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Title: On Clinton Roosevelt's "Science of Government" in “Review of New Books”
Source:
Graham’s Magazine
URL Source: http://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/gm41080.htm
Published: Aug 1, 1841
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Post Date: 2014-12-21 10:42:39 by Deasy
Keywords: marx, communism, criticism, eap
Views: 339
Comments: 12
The Science of Government. Founded on Natural Law. By CLINTON ROOSEVELT. New York: Dean and Trevett. Philadelphia: Drew and Scammel. Will any one be kind enough to tell us who is Mr. Clinton Roosevelt? We wish to know, of course, Mr. Roosevelt has published a little book. It consists of a hundred little pages. Ten of these pages would make one of our own. But a clever man may do a great thing in a small way, and Mr. Roosevelt is unquestionably a clever man. For this we have his own word, and who should know all about it better than he? Hear him! — “Learned men have long contended that it was impossible for any human intellect to grasp what has been here attempted; — that a Cyclopaedia only could embrace in one view all the arts and sciences which minister to man’s necessity and happiness — and that they give but little credit for, as a Cyclopedia is a mere arbitary [we follow Mr. R’s spelling as in duty bound] alphabetical arrangement. We [Mr. Roosevelt is a we] would not say we have done even what we have without much toil and sacrifice. It has cost the best ten years of the writer’s life to settle its great principles, and give it form and substance. The great interests of many were in a state of chaos, and this science [Mr. Roosevelt’s] is to harmonise them, and run side by side with true religion so far as that is meant ‘to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and make on earth peace and good will to man.’ “ Ah! — we begin to breathe freely once more. We had thought that the world and all in it (this hot weather) were going to the dogs, — “proceeding to the canines,” as Bilberry has it — but here is Mr. Roosevelt, and we feel more assured. We entrench ourselves in security behind his little book. “A larger work,” says he, “would have been more imposing in appearance, but the truth is, large works and long speeches are rarely made by men of powerful thought.” Never was anything more true. “As to boasting,” he continues, very continuously, “the writer is well aware that it is the worst policy imaginable.” in this opinion we do not so entirely acquiesce. “The little man” — says he — the reader will perceive that we are so rapt in admiration of Mr. Roosevelt that we quote him at random — “The little man may say this book was not done secundum artem — not nicely or critically.” he must be a very little man indeed, who would say so. We think he has done it quite nicely. “My tone” — we here go on with Mr. Roosevelt — “may seem not strictly according to bien science, (good heavens!) And to every thing else. “These remarks,” he observes, “are made that none may lightly damn the work.” Of course; any one who should damn it lightly should be damned himself. “But liberal criticism [ah! that is the thing,] will be accepted as a favor, [the smallest favors thankfully accepted] and writers who may undertake the task will confer an obligation by directing a copy of their articles to the author, at New York, from England, France or Germany, or any part of our own country where this work may reach.” Certainly; no critic could do less — no liberal critic. We shall send Mr. Roosevelt a copy of our criticism from Philadelphia, and we would do the same thing if we were living in Timbuctoo. Poster Comment: Cynicom suggested this book.
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#7. To: Deasy, Cynicom, All (#0)
Well, there's a rabbit hole - a deep and winding labyrinth. Thanks to Cyni for bringing this book to our attention. Heinrich Heine presciently saw what was coming as far back as 1840: "Communism is the secret name of this formidable adversary, who posits the rule of the proletariat with all its consequences in opposition to the current regime of the bourgeoisie. There will be a horrific duel. How will it end? Only the gods and goddesses who mold the future know. For our part we only know that communism, though little talked about at present, and though it lives a sickly existence in hidden garrets on miserable straw, is even so the somber hero to whom an enormous, though transitory, role is reserved in the modern tragedy, and which is only waiting for its cue to come on stage. We must never lose this actor from sight, and from time to time we will send communiqués concerning the furtive rehearsals by which it is preparing its debut. Such notices will perhaps be more important than all the reports about electoral maneuvers, party quarrels, and cabinet intrigues." From a contemporaneous review of Clinton Roosevelt's book: "With many of Mr. Roosevelts remarks on the existing evils of our social arrangements, though containing nothing which is not entirely familiar to those whose reflections have run at all in that direction, we fully agree and warmly and strongly sympathize. Some of them are marked with force and feeling. Perhaps on behalf of Christianity, we ought to thank him for the flattering civility with which he treats it, though he takes pains to inform us that he has nothing more than a mere bowing acquaintance with it. Having neither time, space nor inclination at present to enter upon such a discussion, we shall not give any farther account of his views of social reform, than to state, that while he utterly repudiates that philosophy of FREEDOM to which we have always professed adhesion, he proposes to reorganize society on principles of military combination and martinet uniformity. Everything is to be discipline, control, direction, governmentascending and centralizing till it reaches a single all- paramount individual command-in-chief. His new notion of a paper-money, immediately representing labor, seems to us the very crudest of all the crudities which have sprung from the inexhaustible source of that subject. The impracticability of his plans, fortunately, we regard as their best feature, for if carried into effect we have little doubt they would lead only to results far worse than those they aim to cure."
Thanks... I was told many years ago I would never understand the the peril this world is in, if I did not understand the underlying evil that lies beneath our society. All here should read this book, then come away confused. This man was one of FDRs ancestors, that should tell us of the underlying evil current that flows in this country. All these dots connected are not due to happenstance.
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#8. To: randge (#7)
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