256 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
surrender all deeds and mortgages to the Workingmen's League
of Communia. He translated the major portions of his new con
stitution into English, and submitted it to a judge at the county-
seat of Clayton County for approval. On the latter's assurance
that it conformed with the requirements of the law, it was circu
lated in pamphlet form in a German version; extracts were pub
lished in the Clayton County Herald of August 5, 1853, and later
issued in an English edition printed in the plant of this newspaper.
Weitling himself had copied the long document fifteen times in
German and five times in English, had read it in full to the as
sembled colonists five times in German and once in English and
had made eight trips to Garnavillo for counsel. He felt fully repaid
for his labors when after full debate in five separate meetings the
colonists accepted the new framework of government without a
single change.
The records of Clayton County show transfers of parcels of
real estate before the end of 1853 to the Communia Workingmen's
League by Joseph and Christine Venus, Jakob and Eliza Ponsar,
J. Enders, Cornelius Kopp, B. F. Weiss, John Taffy, and U. Pape,
covering 1,440 acres in all, for a consideration of $2,449. Twenty-
two members, including Weitling, signed the new constitution.
"Take your money out of the banks and invest it here," the
founder of the Arbeiterbund advised his faithful followers, and
proclaimed the first of May as a day of festivities when all the
Gemeinde throughout the land would celebrate the adoption of
the new charter. Magnanimously he urged them to forget the past
and to extend the hand of fellowship to all who had seceded. "We
arrived in the colony on Good Friday," he wrote, lapsing into his
favorite religious symbolism. "On Saturday we buried the old
Judas of misunderstanding, and on Sunday, the Holy Easter of
the Arbeiterbund, we had the resurrection to the eternal glory of
our good cause." Weitling was in ecstasy, as he traveled 1,500
miles back to New York via St. Louis and Cincinnati.^8
For a short while, his optimism seemed justified. The new ar-(^8) The constitution was printed in full in Rep. d. Arb., July 16, 1853.