History of American Socialisms - dana ward's homepage

MACDON,ALD. 9
the day has not yet arrived when it can be said that
Communism or Association has ceased to exist; and
it is possible yet, in the progress of things, that man
will endeavor to cure his social diseases by some such
means; and a future history may contain the results
of more important experiments than have ever yet been
attempted.
"I here return my thanks. to the fearless, confiding,
and disinterested friends, who so freely shared with me
what little they possessed, to assist in the completion
of this work. I name them not, but rejoice in their
assistance. A. ]. MACDONALD.
"New York City, 1854."
The tone of this preface indicates that Macdonald
was discouraged. The effect of his book, if he had
lived to publish it, would have been to aggravate the
re-action against Socialism \vhich followed the collapse
of F ourierism. We hope to nlake a better use of his
materials.
It should not be imagined that we are about to edit
his work. A large part of his collections we shall
omit, as irrelevant to our purpose. That part which
we use will often be reconstructed and generally condensed.
Much of our material will be obtained from
other sources. The plan and theory of this history
are our own, and widely different from any that Macdonald
would have been willing to indorse. With these
qualifications, we still acknowledge a large debt of
gratitude to him and to the Providence that gave us
his collections.