SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

This is a report on the founding convention of the American Vegetarian Society on 15 May 1850. Nichols writes that the “chief agents in this work were the Rv. Wm. Metcalfe […] and the celebrated Dr. Wm. A. Alcott” (5). Several attendees reported their experiences with veganism, among them William Metcalfe himself, “who stated that he had been a vegetarian for forty years. … All the members of the church over which he presided were also strict vegetarians, as a matter of religious belief and duty” (5). Nichols states the declaration and resolutions of the Society, as follows: The Society declares that “[v]egetarianism unfolds the universal law of man's being. Its observance is a stepping-stone to a higher stage of existence, and removes obstructions which hinder the fulfillment of man's highest aspirations, and it is the inlet to a new and holier life” (5). The resolutions maintain that human anatomy and physiology call for a vegan diet, that veganism is the “paradisaical diet” and thus is sanctioned by the Bible (5), that veganism is the diet most conducive to health and, in fact, humans tend to prefer plant-based foods over “the mangled carcasses of butchered animals” (5), that veganism is conducive to “moral happiness” (5), and that the society commits itself to “promoting the circulation of publications calculated to advance our cause” (5). Nichols also provides the society's Preamble:

The objects of this association are to induce habits of abstinence from the flesh of animals, as food, by the dissemination of information upon the subject, by means of verbal discussions, tracts, essays, and lectures, exhibiting the many advantages of a physical, intellectual, and moral character, resulting from vegaterian [sic] habits of diet, and thus to secure, through the association, example, and efforts of its members, the adoption of a principle which will tend essentially to true civilization, to universal brotherhood, and the increase of human happiness generally (6).

Nichols then notes that William Alcott was elected president, with Reuben Mussey, Sylvester Graham, and Joel Shew among the nine vice-presidents. Russell Trall was elected Recording Secretary and William Metcalfe Corresponding Secretary. Nichols briefly mentions an “animated controversy” between Sylvester Graham and “Dr. Wieting, the well known lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology,” noting that the controversy has already “been made the subject of extensive newspaper comment” (6). Nichols ends his report by noting his satisfaction that veganism has already become a topic in the press, that “discussions have sprung up,” and that “curiosity has been awakened” (6). “Science, experience, and the dictates of a refined taste,” Nichols writes, “all point to the vegetable world as affording the purest nutriment for man, and that which is best adapted to all the wants of his physical constitution” (6).