Robert Dale Owen

Daguerreotype of Robert Dale Owen c. 1840s

Robert Dale Owen (November 7, 1801 – June 24, 1877) was a Scottish-born American social reformer who was a longtime exponent in the United States of the socialist doctrines of his father, Robert Owen, as well as a politician in the Democratic Party. He served in Congress, where he successfully pushed through the Smithsonian Institution bill and served on the first Board of Regents.

Family

Robert Dale Owen was married to Mary Jane Robinson, together they had six children. Two of which died at an early age.^[1]

Biography

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Owen emigrated to the United States in 1825, and helped his father create the community of New Harmony, Indiana. After the community dissolved, Owen returned briefly to Europe, then moved to New York City and became the editor of the Free Enquirer, a socialistic and anti-Christian weekly, which he ran with Frances Wright from 1828 to 1832.^[2] Owen's Moral Physiology, published in 1830 or 1831, was the first book to advocate birth control in the United States (specifically, coitus interruptus). Along with Fanny Wright, he was an intellectual leader of the Working Men's Party. In contrast to many other Democrats of the era, Owen and Wright were opposed to slavery, though their artisan radicalism distanced them from the leading abolitionists of the time. (Lott, 129)

He returned 1833 to New Harmony, Indiana, and served in the Indiana House of Representatives twice (1835–1838; 1851–1853). There he distinguished himself by securing appropriations for the public school system.^[2] After two unsuccessful campaigns, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1842, and served from 1843 to 1847. While in Washington, he drafted the bill for the founding of the Smithsonian Institution. He was on the first Board of Regents and chaired the Building Committee, which oversaw the construction of the Smithsonian Institution Building. Owen's committee selected James Renwick, Jr. as architect, Gilbert Cameron as the contractor, and the Seneca Quarry for its distinct red sandstone. In 1849, he published Hints on Public Architecture to argue the case for public buildings such as the Smithsonian Castle.^[3]

Owen was elected a member of the Indiana Constitutional Convention in 1850, and was instrumental in securing to widows and married women control of their property, and the adoption of a common free school system. He later succeeded in passing a state law giving greater freedom in divorce.

In 1853, Franklin Pierce appointed Owen as United States minister to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies at Naples.^[4] After leaving that post in 1858, Owen retired from political life, but remained an active intellectual.

During the Civil War, he served in the Ordnance Commission and the Freedmen's Bureau.^[2] He wrote an open letter to President Lincoln on September 7, 1862, urging him to end slavery on moral grounds. A few days later the Emancipation Proclamation was read to the Cabinet. In March 1865, he submitted a radical initial draft of the Fourteenth Amendment that was eventually modified into the final draft.

He was a strong believer in Spiritualism and was the author of two well-known books on the subject: Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World (1859) and The Debatable Land Between this World and the Next (1872).

Owen died at his summer home in Lake George, New York, and was buried in New Harmony, Indiana. The town of Dale, Indiana was named after him. In 1911, the women of Indiana dedicated a memorial to Robert Dale Owen^[5] on the lawn of the Indiana Statehouse.^[6]

Quotes

• 1833: The authenticity of the Bible ;

  For a century and a half, then, after Jesus' death, we have no means whatever of substantiating even the existence of the Gospels, as now bound up in the New Testament. There is a perfect blank of 140 years; and a most serious one it is.^[7]

See also

• Birth control movement in the United States

Bibliography

• Moral Physiology; or, A Brief and Plain Treatise on the Population Question (1830/1)
• Labor: Its History and its Prospects (1848)
• The Policy of Emancipation (1863)
• The Wrong of Slavery (1864)
• Beyond the Breakers (1870)
• Threading My Way (1874)

Notes

References

• Robert Dale Owen at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Robert Dale Owen (1801-1877) social reformer
• Owen, Robert Dale. 1875. "Touching Visitants from a Higher Life." The Atlantic Monthly. 35(207): 57-69
• Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. The Age of Jackson. Boston : Little, Brown, 1953 [1945].
• Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-509641-X.
• Threading my Way, Twenty-seven Years of Autobiography, by Robert Dale Owen (London, 1874).
• Democracy Reborn by Garrett Epps (Henry Holt, 2006).
• Owen's letter to President Lincoln.
• Greenberg, Joshua R. Advocating The Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 154-189.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana 1st district Prince Call Boon Blake Boon Proffit Owen Embree Albertson Lockhart Miller Lockhart Niblack Law Niblack Fuller Heilman Kleiner Hovey Posey Parrett Taylor Hemenway Foster Boehne, Sr. Lieb Denton Luhring W. Wilson Rowbottom Boehne, Jr. Schulte Madden Benjamin Hall Visclosky 2nd district Jennings Carr Ewing J. W. Davis Ewing J. W. Davis Thompson Henley Dunham English Cravens Kerr Wolfe Williams Humphreys Cobb O'Neall Bretz Hardy Miers Chaney Cullop Bland Greenwood Durgan Halleck Landgrebe Fithian Sharp McIntosh Pence Chocola Donnelly Walorski 3rd district Test O. Smith Test Carty Carr Graham Carr J. L. White T. Smith Robinson Dunham Dunn Hughes Dunn Harrington R. Hill Hunter Holman Kerr Carr Bicknell Stockslager Howard Brown Tracewell Zenor Cox Dunbar Gardner Dunbar Crowe Pettengill Grant Crook Crumpacker Nimtz Brademas Hiler Roemer Souder Stutzman 4th district Lane Dunn T. Smith Cravens C. Smith Julian Parker Lane Cumback Foley Holman Farquhar Holman Julian Je. Wilson New Sexton New Holman Watson Holman Griffith Dixon Benham Canfield Farley Gillie Kruse Adair Roush Quayle Coats Long Souder Buyer Rokita 5th district McCarty Rariden Kennedy Brown Wick Brown Hendricks Parker Holloway Kilgore Julian Coburn Holman Browne Matson Cooper Overstreet Faris Holliday Moss Sanders N. Johnson Gillen Griswold Harness Walsh Beamer Roush Roudebush Hillis Jontz Buyer Burton Brooks 6th district Kinnard Herod Wick Wallace J. W. Davis Dunn Gorman Hendricks Barbour Gregg Porter Dumont Coburn Voorhees Hunter Robinson Myers Browne H. Johnson Watson Barnard Gray Comstock Elliott Larrabee Jenckes N. Johnson Harden Wampler Roudebush Bray Evans Burton Pence Messer 7th district Hannegan A. White Howard Lane Wright McGaughey Thompson McGaughey J. G. Davis Scott J. G. Davis Voorhees Washburn Orth Manson Cason Landers Hanna Matyr Peelle English Bynum Henry Overstreet Korbly Moores Updike Ludlow Greenwood Landis Noland Bray Myers Pease Kerns J. Carson A. Carson 8th district Pettit McDonald Mace Ja. Wilson A. White Orth Tyner Hunter Hostetler Peirce Lamb Johnston Brookshire Faris Henry Cromer Adair Vestal Boehne, Jr. La Follette Mitchell Denton Merrill Denton Zion Hayes Cornwell Deckard McCloskey Hostettler Ellsworth Bucshon 9th district Sample Cathcart Fitch Eddy Shanks Cason M. White Orth Doxey Ward Cheadle Waugh Hanly Landis Morrison Purnell Crowe E. Wilson Hogan E. Wilson Hamilton B. Hill Sodrel B. Hill Young 10th district Kennedy Rockhill Harlan Brenton Chamberlain Case Mitchell Edgerton Defrees Williams Sayler Haymond Calkins Motte T. Wood Owen Patton Hammond Hatch Crumpacker Peterson W. Wood Gray Springer Harvey Harmon Harvey Roudebush Dennis Sharp Jacobs, Jr. J. Carson 11th district Harlan Pettit Shanks McDowell Stilwell Shanks Packard Evans Cowgill Steele Martin Steele Landis Rauch Kraus Cook Hall Griswold Larrabee Ludlow Jacobs, Sr. Brownson Barr Bruce Jacobs, Jr. Hudnut Jacobs, Jr. 12th district Hamilton Colerick Lowry J. B. White McClellan McNagny Leighty Robinson Gilbert Gilhams Cline Fairfield Hogg Ludlow 13th district Baker Calkins Shively Ford Shively Conn Royse Brick Barnhart Hickey Pettengill At-large Hendricks Jennings Packard / Orth / Williams Territory Parke Thomas Jennings