By Gary Berton, with Judah Freed
Part Two of Three Parts
Responding to assaults on civil liberties under the 1873 Comstock Act, freethinkers played central roles in the social reform movement opposing abuses of the rich and powerful in the Gilded Age. They were guided by Thomas Paine and Enlightenment Age ideals of democracy, equality and natural rights.
The TPNHA’s founding board represented the freethinking liberal movement in late 19th century America, which fought Gilded Age repressions.
Founded in 1884, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association upheld its founders’ philosophical foundations in freethought, free speech, women’s rights, labor organizing, anarchism, and socialism.This shifted after the first world war as society shifted.
TPNHA founders were tied to the Liberal League, People’s Party of New York and the Populist Party. Many met through the Manhattan Liberal Club, a New York locus for free thought. The People’s Party was an east coast version of agrarian populism, which sprouted among south and west farmers and spread to the trade unions. The TPNHA was formed just before the National Liberal League split into factions.
The strongest bond uniting the TPNHA founders in 1884 was free thought and the leading freethought newspaper, The Truth Seeker. Nine TPNHA founding members had direct ties to The Truth Seeker’s editor, D.M. Bennett (De Robigne Mortimer Bennett). In 1879, he was arrested and convicted under the Comstock Act for mailing an anti-marriage tract. His sentence was 13 months of hard labor.
Bennett called on freethinkers when he spearheaded the 1881 fund-raising drive to renovate the vandalized Thomas Paine Monument in New Rochelle, erected in 1839. At the Memorial Day rededication, Bennett delivered a speech and visited the farmhouse where Paine lived before his 1809 death. Bennett died in 1882.
Meet the TPNHA founders tied to Bennett:
Thaddeus Wakeman, a former university president, was D.M. Bennett’s lawyer, defending the editor from his Comstock Act prosecution. He was active in New York politics as the President of the Liberal League. Wakeman was the main force behind TPNHA formation, chairing the organizing meeting in the Liberal Club on January 29, 1884, at the club’s annual celebration of Paine’s birthday, a date observed widely by freethinkers.
Dr. Edward Bond Foote, Jr., established the National Defense Association and worked with the National Liberal League in efforts to repeal Comstock laws and support Comstock Act victims. “Ned” was a founding member of the Free Speech League and Manhattan Liberal Club. He took leadership roles in organizations backing a woman’s right to contraception, defying Comstock morality. He gave financial support to Mother Jones and Emma Goldman.
Dr. Edward Bliss Foote, Sr., Ned’s father, a free speech activist, was among the very first arrested under Comstock for promoting sexual education and contraception rights. He also ran for the New York Senate under the Populist and People’s Party banners. Ned and his father were personal friends of Bennett.
Asenath Chase Macdonald, a Civil War widow and freethinker, was among America’s first trained nurses. Her sons joined Bennett at The Truth Seeker.
Eugene and George Macdonald, the sons of Arsenath, first worked for Bennett as a printer and printer’s devil, respectively. Years later, Eugene with partners bought the enterprise. George became the editor in 1907, serving in the role until 1937.
A.E. Chamberlain, a People’s Party member and Truth Seeker contributor, was a founder of the National Defense Association along with Dr. E.B. Foote Jr, and T.B. Wakeman. Formed to fight “Comstockery,” NDA evolved into the American Civil Liberties Union.
Theron Leland, a friend of Bennett, was an abolitionist and among New York’s first “phonographers” (phonetic shorthand stenographer) A member of the National Liberal League and Liberal Club, he staffed the office of the American Industrial Union.
Wilson MacDonald, a noted sculptor, was a liberal and spiritualist. He created the bust atop the Paine Monument and made the medallion on the D.M. Bennett monument in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood cemetery. He made busts of George Washington, Washington Irving, Wm. Cullen Bryan and others. MacDonald stayed active in the TPNHA through the turn of the century.
Daniel E. Ryan, another friend of Bennett, was a Liberal League and Liberal Club member. He’s named in the TPNHA founding meeting minutes.
Louis Freeland Post, not directly tied to Bennett, was a prominent Georgist who upheld Paine’s Agrarian Justice to assert income from land innately belongs equally to all. He was editor of the pro-labor New York Truth. In 1913 Post became Asst. Secretary of Labor under Woodrow Wilson, doing the job until 1921. He witnessed the Bureau of Immigration conducting the Palmer Raids to deport noncitizen immigrants under the 1918 Anarchist Exclusion Act. He could not stop the red-scare witch hunt, but his 1923 memoir called the raids “deportation delirium,” labeling them a “stupendous and cruel fake.”
Stephen Pearl Andrews was an abolitionist, labor movement advocate and women’s suffrage supporter. A linguist and political philosopher, the “libertarian socialist” and “individualist anarchist” wrote 17 books on personal autonomy and related topics.
Samuel Porter Putnam, a former Congregational and Unitarian minister, departed Christianity for freethinking. When the Liberal League split, he allied with the American Secular Union. In 1892 Putnam formed the Freethought Federation of America, which in 1895 merged with the American Secular Union. He urged separating church and state.
Charles P. Somerby was a freethinking New York publisher and bookseller. He published titles like The Ultimate Generalization (a philosophy of science).
Capt. George Loyd, a Civil War veteran in the Populist Party, for years cared for Paine’s gravesite.
Two local women are named in the 1884 TPNHA organizing meeting minutes. Mrs. Kate G. Foote, the wife of Dr. Foote Jr., and Mrs. Hannah A. Allen. Their backstories are unknown.
These are the freethinkers who in 1884 founded the Thomas Paine National Historical Association. In response to renewed repressions in the 20th century, the organization would evolve.