Etienne Cabet: Icaria's Paradoxical "Papa"

Etienne Cabet was not only the founder and guiding spirit of the Icarian Community at Nauvoo, Illinois during its first eight years; he was also its "Papa" (a name given him by his followers) and he so regulated, then meddled in, the daily lives of the community that exasperated, they threw him out.In October 1856 the Icarians by a majority vote of their General Assembly formally expelled him and all of his followers and sent them packing on a steamboat down river to St. Louis.There, just three weeks after arriving, Cabet, then sixty-eight years old, died of a stroke.He was buried in a local cemetery 4,000 miles away from his family, then living in Paris.Cabet's career as a communal leader clearly ended in tragedy, but it was a tragedy in the Greek sense of the word.His greatest virtues were his greatest vices.What were these extraordinary strengths and flaws in his character?The historical record is clear.He was an intelligent, gifted--even visionary-thinker, able to paint in eloquent language his version of utopia in a bestselling book, Travels in Icaria.He was capable of enormous self-sacrifice and was completely dedicated to the cause of creating the perfect community, willing personally to lead the exodus from France to build Icaria in the United States.He was dauntless, refusing to be discouraged by the dismal failure of the first community in Texas started in 1848 near present-day Denton.And he sincerely believed in the Icarian principles that he espoused--Fraternity, Equality, and a daily code of moral conduct based upon the Christian Golden Rule.Yet the man was petty, unwilling to accept criticism, and totally unable to admit a mistake.He was puritanical beyond reason and insisted upon censoring in advance any plays or musicals performed in the communal theater.He promulgated a draconian code of conduct in the fall of 1853 that demanded absolute obedience to his orders.After suffering a stroke in 1854 that had him bedridden for months his behavior became bizarre.He created a secret spy ring.He opened and read the private mail of colony members.He became paranoid and had a personal bodyguard to protect him from his enemies.He condemned his opponents as "abominable ingrates" who had