Boston Investigator

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Mr. Warren’s Lecture

June 8, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
“Mr. Warren’s Lecture,” Boston Investigator, 18, 38 (January 24, 1849), 3. Mr. Warren’s Lecture. PEOPLE’S SUNDAY MEETING—The lecture delivered by Mr. Josiah WARREN on Sunday last, was very interesting, and well attended. We should be pleased to give an extended report of it, but horn the manner in which a great part of the lecture was carried on—namely, by questions from the audience and his answers thereto—we fear we should not be able to do it any thing like justice did we attempt a detailed report, and the whole subject being a new one in this quarter, we should regret […]
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The People’s Sunday Meeting

June 8, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
“The People’s Sunday Meeting,” Boston Investigator, 18, 37 (January 17, 1849), 3.—, Boston Investigator, 18, 38 (January 24, 1849), 3.—, Boston Investigator, 18, 39 (January 31, 1849), 3.—, Boston Investigator, 18, 40 (February 7, 1849), 3.—, Boston Investigator, 18, 41 (February 14, 1849), 3.—, Boston Investigator, 18, 42 (February 21, 1849), 3. The People’ Sunday Meeting, FOR FREE DISCUSSION, This Institution holds a public meeting every SUNDAY AFTERNOON, at Hancock Hall, 330 Washington street, commencing at quarter past, 2 o’clock. On Sunday afternoon next, a Lecture will be delivered by Josiah Warren, from Utopia, Ohio. Subject—Equitable Commerce. A New Mode […]
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Lecture by Josiah Warren (January 17, 1849)

June 8, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
“Lecture by Josiah Warren,” Boston Investigator, 18, 37 (January 17, 1849), 3. Lecture by Josiah Warren. PEOPLE’S SUNDAY MEETING —The usual discussion next Sunday will be suspended in order to allow Mr. Josiah Warren, lately of New Harmony, (Ind.,) an opportunity to deliver a lecture on the subject of “Equitable Commerce.” This new mode of Social Reformation is one that Mr. Warren has paid much attention to for several years, and from the very favorable manner in which we have seen him noticed in Western papers, we have no doubt of his being a gentleman of considerable ability and well-qualified […]
Anarchism

Eliphalet Kimball—”Anarchy is a good word.”

April 27, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
As promised, here’s a bit more from Eliphalet Kimball. One of his early contributions to The Boston Investigator was “Law, Commerce, and Religion” (June 30, 1862). It may, in fact, be his earliest explicitly anarchist essay. And it’s a doozy—a mix of revolutionary and primitivist elements, written in fine ranting style. There’s something to amuse and/or offend pretty much any anarchist or libertarian. But, most importantly, there is the very existence of Kimball, a Yankee doctor calling for a very radical anarchy in the midst of the Civil War, as striking as he is unexpected. Here’s a taste: It is […]
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Josiah Warren, “On Mobs” (1863)

April 26, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s a two-part essay by Josiah Warren, from The Boston Investigator: Josiah Warren, On Mobs (Part 1 of 2) Josiah Warren, On Mobs (Part 2 of 2) Other bits of interest from the Investigator in the early 1860s: Add labor activist John Farrel, of Pennsylvania and then Sonora, California, to the ranks of those promoting the work of Josiah Warren. And prepare yourself for more of Eliphalet Kimball (whose “Civilization—Anarchy” appears here and here.) Kimball turns out to have been fairly prolific, consistently entertaining, and, most significantly, he was unafraid to say that “Anarchy is a good word” in 1862, […]
equitable commerce

From the Boston Investigator, 1848-49, Pt. 1

April 10, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
I was contacted this afternoon by a reader of this blog who is working on a biography of Josiah Warren. Taking that together with Crispin Sartwell’s work on a Warren Anthology, Crispin’s Josiah Warren Project archive, and the work that I’ve been doing digging through the archives, it appears that Warren’s star is once again on the rise. Good news! I’ve been promising Crispin the results of my own work for awhile, so here’s a start. XVII, 49 (April 12, 1848) 3. THE “ANGLO SACSUN,”—The publishers of the Phonographic paper, by this name, printed in New York, have issued a […]
Anarchism

Eliphalet Kimball on Anarchy, 1863

January 27, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here’s another mid-19th-century anarchist, writing in the pages of the Boston Investigator (XXXIII, 15, Aug. 18, 1863, p. 114). I’ll post the second half soon, along with some additional material from Eliphalet Kimball. For the Boston Investigator Civilization—Anarchy. The word civilization from the Latin word civitas, “a city,”—or civis, a “citizen,” and signifies Government, and its effect on society. The effect of government is ignorance, falsehood, luxury, inequality, aristocracy, crime, and unhappiness. Such, then, is civilization. It is evil and progress in evil. Culture of science, enlightenment, and progress in agriculture and art, are not effects of made-Governments. They are […]
Anarchism

Josiah Warren – Letter to Louis Kossuth

January 17, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur
[This is the first fruits of an expedition through the microfilm available to me of the Boston Investigator. I was particularly in search of the contributions of Lewis Masquerier, many of which ended up in his “instead of a book” compilation, Sociology. Working through an unfortunately fragmentary archive, I have indeed dug up some of those items—including the first two “Godology” essays—as well as quite a few uncollected pieces—such as an exchange on the merits of different phonotypic systems. But I also found several contributions by Josiah Warren, including this “open letter” to Kossuth, which is, in many ways, a […]