8006. SOCIETIES (Communal), Practicability.—
That, on the principle of a communion
of property, small societies may exist
in habits of virtue, order, industry, and peace,
and consequently in a state of as much happiness
as heaven has been pleased to deal out
to imperfect humanity, I can readily conceive,
and, indeed, have seen its proofs in various
small societies which have been constituted on
that principle. But I do not feel authorized
to conclude from these that an extended society,
like that of the United States, or of an
individual State, could be governed happily on
the same principle. I look to the diffusion of
light and education as the resource most to be
relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting
the virtue, and advancing the happiness
of man.—
To C. C. Blatchly. Washington ed. vii, 263.
(M.
1822)
