Massachusetts, to set up his own church, calling it "The Society for Christian Union and Progress", He also published his first book, New Views of Christianity, Society, and the Church. This work combined Transcendentalist religious views with radical social egalitarianism, sharply criticizing the unequal social distribution of wealth as un-Christian and unprincipled. After President Martin Van Buren appointed George Bancroft as Collector of Customs at Boston in 1837, Bancroft in turn gave a job to Brownson, In 1838, Brownson founded the Boston Quarterly Review, and served as its editor and main contributor for four years. Other contributors included George Bancroft, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, and Elizabeth Peabody. Brownson originally offered use of the Boston Quarterly Review as a literary vehicle for the Transcendentalists; they declined and instead created The Dial. Brownson's essays were political, intellectual, and religious. Among these was a favourable review of Thomas Carlyle's Chartism, separately published as The Laboring Classes (1840). The article and Brownson's review of it are sometimes blamed for causing Van Buren, whom Brownson avidly supported, to lose the 1840 election to William Henry Harrison. In fact, Van Buren himself is said to have "blamed [Brownson] as the main cause of his defeat" because the Boston Quarterly Review had recently promoted socialist ideas. In 1840 Brownson published his semi-autobiographical work, Charles Elwood; Or, The Infidel Converted. Through the protagonist Elwood, Brownson railed against organized religion and questioned the Bible's infallibility, or truthfulness. In 1842, Brownson ceased separate publication of the Boston Quarterly Review, and it was merged into The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, He found it necessary to break with the Review after a series of his essays created new scandal. Conversion to Catholicism In the spring of 1843, rumors spread that Brownson was considering converting to Catholicism, especially when he met with the Roman Catholic Bishop of Boston. Brownson finally converted on October 20, 1844, He began to believe, in contrast to his Transcendentalist colleagues, in the inherent sinfulness of humanity. Further, he began to associate Protestantism with capitalist notions he despised. Brownson soon renounced what he now considered the errors of his past, including Transcendentalism and liberalism, and devoted himself to writing articles dedicated to converting America to Catholicism. He used his articles to strike out against his former friends in the Transcendental movement, who, he wrote, would be damned unless they converted as well. He succeeded in persuading Sophia