Chariot of Wisdom and Love.
God Maketh His Angels Ministering Spirits
1864-1866 Irregular, weekly or biweekly ("as often as the means will allow"), then monthly
Portland, ME. Editor: Jeremiah Hacker, conductor.
Succeeds: The Pleasure Boat (1844-1847)/ Portland Pleasure Boat (1847-1862) Succeeded by: Hacker's Pleasure Boat (1867)
1/1, June 1, 1864-1/18, December 1865. 8 pp., $2.50 a year.

Hacker (1801-1895) was a Quaker and this journal was the product of his gradual conversion to belief in spiritualism. He had been an early investigator but could not determine the issue for himself though he had all through his life been aware of being at times "influenced by a spirit, or power, separate from, and higher than myself," without being able to determine the exact nature of the spirit. The journal's predecessor, the Pleasure Boat/Portland Pleasure Boat, had failed because of Hacker's prediction of and pacifist opposition to the Civil War and during his forced retirement as a farmer his "spirit" influence had urged him repeatedly to "Write, and Trust," and he penned begging letters to friends, receiving $2.00 in turn-a better return on his efforts than what he was earning as a farmer. Shortly after, the spirit, his "spirit mother," appeared to him with messages for friends and the injunction, accompanied by peals of trumpets, to publish this journal and the spirit's message to the world. Despite the original intention the journal largely became the vehicle for Hacker's eccentric ideas on the War, Lincoln's inaction, social reform, public watering troughs, marriage, the plight of slaves, abolition of government ("The Chariot . . . comes out flat-footed in favor of destroying the Government as the only means by which to inaugurate a true Christian condition of society. The editor is very frank, and thinks Mr. Lincoln should have hung himself before going to war to save the Government from overthrow"), etc., together with a Female Department, letters from readers, and the occasional reprint of articles by the likes of Emma Hardinge (from the Banner of Light) and Charles Mackay. The last surviving issue of the journal, December 1865, contains Hacker's passionate plea for support (40 cents for the remaining eight months) and the journal expired the next year. Maine Historical Society; Syracuse University; Hamilton College; LOC; University of Virginia; University of Alberta.

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