Blazing Star Library

Blazing Star Library

William Batchelder Greene, “The Right of Suffrage” (1875)

June 6, 2016
TOWN and State paupers are persons notoriously incapable of supporting themselves, because demonstrably devoid of the faculties demanded for a successful administration of their own private affairs. Being incompetent to acquit themselves with credit in matters with which they are presumably conversant, they cannot be trusted to exercise sovereignty in matters pertaining to the general welfare. Paupers are persons and people; but they are not voting people. Insane persons and idiots are notorious for their incapacity for self-government, and have, by law, and on account of their incapacity, guardians appointed over them to prevent them from injuring themselves and others. […]
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George Willis Cooke, “William Batchelder Greene”

June 5, 2016
“WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE” from George Willis Cooke’s Historical and Biographical Introduction to the Rowfant Club reprint of The Dial (Cleveland, 1902) [NOTE: There is considerable disagreement among sources about the particulars of Greene’s literary output. Titles and dates in this account may be unreliable. In particular, poetry volumes attributed to Greene, such as “Imogen,” may be the work of his son, also William Batchelder Greene. In the third number of the second volume of “The Dial” was printed an article on “First Principles” by William Batchelder Greene, then minister of the Unitarian church at Brookfield, Mass. This was his only […]
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Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Reminiscences of Rev. Wm. Ellery Channing, D.D. (excerpts)

June 5, 2016
Two fragments from Elizabeth Palmer Peabody’s Reminiscences of Rev. Wm. Ellery Channing, D.D. (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1880) [William B. Greene / Transcendentalism / Emerson – pages 364-365] In the last year of Dr. Channing’s life I one day said to him, showing him a passage in his sermon on “Likeness to God,”–“Lieutenant Greene says the whole Transcendental movement in New England is wrapped up in this paragraph”: “The divine attributes are first developed in ourselves, and thence transferred to our Creator. The idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our own spiritual nature, purified […]
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Thomas Wentworth Higginson on William Batchelder Greene

June 5, 2016
Two fragments from Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s Cheerful Yesterdays (Boston, 1898) [William B. Greene at Harvard Divinity School – pages 106-107] Two of the most interesting men in the Divinity School were afterward, like myself, in military service during the Civil War. One of them was James Richardson, whom Frothingham described later as “a brilliant wreath of fire-mist, which seemed every moment to be on the point of becoming a star, but never did.” He enlisted as a private soldier and died in hospital, where he had been detailed as nurse. The other had been educated at West Point, and had […]
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James Freeman Clarke, Reminiscences of William B. Greene

June 5, 2016
From James Freeman Clarke’s Diary and Correspondence (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891) [Col. William B. Greene’s Army command outside Washington, DC, November, 1861 – pages 278-282] The whole aspect of the city is changed. It is like a city of Europe,–like Berlin, or Vienna, or St. Petersburg,–but with a difference. For this of ours is not a mere standing army, to be wielded blindly in the interests of despotism, but an intelligent army of freemen, come to protect liberty and law. It is the nation itself which has taken up arms, and come to Washington to defend its own life and […]
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William Batchelder Greene Timeline & Miscellany

May 6, 2016
1819 April 4: William B. Greene born in Haverhill, MA. Records show the name as “Green,” and this is probably before WBG’s father changed his own name from Peter Nathaniel Green to Nathaniel Greene. 1821 Mary Gardiner Greene born in Haverhill, MA. In 1821, the Greenes moved to Boston, where Nathaniel established the American Statesman. 1831 May(?): WBG enters Chauncy Hall School, Boston, G. F. Thayer, principal. 1833 May: WBG leaves Chauncy Hall School, enters Haverhill Academy, Haverhill, Ebenezer Smith, Jr., principal. 1834 October: WBG leaves Haverhill Academy. October 9: WBG sets out from NYC, en route to Havre and […]
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The Mutual Banking Writings of William Batchelder Greene

August 30, 2015
The important works are: Equality. West Brookfield, Mass.: O. S. Cooke, 1849. [published anonymously] [74 pages] Mutual Banking. West Brookfield, Mass.: O. S. Cooke, 1850. [95 pages] The Radical Deficiency Of The Existing Circulating Medium, And The Advantages Of A Mutual Currency. Boston: B. H. Greene, 1857. [239 pages] Mutual Banking, Showing The Radical Deficiencies Of The Existing Circulating Medium, And The Advantages Of A Free Currency. Worcester, Mass.: New England Labor Reform League, 1870. [52 Pages] Mutual Banking. Modern Publishers, Indore City, India, 1946 plus a couple of short sections in Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic and Financial Fragments (Boston: Lee […]
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William B. Greene, “Plutocracy” (1849)

February 21, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s one of William B. Greene’s letters to The Worcester Palladium which was not incorporated into either Equality or the 1850 Mutual Banking. Thanks again to Brady Campbell for the research assist on these. A number of my questions from two years ago remain, but I’m back at the work of transcribing and collating the mutual bank writings, so perhaps we can clear most of them up soon. [2010 note] Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” For the Palladium. Plutocracy. The term Plutocracy occurs in the Democratic State Address: it is derived from the words Plutus (the god of […]
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William B. Greene to Gen. B. F. Butler, March 1864

November 28, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] William Batchelder Greene served either three or four periods of military service. In his youth, he was a 2nd Lt. in the 7th US Infantry, and served under Gen. Bonneville in the Second Seminole War. When the American Civil War began, he returned from France to take command of the 14th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, later the 1st Mass. Heavy Artillery. He served through late 1862, at which point he resigned his commission. His 14-page resignation letter is an interesting document (and one which I hope to have available online soon), as his resignation came in […]
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William B. Greene’s Articles on Transcendentalism

October 25, 2005 Shawn P. Wilbur
Bibliography: “Mr. Emerson and Transcendentalism.” American Whig Review (March 1845). “The Bhagvat Gheeta and the Doctrine of Immortality.” American Whig Review (September 1845). “Human Pantheism.” Spirit of the Age, I, 349. The first two essay were condensed into the 1849 pamphlet Transcendentalism, which was further condensed into “Human Pantheism,” and then revised into the 1871 Transcendentalism, which was reprinted in 1872 in The Blazing Star (probably from the same plates) with one additional, final paragraph added. A full bibliographic essay and content analysis is in preparation. MR. EMERSON AND TRANSCENDENTALISM. I. PERHAPS some of our readers are still ignorant of […]