This Day in History

1825. Â Robert Owen, a socialist, announces New Harmony utopian plan in Indiana to government dignitaries in the Hall of the US House of Representatives.

The later Catholic convert, Orestes Brownson, knew Robert Owen and his ilk, even sending his own son to live at one of the rationalist plantations for a short spell. But he saw through it eventually. Indeed, the utopias had a good effect on him: they burst his utopian leanings forever and probably hurried his conversion.