Sidney H. Morse Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Sidney H. Morse, “Ethics of the Homestead Strike” (1892)

July 4, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

“Ethics of the Homestead Strike” appeared in the third volume of The Conservator over the signature “* * *.” In the next volume, another tale, “A Social Symphony: In Six Movements,” appeared with the same signature. It was, however, interrupted after the fourth “movement.” The style of the work suggests it is another work by Sidney H. Morse, so I have included it here, at the end of “Ethics.” Related links: in The Conservator [Google Books] pamphlet [Google Books] Bilbliography: * * * [Sidney H. Morse], “Ethics of the Homestead Strike,” The Conservator 3 no. 6 (August, 1892): 42-44; 3 […]

Sidney H. Morse, “So the Railway Kings Itch for an Empire, Do They?” (1877)

July 4, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

Related links: The Radical Review [Google Books] pamphlet [Internet Archive] A page from Benjamin R. Tucker’s catalog, identifying Morse as “A Red-Hot Striker.” SO THE RAILWAY KINGS ITCH FOR AN EMPIRE, DO THEY? By “A RED-HOT STRIKER.” (Being a letter to Mr. W. M. Grosvenor, whose slander of working-people in the “International Review” has stirred me up mightily.) Scranton, Pa., September 15, 1877. COMPLIMENTS to Mr. Grosvenor. So you and Jay Gould want an Empire, do you? I’m glad you’ve shown your hand. It’s what I’ve been expecting that some of you fellows would do. You run up Tom Scott […]

Sidney H. Morse (1833-1903)

October 3, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Related Links: “Liberty and Wealth“ Sidney H. Morse [tag feed] Bibliography: Books and pamphlets: So the Railway Kings Itch for an Empire, Do They? (1877) Articles: “Camp-Meeting Notes.” The Index. Vol. 3 (1872) 290. “Address of Mr. Sidney H. Morse.” Farewell dinner to Francis Ellingwood Abbot (1880) Sidney H. Morse, “An Anti-Slavery Hero,” The New England Magazine 4, no. 4 (June 1891): 486-496. “Sprigs of Lilac for Walt Whitman.” The Conservator. 3, 4 (June, 1892) 26. * * * [Sidney H. Morse], “Ethics of the Homestead Strike,” The Conservator 3 no. 6 (August, 1892): 42-44; 3 no. 7 (September, 1892): […]

Sidney H. Morse, “Liberty and Wealth” (1882)

August 2, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

“Well,” he said, the smile still lingering in the corners of his mouth, “we are in one sense, my friend, a poverty-stricken people. We haven’t any institutions to speak of. All we can boast are certain outgrowths of our needs, which, for the most part, have taken care of themselves. We have, perhaps, an unwritten law, or general understanding, though no one to my knowledge has tried to state it. We all seem to know it when we meet it, and, as yet, have had no dispute about it. It may be said in a general way, however, as a matter of observation, that we are believers in liberty, in justice, in equality, in fraternity, in peace, progress, and in a state of happiness here on earth for one and all. What we mean by all this defines itself as we go along. It is a practical, working belief, we have. When we find an idea won’t work, we don’t decide against it; we let it rest; perhaps, later on, it will work all right. I don’t know as there is much more to say.”

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“Ireland!” A serialized novel from Tucker’s “Liberty”

May 14, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve finally posted the complete text of Georges Sauton’s novel, Ireland! Translated from the French by Sarah E. Holmes, it originally appeared serially in Liberty, but has not, as far as I can tell, been collected. It was one of the longest-running features in the paper, which often had several serials in progress, beginning November 14, 1885 and not ending until March 10, 1888. It is a rather typical political novel in the feuilleton style, with lots of characters and complications, and a substantial body count. Set during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, its English oppressors couldn’t be more […]

Contr'un

“We are in one sense, a poverty-stricken people”

August 4, 2012

If you look at the sidebar of the blog, you will find that I have added a section for “Mutualist Classics.” Eventually, there should be a pretty good little library linked there—mutualists are not, as it turns out, an impoverished people when it comes to literature—but I want to start with a few texts that may be unfamiliar to many readers, but which strike me as particularly useful. The first two texts I’ve linked are short works of fiction by Sidney H. Morse. Morse is one of the figures who seems to appear everywhere in the story of mutualist and […]

Digital editions of Josiah Warren, etc.

April 9, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur

I was recently asked to clarify my notes on Warren’s publications: Think of the sequence in this way: First, there were two editions of Equitable Commerce in the 1840s, composed by Warren alone. Second, there is a period in the 1850s when Warren collaborated with Stephen Pearl Andrews. Andrews substantially revised Equitable Commerce and published his Science of Society, based on Warren’s work. Warren also published a new work, Practical Details in Equitable Commerce. Third, in the 1860s, Warren published another new work, True Civilization an Immediate Necessity, and the Last Ground of Hope for Mankind (which become the second […]

Sidney H. Morse’s alternate history of equitable commerce

September 5, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

Tucked away in the pages of Liberty, Sidney H. Morse, Josiah Warren’s literary executor, contributed an odd item, a kind of “what-if” history of Robert Owen’s New Harmony, as if, at the critical moment, Josiah Warren’s equitable commerce had been the model for continuing on after the failure of the original project. The story, Liberty and Wealth, may be the very best introduction I know of to Warren’s thought as filtered through another individuality. There is a difficulty in dealing with Warren’s writings, since he insisted that, in practice, equitable commerce must be based in a complete individualization of interests […]

The Ethics of the Homestead Strike

August 30, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

In his Liberty review of William Bailie’s The First American Anarchist, Clarence L. Swartz noted that, “Sidney H. Morse, the sculptor, was, during the last two years of Warren’s life, his most active propagandist. Furthermore, Morse’s efforts were so great that they did not fail of appreciation by Warren, and the latter showed his full recognition of their value by making Morse his literary executor.” Morse is one of those major figures who never seems to get quite the attention he deserves. He was the editor of The Radical, a contributor to The Radical Review, as well as to Liberty, […]

Sidney H. Morse, The All-Loving

August 14, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Radical Review, 307 THE ALL-LOVING. Million-Folded are my likings, All the world my well-loved home;Would my kindred not regale me, To their world-fires I would roam. Pleasant ‘tis with love to tarry,— Pleasant to recount its store:Glooms and sorrows passing by me Leave my heart young as before. Listen, loved ones, o’er the planet! Think ye not I’m lost, if missingFrom your fire-lit hearths my greetings: All your loves my love is kissing. Warm and glowing goes my spirit Toward my million-fated kin.Oh! I keep their hearts enshrined In the deep my heart within. Sidney H. Morse.