Parke Godwin (journalist)
| Parke Godwin | |
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| Born | February 28, 1816 |
| Died | January 7, 1904 (aged 87) |
Parke Godwin (February 28, 1816 – January 7, 1904) was an American journalist associated with New York.
Godwin was born on February 28, 1816, in Paterson, New Jersey. His father was an officer in the War of 1812, and his grandfather a soldier of the American Revolution. He graduated from Princeton University in 1834, studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Kentucky, but did not practice. He married the eldest daughter of William Cullen Bryant, and moved to New York City in 1837.
He became interested in journalism and by the 1830s was writing for the Evening Post and The United States Magazine and Democratic Review under John L. O'Sullivan. The reforms he advocated in the Democratic Review were subsequently introduced into the constitution and code of New York. Except for one year, he was connected with the Evening Post from 1837 to 1853. In 1842 or 1843 he ran a weekly called Pathfinder, but it only lasted three months.
He was deputy collector in the New York Custom House under President James K. Polk, an early member of the Republican Party, and a consistent advocate of free trade. He supported the Republicans with speeches and writing.
He became a supporter of Fourierism and wrote a book which became an authority on the movement. However, in 1845, he was critical of the work of Albert Brisbane and his view of Associationism, though he still contributed to the new incarnation of Brisbane's journal The Phalanx printed at Brook Farm in Massachusetts. Godwin saw these sorts of communities as embracing the democratic ideals and equal rights. Further, he believed there was a connection between democracy and religion; as he said "Christianity and Democracy are one." In May 1846, Godwin was elected Foreign Corresponding Secretary of the New England Fourier Society.
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