Civil Disobedience and Moral Law in Nineteenth-Century American Philosophy (review)

342 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY prison reform. Drescher contends that Tocqueville saw in poverty and crime, not primarily a denial of the rights of the poor but rather a moral obligation of the rich. The main theme of the study, however, is the difficulty in maintaining the belief in inevitable democratization. WAYNEA. R. LEYS Southern Illinois University Civil Disobedience and Moral Law in Nineteenth-Century American Philosophy. By Edward H. Madden. (Seattle: Univ. of Wash. Press, 1968. Pp. 214. $7.50) This volume contains considerably more material for the history of American philosophy and politics than the title indicates. It is not a continuous story but a series of narratives and philosophical portraits many of which introduce us to little known but decidedly worth knowing characters and minds. And taken together they give us precise information about important movements of rebellion and reform. The first two chapters (after Edward H. Madden's introductory survey) tell the relatively familiar but very timely story of Francis Wayland's conversion to civil disobedience. As president of Brown University and author of a widely used text on ethics, Wayland felt called upon to denounce slavery as evil in the sight of God and men, but he felt powerless to do more than to denounce it. It was up to God and the slave-owners to abolish it. As the political and moral pressure mounted, he was literally compelled to change his attitude and doctrine. The Mexican War and the Fugitive Slave Law made the government a party to the evil; therefore all God-fearing men were obligated to obey the "'higher law" and to show their moral and political rebellion against the war and the Fugitive Slave Law, as well as to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Though his acts of rebellion were never conspicuous or bold, he finally, in 1859, put into his Elements of Moral Science: '~'he whole people may unite, and strive to the utmost to transmit unharmed to their children the legacy of liberty" (p. 42). Less hesitating and more rebellious than Wayland were the "Oberlinites," led by the first president of Oberlin College, Asa Mahan. Beginning as early as 1835, when Oberlin admitted negro students, the whole Oberlin community showed its courageous antislavery leadership, culminating in a series of acts of open civil disobedience. So far as I know, Madden's is the only comprehensive account of the philosophical and political aspects of the Oberlin reform movement, from "holiness" preaching to daring rescues of fugitive slaves and defiance of the police and courts. These chapters (IV-VI) are a particularly valuable contribution to American historical research and writing. Chapter VII, "The Transcendentalists," summarizes briefly the familiar abolitionism among the group around Emerson, culminating in the famous civil disobedience of Thoreau and his influential philosophical defense of his position, which I, for one, regard as an important, if not unique, formula for critical, pluralistic rebellion, which may have a weighty future. But the main body of Madden's narrative centers in the reform leadership of Theodore Parker and George William Curtis (chaps. VIII and IX). The story involves less the problem of civil disobedience, more the general program of institutional reform which these two leaders conducted. Philosophically, unless I am mistaken, both were on the fringes of transcendentalism. Parker's reforms had their roots in rationalism, higher criticism, and the "theophilanthropy" of the enlightenment . Curtis was more of a practical reformer than a transcendental philosopher, though socially he was on intimate terms with the Emerson-Ripley group. BOOK REVIEWS 343 Chapter X summarizes very ably the importance of Chauncey Wright in combining Darwinism with utilitarianism, and developing them into a philosophy of moral reform. Chapters XI and XII are especially useful, because they give a revised and critical account of Charles Eliot Norton's philosophy and character. They bring Norton very close intellectually as well as personally to Chauncey Wright and make him a more impressive thinker than previous portraits have done. Thus the range and substance of this volume is noteworthy. It is thoroughly documented and clearly written. I hope it will soon appear as a paperback, for it should be made available to students in their present mood; they would...