James M. Redwine

Robert Owen

Ageless Wisdom

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When Jeanne and Nathan Maudlin as representatives of New Harmony, Indiana’s Working Men’s Institute that along with the University of Southern Indiana and the New Harmony Kiwanis Club is helping sponsor this year’s New Harmony Fourth of July celebration asked me to speak, my first thought was to research prior speeches. I am a judge after all and precedent is important to me. Jeanne graciously sent me a copy of the excellent book, New Harmony’s Fourth of July Tradition, by Donald Pitzer and Josephine Elliott.

The book includes verbatim Fourth of July speeches given by Robert Owen (1826), William Owen (1827) and Frances (Mad Fanny) Wright (1828). Each talk contains observations and advice that address issues that could have been found on the front pages of today’s newspapers or on T.V. news programs. War and peace, racial problems, women’s rights, religious discrimination and freedom of thought and action are exposited clearly.

Independence as declared on July 04, 1776 and our country’s often slow and incremental progress toward accomplishing the ideals encapsulated in our Constitution are referenced or implied in each address. As Frances Wright explained, the genius of our Founders was they gave us a government that we could change if we needed and wanted. Mad Fanny was called mad in 1828 because she called for freedom from religion, freedom for enslaved Negroes, equality for women and liberty from wars of aggression for the United States of America and all other countries. As not so mad Fanny might observe today, America has made substantial progress toward these ideals through incremental, democratic, constitutional change. Of course, we still have work to do.

In his address on July 04, 1827 William Owen, Robert’s twenty-five year old son, concentrated on the evils of superstition and bloody wars of aggression as egged on by various religions. And William Owen thanked the heroes of July 04, 1776 for fighting for our liberty and freedom of speech:

“Are we prepared to exercise the right, as we enjoy the power, secured to us by the heroes of the revolution, of expressing our thoughts openly and sincerely? Are we willing to run the risks they encountered? Are we ready like them to meet the prejudices of past times, to risk name and reputation in the cause of truth, – in defense of the honest expression of our opinions?”

William both recognized the sacrifices made by our Founders and cautioned of the repercussions should we fail to follow our own Constitution:

“Man had been slowly but gradually freeing himself from that thraldom in which he was so long enslaved, when our ancestors, on that day, the anniversary of which we this morning celebrate, by one bold step recovered that state of liberty and independence, which is the birthright of humanity, and gave a death blow, to the unnatural league between despotism and superstition, by the adoption of a Constitution, which forever precludes, so long as adhered to, the recurrence of such an unhappy connection.”

Robert Owen, whose vision of humanity and equality was the bedrock of the secular commune of New Harmony, 1825-1828 (c), on July 04, 1826 fearlessly stated his view as to the root cause of the world’s evils:

“Religion, or Superstition – for all religions have proved themselves to be Superstitions, – by destroying the judgment, irrationalized all the mental faculties of man, and made him the most abject slave, through the fear of non-entities created solely by his own disordered imagination.”

Owen was a wealthy industrialist who cared about his workers and their families. He put in place many of the better conditions of employment that eventually were adopted by the United States of America, and other countries. Owen fought for women’s equality, freedom from religion and the avoidance of wars of aggression. And along with numerous other idealists such as his own sons, William Maclure of the Working Men’s Institute fame and Frances Wright, Robert Owen established a legacy that all of us in Posey County should treasure.

Gentle Reader, if you wish to help carry on New Harmony’s Fourth of July traditions of celebrating our Independence, the festivities begin the morning of July 04, 2019 at the Atheneum in New Harmony. Peg and I plan to be there and look forward to the reading of the Declaration of Independence by our friend Chuck Minnette as well as a golf cart parade, hot dogs and patriotic music. Hope to see you there. Happy birthday!

Connections

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Father George Rapp of Pennsylvania and Robert Owen of New Lanark, Scotland each hoped their visions for Mankind would manifest in New Harmony, Indiana. Rapp’s vision involving Christ’s Second Coming and Owen’s involving a world without any traditional religions look different but have similar dreams at their base. A world without private property ownership was one of the major goals for both.

I will leave an analysis of Rapp’s grand plans to the theologians. As to Owen’s, I defer to the philosophers but will refer to Robert Owen, A View of Society and Other Writings edited by Gregory Glaeys who is a Professor of History at Royal University of London and a recognized authority on Robert Owen.

According to Glaeys, Robert Owen (1771-1858) was one of the greatest British social reformers and was a pioneer in schemes for humane factory management, the eight-hour workday and the education of the poor. Owen even now remains respected as a pioneer socialist, feminist and advocate of an ecological approach to industry and urban life.

One of the most interesting ironies of the connections between the philosophies of Rapp and Owen and New Lanark and New Harmony is that the clergy was one of Owen’s fiercest opponents. Yet elements of Rapp’s Christian thought and Owen’s abhorrence of Christianity and all other organized religions intertwine, especially their mutual calls for a new world order and disdain for economic competition and individualism. Perhaps that was why and how Owen and Rapp knew of one another and what led to Owen in New Lanark, Scotland buying Rapp’s town of New Harmony, Indiana.

Glaeys describes that transaction as follows:

“In 1825 he (Owen) purchased a ready-made community set on 20,000 acres in southern Indiana from a pietistic German sect, the Rappites. At New Harmony he spent about 40,000 pounds (about $240,000) or four fifths of his New Lanark fortune in a fruitless effort to organize a disparate group of about 800 radicals, freethinkers, backwoodsmen and scientists.”

p. xvi

Unfortunately, too many of the 800 thought Owen’s utopian concept simply meant they could do nothing and Owen would support them. These ingrates had ample reason for this attitude based on Owen’s own creed as set forth in his Manifesto:

“Individual and national competition and contest are the best modes (under the then existing circumstances) by which wealth can be created and distributed.

….

But it is obtained by creating and calling into full action, the most inferior feelings, the meanest faculties, the worst passions, and the most injurious vices which can be cultivated in human nature.”

p. 358

Owen sought a system of production and distribution that called for “…[T]he least labour to all members of a society, and especially with the least amount of unhealthy and disagreeable employment.”

Well, Gentle Reader, you can probably see how such an experiment might turn out. You are right. In about two years Owen’s heaven on earth was more akin to Purgatory. And Owen’s insistence on a strict compliance to his principles on his terms did not engender enthusiastic compliance. Or as the ancient Greeks might have observed, hubris is a mortal flaw.

There is so much more to Robert Owen and the symbiotic relationship between New Lanark, Scotland and New Harmony, Indiana than can be crammed within a few newspaper columns. However if you care to hang around awhile I plan to cram some stuff into my next few epistles.

But before the following weeks’ offerings, I must address last week’s column thanks to our friend and Robert Owen authority, Linda Warrum from New Harmony. Linda read last week’s column and offered some advice. First, Linda, thanks for reading Gavel Gamut; you have doubled my audience. Secondly, thanks for pointing out not all of Robert Owen’s children were given the middle name of Dale and Father Rapp’s group were not German Lutherans but Pietists who, “…[E]mphasized personal piety over religious formality and the orthodoxy of the Lutheran Church.” It was nice of Linda to both read Gavel Gamut and respond.

You Can Go Home Again

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Those of you who have had the pleasure of visiting New Harmony, Indiana and those of us privileged to live there know its Anglo-Saxon origins include a huge debt to Robert Owen of New Lanark, Scotland. Owen made his fortune milling textiles and yarn in New Lanark and used a great deal of his money to buy New Harmony from the German Lutheran community led by Father George Rapp. Owen based his dream for mankind on the non-religious philosophies of the Enlightenment. The influences of both the Rappites and Owenites have been deeply woven into the two unique experiments that resulted in today’s New Harmony.

Peg and I were somewhat aware of Robert Owen and his progressive policies on fair treatment for his employees in the New Lanark mills. But frankly, I had always thought the true Owen visionary was Robert’s son, Robert Dale Owen, who was a United States Congressman, a delegate to Indiana’s 1850-1852 Constitutional Convention and a passionate advocate for Women’s Rights and the abolition of slavery. Of course, Robert Dale was a visionary but Peg and I discovered when we visited New Lanark, Scotland two weeks ago that the origin of the son’s great passions was from the father.

All of Robert Owen’s children were given the middle name of “Dale” which was their mother’s maiden name. Caroline nee Dale Owen’s father, David Dale, was himself an innovator in methods of textile production. Robert Owen married the boss’s daughter and eventually owned controlling interest in the New Lanark mills which continue to produce great quantities of yarn today.

Some of you know Peg is an excellent knitter whose felted hats, mittens, purses and other creations are much sought after. Of course, she can only create one item at a time and her efforts to teach me “knit” from “purl” and “cast off” have been a great disappointment to her. However, New Lanark with its cornucopia of colors and textures was, forgive me Robert, heavenly. The manager of the gift shop in New Lanark was so impressed and excited by the photos of Peg’s creations Peg showed her she wants Peg to make items for the shop. We will soon be receiving a huge shipment of New Lanark yarn in New Harmony.

It also made us feel as if we were returning to New Lanark instead of visiting it for the first time when we were housed in “The New Harmony Suite” at the New Lanark Hotel. It was marvelous and felt like home.

When Peg and I toured the beautiful areas of New Lanark it was an almost mystical feeling. New Lanark is certainly different from New Harmony but it felt comfortable and somehow reassuring. New Lanark’s buildings reminded us of the dormitories, Granary and other structures in New Harmony. The River Clyde that powered David Dale’s original mill rushes through the town and is integral to its character much as the Wabash River is to New Harmony. But the connections between the two small towns, both of which have produced much original thought, are much more direct and concrete than merely emotional.

Robert and Caroline Owen’s large brick home is right beside the working factory. When Peg and I entered the home it felt much as the brick homes in New Harmony today. But it was the full New Harmony homage set out in the basement that showed without need for explanation the almost two hundred years of cultural intertwining between New Lanark, Scotland and New Harmony, Indiana. The numerous documents and photographs concerning New Harmony and especially the continuously running video portrayal of the contributions back and forth made Peg and me feel as if we had just sat down for coffee with our friends at Sara’s Harmony Way coffee shop in New Harmony.

So it appears to Peg and me and to other friends of ours from New Harmony, such as Nathan and Jeanne Maudlin who have also been to New Lanark and strongly recommended we put it on our Scotland vacation itinerary, that Thomas Wolfe’s melancholy lament may be wrong. Perhaps “you can go home again” if you are from New Harmony and go to New Lanark.