BUCHANAN'S

JOURNAL OF MAN.

VOL. II, NO. 9--MARCH, 1851.

ART. I.-SOCIAL REGENERATION.

The science of man is the pioneer science, and rightfully assumes the prerogative of leading and guiding the progress of the race.

In studying the constitution of man, we perceive the causes of his evils, and the nature of their appropriate remedies. Success in regenerating the world from its present condition must depend upon an adequate knowledge of the laws of human progress and development.

The numerous attempts which have been made, and which are now in progress, for the amelioration of the condition of mankind have fallen far short of attaining any satisfactory result. Ignorance, crime, disease and misery still abound in our land, and the schemes of social redemption which appear designed to remove the entire mass of evil are every where surrounded by the ignorance and crime which they have not yet successfully repelled.

Christianity proposes to bring about a millennium on earth, and embodies principles which would lead on to a millennial condition; but that kind of Christianity which has been practiced in the world has but little millennial power. Even in the midst of its professors, we find but a meager array of the elements of human happiness, and human progression.

Socialism proposes to bring about a millennium by the scientific direction of industry, and the harmonious co-operation of enlightened men; but, unfortunately, the socialist's systems are too far removed from our present condition. Socialism, with its communities, its palaces, its gardens, and its groups of happy and harmonizing beings, stands to the present population of the earth, as the West Indies to the people of the middle ages-beautiful and romantic islands, but removed and concealed beyond an impassable sea. The VOL. II-P.

transition from our barbaric state of society to the millennial state proposed by socialism, requires another Columbus to point the way. Men cannot be removed from an order of society in which they have grown grey, to another social order, radically different in its fundamental principles, and totally incompatible with the whole character of their past lives.

The selfish and antagonistic nature which is so fully developed and cultivated in man as he is, which hinders the realization of Christianity and socialism, renders it necessary that there should be other intermediate agencies by which the world may gradually ap proximate to the condition in which harmonious co-operation may be possible. Such agencies are now at work: anthropological science, republican governments, republican and philosophical literature, public education, land reform, temperance societies, protective unions, Masonic and Odd Fellows Societies, and many other forms of co-operative unions, are gradually removing the asperities of life, diminishing crime, increasing enlightenment, harmonizing life, and leading us to aspire to something far better than the world has yet seen.

Feeling intensely the evils of our present social state, and feeling as I do, that man was designed for a higher order of life than has yet been witnessed, feeling deeply convinced, in my own conscious. ness, that a higher condition is easily attainable by the proper and consecutive steps of progression, I have been impelled to enquire what may be done in the present condition of society, to diminish the evils of life, to dam the river of crime and ignorance, and turn its waters into the channel of benevolence and truth. All attempts to realize at once the grand ideal of life appear to be failures. We must progress in knowledge and in virtue. We must stand before we can walk, and walk before we can run. In approaching the final home of humanity, we must stand upon the threshold of the temple before we can occupy its interior.

What, then, can be done in the present state of society? We cannot reform mankind at once, but we can, by appealing to their intelligence, their honesty and moral sense, induce them to adopt additional measures which will tell with an illimitable effect upon themselves and future generations. When evils abound they must be met by organized efforts, and as Alcohol has been hurled from the field of death and misery over which he reigned triumphant so may the other curses of society be driven from enlightened nations. The lower order of the curses only has been vanquished: murder and robbery, rape, arson and theft have been put down by the co-operative, organized efforts of society. Intemperance, which belongs to the same rank among social disorders, has already been greatly curbed. But higher forms of evil now demand our atten tion, and more elevated reforms may be accomplished by the same powerful energy of combined effort.

The prevalent evils of society at this time are widely different

from those of the darker ages. Crimes of violence against life and property are comparatively rare. Society is no longer under the dominion of brute force; it is now governed by the pecuniary power, and our crimes and faults are of the pecuniary character. Acquisitiveness, selfishness, and all the varied forms in which vanity, ambition, and other selfish passions may be indulged, constitute now the leading faults of society. Those who are called the best men in society, and who even profess the religion of Christ, direct their energies, not to the true ends of human life, but to the concentration of power, in the form of wealth, in their own hands; and their highest ambition appears to be to possess and maintain this power, and to make a respectable display in the eyes of their fellow men; not a display of superior intellect, or of superior moral worth, but a display of superior pecuniary power, manifested by splendid architecture, elegant grounds, costly apparel and showy equipage. Such are the great ends of life to which the young man is taught to aspire-such are the manifestations which he is practically taught to respect, and the want of which he is taught to regard as contemptible.

The whole frame-work of our society is pervaded by the idea that the man of wealth, who makes a fine external display of his pecuniary power, is worthy of great deference, and that the man who has not succeeded in the acquisition of wealth, or who has not cared to pursue it, belongs to the lower class of society, upon whom we may justly look down with perfect indifference, if not with supercilious contempt.

After a dispassionate survey of the general constitution of society, it is probable no moralist will doubt that the faults of the world arise from the predominance of the selfish over the moral faculties. The proposition, indeed, is almost self-evident; for our passions or impulses, from which evils arise, may be clearly recognized as belonging to the selfish group, while our desires, emotions or impulses productive of good, may be referred to our moral organs.

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The question, then, in what manner society may be regenerated?" is resolved into the simpler question, in what manner can the moral organs be made adequately to control the selfish, and bring them under due subjection to the higher powers ?"

The education and physical regeneration of the race are adequate means; but before we can bring them to bear, we must elevate the existing race to such a position as to enable them to move on in the career of improvement, by adopting and carrying out a perfect system of education. But as we are not prepared at present to adopt the necessary means of immediate social redemption, let us lay aside, for the time, the true and holy social condition of humanity, as impracticable now. Let us lay aside, also, the consideration of the most powerful means which might be applied by an enlightened race, and consider what is practicable at the present time, in the way of speedily subjugating the animal to the moral

nature.

Whatever can be done in this direction, must be done by voluntary co-operation. A society of voluntary and zealous friends of humanity, must be formed to carry out our views, and it will be necessary not only to propose a virtuous career, a subjugation of the animal and elevation of the moral nature, but to show an obvious and palpable motive for the effort that is to be made. The effort must be of such a character that all can perceive, at a glance, its propriety that it is not a painful or hazardous undertaking-that it is promotive of their own pecuniary, personal and physical interest, as well as their moral well-being. That it is for the welfare of each and of all—that it will gratify our self-love in accordance with justice, and our philanthrophy in accordance with the dictates of conscience. If such a scheme can be proposed, in which it will be not only the high duty, but the pecuniary and personal interest of every man and woman to co-operate in it; such a scheme must be successful. I therefore propose the following enunciation of our opinions, and the following pledge as the basis of a new social movement. Adopting as the basis of our union, the principle of strict justice, we aim to build upon that foundation the loftiest structure of philanthropy. Let us adopt the following constitu tion for our

BROTHERHOOD OF JUSTICE: The undersigned, members of the BROTHERHOOD OF JUSTICE, unite in declaring and sustaining the following principles: 1. We believe that all human beings should enjoy knowledge, virtue, health, and happiness.

2. We believe that the injunction, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," is binding on all; and, consequently, that no man should rest contented while another human being exists in this world in a state of unhappiness.

3. We believe that all our powers, capacities, and resources should be consecrated to the welfare of mankind, and that al which is not needed for our own welfare, should be carefully applied for the benefit of others.

4. To promote the establishment of these principles, we hereby agree to live in an economical manner, or within the maximum limits, which shall be assigned by the society of the Brotherhood

of Justice.

The principles here announced are holy and just. No moralist. or Christian can object to them. The pledge proposed may ap pear a very simple and meager affair, but there is power in that pledge to redeem the world. Like the temperance pledge, "I will no longer use, or encourage the use of intoxicating drinks," it is simple; but it exterminates the evil. By the temperance pledge we exterminate drunkenness by the pledge of the Brotherhood of Justice, we exterminate selfishness. We turn the vast floods of wealth which are now squandered in profligate expenses from pampering vice, to diffusing virtue. We turn the mighty energies which are employed in serving mammon to the service of

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Social Regeneration.

God. We lift the vast intellectual power which is now enchained by selfishness, and place it on high as the beacon-light of the world. We bring toppling down the whole superstructure of aristocracy; and we lift above its ruins, the enlightened and regenerated people. We take from the shoulders of the millions the crushing weight of labor and care; and we lift and remove from woman that pressure of toil-that domestic drudgery, by which she is crushed and hurried to premature old age. Great as the reform has been in the use of intoxicating drinks, greater by far will be that reformation which abolishes selfishness, emancipates intellect, emancipates labor, and gives to woman her proper sphere-removes from the countenance of mankind the pressure of corroding cares, and takes away from frail and benighted humanity, that pressure of want and temptation by which men are continually driven into crime. I firmly believe that, in this pledge, we have a moral lever which will overturn the whole existing fabric of luxury and poverty, wealth and crime, falsehood and ignorance. Evils which exist at present, because the vast power which society possesses has not been applied to upheave and throw them off. The mighty power of mankind has been devoted to selfish ends, when one tithe of that power would have swept away the foul mass of crime and ignorance under which we rest.

The mechanism of the change is simple. The vast productive powers of society are far more than sufficient for the comfortable support of all. Then let us arrest at once, by this simple pledge, the flood of selfish expenditure, and the countless millions of wealth must flow into the channels of benevolence. It is self-evident that if each individual limits his expenditures for selfish purposes, the wealth of the world can only be expended for laudable objects, and must of necessity, at some period or other, in whatever form an enlightened judgment may dictate, contribute to the happiness and regeneration of man.

But I may be told that this scheme has too millennial a character-that men cannot possibly be induced to renounce their selfish expenditures, and that such a society must prove, like all other schemes of lofty benevolence and holy living, utterly impracticable with our present population; let me therefore consider its practicability, and show the numerous motives for establishing such a society the religious, moral, selfish, and social advantages which will urge the people to co-operate in this movement.

The SINCERE CHRISTIAN will perceive at once that the Brotherhood of Justice aim, like the Sons of Temperance, to abolish a formidable evil, and to bring the world nearly up to the standard of holiness. He will therefore cheerfully lend his aid. Those denominations of Christians, who have sincerely endeavored to carry out the principles of Christ by an economical, modest, and humble style of living will rejoice in the co-operation of the Brotherhood of Justice. Those, on the other hand, who live more sumptuously;