CABET, Icii'-b3', Etienne, French com munist: b. Dijon, 2 Jan. 17::; d. Saint Louis Mo., 9 Nov. 1856. He was brought up for the bar, and was appointed attorney-general of Cor sica, from which office, however, he was soon dismissed. He was sent to the Chamber of Deputies in July 1831, and there made himself so obnoxious to the government by his violent speeches, and at the same time by his inflamma tory pamphlets and a journal entitled La Pops laire, that he was indicted for treason, and rather than subject himself to the imprisonment to which he was sentenced, withdrew for five years to England. While there he published the 'Voyages et aventures de lord Carisdall en Icarie,' in which he elaborated his scheme of communism, which from 1842 to 1848 passed through five editions. He began again to pub lish La Populaire in 1841, and circulated it widely among the working classes. He also issued an Icarian almanac, several pamphlets and a work on Christianity, which would restore social equality as taught by the early Christians and opposes modern ecclesiasticism. He also wrote a history of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1830 which appeared in five volumes. On 2 Feb. 1848, a band of Icarians left France for the Red River in Texas, where Cabet had secured a tract of 400,000 acres of land, the free use of which was open to the settlers, under condition that before their departure they should deposit all their funds in the hands of Cabet, who assumed the financial and general control of the expedition. But the expedition
turned out badly, and lawsuits were instituted against Cabet; and on 30 Sept. 1849, after he had left France for Texas, he was found guilty by default of swindling his disciples, and sen tenced to two years' imprisonment. Meanwhile, with his colony of Icarians much reduced in number, he took up his abode at Nauvoo, on the Mississippi, in May 1850, and soon after re turned to Paris. There, after a protracted trial, his innocence was fully established, 26 July 1851, by the Court of Appeal, and the judgment against him canceled. He returned to Nauvoo, where he continued to preside over his colony but many disappointments and cares embittered his life and accelerated his death. In justice to Cabet it should be said that the highest moral tone prevailed in Nauvoo, and whatever may be the politico-economical objections to his sys tem, the colony presented, as far as the conduct of the settlers was concerned, a model of purity and industry. Consult Shaw, 'Icaria: A Study in Communistic History) (New York 1884); Lux, 'Etienne Cabet und der ikarische Com munisimus) (Stuttgart 1897) • Prudhommeaux, (Icarie et son fondateur, E. abet) (Paris 1907).