1864 and the first accepted Principles of Spiritualism

The first ones recorded were adopted in 1864, now that's long before either the National Spiritualist Association of Churches in the USA or the Spiritualist National Union in the UK came into being. These principles are

First: A beneficent power and wise intelligence pervades and controls the universe, sustaining toward all human beings the intimate relation of parent, whose revelation is nature, whose interpreter is science, and who’s most acceptable worship is doing good to all.

Second: All truth is sacred and its authority absolute to the individual that apprehends it, but while one may aid another in the perception of truth and duty, no one can determine for another what is truth, hence each human being must believe and act upon individual responsibility.

Third: All action, according to its quality results in suffering or in joy, by the operation of inherent laws, physical and spiritual.

Fourth: All human beings are destined to a continued individual existence in a future state, for which the experiences and attainments of the present life are preparatory; hence it is the duty of all to perfect themselves in knowledge, wisdom and love, making a right use of all the means obtainable, for developing completeness and beauty of character, for aid in which divine inspirations and spiritual gifts are ever available to mankind.

Fifth: Realized communion with those who have gone before us to the invisible world is practicable under suitable conditions, and is a privilege of high value to those who use it wisely.

Sixth: The human race is one family or brotherhood, whose interests are forever inseparable; hence it is the duty of each individual not only to refrain from whatever would wrong or harm another, but also to live for the good of all, seeking especially to aid the unfortunate, the ignorant, the inharmonious and the suffering whatever race or condition.

Boston USA

Admin wrote:The first ones recorded were adopted in 1864, now that's long before either the National Spiritualist Association of Churches in the USA or the Spiritualist National Union in the UK came into being. These principles are

First: A beneficent power and wise intelligence pervades and controls the universe, sustaining toward all human beings the intimate relation of parent, whose revelation is nature, whose interpreter is science, and who’s most acceptable worship is doing good to all.

Second: All truth is sacred and its authority absolute to the individual that apprehends it, but while one may aid another in the perception of truth and duty, no one can determine for another what is truth, hence each human being must believe and act upon individual responsibility.

Third: All action, according to its quality results in suffering or in joy, by the operation of inherent laws, physical and spiritual.

Fourth: All human beings are destined to a continued individual existence in a future state, for which the experiences and attainments of the present life are preparatory; hence it is the duty of all to perfect themselves in knowledge, wisdom and love, making a right use of all the means obtainable, for developing completeness and beauty of character, for aid in which divine inspirations and spiritual gifts are ever available to mankind.

Fifth: Realized communion with those who have gone before us to the invisible world is practicable under suitable conditions, and is a privilege of high value to those who use it wisely.

Sixth: The human race is one family or brotherhood, whose interests are forever inseparable; hence it is the duty of each individual not only to refrain from whatever would wrong or harm another, but also to live for the good of all, seeking especially to aid the unfortunate, the ignorant, the inharmonious and the suffering whatever race or condition.

Boston USA

I have often read that these were first mooted in 1864 but where and when?

It has been claimed that it was in Boston at the First Spiritual Temple but:

"The First Spiritual Temple was founded in 1883 viz. "The First Spiritual Temple is an independent Christian Spiritualist Church, founded by Marcellus Seth Ayer on June 28, 1883."

Where were these principles published?

Z

Hi Z,

The information came to me from a great Friend in the USA who was researching Mercy Cadwallader for a book she is completing on Spiritualist Pioneers.

To quote this email

"Another point; I have read that Mercy helped the NSA form its first set of principles as she did the constitution and by laws. I wondered where she got the ideas from. .....well she got the from the First Association of Spiritualists of Philadelphia; she and her husband became members in Dec of 1893. The NSA principles came about in 1899.

Anyway here is the answer to your question on when Spiritualism first showed as a Religion and not just circles.

The organization The First Association of Spiritualists of Philadelphia was founded in 1852. (that's just 4 yrs after Hydesville rappings) While it is called First Association, the inside cover of the pamphlet shows a picture of the Temple with the Church Service Bulletin Board on the front at Twelfth and Thompson St. in Philadelphia.

Now get this--
It says: The following Declaration of Principles were adopted and are of interest because they were the first official declaration of the teachings of Modern Spiritualism They were adopted in 1864.

First: A beneficent power and wise intelligence pervades and controls the universe, sustaining toward all human beings the intimate relation of parent, whose revelation is nature, whose interpreter is science, and who most acceptable worship is doing good to all.

Second: All truth is sacred and its authority absolute to the individual that apprehends it, but while one may aid another in the perception of truth and duty, no one can determine for another what is truth, hence each human being msust believe and act upon individual responsibility.

Third: All action, according to its quality results in suffering or in joy, by the operation of inherent laws, physical and spiritual.

Fourth: All human beings are destined to a continued individual existence in a future state, for which the experiences and attainments of the present life are preparatory; hence it is the duty of all to perfect themselves in knowledge, wisdom and love, making a right use of all the mans obtainable, for developing completeness and beauty of character, for aid in which divine inspirations and spiritual gifts are ever available to mankind.

Fifth: Realized communion with those who have gone before us to the invisible world is practicable under suitable conditions, and is a privilege of high value to those who use it wisely.

Sixth: The human race is one family or brotherhood, whose interests are forever inseparable; hence it is the duty of each individual not only to refrain from whatever would wrong or harm another, but also to live for the good of all, seeking especially to aid the unfortunate, the ignorant, the inharmonious and the suffering of whatever race or condition."


My thanks to Marilyn who is another of our many dedicated Spiritualists

You can find more about the organisation at http://www.hsp.org/files/findingaid3089firstspiritualists.pdf




Jim

Hi All,

An extract of the second convention of Spiritualists. Interestingly an extract of the First held in Chicago in 1864 can be found here http://spirithistory.iapsop.com/1864_chicago_tribune.html which included a larger group than just the Philadelphians but helps to show how quickly the philosophy was being accepted and debated.

Note the name Cora Scott who  is better nown as Cora Richmond and also was heavily influential in the much later NSAC Declaration.

Proceedings of the Second National Convention of Spiritualists,
Held at Concert Hall, Philadelphia, October 20, 1865.
 
 

FRIDAY—MORNING SESSION.

The Convention met pursuant to adjournment.

Address by Mrs. Chappell.

The following preamble and resolutions were offered by Mrs. C. L. V. Scott, and after remarks by Mr. Sprague, Mr. Bush, Mr. Chase, Mr. Dixon, John Langham, Mrs. Young, Mrs. C. L. V. Scott, Mr. Justice, Lizzie Doten, and the Hon. S. S. Jones.

A motion was made to lay the preamble and resolutions on the table.  Lost.

They were then adopted, and are as follows:

Whereas, A free expression of free thought, free speech, and a free platform, are indispensable safeguards to the freedom of a free people.  Therefore,

Resolved, That from and after the passage of this resolution at this and all subsequent sessions of this National Convention of Spiritualists, discussions of all themes except those of a purely financial and business nature, shall not be confined to delegated members, but that all persons, irregardless of sex, color, race, or station, are cordially invited to mingle freely in debate and discussion of all those humanitarian operations that may be brought to the consideration of the Convention.

The report of the Committee on Education was read and adopted, as follows:

The Committee on Education presented the following resolutions:

Resolved, That Education is of the highest importance to a nation, save its existence; and demands from Spiritualists, especially, effective labor.

Resolved, That we recognize certain grand and fundamental principles as the basis of a true system of education.  Among which, are the following:

1. All science, all philosophy, and all religion, are in man, and therefore a true method of education is to educe or draw out what is in man, rather than seek to put in him what is already there by nature.

2. The true process of education is always attentive to the learner, whose mind as instinctively turns to some department of nature, as the plant draws the support from the elements.

3. A sound physical development is of vital importance, and constitutes a primary part of true education.

Resolved, That we recommend Spiritualists everywhere to endeavor to secure wise legislative action upon school laws, and cooperate heartily with the State in securing the blessings of free schools; to cultivate the appointment of teachers, and suggest plans of improvement, and move frequently to visit the schools and encourage the work by their presence.

Resolved, That we deem the subject of education as necessarily connected by nature with industry; and believe that industry and education should be equally and mutually extended to both sexes with equal advantages to each.

Resolved, That as the complete and harmonious development of the individual is the grand use of life, it should be the aim of all education, and in an especial manner the spiritual aspirations of children and youth should be met and their religious natures expanded and rightly directed by impressing upon their minds the truths of Spiritualism as a Religion, and as Children’s Progressive Lyceums seem to be well adapted to the happy and symmetrical culture of body, soul and spirit; therefore, we recommend the adoption of the principles and plan of the Lyceum to Spiritualists throughout the world.

Resolved, That we, as Spiritualists, consider that there is nothing so well calculated to soothe, harmonize and elevate the human soul, as music.  Therefore we recommend the introduction of a complete and thorough course of musical instruction as one of the essential parts of our educational system.

Resolved, That this Convention constitute a National Board of Education, until their successors shall be appointed, whose duty it shall be to co-operate with each other in promoting the interests of education.

(Signed, in behalf of the Committee)
Warren Chase, Chairman.

F. L. Wadsworth offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That we highly approve of social organizations of Spiritualists and all who sympathize and co-operate with them, and that we cordially recommend to Spiritualists and progressive reformers everywhere a concentration of effort by local organizations and representation in future National Conventions.

The following preamble and resolution were presented by Mr. Newman Weeks, and unanimously adopted:

Whereas, All Spiritualists and friends of human progress claim to be free from the bondage of bigotry, superstition and priestly despotism, and by virtue of their humanity, which is an ordinance and state ordained by God and sanctioned by the angel world as a sacred right to life, liberty, and the free pursuit of happiness.  Therefore,

Resolved, That as consistent Spiritualists and true reformers, we are in favor of freedom from slavery and bondage of every kind, for a universal humanity, without regard to race, sex or color.

Warren Chase presented the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That we heartily approve of the course pursued by the Spiritualists of Vermont in holding for the last twelve years annual State Conventions, and we recommend State and District Conventions to the Spiritualists throughout the world, where comparison of views and experiences may be made and expression of sentiment declared.

Mr. J. S. Loveland offered the following resolution which, after some discussion, was not adopted.

Resolved, That ten persons—five ladies and five gentlemen—two from each of the cities of Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, be appointed a Committee who shall be empowered, under the approbation of this National Convention, to publish such essays, in tract form, as they may deem conducive to the promulgation of the principles of the New Dispensation and institute such methods for their general circulation, as they may deem proper.

Mr. Carey offered the following resolution, which was adopted:

Resolved, That the President, Vice-President and officers of this Convention who have been constituted the Executive Committee of the Permanent National Organization, and hereby instructed and empowered to see that proper and just provision is made for the delegates to the next Annual Convention for their comfort and support during their sojourn in attendance on the Convention, in whatever city or place it may be held.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

Address by Rev. J. G. Fish, Jacob L. Paxon, and Isaac Rehn.

Mr. Dinsmore presented the following resolution, as an addition to the articles of association for the National Organization.

Resolved, That in all sessions of the National Organization of Spiritualists, discussions of all themes, except those of a purely financial and business nature, shall not be confined to delegated members, but that all persons, irrespective of sex, color, race or station, are cordially invited to mingle freely in debate and discussion of all these humanitarian questions that may be brought to the consideration of the Convention.

This was debated on by Mr. Dinsmore, Mr. Chase, Mrs. C. L. V. Scott, Mr. Bush, Mr. Toohey, Mr. William L. Robinson, Mr. Rehn, Mr. Fish, Miss Doten, and Mr. Justice.

The yeas and nays being called, were as follows:

YEAS.

Vermont—Milo O. Mott.
Massachusetts—Lizzie Doten, A. M. Spence, Clifford Rogers, Mrs. Clifford Rogers, Charles A. Hayden, A. S. Hayward, S. H. Young, Sarah A. Southworth.
Rhode Island—Miss Phoebe Hull.
New York—A. J. Davis, Mary F. Davis, Emma Halstead, J. W. Seaver, Cora L. V. Scott, W. A. Ludden, J. H. W. Toohey.
New Jersey—Mr. Morrill.
Pennsylvania—C. E. Sargent, John Langham, Mary Cavanaugh, William H. Johnston, Olive H. Frazer, Emmet Densmore.
Illinois—S. S. Jones, A. H. Robinson, Emma Steel, William Butler, Mrs. J. S. Fuller, N. E. Dagget.
Wisconsin—Joseph B. Burr, A. S. Palmer, Mrs. A. S. Palmer.
Michigan—F. L. Wadsworth, John P. Jacobs.
Kentucky—Sarah E. Smith.—36.

NAYS.

Vermont—Newman Weeks, Mrs. M. B. Randall, M. D.
Massachusetts—J. S. Loveland, N. S. Greenleaf.
Rhode Island—L. K. Joslyn, Samuel B. Shaffer.
Connecticut—Dr. J. J. Hatlinger.
New York—Henry Bush, Mrs. S. L. Chappell, E. Sprague.
New Jersey—J. G. Fish, Mrs. C. A. K. Poor, Deborah Butler, Dr. C. N. Howard, Miss A. Woodburn, Warren Chase.
Pennsylvania—M. B. Dyott, Dr. H. T. Child, Mrs. Dr. Chase, Martha Brown, Mrs. Minnie Shumway, Susan Baker, William Wharton, Alice Tyson, I. Rehn, Mary Stretch, Mrs. M. Barney, William L. Robinson, Alfred B. Justice, John S. Isett.
District of Columbia—J. C. Smith, Dr. J. A. Rowland.
Ohio—A. G. W. Carter, William W. Ward, Charles T. Thompson, Sarah M. Thompson, George Carey, Mrs. George Carey.
Illinois—George Haskell, M. D.
Wisconsin—H. S. Brown, M. D., William White, M. D.—41.

EVENING SESSION.

Addresses by A. J. Davis and Mrs. Cora L. V. Scott.  At the conclusion of which, Mrs. Scott offered her resignation as a member of the National Organization.  Lizzie Doten also requested her name withdrawn from the roll of membership.

Adjourned.

Of course we can also go back to a First Creed in 1859


1859 National Spiritualist Convention

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This gathering was mentioned in Henry Child’s brief description of the history of the National Organization of Spiritualists (in the 1871 Year-Book of Spiritualism, which gives more details about its officers and its resolutions) as a precursor to later organization. It was held on August 5-7, 1859 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Henry Gardner from Boston was President of the Convention; Henry Wright and James Loveland were two of the Vice-Presidents. The Convention demonstrates that Spiritualists, even at this early stage, believed that Spiritualism was part of a comprehensive, progressive social reform program that tied in with other such reforms as temperance, abolitionism, the amelioration of prison conditions, and women’s rights. The marriage ceremony performed at the Convention also demonstrates how thoroughly Spiritualism identified itself with a critique of traditional marriage and with an advocacy of free love. The Convention’s adoption of a Spiritualist “creed” is ironic in the sense that many of the early leaders of the Spiritualist movement had recently been pushed out of their original denominations when they could not pledge their belief in creeds that the denominations had established to weed out the spiritualist followers of Andrew Jackson Davis et al and the followers of the Higher Criticism of the Bible, such as was exemplified by Unitarian Theodore Parker. Many spiritualists had argued against any sort of creed altogether, as an infringement of their freedom of conscience. For a Spiritualist Convention to struggle toward elucidating a creed, therefore, is interesting.

Note the first item, which attempts to define who Spiritualists are. This is early evidence for a tug-of-war over the use of the word “Spiritualist.” Evidently, even then, “Spiritualist” suggested someone who had a comprehensive philosophy or higher vision (as opposed to “Materialist,” say), whereas “Spiritist” suggested someone who merely practiced the conjuration of spirits. The Spiritualists (at least in the United States and in Britain) referred to themselves as “Spiritualists,” even though others might designate them as mere “Spiritists.”

On Tuesday, August 2, immediately preceeding the Convention, the Plymouth Rock Celebration was held in Plymouth, for the purpose of laying the cornerstone of a “National Monument to the Forefathers” to mark the arrival of the pilgrims in this country, drawing to Plymouth “an immense concourse of people.” The celebration was sponsored by the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth, and the laying of the cornerstone was done by Freemasons in a “grave” Masonic ritual. The Spiritualists undoubtedly timed their convention to take advantage of the influx of people into the town for the other celebration. Rather than a creed, therefore, we can imagine that the assembled Spiritualists believed they were formulating a kind of compact, and recapitulating the Pilgrims’ establishment of a “great work brought to them by the wisdom of inspiration” and “by the intervention of a higher than human power,” as Massachusetts Governor Banks described the events of 1620 during the Plymouth Celebration of 1859.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Creed of the Spiritualists—At a Spiritualists’ Convention held at Plymouth, Friday, said to be a sort of national gathering, the following creed was reported from a Committee, of which Henry C. Wright was a member, and was discussed by the Convention:

1. We recognize as Spiritualists all who profess to believe in spiritual demonstrations. We call ourselves Spiritualists, and consider ourselves distinct from those who do not recognize a certain quality of truth, and who may be properly called Spiritists.

2. What is Spiritualism? We define the term as the true upbuilding of man’s highest spiritual welfare and destiny.

3. We believe that Spiritualism should not be confounded with the harmonial philosophy of Andrew Jackson Davis, the deisms of Dr. Hare, nor the individual theories of any other writer, whether prominent among Spiritualists or not; nor even with the teachings of disembodied spirits themselves.

4. The relations of Spiritualism to specific reform. Since man’s Spiritual welfare is liable to be retarded by coming in contact with sensual things—we cannot, as earnest and consistent Spiritualists, fail to take an interest in all such objects as the following: 1—Physiological reform, dietetics and tobacco, to the end that our bodies may be made the more fit and useful instruments for the spirits; 2—Educational reform, that the body, mind and spirit may be made individually healthful; 3—Penitentiary reform; 4—The emancipation of woman in order that she may fulfill her mission by becoming the mother of capable offspring; 5—The abolition of slavery; 6—The establishment of universal peace; 7—Theological and ecclesiastical reform, because we believe in universal and human progress; 8—Social reform and the reorganization of the principles of brotherhood; lastly, in every other thing general or specific which commends itself to our judgment as tending to elevate mankind.

The declaration was accepted, and the subject was then discussed.


The Waukesha (Wisconsin) Freeman, August 16, 1859, p. 2.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A Spiritual Wedding—The “more advanced” Spiritualists have outgrown the necessity of any form of marriage, but in deference to human weakness they think it best to retain something that will answer the purpose. At the Spiritual convention at Plymouth, last week, a marriage took place, of which the following account is given:—

“The declaration of sentiments having been got rid of, the next matter in order was the solemnization of marriage between Dr. Nathan C. Lewis and Mrs. Eunice A. Babbitt of Boston. The lady was dressed in loose flowing robes of white, deeply trimmed in blue, and wore blue satin shoes. Two little girls, her daughters by a former marriage, were dressed in exactly the same style, and followed her to the platform. The bridegroom placed himself beside her. Both had been married before, and are each about 35 years of age. Mr. Loveland, who was formerly a Methodist minister, though he does not now appreciate the title of ‘reverend,’ addressing the congregation, said:

‘Although spiritualists in general do not accept, but are opposed to, the regulations that exist legally in regard to the subjugation of women in the marriage relations, still they do generally, if not universally, admit the propriety of making a public acknowledgment of their relations.’ Then, turning to the interested parties, he said: ‘My brother and sister, I ask you to make no promise, I impose upon you no obligation. All the obligations you have, you have yourselves assumed in your own spirits. I know your hearts. You have already in your spirits consummated the union as far as it could possibly be. I stand not here to marry you. This congregation are not witnesses, and are not called upon to be witnesses of your marriage. But I stand here to affirm legally the fact, and to ask this congregation to join with me in pronouncing a benediction and blessing on the union into which you have entered, which you here acknowledge, and which you here formally before the world complete. In token, then, of this union, which you have cemented in your souls, and which you now confess before the world, please join your right hands.’ The happy couple complied with the request. Then Mr. Loveland placed a hand on each of their heads, and blessed them in this form:—‘And now, in behalf of this audience, and in behalf of the attending spirits that are around us and with us, I bless this union; I bless you in their behalf, as you start together on the journey of life.’ This was the whole ceremony. The bridegroom made a formal bow to the audience. The bride, who had been quietly fanning herself throughout the performance, dropped a curtsey. The pair, with their little attendants in white and blue, stepped off the platform, and the audience applauded so long that it seemed as if they wished the last scene encored. Then Mr. Wright was called upon to say something on the subject of marriage and paternity. He spoke for a few minutes, and ended by presenting to the couple a copy of one of his works, probably “The Unwelcome Child.” Shortly afterwards the chairman was made the medium of handing to the bridegroom a bouquet, which he terms a volume of natural theology. Dr. Lewis accepted the gift and promised to study it. Thus ended the marriage scene.”

The Waukesha (Wisconsin) Freeman, Tuesday, August 23, 1859.

We can even go back a little further to show how early in the proceedings work went on to set up principles.

The full transcript of a lively and supriing convention can be found here on this excellent site where much historical material is gathered.
http://www.spirithistory.com/58rutlnd.html


New York Times, June 29, 1858

RADICALS IN COUNCIL.
The Rutland Convention—A Curious Gathering.
Free-Lovers—Spiritualists—Trance-Mediums—Abolitionists—And All Sorts of Queer People.
Special Report for the New-York Times.
FIRST DAY’S PROCEEDINGS.

The Resolutions Introduced but Not Decided Upon.

UNDER A TENT, RUTLAND, Vt.,
Friday, June 25, 1858.

A tent has been pitched on an open space of ground in Rutland, to receive the members of the “Free Convention.” A medley of people, of all sorts of shades; of heterodox notions; white, black, partially black, badly sun-burned and fair in face, have come up to have sweet counsel together. The gathering is free in all ways. Its intention is to discuss abolitionism, spiritualism, free-love, free-trade, and all other queer things. They say that the Rutland population is extremely indignant at this irruption, and some good stories are floating about; of which more presently. The first chapter must be got off for the waiting mail.

The Convention opened at the Tent, punctually at 10 o’clock this morning. It was called to order by Mr. JOHN LANDON, a merchant in Rutland, who made a little speech, declaratory of the fullest degree of freedom to anybody who chose to be “around.” Then he added that a Committee on Nominations had fixed matters nicely beforehand. Their nominations were read, and then the Convention elected the following males and females to perform the heavy work:

President—Rev. Jason F. Walker, of Glens Falls, New-York.

Vice Presidents—Dr. B. Koon, Gibson Smith, Thomas Middleton, Henry C. Wright, L. Rose Sherman, Thomas Joseph Adams, A. Kibbon, Mary L. Sweetzer, P. P. Clarke, G. F. Kelley, E. B. Holden, Miss A. W. Sprague, Rev. Joshua Young, Mrs. Sarah A. Burton, R. R. Fay, G. F. Hendee, William Weston and Amidon Rice.

Secretaries—William H. Root, A. B. Armstrong, J. R. Frost, N. Weeks, L. Clark.

The President made a few observations of the usual character.

Mr. Yerrington, a gentleman connected with the Liberator, was appointed official reporter of the Convention.

Letters have been received from the Progressive Friends in Pennsylvania, and another Society. So prodigiously long were they, that they were instantly laid on the table, till the sun went down, and still repose there.

The Platform was then produced. It consists of fifteen resolutions, covering all sorts of subjects. The President read them off, one by one, and then they were laid over for consideration.

They are as follows:

INDIVIDUALITY.

1. Resolved, That the authority of each individual soul is absolute and final, in deciding all questions as to what is true or false in principle, and right or wrong in practice. Therefore, the individual, the Church, or the State, that attempts to control the opinions or the practice of any man or woman, by authority of power outside of his or her own soul, is guilty of a flagrant wrong.

SLAVERY.

2. Resolved, That Slavery is a wrong which no power in the Universe can make right; therefore, any law, constitution, court or government, any church, priesthood, creed or Bible, any Christ or any God that by silence or otherwise authorizes man to enslave man, merits the scorn and contempt of mankind.

SPIRITUALISM.

3. Resolved, That the phenomena of what is called modern Spiritualism have abundantly demonstrated the fact that an intelligent intercourse between embodied and disembodied human spirits is both possible and actual. That the conviction of the possibility and actuality of spirit-intercourse is opposed to all despotism, impurity and sensualism, and conduces to the inauguration of the only authority consistent with the human soul, as favorable to sound morality.

WAR AND DEATH PUNISHMENT.

4. Resolved, That it is always wrong and inexpedient for man to take the life of man; therefore capital punishment, war, and all preparations for war, are wrong and inconsistent with the interests of individuals and society.

MARRIAGE.

5. Resolved, That the only true and natural marriage is an exclusive conjugal love between one man and one woman; and the only true home is the isolated home based on this exclusive love.

MATERNITY.

6. Resolved, That the sacred and important right of woman is her right to decide for herself how often, and under what circumstances, she shall assume the responsibility and be subjected to the sufferings and cares of maternity; and man can commit no greater crime against woman as wife and mother, against his child, against society, and against humanity, than to impose on her a maternity whose responsibility and suffering she is not willing to accept and endure.

WOMAN’S RIGHTS.

7. Whereas, The assumed superiority of man over woman has held her in submission and entailed slavery and dependence on the sex, and consequently, misery on the race; therefore,

Resolved, That immediate steps should be taken to remove that error and its consequences, and place woman politically, industrially, educationally and socially on perfect equality with man.

THE BIBLE.

8. Resolved, That nothing is true or right, and nothing is false or wrong, because it is sanctioned or condemned by the Bible; therefore the Bible is powerless to prove any doctrine to be true, or any practice to be right, and it should never be quoted for that purpose.

FREE TRADE.

9. Resolved, That natural justice, individual and social morality, the peace and material wealth and prosperity of the nations, the spirit of human brotherhood, demand that all international tariffs be immediately and forever abolished, and that Governments in all their various departments be supported by direct taxation.

LAND REFORM.

10. Resolved, That the earth, like the air and light, belongs in common to the children of men on it; each human being is alike independent; each child, by virtue of his existence, has an equal and inalienable right to so much of the earth’s surface as is convenient by proper culture to his support and perfect development, and none has a right to any more; therefore all laws authorizing and sustaining private property in land, for the purpose of speculation, and which prevent men and women from possessing any land without paying for it, are as unjust as would be laws compelling them to pay for air and light, and ought to be at once forever repealed.

THE SABBATH.

Whereas, The Jewish Sabbath is confessedly abolished by the Gospel Dispensation; and

Whereas, The same authority sets apart no other day to be similarly observed, therefore,

11. Resolved, That all efforts of church and priests to enforce our observance of the Christian Sabbath, as of Divine appointment, is a flagrant violation of individual right, and must be prosecuted in a dishonest disregard of the spirit and positive teachings of the New Testament.

SUNDAY DOCTRINES.

Whereas, A social being depends on his fellow men for the cultivation and development of his physical, mental and moral power; and,

Whereas, Owing to the limitation and vicissitudes of life, he can accomplish but little for his own or future generations; therefore,

12. Resolved, That the duties of man belong to man, and the time, talent and means spent on, or for any other purpose, is detrimental to human progress and a robbery to the race.

13. Resolved, That the moral law is the material growth of a healthy condition of social life, and that a study of the nature of man, and the relations he sustains to his fellow-man, can alone give him the knowledge of the laws and govern him rightly.

14. Resolved, That no system or creed can be useful that does not tend to the removal of ignorance, poverty, vice and suffering, and promote freedom, intelligence and happiness.

Whereas, the character of man is formed for him, by the combined powers of organization previous to birth, and influence after birth, therefore

15. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of society to investigate and remove the causes which have a tendency to form inferior or vicious character.

16. Resolved, That the time and devotion spent in religious services can confer no benefit on an Infinite and Independent Power, and can therefore be no virtue.

The Spiritualistic element prevails. The “Poughkeepsie Seer,” ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, has arrived, with a body-guard of six trance mediums—male and female. HENRY C. WRIGHT made a speech here on Sunday night. Mrs. FRANCES D. GAGE made one last night. WRIGHT is to make another this afternoon. On the platform this morning sat Mrs. Ernestine L. Rose, Mrs. Julia Branch, Mr. [Hiram] Marble, Henry C. Wright, Thomas Curtis, Mrs. Gage and Mr. Henry Clapp, Jr., is on hand. Mr. GARRISON has not reported, nor Mr. GEORGE W. CURTIS, whose names were in the list attached to the call.

M.

Sorry Folks I'm on a Roll here,

The address is at the bottom of an impressive list of people and the last two or three paragraphs highlight the stunningly quick way Spiritualism Spread and the people it reached

New England Spiritualists’ Association

List of Officers, and Address to the Public; Organized at Boston, November 1854.

President.
Allen Putnam, Esq., Roxbury, Mass.

Vice Presidents.
Hon. J. F. Simmons, Providence, R. I.
Alvin Adams, Boston, Mass.
Benjamin Kingsbury, Jr., Esq., Portland, Me.
Harrison Bliss, Worcester, Mass.
E. Mattocks, M. D., Lyndon, Vt.
J. Seymour Brown, Hartford, Ct.
Rufus Elmer, Springfield, Mass.
Robert Wilson, Esq., Keene, N. H.
B. C. Harris, Fiskeville, R. I.
Jonathan Bean, Montville, Me.
Joseph Cram, Hampton Falls, N. H.
Ward Cheney, Manchester, Ct.
Rev. Adin Ballou, Hopedale, Mass.
Rev. Daniel F. Goddard, Boston, Mass.

Recording Secretary.
C. P. Weeks, Boston, Mass., (9 Court Street)

Corresponding Secretaries.
A. E. Newton, Boston, Mass., (5 Washington Street.)
John S. Adams, Chelsea, Mass., (or 115 Washington Street, Boston.)
Rev. Henry J. Hudson, Chelsea, Mass.

Treasurer.
Jonathan Brown, Jr., Boston, Mass.

Trustees.
Phineas E. Gay, Boston, Mass.
H. F. Gardner, M. D., Boston, Mass.
Alfred B. Hall, Boston, Mass.
Luther Parks, Boston, Mass.
Charles Foster, Charlestown, Mass.
Jonathan Buffum, Lynn, Mass.
John Baker, Bingham, Mass.
Caleb Eddy, Boston, Mass.
George Darracott, Boston, Ms.
Edward Haynes, Dedham, Ms.
Horace B. Wilbur, Boston, Ms.
John S. Rogers, Boston, Mass.
James Swan, Boston, Mass.

Committee on Membership.
Albert Bingham, Esq., Boston, Mass.
A. B. Child, M. D., Boston, Mass.
John Rogers, Roxbury, Mass.
Bela Marsh, Boston, Mass.
Rev. Herman Snow, Boston, Mass.

Address

Citizens of New England:

It is computed that nearly Two Millions of people in our nation, together with hundreds of thousands in other lands, are already believers in Spiritualism. No less than twelve or fourteen periodicals are devoted to the publication of its phenomena and the dissemination of its principles. Nearly each succeeding week brings, through the press, some new books treating exclusively upon this subject. Every day, and much more than daily, lectures upon Spiritualism are given in the presence of audiences quite respectable as to both numbers and character. Circles are held by day and by night in nearly every city, town and village throughout our country.

Belief that spirits speak intelligibly to man is already working widely and deeply; it is fast gaining power for either good or evil. It asks, and it may well claim, attention from every considerate mind. It is in our midst; it is at work among us. Is it a friend or is it a foe to man? Examine it; try it; learn its nature; learn its purposes; learn its effects; and when well informed, answer the question, and shape your treatment of the subject. Such is the call to every influential mind. And the call is for prompt action. Resistance (if resistance be called for) must be speedy or it will be useless. Soon the strange faith will have grown too strong to be resisted. Already it makes itself the companion of the farmer in his fields—the mechanic in his workshop—the sailor in cabin or forecastle—the judge on his bench—the senator on his legislative chair—the clergyman in his desk—the philosopher in his study; it goes with man through all his varied walks in life, and it nestles fondly with woman, whether in the kitchen, the nursery or the parlor. Nor is it a mere companion—it assumes to be teacher and helper—it tells of matters beyond death and the grave, and concerns itself with things of deep and universal interest. It gains a ready hearing, and sows its seed of truth or of error, of fact or of delusion, on many a fertile spot. Its words are already moulding the condition of millions of immortal souls, not while they shall dwell in the body merely, but after they shall have gone to the invisible mansions in the Father’s house. Things material also are made its topics; it out-travels the astronomer in his remotest journeyings to suns and systems in the distant heavens; it scans the composition of the planets and descries their vegetation and their various inhabitants with a minuteness which the most powerful telescope fails to furnish in the observatories of science. The chemist’s laboratory never reaches such thorough analyses of matter as the teachers in Spiritualism are daily describing. Statements are made which more than hint at such knowledge of the properties of matter, as will help man in all the daily avocations of life; such as will aid the agriculturist, the machinist, the mechanic: such as will lessen our toils and improve our modes of life. These new teachers pass beyond the bounds which have hedged in, not the astronomer alone, but the geologist, the mineralogist, the chemist, the physiologist—the man of any and every science. Statements are made about properties in matter which have escaped man’s detection—but which, when described, can be used by him. The finer properties of his own organs are set forth, and he is taught how to turn them to advantage in the preservation or restoration of health. It is not the future and distant alone that the clairvoyants are describing; but the near and the present also. This earth, and all things upon it, are being analysed and unfolded and made of higher use. These statements hint at some few of the teachings which are working their way into thousands of minds, where they will effect changes for better or for worse.

But there is something more than teaching. Spiritualism works. The sick and feeble feel its touch, and are healed or strengthened, in numberless cases; and this, not by miracle, but by the use of natural means, under the direction of an eye that looks through the human organism, sees the difficulty, and sees where and how to apply the remedy. And beside the curing of disease, we have “signs;” ours, too, is a generation seeking after signs; and we have them in the movements of tables and chairs by invisible power—in the music from pianos, drums and trumpets, where no visible performer is near—in audible voices—in distinct vision of the departed, and in many other ways. All these things must indicate that the public mind will be roused to observation, and that it will receive these wonderful words and works as being in fact what they claim to be, unless some other producing cause can be demonstrated. Here is the world’s work. The phenomena, many of them at least, are generally admitted. They claim to be the work of spirits; and such claim must stand good, unless the world can show some other adequate and probable agent. To show such an agent is the duty of every one who apprehends harm from Spiritualism.

We who now unite to form an association, are firmly persuaded that the spirits of the departed come to us; that they write and speak for our instruction and improvement. We believe that they work in harmony with God’s universal laws; in harmony with his kind designs; and that, in lending our aid to this cause, we are co-workers with the All-merciful One, and with his good angels.

Such is our faith. Therefore, if there be anything of manhood in us, sneers and scoffs and ridicule are not the instruments that will be likely to change or stay our course. Facts and sound argument we think we can give for the faith that is in us; and we trust that we shall be ready to admit the fair and full force of all facts and sound argument that shall be brought to bear against our belief. But those who would shake our faith are asked to discover, and distinctly describe and define, some other power than spirits which can cause all the varied, wonderful phenomena of Spiritualism. Faraday, Rogers, Dods, Beecher, and others, have tried—and, if they have satisfied themselves, they obviously have failed to satisfy the great mass of reasoning and thinking minds. Their several efforts are so far failures as that they cannot be called successes. Time is strengthening the claims of the spirits. Their powers are confessedly adequate to the works performed; while their opponents fail to show any other adequate power. All such failures imply difficulties; and repeated failures give suspicion of impossibility. The foundations of Spiritualism stand as yet unimpaired by the efforts that have been made to shatter them. Still, however, we would invite to new efforts in the same direction, provided they be manly and honest. If we are in error, we must become sufferers. For our own good, as well as for the good of the world, we ask for the most extensive and thorough investigation that can be given. True, we should be sorry to let go our hold upon a faith that throws so much pleasant light upon both the present and the future world; that is so full of consolation in hours of bereavement; so full of power to substitute joy for sorrow; so beautiful in its revelations of the Heavenly Father’s works and laws; so emphatic in its declarations that we all must reap that which we sow; so cheering in its exhortations to duty; so clear in its justifications of the ways of God to man. We should be sorry to part with this elevating and purifying Faith—and yet, if it be error, if facts and logic can prove it unsound, we hope to be ready to exchange it for something true and therefore good.

But while others are urged to investigate, we, who have passed beyond disturbing doubts, feel a call upon us to prepare for some systematic course of effort to disseminate the truths which we value. Association is the customary and therefore almost the necessary step. We therefore associate; not that we fail to see that association may tend to sink the individual—to lessen his personal efforts—and dispose him to follow where others lead, rather than judge for himself. But though there be dangers, there are benefits also; and it should be our purpose to shun the former while we avail ourselves of the latter.

Perhaps we shall find but little to do at present in our associated capacity. Spiritualism has sprung up—an infant giant—and in less than seven years has made its power felt in all parts of the civilized world. This it has done by its own inherent energies. Unaided by associations, but availing itself of individuals, it has pushed its way to the homes and hearts of millions.

And yet we may by our association be instrumental in spreading knowledge of what the wonderful child has done and is doing; and thus perhaps we may prepare the way for his more ready reception and more beneficent action among individuals and private circles. It is obvious that the efficient actors—the moving powers—are hidden from most of us. We should be no more than humble co-workers with the unseen. Our province is to follow, rather than to lead; to execute, rather than to plan. At present, perhaps, we may think it best to do little more than put ourselves in readiness for calls that may come to us from the yet silent future. But should we be thus passive, we may yet accomplish something—perhaps much. The world does not understand Spiritualism, and ignorantly makes it imply much that has no necessary or natural connection with it. The ultra doctrines and plans of any who profess belief in Spiritualism, are regarded as the outgrowth of that belief. As well might these ultraisms and eccentricities be charged to Christianity, for the same agitators are believers in Christianity also. The fruits of our creed, the earliest of them, have yet scarcely matured—while the later have not been fairly formed. Their quality we argue from the wisdom and beneficence of the God who sows the seed. Where He is sower, we feel that it is safe and wise to admit the seed into the grounds which He has allotted to each of us. Our creed is simple. Spirits do communicate with man—that is the creed. The legitimate consequences of belief in that single fact, are all that can be chargeable upon Spiritualism. All else that Spiritualists may believe and do, belongs to them as individuals, and not necessarily as Spiritualists. We seem to be saying but little; yet it may be no small matter to utter unitedly the five simply words—Spirits do communicate with man. Such utterance implies the facts that we disclaim connection with any sect, party, or ism; that we are only young disciples in a new school, waiting for more knowledge and education before we are fitted to plan and execute new schemes for the world’s good; that we would be patient learners from intelligences of greater experience and wisdom than we now possess. There may seem to be, and there is, much of the world’s impurity floating on the waters of Spiritualism—but its action is superficial and does not destroy the pearls which are imbedded at the bottom. Those pearls—the affectionate appeals; the wise counsels; the cheering descriptions of the spirit-world; the unfoldings and extension of human science; the exposition of the laws of both physical and moral health—these and other similar pearls are rich enough to compensate for the disagreeableness of the obloquy that follows the divers in this sea.

Spirits do communicate with mortals. Perhaps they always have been our guardians and helpers; we doubt not that they have; but now they have learned to be our teachers. Is it indeed so? Does the disencumbered spirit indeed come to our firesides and our closets, freighted with the wisdom of a higher sphere? Can we sit as learners at the feet of aged travellers returning from beyond the hidden bourne, and listen to their tales of love, purity and bliss? Our ears have heard them; our hearts have been filled by them with holy aspirations; their words have made life’s pathway brighter; and thrown around its close a winning halo of light.

Calmly but firmly we would put ourselves in readiness to help extend a faith that opens the doors of immortality to the skeptic; that gives new life and strength to the believer; that sees departed friends stretching down the helping hand to bear us onward and upward to plains of clearer light and higher joys—and it is in such a work, men and women of New England, that we ask your co-operation. “A wide door is opened unto us, and effectual, but there are many adversaries.”

Andrew Jackson Davis, “The Principles of Nature. The Constitution of the Harmonial Brotherhood; as Written by Andrew Jackson Davis, and Delivered before the Brotherhood, May 4th, 1851,” The Spirit Messenger, June 21, 1851: 365-367.

In this AJ Davis delivered a Declaration Of Independence one part of which says ;
"And furthermore—until we feel and comprehend greater truths—we hereby declare that—

Our Book is Nature;
Our Master is Reason;
Our Law is Love to Man;
Our Religion is Justice;
Our Light is Truth;
Our Structure is Association;
Our Path is Progression;
Our Works are Development;
Our Heaven is Harmony;
Our God is the Universal Father! "

Remember on the day of the rappings at Hydesville, with no knowledge of events, AJD said "It begins"
Now we can see a major influence in all the developments as he was such a Titanic figure in the USA where his influence is felt much more deeply than in the UK.

Jim

Thanks Jim

I read about the Convention of Spiritualists recently and was particularly struck by how much argument took place over the four days in the morning, afternoon and evening sessions - it reminded me of the AGM's of the Spiritualists National Union!

The Philadelphia Church is interesting and thanks to Marilyn for researching that. As the Church was dissolved I never came across it in my own research as most of the stuff is labelled N/A.

Nevertheless it's all very interesting as is most of the information in the MOA records as a history of Spiritualism in the USA.

Thanks for printing it.

Z

Hi Jim,

Wow, that is an amazing history of events in the US. Thanks for sharing that.

Lynn

Was it Kahlil Gibran who observed: 'People delight to make Laws and pose Principles and then delight even more in breaking them'?

Hi Hiorta,

You may be right but I rather like our princilpes as a pattern to try and live by. Not always going to make it especially when life interferes though but I think it is one point which also helps to differentiate Spiritualism.

Cheers
JIm

Aye Jim, A practical code for living is virtually essential, although as we grow it can get a wee bit stretched.

Thank you, Jim, for a fascinating glimpse into the early history of Spiritualist thought. An equally fascinating, and even rather revolutionary, window on social history, too. A much appreciated series of posts.

Alan

Hi Alan,

Thanks, it was a fascinating time wasn't it and teh movement was full of characters and ideas. I will return to that in the History sections soon. Personally I think it is important to know a bit about our evolution, not only that it often makes a great read.

Cheers

Jim

Hi All,

By the way I always wondered about the AJ Davis comment it has begun and found it here.

Published in the Book MEMORANDA OF PERSONS, PLACES, AND EVENTS…..; BY ANDREW JACKSON 1868. “MEMORANDA.36. March 31, 1848. ABOUT daylight this morning, a warm breathing passed over my face, suddenly waking me from a profound slumber; and I heard a voice, tender and yet peculiarly strong, saying: "Brother The good work has begun-behold, a living demonstratcion is born " -.... The breathing and the voice ceased immediately, and I was left wondering what could be meant by such a message. * Afterward I learned that, at this time, spirit communication was established at Hydesville, New York.”

Cheers

Jim

Jim, that is a great quote. It's not always given in full, so delighted to see that you have posted the whole thing here.

Alan

I have also found the Complete transcript for the harmonial brotherhood

Part 1


The Harmonial Brotherhood:
Our Declaration of Independence.

Andrew Jackson Davis
The Spirit Messenger (Springfield, Massachusetts), May-June
1851

Innumerable centuries have rolled away, and colossal empires have appeared upon the distant hills—have existed for a little season, and have fallen into ruin and decay. Monarchies and religions have come up in different portions of the earth—have exhibited great power and despotism—have glided away, like a dream of the night, making a dim and dark impression on the earth—have performed some part in the vast and mysterious drama of life, and have passed away into a higher sphere.
But the Past has vanished, and the stupendous Present is before us. Here we stand, upon the towering summit of the ages past, contemplating the world of matter and the world of mind. We stand upon a mighty eminence, with all the vast accumulation of ages, with all the experience and wisdom of the past, beneath, around, and within us.
By the powerful momentum which the revolution of ages and the development of ideas and principles have imparted to us, we have steadily and progressively advanced to a moral and intellectual position, from which we perceive it to be our personal right and mutual duty to present to the world the reasons why we occupy this position, and why, also, we are resolved to maintain it, as the only certain foundation of individual culture and humanitary progression.
We hold it to be a self-evident truth, that the principle of Reason is the greatest and highest endowment of the human mind; that it is the indwelling light and the power of understanding by which man is enabled to read the innumerable sentences and chapters contained in the everlasting volume of Nature! We hold Reason to be the divinely inherited treasure of the human soul, because it sees the indications, studies the principles, and progressively comprehends the countless and infinitely diversified manifestations, of the Universal God.
And we, likewise, hold it to be self-evident, that Nature is the only perfect and unalienable “Revelation” which the Deity has ever given, or ever will give, to mankind. By Nature, we apprehend the Material Universe, with its innumerable constellations of Suns, Planets, and Satellites; and the Spiritual Universe, with its innumerable spheres of loveliness, and with their multitudinous angelic and seraphic inhabitants. It embraces the stupendous Univercoelum! which comprehends the kingdoms beneath, the powers within, and the boundless firmaments above us. We believe Nature to be the universal exponent of God; and Reason to be the universal exponent of Nature; therefore, that Nature and Reason, combined, constitute the only true and reliable standard of judgment upon all subjects—whether social, political, philosophical or religious—which may come within the scope and investigations of the human mind.
Furthermore, we hold it to be the nature, and tendency, and divine prerogative of the human soul to explore, to investigate, to classify, and reduce to a practical application, every thought and principle, and science, and philosophy, and religion, which rests upon the everlasting foundations of the Universe; and likewise, that it is man’s nature and prerogative to candidly, freely, and fearlessly—with an eye, single to truth—examine all sciences, and discoveries, and mythologies, and theologies, and religions which have been, or may be, developed among men; and that if they do not accord with the immutable principles of Nature and Reason, it is his divine right and authority to openly expose, repudiate, and discard them.
We believe that there is nowhere, in the mighty empire of this material and spiritual universe, any absolute sin or evil! We believe that all evil is but the negation of good—all sin, the negation of righteousness—all error, the negation of truth—all discord but the negation of harmony—that is to say, what are conventionally or customarily termed sin and evil, among men, is but the misdirection or perversion of the attributes of the human soul, which are substantially good and intrinsically pure!

We believe that, in consequence of a law of sympathy and universal dependence by which all created things are inseparably united and connected together, the individual affects society, and that society moulds and shapes the individual. And we believe that all men have two important responsibilities resting upon them: 1st. The protection, welfare, and harmonization of the Individual. 2d. The protection, welfare, and harmonization of Society.
We believe it to be our highest interest and legitimate duty to discover, and decry, and remove every conceivable barrier and obstruction, which, in any manner whatsoever, may serve to derange, impede, or arrest the progressive development of peace on earth and good will to all men. We, therefore, hereby resolve to declare ourselves free and independent of all personal, social, education, and theological habits, customs, and restrictions which militate against, or prevent us from accomplishing, these grand and glorious ends of our creation and destiny.
Among some of the reasons why we are conscientiously impelled to make this open avowal of our sacred sentiments—this Declaration of Independence—are those which follow:
First: The present organization or structure of Society, although vastly better now than in any previous age of the world, nevertheless engenders personal and national animosities. It develops many and various antagonisms. It imposes restrictions upon the natural rights and enjoyments of life, and leaves us unprotected against the ills of disease and accident, by encouraging and supporting monopolies, which are monarchies, and by aiding and perpetuating Poverty, and consequent Crime, and consequent Misery.
Second: It does not reform the criminal and the morally deformed, by fraternal and hospitable treatment. It does not attract the gambler from his hades of vice, by kindness and principles of brotherly love and good will; nor the voluptuary from his pandemonium, by the positive sphere of Love and Wisdom; but it incarcerates and brutally disposes of the transgressor and the criminal, and repels the gambler and the licentious man with prejudicial words and unrighteous deportment.
Third: It contaminates our youth. It converts a joyful and confiding child into a sad and suspecting man; it transforms a fair and happy mind into a disproportioned and miserable one; and consequently causes and perpetuates unhappiness, misdirection, and error among men.
Fourth: It develops the evils known as prostitution, cupidity, envy, malice, duplicity, and hypocrisy; and makes subsistence and prosperity, and even life or existence itself, dependent upon and inseparably connected with, individual intrigue, deception, and knavery.
Fifth: It is based upon antagonistic and conflicting interests and professions; and thus deranges and perverts the natural or legitimate development of the enterprising and energizing faculties of the human mind; and causes these faculties to manifest themselves in strifes, contentions, wars, and in a cold, proscriptive, sordid selfishness.
Sixth: It keeps up a perpetual war between Labor and Capital. It sanctions a conflict between interest and duty. It causes a man to lacerate and deform his conscience—to smother the inward monitor—in order to augment his worldly interests and emoluments. This is true of all the trades and professions. On the other hand, the present structure of society compels a man to sacrifice his worldly interests—yea, his reputation, his profession, his friendships, his subsistence, and life even—in order to honestly obey the serene voice of Duty, which intuition constantly whispers in his inmost ear. They saying has become almost proverbial, that “an honest man cannot succeed in business.”
Seventh: It makes the lawyer’s interest consist in individual and social disturbances—in contentions, litigations, and lengthened or continuous disputes. His inward Deity—his innate love of truth, and justice, and harmony—may frequently prompt the lawyer to seriously pray for the utter banishment of all discords and disputes; yet, nevertheless, his interest and duty impels him to procrastinate and complicate individual disturbances in every possible and conceivable manner. This conflict between interest and duty we hold to be vitiating and demoralizing to mankind. We hold that that man is immorally situated whose duty tells him one thing and his interest another. And this is the work of present society.

Part 2
Eighth: The present structure of society we likewise hold to be demoralizing and depraving, because it makes the physician’s interest to consist in the existence, prevalence, and multiplicity of human disease and physical suffering. His duty—his love of general health and happiness—may prompt him to earnestly desire the total extermination of all bodily infirmities and distress; but it cannot be denied that his pecuniary interest consists in the abundance of organic violations, and disease. And his interest, also, prompts him to strenuously oppose all medical reform, or the introduction of any principle which tends to banish disease and destroy his occupation.
Ninth: The present social arrangements make the clergyman’s interests to conflict also with his duty. It causes his interest to consist in the prevalence of ignorance, and in the existence of moral transgressions. It causes him to usurp the right to reason and decide upon religious subjects. It causes him to deny the privilege of free discussion to others. It prompts him to impose unrighteous restrictions upon our speech and actions. It vitiates his mind by assigning to him a false and unnatural position; and, then, he exerts upon us, and upon our children, a correspondingly false and unnatural influence.
Among the numerous reasons why we are moved to declare ourselves free and independent of the existing forms and institutions of Theology, are the following:
First: It assumes to be, or to possess within its organization and cardinal doctrines, the medium or totality of inspiration; and it arrogantly proclaims itself to be the supreme and sovereign authority. It arbitrarily determines upon what book, or what peculiar combination of books, we shall revere as the “Word of God;” and then denies to us the right of exercising the same amount of intellectual, moral, and religious liberty. It describes the circle in which we shall move, and think, and reason; and then authoritatively and dogmatically denies to us the moral or religious freedom to advance beyond it. It thus imposes what we conceive to be improper and demoralizing restrictions upon our thoughts and investigations—trammels the progressive development of our minds, and peremptorily denies to us the divine privilege of free discussion and a free expression of our inward sentiments.
Second: It unites with society in its unphilosophical and unbrotherly treatment of the criminal, and of the unfortunate victim of crime; and it (that is, popular Theology) sanctions the old barbarian or mosaic law of Capital Punishment.
Third: It emphatically justifies society in the perpetuation of personal and national animosities and antagonisms. It permits war, confiscation of property, and carnage; and it assists to promote successful military chieftains, without regard to other merit or demerit, to the responsible position of emperors and governors.
Fourth: It sanctions the monarchical despotism of monopolies. It smiles, with silent approbation, upon the conflict between Labor and Capital. It permits the present unjust remuneration of the toiling millions. It permits them to live from day to day without the least guarantee of a home in case of pecuniary adversity or ill health; and, more than all, it openly and emphatically sanctions the dark and fear sin of human slavery!
Fifth: It deforms and enslaves, but it does not reform and emancipate the human mind, from the confinements and mournful influences of Sectarianism. Its influence is not positive and reformatory, but it is merely negatively restraining. It opposes almost every measure or movement which originates with the people. It engenders melancholy and erroneous conceptions of the nature and destiny of man. It keeps up a perpetual warfare between the head and the heart. It encourages a gladiatorial struggle against liberty of speech and freedom of action. It even opposes temperance reformation, unless it originates in the Church; and uniformly exerts its multiform influences, to restrain the progress of social and prison reforms upon identical grounds.
Sixth: It conveys discord into our families. It arrays husbands against wives, and wives against husbands. It produces many private alienations of affection and friendship. It causes the heads of many families to separate and go to different and antagonistic sectarian sanctuaries on the Sabbath; and it develops sad and unwholesome dissensions among friends—between members of society, and disturbs the equilibrium of nations!
Seventh: It generates cupidity and hypocrisy, by teaching our children to regard certain doctrines as truths, which (because these doctrines are not true) cannot be felt; but which, nevertheless, are frequently manifested with all the show of confidence in their validity. This leads directly to practical dissimulation and deceit. Many persons are in the constant practice of exhibiting piety, who, at the same time, do not (because they cannot) feel such piety to be sacred truth; and this apparently willful hypocrisy on the part of some individuals, leads directly to the theological assumption—an assumption which has retarded human progress for ages—that the heart of man is desperately wicked and depraved by nature.
Eighth: It instills dark and unwholesome thoughts into the minds of our children. It teaches them to believe in the most soul-revolting doctrines. They are educated to consider themselves as “totally depraved”—and as being under the “curse” of the living God. It teaches them to regard themselves as evil, and “sinners” by nature; and as incapable of being good and heaven-worthy, independent of the Bible and the Church. They are taught to believe in a “God of Love,” who, at the same time, encourages hate; and in a “God of Heaven,” who, at the same time, permits the everlasting duration of Hell! Thus our youth become contaminated by the existing methods of religious education; and, when they advance in years, and become men and women, they become either bigots and sectarians, or skeptics and misanthropes. A sadness and gloom are consequently thrown over our minds; and we deprive ourselves and our children of a large proportion of that enjoyment and progressive happiness which are the inalienable rights of man!
Ninth: It seeks to array its conservative and authoritative influence against scientific inventions and improvements. It asserts this whole world of human beings to be under an Adamic curse or condemnation. It has most dogmatically pronounced, and still continues to assert it, that all the sorrows, and perplexities, and vicissitudes, and trial, and discords, and diseases, and all the afflictions of this mundane state, are expressly sent by the living God to punish man for his alleged manifold transgressions! And it has openly opposed every medical reform, every social improvement, every benevolent design, upon the fabulous ground that such mortal attempts were wicked, and would prove unavailing, because they were in opposition to the “will” and punishment of God. And it trammels the progress and advancement of mankind, by teaching our children and our communities to believe the erroneous and baneful doctrine, that no improvement or reformation can be permanently accomplished, except through the so-called “divine” instrumentalities and multifarious restrictions and principles of the established Church.
Tenth: It perpetuates social, political, and professional conflicts, by itself manifesting that internal sectarianism and aristocratic intolerance which are the invariable symptoms and inevitable concomitants of ignorance and pernicious error! It presents to the world numerous examples of jealousy and clerical ambition which subserve the purpose of sanctioning and confirming, and rendering fashionable, the war of the trades and professions which surrounds us in society, and by which we are more or less injuriously affected.
Eleventh: It unqualifiedly professes to not bring “peace, but a sword”!
Twelfth: It discourages and emphatically condemns natural or physical enjoyments. It strives to awaken in our minds what we consider to be imaginary compunctions of conscience. It imposes what we conceive to be unnecessary and deforming “trials” upon us; and causes us to “crucify” ourselves and “bear crosses,” that are wholly unnatural and wrong. We therefore feel that it has defrauded us, and the generations that are gone, of two-thirds of the real happiness and mental consolations which we solemnly believe to be ours, according to the laws of the human constitution and the universal Providence of God! Yes, it deprives us, and seeks to deprive our children, of proper amusements—it disapproves of singing those joy-giving songs, and of dancing those easy and graceful waltzes, which are manifestly natural and useful for man.
Thirteenth: It dogmatically asserts Nature, and Reason, and Conscience even, to be subordinate to ecclesiastical authority. It inculcates the baneful doctrine that our very heart-impulses are naturally sinful and opposed to the “will of God.” Here again it creates a false issue between the heart and the head; and thus it has been the sole cause of impelling many minds into sad and hopeless insanity. It sheds a melancholy, dismal gloom over our families, our homes, and the nations of the civilized world. It renders this life a dark, and toilsome, and uncertain gift of God; and, with its clouds of ignorance and superstition, it darkens our thoughts and anticipations of the other life. When our friends resign their material forms to the grave, then this Theology fills our hearts with sadness, and our minds with distressing doubts, concerning their future welfare and eternal happiness. And thus it spreads gloom, and disconsolation, and suicidal melancholy, and insane despair and mental misery, where joy, and cheerfulness, and righteousness, and gratitude, and peace, and happiness should and might exist in abundance.
Fourteenth: And we are moved to declare ourselves free and independent of the existing Theology in all parts and portions of the earth, more particularly and especially, because it endeavors to retard and prevent the march of social improvement and humanitary progression—because it seeks to vilify and anathematize us—to denounce us—to wound our reputations—to prejudice the multitude against us—to encourage mobs and riots (by inspiring their children with the spirit of sectarianism and intolerance)—to injure us in our commercial or business relations—to array our families against us by misrepresenting our characters and sentiments to our associates and offspring—to calumniate us in our daily walk and conversation—and, more than all the rest, it strives to prevent the free investigation, the general adoption, and the universal expansion of our Harmonial Philosophy, which we do most sacredly believe to be the sublimest incarnation of the essential principles of Christianity, and the spacious vestibule to the temple of Eternal Truth.
We believe that the destiny of all men is Immortality, endless Happiness, and eternal Progression!
We believe—in accordance with the interior and material constitution of the human species—that there is a general mission for each individual to accomplish.
1st. To properly beget and perpetuate his kind.
2d. To justly respect and honor, and wisely direct and cultivate the heavenly germ—the spiritual principle—which is deposited in the soul.
3d. To live here with special reference to individual and social happiness, and with an ultimate reference to another and a higher life!
We believe (with the glorified Solon) that it is only the good who die happily; for the troublesome or troubled spirit is sometimes not quiet until after it has been, for a considerable length of time, removed from the earth; and until it has experienced the subduing, the chastening, and disciplining influences, which universally pervade the spiritual habitations of all spirits, angels and seraphs.
We, therefore, declare it to be “our highest duty” to become enlightened concerning ourselves; and concerning the powers and spheres of the human mind; to the end that we may grow in personal harmony—give to human society a healthy constitution—and thus gratify our homocentrical desire—“our continual prayer” for social Peace and universal Unity!
And it is our happiness to believe (with James Victor Wilson,) that the chief employment of our departed friends, the dwellers of the Spirit-land, is the transmission of thoughts, truths, and pure affections, from circle to circle, and from sphere to sphere; and that true happiness and true progression consist, both here and hereafter, in receiving and imparting; in unfolding the elements of our being and assisting others to unfold; in seeking the Great Divinity and imparting to the world the results of our investigations.
And we, moreover, freely declare it to be our sacred conviction, which we base upon the past historical experience of humanity and upon our highest intuitions and reason, that all true religion and all true inspiration are natural to the human soul. We believe that heaven is harmony, and that no man can secure his condition merely by doing penance at the virgin’s shrine; nor by being prayed for or prayer; nor by building Churches and hiring Gospel preached; nor by believing, or trying to believe any system of religion. On the contrary, we do declare it to be our deepest conviction that Heaven is attainable only through self-development and self-harmonization. And we believe, that popular Theology, and popular Education, and popular Society, are insufficient to supply the human spirit with its proper nourishments and encouragements to an easy, natural progression toward truth and perfection! We believe that Theology is inadequate to the reconstruction of Society; and that modern systems of Education (which are saturated with this Theology) are inadequate to a proper education and cultivation of the spirit.
We declare ourselves free and independent of these systems, we repeat, because they restrain us in our investigations, and set up many and various barriers to our development; and we declare ourselves free of them, also, because they do not cover our wants, nor respond to the imperative necessities of our outer and inner being! We feel that we have mentally and morally out-grown them—out-grown their virtue, their principles, and their means and methods of individual and social reformation.
And we furthermore declare ourselves independent of these systems of superstition and error, because they circumscribe the sphere of our researches; and because they create a false issue, and perpetuate a conflict, between physical philosophies, and sciences, and what they term religion; while we believe all truth, whether scientific or religious, to be equally divine, harmonious, and eternal!

Final Part

We believe that Social or Political sciences comprehend:
1. Marriage; 2. Language; 3. Amusements; 4. Temperance; 5. Education; 6. Government.
We believe that Material or Physical sciences comprehend:
1. Agriculture; 2. Commerce; 3. Chemistry; 4. Anatomy; 5. Physiology; 6 Mechanism.
We believe that Psychological or Spiritual sciences comprehend:
1. Poetry; 2. Music; 3. Painting; 4. Astronomy; 5. Philosophy; 6. Religion.
We believe all these sciences to be in strict harmony, one with another, and that our happiness consists in their proper and universal application to individual wants, and social improvement.
We are not merely opposed to the prevailing systems of ignorance, superstition and wrong; we are not merely disciples to the science of Human Magnetism, and to its sublime and spiritual phenomena; we are not merely anti-slavery, anti-capital punishment, and prison reformers; we are not merely social, philosophical, and religious reformers; but we openly avow ourselves henceforth to be the germinal constituents of a HARMONIAL BROTHERHOOD.
We are ready, and willing, and expect to hear it said of us and to us, that we are “Infidels,” and “Mystics,” and “Fanatics,” and “Conspirators,” and “Blasphemers,” and “Imposters,” and “Workers of Iniquity” even—so long as these odious terms and epithets will subserve the purpose to remind us of our free and independent principles; and to arouse us to the sacred and holy consciousness, that we are determined foes of Ignorance, Error, Injustice and tyrannical Institutions.
And we hereby declare that we will oppose and remove what we conceive to be social, political, or religious injustice and error, when and where and just so far as (according to our highest reason and intuitions,) we apprehend such opposition and removal beneficial to the individual and universal conditions and rights of mankind.
We hold it to be self-evident, that all books, creeds and institutions contain more or less truth and useful instruction; nevertheless we solemnly declare it to be our intuitional conviction, that all books, creeds and institutions are inferior and subordinate to the divine power within the human mind—the Reason Principle—without which all thoughts and truths were the merest fancies, and the sublime Universe an empty shade!
And furthermore—until we feel and comprehend greater truths—we hereby declare that—
Our Book is Nature;
Our Master is Reason;
Our Law is Love to Man;
Our Religion is Justice;
Our Light is Truth;
Our Structure is Association;
Our Path is Progression;
Our Works are Development;
Our Heaven is Harmony;
Our God is the Universal Father!
And we feel moved to fraternally suggest to those minds, everywhere, who are morally, intellectually, and constitutionally endowed with powers and blessings superior to the great mass of mankind about them—the propriety of immediately organizing themselves into a true Harmonial Brotherhood—declaring yourselves free and independent of all those habits, forms, creeds, restrictions, and ceremonies in modern Society, Theology, and Education—without regard to sect or nation—which tend, in any manner whatsoever, to arrest, prevent, or derange the progressive happiness of mankind, or to retard their progress toward Universal Unity and Perfection. For we believe that such an organization is necessary in order to learn what is useful, what is Justice, and what is Power; and Beauty, Aspiration, and Harmony, will then be familiarly learned from the fields of universal nature and humanity. To understand what harmony is, we must ourselves become harmonious. A harmonious individual is a Revelation of the Divine Mind; for every human spirit is a finite embodiment of the elements of the Infinite God.
We conclude our Declaration of Independence, by affirming—what we do most religiously believe—that all men to be heaven-worthy must aspire to heaven; to be perfect; they must aspire to perfection. But this no man can perfectly do of himself; because man necessarily depends upon the favorableness of progenitary bias; upon the propitiousness of outer conditions; and upon the harmoniousness of social circumstances, for his opportunity and ability to practice such aspiration! And yet, harmony must begin with the Individual; it will thence spread over our families and communities; then it will flow and ramify through the innumerable veins and arteries of the distant sects and nations; then the Whole will represent the Individual! the Individual the Whole; and God will be all in all!!!
In presenting to the wide world, and endorsing this, our Declaration of Independence—our principles of free discussion and universal progression—we do not pledge ourselves to adhere to an infallible and proscriptive creed; but we simply make a personal acknowledgement and a mutual confession of sentiments and principles, which, (be it every where known) we are resolved henceforth to revere, love, and maintain—until we discover and comprehend truths still higher and better, and more worthy of our sacred esteem and confidence.


End Jim

It is very interesting how you can see the iideas formulating and gelling.

The following philosophical treatise by Judge Edmonds in 1860 shows echoes of what wouls=d become the modern day principles.


THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE. JAN 1860 p2/3/4

THE END AND AIM OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE.
By JUDGE.EDMONDS

THERE is no topic connected with this subject less thoroughly understood than this, even by firm believers in the Intercourse, and even my conceptions ofiIt, imperfect as they must necessarily be, can hardly be detailed within the limits of this paper. I can attempt only to refer briefly to a few of the more important considerations :

1. No man or woman has probably ever lived who has not at some time felt a yearning yet once again to hold communion with some loved one whom death has removed from sight; and this prayer, so instinctive and so universal with the whole family of man, is now, in the beneficence of a Divine Providence, answered more specifically and more generally than ever before known. And the first thing demonstrated to us is that we can commune with the spirits the departed; that such communion is through the instrumentality of persons yet living; that the fact of mediumship is the result of physical organization; that the kind of communion is affected by moral causes, and that the power, like all our other faculties, is possessed in different degrees, and is capable of improvement by cultivation.
2. It is also demonstrated that that which has been believed in all- ages of the world, and in all religions, namely: intercourse between man in the mortal life, and an intelligence in the unseen world beyond the grave - after having passed through the phases of revelation, inspiration, oracles, maglc, incantation, witchcraft, clairvoyance, and animal magnetism, has in this age culminated in a manifestation which can be proved and understood; and, like every other gift bestowed. upon man, it is capable of being wielded by him for good or perverted to evil.
3. That which has thus dealt with man in all time is not, as some have supposed, the direct voice of the Creator nor of the Devil, as a being having an independent existence, and a sovereignty in the universe of God, nor of angels, as a class of beings having a distinct creation from the human family, but of the spirits of those who have like us lived upon earth in the mortal form.
4. These things being established, by means which show a settled purpose and intellIgent design, they demonstrate man's immortality, and that in the simplest way, by appeals alike to his reason, to his affections, and to his senses. They thus show that they whom we once knew as living on earth do yet live, after having passed the gates of death, and leave in our minds the irrisistable conclusion, that if they thus live we shall. This task Spiritualism has already performed on its thousands and its tens of thousands - more, indeed, in the last ten years, than by all the pulpits in the land -and still the work goes bravely on. God speed it! for it is doing what man's unaided reason has for ages tried in vain to do, and what, in this age of infidelity, seemed impossible to accomplish.
5. Thus, too, is confirmed to us the Christian religion, which so many have questioned or denied. Not, indeed, that which sectarianism gives us, nor that which descends to us from the dark ages, corrupted by selfishness or distorted by ignorance, but that which was proclaimed through the spiritualism of Jesus of Nazareth. in the simple injunction-" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment; and the second is like unto it-- Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
6. As by the inspiration through a foundling of the Nile there was revealed to man the existence of one God over all, instead of the many deities he was then worshiping and as by the inspiration of Him who was born in a manger, there was next revealed man's immortal existence beyond tho grave, of which even the most enlightened had then but a faint idea, so now through the lowly of the earth comes a further revelation, confirmatory of those, and adding the mighty truth, what is the existence in which that immortality is to be spent.
Throughout all the manifestation - in every form and in every language - whatever the discrepancies, uncertainties, and contradictions on other topics, on this of the nature of man's future existence, all coincide and harmonize. It comes in broken fragments of scattered revelations, here a little and there a little, part through one and part through another, but forming when gathered together a sublime whole, from which we can surely learn the nature and condition of the life on which wo shall enter after this shall have ended.
This, as I understand it, is the great end and object of the movement, all else being merely incidental to it. But it has only begun, and its progress is slow; not from want of power to com­municate, but from want of capacity to comprehend. Much that has already been revealed, has not from this cause been received even by the most advanced Spiritualists, and of course not given to the world. But the work is going on; more is added day by day, and it will not be long before enough will be received by all, to open to their conception a knowledge of our future existence, whose value no man can calculate, whose effect no man can imagine. .
7. Enough, however, has already been given to show that man's destiny IS PROGRESS, onward, upward, from his birth to eternity. Circumstances may retard but cannot interrupt this destiny, and man's freedom is that he may accelerate or retard, but he cannot prevent it. He may hasten it, as did one whose life on earth had been devoted to doing good to his fellows, and who said to me that he had passed away in the full con­sciousness of the change, had found himself surrounded and welcomed by those whom he had aided while on earth, and had paused not one moment in the sphere of Remorse; or he may, by a life of sin and selfishness, retard it for a period long enough to satisfy the vengeance even of an angry Deity - if such a thing can be.
8. Our progress is to be alike in knowledge, in love, and in purity. Alike in all it must be. And any circumstance which causes us in anyone of these elements to lag behind the advance of the others is sure to bring unfortunate consequences in its train, though not always unhappiness. So clear, so universal is this injunction to progress in all three of these elements, that the heresies which spring up among us from our imperfect knowledge of them need give us no alarm. While the com­mand is "Love ye one another," so ever attendant upon it is that other, "Be ye pure, even as your Father in Heaven is pure."
Incidental to these more important points are many minor considerations on which I cannot now dwell. By a careful attention they will all be found consistent with these weightier matters. Distorted sometimes by the imperfection of the mediums through which the intercourse comes and sometimes perverted by the passions of those who receive it, carefully considered and patiently studied until understood, I can safely assert, after nearly nine years' earnest attention to the subject that there is nothmg in Spiritualism that does not directly tend to the most exalted private worth and public virtue.
True, to some it is a mere matter of curiosity, and to others a philosophy; but to many it is now, and to all, in the end will be a religion, because all religion is the science of the future life, and because it never fails to awaken in the heart that devotion which is at once a badge and an attribute of our immortality."

Fantastic Jim, thanks for sharing!

Very Interesting I am in a labour of love that could take at least a year extracting from didgitalised newspapers articles on Spiritualism.

Here is an extract of an 1854 Newspaper which shows three of the principles clearly

NASHVILLE DAILY UNION AND AMERICAN
SUNDAY MORNLNG, OCTOBER 22, 1854.

SPIRITUALISTS IN COUNCIL
We have been furnished the proceedings of a convention of very respectable gentlemen, who are believers in Spiritualism, and publish sketches of the speeches below…..

He could but say to those seeking to be mediums that the process of spiritualization, or development, was slow and tedious requiring often the greatest amount of patience. Mr. C, 'he continued, was now writing a book, which purported to emanate from William Ellerv Channing, and so far as he was able to judge from what they had received, bore the impress of that great man's mind.
This book, he thought, was destined to revolutionize and reform the religions of the world, and make man feel that the world of Spirits was not a world of fragments, but a world of Infinite Unity and in its unfolding’s presenting an Infinite Diversity. Spiritualism had demonstrated to him one great fact that fact was the reality of the Immortal Life.

Its teachings were: the Universal Parentage of God; the Universal Brotherhood of Man ; and the Eternal Progression of that Brotherhood.

These were the bases ideas, and these were the fundamental truths, sought to be inculcated by this - he would not say new, it was as old as man and as eternal as God - Philosophy.