The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

A hair-brained enthusiast, from Scotland, by the name of Owen, a man of wealth, has collected together a number of individuals of the same stamp with himself, and has established a colony in our western wilderness, which he calls New Harmony. On the 4th of July last, he issued what he calls a "Declaration of Mental Independence," in which it is declared and taught to his deluded followers, that there is no God!; that all religion, so called, should be discarded as miserable and pernicious superstition; and that the institution of Marriage, should be abolished in the broadest sense of the term: that the right of property should be abolished, and the levelling system adopted; and that full freedom should be given to the human mind. These principles, he pretends to believe, will be speedily received, and recognized throughout the globe. Mr. Owen has established a similar community in Scotland. The editor of the National Gazette pertinently observes, that "a community proclaimed to rest on Atheism and Libertinism, cannot fail to be viewed with mingled horror and pity, by a people who claim, and we trust will long merit, the titles of 'moral and religious.' From this circumstance, and from its very nature, it must be fugitive or perishable. It may for a time, attract dupes, visionaries and adventurers; but they cannot long cohere; and its principles, so mis-termed, will, of themselves, surely work general discord and ruin, leaving its transitory and turbulent existence an instructive memorial of anomalous presumption and folly. These considerations, if none other were in our way, would prevent us from undertaking to portray its entire character, and dwelling on the sentiments with which its composition and predominant aims deserve to be viewed."