BROWNSON, ORESTES AUGUSTUS American writer, was born in Stockbridge (Vermont), Sept. 16, 1803. His changes in religion from Presbyterianism to Universal ism, from Unitarianism to the Society for Christian Union and Progress, which he organized, and from that to Roman Cathol icism ; his philosophy, a modified intuitionalism in which he fol lowed Comte and Victor Cousin, who in his Fragments philo sophiques, praised him; his schemes for social reform, including establishment of the Workingman's party; his outpourings of opinion in his Boston Quarterly Review (1838-42) and Brown son's Quarterly Review and his rather mys tical poetry all make him part of that strange combination of foreign philosophy, religious ecstasy, social uplift, and literary enthusiasm termed the transcendental movement. His chief books were The American Republic: Its Constitution, Tendencies and Destiny (1865), in which he based government on ethics, and those of an autobiographical nature including Charles Elwood, or the Infidel Converted (1840). He died in Detroit (Mich.) April 17, 1876.
After Brownson's death, his son, Henry F. Brownson, collected and published his Works (Detroit, 1882-87), of which a condensed sum mary appeared, also prepared by his son, entitled Literary, Scientific, and Political Views of Orestes A. Brownson. The son also published a biography (Detroit, 1898-1900). A doctor's dissertation by V. G. Michel, The Critical Principles of Orestes A. Brownson (Washington, D.C., 1918) contains a bibliography. Extracts from his writings ap peared in 1910 and 1923.