Llewellyn Castle: A Worker's Cooperative on the Great Plains

4. Moral Intoxication: Frederick Wilson

4 Moral Intoxication Frederick Wilson We doubt if there be a single recorded instance in the whole history of civilized society of any king, ruler, statesman, legislator, prophet, philosopher, orator, or other public man, seeking honestly, and with probabilities of success, the reign of justice, humanity, and fraternity for his fellow-countrymen, that was not overwhelmed with calumny, overpowered by faction, and ultimately either put to death or forced to fly for his life and bury himself in poverty and obscurity to escape the malice of the oppressors of his country. —james bronterre o’brien, ca. 1850 Settlers arriving in Kansas during the early 1870s envisioned that rain would follow the plow. The reward for their agricultural labors would come through the transformation of the Great Plains country into a temperate, forested environment more akin to that with which they were accustomed. The mere presence of yeoman farmers blessed the entire region because even land untouched by the plow benefited from the rain that agricultural activity coaxed from the sky.1 In 1872, travel writer John H. Tice toured the countryside along the Central Branch, Union Pacific (cbup) line. For Tice the empirical evidence that rain followed the plow was manifest in everything he saw. Traveling west from Atchison, Tice observed that the “country is diversified by hill and dale; the hills rising out to moderate height, and where not occupied by farms, have a dense growth of young oak, hickory, walnut, and other trees indigenous to the West.” moral intoxication 135 How the trees got started puzzled the local inhabitants, wrote Tice, “for when the settlers first came these hills were covered with prairie grass with no sign of any other growth.” The presence of young trees bewildered Tice as well, and he confessed his inability to account for how the seeds arrived. For their growth, however, he gave full credit to American agricultural practices and confidently proclaimed : “it is an occurrence that happens everywhere; not only in Kansas, but in the West, wherever fire is kept out of the prairies contiguous to timber, a young forest growth immediately springs up.”2 Tice took a few notes at the flag stop of Sother and observed “beautiful and rich agricultural country,” but took no notice of the Workingmen’s Cooperative Colony. Nevertheless, the shareholders of the Mutual Land, Emigration, and Cooperative Colonization Company agreed with Tice’s assessment and shared the common misconception that bringing forth a garden from the grassy plains required little more than their presence. They continued to focus their attention on the dream of building a cooperative community modeled on the social and economic philosophy of Bronterre O’Brien, but failed to adjust to environmental realities. After nearly three years in Kansas and suffering repeated setbacks on their communal farm in the form of prairie fires, poor harvests, and settler attrition, the company directors fostered an uncompromising O’Brienite rigor and held fast to the belief that all difficulties had been overcome. They were confident that company president Charles Murray would return from Kansas with solid evidence that the colony was on the verge of prosperity. After a residency of fifteen months in the United States, mostly on the Kansas colony, in January 1872 Murray returned to the company’s Denmark Street headquarters in London. The company shareholders were anxious to learn what he had to say about the colony and eagerly anticipated his forthcoming presentations. During the week prior to Murray’s first speech, Radford prepared the shareholders by reminding them that the choice of Kansas was fortuitous. It was particularly so because the state government “appeared to understand that the education of her children was of vital 136 moral intoxication importance.” Educational opportunities remained a point of concern for the O’Brienites, and Radford said that in Kansas “the authorities were instituting an extensive system of education, and the school age was from five to twenty-one years of age.”3 On the evening of January 27, the shareholders filled the Eclectic Hall to hear the first of Murray’s talks. Murray, who had earned a reputation as an energetic and fiery speaker, delivered a bland and uninspiring address. He said nothing to contradict John Radford’s November financial assessment but added little to persuade listeners of his sincere belief in the colony’s future. Murray “described the Company ’s estates as being well adapted for their colony, in respect of soil...