JOSIAH WARREN - THE FIRST AMERICAN ANARCHIST “THE REMARKABLE AMERICAN” Magdalena Modrzejewska JOSIAH WARREN - THE FIRST AMERICAN ANARCHIST “THE REMARKABLE AMERICAN” Kraków © Copyright by Magdalena Modrzejewska, 2016 Reviewer: dr hab. Paweł Laidler Cover design: Paweł Sepielak Picture of Josiah Warren used on the cover comes from the Labadie Collection, University of Michigan ISBN 978-83-7638-808-3 Publikacja finansowana ze środków grantu Narodowego Centrum Nauki na projekt “Josiah Warren - pierwszy amerykański anarchista? ” (UMO-2011/01/D/HS5/01660) KSIĘGARNIA AKADEMICKA ul. św. Anny 6, 31-008 Kraków tel. /faks: 12 431 Tl 43, 12 42113 87 e-mail: akademicka@akademicka. pl Online bookstore: www.akademicka. pl TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface............................................................................................................... 11 Introduction - or who is Josiah Warren? ........................................................ 13 Turbulent times - toward intellectual turmoil................................................ 17 Chapter 1 Radical individualism as unlabelled anarchy ..................................................23 1. 1. Radical individualism - recovering from the Owenite trauma (the dissolving of combined interests)...................................................... 24 1. 1.1. Unlabelled individualism............................................................... 24 1.1. 2. Owenite trauma.............................................................................. 26 1. 1.3. Separateness of all.......................................................................... 31 1.2. Individual choices - collective decisions? .............................................. 36 1.2. 1. Cooperating individuals - non-atomistic reality.......................... 36 1.2. 2. Between individual choices and collective rules .......................... 38 Chapter 2 Warrenite economy ............................................................................................49 2. 1. The Time Store experiment...................................................................... 49 2.1. 1. The practical framework of the experiment................................. 50 2. 1. 2. Warren’s contribution to economic theory.................................. 56 2.2. Time Store in a broader perspective - various non-monetary theories and practices ............................................................................................. 62 2.3. Voluntarism............................................................................................... 68 2.4. Fair exchange versus social cannibalism - combining equality and liberty.................................................................................................. 72 Chapter 3 Warren and others ..............................................................................................77 3. 1. Warren and Owen.................................................................................... 77 3.1. 1. Individuality versus communalism................................................ 77 3.1. 2. Private versus common property.................................................. 81 3.1. 3. Labour notes and co-operatives..................................................... 84 3.2. Warren and Mill ....................................................................................... 87 3. 2. 1. Sovereignty..................................................................................... 87 3.2. 2. Possible limitations of sovereignty................................................ 90 3.2. 3. Happiness....................................................................................... 94 3.3. Warren and Proudhon................................................................................ 100 3.3. 1. The earliest exposition of anarchism? ...............................................100 3.3. 2. The role of private property..............................................................104 3. 3. 3. Anarchist economy - just reward for labour - the quest for equality...................................................................................................108 Instead of conclusion......................................................................................... 113 Biographical note ............................................................................................... 117 Bibliography........................................................................................................ 123 Acknowledgments This publication and the entire research project has been made possible by the generous support of the National Science Centre from Poland. The Grant No: UMO-2011/01/D/HS5/01660.1 would like to express my gratitude to the entire National Science Centre as well as the selection committee for their kind support of my research. Some of the research hypotheses fully developed in the first chapter have been formulated in my earlier book published in Polish in 2012 (Josiah Warren - pierwszy amerykański anarchista?, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego). To the memory of Agnes Inglis, James Joseph Martin, and Charles Shively PREFACE Growing up in a communist country, in the city of Lodz, with its long lasting tradition of labour movement and organized strikes, one of the greatest of which ended in the revolution of 1905, 1 was long familiar with the anarcho-communist tradition. In the United States, I discovered a rich body of sources on the topic, sources that revealed the existence of political and philosophical tradition that focused on limiting the governmental power in order to protect individual rights of person and rights of private property even to the extent of elimination of government. I found this version of anarchism extremely intriguing as it relied entirely on the power of words and not on the power of bombs. This peaceful, philosophic movement continues to impact, directly or indirectly, American political theory and practice. Looking at the Josiah Warren I was mesmerized by the complexity and richness of his thought, as well as the boldness with which he framed and communicated his ideas. I was also impressed by the fact that he was aware of the danger of being categorized and ascribed to one philosophical movement, and did everything what was in his power to avoid that and stay truthful to his convictions. I could not avoid looking at Warren from a European perspective, seeing him on the one hand as a remarkable American, on the other hand experiencing moments of astonishment that one could promote such radical individualism that left no place for any authority. The most remarkable to me was the fact that Warren formed this views on his own, independently from any other philosophic writers. For him, as for many other Americans, certain truths were self-evident. The research project was founded by the National Science Centre but I would like to express my gratitude to many other places and institutions that offered me help and assistance. I am extremely thankful to Julie Herrada, curator of Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan; professor Casey Harrison, the director of the Center for Communal Studies, Evansville, IN; Amanda Bryden, State Historic Sites Collections Manager from the New Harmony State Historic Site for her interest in my research and her commitment to the popularization of New Harmony history, and Steve Cochran, the former head of the Working Men’s Institute in New Harmony. And I especially thank the participants of the Socialism and Capitalism conference for their insightful comments on my paper. Many colleagues and friends have been of great help; I wish to recall here the useful 12 Preface linguistic suggestions given by Tatyana Bakhmetyeva, Agnieszka Stasiewicz- -Bienkowska and Tomasz Soroka. Warren’s writings are dispersed among many places; some of them available only on microfilm and barely legible; many of them I transcribed for the first time. For that reason, the book offers more extensive citation than usual, in hope of making Warren’s writing more accessible to other scholars working on this subject. INTRODUCTION - OR WHO IS JOSIAH WARREN? „1 can compare Mr. Warren with no other man I have met. Simple as a child, wise as the Gods. He reverses Socrates method. Instead of asking, he answers questions. Old Socrates himself I think would retreat from such a contest, and spending some time with his Xantippe, confess that for once he had been completely floored. And yet, he would have to return, for Mr. Warren makes no enemies.” Sidney H. Morse, Word vol. 2, no. 1, May 1873. Who was Josiah Warren? It is unfortunate that such a question needs to be asked, and such an important political thinker as Warren had been overlooked and nearly forgotten.1 But there is another reason to ask this question. Who was Josiah Warren? How can one describe him or put in a particular category? Was he a dogmatic political thinker or a revolutionary practitioner? Was he the first American anarchist, or perhaps a forerunner of libertarianism? Would it be more accurate to associate him with socialism or egalitarian liberalism? Was he a brilliant social reformer, or just a fanatic zealot? Was he a genius or simply insane? This confusion seems common for scholars, regretfully very few of them; study Josiah Warren. For those who attempted to describe him in the nineteenth century Warren was the first American anarchist. That is how he was identified by his disciple, Stephen Pearl Andrews,2 and later by Benjamin