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Letter from Central Committee of the National Reform Association, 20 April 1844

Source Note

Central Committee of the National Reform Association (, , , , Daniel Witter, , and ), Letter, , New York Co., NY, to JS, [, Hancock Co., IL], 20 Apr. 1844. Featured version published in “State Convention,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 22 May 1844, vol. 2, no. 6, [2]. For more complete source information, see the source note for Notice, 26 Aug. 1843.

Historical Introduction

On 20 April 1844, and six other members of the National Reform Association in wrote a letter to JS inquiring about his position as a presidential candidate on their plan for the distribution of public lands. The National Reform Association was an organization founded by and others on 18 March 1844. Evans had been active in New York City’s labor movement since the 1820s and established a newspaper, the Working Man’s Advocate, in 1829. Windt was also a printer and had served as the president of a printers’ union, the Typographical Association of New York. Like other critics of the treatment of wage laborers in the during the nineteenth century, the National Reform Association claimed that the country’s growing system of industrial capitalism stripped workers of their independence and thereby lowered them to a status similar to that of an enslaved person. Accordingly, the association called for the free and equal distribution of western lands by the federal government. The land would not be owned by its occupant, but the occupant could later sell the land’s improvements, such as structures, to someone else. Such a plan would prevent the monopolization of land by wealthy individuals and allow all people the opportunity to work for themselves without depending on earning wages and paying rent. The association argued that this equal distribution of lands was the key to restoring individual independence.
In April 1844, the National Reform Association appointed an interim central committee to govern the organization until a permanent committee was chosen. The association’s constitution charged the central committee with corresponding with “candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency.” The committee was apparently composed of , , , , Daniel Witter, , and . The committee wrote to presidential candidates in the Whig, Democratic, and Liberty parties, as well as to independent candidates JS and Jonathan Brooks. In January 1844, JS had accepted the nomination of a council to run for president of the , and in February he had published and distributed a statement of his political positions, which had apparently come to the attention of the National Reform Association’s central committee. In its letters, the committee asked each candidate what he thought of the association’s plan for the federal distribution of land. It is possible that the committee wrote the same letter to each candidate, as the letter JS received did not mention the plan in his campaign pamphlet to use the revenue generated by the sale of public lands to purchase the freedom of enslaved persons.
The letter sent to JS was signed first by , the secretary of the committee, suggesting that he wrote the letter on the committee’s behalf. The committee members presumably sent their letter to JS in , Illinois. The letter probably arrived there sometime in early May. JS replied on 16 May. On 17 May, at the state nominating convention for JS’s presidential campaign, publicly read the letter from Windt and others followed by JS’s response.
The original letter that and others sent to JS is not extant. However, the Nauvoo Neighbor published the letter in its 22 May 1844 issue. The published version is featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Second Report,” Working Man’s Advocate (New York City), 30 Mar. 1844, [4]; Earle, Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 28, 58–59; Wilentz, Rise of American Democracy, 355, 415.

    Working Man’s Advocate. New York City. 1830–184?.

    Earle, Jonathan H. Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824–1854. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

    Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.

  2. [2]

    Stevens, New York Typographical Union No. 6, 106.

    Stevens, George A. New York Typographical Union No. 6: Study of a Modern Trade Union and Its Predecessors. Albany: J. B. Lyon, 1913.

  3. [3]

    See Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, xviii–xxv; and Earle, Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 58–61.

    Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

    Earle, Jonathan H. Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824–1854. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

  4. [4]

    “The Constitution,” Working Man’s Advocate (New York City), 6 Apr. 1844, [2]; “Second Report,” Working Man’s Advocate, 30 Mar. 1844, [4].

    Working Man’s Advocate. New York City. 1830–184?.

  5. [5]

    “Answers of Presidential Candidates,” Working Man’s Advocate (New York City), 3 Aug. 1844, [1]. Brooks resided in New London, Connecticut, and announced his candidacy for the presidency in a political pamphlet in early 1844. (Jonathan Brooks, The Paragon: Jonathan Brooks of New-London, Connecticut, Candidate for the Presidency [New London, CT: no publisher, 1844].)

    Working Man’s Advocate. New York City. 1830–184?.

    Brooks, Jonathan. The Paragon: Jonathan Brooks of New­London, Connecticut, Candidate for the Presidency. New London, CT: No publisher, 1844.

  6. [6]

    Minutes and Discourse, 29 Jan. 1844; see also Historical Introduction to General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, ca. 26 Jan.–7 Feb. 1844.

  7. [7]

    “Answers of Presidential Candidates,” Working Man’s Advocate (New York City), 3 Aug. 1844, [1]; General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, ca. 26 Jan.–7 Feb. 1844. Almost a month after sending this letter to JS and the other presidential candidates, Windt’s newspaper, the Working Man’s Advocate, responded to JS’s plan for public lands. The editorial argued that “before the Working Men of the North can pay taxes to free the Southern slaves, they must emancipate themselves from the dominion of land-Lords.” (“General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the United States,” Working Man’s Advocate [New York City], 18 May 1844, [3], italics in original.)

    Working Man’s Advocate. New York City. 1830–184?.

  8. [8]

    “The Constitution,” Working Man’s Advocate (New York City), 6 Apr. 1844, [2].

    Working Man’s Advocate. New York City. 1830–184?.

  9. [9]

    In his 16 May response read at the 17 May convention, JS proposed using “all honorable means” at his disposal to increase the wages of farmers and mechanics, including placing a tariff on imported goods and encouraging the American people “to petition Congress to pass a uniform land law!” JS, however, agreed to act upon these proposals only once “the greater national evils” of slavery and government excesses had been addressed. (“State Convention,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 22 May 1844, [2], italics in original.)

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Letter from Central Committee of the National Reform Association, 20 April 1844
History, 1838–1856, volume F-1 [1 May 1844–8 August 1844] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [2]

, April 20th 1844.
Joseph Smith Esq.
Sir,—The subscribers, the Central Committee of the National Reform Association, in accordance with a duty prescribed by their constitution, respectfully solicit an expression of your views, as a candidate for public office, on a subject that, as they think, vitally affects the rights and interest of their constituents.
We see this singular condition of affairs that, while wealth in our is rapidly accumulating; while internal improvements of every descripiion are fast increasing, and while machinery has multiplied the power of production to an immense extent, yet with all these national advantages, the compensation for useful labour is getting less and less.
We seek the cause of this anomaly, and we trace it to the monoply of the land, which places labor at the mercy of capital. We therefore desire to abolish the monoply, not by interfering with the conventional rights of persons now in possession of the land, but by arresting the further sale of all lands not yet appropriated as private property, and by allowing these lands hereafter to be freely occupied by those who may choose to settle on them.
We propose that the Public lands hereafter shall not be owned, but occupied only, the occupant having the right to sell or otherwise dispose of improvements to any one not in possession of other land; so that, by preventing any individual from becoming possessed of more than a limited quantity, every one may enjoy the right.
This measure, we think, would gradually establish an equilibrium between the agricultural and other useful occupations, that would ensure to all full employment and fair compensation for their labor, on the lands now held as private property, and to each individual on the public lands the right to work for himself on his own premises, or for another, at his option.
An answer, as soon as convenient, will much oblige
Your Fellow Citizens,
.
,
,
,
DANIEL WITTER,
,
. [p. [2]]
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Letter from Central Committee of the National Reform Association, 20 April 1844
ID #
1336
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Footnotes

  1. [1]

    “Second Report,” Working Man’s Advocate (New York City), 30 Mar. 1844, [4].

    Working Man’s Advocate. New York City. 1830–184?.

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