Kingdom of Matthias and Alcoholic Republic: A Comparative Review

Introduction: Two Visions of Early American Society

Human beings interact and react with each other and with their environment, often on the basis of certain ideas that gain ascendance at a particular time and place. The society of a given era gains its shape from prevailing ideas about how society should be organized — what should interest its members and how people should relate to one another. Two such societies are addressed by the authors of two history books detailing particular social movements and their outcomes: The Kingdom of Matthias by Paul E. Johnson and The Alcoholic Republic by W.J. Rorabaugh.

The Kingdom of Matthias: Religion, Charisma, and Utopia

The Kingdom of Matthias tells the story of a real effort to create a utopian society in mid-nineteenth-century America, headed by the Prophet Matthias, whose sect was a rival to the Mormons under Joseph Smith. The attempt Matthias made to found his own kingdom was bound up with his visions of a kingdom of heaven on earth. Matthias was notorious before that time and had been put on trial for murder and theft in New York, though the jury did not convict him. A self-declared Jewish minister, he sought to create a kingdom to replace the American republic, which he saw as having failed to live up to its promises of union, freedom, and equal rights. He claimed to be a direct descendant of Jesus and of Matthias the Apostle, and he stated that he embodied the souls of these and other prophets, thereby possessing everlasting life as a reincarnation of those souls. He gathered followers and set out to create his kingdom.

The Kingdom of Matthias emerged during the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. The leader's real name was Robert Matthews, and the kingdom he founded would likely be deemed a cult if he attempted it today.

The basics of the cult are summarized by Richard C.S. Trahair, who notes how the kingdom, also called Mount Zion, was founded at Sing Sing, New York, and scandalized the world: "The community members would cavort naked, marry spiritually, and freely exchange sexual partners."¹ Clearly, the free love aspect of the cult was one of its most controversial elements and contributed to the way it was isolated and later persecuted.

Johnson's Narrative Method and Use of Sources

Paul E. Johnson shapes this story by beginning after Matthias is acquitted of murder and before he gathered the followers he needed to create the Kingdom of Matthias. While Johnson looks back at the way this man developed prior to his attempt at nation-building, he tells the first part of the story with only minimal reference to the formative events that shaped Matthias, thereby giving a different impression of the man and his effort than might have resulted from a strictly chronological account.

Nevertheless, Johnson's approach is effective. It introduces many of the currents of the time — the religious controversies, the personalities involved — and does so with considerable depth, telling parts of the story in direct narrative and other parts through flashbacks to earlier periods. He also provides information on many other religious groups of the era, including those similarly seeking to create a form of religious settlement in this world, such as the Finneyites and the Mormons. Johnson finds that Joseph Smith of the Mormons had much in common with Matthias, though Smith rejected Matthias and his creed. Both men saw themselves as "defenders of ancient truth against the perverse claims of arrogant, affluent, and self-satisfied enemies of God."² Johnson tells the story from a contemporary vantage point while also citing nineteenth-century studies of the kingdom, noting that the story fascinated people of that era just as it might fascinate readers today — because of its mixture of spirituality, economics, politics, and sex. What interests Johnson equally is the human dimension: the people themselves who were involved.

Johnson introduces a number of followers who either helped Matthias create his kingdom or joined it after its founding. The personality of Matthias stands at the center of the book, so most of those introduced are described not merely as individuals but as individuals shaped by and responding to Matthias's powerful personality. Johnson is candid about his sources, frequently citing contradictory accounts and then analyzing them to determine which should be accepted as fact, or seeking a compromise position he believes comes closest to the truth. An interested reader could pursue the same exercise by consulting the primary sources or by examining how Johnson uses those sources and explains his conclusions. The book offers extensive notes for each chapter, including references to sources as well as additional material clarifying both the sources and Johnson's reasoning.

Johnson shows how prophets like Matthias and leaders of other cults associated with the Second Great Awakening made a major impact on individuals and on American religious culture, both then and into the future. Matthias himself was a carpenter who transformed himself into a spiritual leader in a manner not entirely unlike many television evangelists of our own time — similarly manipulating the truth and accumulating power, prestige, and funds from followers. An interesting facet of this story, evident in both Matthias and Charles Finney, among others, is the way charismatic leaders used deception and intimidation to gain compliance while simultaneously championing the poor and the abandoned — something religion has always claimed to do but that many organized religions have failed to achieve. The combination of con artist and philanthropist appears to be a defining characteristic of this type of religious movement.

Works Cited

Johnson, Paul E. The Kingdom of Matthias. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Rorabaugh, W.J. The Alcoholic Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Trahair, Richard C.S. Utopias and Utopians: An Historical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.