In the early 19th Century, Horace Greeley (Go West, young man) funded a commune in the Poconos. Total disaster: and he had to find homes for the orphaned children. He regretted the disaster the rest of his life.
Also, there was Brooke Farm outside of Boston. Another disaster. Then we had the hippies—more disaster. The lesson: some idiots infect every generation.
Horace Greeley was also a major "We must go to war with the South to Abolish Slavery!" type as well.
I have been contemplating that the North Eastern Abolitionists were basically the same Liberals we are facing today, and from the same regions of the Country, and with the same sort of impetuous drives behind them.
They are generally disconnected from the common man or reality, and want to "change" the existing structure into something else.
What used to be opposition to slavery has since morphed into "Animal Rights!" and "Feminisim!" and "Gay Rights!" and "Transgender Rights!" and "Global Warming!", and so on.