to be here- 
 
378 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 after made or suffered thereon, then, and on the foregoing 
 condition, this Deed of conveyance shall be null and void, both 
 at law and in equity. 
 
 And provided moreover, that such reasonable value shall, in 
 each case, be ascertained by the written award of a majority, 
 at least, of appraisers, to consist of the County Commissioners 
 of the county of Worcester, or of such other persons as the 
 parties in interest, for the time then being, shall, within one 
 month after the recording of said certificate, mutually agree 
 upon in writing. 
 
 In testimony whereof, and that this Deed is executed under 
 the authority of The Hopedale Community, we, the Trustees 
 
 above-named have hereunto set our hands and seals, this 
 
 day of , in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and 
 
 A. B. [L. s.] 
 
 Executed and delivered C. D. [L. s.] 
 
 in presence of E. F. [L. s.] 
 
 K. L. G. H. [L. s.] 
 
 M. N. I. J. [L. s.] 
 
 SEC. 3. Whenever any member of this Community, holding 
 Real Estate in the Village Site under the title prescribed in 
 the preceding section, shall convey the same to another mem- 
 ber, the Instrument of conveyance shall be substantially in the 
 form following, to wit: 
 
 Know all men by these Presents: That I, C. D., of the village of 
 Hopedale, in the town of Milford, in the county of Worcester 
 
 and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, , in consideration of 
 
 dollars to me paid by of said Hopedale, , a 
 
 member of The Hopedale Community, and for other valuable 
 and sufficient considerations, the receipt whereof is hereby 
 acknowledged, do hereby give, grant, bargain, sell and convey 
 
 unto the said , a certain parcel of land situated in 
 
 said Hopedale, and bounded, described and measuring as fol- 
 lows, viz.: [Here give full particulars.] with all the buildings 
 thereon and all the privileges and appurtenances to the prem- 
 ises belonging; intending hereby to convey the same estate 
 which was conveyed to me by the Deed of A. B. and others, 
 
 Trustees of The Hopedale Community, dated , 
 
 and subject to all the conditions, reservations and restrictions 
 therein contained or referred to. 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 379 
 
 To have and to hold the above granted premises to the said 
 
 , his heirs and assigns, to his and their use and 
 
 behoof forever. And I, the said C. D. for myself, my heirs, 
 
 executors and administrators do covenant with the said 
 
 , his heirs and assigns, that I am lawfully seized in fee 
 
 simple of the aforegranted premises, that they are free from 
 all incumbrances, except as aforesaid*, that I have good right 
 
 to sell and convey the same to the said , his heirs 
 
 and assigns forever, subject as aforesaid, and that I will, and 
 my heirs, executors and adminstrators shall warrant and defend 
 
 the same to the said , his heirs and assigns forever, 
 
 against the lawful claims and demands of all persons, except 
 as above mentioned. 
 
 In witness whereof, I, the said C. D., and also my wife E., 
 who executes this deed with me in token of her relinquishing all 
 right to dower in the premises, have hereunto set our hands 
 and seals this day of , in the year of our Lord . 
 
 Executed and delivered in presence of C. D. [L. 8.] 
 K. L. M. N. E. D. [L. s.] 
 
 SEC. 4. The Trustees, when requested by the Directory,"shall 
 execute Bonds for Deeds of House Lots to members and pro- 
 bationers, conditioned according to contract made between the 
 parties, always subject to existing Regulations respecting the 
 reversion of Estates to the Community. 
 
 SEC. 5. No Real Estate owned by any member of this Com- 
 munity within its general Domain shall ever be encumbered 
 by mortgage or bond, without the consent of the Directory, or 
 of the Community on appeal from the Directory's refusal. 
 And record shall be carefully made of all votes giving consent 
 to such encumbrances. 
 
 SEC. 6. Whenever any Real Estate shall revert to this Com- 
 munity, as contemplated in Section 4, Article III of the Con- 
 stitution, reference shall not be had in the appraisal thereof 
 to expenditures of any description laid out thereon by the 
 owner or owners, but only to its actual value, for the time 
 being, to the Community; unless it shall be proved by written 
 evidence that the Directory had given their consent to partic- 
 ular outlays, with the understanding that the Community 
 should share the risk thereof; in which case the appraisal 
 shall be made accordingly. 
 
 *If there are others they must be specified here. 
 
380 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 SEC. 7. In order to prevent all misunderstanding and diffi- 
 culty respecting the appraisal of Real Estate on its reversion 
 to the Community, it is hereby made the duty of every individ- 
 ual proprietor, before erecting any building or constructing 
 any appurtenance on his or her House Lot, at a cost of one 
 hundred dollars or more, to give notice thereof to the Trustees, 
 and obtain their certificate of consent to the proposed outlay. 
 If the Trustees shall refuse their consent, an appeal may be 
 made to the Community. If neither the Trustees nor the 
 Community shall give a certificate of consent, then the individ- 
 ual proprietor may proceed to make the outlay at his or her 
 own risk; in which case the Trustees shall demand a certificate 
 of such proprietor's determination. And the Trustees shall 
 take care that all such proceedings and certificates be faith- 
 fully recorded. 
 
 ENACTMENT IV. 
 Respecting the Contraction of Debts, etc. 
 
 SECTION 1. The authorities of this Community shall con- 
 tract no debt against it whatsoever, in the name thereof, except 
 for reverted Real Estate, without the unanimous consent of 
 the members present and acting in a regular meeting duly 
 notified for that purpose. 
 
 SEC. 2. The Trustees shall never sell, alienate nor encumber 
 any portion of the Community territory, excepting House Lots 
 in accordance with the Constitution, without the positive 
 instructions or formal consent of the members in regular 
 meeting assembled. 
 
 SEC. 3. No funds of .the Community shall ever be expended 
 by the official authorities thereof, without having first been 
 placed at their disposal by some vote of specific or general 
 appropriation, passed by the members present and acting in 
 regular Community meeting. 
 
 SEC. 4. There shall be a uniform settlement of business 
 accounts, and a punctual payment of current demands, through- 
 out this Community on or about the fifteenth of every month. 
 And it shall be the imperative duty of the President and 
 Directory to see that this system of Monthly Settlements is 
 strictly observed in the several Branches, by all persons con- 
 cerned. 
 
 SEC. 5. All officers of this Community shall be entitled to 
 compensation for their official services, never exceeding the 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 381 
 
 average compensation of working men at large in the several 
 Branches as reckoned by time or by piece. And it shall be the 
 duty of the Directory to append to their annual financial report 
 a separate and specific statement of all charges allowed for offi- 
 cial services, showing who have received compensation and to- 
 what amount. 
 
 ENACTMENT V. 
 
 Respecting Industry, Purveyance and Trade. 
 
 In order to distribute, define and intensify the oversight of 
 business; to encourage useful talent and skill; to give every 
 member of the Community, if possible, an appropriate sphere 
 of enterprise ; to increase productive industry and income ; to 
 facilitate the necessary purveyance and exchange ; and to estab- 
 lish a well-ordered system of trade, it is enacted as follows, viz. : 
 
 SECTION 1. Every general department or kind of Commu- 
 nity operations, which naturally and practically admits of sub- 
 division into two or more branches, shall be so subdivided, 
 and each branch confided to the management of some person 
 or persons evincing a hearty interest therein, and competent,, 
 in the judgment of the Directory, to prosecute its affairs effi- 
 ciently. 
 
 SEC. 2. All industrial, managemental, commercial and official 
 business performed for this Community, by the members, pro- 
 bationers and dependents thereof, shall be compensated by the 
 piece, the quantity, the job or the per. cent., according to 
 terms mutually agreed upon between the parties concerned for 
 the time being; extremely impracticable cases alone excepted. 
 
 SEC. 3. Whenever two or more members of the Community 
 shall apply to the Directory, as an association or co-partnership 
 to take charge of any particular kind of business open to such 
 application, and shall give satisfactory assurance of their trust- 
 worthiness, it shall be the duty of the Directory to comply 
 with their request on such terms and for such period of time 
 as shall not be incompatible with pre-existing engagements 
 nor with the general welfare. In all such cases the applicants- 
 shall designate their foreman or manager, who shall officially 
 subscribe a written statement, obligation or contract setting 
 forth the principal particulars agreed on; which document 
 shall be recorded by the Directory in a book to be kept for 
 such purposes. 
 
382 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 SEC. 4. Whenever any member, probationer or dependent 
 of this Community, performing service in any department, 
 branch or kind of business thereof, shall request the privilege 
 of undertaking any piece-work, job or specific operation requir- 
 ing more skill, risk or responsibility than ordinary, or affording 
 more scope for practical discretion, it shall be the duty of the 
 superintendent, manager, foreman or other authority having 
 the power of disposal, to grant such request; provided it can 
 be done consistently with pre-existing engagements, and with- 
 out detriment to the general welfare. 
 
 SEC. 5. A central branch of business operatives shall be 
 established, to be called The Hopedale Commercial Exchange. 
 It shall consist of competent and responsible persons volunta- 
 rily associated for the purpose of purchasing the productions of 
 the various branches of Community industry at fair, specific 
 prices, selling the same for cash or goods as they may deem 
 expedient, supplying raw materials for manufacture, also neces- 
 saries for consumption, and thus, by skillful exchanges, ensur- 
 ing ample, well-compensated employment to all Community 
 operatives. No branch or individual shall be required to deal 
 with or through this Commercial Exchange, except as may be 
 deemed mutually satisfactory to the parties concerned. It shall 
 have power to constitute and organize itself in such a manner 
 and under such regulations as two thirds of the associates 
 may, from time to time, determine. It shall keep reliable 
 records of its proceedings, well-arranged account books, and 
 carefully-perserved files of all papers necessary either to the 
 proof or explanation of its commercial transactions. Its affairs 
 shall at all times be subject to the inspection of the Directory, 
 who shall require well-avouched reports of its financial standing 
 during the . first weeks in January and July, semi-annually. 
 It shall be amply paid for its commercial services and risks, by 
 a certain percentage on all purchases and sales made for the 
 Community and actually realized, as the amount thereof shall 
 be ascertained, semi-annually, in January and July. This per- 
 centage shall be fixed, from time to time, as justice may require, 
 by mutual agreement between its authorized officers on the 
 one part, and the Directory on the other part. All property 
 actually sold and delivered by the Community to the Exchange, 
 and by the latter to the former, shall be receipted for at the 
 date of delivery by some authorized person, and shall thence- 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 383 
 
 forth be considered at the sole risk of the party holding the 
 same. Property not actually sold by the Community to the 
 Exchange, but delivered merely for sale on commission, shall 
 be receipted for as such, and shall remain at the risk of the 
 Community until sold. The Exchange shall be held under a 
 perpetual guaranty to make seasonable payment to the Commu- 
 nity for all property purchased thereof under this Enactment, 
 together with a minimum per cent, profit on the cost valuation of 
 so much of said property as it shall actually realize sales upon. 
 Also, to return duly whatever values it shall realize on commis- 
 sion sales made for the Community, deducting the stipulated 
 compensation for services. Also, on the first of January, annu- 
 ally to pay over all net profits, if any, which shall have been 
 realized on the sale of Community property above the stipulated 
 compensation and the aforesaid minimum per cent, profit. 
 Also, to conduct all its affairs in such an upright, conscientious 
 and honorable manner as shall not bring just reproach on the 
 great cause of Practical Christianity espoused by this Com- 
 munity, but ofi the contrary, commend it to the respect and 
 confidence of all well-disposed men. 
 
 SEC. 6. No superintendent, manager, foreman, agent or com- 
 mercial exchanger shall be at liberty to contract any debt 
 whatsoever in the name of The Hopedale Community; but all 
 notes, bills, receipts, accounts and securities necessary to the 
 proper transaction of business with persons not belonging to 
 the Community, shall be so expressed as to guard the Com- 
 munity effectually, if possible, against legal liabilities as a 
 party under contract. 
 
 ENACTMENT VI. 
 
 Respecting Religious Meetings, Instruction and Discipline. 
 
 SECTION 1. This Community shall hold public religious 
 meetings regularly on the first day of the week, forenoon and 
 afternoon; at which such devotional exercises and ministrations 
 of the gospel shall be sustained as the Community may from 
 time to time approve. All members, probationers, dependents 
 and residents of the Community, not prevented by conscien- 
 tious scruples, indispensable duties, sickness or other justifying 
 necessity, shall be expected punctually and regularly to attend 
 these meetings. Also, to abstain from all uses of the day not 
 obviously promotive of physical health, social order, humane 
 
384 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 sympathies, moral improvement, spiritual progress and the 
 regeneration of mankind. 
 
 SEC. 2. This Community shall hold a regular Monthly Meet- 
 ing for discipline and improvement, in conformity with the 
 principles of Practical Christianity; and, through the appropri- 
 ate action of said Monthly Meeting, shall exercise the entire 
 responsibility of directing and sustaining public religious 
 instruction, as well as internal moral discipline. Also, the 
 responsibility of promulgating the principles of Practical Chris- 
 tianity abroad, by means of the press and of the living voice, 
 as the Community may from time to time determine. 
 
 SEC. 3. The Community shall annually elect the following 
 officers, viz.: a Steward, a Promulgation Committee and a 
 Council of Religion, Conciliation and Justice. The Recorder 
 shall keep accurate and faithful records of all Monthly Meet- 
 ing proceedings in a book provided exclusively for that purpose. 
 The Steward shall have charge of every thing pertaining to 
 the comfort and accommodation of Community meetings. The 
 Promulgation Committee shall consist of five members. It 
 shall be the official duty of this Committee to execute all 
 orders and instructions given them by the Community in 
 Monthly Meeting; to superintend the operation of all instru- 
 mentalities approved and employed for the promulgation of 
 Community principles, whether at home or abroad; to take 
 charge of all property devoted to such promulgation of prin- 
 ciples; to attend to all contracts authorized by vote of said 
 Meeting; to collect and disburse all funds raised for promul- 
 gation purposes ; to keep reliable accounts and records of their 
 transactions; and to make a detailed report of their doings at 
 least once a year. The Council of Religion, Conciliation and 
 Justice shall consist of not less than three nor more than 
 seven members, who shall be subject to such instructions and 
 restrictions as the Community, in Monthly Meeting, may, from 
 time to time, impose. Their official duties shall be herein- 
 after specified. 
 
 SEC. 4. This Community shall never assume to commission, 
 appoint or forbid any person to preach the gospel or to act as 
 a public religious and moral teacher, but shall always leave 
 that matter to the conscience and judgment of individuals a& 
 between themselves and God. Yet, through the action of their 
 Monthly Meeting, the Community may invite any preacher or 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 385 
 
 teacher in whom they have confidence to minister to them, 
 or to aid them in promulgating Practical Christianity abroad. 
 In all such cases, it shall be considered the duty of the Com. 
 munity to place their invited preachers or teachers on a level 
 of temporal subsistence with the generality of their fellow- 
 members who are otherwise employed, and to guarantee to 
 them pecuniary succor proportionate to time expended and ser- 
 vices rendered. 
 
 SEC. 5. The funds necessary to sustain public religious meet- 
 ings and the promulgation of Practical Christianity, whether 
 at home or abroad, shall be provided in such ways as the Com- 
 munity may from time to time determine. 
 
 SEC. 6. It shall be the official duty of the Council of Relig- 
 ion, Conciliation and Justice, to supervise all matters of religion, 
 morality and Christian discipline; to reprove, admonish and 
 endeavor to correct all anti-Christian customs, habits and prac- 
 tices springing up within the Community; to advise, mediate, 
 conciliate and adjudicate in all cases of controversy between 
 member and member, and between members and officers of 
 the Community; to examine and certify their opinion of the 
 religious and moral fitness of all applicants for probationship 
 or membership; and, generally to exercise the proper func- 
 tions of a Judicial Council, on Christian principles, concerning 
 all matters of controversy not otherwise seasonably adjusted; 
 provided that all decisions of said Council shall be subject 
 to a final appeal to the Community. 
 
 SEC. 7. Hereafter no person shall be received as a probationer 
 of this Community by the Directory, without a Certificate from 
 said Council that he or she has been examined in respect to 
 religious and moral qualifications, and is approved. 
 
 SEC. 8. It shall be the special duty of said Council to 
 acquaint themselves with the views, wishes, feelings and char- 
 acter of all probationers; to interest themselves in their im- 
 provement and general welfare; to render their probationship 
 as useful and satisfactory as possible ; to suggest and facilitate 
 seasonable action respecting their admission as members, dis- 
 charge or continued probation ; and, when proposed for mem- 
 bership by Sponsors (as provided in Sec. 2, Art. 1, of the 
 Constitution), to endorse officially the sponsorial recommenda- 
 tion as approved or disapproved. 
 
 25 
 
386 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ENACTMENT VII. 
 Respecting Public Education and Mental Improvement. 
 
 Whereas the Constitution of this Community declares it to 
 be a fundamental object of our Association to prevent the 
 evils of ignorance ; and whereas we cannot faithfully discharge 
 the obligation thus assumed without making adequate provi- 
 sion, at the common expense, for educating the young and 
 facilitating the mental improvement of all classes of our resi- 
 dent population, therefore it is enacted as follows, viz.: 
 
 SECTION 1. No child or youth connected with this Commu- 
 nity shall be permitted to grow up without a decent education 
 in the common branches of useful learning. Public Schools, 
 Libraries and other requisite facilities for mental improvement 
 shall be established and maintained for the common benefit, 
 by means of an Education Fund annually replenished by the 
 Community in such ways as may from time to time be deter- 
 mined. 
 
 SEC. 2. A Board of Education and Mental Improvement 
 shall be annually chosen by the Community, consisting of at 
 least three responsible members. This board shall have gen- 
 eral charge and supervision of all Schools, Seminaries, Libra- 
 ries, Cabinets, Philosophical Apparatus, etc., maintained by the 
 Community; also of all Funds, Legacies, Donations, Lands, 
 Buildings, Rooms, Fixtures and conveniences devoted to these 
 purposes. It shall be their duty to take such care of all prop- 
 erty, and to make such expenditures of all moneys entrusted 
 to their charge, as shall render the educational and intellectual 
 advantages of this Community eminently subservient of their 
 intended uses. They shall take particular care that no child, 
 youth or person neglect, or be prevented improving, these 
 advantages. They shall keep reliable records and accounts of 
 their transactions, and make an annual Educational Report to 
 the Community. 
 
 ENACTMENT VIII. 
 Respecting a Community Post Office. 
 
 SECTION 1. For the convenience of this Community and all 
 persons interested, a Post Office is hereby established at Hope- 
 dale for the regular transmission, reception and delivery of all 
 mailable matter. 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 387 
 
 SEC. 2. The said Post Office shall be located in some cen_ 
 tral part of the Community village, and shall have a regular 
 daily communication with the United States Post Office at 
 Milford, excepting on Sundays. It shall have a competent 
 Post Master, be kept in good order, be accessible at all reason- 
 able hours, and be supported by postage on all mailable matter 
 (except newspapers, periodicals and pamphlets) transmitted 
 through it. 
 
 SEC. 3. The Directory of this Community, for the time 
 being, are hereby empowered and required to appoint the Post 
 Master, prescribe his particular duties, and determine his com- 
 pensation; to contract with a mail-carrier and fix the hours 
 for closing, transmitting and delivering the mail ; to determine 
 the rates of postage on all mailable matter not exempted from 
 charge; and to make such regulations concerning said Post 
 Office as may be found necessary to the public convenience 
 and welfare. 
 
 SEC. 4. No person, other than the Post Master or his author- 
 ized substitute, shall meddle with the mail on its arrival, until 
 it shall have been opened, assorted, taken account of and 
 prepared for distribution. Nor shall any person overhaul or 
 disturb the mailable matter deposited in the Post Office, except 
 by permission of the Post Master, or in accordance with estab- 
 lished regulations. 
 
 ENACTMENT IX. 
 
 Respecting a Community Lyceum. 
 
 SECTION 1. All the inhabitants of Hopedale over twelve 
 years of age are hereby constituted a Community Lyceum, to 
 be called The Hopedale Lyceum. 
 
 SEC. 2. The said inhabitants, without exception or distinc- 
 tion, exercising equal rights and privileges in all things per- 
 taining to the Lyceum, are hereby authorized to organize the 
 same by the choice of a President, Senior Vice-President, 
 Junior Vice-President, and Secretary, who together shall con- 
 stitute an Executive Council. The President shall serve for 
 three months, and be succeeded by the Senior Vice-President; 
 who shall be succeeded by the Junior Vice-President in regu- 
 lar order of promotion; and the latter by a newly elected 
 incumbent. The Secretary, as well as the Junior Vice-Presi- 
 dent, shall be elected once in three months. These officers 
 
388 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 shall be elected by ballot, unless otherwise determined by the- 
 Lyceum at the time of election. In the absence of the Presi- 
 dent, his duties shall be discharged by the Senior Vice-Presi- 
 dent, and in his absence by the Junior Vice-President. 
 
 SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the President to preside 
 over all meetings of the Lyceum with Christian dignity, impar- 
 tiality and courtesy, according to such rules as may have been 
 adopted and the requisites of good order. He shall promptly 
 repress all disorder, indecorum and obvious impropriety, whether 
 of action, language or temper, and constantly endeavor to pre- 
 serve a generous freedom of speech without its abuse. It shall 
 be the duty of the Secretary to record faithfully the proceed- 
 ings of the Lyceum, and to render such other service in the 
 vocation of Scribe, as may from time to time be required. It 
 shall be the duty of the Executive Council to procure the 
 delivery of at least one instructive, scientific or literary lecture, 
 every month; to provide suitable questions for public discus- 
 sion, from which the Lyceum may make selections; to encour- 
 age the writing of brief essays by the members, in connection 
 with choice readings and occasional declamation; to promote 
 the formation of congenial classes for the prosecution of useful 
 studies; and in general to execute its orders and administer 
 its affairs in such a manner as to render it an efficient instru. 
 mentality for mental improvement. 
 
 SEC. 4. The Lyceum shall meet regularly once a month 
 from the first of April to the first of October, and once a week 
 during the rest of the year. Regular meetings may be sus- 
 pended, and special ones held, whenever the Lyceum or the 
 Executive Council may deem the same expedient. Twelve 
 members shall constitute a quorum and a vote of two-thirds 
 present and acting be necessary to the decision of every con- 
 tested question. 
 
 SEC. 5. The Lyceum shall have ample power to determine 
 the order of its own proceedings, and to establish such rules 
 and regulations as maybe deemed salutary not repugnant to 
 the Constitution or By-Laws of this Community. 
 
 SEC. 6. The Board of Education and Mental Improvement, 
 are hereby charged with the general supervision of this Lyceum ; 
 to see that it steadily pursues its declared objects ; that it per- 
 forms its legitimate functions; that it maintains a wholesome 
 internal discipline; that its various exercises are so conducted 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 389 
 
 as to promote the real progress of the members in useful 
 knowledge ; and that it fulfils the just expectations with which 
 it has been instituted. They are fully empowered to afford it 
 such accommodations and facilities as may be at their com- 
 mand, and for its benefit to make such expenditures of educa- 
 tional funds, not otherwise appropriated, as they may deem 
 necessary to its success. And they shall include in their Annual 
 Report to the Community a distinct statement of its general 
 operations and condition. 
 
 ENACTMENT X. 
 Respecting a Community Savings Bank. 
 
 SECTION 1. The Treasury of this Community is hereby con- 
 stituted a Savings Bank, in which all persons residing on the 
 Community domain may deposit such parts of their earnings 
 and income as they can conveniently save for future use, sub- 
 ject to the conditions and regulations hereinafter prescribed. 
 
 SEC. 2. On the 16th day of each month, or on the 17th 
 when the 16th shall fall on Sunday, between the hours of ten 
 and eleven o'clock A. M., the Treasurer of this Community shall 
 regularly hold himself in readiness to receive for the Commu- 
 nity's use such sums of money, not less than one dollar, and 
 excluding all fractions of a dollar, as may be offered for 
 deposit, and duly credit the same in books to be kept exclu- 
 sively for this Savings Bank. And all depositors shall be 
 entitled to interest on their deposits, at the rate of four per 
 cent, per annum. 
 
 SEC. 3. Depositors may withdraw their deposits or any part 
 thereof, on the said 16th or 17th day of the month, between 
 the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock A. M., by giving notice 
 of one week for all sums over 5 and not exceeding 20 dollars, 
 of thirty days for all sums over 20 and not exceeding 100 
 dollars, of sixty days for all sums over 100 and not exceeding 
 300 dollars, of six months for all other sums not exceeding 
 500 dollars, and of one year for all higher sums: Provided, 
 nevertheless, that for the accommodation of persons desiring to 
 withdraw their deposits, the Treasurer may waive the condi- 
 tions of notice, whenever the funds in the Treasury will admit 
 of it without detriment to the general welfare. 
 
 SEC. 4. Depositors shall keep a suitable book, in which the 
 Treasurer shall carefully note down all sums deposited or with- 
 
390 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 drawn. And this book shall always be exhibited to the Treas- 
 urer upon occasion of the deposit or withdrawal of moneys, 
 that the proper entries may be made. 
 
 SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to present 
 a distinct statement of the condition of the Savings Bank, 
 in the Financial Report of the Directory annually made to 
 the Community. 
 
 ENACTMENT XL 
 Respecting a Community Fire Insurance Company. 
 
 SECTION 1. This Community is hereby constituted a Mutual 
 Fire Insurance Company, to guarantee against all losses that 
 may accrue by fire to any buildings or other specified property 
 on the Community domain, not exceeding three-fourths of the 
 fairly appraised value thereof. 
 
 SEC. 2. The Directory are hereby authorized and empowered 
 to open Insurance Books, to appraise property needing to be 
 insured, to determine the relative risk thereof, and to issue Cer- 
 tificates of Insurance on such terms and conditions as are pre- 
 scribed by the best conducted Mutual Fire Insurance Companies, 
 so far as the same may be applicable to the circumstances of this 
 Community; provided that the insurances made in pursuance 
 hereof shall render no public or private property liable for 
 the payment of losses by fire, other than premium money and 
 what may be covered by deposit notes given for that purpose. 
 
 SEC. 3. The Directory, after maturing their arrangements 
 and methods of proceeding under this Enactment, shall pub- 
 lish a suitable compend of the same. And they shall regularly 
 subjoin to their Annual Financial Report a concise statement 
 of Insurance affairs. 
 
 SEC. 4. The following precautionary regulations against fire 
 shall be strictly observed throughout the Community Domain. 
 [ These regulations were ten in number, but as they were 
 what a wise and cautious prudence would suggest and can be 
 easily imagined, it is not deemed advisable to insert them. Ed.] 
 
 ENACTMENT XII. 
 Respecting an Industrial Union.* 
 
 SECTION 1. In order to promote the cheerful prosecution 
 of public improvements and a generous assistance of persons 
 
 * First called Industrial Army. 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 391 
 
 needing occasional aid, all the members, probationers, and 
 dependents of this Community, capable of useful service, are 
 hereby constituted a co-operative body to be called The Hope- 
 dale Industrial Union. 
 
 SEC. 2. This Industrial Union shall be organized in two 
 general Departments a Male and a Female Department. 
 Each Department shall have power to determine and adjust 
 its own roll of members, organize itself in such divisions, 
 elect such officers and establish such rules as may from time 
 to time be deemed promotive of its orderly, energetic, harmo- 
 nious and successful operation. Also, to determine when, 
 where, and to what extent its services shall be rendered. 
 Fifteen members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction 
 of business, and all questions shall be settled by a two-thirds 
 majority of the members present and acting in regular 
 Department meeting. Provided, nevertheless, that nothing 
 shall be done by either Department repugnant to the Consti- 
 tution or any Enactment of this Community, or insubordinate ly 
 to the legitimate executive authority of its Directory. 
 
 SEC. 3. Whenever the Male Department of this Union 
 shall make requisition for the use of any working vehicles, 
 teams, implements, or alien employes of the Community, such 
 requisition shall be promptly complied with; provided, always, 
 that at least three days notice shall be given to the super- 
 intendent or manager in charge of such vehicles, teams, 
 implements, or employes; and provided, also, that no serious 
 detriment shall be done to the Community property by insist- 
 ing on such requisition. And whenever the said Male 
 Department shall find it necessary to furnish implements of 
 labor to members unable to equip themselves, or shall have 
 occasion to expend money for the prosecution of their legiti- 
 mate undertakings, all such burdens shall be borne by the 
 Community, subject to such limitations as the Directory may 
 at any time deem it their duty to interpose. 
 
 SEC. 4. Each Department through its proper official organs, 
 may, for warrantable reasons, excuse any member temporarily 
 from actual service, or commute such service for cash equiva- 
 lents in cases where the same shall be deemed especially 
 convenient. 
 
 SEC. 5. The Directory are hereby authorized and required 
 to carry this enactment into full and perpetual effect. 
 
392 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ENACTMENT XIII. 
 Respecting a Guaranty Against the Evils of Poverty. 
 
 Whereas this Community has solemnly pledged its general 
 guaranty to all its members against the evils of poverty, 
 therefore, in order to a definite and practical fulfillment of 
 the same, in cases to which it is applicable, it is enacted as 
 follows: 
 
 SECTION 1. An annual contribution shall be levied on all 
 resident members, probationers and dependents of this Com- 
 munity owning property to the value of one hundred dollars 
 clear of debt; which contribution shall be equal to two mills, 
 at least, on every dollar possessed clear of debt, as nearly as 
 the same can be ascertained. This contribution shall be 
 assessed and collected by the directory, on or before the first 
 day of April in each year, and the proceeds shall be credited 
 by the Treasurer to the Relief Fund, subject to orders herein- 
 after prescribed. 
 
 SEC. 2. This Community, at the annual meeting every 
 year, shall choose a Relief Committee, consisting of not less 
 than four members, taken equally from the two sexes, whose 
 sacred duty it shall be to make themselves acquainted with 
 every case in which a member, probationer or dependent of 
 this Community may need pecuniary assistance. It shall also 
 be the duty of every member, probationer and dependent, 
 having knowledge of any such case, to report the same with- 
 out delay to some member of said Committee. And the Relief 
 Committee, proceeding always with Christian kindness and 
 delicacy, shall cause timely and proper assistance to be ren- 
 dered to every person needing relief; either by interesting 
 the Industrial Union in the case, or by drawing on the Relief 
 Fund for such a sum of money as the circumstances, in their 
 judgment, demand; provided, nevertheless, that no person or 
 family, possessing property clear of debt to the value of one 
 thousand dollars, shall receive aid from such Fund. 
 
 SEC. 3. So much of this Enactment as relates to the levy- 
 ing of the annual contribution may be suspended by vote of 
 the Community, for one year at a time, whenever the Relief 
 Fund shall be deemed adequate to its design without such 
 contribution. 
 
BY-LAWS. RULES AND REGULATIONS. 393 
 
 ENACTMENT XIV. 
 Respecting the Community Cemetery. 
 
 The Trustees are hereby empowered and instructed to carry 
 into effect the following specified measures relating to the 
 Hopedale Cemetery, viz.: 
 
 1. To appraise the Burial Lots now laid off, and which 
 hereafter may be laid off, in said Cemetery, at some just and 
 definite valuation, not under two dollars nor over five dollars 
 per lot. 
 
 2. To reserve and set apart suitable portions of ground for 
 the interment of transient residents and strangers who may 
 have need to be buried within our Community Domain. 
 
 3. To sell Burial Lots, at their appraised valuation, with 
 the right of perpetual occupancy for burial purposes alone, to 
 members of the Community, and also to such other persons 
 as may be permitted by vote of the Community to become 
 purchasers; and to give deeds or certificate titles of the same. 
 
 4. To expend all funds arising from the sale of Burial 
 Lots, or otherwise, in fencing and improving said Cemetery; 
 also in erecting and maintaining a Receiving Tomb for gen- 
 eral convenience. 
 
 5. To make and publish such Regulations relating to said 
 Cemetery as they may deem necessary and the Community 
 approve. 
 
 6. To appoint a Superintendent of said Cemetery, with such 
 powers, and subject to such instructions, as they may consider 
 judicious. 
 
 7. To cause proper Records and written evidence of all their 
 transactions, under this Enactment, to be made and preserved 
 for perpetual reference. 
 
 ENACTMENT XV. 
 Respecting Residence by Permission, etc. 
 
 SECTION 1. The protracted residence of persons on the Com- 
 munity Domain, who are not sympathetically interested in our 
 objects, principles and social order, shall be steadily guarded 
 against as of demoralizing tendency. And no person except- 
 ing acknowledged members, probationers, dependents, visiting 
 friends, medical patients, nurses, scholars or tenants holding 
 under unexpired contract, shall be employed, boarded or har- 
 
394 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 bored on the Community Domain for a longer time than one 
 month, unless by special vote of the Community ; which vote shall 
 in no case extend permission of residence beyond the period 
 of one year without a renewal. 
 
 SEC. 2. No fire-arms, or deadly weapons of any description, 
 shall be owned, kept, or used, either for offense, defense or 
 sport, within the territorial limits of this Community, except 
 by express permission of the Council of Religion, Conciliation 
 and Justice; and then only for the purpose of killing very mis- 
 chievous and dangerous animals. And it shall be the duty of 
 every member, probationer and dependent of this Community 
 to remonstrate, kindly but firmly, with persons from abroad, 
 against gunning on the Community Domain, and especially 
 against the shooting of harmless birds; and also to discounte- 
 nance utterly among our children the use of all warlike, savage- 
 like or ruffian-like toys, playthings, sports and amusements, 
 however harmless in themselves. 
 
 ENACTMENT XVI. 
 Respecting Certain Official Duties. 
 
 SEC. 1. It shall be the duty of the President of this Com- 
 munity to see that all its Enactments are duly respected, and 
 particularly that none of them become inoperative through the 
 negligence of official servants on whom the responsibility of 
 their execution immediately devolves. And he shall be expected, 
 at the opening of every Annual Meeting, to lay before the Com 
 munity a written Address or Statement, reviewing the workings 
 of their social polity during the previous year, and suggesting 
 such improvements as he may judge necessary. 
 
 SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the Trustees to keep reliable 
 Records of all their principal transactions, together with such 
 minutes and files of written documents as shall enable them 
 to exhibit at any time the actual condition of all the Community 
 lands and tenements, both public and private, in respect to 
 Layings off, Ownership, Title, Incuinbrance or Claim. And 
 the senior Trustee, for the time being, shall be considered 
 responsible for the proper keeping of such Records and Docu- 
 mentary Files. 
 
 SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the Recorder to keep, in an 
 orderly condition, a reliable Community Registry, in which each 
 
BY-LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS. 395 
 
 member's name, admission, death, resignation or discharge, may 
 be duly entered, according to date, and forever remain on record. 
 Also to keep in like condition another Registry in which the 
 names, reception and discharge of all probationers and depend- 
 ents may distinctly appear on record. Also to keep a Catalogue, 
 exhibiting the names of all persons permitted to reside on our 
 Domain by special vote of the Community, and the cessation 
 of their residence under such vote. 
 
 SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the Directory, Council of 
 Religion, Board of Education, and every annually elected Com- 
 mittee of this Community, to keep full and reliable Records of 
 their official transactions, and to preserve carefully on File all 
 written documents and papers which may be of evidential or 
 historical use. 
 
 SEC. 5. It shall be the special duty of the Recorder to pub- 
 lish in The Practical Christian all new Enactments of this 
 Community as soon as may be conveniently done after their 
 passage. Also, with the advice of the President to publish 
 such of the Proceedings of all regular Community meetings 
 as shall appear proper for publication and likely to keep up a 
 salutary interest among our friends abroad. 
 
 SEC. 6. It shall be the imperative duty of the Recorder to 
 watch over the Community Archives with the most scrupu- 
 lous vigilance; to record all transactions with promptitude^ 
 and to preserve all Books, Registers, Catalogues, Documents 
 and Files of papers with perpetual fidelity. And no officer,, 
 member, probationer or other person, shall carry out of the 
 Recorder's immediate custody, for examination or use else" 
 where, any original Record, Minute or Paper whatsoever, with- 
 out first entering the fact, with name and date, briefly, in a 
 Minute Book to be kept in the office exclusively for that 
 purpose. 
 
 SEC. 7. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to keep the 
 Directory duly informed of all moneys on hand in the Treas- 
 ury, and of all moneys required to meet demands or appro- 
 priations to be paid out of the same ; also, to make up the 
 Annual Financial Report in season for the Directory's exami- 
 nation. 
 
 GENERAL ADOPTION AND APPROVAL. 
 
 The foregoing Revised Constitution and Enactments having 
 been severally read, carefully considered and passed upon, are 
 
THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 hereby collectively adopted, approved and ordered to be pub- 
 lished. And all Enactments, sections, sentences, clauses and 
 particular votes of this Community, on record, which are in 
 any wise repugnant to this Revision, or superseded by it, are 
 hereby repealed. 
 
 Done at Hopedale, this thirty-first day of August, A. D., one 
 thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. 
 
 E. D. DRAPER, President. 
 MARY A. WALDEN, Secretary. 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 CONSTITUTION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 ANEW Order of Human Society is hereby founded, to be 
 called THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC. It shall be 
 constituted, organized and governed hi accordance with the 
 following fundamental articles, to wit: 
 
 ARTICLE I. Objects. 
 
 The cardinal objects of this Republic are and shall be the 
 following, viz.: 
 
 1. To institute and consolidate a true order of human 
 society, which shall harmonize all individual interests in the 
 common good and be governed by Divine Principles as its 
 Supreme Law. 
 
 2. To establish local Communities of various grades and 
 peculiarities, all acknowledging the sovereignty of Divine Prin- 
 ciples and so constituted as to promote the highest happiness 
 of their respective associates. 
 
 3. To confederate all such local Communities wheresoever 
 existing throughout the earth by an ascending series of com- 
 binations in one common Social Republic. 
 
 4. To insure to every orderly citizen of this Republic a 
 comfortable home, suitable employment, adequate subsistence,, 
 congenial associates, a good education, proper stimulants to 
 personal righteousness, sympathetic aid in distress, and due 
 protection in the exercise of all natural rights. 
 
 5. To give mankind a practical illustration of civil govern- 
 ment maintained in just subordination to Divine Principles^ 
 which shall be powerful without tyranny, benignant without 
 
398 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 weakness, dignified without ostentation, independent without 
 defiance, invincible without resorting to injurious force, and 
 pre-eminently useful without being burdensome. 
 
 6. To institute and sustain every suitable instrumentality 
 for removing the causes of human misery and promoting the 
 conversion of the world to true righteousness. 
 
 7. To multipy, economize, distribute and apply beneficently, 
 wisely and successfully, all the means necessary to harmonize 
 the human race with each other, with the heavenly world and 
 with the universal Father; that in one grand communion of 
 angels and men the will of God may be done " on earth as it 
 is in heaven." 
 
 ARTICLE II. Principles. 
 
 We proclaim the absolute sovereignty of Divine Principles 
 over all human beings, combinations, governments, institutions, 
 laws, customs, habits, practices, actions, opinions, intentions 
 and affections. We recognize in the religion of Jesus Christ 
 as he taught and exemplified it a complete annunciation and 
 attestation of essential Divine Principles. 
 
 We accept and acknowledge the following as Divine Princi- 
 ples of Theological Truth, viz.: 
 
 1. The existence of one all-perfect, infinite God. 
 
 2. The mediatorial manifestation of God through Christ. 
 
 3. Divine revelations and inspirations given to mankind. 
 
 4. The immortal existence of human and angelic spirits. 
 
 5. The moral agency and religious obligation of mankind. 
 
 6. The certainty of a perfect divine retribution. 
 
 7. The necessity of man's spiritual regeneration. 
 
 8. The final universal triumph of good over evil. 
 
 We accept and acknowledge the following as Divine Princi- 
 ples of Personal Righteousness; viz.: 
 
 1. Reverence for the Divine and spiritual. 
 
 2. Self-denial for righteousness' sake. 
 
 3. Justice to all beings. 
 
 4. Truth in all manifestations of mind. 
 
 5. Love in all spiritual relations. 
 
 6. Purity in all things. 
 
 7. Patience in all right aims and pursuits. 
 
 8. Unceasing progress toward perfection. 
 
aNiVERsi: 
 
 V 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE P. C. REPUBLIC. 399 
 
 We accept and acknowledge the following as Divine Princi- 
 ples of Social Order; viz.: 
 
 1. The supreme Fatherhood of God. 
 
 2. The universal Brotherhood of man. 
 
 3. The declared perfect love of God to man. 
 
 4. The required perfect love of man to God. 
 
 5. The required perfect love of man to man. 
 
 6. The required just reproof and disfellowship of evil-doers. 
 
 7. The required non-resistance of evil doers with evil. 
 
 8. The designed unity of the righteous. 
 
 We hold ourselves imperatively bound by the sovereignty of 
 these acknowledged Divine Principles, never, under any pretext 
 whatsoever, to kill, injure, envy or hate any human being, even 
 our worst enemy. 
 
 Never to sanction chattel slavery or any obvious oppression 
 of man by man. 
 
 Never to countenance war or capital punishment, or the 
 infliction of injurious penalties, or the resistance of evil with 
 evil in any form. 
 
 Never to violate the dictates of chastity by adultery, polyg- 
 amy, concubinage, fornication, self-pollution, lasciviousness, ama- 
 tive abuse, impure language, or cherished lust. 
 
 Never to manufacture, buy, sell, deal out or use any intoxi- 
 cating liquor, a* a beverage. 
 
 Never to take or administer an oath. 
 
 Never to participate in a sword-sustained human government, 
 either as voters, office holders or subordinate assistants, in any 
 case prescriptively involving the infliction of death or any absolute 
 injury whatsoever by man on man; nor to invoke governmental 
 interposition in any such case, even for the accomplishment of 
 good objects. 
 
 Never to indulge self-will, bigotry, love of pre-eminence, covet- 
 ousness, deceit, profanity, idleness or an unruly tongue. 
 
 Never to participate in lotteries, gambling, betting or perni- 
 cious amusements. 
 
 Never to resent reproof - or justify ourselves in a known 
 wrong. 
 
 Never to aid, abet or approve others in anything sinful; but, 
 through divine assistance, always to recommend and promote 
 -with our entire influence the holiness and happiness of all 
 mankind. 
 
400 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ARTICLE III. Rights. 
 
 No member of this Republic, nor Association of its members,, 
 can have a right to violate any one of its acknowledged Divine 
 Principles; but all the members, however peculiarized by sex, 
 age, color, native country, rank, calling, wealth or station, have 
 indefeasible rights as human beings to do, to be and to enjoy 
 whatsoever they are personally capable of that is not in viola- 
 tion of those Principles. Within these just limits no person 
 shall be restricted or interfered with by this Republic, nor by 
 any constituent Association thereof, in the exercise of the fol- 
 lowing declared rights; viz.: 
 
 1. The right to worship God, with or without external cere- 
 monies and devotional observances, according to the dictates of 
 his or her own conscience. 
 
 2. The right to exercise reason, investigate questions, form 
 opinions and declare convictions, by speech, by pen and by the 
 press, on all subjects within the range of human thought. 
 
 3. The right to hold any official station to which he or she 
 may be elected, to pursue any avocation or follow any course 
 in life, according to genius, attraction and taste. 
 
 4. The right to be stewards, under God, of his or her own 
 talents, property, skill and personal endowments. 
 
 5. The right to form and enjoy particular friendships with 
 congenial minds. 
 
 6. The right to contract marriage and sustain the sacred 
 relationships of family life. 
 
 7. The right to unite with, and also to withdraw from, any 
 Community or Association, on reciprocal terms, at discretion. 
 
 8. In fine, the right to seek happiness in all rightful ways 
 and by all innocent means. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. Membership. 
 
 SECTION 1. Membership in this Republic shall exist in seven 
 Circles; viz.: the Adoptive, the Unitive, the Preceptive, the 
 Communitive, the Expansive, the Charitive, and the Parentive. 
 The Adoptive Circle shall include 'all members living in isola- 
 tion, or not yet admitted into the membership of an integral 
 Community. The Unitive Circle shall include all members of 
 Rural and Joint-Stock Communities. The Preceptive Circle 
 shall include all members specially and perseveringly devoted to 
 Teaching; whether it be teaching religion, morality or any 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE P. C. REPUBLIC. 401 
 
 branch of useful knowledge, and whether their teaching be 
 done with the living voice, or with the pen, or through the 
 press, or in educative institutions. All such teachers, after 
 having proved themselves competent, devoted and acceptable 
 in the Communities to which they belong, shall be considered 
 in this Circle. The Communitive Circle shall include all mem- 
 bers of integral Common-Stock Communities or Families, whose 
 internal economy excludes individual profits on capital, wages 
 for labor and separate interests. The Expansive Circle shall 
 include all members who are especially devoted to the exten- 
 sion of this Republic, by founding and strengthening new 
 integral Communities; who have associated in companies 
 for that express purpose and are employing the principal por- 
 tion of their time, talents or property in that work. The 
 Charitive Circle shall include all members who are especially 
 devoted to the reformation, elevation, improvement and welfare 
 of the world's suffering classes, by furnishing them homes, 
 employment, instruction and all the requisite helps to a better 
 condition; who are associated in companies for that express 
 purpose and are employing the principal portion of their time, 
 talents or property in such works. The Parentive Circle shall 
 include all members who, on account of their mature age, 
 faithful services, great experience, sound judgment or unques- 
 tionable reliability, are competent to advise, arbitrate and 
 recommend measures in cases of great importance. They shall 
 be declared worthy of a place in the Parentive Circle by their 
 respective integral Communities, in a regular meeting notified 
 for that purpose, by a unanimous vote. 
 
 SEC. 2. The members of no Circle shall ever assume to exer- 
 cise any other than purely moral or advisory power, nor claim 
 any exclusive prerogatives, privileges, honors or distinctions 
 whatsoever over members of other Circles ; but shall be entitled 
 to respect and influence in consideration of intrinsic worth 
 alone. Nor shall there be any permanent general organization 
 of these Circles as such. But the members of either may unite 
 in co-operative associations, companies and partnerships, for 
 the more efficient prosecution of their peculiar objects; and 
 may also hold public meetings, conferences and conventions, 
 at pleasure, for the promotion of these objects. 
 
 SEC. 3. Any person may be admitted a member of this 
 Republic by any constituent Community or other authorized 
 
 26 
 
402 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 body thereof in regular meeting assembled. And any twelve 
 or more persons adopting this Constitution from conviction 
 may render themselves members of the Republic by uniting 
 to form a constituent and confederate Community thereof. 
 
 SEC. 4. Any person may resign or withdraw membership at 
 discretion, or may recede from either of the other Circles to 
 the Adoptive Circle, by giving written notice to the body or 
 principal persons concerned. Any person uniting with a society 
 of any description radically opposed in principle, practice or 
 spirit to this Republic, shall be deemed to have relinquished 
 membership; likewise any person who shall have ceased to 
 manifest any interest in its affairs for the space of three years. 
 
 SEC. 5. Any constituent Community or other organized body 
 of this Republic competent to admit members shall have power 
 to dismiss or discharge them for justifiable reasons. And no 
 person shall be retained a member after persistently violating 
 or setting at naught any one of the sovereign Divine Principles 
 declared in Art. II of this Constitution. 
 
 ARTICLE V. Organization. 
 
 SECTION 1. The constituent and confederate bodies of this 
 Social Republic shall be the following; viz.: Parochial Com- 
 munities, Integral Communities, Communal Municipalities, Com- 
 munal States and Communal Nations. 
 
 SEC. 2. Parochial Communities shall consist each of twelve 
 or more members belonging chiefly to the Adoptive Circle, 
 residing promiscuously in a general neighborhood, associated 
 for religious and moral improvement and to secure such other 
 social advantages as may be found practicable. 
 
 SEC. 3. Integral Communities shall consist each of twelve 
 or more members inhabiting an integral territorial Domain, so 
 held in possession and guaranteed that no part thereof can 
 be owned in fee by any person not a member of this Republic. 
 
 There shall be three different kinds of Integral Communi- 
 ties; viz.: Rural, Joint-Stock and Common-Stock Communities. 
 Rural Communities shall hold and manage the major portion 
 of their respective Domains in separate Homesteads, adapted 
 to the wants of families and to small associations under a sys- 
 tem of individual proprietorship. Joint-Stock Communities 
 shall hold and manage the major part of their respective 
 Domains in Joint-Stock proprietorship, with various unitary 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE P. C. REPUBLIC. 403 
 
 economies, under a system of associative co-operation; laying 
 off the minor portion into Village House Lots, to be sold to 
 individual members under necessary restrictions. Common- 
 Stock Communities shall hold and manage their respective 
 Domains and property in Common-Stock, without paying indi- 
 vidual members profits on capital or stipulated wages for labor. 
 Common-Stock Families may also be formed within Rural and 
 Joint-Stock Communities when deemed desirable and practica- 
 ble ; in which case such Families shall not be considered Integral 
 Communities, but as constituent portions of the Communities 
 on whose Domain they respectively reside. 
 
 SEC. 4. Communal Municipalities shall consist each of two 
 or more Communities, whether Parochial or Integral, combined, 
 as in a town or city, for municipal purposes necessary to their 
 common welfare, and impracticable or extremely difficult of 
 accomplishment without such a union. 
 
 SEC. 5. Communal States shall consist each of two or more 
 Communal Municipalities combined for general purposes neces- 
 sary to their common welfare, and impracticable or extremely 
 difficult of accomplishment without such a union. 
 
 SEC. 6. Communal Nations shall consist each of two or 
 more Communal States combined for national purposes neces- 
 sary to their comnon welfare, and impracticable or extremely 
 difficult of accomplishment without such a union. 
 
 SEC. 7. When there shall be two or more Communal Nations, 
 they shall be represented equitably, according to population, 
 in a Supreme Unitary Council by Senators elected for the 
 term of years. 
 
 SEC. 8. The several constituent bodies of this Republic 
 herein before named shall be organized under written Consti- 
 tutions, Compacts or Fundamental Laws not inconsistent with 
 this General Constitution, and shall exercise the governmental 
 prerogatives and responsibilities defined in the next ensuing 
 Article. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. Government. 
 
 SECTION 1. Self-government in the Individual, the Family 
 and the primary congenial Association, under the immediate 
 sovereignty of Divine Principles, being the basis of moral and 
 social order in this Republic, shall be constantly cherished as 
 indispensable to its prosperity. Therefore all governmental 
 powers vested in the confederate bodies of this Republic shall 
 
404 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 be such as are obviously beneficent and such as cannot be 
 conveniently exercised by the primary Communities or their 
 component Circles. And such confederate bodies shall never 
 assume to exercise governmental powers not clearly delegated 
 to them by their constituents. 
 
 SEC. 2. Each Parochial and each Integral Community shall 
 exert its utmost ability to insure all its members and depend- 
 ents a full realization of the guaranties specified in Object 4> 
 Article 1, of this Constitution ; viz. : a comfortable home, suita- 
 ble employment, adequate subsistence, congenial associates, a 
 good education, proper stimulants to personal righteousness, 
 sympathetic aid in distress and due protection in the exercise 
 of all natural rights. And whereinsoever it shall find itself 
 unable to realize the said guaranties, it may unite with other 
 Communities to insure them, by such means as shall be 
 mutually agreed on for that purpose. Each Community shall 
 have the right to frame, adopt and alter its own Constitution 
 and laws ; to elect its own officers, teachers and representatives ; 
 and to manage its own domestic affairs of every description, 
 without interference from any other constituent body or author- 
 ity of this Republic; excepting always the prerogatives which 
 it shall have specifically delegated or referred to others. 
 
 SEC. 3. Each Communal Municipality shall be formed by a 
 Convention of delegates chosen for that purpose by the Com- 
 munities proposing to unite in such Municipality. The dele- 
 gates shall be chosen equitably on the basis of population. 
 These delegates shall frame a Constitution or Fundamental 
 Compact, clearly defining the governmental powers to be exer- 
 cised by the Municipal authorities, which, having been sub- 
 mitted to the voting members of the Communities concerned 
 and adopted, the Municipality shall be considered established 
 and go into organized operation accordingly. But either of the 
 Communities composing such Municipality shall have the right 
 to secede therefrom, after giving one year's notice, paying all 
 assessments due the corporation at the time of such notice, 
 and relinquishing its share of public property therein. Or the 
 union of two or more Communities constituting a Municipality 
 may be dissolved at any time by mutual agreement of the 
 federative parties. 
 
 SEC. 4. Each Communal State shall be formed by a Conven- 
 tion of delegates from the Municipalities proposing to unite in 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE P. C. REPUBLIC. 405 
 
 the same, by a process substantially similar to the one pre- 
 scribed in the preceding Section, but without the right of 
 secession therein reserved. And each Communal Nation shall 
 be formed by the States proposing to unite therein in general 
 accordance with the same process. 
 
 SEC. 5. The duties and powers of the Supreme Unitary 
 Council shall be denned in a Fundamental Compact, to be 
 framed by delegates from all the Communal Nations then 
 existing and adopted by at least two-thirds of the citizen mem- 
 bers of the Republic present and acting in their respective 
 primary Communities, at meetings duly notified for that pur- 
 pose. And all questions throughout this Republic, excepting 
 the election of officers, shall be determined by a two-thirds 
 vote. 
 
 SEC. 6. No official servant of any grade in this Republic 
 shall ever assume to distinguish him or herself by external 
 display of dress, equipage or other artificial appliances above 
 the common members; nor shall receive compensation for 
 official services beyond the average paid to the first class of 
 operatives at large, with a reasonable allowance for incidental 
 expenses; but every official servant shall be considered bound 
 to exemplify the humility, modesty and benevolence inculcated 
 in the Christian precept. "Whosoever will be chief among 
 you, let him be the servant of all." Nor shall it be allowable 
 for any of the constitutional bodies of this Republic to burden 
 the people with governmental expenses for mere worldly show 
 or for any other than purposes of unquestionable public utility. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. Religion. 
 
 SECTION 1. Acknowledging the Christian religion as one of 
 fundamental Divine Principles, to be practically carried out in 
 all human conduct, this Republic insists only on the essentials 
 of faith and practice affirmed in Article II of this Constitution. 
 Therefore, no uniform Religious or Ecclesiastical system of 
 externals shall be established; nor shall any rituals, forms, 
 ceremonies or observances whatsoever be either instituted or 
 interdicted; but each Community shall determine for itself, 
 with due regard for the conscientious scruples of its own mem- 
 bers, all matters of this nature. 
 
 SEC. 2. Believing that the Holy Christ-Spirit will raise up 
 competent Religious and Moral Teachers, and commend them, 
 
406 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 by substantial demonstration of their fitness, to the confidence 
 of those to whom they minister, this Republic shall not assume 
 to commission, authorize or forbid any person to preach or to 
 teach Religion ; nor shall any constituent body thereof assume 
 to do so. But each Community may invite any person deemed 
 worthy of confidence to be their religious teacher, on terms 
 reciprocally satisfactory to the parties concerned. 
 
 SEC. 3. It shall be the privilege and duty of members of 
 this Republic to hold general meetings, at least once in three 
 months, for religious improvement and the promulgation of 
 their acknowledged divine principles. In order to this, Quar- 
 terly Conferences shall be established in every general region 
 of country inhabited by any considerable number of members. 
 Any twenty-five or more members wheresoever resident shall be 
 competent to establish a Quarterly Conference whenever they 
 may deem the same necessary to their convenience. In so- 
 doing they shall adopt a written Constitution subsidiary to- 
 this general Constitution and no wise incompatible therewith, 
 under which they may make such regulations as they may 
 deem promotive of the objects they have in view. All such 
 Conferences shall have power to admit members into the Adop- 
 tive Circle of this Republic, and also, for sufficient reasons, to- 
 discharge them. And each Quarterly Conference shall keep 
 reliable records of its proceedings, with an authentic copy of 
 this general Constitution prefixed. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. Marriage. 
 
 SECTION 1. Marriage, being one of the most important and 
 sacred of human relationships, ought to be guarded against 
 caprice and abuse by the highest wisdom that is available. 
 Therefore within the membership of this Republic and the 
 dependencies thereof, Marriage is specially commended to the 
 care of the Preceptive and Parentive Circles. These are hereby 
 designated as the confidential counsellors of all members and 
 dependents who may desire their mediation in cases of matri- 
 monial negotiation, contract or controversy; and shall be held 
 pre-eminently responsible for the prudent and faithful discharge 
 of their duties. But no person decidedly averse to their inter- 
 position shall be considered under obligation to solicit or accept 
 it. And it shall be considered the perpetual duty of the Circles 
 named to enlighten the public mind relative to the requisites of 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE P. C. REPUBLIC. 407 
 
 true matrimony, and to elevate the marriage institution within this 
 Republic to the highest possible plane of purity and happiness. 
 
 SEC. 2. Marriage shall always be solemnized in the presence 
 of two or more witnesses, by the distinct acknowledgment of 
 the parties before some member of the Preceptive or Parentive 
 Circle selected to preside on the occasion. And it shall be 
 the imperative duty of the member so presiding to see that 
 every such marriage be recorded within ten days thereafter 
 in the Registry of the Community to which one or both of 
 the parties shall, at the time, belong. 
 
 SEC. 3. Divorce from the bonds of matrimony shall never 
 be allowable within the membership of this Republic except 
 for adultery conclusively proved against the accused party. But 
 separations for other sufficient reasons may be sanctioned, with 
 the distinct understanding that neither party shall be at liberty 
 to marry again during the natural life-time of the other. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. Education. 
 
 SECTION 1. The proper education of the rising generation 
 being indispensable to the prosperity and glory of this Repub- 
 lic, it shall be amply provided for as a cardinal want; and 
 no child shall be allowed to grow up anywhere under the con- 
 trol of its membership without good educational opportunities. 
 
 SEC. 2. Education shall be as comprehensive and thorough 
 as circumstances in each case will allow. It shall aim in all 
 cases to develop harmoniously the physical, intellectual, moral 
 and social faculties of the young: to give them, if possible, 
 a high-toned moral character based on scrupulous conscien- 
 tiousness and radical Christian principles; a sound mind, well 
 stored with useful knowledge and capable of inquiring, reason- 
 ing and judging for itself; a heathful, vigorous body, suitably 
 fed, exercised, clothed, lodged and recreated; good domestic 
 habits, including personal cleanliness, order, propriety, agree- 
 ableness and generous social qualities; industrial executiveness 
 and skill in one or more of the avocations necessary to a 
 comfortable subsistence; and, withal, practical economy in 
 pecuniary matters. In fine, to qualifiy them for solid useful- 
 ness and happiness in all the rightful pursuits and relations 
 of life. 
 
 SEC. 3. The Preceptive Circle of members shall be expected 
 to distinguish themselves by a zealous, wise and noble devotion 
 
408 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 to this great interest of education. And every individual, 
 family, private association and constituent body of this Repub- 
 lic, in their respective spheres, shall co-operate, by every reason- 
 able effort, to render its educational institutions from the 
 nursery to the university pre-eminently excellent. 
 
 ARTICLE X. Property. 
 
 SECTION 1. All property, being primarily the Creator's and 
 provided by Him for the use of mankind during their life on 
 earth, ought to be acquired, used and disposed of in strict 
 accordance with the dictates of justice and charity. Therefore, 
 the members of this Republic shall consider themselves stew- 
 ards in trust, under God, of all property coming into their 
 possession, and as such imperatively bound not to consume it 
 in the gratification of their own inordinate lusts, nor to hoard 
 it up as a mere treasure, nor to employ it to the injury of 
 any human being, nor withhold it from the relief of distressed 
 fellow creatures; but always to use it, as not abusing it, for 
 strictly just, benevolent and commendable purposes. 
 
 SEC. 2. It shall not be deemed compatible with justice for 
 the people of this Republic, in their pecuniary commerce with 
 each other, to demand, in any case, as a compensation for their 
 mere personal service, labor or attendance, a higher price per 
 cent., per piece, per day, week, month or year than the aver- 
 age paid to the first class of operatives in the Community, 
 or general vicinity where the service is rendered. Nor shall 
 it be deemed compatible with justice for the members, in such 
 commerce, to demand, as a price for anything sold or exchanged, 
 more than the fair cost value thereof, as nearly as the same 
 can be estimated, reckoning prime cost, labor or attention, 
 incidental expenses, contingent waste, depreciation and aver- 
 age risks of sale: nor to demand for the mere use of capital, 
 except as partners in the risks of its management, any clear 
 interest or profit whatsoever exceeding four per cent, per 
 annum. 
 
 SEC. 3. It shall not be deemed compatible with the welfare, 
 prosperity and honor of this Republic for the people thereof 
 to owe debts outside of the same exceeding three-fourths of 
 their available property rated at moderate valuation by disin- 
 terested persons; nor to give or receive long credits, except 
 on real estate security; nor to manufacture, fabricate or sell 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE P. C. REPUBLIC. 409 
 
 sham and unreliable productions ; nor to make business engage- 
 ments, or hold out expectations, which are of doubtful ful- 
 fillment. 
 
 SEC. 4. Whenever the population and resources of this Repub- 
 lic shall warrant the formation of the first Communal Nation, 
 and the government thereof shall have been organized, a uni- 
 form system of Mutual Banking shall be established, based 
 mainly on real estate securities, which shall afford loans at 
 the mere cost of operations. Also, a uniform system of Mutual 
 Insurance, which shall reduce all kinds of insurance to the 
 lowest terms. Also, a uniform system of reciprocal Commer- 
 cial Exchange, which shall preclude all needless intervention 
 between producers and consumers, all extra risks of property, 
 all extortionate speculation, all inequitable profits on exchanges, 
 and all demoralizing expedients of trade. Also, Regulations 
 providing for the just encouragement of useful industry and 
 the practical equalization of all social advantages, so far as 
 the same can be done without infringing on individual rights. 
 And all the members shall be considered under sacred moral 
 obligations to co-operate adhesively and persistently in every 
 righteous measure employed for the accomplishment of these 
 objects. 
 
 ARTICLE XL Policy. 
 
 It shall be the fundamental, uniform and established Policy 
 of this Republic: 
 
 1. To govern, succor and protect its own people to the 
 utmost of its ability, in all matters and cases whatsoever not 
 involving anti-Christian conflict with the sword-sustained gov- 
 ernments of the world under which its members live. 
 
 2. To avoid all unnecessary conflicts whatsoever with these 
 governments, by conforming to all their laws and requirements 
 which are not repugnant to the Sovereignty of Divine Prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 3. To abstain from all participation in the working of their 
 political machinery and to be connected as little as possible 
 with their systems of governmental operation. 
 
 4. To protest, remonstrate and testify conscientiously against 
 their sins on moral grounds alone; but never to plot schemes 
 of revolutionary agitation, intrigue or violence against them, 
 nor be implicated in contenancing the least resistance to their 
 authority by injurious force. 
 
410 THE HOPED ALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 5. If compelled in any case by Divine Principles to disobey 
 their requirements, or passively to withstand their unrighteous 
 exactions and thus incur their penal vengeance, to act openly 
 and suffer with true moral heroism. 
 
 6. Never to ask their protection, even in favor of injured 
 innocence or threatened rights, when it can be interposed only 
 by means which are condemned by Divine Principles. 
 
 7. To live in peace, so far as can innocently be done, with 
 all mankind outside of this Republic, whether individuals, 
 associations, corporations, sects, classes, parties, states or 
 nations ; also to accredit and encourage whatever is truly good 
 in all; yet to fellowship iniquity in none, be enslaved by none, 
 be amalgamated with none, be morally responsible for none ; but 
 ever be distinctly, unequivocally and uncompromisingly The 
 Practical Christian Republic until the complete regeneration of 
 the world. 
 
 ARTICLE XII. Amendments. 
 
 Whenever one-fourth of all the members of this Republic 
 shall subscribe and publish a written proposition to alter, amend 
 or revise this Constitution, such proposition of whatsoever 
 nature shall be submitted to each Community for considera- 
 tion. Returns shall then be made of all the votes cast in 
 every Community to the highest organized body of the Repub- 
 lic for the time being. And the concurrence of two-thirds 
 of all the votes shall determine the question or questions at 
 issue. If the proposition shall have been a specific alteration 
 or amendment of the Constitution, it shall thenceforth be 
 established as such. If a Convention shall have been proposed 
 to revise the Constitution, a Convention shall be summoned 
 and held accordingly. But no alteration, amendment or revi- 
 sion of this Constitution shall take effect until sanctioned by 
 two-thirds of all the members present and acting thereon in 
 their respective Communities, at regular meetings duly notified 
 for that purpose. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Accessions to Hopedale frequent, 74. 
 Accommodations at first limited, 73. 
 Achievements of fourteen years, 343. 
 Activity the first summer, 86. 
 Affairs during 1846, 155. 
 Alien residents, action concerning, 
 
 200. 
 
 Amusements, 180. 
 Andrews, Stephen Pearl and his 
 
 theories, 241. 
 
 Annoyances and irritations, 161. 
 Annual meetings, 59, 103, 126, 137, 
 
 150, 158, 176, 189, 201, 210, 224, 243, 
 
 249, 269, 283. 
 Antagonism to existing Social 
 
 order, 10. 
 
 Appendix A, 368; B, 397. 
 Army, Industrial, afterwards named 
 
 Industrial Union, 192. 
 Association and union of forces, 12. 
 Associational Confei-ences, 131. 
 
 Ballon, Abbie S., Teacher, 179. 
 
 Ballou, Adin, Pastor of First Parish, 
 Mendon, 1; religious belief, 2; 
 Editor in Chief of Practical Chris- 
 tian, 15 ; First President of the 
 Community, 48; removal to 
 Hopedale, 63; farewell sermon 
 at Mendon, 65; valedictory ad- 
 dress as President, 226; pastor 
 of Hopedale Parish, 335. 
 
 Ballou, Adin Augustus, entering 
 upon active life, 222; natural 
 and acquired talents, 223; his 
 sudden and deeply lamented 
 death, 237. 
 
 Ballou, Lucy H., Director of domes- 
 tic affairs, 72. 
 
 Bank of Exchange, 274. 
 
 Barns, Community, 110. 
 
 Beautifying the village, 191. 
 
 Beginning at Hopedale, 63, 71. 
 
 Benson, George W., 25, 119. 
 
 Bereavements, 156, 235, 237, 244, 245. 
 
 Birthdays celebrated, 123, 125. 
 
 Blank Book Manufactory, 274. 
 
 Board of Education established 
 178 ; report of 1855, 272. 
 
 Board of Trustees for the manage- 
 ment of business, 171. 
 
 Boston Convention of Friends ot 
 Social Reform, 119. 
 
 Brisbane, Albert, Apostle of Fou- 
 rierism,25. 
 
 Brook Farm Community, 24; cor- 
 dial relations with, 25. 
 
 By-Laws and Resolves, 52. 
 
 Cabet, M. Etienne, a French Com- 
 munist, 214. 
 
 Cause of Failure, Primary, 346; sec- 
 ondary causes, 362. 
 
 Cemetery, Hopedale, selected, 143. 
 
 Channing, Rev. Wm. Ellery, D. D., 
 Letter from, 42. 
 
 Channing, Rev. Wm. H., 25, 42, 242, 
 
 Chapel and School-house built, 112. 
 
 Chardon Street Chapel, Boston, 
 Property convention in, 116. 
 
 Charity of Community members, 
 342, 343. 
 
 Children and Youth, Regulation 
 concei-ning, 137; parental care 
 of, 192. 
 
 Christian Colonies in the West, Arti- 
 cle upon in Independent, 257. 
 
 Christian precepts, professedly rev- 
 erenced, but systematically vio- 
 lated, 357. 
 
412 
 
 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Christian Unionists in New York, 
 275. 
 
 Christmas Festival, 181. 
 
 Church, a regenerate one needed, 
 359. 
 
 Church at Hopedale established, 
 331 ; given up, 332. 
 
 Church, The, serious defects of, 355; 
 important nevertheless, 358. 
 
 Circumstances at the outset of the 
 Community, 71, 75. 
 
 Collins, John A., Social Reformer, 
 116. 
 
 Combined Household, 71. 
 
 Comeouters, 25. 
 
 Commune formed, 281. 
 
 Communion, Practical Christian, 
 formed, 37. 
 
 Communism, Tending towards, 96. 
 
 Communities, Articles on, 16, 23; 
 distinguishing features of, 21 . 
 
 Community Idea, Origin and growth 
 of, 9, 16. 
 
 Community, The Hopedale, origi- 
 nally called Fraternal Commu- 
 nity No. 1, formed, 37 ; first meet- 
 ing of, 38; second meeting, 47; 
 organized, 48; third meeting, 
 49; domain secured, 53; location 
 named, 54; affairs in 1842, 85, 86; 
 crisis reached, 287; its doom 
 sealed, 289; disposal of its prop- 
 erty, 290; characteristic fea- 
 tures given up, 291 ; in a disman- 
 tled condition, 298; its extinc- 
 tion, 333; only a historical des- 
 ignation, 336; the story of it 
 honorable, 365. 
 
 Community material wanting at 
 the present stage of the world's 
 progress, 355. 
 
 Community system arraigned, 288. 
 
 Competition, Spirit of adjudged un- 
 christian, 11. 
 
 Complaints of neighbors, 172; satis- 
 faction rendered. 173, 209. 
 
 Condition and prospects in 1854, 
 254. 
 
 Conference, Associational at Hope- 
 dale, 132; at Northampton, 132. 
 
 Conferences, Inductive, 81. 
 
 Conscription, Case of, 317; remon- 
 strance and protest, 318. 
 
 Constitution of the Community, 
 first adopted, 27; published, 40; 
 amended, 98; superseded, 165; 
 again changed, 208; final altera- 
 tion, 291; full text, with By- 
 Laws, Rules and Regulations, 
 as revised in 1853, 368. 
 
 Contingent Fund, deficit, 213; busi- 
 ness, 274. 
 
 Convention at Boston, 116, 119; at 
 Worcester, 119. 
 
 Co-operative Associations in Com- 
 munity industries, 159. 
 
 Cost the limit of price, 241. 
 
 Council of Religion, Conciliation 
 and Justice, 202 ; Report of 1854, 
 251. 
 
 Critical Condition, 97. 
 
 Dean, Rev. Paul, Restorationist 
 clergyman, Attitude of, 46. 
 
 Declaration of principles and du- 
 ties, 28. 
 
 Decline of religious interest at 
 Hopedale, 330. 
 
 Demoralization of Community 
 forces, 164. 
 
 Dennis, Rev. J. S., interested in So- 
 cial Reform, 260. 
 
 Depredation, Instance of, 123. 
 
 Diary of current events 1842, 76. 
 
 Difficulties encountered, 22, 73. 
 
 Directory established, 208. 
 
 Discipline and improvement, Meet- 
 ings for, 184. 
 
 Discussions, omnious, 89; pro- 
 tracted, 95. 
 
 Disgusted member, 169. 
 
 Domain accepted, 53; enlarged, 129, 
 194. 
 
 Domestic economy, 106. 
 
 Douglass, Frederic, 77, 78, 143. 
 
 Draper, Anna T., 74. 
 
 Draper Brothers, not specially 
 blameworthy, 350. 
 
 Draper, Ebenezer D., elected Pres- 
 ident, 226. 
 
 Draper, George, 287, 288. 
 
 Dreamers and visionaries, 340. 
 
 Dwelling-houses erected, 106, 107, 129. 
 
 Educational Home, Hopedale, pro- 
 jected, 218; abandoned, 240. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 413 
 
 Educational Interests, 178; subse- 
 quent to 1856, 321. 
 
 Elements of unrest fomenting, 87. 
 
 Encouraging condition of Commu- 
 nity affairs 1855, 269. 
 
 Ernst, A. H., Cincinnati, O., Gift 
 from, 114. 
 
 Equitable Commerce theory, 241. 
 
 Executive Council, First Report of, 
 60. 
 
 Expansion contemplated, 264. 
 
 Exposition of First Constitution, 40. 
 
 Exposition of Faith published, 15. 
 
 Failure, not financial, 346; moral, 
 348; inevitable under existing 
 conditions. 352. 
 
 Familiar Letters, 67. 
 
 Farm accepted for a Community 
 Domain, 53. 
 
 Fast at Hopedale, 77. 
 
 Final adjustment of industrial and 
 financial affairs, 290. 
 
 Final Community action, 336. 
 
 First building erected, 78. 
 
 First meeting of Fraternal Commu- 
 nity No. 1, 38. 
 
 First religious meeting at Hope- 
 dale, 65. 
 
 Fish, Eev. Wm. H., 15, 49, 84, 275. 
 
 Founders of the Community, Facts 
 concerning, 337. 
 
 Fourier, Charles, a French Social 
 Philosopher, 25. 
 
 Fourteen years' achievements, 344. 
 
 Fraternal Communion, Constitution 
 of adopted, 27. 
 
 Fraternal Community No. 1, formed, 
 37; name changed to Hopedale 
 Community, 170. 
 
 Freedom to preach Reform wanted, 
 14. 
 
 Free Love episode, 246; Community 
 action upon, 249. 
 
 Friends of Social Reform met in 
 Convention, 119. 
 
 Godwin, Parke, a Social Reformer, 
 25. 
 
 Great question not settled, but post- 
 poned, 366. 
 
 Greeley, Horace, advocate of Social 
 Re form, 25. 
 
 Guaranty of Constitution, 178. 
 
 Hall, Rosetta, an interesting case, 
 143. 
 
 Hawkins, John H. W., Washing- 
 tonian orator, 78. 
 
 Heywood, J. Lowell, Conscription 
 of, 317 ; protest of, 318. 
 
 Hopedale from the outside, 276. 
 
 Hopedale named, 54; settled, 62; a 
 beautiful village, 345. 
 
 Hopedale Community of Christian 
 origin, 25; its meaning inter- 
 preted and understood in a bet- 
 ter future, 367. 
 
 Hopedale Educational Home, 218, 
 240. 
 
 Hopedale Home School founded, 
 268; suspended, 322. 
 
 Hopedale Parish instituted, 333. 
 
 Hopedale Street, 111. 
 
 House of Worship erected and ded- 
 icated, 326. 
 
 Humanitarian spirit prevailing 
 largely, 24. 
 
 Humbug exploded, 170. 
 
 Hymns, Hopedale collection of, 195. 
 
 Icarian Community at Nauvoo, Ills., 
 214. 
 
 Independent, N. Y., Suggestive arti- 
 cle in, 257. 
 
 Individualism checked, 133. 
 
 Individual rights respected, 21, 351. 
 
 Individual Sovereignty, 241. 
 
 Inductive Communion, 187. 
 
 Inductive Conferences, 81; one at 
 Hopedale, 333. 
 
 Industrial Army, afterwards Indus- 
 trial Union, 192. 
 
 Industrial Interests, 108, 183. 
 
 Industrial Reorganization, 134, 159. 
 
 Industries in 1855, 269. 
 
 Industries rented and sold, 171. 
 
 Industry, Purveyance and Trade, 
 Ordinance concerning, 217. 
 
 Inharmony, Humiliating case of, 88. 
 
 Insurance of Buildings, etc., 172. 
 
 Insurance Company, 217. 
 
 Isolated Condition, 12. 
 
 Juvenile Community formed, 173. 
 
 Kingman, Joseph, a valued resident, 
 leaves Hopedale, 162. 
 
414 
 
 THE HOPEDALE COMMUNITY. 
 
 Lamson, Rev. David R., 15, 49, 90,91, 
 101, 102. 
 
 Land Titles, Rectification of, 206. 
 
 Last Record of Community Meet- 
 ing, 336. 
 
 Lay Preaching encouraged and se- 
 cured, 185. 
 
 Letters of inquiry, sympathy, etc., 
 41. 
 
 Liberal Christian Society at Hope- 
 dale, 334. 
 
 Lyceum established, 191. 
 
 Mail facilities, 190. 
 Marital infidelity, Case of, 247. 
 Marriage, First at Hopedale, 66. 
 May Festival, an interesting occa- 
 sion, 181. 
 
 May, Rev. Samuel, Leicester, 327. 
 May, Rev. Samuel J., Syracuse, N. 
 
 Y., 46. 
 
 Mechanic shop built, 108. 
 Members of Hopedale Community, 
 
 Estimate of, 339. 
 Membership, Extent of in 1856 and 
 
 later, 305. 
 
 Ministers after 1856, 325. 
 Ministry, The Practical Christian 
 
 instituted, 186. 
 Missionary Movements, 121, 130, 274, 
 
 322, 323. 
 
 Missionaries shorn of power, 293. 
 " Modern Times," 241. 
 Monitorial Guide published, 333. 
 Moral and Religious culture, 184. 
 Moravians and Shakers, 17. 
 Mortgage of property, 63. 
 Mothers credited for time em- 
 ployed, 80. 
 
 Movement based on individual 
 rights, 351. 
 
 Name given Community site, 54. 
 
 New Communities, Applications 
 for, 244, 261. 
 
 New features introduced, 281. 
 
 New House of Worship, 326. 
 
 No foolish and wicked expendi- 
 tures, 341. 
 
 Non-resistants abandon their prin- 
 ciples, 312. 
 
 Non-resistant publication resusci- 
 tated, 131. 
 
 North American Phalanx, 25. 
 Northampton Community, 25, 133. 
 
 Obstacles encountei'ed, 22. 
 
 Officers of Community after 1856, 
 306. 
 
 Old Testament rather than the New 
 at the front, 323. 
 
 On the downward grade, 291. 
 
 Organ of Practical Christian Social- 
 ists started, 14. 
 
 Organic Methods of Reform neces- 
 sary, 366. 
 
 Original Members of Fraternal 
 Community No. 1, 37. 
 
 Other Communities, Relations to, 
 115. 
 
 Outlook encouraging, 257, 261. 
 
 Owen, Robert, English Communist, 
 visit to Hopedale, 145; estimate 
 of the man, 146. 
 
 Palmy period, 253. 
 
 Peculiar people with peculiar ideas, 
 
 9. 
 
 Periodicals, 14, 120. 
 Permitted residents, Resolves con- 
 
 cerning, 200. 
 
 Phalansterian Associations, 25. 
 Phalanx, The North American, 25. 
 Politico-Civil Government, 11. 
 Practical Christian started, 14; his- 
 tory of, 307; discontinued, 309. 
 Practical Christian Communion, 
 
 170. 
 
 Practical Christian Ministry, 186. 
 Practical Christian Republic, 262; 
 
 Constitution of, 397. 
 " Practical Christian Socialism " 
 
 published, 263. 
 Practical Christianity, Standard of, 
 
 3 ; how received, 9. 
 Precepts of Christ systematically 
 
 set at naught, 357. 
 President's Addresses, 151, 250, 271, 
 
 284. 
 
 Profound disappointment, 289. 
 Promulgation Society formed, 309. 
 Property Convention in Boston, 116. 
 Prosperous days, 223. 
 Provisional Committee of Commu- 
 nity at the outset, 39. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 415 
 
 Quarterly Conferences, 188. 
 Quincy, Edmund, a notable Re- 
 former, 47. 
 
 Radical changes in organization 
 and government, 159. 
 
 Raritan Bay Union, 242. 
 
 Real Estate Trustees, 208. 
 
 Rebellion, War of foreshadowed, 
 267 ; resolutions concerning, 314 ; 
 their effect, 316. 
 
 Recapitulation of notable facts and 
 features, 337. 
 
 Reform preaching, Opposition to 
 causes embarrassment, 13. 
 
 Relations to other Communities, 115. 
 
 Relief Committee established, 201. 
 
 Religious interests and institutions, 
 Summary of, 323. 
 
 Religious meeting, first one at 
 Hopedale, 65. 
 
 Remuneration for religious ser- 
 vices, 325. 
 
 Report of Board of Education, 1855, 
 27-2. 
 
 Report of Council, 1854, 251. 
 
 Republic, Practical Christian, 262. 
 
 Residents, alien, Action concerning, 
 200. 
 
 Residents, Number of April 1, 1842, 
 71. 
 
 Restorationist Association, 2; pro- 
 gressive wing, 3. 
 
 Restorationist Denomination, Pros- 
 pects of blasted, 46. 
 
 Ripley, Rev. George, leading spirit 
 at Brook Farm, 24, 25. 
 
 Savings Bank, Community Treas- 
 ury a, 194. 
 
 School affairs, 130; District, Hope- 
 dele a, 174; House and Chapel, 
 112. 
 
 Scylla and Charybdis, 97. 
 
 Second Advent, Pamphlet on, 122. 
 
 Serious alternative, 96. 
 
 Settlement at Hopedale, 62. 
 
 Shakers and Moravians, 17. 
 
 Smith, Gerritt, statesman and phil- 
 anthropist, 47, 275. 
 
 Social Reform, Clergymen upon, 
 259; convention, 119; meetings, 
 23. 
 
 "Socialism, Practical Christian," 
 
 published, 263. 
 
 Stacy, Rev. George W., 15, 47, 148. 
 Standard of Practical Christianity, 
 
 3; reception of, 9. 
 Startling revelation, 287. 
 Status in 1856, 297. 
 Streets located and named, 128. 
 Sunday meeting, first at Hopedale, 
 
 Test of fitness for Community life, 
 
 70. 
 Three fundamental objections to 
 
 Society as it is, 10. 
 Tilden, Rev. Wm. P., Unitarian 
 
 clergyman, 46. 
 Transcendentalists in and about 
 
 Boston, 24. 
 Trustees under new Constitution, 
 
 171 ; of Real Estate, 208. 
 
 Unitarian Ministry, Attitude of, 46. 
 Universalist Ministiy, Attitude of 
 46. 
 
 Valedictory Address of First Presi- 
 dent, 226; response, 234. 
 
 War system, Opposition to, 10. 
 
 Water Cure establishment, 204. 
 
 Wattles, John O., founder of a Com- 
 munity at the West, 116. 
 
 Weld, Theodore D., a well-known 
 Abolitionist and teacher, 243. 
 
 Western movement, 265, 266, 276, 
 277, 295. 
 
 West India Emancipation cele- 
 brated, 266. 
 
 What remained after the crisis of 
 1856, 299. 
 
 Whitney, Rev. Daniel S., 15, 66, 181, 
 203. 
 
 Whittemore, Rev. Thomas, D. D., 
 Kind words from, 310. 
 
 Wilmarth, Butler, M. D., 76, 204, 245. 
 
 Women in the Community, Fidelity 
 of, 74. 
 
 Woon socket Patriot on Hopedale, 
 276. 
 
 Worcester Convention, 119. 
 
 Words of cheer amid defeat, 302, 
 303. 
 
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