Talk:Orestes Brownson

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[edit] Brownson and the Workingman's Party

There is no question that Brownson was supportive, for a time, of the faction of Robert Dale Owen and Fanny Wright, in the NY Workingman's Party. But he doesn't even merit an index listing in Walter Hugins' Jacksonian Democracy and the Working Class, one of the standard work on the movement. One of his obituaries contains the claim that he "organized" a Workingman's Party, which may be where Miller gets the idea, but I've never seen any indication that it is correct. Hugins' book, despite some flaws, is the one which pays closest attention to who actually participated in the NY Workingman's Party. I recommend a look at pages 119-120, for a list—with "activity point totals" based on close analysis of party publications—of the leaders of the party. Brownson's name does not appear, though members of factions which were later excluded, such as Thomas Skidmore, do appear. Libertatia 00:21, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough, and thanks for the information. Feel free to reword (and why not cite this explicitly in the article?). -- Rbellin|Talk 00:42, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

I did a bit more checking. The association with the Free Enquirer, as corresponding editor, doesn't even seem to have been very long. He gets almost no mention in the Workingmen's papers I could check. (Workingman's Vanguard is in the APS Online collection.) What mentions there are refer to his launching of the Herald of Reform. Uncommon Jacksonians, one of the other good histories, mentions him in the context of party debates, but only just as a mention. Libertatia 00:52, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Brownson was never a major player in the workingman's party, but he did also briefly edit the Genessee Republican, which was a pro-Workingman Party paper (See Carey, Orestes A. Brownson, pp. 32-34). BlueShirt 02:00, 19 November 2006 (UTC)