Blazing Star Library

Blazing Star Library

Benjamin R. Tucker, “A Note from Colonel Greene” (1876)

January 20, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Debates in The Index: [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] A NOTE FROM COLONEL GREENE. Princeton, Mass., Aug. 30, 1876. Editor of The Index:— Inasmuch as the writer of the following letter has been quoted by both Mr. Andrews and myself in our discussion of Proudhon, I send the letter to you, that your readers may know Col. Greene’s opinion upon the matter at issue. After reading my article in The Index of July 13, he wrote me, expressing his thorough approval of my treatment of Mr. Andrews. Upon the appearance of Mr. Andrews’ reply, I […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
anarchist mutualism

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 […]
anarchist mutualism

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, […]
anarchist mutualism

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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William Batchelder Greene, Letter to Orestes Brownson (1849)

June 6, 2016
From Orestes A. Brownson’s Middle Life from 1845-1855 (1899): Another Unitarian minister, the son of an old friend, one in whom Brownson had taken a great interest, had his reasonings and speculations submitted to a severe, but not unfriendly criticism, at about the same time as Channing. This was William B. Greene, whose name, however, did not appear as the author of the book to which he refers in the following letter: BROOKFIELD, MASS., Jan. 24th, 1849. DEAR SIR:—I Send you herewith a copy of my “Remarks on Science of History, etc.” I requested Mr. Crosby to send you a […]
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Annie Field, from “Whittier: Notes Of His Life And Of His Friendships” (1897)

June 6, 2016
“Whittier: Notes Of His Life And Of His Friendships” From Annie Field’s Authors and Friends It was Whittier’s sad experience to be deprived of the companionship of all those most dear to him, and for over twenty years to live without that intimate household communion for the loss of which the world holds no recompense. For several years, before and after his sister Elizabeth’s death, Whittier wore the look of one who was very ill. His large dark eyes burned with peculiar fire, and contrasted with his pale brow and attenuated figure. He had a sorrowful, stricken look, and found […]