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William B. Greene, “The Bible and State Rights” (1851)

January 7, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

William Batchelder Greene’s articles for The Worcester Palladium are an idiosyncratic mix of religious and political concerns, but it would be interesting, for example, to read articles like this alongside Proudhon’s The Celebration of Sunday. Idiosyncratic mixture was, after all, more the rule than the exception among the earliest anarchists. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” For the Palladium. The Bible and State Rights. The Hebrew Commonwealth consisted of ten distinct tribes. Each of these tribes constituted a civil community, independent in its legitimate sphere of the other tribes. Each tribe had its separate rulers, legislature, &c. To illustrate […]

William B. Greene, “Plutocracy” (1850)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Plutocracy is the subject of several of the articles William B. Greene contributed to The Worcester Palladium. The term would have been familiar to him from Pierre Leroux’s 1842 essay, “De la ploutocratie,” but it had also featured prominently in an address by the Massachusetts Democrats, which prompted the Whig denials that motivated this essay. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] For the Palladium. Plutocracy. “Ours is no “plutocracy” but a Constitution of Grecian model.”—Whig State Address. It was authoritatively determined, at the Council of the Whig Church recently […]

William B. Greene, “Equality—No. 6. Cain and Abel” (1850)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Like several of the other articles that he contributed to The Worcester Palladium, this early article by William Batchelder Greene contains some of his most direct expressions of anarchistic and socialistic ideas, but weaves them together with his rather esoteric readings of scripture. The result is both striking and perplexing. Equally perplexing is the question of just which essays we should consider to be the fourth and fifth entries in the “Equality” series. While the two installments of “Capital and Labor” were included in the book Equality, the themes here seem to be a continuation of the material covered in […]

William B. Greene, “Resistance to Law” (1851)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

This early article by William Batchelder Greene is remarkable for its discussion of anarchy, a topic to which Greene devoted very little attention. The treatment of the topic is characterized by a familiar sort of ambivalence. It closely resembles some more familiar forms of the “anarchy is order” argument in places. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” For the Palladium. Resistance to Law. Mr. Editor:—In former times, when the people supposed that their kings reigned by diving right, men were bound in conscience to obey the laws with alacrity. But it happened, in the progress of events, that the […]

William B. Greene, “The Red Republic” (1849)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 10px”] This early article by William Batchelder Greene is one of three written for The Worcester Palladium on the topic of plutocracy. It consists of a translation of most of the eighth chapter of Pierre Leroux’s De la ploutocratie, with commentary by Greene. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] For the Palladium. The Red Republic. The French national flag is composes, as every one knows, of three colors, read, white, and blue. These three colors represent the three estates of the former French realm: the white denotes the nobility, with […]

1848-1868: William B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium”

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

EPISODES in another history: Omega, [Letter to the editor], The Worcester Palladium 15 no. 23 (June 07, 1848): 3. [see below] Omega, “Equality.—No. 1,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 29 (July 18, 1849): 3 Omega, “Equality.—No. 2. The Banking System,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 30 (July 25, 1849): 3 Omega, “Equality.—No. 3. The Repeal of the Usury Laws,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 31 (August 1, 1849): 2-3. Omega, “Capital and Labor.—No. I,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 37 (September 12, 1849): 2-3. Omega, “Capital and Labor.—No. II. Socialism in Massachusetts,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 38 (September 19, […]

P.-J. Proudhon, “System of Economic Contradictions” (Eighth Epoch—Property)

January 3, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Parts of this translation are quite rough, so use with caution and preferably with reference to the original French.] THE SYSTEM OF ECONOMIC CONTRADICTIONS CHAPTER XI EIGHTH EPOCH.—PROPERTY 1.—Property is inexplicable apart from the economic series.—Of the organization of common sense, or problem of certainty. The problem of property is, after that of human destiny, the greatest that reason can propose, and the last that it will be able to resolve. Indeed, the theological problem, the enigma of religion, has been explicated; the philosophical problem, which treats the value and legitimacy of knowledge, is resolved: there remains the social problem, […]

William Batchelder Greene, “The Blazing Star” (1871)

December 31, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

Some men — not all men — see always before them an ideal, a mental picture if you will, of what they ought to be, and are not. Whoso seeks to follow this ideal revealed to the mental vision, whoso seeks to attain to conformity with it, will find it enlarge itself, and remove from him. He that follows it will improve his own moral character; but the ideal will remain always above him and before him, prompting him to new exertions. What is the natural conscience if it be not a condemnation of ourselves as we are, mean, pitiful, weak, and a comparison of ourselves with what we ought to be, wise, powerful, holy? It is this Ideal of what we ought to be, and are not, that is symbolically pictured in the Blazing Star.

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Theories of Anarchist Development

December 30, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

Posts in the EXTRICATIONS series: The question we’re wrestling with remains this: How do we understand the anarchist past and how does that understanding influence our action in the present? This question is ultimately inseparable from questions about how our present understanding of the anarchist project influences our engagement with the anarchist past, but one thing at a time. One important aspect of our coming-to-terms with the anarchist past has to be our general understanding of how anarchism has developed. An adequate theory of anarchist development should probably be able to: account for the historical facts (and particularly, now, for […]

P.-J. Proudhon, “Confessions of a Revolutionist” (Spirit of the Age, 1850)

December 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] These “translations” are often more like summaries, but they show that readers in the United States were at least getting some exposure to Proudhon’s work by 1850. [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] From the London Weekly Tribune. P. J. PROUDHON. Proudhon was born in 1809, of parents in humble circumstances, at Besançon, the birthplace, by the way of Fourier; and where Proudhon began life as a compositor in a printing-office. This printing-office he afterwards occupied on his own account; but some years since, he quited Besançon for an engagement in a mercantile house at Lyons. […]