^truV ^^ ' /UvULe, I wu~ bviMi Jbbuisu iJu£> X^l&La ^Unui/u , J /Ulaa*— A^yju We ^ tuJ «L lU yju ^Lv* on their infant trade. The navigation of those rivers could be carried on only in flat-bottomed boats, keels, and barges. To descend them was not unattended with danger, but to ascend by means of sweeps and oars, by poling, warping, bush-whacking* and so forth, was laborious and tedious beyond conception. * The word bush-ivhacJcing is of "Western origin, and signifies a peculiar mode of propelling a boat up the Mississippi, Ohio, or any other river in that region, when the water is very high. It is this : instead of keeping in the middle of the stream, the "boat is made to go along close to one of the banks, and the men who guide it, by catching hold of the boughs of the trees which overhang the water, are enabled to drag the boat along. It is an expedient resorted to more by way of change than any thing else. Sometimes it is possible, at certain stages of the rivers, to go along for miles in this way. Even to this day the greater portion of the banks of the riv- ers of the "West are covered with almost uninterrupted forests. iS PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. Far different are the circumstances of those colonists now ! The mountains, at various points, are traversed by substantial highways, and, still further to augment the facilities for intercourse with the vast Western Valley, several canals and railroads have been made, and others are in progress. It is accessible, also, from the south, by vessels from the Gulf of Mexico, as well as from the north by the lakes, on whose waters more than a hundred steamboats now pur- sue their foaming way. As for the navigable streams of the valley itself, besides boats of all kinds of ordinary construction, many hun- dreds of steamboats ply upon their waters. And now, instead of being a boundless forest, uninhabited by civilized men, as it was seventy or eighty years ago, the West contains no fewer than four- teen regularly-constituted States, and five Territories which will soon be admitted as States into the Union, the population having, mean- while, advanced from 10,000 or 20,000 Anglo-American inhabitants, to above 13,000,000* Generally speaking, the various sections of the Valley of the Mis- sissippi, may be said to have been colonized from the parts' of the Atlantic coast which correspond with them as nearly as possible in point of latitude. This is easily accounted for : emigrants from the East to the West naturally wish to keep as much as they can within the climate which birth and early life have rendered familiar and agreeable, though a regard to their health may compel some of them to seek a change by passing to the south or north of their original latitude. The New England tide of emigration, in its westward course, penetrated and settled the northern and western parts of the State of New York, and advancing still further in the direction of the setting sun, entered the northern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- nois, extended over the whole of Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, and is stretching into Kansas and Nebraska. That from the southern counties of New York, from New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania, first occupied western Pennsylvania, and then extended into the central districts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The Maryland and Virginia column colonized western Virginia and Kentucky, and then dispersed itself over the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois ; * The names of these States and Territories are as follows: STATES. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa. TERRITORIES. Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico. This enumeration leaves out Indian Territory, because it is not organized as such, nor are its inhabitants under the laws of the United States. CHAP. VII.] ANGLO-SAXON QUALIFICATIONS FOR COLONIZATION. 49 while that from North Carolina, after having colonized Tennessee, is reaching into Missouri and Iowa. The South Carolina column, min- gling with that of Georgia, after having covered Alabama and a great part of the State of Mississippi, is now extending itself into Arkansas and Texas. This account of the progress of colonization in the great central valley, furnishes a better key to the political, moral, and religious character of the West than any other that can be given. The West, in fact, may be regarded as the counterpart of the East, after allowing for the exaggeration, if I may so speak, which a life in the wilderness tends to communicate for a time to manners and char- acter, and even to religion, but which disappears as the population increases, and as the country acquires the stamp of an older civiliza- tion. Stragglers may, indeed, be found in all parts of the West from almost all parts of the East ; and many emigrants from Europe, too, Germans especially, enter by New Orleans, and from that city find their way by steamboats into Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa. But all these form exceptions that hardly invalidate the general statement. The colonists of Oregon and Washington Territories are chiefly from the north-western States ; those of California are from all the States, together with many foreigners. The Mormons in Utah are mostly from the eastern States and from Europe. CHAPTER VII. PECULIAR QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE FOR THE WORK OF COLONIZATION. Wholly apart from considerations of a moral and religious char- acter, and the influence of external circumstances, we may remark, that the Anglo-Saxon race possesses qualities peculiarly adapted for successful colonization. The characteristic perseverance, the spirit of personal freedom and independence, that have ever distinguished that race, admirably fit a man for the labor and isolation necessary to be endured before he can be a successful colonist. Now, New En- gland, together with the States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the exception of Dutch and Swedish elements, which were too inconsiderable to affect the general result, were all colonized by people of Anglo-Saxon origin. And assuredly they have displayed qualities fitting them for their task, such as the world has 4 50 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. never witnessed before. No sooner have the relations between the colonies and the Aborigines permitted it to be done with safety (nor has this always been waited for), than we find individuals and families ready to penetrate the wilderness, there to choose, each for himself or for them- selves, some fertile spot for a permanent settlement. If friends could be found to accompany him and settle near him, so much the better ; but if not, the bold emigrant would venture alone far into the track- less forest, and surmount every obstacle single-handed, like a fisher- man committing himself to the deep, and passing the live-long day at a distance from the shore. Such was the experience of many of the first colonists of New England ; such was that of the earliest settlers in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania ; such, in our own day, has been the case with many of the living occupants of Ohio. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska ; and thus is colonization advancing in all those States and Territories at the present moment. Living on the lands which they cultivate, the agricultural inhab- itants of the New England and Middle States are very much dis- persed ; the country, far and wide, is dotted over with the dwellings of the landholders, and those who assist them in the cultivation of the soil. For almost every landowner tills his property himself, assisted by his sons, by young men hired for that purpose, or by tenants who rent from him a cottage and a few acres. Field work in all those States is performed by men alone ; a woman is never seen handling the plough, the hoe, the axe, the sickle, or the scythe, unless in the case of foreign emigrants, who have not yet adopted American usages in this respect. Now it is in this isolated and independent mode of life that our men best fitted to penetrate and settle in the wilderness are trained ; and from this what may be emphatically called our frontier race has sprung, and is recruited from time to time. Take the folio whig case as an illustration of the process that is con- tinually going on in the frontier settlements. A man removes to the West, he purchases a piece of ground, builds a house, and devotes himself to the clearing and tillage of his forest acres. Before long he has rescued a farm from the wilderness, and has reared a family upon it. He then divides his land among his sons, if there be enough for a farm for each of them ; if not, each receives money enough to buy one as he comes of age. Some may settle on lands bestowed upon them by their father ; others, preferring a change, may dispose of their portion, and proceed, most commonly unmarried, to " the new coun- try," as it is called, that is, to those parts of the West where the public lands are not yet sold. There he chooses out as much as he CHAP. Vn.] ANGLO-SAXON QUALIFICATIONS FOE COLONIZATION. 51 can conveniently pay for, receiving a title to it from the District Land Office, and proceeds to make for himself a home. This is likely to be in the spring. Having selected a spot for his dwelling, generally near some foun- tain, or where water may be had by digging a well, he goes round and makes the acquaintance of his neighbors residing within the distance, it may be, of several miles. A time is fixed for building him a house, upon which those neighbors come and render him such efficient help, that in a single day he will find a log-house constructed, and perhaps covered with clap-boards, and having apertures cut out for the doors, windows, and chimney. He makes his" floor at once of rough boards riven from the abundant timber of the surrounding forest, constructs his doors, and erects a chimney. Occupying him- self, while interrupted in out-door work by rainy weather, in com- pleting his house, he finds it in a few weeks tolerably comfortable, and during fair weather he clears the underwood from some ten or fifteen acres, kills the large trees by notching them around so as to arrest the rise of the sap, and plants the ground with Indian corn, or maize, as it is called in Europe. He can easily make, buy, or hire a plough, a harrow, and a hoe or two. If he find time, he surrounds his field with a fence. At length, after prolonging his stay until his crop is beyond the risk of serious injury from squirrels and birds, or from the growth of weeds, he shuts up his house, commits it to the care of some neighbor, living perhaps one or two miles distant, and re- turns to his paternal home, which may be from one to three hundred miles distant from his new settlement. There he stays until the month of September, then marries, and with his young wife, a wagon and pair of horses to carry their effects, a few cattle or sheep, or none, according to circumstances, sets out to settle for life in the wilderness. On arriving at his farm, he sows wheat or rye among his standing Indian corn, then gathers in this last, and prepares for the winter. His wife shares all the cares incident to this humble beginning. Ac- customed to every kind of household work, she strives by the dili- gence of her fingers to avoid the necessity of going to the merchant, who has opened his store at some village among the trees, perhaps some miles off, and there laying out the little money they may have left. With economy and health, they gradually become prosperous. The primitive log-house gives place to a far better mansion, constructed of hewn logs, or of boards, or of brick or stone. Extensive and well-fenced fields spread around, ample barns stored with grain, stalls filled with horses and cattle, flocks of sheep, and herds of hogs, all attest the increasing wealth of the owners. Their children grow up, perhaps to pursue the same course, or, as their inclinations may lead, 52 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. to choose some other occupation, or to enter one of the learned pro- fessions. This sketch will give the reader some idea of the mode in which colonization advances among the Anglo-Saxon race of the Middle and New England States of America. Less Anglo-Saxon in their orio-in, and with institutions and customs modified by slavery, the Southern States exhibit colonization advancing in a very different style. When an emigrant from those States removes to the " Far "West," he takes with Mm his wagons, his cattle, his little ones, and a troop of slaves, resembling Abraham when he moved from place to place in Canaan.' When he settles in the forest, he clears and culti- vates the ground with the labor of his slaves. Every thing goes on heavily. Slaves are too stupid and improvident to make good col- onists. The country, under these disadvantages, never assumes the garden-like appearance that it already wears in the New England and Middle States, and which is to be seen in the northern parts of the great Central Valley. Next to the Anglo-Saxon race from the British shores, the Scotch make the best settlers in the great American forests. The Irish are not so good ; they know not how to use the plough, or how to manage the horse and the ox, having had but little experience of either in their native land. None can handle the spade better, nor are they wanting in industry. But when they first arrive they are irresolute, dread the forest, and hang too much about the large towns, looking around for such work as their previous mode of life has not disqual- ified them for. Such of them as have been bred to mechanical trades might find sufficient employment if they would let ardent spirits alone, but good colonists for the forests they will never be. Their children may do better in that career. The few Welsh to be found in America are much better fitted than the Irish for the fife and pur- suits of a farmer. The perseverance and frugality of the German, joined to other good qualities which he has in common with the Anglo-Saxon race, enable him to succeed tolerably well even in the forest, but he finds it more to his advantage to settle on a farm bought at second-hand and par- tially cultivated. The Swiss are much the same with the Germans. The French and Italians, on the other hand, are totally unfit for planting colonies in the woods. Nothing could possibly be more alien to the ordinary habits of a Frenchman. The population of France is almost universally collected in cities, towns, villages, and hamlets, and thus, from early habit as well as constitutional disposi- tion, Frenchmen love society, and can not endure the loneliness and isolation of the settlements we have described. When they attempt CHAP. VIII.] ALLEGED WANT OF NATIONAL CHARACTER. 53 to form colonies, it is by grouping together in villages, as may be seen along the banks of the St. Lawrence and of the Lower Mississippi. Hence their settlements are seldom either extensive or vigorous. They find themselves happier in the cities and large towns. If re- solved to establish themselves hi the country, they should go to com- paratively well-settled neighborhoods, not to the forests of the Far West. CHAPTER VIII. ON THE ALLEGED WANT OF NATIONAL CHARACTER IN AMERICA. Foreigners who have written about the United States, have often asserted that it is a country without a national character. Were this the mere statement of an opinion, it might be suffered to pass unno- ticed, like many other things emanating from authors who undertake to speak about countries which they have had only very partial, and hence very imperfect, opportunities of knowing. But as the allega- tion has been made with an air of considerable pretension, it becomes necessary that we should submit it to the test of truth. If oneness of origin be essential to the formation of national char- acter, it is clear that the people of the United States can make no pretension to it. No civilized nation was ever composed of inhab- itants derived from such a variety of sources : for in the United States we find the descendants of English, Welsh, Scotch, Irish, Dutch, Germans, Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Poles, French, Ital- ians, and Spaniards ;* and there is even a numerous and distinguished family in which it is admitted, with p*ide, that the blood of an Indian princess mingles with that of the haughty Norman or Norman-Saxon. Many other nations are of mixed descent, but where shall we find one derived from so many distinct races ? Neither, if national character depends upon the existence of but one language, can the citizens of the United States make any claim to it : for the colonists from whom they are descended brought with them the languages of the different countries whence they came, and these are retained in some instances to the present day. At least eleven of the different languages of Europe have been spoken by settlers in the United States. * Even China and the islands of the Pacific are furnishing their contingent, also, to California. 54 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. , [BOOK I. But let us examine these two points somewhat more minutely, and we can not fail to be struck with the facts which will be presented to our view. And in the first place, never has there been witnessed so rapid a blending of people from different countries, and speaking different languages, as may be seen in the United States. "Within the last two hundred years, people have been arriving from some eleven or twelve different countries, and distinguished by as many different tongues. Yet so singular a fusion has taken place, that in many localities, where population is at all compact, it would puzzle a stranger to determine the national origin of the people from any peculiarity of physiognomy or dialect, far less of language. Who can distinguish in New York the mass of persons of Dutch descent from those of Anglo-Saxon origin, unless, perhaps, by their retaining Dutch family names? Where discover, by the indices of language, features or manners, the descendants of the Swedes, the Welsh, with a few exceptions the Poles, Norwegians, the Danes, or the great body of French Hugue- nots ? Almost the only exceptions to this universal amalgamation and loss of original languages are to be found in the Germans and French ; and even in regard to these, had it not been for comparatively recent arrivals of emigrants caused by the French Revolution, the St. Do- mingo massacres, and various events in Germany, both the French and German languages would have been extinct ere now in the United States. The former is spoken only by a few thousands in the large cities, and some tens of thousands in Louisiana. In the cities, English as well as French is spoken by most of the French ; and in Louisiana, the only portion of the Union which the French language has ever ventured to claim for itself, it is fast giving place to English. German, also, spoken although it be by many thousands of emigrants arriving yearly from Europe, is fast disappearing from the older settlements. The children of these Germans almost universally acquire the English tongue in their infancy, and where located, as generally happens, in the neighborhood of settlers who speak English as their mother tongue, learn to speak it well. Indeed, over nearly the whole vast extent of the United States, English is spoken among the well-educated with a degree of purity to which there is no parallel in the British realm* There, on a space not much larger than a sixth part of the United States territory, no fewer than three or four languages are spoken ; and in England alone, I know not how many dialects are to be found which a person unaccustomed to them can hardly at all comprehend, however familiar he may be with pure English. As for * We speak of the "British Isles"— Great Britain and Ireland— which have less than 110,000 square miles of surface, and about 27,500,000 inhabitants. CHAP. VIII.] ALLEGED WANT OP A NATIONAL CHARACTER. 55 France, with its Gascon, Breton, and I know not how many other remains of the languages sj)oken by the ancient races which were once scattered over its territory, the case is still worse.* Nor does either Germany or Italy present the uniformity of speech that distinguishes the millions of the United States, with the exception of the newly- arrived foreigners : an uniformity that extends even to pronunciation, and the absence of provincial accent and phraseology. A well-edu- cated American who has seen much of his country may, indeed, dis- tinguish the Southern from the Northern modes of pronouncing certain vowels; he may recognize by certain shades of sound, if I may so express myself, the Northern or Southern origin of his coun- trymen : but these differences are too slight to be readily perceived by a foreigner. Generally speaking, the pronunciation of well-educated Americans is precisely that given in the best orthoepical authorities of England ; and our best speakers adopt the well-established changes in pronun- ciation that from time to time gain ground there. A few words, however, are universally pronounced in a manner different from what prevails in England. Either and neither, for example, are pronounced eether and neether, not Uher and nlther, nor will our lawyers probably ever learn to say lien for leen. There is a very perceptible difference of accent between the English and Americans, particularly those of the Eastern or New England States. There is also a difference of tone ; in some of the States there is more of a nasal inflexion of the voice than one hears in England. English literature has an immense circulation in America ; a cir- cumstance which may be an advantage in one sense, and a disad- vantage in another. We are not wanting, however, in authors of unquestionable merit in every branch of literature, art, and science. Still, if a literature of our own creation be indispensable to the pos- session of a national character, we must abandon all claim to it. It may be added, that we have no fashions of our own. We follow the modes of Paris. But in this respect, Germans, Russians, Italians, and English, without any abatement of their claims to national char- acter, do the same. Amalgamation takes place, also, by intermarriages, to an extent elsewhere quite unexampled ; for though the Anglo-Saxon race has an almost undisputed possession of the soil in New England, people are everywhere else to be met with in whose veins flows the mino-led blood of English, Dutch, German, Irish, and French. * I have been informed that there are twelve distinct languages and patois spoken in France, and that interpreters are needed in courts of justice within a hundred miles of Paris ! 56 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. Nor has the assimilation of races and languages been greater than that of manners, customs, religion, and political principles. The man- ners of the peoj:>le, in some places less, in others more refined, are es- sentially characterized by simplicity, sincerity, frankness, and kindness. The religion of the overwhelming majority, and which may therefore be called national, is, in all essential points, what was taught by the great Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century. With respect to politics, with whatever warmth we may discuss the measures of the government, but one feeling prevails with regard to our political in- stitutions themselves. We are no propagandists : we hold it to be our duty to avoid meddling with the governments of other countries ; and though we prefer our own political forms, would by no means in- sist on others doing so too. That government we believe to be the best for any people, under which they live most happily, and are best protected in their right of person, property, and conscience; and we would have every nation to judge for itself what form of govern- ment is best suited to secure for it these great ends. Assuredly there is no country that possesses a press more free, or where, notwithstanding, public opinion is more powerful; but on these points we shall have more to say in another part of this work. The American people, taken as a whole, are mainly characterized by perseverance, earnestness, kindness, hosjDitality, and self-reliance, that is, by a disposition to depend upon their own exertions to the utmost, rather than look to the government for assistance. Hence, there is no country where the government does less, or the people more. In a word, our national character is that of the Anglo-Saxon race, which still predominates among us in consequence of its original preponderancy in the colonization of the country, and of the energy which forms its characteristic distinction. Has the reader ever heard Haydn's celebrated oratorio of the Creation performed by a full orchestra ? If so, he can not have for- gotten how chaos is represented at the commencement by all the instruments sounded together without the least attempt at concord. By-and-by, however, something like order begins, and at length the clear notes of the clarionet are heard over all the others, controlling them into harmony. Something like this has been in America the influence of the Anglo-Saxon language, laws, institutions, and char- acter. But if, when it is alleged that we have no national character, it be meant that we have not origmated any for ourselves, it may be asked, What nation has? All owe much to those from whom they have sprung ; this, too, has been our case, although what we have inher- ited from our remote ancestors has unquestionably been much mod- CHAP. IX.] THE EOYAL CHARTERS. 57 ified by the operation of political institutions which we have been led to adopt by new circumstances, and which, probably, were never contemplated by the founders of our country. CHAPTER IX. THE ROYAL CHARTERS, Few points in the colonial history of the United States are more interesting to the curious inquirer, than the royal charters, under which the first settlement of the original thirteen States took place. These charters were granted by James I., Charles I., Charles II., James II., William and Mary, and George I. They were very di- verse, both in form and substance. Some were granted to companies, some to single persons, others to the colonists themselves. Most of them preceded the foundation of the colonies to which they referred : but in the cases of Rhode Island and Connecticut, the territories were settled first ; while Plymouth colony had no crown charter at all, nor had it even a grant from the Plymouth Company in En- gland, until the year after its foundation. The ordinary reader can be interested only in the charters granted by the crown of England ; those from proprietary companies and individuals, to whom whole provinces had first been granted by the crown, can interest those readers only who would study the innumer- able lawsuits to which they gave occasion. Such in those days was the utter disregard for the correct laying down of boundaries, that the same district of country was often covered with two or more grants, made by the same proprietors, to different individuals ; thus furnishing matter for litigations, which lasted in some colonies more than a century ; and sometimes giving rise to lawsuits even at the present day. The royal charters afford us an amusing idea of the notions with resj:>ect to North American geography, entertained in those days by the sovereigns of England, or by those who acted for them. The charter of Virginia included not only those vast regions now comprised in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan : but the northern and southern bounding fines, if extended according to the terms of the charter, would have terminated, the one in the Pacific Ocean, and the other in Hudson's Bay ; yet, by the same charter, they were both to terminate at the " South Sea," as the Pacific Ocean was then called. 58 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. The North Carolina and Georgia charters conveyed to the colonists provinces that were to extend westward to the " South Sea." The Massachusetts and Connecticut charters also made these col- onies reach to the South Sea ; for it appears never to have entered the royal head that they must thus have interfered with the claims of Vir- ginia. New York, which they must also have traversed, seems not to have been thought of, though claimed and occupied at the time by the Dutch. Indeed, considering the descriptions contained in their charters, it is marvelous that the colonies should ever have ascertained their boundaries. Looking at the charter of Massachusetts, for ex- ample, and comparing it with that State as laid down on our maps, we are amazed to think by what possible ingenuity it should have obtained its existing boundaries, especially that on the north-east. Still more confounding does it seem that Massachusetts should have successfully claimed the territory of Maine, and yet have had to re- linquish that of New Hampshire. The charter granted to William Penn for Pennsylvania was the clearest of all, yet it was long matter of dispute whether or not it included Delaware. On the other hand Delaware was claimed by Maryland, and with justice, if the charter of the latter province were to be construed literally. Still, Maryland did not obtain Delaware. Such charters, it will be readily supposed, must have led to serious and protracted disputes between the colonies themselves. Many of these disputes were still undetermined at the commencement of the war of the Revolution ; several remained unadjusted long after the achievement of the national independence ; and it was only a few years ago that the last of the boundary questions was brought to a final issue, before the Supreme Court of the United States. After the Revolution, immense difficulties attended the settlement of the various claims preferred by the Atlantic States to those parts of the "West which they believed to have been conveyed to them by their old charters, and into which the tide of emigration was then beginning to flow. Had Virginia successfully asserted her claims, she would have had "an empire in the Valley of the Mississippi suf- ficient, at some future day, to counterbalance almost all the other States put together. North Carolina and Georgia also laid claim to territories of vast extent. The claims of Connecticut and Massachu- setts directly conflicted with those of Virginia. Hence it required a great deal of wisdom and patience to settle all these claims, without endangering the peace and safety of the confederacy. All, at length, were adjusted, except that of Georgia, and it, too, was arranged at a later date. Virginia magnanimously relinquished all her claims in the West ; a spontaneous act, which immediately led to the estab- CHAP. IX.] THE ROYAL CHARTERS. 59 lishment of the State of Kentucky, followed in due time by the foundation of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wis- consin, in what was called the North-western Territory. The relin- quishment by North Carolina of her claims west of the Allegheny Mountains, led to the creation of the State of Tennessee. But Con- necticut refused to abandon her claim to the north-eastern part of Ohio, often called to this day New Connecticut, without receiving from the General Government a handsome equivalent in money, which has been safely invested, and forms the basis of a large capital, set apart for the support of the common schools of the State.* Georgia also ceded her claims in the West to the General Government, on the condition that it should obtain for her from the Indians a title to their territory lying to the east of the Chattahoochee River, now the western boundary of that State. Out of the cession thus made by Georgia, have been formed the States of Alabama, and Mississippi. The United States have had to struggle with still more serious dif- ficulties, originating in the old royal charters. Little regard was paid to the prior claims of the Indians, in the extensive grants made by those charters, directly or indirectly, to the colonists. The pope had set the example of giving away the Aborigines with the lands they occupied, or, rather, of giving away the land from under them ; and although, in all the colonies founded by our English ancestors in America, there was a sort of feeling, that the Indians had some claims on the ground of prior occupation, yet these, it was thought, ought to give place to the rights conferred by the royal charters. The col- onists were subject to the same blinding influence of selfishness that affects other men, and to this we are to ascribe the importunity with which they urged the removal of the Indians from the lands con- veyed by the royal charters, and which they had long been wont to consider and to call their own. In no case, indeed, did the new- comers seize upon the lands of the aboriginal occupants, without some kind of purchase ; yet unjustifiable means were often employed to induce the latter to cede their claims to the former, such as exces- sive importunity, the bribery of the chiefs, and sometimes even threats. Thus, although with the exception of lands obtained by right of conquest in war, I do not believe that any whatever was ob- tained without something being given in exchange for it, yet I fear that the golden rule was sadly neglected in many of those trans- actions. In Pennsylvania and New England^ unquestionably, greater fairness was shown than in most, if not all the other colonies ; yet even there, full justice, according to that rule, was not always practised. Indeed, in many cases, it was difficult to say what exact justice inrplied. * Amounting to more than two millions of dollars. 60 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. To savages roaming over vast tracts of land which they did not cul- tivate, and which, even for the purposes of the chase, were often more extensive than necessary, — for them to part with hundreds, or even thousands of square miles, could not be thought a matter of much importance, and thus conscience was quieted. But although our forefathers may not have done full justice to the poor Indians, it is by no means certain that others in the same circumstances would have done better. The impatience of the colonists to obtain possession of lands which their charters, or arrangements consequent thereon, led them to re- gard as their own, has at times thrown the General Government into much embarrassment and difficulty. Thus, in the conflict be- tween it and the State of Georgia, a few short years ago, Congress had agreed to buy the claims of the Indians still remaining within that State, and to provide for their removal beyond its limits, in re- turn for the relinquishment of its claims in the West. But this removal of the Indians, it had been expressly stipulated, was to be effected peaceably, and with their own consent. Time rolled on, the population of Georgia increased, the settlements of the white men had begun to touch those of the red men, and the latter were urged to sell their lands and to retire further to the west. But to this they would not consent. Thereupon the General Government was called on to fulfill its engagement. It exerted itself to the utmost to per- suade the Indians to sell their lands ; but it would neither employ force itself, nor allow Georgia to do so : though much was done by the colonists, and something, too, by the State, indirectly, to worry the Indians into terms. The chiefs, however, long held back. But at length the lands were sold at a great price, and their occupants received others west of the Mississippi, and have removed to these. There, I doubt not, they will do better than in their former abode. To rid itself of such embarrassments created by the old charters, the General Government, at the instance of great and good men, adopted, some years ago, the plan of collecting all the tribes still to be found within the confines of any of the States, upon an extensive district to the west of Arkansas and Missouri, claimed by no State, and, therefore, considered as part of the public domam. There it has already collected the Cherokees, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, the Creeks, and several smaller tribes. Soon the territories of all the States will be cleared of them, except in so far as they may choose to remain and become citizens. Nor can I avoid cherishing the hope that the great Indian community now forming, as I have said, west of Missouri and Arkansas, will one day become a State itself, and have its proper representatives in the great council of the CHAP. X.] A CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OP AMERICA, HOW ATTAINED. 61 nation. I may conclude these remarks by observing, that the pain- ful dispute between the United States and Great Britain, so happily terminated, a few years since, relative to the boundaries between the State of Maine on the one hand, and Lower Canada and New Bruns- wick on the other, originated in the geographical obscurity of certain limits, described in one of these old charters. CHAPTER X. HOW A CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, THE NATURE OF THEIR GOVERNMENT, AND THEIR NATIONAL CHARACTER, MAY REST BE ATTAINED. He who would obtain a thorough knowledge of the people of the United States, their national character, the nature of their govern- ment, and the spirit of their laws, must go back to the earliest ages of the history of England, and study the character of the various races that from early times have settled there. He must carefully mark the influences they exerted on each other, and upon the civil and political institutions of that country. He must study the Saxon Conquest, followed by the introduction of Saxon institutions, and Saxon laws and usages ; the trial of an accused person by his peers ; the subdivision of the country into small districts, called townships or hundreds ; the political influence of that arrangement ; and the establishment of seven or eight petty kingdoms, in which the au- thority of the king was shared by the people, without whose con- sent no laws of importance could be made, and who often met for legislation in the open fields, or beneath the shade of some wide- spreading forest, as their Scandinavian kinsmen met, at a much later period, round the Mora stone.* He must next study the modi- fications afterward introduced during the subjugation of the Saxons by the Northmen or Danes, lasting through two hundred and sixty- one years,! and which, though both partial in its extent, and inter- rupted in its continuance, left not a feAv monuments of its existence, and gave a name to one of the orders of the English nobility. J * On the plains of Upsala in Sweden. The Mora stone signifies the stone on the moor. f From a. d. 181 to a. d. 1048. X That of Earl, from the Danish and Norwegian Jarl, who was at once the ciyil aud military governor of a province. 62 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. But, above all, he must study the influence of the Norman Con- quest, which was completed within twenty years from the battle of Hastings, fought a. d. 1066. Without extirpating all the Saxon in- stitutions, that event reduced the Anglo-Saxons of England to the condition of serfs ; gave their lands to sixty thousand warriors, com- posing the conqueror's army ; established an absolute monarchy, surrounded by a powerful landed aristocracy ; and thus introduced an order of things wholly new to the country, and foreign to its habits. He must attentively mark the influence exercised by the Anglo- Saxon and Norman races upon each other, during the period that has since elapsed, of nearly eight hundred years ; and he will there find a clue to many transactions that appear wholly unintelligible in the common histories of England. The reciprocal hatred of the two races will explain the quarrel of Becket, the first archbishop of the Saxon race after the Conquest, and Henry II., the fifth of the Norman kings ; that national animosity leading Becket to resist the demands of the king, as calculated to extend the tyranny of the hated race of conquerors, and the king to humble the conquered by crushing their haughty representative. That this, and not the dim- inution of the power of the pope, as is commonly believed, was Henry's object, may be seen from the fact of his being no less earn- est in calling for assistance from Rome, than was Becket hi invoking her protection. He will perceive this mutual animosity manifesting itself in innu- merable instances and in apparently contradictory conduct. At one time the Anglo-Saxons sided with the nobility against the monarch, as in the wars between the barons and King John, and also Henry III., not because they loved the barons, who were of the same de- tested Norman race, but because they dreaded the consequences to themselves of another conquest, by a king who had invited over the Poitevins, the Aquitains, and the Provencals, to help him against his own subjects in England. At other times they sided with the king against the barons, when they saw that the triumph of the latter was likely to augment their burdens. And although, as M. Thierry remarks,* the bitter hostility which had lasted for four centuries seemed to become extinct in the fif- teenth, when the wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster ranged the two races promiscuously on either side : yet traces of their distinct existence are to be found at this day, in the language, in the customs, and in the institutions of England. Although the monarch no longer employs the ancient formula, as it occurs in royal ordi- * " Conquete de l'Angleterre," vol. iv., p. 366-368, Brussels edition. CHAP. X.] A CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA, HOW ATTAINED. 63 nances and proclamations for four hundred years after the Conquest such as " Henry V., Henry VII., of that name since the Conquest,"* yet to tins day a Norman phraseology is sometimes employed by the monarch, as, for instance, le roy le veult / le roy s^ adviser a ; le roy mercie ses loyaux sujets.\ To this day the nobility of England, though recruited from time to time from the rich, the talented, and the ambitious commoners of Saxon blood, remains essentially Nor- man in spirit and in character. The same may be said of the gen- try, or proprietors of landed estates ; whereas the great bulk of the remaining population is of Anglo-Saxon origin.]; In Wales, and in Ireland, the races of the conquerors and the conquered appear still more distinct, and in the latter, mutual antipathy is far from having ceased. In Scotland, there is comparatively little Norman blood, the Normans never having conquered that country.§ To the resistance of the Anglo-Saxon race in England to the dom- ination of the Norman aristocracy, that kingdom was ultimately in- debted for the free institutions it now enjoys. The oppressions of the nobility and of the crown were checked by the cities and boroughs, in which the Anglo-Saxon commons became more and more concentrated, with the advance of civilization and population. The nobles themselves, on occasions when they, too, had to contend for their rights and privileges against the sovereign, gave a helping hand to the people ; and in later times especially, after the people had established the power of their Commons, or third estate, on an immovable foundation, aided the sovereign against alleged encroach- ments on the part of the people. Thus the cause of liberty gained ground both among the nobility and the commonalty. With the progress of the Reformation, the strife between the two races became exasperated: the nobility and gentry desiring little more than the abatement or rejection of the papal usurpation ; the Saxon race, led by men whose hearts were more deeply interested * Henry VIII. was the last monarch who used this formula in his proclamations, and styled himself Henry, Eighth of the name since the Conquest. f "The king wills;" "the king will take counsel;" "the king thanks his loyal subjects." % Even in our day, the language of the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester holds true in no inconsiderable degree in regard to the population of England : * " The folk of Normandie Among us woneth yet, and shalleth evermore. Of Normans beth these high men that beth in this land, And the low men of Saxons." § In fact, however, there is not a little Norman blood in Scotland ; but what of it is to be found in the aristocracy came by intermarriages, or by Normans who recom- mended themselves by their talents and courage to the favor of the Scottish mon- archs, not by conquest. 64 PEELIMINAET KEMAKKS. [BOOK I. in the subject, desiring to see the Church rid of error and supersti- tion of every form. From the discussion of the rights of conscience, the latter went on to examine the nature and foundations of civil government ; and being met with violent opposition, they proceeded to lengths they had never dreamed of when they first set out. In the fearful struggle that followed, both the national Church and the Monarchy were for a time completely overthrown: It was just as this grand opposition of sentiment was drawing on to a direct collision, and when men's minds were engrossed with the important questions which it pressed upon them, that the two colo- nies destined to exercise a predominant influence in America left the British shores. The first of the two in point of date sought the coasts of southern, the second sailed to those of northern "Virginia, as the whole Atlantic slope was then called. The one settled on James River, in the present State of Virginia, and became, in a sense, the ruling colony of the South ; the other established itself in New England, there to become the mother of the six Northern States. Both, however, have long since made their influence felt far beyond the coasts of the Atlantic, and are continuing to extend it toward the Pacific, in parallel and clearly-defined lines ; and both retain to this day the characteristic features that marked their founders when they left their native land. If not purely Norman in blood, the Southern colony was entirely Norman in spirit ; whereas the Northern was Anglo-Saxon in char- acter, and in the institutions which it took to the New World. Both loved freedom and free institutions, but they differed as to the extent to which the people should enjoy them. The one had sprung from the ranks of those in England who pleaded for the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the nobility ; the other, from the great party that was contending for popular rights. The one originated with the friends of the Church as left by Queen Elizabeth ; the other, with those who desired to see it purified from what they deemed the corruptions of antiquity, and shorn of the exorbitant pretensions of its hierarchy. The one, composed of a company of gentlemen, attended by a few mechanics or laborers, contemplated an extensive traffic with the natives ; the other, com- posed, with a few exceptions, of substantial farmers of moderate means, and industrious artisans, contemplated the cultivation of the ground, and the establishment of a state of society in which they might serve God according to His Word. The one had no popular government for some years after its foundation ; the other was self- organized and self-governed before it disembarked upon the shores that were to be the scene of its future prosperity. Finally, the reli- CHAP. X.] A CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA, HOW ATTAINED. 65 gion of the one, though doubtless sincere, and, so far as it went, beneficial in its influence, was a religion that clung to forms, and to an imposing ritual; the religion of the other was at the farthest possible remove from the Church of Rome, both in form and spirit, and professed to be guided by the Scriptures alone. Such in its grand origin was American colonization. But widely different has been the subsequent history of those English colonies, from that of England herself. The former carried out to their legiti- mate extent the great principles of civil and religious liberty, which they had learned in England, hi the school of oppression and of long and fierce discussion. The latter, after rushing on for a time in the same career, carried those principles to such a length as to subvert the government, and plunge the country into all the horrors of revo- lution and misrule, ending, at' last, in the despotism of a military chief. The former went on gradually improving the forms of popu- lar government which they had originally adopted, in the face of all the efforts of the crown of England to destroy them. The latter provoked, by the wildest excesses, a revulsion, from which, even after the lapse of two centuries, she is still suffering. The former, although never were there subjects more loyal to a crown, or a people more sincerely attached to their fatherland, were compelled, as they be- lieved, by the unkind and almost unnatural course pursued by that fatherland, to sever the bonds that boimd them to it, and to establish an independent government of their own. The latter has had to fight the battles of liberty over and over again, and has not even yet ob- tained for the people all the rights which are considered, in America, their proper inheritance from the hand of their Creator. I speak not here of the form of government. The founders of the American colonies, and their descendants for several generations, were monarchists, as they would doubtless have been to this day, had they not been compelled, while struggling against injustice and op- pression, to dissolve their political connection with the mother-country. In all essential points, colonial freedom differed not from that which an independent existence has given them; and the people of the United States enjoy at present little more liberty than what the fathers of the Revolution maintained that they ought to have enjoyed under the British Constitution and Crown. 5 66 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. CHAPTER XL HOW TO OBTAIN A CORRECT VIEW OF THE SPIRIT AND CHARACTER OF THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. Thus, too, if we would have a thorough knowledge of the spirit and character of the Religion of the United States, we- must study the history of religion in England first, and then in those other coun- tries whose religious institutions must have considerably influenced those of America, in consequence of the numerous emigrants from them that have settled there. Indeed, it is very certain that the re- ligious institutions of America have been hardly less affected than the political, by colonists from Holland, France, and other parts of the Continent of Europe, as well as from Scotland and Ireland. Men of speculative habits may indulge many plausible a priori reasonings, on the kind of religion likely to find favor with a people of democratic feelings and institutions ; but their conclusions will probably be found very much at variance with facts. M. de Tocque- ville presents a strikmg instance of this in the first few chapters of his second work on Democracy in America.* A purely abstract argu- ment, or, rather, a mere fanciful conjecture, might, in this case, inter- est by its ingenuity, and even in the absence of facts be believed as true. But when this author proceeds to establish an hypothesis by an appeal to facts, it is hard to say whether he is oftener right or wrong. Take one or two paragraphs. " In the United States," says he, " the majority undertakes to furnish individuals with a multitude of ready- made opinions, and thus to relieve them of the necessity of forming then own. There are many theories in philosophy, morals, and poli- * Both of M. de Tocqueville's works, entitled "Democracy in America," unquest- ionably possess great merit ; the earlier publication, however, is much superior to the later. But the author's great fault is, that he puts his theory uniformly before his facts, instead of deducing, according to the principles of the Baconian philosophy, his theory from his facts. The consequence of this fatal mistake is, that, having advanced a theory, and shown by argument its plausibility, he immediately goes to work to support it by facts, and, in doing so, often distorts them sadly. For the object for which he wrote, that of arresting the progress of Democracy in Europe, by reading lectures from American Democracy as from a text-book, his works certainly correspond to his purpose. But, however able they may be, it is absurd to say that his volumes give a just view of American institutions on all points. On many subjects he has said some excellent things; and, indeed, no other foreigner has come so near to com- prehending the spirit of our institutions. But no man ever will, no man ever can, understand them perfectly, unless he has imbibed their spirit, as it were, with his mother's milk. CHAP. XI.] CORRECT VIEW OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 67 tics, which every one there adopts without examination upon the faith of public opinion ; and, upon a closer inspection, it will be found that religion itself reigns there much less as a doctrine of revelation than as a commonly-admitted opinion."* Now, Democratic as America may be, it would be impossible to find a country in which the last assertion in the above paragraph is less true : for nowhere do people demand reasons for every thing more frequently or more universally ; nowhere are the preachers of the Gospel more called upon to set forth, in all their variety and force, the arguments by which the Divine revelation of Christianity is es- tablished. Again, he says : "-In the United States the Christian sects are in- finitely various, and incessantly undergoing modifications ; but Chris- tianity itself is an established and irresistible fact, which no one undertakes either to attack or to defend." Again : " The Americans, having admitted without examination the main dogmas of the Christian religion, are obliged, in like man- ner, to receive a great number of truths flowing from and having relation to it."f Now hardly any assertions concerning his country could surprise a well-informed American more than those contained in these paragraphs, nor could M. de Tocqueville have made them, had he not been carried away by certain theories with respect to the influence of Democratic institutions upon religion. M. de Tocqueville does not forget that religion gave birth to Anglo- American society, but he does forget for the moment what sort of religion it was ; that it was not a religion that repels investigation, or that would have men receive any thing as Truth, where such mo- mentous concerns are involved, upon mere trust in public ojrinion. Such has never been the character of Protestantism, rightly so called, in any age. * <: Aux Etats-Unis, la majorite se charge de fournir aux individus une foule d'opinions toutes faites, et les soulage ainsi de l'obligation de s'en former qui leur soient propres. II y a un grand nombre de theories en matiere de philosophie, de morale, ou de politique que chacun y adopte ainsi sans examen, sur la foi du public ; et si Ton regarde de tres-pres, on verra que la religion elle meme y regne bien moins comme doctrine revelee que comme opinion commune." — Democratie en Amerique, Seconde Partie, tome i., chapitre ii. •j- " Aux Etats-Unis, les sectes Chretiennes varient a l'infini, et se modifient sans cesse ; mais le Christianisme lui-meme est un fait ctabli et irresistible qu'on n'entre- prend point d'attaquer ni de defendre," " Les Americains, ayant admis sans examen les principaux dogmes de la religion Chretienne, sont obliges de recevoir de la meme maniere un grand nombre de verites qui en decoulent et qui y tiennent." — Democratie en Amerique, Seconde Partie, tome i., chapitre i. 68 PEELIMINAEY EEMAEKS. [BOOK I. Nor is this distinguished author nearer the truth when, giving way to the same speculative tendency, he asserts that " the human mind in Democratic countries must tend to Pantheism."* But enough : all that I have wished to show in referring to M. de Tocqueville's work, in many respects an admirable one, is, that the religious phenomena of the United States are not to be explained by reasonings a priori, however plausible and ingenious. No : we must go back to the times when, and the influences under which, the religious character of the first colonists from England was formed, and then trace their effects upon the institutions that were established by those colonists in the New "World. It is interesting to investigate the history of Christianity in England from the earliest ages : its propagation by missionaries from Asia Minor ; its reception by the Celtic races ; the resistance made by the British Christians, in common with those of Ireland and France, to the claims of Rome ; the conquest of England by the Saxons, and the advantage taken of that event by Rome to subdue the native Christians, whom it accused of heresy ; the conversion of the Anglo- Saxons to Christianity, and their subsequent dissatisfaction with the Romish hierarchy; the Norman Conquest, and the efforts of the popes to take advantage of that also, in seeking to establish a com- plete ascendancy over the British and Irish Christians ; the witnesses to the Truth raised up by God from the ancient Anglo-Saxon churches ; the influence of Wickliffe and other opponents of Rome ; and, finally, the dawn of the Reformation. That event, there can be no doubt, was connected, in the providence of God, with the long-continued and faithful resistance of the ancient churches of England to Error. Some remains of Truth had doubtless lain concealed, like unextin- guished embers beneath the ashes ; but the clearing away of the ac- cumulated rubbish of ages, and the contact of God's Word, sufficed to revive and make it spread anew throughout the nation. But the grand means employed by God in preparing a people who should lay the foundation of a Christian empire in the New World, was the Reformation. To their religion the New England colonists owed all their best qualities. Even their political freedom they owed to the contest they had waged in England for religious liberty, and in which, long and painful as it was, nothing but their faith could have sustained them. Religion led them to abandon their country, rather than submit to a tyranny that threatened to enslave their immortal minds ; and made them seek in the New World the freedom of con- science that was denied to them in the Old. They have been justly accused, indeed, of not immediately carry- * "Democratie en Amerique," Seconde Partie, tome i., chapitre vii. CHAP. XI.] CORRECT VIEW OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 69 ing out their principles to their legitimate results, and of being intolerant to each other. Still, be it remembered to their honor, that both in theory and in practice, they were in these respects far in advance of all their cotemporaries ; still more, that their descendants have maintained this advanced position ; so that the people of the United States of America now enjoy liberty of conscience to an ex- tent unknown in any other country. Persecution led the Puritan colonists to examine the great subject of human rights, the nature and just extent of civil government, and the boundaries at which obedience ceases to be a duty. What Sir James Mackintosh has said of John Bunyan might be applied to them : " The severities to which he had been subjected had led Mm to revolve in his own mind the principles of religious freedom, until he had acquired the ability of baffling, in the conflict of argument, the most acute and learned among his persecutors." The clear convictions of then* own minds on this subject they transmitted to their posterity, nor was the inher- itance neglected or forgotten. The political institutions of the Puritan colonies of New England are to be traced to their religion, not their religion to their political institutions ; and this remark applies to other colonies also. Now, if the reader would know what the religious character of those Puritans was, let him peruse the following eloquent eulogy upon them, from a source which will not be suspected of partiality to their religion, whatever opinions may be attributed to it in relation to their political principles. " The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging in general terms an over- ruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose in- spection nothing was too minute. To know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy Him was with them the great end of existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring vail, they aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune with Him face to face. Hence originated their contempt of earthly distinctions. The difference between the greatest and meanest of mankhid seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from Him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. They recognized no title to superiority but His favor ; and, confident of that, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. If their names were not found in the regis- fO PRELIMINARY EEMAEKS. [BOOK I. ters of heralds, they felt assured that they were recorded in the Book of Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made with hands ; their diadems, crowns of glory which should never fade away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt : for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language ; nobles by the right of an earlier crea- tion, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. The very meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible importance belonged ; on whose slightest action the spirits of light and darkness looked with anxious interest ; who had been destined, before the heavens and the earth were created, to enjoy a felicity which should continue when heaven and earth should have passed away. Events, which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes, had been ordained on his account. For Ins sake empires had risen, and nourished, and decayed. For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will, by the pen of the evangelist, and the harp of the prophet. He had been rescued by no common Deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulvar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had arisen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring God."* CHAPTER XII. A BRIEF NOTICE OF THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA. Some knowledge of the civil and political structure of the govern- ment, is almost indispensable to a correct investigation of the religious economy of the United States ; for although there is no longer a union there between Church and State, still the interests of religion come into contact, in many ways, with the political organizations of the General and State Governments. The government of the United States must appear extremely com- plicated, to a foreigner accustomed to the unity that distinguishes most monarchical polities — and complicated it is in fact. We shall endeavor to describe its leading features as briefly as possible. The whole country, then, is subject to what is called the National * Edinburgh Review, vol. xlii., p. 339. CHAP. XII.] THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA. 71 or General Government, composed of three branches: 1. The Ex- ecutive ; 2. The Legislative ; 3. The Judicial. The executive power is lodged in one man, the President : who is appointed for four years, by electors chosen for that purpose, each State being allowed as many as it has members of Congress. These are chosen differently in different States, but generally by districts, each district choosing one elector, and that for the sole purpose of electing the President and Vice-President. The latter presides over the Senate, but his office is almost nominal : should the President die, the Vice-President immediately steps into his place. This contin- gency has already twice occurred. The President appoints the secretaries of state, or ministers of the various departments of the administration, such as the treasury, navy, war-office, etc., and, directly or indirectly, he appoints to all offices in the National or General Government ; in the case of the more im- portant ones, however, only with the consent and approbation of the Senate. The legislation of the National Government is committed to the Congress : a body which has two branches — the Senate, and the House of Representatives. The Senate is composed of two persons from each State in the Union, chosen by the legislatures of the States respec- tively, and for the period of six years. The House of Representa- tives is chosen by the people of the States, generally by districts, and for the period of two years.* Their number is from time to time determined by law. The House of Representatives represents the People ; the Senate represents the States. No act of Congress has the force of law without the President's signature, unless when two thirds of each House have voted in favor of an act which he refuses to sign. All matters falling within the legislative jurisdiction of the Congress, are specified in the Constitution of the United States ; such as are not specifically mentioned there, are reserved for the legisla- tion of the individual States. The judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court, consisting, at present, of nine judges, appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate. They can be removed only by impeachment before the Senate, and hold a yearly winter session at Washington, the cap- ital of the United States. When not thus united there, they hold circuit courts in different parts of the country. The whole country is divided also into districts, each having a judge appointed by the President, for the decision of causes that fall within the cognizance of the United States' courts, and from whose decisions an appeal lies * By a recent law, the members of the House of Representatives are hereafter to be uniformly chosen by districts. 72 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. to the Supreme Court. That court decides how far the laws passed by the National Congress, or by the legislatures of the different States, are consistent with the Constitution ; also, all questions be- tween individual States, or between the United States and an indi- vidual State, and questions arising between a foreigner and either the United States or any one State. The government of the States, individually, closely resembles that of the Confederation, the jurisdiction of each being confined, of course, to its own territory. Each has its own governor and its own legislature ; the latter, in all cases, consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives, besides a Supreme Law Court, with subordinate district and county courts. The legislature of each State embraces a vast variety of subjects, falling within the compass of its own in- ternal interests. The different States vary materially on several points, such as the term during which the governor holds office, and the extent of his power ; the terms for which the senators and rep- resentatives are elected, and for which the judges are appointed ; the salaries of those functionaries, and so forth. With the exception of South Carolina and Louisiana, in which the territorial divisions are called districts, all the States are subdivided into counties ; having courts of justice attached to each, and officers, likewise, for a great many local objects, such as maintaining the roads, providing for the poor, etc., etc. These counties are subdivided into what are called townships, averaging six or eight miles square, in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and most of the States in the Valley of the Mississippi ; in Delaware they are called Hundreds, and in Louisiana Parishes ; while in Maryland, Vir- ginia,* the two Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the counties form the smallest territorial divisions. In the Territories, the subdivision into townships has been adopted. These townships form important political and civil districts and corporations ; the inhabitants meet once a year, or oftener, for local purposes, and for the appointment of local officers and committees. At these primary assemblies the people acquire habits of transacting public business, which are of the greatest importance in fitting them for legislation and government both in national and local affairs. As for the larger towns, they are incorporated as cities and boroughs, and have municipal governments of a threefold kind — legislative, ex- ecutive, and judicial. The separation of the colonies from Great Britain, and the re-or- * In the eastern part of Virginia, and a great part of Maryland, the parochial sub- divisions that existed previous to the ^Revolution are still retained for many local purposes, and are even recognized by the law. CHAP. XII.] THE FOEM OF GOVERNMEOT IN AMERICA. 73 ganization of their respective governments, produced changes less essential than at first view might be supposed. The King, Parlia- ment, and Justiciary of England were superseded by the President, Congress, and Supreme Court of the United States, the nature of the government remaining essentially the same. For a hereditary sov- ereign, we have a President, chosen once in four years ; for a here- ditary House of Peers, a Senate, the members of which are chosen for six years ; the powers of the President and Senate being almost identical in most things with those of the corresponding branches of the British Constitution. As for the several colonies, these the Rev- olution transformed into States, and the old royal charters were superseded by constitutions. Beyond this there was no essential change, and but little alteration even in forms. Instead of being appointed by the British crown, or by proprietary companies or in- dividuals, the governors are chosen by the people themselves. The legislative and judicial branches underwent very little modification. There are now in the American Union thirty-one organized States, seven Territories, and one District. The Territories are under the government of the President and Congress of the United States, but will become States as soon as the amount of their population entitles them, in the opinion of Congress, to be represented in the National Legislature. They have a legislature of their own, but their gov- ernors are appointed by the President. Under the impression that the National Government should be removed from the immediate influence of any one State, the District of Columbia (at first ten miles square), was taken from Virginia and Maryland, and set apart as the seat of the National Government ; and to it, that is, to the President, Congress, and Supreme Court, it is immediately subject. Experience has hardly approved of this meas- ure as either wise or necessary. No part of the country is worse governed, Congress being too much occupied with other matters to pay much attention to so insignificant a Territory.* The preceding outline will suffice to give the reader some idea of the government of the United States, and prepare him for under- standing many things which might otherwise be obscure hi the fur- ther course of this work. * The part of the District of Columbia taken from Virginia has been receded to that State, and the District is no longer ten miles square. 74 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. CHAPTER XIII. A BRIEF GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE UNITED STATES. In like manner, a short account of the physical character and re- sources of the United States will be found useful to the reader. Upon a survey of the United States, that country will be found to possess physical advantages such as few others enjoy. While, with the exception of Florida, all parts of it comprise a large proportion of excellent soil, many exhibit the most astonishing fertility. It abounds hi the most valuable minerals. Iron is found in several States hi great abundance. At various points, but particularly in the Middle States, there are vast deposits of coal, which is easily con- veyed by water carriage to other parts of the country. Even gold is found in considerable quantities in the western parts of North Carolina, and the adjacent parts of South Carolina and Georgia, and some in Virginia and Tennessee ; while the gold mines of California are world-renowned. The almost boundless forests of the interior furnish timber suited to all purposes. Navigable rivers everywhere present facilities for trade. On the Atlantic slope, beginning at the east and advancing southwest, we find hi succession the Penob- scot, the Kennebec, the Merrimac, the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Potomac, the Rappahannock, the James River, the Roanoke, the Neuse, the Fear, the Pedee, the San- tee, the Savannah, the Altamaha, and the St: John's, without reck- oning many smaller but important streams, navigable by common boats and small steamers. Many of these rivers, such as the Dela- ware, the Potomac, the Rappahannock, the James, and the Roanoke, expand into noble estuaries before they fall into the ocean ; and the coast is indented, also, with many bays, unrivalled in point of extent and beauty. Beginning at the east, we have Portland or Casco Bay, Portsmouth Bay, Newburyport Bay, Massachusetts Bay, Buz- zard's Bay, Narragansett Bay, New York Bay, Amboy Bay, Dela- ware Bay, Chesapeake Bay (into which twelve wide-mouthed rivers fall,) Wilmington Bay, Charleston Bay, etc., etc. With the exception of part of the eastern coast of Connecticut, a chain of islands, some inhabited, many not, runs parallel to the shore, beginning at Passamaquoddy Bay, and extending to the southern extremity of Florida, and thence round into the Gulf of Mexico, and along its coast, beyond the western limit of the United States. Thus are formed some of the finest channels for an extensive coast- CHAP. XIII.] GEOGRAPHY OF THE UNITED STATES. V5 ing trade, such as Long Island Sound, Albemarle Sound, Pamlico Sound, and many others. To increase these facilities, canals and railroads have been extended along the coast, from Portland in Maine, almost without interruption to New Orleans. Immediately on the seacoast of the western part of New Jersey,* there commences a belt of sand, which extends along the whole margin of the Southern States, covered with an almost uninterrupted forest of pines, and enlarging, as it advances southward, from twenty to nearly a hundred miles broad, the latter being its width in the State of North Carolina. Between this sandy tract and the Alle- gheny Mountains, the land is generally fertile, and produces various crops, according to the climate : such as fine wheat and the other cereal grains in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- ginia ; in which last two States tobacco is also largely cultivated ; cotton in the Carolinas and in Georgia ; and on the rich bottom lands along the bays and streams of the sandy tract, rice and indigo. As we advance northward along this fertile tract intervening be- tween the sand and the mountains, we gradually leave the region of transition and secondary rocks, and enter on that of granite ; so that before reaching the State of Maine, primitive rocks abound every- where, even on the surface of the ground. But in point of fertility the Atlantic slope bears no comparison with the Valley of the Mississippi, embracing a territory nearly seven times as large as that of France, and likely, ere long, to be the abode of many millions of the human race. Seventy years ago it contained little more than a hundred thousand inhabitants ; the population of the settled part of it amounted, in 1840, to above six millions; and this, it is calculated from the data supplied in the last forty years, will have increased, in twenty years hence, to not much under thirty millions. By the end of the present century it will probably be not less than fifty or sixty millions. Let us now look for a moment to the natural resources of this great valley. The State of Ohio, lying between the beautiful river of that name and Lake Erie, comprises 40,260 square miles, and a population of above a million and a half. As England and Wales have 57,929 square miles, and 18,000,000 inhabitants, Ohio, at the same ratio, would have more than 15,000,000. With the exception of a part of it in the southeast, on the Hockhocking River, there is little poor land in the State. Vast forests cover the greater part of it to this day. Lake Erie on the north, the river Ohio on the south, and several navigable streams flowing from the interior, both to the north and south, give it great natural advantages for commerce ; in * Strictly speaking, it begins in the eastern end of Long Island. 76 PEELIMINAEY EEMAEKS. [BOOK I. addition to which, four important artificial lines of communication, made at great expense, traverse it from Lake Erie to the Ohio. Cincinnati, its commercial capital, has a population of not much less than 200,000 inhabitants. Indiana and Illinois are scarcely, if at all, inferior to Ohio in natural advantages ; and considering its proportion of first-rate land, Michigan is, perhaps, the best State in the Union. Kentucky and Tennessee abound both in good land and in mineral resources. Missouri, one of the largest States in the Union, possesses a vast extent of excellent land, besides rich mines of iron and of lead. Iowa and Wisconsin, lying northward of Missouri and Illinois, the former on the west, and the latter on the east of the Upper Mississippi, are large and fertile States, abounding also in lead mines. Both are evi- dently destined to become great States. Arkansas having a great deal of inferior, as well as of fertile land, is considered one of the poorest States on the Mississippi. The large State of Alabama, with the exception of a small part in the south, about Mobile, and another part in the north, near the Tennessee River, was, in 1815, in the occu- pancy of the Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians, chiefly the first of those tribes, but is now rapidly increasing in population. The State of Mississippi has also much land of the very best quality, and although its financial affairs were for a long thne in a deplorable condi- tion, from bad legislation, it is emerging from its embarrassments. And as for Louisiana, the rich alluvial soil of the banks of its rivers, and its advantages for commerce, derived from its position in the lowest part of the great Valley of the Mississippi, must eventually make it a rich and powerful State. But it would require the perseverance shown in similar circumstances by the people of Holland, to defend with dikes the southern portion of the Delta of the Mississippi, and to make of it the valuable country into which it might be converted. An immense tract of ahnost unexplored country lies to the north- west of the States of Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin, much of which is believed to be fertile. It includes the Territories of Kansas, Ne- braska, and Minnesota. Nearly the whole of this vast valley is drained by one great river, and its branches, of which no fewer than fifty-seven are navigable for steamboats. Indeed, the Missouri, the Arkansas, the Red River, and the White River, flowing from the west, and the Illinois, the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, from the north and east, are themselves great rivers. On the north the great lakes, and on the south the Gulf of Mexico, form openings into this vast region for the commerce of the world. But besides these two great inlets from the north and south, communication with the Atlantic slope has been CHAP. XIV.] OBSTACLES TO THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. 77 opened up at various points of the Allegheny chain, by means of sub- stantial roads of the ordinary construction, and also by canals and railways. Thus a railway, above six hundred miles in length, unites the town of Buffalo on Lake Erie with Boston ; a canal and two rail- roads unite it with Albany and with New York. Buffalo communi- cates, again, with all the northern parts of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois, and with the eastern side of Wisconsin, by steamboats which ply between it and the ports of those regions. To all these advantages we must ascribe the rapid appearance of so many large cities in this great Western Valley, such as New Orleans, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, to say nothing of smaller towns on spots which, with the exception of New Orleans, may be said to have been covered by the forest only seventy years ago. I conclude this chapter by remarking for a moment on the kind and wise Providence which kept the great Valley of the Mississippi from the possession, and almost from the knowledge of the colonists of the United States, for more than one hundred and fifty years. By that time, they had so far occupied and reduced to cultivation the less fertile hills of the Atlantic slope, and there had acquired that hardy, industrious, and virtuous character, which better fitted them to carry civilization and religion into the vast plains of the West. So that, at this day, the New England and other Atlantic States, while increasing in population themselves, serve, at the same time, as nur- series, from which the West derives many of the best plants that are transferred to its noble soil. CHAPTER XIV. OBSTACLES WHICH THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM IN SUPPORTING RELIGION HAS HAD TO ENCOUNTER IN AMERICA! 1. FROM THE ERRONEOUS OPIN- IONS ON THE SUBJECT OF RELIGIOUS ECONOMY WHICH THE COLONISTS BROUGHT WITH THEM. Some persons in Europe entertain the idea, that if the " American plan" of supporting religion, by relying, under God's blessing, upon the efforts of the people, rather than upon the help of the govern- ment, has succeeded in that country, it has been owing, in a great measure, to the fact that the country presented an open field for the experiment ; that every thing was new there ; that no old establish- ments had to be pulled down ; no deep-rooted prejudices to be eradi- 78 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. catecl ; no time-honored institutions to be modified ; but that all was favorable for attempting something new under the sun. Now it is hardly possible to entertain an idea more remote from the truth than this. What follows will demonstrate that, so far from committing religion to the spontaneous support of persons cordially interested in its progress, the opposite course was pursued almost from the first, in all the colonies. In the greater number of the colonies, in fact, men looked to the civil government for the support of the Christian min- istry and worship. Now what we have here to consider is not the question whether they were right or wrong in doing so, but the sim- ple fact that they actually did so ; and, accordingly, that so far from what has been called the Voluntary Principle having had an open field in America, in those very parts of the country which now, perhaps, best illustrate its efficiency, it had long to struggle with establishments founded on the opposite system, and with strong prepossessions hi their favor. In all such parts of the country, many obstacles were opposed to the abandonment of the old system. Good and great men made no secret of their fears that the cause of religion would thus be ruined ; that the churches would be forsaken by the people, whose unaided efforts would prove unequal to the expense of maintaining them, and that they could never be induced to attempt it. In fact, as they had never been accustomed to rely upon their own exertions in that mat- ter, and were not aware how much they could do, they were at first timid and discouraged. Another obstacle lay in the unwillingness of those who had enjoyed the influence and ascendancy conferred by the old system, to surrender those advantages. Such persons were prone to believe, and naturally sought to impress others with the conviction, no doubt very sincerely, that their resistance to the proposed change was the legitimate fruit of their zeal for the cause of God, and of their dread lest that cause should suffer. Other obstacles, and those not inconsiderable, had to be encoun- tered, all resulting directly or indirectly from the old system. It will be shown, in due time, that some of the worst heresies in the United States were originated and propagated by measures arising out of the old system. What I mean to say is, that Truth has there encountered powerful obstacles, which we have every reason to believe would not have existed but for the imion of Church and State. Other evils there might have been in the absence of any such union ; but, be that as it may, with the obstacles to which I refer, it could not be said that the field was entirely new, far less that it was open. Still more : some of the greatest obstacles which the u American CHAP. XIV.] OBSTACLES. — EKKONEOUS OPINIONS, ETC. 79 plan" of supporting religion had to overcome, arose from the erroneous views of the colonists on the subject of religious liberty. The volun- tary system rests on the grand basis of perfect religious freedom. I mean a freedom of conscience for all ; for those who believe Chris- tianity to be true, and for those who do not ; for those who prefer one form of worship, and for those who prefer another. This is all implied, or, rather, it is fully avowed, at the first step in supporting religion upon this plan. Now it so happened — nor ought we to wonder at it, for it would have been a miracle had it been otherwise — that very many of the best colonists who settled in America had not yet attained to correct ideas on the subject of religious toleration and the rights of con- science. It required persecution, and that thorough discussion of the subject which persecution brought in its train, both in the colonies and hi England and other European countries, to make them under- stand it. And, in point of fact, those who first understood it had learned it in the school of persecution. Such was Roger Williams ; such were Lord Baltimore and the Catholics who settled in Mary- land ; such was William Penn. Accordingly, the three colonies which they founded, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, including Delaware, were the first communities, either in the New or in the Old World, that enjoyed religious liberty to the fullest extent. I am sure, indeed, that, as I have already said, the founders of the first American colonies, and those of- New England in particular, did as much for freedom of conscience as could have been expected, and were in that respect in advance of the age in which they lived. If they were intolerant, so were others. If they would not allow Roman Catholics to five among them, the most dreadful examples, be it re- membered, of Roman Catholic intolerance were forced upon their attention, and their policy was merciful in the extreme compared with that of Roman Catholic countries in those days. They merely refused to receive them or to allow them to remain among: them, whereas the poor Huguenots of France were not permitted so much as to retire from amid their enemies. If, in some of the colonies, Quakers were treated with great harshness and shocking injustice, what treatment did the members of that sect receive at the same period in England ? If the colonists burned witches, was not that done also in Scotland, England, and other countries ? I may therefore repeat, that the colonists were in advance of their cotemporaries, in their views of almost all questions relating to human rights, and that they maintained this advance is attested by the insti- tutions that arose among them. But the intolerance with which they were chargeable at first, may be traced to their opinions with regard 80 PEELIMINAEY EEMAEKS. [BOOK I. to the relations which the Church ought to sustain toward the State. And their erroneous views on that subject created obstacles which were with difficulty overcome by the principle of leaving religion, not to the support as well as protection of the State, but to the hearts and hands of persons who have truly received, and are willing to sus- tain it. These remarks will suffice to show, that the field was not so open to that principle in America as some have thought. CHAPTER XV. OBSTACLES WHICH THE VOLUNTAEY SYSTEM HAS HAD TO ENCOUNTEE IN AMEEICA I 2. FEOM THE NEWNESS OP THE COUNTEY, THE THIN- NESS OF THE POPULATION, AND THE UNSETTLED STATE OF SOCIETY. A second class of obstacles which the voluntary system, or, I should rather say, religion in general, has had to encounter hi America, comprehends such as are inseparable from its condition as a new country. From its very nature, the life of a colonist presents manifold temp- tations to neglect the interests of the soul. There is the separation of himself and his family, if he has one, from old associations and in- fluences ; and the removal, if not from abundant means of grace, at least from the force of that public opinion which often powerfully restrains from the commission of open sin. Now though many of the American colonists fled from persecution and from abounding iniquity, such was not the case with all. Then, there is the entering into new and untried situations ; the forming of new acquaintances, not always of the best kind ; and even that engrossment with the cares and labors attending a man's removal into a new country, espe- cially in the case of the many who have to earn their bread by their own strenuous exertions. All these things hinder the growth of piety in the soul, and form real obstacles to its promotion in a community. And if such hinderances had a baneful effect at the outset, they have never ceased to operate injuriously down to this day. To say nothing of the foreigners who come, year after year, to the American shores on their way to the Far West, thousands of the natives of the Atlantic slope annually leave their homes to settle amid the forests of that vast western region. In their case there is peculiar exposure to evil ; their removal almost always withdraws them from the pow- erful influence of neighborhoods where true religion more or less flourishes. Such of them as are not decidedly religious in heart and CHAP. XV.] OBSTACLES. NEWNESS OF THE COUNTRY, ETC. 81 life, greatly risk losing any good impressions they may have brought with them, amid the engrossing cares and manifold temptations of their new circumstances; circumstances in which even the estab- lished Christian will find much need of redoubled vigilance and prayer. The comparative thinness, also, of the population in the United States, is now, and must long continue to be, a great obstacle to the progress of religion, at least in the newer portions of it. I have al- ready stated, that the area of all the territory claimed by its govern- ment is 2,963,663 square miles. The population is, at the time of this writing (January, 1856), probably all of 27,000,000. If we deduct 250,000 as the population of the seven Territories, we have 26,750,000 inhabitants in the thirty-one organized States, whose area is 1,464,105 square miles ; that is, 1 8£ souls to each square mile. If this popula- tion were equally diffused over the entire surface of the organized States, even then it would be difficult enough to establish and main- tain churches and other religious institutions among so sparse a popu- lation. Still, perhaps, it could be done. A parish of thirty-six square miles, which would be large enough in point of extent, would contain 657 souls. One twice as large would contain 1,314 souls. But al- though a country would be considered well supplied if it had a pastor for every 1,314 souls, still the dispersion of these over seventy-two square nriles would necessarily very much curtail the pastor's oppor- tunity for doing good, and prevent the souls under his charge from enjoying the full influence of the Gospel. But the population of the United States is far from being thus equally distributed. Some of the older States are pretty densely settled ; not more, however, than is necessary for the easy maintenance of churches, and of a regular and settled ministry. Massachusetts, the most densely settled of them all, had, in 1850, 126^- souls to the square mile; some others, such as Connecticut and Rhode Island, had from eighty to one hun- dred and twelve ; others, such as New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and New York, average from sixty to seventy-five. Taking the whole Atlantic slope, with the exception of Florida, which is but little inhabited, the average was thirty-one, while in the fourteen States in the Valley of the Mississippi, it is less than twelve souls to the square mile. The population of California and Florida (now States), and of the Territories of Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, was very inconsiderable in 1850, and the population of the United States entire was then not eight persons, on an average, to the square mile. It is manifest, therefore, that while the population of a large pro- 6 82 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [BOOK I. portion of the Atlantic States, and of parts of the older ones in the West, is hardly dense enough to render the support of Gospel ordi- nances easy, the difficulty of effecting this is immensely increased in many quarters, but especially in the West, by the fact that the inhabitants are much more widely scattered. I shall show in another place how this difficulty is, in a good measure, at least, overcome ; here it is enough that I point to its existence. Personal experience alone can give any one a correct idea of the difficulties attending the planting and supporting of churches and pastors in that vast frontier country in the West, where the popula- tion, treading on the heels of the Indians, is, year after year, advanc- ing into the forests. A few scattered families, at wide intervals, are engaged in cutting down the huge trees, and clearing what at first are but little patches of ground. In a year or two the number is doubled. In five or six years the country begins to have the appear- ance of being inhabited by civilized men. But years more must roll away before the population will be dense enough to support churches at convenient distances from each other, and to have ministers of the Gospel to preach in them every Sabbath. Yet this work must be done, and it is doing to an extent which will surprise many into whose hands this book may fall. But if the thinness of the population be an obstacle, how great must be that of its rapid increase in the aggregate ? I say in the aggregate, for it is manifest that its increase in the thinly-settled dis- tricts must so far be an advantage. But with this increase diffusing itself into new settlements, we have a double difficulty to contend with — the increase itself demanding a great augmentation of churches and ministers, and its continued dispersion rendering it difficult to build the one and support the other, even were a sufficiency of pas- tors to be found. This difficulty would be quite appalling, if long contemplated apart from the vast efforts made to meet and over- come it. The population of the United States was, in 1790, 3,929,827 ; in 1800, 5,305,925; in 1810, 7,239,814; in 1820, 9,638,131; in 1830, 12,866,920; in 1840, 17,062,566 ; and in 1850, 23,191,876. The reader may calculate for himself the average annual increase during each of the six decades which have elapsed since 1790. But it is not so easy to ascertain the precise yearly increase. From 1830 to 1840 the whole increase was 4,201,746, being at the average rate of 420,174 souls per annum. During the decade from 1840 to 1850, it was 6,129,310, or an average annual increase of 612,931. Now to provide churches and pastors for such an increase as this, is no very easy matter; yet it must either be done, or, sooner or later, the great bulk of the nation, as some have predicted, will sink into CHAP. XVI.] OBSTACLES — SLAVERY. 83 heathenism. How far this is likely, judging from what has been done and is now doing, we shall see in another place. Here I simply state the magnitude of the difficulty. Finally, the constant emigration from the old States to the new, and even from the older to the newer settlements in the latter, is a great obstacle to the progress of religion in all places from which a part of the population is thus withdrawn. It occasionally happens in one or other of the Atlantic States, that a church is almost broken up by the departure, for the Western States, of families on whom it mainly depended for support. Most commonly, however, this emi- gration is so gradual, that the church has time to recruit itself from other families, who arrive and take the place of those who have gone away. Thus, unless where a church loses persons of great influence, the loss is soon repaired. In the cities of the East, and their subur- ban quarters especially, the population being of so floating a character, this evil is felt quite as much as in the country. But it must not be forgotten, that what is an evil in the East, by withdrawing valuable support from the churches there, proves a great blessing to the West, by transferring thither Christian families, to originate and support new churches in that quarter. CHAPTER XVI. OBSTACLES WHICH THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM HAS HAD TO ENCOUNTER IN AMERICA: 3. FROM SLAVERY. That the co-existence in one country of two such different races as the Caucasian and the African, standing to each other in the relation of masters and slaves, should retard the progress of true religion there, it requires but little knowledge of human nature to believe. Slavery has been a great evil in all past time, and by no possibility can it be otherwise. It naturally fosters a proud, arrogant, and un- feeling spirit in the master, and leads to servility and meanness, to deceitfulness and dishonesty, hi the slave. Either way it is injurious to true religion. But I have no intention to speak here of the nature of slavery, its history, condition, or prospects in the United States. My object is simply to show how it operates as one of the greatest obstacles to the promotion of religion ; and, as such, militates against the success of the voluntary system there. Slavery, indeed, may easily be shown to be peculiarly an obstacle to that system. 84 PEELIMINAEY EEMAEKS. [BOOK I. I might mention that the reluctance of slaves to worship in the same congregation with their masters, is unfavorable to the interests of true piety. That there is such a reluctance, every one knows who has had much to do with the institution of slavery. It often shows itself in the hesitation of slaves to come to the family altar, even in families which are known to treat them with kindness. This fact is easily accounted for. Human nature, however de- graded, and whether wearing a black or a white skin, has still some remains of pride, or, rather, some consciousness of what is due to itself; and it is not wonderful that it avoids, as much as possible, coming into contact with persons, however worthy and kind they may be, to whom it feels itself placed in ignoble subjection. There- fore it is that the negro of our Southern States prefers going to a church composed of people of his own color, and where no whites appear. Slaves, also, sometimes prefer places of worship where greater latitude is allowed for noisy excitement, to whatever denomination of Christians they may belong, than would be tolerated in the relig- ious assemblies of white people. I am not aware that I have exaggerated, as some may think, the repugnance of the slaves to join in religious worship with their mas- ters. One thing is certain, that, whether from such repugnance, or some other cause, the slaves like better to meet by themselves, wher- ever allowed to do so. That the separation of the two classes thus occasioned is injurious to the spiritual interests of both, must be evident from a moment's consideration. So long as slavery exists in the world, the Gospel enjoins upon both masters and slaves their appropriate duties, and they should be made to hear of those duties in each other's presence. This should be done kindly, but also faithfully. And no Christian master can excuse himself from doing the duty which he owes to his slave, in relation to his spiritual and immortal interests, by saying that he permits him to go he hardly knows whither, and to be taught those things which concern his highest happiness by he knows not whom. Where, indeed, the master himself is wholly indifferent to the subject of religion, as, alas ! is too often the case, it is well that the slave is allowed and disposed to seek religious instruction anywhere. But one of the greatest evils of slavery, as respects the mainte- nance of Christian institutions, is, that it creates a state of society extremely unfavorable to the providing of a sufficient number of churches and pastors for the spiritual wants of all classes — rich and poor, slaves and free. This holds especially in the case of large landed estates, with many hundred slaves in the possession of a small number of rich proprietors. In such circumstances, a church capable of con- CHAP. XVI.] OBSTACLES — SLAVERY. 85 taining one or two hundred persons might, perhaps, accommodate all the masters and their families within the compass of a very large parish ; whereas an immense edifice would be required for the accom- modation of all their slaves. Now, where this is the state of things, there is danger that the. landowners, being few in number, may grudge the expense of maintaining a church and pastor at all, however well able to do so ; or that, with horses and carriages at their command, all the rich within one vast district will join in having public worship at some central point, where few, comparatively, of the slaves and laboring white population will find it possible to attend. Where even a few of the rich proprietors are religious men, there is no difficulty in having the Gospel brought, not only to their own doors, but also to those of their slaves and other dependants. But where they are indifferent, or opposed to religion, then not only does the Gospel fail to reach them, but if it reaches their slaves it must be with great difficulty, and often very irregularly. For, be it remembered that a slave population is generally too poor to contribute much for the sup- port of the Gospel. Blessed be God, there is a way, as I shall show hereafter, by which some of the evils here spoken of may be miti- gated ; and that is by the system of itinerant preaching, employed in the United States, so extensively, and so usefully, by the Meth- odists. Contemplating these difficulties, we shall come to the conclusion that if, in any part of the United States, the support of the Gospel by taxation, enforced by law, is better adapted to the circumstances of the people than the voluntary plan, it is in the seaboard counties of Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. Still, it will be found that even there the vol- untary system has not been wholly inefficient, but that, through the ministry either of fixed or of itinerant preachers, it has carried the Gospel to the inhabitants of all classes, to an extent which, under such adverse circumstances, might seem impracticable. It must be noted that while such are the difficulties that oppose the maintenance of a Christian ministry in the slaveholding States, there is a special necessity for the preaching of the Gospel there. It is emphatically by the " hearing" of the Word, that the slaves can be expected to come to the knowledge of salvation. A most unwise and unjust legislation has, in ten of those States, forbidden the public teach- ing of the slaves to read. And although, doubtless, a considerable number of slaves are privately taught to read, yet it is from the voice of the living teacher that the great bulk of that class in the United States must receive instruction in divine things. Thanks be to God ! no legislature in any State has forbidden the preaching of the Gospel 86 PEELIMINAEY EEMABKS. [BOOK I. to those who are in the bonds of slavery ; and many thousands of them, it is believed, have not heard it in vain. I conclude by stating that slavery exists in fifteen States — those which form the southern half of the Union — and in the District of Columbia. It does not exist in the other sixteen, nor in the seven Territories. The States in which it exists are Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Ten- nessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas. CHAPTER XVII. OBSTACLES WHICH THE VOLLTSTAEY SYSTEM HAS HAD TO ENCOITNTEE IN ameeica: 4. peom the vast immigeation" peom foeeign couisr- TEIES. It is superfluous to say that the immigration from Europe of per- sons so excellent as were many of those who founded the American colonies, or who joined them in the days of their infancy, could not fail to be a blessing to the country. But the emigration to the United States at the present day is for the most part of a very different character. Whatever violent persecution for conscience' sake there may have been in Europe within the last seventy years, has been limited in extent, and of short duration : so that the emigration from the Old World to America, during that period, must be referred to worldly considerations, not to the force of religious convictions lead- ing men to seek for the enjoyment of religious liberty. In fact, to improve their temporal condition, to provide a home for their children in a thriving country, to rejoin friends who have gone before them, or to escape from what they have deemed civil oppression in Europe — such, generally, have been the motives that have prompted the re- cent emigrations to America. To these we must add a different class — that of men who have left their country, as has been said, " for their country's good ;" nor is the number of such inconsiderable. The emigration of people from Europe to the United States steadily increased, till it reached, in 1854, the enormous figure of 460,000, more than one half of whom were from Germany and other countries of the Continent, and the rest were from the British Isles. There was a considerable immigration of Chinese. In 1855 the immigration fell off immensely. It must not be supposed, however, that all the foreigners who come to the United States are emigrants. Many come only to make CHAP. XVII.] OBSTACLES — FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. 87 a longer or shorter stay, as merchants and traders ; and some, hav- ing arrived with the intention of remaining, become dissatisfied, and return to their native country. Now, although among these emigrants there are many respectable people, and some who bring with them no inconsiderable amount of property, truth compels me to say, that very many of them are not only very poor, but ignorant, also, and depraved. Of the Germans, like- wise, a great many are poor, and some are of improvident and depraved habits ; although, in the mass, they are much superior to the Irish in point of frugality and sobriety. Many of the Germans have of late years brought with them considerable sums of money ; and though a good many are Roman Catholics, yet the majority are Protestants. A large proportion of them now come from the kingdoms of Wurt- emberg and Bavaria, and from the Duchy of Baden ; whereas, in former times, they came chiefly from the eastern and northern parts of Germany. Within the last ten years there has been a considerable immigration of oppressed Protestants from Sweden, Norway, and Holland. Although, beyond doubt, the mortality among these emigrants from Europe, caused by exposure, anxiety, fatigue, and diseases in- cident to a strange climate, is far greater than among native Ameri- cans, yet the yearly accession of so many people, ignorant in a degree of the nature of our institutions, about half of them unable to speak English, and nearly half of them, also, Roman Catholics, must impose upon the churches a heavy responsibility, and a great amount of labor, in order to provide them with the means of grace. Every thing possible must be done for the adults among them, but hope can be entertained chiefly for the young. These grow up speaking the lan- guage and breathing the spirit of their adopted country, and thus the process of assimilation goes steadily on. In a thousand ways the emigrants who are, as it were, cast upon our shores, are brought into contact with a better religious influence than that to which many of them have been accustomed in the Old World. Every year some of them are gathered into our churches, while, as I have said, their children grow up Americans in their feelings and habits. All this is true especially of the emigrants who, meaning to make the country their home, strive to identify themselves with it. There are others, however, and particularly those who, having come to make their fortunes as merchants and traders, calculate upon returning to Europe, that never become American in feeling and spirit. From such no aid is to be expected in the benevolent efforts made by Christians to promote good objects among us. I have been struck with the fact that, generally speaking, our re- 88 EEELIMINAEY EEMAEKS. [BOOK I. ligious societies receive their most steady support from our Anglo- American citizens. The emigrants from the British realm, English, Welsh, Scotch, and Irish, rank second to these in the interest they take in our benevolent enterprises, and in readiness to contribute to their support. The Germans and the Swiss rank next, and the French last. There is most infidelity among the French, yet it pre- vails also, to a considerable degree, among the Swiss and Germans, among the better informed classes of whom it is, alas ! too often to be observed. There is no want of infidelity and indifference to relig- ion among emigrants from the British islands, but chiefly among the lowest class of them. Thus, as I remarked before, while the emigration from Europe to the United States brings us no inconsiderable number of worthy people, it introduces also a large amount of ignorance, poverty, and vice. Besides this, it is difficult to supply with religious institutions, and it takes long to Americanize, if I may use the expression, in feel- ing, conduct, and language, those multitudes from the Continent of Europe who can not understand or speak English. Many of the Germans, in particular, in consequence of the impossibility of finding a sufficient number of fit men to preach in German, were at one time sadly destitute of the means of grace, in their dispersion over the country. But within the last fifteen years a brighter prospect has opened upon that part of our population, as I shall show in its place. I have not charged upon the ordinary emigration to the shores of America the great amount of crime in the United States, which may be traced to the escape of criminals thither from Europe ; for these can not, with propriety, be regarded as constituting a part of that emigration. Nevertheless, it is the case that much of the crime committed in America, from that of the honorable merchant who scruples not to defraud the custom-house, down to the outrages of the man who disturbs the streets with his riots, is the work of foreigners. It may be said, I am sure, with the strictest truth, that in no country is a foreigner who deserves well, treated with more respect and kindness than in America ; in no country will he find less differ- ence between the native and the adopted citizen ; in no country do men become more readily assimilated in principle and feeling to the great body of the people, or more fully realize the fact that they form a constituent part of the nation. I have now finished the notice which I intended to take of some of the obstacles which the voluntary system has had to encounter in the United States. I might mention others, were it necessary ; but I have said enough to show that it is a mistake to suppose that it has CHAP. XVII.] OBSTACLES — FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. 89 had an open field and an easy course there. I am far from saying that if the experiment were to be made in an old country, where the population is established and almost stationary — where it is homoge- neous and indigenous — there would not be other obstacles to en- counter, greater, perhaps, than those to be found among us, and which are in some respects peculiar to America. I only wish that these difficulties be kept in sight as we advance in this work, and that they be appreciated at their just value when we come to speak of subjects upon which they bear. Such are some of the topics which it has been thought of conse- quence to treat beforehand, that the reader might be prepared for a better comprehension of the grand subject of this work. Upon the immediate consideration of that subject we are now ready to enter. BOOK II. THE COLONIAL ERA CHAPTER I. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. FOUNDERS OF NEW ENGLAND. I have already remarked, that if we would understand the civil and political institutions of the United States of America, we must trace them from their earliest origin in Anglo-Saxon times, through their various developments in succeeding ages, until they reached their present condition in our own days. In like manner, if we would thoroughly understand the religious condition and economy of the United States, we must begin with an attentive survey of the character of the early colonists, and of the causes which brought them to America. Besides, as has been well observed,* a striking analogy may be traced between natural bodies and bodies politic. Both retain in manhood and old age more or less of the characteristic traits of their infancy and youth. All nations bear some marks of their origin, the circumstances amid which they were born, and which favored their early development, and left an impression that stamps their whole future existence. We begin our inquiry, therefore, into the religious history and condition of the United States, by portraying, as briefly as possible, the religious character of the first colonists, who may be regarded as the founders of that commonwealth. In doing this, we shall follow neither the chronological nor the geographical order, but shall first speak of the colonists of New England ; next, of those of the South ; and, finally, of those of the Middle States. This gives us the advan- tage at once of grouping and of contrast. * See M. de Tocqueville, "Democratie en Amerique," Premiere Partie, tome i., chap i. Also Lang's " Religion and Education in America," chap, i., page 11. CHAP. I.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OP NEW ENGLAND. 91 How wonderful are the events that sometimes flow from causes apparently the most inadequate, and even insignificant ! The con- quest of Constantinople by the Turks, in 1453, seemed to be only one of the ordinary events of war, and yet it led to the revival of letters among the higher classes of society throughout Europe. The invention of the art of printing by an obscure German, two years later, gave immense facilities for the diffusion of knowledge among all classes of people. The discovery of America by a Genoese adven- turer, toward the close of the same century (a. d. 1492), produced a revolution in the commerce of the world. A poor monk in Germany, preaching (a. d. 1517) against indulgences, emancipated whole na- tions from the domination of Rome. And the fortuitous arrival of a young French lawyer, who had embraced the Faith of the Reforma- tion, at an inconsiderable city in Switzerland, situated on the banks of the Rhone, followed by his settling there, and organizing its eccle- siastical and civil institutions, was connected, in the mysterious prov- idence of Him who knows the end from the begimiing, and who employs all events to advance His mighty purposes, with the estab- lishment of free institutions in England, their diffusion in America, and their triumph in other lands. The way had long been preparing for the Reformation in England, by the opinions avowed by Wicliffe and his followers, and by the re- sistance of the government to the claims and encroachments of the ecclesiastical authorities. The light, too, which had begun to appear in Germany, cast its rays across the North Sea ; and men were ere long to be found in Britain secretly cherishing the doctrines main- tained by Luther. At length an energetic, but corrupt and tyran- nical prince, after having been rewarded for writing against Luther, by receiving from the pope the title of " Defender of the Faith," thought fit to revenge the refusal of a divorce from his first wife by abolishing the papal supremacy in his kingdom, and transferring the headship of the Church, as well as of the State, to himself. But Henry VIII. desired to have no reformation either in the doctrines or in the worship of the Church ; and in his last years he revoked the general permission which he had granted for the reading of the Scriptures, being all that he had ever done in favor of the Reforma- tion among the people, and confined that privilege to the nobles and merchants. A tyrant at once in spiritual and in temporal matters, he punished every deviation from the ancient usages of the Church, and every failure of compliance with his own arbitrary ordinances. The reign of Edward VI. (1547-1553) forms a most important era in the history of England. Partly through the influence of the writ- ings of Calvin, which had been circulated to a considerable extent in 92 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK H. that country ; partly through that of his public instructions, which had been frequented at Geneva by many young English students of divinity ; but still more by the lectures of those two eminent Conti- nental divines, Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer, who had been in- vited to England, and made professors of theology at Oxford and Cambridge : many persons had been prepared for that reformation in the Church which then actually took place under the auspices of Cranmer, and was carried to the length, in all essential points, at which it is now established by law. Hooper, and many other excel- lent men, were appointed to the most influential offices in the Church, and much progress was made in resuscitating true piety among both the clergy and the people. But the Protestants of England soon became divided into two parties. One, headed by Cranmer, then Archbishop of Canterbury, consisted of such as were opposed to great changes in the discipline and government of the Church, and wished to retain, to a certain de- gree, the ancient forms and ceremonies, hoping thereby to conciliate the people to the Protestant faith. To all the forms of the Romish Church the other party bore an implacable hatred, and insisted upon the rejection of even a ceremony or a vestment that was not clearly enjoined by the Word of God. Wishing to see the Church purified from every human invention, they were therefore called Puritans, a name given in reproach, but by which, in course of time, they were not averse to being distinguished. With them the Bible was the sole standard, alike for doctrines and for ceremonies, and with it they would allow no decision, of the Hierarchy, or ordinance of the king, or law of Parliament, to interfere. On that great foundation they planted their feet, and were encouraged in so doing by Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Calvin himself.* The Churchmen, as their oppo- nents were called, desired, on the other hand, to differ as little as pos- sible from the ancient forms, and readily adopted things indifferent ; but the Puritans could never sever themselves too widely from every usage of the Romish Church. For them the surplice and the square cap were things of importance, for they were the livery of supersti- tion, and tokens of the triumph of prescription over the Word of God — f human over divine authority ; and though then but a small minority, even thus early there was evidently a growing attachment to their doctrines in the popular mind.f * Strype's Memorials, vol. ii., chap, xxviii. Hallam's Constitutional History of England, vol. i., p. 140. f The Puritans have been often and severely blamed for what some have been pleased to call their obstinacy in regard to things comparatively indifferent. But it has been well remarked by President Quincy, in his Centennial Address at Boston, CHAP. I.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF NEW ENGLAND. 93 During the bloody reign of Edwards VI.'s successor, Mary — that is, from 1553 to 1558 — both parties of Protestants were exposed to danger, but especially the Puritans. Thousands fled to the Conti- nent, and found refuge chiefly in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Emden, Wesel, Basel, Marburg, Strasburg, and Geneva. At Frankfort the dis- pute between the two parties was renewed with great keenness ; even Calvin in vain attempted to allay it. In the end, most of the Puritans left that city and retired to Geneva, where they found the doctrine, worship, and discipline of the Church to accord with their sentiments. While residing there, they adopted for their own use a liturgy upon the plan suggested by the great Genevese reformer, and there also they translated the Bible into English.* Persecution, meanwhile, prevailed in England. Cranmer, to whom the queen in her early years had owed her life, Hooper, Rogers, and other distinguished servants of Christ, suffered death. Many of the clergy again submit- ted to the Roman see. On the death of Queen Mary, many of the exiled Puritans re- turned, with their hatred to the ceremonies and vestments inflamed by associating them with the cruelties freshly committed at home, and by what they had seen of the simple worship of the Reformed Churches abroad. But they struggled in vain to effect any substan- tial change. Elizabeth, who succeeded her sister Mary in 1558, would hear of no modifications of any importance in doctrine, discipline, or worship, so that in all points the Church was almost identically the same as it had been under Edward VI. While Elizabeth desired to conciliate the Romanists, the Puritans denounced all concessions to them, even in things indifferent. Though by profession a Protestant, she was much attached to many of the distinguishing doctrines and practices of the papacy, and she bore a special hatred to the Puritans, not only because of their differing so much from her in their religious views, but also because of the sentiments they hesitated not to avow on the subject of civil liberty. The oppression of the government that "the wisdom of zeal for any object is not to be measured by the particular na- ture of that object, but by the nature of the principle, which the circumstances of the times, or of society, have identified with such object." * This version was first published in 1560. So highly was it esteemed, particularly on account of its notes, that it passed through thirty editions. To both the transla- tion and notes King James had a special dislike, alleging that the latter were full of "traitorous conceits." In the conference at Hampton Court, "he professed that he could never yet see a Bible well translated in English, but worst of all his majesty thought the Geneva to be." This version was the one chiefly used by the first emi- grants to New England, for that of King James, published in 1611, had not then passed into general use. — Strype's Annals. Barlow's Sum and Substance of the Con- ference at Hampton Court. 94 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. was driving them, in fact, to scrutinize the nature and limits of civil and ecclesiastical authority, and to question the right of carrying it to the extent to which the queen and the bishops were determined to push it. The popular voice was becoming decidedly opposed to a rigorous exaction of conformity with the royal ordinances respecting the ceremonies. Parliament itself became imbued with the same spirit, and showed an evident disposition to befriend the Puritans, whose cause began to be associated with that of civil and religious liberty. The bishops, however, and most of the other dignified clergy, supported the views of the queen. Whitgift, in particular, who was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1583, vigorously en- forced conformity. The Court of High Commission compelled many of the best ministers of the Established Church to relinquish their bene- fices, and to hold private meetings for worship as they best could, very inferior and worthless men being generally put into their places. Still, the suppression of the Puritans was found a vain attempt. During Elizabeth's long reign their numbers steadily increased. The services they rendered to the country may be estimated by the ver- dict of an historian who has been justly charged with lying in wait, through the whole course of his history, for an opportunity of throw- ing discredit upon the cause of both religion and liberty, and who bore to the Puritans a special dislike. Mr. Hume says, "The pre- cious spark of liberty had been kindled and was preserved by the Puritans alone."* As a body, the Puritans studiously avoided separation from the Established Church. What they desired was reform, not schism. But toward the middle of Elizabeth's reign, a party arose among them that went to an extreme in their opposition to the " Church- men," and refused to hold communion with a Church whose ceremo- nies and government they condemned. These were the Independ- ents, or Brownists, as they were long improperly called, from the name of one who, for a time, was a leading person among them, but who afterward left them and ended his days in the Established Church. The congregation which Brown had gathered, after sharing his exile, was broken up and utterly dispersed. But the principles which, for a while, he had boldly advocated, were destined to survive his abandonment of them in England, as well as to flourish in a far- distant region, at that period almost unknown. From that time forward the Puritans became permanently divided into two bodies— the Nonconformists, constituting a large majority of the body, and the Separatists. The former saw evils in the Es- tablished Church, and refused to comply with them, but, at the same * Hume's History of England, vol. iii., p. 76. CHAP. I.] CHAEACTEE OP THE COLONISTS OF NEW ENGLAND. 95 time, acknowledged its merits, and desired its reform ; the latter de- nounced it as an idolatrous institution, false to Truth and to Chris- tianity, and, as such, fit only to be destroyed. Eventually the two parties became bitterly opposed to each other : the former reproached the latter with precipitancy ; the latter retorted the charge of a base want of courage. The accession of King James to the throne of England, gave new hopes to the Puritans ; but these were soon completely disappointed. That monarch, though brought up in Presbyterian principles in Scot- land, no sooner crossed the border than he became an admirer of prelacy, and, although a professed Calvinist, allowed himself to be- come the easy tool of the latitudinarian sycophants who surrounded him. Having deceived the Puritans, he soon learned to hate both them and their doctrines. His pedantry having sought a conference with their leaders at Hampton Court, scenes took place there which were as amusing for their display of the dialectics of the monarch as they were unsatisfactory to the Puritans in their results. " I will have none of that liberty as to ceremonies; I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion in substance and in ceremony. Never speak more on that point, how far you are bound to obey."* And verily it was a point on which such a monarch as James I. did not wish to hear any thing said. The conference lasted three days. The king would bear no contradiction. He spoke much, and was greatly ap- plauded by his flatterers. The aged Whitgift said, " Your majesty speaks by the special assistance of God's Spirit." And Bishop Ban- croft exclaimed, on his knees, that his heart melted for joy " because God had given England such a king as, since Christ's time, has not been."f The Parliament was becoming more and more favorable to the doctrines of the Puritans ; but the Hierarchy maintained its own views, and was subservient to the wishes of the monarch. Conform- ity was rigidly enforced by Whitgift's successor, Bancroft. In 1 604, three hundred Puritan ministers are said to have been silenced, im- prisoned, or exiled. But nothing could check the growth of their principles. The Puritan clergy and the people became arrayed against the Established Church and the king. The latter triumphed during that reign, but very different was to be the issue in the fol- * In the second day's conference his majesty spoke of the Puritans with little cer- emony. "I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land, or else worse." "Only burn them, that's alL"— Barlow's Su?n and Substance of the Confer- ence at Hampton Court, pp. 11, 83. f Barlow's Sum and Substance of the Conference at Hampton Court, pp. 93, 94. Lingard, ix., p. 32. Neal's History of the Puritans, hi., p. 45. 96 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK LT. lowing. So hateful to the court were the people called Brownists, Separatists, or Independents, that efforts were made with great suc- cess to root them out of the country. Some remains of them, however, outlived for years the persecutions by which they were assaulted. In the latter years of Elizabeth, a scattered flock of these Separat- ists began to be formed in some towns and villages of Nottingham- shire, Lincolnshire, and the adjacent borders of Yorkshire, under the pastoral care of John Robinson ; a man who has left behind him a name admitted, even by his bitterest enemies, to be without reproach. This little church was watched and beset day and night by the agents of the court, and could with difficulty find opportunities of meeting in safety. They met here or there, as they best could, on the Sabbath, and thus strove to keep alive the spirit of piety which united them. They had become " enlightened in the Word of God," and were led to see, not only that " the beggarly ceremonies were monuments of idolatry," but also that " the lordly power of the prelates ought not to be submitted to." Such being their sentiments, no efforts, of course, would be spared to make their lives miserable, and, if possible, to ex- tirpate them. At last, seeing no prospect of peace in their native land, they re- solved to pass over to Holland, a country which, after having success- fully struggled for its own independence and for the maintenance of the Protestant faith, now presented an asylum for persons of all nations when persecuted on account of their religion. After many difficulties and delays, a painfully interesting account of which may be found in their annals, they reached Amsterdam in 1608. There they found many of their brethren who had left England for the same cause with themselves. The oldest part of these exiled Independents was the church under the pastoral care of Francis Johnson. It had emigrated from London about the year 1592. There was also a fresh accession composed of a Mr. Smith's people. Risk of collision with these in- duced Mr. Robinson and his flock to retire to Leyden, and there they established themselves. CHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS CHAEACTEE OF THE FOUNDEES OF NEW ENGLAND. PLY- MOUTH COLONY. The arrival of Mr. Robinson's flock in Holland was destined to be only the beginning of their wanderings. " They knew that they were CHAP. II.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF PLYMOUTH. 97 pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits."* " They saw many goodly and fortified cities, strongly walled and guarded with troops and armed men. Also, they heard a strange and uncouth lano-ua^e, and beheld the different manners and customs of the people, with strange fashions and attires ; all so far differing from that of their plain country villages, wherein they were bred and born, and had so long lived, as it seemed they were come into a new world. But those were not the things they much looked on, or that long took up their thoughts : for they had other work in hand," and " saw be- fore long poverty coming on them like an armed man, with whom they must buckle and encounter, and from whom they could not fly. But they were armed with faith and patience against him and all his encounters ; though they were sometimes foiled, yet by God's assist- ance they prevailed, and got the victory." On their removal to Leyden, as they had no opportunity of pursu- ing the agricultural life they had led in England, they were compelled to learn such trades as they could best earn a livelihood by, for them- selves and their families. Brewster, a man of some distinction, who had been chosen their ruling elder, became a printer. Bradford, after- ward their governor in America, and their historian, acquired the art of dyeing silk. All had to learn some handicraft or other. But, not- withstanding these difficulties, after two or three years of embarrass- ment and toil, they " at length came to raise a competent and com- fortable living, and continued many years in a comfortable condition, enjoying much sweet and delightful society, and spiritual comfort together in the ways of God, under the able ministry and prudent government of Mr. John Robinson and Mr. William Brewster, who was an assistant unto him in the place of an elder, unto which he was now called and chosen by the church ; so that they grew in knowledge, and other gifts and graces of the Spirit of God ; and lived together in peace, and love, and holiness. And many came unto them from divers parts of England, so as they grew a great congregation."! As for Mr. Robinson, we are told that the people had a great affection for him, and that " his love was great toward them, and his care was always bent for their best good, both for soul and body. For, besides his singular abilities in divine things, wherein he excelled, he was able also to give direction in civil affairs, and to foresee dangers and incon- * See Governor Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony. f Governor Bradford's History of New England. It has been calculated, from data to be found in other histories of that colony, that so much had Mr. Robinson's church increased, that it had three hundred communicants before any of them embarked for America. 1 98 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. veniences ; by which means he was every way as a common father unto them." Not only so : besides writing several books and preach- ing thrice a week to his own flock, Mr. Robinson entered warmly into the Arminian controversy, which was raging during his residence at Leyden, and disputed often with Episcopius and other champions of the Arminian side.* Although they had begun to enjoy some degree of comfort in Hol- land, still they did not feel themselves at home there. Accordingly, they began to agitate the question of removing to some part of America. Their reasons for thinking of such a step, as stated in the words of their own historian, give us new proof of the extraordinary character of this simple-hearted and excellent flock. I. " And, first, they found, and saw by experience, the hardness of the place and country to be such, as few in comparison would come to them, and fewer that would bide it out and continue with them. For many that came to them could not endure the great labor and hard fare, with other inconveniences which they underwent and were contented with. But though they loved their persons, and approved their cause, and honored their sufferings, yet they left them, as it were, weeping, as Orpah did her mother-in-law Naomi ; or as those Romans did Cato in Utica, who desired to be excused and borne with, though they could not all be Catos.f For many, though they desired to enjoy the ordinances of God in their purity, and the liberty of the Gospel with them, yet, alas ! they admitted of bondage with danger of con- science, rather than endure those hardships ; yea, some preferred and chose prisons in England rather than liberty in Holland, with those afflictions. But it was thought that if a better and easier place of living could be had, it would draw many, and take away these dis- couragements ; yea, their pastor would often say that many of those that both writ and preached against them, if they were in a place where they might have liberty and live comfortably, they would then practise as they did. II. " They saw that, although the people generally bore all their difficulties very cheerfully and with a resolute courage, being in the best of their strength, yet old age began to come on some of them ; and their great and continual labors, with other crosses and sorrows, hastened it before the time : so as it was not only probably thought, » * Besides the testimony of TVinslow in his "Brief Narrative," which might be sus- pected of being partial, we have that of the celebrated Professor Hornbeck, in his "Summa Controversiarum Religionis," respecting Mr. Robinson, whom he calls "Yir ille (Johannes Robinsonus), gratus nostris, dum vixit, fuit, et theologis Leidensibus familiaris et honoratus." f See Plutarch's Life of Cato the Younger. CHAP. II.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF PLYMOUTH. 99 but apparently seen, that within a few years more they were in dan- ger to scatter by necessity pressing them, or sink under their burdens, or both ; and, therefore, according to the divine proverb, that ' a wise man seeth the plague when it cometh, and hideth himself,'* so they, like skillful and beaten soldiers, were fearful either to be entrapped or surrounded by their enemies, so as they should neither be able to fight nor fly ; and, therefore, thought it better to dislodge betimes to some place of better advantage and less danger, if any could be found. • III. " As necessity was a task-master over them, so they were forced to be such not only to their servants, but, in a sort, to their dearest children ; the which, as it did a little wound the tender hearts of many a loving father and mother, so it produced, also, many sad and sorrowful effects. For many of their children, that were of best dis- positions and gracious inclinations, having learned to bear the yoke in their youth, and willing to bear part of their parents' burden, were oftentimes so oppressed with their heavy labors, that although their minds were free and willing, yet their bodies bowed under the weight of the same, and became decrepit in their early youth ; the vigor of nature being consumed in the very bud, as it were. But that which was more lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was, that many of their children, by these occasions, and the great licen- tiousness of the youth in the country, and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses, getting the reins on their necks, and departing from their parents. Some became soldiers, others took them upon far voyages by sea, and others some worse courses, tending to dissolute- ness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of their parents and dishonor of God ; so that they saw their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted. IV". "Lastly (and which was not the least), a great hoj:>e and in- ward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ in these remote parts of the world ; yea, though they should be but as stepping-stones unto others for per- forming of so great a work." Besides these reasons, mentioned by Governor Bradford in his His- tory of Plymouth Colony, the three following are adduced by Ed- ward Winslow, who also was one of its founders : 1. Their desire to live under the protection of England, and to retain the language and the name of Englishmen. 2. Their inability to give their children * Quoted from the Geneva version. 100 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. such an education as they had themselves received. And, 3. Their grief at the profanation of the Sabbath in Holland. Such were the considerations that induced the Pilgrims to send over to England a deputation, with the view of ascertaining what kind of reception their project might meet with from the king, and whether the London Company, or, as it was most commonly called, the Virginia Company, would sanction their settling as a colony on any part of its possessions in America. With all his detestation of the Independents, the king felt rather gratified than otherwise at the prospect of extending colonization, that being an object in which he had long felt an interest. Many years before this he had encouraged colonization in the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland, and the north of Ireland has long been indebted for a prosperity and security, such as no other part of that island has enjoyed, to the English and Scotch plantations which he had been at great pains to form on lands laid waste, during the desolating warfare of his prede- cessor, Elizabeth, with certain Irish chieftains in those parts.* To extend the dominions of England he allowed to be " a good and honest motion." On his inquiring what trade they expected to find in the northern part of Virginia,! being that in which they thought of settling, they answered, " Fishing ;" to which the monarch replied, with his usual asseveration, " So God have my soul, 'tis an honest trade ; 'twas the apostles' own calling."]; But as the king wished to consult the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, the delegates were recommended not to press the matter, but to trust to his connivance rather than to look for his formal consent. This they resolved to do, rightly concluding that, " should there be a pur- pose to wrong us, though we had a seal as broad as the house-floor, there would be found means enough to recall it." The Virginia Company showed the most favorable dispositions. They said, " the thing was of God," and granted a large patent, which, however, proved of no use. One of them, to help the under- taking, lent the sum of £300, without interest, for three years, and this was afterward repaid. This advance must have been a season- able encouragement, for a hard bargain had to be struck with some London merchants, or "adventurers," as they are called by the colonial historians, hi order to raise what further money was required. At length two ships, the Speedwell of sixty, and the Mayflower of one hundred and eighty tons, were engaged, and every thing else ar- * See Robertson's History of Scotland, chap. viii. f The reader will remember that the whole Atlantic coast was then called Virginia by the English. \ Edward "Winslow's Brief Narrative. CHAP. II.] CHAKACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF PLYMOUTH. 101 ranged for the departure of as many as the ships could accommodate. Those went who hrst offered themselves, and Brewster, the ruling elder, w r as chosen then- spiritual guide. The other leading men were John Carver, William Bradford, Miles Standish, and Edward Wins- low. Mr. Robinson stayed behind, along with the greater part of the flock, with the intention of joining those who first went, at some future time, should such be the will of God. A solemn fast was ob- served. Their beloved pastor afterward delivered a farewell charge, which must be regarded as a remarkable production for those times.* * This charge is related in Edward Winslow's " Brief Narrative." It is here sub- joined in the language in which it is given by that author, from whom alone it became known to the world : " We are now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces again. But whether the Lord had appointed it or not, he charged us before God and his blessed angels to follow him no further than he followed Christ ; and if God should reveal any thing to us by any other instrument of His, to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his ministry ; for he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy "Word. He took occasion, also, miserably to bewail the state and condition of the Reformed Churches, who were come to a period in religion, and would no further go than the instruments of their reformation. As, for example, the Lutherans, they could not be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw ; for whatever part of God's will He had further imparted and revealed unto Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it. And so also, saith he, you see the Calvinists, they stick where he left them, a misery much to be lamented ; for though they were precious shining lights in their times, yet God hath not revealed His whole will to them ; and were they now living, saith he, they would be as ready and willing to embrace further light as that they had received. Here, also, he put us in mind of our church cove- nant, at least that part of it whereby we promise and covenant with God and one another, to receive whatsoever light or truth shall be made known to us from His written Word ; but, withal, exhorted us to take heed what we received for truth, and well to examine and compare it, and weigh it with other scriptures of truth before we received it. For, saith he, it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once. " Another thing he commended to us was, that we should use all means to avoid and shake off the name of Brownist, being a mere nickname and brand to make re- ligion odious, and the professors of it, to the Christian world. And to that end, said he, I should be glad if some godly minister would go over with you before my com- ing ; for, said he, there will be no difference between the unconformable [noncon- forming, but who had not actually separated from the Church] ministers and you, when they come to the practice of the ordinances out of the kingdom. And so ad- vised us by all means to endeavor to close with the godly party of the kingdom of England, and rather to study union than division, viz., how near we might possibly, without sin, close with them, than in the least measure to effect division or separation from them. And be not loath to take another pastor or teacher, saith he ; for that flock that hath two shepherds is not endangered, but secured by it." Such is the remarkable farewell address, as reported by Winslow. " Words," says 102 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. All things being now ready, the emigrants, after being " feasted at the pastor's house, for it was large," by those who were to remain behind, and having been " refreshed after their tears by the singing of psalms," set out for Delft-haven, where the ships then lay. There they were again " feasted," and prayer having been made, they were accompanied on board by their friends, but " were not able to speak to one another for the abundance of sorrow to part." The wind being favorable, they were soon on their way. They left Holland on the 22d of July, 1620, followed by the respect of the people among whom they had lived. Winslow tells us that the Dutch, on learning that they were about to leave their country, urged them much to settle in Zealand, or, if they preferred America, to seek a home for themselves on the Hudson, within the territory discovered by the navigator who gave his name to that river while in their service, and which they therefore claimed, and had resolved to colonize. But the liberal inducements then offered to the emigrants could not alter their purpose of settling in a country which should be under the government of their native land. A few days brought them safely to Southampton, in England. On learning that the captain of the smaller of the two vessels was unwill- ing to prosecute so long a voyage in her, after having put back, first to Dartmouth and then to Plymouth, they were compelled to send the Speedwell, with part of the company to London, and it was not until the 6th of September that the Mayflower finally sailed with a hundred passengers. The voyage proved long and boisterous. One person died, and a child was born, so that the original number reached the coast of America. On the 11th of November they en- tered the harbor of Cape Cod, and after having spent fully a month in looking about for a place that seemed suitable for a settlement, they fixed at last on the spot now bearing the name of the town where they had received the last hospitalities of England. There they landed on the 11th of December, old style, or the 22d of De- cember, according to the new ; and to this day the very rock on which they first planted their feet at landing is shown to the passing stranger as a cherished memorial of that interesting event. On that rock commenced the colonization of New England. Prince in his "Annals," speaking of it, "almost astonishing in that age of low and universal bigotry which then prevailed in the English nation ; wherein this truly great and learned man seemed to be the only divine who was capable of rising into a noble freedom of thinking and practising in religious matters, and even of urging such an equal liberty on his own people. He labors to take them off from their attachment to him, that they might be more entirely free to search and follow the Scriotures." CHAP. II.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF PLYMOUTH. 103 On the day of the arrival of the Mayflower in Cape Cod harbor, the following document was signed by all the male heads of families, and unmarried men not attached to families represented by their respective heads : " In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and ad- vancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, and by virtue hereof to enact, con- stitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitu- tions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony ; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof, we have hereunder subscribed our names, at Cape Cod, the 11th of No- vember, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini 1620." Here may be said to have been the first attempt made by an Amer- ican colony to frame a constitution or fundamental law — the seminal principle, as it were, of all that wonderful series of efforts which have been put forth in the New World toward fixing the foundations of independent, voluntary self-government. John Carver was chosen governor of the colony, and to assist him in administering its affairs, a council of five, afterward increased to seven members, was ap- pointed. After selecting what they considered to be the best spot for a settle- ment, as the ship's boat could not come close to the water's edge, they suffered much in health by having to wade ashore. The few intervals of good weather they could catch, between snow and rain, they spent in erecting houses ; but before the first summer came round, nearly half their number had fallen victims to consumptions and fevers, the natural effects of the hardships to which they had been exposed. What must have been the distress they suffered during that long winter, passed beneath unknown skies, with a gloomy, unbroken forest on the one hand, and the dreary ocean on the other ! But with the return of spring came health, and hope, and courage. The colony took root. The ground it occupied had been cleared for 104 THE COLONIAL EKA. [BOOK II. it by the previous destruction of the tribes of Indians which had oc- cupied it by pestilence. Of course, the colonists could not buy land where there was nobody to sell. They soon made the acquaintance of the neighboring tribes, acquired their friendship, and entered into treaty with them. Their numbers were in course of time increased by successive arrivals of emigrants, until, hi 1630, they exceeded 300. After the second year they raised grain not only to supply all their own wants, but with a surplus for exportation.* They soon had a number of vessels employed at the fisheries. They even planted a colony on the Kennebec, in Maine, and extended their trade to the Connecticut River, before the close of the first ten years of their set- tlement, and before any other English colony had been formed on the coast of northern Virginia, or of New England, the name given it by Captain Smith hi 1614, and by which it was ever after to be distin- guished. The governor and council were chosen every year. At first, and for above eighteen years, " the people" met, as in Athens of old, for the discussion and adoption of laws. But as the colony extended, and towns and villages rose along the coasts and in the interior, the " Democratic" form of government gave place to the " Republican," two delegates being chosen from each township to form "the General Court," or Legislature of the commonwealth. For some time they had no pastor or preaching elder, but Mr. Brewster led their public devotions until they came to have a regular minister. Their affairs as a church were conducted with the same system and order that marked their civil economy. Such is a brief account of the founding of Plymouth colony, the ear- liest of all the colonies that were planted in New England. Placed on a sandy and but moderately productive part of the coast, and com- manding a very limited extent of inland territory from which to de- rive the materials of commerce and wealth, it could not be expected * During the first two years they suffered greatly at times for want of food. Sometimes they subsisted on half allowance for months. They were once saved from famishing by the benevolence of some fishermen off the coast. "I have seen men," says Winslow, " stagger by reason of faintness for want of food." "Tradition de- clares, that at one time the colonists were reduced to a pint of corn, which, being parched and distributed, gave to each individual only five kernels : but tradition falls far short of reality ; for three or four months together they had no corn whatever. When a few of their old friends arrived to join them, a lobster, or a piece of fish, without bread or any thing else but a cup of fair spring water, was the best dish which the hospitality of the whole colony could afford. Neat cattle were not introduced till the fourth year of the settlement. Yet, during all this season of self-denial and suf- fering, the cheerful confidence of the Pilgrims in the mercies of Providence remained unshaken."— Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. i., p. 315. CHAP. ni.J CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 105 to become a great and important colony, like others of which I have yet to speak. But it was excelled by none in the moral worth of its founders. All professing godliness, they almost without exception, as far as we know, did honor to that profession. True religion was with them the first of all possessions. They feared God, and He walked among them, and dwelt among them, and His blessing rested upon them. The anniversary of their disembarkation at Plymouth has long been regularly celebrated upon the yearly return of the 2 2d December, in prose and in verse, in oration and in poem : a patriotic and religious duty, to which have been consecrated the highest efforts of many of the noblest and purest minds ever produced by the country to whose colonization they led the way. CHAPTER III. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. FOUNDERS OF NEW ENGLAND. COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. The first English settlements in America arose, it will be remem- bered,* from the act of James I., when he invested two Companies, the one formed at London, the other at Bristol and other towns in the west of England, each with a belt of territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ; the one lying between the 34th and 38th, the other between the 41st and 48th degrees of north latitude. Both Companies were formed in a purely commercial spirit ; each was to have its own council, but the royal Council was to have the super- intendence of their whole colonial system. The London Company was dissolved, we have seen, after an existence of eighteen years. The other accomplished nothing beyond giving encouragement to sundry trading voyages, to the coast of the country made over to it by its charter. At length, at the repeated instance of Captain Smith, the Western Company sought a renewal of their patent, with additional powers, similar to those of the London Company's second charter in 1609, with the view of attempting an extensive plan of colonization ; and, notwithstanding opposition from the Parliament and the country at large, they succeeded in their request. On November 3d, 1620, the King granted a charter to forty of his subjects, among whom were members of his household and government, and some of the wealthiest and most powerful of the English nobility, conveying to them in ab- solute property, to be disposed of and administered as they might * Book i., chap. v. 106 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. think proper, the whole of that part of North America which stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude, under the title of "The Council established at Plymouth, in the County of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing New England, in America." Under the auspices of a vast trading corporation, invested with such despotic powers, the colonization of New England commenced. "While this charter was in course of being granted, the Pilgrims were fast approaching the American coast. No valid title had, as yet, given them any legal right to set then* feet upon it, but this they obtained a few years after from the newly-formed Plymouth Company. From its very commencement the new company began to lavish away grants of the immense .territory which had been conveyed to it, so that during the fifteen years of its existence it covered with its patents the whole country now comprising Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and the vast region westward of these as far as the Pacific Ocean. Such was the utter disregard shown in those grants for any thing like clear and precise boundaries, that we can not so much wonder at the number of law-suits that arose from them, as that these were ever terminated. To Mason and Gorges were granted the territories now forming the States of New Hampshire and Maine ; to Sir "William Alexander, the country between the River St. Croix and the mouth of the St. Lawrence, notwithstanding that it was all well known to be claimed by the French, who had even planted a colony upon it, called by them Acadie, but ultimately destined to re- ceive the name of Nova Scotia. But the most important grant made by the Plymouth Company, often called in history the Council for New England, was one con- veying the Massachusetts territory to a body organized in England in 1628, for the purpose at once of providing an asylum for persons sufiering for conscience' sake in the Old World, and of extending the kingdom of Christ in the New, by founding a colony on a large scale. With this view, six Dorchester gentlemen bought from the company a belt of land stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between three miles south of Charles River and Massachusetts Bay, and three miles north of every part of the River Merrimac. Of these six, three, namely, Humphrey, Endicot, and Whetcomb, retained their shares ; while the other three sold theirs to W r inthrop, Dudley, Johnson, Pynchon, Eaton, Saltonstall, and Bellingham, so famous in colonial history, besides many others, men of fortune, and friends to colonial enterprise. Thus strengthened, this new company sent out two hun- dred colonists under Endicot, a man every way fitted for such an en- terprise — courageous, cheerful, and having firmness of purpose and CHAP. III.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAT. 107 warmth of temper, softened by an austere benevolence. These arrived in Massachusetts Bay in September, 1628, and settled at Salem, where several members of the Plymouth colony had already established themselves. The news of this event still further augmented the now growing interest felt in England on the subject of colonizing America. In the painful circumstances in which the Puritans were placed, they could not fail to have their attention drawn to the continued prosperity of the Plymouth settlement, and naturally rejoiced to hear of a land toward the setting sun, where they might enjoy a tranquillity to which they had long been strangers in the land of their fathers. Such was the interest felt throughout the kingdom, that not only in London, Bristol, and Plymouth, but at Boston, and other inland towns, influ- ential persons were found ready to risk their fortunes in the cause. Efforts were made to procure the royal sanction for the patent granted by the Plymouth Company to that of Massachusetts, and a royal charter in favor of the latter, after much trouble and expense, passed the seals on the 4th of March, 1629. This charter, bearing the signature of Charles I., was evidently granted under the idea that the persons whom it incorporated were to be rather a trading community than a civil government. They were constituted a body politic, by the name of " The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England." The administra- tion of its affairs was committed to a governor, deputy-governor, and thirteen assistants, elected by the shareholders. The freemen were to meet four times a year, or oftener if necessary, and were empow- ered to pass laws for the regulation of their affairs, without any pro- vision rendering the royal assent indispensable to the validity of their acts. Strictly considered, the patent simply conferred the rights of English subjects, without any enlargement of religious liberty. It empowered, but did not require the governor to administer the oaths of supremacy and allegiance. The persons in whose favor it was granted w ere still members of the Church of England — not Inde- pendents or Separatists — and probably neither the government, nor the first patentees, foresaw how wide a departure from the economy of that Church, would result from the emigration that was about to take place under its provisions. It is surprising that a charter which conferred unlimited powers on the corporation, and secured no rights to the colonists, should have become the means of establishing the freest of all the colonies. This was partly owing to its empowering the corporation to fix what terms it pleased for the admission of new members. The corpora- tion could increase or change its members with its own consent, and 108 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. not being obliged to bold its meetings in England, it was possible for it to emigrate, and tbus to identify itself with the colony which it was its main object to found. This was actually done. As the cor- poration was entirely composed of Puritans, it was not difficult, by means of resignations and new elections, to choose the governor, deputy-governor, and assistants, from among such as were willing to leave England as colonists. The first object of the new company, on obtaining a royal charter, was to re-enforce the party which had gone out with Endicot and had settled at Salem. The re-enforcement consisted of two hundred emi- grants, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Francis Higginson, an eminent Nonconformist minister, who was delighted to accept of the invitation to undertake that charge. By their arrival, which happened in June, the colony at Salem was increased to three hun- dred persons ; but diseases and the hardships incident to new settle- ments cut off, during the following whiter, eighty of that number, who died only lamenting that they were not allowed to see the future glories of the colony. Among these was their beloved pas- tor, Mr. Higginson, whose death was a great loss to the little com- munity. The year following, namely, 1630, was a glorious one for the colo- nization of New England. Having first taken every preparatory measure required for self-transportation, the corporation itself em- barked, accompanied by a body of eight hundred to nine hun- dred emigrants, among whom were several persons of large property and high standing in society. John Winthrop, one of the purest characters in England, had been chosen governor. Taken as a whole, it is thought that no single colony could ever be compared with them. One may form some idea of the elevated piety that per- vaded the higher classes among the Puritans of that day, from the language of the younger Winthrop : " I shall call that my country," said he to his father, " where I may most glorify God, and enjoy the presence of my dearest friends. Therefore herein I submit myself to God's will and yours, and dedicate myself to God and the com- pany with the whole endeavors both of body and mind. The ' Con- clusions,' which you sent down, are unanswerable ; and it can not but be a prosperous action which is so well allowed by the judgments of God's prophets, undertaken by so religious and wise worthies in Israel, and indented to God's glory in so special a service."* Governor Winthrop had a fine estate which he sacrificed. Many others sacrificed what were considered good estates in England in those days. One of the richest of the colonists was Isaac Johnson, * Winthrop's Journal, i., pp. 359, 360. CHAP. III.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 109 " the father of Boston." As proof that he was a man of wealth, it may be mentioned that, by his will, his funeral expenses were limited to £250. His wife, the Lady Arabella, was a daughter of the Earl of Lincoln. In her devotedness to the cause of Christ, " she came from a paradise of plenty into a wilderness of wants."* They were almost without exception godly people, and when they embarked for America were members of the Church of England, being that in which they had been born and brought up. Though of the party that were opposed to what they considered Romish superstitions and errors, they still cleaved in their conscientious convictions to the National Church ; and though they could not in all points conform to it, yet they had not separated from it, but sought the welfare of their souls in its ministrations, whenever they could possibly hope to find it there. They lamented what they regarded as its defects, but not in a spirit of bitter hostility. This very plainly appears from the fol- lowing letter addressed to the members of the Church of England, by Governor Winthrop and others, immediately after their embarka- tion, and when they were about to bid a long farewell to their native shores. It is conceived in a noble spirit : " The humble request of his majesty's loyal subjects, the Governor and the Company, late gone for New England, to the rest of then- brethren in the Church of England. " Reverend Fathers and Brethren — The general rumor of this solemn enterprise, wherein ourselves, with others, through the prov- idence of the Almighty, are engaged, as it may spare us the labor of imparting our occasion unto you, so it gives us the more encour- agement to strengthen ourselves by the procurement of the prayers and blessings of the Lord's faithful servants : for which end we are bold to have recourse unto you, as those whom God hath placed nearest his throne of mercy, which, as it affords you the more oppor- tunity, so it imposeth the greater bond upon you to intercede for his people in all their straits ; we beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of the Lord Jesus, to consider us as your brethren, standing in very great need of your help, and earnestly imploring it. And howsoever your charity may have met with some occasion of discouragement, through the misreport of our intentions, or through the disaffection or indiscretion of some of us, or, rather, among us — for we are not of those that dream of perfection in this world — yet we desire you would be pleased to take notice of the principles and body of our company, as those who esteem it our honor to call the Church of England, from whence we rise, our dear mother, and can not part from our native country, where she specially resideth, without much * Judge Story's Centennial Discourse. HO THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. sadness of heart, and many tears in our eyes ; ever acknowledging that such hope and part as we have obtained in the common salva- tion, we have received in her bosom, and sucked it from her breasts : we leave it not, therefore, as loathing that milk wherewith we were nourished there, but, blessing God for the parentage and education, as members of the same body, shall always rejoice in her good, and unfeignedly grieve for any sorrow that shall ever betide her ; and while we have breath, sincerely desire and endeavor the continuance and abundance of her welfare, with the enlargement of her bounds in the kingdom of Christ Jesus. " Be pleased, therefore, fathers and brethren, to help forward this work now in hand, which, if it prosper, you shall be the more glori- ous ; howsoever, your judgment is with the Lord, and your reward with your God. It is a usual and laudable exercise of your charity to commend to the prayers of your congregations the necessities and straits of your private neighbors : do the like for a church springing out of your own bowels. We conceive much hope that this remem- brance of us, if it be frequent and fervent, will be a most prosperous gale in our sails, and provide such a passage and welcome for us from the God of the whole earth, as both we which shall find it, and your- selves, with the rest of our friends who shall hear of it, shall be much enlarged to bring in such daily returns of thanksgivings as the speci- alities of His providence and goodness may justly challenge at all our hands. You are not ignorant that the Spirit of Gad stirred up the Apostle Paul to make continual mention of the Church of Philippi (which was a colony from Rome) ; let the same Spirit, we beseech you, put you in mind, that are the Lord's remembrancers, to pray for us without ceasing (who are a weak colony from yourselves), mak- ing continual request for us to God in all your prayers. " What we entreat of you that are the ministers of God, that we also crave at the hands of all the rest of our brethren, that they would at no time forget us in their private solicitations at the throne of grace. " If any there be who, through want of clear intelligence of our course, or tenderness of aifection toward us, can not conceive so well of our way as we could desire, we would entreat such not to despise us; nor to desert us in their prayers and affections, but to consider rather that they are so much the more bound to express the bowels of their compassion toward us, remembering always that both nature and grace doth ever bind us to relieve and rescue with our utmost and speediest power such as are dear to us, when we conceive them to be running uncomfortable hazards. "What go # odness you shall extend to us on this, or any other CHAP. III.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. Ill • Christian kindness, we, your brethren in Christ Jesus, shall labor to repay in what duty we are or shall be able to perform, promising, so far as God shall enable us, to give Him no rest on your behalf, wishing our heads and hearts may be as fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages hi the wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of supplication, through the manifold necessities and tribulations which may not altogether unexpectedly, nor, we hope, unprofitably befall us. And so commending you to the grace of God in Christ, we shall ever rest." The ships that bore Winthrop and his companions across the At- lantic, reached Massachusetts Bay in the following June and July. After having consoled the distresses and relieved the wants of the Salem colonists, the newly-arrived emigrants set about choosing a suitable place for a settlement ; a task which occupied the less time, as the bay had been well explored by preceding visitors. The first landing was made at the spot where Charlestown now stands. A party having gone from that place up the Charles River to Water- town, there some of them resolved to settle ; others preferred Dor- chester ; but the greater number resolved to occupy the peninsula up- on which Boston now stands, the settlement receiving that name from the fact that part of the colonists had come from Boston in England. For a while they were lodged in cloth tents and wretched huts, and had to endure all kinds of hardship. To complete their trials, disease made its attacks, and carried off two hundred of them at least before December. About a hundred lost heart, and went back to England. Many who had been accustomed in their native land to ease and plenty, and to all the refinements and luxuries of cultivated life, were now compelled to struggle with unforeseen wants and difficulties. Among those who sank under such hardships, and died, was the Lady Arabella Johnson. Her husband, too, "the greatest furtherer of the plantation," was carried off by disease ; but " he died willingly and in sweet peace," making " a most godly end."* These trials and afflictions were borne with a calm reliance on the goodness of God, nor was there a doubt felt that in the end all would go well. They were sustained by a profound belief that God was with them, and by bearing in mind the object' of their coming to that wilderness. Amid all this gloom, light began to break in at last. Health re- turned, and the blanks caused by death were filled up by partial ar- rivals of new emigrants from England in the course of the two fol- lowing years. The colony becoming a little settled, measures were taken to introduce a more popular government, by extending the * Governor "Winthrop's Journal. 112 THE COLONIAL EKA. [BOOK II. privileges of the charter, which had established a sort of close corpo- ration. By it all fundamental laws were to be enacted by general meetings of the freemen, or members of the company. One of the first steps, accordingly, was to convene a General Court at Boston, and admit above a hundred of the older colonists to the privileges of the corporation ; and from that they gradually went on, until, instead of an aristocratic government conducted by a governor, deputy-gov- ernor, and assistants, holding office for an indefinite period, these functionaries were elected annually, and the powers of legislation were transferred from general courts of all the freemen joined with the assistants, to a new legislature, or " general court," consisting of two branches, the assistants constituting the upper, and deputies from all the " towns" forming the lower branch. Within five years from the foundation of the colony, a Constitution was drawn up, which was to serve as a sort of Magna Charta, embracing all the fundamental principles of just government ; and in fourteen years the colonial government was organized upon the same footing as that on which it rests at the present day. But with these colonists the claims of religion took precedence of all other concerns of public interest. The New England fathers be- gan with God, sought His blessing, and desired, first of all, to pro- mote His worship. Immediately after landing they appointed a day for solemn fasting and prayer. The worship of God was commenced by them not in temples built with hands, but beneath the wide- spreading forest. The Rev. Mr. Wilson, the Rev. Mr. Philips-, and other faithful ministers, had come out with them ; and for these, as soon as the affairs of the colony became a little settled, a suitable provision was made. In the third year of the settlement there came out, among other fresh emigrants, two spiritual teachers, who were afterward to exer- cise a most extensive and beneficial influence in the colonies. One of these was the eminently pious and zealous Cotton, a man profoundly learned in the Holy Scriptures, as well as in the writings of the Fathers and the Schoolmen ; in the pulpit rather persuasive than elo- quent, and having a wonderful command over the judgments and hearts of his hearers. The other was Hooker, a man of vast endow- ments, untiring energy, and singular benevolence ; the equal of the Reformers, though of less harsh a spirit than that which marked most of those great men. These and other devoted servants of God were highly appreciated, not only for their works' sake, but also for their great personal excellence. Before long the colony began to extend, in all directions, from Boston as a centre and capital ; and as new settlements were made, CHAP. IV.] CHAEACTER OF THE COLONISTS OP CONNECTICUT, ETC. 113 additional churches were also planted ; for the New England fathers felt that nothing could be really and permanently prosperous without religion.* Within five years a considerable population was to be found scattered over Dorchester, Roxbury, Watertown, Cambridge, Charlestown, Lynn, and other settlements. Trade was spreading wide its sails ; emigrants were arriving from Europe ; brotherly in- tercourse was opened up with the Plymouth colony, by the visits of Governor Winthrop and the Rev. Mr. Wilson. Friendly treaties were made not only with the neighboring Indian tribes, the Nip- mucks and Narragansetts, but also with the more distant Mohigans and the Pequods in Connecticut. God was honored by the great bulk of the people, and every thing bore the aspect of prosperity and happiness. Such was the origin of the colony of Massachusetts Bay — a colony destined to exercise a controlling influence over all the other New England Plantations. CHAPTER IV. EELIGIOUS CHAEACTER OF THE EAELY COLONISTS. FOUNDERS OF NEW ENGLAND. COLONIES OP CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND, NEW HAMP- SHIRE, AND MAINE. GENERAL REMARKS. Plymouth! colony had been planted only three years when it be- gan to have off-shoots, one of which, in 1623, settled at Windsor, on the rich alluvial lands of the Connecticut : led thither, however, more by the advantages of the spot as a station for trading in fur, than by * Several of these new and feeble churches actually supported two ministers, one caUed the "Pastor," and the other the "Teacher." The distinction between these offices is not very easily expressed, and must have been more difficult to maintain in practice. Thomas Hooker, in his "Survey of the Summe of the Church Discipline," etc., declares the scope of the pastor's office to be " to work upon the will and the affections ;" that of the doctor or teacher, "to informe the judgment, and to help for- ward the work of illumination in the minde and understanding, and thereby to make way for the truth, that it may be settled and fastened on the heart." The former was to " wooe and win the soul to the love and practice of the doctrine which is ac- cording to godlinesse;" the latter, to dispense "a word of knowledge." I need hardly say that this duplicate of the ministerial office, though much liked by the early colo- nists, did not long survive their day. f Plymouth in America is often called New Plymouth by early writers, in speak- ing of New England. I prefer the name by which exclusively the town is now known. The context will always enable the reader to distinguish it from Plymouth in England. 8 114 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. the nature of the soil. The report of its fertility having, at length, reached England, the Earl of Warwick bought from the Council for New England, as we have seen that the Plymouth Company was sometimes called, the whole Valley of the Connecticut, which pur- chase was, the year following, transferred to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooke, and John Hampden. Two years later, the Dutch, who, in rio-ht of discovery, claimed the whole of the Connecticut territory, sent an expedition from their settlement at Manhattan up the River Connecticut, and attempted to make good their claim by erecting a block-house, called Good Hope, at Hartford. In 1635, the younger Winthrop, the future benefactor of Connecticut, came from England, with a commission from the proprietors to build a fort at the mouth of the river, and this he did soon after. Yet, even before his arrival, settlers from the neighborhood of Boston had established themselves at Hartford, Windsor, and Weathersfield. Late in the fall of that year, a party of sixty persons, men, women, and children, set out for the Connecticut, and suffered much from the inclement weather of the whiter that followed. In the following June, another party, amounting to about a hundred in number, including some of the best of the Massachusetts Bay settlers, left Boston for the Valley of the Connecticut. They were under the superintendence of Hayes, who had been one year governor of Boston, and of Hooker, who, as a preacher, was rivaled in the New World by none but Cotton, and even Cotton he excelled hi force of character, kindliness of disposi- tion, and magnanimity. Settling at the spot where Hartford now stands, they founded the colony of Connecticut. They, too, carried the Ark of the Lord with them, and made religion the basis of their institutions. Three years sufficed for the framing of their political government. First, as had been done by the Plymouth colony, they subscribed a solemn compact, and then they drew up a Constitution on the most liberal principles. The magistrates and legislature were to be chosen every year by ballot, the " towns" were to return repre- sentatives in proportion to their population, and all members of the "towns," on taking the oath of allegiance to the commonwealth, were to be allowed to vote at elections. Two centuries have since passed away, but Connecticut still rejoices in the same principles of civil polity. But before this colony had time to complete its organization, the colonists had to defend themselves and all that was dear to them against their neighbors, the Pequods. This was the first war that broke out between the New England settlers and the native tribes, and it must be allowed to have been a just one on the part of the former, if war can ever be just. The Pequods brought it upon them- CHAP. IV.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF CONNECTICUT, ETC. 115 selves by the commission of repeated murders. In less than six weeks, hostilities were brought to a close by the annihilation of the tribe. Two hundred only were left alive, and these were either reduced to servitude by the colonists, or were incorporated among the Mohigans and Narragansetts. The colony of New Haven was founded in 1638 by a body of Puri- tans, who, like all the rest, were of the school of Calvin, and whose religious teacher was the Rev. John Davenport. The excellent The- ophilus Eaton was their first governor, and continued to be annually elected to that office for twenty years. Their first Sabbath, in the yet cool month of April, was spent under a branching oak, and there their pastor discoursed to them on the Saviour's " temptation in the wilderness." After spending a day in fasting and prayer, they laid the foundation of their civil government, by simply covenanting that " all of them would be ordered by the rules which the Scriptures held forth to them." A title to their lands was purchased from the Indians. The following year, these disciples of "Him who was cradled in a manger" held their first Constituent Assembly in a barn. Having solemnly come to the conclusion that the Scriptures contain a perfect pattern of a commonwealth, according to that they aimed at constructing theirs. Purity of religious doctrine and discipline, freedom of religious worship, and the service and glory of God, were proclaimed as the great ends of the enterprise. God smiled upon it, so that in a few years the colony could show flourishing settlements rising along the Sound, and on the opposite shores of Long Island. While the colonization of Connecticut was in progress, that of Rhode Island commenced. Roger Williams, a Puritan minister, had arrived in Boston the year immediately folio whig its settlement by Winthrop and his companions; but he soon advanced doctrines on the rights of conscience, and the nature and limits of human government, which were unacceptable to the civil and religious authorities of the colony. For two years he avoided coming into collision with his opponents, by residing at Plymouth ; but having been invited to become pastor of a church in Salem, where he had preached for some time after his first coming to America, he was ordered, at last, to return to England ; whereupon, instead of com- plying, he sought refuge among the Narragansett Indians, then occu- pying a large part of the present State of Rhode Island. Having ever been the steady friend of the Indians, and defender of their rights, he was kindly received by the aged chief, Canonicus, and there, in 1636, he founded the city and plantation of Providence. Two years afterward, the beautiful island called Rhode Island, in Narragansett Bay, was bought from the Indians, by John Clarke, 116 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. William Coddington, and their friends, when obliged to leave the Massachusetts colony, in consequence of the part which they had taken m the " Antinomian controversy," as it was called, a discussion of which we shall have occasion to speak further. These two colonies of Providence and Rhode Island, both founded on the principle of absolute religious freedom, naturally presented an asylum to all who disliked the rigid laws and practices of the Massachusetts colony in religious matters ; but many, it must be added, fled thither only out of hatred to the stern morality of the other colonies. Hence Rhode Island, to this day, has a more mixed population, as respects religious opinions and practices, than any other part of New England. There is, however, no inconsiderable amount of sincere piety in the State, but the forms in which it manifests itself are numerous. As early as 1623, small settlements were made, under the grant to Mason, on the banks of the Piscataqua, in New Hampshire ; and, in point of date, both Portsmouth and Dover take precedence of Bos- ton. Most of the New Hampshire settlers came direct from England ; some from the Plymouth colony. Exeter owed its foundation to the abandonment of Massachusetts by the Reverend Mr. "Wheelwright and his immediate friends, on the occasion of the " Antinomian Con- troversy." The first permanent settlements made on " the Maine," as the con- tinental part of the country was called, to distinguish it from the islands — and hence the name of the State — date as early, it would appear, as 1626. The settlers were from Plymouth, and no doubt carried with them the religious institutions cherished in that earliest of all the New England colonies. Within twenty years from the planting of the colony at Plymouth, all the other chief colonies of New England were founded, their gov- ernments were organized, and the coast of the Atlantic, from the Ken- nebec River, in Maine, almost to the Hudson, in New York, was marked by their various settlements. Offshoots from these original stocks gradually appeared, both at intervening points near the ocean, and at such spots hi the interior as attracted settlers by superior fertility of soil or other physical advantages. From time to time little bands of adventurers left the older homesteads, and wandered forth in search of new abodes. Carrying their substance with them in wagons, and driving before them their cattle, sheep, and hogs, these simple groups wended through the tangled forest, crossed swamps and rivers, and traversed hill and dale, until some suitable resting-place appeared ; the silence of the wilderness, meanwhile, was broken by the lowing of their cattle and the bleating of their sheep, as well as by the songs of Zion, with which the pilgrims beguiled the fatigues of the way. CHAP. IV.J CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF CONISTECTICUT, ETC. 117 Everywhere nature had erected " bethels" for them, and from be- neath the overshadowing oak, mornhig and night, their orisons ascended to the God of their salvation. Hope of future comfort sustained them amid present toils. They were cheered by the thought that the extension of their settlements was promoting also the extension of the kingdom of Christ. This rapid advance of the New England settlements, during the first twenty . years of their existence, must be ascribed, in a great measure, to the troubled condition and lowering prospects of the mother country during the same period. The despotic principles of Charles I. as a monarch, still more, perhaps, the religious intolerance of Archbishop Laud and his partisans, so fatally abetted by the king, drove thousands from England to the colonies, and hurried on the Revolution that soon followed at home. The same oppressive and bigoted policy, indeed, that was convulsing Great Britain, threatened the colonies also ; but in 1639, just as they were on the eve of an open collision, the government of that country found itself so beset with difficulties at home, that New England, happily for its own sake, was forgotten. Nor does the prosperity of the colonial settlements, during those twenty years, seem less remarkable than their multiplication and ex- tension over the country. The huts in which the emigrants first found shelter, gave place to well-built houses. Commerce made rapid advances. Large quantities of the country's natural productions, such as furs and lumber, were exported ; grain was shipped to the West Indies, and fishing employed many hands. Ship-building was carried to such an extent that, within twenty-five years from the first settlement of New England, vessels of four hundred tons were con- structed there. Several kinds of manufactures, even, began to take root in the colonies. It is calculated that twenty-one thousand emigrants had arrived in New England alone before the Long Parliament met. " One hundred and ninety-eight ships had borne them across the Atlantic, and the whole cost of the plantations had been |1,000,000 : a great expendi- ture and a great emigration for that age ; yet, in 1832, more than fifty thousand persons arrived at the single port of Quebec in one summer, bringing with them a capital exceeding $3,000,000."* Even this has been far exceeded, for more than three hundred thousand emigrants arrived at New York in 1854. A great change, in this respect, took place during the next twenty years, embracing the period of the civil war, and the pro- tectorate of Oliver Cromwell and his son. Not only were there * Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. i., p. 415. . 118 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. few arrivals of emigrants during that interval, but some fiery spirits in the colonies returned to the mother-country, eager to take part in the contest waging there. This, indeed, some of the leading men in New England were earnestly pressed to do by letters from both ' Houses of Parliament, but they were unwilling to abandon the duties of the posts they occupied in the New World. Upon the whole, from 1640 to 1660, the population of New England rather diminished than augmented. But while such, during the early years of their existence, was the temporal prosperity of these colonies, not less great was their spiritual advance. In 164V, New England had forty-three churches united in one communion ; in 1 650, the number of churches was fifty-eight, that of communicants seven thousand seven hundred and fifty ; and in 1674, there were more than eighty English churches of Christ, composed of known pious and faithful professors only, dispersed through the wilderness. Of these, twelve or thirteen were in Plymouth colony, forty-seven in Massachusetts and the province of New Hampshire, nineteen in Connecticut, three in Long Island, and one in Martha's Vineyard.* Well might one of her pious historians say, "It concern- eth New England always to remember that she is a religious planta- tion, and not a plantation of trade. The profession of purity of doctrine, worship, and discipline, is written upon her forehead."f The New England colonists may have been " the poorest of the people of God in the whole world," and they settled in a rugged country, the poorest, in fact, in natural resources, of all the United States' territories ; nevertheless, their industry and other virtues made them increase in wealth, and transformed their hills and valleys into a delightful land. Their commerce soon showed itself in all seas ; their manufactures gradually gained ground, notwithstanding the obstacles created by the jealousy of England, and, with the in- crease of their population, they overspread a large extent of the space included in their charters. Many, indeed, affect to sneer at the founders of New England ; but the sneers of ignorance and prejudice can not detract from their real merits. Not that we would claim the praise of absolute wisdom for all that was done by the " New England fathers." Some of their penal laws were unreasonably and unjustly severe, some were frivo- lous, some were even ridiculous. J Some of their usages were dictated * Prince's Christian History. Emerson's History of the First Church. f Prince, in his Christian History, p. 66. $ A great deal of misrepresentation and falsehood has been published by ignorant and prejudiced persons at the expense of the New England Puritans. For example, pretended specimens of what are called "the Blue Laws of Connecticut" have ap- CHAP. IV.] CHAEACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF CONNECTICUT, ETC. 119 by false views of propriety. Nor can it be denied that they were intolerant to those who differed from them in religion ; that they persecuted Quakers and Baptists, and abhorred Roman Catholics. But all this grew out of the erroneous views which they, in common with almost all the world at that time, entertained on the rights of human conscience, and the duties of civil government, in cases where those rights are concerned. "We shall see, likewise, that they com- mitted some most serious mistakes, resulting from the same erroneous views, in the civil establishment of religion adopted in most of the colonies. Notwithstanding all this, they will be found to have been far in advance of other nations of their day. With respect to their treatment of the native tribes, they were led into measures which appear harsh and unjust, by the fact that their laws were modeled upon those of the Jews. Such, for example, was their making slaves of those Indians whom they made prisoners in war. There were cases, also, of individual wrong done to the Indians. Yet never, I believe, since the world began, have colonies from civ- ilized nations been planted among barbarous tribes with so little injustice perpetrated upon the whole. The land, in almost all cases where tribes remained to dispose of it, was taken only on in- demnification being given, as they fully recognized the right of the natives to the soil. The only exceptions, and these were but few, were the cases in which the hazards of war put them in possession of some Indian territory. Nor were they indifferent to the spiritual interests of those poor people. We shall yet see that for these they did far more than was done by any other colonies on the whole American continent, and I shall explain why they did not do more. Let us now, in conclusion, contemplate for a moment the great features that mark the religious character of the founders of New England, leaving our remarks on their religious economy to be intro- duced at another place. First, then, theirs was a religion that made much of the Bible : I should rather say, that to them the Bible was every thing. They not only drew their religious principles from it, but according to it, in a great degree, they fashioned their civil laws. They were disposed to refer every thing " to the Law and to the Testimony." And although they did not always interpret the Scriptures aright, yet no people ever revered them more, or studied them more carefully. With them peared in the journals of certain European travelers, and have been received by credulous transatlantic readers as perfectly authentic. Yet the greater part of these so-called " laws" are the sheerest fabrications ever palmed upon the world, as is shown by Professor Kingsley in a note appended to his Centennial Discourse, deliv- ered at New Haven a few years ago. 120 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. the famous motto of Chillingworth had a real meaning and application : The Bible is the religion of Pkotestants. Second The religion of the founders of New England was friendly to the diffusion of knowledge, and set a high value on learning. Many of their pastors, especially, were men of great attainments. Not a few of them had been educated at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in England, and some had brought with them a European reputation. John Cotton, John Wilson, Thomas Hooker, Dunster, and Chauncey, of whom the last two became Presidents of the University at Cambridge ; Thomas Thatcher, Samuel Whiting, John Sherman, John Eliot, and several more of the early ministers, were men of great learning. All were well instructed in theology, and thoroughly versed in Hebrew, as well as in Greek and Latin. Some, too, such as Sherman and Watertown, were fine mathematical schol- ars. They were the friends and correspondents of Baxter, and Howe, and Selden, and Milton, and other luminaries among the Puritans of England. Their regard for useful learning they amply proved, by the establishment of schools and academies for all the youth of the col- onies, as well as for their own children. Only eight years after the first settlement of Massachusetts colony, they founded, at a great ex- pense for men in their circumstances, the University of Harvard, at Cambridge, near Boston, an institution at which, for a period of more than sixty years, the most distinguished men of New England received their academical education. Third. Their religion was eminently fitted to enlarge men's views of the duty of living for God and promoting His kingdom hi the world. They felt that Christianity was the greatest boon that man- kind can possess ; a blessing which they were bound to do their utmost to secure to their posterity. In going to a new continent, they were influenced by a double hope, the enlargement of Christ's kingdom by the conversion of heathen tribes, and the founding of an empire for their own children, in which His religion should gloriously prevail. Their eyes seemed to catch some glimpses of the Messiah's universal reign, when "all nations shall be blessed in Him, and call Him blessed." Fourth. Their religion prompted to great examples of self-denial. Filled with the idea of an empire in which true religion might live and flourish, and satisfied from what they had seen of the Old World that the Truth was in bondage there, they sighed for a land in which they might serve God according to His blessed Word. To secure such a privilege to themselves and their children, they were willing to go into a wilderness, and to toil and die. This was something worth making sacrifices for, and much did they sacrifice to obtain it. f CHAP. IV.] CHAEACTEE OP THE COLONISTS OF CONNECTICUT, ETC. 121 Though poor in comparison wit!} many others, still they belonged to good families, and might have lived very comfortably in England ; but they preferred exile and hardship, in the hope of securing spiritual advantages to themselves and their posterity. Fifth. There was a noble patriotism in their religion. Some of them had long been exiled from England ; others had found their mother country a very unkindly home, and yet England was still dear to them. With them it was not "Farewell, Babylon! farewell, Rome !" but, " Farewell, dear England !"* Though contemptuously treated by James I. and Charles I., yet they spoke of being desirous of " enlarging his Majesty's dominions." The Plymouth settlers did not wish to remain in Holland, because " their posterity would in a few generations become Dutch, and lose their interest hi the English nation; they being desirous to enlarge his Majesty's dominions, and to live under their natural prince." And much as they had suffered from the prelacy of the Established Church, unnatural stepmother as she had been to them, nothing could extinguish the love that they felt for her, and for the many dear children of God whom she retained in her communion. Sixth, and last. Their religion was favorable to liberty of con- science. Not that they were sufficiently enlightened to bring their laws and institutions into perfect accordance with that principle at the outset ; but even then they were, in this respect, in advance of the age in which they lived : and the spirit of that religion which had made them and their fathers, in England, the defenders of the rights of the people, and their tribunes, as it were, against the domination of the Jhrone and the altar, caused them, at last, to admit the claims of conscience in their full extent. The fathers of New England were no mean men, whether we look to themselves or to those with whom they were associated in England — the. Lightfoots, the Gales, the Seldens, the Miltons, the Bunyans, the Baxters, the Bateses, the Howes, the Charnocks, the Flavels, and others of scarcely inferior standing, among the two thousand who had labored in the pulpits of the Established Church, but whom the Restoration cast out. Such were the men who founded the New England colonies, and their spirit still survives, in a good measure, in their descendants after six generations. With the exception of some tens of thousands of recently-arrived Irish and Germans in Boston, and other towns on the sea-board, and of the descendants of those of the Huguenots who set- tled in New England, that country is wholly occupied by the progeny of the English Puritans who first colonized it. But these are not the * See Mather's Magnalia, b. iii., c. i., s. 12. 122 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. whole of their descendants in America; for besides the 2,728,116 souls forming the population of the six New England States in 1850, it is supposed that an equal, if not a still greater number, have emigrated to New York, to the northern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and into all parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and Minnesota : carrying with them, in a large measure, the spirit and the institutions of their glorious ancestors. Descendants of the Puritans are also to be found scattered over all parts of the United States, and many of them prove a great blessing to the neighborhoods in which they reside. How wonderful, then, was the mission of the founders of New England ! How gloriously accomplished ! How rich in its results ! CHAPTER V. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP THE EARLY COLONISTS. — FOUNDERS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. Widely different in character, I have already remarked, were the early colonists of the Southern from those of the Northern States. If New England may be regarded as colonized by the Anglo-Saxon race, with its simpler maimers, its more equal institutions, and its love of liberty, the South may be said to have been colonized by men very Norman in blood, aristocratic in feeling and spirit, and pretend- ing to superior dignity of demeanor and elegance of manners,. Nor has time yet effaced this original diversity. On the contrary, it has been increased and confirmed by the continuance of slavery in the South: an institution which has not prevailed much at any time in the North, but has immensely influenced the tone of feeling and the customs of the Southern States. If the New England colonies are chargeable with having allowed their feelings to become alienated from a throne from which they had often been contemptuously spurned, with equal truth might those of the South be accused of going to the opposite extreme, in their at- tachment to a line of monarchs alike undeserving of their love, and incapable of appreciating their generous loyalty. We might carry the contrast still further. If New England was the favorite asylum of the Puritan " Roundhead," the South became, in its turn, the retreat of the "Cavalier," upon the joint subversion of the altar and the throne in his native land. And if the religion of the one was strict, serious, in the regard of its enemies unfriendly to CHAP. V.] CHARACTER OF THE SOUTHERN COLONISTS. 123 innocent amusements, and even morose, the other was the religion of the court, and of fashionable life, and did not require so uncompro- mising a resistance " to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." Not that from this parallelism, which is necessarily general, the reader is to infer that the Northern colonies had exclusive claims to he considered as possessing a truly religious character. All that is meant is to give a general idea of the different aspects that religion bore hi the one and the other. Virginia, as we have already stated, was of all the colonies the first in point of date. Among its neighbors in the South it was what Massachusetts was in the North — the mother, in some sense, of the rest, and the dominant colony. Not that the others were planted chiefly from it, but because, from the prominence of its position, the amount of its population, and their intelligence and wealth, it acquired from the first a preponderating influence, which it retains as a State to this day. The records of Virginia furnish indubitable evidence that it was meant to be a Christian colony. The charter enjoined that the mode of worship should conform to that of the Established Church of En- gland. In 1619, for the first time, Virginia had a Legislature chosen by the people ; and by an act of that body, the Episcopal Church was, properly speaking, established. In the following year the number of boroughs erected into parishes was eleven, and the number of pastors five, the population at the time being considerably under three thousand. In 1621-22, it was enacted that the clergy should receive from their parishioners fifteen himdred pounds of tobacco and sixteen barrels of corn each, as their yearly salary, estimated to be worth, in all, £200. Every male colonist of the age of sixteen or upward was required to pay ten pounds of tobacco and one bushel of corn. The Company under whose auspices Virginia was colonized, seems to have been influenced by a sincere desire to make the plantation the means of propagating the knowledge of the Gospel among the Indi- ans. A few years after the first settlement was made, in the body of their instructions they particularly urged upon the governor and Assembly "the using of all probable means of bringing over the natives to a love of civilization, and to the love of God and His true religion." They recommended the colonists to hire the natives as laborers, with the view of familiarizing them to civilized life, and thus to bring them gradually to the knowledge of Christianity, that they might be employed as instruments " in the general conversion of their countrymen, so much desired." It was likewise recommended " that each town, borough, and himdred should procure, by just means, a 124 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. certain number of Indian children, to be brought up in the first ele- ments of literature ; that the most towardly of these should be fitted for the college, in buildiug of which they purposed to proceed as soon as any profit arose from the estate appropriated to that use ; and they earnestly required their earnest help and furtherance in that pious and important work, not doubting the particular blessing of God upon the colony, and being assured of the love of all good men upon that account."* Even the first charter assigns as one of the reasons for the grant, that the contemplated undertaking was " a work which may, by the providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of His Divine Majesty, in the propagating of the Christian religion to such people as yet five in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God."f The Company seem early to have felt the importance of promoting education in the colony. Probably at their solicitation, the king is- sued letters to the bishops throughout England, directing collections to be made for building a college in Virginia. The object was at first stated to be " the training up and educating infidel (heathen) children in the true knowledge of God." J Nearly £1,500 had already been collected, and Henrico had been selected as the best situation for the building, when, at the instance of their treasurer, Sir Edwin Sandys, the Company granted ten thousand acres to be laid off for the new " University of Henrico ;" the original design being at the same time extended, by a resolve that the institution should be for the education of the English as well as the Indians. Much interest was felt throughout England in the success of this undertaking. The Bishop of London gave £1,000 toward its accomplishment, and an anonymous contributor gave £500 exclusively for the education of the Indian youth. It had warm friends in Virginia also. The minister of Henrico, the Rev. Mr. Bargrave, gave his library, and the inhab- itants of the place subscribed £1,500 to build a hostelry for the enter- tainment of strangers and visitors.§ Preparatory to the college or university, it was proposed that a school should be established at St. Charles's City, to be called the East India School, from the fact that the first donation toward its endowment had been contributed by the master and crew of an East Indiaman on its return to England. * Burk's "History of Virginia," pp. 225, 226. f 1 Charter. — 1. Hazzard's State Papers, 51. This work of the late Mr. Hazzard contains all the charters granted by the sovereigns of England for promoting coloniza- tion in America. % Stith's "History of Virginia," pp 162, 163. § Holmes's Annals, p. 113. CHAP. V.] CHAKACTEE OF THE SOUTHERN COLONISTS. 125 But the whole project received its death-blow by the frightful massacre perpetrated by the Indians, on the 22d of March, 1622: when, in one hour, three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children were slaughtered, without distinction of sex or age, and at a time, too, when the Indians professed perfect friendship. For four years, nevertheless, they had been maturing their plan, had enlisted thirty tribes in a plot to extirpate the English, and might have suc- ceeded in doing so but for the fidelity of a converted Indian named Chanco. The minds of the colonists were still further estranged from the idea of providing a college for the Indian youth, by the long and disastrous war that followed. At a much later date, a col- lege for the education of the colonial youth was established at Wil- liamsburg, which was for a long time the capital of the colony.* In proportion as the population began to spread along the large and beautiful streams that flow from the Allegheny Mountains into the Chesapeake Bay, more parishes were legally constituted, so that in 1722 there were fifty-four, some very large, others of mode- rate extent, in the twenty-nine counties of the colony. Their size depended much on the number of titheable inhabitants within a cer- tain district. Each parish had a convenient church built of stone, brick, or wood, and many of the larger ones had also chapels of ease, so that the places of public worship were no fewer than seventy in all. To each parish church there was attached a parsonage, and likewise, in almost all cases, a glebe of two hundred and fifty acres, and a small stock of cattle. But not more than about half, probably, of these established churches were provided with ministers ; in the rest the services were conducted by lay readers, or occasionally by neigh- boring clergymen. When the war of the Revolution commenced, there were ninety-five parishes, and at least a hundred clergymen of the Established Church. * This was the College of "William and Mary, established in 1693, and, in the order of time, the second that was founded in the colonies. It owed its existence, under God, to the great and long-continued exertions of the Rev. Dr. Blair. It ought to be mentioned, that in the former part of the last century a number of Indian youths were educated at it. The celebrated Robert Boyle presented it with a sum of money to be applied to the education of the Indian tribes. At first, efforts were made to procure for this purpose children who had been taken in war by some victorious tribe ; but during the administration of Sir Alexander Spottswood, which commenced in IT 10, that plan was relinquished for one far better. The governor went in person to the tribes in the interior, to engage them to send their children to the school, and had the gratification of seeing some arrive from a distance of four hundred miles in compliance with his request. He, also, at his own expense, established and sup- ported a preparatory school on the frontiers, at which Indian lads might be prepared for the college without being too far removed from their parents. — See Beverly 's - " History of Virginia. " 126 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. We shall yet have occasion to speak of the Church Establishment in Virginia, and of its influence upon the interests of religion, as well as of the character of the clergy there during the colonial period. I can not, however, forbear saying, that although the greater number of the ministers seem, at that epoch, to have been very poorly qualified for their great work, others were an ornament to their calling. I may mention, as belonging to early times, the names of the Rev. Robert Hunt and the Rev. Alexander Whitaker. The former of these accompanied the first settlers, preached the first English ser- mon ever heard on the American continent, and by his calm and judicious counsels, his exemplary conduct, and his faithful ministrar tions, rendered most important services to the infant colony. The latter was justly styled "the apostle of Virginia." At a later period we find, among other worthies, the Rev. James Blair, whose inde- fatigable exertions in the cause of religion and education rank him among the greatest benefactors of America. Nor were there want- ing laymen among those who had the cause of God at heart. Mor- gan Morgan, in particular, was greatly blessed in his endeavors to sustain the spirit of piety, by founding churches and otherwise, more especially in the northern part of the Great Valley. In later times Virginia has produced many illustrious men, not only hi the Epis- copal, but in almost every other denomination of Christians. In pohit of intolerance, the Legislature of Virginia equaled, if it did not exceed, that of Massachusetts. Attendance at parish worship was at one time required under severe penalties ; nay, even the sacra- mental services of the Church were rendered obligatory by law. Dissenters, Quakers, and Roman Catholics were prohibited from settling in the province. People of every name entering the colony, without having been Christians in the countries they came from, were condemned to slavery. Shocking barbarity ! the reader will justly exclaim ; yet these very laws prove how deep and strong, though turbid and dark, ran the tide of religious feeling among the people. As has been justly remarked, " If they were not wise Christians, they were at least strenuous religionists." I have said enough to show that, in the colonization of Virginia, religion was far from being considered as a matter of no importance; its influence, on the contrary, was deemed essential to national as well as individual prosperity and happiness. Maryland, we have seen, though originally a part of Virginia, was planted by Lord Baltimore, as a refuge for persecuted Roman Catholics. When the first of its colonists landed, in 1634, under the guidance of Leonard Calvert, son of that nobleman, on an island in the Potomac, they took possession of the province " for their Sav- CHAP. V.] CHARACTER OF THE SOUTHERN COLONISTS. 127 iour," as well as for "their lord the king." They planted their colony on the broad basis of toleration for all Christian sects,* and in this noble spirit the government was conducted for fifty years. Think what we may of their creed, and very different as was this policy from what Romanism elsewhere might have led ns to expect, we can not refuse to Lord Baltimore's colony the praise of having established the first government in modern times, in which entire toleration was granted to all denominations of Christians ; this too, at a time when the New England Puritans could hardly bear with one another, much less with " papists ;" when the zealots of Virginia held both " papists" and " Dissenters" in nearly equal abhorrence ; and when, in fact, toleration was not considered in any part of the Protestant world to be due to Roman Catholics. After being thus avowed at the outset, toleration was renewed in 1649, when, by the death of Charles I., the government in England was about to pass into the hands of the extreme opponents of the Roman Catholics. "And whereas the enforcing of the conscience in matters of religion," such is the language of their statute, " hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence in those commonwealths where it has been practised, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this province, and the better to preserve mutual love and amity among the inhabitants, no person within this province professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall be any way troubled, molested, or dis- countenanced for his or her religion, or hi the free exercise thereof." Meanwhile, Protestant sects increased so much, that the political power of the State passed, at length, entirely out of the hands of its founders, and before the war of the Revolution, many churches had been planted in it by Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Baptists. North Carolina was first colonized by stragglers from Virginia, set- tling on the rivers that flow into Albemarle Sound, and among these were a good many Quakers, driven out of Virginia by the intolerance of its laws. This was about the middle of the seventeenth century. * It is due to truth to say that much more credit has been given to Lord Baltimore for the "toleration" in matters of religion which characterized his colony in Maryland than has been merited. He was undoubtedly a man of liberal and tolerant views. But from whom did he obtain the charter for his projected colony ? From the gov- ernment of Protestant England. Who can believe that that government would have granted Lord Baltimore a charter that did not guarantee religious liberty, in a good measure, to Protestants ? Lord Baltimore could have obtained no other charter from the government of England than that which he did. And when Eoman Catholic orators wish to prove to us that their Church is a tolerant Church, let them give us an instance of a Roman Catholic country granting to a Protestant colony such a char- ter as England, Protestant England, gave to Lord Baltimore and his Roman Catholic colony in Maryland. 128 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. Puritans from New England, and emigrants from Barbadoes, followed in succession ; but the dissenters from Virginia predominated. Re- ligion for a long while seems to have received but little attention. William Edmonson and George Fox visited their Quaker friends among the pine groves of Albemarle, in 1672, and found a "tender people." A Quarterly Meeting was established, and thenceforward that religious body may be said to have organized a spiritual govern- ment in the colony. But it was long before any other made much progress. No Episcopal minister was settled in it until 1703, and no church built until 1705. The Proprietaries, it is true, who obtained North as well as South Carolina from Charles II., professed to be actuated by a " laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Gospel ;" but they did nothing to vindicate their claim to such praise. In their " Constitu- tions" they maintained that religion and the profession of it were in- dispensable to the well-being of the State and privileges of citizenship; vain words, as long as no measures were taken to promote what they thus lauded. But we shall yet see that, little as true religion owed in North Carolina to the first settlers, or to the Proprietaries, that State eventually obtained a large population of a truly relig- ious character, partly by the emigration of Christians from France and Scotland, partly by the increase of Puritans from New En- gland. South Carolina began to be colonized in 1670, by settlers shipped to the province by the Proprietaries, and from that time forward it received a considerable accession of emigrants almost every year. Its climate was represented as being the finest in the world ; under its almost tropical sun, flowers were said to blossom every month of the year ; orange groves were to supplant those of cedar ; silk-worms were to be fed on mulberry-trees introduced from the south of France ; and the choicest wines were to be produced. Ships arrived with Dutch settlers from New York, as well as with emigrants from England. The Earl of Shaftesbury, when committed to the Tower, in 1681, begged for leave to exile himself to Carolina. Nor were they Churchmen only who emigrated thither from En- gland. Many Dissenters, disgusted with the unfavorable state of things in that country, went out also, carrying with them intelligence, industry, and sobriety. Joseph Blake, in particular, brother of the gallant admiral of that name, having inherited his brother's fortune, devoted it to transporting his persecuted brethren to America, and conducted thither a company of them from Somersetshire. Thus the booty taken from New Spain helped to people South Carolina .* A * Bancrofts "History of the United States," vol. ii., pp. 172, 173. CHAP. VI.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF NEW YORK. 129 colony from Ireland, also went over, and were soon merged among the other colonists. Such was the character of what might be called the substratum of the population in South Carolina. The colonists were of various origin, but many of them had carried thither the love of true relig- ion, and the number of such soon increased. Georgia, of all the original thirteen colonies, ranks latest in point of date. The good Oglethorpe, one of the finest specimens of a Christian gentleman of the Cavalier school, one who loved his king and his Church, led over a mixed people to settle on the banks of the Savannah. Poor debtors, taken from the prisons of England, formed a strange medley with godly Moravians from Herrnhut, in Germany, and brave Highlanders from Scotland. To Georgia, also, were di- rected the youthful steps of those two wonderful men, John and Charles Wesley, and the still more eloquent Whitfield, who made the pine forests that stretch from the Savannah to the Altamaha resound with the tones of their fervid piety. In Georgia, too, was built the " Orphan House," for the erection of which so much eloquence was poured forth, both in England and in the Atlantic cities of her Amer- ican colonies, by the last-named herald of the Gospel, but which was not destined to fulfill the expectations of its good and great founder. Thus we find that religion was not the predominating motive that led to the colonization of the Southern States, as was the case with New England ; and yet that it can not be said to have been altogether wanting. It is remarkable that in every charter granted to the Southern colonies, " the propagation of the Gospel" is mentioned as one of the reasons for undertaking the planting of them. And we shall see that that essential element of a people's prosperity ulti- mately received a vast accession of strength, from the emigrants whom God was preparing to send from the Old World to those parts of the New. CHAPTER VI. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. — FOUNDERS OF NEW YORK. We now proceed to give some account of the intermediate States, comprising New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. We begin with New York, which, as we have seen, was first colo- nized by the Dutch. 9 130 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. " The spirit of the age," says an eminent historian,* to whom we have often referred, " was present when the foundations of New York were laid. Every great European event affected the fortunes of America. Did a State prosper — it sought an increase of wealth by plantations in the West. Was a sect persecuted — it escaped to the New World. The Reformation, followed by collisions between En- glish Dissenters and the Anglican Hierarchy, colonized New England. The Reformation, emancipating the United Provinces, led to Euro- pean settlements on the Hudson. The Netherlands divide with England the glory of having planted the first colonies in the United States ; they also divide the glory of having set the example of pub- lic freedom. If England gave our fathers the idea of a popular representation, Holland originated for them the principle of federal union." It was the Dutch, we remarked, who first discovered the Rivers Hudson and Connecticut, and probably the Delaware also. In 1614, five years after Henry Hudson had sailed up the first of those streams, to which he gave his name, they erected a few huts upon Manhattan Island, where now stands the city of New York. The first attempts to establish trading stations, for they could hardly be called settlements, were made by the merchants of Amster- dam. But when the Dutch West India Company was formed, in 1621, it obtained a monopoly of the trade with all parts of the At- lantic coast claimed by Holland in North America. Colonization on the Hudson River does not appear to have been the main object of that Company. The territory of New Netherlands was not even named in the charter, nor did the States General guarantee its pos- session and protection. Trade with the natives in skins and furs was, in fact, the primary and almost exclusive object. But in a few years, as the families of the Company's factors in- creased, what was at first a mere station for traders, gradually bore the appearance of a regular plantation ; and New Amsterdam, on Manhat- tan Island, began to look like some thriving town, with its little fleet of Dutch ships almost continually lying at its wharves. Settlements were also made at the west end of Long Island, on Staten Island, along the North River up to Albany, and even beyond that, as well as at Bergen, at various points on the Hackensack, and on the Rari- tan, in what was afterward New Jersey. Harmony at this time subsisted between the Dutch and their Puri- tan neighbors, notwithstanding the dispute about their respective boundaries. In 1627, we find the Governor of New Netherlands, or New Belgium, as the country was sometimes called, paying a visit c Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. ii., p. 256, CHAP. VI.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OP NEW YORK. 131 of courtesy and friendship to the Plymouth colony, where he was received with " the noise of trumpets." A treaty of friendship and commerce was proposed. "Our children after us," said the Pilgrims, " shall never forget the good and courteous entreaty which we found in your country, and shall desire your prosperity forever." The colony, as it extended, gradually penetrated into the interior of East Jersey, and along the shores of the Delaware. Still, receiv- ing neither protection nor encouragement from the fatherland, and abandoned to the tender mercies of a low-minded commercial cor- poration, its progress was not what might have been expected. It had not always wise governors. The infamous Kieft, neglecting to conciliate the Indians, allowed the settlers on Staten Island to be destroyed by the savages of New Jersey ; and having, in a most wanton attack upon a tribe of the friendly Algonquins, massacred many of them in cold blood, the colony lay for two whole years (1643-1645) exposed to attack at all points, and was threatened with absolute ruin. From the banks of the Raritan to the borders of the Connecticut, not a "bowery" (farm) was safe. "Mine eyes," says an eye-witness, " saw the flames of their towns, and the flights and hur- ries of men, women, and children, the present removal of all that could to Holland!" In this war the celebrated* Anne Hutchinson, one of the most extraordinary women of her age, was murdered by the Indians, together with all her family, with but one exception. Next to this disastrous war, the colony was most retarded by the want of a popular form of government, and by the determination of the West India Company not to concede one. The first founders of New Netherlands were men of a bold and enterprising turn, whose chief motive in leaving Holland was, no doubt, the acquisition of wealth. But educated in the National Dutch Church, they brought with them a strong attachment to its doctrines, worship, and government ; and however deeply interested in their secular pursuits, they unquestionably took early measures to have the Gospel preached among them, and to have the religious in- stitutions of their fatherland planted and maintained in their adopted country. A church was organized at New Amsterdam, now New York, not later, probably, than 1619 ; and there was one at Albany as early, if not earlier. The first minister of the Gospel settled at New York, was the Reverend Everardus Bogardus. The Dutch language was exclusively used in the Dutch churches until 1764, being exactly a century after the colony had fallen into the hands of the English. As soon as that event took place, the new governor made great efforts to introduce the language of his own country, by opening schools in which it was taught. This, together 132 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. with the introduction of the English Episcopal Church, and the en- couragement it received from Governor Fletcher, in 1693, made the new language come rapidly into use. The younger colonists began to urge that, for a part of the day at least, English should be used in the churches ; or that new churches should be built for those who commonly spoke that tongue. At length, after much opposition from some who dreaded lest, together with the language of their fathers, their good old doctrhies, liturgy, catechisms, and all should dis- appear, the Rev. Dr. Laidlie, a distinguished Scotch minister who had been settled in an English Presbyterian church at Flushing, in Holland, connected with the Reformed Dutch Church, was invited to New York, in order to commence Divine service there in English. Having accepted this call, he was, in 1764, transferred to that city, and in his new charge his labors were long and greatly blessed. From that time the Dutch language gradually disappeared, so that hardly a vestige of it now remains. The population of New Netherlands, when it fell into the hands of the English, is supposed to have been about ten thousand, or half as many as that of New England at the same date. There has been a slight emigration to it from Holland ever since ; too small, however, to be regarded as of any importance. But all the emigrants from Dutch ports to America were not Hollanders. The Reformation had made the Dutch an independent nation, and the long and bitter ex- perience they had had of oppression led them to oifer an asylum to the persecuted Protestants of England, Scotland, France, Italy, and Germany.* Among others who thus came by way of Holland to 8 This has often been made an occasion of reproach and ridicule, by men of more wit than grace or sense. Beaumont and Fletcher, in their " Maid of the Inn," introduce one of their charac- ters as saying, "I am a schoolmaster, sir, and would fain Confer with you about erecting four New sects of religion at Amsterdam." And Andrew Marvell, in his " Character of Holland," writes : " Sure, when religion did itself embark, And from the East would westward steer its bark, It struck ; and splitting on this unknown ground, Each one thence pillaged the first piece he found. Hence Amsterdam, Turk Christian, Pagan, Jew, Staple of sects, and mint of schism, grew ; That bank of conscience, where not one so strange Opinion, but finds credit and exchange. In vain for Catholics ourselves we bear ; The Universal Church is only there." CHAP. VI.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF NEW YORK. 133 America was Robert Livingston, ancestor of the numerous and dis- tinguished family of that name to be found in various parts of Amer- ica, but particularly in the State of New York ; and son of that pious and celebrated minister, the Rev. John Livingston, of Scotland, who, after being eminently blessed in his labors in his native country, was, .in 1663, driven by persecution into Holland, where he spent the re- mainder of his life as minister of the Scotch Church at Rotterdam. Several causes retarded the progress of religion among the Dutch col- onists in America. One was the unsettled state of the country, caused by actual or dreaded hostilities with the Indians ; another lay in the continued and unnecessary dependence of the churches for their pas- tors on the Classis, or Presbytery, of Amsterdam ; a body which, how- ever well disposed, was at too remote a distance to exercise a proper judgment in selecting such ministers as the circumstances of the country and the people required ; a third is to be found in the lateness of the introduction of the English tongue into the public services of the churches, which ought to have occurred at least fifty years sooner. Notwithstanding these hinderances, the blessed Gospel was widely and successfully preached and maintained in the colony, both when under the government of Holland and afterward. Its beneficial in- fluence was seen in the strict and wholesome morals that character- ized the community, and in the progress of education among all classes, especially after the adoption of a more popular form of gov- ernment. Many faithful pastors were either sent over from Holland, or raised up at later periods in the colony, and sent over to Holland for instruction in theology. Among the former I may mention the Rev. T. J. Frelinghuysen, who came from Holland in 1720, and set- tled on the Raritan. As an able, evangelical, and eminently success- ful preacher, he proved a great blessing to the Reformed Dutch Church in America. He left five sons, all ministers, and two daugh- ters, who were married to ministers.* In confirmation of this state- ment, we may add the testimony of the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, who, in a letter to Mr. Prince, of Boston, says, " The labors of Mr. Fre- linghuysen, a Dutch minister, were much blessed to the people of New Brunswick and places adjacent, especially about the time of his coming among them. When I came, which was about seven years after, I had the pleasure of seeing much of the fruits of his ministry ; divers of his hearers, with whom I had opportunity of conversing, appeared to be converted persons, by their soundness in principle, Christian experience, and pious practice ; and these persons declared that his ministrations were the means thereof."f Among the latter * "Christian Magazine," quoted in Dr. Gunn's "Memoirs of Dr. Livingston," p. 8"7. \ Prince's " Christian History." I may add, that the Mr. Frelinghuysen spoken of in 134 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. was the late J. H. Livingston, D.D., who died in 1825, after being for a long time one of the most distinguished ministers in the United States. On his return from Holland, he was for many years a pastor in New York, and thereafter divinity professor in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church at New Brunswick, in the State of New Jersey. He was one of those who, though born to fill, a large space in the history of the Church, yet spend their lives in the calm and unostentatious discharge of the duties of their calling. The impress of his labors and character will long be felt in the Church of which he was so distinguished an ornament. The descendants of the Dutch are numerous, and widely dispersed in America. They constitute a large proportion of the inhabitants of the southern part of the State of New York and the eastern part of New Jersey, besides forming a very considerable body in the north and west of the former of these States. But they are to be found also in larger or smaller numbers in all parts of the confeder- acy. Though often made the butts of ridicule for their simplicity,* slowness of movement, and dislike to innovation of every kind, yet taken as a whole, 'they have been uniformly a religious and virtuous people, and constitute a most valuable part of the American nation. Some of them have found place among our most illustrious states- men. Emigrants from the country of Grotius and John De Witt have furnished one President and three Vice-presidents to the Re- public which they have done so much to establish and maintain. They have preserved to this day the Church planted by their fore- fathers in America ; but although a very respectable part of them still adhere to it, a greater number have joined the Episcopal Church, and many belong to other denominations. the text was the ancestor of three brothers of the same name, who have adorned the profession of the law in the present generation, one of whom, the Hon. Theodore Frehnghuysen, was for several years a distinguished member of the Senate of the United States, and is now President of Rutgers' College at New Brunswick, New Jersey. * Their Yankee neighbors tell a thousand stories showing the simplicity of the Dutch. One of the best that I have heard is that respecting a wealthy Dutch farmer, in the State of New York, who had erected a church in his neighborhood at his own expense, and was advised (probably by some very sensible Yankee) to attach a lightning-rod to it. But he received the suggestion with displeasure, as if G-od would set fire to His own house ! Another is as follows : Shortly after the arrival of the Rev. Dr. Laidlie, and the commencement of his labors, he was thus accosted by some excellent old people, at the close of a prayer-meeting one evening, in which he had most fervently addressed the throne of grace : " Ah, Domine ! (the title which the Dutch, in their affection, give to their pastors) we offered up many an earnest prayer in Dutch for your coming among us ; and truly the Lord has heard us in English, and sent you to us." CHAP. VII.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF NEW JERSEY. 135 CHAPTER VII. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. — FOUNDERS OF NEW JERSEY. Hollanders from New Amsterdam were the first European in- habitants of New Jersey, and, during the continuance of the Dutch dominion in America, it formed part of New Netherlands. The first settlement was at Bergen, but the plantation extended afterward to the Hackensack, the Passaic, and the Raritan. It is probable that a few families had settled even on the Delaware, opposite Newcastle, before the cession of the country to the English in 1664. But the Dutch were not the only colonists of New Jersey. A company of the same race of English Puritans that had colonized New England, left the eastern end of Long Island in 1664, and estab- lished themselves at Elizabethtown. They must have been few in number, for four houses only were found there the following year, on the arrival of Philip Carteret, as governor of the province. Wood- bridge, Middletown, and Shrewsbury were founded about the same time by settlers from Long Island and Connecticut. Newark was founded in 1667 or 1668, by a colony of about thirty families, chiefly from Brandon in Connecticut. Colonists from New Haven bought land on both sides of the Dela- ware, and fifty families were sent to occupy it, but their trading establishments were broken up, and the colony dispersed, in conse- quence of the Dutch claiming the country. There are extant memo- rials, however, in the records of Cumberland and Cape May comities, that colonies from New England established themselves in these, not very long after the province changed its masters. The middle parts were gradually occupied by Dutch and New England settlers in their progress westward, and also by a considerable number of Scotch and Irish emigrants— all Protestants, and most of them Presbyterians. It will be remembered that, by the gift of his brother, Charles H., the Duke of York became "Proprietary" of all that part of America ceded by the Dutch to the English in 1 664. The same year the duke sold New Jersey to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley, in honor of the former of whom it took the name that it bears to this day. They immediately appointed a governor, and gave the colonists a popular form of government. The Legislature, however, soon be- came the organ, of popular disaffection; few were willing to purchase a title to the soil from the Indians, and to pay quit-rents to the pro- prietaries besides. After some years of severe struggles between the 136 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. colonists and their governors, Lord Berkeley became tired of the strife, and in 1674 sold the moiety of New Jersey to Quakers for £1,000, John Fenwick acting as agent in the transaction for Edward Byllinge and his assigns. Fenwick left England the following year, accompanied by a great many families of that persecuted sect, and formed the settlement of Salem, on the Delaware. Lands in West Jersey were now offered for sale by the Quaker company, and hun- dreds of colonists soon settled upon them. In 1676 they obtained from Carteret the right, so far as he was concerned, to institute a government of their own in West Jersey, and proceeded, the year following, to lay the ground-work in the " Concessions," as their fun- damental deed was called. Its main feature was, that " it put the power in the people." Forthwith great numbers of English Quakers nocked to West Jersey, with the view of permanently settling there. A title to the lands was purchased from the Indians, at a council held under the shade of the forest,, at the spot where the town of Burling- ton now stands ; there the tawny " children of the wood" conveyed to the " men of peace" the domain which they desired. " You are our brothers," said the sachems, " and we will live like brothers with you. We will make a broad path for you and us to walk in. If an Englishman falls asleep in this path, the Indian shall pass him by and say, He is an Englishman ; he is asleep ; let him alone. The path shall be plain ; there shall not be in it a stump to hurt the feet."* And they kept their word. In November, 1681, Jennings, who acted as governor for the Pro- prietaries, convened the first Quaker Legislature ever known to have met. The year following, by obtaining the choice of their own chief ruler, the colonists completed the measure of their self-government. In the year following that, again, William Penn and eleven others bought East New Jersey from Carteret's heirs, and from that time a Quaker emigration set into that division of the province, but never to such a degree as to change the general character of the inhabitants. The population, upon the whole, remained decidedly Puritan, though com- bining the elements of a Scotch, Dutch, and New England Presby- terianism. It was much otherwise with West New Jersey. With the exception of a few churches planted here and there by other de- nominations, and standmg like islands in this sea of the religion of George Fox, the counties of Salem, Gloucester, and Burlington were peopled almost entirely with Quakers, and their religion flourishes there to this day. After about twelve years of embarrassment, commencing with the Revolution of 1688 in England, the Proprietaries of both East and * Smith's "History of New Jersey." CHAP. VIII.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF DELAWARE. 137 West New Jersey surrendered "their pretended right of government" to the British crown, and in 1702, both provinces, united hito one, were placed for a time under the Governor of New York, retaining, however, their own Legislature. The population, notwithstanding the difficulties and irritation caused by political disputes mtimately affect- ing their interests, steadily increased. Taken as a whole, few parts of America have been colonized by a people more decidedly religious in principle, or more intelligent and virtuous ; and such, in the main, are their descendants at the present clay. Nowhere hi the United States have the churches been supplied with a more faithful or an abler ministry. New Jersey was the scene of the excellent David Brainerd's labors among the Indians, during the latter years of his short but useful life. There, too, labored the celebrated William Ten- nent, and those other faithful servants of God in whose society the eloquent Whitfield found so much enjoyment, and whose ministra- tions were so much blessed. There, and particularly in the eastern section of the province, many have been witnesses of those outpour- ings of the Holy Spirit, which we shall have occasion hi another place to speak of. And, lastly, in New Jersey was planted the fourth, in point of date, of the American colleges, commonly called Nassau Hall, but more properly the College of New Jersey. That college has had for its presidents some of the greatest divines that have ever lived in America : Dickinson, Burr, the elder Edwards, Finley, Witherspoon, Smith, Green, etc. ; and it is still as flourishing as ever, although a sister institution has arisen at New Brunswick, to co-operate hi dif- fusing blessings throughout the State. I may add, that no State in the American Union has more decidedly proved the importance of having a good original population, nor has any State done more, in proportion to its population and resources, to sustain the honor and promote the best interests of the American nation. CHAPTER VIII. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. FOUNDERS OF DELA- WARE, AT FIRST CALLED NEW SWEDEN. Though of all the States Delaware has the smallest population, and is the least but one in territorial extent, yet its history is far from un- interesting. Fairly included within the limits of Maryland, it never submitted to the rule of Lord Baltimore's colony ; subjected for a time to the dominion of the Quaker province of William Penn, from 138 THE COLONIAL EBA. [BOOK II. that it emancipated itself in time to be justly ranked among the original Thirteen States, which so nobly achieved their independ- ence. This small province was claimed by the Dutch in right of discovery, as well as the country on the other side of Delaware River and Bay ; and in 1631, a colony under De Vries actually left the Texel for the south shore of that bay, and settled near the present site of Lewes- town, on lands acquired the year before by Godyn and his associates, Van Rennsellaer, Bloemart, and De Lact. That colony, consisting of above thirty souls, was, hi the absence of De Vries, utterly destroyed by the Indians toward the close of the following year ; yet its priority in point of date saved it from being included in Lord Baltimore's charter, and secured for subsequent settlers the benefits of a separate colony and an independent State. Before, it could be rescued from the Indians, however, and colonized a second time by the Dutch, it fell to the possession of a Scandinavian prince. Gustavus Adolphus, justly pronounced the most accomplished prince of modern times, and the greatest benefactor of humanity in the line of Swedish kings, had early comprehended the ad- vantages of foreign commerce and distant colonization. Accord- ingly, in 1626, he instituted a commercial company, with exclusive privileges to trade beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, and with the right of planting colonies. The stock was open to all Europe. The king himself pledged four hundred thousand dollars from the royal treasury ; the chief seat of business was Gottenburg, the second city in the kingdom, and the best situated for commerce in the open seas. The government of the future colonies was committed to a royal council, and emigrants were to be invited from all Europe. TJie New "World was described as a paradise, and the hope of better fortunes on its distant shores was strongly excited in the Scandinavian mind. The colony proposed to be planted there was to be a place where " the honor of the wives and daughters" of those whom wars and bigotry had made fugitives might be safe ; a blessing to the " common man," as well as to the " whole Protestant world."* As opening an asylum for persecuted Protestants of all nations, the project was well worthy of the great champion of Protestant rights. But Gustavus Adolphus did not live to carry his favorite scheme into effect. When the Protestant princes of Germany were compelled to defend their violated religious privileges by taking up arms against the emperor, they made the first offer of the command of their armies to Christian IV., of Denmark ; but that prince proving unequal to the task, they turned their eyes to the youthful king of Sweden, who * Argonautica Gustaviana, pp. 11, 16. CHAP. VIII.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF DELAWARE. 139 hesitated not to accept their summons. Crossing the Baltic with his small army of fifteen thousand faithful Swedes, Finns, and Scotch, he put himself at the head of the confederate troops, and within eighteen months gained the series of splendid victories that have placed him in the highest rank of warrior-princes. Having driven the imperial troops from the walls of Leipsic to the southern extremity of Ger- many, he fell at last on the plains of Liitzen, on the 16th of October, 1632, victory even there crowning his efforts, while his body, covered with wounds, lay undistinguished among the slain. Yet even the toils and horrors of that war could not make the brave young mon- arch forget his favorite project. A few days before that last fatal battle, where, it has been well said, " humanity won one of her most glorious victories, and lost of one her ablest defenders," he recommended to the people of Germany the colonial project, which he still continued to regard as " the jewel of his kingdom."* The enterprise, however, which his premature death prevented Gustavus Adolphus from carrying into effect, fell into the hands of his minister Oxenstiern, the ablest statesman of that age. Emigrants for Delaware Bay, furnished with provisions for themselves, and with merchandise for traffic with the Indians, accompanied also by a re- ligious teacher, left Sweden in 1638, in two ships, the Key of Calmar and the Griffin. Upon their arrival, they bought the lands on the Delaware from its mouth up to the falls where Trenton now stands ; and near the mouth of Christiana Creek they built a fort, to which they gave that name, in honor of their youthful queen. Tidings of their safe arrival, and encouraging accounts of the country, were soon carried back to Scandinavia, and naturally inspired many of the peas- antry of Sweden and Finland with a wish to exchange their rocky, unproductive soil for the banks of the Delaware. More bands of emigrants soon went thither, and many who would fain have gone were prevented only by the difficulty of finding a passage. The plantations gradually extended along the Delaware, from the site of "Wilmington to that of Philadelphia. A fort constructed of huge hemlock logs, on an island a few miles below Philadelphia, defended the Swedish settlements, and became the head-quarters of Printz, their governor. The whole coimtry, as above described, was called New Sweden, and the few families of emigrants from Few England that happened to be within its boundaries, either submitted to the Swedish government, or else withdrew and established themselves elsewhere. Meanwhile the Dutch reasserted their old claims to the country, planted a fort at Newcastle, and ultimately reduced New Sweden * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. u\, p. 285. 140 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. under their dominion, by means of an expedition of six hundred men, under the famous Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of New Netherlands. Thus, in 1655, terminated the power of Sweden on the American continent, after it had lasted above seventeen years. The Swedish colonists, probably, did not much exceed seven hundred, and as their descendants, in the course of some generations, became widely scat- tered, and blended with emigrants of a different lineage, they are supposed to constitute one part in two hundred of the present popu- lation of the United States.* Interesting as this colony is from its early history, it becomes still more so because of its practical worth. The colonists were amiable and peaceable in their deportment ; they maintained the best terms with the Indians; they were frugal and industrious; they were attentive to the education of their children, notwithstanding the want of schools and the difficulty of procuring books in their mother tongue ; and, above all, they were careful in upholding religious insti- tutions and ordinances. Lutherans, as their kindred in Sweden are to this day, they long preserved their national liturgy and discij^line, besides keephig up an affectionate intercourse with the churches in their mother-country; and from these they often received aid in Bibles and other religious books, as well as in money. Having estab- lished themselves in the southern suburbs of Philadelphia, previous to the colonization of Pennsylvania by William Penn, they have al- ways had a church there, known to this day as the " Swedes' Church," and which, with two or three more in Delaware and Pennsylvania, now belongs to the Protestant Episcopal communion. The late Doctor Colin was the last of the long line of Swedish pastors. Taken in possession by the Dutch, in 1655, New Sweden was, nine years after that, ceded by them to the English. It was then placed for some time under the administration of the Governor of New York ; was afterward attached to Pennsylvania, but ultimately became first a separate colony, and then an independent State. Mean- while, its population, composed of the descendants of Swedes, of Quakers who accompanied William Penn, of settlers from. New En- gland, and of Scotch, Irish, and a few emigrants from other parts of Europe, steadily increased. Religion has ever had a hap])y and not inconsiderable influence hi this little commonwealth. It would, no doubt, have been greater still, had slavery never existed in it. But though Delaware is a slaveholding State, it scarcely deserves the name, the number of slaves there being so small. * Bancroft's " History of the United States." CHAP. IX.] CHAEACTEE OF THE COLONISTS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 141 CHAPTER IX. EELIGIOUS CHAEACTEE OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. FOUNDEES OF PENN- SYLVANIA. The history of William Perm, the Quaker philosopher and law- giver, is very generally known. The son of a distinguished English admiral, heir to a fortune considered large in those days, accustomed from his youth to mingle in the highest circles, educated at the Uni- versity of Oxford, rich in the experience and observation of mankind acquired by much travel, and versed in his country's laws, he seemed fitted for a course very different from that which he considered to be marked out for him in after life. He inherited from his parents a rooted aversion to the despotism of a hierarchy, and having, when a student at Oxford, ventured to attend the preaching of George Fox, he was for this offence expelled from the university. After his ex- pulsion, from a desire to make himself acquainted with the doctrines and spirit of the French Reformed churches, he spent some time at Saumur, one of their chief seats of learning, and there he attended the prelections of the gifted and benevolent Amyrault. From that time he returned to England, and in 1666 visited Ireland, where he heard Thomas Loe preach on " the faith that overcomes the world :" whereupon he was immediately filled with peace, and decided upon folio whig out his future plans of benevolence. In the autumn of that year he was imprisoned for conscience' sake. " Religion," said he to the Irish viceroy, " is my crime and my innocence ; it makes me a prisoner to malice, but my own free man." On returning to England he became the butt of unmeasured ridicule, from the witlings of the court, which was that of one of the most dissolute monarchs that ever lived. Driven penniless from his father's house, he found com- passion where it takes up its last abode, if ever it leaves this world, in a mother's heart. Her bounty kept him above want, while he was preparing, in God's providence, to become an author, and a preacher of the doctrines of peace to princes, priests, and people. Expe- rience of persecution had prepared him for the great mission of succoring those who suffer from the same cause. He could truly say, with the Carthaginian queen, " Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." He had become a member of the ever "suffering kingdom" of right- eousness. William Penn's personal interests, in the course of Providence, 142 THE COLONIAL EBA. [BOOK II. coincided with his benevolent views, in leading him to think of found- ing the colony to which he at length so assiduously devoted himself. His father having a large sum due to him from the crown, left this not very hopeful debt as a legacy to his son. But the son pro- posed to his royal debtor an easy mode of paying it : the king had only to make him a grant of waste land in the New World ; and the suggestion was favorably received, for the profuse and profligate Charles II. had been his father's friend. On the 5th of March, 1681, he received a title to a territory which was to extend from the Dela- ware River five degrees of longitude westward, and from the thirty- ninth to the forty-second degree of north latitude. The whole of this, with the exception of a few previous grants, of no great extent, made by the Duke of York, was to be his ; and thus all that remained of the territory claimed by the Dutch, but which they had been com- pelled to cede to the English, became not a place of refuge merely, but the absolute property and sure abode of a sect which had prob- ably been loaded with as much contempt and ridicule as had ever fallen to the lot of any portion of the human race. Their peculiar dress and modes of speech, no doubt, so far invited this treatment, while their principles secured impunity to such as meanly chose to attack with such weapons what they deemed absurdity and fanaticism. Nor was it only for the persecuted " Friends" in England that William Penn founded his colony : it was to be open, also, to mem- bers of the same society in America. Incredible as it may appear, they were persecuted in New England by the very men who them- selves had been driven thither by persecution. Twelve Quakers were banished from Massachusetts by order of the General Court, in 1656, and four of these, who had returned, were actually executed, in 1669. That same year an act was passed by the Legislature of Virginia, to the effect " that any commander of any shipp, or vessell, bringing into the collonie any person or persons called Quakers, is to be fined £100 ; and all Quakers apprehended in the collonie are to be impris- oned till they abjure this countrie, or give securitie to depart from it forthwith. If they return a third time, they are to be punished as felons.?' * After making all necessary arrangements, Penn left England for his ample domain in America, and arrived there on the 27th of Oc- tober, 1682. Having landed at Newcastle, he went from that to Chester, and thence, by boat, up the Delaware, to the spot where now stands the city of Philadelphia. His first care was to acquire, by fair purchase, a title from the Indians to so much land, at least, as might be required for his projected colony, and this transaction took * Hening's " Collection of the Laws of Virginia." CHAP. IX.] CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 143 place at a famous council, held under a large elm-tree at Shakamaxon, on the northern edge of Philadelphia. There the hearts of the con- gregated chiefs of the Algonquin race were captivated by the sim- plicity and sincerity of Penn's manners, and by the language of Christian affection in which he addressed them. " We will live," said they, in reply to his proposals, " in love with William Penn and his children, and with his children's children, as long as the moon and sun endure." The year following was devoted by the philosopher to the founding of a city, to be called Philadelphia, between the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers, and to the establishing of a government for his people. Hardly could a pleasanter situation have any where been found than that which he selected for his capital, which was destined to become one of the largest and finest cities in America, and to be the birth-place of national independence, and where union among the liberated colonies was to be secured by the framing of a Federal Constitution for the whole. Nothing could have been more popular than the constitution laid down for his own colony, with the exception of his veto as Proprietary — which he could hardly have abandoned — and an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the English crown and government. Council, assembly, judges, and petty magistrates — all were to be appointed by the colonists themselves. The first emigrants to Pennsylvania were, for the most part, Qua- kers ; but the principle of unlimited toleration, upon which it was established, made it a resort for people of all creeds and of none. Swedes, Dutch, and New Englanders had previously established themselves within its limits, and not many years had elapsed when the Quakers, whom Penn had specially contemplated as the future citizens of his colony, were found to be a minority among the inhab- itants. This, however, has not marred the harmony and tranquillity of the province. No act of persecution or intolerance has ever dis- graced its statute-book. The rights of the Indians were always respected ; their friendship was hardly ever interrupted. Friends' " meeting-houses," and churches of other denominations, soon increased with the population, which spread by degrees into the interior, and reached the most western limits of the colony within a century from its commencement. It were superfluous in me to pronounce any eulogium on the mo- rality of the Quakers. The foundations of the colony of William Penn were laid in the religion of the Bible, and to the blessed influence of that religion it is unquestionably hidebted for much of the remark- able prosperity which it has enjoyed. But the Quaker population now forms only a small minority in the State of Pennsylvania, espe- 144 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. cially in its central and western parts. I shall yet have occasion to show what was the religious character of the emigrants who consti- tuted the early population of those parts. Thus have I completed the notice of the religious character of all the original colonies, which, in settling on the Atlantic slope, may be said to have founded the nation, by founding its civil and religious institutions : or rather I should say, I have spoken of the colonies that had territorial limits as such, and were established under charters from the crown of England. I have spoken of the bases — the lowest strata, so to speak — of the colonization of the United States. I have yet to speak of the superadded colonies, which dispersed themselves over the others, without having any territorial limits marked out to them by charters, but which settled here or there, as individuals or groups might prefer. It will be seen that this secondary, but still early colonization, exerted an immense influence upon the religious character of the country, and in many cases, through the wonderful providence of God, supplied what was wanting in the religious con- dition of the primary or territorial colonization. CHAPTER X. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. EMIGRANTS FROM WALES. Presbyterianism is said to have had many zealous adherents in Wales in the time of the Commonwealth, or from 1648 to 1660; and when the Restoration came, many Welsh Presbyterians, including both pastors and people, sought a refuge from the persecution that ensued, by emigrating to America. On reaching the New World, many of these wandered over the country, and were glad to avail themselves of a resting-place wherever it could be found. But a natural predilection for their own people, language, and customs, led others to keep together and settle on the same spots : a course almost indispensable in the case of those who could neither understand nor speak English. Hence we find that toward the close of the seven- teenth century, no fewer than six townships on the left bank of the Schuylkill were in the occupation of Welsh colonists* The success of those earlier emigrations led to a steady and even copious transference of the inhabitants of the Principality to America, * Proud's "History of Pennsylvania," vol. L, p. 221. CHAP. XI.] EMIGRANTS FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 145 long after open persecution had ceased to drive them from then- native hills and valleys. About the beginning of the present century a colony from Wales settled in the mountains of Pennsylvania, on a large tract of land which they had bought before they left home, and gave the name Cambria, the ancient appellation of Wales, to a whole county. A large part of their settlement lies on a sort of table-land, in the centre of the Allegheny Mountains, and the chief villages are Armagh and Ebensburg, the latter of which is the seat of justice for the county. Two or three faithful pastors accompanied them from Wales, and to this day, I believe, they conduct then* religious services in Welsh. There are, likewise, several congregations of Welsh Bap- tists in the State of New York, and throughout the United States not fewer perhaps than thirty or forty churches of Calvinistic Welsh Methodists. I have no means of knowing how extensive the emigrations from Wales, from first to last, have been ; doubtless they have been far from unimportant in point of numbers. What, however,, is of most consequence is, that they have been good in point of character, and have already given to America many distinguished men. The Rev. Mr. Davies, of whom I shall have some notice to give hereafter, prob- ably the most eloquent preacher in America in his day, and, at his ' death, president of the College of New Jersey, was, if I mistake not, of Welsh ancestry. The Morris family, so numerous, and in many of its members so distinguished, is of Welsh origin. So, also, are the Morgans. Besides these, we find many persons of the name of Jones, Owen, Griffiths, Evans, etc., all of Welsh descent, several of whom have risen to eminence in the Church and State. I may add that Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, whom I have had oc- casion already to notice, was a native of Wales. CHAPTER XI. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS OF AMERICA. EMIGRANTS FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. Next to the Puritans of England we must unquestionably rank the Scotch, as having largely contributed to form the religious char- acter of the United States. A few words, then, as to the causes that have, at different times, led so many of the natives of Scotland to pass over to America, will not be out of place, and will prepare the 10 146 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK H. reader for the remarks to be made on the religious character of emi- grants from that part of the United Kingdom. James I., before he left Scotland, when called to the throne of En- gland in 1603, assured his countrymen of his love to their Church, and of his determination to support it ; but no sooner had he crossed the Tweed than he manifested a predilection for Prelacy, and a de- cided aversion to Presbytery, as being of an essentially republican tendency. Flattered and caressed by the aged Whitgift, by Ban- croft, and other bishops, he soon learned to hate the Presbyterians of Scotland, as well as to despise the Puritans of England ; nor was it long before he showed a fixed purpose to change, if possible, the ecclesiastical government of his northern kingdom, notwithstand- ing that prudence and natural timidity deterred him from abrupt measures. It was otherwise with his unfortunate son. Charles I. resolved to snatch at results to which caution and cunning might, in time, have conducted his arbitrary, but timid father. He began with ordering the publication of a Book of danons, essentially altering the constitu- tion of the Church of Scotland, and these he tried to enforce by his own authority. He next caused a liturgy to be drawn up and pub- ' lished, copied, in a great measure, from that of the Church of En- gland, but brought by Laud into a closer agreement with the Rom- ish Missal ; and this he commanded all the Scotch ministers to use on pain of suspension. These proceedings led, at last, to open resist- ance on political as well as religious grounds ; for they involved an assumption of powers denied to the king by the Scottish Constitu- tion, and it was seen and felt that if he could introduce the English Liturgy, he might, at some future time, force upon them the Romish Mass. The wrong attempted in Scotland roused the sympathy of England, and the upshot, as Mr. Hallam remarks, " was that the liber- ties of England were preserved, but her monarchy was overthrown." But the course of Charles II. was even worse than that of his father. When that father was beheaded, the son was a friendless fu- gitive. The Scotch offered to receive him as their king, and to assist him in recovering the throne of England, on his pledging himself, by oath, to maintain their Presbyterian form of Church government. This he engaged to do, and, on his arriving among them, he sub- scribed the Covenant. The Scotch, thereupon, took up arms in his cause, but were defeated by Cromwell, so that Charles was driven a second time to the Continent. When restored, in 1660, to the throne of England, he voluntarily renewed his former promise to the Scotch, to whom he was greatly indebted for his restoration ; but no sooner was he well seated on that throne than his oaths and j:>romises CHAP. XI. j EMIGRANTS FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 147 were all forgotten. Presbyterianism was almost immediately abol- ished, and Episcopacy established in Scotland ; and that, too, in the most repulsive form*. The bishops were invested by royal mandate with the utmost plenitude of prelatical power, and a new law for- bade speaking against the king's ecclesiastical supremacy, or the gov- ernment of the Church by bishops and archbishops. A court of High Commission, partly composed of prelates, and armed with in- quisitorial powers, was set up, and was followed by scenes of persecu- tion and oppression, unparalleled except by the worst doings of Rome. Numbers of learned and pious ministers were ejected, and though their places were filled, for the most part, by ignorant and ungodly men,* the people were compelled, under severe penalties, to * The author would not be understood, for a moment, to place in the same cate- gory all the prelates, and all the parish clergy, introduced into the Scottish Estab- lished Church by the measures mentioned in the text. He is well aware that among the former there was a Robert Leighton, who was forced, however, by the atrocities of his associates, to relinquish an office which his gentle spirit would no longer suffer him to hold, and a Henry Scougal among the latter. Such beautiful characters were enough to redeem, if that were possible, the worthlessness of a whole generation, composed of such men as the greater number of the intruded clergy are known to have been. The author could not avoid referring to the arbitrary principles and hor- rible cruelties of the Scottish prelates, and of the statesmen who patronised them, and he has not done so with the intention of casting odium on Episcopacy in general; the odium being due to the men and their principles, not to their office. Should it be supposed that stronger terms than the truth of history will warrant have been em- ployed in speaking of those men and their doings, let the reader consult Burnet's "History of his own Times;" Dr. Cook's "History of the Church of Scotland;" or Mr. Hallam's " Constitutional History of England." Let two short extracts from the last of these authorities suffice : "The enormities of this detestable government are far too numerous, even in species, to be enumerated in this slight sketch, and, of course, most instances of cruelty have not been recorded. The privy council was accustomed to extort con- fessions by torture ; that grim divan of bishops, lawyers, and peers, sucking the groans of each undaunted enthusiast, in the hope that some imperfect avowal might lead to the sacrifice of other victims, or at least warrant the execution of the present." And again: "It was very possible that Episcopacy might be of apostolical institution; but for this institution houses had been burned and fields laid waste, and the Gospel had been preached in the wilderness, and its ministers had been shot in their prayers, and husbands had been murdered before their wives, and virgins had been defiled, and many had died by the executioner, and by massacre, and in imprisonment, and in exile, and slavery ; and women had been tied to stakes on the sea-shore till the tide rose to overflow them, and some had been tortured and mutilated ; it was a religion of the boots and the thumb-screw, which a good man must be very cold-blooded in- deed if he did not hate, and reject from the hands which offered it. For, after all, it is much more certain that the Supreme Being abhors cruelty and persecution, than that he has set up bishops to have superiority over presbyters." — Const Hist, vol. hi., pp. 435, 442. 148 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. attend their worthless ministrations. The ejected ministers were not allowed to preach, even in the fields, under pain of death. They might pray in their own houses, but none of their neighbors were allowed to attend. Even the nearest relations were forbidden to afford shelter to the denounced, or in any way to succor them. All land-owners were required to give bonds that neither they nor their dependants should attend "conventicles," as the forbidden meetings were called. The laws were enforced by mutilation, tor- ture, fines, imprisonment, banishment, and death. Soldiers were quartered upon defenceless families, and allowed to harass them as they pleased ; men were hunted down like wild beasts, and shot or gibbeted upon the highways ; and this dreadful state of things lasted nearly thirty years, for the sole object of forcing upon the Scotch a form of Church government which they conscientiously disliked. Can we wonder that the Scotch Presbyterians of that day detested Prelacy, as not the occasion only, but the cause of their sufferings ? In their experience it was identified with despotism, superstition, and irreligion ; whereas Presbyterianism was associated with the love of Liberty and Truth. The Scottish Parliament being then so consti- tuted and regulated as to be a very imperfect exponent of the will, and a very feeble advocate of the rights, of the nation, it was the General Assembly of the Church, therefore, which the people re- garded as the best guardian of their dearest interests and privileges. In the suppression of free Assemblies, the body of the nation prob- ably felt themselves more grievously wronged than had Parliament itself been suppressed ; and such, upon the whole, was the state of the law, and the oppressive manner in which it was administered, that none can reasonably wonder that the most loyal people to be found anywhere should have attempted to rid themselves of their oppressors by rising against them. The attempts of this kind, how- ever, whether made in England or in Scotland, led only to the sacrifice of some valuable lives ; nor was it until, by the Revolution of 1688, so bloodless, yet so complete, the Stuarts were again removed from the throne, that a better era dawned upon both kingdoms. Such, however, was the severity of the nation's griefs while they lasted, that it seems strange that the Scotch Presbyterians did not abandon their country en masse. But they were withheld by the hope of better times — a hope that even sometimes arrested plans of extensive emigration. Thus, after a company of thirty-six noblemen and gentlemen had contracted for a large tract of land in the Caro- linas, as an asylum for their persecuted countrymen, the project was relinquished, in hopes of the success of the abortive attempt for which Russel and Sidney suffered in England. Many, nevertheless, went CHAP. XI.] EMIGRANTS FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 149 over from Scotland into Ireland — many emigrated to America ; and a large proportion of the former, or of their descendants, ultimately sought a resting-place in the New World. This emigration from Scotland and Ireland, after it had thus commenced in the reisrns of Charles II. and James II., was continued, from other causes, down to the American Revolution, and consisted, almost exclusively, of Presbyterians. It was not until a later epoch that the emigration of Roman Catholics from Ireland to America properly commenced ; at least, until then it was too inconsiderable to merit notice. Let us now see to what parts of America this emigration was directed, and which have enjoyed most of the happy effects of its moral influence. New England did not, on many accounts, present the greatest at- traction to Scotch emigrants. Not only were its best districts already occupied, but in almost all its colonies a Church was established, be- tween which and the Presbyterian there might not be all the harmony that was to be desired. Some, nevertheless, did go to New England, and received a kind welcome there. According to Cotton Mather, even previous to 1640, four thousand Presbyterians had arrived in that province, but what proportion of these came from Scotland and Ireland we have no means of ascertaining. At a later period, Lon- donderry, in New Hampshire, was founded by a hundred families of Irish Presbyterians, who, having brought their pastor with them, or- ganized a Presbyterian church there. Another church of that denom- ination was formed at Boston in 1729, and such it remained until 1786, when it became Congregational. Other Presbyterians settled at Pelham and Palmer. Neither was New York, for some time at least, an inviting quarter to Presbyterian emigrants ; the establishment of the Episcopal Church in that colony toward the close of the seventeenth century, and the intolerance to which it led, would naturally deter them from making it their choice. Some, indeed, had arrived previously to that epoch, and many Scotch and Irish settled in the province in the following century, particularly as the American Revolution was drawing on. Between four hundred and five hundred emigrants from Scotland alone arrived at New York in 1737, and twenty years later, Scotch and Irish colonists established themselves in Ulster county, and also at Orange and Albany. In 1682, William Penn, and eleven other Quakers, having bought the claims of Lord Carteret's heirs, associated with themselves twelve other persons, a large proportion of whom were Scotch, with the view of securing as extensive an emigration as possible from Scot- land, as well as other places. Nor were they disappointed ; many 150 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. were induced to leave that country and the north of Ireland, and settle in East New Jersey, from the favorable accounts they heard of that colony. " It is judged the interest of the government," said George Scott, of Pitlochie, a Scotchman of rank and influence, " to suppress Presbyterian principles altogether ; the whole force of the law of this kingdom is leveled at the effectual bearing of them down. The rigorous putting of these laws in execution has, in a great part, ruined many of those who, notwithstanding hereof, find themselves in conscience obliged to retain their principles. A retreat, where by law a toleration is allowed, doth at present offer itself in America, and is nowhere else to be found in his majesty's dominions."* "This is the era," says Mr. Bancroft, " at which East New Jersey, till now chiefly colonized from New England, became the asylum of Scottish Presbyterians." " Is it strange," asks that author, " that many Scot- tish Presbyterians, of virtue, education, and courage, blending a love of popular liberty with religious enthusiasm, came to East New Jersey in such numbers as to give to the rising commonwealth a character which a century and a half has not effaced ?"f Many of the more wealthy of these emigrants brought with them a great number of servants, and, in some instances transported whole families of poor laborers, whom they placed on their lands. \ And in speaking of the town of Freehold, in Monmouth county, one of the earliest settle- ments in New Jersey, the Rev. William Tennent, long pastor of the Presbyterian church in that place, observes, "The settling of that place with a Gospel ministry was owing, under God, to the agency of some Scotch people that came to it ; among whom there were none so painstaking in this blessed work as one Walter Ker, who in 1685, for his faithful and conscientious adherence to God and His Truth, as professed by the Church of Scotland, was there apprehend- ed and sent to this country under a sentence of perpetual banish- ment. By which it appears that the devil and his instruments lost their aim in sending him from home, where it is unlikely he could ever have been so serviceable to Christ's kingdom as he has been here. He is yet (1744) alive ; and blessed be God, flourishing in his old age, being in his 88th year."§ But it was to Pennsylvania that the largest emigrations of Scotch and Irish, particularly of the latter, though at a later period, took place. About the commencement of the last century, they began to arrive in large numbers. It is said that nearly six thousand Irish arrived in * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. ii., p. 411. f Ibid., vol. ii., p. 414. X Gordon's "History of New Jersey," p. 51. § The Rev. William Tennent, quoted by Dr. Hodge in his "Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States." CHAP. XI.] EMIGRANTS FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 151 1729 ; and that up to the middle of the century as many as twelve thousand came over every year. Speaking of that period, Proud, in his History of Pennsylvania, says, " They have flowed in of late years from the north of Ireland in very large numbers." They settled in the eastern and middle parts of the State, the only parts then inhab- ited by white men. Cumberland county was filled with them. From Pennsylvania they emigrated in great numbers into the western parts of Maryland, the central portions of Virginia, and the western counties of North Carolina. A thousand families are said to have left the northern colonies for the last of these provinces in the single year of 1764. There their descendants now constitute a dense homogeneous population, occupying the whole western sec- tion of the State, and distinguished by the strict morality and un- bending principles of their forefathers. Five or six hundred Scotch settled near Fayetteville, 1ST. C, in 1749, and there was a second ar- rival from the same country in 1754, after which a steady yearly im- migration of the same hardy and industrious people was kept up for a long period.* But, besides the emigration of Scotch and Irish colonists from Pennsylvania into Maryland, the latter province received emigrants direct from Scotland and Ireland. Colonel Ninian Beall, a native of Fifeshire, who had been implicated in some of the disturbances in his native country, fled first to Barbadoes, and removed thence to Mary- land, where he bought an immense estate, including much of the ground now occupied by Washington and Georgetown. About two hundred of his friends and neighbors joined him at his request about the year 1690, and brought along with them the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, their pastor. In 1684, a small colony of persecuted Scotch settled under Lord Cardross, in South Carolina.f In 1737, multitudes of husbandmen and laborers from Ireland embarked for that province,]; and within three years before 1773 no fewer than sixteen hundred emigrants from the north of Ireland settled there. Indeed, of all European countries, Ireland furnished South Carolina with the greatest number of inhab- itants ;§ they not only settled in the interior, but also on Edisto and the other islands on the coast. * The Scotch settlers near Fayetteville, in North Carolina, are said to have been, almost without exception, from the Highlands. Gaelic is still spoken by some of the old colonists, and I understand that it is used in some of the churches in that quarter for public worship, which, I may add, is in every respect conducted as in Scotland. — See Dr. Hodge's " Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church" vol. i., p. 66. \ Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. ii., p. 173. \ Holmes's Annals, vol. ii., p. 145. § Ramsay's " History of South Carolina," vol. i., p. 20 ; vol. ii., pp. 23, 548. 152 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. Georgia, too, was partly colonized by Scotch and Irish, who emi- grated south-westward from Pennsylvania, across Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, besides receiving no small proportion of its first settlers directly from the Highlands of Scotland. Thus it is manifest that the Presbyterians from Scotland and the north of Ireland have largely contributed to form the religious char- acter of the United States ; particularly in the middle and southern parts of the country, and, by consequence, the corresponding parts of the Valley of the Mississippi, which have been colonized from them. As the early emigrants from Scotland and Ireland were not only Protestants, but decidedly religious people, they did much to give a religious tone to the districts in which they established themselves, being precisely those that most stood in need of such an influence. So that in this we have another instance of the Divine interposition in behalf of a country, whose whole history is a continued illustration of the mercy and the goodness of God. I may add, in concluding this chapter, that America owes to the early emigrations from Scotland and Ireland not a few of the men who have risen to the highest eminence both in Church and in State. The Tennents, the Blairs, the Allisons Avere of Scotch-Irish origin ; Dr. Witherspoon, one of the most valuable men in America of his day, both as a divine and as a statesman, Dr. Nisbet, and many others, were from Scotland. The son of a poor Irish emigrant, who had settled in North Carolina, has been President of the United States.* The son of a Scotch-Irish emigrant, who had settled first in Pennsylvania,* and removed after- ward to South Carolina, has been Vice President.f CHAPTER XII. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. — HUGUENOTS FROM FRANCE. Next to the English Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians we must rank the exiled Huguenots, or French Reformed, as having done most to form the religious character of the United States. The Reformation found its way into France in the reign of Francis I., but was hated by that monarch on a two-fold account. First, it placed man before his Creator and his Judge, without the interven- tion of human proxies, or the possibility of standing there on the * General Andrew Jackson. f John C. Calhoun. CHAP. XII.] CHARACTER OF THE HUGUENOTS. 153 ground of human merit. It placed the sinner at once in presence of the God against whom he had sinned. Second, because, in Calvin's hands, the natural development of his principles threatened the ques- tioning of the rights of despotic power. Hence, although the king's love of literature, and his patronage of learned men, led him for a time to defend the chiefs of the Reformation in France, on account of the interest they showed in the revival of letters, and his hatred of the scholastic and fanatical theologians of the Sorbonne, Francis distinguished himself by being almost the first ruler that put a Prot- estant to death. His successors but too closely followed his example. Persecution, though intermitted at times, owing to the pressure of circumstances, was resumed when that pressure ceased, until 1598, when Henry IV. granted the Edict of Nantes — a measure which was far from according to the Protestants the full measure of their rights, but which was sacredly observed during the remainder of that mon- arch's reign. During that of his successor, Louis XIH., and the early years of Louis XIV., that famous ordinance was no better than an ill-observed truce. Louis XIV., after having come to the crown in his minority, was now approaching his fiftieth year, and had begun to feel the decline of passions which he had long indulged without a regard for the re- straints of religion and morality, other than a habitual compliance with the outward forms of the Romish Church, and occasional fits of remorse, that were soon forgotten amid the excitement of new pleasures. In proportion as his relish for a voluptuous life became blunted by increasing age and satiety, he grew more and more anx- ious to atone in some way for long years of sinful indulgence, by acts of extraordinary devotion, without altogether sacrificing, how- ever, either his love of pleasure or the pursuit of glory. He was thus in a state of mind admirably calculated to make him the tool of an order of men who have acquired the highest celebrity for their pro- found knowledge of the human heart, and their consummate skill in making alike its strength and its weakness subserve the advancement of their power, more especially in the case of persons placed in stations of authority and influence. A Jesuit skilled in casuistry, and a fas- cinating and ambitious woman, were bent, the one on making the king, who had been brought up in moderate sentiments toward the Reformed, and had long provoked their enemies by his respect for the Edict of Nantes, become the instrument of Rome in utterly suppress- ing the Reformation in France, and, if possible, throughout Europe ; the other, on making herself the monarch's wife. To attain these ends, they played into each other's hands, with an unrivaled mastery of all the arts usually employed on such occasions. The confessor 154 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. used his influence in confirming the favorite's ascendancy in the king's affections— the favorite, though educated a Protestant, and under early and deep obligations to a Protestant relation, sacrificed her friends, and perhaps her convictions, by professing an extravagant zeal for the universal reign of the Roman Catholic religion, and by suggesting that in no way could the king better atone for his past irregularities, or promote his own glory, than by laboring " for the conversion of heretics." Both succeeded, but not to the full measure of their desires. Madame de Maintenon was privately married to Louis XIV., but never became the acknowledged queen of France. The Edict of Nantes was revoked, but the Reformation survives in the French dominions to this day * The king had come under too many solemn obligations to observe that Edict, and had a conscience too little sophisticated by Jesuit morality in early life, to be brought into a direct revocation of Prot- estant privileges. The mode by which his scruples were overcome was exceedingly ingenious. His consent was first obtained to a mul- titude of indirect methods of diminishing the numbers of the Re- formed ; much violence and fraud unknown to him were mingled with the execution of those measures, and he was then persuaded that the Edict of Nantes was unnecessary, since those in whose favor it had been granted had ceased to exist in his dominions. Favors of every kind were promised to those who would recant the alleged errors transmitted to them from their ancestors, or embraced by themselves ; offices were held out as the reward of such meritorious recantations, while, on the other hand, all hope of public employment, and even of public favor in any form, was denied to such as refused to be con- verted. Not only were they excluded from every post of honor or place of trust, but even the guilds and trades' corporations were closed against them. No Protestant was to be allowed to marry a Roman Catholic, Bribery was also employed, and converts were purchased for gold. Proselytism, nevertheless, went on slowly, and death threatened to overtake the illustrious apostle before he could see his subjects united again under the crosier of the successor of Peter the fisherman. The enterprise must needs be hastened forward. The sacredness of the family sanctuary is next invaded. Children of seven years of age are invited to abjure the faith of their parents. Protestant ministers be- gin to be tormented in every way : Protestant chapels are pulled down, or confiscated to other uses ; Protestant schools are shut up ; * Madame de Maintenon was probably not at heart in favor of persecuting Prot- estants ; but she had neither the principle nor the firmness to oppose it as she ought to have done. CHAP. XII.] CHARACTER OF THE HUGUENOTS. 155 Protestant funds are seized and diverted from their legitimate ends ; those that attempt to fly are forbidden to leave France, under pain of being sent to the galleys. Vain attempt ! The conversions still proceed very slowly. Next come scenes of violence. Instead of Jesuit missionaries, or, rather, along with those missionaries, dragoons are sent into the Protestant districts, to be quartered on the inhabitants, and to worry them into conversion. Ferocity and lust are let loose under every roof, and escape is hopeless. At length the Edict of Nantes was formally revoked. All public worship among the Protestants was suppressed ; their places of pub- He worship existed no more, for them at least. The old Chancellor Le Tellier. could exclaim, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace," and the royal dupe believed that he had united all dissenters with the Roman Church. But what pen can describe the results of this pretended union ? Property plundered, books destroyed, children torn from their parents, faithful pastors who would not abandon their flocks broken on the wheel, the bodies of all who died unreconciled to the Church thrown to the beasts, estates given up to relations who conformed to the Romish Church, and protracted tortures employed to extort recanta- tions of Protestantism ! Men were even roasted at slow fires, plunged into wells, and wounded with knives, and red-hot pincers. The loss of life can not now be computed, but it has been asserted that ten thousand persons perished at the stake alone; or on the gibbet and the wheel.* In consequence of these proceedings, it is believed that no fewer than half a million of Protestants left France. It was in vain that the frontiers were guarded. Despair was more ingenious in devising means of evasion than was bigotry in its endeavors to prevent it. Another half million, unable to escape, remained in France, yet could not be reduced to absolute conformity with the established creed and worship. Fanaticism grew weary in hunting down its victims, and found nothing harder to subdue than the human mind, when once disenthralled by Truth. Those Huguenots that escaped sought refuge in all the Protestant countries of Europe, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in America, car- rying with them the useful arts wherever they went, and founding many new manufactures in Germany, Holland, and the British Islands. An entire suburb of London came to be inhabited by French mechan- ics, and they had six churches at one time in that city. The Prince of Orange took whole regiments of brave refugees into his service, * De Kulkiere, (Euvres, v., p. 221. 156 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. and retained them after he became William III. of England. Most affecting narratives have come down to our times from the actors in those scenes, and yet filial piety has not been so diligent as it ought to have been in collecting and preserving them. " In our American colonies," says the eloquent historian to whom I have been so often indebted, "they were welcome everywhere. The religious sympathies of New England were awakened. Did any arrive in poverty, having barely escaped with life — the towns of Mas- sachusetts contributed liberally to their support, and provided them with lands ; others repaired to New York ; but a warmer climate was more inviting to the exiles of Languedoc, and South Carolina became the chief resort of the Huguenots. What though the attempt to emigrate was, by the law of France, a felony ? in spite of every precaution of the police, five hundred thousand souls escaped from the country. The unfortunate were more wakeful to fly than the ministers of tyranny to restrain. " ' We quitted home by night, leaving the soldiers in their beds, and abandoning the house with its furniture,' said Judith, the young wife of Pierre Manigault ; ' we contrived to hide ourselves for ten days at Romans, in Dauphiny, while a search was made for us ; but our faithful hostess would not betray us.' Nor could they escape to the sea-board except by a circuitous journey through Germany and Holland, and thence to England, in the depths of winter. * Having embarked at London, we were sadly off. The spotted fever appeared on board, and many died of the disease ; among these, our aged mother. We touched at Bermuda, where the vessel was seized. Our money was all spent ; with great difficulty we procured a passage in another vessel. After our arrival in Carolina, we suffered every kind of evil. In eighteen months, our eldest brother, unaccustomed to the hard labor which we were obliged to undergo, died of a fever. Since our leaving France we had experienced every sort of affliction — disease, pestilence, famine, poverty, hard labor. I have been six months without tasting bread, working like a slave; and I have passed three or four years without having it when I wanted it. And yet,' adds the excellent woman, in the spirit of grateful resignation, ' God has done great things for us in enabling us to bear up under so many trials.' " This family was but one of many that found a shelter in Carolina, the general asylum of the Calvinist refugees. Escaping from a land where the profession of their religion was a felony, where their es- tates were liable to become confiscated in favor of the apostate, where the preaching of their faith was a crime to be expiated on the wheel, where their children might be torn from them to be subjected CHAP. XII.] CHARACTER OF THE HUGUENOTS. 157 to their nearest Catholic relation— the fugitives from Languedoc, on the Mediterranean, from Rochelle, and Saintonge, and Bordeaux, the Provinces on the Bay of Biscay, from St. Quentin, Poictiers, and the beautiful valley of Tours, from St. Lo, and Dieppe, men who had the virtues of the English Puritans without their bigotry came to the land to which the tolerant benevolence of Shaftesbury* had invited the believer of every creed. From a land that had suffered its king in wanton bigotry to drive half a million of its best citizens into exile, they came to the land which was the hospitable refuge of the oppressed ; where superstition and fanaticism, infidelity and faith, cold speculation and animated zeal, were alike admitted without ques- tion, and where the fires of religious persecution were never to be kindled. There they obtained an assignment of lands, and soon had tenements ; there they might safely make the woods the scene of their devotions, and join the simple incense of their psalms to the melodies of the winds among the ancient groves. Their church was in Charleston, and thither on every Lord's day, gathering from the plantations on the banks of the Cooper, and taking advantage of the ebb and flow of the tide, they might all regularly be seen, the pa- rents with their children, whom no bigot could wrest from them, making their way in light skiffs, through scenes so tranquil that silence was broken only by the rippling of the oars and the hum of the flourishing village at the confluence of the rivers. " Other Huguenot emigrants established themselves on the south bank of the Santee, in a region which has since been celebrated for affluence and refined hospitality. " The United States are full of monuments of the emigrations from France. When the struggle for independence arrived, the son of Judith Manigault intrusted the vast fortune he had acquired to the service of the country that had adopted his mother ; the hall in Bos- ton, where the eloquence of New England rocked the infant Spirit of Independence, was the gift of the son of a Huguenot ; when the treaty of Paris, for the independence of our country was framing, the grandson of a Huguenot, acquainted from childhood with the wrongs of his ancestors, would not allow his jealousies of France to be lulled, and exerted a powerful influence in stretching the boundary of the States to the Mississippi. In our north-eastern frontier State, the name of the oldest college bears witness to the wise liberality of * The " Constitutions" which Mr. Locke prepared for Carolina, and to which Mr. Bancroft alludes, promised, not equal rights, but " toleration" to "Jews, heathens, and other dissenters," to "men of any religion." The Episcopal Church was to be estab- lished by law. 158 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. a descendant of the Huguenots. The children of the Calvinists of France have reason to respect the memory of their ancestors."* The emigration of the Huguenots to America is an exceedingly interesting event in the history of that country. It commenced earlier, and was more extensive than is generally supposed. Even previously to the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, some of the Protestant leaders, as we have seen, whether from feeling their posi- tion to be even then intolerable, or from their anticipations of a still darker future, proposed to establish a colony and a mission in Brazil — the mission being the first ever projected by Protestants. An ad- miral of France, the brave Coligny, who was afterward a victim in the above massacre, entered warmly into the undertaking, and Cal- vin urged it on with all his might, and selected three excellent ministers, who had been trained under his own eye at Geneva, to accompany the emigrants. The expedition set out in 1556, but proved peculiarly disastrous. The commander relapsed to the Roman Catholic faith, and having put the three ministers to death, returned to France, leaving the remains of the colony to be massacred by the Portuguese ! Nor did better success attend two attempts made by the good admiral to plant colonies in North America, the one in South Carolina, the other in Florida. It seemed as if the time had not yet come for the planting of good colonies, and that neither re- ligion nor persecution had as yet sufiiciently ripened the Protestants for the enterprise. From the time of the siege of Rochelle to that of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, there had been a continual emigration of French Protestants to the English colonies in America, which, after the latter of these two events, was greatly augmented, as is abund- antly proved by the public acts of those colonies. The first notice of the kind to be found is an act of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in 1662, to this effect, " that John Touton, a French doctor and in- habitant of Rochelle, made application to the General Court of Mas- sachusetts, in behalf of himself and other Protestants, expelled from their habitations on account of their religion, that they might have liberty to live there, which was readily granted to them."f In 1686, a grant of eleven thousand acres was made to -another company of French Protestants who had settled at Oxford, in the same colony.J In that year, too, a French Protestant Church was erected at Boston, which, ten years after, had the Reverend Mr. Daille for its pastor. A century later, when the French Protestants had ceased to use the French language, and had become merged in other churches, their * Bancroa's "History of the United States," vol. it, p. 180-183. f Holmes's " American Annals" for that year. % Ibid. CHAP, XII.] CHARACTER OF THE HUGUENOTS. 159 place of worship fell into the hands of some Roman Catholic refugees from France. In 1666, an act for the naturalization of French Protestants was passed by the Legislature of Maryland ; acts to the like effect were passed in Virginia, in 1671 ; hi the Carolinas, in 1696 ; and in New York, in 1703* New York became an asylum for the Huguenots at a very early date ; for even before it was surrendered to England, namely, about 1656, they were so numerous there that the public documents of the colony had to be published in French as well as in Dutch ;f and in 1708, Smith, the historian of that colony, says that, next to the Dutch, they were the most numerous and wealthiest class of the pop- ulation. From an early period they had in that city a church, which exists at the present day. It has long been attached to the Protest- ant Episcopal Church, and has a Frenchman for its rector. New Rochelle, about twenty miles above the city of New York, on the East River, or Sound, as it is more commonly called, was set- tled solely by Huguenots from Rochelle in France, and the French tongue, both in public worship and common parlance, was in use even until after the American Revolution. There are many of the descend- ants of French Huguenots in Ulster and Dutchess counties in the State of New York. The late Reverend Dr. Miller, so long a distinguished professor of Church History in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, had the following interesting facts, respecting the early in- habitants of New Rochelle, communicated to him : " When the Hu- guenots first settled in that neighborhood, their only place of worship was in the city of New York. They had taken lands on terms that required the utmost exertions of men, women, and children among them to render tillable. They were, therefore, in the habit of work- ing hard till Saturday night, spending the night in trudging down on foot to the city, attending worship twice the next day, and walking home the same night to be ready for work hi the morning. Amid all these hardships, they wrote to France to tell what great privileges they enjoyed.''^ In 1679, Charles II. sent, at his own expense, in two ships, a com- pany of Huguenots to South Carolina, in order that they might there cultivate the vine, the olive, etc. ; and from that time there was an * Huguenots had long been settled in both the Carolinas and New York before they were naturalized. This arose solely from internal difficulties, which rendered their naturalization, for the moment, impossible, not from any unwillingness to re- ceive them. •j- Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. h\, p. 302. % " History of the Evangelical Churches of New York." 160 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. extensive emigration of French Protestants to the colonies. Collec- tions were made for them in England in the reign of James II., and the English Parliament at one time aided them with a grant of £15,000.* In 1690, William III. sent a large colony of them to Vir- ginia ; in addition to which, that colony received three hundred fami- lies in 1699, followed successively by two hundred, and afterward by one hundred families more. In 1752, no fewer than one thousand six hundred foreign Protestants, chiefly French, settled in South Car- olina, and above two hundred more in 1764. In 1733, three hundred and seventy Swiss Protestant families set- tled in South Carolina, under the conduct of Jean Pierre Pury, of Neuchatel; the British government granting them forty thousand acres of land, and £400 sterling for every hundred adult emigrants landed in the colony. f In some of the colonies where an Established Church was supported by a tax, special acts were passed for relieving French Protestants of that burden, and for granting them liberty of worship. Thus, in 1700, the colony of Virginia enacted as follows: "Whereas a con- siderable number of French Protestant refugees have been lately im- ported into his majesty's colony and dominion, and several of which refugees have seated themselves above the fall of James's River, at or near the place commonly called and known by the name of the Mon- acan towns, etc., the said settlement be erected into a parish, not liable to other parochial assessments." This exemption was to last for seven years, and was afterward renewed for seven more.! These Huguenots, wherever sufficiently numerous, at first used their own language in public worship, and had churches of their own, until, with one or two exceptions, and those only for a time, they fell into either the Presbyterian or the Episcopal denomination. This must be taken as a general statement, for their descendants may now be found in almost all communions, as well as in all parts of the United States. Many members, too, of the Reformed Dutch churohes are descended from Huguenots, who had first taken refuge in Holland, and afterward emigrated to America. ISTor must we forget the descend- ants of Huguenots who found their first asylum in England and Scot- land. Among these was the late excellent Divie Bethune, whose an- cestors came originally from the town of Bethune, not far from Calais. On looking over the roll of the Presbyterian churches of Charles- ton, South Carolina, there may be found the Huguenot names of Dupre, Du Bosse, Quillin, Lanneau, Legare, Rosamond, Dana, Cou- * Holmes's " American Annals." f Ibid. % Ibid., pp. 432, 4*72, 492. Hening's "Statutes," p. 201. Dr. Hawks's "Episco- pal Church in Virginia," p. 19. CHAP. XII.] CHAEACTEK OF THE HUGUENOTS. 161 sac, Lequeux, Bores, Hamet, Rechon, Bize, Benoist, Berbant, Mar- chant, Mallard, Belville, Molyneux, Chevalier, Bayard, Sayre, De Saint Croix, Boudinot, Le Roy, Ogier, Janvier, Gillet, Purviance, Guiteau, Boyer, Simon, etc., etc.* As the entire population of the American colonies amounted only to about two hundred thousand souls in I701,f more than forty years after the commencement of the Huguenot emigration, a large propor- tion of that number must have been French Protestants, and Hugue- not blood accordingly must be extensively diffused among the citi- zens of the United States at the present day.J It is very obvious that so large an accession of people, whose very presence in America proved the consistency of their religious character, and who were generally distinguished by simple and sincere piety, must have been a great blessing to the land of their adoption, especially to the South- ern States, where it was most required. Their coming to America, on the other hand, has been blest, under God, to them and to their descendants. Many of the first families in New York, Maryland, Vir- ginia, and the Carolinas, as well as in other States, are to be found among them, as may be seen in many cases from their names, although these have often been lost through intermarriages, or can with difficulty be recognized, owing to their being spelled as they are pronounced by Anglo-Americans. Some of the most eminent persons that have ever adorned the United States were of Huguenot descent. Such were no fewer than three out of the seven presidents of Con- gress, and, hi a sense, of the whole nation, during the war of the Revolution, namely, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Elias Boudinot — all excellent men. I conclude this chapter in the words of a distinguished clergyman of the Episcopal Church in America.§ " And never, probably, did any people better repay the hospitable kindness of the land which af- forded them a refuge. Many of their descendants are still left in New York, Virginia, the Carolinas, and other parts of our country ; and among the brightest ornaments of the State, in the halls of legis- lation and of justice, as well as in the sacred office, may be found the names of some of the French refugees. No man in America need ever blush to own himself one of their descendants ; for the observa- tion has more than once been made, and it is believed to be true, that among their descendants the instances have been rare indeed of individuals who have been arraigned for crime before the courts of the country." * Lang's " Eeligion and Education in America)" p. 24. f Holmes's "Annals." X Lang, pp. 22, 23. § Eev. Dr. Hawks's u History of the Episcopal Church in "Virginia." 11 162 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. CHAPTER XIII. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. — EMIGRANTS FROM GERMANT. Germans began to emigrate to America in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and the first comers were probably sufferers in the devastations committed by the French under Turenne in the Up- per Palatinate : a country lying on both sides of the Rhine, having Manheim for its capital, and including a portion of the territory which has since been transferred from the German Empire to France. In 1674 the whole of it was rendered almost utterly desolate by the troops of Louis XIV., who had no better motive for perpetrating such atrocities than that the invaded province was part of the empire with which he was then at war, and, next, that its inhabitants were almost all Protestants. So effectually did these troops do their mas- ter's bidding, that the Elector Palatine could at one time see, from his palace at Manheim, two cities and twenty-five villages in flames ! In this work of horror Turenne, no doubt, proved to his royal mas- ter's satisfaction the sincerity of his conversion from Protestantism to Romanism, but he forever tarnished by it his own great name. As persecution continued what war and rapine had begun, when the Palatinate fell under the government of a bigot, many German Protestants emigrated to the English colonies in America ; and it may be remarked, that previously to the American Revolution, the German emigration, though not always confined to the Palatinate, and though many of the emigrants came from the southern part of Germany, continued to be almost purely Protestant. About two thousand seven hundred "Palatines," as they were called, who had sought refuge in England, were sent out by the British government under Colonel Hunter in 1710, when that officer was transferred from the Governorship of Virginia to that of New York ; and German settlements were formed about that time, and some years following, on the " German Flats," and in other parts of the latter province. It is probable that the first individuals who came from Germany to the United States arrived with the Swedes in 1638, and settled on the Delaware and Hudson. In 1681-84, some Germans, followers of Simon Menno, settled near Philadelphia and founded Germantown. The " awfully cold winter of 1709," led to the emigration of thirty thousand Germans from the Rhine to England, of whom it is said that five thousand came with CHAP. XIII.] CHARACTER OF EMIGRANTS PROM GERMANY. 163 Governor Hunter in 1710 to New York, and settled on the Hudson and the Mohawk. They were mainly from the " Palatinate." In 1707, Mennonites from Switzerland and South Germany settled in great numbers in what is now Lancaster county, Pennsylvania ; and in subsequent years, such was the influx of those emigrants, that they and their descendants were estimated, in 1772, at a third of the whole population of that province, then amounting to between two and three hundred thousand.* In a letter dated October 14, 1730, Mr. Andrews says: "There is besides in this province a vast number of Palatines, and they come in still every year. Those that have come of late are mostly Presbyterians, or, as they call themselves, Reformed ; the Palatinate being about three fifths of that sort of people." There were, however, many Lutherans mixed with them, as Mr. A. afterward remarks, while he adds : "In other parts of the country they are chiefly Reformed, so that, I suppose, the Presbyterian party are as numerous as the Quakers, or near it."f In the year 1749, twelve thousand Germans arrived in that colony, and for several years thereafter nearly the same number came.J In 1732, a few Moravians settled in the same district of country, and a few years later those who came over with Oglethorpe to Geor- gia emigrated from that colony to Pennsylvania, and founded the settlements of Bethlehem and Nazareth, near Easton, in that State. Before the Revolution, Germans were to be found in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the Caro- linas, Georgia, and also in Maine. Not long after the Revolution, the emigration from Germany began again. Indeed, hundreds of the " Hessians" of the English armies remained in America. It has, how- ever, been mainly within the last twenty-five years that the German immigration has become very great. From 1842 to 1846, it is be- lieved that more than two hundred thousand Germans reached this country by way of Bremen alone. And during the last ten years it is estimated that not much less than a million of people from the land of Luther and Hermann have come to us. The earlier emigrations from Germany spread from Pennsylvania into Maryland and Virginia. "The year 1713 was rendered memor- able by an act of kindness shown to certain emigrants, similar to that which had been manifested toward the French refugees. It seems that a small body of Germans had settled above the falls of the Rap- pahannock, on the southern branch of the river, in the coimty of Essex. This was at that period the frontier of civilization; and, therefore, it was alike the suggestion of interest and humanity to * Proud's " History of Pennsylvania," vol. ii., p. 273. f Dr. Hodge's "Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church," vol. i., p. 50, % Proud's "History of Pennsylvania," vol. ii., pp. 273, 274. 164 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. afford protection and encouragement to these foreigners. Accord- ingly, they were exempted, as the French had been, from all ordi- nary taxes for the term of seven years, and were formed into the a Parish of St. George," with power to employ their own minister and upon their own terms."* Many Germans emigrated to the Carolinas also. In 1709 above six hundred arrived, and from the name of their settlement, New- bern, they are supposed to have been Swiss-Germans from the canton of Berne.f From 1730 to 1750, South Carolina recived large. acces- sions from Switzerland, Holland, and Germany, and a great many "Palatines" arrived every year.J In 1764, five or six hundred sent over from London, and had a township set apart for them.§ Some years later a considerable number of German families, after having settled in Maine, left that province to join their countrymen at Lon- donderry in South Carolina, but most of these repented having taken that step, and returned to Maine, where their descendants are to be found at this day.|| Georgia had Germans among its very first colonists. A band of these were led thither by Colonel Oglethorpe, and re-enforcements from time to time arrived from Europe. The Germans who emigrated to America during the colonial era, being almost all Protestants, organized upon their arrival two Com- munions or Churches, upon the great doctrinal principles which had divided them into two denominations in Germany — the Reformed, or the Calvinists, and the Church of the Augsburg Confession, or Lutherans. The history of these churches down to the present day will fall under our notice elsewhere. But although difference of language compelled them in the first instance to have churches of their own, many of their descendants, partly from having adopted the English tongue, partly from their wide dispersion over the coun- try, are now members of the Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, and Baptist Churches. Among the Germans who settled in America were two small, but interesting portions of the ancient Sclavonic churches of Bohemia, as * Dr. Hawks's "History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia," p. 81. f Williamson's " History of North Carolina," vol. i., p. 184. \ Ramsay's "History of South Carolina," vol. i., p. 11. § Holmes's "American Annals," vol. ii., p. 268. | There is an interesting account of this colony in the American Quarterly Regis- ter for November, 1840. It was commenced, it would seem, in 1139, and received several accessions from Germany, but never became very strong. It suffered much in its early days from the Indians, and also from lawsuits about the titles to the lands occupied by the emigrants. The chief place in the colony is called Waldobo- rough, where there is a church and a pastor, but the German language is now disused. CHAP. XIII.] CHARACTER OF EMIGRANTS FROM GERMANY. 165 if to show that even the great Eastern branch of the Christian Church was to have its representatives also in the New World, and to con- tribute to lay the foundations of a Christian empire there. These were the United Brethren, or Moravians, as they are more commonly called, and some members of the churches of Bohemia. The Mora- vians came directly from Herrnhut, the mother city of the whole fra- ternity that adopt the renovated system, received by some of the remains of the ancient race from Count Zinzendorf, in the early part of the last century. The Bohemians came in a dispersed state by way of Holland, but not having organized themselves as a distinct communion, these children of John Huss and Jerome of Prague were soon merged in the Protestant clmrches of the land of their adoption. Not so with the United Brethren, who preserve their own organiza- tion and peculiar institutions to this day. Besides a few churches in such large cities as Philadelphia and New York, and some scattered throughout the interior, they are chiefly to be found in the three settlements of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Lititz in Pennsylvania, and Salem in North Carolina. But I shall speak of their history and pres- ent number in another part of this work. Previous to the Revolution, the German emigration was not only extensive, but also, to a considerable degree at least, pure. The emigrants had left Europe on account of their religion, and brought with them into America the simple and tranquil habits, and the frugal industry that characterize the nation from which they came. Not only was their general standard of morality high, but there were not wanting among them a goodly number of sincere Christians, dis- tinguished for the cultivation of all the Christian virtues. But ever since the Revolution, and especially during the last thirty years, a very numerous emigration from Germany to the United States has taken place, consisting both of Protestants and of Roman Catholics, in- fluenced in expatriating themselves chiefly by worldly considerations, and much inferior in point of religious character to those godly emi- grants of the same race who had been driven to our shores by perse- cution and oppression at home. The descendants of German settlers are very numerous in Pennsyl- vania, Maryland, Virginia, and the other Southern States, as well as in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin and Iowa.* Indeed, they are by far the most numerous of all the emigrants to America that are not of the British stock. But their influence on the religious character of the nation has not been equa] to that of the Puritans, the Scotch, or the Huguenots. The first Bible printed in America was Luther's version. * There are many Germans also in Texas. 166 THE COLONIAL EEA, [BOOK II. CHAPTER XIV. EELIGIOUS CHAEACTEE OF THE EAELY COLONISTS. EMIGEANTS FEOM POLAND. Even Poland was called upon to furnish her contingent toward the colonization of America, and sent over some excellent people, whose descendants are now dispersed over the country. I know not whether the fact I am about to mention stands re- corded in any history, but it may, without hesitation, be received as true in all material points. I received it myself from some excellent ministers of the Reformed Dutch Church, who are personally ac- quainted with a considerable number of the descendants of the colo- nists to whom it relates. They state that in the early part of the eighteenth century, a Count Sobieski, a lineal descendant of the famous John Sobieski III., who routed the Turks at the battle of Choczin in 1673, and chased them from the walls of Vienna in 1683, led a colony of about two hundred Protestants from Poland to the shores of America, there to enjoy a religious freedom which was not to be fomid in their native country. In this tradition there is nothing strange. The doctrines of the Reformation made a considerable progress for a time in Poland, and one or two of the kings of that country were well disposed toward it. Nearly half the nobles embraced it. Stipulations somewhat like the Edict of Nantes were even made, for securing liberty of con- science and of worship to the Protestants. But these were afterward disregarded, the Protestants persecuted, and their doctrines so ef- fectually suppressed, that a Protestant Pole is hardly to be found now in the whole kingdom ; for the greater part of those Protestants whom one meets with there, are of the German, not of the Polish race. Thus there is nothing incredible in the representation of Poland, too, in a country where the persecuted of every land have found a home. This Polish colony settled in the valleys of the Passaic and Raritan Rivers in New Jersey, where there are some of their descendants at the present day, while others are dispersed over various parts of the country. The name of Sobieski, corrupted into that of Zabriskie, is retained by a highly respectable family, some members of which are to be found in one district of New Jersey, and others in the city of New York. How wonderful are the ways of God ! Poland chose to cleave to Romanism and rejected the Protestant Reformation, and how has Romanism served her in her dreadful struggle for national independ- CHAP. XV.] EMIGRANTS FEOM THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT. 167 ence in 1830-31? This question is best answered by the pope's bull,* addressed to the bishops of the kingdom in relation to that war, a bull which was fatal to the Revolution. CHAPTER XV. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. — EMIGRANTS FROM THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT. While even Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland thus sent forth their little bands of faithful men to America, it is not surprising that we should find some witnesses to the Truth proceeding from the Valleys of Piedmont, to place themselves in the ranks of those whom God was thus calling, from so many nations, to take part in peopling the New World with professors of the pure Gospel. It was most fitting that among those there should be some, at least, to represent that martyr-people, veritable living relics of those churches in the north of Italy and south-east of France, which had remained faithful to the Truth during long ages of apostacy, and whose preservation was so appropriately symbolized by " the bush unconsumed in the midst of the flames." These had heard, in the recesses of their valleys, of the wonderful movement of the Reformation in Germany and France. They sent a deputation to Berne and Basel to learn from Bucer and (Ecolam- padius what were the sentiments of the Reformers, and what those doctrines which were turning the world upside down. They heard with joy that the faith of the Reformers was the same as their own, and hastened, accordingly, to unite themselves to the general body of faithful men, who, through much tribulation, were casting off the yoke of that spiritual Babylon, drunk with the blood of saints, which had been endeavoring for so many ages to crush their forefathers. But before long the persecution, which was to fall upon the whole Protestant body, reached them also, and with fresh violence. Neither the seclusion of their valleys, nor the insignificance of their numbers, could save them from this stroke. Then it was that the voice o^f Cromwell spoke for them with a power which even the Emperor of Germany dared not disregard. And then the pen of England's great- est poet was no less ready to teach a persecuting prince the duty that he owed to suffering humanity, than it was " to assert eternal * This bull is given at length in the work of the Abbe de la Mennais entitled *' Rome." 168 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. providence, and justify the ways of God to man." Those valleys contain enduring monuments of British benevolence ; the fund con- tributed at that time by the Christians of England has aided the preaching of the Gospel to their poor inhabitants ever since. But such as had fled from persecution before the voice of Britain was thus lifted up, were to be provided with an asylum, and for this they were indebted to the city of Amsterdam, which offered them a free passage to America. There the few hundreds that embraced the offer found a welcome reception awaiting them.* CHAPTER XVI. SUMMARY. Such, as respects the religious character of the colonists, was the early colonization of the United States ; and well may it excite our wonder as altogether without a parallel in the history of the world. What were the colonies of Egypt, of Phoenicia, of Greece, and Rome ? what the colonies of France, Spam, and Portugal, when compared with those we have been considering? Before leaving the subject, let us take a general survey of their character. 1. They were not composed of the rich, the voluptuous, the idle, the effeminate, and the profligate, neither were they, generally speak- ing, composed of poor, spiritless, dependent, and helpless persons. They rather came from that middle class of society, which is placed in the happy medium between sordid poverty and overgrown wealth. They knew that whatever comfort or enjoyment they could look for in the New World, was only to be attained by the blessing of God upon their industry, frugality and temperance. 2. They were not an ignorant rabble, such as many ancient and some modern States have been obliged to expel from their borders. Taken in the mass, they were well-informed — many of them remark- ably so for the age in which they lived — and which in the case of none of them was an age of darkness. Letters had revived ; the art of printing had diffused a great amount of valuable knowledge among the middle ranks of society, and was fast carrying it down to the lowest. With few exceptions, they had acquired the elements of a * " Albany Records," vol. iv., p. 223. Lambrechtsten, p. 65, without quoting his authority, says six hundred came over. Mr. Bancroft, vol. ii., p. 322, thinks this an over-statement. A second emigration was proposed in 1663, but the project failed. Those who came settled at various places in the vicinity of New York, and collections were often made for them in the Reformed Dutch churches. CHAP. XVI.] * SUMMARY. 169 good education. There were few persons in any of the colonies that could not read. They were, moreover, a thinking people, and very unfit to be the slaves of despotic power. 3. They were a virtuous people ; not a vicious herd, such as used to be sent out by ancient States, and such as chiefly colonized South America and Mexico, men of unbridled passions and slaves to the basest lusts. The morality of the early colonists of the United States was unrivaled in any community of equal extent, and has been lauded by almost all who have written about them, as well as by those who have governed them. 4. They were religious men. They believed and felt that Chris- tianity is no vain fancy — a fact that holds true even as respects those of them with whom religious motives were not the chief inducement for expatriating themselves. The overwhelming majority stood ac- quitted of the slightest approach to infidelity. Neither were they what are called " philosophers," attempting to propagate certain new theories respecting human society, and suggesting new methods for rendering it perfect. By far the greater number of them were simple Christians, who knew of no way by which men can be good or happy but that pointed out by God in His Word. There was not a single St. Simon or Robert Owen to be found among them. Some of them, indeed, were irreligious men ; some were even openly wicked, and op- posed to all that is good. But these, in most of the colonies, formed a very small minority. Nor was their religion inoperative. It produced the fruits of righteousness. They have been blamed for their conduct to the In- dians, but not with so much justice as has been supposed. No doubt there were instances of individual wrong, but they can not be charged with any general want of justice or kindness to the Aborigines. In almost every case they bought from those prior occupants the lands on which they settled. But on this, and on some other points of a general nature, I shall have more to say in another place. 5. With few exceptions, the first colonists were Protestants ; in- deed, Lord Baltimore's was the only Roman Catholic colony, and even in it the Romanists formed but a small minority long before the Rev- olution of 1775. The great mass had sacrificed much, some their all, for the Protestant faith. They were Protestants in the sense of men who took the Bible for their guide, who believed what it taught, not what human authority put in its place. " What saith the Lord ?" this was what they desired first of all, and above all, to know. And it was the study of the Bible that opened their eyes to truths which bore upon every possible relation of life, and upon every duty. There they learned to look upon all men as children of the same heavenly 170 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. Father, as redeemed by the same Saviour, as going to the same bar of judgment, before which all must stand stripped of the factitious distinctions of this world. They saw no reason, therefore, why one man should lord it over another, since all " are of one flesh," and if Christians, brethren in Christ. And they learned from the Bible that obedience is due to rulers, not because they are different in blood or rank from other men, but because government is " an ordinance of God." Obedience to God secured their obedience to civil rulers. As God can not command what is wrong, no ruler can be justified in doing so, nor can he expect obedience if he does. And while they learned from the Bible what were their duties, so they learned there also what were their rights. This led them at once to practise the former, and to demand the latter. 6. The great majority of them had suffered much oppression and persecution, and in that severe but effectual school had learned lessons not to be acquired in any other. It led them to question many things to which otherwise their thoughts might never have been directed, and it gave them irresistible power of argument in favor of the right of the human mind to freedom of thought. Indeed, it is remarkable how large a proportion of the early colonists of the United States were driven from Europe by oppression. Although Virginia and the Carolinas were not expressly established as asylums for the wronged, yet during the Commonwealth in England they afforded a refuge to the " Cavalier" and the " Churchman," as they did afterward to the Huguenot and German Protestant. Georgia was colonized as an asylum for the imprisoned and " persecuted Protestants ;" Maryland, as the home of persecuted Roman Catholics ; and the colony of Gus- tavus Adolphus was to be a general blessing to the " whole Protestant world," by offering a shelter to all who stood in need of one. Even ISTew York, though founded by Dutch merchants, with an eye to trade alone, opened its arms to the persecuted Bohemian, and to the inhab- itant of the Italian Valleys. So that, in fact, all these colonies were originally peopled more or less, and some of them exclusively, by the victims of oppression and persecution ; hence the remark of one of our historians is no less just than eloquent, that " tyranny and injustice peopled America with men nurtured in suffering and adversity. The history of our colonization is the history of the crimes of Eu- rope."* V. Though incapable as yet of emancipating themselves from all the prejudices and errors of past ages, with respect to the rights of con- science, they were at least in advance of the rest of the world on these points, and founded an empire in which religious liberty is at this day * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. ii., p. 251. CHAP. XVII.] CHURCH AND STATE, IN NEW ENGLAND. 1 71 more fully enjoyed than anywhere else — in short, is in every respect perfect. 8. Lastly, of the greater number of the early colonists it may be said, that they expatriated themselves from the Old World, not merely to find liberty of conscience in the forests of the New, but that they might extend the kingdom of Christ, by founding States where the Truth should not be impeded by the hindrances that opposed its progress elsewhere. This was remarkably the case with the Puritans of New England ; but a like spirit animated the pious men who set- tled in other parts of the country. They looked to futurity, and caught glimpses of the glorious progress which the Gospel was to make among their children and children's children. This comforted them in sorrow, and sustained them under trials. They lived by faith, and their hope was not disappointed. CHAPTER XVII. ' RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CHURCHES AND THE CIVIL POWER IN THE COLONIES OP AMERICA. 1. IN NEW ENGLAND. In treating of the religious character of the early Anglo-American colonies, I have spoken but incidentally of their forms of Church government, and even now proceed to consider these only in so far as may be required for a right understanding of the established rela- tions between their Churches and the civil government. I shall else- where treat of the various religious communions in the United States, or, rather, of the diverse forms in which the Church presents itself to the world ; and the doctrines peculiar to each. We have here to do only with the relations which the State bore in the different colonies to the Church ; and where these two bodies were united, we shall see what were the nature and extent of that union. Many persons whom I have met with in Europe seem to have been altogether unaware of the existence of any such union in any part of the United States, and, still more, have had no correct idea of the nature of that union in the different parts of the country where it was to be found. If we consider for a moment what was the state of the Christian world when these colonies were planted, in the early part of the sev- enteenth century, we must see that the mass of the colonists would be very little disposed to have the Church completely separated from 172 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK H. the State in their infant settlements, and the former deriving no support from the latter. The Church and the State were at that time inti- mately united in all the countries of Europe ; and the opinion was almost universally entertained that the one could not safely exist with- out the direct countenance of the other. It is not even certain that England, or any other country, would have granted charters for the founding of permanent colonies, unless upon the condition expressed, or well understood, that religion was received with public sanction and support. Assuredly, James I., at least, was not likely to - consent to any thing else. Be that as it may, the first colonists themselves had no idea of abolishing the connection which they saw everywhere established be- tween the civil powers and the Church of Christ. To begin with New England, nothing can be more certain than that its Puritan col- onists, whether we look to their declarations or to their acts, never con- templated the founding of communities in which the Church should have no alliance with the State. Their object — and it was one that was dearer to them than life itself — was to found such civil communi- ties as should be most favorable to the cause of pure religion. They had left England in order to escape from a government which, in their view, hindered the progress of Divine truth, oppressed the con- science, and was inexpressibly injurious to the immortal interests of men's souls. " They had seen in their native country the entire sub- jection of the Church to the supreme civil power ; reformation begin- ning and ending according to the caprices of the hereditary sovereign ; the Church neither purified from superstition, ignorance, and scandal, nor permitted to purify itself; ambitious, time-serving, tyrannical men, the minions of the court, appointed to the high places of prel- acy ; and faithful, skillful, and laborious preachers of the Word of God silenced, imprisoned, and deprived of all means of subsistence, according to the interests and aims of him or her who, by the law of inheritance, happened to be at the head of the kingdom. All this seemed to them not only preposterous, but intolerable ; and, there- fore, to escape from such a state of things, and to be where they could freely practice ' Church Reformation,' they emigrated."* In the formation, likewise, of their civil institutions in the New World, they determined that, whatever else might be sacrificed, the purity and liberty of their churches should be inviolate. Bearing this in mind, they founded commonwealths in which the churches were not to be subordinate to the State. Not that they were "Fifth mon- archy men :" they had no wish that the Church should engross to * Reverend Dr. Bacon's " Historical Discourses on the Completion of Two Hundred Tears from the beginning of the first Church in New Haven," pp. 11, 18. CHAP. XVII.] CHUECH AND STATE, IN NEW ENGLAND. 173 itself the powers of the State, and so rule in civil as well as in eccle- siastical matters. But they thought it better that the State should be accommodated to the Church, than the Church to the State. " It is better," said Mr. Cotton, " that the commonwealth be fashioned to the setting forth of God's House, which is His Church, than to accom- modate the Church frame to the civil State."* With this in view, they sought to avail themselves of all the lights furnished by the experience of ancient as well as modern States, and looking especially to the Constitution of England as it then stood, they framed civil governments in which, as they hoped, not only the temporal, but, still more, the spiritual interests of mankind might best be promoted. They considered that they had a right to do so, and held opinions on this«point directly at variance with those of the age in which they lived. The fashion then was to deduce all authority from the Divine right of kings, and the theory of civil power was that of uninterrupted hereditary succession. But the Puritan found- ers of New England thought that " they were free to cast themselves into that mould and form of commonwealth which appeared best for them," in reference to their grand purpose : nor did they doubt that a government thus originating in voluntary compact, would have equal right to the exercise of civil authority with that of any earthly potentate. But whatever were the details of their policy, and whatever the results of some parts of it, it is most certain that they intended that the Church should in no sense be subject to the State. They held the great and glorious doctrine that Christ is the only Head and Ruler op the Church, and that no human legislation has a right to interfere with His. It has been said that they took the Hebrew com- monwealth for their model in civil politics, and this is so far true. But it holds as to their penal code more than with respect to the forms of their civil governments. With the exception of the first few years of the Massachusetts Bay and New Haven colonies, there was no such blending of civil and religious authority as existed in the Jewish Republic. There was much, however, in the Hebrew commonwealth and laws that seemed adapted to the circumstances of men, who had just exchanged what they considered a worse than Egyptian bondage for a Canaan inhabited by the " heathen," whom they were soon to be compelled to " drive out." The two cases were more alike than at first strikes a superficial observer, f There were * Cotton's "Letter to Lord Say and Seal," in " Hutchinson's History of New En- gland," vol. i., p. 49?. f " The Laws of Moses were given to a community emigrating from their native country to a land which they were to acquire and occupy for the great purpose of 1 74 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. parts of the Mosaic law, excluding, of course, all that was typical, ceremonial, and local, which the colonists thought they might do well to adopt, until, in the course of time, they should find reasons for changing to something better. Had it been the laws of Solon, Ly- curgus, Nnma, or Alfred, which they adopted, some who now ridi- cule would perhaps have applauded them, as if Moses were inferior to any of those lawgivers. There are men who know more of the laws of Solon, and even of Minos, than about Moses, and who, in their ignorance talk of the Jews of the days of Moses as if almost, if not altogether, savages : not knowing that they were quite as much civ- ilized as any of their cotemporaries, and had institutions prescribed to them by the Supreme Ruler and Lawgiver. It is remarkable that, with the exception of the Plymouth settlers, all the first New England colonists — all who founded Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, New Haven, Providence, and Rhode Island — up to their leaving England, were members of the Established Church. The Plymouth people alone were Inde- pendents,* had had their church organized on that principle for years, maintaining in simplicity and purity the worship of the one true God. The founders of this colony came hither for the self-same purpose. Their emigration from their na- tive country was a rehgious emigration. Every other interest of their community was held subordinate to the purity of their religious faith and practice. So far, then, as this point of comparison is concerned, the laws which were given to Israel in the wilderness may have been suited to the wants of a religious colony planting itself in America. " The laws of Moses were given to a people who were to live not only surrounded by heathen tribes on every frontier save the sea-board, but also with the heathen inhabitants, worshippers of the devil, intermixed among them, not fellow-citizens, but men of another and barbarous race ; and the laws were therefore framed with a special reference to the corrupting influence of such neighborhood and intercourse. Similar to this was the condition of our fathers. The Canaanite was in the land, with his barbarous vices, with his heathenish and hideous superstitions ; and their servants and children were to be guarded against the contamination of intercourse with beings so degraded. " The laws of the Hebrews were designed for a free people. Under those laws, so unlike all the institutions of Oriental despotism, there was no absolute power, and, with the exception of the hereditary priesthood, whose privileges, as a class, were well balanced by their labors and disabilities, no privileged classes. The aim of those laws was 'equal and exact justice;' and equal and exact justice is the only freedom. Equal and exact justice, in the laws and in the administration of the laws, infuses freedom into the being of a people, secures the widest and most useful distri- bution of the means of enjoyment, and affords scope for the activity and healthful stimulus to the affections of every individual. The people whose habits and senti- ments are formed under such an administration of justice, will be a free people." — Bacon's "Historical Discourses,'" pp. 30, 31. * They were not, properly speaking, Separatists, in the distinctive sense in which that word was used at that epoch, viz., those who not only refused to have any sort CHAP. XVII.] CHURCH AND STATE, IN NEW ENGLAND. 175 and were such even before they went to Holland. If any of the other original colonists of New England had been thrust out from the Established Church of the mother country, they had not organ- ized themselves on any other principle ; and, however opposed to the spirit of its rulers and to some of its ceremonies and usages, their attachment to the Church itself, as well as to many of those whom they had left within its pale, is manifest from the letter of Governor Winthrop and his associates, just after embarking for America. But on arriving there they immediately proceeded to the founding of an ecclesiastical economy upon the Independent plan, having for its essential principles, "That, according to the Scriptures, every Church ought to be confined within the limits of a single congrega- tion, and that the government should be democratical ; that Churches should be constituted by such as desired to be members, making a confession of their faith in the presence of each other, and signing a covenant ; that the whole power of admitting and excluding mem- bers, with the deciding of all controversies, was in the brotherhood ; that church-officers, for preaching the Word and taking care of the poor, were to be chosen by the free suffrages of the brethren ; that in Church censures, there should be an entire separation of the eccle- siastical from the civil sword; that Christ is the Head of the Church; that a liturgy is not necessary; and that all ceremonies not prescribed by the Scriptures are to be rejected." But how are we to account for a change in their views so sudden and so great ? Even when Winthrop left England, in 1630, neither the Presbyterian nor the Independent doctrines, as to Church gov- ernment, had made that progress in public opinion which they had made when the Long Parliament, and Cromwell and his army, began to play their parts. It is quite possible, or, rather, all but certain, that several of the ministers in the Massachusetts Bay colony were low Episcopalians, and friends of Archbishop Usher's scheme ; but if all the leading colonists were as much inclined to Presbyterian- ism as some have thought, it is hard to imagine why they did not establish that form of government. It is difficult to make out, on the other hand, why they diverged so widely, and at once, from the Episcopal economy, as to adopt Independency, which is almost antipodal. This, it appears to me, may be referred to two or three causes. of communion with the Established Church, but denounced all who did. The Sep- aratists were exceedingly bitter in their hostility to every thing which bore the name of the Established Church of England. The farewell address of John Robinson to the Pilgrims who left Leyden to plant the colony at Plymouth, breathed a very dif- ferent spirit. 176 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK n. First, it is natural that, on quitting England, where they had suffered so much from Prelacy, they should renounce an ecclesiastical system that conferred upon any men powers so capable of being abused; nor can it be thought surprising that in such circumstances they should go to the opposite extreme, and prefer an ecclesiastical government of the most democratical sort. Another, and much more powerful reason for their rejecting Episcopacy, would be that they might es- cape the jurisdiction of the bishops, which would otherwise unques- tionably have followed them. And, lastly, there can be no doubt that they were much influenced by what they saw and heard of the Plymouth colony. It will be remembered that the first division of the Massachusetts Bay settlers, under Endicott, reached Salem in 1628, and that the main body, under Winthrop, followed in 1630, and founded Boston. It would seem that the Reverend Mr. Higgin- son, the distinguished minister in Endicott's colony, led the way in effecting the change, he having, upon his arrival at Salem, or soon afterward, introduced the Independent plan among his people, though not without much difficulty, being opposed by the two Brownes, John and Samuel, who, in consequence of this opposition, had to re- turn to England. Mr. Higginson was disposed to receive very favor- ably the accounts transmitted from the Plymouth colony on the other side of the Bay. It is true that Edward Winslow, in his " Brief Narrative," as well as Cotton, in his " Way," etc., undertakes to prove that Plymouth did not exert the influence that has been ascribed to it, and which even by Gorton and his accomplices has been charged against it as a crime. But I think it clear that they admit the sub- stance of the charge.* * "Winslow says, " It is true, I confess, that some of the chief of them," referring to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, "advised with us how they should do to fall upon a right platform of worship, and desired to that end, since God had honored us to lay the foundation of a commonwealth and to settle a Church in it, to show them whereupon our practice was grounded ; and if they found, upon due search, it was built upon the "Word of God, they would be willing to take up what was from God." He then goes on to say that they of Plymouth showed them the warrant for their government in the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Gospels ; and that their friends, the other colonists, were well pleased therewith, and also agreed to walk in the same way, so far as God should reveal His will to them, from time to time, in His Word. As for Cotton, he says, "The dissuader is much mistaken when he saith, ' The congregation of Plymouth did incontinently leaven all the vicinity,' seeing for many years there was no vicinity to be leavened. And Salem itself, that was gath- ered into church order seven or eight years after them, was above forty miles distant from them. And though it be very likely that some of the first-comers (meaning En- dicott and Higginson) might help their theory by hearing and discerning their prac- tice at Plymouth, yet therein is the Scripture fulfilled, ' The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till all was leavened.' " CHAP. XVII.] CHURCH AND STATE, IN NEW ENGLAND. 177 The Church, then, that was established in all the New England colonies, with the exception of Providence and Rhode Island,* was what is termed in the United States, Congregational, and in England, Independent : though there is some difference between the Congrega- tional churches in the former of these countries, and the Independent in the latter, as I shall show in another part of this work. I speak here of the form of government. As for doctrines, they were essen- tially those of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England; in • other words, Calvinistic. Let us now see what were the relations between the Church and the State or " Commonwealth," in New England. In every colony there, except the two above mentioned, the object of one of the first acts of civil legislation was to provide for the support of public wor- ship ; and other laws followed from time to time to the same effect, as circumstances required. Without going into unnecessary details, suffice it to say, that parishes or " towns" of a convenient size were ordered to be laid out, and the people were directed by the proper au- thorities of their respective towns to levy taxes for erecting and keep- ing in due repair a suitable " meeting-house," for the maintenance of a pastor or minister, and for all other necessary expenses connected with public worship. I am not aware that any exemption from this law was allowed for a long time after the colonies were founded. Such was the fundamental union of Church and State in the colonies that now form the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine. The next law adopted in the Massachusetts Bay colony dates from 1631, the year after the arrival of Winthrop and his company, and, as we shall hereafter see, it was pregnant at once with evil and with good. It ran thus : " To the end that the body of the commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it is ordered and agreed, that for the time to come, no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body politic but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of the same."f In other words, no one was to vote at elec- tions, or could be chosen to any office in the commonwealth, without being a member of one of the churches. This law was long in force in Massachusetts and in Maine, which, until 1820, was a part of that State; but it never prevailed, I believe, in New Hampshire, and was un- known, of course, in Rhode Island. But a like law existed from the first in New Haven, and when that colony was united, in 1662, with ° And it too may be called Congregational, for it was founded by Baptists, whose churches are essentially Independent in form of government. f Bancroft's " History of the United States," vol. i., p. 360. 12 178 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. Connecticut, where this had not been the case, it became, I believe, part of the legislation of the united colony. Thus we find two fundamental laws on this subject prevailing in New England — the one universal, with the exception of Rhode Island ; the other confined to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine. In restricting the exercise of political power to men who, as members of the Church, were presumed to be loyal to the grand principle of the colony to which they belonged, namely, the maintenance of purity of doctrine and liberty of worship, as the first consideration, and of free political government as necessary to it, the authors of that law doubtless contemplated rather the protection of their colonists from apprehended dangers than the direct promotion of piety. The principle, in fact, down to the foimding of these colonies, seems to have been adopted substantially by all nations, Popish and Protest- ant, Mohammedan and Heathen : so much so that Davenport said, " These very Indians, that worship the devil," acted on the same prin- ciple ; so that, in his judgment, "it seemed to be a principle imprinted in the minds and hearts of all men, the equity of it."* We need hardly remind the reader that this allegiance to the Christian Faith was, until very lately, indispensable to the holding of any office under the crown in England, and that receiving the sacrament in the Estab- lished Church was the legal test of a man's possessing it. In conclusion, I ought to state, that in the New England colonies the ministers of the Gospel had no part, as such, in the civil govern- ment. They were confined to their proper office and work. Yet no men had more influence, even in affairs of state. As a body of en- lightened patriots, whose opinion it was important to obtain, they were consulted by the political authorities in every hour of difficulty ; and although cases might be found in which the leading men among them, at least, did not advise their fellow-citizens wisely, it was much otherwise in the great majority of instances. Such was the state of things throughout the whole colonial age ; and to this day, in no other country is the legitimate influence of the clergy in public affairs — an influence^derived from their intelligence, united with religion, vir- tue, and public spirit — more manifest, or more salutary, than in New England. If these colonies might be compared, in their earlier periods, to the Hebrew commonwealth, it is certain that, wherever there was a Moses, there was also an Aaron ; and the influence of Winthrop, and Haynes, and Bradford, and Eaton, was not greater or happier than that of their compeers and coadjutors, the Rev. Messrs. Cotton, and Hooker, and Brewster, and Davenport. * "Discourse about Civil Government," p. 24, as quoted in Dr. Bacon's "Historical Discourses." CHAP. XVIII. J CHURCH AND STATE IN THE OTHER PROVINCES 1^9 CHAPTER XVIII. RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND THE CIVIL POWER IN THE COLONIES. 2. THE SOUTHERN AND MIDDLE PROVINCES. Virginia, too, like New England, was first colonized by members of the Church of England ; but there was a vast difference between the views of the admirers of the English Prelacy of that time, and those of the Puritans. The Established Church was then composed, in fact, of two great divisions, which in spirit, at least, have more or less existed ever since, and were represented in the colonization of America by the High Churchmen and Cavaliers of the South, on the one hand, and the Puritans of the North on the other. While the latter left England in order to escape from the oppression inflicted on them by the Prelacy, abetted by the Crown, the former had no com- plaint against either, but carried with them a cordial attachment to both. In the original charter of James I. to Virginia, it was especially enjoined that religion should be established according to the doctrines and rites of the Church of England ; every emigrant was bound to allegiance to the king, and to conformity with the royal creed.* Still, it does not appear that any provision was made for the clergy until 1619, that is, twelve years after the commencement of the colony. A Legislative Assembly, elected by the colonists, met that year for the first time, and passed laws for the formation of parishes and the regu- lar maintenance of the clergy ; accordingly, the establishment of the Episcopal Church dates formally, if not really, from that year. Previously to this, however, and during the governorship of Sir Thomas Dale, the London Company sent over to Virginia a set of " laws, divine, moral, and martial," being, apparently, the first-fruits of Sir Thomas Smith's legislation ; and from their Draconian charac- ter, they give us some idea of the notions entertained in those times of the ways whereby religion might be promoted by the civil power. They were so bad, it is true, as to be little, if at all enforced. In short, they soon fell into complete desuetude, and were disclaimed, at length, by the company, without whose sanction they seem to have been prepared and sent. Yet there is ample evidence to prove that they breathed very much the spirit of the times that produced them, and of the party in the Church of England to which their author belonged— a spirit which, thank God ! has long since ceased to exist in any portion of the Church of Christ in that country. * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. L, p. 123. 180 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. The first of those laws bearing upon religion enjoins on the offi- cers of the colony, of every description, to have a care that " the Alinightie God bee duly and daily served," that the people " heare sermons," that they themselves set a good example therein, and that they punish such as shall be often and willfully absent, " according to martial law in the case provided." The second law forbids, upon pain of death, speaking against the sacred Trinity, or any Person of the same, or against the known arti- cles of the Christian Faith. The third law forbids blasphemy of God's holy name, upon pain of death ; and the use of all unlawful oaths, upon severe punishment for the first offence, the boring of the tongue with a bodkin for the second, and death for the third. The fourth law forbids, upon pain of death, speaking disrespect- fully of the Word of God, as well as the treating of ministers of the Gospel with disrespect ; and enjoins the " holding of them in all rever- ent regard and dutiful entreatie," under penalty of being whipped three times, and of " asking forgiveness in the assembly of the con- gregation three severall Saboth daies." The fifth law enjoins upon all to attend, morning and evening, every week-day, in the church for service, at the tolling of the bell, upon pain of losing their daily allowances* for the first omission, to be whipped for the second, and sent to the galleys for six months for the third. It also forbids all violation of the Sabbath by gaming, and commands the people to prepare themselves by private prayer for the proper attendance upon the public worshij), forenoon and afternoon, upon pain of losing their week's allowance for the first omission, the same and a whipping for the second, and death for the third. The sixth enjoins upon every minister within the colony to preach every Sabbath morning, and catechize in the afternoon ; to have a service morning and evening every day, and preach on Wednesday; "to chuse unto him foure of the most religious and better disposed" to maintain a sort of spiritual police, and to see that the church be kept in a good and decent state, and that he keep a register of births, deaths, baptisms, etc., " upon the burthen of a neglectfull conscience, and upon paine of losing their entertainment." The seventh law commands " all who were then in the colony, or who shall thenceforth arrive, to repair to the minister, that he may know, by conference had, their religious knowledge ; and if any be * For some time after the colony of Virginia was planted, all provisions were served out from the common storehouse. It was not long, however, before this plan of having all things in common gave place to the "individual principle" of each hav- ing what he could gain by his personal exertions. CHAP. XVin.] CHURCH AND STATE IN THE OTHER PROVINCES. 181 deficient, they are enjoined to go to him, at times which he shall ap- point, to receive further instructions, which, if they refuse to do, the governor, upon representation of the fact, shall order the delinquent to be whipped once for the first omission, twice for the second, and every day till acknowledgment be made and forgiveness asked for the third ; and also commands every man to answer, when catechized respecting his faith and knowledge upon the Sabbath, upon pain of the same peril."* Such was Sir Thomas Smith's code, and a wonderful specimen of legislation it is. To the credit of the governor and council, it seems never to have been enforced. Previously to the dissolution of the company, in 1624, the colonial Legislature passed a number of laws relating to the Church ; three of the most important were as follows : 1. That in every plantation where the people were wont to meet for the worship of God, there should be a house or room set apart for that purpose, and not converted to any temporal use whatsoever ; and that a place should be impaled and sequestered only for the burial of the dead. 2. That whosoever should absent himself from Divine service any Sunday, without an allowable excuse, should forfeit a pound of to- bacco ; and that he who absented himself a month should forfeit fifty pounds of tobacco. f 3. That there should be a conformity in the Church as near as might be, both in substance and circumstance, to the canons of the Church of England ; and that all persons should yield a ready obedi- ence to them upon pain of censure.]; Upon the company being dissolved, the colony fell under the imme- diate government of the crown, which thenceforth appointed the .governors, as well as decided, in the last instance, upon all laws passed by the Assembly, the Council, and the governor. And from about the year 1629, the laws requiring conformity to the Established Church were strictly enforced, and infractions of them visited with severe penalties. * These laws must be considered far more intolerant and abhorrent to the spirit of Christianity than any of the statutes taken by the New England Puritans from those of the Hebrew Commonwealth. f Tobacco was the chief article of traffic which the country produced at that time, and was often used as a substitute for a monetary circulating medium. \ It will be seen, from these laws, that the actual legislation of the more liberal " Cavaliers" of the South was not a whit more tolerant than that of the bigoted "Roundheads" of New England. So it ever is; the religion of the world, with all its vaunted liberality, is found to be more intolerant, wherever it has a chance, than serious, earnest, evangelical piety. 182 THE COLONIAL ERA. During the period of the " Grand Rebellion" in England, ai the Commonwealth lasted, Virginia sympathized strongly t cause of the tottering, and, eventually, fallen throne and al many of the friends of both found refuge there during Cr( Protectorate. It may be remarked, however, that the co] not meet with such a recompense from the restored royal hou loyalty justly merited. In 1662, in obedience to instructions from the crown, the " Legislature enacted several laws for the more effectual suppoi Established Church, the promotion of the education of youtl ally, and of candidates for the ministry in particular. Bu long before the " college" contemplated by these laws was established. Early in the eighteenth century, if not even sooner, the Virginia, requiring strict conformity to the Established Chur either have been modified, or have begun to fall into negle< being positive evidence that Presbyterian meetings were '. public worship in 1722. From that period until the Re^ avowed dissenters increased steadily and rapidly, and previ 1775 there were many Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and churches within the colony. Still, the Episcopal Church pr ated, and it alone was supported by law. Maryland, founded by Roman Catholics, had no union of and State, no legal provision for any religious sect, and tolei until 1692,* when Protestant Episcopacy was established by country divided into parishes, and the clergy, as in Virgii ported by a tax upon the inhabitants. This was one of the r the Revolution of 1688 in England, and of the wide-spreac rence of popery which prevailed at that time, and long aft both in the mother-country and her colonies. Gradually, without encountering many obstacles, the Episcopal Chu vanced in the number of its parishes and clergy until the A Revolution, and though all other sects had ever been toleral the only one supported by the State. Of the good and bai of that establishment we shall speak hereafter. In South Carolina, all sects were at first protected by the '. ♦ * Strictly speaking, it might be said that this statement is not quite ex when Cromwell's commissioners came into possession of the colony, in 165^ islature, which was wholly subservient to Clay borne, a tool of the Protector law suppressing public worship among Roman Catholics and Episcopalia four years afterward, Fendall, acting as governor, at first in the name of th< taries, and afterward by his own usurpation, undertook to persecute the But both these exceptions were of short duration. CHAP. XVIII.l CHURCH AND STATE IN THE OTHER PROVINCES. 183 taries. In 1704, however, the friends of the Episcopal Church having, by the arts of Nathaniel Moore, obtained a majority of one in the Representative Assembly of a colony two thirds of whose inhabitants were not Episcopalians, abruptly disfranchised all but themselves, and gave the Church of England a monopoly of political power. But the dissenters having appealed to the House of Lords in England, the acts complained of were annulled by the crown, and, conse- quently, repealed by the Colonial Assembly, two years afterward. Nevertheless, although the dissenters were tolerated, and admitted to a share in the civil government, the Church of England remained the Established Church of the province until the Revolution.* In the same year, 1*704, influenced by zeal or bigotry, the Pro- prietaries forced a Church Establishment upon the people of North Carolina, though presenting at that time an assemblage of ahnost all religious denominations — Quakers, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Inde- pendents, etc. But, according to the royalists, the majority were " Quakers, Atheists, Deists, and other evil-disposed persons." From that time glebes and a clergy began to be spoken of, and churches were ordered to be erected at the public cost. But we shall see that the Established Church made slow progress in North Carolina. As long as New York was under the Dutch government, the churches of that colony supported their pastors by voluntary contri- butions, and there was no union of Church and State.f But on its falling into the hands of the English, as the royal governors and other officers sent over to administer public affairs were all admirers of the Established Church of England, they very naturally wished to see it supersede the Dutch Church, while, at the same time, the English tongue supplanted the Dutch as the language of the colony. Gov- ernor Fletcher, accordingly, in 1693, prevailed on the legislature to pass an act for the establishment of certain churches and ministers, reserving the right of presentation to the vestrymen and church- wardens. This act was so construed, two years after, that Episcopal ministers alone received the benefit of it, although this does not ap- pear to have been the expectation or the intention of the legislature. From that period till the Revolution, the Episcopal was the Estab- * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. iii., pp. 18, 19. f It can not be said, I fear, that the early Dutch colonists, or, rather, their colonial governors, were very tolerant. Though there was no union of the Church and State, they were very jealous of allowing any other than the Reformed Dutch Church to exist among them. A little band of Lutherans, who joined the colony almost at its commencement, were not allowed to hold their worship publicly until the country passed into the hands of the English.— Professor Schmucker's "Retrospect of Luther- anism in the United States" p. 6. 184 THE COLONIAL ERA. . [BOOK II. lished Church, although, at the time of its becoming so, it was reckoned that nine tenths of the population belonged to other communions. East and West New Jersey, united into one province, and placed under the administration of the crown in 1702, had its future govern- ment laid down in the commission and instructions to Lord Corn- bury. Toleration being allowed by these to all but papists, and special " favor" invoked for the Church of England, that Church was so far established there, seventy-three years before the American Revolution. In Pennsylvania there never was any union of Church and State, nor, so far as I know, any attempt to bring it about. Del- aware was separated from Pennsylvania in 1691, and from that time had its own governors, under the immediate control of the crown. But in Delaware, as well as in New Jersey and in Georgia, the col- ony of the good cavalier, James Oglethorpe, who loved " the King and the Church," there can hardly be said to have been an establish- ment : as the " favor" shown to the Episcopal Church secured a main- tenance for a very small number of ministers only, and that more for the benefit and gratification of the officers connected with the govern- ment, and their families, than with the view of reaching the bulk of the people, who preferred other modes of worship. In fine, as the colonial period drew to a close, there were only two colonies in which the civil power did not employ its influence in sup- porting one or other of two Communions or Churches. In New England it gave its support to Congregationalism, or, as it is called in Britain, Independency, that being established in all the colonies of that province, with the single but small exception of Rhode Island. In the colonies to the south of these, from New York to Georgia, with the exception of Pennsylvania, Episcopacy was the favored form. Even in these last, however, there were material differences in the extent to which the principle of a Church establishment was carried out. In New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, and Geor- gia, that establishment was quite inconsiderable ; whereas in Virginia, Maryland, New York, and South Carolina, it may be regarded as having been widely and powerfully influential. Were we to select two colonies from each of these divisions as examples of the two favored types of Church government, so diverse, yet about equally favored by legal enactments and a public provision, we should take Massachusetts and Connecticut in the North, and Virginia and Maryland in the South. In these we may compare and contrast the nature and influence of Independency, or the most pop- ular form of Church organization, with Episcopacy ; or Puritanism with High-churchism, among the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans of the New World. CHAP. XIX.] INFLUENCE OF THE UNION IN NEW ENGLAND. 185 CHAPTER XIX. THE INFLUENCES OF THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE AS IT FOR- MERLY EXISTED IN AMERICA. 1. IN NEW ENGLAND. In entering upon this part of my subject, I wish simply to state the results, good or evil, of the union of Church and State in America, in so far as these were the proper fruits of the particular sort of union existing in one or other, respectively, of the two important sections of the country just mentioned ; and I have no intention of discussing the advantages or disadvantages of such a relation of the Church and the State in the abstract. We have, therefore, to look for the actual results in America, not for what they might have been in other circumstances. And as the union between Church and State in the North differed in some important respects from that which .prevailed in the South, I shall give a separate consideration to each, and begin with New England. Let us first consider what were the advantages resulting from this union. 1. It is not to be denied that it proved beneficial, by securing the ministrations of the Gospel to the colonial settlements, as fast as these were formed. The law provided that the country occupied should be divided into " towns," or parishes, with well-defined boundaries, and that as soon as a certain number of families should be found re- siding within these boundaries, a meeting should be called by the proper local officers, and steps taken for the establishment of public worship. The expense of building such a church as the majority of the inhabitants, or legal voters, might choose to erect, was, like other taxes, to be levied on the people of the township, according to their properties and polls, and the pastor's stipend was, in like manner, to be fixed by the decision of the majority at a meeting of legal voters, ■ and raised by a general yearly tax. Thus it will be seen that the township was left to decide what sort of building should be erected, how much should be expended upon it, and the amount of the pastor's stipend. As the pastor was chosen by the people, without any interference on the part of the civil au- thorities, or any other person, individual or corporate, the evils of patronage were unknown. In the choice of a pastor, however, be it observed, that it was the invariable rule from the first, that he should be called by the " church," that is, by the body of believers or actual members of the church — the communicants — and afterward by the 186 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK IL " town," that is, by the legal voters, the vote of a majority of them being requisite to the validity of a call. This plan, so eminently democratical, seemed calculated to give all parties their rights. In case of the " church" and the " town" disagreeing as to the choice of a pastor, some means were almost always found for bringing about unanimity. Such, in brief, was the plan pursued for more than one hundred and fifty years in Massachusetts, and, if I am not mistaken, in all the other New England States, where the civil power was in union with the Church. It will be admitted that such a law as this, if enforced, must have made the establishment of public worship keep pace with the increase of the population, wherever that became numerous enough, in any given direction, for the building of churches ; and also must have se- cured to ministers of the Gospel a steadier, and possibly, too, an ampler support than otherwise. But it may be questioned whether the New England Puritans, with the dispositions and the objects they had in view in coming to the New World, would not have accom- plished of their own accord, and on what is called the voluntary plan, very nearly the same results, as we see is now done in Maine and elsewhere, since the union between Church and State has ceased. I am willing, however, to allow that the system I have described was in this respect decidedly beneficial. The mere support of public wor- ship was certainly never provided for in a more popular or less ex- ceptionable manner. I speak of the law as it stood at the outset, and for a long while thereafter. We shall see presently what evils flowed from it. 2. I have already stated that in Massachusetts, and if not in the Connecticut colony, at least in that of New Haven, political trust and power were confined to members of the churches. It were ab- surd to suppose that this law was adopted as a means of promoting religion ; its authors were too well acquainted with human nature to have any such expectation. Their grand object was to confine the exercise of political power to persons in whom they could confide. As they have been severely censured for their intolerance in this respect — very much, I conceive, from ignorance of their peculiar posi- tion — I maybe allowed to dwell for a moment on the subject. They had made a long voyage to establish a colony in the wilderness, where they and their children might enjoy liberty of conscience, and worship God in purity. Being all of one mind on the subject of re- ligion, as well as other great points, they thought that they were fully authorized to establish such a colony, and certainly it would be hard to prove that they were not. In these circumstances, what more natural than their endeavoring to prevent persons from coming CHAP. XIX. J INFLUENCE OF THE UNION IN NEW ENGLAND. 187 in among them to defeat their object ? Desiring, above all things, that their institutions might continue to be pervaded in all time coming with the spirit in which they had been commenced, they determined, in order to secure this, that none but the members of their churches should enjoy the rights and privileges of citizens, and by this they hoped to guard against both internal and external enemies. Dread- ing interference on the part of England, alarmed lest the partisans of the Prelacy, from which they had just escaped, should come among them and overthrow their institutions, both civil and religious, their object was to put an impassable gulf between themselves and persons who had no sympathy with their views and feelings. And this ob- ject they certainly accomplished. They rescued their institutions from the clutches of Charles I. and Archbishop Laud.* But in doing so they exposed themselves to the greatest of evils — evils whose disastrous influence on Truth have not ceased to be felt down to this day. 3. While the above law, no doubt, had the effect of keeping out of the government of the colony all influences wmich in those trying times might militate against its best interests, it is no less certain that it kept away men of a troublesome character. Many, in fact, who made the experiment, speedily became weary of a colony where their restless spirits found little or no scope for interference, and accordingly soon left, either for some other colony, or for En- gland. * It is well known that "Winthrop and his company were scarcely settled three years in Massachusetts, before King Charles began to repent that he had consented to the charter. The success of the Puritans in America awakened the jealousy of Laud and all the High Church party among the clergy. Proof was produced of mar- riages having been performed in the colony by civil magistrates ; and it was discov- ered that the whole colonial system of Church government was at variance with the laws of England. A most formidable conspiracy was formed against New England, and never were colonies in greater danger. Even the letters patent were ordered, by the royal council, to be produced in England; and nothing but the greatest adroit- ness on the part of the colonists postponed a compliance with the measure ; for the primate,- Archbishop Laud, and his associates actually received full power over the American plantations, to establish the government, dictate laws, govern the Church, etc., etc. Every thing seemed to threaten ruin. In the mean while the colonists remonstrated, defended themselves in their letters as well as they could, and raised money to fortify Boston. They had great need, truly, to be vigilant in respect to the admission of persons to authority among them. As it was, nothing saved them, probably, but the breaking out of the civil war in Great Britain, which gave Charles I. enough to do at home. Por the details of these matters the reader is m referred to the writings of Winthrop, Savage, Hubbard, Hutchinson, Hazzard, and the excellent statement in Bancroft's "History of the United^States," vol. i., p. 405-414. 188 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. Such, I consider, were the most important advantages resulting from the union of Church and State in Massachusetts, and some other of the New England colonies ; and I am not disposed to deny that these advantages were of no small moment in the circumstances in which the colonists were placed. I have next to point out some of the evils resulting from it. 1. It gave rise to internal difficulties of the gravest nature with such of the colonists as were not disposed to agree to all the meas- ures by which it was carried out, and led to the adoption of the harshest proceedings against those persons. One of the first cases of this kind was that of Roger Williams, in 1633-35, and it shook the colony to its centre. That remarkable man had been educated for the English bar under the patronage of Sir Edward Coke ; but influenced by the conviction that he was called to the ministry, he took orders in the Established Church. Expelled from that Church by the bishops, on account of his Puritanical principles, he came to Boston in 1631. Taught by persecution to examine how far human governments are authorized to legislate for the human mind, and to bind its facul- ties by their decisions, Williams soon perceived that a course was pursued in America which he could not but condemn as repugnant to the rights of conscience. Regarding all intolerance as sinful, he maintained that " the doctrine of persecution for cause of con- science is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ." The law required the attendance of every man at public worship ; Williams pronounced this to be wrong, for to drag the unwilling to public worship looked like requiring hypocrisy. Not less did he oppose the law that taxed all men for the support of a system of religious worship which some might dislike and conscien- tiously disapprove. "What!" exclaimed his antagonists, "is not the laborer worthy of his hire ?" " Yes," he replied, " from them that hire him." Public functionaries were to be taken only from among members of the Church ; Williams argued that, with like propriety, " a doctor of physic, or a pilot," might be selected according to his skill in theology and his standing in the Church.* In the end, Roger Williams was banished from the colony, and having retired to Narra- gansett Bay, there he became a Baptist, and foimded what is now the State called Rhode Island. Absolute religious liberty was estab- lished there from the first. The next case occurred in 1637, and ended in the expulsion of Wheelwright, Anne Hutchinson, and Aspinwall, who, although they held some very extravagant notions on certain points, would have * Bancroft's " History of the United States," vol. i., p. 3V0. CHAP. XIX.] INFLUENCE OF THE UNION IN NEW ENGLAND. 189 been harmless persons had the only weapon employed against them been Truth. Testimony to the like effect is borne by the history of the colony in subsequent years. " Since a particular form of worship had become a part of the civil establishment, irreligion was now to be punished as a civil offence. The state was a model of Christ's kingdom on earth ; treason against the civil government was treason against Christ ; and reciprocally, as the Gospel had the right paramount, blasphemy, or whatever a jury might call blasphemy, was the high- est offence in the catalogue of crimes. To deny any book of the Old or New Testament to be the written and infallible Word of God, was punished by fine or by stripes, and in case of obstinacy, by exile or death. Absence from the ministry of the Word was punished by fine."* Every thing indicated that this union between Church and State was operating in such a manner as rapidly to undermine the rights and principles of both. The Anabaptists were treated in some cases with great harshness, and when, in 1651, the Quakers made an attempt to establish themselves in the colony, they were expelled and prohibited from returning upon pain of death: a penalty actually inflicted on four of them who returned in contravention of this enactment. These Quakers, it is true, behaved in the most fanatical and out- rageous manner. They attacked the magistrates with the grossest insults, and interrupted public worship with their riotous proceedings. Even women among them, forgetting the proprieties and decencies of their sex, and claiming Divine direction for their absurd and abominable caprices, smeared their faces, and ran naked through the streets ! It were absurd to compare them with the peaceable and excellent people who bear that name in our day. They gave no evi- dence whatever of knowing what true religion means. Still, their punishment ought not to have been so extreme, and should have been inflicted for violating the decorum of society, not for their sup- posed heretical opinions.f ISTow, measures so disgraceful and injurious * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. i., p. 370. f Penalties involving mutilation, such as boring the tongue with a hot iron, and cutting off the ears, were enacted against the Quakers in 1657, and thus found a place in the statute-book of Massachusetts, but were soon repealed, the colony being ashamed of them. The fact was, as Mr. Bancroft says, vol. i., p. 451, "the creation of a national and uncompromising Church led the Congregationalists of Massachu- setts to the indulgence of the passions which disgraced their English persecutors, and Laud was justified by the men whom he wronged." But before the reader pronounces sentence, without mitigation, upon the Puritans of Massachusetts, he should refresh his remembrance of what was going on in En- gland about the year 1633. There was William Prynne, Esq., barrister-at-law, who 190 THE COLONIAL EEA. [BOOK II. to the colony, and so contrary to what one would expect from men of such excellence in other respects, would never have been adopted had it not been for laws unhappily dictated by the colonial union between Church and State. Forty years later, twenty persons were put to death for witch- craft ! Now it is obvious that so absurd a spectacle would never have taken place among so enlightened a people as the colonists of Massachusetts, within the bounds of which all these executions took place, had not the union of the Church and the State led the govern- ment so often to act on grounds purely religious, and to take cogni- zance of subjects which no political government is capable of decid- ing upon.* At all events, the embarrassment created by Roger Williams, the " Antinomian controversy," as the contest with Wheel- right, Anne Hutchinson, and Aspinwall was called, and the persecu- tion of the Anabaptists and Quakers, unquestionably arose from the enforcement of the laws passed in favor of the theocratic institutions of the colony, and were the legitimate results of the established union was condemned for writing a constructive libel on the queen, by attacking the theatre, to be excluded from his profession, to lose both his ears, to stand in the pillory and pay a fine of £5,000, and to suffer imprisonment for the rest of his life! Dr. Bast wick, a physician, about the same time, was condemned by the High Commis- sion to be excluded from his profession, excommunicated, fined £1,000, and impris- oned till he should recant, for having published a book in which he denied that bishops are superior to presbyters ! And then there was Dr. Alexander Leighton, a Scotch divine, the father of the celebrated Archbishop Leighton, who was condemned in 1630, if I mistake not, to pay a fine of £10,000, to be whipped at the pillory at Westminster, to have one of his ears cut off, and one side of his nose slit ; then to be taken to the prison for a few days ; then brought to the pillory at Cheapside to be whipped, have the other ear cut off, and the other side of his nose slit, and be shut up in prison the rest of his days ! These are unquestionable facts. And what shall we say of the wholesale massacre of the Protestants in France, in Belgium, in Bohemia, and in Moravia ? To say nothing of scenes in Scotland in the days of the last two Stuarts ? Verily, religious liberty was but ill understood in those days ! And is it well understood, even now, in most countries of Europe ? * The putting of witches to death in Massachusetts was a legitimate result of the attempt to build up a sort of theocracy, having for its basis the civil institutions of the Jewish commonwealth. But were witches nowhere put to death in those days save in New England ? Let the reader search and see. I ought to add, that the rules of Massachusetts put the Quakers to death, and banished the " Antinomians" and "Anabaptists," not because of their religious tenets, but because of their violations of the civil laws. This is the justification which they pleaded, and it was the best they could make. Miserable excuse ! But just so it is : wherever there is such a union of Church and State, heresy and heretical prac- tices are apt to become violations of the civil code, and are punished no longer as errors in religion, but as infractions of the laws of the land. So the defenders of the Inquisition have always spoken and written in justification of that awful and most iniquitous tribunal. CHAP. XIX.] INFLUENCE OF THE UNION IN NEW ENGLAND. 191 between Church and State. They had a special reference to the law compelling every man to attend the public worship of the colony. 2. Much more disastrous were the consequences flowing from an- other and still more fundamental law, passed by the Conscript Fathers of Massachusetts and Connecticut — that of making church member- ship requisite to the enjoyment of the rights and privileges of citizen- ship. Nor was it long before these consequences appeared. Not only did many persons find admission into the colonies as settlers who were not members of any church, in the sense almost invariably attached to the term in America — that is, communicants, or, as they are sometimes called, " full members" — but, what the worthy found- ers seem not to have anticipated, some of their own children grew up manifestly " unconverted," and, consequently, did not become communicants ; the. churches planted by the New England Fathers having maintained at first the strictest discipline, and allowed none to become communicants until they had satisfied the proper church authorities that they were converted persons, and had the religious knowledge without which they could not fitly come to the Lord's Supper. Persons who had not these requisites, as might be expected, thought it very hard to be excluded from the privilege of citizenship, although, as was generally the case, their lives were perfectly regular and moral. They therefore complained, and their complaints were felt to be reasonable, and such as parental love, even in the breast of a Brutus, could not long resist. In these circumstances, what was the course pursued by the co- lonial legislators, after taking council of their spiritual guides ? In- stead of abolishing the law, they decided that all baptized persons might be regarded as members of the Church, thus directly interfer- ing with matters wholly beyond the sphere of civil legislation, and contravening, likewise, a former decision of the Church : for although there is a sense in which all persons baptized in infancy are in their youth members of the Church, it is only as pupils or wards, and must not be confounded with the membership of persons who have made a profession of their faith after conversion, and at an age that qualifies them for taking such a step. Such, at least, is, I apprehend, the opinion of all churches that maintain a strict discipline. The New England fathers felt this difficulty, and accordingly it was not to all baptized persons that they gave the rights of citizens, but to baptized persons of good moral deportment, who came publicly forward and owned in the church the covenant made for them by their parents at baptism. I give the substance, if not the exact words of the law. This compromise settled the matter for a time, by providing for the case of their own young men. 192 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. This law was not so hurtful in its consequences to the State as it was to religion. The churches were filled with baptized persons who " owned the covenant," and with the lapse of time the number of " full members," or communicants, diminished. Many now enjoyed civil privileges in virtue of a less intimate connection with the Church ; this was all that they desired, and with this they were too apt to be content. But the evil went far beyond this. To escape from a state of things in which the churches, though filled with baptized people, had comparatively few " communicants," many of the pastors were led into the dangerous, I may say the fatal error, of considering the Lord's Supper to be a means of grace, in the same sense that the preaching of the Word is such, and that all well-disposed persons may be admitted to it as a means of conversion to the unconverted, as well as of edification to " believers," or converted persons. Not that this was enjoined on the churches as a law of the State. But it was the natural and almost inevitable, though indirect, conse- quence of the law adjudging all baptized persons who " renewed the covenant" to be considered members of the church, and entitled to the civil privileges attached to that relation. It is easy to see what would follow. The former measure filled the churches with baptized people who owned the covenant ; the latter practice filled the churches with unconverted communicants. In the course of a few generations the standard of religious truth and practice fell lower and lower. This decline necessarily bore upon the character of the pastors, for upon the occurrence of a vacancy, the choice, in too many cases, was sure to fall upon a pastor equally low in point of religious character with the parties by whom he was chosen. Such a state of things opened the way effectually for the admission . of false doctrine, and the more so, inasmuch as there was no effectual control beyond and above what was to be found in each individual church. But this sub- ject I may dismiss for the present, as I shall have occasion to recur to it when we come to consider the rise and progress of Unitarianism in the United States. So much for the evil consequences flowing from two of the meas- ures by which the New England fathers endeavored to carry into operation their ideas on the subject of the union that should subsist between the Church and the State. Let us now look at the mischief produced by a third measure — that, namely, requiring each " town" to maintain public worship by levying a tax upon all the inhabitants. 3. As the people were invested by law with an absolute control over the application of the money so raised, no great evil seemed, at first sight, likely to arise from such a mode of supporting the churches : and it may readily be supposed that at the outset, when the colonists CHAP. XIX.] INFLUENCE OF THE UNION IN NEW ENGLAND. 193 formed a homogeneous society, and were all either members of the established churches, or cordial friends and admirers of their system of doctrine and church polity, this assessment for their support would be submitted to without reluctance. But in process of time, when, whether from the accession of fresh emigrants, or from the growing up of the children of the original colonists into manhood, there hap- pened to be found in any particular town a considerable number of inhabitants who either disliked the services of the parish church, or were indifferent to religion altogether, it is clear that such a law would be considered both burdensome and unjust. Men can never be made to feel that they may with equity be required to pay taxes in any shape, to support a church which they dislike, and to which they may have conscientious objections. Hence arose serious difficulties, aggravated afterward when the Legislature was compelled, by the progress of true principles of legislation, to extend the rights of citi- zenship, and permission to have a worship of their own, to persons of all sects. It seemed unjust that these, while supporting their own churches, should be compelled, in addition, to contribute toward the maintenance of the parish, or " town" churches, which for a long- time they were called upon to do. A law, however, was passed at length, not exempting those who did not attend the parish church from all taxation, but allowing them to appropriate their proportion to the support of public worship ac- cording to their own wishes. Fair as this seemed, it proved most disastrous in its consequences to the interests of true religion. The haters of Evangelical Christianity could now say, " Well, since we must be taxed in support of religion, we will have what suits us ;" and in many places societies, for it would be improper to call them churches, of Universalists* and Unitarians began to be formed, and false preachers found support where, but for this law, no such societies or preachers would ever have existed. It is impossible to describe the mischiefs that have flowed from this unfortunate measure, not only and particularly in Massachusetts, but likewise in Connecticut, Maine, and, I believe, in New Hampshire also. With the aid of such a law thousands, who are now indifferent to truth or error, might easily be driven into Universalism, or some other dangerous heresy, in any part of the United States, or, rather, in any part of the world where religious opinion is unrestrained. 4. Only one further measure was required in order to make this law for the support of public worship as fatal as possible to the in- * By Universalists I mean those professed Christians in America who, with many shades of difference on the subject, agree in holding that eventually all men will be saved. I shall have to speak of them more at large in another place. 13 194 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. terests of true religion in Massachusetts. This was a decision of the Supreme Court of that State, pronounced some thirty or thirty-five years ago, by which the distinction which had previously existed "be- tween the " church" and the " town" or " parish," was destroyed in the view of the law ; and the "town," that is, the body of the people who were taxed for the support of the parish church, was allowed to exercise a control in the calling of a pastor and in every thing else. There then ensued great distress in not a few parishes. In every in- stance in which the majority of the " town" were opposed to evan- gelical religion, they had it in their power, by stopping his salary, to turn away a faithful pastor, and to choose a Universalist or Unitarian in his place.* This actually took place in numerous instances, and the church, or at least the faithful part of it, which was often the majority, was compelled to abandon the edifice in which their fathers had worshipped, with whatever endowments it might have, and to build for themselves a new place of worship, call a pastor, and sup- port him on the voluntary plan. The evil, however, which might have gone to still greater lengths, was arrested in Massachusetts in 1833, by the final dissolution of the union between Church and State, in a way to be hereafter briefly described. Such is a simple, brief, and, I trust, comprehensible view of the chief consequences resulting in New England from the union of Church and State, long maintained in that part of America. The reader will draw his own conclusions from this exhibition of facts, in all essential points unquestionably correct. That some of these con- sequences were beneficial, none will deny ; but that these were more than counterbalanced by others of an opposite tendency, is, I think, no less manifest.! * In many cases there was no great difficulty in getting such a majority, by per- suading the Universalists and others, who might have ceased for years to allow themselves to be considered as belonging to the parish, or congregation, or society, worshiping at the parish church, to return at least for a year or so, since by so doing, and paying again the assessment for the parish church, they could vote at its meet- ings. f The reader will find in the " Spirit of the Pilgrims," vol. i. (a work published in Boston in 1826-1833), the fullest details on this subject that have appeared as yet in any one publication. CHAP. XX.] INFLUENCE OP THE UNION IN OTHER STATES. 195 CHAPTER XX. THE INFLUENCES OF THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. — 2. IN THE SOUTHERN AND MIDDLE STATES. Having seen what a Church Establishment did for Congregation- alism in New England, we have now to see what it did for Episcopacy in other provinces, and particularly in the South. In the case of the latter, as in the former, the nature of the connection between Church and State, and the kind of Church establishment, were very different in different colonies. That connection was closest, and the support given to religion most effective, in Virginia ; next to it in these re- spects comes Maryland, and New York occupies the third place. In Virginia, we find that the three main laws connecting the Church and the State were substantially the same as those of Massa- chusetts at a later date. 1. The country was divided into parishes, the inhabitants of which were required to build, furnish, and uphold churches, or places of worship, and maintain a pastor, by an assess- ment proportioned to their respective means, these being estimated by the quantity of tobacco that they raised, as that was the chief ar- ticle of their commerce and of their wealth. 2. The people were required to attend the established churches, which were for a long time the only ones that existed, or that were permitted to exist in the colony. 3. The rights of citizenship were confined to members of the Episcopal Church. Now, it is beyond dispute that the division of the country into parishes, the erection of churches, and the providing of glebes for the rectors and ministers, was useful both in Virginia and in Maryland. The picture presented by Dr. Hawks, in his interesting and valuable sketches of the Episcopal Church in those colonies, is delightful as far as relates to these outward and material matters. Besides, there was a special necessity for some such legislation in Episcopalian colo- nies of the High Church party, if I may so designate them, as was the case with Virginia : for, although it might be unfair to tax them with a total, or almost total, want of true living piety, they certainly had not the fervent zeal, the devoted enthusiasm in the cause of religion, which mingled with all the proceedings of the Puritans. If, in fact, in any part of America, the union of Church and State was beneficial, not to say indispensable, in securing the formation of par- ishes and the building of churches, it was in the Southern colonies : planted as they were by the friends of Prelacy par excellence, men afraid of fanaticism in religion, whatever they might think of it in 196 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. some other things. These advantages were, in process of time, se- cured at intervals along the banks of the noble rivers of Virginia, until, at the commencement of the Revolution, that colony could boast of ninety-seven parishes, more than that number of churches, if we include chapels-of-ease, and above a hundred ministers. This is the chief, or, rather, the only benefit conferred on Virginia by the connection of the Church with the State ; for the maintenance of the clergy, as Dr. Hawks remarks, can hardly be reckoned one, inasmuch as that was nearly, if not altogether voluntary on the part of the parishioners, and was by no means enforced as the law con- templated. During a large part of the colonial period, too, the want of ministers greatly diminished the advantages that might have ac- crued from having parishes marked out and churches built in them. Thus, in 1619, there were eleven parishes and only five ministers; and in 1661, the parishes in Virginia were about fifty, and the minis- ters only about a fifth part of that number.* But granting that the support secured by law to Episcopacy was ample, which in Virginia it was not, let us notice some of the evils attending this union of Church and State, and see whether they did not counterbalance all the admitted good. The first of these, and it was no trifling one, was the antipathy which such compulsory meas- ures created toward the favored Church. Men were displeased, and felt aggrieved at being taxed for the support of a church whose serv- ices they did not frequent, but to which they might otherwise have felt no hostility, nay, to which they might by a different course have been won. This was particularly the case in those colonies where the favor shown to the Episcopal Church did not exclude the toleration of other religious bodies ; that is, in all of those where Episcopacy was established except Virginia. Episcopacy, in fact, became influential and powerful, in most cases, long after the colonies were founded, and owed its pre-eminence purely to the favor of the State, as we have seen in the colonies of Maryland, the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, etc. In all these, taxes for the support of a dominant church, representing in some instances but a mere fraction of the population, were extremely offensive to those who were members of other churches or of none, and proved hurtful, hi the end, to the Episcopal Church itself. It attached a stigma to it which it took a long time to efface ; the more so as, when the Revolution was drawing on, it began to be viewed as the Church favored of the mother-country, with which the colonists were about to enter mto a war for what they deemed to be then* rights. Thus the cause of that Church became identified so far with that of the "enemies of the country," as they were called. This * Dr. Hawks's " History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia," p. 64. CHAP. XX.] CHUECH AND STATE IN SOUTHERN AND MIDDLE STATES. 197 twofold animosity long prevailed in the very States where the Episcopal Church was once predominant, and no doubt contributed to retard its progress in later times, so that any former favors received from the State may be regarded as having been very dearly purchased.* 2. As respects Virginia, at least, the interests of true religion and of the Episcopal Church were seriously injured by the compulsory attendance upon the services of the churches, etc., noticed hi a former chapter. In the justness of the following remarks every well-informed man must heartily concur : " To coerce men into the outward exercise of religious acts by penal laws is indeed possible ; but to make them love either the religion which is thus enforced, or those who enforce it, is beyond the reach of human power. There is an inherent prin- ciple of resistance to oppression seated in the very constitution of most men, which disposes them to rebel against the arbitrary exercise of violence seeking to give direction to opinions ; and it is not, there- fore to be wondered at, that one sanguinary law to compel men to live piously, should beget the necessity for more."f 3. Another evil resulting from the imion between Church and State in the Southern colonies, and particularly in Virginia and Maryland, is to be found in the almost incessant disputes that long prevailed be- tween the colonial governors and the parish vestries respecting the right of presentation, which was claimed by both parties. In this contest, the Virginia vestries were, upon the whole, successful ; still, as the governor claimed the right of inducting, there were often seri- ous collisions. In order to evade the force of that principle in English law, which gives a minister, when once installed as pastor, a sort of freehold interest in the parish, and renders his ejectment almost im- possible, unless by deposition from the sacred office altogether, in consequence of some flagrant enormity : the vestries, instead of pre- senting a minister, often preferred employing him from year to year, so as to have it in their power to dismiss him when they thought fit ; and this refusal to present involved, of course, an inability on the gov- ernor's part to induct. In Maryland, the governors long insisted on exercising the right of presentation, a right that put it into their power to thrust very unworthy pastors into the Church. But the case was not much better when left to the vestries, these being often composed of men by no means fit to decide upon the qualifications of a pastor. In no case does it appear that the Church itself, that * It is a remarkable fact, that the Baptists, whose admission into the colony of Vir- ginia did not occur till so late, are now the most numerous body of Christians in that State ; the Methodists are next, and the Episcopalians are not more than the third. f Dr. Hawks's "History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia," p. 49. 198 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. is, the body of the communicants, possessed the privilege of choosing a pastor for themselves. 4. A fourth evil resulting from the union of Church and Stafre in the colonies where the Episcopal Church was established, lay in this, that the ministers required from time to time by the churches be- hooved to come from England, or, if Americans by birth, to receive ordination from some bishop in England, generally the Bishop of London, to whose superintendence and government the Episcopal Church in America seems to have been intrusted. As there was no bishop in America during the whole colonial period, this disadvantage continued down to the Revolution. No doubt, many worthy men, endued with the true spirit of their calling and office, were sent over by the bishops who successively oc- cupied the See of London, some of whom took a deep interest in the Colonial Church. Still, it is no less true that many of a very different character were sent over, or came of their own accord, and these, after their induction into a parish, it was found almost impossible to remove. At a distance from England, and beyond the immediate in- spection of the only bishop that seemed to have any authority over them, they generally contrived to secure impunity, not only for the neglect of their duties, but even for flagrant crimes. Some cases of the most shocking delinquency and open sin occurred both in Virginia and Maryland, without the possibility, it would seem, of their being reached and punished. All that could be done by persons com- missioned by the Bishop of London to act for him, under the name of " commissaries," was done by such men as Drs. Blair and Bray, and their successors, but the evil was too deep to be effectually ex- tirpated by any thing short of the exercise of full Episcopal authority on the spot. Besides traditional evidence of the immoralities of some of the established clergy in Virginia and Maryland, we learn their existence and nature from indubitable histories written by Episco- palians themselves, and they were such as even to call for the inter- ference of the colonial legislatures. The General Assembly of Vir- ginia, in 1631, enacted that "Mynisters shall not give themselves to excess in drinkinge or riott, spendinge theire tynie idellye by day or night," etc.* The fact is, that worthless and incapable men in every profession were wont to leave the mother country for the colonies, * Herring's "Laws of Virginia," 7 th Car. L At a much later period, Sir "William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, in reply to this inquiry from the Lords of Plant- ations, "What provision is there made for the paying of your ministers?" stated, i; We have forty-eight parishes, and our ministers are well paid. But as of all other commodities, so of this, the worst are sent to us." — See " Appendix to Eening's Collec- tion" CHAP. XX.] CHURCH AND STATE IN SOUTHERN AND MIDDLE STATES. 1J>9 where they thought they might succeed better than in England ; and such of them as belonged to the clerical profession very naturally sup- posed that they might find comfortable " livings" in those colonies, where their own Church was established, and where they heard that there was so great a deficiency of clergymen.* 5. And, lastly, one of the greatest evils of the Establishment we are speaking of, is to be found in the shameful acts of intolerance and oppression to which it led. Although the Quakers were in no instance put to death in Virginia, yet they were subjected to much persecu- tion and annoyance, and were glad in many cases to escape into North Carolina. The Puritans, too, were much disliked, and severe laws were passed " to prevent the infection from reaching the country."! Archbishop Laud's authority stood as high in Virginia as in England. An offender against that authority, of the name of Reek, was, in 1642, pilloried for two hours, with a label on his back setting forth his offence, then fined £50, and imprisoned during the pleasure of the governor.^ It would appear, however, either that all this vigilance could not keep out the Puritans, or else that some of the Virginians themselves had become so disgusted with their own as to wish for Puritan preach- ers. Be that as it may, certain it is that in 1642 there was transmitted to Boston from certain persons in Virginia an application for preach- ers, and that two actually went from Massachusetts and one from Connecticut, but were dismissed by the governor. Governor Win- throp, speaking of this affair in his Journal, says that, though the State did silence the ministers, because they would not conform to the order of England, yet the people resorted to them in private houses to hear them.§ In fact, it was not until the lapse of a century after those times that toleration was established in Virginia, through the persevering efforts of the Presbyterians and other non-established denominations, whose friends and partisans had by that time greatly increased, partly in consequence of this very intolerance on the part of the government, but chiefly by immigration, so far as to outnumber the Episcopalians of the province when the war of the Revolution commenced. As for Maryland, although the Quakers were greatly harassed in that 6 Even so late as 1751, the Bishop of London, in a letter to the well-known Dr. Doddridge, says upon this subject, " Of those that are sent from hence, a great part are of the Scotch-Irish, who can get no employment at home, and enter into the service more out of necessity than choice. Some others are willing to go abroad to retrieve either lost fortunes or lost character." — See Biblical Repertory and Princeton Re- view for April, 1840. f Hening's "Virginia Statutes," 223. % Ibid., 552. § Savage's Winthrop, p. 92. Hubbard's "History of New England," p. 141. 2 00 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. colony for some time, and Roman Catholics were treated with griev- ous injustice, yet there never was the same intolerance manifested toward those who were called Dissenters, as had been shown in Vir- ginia. The Protestant Episcopal Church was established there by law in 1692, but not in fact until 1702. But in no colony in which Episcopacy became established by law was there more intolerance displayed than in New York. That estab- lishment was effected in 1693 by Governor Fletcher, who soundly rated the Legislature because not disposed to comply with all his wishes. But in zeal for Episcopacy he was outdone by one of his suc- cessors, Lord Cornbury, a descendant of Lord Clarendon, who would fain have deprived the Dutch of their privileges, and forced them into the Episcopal Church. He had orders from the government at home " to give all countenance and encouragement to the exercise of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, as far as con- veniently might be in the province ; that no schoolmaster be hence- forward permitted to come from this kingdom, and keep a school in that our said province, without the license of our said Lord Bishop of London."* In what has been said of the intolerance manifested in several of the colonies in which the Protestant Episcopal Church was estab- lished, I would not be understood as charging such intolerance upon that Church. No doubt men of an intolerant spirit were to be found in it, for, alas ! true religious liberty, and an enlarged spirit of tolera- tion, were far from being general in those days ; but it had members also of a most catholic spirit, who neither did nor could approve of such acts as the above. The intolerance was rather that of the colo- nial governments, and to them properly belongs the credit or dis- credit attached to it. In conclusion, I can not but think that the union of the Episcopal Church with the State in some colonies, and of the Congregational Church with the civil power in others, was, upon the whole, far more mischievous than beneficial; an opinion in which I feel persuaded that the great body alike of the Episcopal and Congregational min- isters with us concur. Had the founders of the Episcopal Church in Virginia and Maryland, excellent men as I believe they were, gone to work in reliance on the blessing of God upon their efforts, and en- deavored to raise up a faithful native ministry, trusting to the will- ingness of the people to provide for their support, I doubt not that they would have succeeded far better in building up the Episcopal Church than they did with all the advantages of the State alliance which they enjoyed. They would doubtless have had to encounter * " History of the Evangelical Churches of New York." CHAP. XXI.] STATE OF RELIGION IN" THE COLONIAL EEA. 201 many difficulties, but they would have laid a surer foundation also for ultimate success. Dr. Hawks gives a painfully interesting narra- tive of the struggles which the established clergy of Virginia and Maryland had to sustain with their parishioners about their salaries : the one party striving to obtain what the law assigned to them ; the other, aided even at times by legislative enactments, availing them- selves of every stratagem in order to evade the legal claims of the clergy. The time and anxiety, the wearing out of mind and body, which these disputes cost faithful ministers, not to mention the sacri- fice of influence, would have been laid out better and more pleasantly in the unembarrassed work of their calling ; nor were they likely to have been worse off in respect of this world's blessings than the faith- ful among them really were. Assuredly the Episcopal Church in the United States at the pres- ent day furnishes decisive proof that Episcopacy can exist and flourish without aid from the civil government. Dr. Hawks thinks that it has even peculiar advantages for self-sustentation, proved, as he con- ceives, by the experience of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, and that of the Syrian Churches in India, as well as the history of that Church in the United States. Without expressing an opinion on that point, I hesitate not to say that the Episcopal Church, with all the advantage of having the people enlisted on her side in several of the colonies at the outset, and sustained as she was by the prestige of the National Church of the mother country, would have done far better had she relied on her own resources under God, in the faith- ful ministration of His Word, and of the ordinances of His House, than in trusting to the arm of the State in the colonies in which she endeavored to plant herself. CHAPTER XXI. STATE OF RELIGION DURING THE COLONIAL ERA. Before quitting the Colonial Era in the history of the United States, let us take a general view of the state of religion throughout all the colonies during that period of one hundred and sixty-eight years, from 1607 to the commencement of the war of the Revolution in 1775. As communities, the Anglo-American colonies, from their earliest days, were pervaded by religious influence, not equally powerful, yet real and salutary in all. This was especially true of New England, 202 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. whose first settlers openly declared to the world that they left their native land not so much to promote individual religion as to form Christian societies. They could have maintained silent, personal, in- dividual communion with their heavenly Father in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, or in Holland, as did some recluses in the monastic insti- tutions of the earlier and middle ages. But they had no such pur- pose. Their Christianity was of a diffusive kind ; their hearts yearned for opportunities of extending it. Religion with them was not only a concern between man and God, but one in which society at large had a deep interest. Hence some fruits of this high and holy prin- ciple might be expected in the communities which they founded, and we not unreasonably desire to know how far the result corresponded with such excellent intentions. It were unfair, however, to expect much in this way, considering the circumstances of the colonists, set- tling hi a remote wilderness, amid fierce and cruel savages, and ex- posed to all the fatigues and sicknesses incident to such a settlement, and to the anxieties and difficulties attending the organization of their governments, collisions with the mother-coimtry, and participa- tion in all that country's wars. The Colonial Era may, for the sake of convenience, be divided into four periods. The first of these, extending from the earliest settle- ment of Virginia in 1607 to 1660, was one in which religion greatly flourished, notwithstanding the trials incident to settlements amid the forests, and the troubles attending the establishment of the colo- nial governments. Peace with the Aborigines suffered few interrup- tions, the only wars worth mentioning being that with the Pequods in Connecticut, in 1637 ; that between the Dutch and the Algonquins, in 1643; and those that broke out in Virginia in 1622 and 1644, which were at once the first and the last, and by far the most dis- astrous of that period. But these wars were soon over, and a few years sufficed to repair whatever loss they occasioned to the colonists. This was the period in which those excellent men who either came over with the first colonists, or soon afterward joined them, labored long, and very successfully, for the salvation of souls. Among these were Wilson, and Cotton, and Shepard, and Mather (Richard), and Philips, and Higginson, and Skelton, in the colony of Massachusetts Bay ; Brewster, in Plymouth ; Hooker, in Connecticut ; Davenport, in New Haven ; and Hunt and Whitaker, in Virginia. Several of the cotemporary magistrates, also, were distinguished for their piety and zeal ; such as the governors Winthrop of Massachusetts, Bradford and "Winslow of Plymouth, Haynes of Connecticut, and Eaton of New Haven. To these we must add Roger Williams, who was pastor, and, for a time, governor in Providence. CHAP. XXI.] STATE OF RELIGION IN THE COLONIAL ERA. 203 This was the golden age of the colonial cycle. God poured out His Spirit in many places. Precious seasons were enjoyed by the churches in Boston, in Salem, in Plymouth, in Hartford, and in New Haven. Nor were the labors of faithful men in Virginia without a rich blessing. Days of fasting and prayer were frequently and faith- fully observed. The Saviour was entreated to dwell among the peo- ple. Religion was felt to be the most important of blessings, both for the individual man and for the State. Revivals were highly prized, and earnestly sought ; nor were they sought in vain. The journals of Governor Winthrop, and other good men of that day, present most interesting details in proof of this. America has seen more extensive, but never more unequivocal, works of grace, or more indubitable operations of the Spirit. Nor were the aboriginal heathen around the colonies forgotten in those days. Eliot and others labored with great success among the Indians in the vicinity of Boston. Several thousand souls were con- verted. The Bible was translated into their tongue. Nor was it in Massachusetts alone that men cared for the souls of the " Salvages," as they were called. In Virginia, an Indian princess, Pocahontas, received the Gospel, was baptized, and became a consistent member of a Christian Church. Another convert, Chanco, was the instru- ment, under God, of saving the colony from entire extirpation. The commencement of the colonization of America was certainly auspicious for the cause of true religion. The second period is one of sixty years, from 1660 to to 1720. This might be called the brazen age of the colonies. Almost all of them experienced times of trouble. Massachusetts suffered in 1675 from a most disastrous war with " King Philip," the chief of the Pokanokets, and with other tribes which afterward joined in a gene- ral endeavor to expel or exterminate the colonists. Violent disputes arose with the government of England respecting the rights of the colony, and to these were added internal dissensions about witch- craft, and other exciting subjects, chiefly of a local nature. In Virginia, in 1675-76, there were a serious Indian war and a " Grand Rebellion," which threatened ruin to the colony. And in the Carolinas a desolating war with the Tuscaroras broke out in 1711-12. Besides these greater causes of trouble and excitement, there were others which it is not necessary to indicate. The influence of grow- ing prosperity may, however, be mentioned. The colonies had now taken permanent root. They might be shaken, but could not be eradicated or overthrown by the rude blasts of misfortune. Their wealth was increasing ; their commerce was already considerable, and 204 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK H. attracted many youth to the seas. Every war which England had with France or Spain agitated her colonies also. These causes concurring with the disastrous consequences of the union of Church and State already described, led to a great decline of vital Christianity, and although partial revivals took place, the all- pervading piety that characterized the first generation suffered a great diminution. The light of holiness grew faint and dim, and morality, in general, degenerated in a like degree. The Fathers had gone to the tomb, and were succeeded, upon the whole, by inferior men. The second Governor Winthrop, it is true, showed himself, in the administration of the united colonies of Connecticut, to be a great and good man, and a father alike to the Church and the State. Among the ministers, too, there was a considerable number of dis- tinguished men ; but their labors were not equally blessed with those of the fathers. Among the best known were the Mathers, Increase and Cotton, father and son, the latter more distinguished for the ex- tent and variety of his acquirements than for soimdness of judgment ;* Norton and others, in Massachusetts ; Pierpont, in Connecticut ; Dr. Blair, who for a long time was the Bishop of London's commissary, in Virginia ; Dr. Bray, who held the same office, in Maryland ; two per- sons to whom the Episcopal Church in those colonies was much in- debted for its prosperity. The faithful pastors in New England received an accession to their number, in the early part of this period, by the arrival from England of some of the two thousand ministers who were ejected there for non-conformity, soon after the accession of Charles II. The third period, comprehending the thirty years from 1720 to 1750, was distinguished by extensive revivals of religion, and this, notwithstanding the agitation produced in the colonies, by the share they had in the war between France and England toward the close of that period, and other unfavorable circumstances besides. The Great Awakening, f as it has been called, infused a new life into the * Cotton Mather's acquirements were really prodigious, considering the age and the circumstances in which he lived. His publications amounted to no fewer than three hundred and eighty-two, several of which, such as his "Magnalia, or the Eccle- siastical History of New England," were large works. He displayed, however, such a mixture of credulity, pedantry, and bad taste, that he was not appreciated as he deserved. The part which he took in the affair of the witches, though greatly mis- represented by some writers, did him vast injury. He was singularly given to believe all sorts of marvelous stories. f For a full and able account of this great work of grace, as well as of other re- vivals of religion, of unusual power and extent in America, see a work published at Boston in 1842, entitled the "Great Awakening," by the Rev. Joseph Tracy. It is by far the fullest account of the early revivals in America that has yet appeared, and being derived from authentic sources, is worthy of entire credence. CHAP. XXI.] STATE OF RELIGION IN THE COLONIAL ERA. 205 churches, more especially in New England, in certain parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and some other colonies, and its effects were visible long afterward in many places. It is true that fanatical teachers did much mischief hi several quarters by associating themselves with the work of God, and introducing their own unwar- rantable measures, so as to rob it, in the end, of much of the glorious character that distinguished, it at first. Yet it can not be denied that it was a great blessing to the churches. Some important, though painful lessons, were learned, in regard to the economy of the Spirit, which have not been wholly forgotten to this day. This was the period in which Edwards and Prince, Frelinghuysen, Dickinson, Finley, and the Tennents, labored in the Northern and the Middle States ; Davies, and others of kindred spirit, in Virginia ; the Wesleys for a while in Georgia ; while Whitfield, like the angel symbolized in the Apocalypse as flying through the heavens, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to the nations, traversed colony after colony in his repeated visits to the New World, and was made an instrument of blessing to multitudes. The fourth and concluding period of the Colonial Era comprehends the twenty-five years from 1750 to 1775, and was one of great public agitation. In the early part of it, the colonies aided England with all their might hi another war with France, ending hi the conquest of the Canadas, which were secured to the conquerors by the treaty of Paris in 1763. In the latter part of it, men's minds became univers- ally engrossed with the disputes between the colonies and the mother country, and when all prospect of having these brought to an amicable settlement seemed desperate, preparation began to be made for that dreadful alternative — war. Such a state of things could not fail to have an untoward influence on religion. Yet most of those distinguished men whom I have spoken of as laboring in the latter part of the immediately preceding period, were spared to continue their work in the beginning of this. Whitfield renewed from time to time his visits, and the Spirit was not grieved quite away from the churches by the commotions of the people. Still, no such glorious scenes were beheld during this period as had been witnessed in the last ; on the contrary, that declension in spiritual life, and spiritual effort, which war ever occasions, was now everywhere visible, even before hostilities had actually commenced. Such is the very cursory and imperfect review which the limits of this work permit us to take of the religious vicissitudes of the United States during their colonial days. That period of one hundred and sixty-eight years was, comparatively speaking, one of decline, and even deadness, in the greater part of Protestant Europe; indeed, the 206 THE COLONIAL ERA. [BOOK II. latter part may be regarded as having been so universally. Yet, during the same period, I feel very certain that a minute examination of the history of the American Protestant churches would show, that in no other part of Christendom, in proportion to the population, was there a greater amount of true knowledge of the Gospel, and of practical godliness, among both ministers and their flocks. No doubt there were long intervals of coldness, or, rather, of deadness, as to spiritual things, during which both pastors and people became too much engrossed with the " cares of life." But, blessed be God, He did not abandon us forever. Though He visited our transgres- sions with a rod, and chastised us for our sins, yet He remembered the covenant which He made with our fathers, and the Word of His promise wherein He had caused them to trust. And though our un- worthiness and our unprofitableness had been great, He did not cast us away from His sight, but deigned to hear us when we called upon Him in the dark and gloomy hour, and saved us with a great salva- tion. And this He did because " His mercy endureth forever." BOOK III, THE NATIONAL ERA CHAPTER I. EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION" UPON RELIGION. CHANGES TO WHICH IT NECESSARILY GAVE RISE. From the Colonial we now proceed to the National period in the history of the United States. The first twenty-five years of the national existence of the States were fraught with evil to the cause of religion. First came the war of the Revolution, which literally engrossed all men's minds. The population of the country at its commencement scarcely, if at all, ex- ceeded three millions ; and for a people so few and so scattered, di- vided into thirteen colonies, quite independent, at the outset, of each other, having no national treasury, no central government or power, nothing, in short, to unite them but one common feeling of patriotism, it was a gigantic undertaking. The war was followed by a long period of prostration. Connection with England having been dissolved, the Colonies had to assume the form of States, their governments had to be re-organized, and a general, or federal government, instituted. The infant nation, now severed from the mother country, had to begin an existence of its own, at the cost of years of anxiety and agitation. Dangers threatened it on every side, and scarcely had the General Government been organized, and the States learned to know their places a little in the federal economy, when the French Revolution burst forth like a volcano, and threatened to sweep the United States into its fiery stream. In the end it led them to declare war against France for their national honor, or, rather, for their national exist- ence. That war was happily brought to an end by Napoleon, on his becoming First Consul, and thus was the infant country allowed to enjoy a little longer repose, as far as depended on foreign nations. Unfavorable to the promotion of religion as were the whole twenty- 208 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK in. five years from 1775 to 1800, the first eight spent in hostilities with England were pre-eminently so. The effects of war on the churches of all communions were extensively and variously disastrous. To say nothing of the distraction of the mind from the subject of salva- tion, its more palpable influences were seen and felt everywhere. Young men were called away from the seclusion and protection of the parental roof, and from the vicinity of the oracle of God, to the demoralizing atmosphere of a camp ; congregations were sometimes entirely broken up ; churches were burned, or converted into bar- racks or hospitals, by one or other of the belligerent armies, often by both successively ; in more than one instance pastors were murdered ; the usual ministerial intercourse was interrupted ; efforts for the dis- semination of the Gospel were, in a great measure, suspended ; col- leges and other seminaries of learning were closed for want of students and professors ; and the public morals in various respects, and in almost all possible ways, deteriorated. Christianity is a religion of peace, and the tempest of war never fails to blast and scatter the leaves of the Tree which was planted for the healing of the nations. A single passage from a letter, written by a distinguished and most excellent German clergyman,* will give the reader some idea of the state of things during that war. It was written not long after its commencement. The perusal of it can not fail to impress the mind of every Christian with the duty of praying that the peace which now so happily exists between the United States and other nations may evermore continue : "Throughout the whole country great preparations are making for the war, and almost every person is under arms. The ardor man- ifested in these melancholy circumstances is indescribable. If a hundred men are required, many more immediately offer, and are dissatisfied when they are not accepted. I know of no similar case in history. Neighborhoods, concerning which it would have been expected that years would be requisite to induce them voluntarily to take up arms, became strongly inclined for war as soon as the battle of Lexington was known. Quakers and Mennonists take part in the military exercises, and in great numbers renounce their former relig- ious principles. The hoarse din of war is hourly heard in our streets. The present disturbances inflict no small injury on religion. Every body is constantly on the alert, anxious, like the ancient Athe- nians, to hear the news, and, amid the mass of news, the hearts of * The Rev. Dr. Helmuth, formerly pastor in Philadelphia. The letter from which the extract given in the text is taken, is found in the "Hallische Nachrichten," p. 1367-68, and quoted by Professor Schmucker in his u Retrospect of Lutheranism in the United States." CHAP. I.] EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION UPON RELIGION. 209 men are, alas ! closed against the good Word of God. The Lord is chastising the people, but they do not feel it. Those who appear to be distant from danger are unconcerned ; and those whom calamity has overtaken are enraged, and meditating vengeance. In the Amer- ican army there are many clergymen, who serve both as chaplains and as officers. I myself know two, one of whom is a colonel, and the other a captain. The whole country is in perfect enthusiasm for liberty. The whole population, from New England to Georgia, is of one mind, and determined to risk life and all things in defence of liberty. The few who think differently are not permitted to utter their sentiments. In Philadelphia the English and German students are formed into military companies, wear uniforms, and are exercised like regular troops. Would to God that men would become as zeal- ous and unanimous in asserting their spiritual liberty, as they are in vindicating their political freedom." \^ It required some time for the churches to recover from the demor- alizing effects of a war which had drawn the whole nation into its cir- cle, and lasted eight long years. But the times immediately following the Revolution were, as I have remarked, far from being favorable to the resuscitation of true religion, and to the restoration of the churches, even to the condition, unsatisfactory as it was, in which they had stood previously to the contest. Through God's blessing, however, they not only shared in the returning tranquillity of the country, but from that time to this, with some short periods of interruption, they have steadily grown with its growth and strengthened with its strength. It is not easy to ascertain what was the exact number of ministers and churches in the United States when these became severed from England, but the following estimate can not be very wide of the truth. The Episcopal clergymen may be reckoned at about two hun- dred and fifty at most ; the churches at about three hundred.* In 1788, the Presbyterians had exactly one hundred and seventy-seven ministers, and four hundred and seventeen congregations. f As the Lutherans had eleven ministers in 1748, and forty churches three years after, the former could hardly have exceeded twenty-five, and the latter sixty, at the commencement of the Revolution — -judging by the statistics of the directory for worship (Kirchenagende), published in 1786. J The German Reformed churches were not more numerous. The Reformed Dutch churches had thirty ministers and eighty-two * The number of the clergy and churches in the Episcopal Church, given in the text, has been estimated from various historical sketches and documents. f " History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States," by Dr. Hodge, part ii., p. 504. \ Dr. Schmucker's " Retrospect of Lutheranism in the United States." 14 210 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. congregations in 1784.* In 1776, the Associate Church had thirteen ministers, and perhaps twenty churches. The Moravians had proba- bly twelve ministers and six or eight churches. The New England Congregationalists could not, at the commencement of the Revolu- tion, have had above seven hundred churches and five hundred and seventy-five pastors. The Baptists, in 1784, had four hundred and twenty-four ministers, and four hundred and seventy-one churches or congregations. f The Methodists, at the time of the Revolution, did not exist as a body distinct from the Established Episcopal Church, and had no ordained ministers. As for the Roman Catholics, according to Bishop England's estimate, their priests did not exceed twenty-six in number when the war of the Revolution commenced, but their congregations were at least twice as numerous.J These statements, though far from precise, are from the best sources, and suffice to give a tolerably correct view of the numbers of the clergy and churches at the commencement of the national existence of the country, and for the first ten years after the breaking out of hostilities with England. From the best estimate I can make, it seems very certain that in 1775 the total number of ministers of the Gospel in the United States did not exceed fourteen hundred and forty-one, nor the congregations nineteen hundred and forty. Indeed, I am convinced that this is rather too large an estimate.§ The population of the thirteen col- * See the Historical Sketch of the Reformed Dutch Church in another part of this work. f View of the Baptist churches in America, given in the "American Quarterly Register," vols. xiii. and xiv. \ Letter from Bishop England, of Charleston, to the Central Council of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, at Lyons, published in the " '•Annates de la Pronator tion de la Foi" for the month of May, 1838, vol. x. § The most exact approximation which I make is as follows : Ministers. Churches. Episcopalians . Baptists . Congregationalists* Presbyterians Lutherans German Reformed Reformed Dutch Associate Moravians • Roman Catholics Total * The number of Congregational ministers in New England (and there were few or none in other parts of the country) was estimated by Dr. Stiles to be, in 1760, five hundred and thirty ; in the fifteen years which followed they probably increased to five hundred and seventy-five, as given in the text. 250 300 350 380 575 TOO 140 300 25 60 25 60 25 60 13 20 12 8 26 52 1.441 1,940 CHAP. II.] CHURCH AND STATE, WHEN DISSOLVED. 211 onies at that epoch did not exceed three millions, of whom about five hundred thousand were slaves. If we assume the number of ministers to have been fourteen hun- dred and forty-one, and the population three millions, in 1775, then we have one minister of the Gospel, on an average, for nearly two thousand and eighty-two souls, which, I apprehend, is not far from the exact truth. At that epoch there was no bishop in either the Protestant Episco- pal or the Roman Catholic Church. There were nine colleges and two medical schools, but no schools of law or theology. The changes that took place in the general and local government of the thirteen original colonies, on their achieving their independ- ence, have been already noticed. Religion, as well as every other interest, shared in the change of relations that ensued. Henceforth it was with Congress and the State Legislatures, or, rather, with the National and State Governments, that the churches had to do, so far as they had any political relations to sustain at all. It will be my object in this book to point out the changes that took place in the relations of the churches to the civil power, and to show their actual position with regard to it at the present moment. This I will try to do with all the brevity consistent with a lucid treat- ment of the subject. We have now to see by what means that union of Church and State, which connected the Congregational churches in the North and the Episcopal Church in the Middle and South, with the civil government, was dissolved ; what were the results of that dissolution ; and what the position in which the churches now stand to the civil power, whether as represented by the General Government or by the individual States. CHAPTER II. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHUECH AND STATE NOT EFFECTED BT THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT, NOR DID IT TAKE PLACE IMME- DIATELY. More than one erroneous idea prevails, I apprehend, in Europe, with respect to the dissolution of the union of Church and State in the United States. First, many seem to think that it was a natural and inevitable result of the separation of the colonies from the mother country, and of the independent position which they had assumed. But that union connected the established churches of America, not 212 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK III. with the mother country, but with the colonial governments ; so that, when the colonies became States, the alliance that had subsisted be- tween them and certain churches was not necessarily affected. These churches, in fact, remained, as before, part and parcel of the States, and upon these they continued to be as dependent as ever. They never had any ties with England, beyond falling incidentally, as did the colonies themselves, under the operation of English laws. Again, many imagine that the union of Church and State in Amer- ic awas dissolved by an act of Congress ; that is, by an act of the Gen- eral Government. But this was not the case. An article of the Constitution, it is true, restrains Congress from establishing any par- ticular religion : but this restriction is not in the original draught of the Constitution ; it forms one of certain amendments adopted soon after, and runs as follows : " Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." That is to say, the General Government shall not make any law for the support of any particular church, or of all the churches. But neither this, nor any other article in the Constitution of the United States, prohibits individual States from making such laws. The Con- stitution simply declares what shall be the powers of the General Government, leaving to the State governments such powers as it does not give to the General Government. This, in reference to the subject in hand, is manifest from the fact that "the establishment of religion," as we shall presently see, survived for many years, in some States, their acceptance of the Constitution of the United States. Lastly, many persons in Europe seem to be under the impression that the union of Church and State was annihilated at the Revolu- tion, or, at all events, ceased upon the organization of the State gov- ernments being completed. This, however, was not so in all cases. The connection between the civil power in all the States in which Episcopacy had been established in the colonial period was dissolved, very soon after the Revolution, by acts of their respective Legis- latures. But the Congregational Church in New England continued to be united with the State, and to be supported by it, long after the Revolution. Indeed, it was not until 1833 that the last tie that bound the Church to the State in Massachusetts was severed. CHAP, in.] DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 213 CHAPTER III. DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE IN AMERICA. WHEN AND HOW EFFECTED. The first State that dissolved its connection with the Church was Virginia, a circumstance that seems surprising at first sight, inasmuch as its early colonists were all sincere friends of its Established Epis- copal Church, and for a long period were joined by few persons of different sentiments. Indeed, for more than a century, dissent was scarcely, if at all, allowed to exist within the commonwealth, even in the most secret manner. Two causes, however, concurred in producing an alteration of these feelings toward the Established Church. First, many whose attach- ment to it had been owing to their birth, education, and early pre- possessions, became disgusted with the irreligious lives of many of the clergy, and the greediness with which, notwithstanding that most of their time was spent in fox-hunting and other sports, in company with the most dissolute of their parishioners, they were ready to con- tend for the last pound of tobacco allowed them as their legal salary. Such, indeed, was the character of those clergymen, that any one who makes himself minutely acquainted with their doings, must feel amazed that the Church which they dishonored should have retained its hold upon the respect of the Virginian colonists as long as it did. What attachment to it remained, must be ascribed to its having at all times had some faithful and excellent ministers who mourned over these scandals, and by their personal worth redeemed in some meas- ure the body to which they belonged from the infamy brought upon it by their reprobate fellow-clergymen, or " parsons," as they were oftener called. These exceptions, however, did not prevent multi- tudes from abandoning the Church of their fathers, around which their earliest and tenderest associations still clustered. " Had the doctrines of the Gospel," says one who became an honored instrument of much good in Virginia, and who was probably the most eloquent preacher of his day in America, " been solemnly and faithfully preached of the Established Church, I am persuaded there would have been but few Dissenters in these parts of Virginia ; for their first objections were not against the peculiar rites and ceremonies of that Church, much less against her excellent articles, but against the general strain of the doctrines delivered from the pulpit, in which those articles were opposed, or (which was more common) not men- tioned at all; so that, at first, they were not properly dissenters 214 THE ' NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK III. from the original constitution of the Church of England, but the most strict adherents of it, and only dissented from those who had forsaken it."* Prior to 1740, there was only one Presbyterian congregation, it is believed, in eastern Virginia, though the Scotch and Irish emigrants from Pennsylvania must have introduced several into the Valley.f There were also a few Quaker societies, some small German congre- gations, and a considerable number of Baptist churches, which, though small and scattered, embraced, perhaps, a larger number of persons upon the whole, than all the other dissenting bodies put to- gether. It was about this time that a Mr. Samuel Morris, a layman, who had been brought to the knowledge of salvation by the reading of the Scriptures, and by the perusal of Flavel's works, and Luther on the Galatians, began to invite his neighbors, who, like himself, had been living in great ignorance of the Gospel, to come to his house on the Sabbath, and hear him read his favorite authors. Such were the crowds that attended, that a house had soon to be built of size suf- ficient to contain them. To Flavel and Luther there was added a volume of Whitfield's sermons, as furnishing spiritual food for these hungry souls. They were visited in 1743 by the Rev. Mr. Rob- inson, a Presbyterian sent from New Jersey on a missionary tour to the South. His preaching was greatly blessed to " the Readers."! He taught them to conduct their worship in the Presbyterian way, and was followed by other ministers of the same denomination. Though they were often fined for not attending the services of the Established Church, these simple-hearted and excellent people con- tinued their meetings. In 1747, the Rev. Mr. Davies, mentioned above, was sent to them by the Presbytery of Newcastle, in Dela- ware ; and, with the exception of some months spent on a visit to England, he labored among them until 1759, when he was chosen President of the College of New Jersey. He succeeded in building * The Key. Samuel Davies, in his " Narrative on the State of Religion among Dis- senters in Virginia." f The "Valley of Virginia" is a fine district of country which lies west of the first ridge of the Allegheny Mountains, and between that ridge and others which lie still further to the west. It reaches quite across the State, from north-east to south-west, and is considered the best part of it for fertility of soil. It is a part of the same val- ley which extends across Maryland into Pennsylvania. In the latter State it is called Cumberland Valley. X A counterpart to these worthy inquirers after Divine knowledge is found at the present day in the northern parts of Sweden and in Norway, where groups of persons meet on the Sabbath after church service, which in too many cases furnishes but poor spiritual nourishment, to read the Bible and other good books. CHAP. III.] DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 215 up seven churches, and from that time Presbyterianism made very considerable progress in eastern Virginia ; so that when the war of the Revolution began, the Presbytery of Hanover in that colony was a numerous body, and comprehended some very able and eloquent ministers. The Scotch and Irish Presbyterians were at the same time increasing in the western part of the province. The Baptist congre- gations increased even more rapidly. Still, it was not always easy to avoid suffering from the interference of the civil authorities. The Act of Toleration, passed in England on the 28th of June, 1687, ex- tended unquestionably to the colonies, yet not a few obstacles con- tinued to be thrown in the way of " dissenters," almost down to the opening scene of the Revolutionary drama. When the Revolution came at last, the Baptists and Presbyterians were, almost to a man, in its favor ; and many of these, but es- pecially of the former, whose preachers had suffered by far the most from the civil authorities in the earlier part of the century, at the instigation, as they believed, whether justly or unjustly, of the clergy of the Established Church, were not a little influenced in the course they then adopted by the hope of seeing the success of the Revolu- tion lead to the overthrow of an establishment which they regarded with feelings of repugnance, and even of hostility. In these circum- stances, it was to be expected that before the Revolution had made much progress, an assault would be made on the Established Church ; such an assault was made, and not without success. As the history of this matter is not a little interesting, and almost quite unknown in Europe, I may enter upon it at some length. A very general impression prevails in England, and perhaps else- where, that the entire separation of .Church and State in America was the work of Mr. Jefferson, the third President of the United States, who took a distinguished part in the struggle, and who, upon being charged with drawing up the Declaration of Independence, executed the task so much to the satisfaction of his fellow-citizens. Now none of Mr. Jefferson's admirers will consider it slanderous to assert that he was a very bitter enemy to Christianity, and we may even assume that he wished to see not only the Episcopal Church separated from the State in Virginia, but the utter overthrow of every thing in the shape of a church throughout the country. Still, it was not Jefferson that induced the State of Virginia to pass the Act of Separation. That must be ascribed to the petitions and other efforts of the Presbyterians and Baptists. No sooner was war declared, than the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, the highest ecclesiastical body among the Presbyterians of America at that time, addressed to their churches a very judicious 216 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. and patriotic letter, which, while it displayed a firm spirit of loyalty toward the government of England, evidently and naturally sympa- thized with the contest then begun — a contest which it was thought could not be abandoned without the sacrifice of their dearest rights. Few persons sivpposed at that time that the struggle was to end in a separation from the mother country. But when, in the following year, the Congress issued its Declaration of Independence, the whole face of matters was changed, and ministers of the Gospel had to make their election — whether they would recognize and obey the act of the Congress, or still adhere to the sovereignty of England. Then it was that the first body of clergy of any denomination in America that openly recognized that act, and thereby identified themselves with the cause of freedom and independence, was the comparatively numerous and very influential Presbytery of Hanover in Virginia. At its first meeting after the appearance of the Declaration, that body addressed the Virginia House of Assembly in a memorial, re- commending the separation of Church and State, and the leaving of the support of the Gospel to the voluntary efforts of its friends. The memorial runs as follows : "To the Honorable the General Assembly of Virginia. The memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover humbly represents : That your memorialists are governed by the same sentiments which have inspired the United States of America, and are determined that noth- ing in our power and influence shall be wanting to give success to their common cause. We would also represent that dissenters from the Church of England in this country have ever been desirous to conduct themselves as peaceable members of the civil government, for which reason they have hitherto submitted to various ecclesiasti- cal burdens and restrictions that are inconsistent with equal liberty. But now, when the many and grievous oppressions of our mother country have laid this Continent under the necessity of casting off the yoke of tyranny, and of forming independent governments upon equitable and liberal foundations, we flatter ourselves that we shall be freed from all the incumbrances which a spirit of domination, prejudice, or bigotry has interwoven with most other political sys- tems. This we are the more strongly encouraged to expect by the Declaration of Rights, so universally applauded for that dignity, firmness, and precision with which it delineates and asserts the priv- ileges of society, and the prerogatives of human nature ; and which we embrace as the Magna Charta of our commonwealth, that can never be violated without endangering the grand superstructure it was designed to sustain. Therefore, we rely upon this Declaration, as well as the justice of our honorable Legislature, to secure us the CHAP. III.] DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHUECH AND STATE. 217 free exercise of religion according to the dictates of our consciences; and we should fall short in our duty to ourselves, and the many and numerous congregations under our care, were we, upon this occasion, to neglect laying before you a statement of the religious grievances under which we have hitherto labored, that they may no longer be continued in our present form of government. "It is well known that in the frontier counties, which are justly supposed to contain a fifth part of the inhabitants of Virginia, the Dissenters have borne the heavy burdens of purchasing glebes, build- ing churches, and supporting the established clergy, where there are very few Episcopalians, either to assist in bearing the expense, or to reap the advantage ; and that throughout the other parts of the coun- try there are also many thousands of zealous friends and defenders of our State, who, besides the invidious and disadvantageous restrictions to which they have been subjected, annually pay large taxes to sup- port an Establishment from which their consciences and principles oblige them to dissent ; all which are confessedly so many violations of their natural rights, and, in their consequences, a restraint upon freedom of inquiry and private judgment. " In this enlightened age, and in a land where all of every denom- ination are united in the most strenuous efforts to be free, we hope and expect that our representatives will cheerfully concur in removing every species of religious as well as civil bondage. Certain it is, that every argument for civil liberty gains additional strength when applied to liberty in the concerns of religion ; and there is no argument in favor of establishing the Christian religion but may be pleaded, with equal propriety, for establishing the tenets of Mohammed by those who believe the Koran ; or, if this be not true, it is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the vari- ous sects that profess the Christian faith, without erecting a claim to infallibility, which would lead us back to the Church of Rome. " We beg leave further to represent, that religious establishments are highly injurious to the temporal interests of any community. Without insisting upon the ambition and the arbitrary practices of those who are favored by government, or the intriguing, seditious spirit which is commonly excited by this, as well as by every other kind of oppression, such establishments greatly retard population, and, con- sequently, the progress of arts, sciences, and manufactures. Witness the rapid growth and improvement of the Northern provinces com- pared with this. No one can deny that the more early settlement, and the many superior advantages of our country, would have invited multitudes of artificers, mechanics, and other useful members of society, to fix their habitation among us, who have either remained 218 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. in their place of nativity, or preferred worse civil governments, and a more barren soil, where they might enjoy the rights of conscience more fully than they had a prospect of doing in this. From which we infer that Virginia might have now been the capital of America, and a match for the British arms, without depending on others for the necessaries of war, had it not been prevented by her religious estab- lishments. " Neither can it be made to appear that the Gospel needs any such civil aid. "We rather conceive that, when our blessed Saviour de- clares His kingdom is not of this world, He renounces all dependence upon State power, and as His weapons are spiritual, and were only designed to have influence on the judgment and heart of man, we are persuaded that if mankind were left in the quiet possession of their inalienable religious privileges, Christianity, as in .the days of the Apostles, would continue to prevail and flourish in the greatest purity by its own native excellence, and under the all-disposing Providence of God. " We would also humbly represent, that the only proper objects of civil government are the happiness and protection of men in the present state of existence ; the security of the life, liberty, and prop- erty of the citizen, and to restrain the vicious and encourage the virtuous by wholesome laws, equally extending to every individual ; but that the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can only be directed by reason and conviction, and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribunal of the universal Judge. " Therefore, we ask no ecclesiastical establishments for ourselves ; neither can we approve of them when granted to others. This, in- deed, would be giving exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges to one set of men, without any special public services, to the common reproach and injury of every other denomination. And, for the reasons recited, we are induced earnestly to entreat that all laws now in force in this commonwealth, which countenance religious domination, may be speedily repealed ; that all, of every religious sect, may be pro- tected in the full exercise of their several modes of worship ; exempted from all taxes for the support of any Church whatsoever, further than what may be agreeable to their own private choice or voluntary ob- ligation. This being done, all partial and invidious distinctions will be abolished, to the great honor and interest of the State, and every one be left to stand or fall according to his merit, which can never be the case so long as any one denomination is established in preference to others. " That the great Sovereign of the universe may inspire you with unanimity, wisdom, and resolution, and bring you to a just determina- CHAP. III.] DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 219 tion on all the important concerns before yon, is the fervent prayer of your memorialists." Besides this petition from the Presbytery of Hanover, there were others from the Baptists and Quakers. The Baptists had suffered more than any other class of dissenters, and the remembrance of their wrongs, now that their day of power had come, stimulated them to an uninterrupted opposition of seven-and-twenty years to the Estab- lished Church. Indeed, they now took the lead in opposing its claims. In 1775 they presented to the General Assembly an address, composed by members who had spontaneously convened, in which they peti- tioned, " that they might be allowed to worship God in their own way, without interruption ; to maintain their own ministers, separate from others ; and to be married, buried, etc., without paying the clergy of other denominations."* To this the Assembly returned a complimentary answer, and an order was made that the sectarian clergy should have the privilege of performing Divine service to their respective adherents in the army, equally with the regular chaplains of the Established Church.f The above memorial from the Presbyterians, and petitions from the Baptists, Quakers, and others opposed to the Established Church, were met by counter-memorials from the Episcopalians and Methodists, ap- pealing on behalf of the Establishment to the principles of justice, wisdom, and policy. Public faith, it was said, required that the State should abide by its engagements ; and that a system of such old stand- ing, and which involved so many interests on the part of persons who had staked their all upon its continued existence, possessed the nature of a vested right, and ought to be maintained inviolate. The wisdom of this course was argued from the past experience of all Christian lands,! and from the influence of religious establishments in giving stability to virtue and the public happiness. Policy required it, for it was insisted that, were there to be no establishment, the peace of the community would be destroyed by the jealousies and contentions of rival sects. And, finally, the memorials prayed that the matter might be referred, in the last resort, to the people at large, as they had the best of reasons for believing that a majority of the citizens would be in favor of continuing the Establishment. From this it would seem that, in the conviction of these memorial- ists, a majority of the population of Virginia were Episcopalians; yet it was confidently maintained in other quarters that two thirds of the * Semple's ''History of the Baptists in Virginia," pp. 25-2*7, 62. f Burke's "History of Virginia, "p. 59. \ This was not difficult, for Church establishments had existed throughout Christen- dom since the days of Constantine. 220 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. people were at that time Dissenters. I am inclined to think that the greater part professed, or favored Episcopacy, but that a decided major- ity were opposed to its civil establishment. The memorials led to a long and earnest discussion. The Episcopal Church had for her champions Messrs. Pendleton and R. C. Nicolas, and for her great opponent Mr. Jefferson, who speaks of the contest as the severest in which he was ever engaged.* After discussing the subject for nearly two months, the Assembly repealed all the colonial laws attaching criminality to the profession of any particular religious opinions, requiring attend- ance at the parish churches, and forbidding attendance elsewhere, with the penalties attached thereto. Dissenters were to be exempted in future from compulsory contributions in support of the Episcopal Church. The clergy, however, were to have their stipends continued until the first day in the ensuing year, and had all arrears secured to them. The churches, chapels, glebes, books, plate, etc., belonging to the Episcopal Church, were to remain in her possession.! This law was passed on the 5th of December, 1776. The question of having a general assessment for the support of religion was at the same time discussed, but the determination of it was put off to a future day. In the course of 1777 and 1778, petitions and counter-petitions con- tinued to be addressed to the Legislature on the subject of religion. Some of the petitions prayed for the preservation of all that remained of the Establishment ; others advocated a general assessment for the support of all denominations ; others opposed that suggestion. Some, again, called for the suppression by law of the irregularities of the " sectaries," such as their holding meetings by night, and craved that none but " licensed preachers" should be allowed to conduct the public worship of God. Among the memorials was one from the Presbytery of Hanover, opposing the plan of a general assessment. After reverting to the principles laid down in their first petition, and insisting that the only proper objects of civil governments are the happiness and protection of men in their present state of existence ; the security of the life, liberty, and property of the citizens ; the restraint of the vicious, and the encouragement of the virtuous, by wholesome laws, equally extending to every individual ; and that the duty which men owe to their Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can only be directed by reason and conviction, and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribunal of the universal Judge, the Presbytery express themselves as follows : " To illustrate and confirm these assertions, we beg leave to observe, that to judge for ourselves, and to engage in the exercise of religion * Jefferson's Works, vol. i., p. 32. f Herring's " Statutes of Virginia," p. 34. CHAP. III.] DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHUECH AND STATE. 221 agreeably to the dictates of our own consciences, is an inalienable right, which, upon the principles on which the Gospel was first propa- gated, and the Reformation from Popery carried on, can never be transferred to another. Neither does the Church of Christ stand in need of a general assessment for its support ; and most certain we are that it would be of no advantage, but an injury to the Society to which we belong ; and as every good Christian believes that Christ has ordained a complete system of laws for the government of His kingdom, so we are persuaded that by His providence He will sup- port it to its final consummation. In the fixed belief of this principle, that the kingdom of Christ and the concerns of religion are beyond the limits of civil control, we should act a dishonest, inconsistent part, were we to receive any emoluments from human establishments for the support of the Gospel. " These things being considered, we hope we shall be excused for remonstrating against a general assessment for any religious purpose. As the maxims have long been approved, that every servant is to obey his master, and that the hireling is accountable for his conduct to him from whom he receives his wages ; in like manner, if the Legislature has any rightful authority over the ministers of the Gospel in the ex- ercise of their sacred office, and if it is their duty to levy a main- tenance for them as such, then it will follow that they may revive the old Establishment in its former extent, or ordain a new one for any sect that they may think- proper ; they are invested with a power not only to determine, but it is incumbent on them to declare, who shall preach, what they shall preach, to whom, when, and in what places they shall preach ; or to impose any regulations and restrictions upon religious societies that they may judge expedient. These conse- quences are so plain as not to be denied, and they are so entirely sub- versive of religious liberty, that if they should take place in Virginia, we should be reduced to the melancholy necessity of saying with the Apostles, in like cases, ' Judge ye whether it is best to obey God or men,' and also of acting as they acted. " Therefore, as it is contrary to our principles and interest, and, as we think, subversive of religious liberty, we do again most earnestly entreat that our Legislature would never extend any assessment for religious purposes to us, or to the congregations under our care." This memorial, and probably still more, the strenuous efforts of the Baptists, led, in 1779, to the abandonment of the proposed "general assessment," after a bill to that effect had been ordered to a third reading. With the return of peace, the Legislature of Virginia resumed the subject of legislating in behalf of religion ; and in the sessions of 222 THE RATIONAL ERA. [BOOK in. 1784 two important matters were much debated. One was to provide by law for the incorporation of " all societies of the Christian religion which may apply for the same;" the other was the old project of a general assessment for the support of religion. The celebrated Patrick Henry* was the great advocate of both measures. The Hanover Presbytery soon reappeared upon the field, and opposed the latter of these proposals, although it would have proved as favorable to the Presbyterian Church as any other. But on this occasion there was an evident wavering on the part of the Presbytery, probably owing to an expectation that the measure would be sure to be adopted, and from their desire to secure the least injurious plan of giving it effect. It has also been alleged as one cause of the temporary abatement of their zeal, that Mr. Henry had won over to his opinions the Rev. Dr. John B. Smith, one of the ablest members of the Presbytery. Cer- tain it is, that an act to incorporate the churches passed by a large vote, and a bill in favor of a general assessment passed two readings, was ordered to be read a third time, and was then sent forth to be sub- * This gentlemen, one of the most eloquent men that America has ever produced, was for many years a member of the Legislature of Virginia, and Governor, also, for several terms. He distinguished himself in opposing the taxation of the colonies by England without their consent, and in the course of a very animated speech on that subject in the Legislature of Virginia, said, in his emphatic manner, " Caesar had a Brutus, Charles I. had a Cromwell, and George III." — here he was interrupted by cries of " Treason 1 treason !" — " and George III.," he repeated, "should profit by their example ; if this be treason, gentlemen, you may make the most of it." It has been said that in his younger days Mr. Henry was inclined to infidelity. But this is not true; he was a firm believer in Christianity, and for many years before his death a devout Christian. " He ever had a great abhorrence of infidelity," says a private letter from a member of Mr. Henry's family, given in Dr. Hawks's " Ecclesi- astical History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia," pp. 160, 161, " and actually wrote an answer to Paine's 'Age of Eeason,' but destroyed it before his death. He received the communion as often as an opportunity offered ; and on such occasions always fasted until after he had received the sacrament, and spent the day in the greatest retirement. This he did both while he was Governor and afterward." The following touching anecdote is related of him. "When very old, he was induced to be a candidate for the House of Delegates, in a time of great political excite- ment. "On the day of the election," says Mr. "Wirt, in his Life of Patrick Henry, p. 408, "as soon as he appeared on the ground, he was surrounded by the admiring and adoring crowd, and whithersoever he moved the concourse followed him. A preacher of the Baptist Church, whose piety was wounded by this homage paid to a mortal, asked the people aloud, why they thus followed Mr. Henry. 'Mr. Henry,' said he, 'is not a god.' 'No,' said Mr. Henry, deeply affected, both by the scene and the re- mark : ' no, indeed, my friend ; I am a poor worm of the dust, as fleeting and as unsub- stantial as the shadow of the cloud that flies over your fields, and is remembered no more.' The tone with which this was uttered, and the look which accompanied, affected every heart and silenced every voice." CHAP. III.] DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 223 mittecl to the people for their opinion before being passed into a law. On the same day, likewise, on which an act was passed for the incor- poration of such churches as might apply for the same, leave was granted to introduce a bill for the incorporation of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. Henry introduced the bill. It had for its object the securing to that Church all the property that it ever had, both in those parishes which had churches in use, and in the still greater number which had no ministers, and not even vestries, and where the church edifices had become dilapidated during the war of the Revolution. This bill was approved by the Legislature, and prom- ised permanent peace and protection to the Episcopal Church. But the prospect was not of long continuance. The incorporation of the Episcopal clergy was strongly opposed in a memorial from the Pres- bytery of Hanover, under the influence of which the Legislature de- layed further proceedings, in order that public opinion might have time to express itself. Meanwhile, petitions against the measure were sent in from all parts of Virginia, signed by no fewer than ten thousand persons. Still, as the Legislature seemed disposed to pass the bill in question, the Presbyterian churches held a convention, at which an- other memorial was drawn up, and the Rev. Dr. John B. Smith, who had now become more confirmed in his opposition to the contemplated measure, was appointed to accompany the presentation of the memo- rial with his personal advocacy at the bar of the Assembly, and was heard there for three successive days. This decided the matter : the whole scheme was abandoned. Thus, it was mainly owing to the exertions of the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Quakers, that the union of Church and State in Vir- ginia was dissolved, and the scheme of a general assessment for the support of all Protestant denominations defeated.* Mr. Jefferson, it is true, when a member of the Assembly hi 1776, rendered all the aid in his power, and would have been very well pleased to have had such parties to co-operate with him in some other schemes, if he could. But they, not he, began the movement in this case, and they perse- vered in their endeavors to render the churches altogether independ- ent of the civil power, and to have all placed precisely on the same footing, as respected the civil government. Mr. Jefferson's grand achievement, in the line of legislating on the subject of religious rights, was the famous act "for establishing re- ligious freedom," drawn up by him, and adopted by the Legislature * A general assessment bill would have done infinite mischief. It never could havo been confined to the Evangelical Churches, and would have ended in building up TJnitarianism, Universalism, etc., in Virginia, just as a similar measure did in New England. / 224 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. of Yirginia in 1785.* That act in itself, however, contains nothing to which a friend of full and equal liberty of conscience would perhaps object; but it gave its author great satisfaction, not because it em- bodied the principles of eternal justice, but because, by putting all * As the reader may wish to see the famous ordinance, for having written and ad- vocated which Mr. Jefferson challenged so much credit to himself, we give it in this note : " "Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free ; that all attempts to in- fluence it by temporal punishments, or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion, who, being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was His almighty power to do ; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and in- fallible, and as such, endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established or main- tained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical ; that even the forcing him to support this or that preacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfort- able liberty of giving Ins contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporal rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind ; that our civil rights have no de- pendence on our religious opinions, any more than on our opinions in physic and geometry ; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy of the public con- fidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow-citizens, he has a natural right ; that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments those who will externally profess or conform to it ; that though, in- deed, they are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way ; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on suspicion of their ill-tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once de- stroys all religious liberty ; because, he being, of course, judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own ; that it is time enough, for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when princi- ples break out into overt acts against peace and good order ; and, finally, that Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient an- tagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human inter- position disarmed of her natural weapons — free argument and debate — errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them : — " Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever ; nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall CHAP. III.] DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHUKCII AND STATE. 225 religious sects on an equality, it seemed to degrade Christianity, and " to comprehend," to use his own words, " within the mantle of pro- tection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination." It was this that made the arch-infidel chuckle with satisfaction — not, we repeat, that the great principles embodied in the measure were right. I have now gone through the history of the dissolution of the union of Church and State in Virginia* — a dissolution effected, in reality, by the act of the 6th of December, 1776, which repealed all former acts relating to that union. What followed had no necessary con- nection with that act, but bore only upon certain measures, designed to guard against what was deemed by the majority an injurious legis- lation professedly for the promotion of the interests of religion. This early discussion of the propriety of dissolving the union of Church and State in Virginia, after the war of the Revolution had broken out, had some effect, probably, on other States placed in sim- ilar circumstances. Such, at least, is the prevailing impression in the absence of authentic documentary proof After the Declaration of Independence, measures to the same effect were very promptly taken in Maryland. On the 3d of November, 1776, the Legislature of that State put forth a Declaration of Rights similar to that made by Vir- ginia in the early part of the same year, and embodying principles directly subversive of the union of Church and State. The Episco- pal Church, nevertheless, was secured in the possession of the glebes and all other church property, and it was decided that the stipends of all the incumbents who should remain at their posts should be paid up to the first day of the month in which said Declaration was made. This righteous decision was not departed from, and Maryland, ac- be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. " And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for the or- dinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that, therefore, to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law : yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural right of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right." * I might have gone into an ampler detail of the measures pursued by the oppo- nents of the Episcopal Church in Virginia to annul the law incorporating the clergy of that Church, and of those, also, which were followed up, in 1802, by the sale of the glebes ; but such details have no proper connection with the subject in hand. The law ordaining the sale of the glebes was, I think, unconstitutional, and would have been pronounced to be so had it been brought to a fair and full decision before the proper tribunal. The opposition to the Episcopal Church toward the end was marked by a cruelty which admits of no apology. 15 226 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK in. cordingly, was spared those tedious and wretched disputes about the property of the Church that had once been established — disputes that did much harm to religion in Virginia, and were little reputable to the authors of them. In the Maryland " Declaration of Rights," it was set forth " that as it is the duty of every man to worship God in such a manner as he thinks most acceptable to Him, all persons professing the Christian religion are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty ; wherefore no person ought by any law to be molested in his person or estate on account of his religious persuasion or profession, or for his religious practice, unless, under color of religion, any man shall disturb the good order, peace, or safety of the State, or shall infringe the laws of morality, or injure others in their natural, civil, or relig- ious rights." It was further declared that no one ought to be com- pelled to frequent or maintain the religious worship of any denomi- nation ; but, at the same time, it was affirmed that the Legislature might, in its discretion, impose a common and equal tax for the support of the Christian religion in general ; in such case, however, every individual paying the tax was held to possess the right of des- ignating the religious denomination to the support of which it was to be applied; or he might resolve this legislative support of Christianity in general into mere almsgiving, and direct his tax to be applied to the maintenance of the poor.* The union of Church and State was dissolved in like manner, by acts of their respective Legislatures, in New York, South Carolina, and all the other colonies in which the Protestant Episcopal Church was predominant. But it is unnecessary to trace the steps by which this dissolution was accomplished in all cases. There was nothing particularly important, in so far as I am aware, in these details. Enough to know that the dissolution did take place at no distant period after the Revolution. Let us now return to New England, where the principle of relig- ious establishments was most firmly rooted, and most difficult to be eradicated. It was not until about forty years subsequent to the separation of Church and State in Virginia that the example was followed by Con- necticut. It will be recollected that in the latter State the Established Church was the Congregational. In 1816, shortly after the close of the last war between the United States and Great Britain, all parties that differed from it — Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, Universal- ists, etc. — combined to effect its overthrow. These various parties having succeeded in gaining a majority in the Legislature, proceeded * See Dr. Hawks's " History of the Episcopal Church of Maryland," p. 288. CHAP. III.] DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHUECH AND STATE. 227 to abolish the legal assessment for the parish churches, and by a new law left it optional to the rate-payers to support either the parish church, or any other, as each thought fit. The same system was adopted by New Hampshire and Maine. Vermont, I believe, has at all times had essentially the voluntary scheme; that is, the people of each township have supported such churches within their respective boundaries, and in such a measure, as they have thought proper. Of all the States in which there had ever been any connection be- tween the Church and the civil power, Massachusetts was the last to come under the operation of the voluntary principle. The fathers of that colony, in the indulgence of their theocratic principles and ideas, had ever prided themselves on the union made by the vine of the Lord's planting and the State. They had with great satisfaction re- posed under the shadow of both, and discoursed of the happy fruits of such a union. Cotton Mather, for example, in a style peculiarly his own, talks not only of the advantage, but of the honor, likewise, of a religious establishment. " Ministers of the Gospel," says he, "would have a poor time of it, if they must rely on a free contribu- tion of 'the people for then maintenance." And again: "The laws of the province (of Massachusetts) having had the royal approbation to ratify them, they are the king's laws. By these laws it is enacted that there shall be a public worship of God in every plantation ; that the person elected by the majority of the inhabitants to be so, shall be looked upon as the minister of the place ; and that the salary for him, which they shall agree upon, shall be levied by a rate upon all the inhabitants. In consequence of this, the minister thus chosen by the people is (not only Christ's, but also), in reality, the hinges minis- ter; and the salary raised for him is raised in the Icing's name, and is the king's allowance unto him."* Before the Revolution took place, the Episcopalians had been re- lieved by a special act of the Legislature, from contributing to the support of the parish churches, and their congregations had been erected into incorporated societies, or poll-parishes ; that is, parishes comprising only individuals, and not marked by geographical limits. But though the Constitution of 1780, which maintained the old assessment for religious worship, allowed every person to appropriate his taxes to whatever society he pleased, it was still held by the courts of that State, until the year 1811, that a member of a terri- torial parish (which is a corporation) could not divert the taxes im- posed on him for the support of religious worship to the maintenance * " Ratio Discipline ; or, Faithful Account of the Discipline professed and prac- tised in the Churches of New England," p. 20. 228 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK III. of a teacher of an unincorporated society.* By the statute of 1811, amended in 1823, a duly-attested certificate of membership in any other religious society, whether incorporated or not, sufficed to re- lieve the holder of it from all taxes for the support of the parish church ; but it was still the law and practice of Massachusetts to re- gard all persons, in any town or parish, who belonged to no religious society whatever, as regular members of the parish or Congregational church, and taxable for the support of its clergy. I have elsewhere spoken of the accumulated evils which grew out of the connection between the Church and the State in Massachu- setts. Those evils became so great that the friends of evangelical religion, in other words, of the orthodox faith of every name, re- solved to unite in urging an amendment of the Constitution of the State, by which some better results might be obtained. Their efforts were crowned with success. The amendment having been voted by the Legislature in three successive sessions, 1831-33, became part of the organic law of the State, and the union of Church and State was brought to a close. CHAPTER IV. EFFECTS OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION OF CHUECH AND STATE IN THE SEVERAL STATES IN WHICH IT ONCE EXISTED. It will be readily believed that the union of Church and State, in any country where it has once existed, can not be dissolved with- out some attendant inconvenience. If such has been the nature of the connection, that the Church has been wholly dependent on the State for its support, for the keeping of its places of worship in re- pair, the maintenance of its pastors, and the incidental expenses of public worship, very serious embarrassments must inevitably attend a sudden dissolution of such a union. Such was unquestionably the case in some of the States of America. In others, again, in which the connection had been one of no long duration, had never been very close, and had not been carried out to a great extent, that re- sult was attended with but little evil, and that not very lasting. Nowhere were the ill consequences of the dis-establishment of the Church felt more seriously than in Virginia, and this may be ascribed * For a brief and clear view of the laws of Massachusetts on this subject, the reader is referred to a sermon of the late Rev. William Cogswell, D.D., on Eeligious Liberty, preached on the day of the annual Fast in Massachusetts; April 3d, 1828, and published in Boston. CHAP. IY.] EFFECTS OF THE DISSOLUTION. 229 to several causes. The worthless character of many of the clergy- men sent over from England, had bred in many places, from the very first, great indifference to the Church and its services. The people had become tired of compulsory payments, for the support of a form of worship which they had ceased to love or respect. Thus many became indifferent to religious worship of every sort, and others went off to the " dissenters" — the Presbyterians, Baptists, etc., when there were churches of these denominations hi their neighborhoods. How- ever deplorable it might be that the venerable edifices in which their fathers had worshipped should be almost deserted from such a cause, it was nevertheless inevitable. Not that this representation applies to every parish : in many cases, the faithful and consistent fives of the pastors kept their flocks, under God, in a state of prosperity. In the second place, a large majority, some say rather more than two thirds of the Episcopal clergy* in Virginia, were opposed to the Revolution, and most of these returned to England. Nor are they to, be blamed without mercy for so doing. Many of them, it must be remembered, were Englishmen by birth, and England was the land of all their early associations. They had never suffered oppression, but had ever been of the party in favor with the monarch. Thus nothing could be more natural than that even good men among them should be Tories. Others there were, doubtless, who saw that the independence of the country would be likely so to alter the state of things as to make it impossible for them to continue their delinquen- cies with impunity, which they had enjoyed when responsible only to a bishop three thousand miles off. But this loyalty to the British crown was not likely to find much forbearance among a people, so many of whom were republican in sentiment, and hostile for the time to the mother country ; and the Episcopal Church could not fail to suffer from the sympathy shown by many of its clergy for those who were considered the country's enemies. This was, no doubt, coun- teracted so far by there being in the minority of the clergy such staunch republicans and avowed partisans of the colonies as the Rev. Dr. Madison, afterward bishop of the State, Drs. Griffith and Bracken, Messrs. Buchanan, Jarret, and others ;f while as regards * Dr. Hawks's "History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia," p. 136. \ In one instance, an Episcopal clergyman of Virginia, the Rev. Mr. Muhlenburg, relinquished his charge, accepted a commission as colonel in the American army, raised a regiment among his own parishioners, served through the whole war, and retired from the service at its close with the rank of a brigadier-general. The last sermon that he ever preached to his people before he left for the camp, was delivered in military dress.— Thatcher's "Military Journal," p. 152. The Rev. Mr. Thurston, of Frederic county, in the same State, also bore arms as a colonel in the service of the country. 230 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK III. the laity, no men in all the colonies entered more warmly into the Revolution than did the Episcopalians of Virginia.* In the third place, Virginia was the immediate theatre of no small part of the war, and was repeatedly overrun by the armies of both sides. Now, without attributing too much to wantonness, though much, no doubt, was owing to that, it may readily be supposed that the Episcopal churches, the best in the colony, would be sure to be used as barracks, store-houses, hospitals, etc., thus losing at once their sacred character, and suffering much in their furniture. Partly, indeed, from accident, partly, it is believed, from design, many were destroyed by fire and other causes. In the fourth place, so engrossed were all men's minds with the war, that the time was very unfavorable for doing good. Many of the ministers who remained in the province found great difficulty in collecting the people together, or obtaining for themselves the means >of subsistence. Some betook themselves to teaching schools, but even to that the times were unfavorable. Many who were mere boys shouldered the musket and went to the war, returning no more to their homes until hostilities had ceased, if death did not prevent them from returning at all. Bearing these things in mind, it may be supposed that the state of the Episcopal churchesf in Virginia was deplorable enough on the return of peace, and that they little needed the aggravation of being thrown for their support entirely upon their own members, when these were impoverished by the length of the war, and rendered by it incapable of doing much for the Church, however well disposed to make sacrifices in her cause. But an extract from the distinguished author to whom I have so often had occasion to refer, will give a clearer idea of the state of things than I can otherwise present : "On the 19th of April, 1783, precisely eight years after the first effusion of blood at Lexington, peace was proclaimed to the Ameri- can army by order of the commander-in-chief. Time was now afforded to men to direct their attention to the permanent establish- ment of such institutions, civil and religious, as might comport with * Such as General "Washington, Patrick Henry (of whom we have spoken in the last chapter), Eichard Henry Lee, the mover of the Declaration of Independence, his brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee, one of the signers, George Mason, Edmund Pendle- ton, Peter Lyons, Paul Carrington, "William Fleming, "William Grayson, with the families of the Nelsons, Meades, Mercers, Harrisons, Randolphs, and hundreds of other names deservedly dear to Virginia. — Dr. Hawks's "History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia" p. 137. f Not that the damage done by the war to other denominations was inconsidera- ble. The Presbyterians probably suffered more in their church edifices, from being far more obnoxious to the resentment of the enemy. CHAP. IV.] EFFECTS OF THE DISSOLUTION. 231 their desires or views of duty. Much was to be done ; and rejoicing with thankfulness, as now we may, in the present prosperity of the Church in Virginia, it is well to look back on its condition as it emerged from the Revolution, and by a contemplation of the diffi- culties which stood in the way of its resuscitation, be moved to the exercise of gratitude. When the colonies first resorted to arms, Vir- ginia, in her sixty-one counties, contained ninety-five parishes, one hundred and four churches and chapels, and ninety-one clergymen. When the contest was over, she came out of the war with a large number of her churches destroyed or injured irreparably, with twenty- three of her ninety-five parishes extinct or forsaken, and of the re- maining seventy-two, thirty-four were destitute of ministerial serv- ices; while of her ninety-one clergymen, twenty-eight only remained, who had lived through the storm, and these, with eight others who came into the State soon after the struggle terminated, supplied thirty-six of the parishes. Of these twenty-eight, fifteen only had been enabled to continue in the churches which they supplied prior to the commencement of hostilities ; and thirteen had been driven from their cures by violence or want, to seek safety or comfort in some one of the many vacant parishes, where they might hope to find, for a time at least, exemption from the extremity of suf- fering."* This is a picture dark enough, yet it must be borne in mind that the evils it represents were almost wholly owing to the Revolution- ary war and its consequences, and could not have been much allevi- ated had the Church Establishment, instead of being arrested in 17 76, been continued until 17 83. But in the gloomy years that followed the Revolution, the Episcopal Church continued prostrate, and felt the loss of her establishment most severely. Then did it seem as if nothing short of her utter ruin would satisfy the resentment of her enemies. She had, indeed, in the day of her power, been exclusive, domineering, and persecuting ; her own sins had brought upon her this severe visitation. From her case, as well as from all past expe- rience, persecuting Churches should learn that a Church that op- presses, will one day be herself oppressed, and most likely by those on whose neck she had placed her foot. But let us turn to a brighter page. " The Lord, after he hath afflicted, delighteth to heal." So it was with the Episcopal Church in Virginia. He had some good thing in reserve for her, and had been preparing her for it by the discipline of His rod. She gradually emerged from her difficulties. Her people learned by degrees to * Dr. Hawks's "History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia," pp. 153, 154. 232 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. trust in themselves, or, rather, in God, and began to look to their own exertions rather than to a tobacco-tax for the support of their churches and pastors. Faithful ministers multiplied; an excellent bishop was elected and consecrated ; benevolent societies began to spring up ; a theological school was planted within her borders, where many youths of talent and piety have been trained under excellent professors to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. And although the ministers and parishes are not now much more numerous than they were at the commencement of the war of the Revolution, yet their number is considerable, and constantly increasing. There are more than one hundred and ten ministers and churches. But, above all, I do not think it possible to find a body of ministers of equal number, in any denomination, who, in point of theological education, prudent zeal, simple and effective eloquence, general usefulness, and the esteem in which they are held by the people, can be re- garded as superior to the Episcopal clergy of the present day in Vir- ginia.* What a change ! How wonderfully has all been overruled by God for good ! Instead of perpetual wrangling with their parish- ioners and the law officers about the taxes on tobacco levied for their support, as was formerly the case: they are supported, in a way hereafter to be detailed, I do not say extravagantly or abundantly, but in general comfortably, by the contributions of their congrega- tions. And instead of being disliked, to use no harsher term, I have reason to believe that they are universally respected, and greatly beloved, by the members of other churches. In Maryland as well as Virginia, though in a much less degree, the dissolution of the union of Church and State produced serious embar- rassments and long-continued difficulty. In none of the colonies had the established clergy received such an ample maintenance as in Maryland. Their stipends were in many cases most liberal and even large for those days, so that to throw them at once on the voluntary support of their parishioners was a hazardous step, and for the time led to many cases of hardship. When the Revolution broke out, there were twenty parishes on the eastern shore of the province, and twenty-four on the western ; in all, forty-four. Each of these had an * This eulogy will not be thought extravagant by any one that has had opportuni- ties of knowing them. I have had the privilege, as well as the happiness, of making the acquaintance of many of them, and have known many more by character through sources worthy of entire confidence. The late excellent Bishop Moore was beloved by all who knew him. The present bishop, Dr. Meade, enjoys the confidence and esteem both of Christians and of the world, in a higher degree than perhaps any other minister of the Gospel in America. The assistant bishop, Dr. Johns, is a distinguished and excellent man. The Professors in the diocesan Theological Seminary, near Alex- andria, are widely known and highly esteemed. CHAP. IV.] EFFECTS OF THE DISSOLUTION. 233 incumbent, "though not always of the purest character,"* and at the close of the war in 1783, there were about eighteen or twenty re- maining.! But if this diminution were owing at all to the dissolution of the union of Church and State, it was so in but a small degree. The fact is, that abou.t two thirds of the established clergy were op- posed to the war from its commencement, and refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new government, so that the greater part of them left the country. On the return of peace, the Episcopal Church gradually recovered from its depression, and ever since it has made pretty steady progress, and been decidedly prosperous. Dr. Clagget was appointed its first bishop in If 92, its Convention was organized, and canons established, by which proper discipline was secured. The clergy were for a long time less numerous than before the Revolution ; not so much, however, for lack of the means of sup- porting them, as for lack of suitable men. Some ministers did, in- deed, leave their parishes, and the State itself, just after the war of the Revolution, and even so late as 1822, for want of support; but this was either before the churches had been sufficiently trained to the work of raising a maintenance for their ministers, or it arose from the churches being really too weak for the burden. Maryland had fifty Episcopal clergymen in 182f ; this number had risen to seventy- two in 1838, and a considerable proportion of the churches were still without ministers. There are at present not far from one hundred churches, and nearly as many ministers. At no period of its estab- lishment by the State was the Episcopal Church of Maryland so pros- perous as it has been during some years back. Not that in all cases the clergy are supported as they ought to be, or as they were during the union of Church and State ; but in point of talents and sound learning, combined with piety and other ministerial gifts, they are immeasurably superior to their predecessors before the Revolution. In North and South Carolina, and in New York, though the dis- establishment of the Episcopal Church produced, as in other cases, a kind of syncope for a time, from this it ere long recovered, and its prosperity is now incomparably greater than it ever was when it was supported by the State. In the State of New York it may be said to have entered on its present career of extraordinary prosperity with the election and consecration of the late Rev. John Henry Hobart, D.D., as bishop of the diocese, previous to which its churches and ministers were few compared with their present numbers. Seldom has a Church owed more to the energy and perseverance of one man. But hi no part of the United States was the proposal to dis-estab- * Dr. Hawks's " History of the Episcopal Church in Maryland." \ Ibid., p. 301. 234 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK in. lish the Church received with more serious apprehension than in New England. The language in which the celebrated Dr. Dwight, presi- dent of Yale College, and author of a very valuable system of theol- ogy, as well as other distinguished men of that State, deprecated the measure, is still extant in pamphlets and in journals, and these have often been quoted in England by the friends of the Church Estab- lishment there in opposition to its opponents. But it ought to be known that not a single survivor at this day, of all who once wrote against the separation of Church and State in Connecticut, has not long since seen that he was mistaken, and has not found that to be a blessing which he once regarded as a calamity. And had not Dr. Dwight died just as the change came into operation, no doubt he, too, would have changed his opinion.* Forty years have elapsed since that time, and although I have been much in Connecticut dur- ing the last twenty-five years, know many of the clergy, and have conversed much with them on the subject, out of the three or four hundred ministers of that State, I am not aware of there being one Congregational minister who would like to see the union of Church and State restored in it. On no point, I am confident, are the evangelical clergy of the United States, of all Churches, more fully agreed than in holding that a union of Church and State would prove one of the greatest calamities that could be inflicted on us, whatever it may prove in other countries. This is the very language I have heard a thousand times from our best and ablest men when speaking on the subject. In Massachusetts, which was the last of the States to abolish the union of the Church and the civil power, the change was adopted from a conviction of the evils, on the one side, resulting from the union in that State, and of the advantages, on the other side, that would accrue from its dissolution : a conviction that led all the evan- gelical denominations to combine for its overthrow. In fine, after nearly a quarter of a century's experience of the change, I appre- hend not one person of influence in all their ranks will be found to regret it. And now, throughout the whole of the United States, Truth stands on its own immovable vantage-ground. So far as the civil power is * The author has often conversed on this subject with the Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D., who, when the change took place, was pastor of a church in Connecticut, but has since been a pastor of a church in Boston, and lately a Professor in a theological seminary at Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Beecher was as much opposed to the dissolution as Dr. Dwight was, and both preached and wrote against it. But with characteristic candor, he hesitates not now to confess that his apprehensions were quite unfounded. Few men have occupied a higher place in the United States than Dr. Beecher, whether as a preacher or as a writer. CHAP. V.] POWER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO PREVENT RELIGION. 235 concerned, there is not the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or with the religious worship of any one. Religious lib- erty, fettered by no State enactment, is as perfect as it can be. Nor is any sect or denomination of Christians favored more than another. All depend, under God, for their support on the willing hearts and active hands of their friends, while the civil government, relieved from the ten thousand difficulties and embarrassments which a union of Church and State would involve, has only to mete out justice with even scales to all the citizens, whatever may be their religious opin- ions and preferences. CHAPTER V. WHETHER THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS THE POWER TO PROMOTE RELIGION. It seems to be inferred by some that because the Constitution de- clares that " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,"* the General Government can do nothing whatever to promote religion. This is certainly a mistake. A great variety of opinions has been expressed by writers on pub- lic and political law on the question, How far any government has a right to interfere in religious matters ; but that such a right exists to a certain extent, is admitted by all of them. Nor can it be otherwise so long as religion shall be thought necessary to the well-being of society, and to the stability of government itself. It is essential to the interests of men, even in this world, that they should be neither ignorant of, nor indifferent to, the existence, attributes, and provi- dence of one Almighty God, the Ruler of the universe ; and, above all, a people that believe in Christianity can never consent that the government they live under should be indifferent to its promotion, since public as well as private virtue is connected indissolubly with a proper knowledge of its nature and its claims, and as the everlasting happiness of men depends upon its cordial reception. On this subject it may be interesting to know the opinions of one of the most distinguished jurists the United States have ever pos- sessed, the late Mr. Justice Story, for a long time one of the judges of the Supreme Court : " The real difficulty lies in ascertaining the limits to which govern- * First of the Amendments to the Constitution. 236 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK in. ment may rightfully go in fostering and encouraging religion. Three cases may easily be supposed. One, where a government affords aid to a particular religion, leaving all persons free to adopt any other ; another, where it creates an ecclesiastical establishment for the prop- agation of the doctrines of a particular sect of that religion, leaving a like freedom to all others ; and a third, where it creates such an es- tablishment, and excludes all persons not belonging to it, either wholly or in part, from any participation in the public honors, trusts, emoluments, privileges, and immunities of the State. For instance, a government may simply declare that the Christian religion shall be the religion of the State, and shall be aided and encouraged in all the varieties of sects belonging to it ; or it may declare that the Catholic or Protestant religion shall be the religion of the State, leaving every man to the free enjoyment of his own religious opinions ; or it may establish the doctrines of a particular sect, as of Episcopalians, as the religion of the State, with a like freedom ; or it may establish the doctrines of a particular sect, as exclusively the religion of the State, tolerating others to a limited extent, or excluding all not belonging to it from all public honors, trusts, emoluments, privileges, and im- munities. " Now there will probably be found few persons in this, or any other Christian country, who would deliberately contend that it was unreasonable or unjust to foster and encourage the Christian religion generally as a matter of sound policy, as well as of revealed truth. In fact, every American colony, from its foundation down to the Revolution, with the exception of Rhode Island (if, indeed, that State be an exception), did openly, by the whole course of its laws and institutions, support and sustain, in some form, the Christian religion, and almost invariably gave a peculiar sanction to some of its funda- mental doctrines. And this has continued to be the case in some States down to the present period, without the slightest suspicion that it was against the principles of public law or of republican liberty.* Indeed, in a republic, there would seem to be a peculiar propriety in viewing the Christian religion as the great basis on which it must rest for its support and permanence, if it be, what it has ever been deemed by its truest friends to be, the religion of liberty. Montes- quieu has remarked, that the Christian religion is a stranger to mere despotic power. The mildness so frequently recommended in the Gospel is incompatible with the despotic rage with which a prince punishes his subjects, and exercises himself in cruelty.f He has gone * Kent's " Commentaries," sect, xxxiv., p. SS-SY. Rawle " On the Constitution," chap, x., pp. 121, 122. f Montesquieu, "Spirit of Laws," b. xxiv., c. hi. CHAP. V.] POWER OF THE GOVERNMENT TO PREVENT RELIGION. 237 even further, and affirmed, that the Protestant religion is far more congenial with the spirit of political freedom than the Catholic. 1 When,' says he, ' the Christian religion, two centuries ago, became unhappily divided into Catholic and Protestant, the people of the North [of Europe] embraced the Protestant, and those of the South still adhered to the Catholic. The reason is plain. The people of the North have, and ever will have, a spirit of liberty and independ- ence which the people of the South have not ; and, therefore, a religion which has no visible head is more agreeable to the independency of climate than that which has one.'* "Without stopping to inquire whether this remark be well founded, it is certainly true that the parent country has acted upon it with a severe and vigilant zeal ; and in most of the colonies the same rigid jealousy has been maintained almost down to our own times. Massachusetts, while she promul- gated, in her Bill of Rights, the importance and necessity of the public support of religion, and the worship of God, authorized the Legislature to require it only for Protestantism. The language of that Bill of Rights is remarkable for its pointed affirmation of the duty of government to support Christianity, and the reasons for it. ' As,' says the third article, ' the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality, and as these can not be generally dif- fused through the community but by the institution of the public wor- ship of God, and of public instructions in piety, religion, and morality, therefore, to promote their happiness, and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this common- wealth have a right to invest their Legislature with power to author- ize and require, and the Legislature shall from time to time author- ize and require the several towns, parishes, etc., etc., to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public wor- ship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality, in all cases where such pro- vision shall not be made voluntarily.' Afterward there follow pro- visions prohibiting any superiority of one sect over another, and securing to all citizens the free exercise of religion. " Probably, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution [of the United States], and of the amendment to it now under consideration, the general, if not universal, sentiment in America was, that Chris- tianity ought to receive encouragement from the State, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the free- dom of religious worship. An attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of State policy to hold all in utter indifference, * Montesquieu, "Spirit of Laws," b. xxiv., chap. v. 238 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK m. would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indig- nation. " It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the State in any assignable shape. The future experience of Christendom, and chiefly of the American States, must settle this problem, as yet new in the history of the world, abundant as it has been in experiments in the theory of government. " But the duty of supporting religion, and especially the Christian religion, is very different from the right to force the consciences of other men, or to punish them for worshipping God in the manner which they believe their accountability to Him requires. It has been truly said, that ' religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be dictated only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.'* Mr. Locke himself, who did not doubt the right of government to interfere in matters of religion, and especially to encourage Christianity, at the same time has ex- pressed his opinion of the right of private judgment, and liberty of conscience, in a manner becoming his character as a sincere friend of civil and religious liberty. ' No man, or society of men,' says he, 1 have any authority to impose then opinions or interpretations on any other, the meanest Christian ; since, in matters of religion, every man must know, and believe, and give an account of himself.'f The rights of conscience are, indeed, beyond the reach of any human power. They are given by God, and can not be encroached upon by human authority without a criminal disobedience of the precepts of natural as well as of revealed religion. "The real object of this amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance, Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or Infidelity, by pros- trating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects, and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national govern- ment. It thus cuts off the means of religious persecution (the vice and pest of former ages), and of the subversion of the rights of con- science in matters of religion, which had been trampled upon almost from the days of the apostles to the present age. J The history of the parent country had afforded the most solemn warnings and melan- choly instructions on this head ;§ and even New England, the land * Virginia Bill of Rights. 1 Tucker's Blackstone's Commentaries, Appendix, p. 296. f Lord King's Life of John Locke, p. 313. J 2 Lloyd's Debates, p. 195. § Blackstone's Commentaries, p. 41-59. CHAP. V.] POWER OF THE GOVERNMEOT TO PROMOTE RELIGION. 239 of the persecuted Puritans, as well as other colonies where the Church of England had maintained its superiority, would furnish out a chap- ter as full of the darkest bigotry and intolerance as any which could be found to disgrace the pages of foreign annals. Apostacy, heresy, and nonconformity had been standard crimes for public appeals to kindle the flames of persecution, and apologize for the most atrocious triumphs over innocence and virtue. " It was under a solemn consciousness of the dangers from ecclesi- astical ambition, the bigotry of spiritual pride, and the intolerance of sects, thus exemplified in our domestic as well as foreign annals, that it was deemed advisable to exclude from the national govern- ment all power to act upon the subject.* The situation, too, of different States equally proclaimed the policy, as well as the neces- sity, of such an exclusion. In some of the States, Episcopalians con- stituted the predominant sect ; in others, Presbyterians ; in others, Congregationalists ; in others, Quakers ; and in others, again, there was a close numerical rivalry among contending sects. It was im- possible that there should not arise perpetual strife and perpetual jealousies on the subject of ecclesiastical ascendancy, if the National Government were left free to create a religious establishment. The only security was in extirpating the power. But this alone would have been an imperfect security, if it had not been followed up by a declaration of the right of the free exercise of religion, and a prohi- bition (as we have seen) of all religious tests. Thus the whole power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the State govern- ments, to be acted upon according to their own sense of justice and the State Constitutions ; and the Catholic and the Protestant, the Calvinist and the Arminian, the Jew and the Infidel, may sit down at the common table of the national councils, without any inquisition into their faith or mode of w r orship."t The preceding extracts from the learned commentator on the Con- stitution of the United States, are sufficient to show that the General Government is not restrained from promoting religion, though not allowed to make any religious establishment, or to do any thing for the purpose of aggrandizing one denomination of Christians more than another. There is also a manifest difference between legislating directly for religion as an end of jurisdiction, and keeping it respectfully in view while legislating for other ends, the legitimacy of which is not ques- * 2 Lloyd's Debates, p. 195-197. " The sectarian spirit," said the late Dr. Corrie, "is uniformly selfish, proud, and unfeeling."— Edinburg Review, April, 1832, p. 135. \ See Kent's Commentaries, Lecture xxiv. Rawle on the Constitution, chap, x., pp. 121, 122. 2 Lloyd's Debates, p. 195. 240 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK HI. tioned ; so that if we admit that the States alone could do the former, the General Government might, at least, be competent to the latter, and in this way the harmony of the whole might be preserved. But this restricted view of the case is not necessary. All that the Constitution does is to restrain Congress from making any law " re- specting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of the same." Every thing that has no tendency to bring about an establishment of religion, or to interfere with the free exercise of religion, Congress may do. And we shall see, hereafter, that this is the view of the subject taken-by the proper authorities of the country. CHAPTER VI. WHETHER THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES MAY JUSTLY BE CALLED INFIDEL OR ATHEISTICAL. Because no mention of the Supreme Being, or of the Christian religion, is to be found in the Constitution of the United States, some have pronounced it infidel, others atheistical. But that neither opin- ion is correct, will appear from a moment's consideration of the case. Most certainly, the Convention which framed the Constitution in 1787, under the presidency of the immortal Washington, was neither infidel nor atheistical in its character. All the leading men in it were believers in Christianity, and Washington, as all the world knows, was a Christian. Several of the more prominent members were well known to be members of churches, and to live in a manner consistent with their profession. Even Franklin, who never avowed his relig- ious sentiments, and can not be said with certainty to have been an infidel, proposed, at a time of great difficulty in the course of their proceedings, that a minister of the Gospel should be invited to open their proceedings with prayer. Many members of the Convention had been members also of the Continental Congress, which carried on the national government from the commencement of the Revolution until the Constitution went into effect. Now the religious views of that Congress we shall presently see from their acts. The framers of that Constitution seem, in fact, to have felt the necessity of leaving the subject of religion, as they left many things besides, to the governments of the several States composing the Union. It was a subject on which these States had legislated from the very first. In many of them the Christian religion had been, and in some it still continued to be, supported by law ; in all, it had been CHAF. VI.] THE GOVEBNMENT NOT ATHEISTICAL. 241 the acknowledged basis of their liberty and well-being, and its insti- tutions had been protected by legal enactments. Nothing, accord- ingly, could be more natural in the Convention than to deem the introduction of the subject unnecessary. There is yet another view of the subject. " On this head," says an able writer, " as on others, the Federal Constitution was a compromise. Religion could not well be intro- duced into it for any purpose of positive regulation. There was no choice but to tolerate all Christian denominations, and to forbear entering into the particular views of any. Religion was likely to fare best hi this way. Men who loved it better than we do nowadays, felt bound in prudence to leave it at once unaided and unencumbered by constitutional provisions, save one or two of a negative character. And they acted thus, not that it might be trodden under foot, the pearl among swine, but to the very end of its greater ultimate prev- alence, its more lasting sway among the people."* There is truth, unquestionably, in these remarks ; still I am of opin- ion that the Convention, while sensible that it was unwise to make religion a subject of legislation for the General Government, thought that this, or even any mention of the thing at all, was unnecessary. The Constitution was not intended for a people that had no religion, or that needed any legislation on the subject from the proposed Gen- eral or National Government ; it was to be for a people already Christian, and whose existing laws, emanating from the most appro- priate, or to say the least, the most convenient sources, gave ample evidence of their being favorable to religion. Their doing nothing positive on the subject seems, accordingly, to speak more loudly than if they had expressed themselves in the most solemn formulas on the existence of the Deity and the truth of Christianity. These were clearly assumed, being, as it were, so well known and fully acknowl- edged as to need no specification in an instrument of a general nature, and designed for general objects. The Bible does not begin with an argument to prove the existence of God, but assumes the fact, as one the truth of which it needs no attempt to establish. This view is confirmed by what is to be found in the Constitution itself. From the reference to the Sabbath, in Article I., section vii., it is manifest that the framers of it believed that they were drawing up a Constitution for a Christian people — a people who valued and cherished a day associated, if I may so speak, with so large a part of Christianity. Regarding the subject in connection with the circum- stances that belong to it, I do not think that the government of the * " An Inquiry into the Moral and Religious Character of the American Govern- ment," p. 72. 16 242 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK in. United States can justly be called either infidel or atheistical, on ac- count of its Federal Constitution. The authors of that Constitution never dreamed- that they were to be regarded as treating Christianity with contempt, because they did not formally mention it as the law of the land, which it was already, much less that it should be ex- cluded from the government. If the latter was intended, we shall presently see that their acts, from the very organization of the gov- ernment, belied any such intention. Should any one, after all, regret that the Constitution does not contain something more explicit on the subject, I can not but say that I participate in that regret. Sure I am that, had the excellent men who framed the Constitution foreseen the inferences 'that have been drawn from the omission, they would have recognized, in a proper formula, the existence of God, and the truth and the import- ance of the Christian religion. I conclude this chapter in the language of one who has ably treated this question. " Consistent with themselves, the people of 1787 meant by the federal arrangement nothing but a new and larger or- ganization of government on principles already familiar to the country. The State governments were not broad enough for national purposes, and the old Confederation was deficient in central power. It was only to remedy these two defects, not of principle, but of distributive adjustment, that the public mind addressed itself: innovation, to any other end, was never thought of; least of all in reference to religion, a thing utterly apart from the whole design. So that, admitting that the Constitution framed on that occasion does not in terms pro- claim itself a Christian document, what then ? Does it proclaim itself imchristian ? For if it is merely silent in the matter, law and reason both tell us that its religious character is to be looked for by inter- pretation among the people who fashioned it ; a people, Christian by profession and by genealogy ; what is more, by deeds of fundamental legislation that can not deceive."* * "An Inquiry into the Moral and Religious Character of the American Govern- ment," pp. 84, 85. CHAP. Vn.] CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OP THE GOVERNMENT. 243 CHAPTER VII. THE GOVERNMENT OP THE UNITED STATES SHOWN TO BE CHRISTIAN BY ITS ACTS. Ant doubts which the Constitution of the United States may sug- gest as to the Christian character* of the National Government, will be dissipated by a statement of facts. In the first place, in transacting the affairs of the government, the Sabbath is recognized, and respect for it enjoined ; not only so, but it is observed to a degree rarely witnessed in other countries. All public business is suspended, unless in cases of extreme necessity. Congress adjourns over the Sabbath ;f the courts do not sit ; the custom-houses, and all other public offices, are shut, not only for a few hours, or part of it, but during the whole day. In the second place, the Christian character of the government is seen in the proclamations that have been made from time to time, calling on the people to observe days of fasting and prayer in times of national distress, and of thanksgiving for national or general mer- cies. Not a year passed during the war of the Revolution without the observance of such days. At the commencement of that war the Congress, in one of these proclamations, expressed its desire " to have the people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a sol- emn sense of God's superintending providence, and of their duty to rely in all their lawful enterprises on His aid and direction." The objects of a general fast are set forth : " That they may with united hearts confess and bewail their manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life appease His righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ obtain His pardon and forgiveness." A few months later we find the following language : " The Congress do also, in the most earnest manner, recommend to all the members of the United States, and par- * When I speak of the Christian character of the government of the United States, I mean that it is so far regulated by the Christian religion as to partake of its spirit, and that it is not infidel or opposed to Christianity — Christian as those of England and other parts of Christendom are Christian— not that every act of the government is truly conformable to the requirements of Christianity. Alas ! where shall we find a government whose acts are fully conformed to these ? f When the day for the adjournment of Congress falls on Saturday, it sometimes happens that, on account of the accumulation of business, the session is protracted through the night into the early morning of the Sabbath ; for doing which that body fails not to be severely censured, as it deserves, by the religious, and even by some of the secular journals. 244 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK III. ticularly the officers, civil and military, under them, the exercise of repentance and reformation ; and further require of them the strict observance of the articles which forbid profane swearing and all im- moralities." And in 1777, Congress called upon the nation "That with one heart and voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor ; and that, together with their sincere ac- knowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they have forfeited every favor, and their earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remem- brance ; that it may please Him graciously to afford His blessing on the governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole ; to inspire our commanders both by land and by sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the government of Almighty God, to secure to these United States the greatest of all blessings- independence and peace ; that it may please Hun to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people, and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase ; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true lib- erty, virtue, and piety, under His nurturing hand ; and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." In 1779, among other objects for which they call on the people to pray, we find the following : " That God would grant to His Church the plentiful effusions of Divine grace, and pour out His Holy Spirit on all ministers of the Gospel ; that He would bless and prosper the means of education, and spread the light of Chris- tian knowledge throughout the remotest corners of the earth." Similar language is found in the proclamations of 1780, 1781, and 1782. Such was the spirit which actuated the councils of the nation in the Revolution. And after the Constitution had gone into effect, we find, in the earlier period of its reign, that days of fasting and prayer for similar blessings were observed upon the invitation of Con- gress. In 1812, when the last war with England broke out, we find Congress using the following language : " It being a duty peculiarly incumbent in a time of public calamity and war, humbly and devoutly to acknowledge our dependence on Almighty God, and to implore His aid and protection, therefore resolved, that a joint committee of both Houses wait on the President, and request him to recommend a day of public humiliation and prayer, to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity, and the offering of CHAP. VII.] CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT. 245 fervent supplications to Almighty God for the safety of these States, and the speedy restoration of peace." And when the peace arrived, the same branch of the government called, in like manner, for a day of thanksoivino-, which President Madison did not hesitate to recom- mend. And though President Jackson, I regret to say, had, as Mr. Jefferson had, scruples as to how far he was empowered by the Con- stitution to appoint, or, rather, to recommend such days of fasting and prayer, and refused, accordingly, to do so at a time when it was loudly called for by the circumstances of the nation, Mr. Tyler did not for a moment hesitate to call upon the people to observe such a day upon the death of the lamented President Harrison. And sel- dom has such a day been so remarkably observed in any country, the people nocking to their respective churches, and listening with pro- found attention to discourses suited to the affecting occasion. It was marked, in short, with the solemnity of a Sabbath. The nation felt that God, who had stricken down the man whom they had elevated so lately, and with such enthusiasm, to the presidency, was loudly calling upon them not to trust in " man, whose breath is in his nos- trils." The appointment of that fast was manifestly acceptable to the nation at large. President Taylor appointed a day of fasting on ac- count of the cholera. In the third place, the General Government has at various times authorized the employment of chaplains in the army and navy, and at this moment there are such in all the larger vessels of war, and at twenty of the chief fortresses and military stations* There is also a * I can not avoid remarking, however, that the appointment of some twenty -four or five chaplains in the navy very strikingly illustrates the incompetency of the civil power to manage spiritual matters. Most of the chaplains in the United States' navy, with the exception of a few comparatively recent appointments, have been little qualified for laboring for the salvation of from four to twelve hundred men on board a ship of war. A secretary of the navy is seldom fitted to make the best selection for such a post. It would be better done if committed to some of the missionary socie- ties, or to them in conjunction with the secretary. For more than twenty years after the last war with England we had no chaplains in our little army ; but since, for twenty years and more, the government, at the instance of many of the officers, has ap- pointed twenty chaplains for as many of the chief posts. The chaplains are chosen by the senior officers of each post — as good an arrangement, probably, as could be devised. When there were no chaplains employed by the government, the ministers in the vicinity of our forts and garrisons, and the missionary societies, attended to the spiritual interests of the officers and men. The officers and men of a regiment, in some cases, raised a sufficient sum among themselves for the employment of a mis- sionary, for the greater part, or the whole of his time, to preach the Gospel to them. Almost all our forts and garrisons are often visited by ministers who volunteer to preach at certain stated times to the military stationed in them. Thus is the Word of Life made known to men who have devoted themselves to their country's service. It must be borne in mind that the national army, in times of peace, for a long period, 246 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. chaplain at the government military school at West Point, for the training of young officers. Moreover, the Congress testifies to its interest in the Christian religion, and to its sense of its importance, by employing two chaplains, one for the Senate and the other for the House of Representatives, to open the sittings of these bodies every day with prayer, and to preach every Sabbath to the two Houses, convened in the Hall of the Representatives, at twelve o'clock. In the fourth place, the policy of the General Government may be considered as Christian, inasmuch as it is directed, in a large meas- ure, by a Christian spirit. As a people, we have preferred peace to war ; we have endeavored to act with simple integrity and good faith to foreign nations. With few exceptions, the General Government has acted fairly to the Indians on our borders ; and in the instances in w T hich it has been blamed, it is not easy to see how it could have acted otherwise. To avoid a civil war, it has once or twice, perhaps, failed to act with sufficient promptitude in protecting them from their ruthless white invaders. But, generally speaking, its conduct toward the Indians has been mild and benevolent. From the times of Wash- ington it has ever willingly lent its aid in promoting the introduction of the arts of civilized life among them ; it has expended much money in doing so ; and at this moment it is co-operating with our mission- ary societies, by giving them indirect but effectual aid in that quarter. But- 1 shall have occasion to speak elsewhere of the conduct of the General Government with respect to this subject. In the fifth place, the same spirit appears in what takes place in judicial affairs. As, first, the rejection of the oath of an atheist; sec- ond, the requiring of a belief in a future state of rewards and pun- ishments, in order to the validity of a man's testimony ; and, lastly, the administering of oaths on the Bible. In the sixth place, this appears from the readiness shown by Con- gress in making large grants of valuable public lands for the support of seminaries of learning, asylums for the deaf and dumb, and for hos- pitals, although aware that the institutions thus endowed were often to be under the direction of decided Christians, who would give a prominent place in them to their religious views. This I could show by many facts, were it necessary. But I have said enough, I trust, to prove that though the encour- seldom numbered more than six or eight thousand men. It would now, if complete, embrace seventeen thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven officers and men. Last year (November, 1855), it had fifteen thousand seven hundred and fifty-two officers and men. It is an interesting fact, that a very considerable proportion of the officers are pious men, and do much good by holding religious meetings in their respective regiments and companies. CHAP. VIII.] CHRISTIAN BASIS OP THE STATE GOVERNMENTS. 247 agement or promotion of religion does not directly belong to the General Government, but to the States, the former is neither hostile nor indifferent to the religious interests of the country. This, indeed, is not likely to be the case, so long, at least, as a large proportion of our public men entertain the respect they now show for religion. Such respect is the more interesting, as it can only flow from the spontaneous feelings of the heart. They are not tempted by any re- ligious establishment to become the partisans of religion. Religion stands on its own basis, and seeks, not ineffectually, to win the re- spect and affections of all men by its own simple merits. Many of the national legislators are either members of the churches, or their warm supporters ; while few among them are not believers in Chris- tianity, or do not attend some sanctuary of the Most High on the Sabbath. CHAPTER VIII. THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL STATES ORGANIZED ON THE BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY. After considering the claims of the General Government to be regarded as Christian in character, let us inquire how far the indi- vidual States, and particularly the original Thirteen, are entitled to the same distinction : confining ourselves in this chapter to the evi- dence supplied by their earliest constitutions or fundamental laws, which were mostly made during, or shortly after, the Revolution. Virginia was unquestionably a Christian State, but her Constitution is silent on the subject. It was drawn up under the eye of one of the greatest enemies that Christianity has ever had to contend with in America ; but although he had influence enough to prevent the religion which he hated from being mentioned in the Constitution of Virginia, he could not obliterate all traces of it from her laws. Connecticut and Rhode Island had adopted no Constitutions of their own when that of the United States was framed. The latter of these two States has been governed almost to this day by the charter granted by Charles II. Both States were of Puritan origin, and the charters of both were based on Christian principles, as are their present Constitutions. The first Constitution of New York dated from 1777. It strongly guarded the rights of conscience and religious worship. It excluded the clergy from public offices of a secular nature, on the express 248 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. ground that " by their profession they were dedicated to the service of God and to the cure of souls," and " ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions." The Constitution of New Jersey, as originally framed in 1776, be- sides guaranteeing to every one the " inestimable privilege of wor- shipping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience," declared that " all persons professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect, and who should demean themselves peace- ably under the government, should be capable of being members of either branch of the Legislature, and should fully and freely enjoy every privilege and immunity enjoyed by others, their fellow-citizens." Whatever may be thought of the style of this instrument, it can not be denied that it favored the professors of Protestant Christianity. The Constitution of New Hampshire, after laying it down that " every individual has a natural and inalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience and his reason," says, " that morality and piety, rightly grounded on evangelical principles, would give the best and greatest security to government, and would lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to due subjection;" and again, " that the knowledge of these was most likely to be prop- agated by the institution of the public worship of the Deity, and public instruction in morality and religion ;" therefore, to promote these important purposes, "the towns" are empowered to adopt measures for the support and maintenance of "public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality." Although the towns are still authorized to take measures for the support of public worship, this is no longer accomplished by a general assessment. The first Constitution of Massachusetts was framed in 1780. In it we find the following language : " That as the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality ; and as these can not be generally diffused through a community but by the institution of the public worship of God, and of public instruction in piety, religion, and morality : therefore, to promote their happiness, and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth have a right to invest their Legislature with power to authorize and require, and the Legislature shall from time to time authorize and require the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality, in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily ; and the people of this commonwealth have CHAP. VIII.] CHRISTIAN BASIS OF THE STATE GOVEENMENTS. 249 also a right to, and do, invest their Legislature with authority to en- join upon all the subjects an attendance upon the instructions of the public teachers as aforesaid, at stated times and seasons, if there be any one whose instructions they can conscientiously attend." It was also ordained, that "because a frequent recurrence to the funda- mental principles of the Constitution, and a constant adherence to those of piety, justice, moderation, temperance, industry, and frugal- ity, are absolutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty and to maintain a tree government, the people ought consequently to have a particular regard to all those principles in the choice of their officers and representatives ; and they have a right to require of their lawgivers and magistrates an exact and constant observance of them in the formation and execution of all laws necessary for the good ad- ministration of the commonwealth." And, lastly, it was prescribed that every person "chosen governor, lieutenant-governor, senator, or representative, and accepting the trust," shall subscribe a solemn profession " that he believes the Christian religion, and has a firm persuasion of its truth." .The Constitution of Maryland, made in 1776, empowers the Legis- lature " to lay a general tax for the support of the Christian religion," and declares that " all persons professing the Christian religion are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty." All tests are disallowed, excepting these : an oath of office ; an oath of allegiance ; " and a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion." The first Constitution of Pennsylvania, made in the same year, re- quired that every member of the Legislature should make this solemn declaration : " I do believe in one God, the Creator and Governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and the punisher of the wicked ; and I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration." The Constitution of Delaware, made at the same period, premises, " That all men have a natural and inalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences and understand- ings ;" and declares, " that all persons professing the Christian religion ought forever to enjoy equal rights and privileges." In relation to the members of the Legislature, it enjoins, that every citizen who shall be chosen a member of either house of the Legislature, or ap- pointed to any other public office, shall be required to subscribe the following declaration : " I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for- evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration." The Constitution of North Carolina, made about the same period, 250 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK III. declares expressly, " That no person who should deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the Divine authority of either the Old or New Testament, or who should hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, should be capable of holding any office or place of trust in the civil government of the State." But the Constitution of South Carolina, made in 1V78, was the most remarkable of all. It directs the Legislature, at its regular meeting, to " choose by ballot from among themselves, or from the people at large, a governor and commander-in-chief, a lieutenant-gov- ernor, and privy council, all of the Protestant religion." It prescribes that no man shall be eligible to either the Senate or House of Repre- sentatives, "unless he be of the Protestant Religion." And, in a word, it ordains " that the Christian religion be deemed, and is hereby constituted and declared to be, the established religion of the land." Provision was also made for the incorporation, maintenance, and government of such " societies of Christian Protestants" as chose to avail themselves of laws for the purpose, and required that every such society should first agree to, and subscribe in a book the five articles following : " First, That there is one eternal God, and a future state of rewards and punishments. " Second, That God is publicly to be worshipped. " Third, That the Christian religion is the true religion. " Fourth, That the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are of Divine inspiration, and are the rule of faith and practice. " Fifth, That it is lawful, and the duty of every man, being there- unto called by those who govern, to bear witness to the truth." Even more than this : the Conscript Fathers who made the Consti- tution of South Carolina went on to declare, " That to give the State sufficient security for the discharge of the pastoral office, no person shall officiate as a minister of any established church who shall not have been chosen by a majority of the society to which he shall minister, nor until he shall have made and subscribed the following declaration, over and above the aforesaid five articles ; viz., ' That he is determined, by God's grace, out of the Holy Scriptures to instruct the people committed to his charge, and to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation but that which he shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved from the Scriptures ; that he will use both public and private admonitions, as well to the sick as to the whole within his cure, as need shall require and occasion be given ; that he will be diligent in prayers and in reading of the Holy Scrip- tures, and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same ; CHAP. VIII.] CHRISTIAN BASIS OP THE STATE GOVERNMENTS. 251 that he will be diligent to frame and fashion his own self and his family- according to the doctrine of Christ, and to make both himself and them, as much as in him lies, wholesome examples and patterns of the flock of Christ ; that he will maintain and set forward, as much as he can, quietness, peace, and love, among all people, and especially among those committed to his charge." Who does not recognize in this Constitution the spirit of the old Huguenot Confession of Faith, and of the Synods of France, which those who had been persecuted in the Gallican kingdom had carried with them to the New World ? The Constitution of Georgia, made in 1777, says: "Every officer of the State shall be liable to be called to account by the House of Assembly," and that all the members of that House " shall be of the Protestant religion." Such was the character of the State Constitutions in the opening scenes of our national existence. Of the thirteen original States, the organic laws of all but one expressly enjoined the Christian religion, and almost without exception, the Protestant form of Chris- tianity. But even Virginia was, in fact, as much Christian as any of them. From all this, the reader will see how the nation set out on its career. It was, in every proper sense of the word, a Christian nation. And though the Constitutions of the old States have since been de- prived of what was exclusive in regard to religion, and the political privileges of the Protestants are now extended to the Roman Cath- olics, without any exception that I am aware of, yet the legislative action of those States, as well as that of the new, is still founded on Christianity, and is as favorable as ever to the promotion of the Chris- tian religion. I am not sure that there is now even one State in which the Jew has not equal privileges with the professor of Christianity. He has everywhere the right to worship God publicly, according to the rites of his religion. In some States he holds offices of trust and influence, the law opening to him as well as to others access to such offices. Thus, in the city of New York, a few years ago, a descendant of Abraham was a judge of one of the courts, and discharged its duties faithfully and acceptably. It is seldom that there is not a Jew in one or the other House of Congress. Jews form but a small body in America, and as they hold what may be called the basis of the Christian religion, worship God according to the Old Testament, and believe in a future state of rewards and punishments, such a modifi- cation of the laws as should place them on the same footing with Christians, as respects political privileges, was not deemed too lati- tudinarian or unsafe. They surely have as good a claim to be con- 252 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK III. sidered fit to become members of a government founded on the re- ligion of the Bible, as Unitarians can pretend to, and hold safer principles than the Universalists. I repeat, in few words, that the State governments were founded on Christianity, and almost without exception, on Protestant Chris- tianity. In the progress of opinion on the subject of religious lib- erty, every thing that looked like an interference with the rights of conscience in any sect was laid aside, and all men whose relig- ious principles were not thought subversive of the great moral prin- ciples of Christianity, were admitted to a full participation in civil privileges and immunities. This is the present position of the gov- ernments of the several States in the American Union. Their legis- lation, while it avoids oppressing the conscience of any sect of relig- ionists, is still decidedly favorable, in general, to the interests of Christianity ; the unchristian element, if I may so term it, is too in- significant, taking the country as a whole, to exert an influence of any importance on the national legislation. CHAPTER IX. THE LEGISLATION OF THE STATES SHOWN TO BE IN FAVOR OP CHRISTIANITY. We have said that the organic laws of the State governments have been so far modified as to extend political rights to citizens of all shades of religious opinions ; that in every State the rights of con- science are guaranteed to all men ; and that in these respects, the whole thirty-one States and seven Territories composing the Amer- ican Union are as one. But we must not be understood as meaning thereby, that irreligion and licentiousness are also guaranteed by the organic laws, or by any laws whatever. This would be absurd. Rights of conscience are religious rights, that is, rights to entertain and utter religious opinions, and to enjoy public religious worship. Now this expression, even in its widest acceptation, can not include irreligion — opinions contrary to the nature of religion, subversive of the reverence, love, and. service due to God, of virtue, morality, and good manners. What rights of conscience can atheism, irreligion, or licentiousness pretend to ? It may not be prudent to disturb them in their private haunts and secret retirements. There let them remain and hold their peace. But they have no right, by any law in the United States that I am aware of, to come forward and propagate opinions and CHAP. IX.] LEGISLATION IN FAVOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 253 proselytize. Such attempts, on the contrary, are everywhere opposed by the laws, and if, at times, these laws are evaded, or their enforce- ment intentionally intermitted, this does not proceed from any ques- tion of their being just, but from a conviction that, in some circum- stances, it is the less of two evils not to enforce them. It is sometimes the best way to silence a noisy, brainless lecturer on atheism, to let him alone, and the immoral conduct of some preachers of unright- eousness is the best refutation of their impious doctrines. At times, however, another course must be pursued. Profane swearing, blas- phemy, obscenity, the publication of licentious books and pictures, the interruption of public worship, and offences of a like nature, are punishable by the laws of every State in the American Union. Now, whence had these laws their origin, or where do we find their sanc- tion ? Take the laws against profane swearing. Where did men learn that that is an offence against which the law should level its denuncia- tions ? Surely from the Bible, and from no other source. I am not aware that there is one State that has no laws for the due observance of the Sabbath. But whence came such regulations? From the light of Nature ? From the conclusions of human wisdom ? Has philosophy ever discovered that one day in seven should be con- secrated to God ? I know that experience and a right knowledge of the animal economy show that the law setting apart one day in seven is good, favorable to human happiness, and merciful to the beasts of burden. But the Sabbath is of God ; and putting aside some dim traditions and customs among nations near the spot where the Divine command respecting it was first given to Moses, or the people in whose code it afterward held a permanent place, we find it only in the Bible. But it is not only by the statute law of the United States that such offences are forbidden, they are punishable likewise under the com- mon law, which has force in that country, as well as in England. Of this admirable part of the civil economy, Christianity is not merely an inherent, it is a constituent part. This, though denied by Mr. Jefferson, Dr. Cooper, and others, has been so decided by many of the ablest judges in the land. For it has been held, that while the abolition of religious establishments in the United States necessarily abolishes that part of the common law which attaches to them in England, it does nothing more, and thus many offences still remain obnoxious to it, on the ground of their being contrary to the Chris- tian religion. A person was indicted at New York, in 1811, for aspersing the character of Jesus Christ, and denying the legitimacy of his birth. He was tried, condemned, fined, and imprisoned. On that trial, the 254 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK III. late Chancellor Kent, an authority believed to be second to none in the country, expressed himself as follows : " The people of this State, in common with the people of this coun- try, profess the general doctrines of Christianity as the rule of their faith and practice ; and to scandalize the Author of these doctrines is not only, in a religious point of view, extremely hnpious, but, even in respect to the obligations due to society, is a gross violation of decency aud good order. Nothing could be more offensive to the virtuous part of the community, or more injurious to the tender morals of the young, than to declare such profanity lawful. It would go to confound all distinction between things sacred and profane." " No government," he maintained, " among any of the polished na- tions of antiquity, and none of the institutions of modern Europe (a single monitory case excepted), ever hazarded such a bold experi- ment upon the solidity of the public morals, as to permit with im- punity, and under the sanction of their tribunals, the general religion of the community to be openly insulted and defamed." " True," he adds, "the Constitution has discarded religious establishments. It does not forbid judicial cognizance of those offences against religion and morality which have no reference to any such establishment, or to any particular form of government, but are punishable because they strike at the root of moral obligation, and weaken the security of the social ties. To construe it as breaking down the common law barriers against licentious, wanton, and impious attacks upon Chris- tianity itself, would be an enormous perversion of its meaning."* These just opinions were fully sustained by the decision pronounced in Pennsylvania, at the trial of a man indicted for blasphemy, not against God directly, but against the Bible ; the design charged upon him being that of " contriving and intending to scandalize and bring into disrepute and vilify the Christian religion and the Scriptures of truth." On that occasion, the late Judge Duncan said, that " even if Christianity were not a part of the law of the land, it is the popu- lar religion of the country ; an insult to which would be indictable, as tending to disturb the public peace ;" and added, " that no society can tolerate a willful and despiteful attempt to subvert its religion."f The application of the common law, by the courts of Pennsylvania, to the protection of clergymen living in the discharge of their official duties, confirms all that has been said respecting the light in which Christianity is regarded by the State governments. Further, every State has laws for the protection of all religious * Johnson's "Reports," p. 290. \ 11 Sergeant and Rawle's Reports, p. 394. CHAP. X.] LEGISLATION INCIDENTALLY FAVORABLE TO RELIGION. 255 meetings from disturbance, and these are enforced when occasion re- quires. Indeed, I am not aware of any offence that is more promptly punished by the police than interference with religious worship, whether held in a church, in a private house, or even in the forest. All the States have laws for the regulation of church property, and of that devoted to religious uses. In some States, every religious body, immediately on being organized, is pronounced de facto incor- porated ; and in none, generally, is there any difficulty in procuring an act of incorporation, either for churches or for benevolent societies. No State allows the oath of an atheist to be received in a court of justice, and in one only, in so far as I am aware, is that of a disbe- liever in a, future state of rewards and punishments received as evi- dence. That State is New York, where the law requires simply the belief in a state of rewards and punishments ; in other words, if a man believes that there is a God who punishes men for evil actions, and rewards them for their good ones, whether in this world or in that which is to come, his oath will be received in a court of justice. Of course, the man who believes neither in the existence of God, nor in any sort of divine punishment, can not be sworn, nor can his testi- mony be allowed, in a court in that State. CHAPTER X. THE LEGISLATION OF THE STATES OFTEN BEARS FAVORABLY, THOUGH INCIDENTALLY, ON THE CAUSE OF RELIGION. If there be no Established Church in any of the States at the present time, it is not, as we have shown, from any want of power in the States to create such an establishment, but because it has been found inexpedient to attempt promoting religion in that way. Ex- perience has shown that with us all such establishments have been, upon the whole, more injurious than beneficial. They have been re- nounced because, from the nature of the case, they could never be made to operate in such a way as not to do some injustice to one portion or other of the citizens. To this general conviction we must ascribe what appears at first sight to be an anomaly : the fact that power to aid religion by legal enactment is expressly conferred in the Constitution of some of the States,* and yet that power is suffered to lie dormant, nor is there the least prospect * Maryland, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. 256 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK in. of its ever being exercised again. But although the States have thought it best for the interests of religion itself, as well as most equitable to all classes of the inhabitants, to relinquish all attempts to promote religion by what is called an establishment, yet they have deemed it neither unwise nor unjust to pursue the same end indi- rectly. Several instances of this kind have been stated already ; we may notice a few more. The States do much to promote education in all its stages, though in doing so they often assist the cause of religion, in what might be considered nearly the most direct manner possible. For instance, they aid colleges directed by religious men, and that, too, without stipulating for the slightest control over these institutions. On this we shall yet have occasion to speak more at large, and we introduce it here merely to indicate what the States are thus doing for Chris- tianity in the way of concurrence with other bodies. Some States have given considerable sums to endow colleges at the outset. Others contribute annually to their support, and this while well aware that the colleges aided by such grants are under a decided re- ligious influence. So is it also with the academies, of which there are several even in the smallest States, and many in the largest. Young men are instructed in the classics and mathematics at these, prepara- tory to being sent to college, and as many of them are conducted by ministers of the Gospel and other religious men, they are nurseries of vast importance both for the Church and for the State. Again, by promoting primary schools, the States co-operate in pro- moting religion ; for mere intellectual knowledge, although not a part of religion, greatly facilitates its diffusion by means of books. In the six New England States, it is long since provision was first made by law for the good education of every child whose parents choose to avail themselves of it ; and, accordingly, hardly is there to be found an adult native of those States who can not read. Some uneducated persons there are, especially in Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, but they are few compared with what may be found in other lands. In all the six States, except Connecticut, each " town" is re- quired to assess itself for as many schools as it may need. Connec- ticut has a school fund of above $2,000,000, yielding an annual rev- enue of above $112,000, and this maintains schools, a part of the year at least, in every school district of the State. In New York, Penn- sylvania, and Ohio, there are efficient primary school systems in ope- ration, supported by law, and capable of supplying all the youth with education. The State support consists partly of the interest of per- manent State funds set apart for the purpose, partly of money raised in each of the townships by assessment. The systems pursued in CHAP. X.] LEGISLATION INCIDENTALLY FAVOEABLE TO EELIGION. 257 New Jersey and Delaware, though less efficient, are highly useful. Efforts are making in several of the Western States to introduce a like provision, and a good deal is done in the Southern States to educate the children of the poor, by means of funds set apart for that purpose. The instruction given in the primary schools of the United States depends greatly for its character upon the teachers. "Where these are pious, they find no difficulty in giving a great deal of religious, instruction ; where they are not so, but little instruction is given that can be called religious. The Bible is read in most of the schools. Several of the States have liberally contributed to the establishment of asylums for the deaf and dumb, and for the blind, almost all of which institutions are under a decidedly religious influence. The governments of several States containing large cities, have done much in aid of the efforts of philanthropic individuals and associations for establishing Retreats or Houses of Refuge, where young offenders who have not gone hopelessly astray may be placed for reformation. These institutions have been greatly blessed. Before concluding my remarks on the indirect bearing of the State legislation in America upon religion, I have a few words to say on one or two subjects connected with religion, but different from those already mentioned. One is marriage, which with us, is in a great degree a civil institution, regulated by the laws of each State, pre- scribing how it should be performed. In so far as it is a contract between the parties, under proper circumstances of age, consent of friends, sufficient number of witnesses, etc., it has, with us, no neces- sary connection with religion. In all the States it may take place if the parties choose, before a regularly ordained minister of the Gos- pel, and be accompanied with religious services. The civil power decides within what degrees of consanguinity and affinity it may take place. On this point, and this mainly, can any collision take place between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. For instance, some churches pronounce marriage with a deceased wife's sister to be incestuous and unlawful. Such marriages, on the other hand, are expressly allowed by the laws of Connecticut, and are not forbidden by those of any other State excepting Virginia. In all cases of this kind, a man must make his election as to which he will obey — the Church or the State. As condemnation by the former subjects a man to no civil penalties, all that he can suffer is excommunication. As for divorces, they are wholly regulated by the civil government, and fall within the jurisdiction of the States. In some they are allowed for very few causes ; much more looseness of practice prevails in others. In South Carolina, I understand that no divorce IV 258 THE NATIONAL ERA. [BOOK in. has been granted since it became a State. In some States it be longs to the legislature to grant divorces, and in others to the courts of law. What are called mixed marriages, or marriages between Protest- ants and Roman Catholics, which have given rise to so much trouble of late in some countries of Europe, occasion no difficulty with us. Marriage, by our laws, being a civil contract, is held valid at common law whenever the consent of the parties, supposing there is no legal impediment, is expressed in a way that admits of proof. The refusal of a priest to grant the nuptial benediction, or the " sacrament of mar- riage," except upon conditions to which the parties might not be will- ing to agree, would be of little consequence. They have only to go to the civil magistrate, and they will be married without the slightest difficulty. No Roman Catholic priest, or Protestant minister in the United States, would dare to refuse to perform the ceremony of mar- riage, unless for most justifiable reasons ; for if he did, he would soon hear of it through the press, which is with us an instrument of cor- recting any little instances of tyranny or injustice. CHAPTER XI. IN WHAT CASES THE ACTION OF THE CIVIL AUTHORITY MAY BE DIRECTED IN REFERENCE TO RELIGION. Besides the incidental bearing which the legislation of the indi- vidual States has upon religion, and which sometimes comes not a little to its help, there are cases in which the civil authority intervenes more directly, not in settling points of doctrine, but in determining questions of property ; and these are by no means of rare occurrence where there are conflicting claims in individual churches. This, in- deed, has happened several times, in reference to property held by large religious denominations. The first of these cases occurred in New Jersey, and on that occasion the courts decided upon the claims to certain property, urged by the Orthodox and the Hicksites, two bodies into which the Society of Friends, or Quakers, has been divided throughout the United States. And although the trial took place on a local cause, or, rather, for a local claim, yet the principle upon which it was decided affected all the property held by Quaker socie- ties in the State. The second case occurred in 1839, in Pennsylvania, where the Su- CHAP. XI.] CrVIL INTERVENTION IN HATTERS OF RELIGION. 259 preme Court had to decide upon the claims of the Old and New School, to certain property belonging to the General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church, on its being divided into two separate bodies, each of which assumed the name of the Presbyterian Church. Here the court had of necessity to decide which of the two ought by law to be considered the true representative and successor of the Presbyterian Church before its division. The decision, however, did not rest on doctrinal grounds, but wholly on the acts of the bodies themselves, the court refusing to take up the question of doctrines at all, as not being within their province. Not so in the case of the Quakers just referred to. There the court considered the question of doctrine, in order to determine which body was the true Society of Friends. A few years ago a similar intervention of a law court occurred in the case of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North and South. I apprehend that I have now said enough to place the nature of the mutual relations between Church and State in America fairly be- fore the reader, and will dismiss the subject by giving some extracts from a communication which the late Hon. Henry Wheaton had the goodness to address to me, and which presents, in some respects, a resume, or summary of what may be said on this subject : " In answer to your first query, I should say that the State does not view the Christian Church as a rival or an enemy, but rather as an assistant or co-worker in the religious and moral instruction of the people, which is one of the most important duties of civil govern- ment. "It is not true that the Church is treated as a stranger by the State. " There are ample laws in all the States of the American Union for the observance of the Sabbath, the securing of Church property, and the undisturbed tranquillity of public worship by every variety of Christian sects. The law makes no distinction among these sects, and gives to no one the predominance over the others. It protects all equally, and gives no political privileges to the adherent of one over those of another sect. "The laws of the several States authorize the acquisition and hold- ing of Church property, under certain limitations as to value, either by making a special corporation for that purpose, or through the agency of trustees empowered under general regulations for that purpose. Without going into detail on this subject, it is enough to say that they proceed upon the principle of allowing the church to hold a suf- ficient amount of real and personal property to enable it to perform its appropriate functions, and, at the same time, to guard against abuse, by allowing too great an amount of wealth to be perpetually 260 THE NATIONAL EEA. [BOOK III. locked up in mortmain by grants and testamentary dispositions ad pios usus. In some of the States of the Union, the English statute of mortmain has been introduced, by which religious corporations are disabled from acquiring real property unless by special license of the government. In others, the capacity to acquire it is regulated and limited by the special acts of legislation incorporating religious socie- ties. The ecclesiastical corporations existing before the Revolution, which separated the United States from the parent country, continue to enjoy the rights and property which they had previously held un- der acts of Parliament, or of the provincial legislatures. " Blasphemy is punished as a criminal offence by the laws of the several States. " Perjury is, in like maimer, punished as a crime ; the form of administering the oath being according to the conscientious views of different religious sects. The Quakers are allowed to affirm solemnly ; the Jews swear upon the Scriptures of the Old Testament only ; and certain Christian sects with the uplifted hand. "There has been much discussion among our jurists as to how the oaths of infidels ought to be considered in courts of justice. But, so far as I recollect, the general result is to reject the oath of such per- sons only as deny the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, without absolutely requiring a belief in revealed religion. " The laws regulating marriage, with us, are founded on precepts of Christianity ; hence polygamy is absolutely forbidden, and punished as a crime under the denomination of bigamy. Marriages between relations by blood in the ascending or descending lines, and between collaterals in the first degree, are absolutely forbidden in all the States ; and in some, all marriages within the Levitical degrees are also forbidden. " The common law of England, which requires consent merely, without any particular form of solemnization, to render a marriage legally valid, is adopted in those States of the American Union which have not enacted special legislative statutes on the subject. In some of the States marriage is required to be solemnized in the presence of a clergyman or magistrate. " All our distinguished men, so far as I know, are Christians of one denomination or other. A great reaction has taken place within the last thirty years against the torrent of infidelity let in by the super- fical philosophy of the eighteenth century. " I believe the separation of Church and State is, with us, consid- ered almost, if not universally, as a blessing." With these extracts, which give the views of one of the most dis- CHAP. XII.] EEVIEW OF THE GROUND GONE OVEE. 261 tinguished statesmen and diplomatists in America, and which confirm the opinions we have advanced on all the points to which they refer, we close our remarks on the existing relations between Church and State in that country. CHAPTER XII. EEVIEW OP THE GROUND GONE OVEE. We have now traced the religious character of the early colonists who settled in America ; the religious establishments which they planted ; the happy and the unhappy influences of those establishments ; their overthrow and its consequences; and, finally, the relations which have subsisted between the churches and the civil governments since the Revolution. We are now about to enter upon the consideration of the resources which the churches have developed since they have been compelled to look, in dependence upon God's blessing, to their own exertions, instead of relying on the arm of the State. A review of the ground which we have gone over may be given almost in the very words of an able author, to whom we have been repeatedly indebted. 1. "The first settlers of the United States went to it as Christians, and with strong intent to occupy the country in that character. 2. " The lives they lived there, and the institutions they set up, were signalized by the spirit and doctrine of the religion they professed. 3. " The same doctrine and spirit, descending upon the patriots of the federal era, entered largely into the primary State Constitutions of the Republic, and, if analogy can be trusted, into the constructive meaning of the Federal Charter itself. 4. " Christianity is still the popular religion of the country. 5. " And, finally, notwithstanding some untoward acts of individual rulers, it is to this day, though without establishments, and with equal liberty to men's consciences, the religion of the laws and of the gov- ernment. If records tell the truth — if annals and documents can out- weigh the flippant rhetoric of licentious debate, our public institutions carry still the stamp of their origin : the memory of better times is come down to us in solid remains ; the monuments of the fathers are yet standing ; and, blessed be God, the national edifice continues visibly to rest upon them."* * " An Inquiry into the Moral and Religious Character of the American Govern- ment," pp. 139, 140. BOOK IV. THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMEEIOA ; ITS ACTION AND INFLUENCE. CHAPTER I. THE VOLTJNTAEY PEINCIPLE THE GEEAT ALTERNATIVE. THE NATTJEE AND VASTNESS OF ITS MISSION". The reader has remarked the progress of Religious Liberty in the United States from the first colonization of the country until the pres- ent time, and traced the effects of its successive developments in modifying the relations between the Churches and the State. He has seen that when that country began to be settled by European emigrants, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, freedom of conscience and the rights of the immortal mind were but little under- stood in the Old World. Those even who fled to the New, to enjoy this greatest of all earthly blessings, had but an imperfect apprehen- sion of the subject and its bearings. That which they so highly prized for themselves, and for the attainment of which they had made such sacrifices, they were unwilling to accord to others. Not that men were not allowed, in every colony, to entertain what- ever opinions they chose on the subject of religion, if they did not endeavor to propagate them when contrary to those of the Established Church, where such a church existed. In the colonies where the great- est intolerance prevailed, men were compelled to attend the National Church, but they were not required, in order to be allowed a resi- dence, to make a profession of the established faith. This was the lowest possible amount of religious liberty. Low as it is, however, it is not yet enjoyed by the native inhabitants of the greatest part of Italy, and some other Roman Catholic countries. But it was not long before a step in advance was made by Virginia CHAP. I.] THE NATURE AND VASTNESS OP ITS MISSION. 263 and Massachusetts, of all the colonies the most rigid in their views of the requirements of a Church Establishment. Private meetings of dissenters for the enjoyment of their own modes of worship began to be tolerated. A second step was to grant to such dissenters express permission to hold public meetings for worship, without releasing them, how- ever, from their share of the taxes to support the Established Church. The third step which religious freedom made, consisted in relieving dissenters from the burden of contributing in any way to the support of the Established Church. And, finally, the fourth and great step was to abolish altogether the support of any Church by the State, and place all, of every name, on the same footing before the law, leaving each Church to support itself by its own proper exertions. Such is the state of things at present, and such it will remain. In every State, liberty of conscience and liberty of worship are complete. The government extends protection to all. Any set of men who wish to have a church or place of worship of their own, can have it, if they choose to erect or hire a building at their own charges. Nothing is required but to comply with the terms which the law prescribes in relation to holding property for public uses. The proper civil author- ities have nothing to do with the creed of those who open such a place of worship* They can not offer the smallest obstruction to the opening of a place of worship anywhere, if those who choose to undertake it comply with the simple terms of the law in relation to such property. Nor can the police authorities interfere to break up a meeting, unless it can be proved to be a nuisance to the neighborhood by the disturbance which it occasions, or on account of the immoral practices which may be committed in it — not on account of the particular religious faith which may be there taught. All improper meddling with a religious meeting, no matter whether it be held in a church or in a private house, would not be tolerated. On the other hand, as we have shown, neither the General Govern- ment nor that of the States does any thing directly for the mainte- nance of public worship. Religion is protected, and indirectly aided, as has been proved, by both ; but nowhere does the civil power de- fray the expenses of the churches, or pay the salaries of ministers of the Gospel, excepting in the case of the chaplains connected with the public service. Upon what, then, must Religion rely ? Only, under God, upon the * In California, the Chinese have opened temples for their heathenish worship without molestation. 264 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. efforts of its friends, acting from their own free will, influenced by that variety of considerations which is ordinarily comprehended under the title of a desire to do good. This, in America, is the grand and only alternative. To this principle must the country look for all those efforts which must be made for its religious instruction. To the consideration of its action, and the development of its resources, the book upon which we now enter is devoted. Let us look for a moment at the work which, under God's blessing, must be accomplished by this instrumentality. The population of the United States in 1850 was, by the census, ascertained to be twenty-three millions one hundred and ninety- one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six souls. At present (January, 1856) it surpasses twenty-seven millions. Upon the vol- untary principle alone depends the religious instruction of this entire population, embracing the thousands of churches and ministers of the Gospel, colleges, theological seminaries, Sunday-schools, mission- ary societies, and all the other instrumentalities that are employed to promote the knowledge of the Gospel from one end of the country to the other. Upon the mere unconstrained good-will of the people, especially of those among them who love the Saviour and profess His name, does this vast superstructure rest. Those may tremble for the result who do not know what the human heart is capable of doing when left to its own energies, moved and sustained by the grace and the love of God. Still more : not only must all the good that is now doing in that vast country, and amid more than twenty-seven millions of souls, be continued by the voluntary principle, but the increasing demands of a population augmenting in a ratio to which the history of the world furnishes no parallel, must be met and supplied. And what this will require may be conceived, when we state the fact that the annual in- crease of the population during the decade from 1840 to 1850 was six hundred and twelve thousand nine hundred and thirty-one, upon an average ! From 1790 to 1800 the average annual increase of the inhabitants of the country was one hundred and thirty-seven thousand six hundred and nine; from 1800 to 1810 it was one hundred and ninety-three thousand three hundred and eighty-eight ; from 1810 to 1820 it was two hundred and thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-one; from 1820 to 1830 it was three hundred and twenty-two thousand, eight hundred and seventy-eight; from 1830 to 1840 it was four hundred and twenty thousand one hundred and seventy-four ; from 1840 to 1850 it was, as has just been said, six hundred and twelve thousand nine and thirty-one; from 1850 to 1860 it will prob- ably be, at least, eight hundred thousand. To augment the number CHAP. II.] FOUNT) ATION IX THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 265 of ministers of the Gospel, churches, etc., so as adequately to meet this annual demand, will require great exertion. At the first sight of this statistical view of the case, some of my readers will be ready to exclaim that the prospect is hopeless. Others will say, Woe to the cause of religion if the government does not put its shoulder to the wheel ! But I answer, not only in my own name, but dare to do it in that of every well-informed American Christian, " ]STo ! we want no more aid from the government than we receive, and what it so cheerfully gives. The prospect is not des- perate so long as Christians do their duty in humble and heartfelt re- liance upon God." If we allow that church accommodation must be annually made for one half of this annual increase of population, which is more than Dr. Chalmers demanded, we have four hundred thousand persons to provide for. This would require annually the building or opening of four hundred churches, holding one thousand persons each, and an increase of four hundred ministers of the Gos- pel ; or, what would be much more probable, eight hundred churches, each holding on an average five hundred persons ; and a sufficient number of preachers to occupy them. That that number should be eight hundred would certainly be desirable ; and yet a smaller num- ber could suffice ; for in many cases one minister must, in order to find his support, preach to two or more congregations. So, if eight hundred churches be not built every year, something equal to this in point of accommodation must be either built or found in some way or other. Sometimes school-houses answer the purpose in the new settlements ; sometimes private houses, or some public building, can make up for the want of a church. Now we shall see in the sequel to what extent facts show that pro- vision is actually made to meet this vast demand, and even more. For the present, all that I contemplate in giving this statistical view of the subject is, to enable the reader to form some idea of the work to be accomplished on the voluntary principle in America, if religion is to keep pace with the increase of the population. CHAPTER II. FOUNDATION OF THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE TO BE SOUGHT IN THE CHARACTER AND HABITS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. Some minuteness of detail will be found necessary, in order to give the reader a proper idea of the manifestations of what has been called 266 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. the Voluntary Principle in the United States, and to trace it through- out all its many ramifications there. But, before entering upon this, I would fain give him a right conception of the character of the peo- ple, as being that to which the principle referred to mainly owes its success. Enough has been said in former parts of this work to show, that whether we look to the earlier or later emigration to America, no small energy of character must have been required in the emigrants before venturing on such a step ; and with regard to the first settlers in particular, that nothing but the force of religious principle could have nerved them to encounter the difficulties of all kinds that beset them. But if great energy, self-reliance, and enterprise, be the nat- ural attributes of the original emigrant, as he quits all the endear- ments of home, and the comforts and luxuries of States far advanced in civilization, for a life in the woods, amid wild beasts, and some- times wilder men, pestilential marshes, and privations innumerable, the same qualities are very much called forth by colonial life, after the first obstacles have been overcome. It accustoms men to disre- gard trifling difficulties, to surmount by their own efforts obstacles which, in other states of society, would repel all such attempts, and prompts them to do many things which, in different circumstances, they would expect others to do for them. Moreover, the colonies were thrown very much on their own re- sources from the first. England expended very little upon them. Beyond maintaining a few regiments, from time to time, in scattered companies, at widely-separated points, and supplying some cannon and small fire-arms, she did scarcely any thing even for the defence of the country. In almost every war with the Indians, the colonial troops alone carried on the contest. Instead of England helping them, they actually helped her incomparably more in her wars against the French, in the Canadas, and in the provinces of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, when they not only furnished men, but bore almost the whole charge of maintaining them. Then came the war of the Revolution, which, in calling forth all the nation's ener- gies during eight long years, went far to cherish that vigor and inde- pendence of character which had so remarkably distinguished the first colonists. And although in some of the colonies the Church and State were united from the first, the law did little more than prescribe how the churches were to be maintained. It made some men give grudgingly, who would otherwise have given little or nothing ; while, at the same time, it limited others to a certain fixed amount, who, if left to them- selves, would perhaps have given more. CHAP, n.] FOUNDATION IN THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 267 "With the exception of a few thousand pounds for building some of the earliest colleges, and a few more, chiefly from Scotland, for the support of missionaries, most of whom labored among the Indians, I am not aware of any aid received from the mother country, or from any other part of Europe, for religious purposes in our colonial days. I do not state this by way of reproach, but as a simple fact. The Christians, not only of Great Britain, but of Holland and Germany also, were ever willing to aid the cause of religion in the colonies ; they did what they could, or, rather, what the case seemed to re- quire, and the monuments of their piety and liberality remain to this day. Still, the colonists, as was their duty, depended mainly on their own efforts. In several of the colonies there was from the first no Church Establishment ; in two of those which professed to have one, the State never did any thing worth mention for the support of the churches ; and in all cases the dissenters had to rely on their own ex- ertions. In process of time, as we have seen, the union of Church and State came gradually to an end throughout the whole coimtry, and all religious bodies were left to their own resources. Thus have the Americans been trained to exercise the same en- ergy, self-reliance, and enterprise in the cause of religion which they exhibit in other affairs. Thus, as we shall see, when a new church is called for, the people first inquire whether they can not build it at their own cost, and ask help from others only after having done all they think practicable among themselves — a course which often leads them to find that they can accomplish by their own efforts what, at first, they hardly dared to hope for. Besides, there has grown up among the truly American part of the population a feeling that religion is necessary even to the temporal well-being of society, so that many contribute to its promotion, though not themselves members of any of the churches. This senti- ment may be found in all parts of the United States, and especially among the descendants of the first Puritan colonists of New England. I shall have occasion hereafter to give an illustration of it. These remarks point the reader to the true secret of the success of the voluntary plan in America. The people feel that they can help themselves, and that it is at once a duty and a privilege to do so. Should a church steeple fall to the ground, or the roof be blown away, or any other such accident happen, instead of looking to some government official for the means of needful repair, a few of them put their hands into their pockets, and supply these means themselves, with- out delay or the risk of vexatious refusals from public functionaries. 268 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. CHAPTER III. HOW CHURCH EDIFICES ARE BUILT IN THE CITIES AND LARGE TOWNS. The question was often proposed to me during my residence in Europe, " How do you build your churches in America, since the government gives no aid ?" Different measures are pursued in different places. I shall speak first of those commonly adopted in the cities and large towns. There a new church is built by what is called " colonizing ;" that is, the pastor and other officers of a large church, which can not accom- modate all its members, after much conference, on being satisfied that a new church is called for, propose that a commencement be made by certain families going out as a colony, to carry the enter- prise into effect, and engage to assist them with their prayers and counsels, and, if need be, also with their purses. Upon this, such as are willing to engage in the undertaking go to work. Sometimes in- dividuals or families from two or more churches of the same denomi- nation coalesce in the design. Or a few gentlemen, interested in religion, whether all or any of them are members of a church or not, after conferring on the im- portance of having another church in some part of the city where an increase of the population seems to require it, resolve that one shall be built. Each then subscribes what he thinks he can afford, and subscriptions may afterward be solicited from other gentlemen of property and liberality in the place, likely to aid such an undertaking. Enough may thus be obtained to justify a commencement ; a com- mittee is appointed to purchase a site for a building, and to superin- tend its erection. When finished, it is opened for public worship, a pastor is called, and then the pews, whieh are generally large enough to accommodate a family each, are disposed of at a sort of auction to the highest bidder. In this way, the sum which may be required, in addition to the original subscriptions, is at once made up. The total cost, indeed, is sometimes met by the sums received for the pews, but much depends upon the situation and comfort of the building, and the popularity of the preacher. The pews are always sold under the condition of punctual payment of the sums to be levied upon them annually, for the pastor's support and other expenses ; failing which, after allowing a reasonable time, they are re-sold to other persons. But if all the required conditions be fulfilled, they become absolutely the purchaser's, and may be be- queathed or sold like any other property. CHAP. III.] BUILDING OF CHURCH EDIFICES IN CITIES AND TOWNS. 269 Instead of being sold in fee-simple, the pews are sometimes merely- rented from year to year. This prevails more in large towns and villages than in cities, and in such cases the churches must be built solely by " subscription," as it is called, that is, by sums contributed for that special object. Should these prove, in the first instance, in- sufficient, a second, and perhaps a third subscription follows, after a longer or shorter interval. The seats in some churches, even of our largest cities, are free to all. Such is the case with all the Quaker, and some of the Metho- dist meeting-houses ; these are occupied on what is called the " free- seat" plan, and have the advantage of being attended with less restraint, especially by strangers or persons who may not have the means to pay for seats. But there are disadvantages also in this plan. Families which regularly attend, and which may bear the expense of the church, have no certain place where all may sit together, and in case of being delayed a little longer than usual, may find it difficult to get seats at all. The Methodist churches, accordingly, are coming more and more into the other plan in our large cities. Where they have not done so, and also in the Quaker meeting-houses, the males occupy one half of the house, the females the other ; a rule, however, observed more constantly in the latter than in the former body. Church edifices, or meeting-houses, on the free-seat plan, must, of course, be built by subscription alone. A more common practice in forming new congregations, and erect- ing church edifices, is this : The families which engage in the under- taking first obtain some place for temporary service — the lecture- room attached to some other church, a court-house, a school-room, or some other building* — and there they commence their regular Sabbath services at the usual hours. After announcing their intention by public advertisement, they proceed to organize a church, that is, a body of believers, according to the rules of the communion to * In Philadelphia there is a building called the Academy, built for Mr. "Whitfield's meetings, the upper part of which is now divided into two rooms, each capable of con- taining four hundred or five hundred people, and both constantly used as places of worship, one permanently by the Methodists. The other has been occupied tempo- rarily by colonies, which have grown into churches, and then gone off to houses which they have built for themselves. In this way that one room, as I have often been told, has been the birth-place, as it were, of more than twenty different chu/ches. It is rented to those who wish to occupy it by the corporation to which it belongs. In the lower story there are schools held throughout the week. The chapel of the University of New York is used for the same purpose; and the Court-houses throughout all the land, and even some of the State-houses — that is, the buildings in which the Legislatures of the several States assemble — are allowed to be used as places of worship on the Sabboth in a case of exigency. 270 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. which they belong. If Presbyterians, the Presbytery appoints a committee to organize the church according to the Book of Disci- pline, by the appointment and consecration to office of ruling elders, after which it falls under the care of the Presbytery. A pastor is next called, and regularly inducted. Meanwhile, the congregation may be supposed to be increasing, until strong enough to exchange their temporary for a permanent place of worship. In this way new swarms are every year, in our large cities, leaving the old hives, if I may so speak, and new church edifices are rising in various localities where the population is extending. The church edifices in the chief towns and cities are, generally speaking, large and substantial buildings, especially in the more densely-settled districts. Those in the suburbs are often smaller, and not expected to be more than temporary, as they give place to larger and better structures in a few years. In the cities and larger towns, whether on the Atlantic or Pacific slopes, or in the Valley of the Mis- sissippi, they are, in nine cases out of ten, built of brick ; a few are of stone ; and in the New England cities and towns of second and third rate size, they are often built of wood. As for the cost of church edifices, it is difficult to speak precisely where the country is so extensive. In the suburbs of our large cities on the Atlantic sea-board, from Portland, in Maine, to New Orleans, as well as California, some may not have cost more than $5,000 or $10,000 ; but in the older and more densely-peopled parts of those cities, they generally cost $20,000 and upward. Some have cost $60,000 or $80,000, and yet are comparatively plain, though very chaste and substantial buildings. Not a few have cost above $100,000,* without including such as Trinity Church at New York, belonging to the Episcopalians, or the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Baltimore, for these very elegant and expensive buildings have cost at least $300,000, if not more. There may have been, in some cases, a useless expenditure of money on interior decorations, but in gen- eral, the churches, even in our largest cities, are neat and rather plain buildings externally, but exceedingly comfortable within. The village churches of New England are, for the most part, con- structed of wood ; that is, of beams framed together and covered * The church in which the late eloquent Dr. Mason was last settled as a minister in New York, cost, I believe, rather more than $100,000. It was an excellent, large, tasteful, substantial, brick building. Yet this, and some others in the lower parts of the city, whence business is driving the people to the upper part, have been torn down, and their sites are covered with shops and counting-rooms. The congregations have mainly migrated to about a mile and a half or two miles northward. So matters go in our London. CHAP. IV.] HOW CHURCHES AEE BUILT IN THE NEW SETTLEMENTS. 2*71 with boards ; and being almost universally painted white and sur- mounted with steeples, they have a beautiful appearance. The church-going bell every Sabbath sends forth its notes far and wide amid the hills and dales of that interesting country. In other parts of the Atlantic States, the churches, though often of wood, like those of New England, are still oflener of brick or stone, or of unpainted frames and boards, which is especially the case in the South. Any one may be satisfied, by careful inquiry, that even our cities and large towns, as respects churches, may well bear a comparison with the best supplied in any part of Europe. Boston, for instance, in 1850, had more than eighty churches, many of which could accom- modate from one thousand to fifteen hundred persons, and that for a population of about one hundred and thirty-six thousand souls. New York had that year more than two hundred and twenty churches for five hundred and fifteen thousand inhabitants. Philadelphia is better supplied with churches than New York. Those of all the leading denominations there have greatly increased during the last few years. The Methodists have, in the course of the last fifteen or twenty years, built in the city and suburbs above twenty-five churches, most of which are capacious buildings ; and the Episcopalians and Presbyterians have increased greatly the number of theirs, but not in the same proportion. The second and third rate cities and large towns are far better supplied than the large cities, Salem, in Massachusetts, New Haven, Poughkeepsie, Troy, Newark, in New Jersey, and Rochester, are well supplied with churches, hav- ing, in fact, accommodation for more than half the population. CHAPTER IV. HOW CHURCHES ARE BUILT IN THE NEW SETTLEMENTS. But it is in the building of places of worship in the new settle- ments of the Western States, and on the Pacific slopes, and in the villages that are springing up in the more recently peopled parts bordering on the Atlantic, that we see the most remarkable develop- ment of the voluntary principle. Let me illustrate, by a particular case, what is daily occurring in all these divisions of the country. Let us suppose a settlement commenced in the forest, in the north- ern part of Indiana, and that in the course of three or four years a considerable number of emigrants have established themselves within a mile or two of each other, in the woods. Each clears away by de- 272 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. orees a part of the surrounding forest, and fences in his new fields, in the midst of which the deadened trees still stand very thickly. By little and little the country shows signs of occupation by civilized men. In the centre of the settlement a little village begins to form around a tavern and a blacksmith's shop. A carpenter places himself there as at a convenient station. So do the tailor, the shoemaker, the wagon-maker, and the hatter. Nor is the son of ^sculapius wanting ; perhaps he is most of all needed ; and it will be well if two or three of his brethren do not soon join him. The merchant, of course, opens his magazine there. And if there be any prospect that the rising village, though the deadened trees stand quite in the vicin- ity of the streets, may become the "seat of justice" for a new county, there will soon be half a dozen young expounders of the law to in- crease the population, and offer their services to those who have suffered or committed injustice. Things will hardly have reached this point before some one amid this heterogeneous population, who have come from different points of the older States, intermixed with wanderers from Europe — Irish, Scotch, or German — proposes that they should think of having a church, or, at least, some place of worship. It is ten chances to one if there be not some pious woman, or some pious man with his family, who sigh for the privileges of the sanctuary, as once enjoyed by them in the distant East. What is to be done ? Some one proposes that they should build a good large school-house, which may serve also for holding religious meetings, and this is scarcely sooner proposed than accomplished. Though possibly made of mere logs and very plain, it will answer the purpose for a few years. Being intended for the meet- ings of all denominations of Christians, and open to all preachers who may be passing, word is sent to the nearest in the neighborhood. Ere long some Baptist minister, in passing, preaches hi the evening, and is followed by a Presbyterian and a Methodist. By-and-by the last of these arranges his circuit labors so as to preach there once in a fortnight, and the minister of some Presbyterian congregation, ten or fifteen miles off, agrees to come and preach once a month. Meanwhile from the increase of the inhabitants, the congregations, on the Sabbath particularly, become too large for the school-house. A church is then built of framed beams and boards, forming no mean ornament to the village, and capable of accommodating some two or three hundred people. Erected for the public good, it is used by all the sects in the place, and by others besides. For were a Sweden- borgian minister to come and have notice given that he would preach, he might be sure of finding a congregation, though as the sect is small in America, and by many hardly so much as heard of, he might CHAP. IV.] HOW CHURCHES ARE BUILT IN THE NEW SETTLEMENTS. 273 not have a single hearer that assents to his views. But it will not be long before the Presbyterians, Methodists, or Baptists, feel that they must have a minister on whose services they can count with more certainty, and hence a church, also, for themselves. And at last the house, which was a joint-stock affair at first, falls into the hands of some one of the denominations, and is abandoned by the others, who have mostly provided each one for itself. Or it may remain for the occasional service of some passing Roman Catholic priest, or Univer- salist preacher.* Such is the process continually going on in the West, and, indeed, something of the kind is taking place every year, in hundreds of instances, throughout all the States. Settlers of one denomination are sometimes sufficiently numerous in one place to build a church for themselves at the outset, but in most cases they hold their first meet- ings for worship in school-rooms or private houses. The rapid increase of the population in some of the new villages and towns of the West, when favorably situated for trade, is aston- ishing, and strikes one particularly in its early stages. Thus, when in the State of Alabama, in February, 1831,1 visited the town of Montgomery in company with a worthy Baptist minister, in the course of an extensive tour through the Western States in behalf of one of our benevolent societies, it was then hardly more than a large vil- lage. On the night of the second of the two days we spent in it, we preached in a large school-house, which, if I remember rightly, was the only place for holding religious meetings existing there at the time. We had a good congregation, though a circus was held hard by. Just three years after, when repeating the same tour, I spent a Sabbath and one or two days more at the same spot, but under very different circumstances. In the morning I preached to at least six hundred persons, in a Presbyterian church, built of frames and covered with boards, and every way comfortable. The church, which reckoned one hundred members, had a young man as pastor, to whom they gave a yearly stipend of $1,000. At night I preached in a Baptist church, built of brick, but not quite finished, which could hold three hundred persons at least. Besides these, there were one Meth- odist Episcopal, and one Protestant Methodist church, each, so far as I can recollect, as large as the Baptist church. Then there was an Episcopal church, not less in size, though probably with a smaller * In some places in the South-western States, the primitive and temporary churches built for all denominations, in the new villages or settlements, are called " republican churches ;" that is, churches for the accommodation of the public rather than for any one sect. Large school-houses, also, erected for the double purpose of teaching and preaching, are called "republican meeting-houses." 18 274 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. congregation. And, withal, there was a Roman Catholic church, though not a large one, I believe. All this after an interval of only three years ! Eventful years they had been. A revival of religion, which took place during one of them, had brought many souls to the knowledge of salvation. This was, it is true, an extraordinary case, yet something very sim- ilar in kind, although not in degree, is going on at a great many points in the West. On the Genesee River, a fewmiles above its entrance into Lake Ontario, in the State of New York, stands a town, incorporated as a city, called Rochester. The place is famous for the vast quantity of flour made at its mills. Thirty-five years ago, it could show but a few houses scattered here and there, where now there is a well-built and flourishing city, containing at least forty thousand inhabitants, and nearly forty churches, many of which are large and fine buildings, capable of accommodating congregations of from eight to twelve hundred persons each. Among these churches there are five or sh for Germans, French, and Swiss. Churches and church property of every description are held, in the United States, by trustees chosen by the congregation to which they belong. The laws of almost every State provide for this. These trustees, who may be two, three, or more in number, are authorized to act for the congregation, to whom they report, from time to time, the state of the common funds. They are charged, in most cases, with the collection of the pastor's salary, as well as with the general collection and outlay of money for the congregation. Without their consent the church edifice can not be given to any other than the ordinary religious services of the sanctuary. In some cases, several, if not all of the churches in a city, belong- ing to a particular communion, are held by a common board of trus- tees. All the Methodist Episcopal churches of New York are so held. One corporation has the proprietorship of four of the Reformed Dutch churches in that city, and another holds Trinity Church, and perhaps some others belonging to the Protestant Episcopal denomina- tion. In all denominations, according to general practice, each par- ticular church and congregation has its own trustees, and manages its own " temporal" affairs, being such as relate to the church edifice, the ground on which it stands, and any other property or stocks belong- ing to it, ; and it is only on questions of right to property that the civil courts, or even the State Legislatures, or Congress itself, can ever meddle with the affairs of the churches. CHAP. V.] HOW THE SALARIES OF THE PASTORS ARE RAISED. 275 CHAPTER V. THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE DEVELOPED. HOW THE SALARIES OF THE PASTORS ARE RAISED. Under this head we find different measures adopted by different churches, and in different parts of the country. Universally where the seats and pews are the property of individ- uals or families, and generally where they are rented by the year, the salaries of the pastors, and sometimes all the incidental expenses, are raised by a certain yearly, half-yearly, or quarterly rate upon each pew. The proportion for each pew is fixed by the trustees, or by the elders, or by a committee appointed for that special purpose, but in most cases by the trustees, where there are such. "Where the seats are free, as is the case with very many churches of all denominations in the interior of the country, the minister's salary is raised by yearly subscription. In the Methodist Episcopal Churches, with few excep- tions, the ministers are supported by collections among the members, quarterly public collections, etc. Sometimes, also, recourse is par- tially had to subscriptions, especially where there are " stationed" or non-itinerating ministers. Among the Protestant denominations, the amount of the pastor's salary is determined, in most cases, by the churches themselves. In the Methodist Churches, the amount is fixed by the General Con- ference. In that church, the minister, in ordinary cases, receives so much himself, a like sum for his wife, and so much for each of his children, according to their ages, with certain perquisites besides, such as a family dwelling-house, a horse, etc., making up altogether a comfortable maintenance for himself and his household. The collec- tions of each " circuit" are expected, generally speaking, to suffice for the salaries of the ministers who occupy them, any deficiency being made up from funds which the Conference may have in hand for meeting such contingencies. The clergy of all evangelical denomina- tions, with two exceptions, receive fixed salaries from their people, and are expected to devote themselves to their proper vocation, and to " live by the altar." The exceptions are a part of the ministers of the Baptist Church, and all the Quaker preachers. These support themselves by their labor, or from other sources, and preach on the Sabbath. The Baptists agree with the Methodists in not considering a college education, or an acquaintance with the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew tongues, or the natural and moral sciences, indispensable for a preacher 276 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. of the Gospel : hence by far the greater number of them have had only an English education, together with such theological knowledge, derived from English sources, as has qualified them, in the opinion of the authorities in their churches, for undertaking to preach the Gospel. In both these denominations, however, there are not a few truly learned men, who have passed through the curriculum of some college, and have diligently added to the acquirements of their pre- paratory course. The regular itinerating ministers of the Methodist churches receive salaries, and devote themselves wholly to their min- isterial calling ; whereas, too many of the Baptist ministers, as we have already stated, especially in the Southern and Western, and to a certain extent in the Middle States, receive either no salaries at all, or none of any consequence, so that they must support themselves in some other way. The preachers among the Friends, who, as the reader is probably aware, may be women as well as men, receive no regular salaries ; but those of them who, under the belief that they have a call from the Spirit to give themselves wholly to the work, travel through the country, visiting the Friends' "meetings," and preaching in other places, generally, nay, always, if their own means are not abundant, receive considerable presents. It is not easy to give any very satisfactory answer to the question, whether the ministers of the Gospel are well supported in the United States. In giving a general reply to the question, I should say that they are not. That is to say, few, if any, of them, receive salaries that would enable them to live in the style in which the wealthiest of their parishioners live. Their incomes are not equal to those of the greater number of lawyers and physicians, though these are men of no better education or higher talents than great numbers of the clergy. None of the ministers of the Gospel in the United States derive such reve- nues from their official stations as are enjoyed by many of the pa- rochial clergy of England, to say nothing of the higher dignitaries of the Church in that country. There are few, if any, of them who, with economy, can do more than live upon their salaries; to grow rich upon them is out of the question.* * The statements made by foreigners, in -writing about the United States, are sometimes sufficiently ludicrous. For instance, M. Beaumont, in his "Marie, ou l'Esclavage aux Etats-TJnis," accounts for the great number of churches there by the great number of ministers of the Gospel. He says that the ministry is not only very honorable, but very lucrative also ; that most of the preachers make a fortune in a few years, and then retire from the ministry, which is the cause of there being so few- old men in the pulpits of that country. Any thing more absurd on such a subject I can not imagine. But I will do M. Beaumont the justice to say, that I do not blame CHAP. V.] HOW THE SAXARIES OF THE PASTOES AEE EAISED. 277 Yet, on the other hand, the greater number of the salaried minis- ters in the United States are able, with economy, to live comfortably and respectably. This holds true especially of the pastors of the Atlantic, and even of the older parts of the Western States. In New England, if we except Boston, the salaries of the Congrega- tional, Episcopal, and Baptist pastors are, in the largest towns, such as Providence, Portland, Salem, Hartford, New Haven, etc., from $800 to $1,500 ; in the villages and country churches they vary from $400 to $700 or $800, besides which the minister sometimes has a " parsonage" and " glebe," that is, a house and a few acres of land ; and, hi addition to all, he receives many presents. His marriage-fees are a source of some profit. In other parts of the country, and especially hi the West, the clergy are not so well provided for. The practice in New England of giving presents, whether casually or reg- ularly, and at some set time, does not prevail elsewhere to the same degree. The salaries of the clergy in the largest and wealthiest churches of the principal cities are often liberal, though generally no more than adequate* Fifteen or eighteen hundred, two thousand, twenty-five hundred dollars, are the sums commonly given, and, in a few cases, three and even four thousand dollars. A Presbyterian church in New Orleans, I believe, gives its pastor five thousand, and the high- est of all is that of one of the bishops in the Episcopal Church, which, I have been told, is six thousand dollars.f Some churches have permanent funds, which go far toward the pastor's support. The corporation of the collegiate churches of the Reformed Dutch Church in New York, four in number at present, him so much as the stupid creatures who gave him such information. The gay Frenchman probably did not set his foot in more than half-a-dozen churches when in America, and of these not one, it is likely, was Protestant. * The clergy are expected to be examples of hospitality and benevolence. Many of them entertain a great deal of company at their houses. Nothing is more common than for ministers of the Gospel, when visiting any place, whether in town or country, to stay with their brethren ; and no men among us give so much, in proportion to their means, to all the religious and philanthropic enterprises, as our pastors of every denomination. • f I refer to the Bishop of New York, who, if he has to pay for a suffragan to take his place as pastor of a church, or co-pastor with others in two or three churches, as well as bear his traveling expenses when visiting his diocese — as I doubt not is the case — w iH not have more than is necessary to support a large family in so expensive a city as New York. As for New Orleans, it is the most expensive city for supporting a family in the whole Union, and $5,000 there would in that respect be not more than half the sum in Philadelphia, The church in that city referred to in the text, has recently in- creased the salary of its pastor to $6,000, if not $7,000, as is reported. 278 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. lias enough from this source to pay the salaries of the four pastors. The corporation of Trinity Church (Episcopal) possesses vast funds, the income from which has enabled the trustees to contribute largely toward the building of churches in the State of New York. Three of the Presbyterian churches in Newark, New Jersey, have perma- nent funds sufficient for the support of their public services. But, generally speaking, a permanent fund is found to be rather injurious than beneficial to the churches in the United States. If out of debt, that is, if they owe nothing for their church-edifices, lecture- rooms, vestry-rooms, etc., they need no endowment ; the hearts of the people will lead them to do the rest. I speak of the churches in the older parts of the country. The measures we take for the support of churches in the new settlements, and which are weak as yet, I shall show hereafter. It often happens that ministers, through their own fault, and that of the ecclesiastical body to which they belong, are not so amply or punctually provided for as they ought to be. Were the duty of sup- porting well the ministry, preached as often and as plainly as it should be, they would be better provided for. As it is, they are enabled to live, (with economy,) in comfort, and a faithful pastor will nowhere be allowed to starve. It is a great matter, too, that in no country in the world are ministers of the Gospel more respected by the people. A great many of them are well-educated men, and, with few excep- tions, possess agreeable manners. Many of them belong to families of the first rank in the country :* and as they can at least give their children a good education, with the advantages of which, as well as of a good character, and the good name of their fathers, they are almost invariably prosperous, and often form alliances with the wealth- iest and most distinguished families.f * I could mention, were it proper, many instances of this. One or two I may state without violating the rules of propriety. No man stood higher in American society than the late General Yan Eensselaer, of Albany. One of his sons is a faithful and distinguished minister of the Gospel. The late Hon. Samuel L. Southard, of New Jersey, was a man of distinguished talents, who had raised himself to the highest offices in the government of his native State, as well as in that of the Union, and died Vice-President of the same. One of his sons is a minister in* the Episcopal Church. Mr. Southard, I judge from the name, which is common in France, was of Huguenot origin. f Of late years, much has been said and done to increase the salaries of ministers, on account of the greatly augmented expenses of living. CHAP. VI.] HOW MINISTERS ARE EDUCATED AND SETTLED. 279 CHAPTER VI. . HOW MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL ARE BROUGHT FORWARD, AND HOW THEY BECOME SETTLED PASTORS. All denominations of evangelical Christians in the United States hold it to be of the highest and most solemn importance, that no man should enter the holy ministry without well-founded scriptural evi- dence to his own mind and conscience, that he is " called of the Holy Ghost" to take that office upon him : nor is he admitted to it until he has satisfied the proper authorities of the Church to which he belongs of the manifestation of that " call," and of his possessing, in addition to an unblemished character, the talents and acquirements necessary to his being a competent expounder of God's Word. For a man to take upon him this sacred and responsible office merely that he may obtain an honorable place in society, or gain a decent livelihood, would be held in the highest degree wrong, dan- gerous to his own soul, and ruinous to the spiritual interests of all who might be committed to his charge. Evangelical Christians may differ somewhat as to the nature and amount of the required evi- dence of conversion, but all agree as to the necessity of having a truly regenerated ministry ; it being obvious, that none should preach the Gospel who have not tasted its power, and submitted their hearts and lives to its transforming influence. How shall a man who does not possess "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," explain the nature of these to his fellow-men ? And how can he who has not been made to exclaim, " Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel !" discharge the office of a preacher with that earnest desire for the glory of God his Saviour, and for the eternal welfare of men, which alone can be approved in heaven, or be suc- cessful on earth ? A regenerated and devoted ministry must be the first of all earthly blessings to a Church, and it is the only instrument that can effectually secure the morals of a community, and the sta- bility of a government. In these sentiments I feel assured all evan- gelical Christians in the United States will concur. No greater curse could, in their opinion, befall a Church, next to the abandon- ment of the true Gospel, than to have an unconverted ministry thrust upon it ; and, indeed, the latter evil would soon be followed by the former. Pious youths are brought forward to the ministry in various ways. Such persons are sometimes found in the situation of apprentices to mechanical trades, or of clerks, or shopmen, or following the plough on 280 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. their father's farm. The pastor, or some member of the church to which they belong, having discovered their talents, may think these might be employed to advantage in the ministry, instead of being buried in such engagements. But their own desires should first be ascertained, and should they be found longing to proclaim a crucified Saviour to the world, they ought to be encouraged, while cherishing this feeling, to put themselves into a position for finding and follow- ing the will of God. It is probably at the prayer-meeting, the Sabbath-school, or the Bible-class, that the character and abilities of such young persons most often show themselves ; and from these nurseries of the Church have come forth great numbers of men who are now engaged in the ministry throughout the United States. Many young men, also, who having entered our colleges with other views, become converted there, and are called to preach the Gospel. When a pious youth of promising talents, and with a strong bent to the ministry, is found without the requisite education, or the means of obtaining it, he is recommended to the Education Societies, which have proved a great blessing to our Churches ; and when ap- proved of, he is carried through the course of instruction which the Church to which he belongs requires in all who would enter the ranks of its ministers. The process is much shorter in those Churches which, without ex- acting a course of classical and scientific education at college, or the regular divinity course of a theological school, require only a well- grounded knowledge of the Scriptures in the English tongue, and of the doctrines which they contain. After a suitable examination on the part of the j^roper church authorities, the candidate is permitted to exercise his gifts for a season, in order to ascertain whether he is likely to prove an acceptable and useful preacher ; and if the result be favorable he receives full ordination from the proper quarter. Among the Methodists, the preachers spring from the Classes^ as they are called. At the meetings of these companies of professed believers and inquirers, the graces and gifts of pious young men are most commonly discovered. In due time they are brought forward to the quarterly meeting of all the classes of the district. They are there recommended to the notice of the presiding elder, and by him are authorized to teach and preach for a time, but not to administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Afterward they receive ordination from the hands of the bishop, first as deacons, and subsequently as presbyters or priests, and are employed to preach the Gospel, either as traveling or stationed ministers. In the Congrega- tional Churches, young men are consecrated to the ministry by a CHAP. VI.] HOW MINISTERS ARE EDUCATED AND SETTLED. 281 " council of ministers ;" among the Presbyterians, by a presbytery ; among the Episcopalians, by a bishop. In all the Churches of the United States, except the Methodists and Roman Catholics, the pastors are chosen by the people to whom they preach. Among the Methodists they are appointed by the An- nual Conference, at which a bishop presides, regard being had to the wishes which may be expressed by the people in favor of certain ministers, as peculiarly fitted, in point of character and talents, for specific localities. The appointment of the priests to their respective churches among the Roman Catholics rests wholly with the bishops. When a church belonging to any of the other denominations loses its pastor, by his death or removal to some other place, inquiry is first made for some one not yet settled, or who, if settled, would not object to change his place, and who, it is thought, would prove ac- ceptable to the flock. The person fixed upon is invited to preach a few times, and should he give satisfaction, the congregation agree to call him to be their pastor, in doing which they must proceed accord- ing to the established rules of the religious body to which they belong. Thus, in the Presbyterian Church, no call to become a pastor of a vacant church can be presented to any one without the consent of the Presbytery within whose bounds the vacancy has taken place ; nor can it be accepted without the consent of the Presbytery to which the minister who has received it belongs. In the Congregational Churches of New England, the practice in calling a pastor has been for the church or body of the communicants to make out a call, and this to be followed by another from the whole congregation, or, rather, from the males who contribute toward the support of public worship, the amount of the proffered salary being stated in the latter call. In the Presbyterian, and most other churches, each pewholder, or each head of a family who subscribes toward the pastor's salary for himself and household, and others who subscribe only for themselves, are allowed a voice in the call. Such is the more common practice, and yet there are Presbyterian churches in which none but members who are communicants can vote in call- ing a pastor. If the people are to be allowed a voice in calling their pastors, it would be found difficult to withhold that right from those who, though not communicants, contribute as much, and perhaps more, than those who are. Nor in a church and congregation in which the people have been well instructed in the truth, and w^here religion prospers, does any evil of much consequence commonly result from such an extension of the right of voting on such occasions. For when men have been faithfully instructed in the Gospel, it is found that even the unconverted will readily join in calling an efficient min- » 282 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IY. ister, even although he be not only orthodox, but very zealous and faithful. Such men have sufficient discrimination to know, and often they will say it, that if ever they are to become the religious men they hope one day to be, they need a faithful pastor to secure* that great blessing. Such men have sense enough to know that a light- minded, worldly, cold preacher of the Gospel is not likely to prove a blessing to them or their families. But when church and congrega- tion have long been hearing " another Gospel," have become hardened in error, and strongly attached to damnable heresies, it were absurd to expect the unconverted to prefer and seek for a faithful minister. Such a state of things should not be allowed to occur. And then, with respect to all denominations that have a government encompass- ing and controlling the churches connected with them, there is, in the last resort, a power to prevent the settlement of unworthy ministers in the churches under their care. CHAPTER VII. THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE DEVELOPED IN HOME MISSIONS. AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. Thus much has the voluntary principle done for the parts of the country longest-settled and most densely-peopled. Let us now see what it does for new and thinly-peopled regions, where hundreds of new congregations are rising annually, without the means of maintaining the institutions of the Gospel by their own efforts. Such churches are to be found not only in the new settlements of the Far West, but also in the growing villages of the East. This inability to support the public preaching of the Gospel often arises from the number of sects to be found in new settlements, and even in some districts of the older States. In this respect diversity of sects sometimes causes a serious though temporary evil, not to be compared with the advantages resulting from it in the long run. It is an evil, too, which generally becomes less and less every year in any given place: the little churches, however weak at first, gradually becoming, through the increase of population, strong and independ- ent, and what is now an evil disappearing, or, rather, as I hope to prove, being converted into a blessing. The most obvious way of aiding such feeble churches is, to form societies for this express object among the older and more flomTshing CHAP. VII.] AMEEICAK HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 283 churches. This has been done, and in this the voluntary principle has beautifully developed itself, particularly during the last thirty years. It began with some denominations not long after the Revolution ; and early in this century we find missionary societies formed among the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts and Connecticut, for the purpose of sending ministers to " the West," that is, the western part of the State of New York.* The " Far West" to them was the northern part of Ohio, which was then beginning to be the resort of emigrants. The faithful men sent by these societies into the wilder- ness were greatly blessed in their labors, and to them, under God, many of the now flourishing churches of those regions owe their ex- istence. Missionary societies were subsequently formed in the other New England States, for supplying destitute places within their own bounds with the preaching of the Gospel, as well as to help in sending it to the other parts of the country. Two societies were formed, likewise, about the year 1819, for the same object, among the Presbyterians and Reformed Dutch in the city of New York, and these supported a goodly number of mission- aries, chiefly in the new and feeble churches in the State of that name. In 1826 they were united into one body, and now form the American Home Missionary Society.f This society, from its very outset, has advanced with great vigor, and has been directed with singular zeal and energy. At its first meet- ing in 1827, it reported that in the course of the year just closed it had employed one hundred and sixty-nine ministers, who had labored in One hundred and ninety-six congregations and missionary dis- tricts. Its receipts for the same period amounted to $20,031. This auspicious commencement must be ascribed to its having assumed all the engagements of the Domestic Missionary Societies, out of which * I have seen the maps which some of those pioneer missionaries made of the por- tions of the State of New York which lie west of Albany, in the years 1196-97. What is now a densely-settled country was then almost terra incognita. At present, the "West, or frontier country, lies far more than a thousand miles west of Albany, instead of just beyond it. In fact, the Pacific coast is now the "Far West," our "ultima thule" in that direction. f The epithet American, employed by this society and others, which do not com- prise all the religious denominations, has been greatly objected to as savoring of arrogance, and as if intimating that the whole of America belonged to them exclu- sively as a field of labor. Such an idea probably was never entertained by those who use the word in the nomenclature of their societies. All that they mean in em- ploying it is, to signify that the field to which their attention is directed is not a single State, or a few States, but the whole country. The American Home Mission- ary Society embraces the orthodox Congregational churches in New England and out of it, and the New School Presbyterians, and, to some extent, the Keformed Dutch, Lutheran, and German Reformed Churches. 284 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. it sprang. The Society soon drew into affiliation with it all the State Domestic Missionary Societies of New England, some of which, such as those of Massachusetts and Connecticut, had been of long standing were well established.* It would be interesting to trace the history of an institution which has been so much blessed to a vast number of new and poor churches throughout all the States and Territories of the American Confede- racy. But we can only present a summary of its operations at two epochs, during the thirty years that it has been distributing blessings with a liberal hand. In the year ending May 1st, 1835, the society employed seven hun- dred and nineteen agents and missionaries. Of these, four hundred and eighty-one were settled as pastors, or employed as " stated sup- plies" in single congregations ; one hundred and eighty-five extended their labors to two or three congregations each, and fifty were em- ployed on larger districts. In all, one thousand and fifty congrega- tions, missionary districts, and fields of agency, were thus supplied in whole or in part. The persons added to the churches that year under the care of the society's missionaries, were estimated at five thousand; namely, one thousand seven hundred by letters of recommendation from other churches, and three thousand three hundred by examina- tion on profession of their faith. Several of the churches were re- ported to have been blessed with seasons of more than ordinary inter- est in religion ; in the Sunday-schools attached to them there were about forty thousand scholars, and about twelve thousand persons attended the Bible-classes. The number of those who had joined the temperance associations had reached seventy thousand. The ex- penditure amounted to $83,394 ; the receipts to $88,863. Let us now turn to what was done by the society within the year ending 1st May, 1855. The number of ministers of the Gospel in the service of the Society, in twenty-seven different States and Terri- tories, during the year, was one thousand and thirty-two. Of the whole number, five hundred and twenty-eight were the pas- tors or stated supplies of single congregations ; three hundred and twenty-eight ministered to two or three congregations each ; and one hundred and seventy-six extended their labors over still wider fields. Ten missionaries preached to congregations of colored people ; and sixty in foreign languages : — nineteen to Welsh, and thirty-four to German congregations, and seven to congregations of * These societies manage, in a great degree, their own affairs, appoint and support the missionaries who labor within their bounds, and pay over the surplus of their col- lections, if they have any, to the American Home Missionary Society. If they need help at any time from that society, they receive it. CHAP. Vn.] AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 285 Norwegians, Swedes, Swiss, Frenchmen, and Hollanders. The num- ber of congregations and missionary stations supplied, in whole or in part, was two thousand one hundred and twenty-four. The aggregate of ministerial labor performed was equal to eight hundred and fifteen years. The number of pupils in Sabbath schools was sixty-four thou- sand eight hundred. There were added to the churches five thou- sand six hundred and thirty-four persons, viz. : two thousand nine hundred and forty-eight on profession, and two thousand six hundred and eighty-six by letter. Forty-eight missionaries made mention in their reports of revivals of religion in their congregations ; and three hundred and sixty-six missionaries reported two thousand four hun- dred and thirty-four hopeful conversions. Sixty-six churches were organized by missionaries during the year ; and forty, that had been dependent, assumed the support of their own ministry. Sixty-one houses of worship were completed, thirty-eight repaired, and fifty- two others in process of erection. Eighty-nine young men, in con- nection with the missionary churches, were in preparation for the Gospel ministry. The disbursements of the society were $177,717 ; the receipts, 1180,136. The plan pursued by this society, and by all the other societies and boards established for the promotion of home missions, is never to support a missionary at its sole charges, if it can be avoided ; but to give $100, or $150, or $200, rarely more than $100 or $120 to a young and feeble church, or two congregations near to each other, on condition of their making up the deficiency in the missionary's salary. Thus they are stimulated and encouraged to help them- selves, and as soon as they can walk alone, the society leaves them for others which have been just organized, and which need assist- ance. In this way hundreds of congregations have been built up, and hundreds are at this moment emerging from the weakness of childhood into the vigor of youth and manhood. In no case, how- ever, does the society do any thing toward the erection of church edifices. The people must find these for themselves, or get help from societies which have been formed for that object. The cheap- ness of materials in the new settlements and in the villages of the interior, renders it easv to erect such houses as will suffice until the flock gathers strength, and can do something more. The society engages, in some cases, men of talent and experience to travel over a given district, and to ascertain at what points the people attached to one or other of the denominations which it repre- sents might, with proper efforts, be formed into congregations. The labors of such agents are of the utmost importance, and they neces- sarily receive their whole salaries from the society. 286 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IT. It is a beautiful feature in our institutions for domestic missions, that while encouraging and stimulating new and feeble congregations to do their utmost to secure for themselves the regular enjoyment of Gospel ordinances,* they cultivate the kindly feelings of churches more favorably situated in the older parts of the country. Many of the latter support one missionary, and some of them several each, in the new and destitute settlements, through the agency of the American Home Missionary Society. Nay, there are juvenile societies in the Sunday-schools that support each of them one, and some even two or three missionaries, if not more. Individuals are to be found in the Atlantic States who support a missionary each, and thus preach the Gospel, as they say, " by proxy." Still more, there are persons in New York and other cities, who have each paid the entire salary and traveling expenses of an agent laboring in a large district. One of these, with whom I was long acquainted, a hatter, by no means wealthy, who worked with his hands at the trade, gave $600 for years, to support one such laborer in Ohio. He is now dead. Beau- tiful as this is, it is perhaps a finer sight still to see churches and con- gregations which were aided by the society in their day, now in their turn bearing a part, if not the whole expense of the labors of a mis- sionary hi a congregation not yet emerged from the feeble state which they once were in themselves. And there are now many such throughout the United States. In 1805 there was scarcely a Presbyterian or Congregational church in the district now covered by the seventeen most westerly counties of New York. A few missionaries were sent thither at different times, but the increase was small until the Agency for Home Mis- sions, now in connection with the American Home Missionary Society, was established there in 1826. Now there are on this field more than four hundred and fifty Presbyterian and Congregational churches, containing, it is supposed, fifty thousand communicants. During the thirty years of its operations, the American Home Missionary Society has aided more than three hundred of those churches, and nearly half of them are now able to sustain the Gospel without assistance. The churches have nearly doubled since 1826, and the communicants have probably trebled. Such is the wonderful work that God has wrought in this section of the State. Such has been the triumph of the Gospel. It is indeed the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Passing by other facts showing the lateral good accomplished by this effort to plant the Gospel in Western New York, we mention that many of the foreign missionaries are the sons of those churches. * It is believed that the churches aided by the society raise, in one way or an- other, nearly three times as much as they receive ! CHAP. VIII.] PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF DOMESTIC MISSIONS. 287 One of them is now pastor of a church of seven thousand members at the Sandwich Islands, principally gathered through the blessing of God on his labors. Besides repaying the parent society more than $100,000 expended on this field, those churches have given $60,000 to send the Gospel to the more destitute beyond them. Nor is this all ; they have been most generous helpers of every good cause. We conclude our notice of this society by giving the following ex- tract from one of its Annual Reports : " The results, indeed, of that mysterious and wonder-working in- fluence which a God of grace exerts through the ministry of recon- ciliation, and which He connects with the missionary enterprise, all surpass finite comprehension. While the missionaries are preaching Christ and Him crucified to the living, they are laying broad and deep the foundations of many generations ; they are setting in motion trains of moral influences, which will not cease when they are dead ; they are kindling up lights in Zion, which will shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Churches, that were near unto death, are quickened, and become able of themselves to sustain the Gospel, and to hand down its blessings to those who shall come after them. New churches are organized, to throw open their portals to the fathers, and the children, and the children's children, through many generations, and to send out their influences to the ends of the world. The organization, or resuscitation of a church — heaven's own institu- tion — that may stand through all coming time, and bring its multi- tudes of redeemed ones to glory, is a great event. And to plant such churches, wherever there are souls to be gathered into them, our country over, and nurture them till they no longer need our aid, but become our most efficient fellow-laborers, in hastening forward the universal reign of the Son of God, is surely a great work ! And yet, this is the work in which infinite condescension and mercy per- mits us, as friends of home missions, to engage, and some of which it is our privilege here to record." CHAPTER VIII. PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF DOMESTIC MISSIONS, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. Presbyterianism owes its foundation in the United States chiefly to persons who had been exiled from Scotland on account of their re- ligious principles, and to Presbyterian emigrants from the north of 288 THE VOLUNTAS Y PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. Ireland. These were joined in many places by settlers from New England, who had no objections to unite with them in forming con- gregations on Presbyterian principles. Presbyterians of Scottish and Irish origin coalesced in other places with Huguenots from France, and with colonists originally of the Dutch or German Reformed Churches. Thus did Presbyterian congregations begin to be formed toward the close of the seventeenth century. The first preachers were from Scotland, Ireland, and New England. They were few in number at first, and were often invited to preach in neighborhoods where some resident Presbyterians might desire to hear the Gospel, preached by men of the same religious principles with themselves. The first presbytery was constituted in 1705, and the first synod (that of Philadelphia) in 1716. After that the work of home missions began to acquire greater consistency. Ministers were sent out on preaching tours among the small Presbyterian flocks, or, rather, scat- tered groups of Presbyterian families, particularly in the middle and southern provinces. In 1741, the synod was divided into two bodies, one retaining the old name of Synod of Philadelphia, the other calling itself the Synod of New York. The former, soon after being constituted, had its attention drawn, " not only to the wants of the people within their immediate bounds, but to those also of the emi- grants who were rapidly extending themselves through Virginia and North Carolina." They wrote, accordingly, to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, asking for ministers to preach in these colonies, and for assistance in establishing a seminary for the educa- tion of suitable young men for the ministry. A letter was also ad- dressed to the deputies of the Synods of North and South Holland, in which they expressed their willingness to unite with the Calvinistic Dutch Churches in promoting the common interests of religion. At the first meeting of the synod of New York, in 1745, the cir- cumstances of the people of Virginia were brought before them, and the opinion unanimously expressed that Mr. Robinson* was the proper person to visit that colony. He visited it accordingly, and on that, as well as on a former visit, was the instrument of doing much good. He was followed by the Rev. Samuel Davies, formerly mentioned. In 1758, the two synods were merged in the one Synod of New York and Philadelphia, and from that time domestic missions began * This Mr. Eobinson was a remarkable man. His manners were plain, his eloquence simple, animated, and attractive. He had but one eye, and was from that circum- stance called "one-eyed Eobinson." Dr. Archibald Alexander, late professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, says that it was no uncommon thing for people to go twenty, thirty, and even forty miles, to hear him preach a single sermon. CHAP. VIII.] PEESBYTEEIAN BOAED OF DOMESTIC MISSIONS. 289 to receive considerable attention, and collections for that object were ordered to be made in the churches. In 1767, or 1768, the Synod received an overture, or proposal, from the Presbytery of New York, " that there should be an annual collection in every congrega- tion ; that every presbytery should appoint a treasurer to receive and transmit the funds thus obtained ; that the Synod should appoint a general treasurer, to whom all these presbyterial collections should be sent ; and that every year a full account of the receipts and disburse- ments should be printed and sent down to the churches." This was the germ of the present Board of Missions. In the same year peti- tions for " supplies" were received from twenty-one places in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. Collections were thenceforward made in the churches. In 1772, it was ordered that a part of these moneys should be appropriated to the purchase and distribution of useful religious books, and to the promotion of the Gospel among the Indians. Two years afterward it was seriously contemplated to send missionaries to Africa ; but the war of the Revolution breaking out the following year, the project fell to the ground. Even during the war there was a considerable demand for ministers from destitute congregations, and to meet this many faithful ministers made missionary tours, at no small personal hazard from the dangers of war. Measures were taken in 1788 for forming the General Assembly, which was organized in 1789, and at its very first meeting much attention was paid to the subject of missions. " It is believed," says a distinguished divine of the Presbyterian Church, "that at this time (1789) there was not in the United States another religious denomination, besides the Presbyterian, that prosecuted any domestic missionary enterprise; except that then, as since, the Methodists sent forth their circuit preachers in all di- rections."* In the year 1800, the Rev. Mr. Chapman was appointed a mission- ary in the western part of the State of New York, and to his labors we must so far ascribe the great difiusion of Presbyterianism in that important section of the country. In 1802, the General Assembly appointed a " standing committee," to attend to the greatly-increased interests in the missionary cause — a measure which led to a further extension of the work. A correspondence was commenced with all the known missionary societies of Europe. The committee gave much of its attention to the colored population, a class among whom the late John Holt Rice, D.D., one of the most able ministers that * "History of the Missions of the Presbyterian Church," by the late Ashbol Green, D.D. 19 290 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. the Presbyterian Church in the United States has ever possessed, labored as a missionary during seven years. In 1816, the General Assembly enlarged the powers of the stand- ing committee, and gave it the title of " the Board of Missions, act- ing under the authority of the General Assembly." Many mission- aries went forth under its auspices, to labor among the destitute Presbyterian congregations that were continually forming in the Southern and Western States. Meanwhile, many local societies, under the direction of synods, presbyteries, and other bodies, had sprung up, and were separately prosecuting the same objects to a considera- ble extent. The General Assembly again took up the subject of missions in 1828, and further enlarged the powers of the Board, fully authorizing it to establish missions, not only in destitute parts of the United States, but among the heathen abroad. Such, however, was the de- mand for laborers at home, especially in the Western States and Ter- ritories, that nothing of importance could be done for foreign lands. It was found, besides, that home and foreign missions could not well be united under one board, so that in the course of a few years the latter were committed to the charge of another board, appointed for that purpose by the Assembly. Of its operations we shall have occa- sion to. speak elsewhere. The cause of domestic missions in the Presbyterian Church now went on with fresh vigor, and the synodical and presbyterial societies becoming either merged in the Assembly's Board, or affiliated with it, the whole assumed a more consolidated form and greater consistency. From 1828 to 1855, the missionaries increased from thirty-one to five hundred and twenty-five. The Report for the latter year presents a summary of five hundred and twenty-five missionaries employed ; three hundred and five Sunday-schools, attended by fourteen thousand five hundred and forty- eight scholars, connected with the churches under their care ; three thousand three hundred and forty-six members added to the churches, of whom one thousand seven hundred and seventy- eight were received upon examination of then- faith, and one thousand five hundred and sixty-eight upon letters of recommendation from other churches; the receipts were $71,834, and the expenditures $78,944. The average expense of each missionary is about $150. The Board pursues the wise course of simply helping congregations that as yet are unable to maintain pastors, by granting them so much on their undertaking to make up the deficiency.* * Since 1844 this Board has been charged with the work of "Church Extension," or assisting in building of church edifices, where help is needed. This branch of their labors is wholly distinct from that which is missionary, and of which we have CHAP. VIII.] EPISCOPAL, BAPTIST, AND OTHER HOME MISSIONS. 291 Such is a brief notice of the operations of the Home Missions of the General Assembly of that branch of the Presbyterian Church commonly called the Old School, to distinguish it from another branch called the New School. The Board has been instrumental, under God, in giving a permanent existence to hundreds of churches. The Divine blessing has been remarkably vouchsafed to its efforts. Its affairs are managed with great wisdom and energy, and the Church is much indebted to the late Ashbel Green, D.D., for the deep interest which, during a long life, he felt in this cause, and for the devotedness with which he labored to promote it. Nor could it fail to be a great consolation to him, in his declining days, to see his love and zeal for this enterprise crowned with abundant success. In this connection, we may say that the Associate Presbyterian Church had, in 1855, forty-one missionaries in the home fields, and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church sixty-five. CHAPTER IX. HOME MISSIONS OF THE EPISCOPAL, BAPTIST, AND REFORMED DUTCH CHURCHES, AND AMERICAN AND FOREIGN CHRISTIAN UNION. A society was formed in the year 1822, in the Protestant Episco- pal Church of the United States, for the promotion of Home and For- eign Missions. During the first thirteen years of its existence, that is, up to 1835, it had employed fifty-nine laborers in its home missions, occupying stations in various parts of the Union, but chiefly in the West. This society was re-organized in 1835, and, as now consti- tuted, is under the direction of a Board of thirty members, appointed by the General Convention of that Church. The bishops, together with such persons as had become patrons of the society previously to the meeting of the Convention in 1829, are members of the Board, and to it is committed the whole subject of missions. But the better to expedite the business intrusted to it, the Home an4 Foreign de- partments are directed, respectively, by two committees, each con- sisting of four clergymen and four laymen, under the presidency of the bishop of the diocese in which the committee resides, and the members of both committees are ex officio members of the Board. spoken of above. The receipts for the " Church Extension" Fund from 1844 to 1855 were $68,544; from which fund aid was extended, during that period, to three hun- dred and eighty-two churches. In the year ending April 1, 1855. forty-nine church edifices were completed, to whose construction aid was given. 292 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. It is only since 1835 that the home missions of the society have been prosecuted with much vigor, but every year now bears witness to the increasing interest felt by the Episcopal churches of the United States in the work of building up churches in the new settlements, and other places where no congregation of that communion had before existed. During the year ending June, 1855, the Board had employed ninety-eight missionaries ; and that they did not labor without effect- ing much good, is apparent even from the imperfect statements of the Report. The income for the home missions was $42,107. From 1822 to 1841, one hundred and eighty-six stations were adopted as fields of special, permanent, and, as far as practicable, regular labor. During the same period eighty church edifices had been erected in those sta- tions, and the number of these once aided, but no longer requiring assistance, was forty-four. From this it will be seen that this society, like those already men- tioned, is an instrument by which churches that have long been favored with the Gospel, and that highly prize it, are enabled to assist others, until they, too, have grown up into a vigorous independence of foreign aid. "Freely ye have received; freely give;" this ad- monition and command should never be forgotten. It is the true basis of the whole Voluntary System. We shall only add, that the missionaries employed by the Board of the Episcopal Church are chiefly stationed in the Western States and Territories, California, and Oregon. The American Baptist Home Missionary Society was instituted in 1832, and has been eminently useful in building up churches of that denomination, both in the West and in many of the Atlantic States, where the assistance of such an institution was required ; as well as in establishing Sunday-schools and Bible-classes. Its great field of labor, however, like that of all the other Societies and Boards for domestic missions, has been in the Valley of the Mississippi. Within a few years, it has extended its operations to California and Oregon, in which countries it has several missionaries. It has nume- rous branches and auxiliaries in all parts of the United States. During the year ending in May, 1855, it had one hundred and seventy-nine agents and missionaries in its own immediate service, while its aux- iliaries employed many more, all of whom were ministers of the Gos- pel, and believed to be faithful and capable laborers. The receipts of the society amounted to $60,043. The Southern Baptist Convention had eighty-eight missionaries. In addition to what the regular Baptists are doing for home mis- sions, it ought to be stated that the Free- Will Baptists have a CHAP. X.] HOME MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 293 Home Missionary Society, which employs some fifteen or twenty laborers. The General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church has a Board of Domestic Missions, which is now prosecuting, with zeal and wisdom, the work of gathering together new congregations, and fostering them during their infancy, wherever it can find openings for so doing. For several years past it has been extending its operations, and dur- ing the year ending in June, 1855, it had fifty missionaries. The American and Foreign Christian Union, composed of good men of nearly all the Evangelical churches, had, in 1855, sixty-two missionaries in the home field. If the truth is to be carried into every hamlet and neighborhood of the United States, it can only be by the energetic efforts of all de- nominations of evangelical Christians ; and it is delightful to trace the proofs that this conviction is wide and deep. All those denom- inations are actually engaged in the good work, and send forth and support missionaries in some portion or other of the country. CHAPTER X. HOME MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH. It has been said, with truth, that the Methodist Church is in its very structure emphatically a missionary Church ; and how inestimable its office in this respect, the religious history of the United States will strikingly prove. The General Conferences are divided into Annual Conferences, each including a large extent of country, and divided into districts. Each district comprehends several circuits, and within each circuit there are from five to twenty preaching places or more. Ordinarily as often as once in the fortnight a circuit-preacher conducts a regular service at each of these preaching places, whether it be a church, school-room, or a dwelling-house. In the largest towns and villages such services are held on the Sabbath, and on a week-day or evening in other places, and thus the Gospel is carried into thousands of remote spots in which it never would be preached upon the plan of having a permanent clergy, planted in particular districts and parishes. It was a remark, I believe, of the celebrated Dr. Witherspoon, that " he needed no other evidence that the Rev. John Weslev was a great man, than the system of itinerating preaching of which that wonderful man was the author." The observation was a just one. 294 THE VOLUNTAEY PEINCIPLE IN AMEEICA. [BOOK IV. It is a system of vast importance in every point of view ; but that from which we are at present to contemplate it is its filling up a void which must else remain empty. Of its other advantages we shall have to speak hereafaer. Yet, capable as the system is of being made to send its ramifica- tions into almost every corner of the country, and to carry the glad tidings of salvation into the most remote and secluded settlements, as well as to the more accessible and populous towns and neighbor- hoods, many places were found, particularly in the South and West, so situated as to be beyond the reach of adequate supply from itin- erant laborers : a fact which led to the formation of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816. This society, like that of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was formed for the double object of promoting missions at home and abroad. In 1843, twenty-four years after its formation, this society employed two hundred and ten missionaries within the limits of the United States, exclusive of those laboring among the Indians, whether within or immediately beyond those limits. The churches enjoying the services of these missionaries comprised above thirty thousand members, and many of them had flourishing Bible-classes and Sun- day-schools. The report also stated, that among the members of the Society's missionary churches, there were not fewer than thirteen thousand three hundred and twenty colored people. In the year 1 855 the various branches of the Methodist family of churches employed nearly twelve hundred missionaries in the home field. Perhaps of all the fields cultivated by this society, the two most in- teresting, and, in some respects, most important, are those presented by the slaves in the extreme Southern States, and by the German emigrants found in great numbers in our chief cities. The missions among the former were commenced in 1828,* and originated in a proposal made by the Hon. Charles C. Pinckney, a distinguished Christian layman of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, and which has been carried into effect with much success : the slaveholders themselves, in many places, if not in all, being pleased to have the missionaries preach the Gospel to their people. The following paragraph from a report, will give the reader some idea of the hazardous nature of this work. " In the Southern and * I speak here of missions technically so called, for, in their ordinary labors, the Methodists, from the first, have had much to do with the slaves in the South, as well as with the free negroes of the North. In fact, no other body of Christians, perhaps, has done so much good to the unfortunate children of Africa in the United States as the followers of John Wesley. CHAP. X.J HOME MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 295 South-western Conferences, it will be seen, under the head of domes- tic missions, that, with commendable zeal and devotion, our missiona- ries are still laboring in the service of the slaves upon the rice-fields, sugar and cotton plantations, multitudes of whom, though destined to toil and bondage during their earthly pilgrimage, have by their instrumentality been brought to enjoy the liberty of the Gospel, and are happily rejoicing in the blessings of God's salvation. In no por- tion of our work are our missionaries called to endure greater priva- tions, or make greater sacrifices of health and life, than in these missions among the slaves, many of which are located in sections of the Southern country which are proverbially sickly, and under the fatal influence of , a climate which few white men are capable of en- during, even for a single year. And yet, notwithstanding so many valuable missionaries have fallen martyrs to their toils in these mis- sions, year after year there are found others to take their places, who fall likewise in their work, ' ceasing at once to work and to live.' Nor have our superintendents any difficulty in finding missionaries ready to fill up the ranks which death has thinned in these sections of the work : for the love of Christ, and the love of the souls of these poor Africans in bonds, constrain our brethren in the itinerant work of the Southern conferences to exclaim, 'Here are we, send us !' The Lord be praised for the zeal and success of our brethren in this self- denying and self-sacrificing work." Not less interesting are the missions among the Germans resident in the chief towns and cities of the Valley of the Mississippi. Begin- ning at Pittsburg and Alleghany city, this Society has missionaries among these foreigners in many of the chief towns on the Ohio, such as Wheeling, Marietta, Portsmouth, Maysville, Cincinnati, Lawrence- burg, New Albany, etc., as well as in towns remote from the river, such as Dayton and Chillicothe. It has missions also, at St. Louis, and other points on the Upper Mississippi. Nor are they confined to the Valley of the Mississippi ; they exist also in the principal towns in the East. These brief notices of the home missions of the chief Evangelical Churches in the United States, will give the reader some idea of the mode in which new and feeble congregations are aided by the older and stronger, until able to maintain the institutions of religion themselves. The societies* which we have passed under review in * Namely, the American Home Missionary Society, which aided 1,032 missionaries; the Board of Missions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian (Old School) Church, 525; Board of Missions of the Associate Presbyterian Church, 41; Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 98 ; Baptist Home Mission So- ciety (North), 179 ; Southern Baptist Convention, 88 ; American and Foreign Chris- 296 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. these four chapters, supported, in all, in the year 1855, three thou- sand three hundred and thirty-seven ministers of the Gospel, and at an expense of $728,539, in new, and, as yet, feeble churches and flocks. Year after year many of these cease to require assist- ance, and then others are taken up in their turn. Be it remem- bered, that the work has been systematically prosecuted for no long course of time. Thirty-five years ago, in fact, the most powerful of these societies did not exist ; others were but commencing their ope- rations. It is an enterprise with respect to which the Churches have as yet but partially developed their energies and resources ; still, they have accomplished enough to demonstrate how much may be done by "the voluntary principle, toward calling into existence churches and congregations in the settlements rapidly forming, whether in the new or the old States. CHAPTER XL THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE DEVELOPED. — INFLUENCE OF THE VOLUN- TARY PRINCIPLE ON EDUCATION. OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS. We have seen how the voluntary principle operates in America in relation to the building of churches, and the support of ministers of the Gospel in the new settlements that are forming every year. We now come to consider its influence on education. Hundreds of ministers, it will be perceived, are required, to meet the de- mands of the rapidly-augmenting population. Where are these to come from? Besides, in a country where the right of suffrage is almost universal, and where so much of the order, peace, and happiness, that are the true objects of all good government, depend on officers chosen in the most direct manner from among themselves, these must be instructed before they can become intelligent, virtuous, and capable citizens. , Ignorance is incompatible with the acquisition or preservation of any freedom worth possessing ; and, above all, such a republic as that of the United States must depend for its very ex- istence on the wide diffusion of sound knowledge and religious prin- ciples among all classes of the people. Let us, therefore, trace the bearings of the voluntary principle upon education, hi all its forms, tian Union, 62 ; Board of Missions of the Reformed Dutch Church, 50 ; Board of Missions of the several branches of the Methodist Church, 1,197 ; the Associate Re- formed Presbyterian Chunch, (about) 65. This list, though not complete, is very nearly so. CHAP. XI.l INFLUENCE ON EDUCATION. PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 297 among the various ranks of society in the United States. We shall begin with primary schools. It may well be imagined that emigrants to the New World, who fled from the Old with the hope of enjoying that religious freedom which they so much desired, would not be indifferent to the educa- tion of their children. Especially might we expect to find that the Protestant colonists, who had forsaken all for this boon, would not fail to make early provision for the instruction of their children, in order that they might be able to read that Book which is the " Re- ligion of Protestants." And such we find to have been the fact. Scarcely had the Puritans been settled half-a-dozen years in the col- ony of Massachusetts, before they began to make provision for public primary schools, to be supported by a tax assessed upon all the in- habitants* And such provision was actually made, not only in Mas- sachusetts, but in every New England colony. And such provision exists to this day in all the six New England States. Schools are by law maintained in every school district, during the whole or a part of every year. With the exception of the State of Connecticut, where all the pub- lic schools are maintained upon the interest of a large school fund, primary instruction is provided for by an annual assessment — a school being taught, in every school district, by a master for the older youth during winter, and often by a mistress for the little children during summer. Wherever we find the descendants of the Puritans in America, we find a people who value education as the first of all earthly blessings ; and when a colony from New England plants itself, whether amid the forests of Ohio, or on the prairies of Illinois, or on the plains of California, two things are ever considered indispensable alike to their temporal and to their spiritual and their eternal wel- fare — a church and a school-house. Nor was this thirst for education confined to the New England Puritans : it prevailed to no small degree among the Scotch and Irish Presbyterians, the Huguenots, the early German emigrants ; among * The small colony of Plymouth, as soon as it was in some measure settled, set about providing schools for the children, and this was several years before the colony of Massachusetts Bay was planted. But if the New England Puritans were zealous in the cause of education and learn- ing, the Virginia colonists seem not to have had any such spirit, for one of their gov- ernors, Sir "William Berkeley, in 1670, in replying to the inquiries addressed to him by the Lords of Plantations, says, "I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years ; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both I" — Hening's Laws of Virginia, Appendix. 298 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. all, in fact, who had fled from Europe for the sake of their religion. It is owing to this that primary education has been diffused so widely throughout the United States, and that no less effective legal provi- sion has been made at length for the support of common schools in New York, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, than in the New England States, and to a considerable extent, also, in New Jersey, Delaware, Kentucky : while in all the others it has led to the adoption of measures for the education of the children of the poor, and to the creation of school funds, which, taken together with other means, promise one day to be available for the education of all classes. The white and free colored population of the United States amounted, in 1850, to nearly twenty millions, of which number it was ascertained that one million fifty-three thousand four hundred and twenty persons, above twenty years of age, could neither read nor write. A large proportion of these, in fact one hundred and ninety- five thousand one hundred and fourteen, were foreigners — Irish, Ger- mans, Swiss, and French. By the census of 1850, it appears that the number of schools, in- cluding public and private academies, amounted to eighty-seven thou- sand and sixty-seven, attended by four million eighty-nine thousand five hundred and seven scholars ; of whom three million three hun- dred and fifty-four thousand and eleven were taught at the public charge in whole or in part, and the remainder at that of their parents and friends. From this it will be seen that education in America de- pends very much on the aid of the State. So that although primary schools were in all parts of the country originated and sustained at first, as in most of the States they continue to be, by the people themselves, or, rather, by the friends of education, State after State is beginning to be induced by the efforts of these to make a legal pro- vision, to a certain extent at least, for the instruction of all who may choose to avail themselves of it ; for in this they do not see that they violate any rights of conscience. The right of giving instruction is, in the United States, universal. Even where there is an all-pervading system of public schools, any number of families may join together, and employ any teacher for their children whom they may prefer. Nor has that teacher to pro- cure any license or " brevet of instruction" before entering on the duties of his office. His employers are the sole judges of his capacity, and should he prove incapable or inefficient, the remedy is in their own hands. The teachers employed by the State pass an examina- tion before a proper committee. In all the States where there is a legal provision for primary schools, there is a yearly report from each CHAP. XI.] INFLUENCE ON EDUCATION. PElMARY SCHOOLS. 299 to a committee of the township, from which, again, there is a report to a county committee, and that, in its turn, sends a report to the Secretary or School Commissioner of the State. In most cases, a pious and judicious teacher, if he will only confine himself to the great doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, in which all who hold the fundamental truths of the Bible are agreed, can easily give as much religious instruction as he chooses. "Where the teacher himself is not decidedly religious, much religious instruction can not be expected ; nor indeed should any but religious teachers attempt to give more than general moral instruction, and make the scholars read portions of the Scriptures, and of other good books. The Bible is very generally used as a reading-book in our primary schools, though in some places the Roman Catholics have succeeded in excluding it, and they have been striving to do the same in the city of New York. In so far as relates to public schools, I see no other course but that of leaving the question to the people them- selves ; the majority deciding, and leaving the minority the alterna- tive of supporting a school of their own. This will generally be done by Protestants rather than give up the Bible. In most parts of the United States, it has been found extremely difficult to procure good teachers, few men being willing to devote their lives to that occupation in a country so full of openings in more lucrative and inviting professions and employments. Hence very incompetent teachers — not a few from Ireland and other parts of the British dominions— are all that can be found. This is particularly the case in the Middle, Southern, and Western States. But it is an evil which diminishes with the increase of population. Much attention has of late been paid to the training of teachers, and many Normal Schools have been established. A very laudable effort is making in New England, in New York, and in some other States, to attach a library of suitable books to each school. The plan is excellent, and promises much good. Primary instruction in the United States owes almost every thing to religion, as the most efiicient of all the principles that prompt to its promotion. Not that the Protestants of that country interest themselves in the primary schools for the purpose of proselytizing children to their views, but rather that at these schools the youth of the nation may be qualified for receiving religious instruction effect- ually elsewhere, and for the due discharge of their future duties as citizens. And, however much they may wish to see religious instruc- tion given at the common schools, they will not for a moment give in to the opinion that all is lost where this can not be accomplished. Primary instruction, even when not accompanied with any religious 300 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. instruction, is better than none ; and in such cases, they that love the Gospel have other resources — in the pulpit, the family altar, the Bible-class, and the Sabbath-school. CHAPTER XII. GRAMMAR-SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. But if primary schools in the United States owe much to religion, Grammar-schools and Academies, which may be called secondary institutions, owe still more. In 1647, only twenty-seven years after the settlement of the Puri- tans in New England, we find the colony of Massachusetts Bay making a legal provision, not only for primary, but for secondary schools also. " It being one chief project of Satan," says the statute, " to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures by dissuading from the use of tongues ; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers in Church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors : therefore be it enacted, that every township, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall appoint one to teach all children to write and read ; and where any town shall increase to the number of one hun- dred families, they shall set up a grammar-school, the masters thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the uni- versity." Such was the origin of the grammar-schools of New En- gland, and now they are-so numerous that not only has almost every county one, but many of the more populous and wealthy possess several. Not only so : all the other States have incorporated academies and grammar-schools in very considerable numbers. Some, by a single act, have made an appropriation for the establishment of one such institution in every county within their jurisdiction. Thus, in Penn- sylvania, many years ago, $2,000 were granted for the erection of a building for a grammar-school at the seat of justice for each county, and a board of trustees, with power to fill up vacancies as they might occur in their numbers, was appointed for each. These buildings are now occupied by masters who teach the higher branches of an En- glish education, and, in most cases, also, the Latin and Greek lan- guages, besides such instruction in the mathematics and other studies as may qualify the pupils for entering college. Like provisions have been made by other States, and even the newest of them in the West are continually encouraging learning by passing such acts. In no CHAP. Xn.] GRAMMAR-SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. 301 case, however, does a State endow such an institution. A grant is made at the outset for the' edifice that may be required ; in most cases that is all that is done by the State, after which the institution has to depend upon the fees paid by the scholars for the support of the master or masters employed. In some instances, as in the State of New York, the grammar-school has a yearly subsidy from the State ; in which case, there is usually some condition attached to the grant, such as the giving of instruction gratis to a certain number of poor lads, or of youths intended to become teachers of primary schools. But in most, even of the cases in which they have been aided by the State, these institutions have not only been privately commenced and carried to a certain point previously to such assist- ance, but owe much more afterward to the spontaneous support of their friends. Indeed, in all parts of the country may be found gram- mar-schools, and some of these the very best, which owe their ex- istence purely to individual or associated efforts. Such is the " Burr Seminary," in the town of Manchester, in the State of Vermont, which originated in a legacy of $10,000, left by a gentleman of the name of Joseph Burr,* for the education of poor and pious young men for the ministry. By the terms of his will, in case that an equal sum should be raised by the citizens of the place for the erection of a suitable building, the purchase of apparatus, library, etc., then his legacy of $10,000 might be invested as a permanent fund, the interest of which was to be applied to paying for the education of such young men as he should designate. This was done even beyond the extent required by the testator. A large and commodious edifice was erected, contaiDing rooms for the recitation of lessons, lectures, li- brary, philosophical apparatus, etc. The school was opened on the 15th of May, 1833, and the number of scholars for the first term was one hundred and forty-six ; many of whom were pious youths, devot- ing themselves to study with a view to the ministry. The institution still flourishes under the instructions of excellent men ; and being situated in a secluded and moral village in the midst of the Green Mountains, where living is cheap, it is attended by choice youths, some thirty or forty of whom are educated gratuitously. Such, * Mr. Burr had been for many years a resident at Manchester, in Vermont. By patient industry and upright dealings, he acquired a fortune estimated at $150,000 at the time of his death. A large part of this sum he bequeathed to the American Bible Society, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, American Home Missionary Society, and American Education Society, besides endowing a pro- fessorship in one college, and contributing largely to the same object in another. And in addition to all this, by the above bequest of $10,000 he founded the seminary that bears his name. 302 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. again, is " Philips's Academy," at Andover, in Massachusetts, about twenty miles north of Boston. Founded in IV 78, by the joint liber- ality of two brothers, the Hon. Samuel Philips, of Andover, and the Hon. John Philips, of Exeter, New Hampshire, it received, two years afterward, a charter of incorporation from the State. The fund supplied by these two brothers was afterward augmented by the be- quest of a third, the Hon. William Philips, of Boston. This Academy, which is one of the best endowed in the United States, has been truly a blessing to the cause of religion and learning. By the terms prescribed by its pious founders, it is open to all youth of good character, but they have placed it under the control of Prot- estants, and the religious instruction given must be orthodox in the true sense of the word. Instruction is required to be given in the English, Latin, and Greek languages; in writing, arithmetic, and music ; in the art of speaking ; also in practical geometry, logic, and any other of the liberal arts, sciences, or languages, as opportunity and ability may from time to time admit, and the trustees shall direct. As the education of suitable young men for the ministry was a lead- ing consideration with the founders, so has the institution been, in this respect, abundantly blessed. Many such youths have here pur- sued their preparatory studies ; and in 1808, availing themselves of a provision contained in the plan marked out by the founder, the trus- tees ingrafted on the institution, or, rather, established in the same village, and under the same direction, a Theological Seminary, which has become one of the most distinguished of the kind in the United States, and will call for more ample notice hereafter. A large proportion of the grammar-schools and academies in the United States, whether incorporated or not, are under the direction and instruction of ministers of the Gospel of different evangelical denominations. These ministers, in some cases, devote their whole time to the work of academical instruction ; in other cases, they have also the charge of a church or congregation, and as they per- form the double duties of pastor and head of a grammar-school, they have usually an assistant teacher in the latter. The teachers in these academies are often pious young men, of small pecuniary resources, who, after completing their studies at college, betake themselves to this employment for a few years, in order to find the means of supporting themselves while attending a theological school. But whether ministers of the Gospel, or graduates fresh from college, such teachers generally communicate instruction of a character de- cidedly religious. The Scriptures are daily read ; the school is usually opened and closed with prayer ; and in many cases, a Bible-class, comprising all the pupils, meets on the Sabbath afternoon, or morn- CHAP. XIII.] COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. m 303 ing, for the study of the Sacred Volume. Thus, by the favor of God resting on these institutions, and making them effectual to the con- verting of many of the youths that attend them, they prove blessings to the Church of Christ, as well as to the State. I may add that, within the last ten or twenty years, a great many excellent institutions for the education of young ladies have sprung up in different parts of the United States, through associated or indi- vidual efforts. The course of instruction at these is excellent and extensive, embracing all branches of valuable knowledge proper for the sex. Upon many of them, also, God has caused His blessing to descend, and has brought not a few of the young persons attending them to the knowledge of Himself. They are generally conducted by ladies ; but the teachers, in some cases, are gentlemen, clergymen especially, assisted by pious ladies. In no other country, probably, has the higher education of females made greater progress than in the United States, during the last few years. The Christian commu- nity begins to feel that mothers have, in a great measure, the forma- tion of the national character in their hands. CHAPTER XIII. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. In the census of the United States for 1850, the number of univer- sities and colleges is put down at two hundred and thirty-nine, and that of students at twenty-seven thousand eight hundred and twenty- one. This, however, includes not only the Theological, Medical, and Law schools, but several other institutions improperly called col- leges. A more accurate list makes the colleges amount to one hun- dred and nineteen, and the students to eleven thousand nine hun- dred and three. But even tins estimate includes several institutions which, though incorporated as colleges, are scarcely so far organized as to be entitled to the name. In some cases, too, the students in the preparatory departments are counted, as well as the under- graduates, properly so called, that is, the students in the four regular classes of seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen, into which the students of our colleges are divided. It would be absurd to compare the colleges of America with the great universities of Europe. The course of studies is widely differ- ent. For while sufficiently comprehensive in almost all the colleges that deserve that name, it is not to be compared, in general, as re- 304 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IY. spects depth and extent of investigation in particular branches, with that of the older universities of Europe. But, upon the whole, if one may be allowed to judge from experience, the education to be had at one of our colleges better capacitates a man for the work that is likely to await him in America, than would that which the univer- sities of Europe could give him. In almost all instances, the colleges in the United States have been founded by religious men. The common course in establishing them is as follows : A company is organized, a subscription list opened, and certain men of influence in the neighborhood consent to act as trus- tees. A charter is then asked from the Legislature of the State within which the projected institution is to be placed, and a grant in aid of the funds at the same time solicited. The charter is obtained, and with it a few thousand dollars, perhaps, by way of assistance. "What else is required for the purchase of a site, erecting buildings, providing a library, apparatus, etc., etc., must be made up by those interested in the project. Thus have vast sums been raised, particu- larly during the last twenty years, for founding colleges in all parts of the country, especially in the West. A great portion of these sums have been subscribed by persons in the neighborhood, and more directly interested in the success of the undertakings subscribed for; but in many cases, money to a large amount has been obtained from the churches along the Atlantic coast. More than one half of the one hundred and nineteen colleges in the United States have been opened within the last thirty or forty years. Many of these are, of course, in their infancy, and not very well organized. Without reckoning grants made by the States, it would be difficult to find one that has not cost its founders above $10,000, and many twice that sum. Several* have cost even $50,000, if not more, while, at the same time, several of the older colleges, such as Yale, New Jersey, Rutgers, Williams, Hamil- ton, etc., have raised large sums by voluntary effort among their respective friends, for the purpose of augmenting the advantages they offer to the students that attend them. Upon the whole, I con- sider that it were not too much to say that from three to four mil- lion dollars have been raised by voluntary subscriptions and dona- tions, for the erection and endowment of colleges, since the year 1816. * * For instance, Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania ; Centre Col- lege, at Danville, Kentucky ; Illinois College, at Jacksonville, Illinois ; "Western Reserve College, Ohio ; to say nothing of some of the Roman Catholic colleges, which have not cost much less, from first to last, than $50,000 ; Amherst College, in Mas- sachusetts, has cost more than that sum, probably ; while the University of New York has cost three or four times that amount. CHAP. XIII. j COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. 305 I have said that the State gives some aid to many such enterprises. But, excepting the Universities of Virginia, Alabama, Michigan, and those of Ohio and Miami, both in the State of Ohio, and Jefferson College in Louisiana, I am not aware of any in the country that can be said to have been wholly endowed by the government of any State. The Universities of North Carolina and Georgia, and Columbia Col- lege in South Carolina, may possibly be so far aided by the States in which they are respectively situated, as to have something like an endowment, but the aid so rendered, I apprehend, is far from suffi- cient. So, also, Congress has aided from time to time " Columbian College," situated near Washington City, and within the District of Columbia,* but the aid so received has never been at all adequate to the purposes for which it was required. There are not above six or seven colleges or universities in the United States over which the civil or political governments can exercise any direct control. It is well that it should be so. A State Legislature, or Congress itself, would be found very unfit to direct the affairs of a college or university. Wherever, in fact, they have reserved such power to themselves in the charters they have granted, they have sooner or later nearly, if not altogether, ruined the institutions on which they have laid their unhallowed hands. A college or univer- sity is no place for party politics : and so well is this understood, that the Legislatures of the several States hesitate not to grant a college charter to a body of respectable citizens, and to appoint at once the persons recommended as trustees or directors, with power to fill up the vacancies that may occur ; after which, these office-bearers, having sworn to do nothing in that capacity contrary to the laws and Con- stitution of the country, are empowered to manage and govern the proposed college according to their own best judgment, and the reg- ulations they may lay down to that effect. While acting within the limits prescribed by the charter and their oath, that charter must re- main inviolate. So it has been determined by the Supreme Court of the United States. I have said that almost every college existing in the country may be traced to religious motives ; and how true this is, will appear from the fact, that of the one hundred and nineteen colleges now in opera- tion, eight are under the influence of the Protestant Episcopal Church, twenty-four under that of the Methodists, twenty-five under that of the Baptists, forty-five under that of the Presbyterians and Congre- gationalists ; two are Lutheran, twelve are Roman Catholic, one Uni- * This college comes properly within the sphere of the legislation of Congress, and is the only one that does so. All the others come under the jurisdiction of the sev- eral States within whose territories they stand. 20 306 THE VOLUNTAS Y PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IY. versalist, two Unitarian. In this calculation, I place each institution under the Church to which its president belongs. This rule is the best that I know, and although it does not hold in every case, the exceptions are few ; and, without any exception, it indicates the gen- eral faith by which the institution is influenced.* Thus we see that of these one hundred and nineteen universities and colleges, one hundred and four are under decided evangelical and orthodox influence. Their presidents, and, I may add, many of their professors, are known to be religious men, and sound in the faith ; all of the former, with three or four exceptions, are ministers of the Gos- pel, and many of them men of great eminence in the Church. I need not say how much cause for gratitude to God we have, that so many young men of the first families, and possessing fine talents, should be educated in colleges that are under the influence of evangelical prin- ciples. In many of them the Bible is studied by the students every Sabbath, under the guidance of their teachers. In all they receive a great deal of religious instruction, and are daily assembled for prayers. God has often visited some of them with the outpourings of His Spirit. Not that this religious instruction is intended to proselytize from one Protestant and evangelical church to another. In that re- spect, a Presbyterian father might with all safety commit his son to an Episcopalian, Methodist, or Lutheran college. Here I speak from facts that I myself have known. Several of the most distinguished dignitaries of the Episcopal Church were educated at Princeton Col- lege, New Jersey : a Presbyterian institution, and founded by Presby- terians. Some of them received their first religious convictions there, and yet, I believe, they can testify that no office-bearer of that college ever attempted to bring them over to the Presbyterian Church. Any advice given, on the contrary, would have been that they should join the church of then- parentage and birth.f As none of the universities but that of Harvard, situated in the town of Cambridge, not far from Boston, have all the four faculties of literature, law, medicine, and theology, with that exception they ought rather to be called colleges. The theology at Harvard is Uni- tarian. Several of the other universities have faculties of medicine attached to them. On the other hand, Yale College, at New Haven, * The reader will remember that the statements given above refer to the year 1850. At present, the number of colleges and universities in the United States is not far from one hundred and thirty-five. The Roman Catholics claim to have twenty- four, many of which are little better than academies or grammar-schools. f The Rev. Dr. M'llvaine, the distinguished Bishop of Ohio, and the no less excel- lent Assistant Bishop of Virginia, the Rev. Dr. Johns, were both educated and con- verted at Princeton College. The late Bishop Hobart, of New York, was educated in that institution, and was for some time a tutor there. CHAP. XIII.] COLLEGES A2TC) UNIVERSITIES. 307 in Connecticut, ought rather to be called a university, for it has all the four faculties, and is attended by far more students than Harvard. I may add, that Harvard University was the first literary institution established in the United States. It was founded in 1638, eight years after Massachusetts Bay, and eighteen after Plymouth was first col- onized ; when there were not many more than five thousand settlers at the time in all New England. Hardly had the forest been cleared away for the streets of their settlements, when they began to project a college or university. And yet these were the Puritans now so much vilified and slandered ! Great were the efforts made by those exiles to attain their object. The General Court granted for the erection of a proper edifice a sum equal to a year's rate of the whole colony. John Harvard, who had come to the New World only to die, bequeathed to the college half his estate, and all his library. Plymouth and Connecticut often sent their little offerings, as did the eastern towns within the boundaries of the present State of Maine. The rent of a ferry was made over to it. All the families in the Puritan settlements once gave, each, a donation of at least twelve pence, or a peck of corn, while larger gifts were made by the magistrates and wealthier citizens. It was for a long time the only college in New England, and in its halls the great men of the country were educated. For a century and a half it was a precious fountain of living waters for the Church of God. But, alas! for the last half century, or nearly so, it has been in the hands of men who hold " another gospel" than that held by its pious founders.* The second college founded in the United States was that of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, in Virginia, in 1693. The third was Yale College, above mentioned, founded in 1700. The fourth was Princeton College, New Jersey, founded in 1746. The University of Pennsylvania dates from 1755; Columbia College, in New York, from 1754; Brown University, from 1764; Rutgers and Dartmouth Colleges, from 1770. These were all that were founded previously to the Revolution. * A voluminous and interesting history of this University, by its late president, Josiah Quincy, LL.D., has recently been published. 308 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK TV. CHAPTER XIV. SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION AND OTHER SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIETIES. One of the most efficient, as well as the simplest instruments of doing good, is the Sunday-school ; an institution, the history of which is too well known to require any detail in this work. Mr. Robert Raikes, of Gloucester, in England, toward the close of the last cen- tury, established the first that was ever conducted upon anything like the plan now generally pursued, and its excellence has been proved by long experience. The first attempt to introduce Sabbath-schools into the United States was made by the Methodists in 1790, but from some cause or other it failed. A society was soon after formed at Philadelphia, with the late Bishop White at its head, and a few schools were established for the benefit of the poor, taught by persons who received a certain compensation for their trouble. Early in the present century, schools began to be established in various places under voluntary and gra- tuitous teaching, and gradually becoming better known and appreci- ated, the number was found very considerable in 1816. Associations for promoting them more extensively began then to be formed in Philadelphia, New York, and other cities, and the publication of spelling and hymn books, scriptural catechisms, etc., for the children was commenced. Some persons also did much to advance this good work by their individual efforts.* Measures were taken in 1823 for the forming of a national society which should extend the benefit of Sunday-schools to all parts of the country ; and, accordingly, the American Sunday-school Union was instituted : an association composed of excellent men of all evangeli- cal denominations, but in which no particular denomination is repre- sented as such. It has now been diffusing its blessings for more than thirty-one years. The board of managers is composed of intelligent and zealous laymen of the various evangelical denominations, the greater part residing in Philadelphia and its vicinity, as that is the centre of the society's operations. Its grand object is twofold: to promote the establishment of Sun- day-schools where required, and to prepare and publish suitable books, some to be employed as manuals in the schools, and others for * Among -whom may be mentioned the late Divie Bethune, Esq., who published at his own expense a number of little books for the instruction of youth in Sunday- schools. CHAP. XIV.] SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 309 libraries, intended to furnish the children with suitable reading at home. In both departments much good has been done. In the former, Sunday-school missionaries, commonly ministers of the Gos- pel, and sometimes capable laymen, have been employed in visiting almost all parts of the country. They hold public meetings in every district or neighborhood where they have any prospect of success, and endeavor to interest the people in the subject, and to establish a school. Time and care are required for such a work. The nature of a Sunday-school must be well explained ; fit persons must be en- gaged as teachers ; these must have their duties pointed out to them, and the motives that ought to prompt them to undertake the office presented and enforced ; and money must be collected for the pur- chase of books. In 1830, the society resolved to establish a Sunday-school in every neighborhood that was without one, throughout the Western States or Valley of the Mississippi, wherever practicable. Three years after it adopted a like resolution with respect to the Southern States. Both, but particularly the former of these resolutions, called forth much effort. Large sums were collected, and a great many schools were established. Every year, since its commencement, the society has employed a number of agents and missionaries ; in some years as many as thirty, forty, and even sixty or seventy* These traverse the country throughout its vast extent, resuscitate decaying schools, establish new ones, and encourage all. In its other department the society has rendered great service to the cause of religion, and, I may add, to that of literature also. Ex- clusive of the Scriptures, spelling-books, primers, catechisms, maps, cards for infant-schools, etc., it has published eight hundred and thirteen volumes of books for libraries, a complete set of which, well bound, costs $145. It has published, likewise, selections from these as libraries for families and common schools. Among its publications may be mentioned its admirable manuals or aids for studying the Bible : namely, a Geography of the Bible, Natural History of the Bible, Dictionary of the Bible, Antiquities of the Bible, Scriptural Biographies, Maps of the Holy Land, and Books of Questions; in several volumes, on almost all parts of the Bible, for the use of chil- dren and teachers. While all these publications are thoroughly Pro- testant in their character, they contain nothing repugnant to the doctrines of any of the evangelical denominations, so that there is * Including the students of the theological seminaries and colleges whom it often employs, the number of the society's missionaries frequently far exceeds the highest figure above given. Last year (1855), it was three hundred and twenty-four, of whom two hundred and fifty-six were students. 310 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. nothing to forbid their being used in the Sunday-schools of any of the Protestant churches. This is a great advantage, and enables the so- ciety to establish hundreds of schools in places where various reli- gious bodies intermingle, and where none of them is strong enough to support a school by itself. The society publishes also a very valu- able journal, which appears once in a fortnight. It is replete with interesting and instructive matter, and adapted alike to scholars, teachers, and parents. It also publishes small monthly magazines and gazettes for children.* But besides this great society, which stands ready to promote the cause any where, and on the most catholic principles, there are other Sunday-school societies, not less efficient in their respective spheres. The Episcopalians have theirs, the Baptists theirs, the Episcopal Methodists theirs, the Lutherans theirs, and so forth. The Presby- terians, strictly speaking, have no Sunday-school society of their own, but by their Publication Board they publish books for Sunday-school libraries. Indeed, all the denominational Sunday-school societies pub- lish books for their own schools, and in these they set forth and de- fend the peculiar views they hold respectively, on points of doctrine or discipline, to such an extent as they deem proper. This is not unnatural, for each school is mainly attended by the children of pa- rents attached to churches of the same denomination with that of the society that supports the school. Not that all the publications of a denominational Sunday-school society are of what may be termed a sectarian character. This is by no means the case, and, besides, these more limited societies buy from the American Sunday-school Union whatever books upon its list they may think proper to add to their own. It is impossible to calculate the extent to which the Sunday-school libraries, composed as they are of most interesting books on almost all subjects of a moral and religious character, are fostering a taste for reading among the rising youth, and the adult population, also, of the country. The scholars receive from them one or two volumes each, according to the size, every Sabbath, to read in the course of the week, and return on the Sabbath following, and these volumes thus pass into the hands of older brothers and sisters, parents, and other members of the household. The proceeds of the sales of books by the American Sunday-school Union amounted last year (1855) to $184,227. If we add to this the value of those sold by the denomi- national Sunday-school societies, we shall find it rise to at least 8350,000. And if we further add the cost of Sunday-school books * The receipts of the society in 1855, from donations and sales, were $241,664, and its expenditure $251,699. CHAP. XXV.] SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 311 purchased from the booksellers, we shall have a total far exceeding the last amount, as the value of books bought in one year for the use of Sunday-schools, and mainly for the libraries attached to them. Besides the series of eight hundred and thirteen volumes published by the American Sunday-school Union, a far greater number have been published by the denominational societies.* Neither pains nor money have been spared in the preparation, improvement, and pub- lication of these volumes, and in this respect, I am inclined to think that the American Sunday-school Union has outstripped every similar institution in other countries. Much, notwithstanding, remains to be done in order to render these Sunday-school books all that they ought to be. It is no easy task to write books for children well. Much talent has been bestowed upon this work of late years in the United States, and such has been the demand for children's books, created by the Sunday-schools, that the booksellers have found it for their advantage to publish such books for those schools. Many of these are good, but many, too, are worthless enough, as may readily be supposed where there is no intelligent committee rigorously to examine them previous to publication, and to determine what should go forth to the public and what should not. Sunday-schools are held in various places : sometimes in churches, or in the lecture-rooms attached to many of our large churches, or in rooms fitted up expressly for the purpose in the basement story of many of them ; sometimes in the school-houses, which are very nume- rous ; and, especially in the new settlements, in private houses. In summer they sometimes meet in barns; and I once superintended a Sunday-school which met for many months in a large kitchen at- tached to a farm-house in the State of New Jersey. The hours of meeting are very various. In the cities and large towns they commonly meet twice in the day ; at eight or nine o'clock in the morning, according to the season, and at two o'clock in the afternoon, for about an hour and a half each time. In the villages and country churches they usually meet for two hours, once a day, immediately before, or immediately after, the public services. In some cases I have known a pastor, with a parish extending many miles in all directions from the church, meet, during an hour before his public service, with nearly all the adult part of his flock in a Bible- class, and go over with them the portion of Scripture given out to * The series published by the Methodist "Book Concern" nearly equals that of the American Sunday-school Union ; the American Baptist Publication and Sunday-school Society has issued a large number ; so has the Massachusetts Sunday-school Society ; while the publications of the Protestant Episcopal, the Protestant Methodist, the Lu- theran, the Free-Will Baptist, and several local societies, are considerable. 312 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. his Sunday-schools for that day ; and then, instead of having service in the afternoon, he would in the latter part of the day visit one or other, in their order, of the ten or twelve schools held by his people in as many different neighborhoods. On these occasions he would address, not only the children and teachers, but also the parents and others who crowded to hear him. And how could a pastor instruct his people more effectually ?* A word or two may not be amiss on the manner of conducting our Sunday-schools. Each is under a superintendent — a gentleman where there are scholars of both sexes, but usually a lady where there are only girls. The scholars are divided into classes, according to their age and capacity. All the reading classes learn the same part of Scripture, going through a certain book in order. Suppose, for in- stance, the fifteenth chapter of Luke, from the eleventh verse to the end. It is the parable of the prodigal son. As soon as the school is opened the scholars take their places. The service begins with prayer by the superintendent or some other person. Each class — composed usually of six or eight persons — has its teacher, to whom the scholars repeat the lesson in the Scriptures for the day. When that is done the teacher takes the book of Bible Questions (a copy of which each scholar should have), and asks the questions in it relating to the pas- sage which the class, in common with the others, have learned. The answers to these questions the pupils must find out through their own efforts, or with help from their parents, during the week. The teacher asks, also, such other questions as he may think useful, and calculated to lead to a more perfect understanding of the subject. An hour, perhaps, is spent in this exercise. After that the scholars return the books which they had received from the librarian on the preceding Sabbath, and obtain others. Then the superintendent, or pastor, if he be present, addresses a few words to the whole school on the passage which they have learned, and endeavors to impress upon their minds the importance of the truths which it teaches. A hymn is sung, and a prayer offered up, and the school closes. If there be any children that can not read, they are arrranged in classes by themselves, and taught that important acquirement. In many of the schools there is a considerable number of such ; and sometimes persons beyond the years of childhood, who have had no opportunities of learning to read before, make the attainment in the course of a few months at a Sunday-school. In all the free States, and in such of the slaveholding ones as per- mit the slaves to be publicly taught, there are Sunday-schools for the * In some of the large cities Sunday-schools are held at night, especially for the benefit of the colored people. CHAP. XIY.] SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 313 colored people.* In these schools thousands and tens of thousands of them have learned to read the sacred Scriptures, and have made much progress hi Divine knowledge. The superintendents of the Sunday-schools are sometimes elders and deacons of the churches ; sometimes they are pious lawyers, and other intelligent gentlemen ; and in the vicinity of our colleges and theological seminaries they are often students of religious character, who may be prosecuting their studies with a view to the ministry. The teachers are, for the most part, young people of both sexes be- longing to the churches and congregations. Wherever truly pious persons can be found willing to be thus employed, they are preferred ; but where this is not the case, seriously-disposed and moral persons, who desire to be engaged in this benevolent work, are taken, and al- most invariably it happens that, in teaching others, they themselves become instructed out of the " law of God." It is to be regretted that most of the ladies, after they become wives and mothers, have too many domestic cares and duties to allow them to continue as teachers in the Sabbath-school. Some, however, there are who per- severe in this blessed employment, their zeal triumphing over every obstacle. As to gentlemen, many more of them may continue in the work after they have become heads of families. Hence we often find men of age and experience among Sunday-school teachers, encouraging and aiding them in their toils. And it is not uncommon to find some of those who hold the very highest offices in the State or General Government, spending a portion of their Sabbaths in giving instruc- tion to a class of young persons hi a Sunday-school. I have known several governors and their wives, members of Congress, and of the Legislatures of the States, judges, eminent lawyers, mayors of cities, etc., who were, and who are at the present time^ Sabbath-school teachers, and who have felt it no degradation to be thus employed. The present distinguished President of Rutgers College, in !New Jersey, was the superintendent of a Sunday-school, even when he held the office of attorney-general of his native State, and afterward, when he was a senator in the Congress of the United States ; he is a Sabbath-school teacher still, and delights to associate himself with the youngest teachers engaged in that heavenly employment. * There are Sunday-schools held by some pious slaveholders in Georgia, South Carolina, and perhaps some other States, in which portions of Scripture are often re- peated to the assembled slaves, and remarked upon until they have committed much of them to memory. Prayer and singing are added to these exercises. Such schools no laws can well hinder, any more than they can the preaching of the Gospel to the slaves. These schools have only been commenced within a few years, and are spreading in several places. 314 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. The Hon. Benjamin F. Butler was a Sabbath-school teacher, even while holding the prominent office of attorney-general of the United States. The late Chief Justice Marshall, and the late Judge "Washington, both of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the former of whom, it is admitted, was the most distinguished jurist the country has ever produced, were warm friends and patrons of Sunday-schools. Both were, in their day, vice-presidents of the American Sunday-school Union. Within five years of his death, I saw Chief Justice Marshall walk through the city of Richmond, in Virginia, where he resided, at the head of the Sunday-schools on the occasion of a celebration. And, finally, the late President Harrison, who in his youth had been a rough and far-from-religious soldier, but toward the close of his life became interested in the things that con- cerned his everlasting peace, taught for several years a class of young persons in an humble Sunday-school on the banks of the Ohio ; and the Sabbath before he left his home for Washington, there to become his country's Chief Magistrate — and, alas ! within a month thereafter to die — he met, as usual, his Bible-class. I have dwelt the longer on this subject because of its great im- portance. A Sabbath-school is so simple an enterprise that it may be begun wherever two or three persons are found disposed to under- take it. I have known even a single individual keep one himself, and spend several hours every Sabbath in instructing some dozen or twenty poor youth, who came around him to learn to read and un- derstand the Word of God. I have known a lady who, as her health did not permit her to go to a Sunday-school, received a class of young ladies in her parlor every Sabbath for years. Why, then, should not Sabbath-schools be established in every city, town, hamlet, and neigh- borhood, where there are only two or three persons with hearts to love the kingdom of God, and hands to promote it ? Were such a spirit to prevail in all lands professedly Christian, how soon would they show a very different aspect from the present ? It is impossible to state with accuracy the present number of Sun- day-schools in the United States. They were reckoned, in 1835, at sixteen thousand ; the teachers at one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty thousand ; and the scholars, comprising, it was supposed, one hundred thousand adults, at one million ! These numbers must be far greater now. It is probable that there are two million or two million five hundred thousand pupils in the Sunday- schools in the United States at present. Who can estimate the amount of good resulting from two millions of minds being brought into contact every Sabbath with the Word of Him who hath said that it " shall not return unto Him void ?" Thousands and tens CHAP. XV.] BIBLE-CLASSES. 315 of thousands, both teachers and scholars, are known to have be- come enlightened and saved, by means of the lessons given and received at Sunday-schools. But a whole volume would not suffice to unfold all the benefits conferred by this blessed institution, to which may be emphatically applied the words of the celebrated Adam Smith, in speaking of popular education in general, that it is " the cheap defence of nations." CHAPTER XV. BIBLE-CLASSES. Akin to Sunday-schools are Bible-classes. Indeed, the former, conducted as at present in America, are little more than an assem- blage of the latter. What are commonly called Bible-classes are composed of a com- paratively large number of persons, all taught by the pastor of the church, or some other individual whom he engages to act for him. To preside over a Bible-class of twenty to some hundreds of per- sons, the greater number, if not all, of whom are adults, and some of them, perhaps, remarkably intelligent and well-informed, requires far higher qualifications than simply to teach a small class in a Sun- day-school. These Bible-classes are generally conducted by the pastors, and so highly are they valued as a means and occasion of good, that few settled ministers have not one or more among their flocks. In some cases, one for each sex is held once in the week — that for gentlemen in the evening, that for ladies during the day. They meet, according to circumstances, in the church, lecture-room, vestry-room, school- room, or in some private house. The pastor sometimes devotes his Sabbath nights to a Biblical service, for the benefit of all who can attend ; a practice feasible only where the population is compact, and the flock within an easy distance of the place of meeting. In country churches, these classes often hold their meetings in church before the regular service commences, or in the interval between the morning and afternoon services. This is convenient, but is apt to produce fatigue. I have known pastors in country churches who had no fewer than five hundred persons in one Bible-class, if I can call it so, which met in the afternoon instead of the regular service ; and others, whose Bible-classes included the whole adult part of their flocks, and met 316 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. previous to the forenoon service, or in the interval between that and the afternoon service. In conducting these classes, the common method is to go through some particular book of the sacred volume in course, and some sys- tem of Bible questions is generally pursued. Upon this plan, all who have time and inclination for the task, prepare themselves, by reading and study, for answering the questions to be found in the book of questions that is used.* But it is not the practice of any well- informed pastor to confine himself to the questions contained in the book. These he employs as he sees fit ; by the questions he puts he assists in sustaining the attention of the people ; and he takes occa- sion to give a great amount of scriptural instruction. To conduct a Bible-class in a manner at once interesting and profit- able requires no little preparation ; and, when well done, few methods of instruction are more edifying, either to the people or to the minis- ter himself. The Divine blessing has rested most remarkably upon it. ISTor could we expect that it should be otherwise. What more likely to secure the Divine benediction than to bring the mind to the study of that which God himself hath spoken ? " The entrance of Thy words giveth light ; it giveth understanding to the simple." " Sanctify them by Thy truth ; Thy word is truth." CHAPTER XVI. MATERNAL SOCIETIES. I must not omit, among the means which there is reason to believe that God has greatly blessed to the, advancing of His kingdom in the United States, the Maternal Societies — institutions that have not been of very many years' standing among us, but which have existed long enough to produce much good. These societies are composed of pious mothers, who meet in par- ties, not inconveniently numerous, once in the week, fortnight, or month, for the purpose of conversing on the subject of bringing up their children for the Lord, listening to the reading of valuable re- marks and hints on the best means of discharging this great duty, * Several excellent clergymen of the United States have written systems of Bible Question, among whom may be mentioned the Rev. Drs. M'Dowell, Tyng, Barnes, Jacobus, Professor Holdich, and the Rev. Messrs. Covel, J. Lonking, and Newcomb. The Bible Questions published by the American Sunday-school Union are good, as are, also, several of these printed by the denominational Sunday-school societies. CHAP. XVI.] MATERNAL SOCIETIES. 317 and mingling their prayers before the throne of grace in behalf of themselves and their beloved offspring. These little meetings prove very precious seasons to many an anxious, perplexed, and disheartened mother, by communicating grace, and strength, and support, and light, for enabling her to fulfill her fearfully responsible part. God has greatly blessed them. For the benefit of mothers, some excellent periodicals have been published in the United States during several years past. Among these let me mention " The Mother's Magazine," issued in New York, and re-published in London. It appears once a month, is neatly printed, and costs only a dollar a year. It has a very extensive circulation, and furnishes much admirable matter for read- ing at the Maternal Societies' meetings, as well as in the family circle. Another valuable periodical is published at Utica, in the central part of the State of ISTew York, and is read in several thousands of fam- ilies. It is conducted by a talented lady of the Baptist Church. A similar journal has been commenced at Boston ; while all our religious newspapers contain many articles on the same subject. . On the other hand, several publications have for a time appeared for the benefit of fathers and of entire families. One such was pub- lished in the city of New York, and was entitled " The Christian Family Magazine, or Parents' and Children's Journal." It is said to have had an extensive circulation. Other journals of like character, and having the same object, have been published in other parts of the country. Moreover, almost all the religious newspapers, now very numerous, and some one or more of which are read in almost every Christian family, contain much that bears upon the religious educa- tion of children, and the whole economy of a Christian household. The subject is one of vast moment. The world has never yet seen the full results of the Christian education of children. Parents have much to learn in this respect, and need all the helps and appliances possible to enable them rightly to discharge their important duties. Were all fathers and mothers in a nation such as they ought to be, how mighty would be the influence of the Gospel upon it ! Were the fathers and mothers in the Church of Christ such as they ought to be, how different would it soon become from what we see it now ! A praying, devoted, holy mother ! What an interesting being ! Such was the mother of Samuel, of Timothy, and of thousands besides, who have been eminently useful in the world. I have known Christian fathers who met once a week for years to pray together for their children, and their meetings have been emi- nently useful and happy. I have seen another kind of meeting which I wish were more common — a quarterly prayer-meeting specially for parents and children. It was affecting to see parents, the unconverted 318 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. as well as the converted, bringing with them their children, dear to them as life itself, into the sanctuary on such occasions, that they might share in the earnestly-sought blessing. CHAPTER XVII. EDUCATION SOCIETIES. One of the most interesting developments of the voluntary prin- ciple in promoting religion in the United States, is seen in the Educa- tion Societies : institutions of comparatively recent date, and having for their object the granting of assistance to pious youths of promis- ing talents, but small means, in preparing for the ministry. One of the first of these was the American Education Society, formed at Boston in 1816. Hence it has been in existence for forty years, and rarely has any society been the instrument of more good.* In all denominations of evangelical Christians in the United States, there are to be found among those classes of society whose means are too limited to give their sons a college education, young men of talent, to whom God has been pleased to impart the knowledge of His grace, and in whose hearts he implants a strong desire to preach the Gospel. Now, before the Education Societies appeared upon the field, such youths used to find it very difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to obtain such an education as was required by the rules of the church in whose ministry they wished to place themselves. Some, indeed, might succeed by their own exertions ; by dint of in- dustry and economy they might lay up enough to enable them to commence a course of study at college. By interrupting their college studies occasionally, in order to recruit their finances by teaching a school, they might, after long delays, be able to complete the requisite course at last ; and then, by similar efforts, carry themselves through the required theological course at a seminary. Others, more fortunate, might be so far assisted by a church or some wealthy and benevolent * This Society published from the year 1827 to 1843 a valuable periodical, entitled " The American Quarterly Register." It was originated by the late Rev. Dr. Cor- nelius and the late Rev. B. B. Edwards, the Secretaries of the Society at the first- named epoch, and continued by the latter gentleman to 1843, aided for several years by the Rev. Dr. Cogswell, successor of Dr. Cornelius ; and afterward by the Rev. Mr. Riddel, who took the place of Dr. Cogswell. CHAP. XVH.] EDUCATION SOCIETIES. 319 patron or friend.* But the greater number, in despair of success, were likely to renounce all expectation of being able to preach the Gospel, and to resign themselves to the necessity of spending their lives in the ordinary pursuits of business, not in making known the " unsearchable riches" of Christ to their fellow-men. These remarks, it will be perceived, apply to such youths as con- scientiously cleave to those churches which require a college educa- tion, as preliminary to a theological one, in all aspirants to the sacred ministry. This is the rule, except in very extraordinary cases, with the whole of the Presbyterian churches, excepting the " Cumberland Presbyterians ;" with the Episcopalians, and with the Congregational- ists. The Baptists and the Methodists, as we have seen, are less strict, and are satisfied with a common English education, and a com- petent knowledge of theology. But even among these, great and laudable efforts are now put forth in order to give a higher education to as many of their candidates for the ministry as possible ; and it is on this account, as well as for more general objects, that they have established so many colleges within the last few years. God is grant- ing His rich blessing to their efforts in this great cause ; of this every year furnishes cheering evidence. To meet the demands of the churches for a vastly-augmented num- ber of ministers of the Gospel, and to help those young men who desire to respond to this demand, the American Education Society was formed on the broad basis of rendering its aid to all pious young men, of suitable talents, who appear to be called to preach Christ, and who belong to any of the evangelical denominations. The only conditions imposed upon the recipients of its bounty are an engagement, 1. To go through a full course of collegiate and theological education in some approved college or seminary ; and 2. To refund the sums ad- vanced to aid them, should the providence of God, in after life, give them the means of doing so. Such are, in few words, its principles. A rigid supervision is main- tained over those who accept its patronage. And setting out in its admirable career with a few young men, it has gone on, under the * Several of the colleges possess funds bequeathed to them for the express purpose of educating poor and pious young men for the ministry. The Rev. Dr. Green, in his historical notices of the College of New Jersey, relates that, nearly three quarters of a century since, a pious young man of the name of Leslie was educated at that institution for the ministry of the Gospel ; but, fearing to assume the responsibility of that office, he devoted himself to teaching a school of a high order, in which em- ployment he was eminently successful. At his death he bequeathed to the College the sum of $15,000, the interest of which was to be devoted to the education of poor young men for the ministry. This fund has already educated a large number of excellent ministers. 320 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. favor of God, diffusing its blessings far and wide. It has rendered aid to young men belonging to eight different Evangelical Churches. At one period, some twenty years ago, the number of persons whom it was aiding exceeded eleven hundred ! During the year ending May 1st, 1855, the number aided was six hundred and ten. These were pursuing their education at institutions in different parts of the country ; some in academies and grammar-schools, some in colleges, and the rest in theological schools. And the whole number of those who had been aided, up to that time, was three thousand four hun- dred and eighty-two. The receipts for that year were $33,789, and the expenditures $29,290. The amount refunded that year by bene- ficiaries who had completed their course of education was $2,157. The earnings of the young men under the patronage of the society, chiefly from teaching schools during their vacations, have some years amounted to no less a sum than $20,000.* The sums granted by this society to those who are admitted to its benefits vary from $48 to $75 a year, the latter sum being rarely ex- ceeded. Its funds have been liberally augmented by bequests from devoted Christian friends who loved it during life, and remembered it in death. Its first president gave it $1,000 during his life-time, and left it a legacy of $5,000. Mr. Burr, whom we have already had oc- casion to speak of, also left it a handsome legacy. The late Dr. Porter, for many years a distinguished professor in the Theological Seminary at Andover, though far from being a man of much wealth, bequeathed to it $15,000. Many of its friends have given proof of large and en- lightened views by the patronage they have given it. It has assisted a great number of most valuable ministers of the Gospel in the course of their education, and to these we have to add no fewer than one hun- dred of the missionaries who have been supported in foreign lands by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, one of the largest and oldest foreign missionary societies in the United States. Of late years, however, the number of young men assisted by this society has greatly diminished : partly owing to the very difficult times through which the country has passed ; partly because of higher requirements in the department of preliminary studies ; and partly from the fact that most of the evangelical communions have now education societies of their own. Thus the " Old School" Presbyterians have a Board of Education under the direction of their General Assembly, which prosecutes its work most wisely and efficiently. It had three hundred and sixty-four beneficiaries during the year ending 1st May, 1855. Its receipts for that year amounted to $46, 201. f * This society has permanent funds to the amount of $73,000. f The American churches have long been impressed with the importance of having CHAP. XVII.] EDUCATION SOCIETIES. 321 A number of devoted clergymen and laymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church, having met at Georgetown, in the District of Co- lumbia, for the purpose of laying the foundation-stone of an Episcopal church, were providentially led to talk of the importance of a plan for aiding pious but indigent youths, of suitable talents, in pre- paring for the ministry. The result was the formation, in 1818, of the Protestant Episcopal Education Society. It has proved a great blessing to the Church and to the world. It may be said to have originated the Episcopal Theological School near Alexandria, in the District of Columbia ; and nearly a tenth part of the clergy of the church to which it belongs have been more or less assisted by it. A sixth part of the present clergy in Ohio, an eighth of those in Penn- sylvania, a fifth of those in Maryland, and a large proportion of those in Virginia, have been aided from its funds ; and it is now assisting a seventh of all the students in the several theological schools of that Church in the United States.* I do not know the precise number of its present beneficiaries, but believe it exceeds one hundred. There are also several Education Societies among the Baptists, which have aided a large number of young men.f That of the Re- formed Dutch Church supported fifty last year. A Methodist Edu- cation Society has also been formed at Boston. These statements will give the reader some idea of our Education Societies. Though of recent origin, they are exercising an immense influence in training up a more thoroughly-educated ministry. In the absence of precise information, the young men now receiving as- sistance from them may be moderately estimated at two thousand in all, and of these at least three hundred and fifty annually finish their studies, and enter on the work of preaching the Gospel. a competent and sufficiently numerous ministry. The friends of the American Edu- cation Society observe the last Thursday of February yearly as a day of special prayer for colleges, academies, and other institutions of learning, that God may be pleased to pour out His Spirit upon them, bring many of the students to a saving knowledge of His Gospel, and incline their hearts to preach it. The General Assembly of the " Old School" Presbyterian Church recommended last year, to all the churches under their care, to observe the same day as a day of special prayer to the Lord of the har- vest, " that He would send more laborers into His harvest." They recommended the subject also to the daily intercessions of Christians, in view of the vast demand for ministers of the Gospel. * Dr. Hawks's "History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia," p. 261. f In particular, "The Northern Baptist Education Society," and "The Baptist Education Society of New York." The former of these was instituted in 1814, and has the seat of its operations in Boston. It was mainly owing to its efforts that the Baptist Theological Seminary at Newton was founded in 1827. The latter society was founded in 1817, and has maintained many students at the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, founded in 1820. 21 322 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [ROOK IV. CHAPTER XVIII. THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. I have spoken of the various Literary Institutions, in their several gradations, through which our youth may pass in preparing for the professional course with which they usually close their studies. I have noticed also the Education Societies for assisting poor but pious young men, of suitable capacity, in their preparations for the minis- try. And I now come to speak of the theological schools, in which a very large number of our candidates for the ministry complete their studies for the sacred office. Formerly the young men who sought to enter the ministry among the denominations which require, in those who occupy their pulpits, a collegiate and theological education, were compelled to study theol- ogy, more or less immediately under some individual pastor, and it was common for six or eight of them to place themselves under this, or that other, distinguished divine. They often resided in the house of their spiritual teacher ; sometimes they boarded in families near his house ; they availed themselves of his library, and were directed by him in their studies. But this was obviously a very imperfect method. Few pastors could afford time to do their pupils justice ; fewer still possessed such a range of learning as to fit them for conducting others to the acqui- sitions, in various branches of knowledge, required in order to a com- petent preparation for the ministry. To the late Rev. Dr. John M. Mason, of New York, one of the most e min ent divines that America has ever produced, we owe the first attempt to establish any thing that could be called a theological school. He collected in Europe an extensive and valuable* theolog- ical library, and commenced a course of instruction in various branches of theological study about the beginning of the present cen- tury. For years he carried it on almost single-handed, and many young men heard at his feet the masterly instructions that he was so capable of giving them. The theological seminary at Andover was founded in 1808, and being the first, on a complete plan, founded in the United States, and one of the most celebrated, I shall notice it more amply than the rest. The college buildings are beautifully situated on elevated ground near the village of Andover, about twenty miles to the north of CHAP. XVIII.] THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 323 Boston. They consist of two large edifices for the residence of the students, and a central building, in which are the chapel, the library, lecture-rooms, etc. At a due distance behind these stand the refec- tory and steward's house. The grounds in front are tastefully laid out, and their walks and avenues adorned with various sorts of forest trees. Facing the seminary buildings, and forming one side of a street which borders the grounds in front, stands a row of houses where most of the professors reside. The grounds are very ample, the situation salubrious, and the buildings remarkably convenient. This seminary forms a branch, as we have elsewhere stated, of Phillips' Academy, which stands in the immediate vicinity, though the two institutions are no further connected than by being both under the same board of trustees. The history of the Andover Seminary may be given in a few words. It originated in a growing conviction of the need for a higher standard of qualification in the clergy, and in the obvious ne- cessity of having something to take the place of the University of Harvard, on its defection from the faith. Further, the good provi- dence of God was manifested in the undertaking, by His giving both the necessary means and the heart to four or five enterprising mer- chants to lay the foundation. One of these was the aged Samuel Abbot, of Andover, who had already executed a will bequeathing funds to a large amount for the support of professors and indigent students of theology in Harvard University. But having lived to witness the new movements there, and to be convinced of the danger of trusting a legacy to an institu- tion which, in his view, had perverted the funds left by Mr. Hollis* for the support of an orthodox professorship of divinity, he was led to unite with Mrs. Phillips, widow of the late Hon. Samuel Phillips, one of the founders of Phillips' Academy, and her son, in a plan for connecting with that academy the erection of buildings, and the ap- propriation of certain funds for the support of a theological professor, and of indigent students of theology. Meanwhile, a similar plan for another seminary was formed by the late Rev. Samuel Spring, D.D., of Newburyport, and the Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D., of West Newbury, afterward and for many years a professor in the Seminary at Andover, and funds were pledged for its endowment by Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Brown, two parishioners of Dr. Spring, and by Mr. Norris, of Salem — all at the * Thomas Hollis, Esq., a highly-esteemed Christian merchant, was bora in En- gland in 1659, and died in 1731. He founded the professorships of theology and mathematics in Harvard University, and presented to it a philosophical apparatus and many books. 324 THE VOLTJNTAEY PEINCIPLE IN AMEEICA. [BOOK IV. solicitation of Dr. Spring, who was the author of this scheme. Dr. Woods, in whose parish the institution was to be placed, was to he professor, and a colleague was to be appointed to assist him in his pastoral duties. Thus far had the parties proceeded, not only without concert, but, although living within the compass of twenty miles, and several of them having friendly intercourse with each other, without being cognizant of one another's plans. This seems to indicate the inter- vention of a kind omniscient Providence, and may have been a link in the chain of causes which cordially united, in the end, the two parties into which the orthodox Congregationalists of New England were then divided, and to the adoption of a better creed for the sem- inary than it might otherwise have had. These parties were, on the one hand, the so-called moderate Cal- vinists, moderate both in action and speculation, and, on the other hand, the Hopkinsian, the keen-sighted, active, fervid, pungent, and perhaps rather ultra men of their time. Now, to have continued and widened the separation of these parties by means of contigu- ous and rival seminaries, would have been no less disastrous than their union was desirable, both for the nearer approximation of both to exact truth, and for its common defence against the advance of Unitarianism ; and nothing could well have been imagined more likely to produce prompt and effectual union, than their being led to co- operate in establishing a common seminary. But it seems very doubtful how far they would ever have thus combined their efforts, had not certain members of each been led, in the providence of God, by ways that they knew not, and for a high end which they never contemplated, each to advance thus far in their projects. The evil sure to result from the forming of two such seminaries was obvious ; the benefits to be derived from their being united in one were appre- ciated, at least to a certain extent ; yet this union of the two institu- tions, and the adjustment of principles common to both, cost nearly two years of anxious and incessant labor, during which the negotia- tions were more than once well-nigh broken off, and at one time quite abandoned. " No one," says the Rev. Dr. Woods, " who did not himself act a leading part in these interesting transactions, can ever have an adequate conception of the unnumbered difficulties which the principal agents had to encounter, or of the amount of solicitude, and of effort, which fell to their lot, or of the variety of dangers to which the great object was from time to time exposed."* The greatest difficulty in the way of the union was the adjustment * Manuscript History of the Theological Seminary at Andover, from which much of the information here given was derived. CHAP. XVIII.] THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 325 of a common creed, to be subscribed by the professors of the semi- nary. The founders of Phillips's Academy had already adopted the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism. To this Dr. Spring, with the advice and support of his friend, the Rev. Dr. Emmons, strenuously objected, because some parts of it were widely understood to imply what he did not believe, and, partly, because he thought that more definite and extended statements on several points of doc- trine, were desirable. He and his friends, also, wished for additional barriers against heresy, and particularly for a Board of Visitors, pro- fessing the same creed, and with ample powers for the correction of errors. These difficulties were adjusted at last by the institution of such a board, and by the adoption of a new creed, drawn up by a committee from both parties, and couched very much in the language of the catechism, but with some omissions and some additions. And this creed is to be solemnly repeated and subscribed in the presence of the trustees of the academy, by every professor and every visitor, on his induction into office ; and the same is to be repeated, in like manner, by each of them, once every five years, during his continu- ance in office. In this adjustment the Hopkinsians gained their main object, but, at the same time, sacrificed some favorite points which they would gladly have introduced into a seminary of a more sectarian character. Some, indeed, a few of whom are still to be found, persisted in their objections to the seminary on. this account ; but nearly the whole orthodox community of New England have cordially acquiesced in it, so that the arrangement has most happily, though silently, become a virtual bond of union among them. Foreign missions, and other great benevolent enterprises to which the seminary soon gave birth, hastened and confirmed this coalescence by bringing the two parties more frequently to pray, sympathize, and act together. These results are matters of devout astonishment to many a beholder of what God has wrought amid the movements of our times. The opposition to orthodoxy, in various forms, was considerable, but of little avail in retarding its progress. Fears were at one time entertained lest a majority of the trustees of Phillips's Academy, under whose guardianship the seminary is placed, should ultimately be found men of lax opinions ; but, as most of the suspected parties died or resigned their seats within a few years, those fears gradually subsided on the vacancies being filled up by others who were unques- tionably sound in the faith.* Anxiety on this head led to greater * It must be kept in mind that Phillips's Academy was founded in 1TT8, when Uni- tarianism had not yet developed itself in the United States, though the errors which led to it were to he found in Boston and its neighborhood. When it did develop 326 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. solicitude relative to the creation of a Board of Visitors, and the quinquennial renewal of subscription by the professors and visitors, though this could not be extended to the trustees, no provision to that effect having been made at the institution of that board. With all these guards, and looking to the present character of the boards, the friends of the institution consider that there is none in the country more completely guarded against perversion. At the same time, the most perfect freedom of inquiry is allowed, and even en- couraged among the students, in order that their faith may rest on conviction, not on human authority or constraint. No subscription to a creed is required of them, nor can any one who gives to the Professors satisfactory evidence of Christian character be debarred from entering the seminary, or dismissed from it on the ground of his belief. This condition was required by the State Legislature on their enlarging the powers of the trustees, so as to enable them to hold the additional funds required for the establishment of the sem- inary. And although its expediency has by some been doubted, it seems as yet to have had no bad consequences.. It has been thought unreasonable to require a minute profession of faith from students who go to the institution for the very purpose of learning what is truth, as well as how to teach it. The seminary was opened in the autumn of 1808. For several years there were only three Professors, but now there are five, one of whom acts as president of the institution. Each member of the faculty has, in addition to his salary, the use of a family dwelling- house, and is debarred from receiving any compensation for preach- ing abroad. The departments of the Professors are, Sacred Literature, including the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, chiefly during the first year ; Christian Theology, chiefly during the second year ; and Sacred Rhetoric, Ecclesiastical History, and Pastoral Theology during the third year. The instruction is given partly by written lectures and partly by the use of text-books, which are recited in substance by the students, and accompanied with remarks by the Professors. The students are not allowed to preach, nor are they required to write sermons till their senior or last year. Each may then be called on to preach in the chapel, and is also allowed to preach abroad for six Sabbaths in his last term, within certain limits as to distance, so as to avoid being absent from any of the lectures. The remainder of the preaching in the chapel is chiefly performed by the Professors in rotation. itself, it was not strange that the Board of Phillips's Academy should be infected •with it. CHAP. XVIII.] THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 327 Most of the students are graduates of colleges, and all are admitted on examination in regard to their attainments, evidence of piety, etc. During the first year they attend two lectures a day ; afterward, usually but one. Great attention is required of the Professors in the cultivation of piety among the students, which has ever been regarded by them, as well as by the founders and guardians, a grand object of the insti- tution. For this purpose they meet the students in a devotional exercise every Wednesday evening. The students also hold many conferences and prayer-meetings by themselves. Indigent students, of whom there are many, receive half the price of their board in commons gratuitously. No charge is in any case made for tuition, and but a small one for the use of the library, and for rooms and furniture. As the design of the seminary is to furnish an able as well as a pious ministry, and as its privileges are, to a great extent, gratuitous, each student is required, at his matriculation, to promise to complete a regular three years' course of study, " unless prevented by some un- foreseen and unavoidable necessity," which is to be judged of by the faculty. This is a much longer course than had commonly been pur- sued under the guidance of private pastors, and it has been found very difficult thus far to elevate the views of the community, and fully to reconcile the feelings of the students, to this requisition. In- deed, the rule itself was not made for a considerable number of years after the first. As this is the oldest theological seminary in the country, it has had to make its own way, unaided by previous experience; and very many are the changes, mostly for the better, it is believed, which have been made from time to time in its arrangements. At first, and for some years, there were not many students ; but they gradually increased from about thirty to about one hundred and fifty ; for the last few years the number has been about one hundred. The diminution has been occasioned by the multiplication of kindred seminaries since its reaching that number. The whole that have been admitted from the first amount to nearly two thousand, though, partly from deaths, partly from many having failed to complete their course, or gone to other institutions, not more than one thousand one hundred or one thousand two hundred of these have graduated. More than one hundred and fifty have devoted themselves to foreign, and many more to domestic missions. The American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions were for the first ten years indebted to this seminary for all their missionaries but one ; and many of its students have lived to become presidents and professors of colleges 328 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. and theological schools, and secretaries and agents of benevolent so- cieties. It possesses peculiar advantages for the training of missionaries. The " Society of Inquiry on Missions," of which almost all the stu- dents are members, is nearly coeval with it. It has a valuable library and museum, and exerts a very salutary influence on the spirit and piety of the institution. The doctrine is taught at this, as at most of the other theological seminaries in the United States, that every pastor should be a missionary at heart, and that every student should be willing to go whithersoever God may call him. There are great facilities at Andover for having early intelligence from the American missionaries, by constant correspondence, the visits of returned mem- bers, and intercourse with the secretaries and other officers of the American Board. The " Porter Rhetorical Society," so named from its founder, the late Rev. Dr. Porter, first president of the seminary, has an excel- lent library, and exercises much influence. The library of the seminary itself is thought to be one of the best in the country. It was selected for the purpose, contains more than fifteen thousand volumes, and has a fund to provide for its constant augmentation. Some of the large number of German books con- tained in it being of a neological character, it was at one time feared by many that these might do mischief; but such appre- hensions have now yielded, in the minds of those who felt them, to the consideration of the importance of having such books in an institution where men are to be trained to face an enemy, not to flee from him. The institution is under strict discipline. Monitors' bills are kept ; all are required to attend to their studies and to be present at the lec- tures of the Professors, at the morning and evening chapel prayers, and at Divine service on the Sabbath. The total sums that have been given for the erection of the semi- nary buildings, the endowing of professorships, the support of indi- gent students, the library, etc., can not be precisely ascertained, but they probably exceed $400,000. Mr. Bartlett, the most munificent of the donors, is supposed to have given $100,000, besides a legacy of $50,000. He is said never to have told any one how much some of the buildings that were erected at his instance cost him. Mr. Abbot gave about $120,000. Mr. Brown and Mr. Norris also gave large sums. No general solicitation has ever been made in behalf of the institution, though it has received from individuals many benefac- tions of amounts from $500 to $5,000. -Connected with the seminary is a printing establishment, known as CHAP. XVIII.] THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 329 the Codman press, from having a fount of Oriental types presented to it by the late Rev. Dr. Codman, of Dorchester. Few institutions have ever been more blessed than the Andover Theological Seminary. It has been intimately associated with the origin and progress of foreign missions, and has had much influence in originating the Bible, Colonization, Tract, and Temperance Societies, through the exertions of the lamented Mills* and his coadjutors, who were students there. I have spoken of it more hi detail, not only be- cause of its being the oldest, the most richly endowed, and one of the most frequented of our theological schools, but also because it has been, in some sense, a model for the rest.f The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church established a theological seminary at Princeton, in New Jersey, in 1812, being the second of the kind in the United States. Although it is far from being richly endowed like that of Andover, and has often been greatly embarrassed for want of adequate pecuniary support, it has attained a great and well-merited celebrity by the distinguished tal- ents of its professors, as well as the excellent course of its studies. It has for several years had an annual attendance of one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five students, and has educated, hi all, more than sixteen hundred young men. The missionary spirit has prevailed in it to a gratifying degree, almost from its first establish- ment, and a large number of its alumni have gone to carry the Gos- pel to heathen lands. There is a flourishing " Society of Inquiry on Missions," with a valuable collection of books relating to that subject. The Princeton course comprises for the first year, Hebrew, the Exegesis of the Original Language of the New Testament, Sacred Geography, Sacred Chronology, Jewish Antiquities, and the Con- nection of Sacred and Profane History ; for the second year, Biblical Criticism, Church History, and Didactic Theology; for the third year, Polemic Theology, Church History, Church Government, Pas- toral Theology, the Composition and Delivery of Sermons. Instruction is given both by lectures and text-books, and the entire * The Rev. Samuel J. Mills, a very zealous and able young man, who took a lead- ing part in the formation of several of the great benevolent societies of America, and died on the coast of Africa when looking for a place where a colony of negroes might be founded. f The Faculty of the Theological Seminary at Andover consists at present of Pro- fessors Park, Stowe, Barrows, and Phelps. Several of its former professors were men of distinguished abilities. Drs. "Wood, Porter, Griffin, Stuart, Justin Edwards, Bela B. Edwards, Emerson, and Murdock, are widely known — most of them as authors as well as -professors. Abroad, Professor Stuart's reputation as a Biblical scholar is both extensive and well-founded. 330 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. course requires the study of many authors. The students must read essays of their own composition at least once every four weeks, and are expected, also, to deliver short addresses before the professors and their fellow-students at least once in the month. One evening in the week is devoted to the discussion of important theological questions. Every Sabbath forenoon a sermon is delivered in the chapel by one of the professors. In the afternoon, the students assemble for a " con- ference" on some subject in casuistical divinity, their professors pre- siding and conducting the discussion, and the services commencing and concluding with singing and prayer. Questions such as the fol- lowing are discussed : What constitutes a call to the ministry and the evidences of it ? What is proper preparation for the Lord's Supper ? What is repentance ? What is faith ? What is true preparation for death ? These, and many such subjects, are seriously and faithfully dis- cussed, and none of the other exercises, probably, are so instructive or so important to the students. It is there that the deep knowledge of their venerated and excellent professors in spiritual things most fully manifests itself. God has greatly blessed these heart-searching services to the students, and much is it to be wished that such exer- cises, and such fidelity on the part of the professors who conduct them, were to be found in every theological seminary and theological department of a university in the world. It is matter for devout thanksgiving that the excellent professors* appointed to the Princeton Seminary in its earliest years, were so long spared to labor for its good. Both they and their successors rank high among the American divines, and have had great weight in the Church to which they belonged. The General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church opened a theological institution at New York in 181V, which, though removed next year to New Haven, was soon after re-established at New York. It originated in the efforts of the late Dr. John Henry Hobart, long bishop of the diocese of New York, and has five pro- fessors, who are eminent and influential men, both in their own church and in the community at large. Its prosperity has been almost uninterrupted. The number of students is usually about seventy-five or eighty. In 1822, the dioceses of Virginia and Mary- * The Rev. Drs. Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller, both of whom have earned an extensive reputation by their public lectures as well as by their writings. The present professors are the Rev. Drs. Hodge, J. A. Alexander, Green, and McGill. Dr. Hodge is well known in Europe as well as America for his admirable Comment- ary on the Epistle to the Romans, and Dr. Alexander for his Commentaries on Isaiah and the Psalms. CHAP. XYIII.] THEOLOGICAL SEMTN ABIES. 331 land established another Episcopal seminary in Fairfax county, Vir- ginia, a few miles from the city of Alexandria. This seminary has four excellent professors, and from forty to fifty students. It has been a great blessing to the Episcopal Church and to the country. A Baptist Theological Seminary, established in 1825, at Newton, a town about six miles from Boston, has been a source of much good, and has sent forth a considerable number of excellent preach- ers. It has three able professors, and usually from thirty to forty students. The Baptists also established a Literary and Theological Institute at Hamilton, in the State of New York, in 1820. It has above one hundred and fifty students in all, and in the theological department upward of thirty, under four professors, who give instruc- tions in the other department also. A Lutheran Theological Seminary was established in 1826 at Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, very much through the exertions of the Rev. S. S. Schmucker, D.D., who is its professor of theology. It has three professors, with from thirty to forty students in all, and has proved a rich blessing to the Lutheran Church. Dr. Schmucker is well known in the Churches of the United States by his various writings, and his praiseworthy endeavors to bring about a union of feeling and action among the several branches of the Protestant de- nominations. The Reformed Dutch Church has an able theological faculty in its seminary at New Brunswick, in the State of New Jersey. The foundation dates from 1784, but it was for a long time unoccupied. It now has four professors and about forty students. Such are the utmost details that the limits of this work will permit. Let me simply add, that, since the opening of the Rev. Dr. Mason's theological school, about the beginning of the century, these institu- tions have wonderfully increased. Most of them, like those at Andover and Princeton, are quite distinct from any college or university; some, under the title of Theological Departments, are connected with literary institutions, but have their own professors, and, in re- ality, are very distinct. The following table, presenting a summary of the whole, will probably be found interesting. The Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) have a theological school at Allegheny city, and another at Philadelphia : the former has two professors and fourteen or fifteen students, the latter two professors and five or six students. The Moravians have a theo- logical school at Nazareth, Pennsylvania, one professor and a few students. The reader will remark that the number of students in the theo- logical seminaries contained in the following table is that for the 332 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA [BOOK IV. year 1855. The whole number of students in these seminaries may fairly be put down at thirteen hundred, at least. * «* Denominations. Congrega- tionalists. Old School Presbyte- * rians. New- School Presbyte- rians. Episcopa- i lians. j o' Name and locality of the institution. State in which it is situated. Baptists. - Ref. Dutch. Luther- ans. Ger. Ref. Assoc. Ch. Assoc. Eef. Ch. Method. fl. U 3. Andover Bangor Gilmanton Theological Department of Yale College . Theological Institute of Connecticut, at EastWindsor Theological Department of the Oberlin Institute Theological Seminary at Princeton .... Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny city, near Pittsburg Union Theological Seminary Southern Theological Seminary at Columbia . Indiana Theological Seminary at New Albany . Danville Theological Seminary at Danville Union Theological Seminary, in New York city Theological Seminary at Auburn .... Theological Department of Western Reserve College Lane Seminary at Cincinnati Southwestern Theological Seminary at Maryville . General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, New York .... Theological Seminary, Fairfax county Theological Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio, at Gambier Thomaston Theological Institute .... Theological Institution at Newton .... Hamilton Literary and Theological Institute, at Hamilton Virginia Baptist Seminary at Richmond . Furman Theological Seminary at High Hills . Literary and Theological Seminary at Eaton . Theological Department in Granville College . Howard Theological Institution at Marion Rochester Theological Seminary at Rochester . ). Western Baptist Theological Institution at Covington Theological Seminary, New Brunswick Hartwick Seminary .... Theological Seminary at Gettysburg Theological Seminary at Lexington . Theological Seminary at Columbus . Theological Seminary at Mercersburg Theological Seminary, Xenia . Theological Seminary at Newburg . Theological Seminary at Allegheny city Methodist Biblical Institute at Concord Massachusetts. Maine. New Hampshire. Connecticut. Connecticut. Ohio. New Jersey. >• Pennsylvania. Virginia. South Carolina. Indiana. Kentucky. New York. New York. Ohio. Ohio. Tennessee. > New York. Virginia. Ohio. 180S 5 1820 1835 1S22 1833 ;- Maine. Massachusetts. } New York. 1812 1828 3 1821 3 1832 4 1829 3 1852 2 1836 1821 1S32 1817 5 4 1828 4 1837 2 1825 4 c ■«* ^ C *^ o i. 2 3 ill «5CG -S 101 37 23 24 17 23 153 48 20 40 15 45 106 8 14 105 25 75 43 10 23 35 1820 2 20 Virginia. South Carolina. Georgia. Ohio. Alabama. New York. Kentucky. N ew Jersey. New York. Pennsylvania. South Carolina. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Ohio. New York. Pennsylvania. New Hampshire, 1S32 1826 1834 1832 1850 1S40 1826 1835 1825 1855 1S36 1828 1S4T 67 30 10 8 13 30 20 36 5 20 10 10 20 40 11 45 40 The above enumeration comprises the orthodox evangelical denom- inations of Protestants only. The Unitarians have a theological de- partment at Harvard University, which had two professors and four- teen students in 1855 ; and a theological school at Meadville, Penn- sylvania, which had last year four professors and twenty-five or thirty students. The Roman Catholic theological seminaries, according to the Cath- olic Almanac, stood as follows in 1855 : * I give the number of students for 1855 from the American Almanac for that year. The list is understated, the number being that at a given epoch in the year, not that of all who attended during the course of it. CHAP. XVIII.] THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 333 Location. At Baltimore, Md. " Frederick, " Near Emmitsburg, " At Cumberland, " Students. 27 16 24 23 " Philadelphia, Pa 19 " Villa Nova, " - u " Latrobe, Near Cincinnati, Ohio . " Somerset, " . " Springfield, Ky. . " Bardstown, " . At Cleveland, Ohio. " Thompson, " . Near Vincennes, Ind. At Notre-Dame, " . " Wheeling, Va. La.. " Lafourche, 31 14 17 10 5 14 7 15 10 7 12 Students. 28 21 82 Location. At Carondelet, Mo Near Florissant, " At Barrens, Perry Co., O " St. Paul, Minnesota 4 " Buffalo, N. Y 8 " Springhill, Ala 5 " Fordham,N.Y 40 " Mihvaukie, "Wis 12 " Dubuque, Iowa 10 " Sinsinawa Mound, Wis 1 u San Francisco, Cal 10 " Benicia, " 4 " Santa Ynes, " 12 " Santa Barbara, " 8 " Chicago, 111 — Near Pittsburg, Pa. 7 In all, thirty-three institutions and four hundred and fifty-three students. I shall conclude by stating that the entire number of theological schools and faculties belonging to the orthodox Protestant Churches is forty-five,* with about one hundred and twenty professors, and nearly, if not quite, thirteen hundred and fifty students at the pres- ent time. The greater number of these institutions are in their in- fancy. Where they are connected with colleges, the theological professor generally gives lectures in the literary department also, on moral philosophy, metaphysics, logic, etc. Many of the professors in the new and smaller seminaries are pastors of churches in the neigh- borhood, and all that are not, preach much in vacant churches, or on extraordinary occasions, such as before benevolent or literary societies and bodies, ecclesiastical assemblies, etc. Many of them, too, are ex- pected to employ their leisure moments in giving instruction through the press. Though the number of professors seems large when com- pared with that of the students, few men have more to do, or, in point of fact, achieve more for the cause of Christ. There are to be found among them many of the first ministers of the Churches to which they respectively belong. If not quite equal in point of science to some of the great professors in the Old World, they are all, God be praised, believed to be converted, and are devoted, faithful men. Their grand object is to train up a pious, as well as a learned ministry. I am not aware that there is one of them that does not open every meeting of his class with earnest prayer, in which he is joined by his pupils — a striking contrast to what one sees, alas ! at too many of the theological lectures in the universities of Europe. * At the "Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, theological lectures are given to a class in divinity, and possibly this is done also in some of the other Meth- odist colleges. 334 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK TV. CHAPTER XIX. EFFORTS TO DIFFUSE THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. Much has been done in the United States to place the Sacred Scrip- tures in the hands of all who can read them, and in this endeavor there is a delightful co-operation of good men of every name. Even statesmen, though they may not be decidedly religious, or, by out- ward profession, members of any church, lend their aid in this enter- prise ; and it is not uncommon to hear men of the first rank in the political circles, some occupying high places in the council of the na- tion, advocate at Bible Society anniversaries the claims of the Word of God. The impression prevails among our statesmen that the Bible is emphatically the foundation of our hopes as a people. Nothing but the Bible can make men the willing subjects of law ; they must first acquiesce with submission in the government of God before they can yield a willing obedience to the requirements of human govern- ments, however just these may be. It is the religion of the Bible only that can render the population of any country honest, industrious, peaceable, quiet, contented, happy. It is forty years since the American Bible Society was instituted, and it now has branches in all parts of the country. It has sent out, in all, ten million six hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred and forty-seven copies of the Bible, or of the New Testament, from its depository.* Last year alone seven hundred and forty-nine thou- sand eight hundred and ninety-six copies went forth to bless the na- tion. In the years 1829 and 1830, great and systematic efforts were made to place a Bible in every family that was without one through- out the whole land. Much was accomplished, yet so rapid is the in- crease of the population, that these effort must be repeated from year to year ; and the work can only be done by dividing the country into small districts, and engaging active and zealous persons to visit every house from time to time, ascertain what families are destitute of the Scriptures, and supply them by selling or giving away copies, accord- ing to circumstances. Great efforts are also made at New York, and other sea-ports, to supply foreign emigrants as they arrive on our shores. i * More than eleven and a half million copies of the sacred Scriptures, in whole or in part, had been issued by the Bible Societies in the United States at the commence- ment of May, 1855. The receipts of these societies in the year 1854 exceeded half a million of dollars. CHAP. XIX.] EFFORTS TO DIFFUSE THE SACKED SCRIPTURES. 335 It is a remarkable fact, that what has been done by Bible societies seems not to have interfered with the business of the booksellers ; for these sell more copies of the Holy Scriptures than they did before the Bible societies existed. The more the Bible is known, the more it is appreciated ; in many a family the entrance of a single copy begets a desire to possess several ; besides which, the Bible So- ciety's distributions greatly augment the demand for Biblical com- mentaries and expositions, and thus augment the trade of the book- sellers, who publish and put into circulation immense editions of such works. There is a great demand for the Scriptures, also, both in week-day and Sabbath-schools, and great numbers of these are fur- nished by the book-trade. Nor does the American Bible Society confine its efforts to the United States. It has for many years associated itself with those societies which, by prosecuting the same work in foreign lands, are laboring to hasten the coming of that day when " the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth." The receipts of the society for the last year amounted to $346,811. The society has published the Bible in " raised characters" for the use of the blind. In the year 1837, a Bible society was formed among the members of the Baptist churches, entitled the " American and Foreign Bible Society." It was formed with special reference to the circulation of translations in the course of being made by that body of Christians. Some, at least, of these translations the American Bible Society thought it could not, consistently with its constitution, aid in publishing, be- cause the original words baptize and baptism have been translated into words equivalent to immerse and immersion. However much it may be regretted that these words, about the meaning of which there has been so much philological disputation, are not permitted to remain untranslated, so that all denominations might be put upon the same footing, and be enabled to continue united in the work of Bible cir- culation, the issue will, it is likely, prove that in this, as in many sim- ilar cases, God is about to make an apparent obstacle mightily sub- serve the advancement of His kingdom. The new society has taken up the work of foreign publication with great zeal, and doubtless it will serve to develop the energies of the large and powerful body of Christians who sustain it, to an extent to which they never would have gone but for its formation. The receipts last year, being the eighteenth of its existence, were $40,034 ; the expenditure, $39,939.* * In this statement of receipts, we do not include $19,000 given for the new Bible House. 336 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. In eighteen years the society has received $700,000, and sent forth more than a million and a quarter copies, of the Word of God. In 1850 the "American Bible Union" was formed, and is sustained by ministers and members of the Baptist churches who are in favor of issuing a new version of the Bible in English, as well as of aiding the work abroad. Its receipts during the fifth year of its existence were $36,050. A few portions only of the "new version" have yet been issued, and those only as specimens, we believe. CHAPTER XX. ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE PUBLICATION AND CIRCULATION OP RELIGIOUS TRACTS AND BOOKS. ~No branch of religious enterprise has been more vigorously prose- cuted in the United States than that of preparing, publishing, and circulating moral and religious writings in various forms. The wide diffusion of education, at least among the white part of the popula- tion, makes it obvious that powerful advantage may be taken of the instrumentality of the press in promoting the truth. Associations of various kinds are engaged in this good work. We have seen that the Sunday-school societies are doing much for sup- plying the youth of the country with moral and religious reading ; we have now to speak of other societies which aim at benefiting adults, not, however, to the exclusion of the young. First among these associations may be ranked the American Tract Society, which, like most others of a general and national character, has its seat in the city of New York. It was instituted in 1825, and hence has been thirty years in existence. It is founded on the broad principle of uniting in its support Christians of all evangelical denom- inations of Protestants, so far as they may be disposed to co-operate in its objects; its Committee of Publication is composed of ministers of the Gospel of the different orthodox communions ; and its publica- tions themselves convey those great truths and doctrines in which all of these communions can agree. The operations of no society in America seem to have been prose- cuted with greater vigor or more wisdom. Its Report for 1855 states that, since its commencement, it has sent forth 1,948 different publications, of which about 150 form volumes • of various sizes by themselves, and the remainder are, with few exceptions, what are called tracts, each consisting of four pages and upward. CHAP. XX.] PUBLICATION OF RELIGIOUS TRACTS AND BOOKS. 337 And besides these 1,948 publications issued at home, it has aided in the publication of 2,972 in foreign lands. The copies of its publica- tions issued last year amounted to 10,091,214, of which 961,363 were volumes. Anions: the volumes were several thousand sets of the Evangelical Family Library, of fifteen volumes each, of the Religious Library, of twenty-five volumes each, and of the Youths' Library, of seventy volumes each. Many thousands of separate volumes, also, of these sets were sold. From 100,000 to 150,000 of some of the smaller tracts were distributed ; and the total sent into circulation during thirty years has been 158,319,412 publications, of which 10,424,737 were volumes. The receipts for the year 1855 amounted to $147,298 from donations, and $265,875 from sales ; in all, $413,173. $16,000 were sent to foreign countries in aid of the tract cause abroad. The society is assisted by auxiliary associations in all parts of the United States, both in the collection of funds, and in disseminating 1 its publications. Some of these local societies, such as those at New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, are large and efficient. The society is zealously prosecuting two grand measures, into which I shall enter the more fully, inasmuch as they are of the utmost importance to the religious well-being of the country, and also more or less practicable in other lands. The first of these is the publication of volumes of approved excellence, such as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and their distribution throughout the country. It pro- poses to place not only one volume at least, as was resolved some years ago, but even a whole set of its Evangelical Family Library, of fifteen volumes, or its Religious Library, of twenty-five volumes, in as many households as are willing to buy them ; and in seeking to accomplish this end, it employs able men, ministers of the Gospel and laymen, as agents. These visit towns and cities, preach in the churches, raise funds to supply the poor with books, organize com- mittees who are to visit all the families in their respective districts, and engage all who are able to buy one book or more, and sup- ply such as are too poor to purchase. Another set of agents consists of plain, but sensible, pious, and zealous colporteurs, or hawkers, generally laymen, who are sent into the " Far West" to carry books and tracts to the frontier people, engaged in felling the forests on their ever-onward course toward the setting sun, as well as into the mount- ainous districts, and the thinly-settled belt of sandy country which stretches along the ocean in the Middle and Southern States. The number of these colporteurs was last year six hundred and fifty-nine.* * Of these 659 colporteurs 126 labored among Germans and emigrants, and 104 were students from Colleges and Theological Seminaries. They visited 639,193 fam- 22 338 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. "Who can calculate the amount of good which such a work must, with God's blessing, accomplish ? I ought to add, that not only is care taken that both books and tracts shall be printed with good type, and on excellent paper, but that the books are substantially bound, and the tracts covered, for the most part, with handsome paper coverings. In these respects they form a marked contrast with the publications of some societies of the same kind on the Continent of Europe. It is rightly thought to be a false economy which, for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars, would fail to render attractive in appearance, as well as read- able and durable, publications which are intended to be the means of interesting, instructing, and saving men, of whom multitudes are wholly indifferent to religion, and might be repelled from reading them were they to appear in a mean and shabby dress. The Society's "American Messenger," had during the year ending May 1, 1855, a circulation of two hundred thousand, the "German Messenger" twenty-seven thousand, and the " Child's Paper" nearly three hundred thousand ! All these were published monthly, in the newspaper form. Besides its publications in English, the society has sent out a con- siderable number of tracts in French, German, Spanish, and other lan- guages, for the various emigrants that arrive in the United States. The other measure referred to is the systematic periodical distribu- tion of tracts in cities, towns, villages, and even rural districts, though this work can not be done directly by the society, so much as the numerous auxiliaries which it endeavors heartily to engage in carrying it through. The object is to place a tract, at least once in the month, in every family willing to receive one, and, where practi- cable, to accompany it with religious conversation, especially where ignorance of the Gospel or family affliction renders it peculiarly called for. In pursuing this design, the city, town, or village is divid- ed into small geographical districts, each containing a certain num- ber of families, and each assigned to the care of zealous, intelli- gent, and prudent Christians to make monthly visits to every family, and leave the tract selected for the month. Some will require more than one visit, particularly the sick and the destitute ; but houses where the inmates persist in refusing tracts, in spite of every effort to overcome their reluctance, are passed by. ilies, with 281. 09*7 of whom they conversed on personal religion, or prayed. Of the families visited, 83,126 habitually neglected evangelical preaching, 64,686 families were Roman Catholics, 51,302 families were destitute of all religious books but the Bible, and 36,259 households destitute of the Bible ; and they held or addressed 12,763 religious meetings. Six colporteur conventions were held. CHAP. XX.] PUBLICATION OF RELIGIOUS TRACTS AND BOOKS. 339 This plan, whenever justice has been done to it in practice, has been found eminently beneficial. Cases of poverty and disease are discovered and made known to associations and individuals likely to attend to them. Many persons, living in the constant neglect of public worship, are induced to attend the preaching of the Gospel. The churches in the neighborhood are pointed out to them, and they are exhorted to go to such as they may prefer. Such is the procedure in many places throughout the United States. In the city of New York it has been in operation for nearly twenty years, and with abundance of blessed results. According to municipal regulations, the' city, which now has above six hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, is divided into wards, and to each of these, when practicable, there is appointed what is called a superin- tendent, generally a minister of the Gospel, a young man, who de- votes himself wholly to the work. The superintendents divide their wards into districts, find a distributor of either sex for each, hold frequent meetings with their distributors, provide them with tracts for distribution, receive their reports, draw up a general one for the monthly meeting of the City Tract Society, under whose auspices the work proceeds, and read their reports at those meetings. "Withal, they hold prayer-meetings in their respective wards almost every night in the week, and engage competent persons to hold others which they can not themselves attend. The distributors labor gratu- itously. The superintendents receive usually $600 each as his salary. For many years sixteen superintendents have been supported by the same number of liberal Christian merchants and mechanics in that city, who rejoice to be instrumental in maintaining this good work. I shall conclude by giving the summary of what was accomplished in New York during one year, as presented at the regular annual public meeting, held in one of the churches of that city : 1,050 average number of visitors (or distributors). 132,155 tracts distributed, containing 3,425,781 pages. 936 Bibles and 558 Testaments received from the New York Bible Society, and supplied to the destitute. 4,496 volumes lent from the ward libraries. 2,200 children gathered into Sabbath-schools. 315 children gathered into public schools. 131 persons gathered into Bible-classes. 904 persons induced to attend church. 105 temperance pledges obtained. 1,433 district prayer-meetings held. 43 backsliders reclaimed. 396 persons hopefully converted. 342 converts united with evangelical churches. 340 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. Such is the tabular view presented by a single year's labor in the field of tract distribution in one city. Besides the American Tract Society, which may be regarded as a vast reservoir of common truth — of doctrines about which all Evan- gelical Protestants are agreed — there are other societies that publish religious tracts and books ; and among these I may mention, as dis- tinguished for the energy of their management and the extent of their operations, the " Book Concerns" of the two great branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These institutions are situated in New York and Nashville, under the control of the General Conferences, which, every four years, appoint a committee to direct their opera- tions. Two able agents are intrusted with the management of each, and are required to make full returns to the Bishops and to the Gen- eral Conferences. It must not be thought that all their numerous publications are stamped with the peculiarities of the Methodist doc- trines ; not a few of them are the same in character with those pub- lished by the American Tract Society — such, for instance, as the " Saint's Rest." The sales are not confined to the main depositories at New York and Nashville, and the branches established at some other great centres of trade : their publications are retailed by all the traveling ministers of that extensive body, and thus find their way into the most remote log-cabins of the West. And who can calcu- late the good that may result from reading the biographical and didactic volumes thus put into circulation? Who can tell what triumphs over sin, what penitential tears, what hopes made to spring up in despairing hearts, what holy resolutions, owe their existence, under God, to these books ? The amount of sales of these institu- tions and their branches was, in 1852, $199,687. The Old School Presbyterians have also a Board of Publication, which has put forth not only a considerable number of doctrinal tracts in which the distinctive views of that body are ably maintained, but many books, also, of solid worth, which are gaining an extensive circulation among its own members, and the professors of the Calvin- istic system generally. The receipts of this board were, last year, $87,599, and its expenditures $91,319.* The Regular Baptists, too, have their American Baptist Publica- tion Society earnestly engaged in the good work of supplying their people with publications addressed both to the converted and the unconverted. The receipts of that society were, last year, $52,705, and its expenditures $52,660. The Episcopalians, Free-Will Baptists, * This board has issued three hundred and sixty-nine volumes of various sizes, besides hymn-books, question-books, catechisms, tracts, etc. It employed last year one hundred and seventy-three colporteurs. CHAP. XXI.] THE EELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES. 341 the Quakers or Friends, the Lutherans, and the Protestant Metho- dists, have all their own Tract Societies ; the last two have their "Publication Committees" and their Book Establishments. Other denominations have theirs. The amount of evangelical tracts and books every year put into circulation by all these " societies," "boards," and "committees," together, can not be exactly ascer- tained. Their value in money, I mean for what they are sold, can hardly be less than $600,000. They air help to swell the great stream of Truth, as it rolls its health-giving waters through the land. May God grant that these efforts may go on continually increasing from year to year, until every family shall be blessed with a well-stored library of sound religious books. CHAPTER XXI. THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES. While it would be very foreign to the object of this work to enter upon any discussion as to the value and extent of the general litera- ture of the United States, it is not out of place to say something respecting that part of it which falls under the head of Religion. And first, let me advert, without reference to its origin, to the entire mass of the literature of a religious kind now circulating through the country. In this sense, our religious literature is by far the most extensive in the world, with the single exception of that of Great Britain. We have a population of twenty-seven millions, if not twenty-seven millions five hundred thousand ; and, even includ- ing the African race among us, and regarding the country as a whole, we have a larger proportion of readers than can be found in most other nations. Indeed, I am not aware of any whole kingdom or na- tion that has more. Deducting the colored population, we have twenty-three millions of people who, whatever may have been their origin, are Anglo-American in character, and to a great extent speak and read the English language. Not only so, but of these a very large proportion are religious in their character and habits, as we shall show in another place ; and, among the rest, there is a widely prevalent respect for Christianity, and a disposition to make them- selves acquainted with it. To meet the demand created by so large a body of religious and serious readers, we have a vast number of publications in every de- partment of Christian theology, and these are derived from various 342 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IY. sources. Some have been translated from German and French ; some from the Latin of more or less ancient times ; some from the Greek ; while many of our learned men, and particularly of our divines, read some or all these languages, and would think their libraries very de- ficient in the literature with which they ought to be familiar, did they not contain a good stock of such books imported from Europe. Again, we have either re-published or imported a great many of the best English religious works, both of the present times and of two or three centuries back. Such as seem adapted for popular use, and as many of a more learned cast as seem likely to justify their publication, are reprinted ; while not a few copies of many more are ordered from Europe through the booksellers. Some American reprints of English religious books, particularly ot works of a practical character, have had an immense circulation. The commentaries of Scott, Henry, Doddridge, Adam Clarke, and Gill, have been extensively sold, and some booksellers owe a large part of their fortunes to the success of the American editions. All the sterling English writers on religious subjects, of the seventeenth century, as well as of later times, are familiar to our Christian read- ers ; and the smaller practical treatises of Flavel, Baxter, Boston, Doddridge, and others, have been very widely disseminated. Bates, Charnock, Flavel, Howe, the Henrys, etc., are well known among us, as are also Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, Bishops Hall and "Wilson (of Sodor and Man), and many more whom I need not name. As for more modern times, the names of Thomas Scott and Adam Clarke are household words, and Chalmers is known to hundreds of thou- sands. There are many men in England and Scotland with whose names we have been familiar from our youth. In English systematic theology no names are more known or esteemed than the late Andrew Fuller and Thomas Watson. And although it can not be said that every good religious work that appears in Great Britain is republished in the United States, a large proportion of the best cer- tainly are, especially such as are of a catholic nature, and many of them, I am assured, have a wider circulation in the United States than in England itself. The United States have sometimes been reproached by foreigners as a country without any literature of native growth. M. de Tocque- ville, arguing from general principles, and, as he supposes, philosophi- cally, seems to think that, from the nature of things, the country, because a republic, never can have much literature of its own. He forgets that even the purest democratical government that the world has ever seen, that of Athens, produced in its day more distinguished poets, orators, historians, philosophers, as well as painters and sculp- CHAP. XXI.] THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES. 343 tors, than any other city or country of the same population in the world. He full well knows, however, that the government of the United States is not an unmixed democracy, and that in every thing that bears upon the higher branches of learning, our institutions are as much above the control of a democracy as those of any other country. The grand disadvantage, according to M. de Tocqueville, under which our literature labors is, that authors are not encouraged by pensions from the government. But are these so absolutely indis- pensable ? Have such encouragements accomplished all that has been expected from them ? Are they not often shamefully abused, and merely made to gratify the personal predilections of ministers ot State ? Besides, it is notorious that in England at least, where the government professes, I understand, to patronize literature, the most distinguished authors, in all its various departments, owe nothing to that source. As for the patronage of associations and wealthy indi- viduals, it may exist just as well in the United States as anywhere else, and, in fact, is not altogether wanting there. But our literature, it is said, is not known beyond the country itself; and this is to some extent true. But that few, comparatively, even of the distinguished authors of any country, are known beyond its limits, might easily be shown in the case of France, Germany, Holland, Denmark, and Italy. With the exception of the corps of literary men, even the well-informed among the English are little acquainted with the literature of those countries, and but for what they learn through the medium of the Reviews, would hardly know so much as the names of some of their most distinguished authors. No doubt the literature of every civilized nation greatly influences that of all others ; not, however, by having a general circulation in those countries, but because of the master minds who first familiarize themselves with it, and then transfer all of it that is most valuable into their own language, just as Milton appropriated the beauties of Homer, Virgil, and Tasso. The United States have unquestionably produced a considerable number of authors hi every branch of literature, who, to say the least, are respectable in point of eminence.* Their being unknown * It would not be difficult to make out a tolerably long list of authors who have lived in recent times, and many of whom are living yet, that must be pronounced, by those who know any thing of them, to be such as would be an honor to any country; and many of them are not unknown in Europe. Among writers on law, in its various branches, we have had Kent, Story, "Webster, Wheaton ; in medicine, Mott, Warren, Beck, Ray, Jackson, and many others ; in theology and Biblical science, Stuart, Mil- ler, Woods, the Alexanders, Hodge, Wayland, Robinson, Conant, Barnes, Stowe, Beecher, Schmucker, Hawks, the Abbots, etc. ; in belles-lettres and history, Irving, Prescott, Bancroft; Walsh, Cooper, Paulding ; in science, Silliman, Hitchcock, Henry, 344 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. to those who make use of the fact as a reproach to the country, may possibly be owing to something else than the want of real merit on their part ; and if, upon the whole, they present what appears to foreigners nothing beyond a respectable mediocrity, this may be readily accounted for by other causes than a hopeless peculiarity al- leged to exist in the people or their government. The country is comparatively new. Much has yet to be done in felling the forest and clearing it for the habitations of civilized man. But a small part of our territory bears evidence of having been long settled. Our people have passed through exciting scenes that gave but little leisure for writing. Few families possess much wealth. The greater number of our institutions of learning are of recent origin. None of them have such ancient foundations as exist in many Euro- pean universities ; our colleges have no fellowships ; the time of our professors is much occupied in giving instruction ; our pastors, law- yers, and physicians find but little leisure, amid their professional labors, for the cultivation of literature. We have no sinecures — no pensions — for learned men. There is too much public life and excitement to allow the rich to find pleasure in Sybaritic enjoyments; and they have other sources of hapj^iness than the extensive possession of paintings and statues, though even for these the taste is gaining ground. But to return to our proper subject, the religious literature of the United States : the number of our authors in this department is by no means small. Many valuable works, the production of native minds, issue year after year from the press, a very large proportion of which are of a practical kind, and exert unquestionably a most salutary influence. They meet with an extensive sale, for the taste for such reading is widely diffused, fostered as it is by the establish- ment of Sunday-schools and the libraries attached to them* Davies; and in political economy, Carey, Yethake, Biddle, Raymond. These are but a few, selected chiefly with reference to their being known to some ex- tent, at any rate, in Europe. "We have also had Marshall, Livingston, Madison, Jefferson, Jay ; Rush, Dorsey, Wistar, Dewees, Godman ; the Edwardses, Davies, Dwight, Smith, Mason, Emmons, Channing, Griffin, Rice ; Wirt, Noah "Webster, Ram- sey ; Franklin, Ewing, and Hamilton. In the fine arts we have had a West, an Alston, and have now a Crawford, a Powers, a Brown ; while in the useful arts, as they are called, we have not been without men of some renown, as the names of Ful- ton, Whitney, and others attest. Nor are American books unknown in Great Britain, the only country in Europe in which they could be extensively read. In the London Catalogues we find the names of American works on theology, in fiction, of juvenile literature, of travels, on education, on biography, on history, on poetry, on metaphysics, on philosophy, on science, and on law. Besides these, a good many books published in America are imported every year into Great Britain. * I need not repeat here what has been said of the immense circulation of books CHAP. XXI.] THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES. 345 To the religious literature of books must be added that of periodi- cal works — newspapers, magazines, reviews — and nowhere else, per- haps, is this literature so extensive or so efficient. More than one hundred and fifty evangelical religious newspapers are published once a week. The Methodists alone publish twenty-four, including one in the German tongue, and nearly all under the direction of their Con- ferences. The Episcopalians have twelve ; the Baptists twenty-eight ; the Presbyterians of all classes, including the Congregationalists, Dutch Reformed, Lutherans, etc., about forty more. This estimate includes evangelical Protestant papers only. In all, they can not have fewer than five hundred thousand subscribers. They comprise a vast amount of religious intelligence, as well as valuable selections from pamphlets and books ; and though it may be the case that re- ligious newspapers sometimes prevent more substantial reading, yet it must be confessed, I think, that they are doing great good, and are perused by many who would otherwise read little or nothing of a re- ligious character. Besides these newspapers, there is a large number of religious monthly and semi-monthly magazines, and several quar- terly reviews, in which valuable essays on subjects of importance may be found from time to time.* The political papersf in the United States, though often extremely by the Sunday-school and the Tract and Book societies, including the " Book Con- cerns" of the Methodists. * Two of these quarterlies are published under the auspices of the Presbyterians of the Old School: the "Biblical Bepertory and Princeton Beview," at Princeton, New Jersey; and the " Southern Presbyterian Quarterly," at Charleston, South Carolina. The "Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Beview," and the "Christian Beview," con- ducted by the Baptists, are both valuable periodicals ; and all four contain able re- views and essays. The " Christian Begister" is published monthly ; it is the organ of the Unitarians, and is conducted with much ability. f In the year 1850, according to the census, the number of newspapers and other periodical journals in the United States was two thousand five hundred and twenty- six, of which two hundred and fifty-four were published daily (the Sabbath excepted), one hundred and fifteen three times a week, thirty-one twice a week, and one thou- sand nine hundred and two once a week. The remainder, which were issued twice a month, monthly, or quarterly, were principally magazines and reviews. Of the newspapers, more than one hundred are in the German language, eight or ten in French, two in Spanish, and the rest in English. Several of the New Orleans papers are published in both French and English. The circulation of these newspapers and other periodicals is immense, being estimated at four hundred and twenty-six million four hundred and nine thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight copies annually. And though the number is too great by one half, and though many are conducted by men poorly qualified for the responsible and difficult task of an editor, yet it is not to be denied that even the poorest of them carry a vast amount of information to readers in the most secluded and distant settlements, as well as to the inhabitants of the most populous districts. And if we take the editors in the mass, it must be ac- 346 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. violent in party politics, are in many instances auxiliary to the cause of religion. While the editors of some, happily not many, are op- posed to every thing that savors of religion, and even allow it to be outraged in their columns, an overwhelming majority often give ex- cellent articles, and publish a large amount of religious intelligence. In this respect there has evidently been a remarkable improvement within the last twenty years. Many of the political journals have rendered immense service in the Temperance cause, as well as in every other cause involving the alleviation of human suffering. Some of the literary and political reviews of native origin are very respectable works of the kind; the North American Review, for ex- ample, which has now existed nearly half a century. There are also several valuable monthly reviews. Besides these, the leading reviews published in Great Britain, such as the Edinburg, the London Quar- terly, Westminster, North British, etc., are republished among us. CHAPTER XXII. EFFORTS TO PROMOTE THE RELIGIOUS AND TEMPORAL INTERESTS OF SEAMEN. We have spoken of the endeavors made to send the Gospel to the destitute settlements of the United States, both in the West and in the East. But we must not forget that the population of that country includes one hundred and fifty thousand men whose home is on the deep, and who " do business in the great waters" — a number which must be almost doubled if we include those who navigate the rivers and lakes in steamboats, sailing vessels, and other craft. The first systematic efforts made on a large scale, in the United States, for the salvation of seamen, commenced in 1812, at Boston. Since then much interest in the subject has been awakened at almost every port along the sea-board ; and within the last few years a great deal has been done for boatmen and sailors on the rivers and lakes. The American Seaman's Friend Society was instituted at New York in 1827, and is now the chief association engaged in this benev- olent enterprise. It serves, in some sense, as a central point to local societies formed in the other leading sea-ports, as well as those on the knowledged that they are very ready to lend their columns to the publication of re- ligious articles, of a suitable character and length, when requested by good men. And if Christians felt as they should feel on this subject, and did what they might, the press would be far more useful to the cause of religion than it is. CHAP. XXII.] EFFOETS FOE THE EELIGIOUS INTERESTS OF SEAMEN. 347 Western rivers ; though they are not, in general, connected with it nominally.* By a monthly publication, called the Sailor's Magazine, it communicates to pious seamen much interesting information re- garding the progress of Truth among that class of men, with details of its own proceedings, and those of other associations of the same kind. Chapels have now been opened for seamen, and public worship main- tained on their account in ahnost all the principal sea-ports from the north-east to the south-west, chaplains being engaged for the purpose, and supported chiefly by local societies. Those in the service of the central society are, with few exceptions, stationed at foreign ports, such as Havre, in France ; Canton, in China ; Valparaiso, in Chili ; Sydney, in New South "Wales ; Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands ; and Panama and Aspinwall, hi New Grenada. It had chaplains at one time, also, at Rio Janeiro, Marseilles, Cronstadt, and some other places. Besides promoting the establishment of public worship under chaplains at sea-ports, the society has strongly and successfully recom- mended the opening of good boarding-houses and reading-rooms for seamen when on shore, and the promotion of their temporal comfort in every possible way.f The efforts of the different associations for seamen have been greatly blessed. The year 1841, in particular, was marked by special mercies. In no fewer than ten or twelve ports there were manifest outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon the meetings held for religious instruction. A hundred and fifty sailors were reported by one of the chaplains at Philadelphia as having been converted under his minis- try ; and among these was an old man, ninety-nine years of age, who had been a drunkard for more than seventy years. There are supposed to be six hundred pious captains in the United States' mercantile navy. There are also several decidedly religious officers in the national marine, who exercise a happy influence on the service. The pious seamen belonging to the United States are now reckoned at about six or seven thousand ; a most gratifying contrast to the state of things twenty-five years ago, when a pious seaman, of any class, was rarely to be met with. The income of the society for the year 1855 was $22,845, without including the receipts of the local associations, which must have been considerable. Its expenditures were $22,816. * There are no fewer than sixty of these local associations for the promotion of the spiritual and temporal welfare of seamen and river-men in the United States. f It has a large " Sailors' Home" in the city of New York, which had three thou- sand eight hundred hoarders last year (1855), and has had forty-three thousand eight hundred and fifty-six in the course of the thirteen years of its existence, many of whom needed assistance. The society has also a flourishing " Home" for colored seamen. 348 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. CHAPTER XXIII. OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN REFORMING EXISTING EVILS. TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. We have contemplated the Voluntary Principle as the main support of Religion and its institutions in the United States. We have now to consider its powers of correcting^ or rather overcoming, some of the evils that prevail in society. And, first, let us see how it has contended with Intemperance, one of the greatest evils that have ever afflicted the human race. It is not easy to depict in a few words the ravages of drunkenness in the United States. The early wars of the Colonial Age, the long war of the Revolution, and, finally, that of 1812-15 with England, all contributed to promote this tremendous evil. The very abundance of God's gifts became, by their perversion, a means of augmenting it. The country being fertile, nearly throughout its whole extent, and producing immense quantities of wheat, rye, and corn,* the last two of which were devoted to the manufacture of whiskey, there seemed no feasible check, or conceivable limit to the ever-growing evil, especially as the government had no such pressure on its finances as might just- ify the imposing of a tax that would prevent or diminish the manu- facture of ardent spirits. Moreover, the idea had become almost universally prevalent that the use of such stimulants, at least in mod- erate quantities, was not only beneficial, but almost indispensable for health, as well as for enabling men to bear up under toil and fatigue. The mischief spread from year to year. It pervaded all classes of society. The courts of justice, the administration of government, the very pulpit, felt its direful influence. The intellect of the physician, and the hand of the surgeon, were too often paralyzed by it ; and it might be said, that what some thought to be ordained unto life, was found to produce death. Poverty, disease, crime, punishment, mis- ery, were the natural fruits which it brought forth abundantly. So- ciety was afflicted in almost all its ranks; nearly every family throughout the land beheld the plague in one or more of its members. For a long time, while all saw and lamented the evil, none stood up against it. But there were those that mourned, and wept, and prayed over the subject, and the God of our fathers, who had been * The word corn is almost invariably employed in America to designate the grain commonly called maize in England, and Ble de Turquie in France. CHAP. XXIII.] TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 349 with them on the ocean and amid the dreary wilderness, to watch over and protect them, heard those prayers. In the year 1812, a considerable effort was made to arouse the at- tention of Christians to the growing evils of intemperance, and a day of fasting and of .prayer was observed by some religious bodies. In the following year, the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was formed, and its labors were manifestly useful. Still, " the plague was not stayed." The subject, however, was not allowed to drop. It was seen that the Society had not gone far enough, and that it would not do to admit of the use of ardent spirits, even in moderation. The evil of wide-spread drunkenness could never be exterminated by such half-way measures. It was accordingly proposed, in 1826, to proceed upon the princi- ple of entire abstinence from the use of ardent or distilled spirits, as a beverage, and the same year saw the formation of the American Temperance Society at Boston. The press was soon set in motion to make its objects known, and competent agents were employed in ad- vocating its principles. Great was the success that followed. In the course of a few years, societies were to be found in all parts of the country, and were joined, not by thousands only, but by hundreds of thousands. People of all classes and ages entered zealously into so noble an undertaking. Ministers of the Gospel, lawyers, judges, leg- islators, and physicians, took a prominent part in urging it forward. But we need not enter upon the details of this progress. The cause continues advancing to this day. To reach the poor, as well as remove temptation from the rich, the rules of the Temperance Socie- ties have, within the last six or seven years, excluded " all intoxicat- ing drinks." Upon this principle, wines of all descriptions have been generally abandoned, both because of their being mostly impure with us — being, for the most part, imported, and all more or less intoxicat- ing — and because they are not found necessary to persons in health, but, on the contrary, injurious ; besides which, it was of consequence that an example of self-denial should be given by those who could afford to buy wine, for the sake of the poor, who could not. But, in the progress of the Temperance reformation, little was done to reclaim men who had already become drunkards. And yet at the lowest estimate, there were three hundred thousand such in the United States ; many even reckoned them at five hundred thou- sand at the commencement of the Temperance movement. No hope seemed to be entertained with respect to these. To prevent such as had not yet. become confirmed drunkards from acquiring that fatal habit, was the utmost that any one dared to expect. A few drunk- ards, indeed, were here and there reclaimed : but the mass remained 350 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. unaffected by all the cogent arguments and affecting appeals that were resounding through the country. At length God, in His wonderful providence, revealed the way by which these miserable persons might be reached. And how simple ! A few hard drinkers in the city of Baltimore, who were in the habit of congregating at a low tavern for the purpose of revelry, and had been drunkards for years, met one night as usual. All happened to be sober. Apparently by accident, the conversation fell upon the miseries of their life. One after another recounted his wretched his- tory. All were deeply touched with the pictures of their own degra- dation thus held up. Some one proposed that they should stop in their career of folly and wickedness, and form themselves into a Temperance association. They did so. Rules were written and signed on the spot. They met again the next night, related their histories, wept together over their past delusions, and strengthened each other in their new resolutions. They continued to meet almost every night — not, however, at a tavern. They invited their com- panions in sin to join them — these were affected and won. The fire was kindled, and soon it spread. In a few weeks four hundred such persons joined the society. In a few months two thousand drunkards in the city of Baltimore were reclaimed. Then the movement came to light. The newspapers spread the wonderful news. The whole country was astonished. Christians lifted up their hearts in thank- fulness to God, and took courage. Benevolent men rallied around these reformed persons, and encouraged them to perseverance. The society of reclaimed drunkards in Baltimore was invited to send delegates to other cities ; and soon the " apostles of Temper- ance," as these men were called, went forth to every city in the land. Great was their success. Hundreds and thousands were reclaimed in ISTew York, Philadelphia, Boston, Albany, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and from these cities, as from great centres, other delegations of re- formed drunkards went forth into almost every village and district in the land. To o-o further into detail would not consist with the nature of this work. A large proportion of the population of the United States are now under the happy influence of the principle of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. In 1826, when the reform commenced, it was estimated that at least sixty million gallons of whiskey were manufactured and consumed annually in the United States, without^ including the imported brandies, rum, etc. This estimate was un- questionably a very low one. In 1850, that is, twenty-four years afterward, the census stated that the number of gallons of "whiskey," " high wines," and " rum," distilled during that year, was forty-seven CHAP. XXIV.] THE AMERICAN PRISON DISCIPLINE SOCIETY. 351 million eight hundred and sixty-four thousand seven hundred and twenty-four, showing a falling off of more than twelve million gallons : and yet, within the same period, the population had more than doubled. And all this reformation had been brought about solely through the operation of voluntary associations, without the slightest direct aid from the government, with the exception of its abolishing the daily ration of whiskey formerly given to the officers and men in the army. Could any thing in the world show more conclusively the resources which right principles possess in themselves for overcom- ing, under God's blessing, the evils that are in the world, and even those that derive most power from the depraved appetites of man ? Within the last five years, great efforts have been made to induce the State governments to break up the manufacture and sale of intox- icating liquors, by severe penal enactments. Some progress has been made hi several States, but it is perhaps premature to speak confi- dently of the expediency of the measure, or of its probable result. CHAPTER XXIV. THE AMERICAN PRISON DISCIPLINE SOCIETY. The Prison Discipline Society was instituted in 1824. It had for its object an investigation into the best methods of treatment for con- victs and other prisoners, with a view to their health, proper degree of comfort, and, above all, their moral and religious reformation. Prior to the establishment of this society, the prisons in the United States were all conducted according to the old practice of herding the prisoners together in large numbers, without any due regard to their health, and with the inevitable certainty of corrupting one an- other. In most cases, there was little regular religious instruction ; in some, none at all. The prisoners were generally left idle, so that their maintenance, instead of being so far defrayed by the proceeds of their work, fell entirely on the public, and involved a heavy ex- pense. But a great reformation has now been effected. The society's late able, enlightened, and zealous secretary, the only agent, I believe, in its service, devoted nearly his whole time and energies to the subject for twenty-five years. During that period he examined the prisons in all parts of the country, studied whatever was defective or wrong in each, devised improvements in the construction of prison build- in o-s, visited the Legislatures of the several States, and delivered lee- 352 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. tures to them on the subject, besides giving to the world, in the Re- ports that came from his pen, such a mass of well-digested informa- tion as is probably nowhere else to be found in any language. The results have been wonderful. New penitentiaries, upon the most improved plans, have been erected in almost all the States by their respective governments, and in many cases at a great expense. These institutions are very generally under the direction of men de- cidedly religious. Judicious and faithful preachers have been ap- pointed as chaplains in many of them ; and in the others, neighboring pastors have been invited to preach the Gospel, and visit the inmates as often as they can. Bible-classes and Sunday-schools have been es- tablished in several instances ; and in all, pains are taken to teach prisoners to read where they have yet to learn, so that they may be able to peruse the Word of God. A great blessing has rested upon these efforts. In many prisons very hopeful reformations have taken place ; and in many cases, it is believed, after long and careful examination and trial, that convicts, who were hardened in their sins, have submitted their hearts to that adorable Saviour who died to save the very chief of sinners. Taken as a whole, in no other country in the world, j)robably, are the peni- tentiaries and prisons brought under a better moral and religious discipline. This great result has been brought about, first, by the erection of new and more convenient buildings, and, secondly, by committing their direction so generally to decided and zealous Chris- tians. This has brought pure Christianity into contact with the minds of convicts to an extent unknown in former times in America, and still too little known in many other lands.* * It may not be generally known that two different systems of discipline are to be found in the prisons of the United States, each having its ardent advocates. There is, first, the Philadelphia system, according to which the prisoners are entirely separated day and night, so that they are unknown to each other, and live in separate chambers or cells. And next there is the Auburn system, so called be- cause adopted in the prison for the State of New York, at Auburn, a town in the central part of that State. According to it, the prisoners are separated from each other at night, and work together in companies during the day, under the eye of overseers and guards, but are not allowed to speak to each other. They are assem- bled, also, morning and evening, for prayers ; and on the Sabbath they meet in the chapel for public worship, conducted by the chaplain or some other minister of the Gospel. Each system has its advantages and disadvantages. For health, facility in communicating religious instruction, and the saving of expense through the avails of the labor of the prisoners, the latter, in my opinion, has evidently the advantage. The former furnishes greater security, enables the prisoners to remain unknown to their fellows on leaving the prison, and more effectually breaks down the spirit of the most hardened criminals. But the difference in point of expense is immense : nor are the moral results of the more expensive plan so decidedly superior as to com- CHAP. XXIV.] THE AMERICAN PRISON DISCIPLINE SOCIETY. 353 Besides effecting this great reformation in the State penitentiaries and prisons, the society has directed much of its attention to the asylums for the insane, and to county or district prisons for persons committed for trial, convicts sentenced to short terms of imprison- ment, and debtors, in States where the law still allows imprisonment for debt. In all these various establishments the American Prison Discij)line Society has exerted much influence, and gradually effected the most important ameliorations. It has also discussed, in a very able manner, many questions in criminal legislation, such as those of imprisonment for debt, capital punishments, etc., and its labors in this department have not been in vain. Yet the society has had but one agent — its excellent secretary — and its whole receipts scarcely ex- ceed $3,000. With these limited means it has accomplished an im- mense amount of good. I know nothing that more fully demonstrates how favorably dis- posed our government is to religion, and to all good objects, than the fact that the Legislatures of so many of our States, as well as Congress itself, have been so ready to second every feasible plan for ameliorating the condition of mankind by moral and religious means, as far as they can do so consistently with their constitutional powers. Indeed, they are ever ready to adopt measures suggested by good and judicious men, as likely to benefit the public interests and to promote religion, provided they fall within their sphere of action. I may conclude this chapter by referring to the encouraging fact that crime has been for some years decreasing in this country, at the rate of from two to three per cent, per annum. This is the more satisfactory, when we consider how many difficulties have to be en- pensate for this disadvantage. It is a singular fact that the Auburn system has been decidedly preferred by the Prison Discipline Society, and by our citizens generally, for it has been adopted by all but four of the penitentiaries* in the country ; whereas the Philadelphia plan has been preferred by the commissioners sent from France, England, and Prussia, to examine our prisons. For myself, I apprehend that suf- ficient time has scarcely been allowed for a due estimate of their comparative merits. After paying considerable attention to the subject, as far as I am able to judge, I should say that, with the right sort of men to manage a prison — religious men of great judgment and self control — the Auburn plan is the better. But if such men can not be had, the Philadelphia system is safer. The former demands extraordinary qualities in the keepers, and especially in the superintendent, whose powers, as they must be great, are capable, also, of being sadly abused. Much, indeed, depends on keepers under either system. I may add that for the ignorant, the rude, the sensual, the Auburn system is far more salutary than that of Philadelphia ; for to such, entire solitary confinement is sadly destructive to health and happiness. On the other hand, the Philadelphia system is more tolerable and useful to the better educated and the more intellectual classes. * And even one of these has abandoned it for the other system. 23 354 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. countered in a new country, and what a mighty stream of emigra- tion from foreign lands is continually bringing over new settlers who have had little proper moral culture, not a few of whom are almost desperately depraved. Nor is it less gratifying to think that this occurs by a process in which brute force is superseded to such an ex- tent in the suppression of vice and crime by means essentially moral. CHAPTER XXV. SUNDRY OTHER ASSOCIATIONS. I shall now include in one chapter a notice of two or three other instances, in which the variety and energy of action possessed by the voluntary principle are remarkably illustrated. Societies for the Promotion of a better Observance of the Sab- bath. — Although the Sabbath is recognized, and its observance is enjoined by the laws of every State in the Union, and although that sacred day is observed in the United States in a manner that strik- ingly contrasts with its neglect in Europe, and particularly on the Continent : yet in certain quarters, and especially in places that are in some sense thoroughfares, the violation of it is distressing, nay, alarming to a Christian mind. Hence the formation of societies for the better observance of that day. These are sometimes of a local and limited nature ; sometimes they embrace a wider sphere of operation. By publishing and circulating well-written addresses and tracts — still more by the powerful ap- peals of the pulpit, they succeed in greatly diminishing the evil. By such measures they strengthen the hands of the officers of justice, and give a sounder tone and better direction to public opinion, greatly to the reduction, if not to the entire remedy, of the evil to be cured. What is best of all, this result is obtained most commonly by the moral influence of truth — by kindly remonstrance, and argu- ments drawn from the Word of God and right reason. I may state that I have myself seen the happiest influence exerted by these asso- ciations. Anti-slavery Societies. — And so with respect to slavery, an evil which afflicted all the thirteen original colonies at the epoch of their declaration of independence, and which still exists in fifteen of the thirty-one States, as well as in the District of Columbia ; though no longer to be found in the six New England States, or in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wis- CHAP. XXV.] SUNDRY OTHER ASSOCIATIONS. 355 consm, Iowa, and California. With a view to its removal from the States to which it still adheres, many of the inhabitants of the North- ern, or non-slaveholding States, have associated themselves in what are called anti-slavery societies, and have been endeavoring, for sev- eral years past, to awaken the public to a sense of the evils and dangers of slavery, and to the reproach which it entails on the whole country. By means of the press, by tracts and books, and by the voice of living agents, they aim at the removal of this — the greatest of all the evils that lie heavy on our institutions. I say nothing at present of the wisdom of their plans, or of the spirit in which they have been prosecuted. I only mention these societies as a further proof of the wide application of the voluntary principle, and of the manner in which it leads to associated efforts for the correction of existing evils. Peace Societies. — Thus, too, in relation to the evils of war, and for the purpose of preserving good men especially, and all men, if possi- ble, from thinking lightly of them, Peace Societies began to be formed as early as the year 1816, and a national society was or- ganized in 1827. The object must be admitted to be humane and Christian. By the diffusion of well- written tracts, by offering hand- some premiums for essays on the subject, and their subsequent publi- cation, and, above all, by short and pointed articles in the newspapers, a great deal has been done to cause the prayer to ascend with more • fervency from the heart of many a Christian, " Give peace in our time, O Lord," and to inspire a just dread of the awful curse of war. To many, such efforts may appear ridiculous ; but not so to the man who can estimate the value of even one just principle, when once es- tablished in the heart of any individual, however humble. Who can tell how much such efforts in the United States, and other countries, may have contributed, in God's holy providence, which often avails itself of the humblest means for the accomplishment of the greatest purposes, to prolong that happy general peace which held Europe, and all the civilized world, in its embrace during almost forty years ! The receipts of the American Peace Society are usually $3,000.* * The late William Ladd, Esq., of the State of Maine, was the founder of the American Peace Society, and for many years its worthy president. He was an ex- cellent Christian. His heart was absorbed in the objects of the society over which he presided. Through his exertions a prize of $1,000 was offered for the best essay on the subject of A Congress of Nations, for the termination of national disputes. Four or five excellent dissertations were presented, and the premium was divided among the authors by the judges appointed to make the award ; one of whom was the Hon. John Quincy Adams, formerly President of the United States. The evils of war can hardly be exaggerated. "In peace," said Croesus to Cyrus, "children bury their fathers; but in war, fathers bury their children." "War makes thieves," says 356 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK 17. CHAPTER XXVI. INFLUENCE OF THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE ON THE BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS OF THE COUNTRY. Nor is the Voluntary Principle less operative in the formation and support of beneficent institutions than of associations for attacking and vanquishing existing evils. But these present a field too wide to be fully gone over in this work ; besides, they do not properly come within its scope. I shall therefore glance only at a few points, show- ing how the Voluntary Principle acts in this direction for the further- ance of the Gospel. In efforts to relieve the temporal wants and sufferings of mankind, as well as in all other good undertakings, Christians, and those, too, with few exceptions, evangelical in their faith, almost invariably take the lead. Whenever there is a call for the vigorous exercise of be- nevolence, proceeding from whatever cause, Christians immediately go to work, and endeavor to meet the exigency by their own exer- tions, if possible. But should the nature and extent of the relief re- quired properly demand co-operation on the part of municipal and State authorities, they will bring the case before these authorities, and invoke their aid. It follows naturally that, when this is given, it should be applied through the hands of those who were the first to move in the matter ; and this wisely, too, since who can be supposed so fit to administer the charities of the civil government as those who have first had the heart to make sacrifices for the same object ? Such alone are likely to have the experience which in such affairs is neces- sary. All this I might illustrate by adducing many instances. In this chapter, however, I shall notice but a few, and take these collect- ively. There is not a city or large town, and hardly a village, in the whole country, which has not its voluntary associations of good men and women for the relief of poverty, especially where its sufferings are ao-oravated by disease. These efforts, in countless instances, may not be extensive, only because there is no extensive call for their being made. Created by circumstances, when these disappear, the associa- tions also cease to exist. But where the sufferings to be relieved are 'er Hachiavelli, "and peace brings them to the gallows." "May we never see another war," said Franklin, in a letter which he addressed to a friend, just after signing the treaty of peace at the close of the American Revolution, " for in my opinion there never was a good war or a bad peace." CHAP. XXVI.] INFLUENCE ON BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS. 357 perpetually recurring, as well as too extensive to be alleviated by in- dividual effort, these benevolent associations become permanent. Their objects are accomplished, in most instances, by the unaided ex- ertions of the benevolent, who voluntarily associate for the purpose ; but if these prove insufficient, municipal or State assistance is sought, and never sought in vain. Accordingly, the stranger who visits the United States will find hospitals for the sick, almshouses for the poor, and dispensaries for furnishing the indigent with medicines gratui- tously, in all the large cities where they are required.* There is a legal provision for the poor in all the States, not such, however, as to do away with the necessity of individual or associated effort to meet extraordinary cases of want, especially when it comes on suddenly, and in the train of disease. The rapid and wide-spread attacks of epidemics may demand, and will assuredly find benevolent individ- uals ready to associate themselves for meeting such exigencies, before the measures provided by law can be brought to bear upon them.f It is with great pleasure that I state that the Gospel finds admit- tance into the establishments for the relief of poverty and disease, which have been created and maintained by the municipal and State authorities ; and that I have never heard of any case in which the directors have opposed the endeavors of judicious Christians to make known to the inmates the blessings of religion. Prudent and zealous Christians, both ministers and laymen, are allowed to visit, and min- * The manner of providing for the poor differs greatly in different States. In the "West, where there is but little extreme poverty, the inhabitants of each township generally make this provision in such manner as best suits them. Money is raised, and by a " commissioner of the poor" appropriated to the support of such as need it. Those who have families live in houses hired for them ; single persons board with others who are willing to take them for the stipulated sum. In the Atlantic States, where there are more poor who need assistance, the same course is pursued in many cases. In others, "poor-houses" are erected in such counties as choose to have such establishments, and to these the townships send their quota of paupers, and pay for their board, clothing, etc. In the cities on the sea-board, the municipal authorities make abundant provision for the poor who need aid, a great proportion of whom are foreigners. f There were many illustrations of the expansive nature of individual and associ- ated charity during the prevalence of the cholera. In all our large cities, associations, comprising the very best Christians in them, were formed with the utmost prompti- tude, and zealously sustained as long as needed. I myself saw, and often attended the meetings of an association of Christian ladies formedin Philadelphia, as soon as the pestilence commenced its ravages in that city. They hired a house, converted it into a hospital, gathered into it all the children whom the plague had made orphans, both white and black, and day after day, and week after week, washed, dressed, and took care of those children with their own hands, and defrayed all the expenses of the establishment. Two of the children died of the cholera in their arms ! These ladies belonged, many of them, to the first families in that city. 358 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. isters to preach to the occupants of such establishments ; and in sev- eral of our cities, one or more excellent ministers of the Gospel are employed to preach regularly in them as well as in the prisons. With rare exceptions, they are in the hands of Protestants, though Roman Catholic priests are nowhere forbidden to enter and teach all who de- sire their ministrations. Of all the beneficent institutions of our large cities, there are none more interesting than those intended for the benefit of children. Orphan asylums, well established and properly conducted, are to be found in every city of any considerable size throughout the Union. Nor are these asylums provided for white children only ; they are also for the colored. Indeed, it can not be said with truth that the poor and the sick of the African race, in our cities and large towns, are less cared for than those of the white race. Nor are those children only who have lost both parents thus provided for. In some of our cities, asylums have been formed for what are called half-orphans — that is, those who have still one parent or both, but are not supported by them. I am not aware that there is a single foundling hospital in the United States. In some of our cities we have admirable institutions, called houses of refuge, for neglected children, and for such as are encouraged by their parents to live a vagabond life, or are disposed to lead such a life. In these establishments, now nine in number, they not only re- ceive the elements of a good English education, but are instructed also in the mechanical arts ; and with these religious instruction is faithfully and successfully combined. All of these institutions were commenced, and are carried on by the voluntary efforts of Christians, though they have been greatly assisted by appropriations in their favor, in the shape of endowments or annuities from some of the State gov- ernments.* Nor are the aged poor neglected. Asylums for widows are to be * One of the best conducted of these establishments is at Philadelphia. It occu- pies a beautiful site, and has a number of acres of ground attached to it. There are here usually between one and two hundred youth of both sexes, who occupy different apartments, and are under the care of excellent teachers. The magistrates of the city have the power to send vagrant, idle, and neglected children to it. Yery many youths have left this institution greatly benefitted by their residence in it. It has fallen to the lot of the writer to preach often to its inmates, and never has he seen a more affecting sight. If a man wishes to learn the importance of the parental rela- tion, and the blessings which flow from a faithful fulfilment of its duties, let him visit such an institution, and inquire into the history of each youth whom it contains. A similar one, admirably conducted, has within a few years been established at Alle- gheny city (near Pittsburg), partly by the aid of the State of Pennsylvania. The "Farm Schools" for orphans and for neglected children, in the neighborhoods of Bos- ton and New York, are excellent, and have been the means of doing much good. CHAP. XXVII.] ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE. 359 met with in all our large towns, where they are, in fact, most needed ; and old and infirm men are also provided for. At the same time, that " charity which seeketh not her own," but the good of all others, no matter what may have been their character or what their crimes, has not forgotten those unfortunate females who have been the victims of the faithlessness of men. Magdalen asylums have been founded in all our chief cities, especially on the sea-board, and have been the means of doing much good. It is only to be regretted that this branch of Christian kindness and effort has not been far more extensively prosecuted. Nevertheless, there are many hearts that are interested in it ; and in the institutions which they have erected, the glorious Gospel of Him who said to the peni- tent woman in Simon's house, " Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace," is not only preached, but also received into hearts which the Spirit of God has touched and broken. CHAPTER XXVII. INFLUENCE OF THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE ON THE BENEFICENT INSTI- TUTIONS OF THE COUNTRY. ASYLUMS FOR THE INSANE. The utmost attention is now paid in the United States to a class of the unfortunate who, of all others, present the strongest claims on our sympathy — I allude to the insane. For these very much has been done in the course of the last twenty years, by the establishment of suitable places for their reception, instead of confining them, as for- merly, in the common prisons of the country. In this the American Prison Discipline Society has exerted a most extensive and happy in- fluence, never having ceased, in its annual reports, to urge upon the governments of the States the duty of providing proper receptacles, to which persons discovered to be insane might be conveyed as promptly as possible, with a view to their proper treatment. The society has showed this to be an imperative duty on the part of the States, and its voice has not been heard in vain. There are now thirty-one asylums in the United States, supported or aided by the States, and some of these are on a large scale. That near Utica will consist, when completed, of four buildings, each four hundred and forty-six feet long by forty-eight feet wide, forming the sides of a beautiful quadrilateral area, which, by the intersection of its corners with verandahs of open lattice-work, assumes an octagonal form. It is intended for the insane poor of the State of New York, 360 THE VOLUNTARY PEINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. that State being at the sole expense of its erection : and the cost, npon the completion of the whole, will amount, it is supposed, to about $1,000,000. It is calculated to receive one thousand patients. Nearly all these asylums are constructed on the most approved plans. Nearly all are beautifully situated, have a light and cheerful aspect, and are surrounded with ample grounds, tastefully laid out in fields and meadows, pleasant gardens, and delightful walks. After visiting many such institutions in Europe, I can truly say that I have seen none more pleasantly situated, or better kept, than the Massa- chusetts State Asylum, at Worcester, the Retreat at Hartford, in Connecticut, and the Asylum on Blackwell's Island, near New York. I would particularly call attention to the fact that religious worship is kept up in twenty-seven of these institutions, which number in all thirty-one. Some have regular chaplains attached to them ; in others, Divine worship is conducted for the inmates by clergymen or laymen in the neighborhood, who volunteer their services in performing this important and interesting duty. In almost every case it is done by men of evangelical sentiments. Nor is their labor in vain, ample ex- perience having demonstrated that such services, when performed by judicious, calm, and truly spiritual men, exert an influence highly beneficial on the insane. The Gospel, when presented in the spirit of its blessed Author, is admirably fitted to soothe the excitement of the poor lunatic. " Regular religious teaching," says Dr. Woodward, the superintend- ent of the asylum for the insane at Worcester, Massachusetts, "is as necessary and beneficial to the insane as to the rational mind ; in a large proportion of the cases it will have equal influence. They as well know their imperfections, if they will not admit their delusions ; and they feel the importance of good conduct to secure the confi- dence and esteem of those whose good opinion they value." According to a Report of Dr. Earle, made in 1840, the deaths in the European institutions for the insane vary from thirteen to forty per cent. ; while in the American asylums none exceed ten per cent.* * The number of the insane in the asylums in the United States is about three thou- sand five hundred ; in 1840, the whole number of the insane and idiotic in the country, of all ages and conditions, was, according to the census, seventeen thousand four hundred and thirty-four, being about one to every nine hundred and seventy-nine inhabitants. Of these seventeen thousand four hundred and thirty-four insane per- sons, five thousand one hundred and sixty-two were maintained at the public ex- pense, and twelve thousand two hundred and seventy-two at that of their friends. In 1850 the number of the insane and idiotic was, by the census, twenty-nine thou- sand two hundred and twenty-nine — the insane being fourteen thousand nine hun- dred and seventy-two, and the idiotic fourteen thousand two hundred and fifty-seven. CHAP. XXVIII.] ASYLUMS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 86] While the State governments have been doing so much for the establishment of hospitals and asylums for the insane, much has also been done by individual munificence. Some of the State institutions have been assisted by donations from private citizens. Thus two benevolent gentlemen in the State of Maine gave $10,000 each to- ward founding the asylum for that State. CHAPTER XXVIII. INFLUENCE OF THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE ON THE BENEFICENT INSTI- TUTIONS OF THE COUNTRY. ASYLUMS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. Our asylums for the deaf and dumb owe their existence to a series of efforts on the part of a few Christian friends. The late Dr. Cogswell, a pious and excellent physician in the city of Hartford, Connecticut, had a beloved daughter who was deaf and dumb. For her sake he proposed to a devoted young minister of the Gospel, the Rev. Mr. Gallaudet, to go to Europe, and there to learn, at the best institutions, the most approved methods of teaching this unfortunate class of people. The mission was cheerfully undertaken. Mr. Gallaudet returned in 1816, after having spent above a year in Paris, where he studied the methods of instruction pursued at the Royal Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, under the Abbe Sicard, the pupil and friend of the Abbe l'Epee. Thereupon an effort was immediately made to found an institution at Hartford. An act of incorporation was obtained in 1816, a large sum was con- tributed by the people of Hartford for the erection of the requisite buildings, and Congress granted from the national lands a township, consisting of twenty-three thousand and forty acres, toward the en- dowment of the institution. It was opened, ere long, for the recep- tion of pupils, and from that time to this has been going on most prosperously. It is the oldest establishment for the purpose in the United States, and is called " The American Asylum for the Educa- tion and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb." So far, indeed, it is a national institution. It was endowed to a considerable amount by Congress ; it is open to pupils from all the States, and it does, in fact, receive them from the South as well as from the North. It is pecu- liarly, however, the Deaf and Dumb Institution of New England, five of the States of which support within its walls, at the expense of their treasuries, a certain number of pupils every year. The number at the asylum is usually between one hundred and fifty and two hun- 362 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. dred. The course of study lasts four years. Mechanical arts are taught to the young men at certain hours daily, while the young women learn such things as become their sex and situation in life. Since 1816 sixteen other institutions for the deaf and dumb have been established in the United States, all on the model of that at Hartford. All these institutions receive paying pupils from families which have the means of defraying the expense of educating their own children. But the number of such pupils probably does not exceed one sixth of the whole. The number of pupils in these seventeen asylums ranges from one thousand to one thousand two hundred, and as the States by which they are supported have both the means and the disposition to do so, they will doubtless furnish instruction to the deaf and dumb of the other States, which have resolved to send them thither until they can have asylums of their own. There will, indeed, be but a partial provision for some time for the indigent deaf and dumb of the newest States ; yet the known enterprise and benevolence of their inhabitants warrant us to believe that as soon as their population shall have become sufficiently numerous, and they shall have estab- lished those more general and important institutions that lie at the basis of an enlightened society, the whole of the confederated States will be found ready to make provision for conducting their deaf and dumb, by means of a suitable education, to usefulness and happiness. For this it is not requisite that each State should have an asylum for itself; it would be found enough that two or more should unite, as at present, in one. The number of deaf and dumb persons throughout the United States in 1850 was nine thousand one hundred and thirty-six, or about one to every two thousand five hundred and thirty-five of the entire population ; but the proportion of proper age for being placed in an asylum, to receive the usual instruction there, is hardly above a fourth of the entire number. It is delightful to contemplate how much has been done for this interesting part of the community within the last few years, and especially delightful to the Christian to know that all these seventeen asylums are under the direction of decidedly religious men, and that the course of instruction pursued in them is entirely evangelical. The Bible is made the text-book of their religious studies. Every morn- ing and evening they are assembled for prayers, and then a portion of Scripture is written on a large slate. Some pertinent remarks are addressed to them, followed by prayer, both the remarks and the prayer being performed, by the principal or one of the professors of CHAP. XXIX.] ASYLUMS FOR THE BLIND AND FOR IDIOTS. 363 the institution, by signs. In the same way, upon the Sabbath, a ser- mon is preached and other religious services are held. God has greatly blessed these instructions. Many of the pupils in these sev- eral asylums have become, from time to time, as their lives attest, truly pious persons ; and in some instances these institutions have richly shared in the revivals that have occurred in places where they are established. CHAPTER XXIX. INFLUENCE OF THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE ON THE BENEFICENT IN- STITUTIONS OF THE COUNTRY. ASYLUMS FOR THE BLIND AND FOR IDIOTS. In the year 1832 the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the blind was founded. Thomas H. Perkins, Esq., of the city of Boston, gave his valuable house and grounds, with out-buildings thereon, estimated to be worth $50,000, for an asylum for the blind, provided the sum required for its establishment should be raised in New England. $50,000 having been speedily collected, and the Legislature of Massachusetts having voted a large annual grant to give permanency to the projected in- stitution, the corporation entered vigorously upon the work, and opened a school for the blind, which has now been nearly twenty-five years in successful operation. As the property, so munificently given by Mr. Perkins, was not in all respects suitable for the purpose, it was exchanged in 1839 for Mount Washington House and grounds, in South Boston, beautifully situated near the bay which spreads out to the east of the city, and in every way adapted for the purpose. The institution is under the direction of Dr. Samuel G. Howe, a man of remarkable qualifications for the post. There are ten other institutions for the blind in the United States. All these have sprung up since the establishment of that at Boston in 1832, and they are all more or less flourishing. The whole number of the blind in the United States in 1850 was seven thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight. Some twenty years ago, a Mr. Will, of Philadelphia, bequeathed a sum to be laid out in establishing a hospital for the blind, but the in- stitution that has arisen out of this bequest is not a school, but a re- treat, where the aged and infirm blind may pass their remaining days in comfort. 364 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE IN AMERICA. [BOOK IV. Although most of these institutions are aided by the Legislatures of the States within which they are established, nearly all of them, nevertheless, may be traced to the benevolence of Christian citizens, acting individually or together. Few establishments can be contem- plated by the eye of Christian sympathy with greater interest than these quiet retreats. There the blind not only learn the elements of a common education,* and attain such expertness in some of the me- chanical arts as enables them, even while under tuition, to contribute toward their own support, but they cultivate music also, by which many an hour sweetly passes away, and many of them show in this pursuit remarkable aptitude. Nor is our literature for the blind inconsiderable, when we remem- ber that it is not twenty-five years since printing in " raised" charac- ters for their use was first introduced among us. Above fifty volumes have been published at Boston, and about half that number at Philadelphia, comprising several of the most interesting religious works in the English language, the perusal of which has already proved a blessing to many of the blind.f It is gratifying to think that these institutions have all along been, to a great extent, in the hands of good men, so that this benevolent enterprise has, from the first, taken a happy direction. The Report of the Boston institution for 1841 gives the history of a child who had been four years a pupil there, and whose case is more interesting, probably, than any other that has ever been known. Laura Bridgman, born in 1829, had lost, when twenty months old, * Joseph B. Smith, a pupil of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, pursued the study of Latin, Greek, and the other branches of a prepar- atory course with success, and entered Harvard University in the autumn of 1839, where he made respectable progress. He learned his lessons with the help of his companion, who carefully read them over to him, and sought out in the lexicon the meaning of words he did not understand. In geometry, when the diagram was too complicated for him to retain a clear conception of it, he caused it to be " embossed" upon thick paper, that he might examine it with his fingers. f Among the books published by the institution at Boston are, the New Testa- ment ; parts of the Old Testament ; Lardner's Universal History ; Selections from Old English Authors ; Selections from Modern English Authors ; Howe's Geography for the Blind ; Howe's General Atlas ; Howe's Atlas of the United States ; Blind Child's First Book; Blind Child's Second Book; the Dairyman's Daughter; the Harvey Boys; Blind Child's Spelling-book; Blind Child's English Grammar; the Pilgrim's Progress ; Baxter's Call ; Life of Melancthon ; Book of Sacred Hymns ; Viri Romas ; Pierce's Geometry, with Diagrams, illustrative of Natural Philosophy ; Political Class- book; Blind Child's Manual. The Pennsylvania Institute, besides printing portions of the Old Testament, has published, with others, a Guide to Spelling ; Select Library ; Student's Magazine ; French Verbs ; a Grammar ; and several books in the German language. CHAP. XXX.] CONCLUDING REMARKS ON ITS DEVELOPMENT. 365 the faculties of sight, hearing, and speech, and partially that of smell. At the age of nine she was placed at the institution. There she learned to read and write, and has made very considerable progress in knowledge. The details of the manner in which she acquired these arts are exceedingly curious, but to give them does not fall within the scope of this work. Two very excellent Institutions have lately been opened for the education of idiots and persons of weak intellects, one in Massachu- setts and the other in the State of New York. CHAPTER XXX. CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OP THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. We here close our notice of the development of the Voluntary Principle in the United States ; the results will appear more appro- priately in another part of this work. If it is thought that I have dealt too much in details, I can only say that these seemed necessary for obvious reasons. There being no longer a union of Church and State in any part of the country, so that religion must depend, under God, for its temporal support wholly upon the voluntary principle : it seemed of much consequence to show how vigorously, and how ex- tensively, that principle has brought the influence of the Gospel to bear in every direction upon the objects within its legitimate sphere. In doing this, I have aimed at answering a multitude of questions proposed to me during a residence and travels in Europe. I have shown how, and by what means, funds are raised for the erection of church edifices, for the support of pastors, and for provid- ing destitute places with the preaching of the Gospel — this last in- volving the whole subject of our home missionary efforts. And as ministers must be provided for the settlements forming apace in the West, as well as for the constantly increasing population to be found in the villages, towns, and cities of the East, I entered somewhat at length into the subject of education, from the primary schools up to the theological seminaries and faculties. It was next of importance to show how the press is made subser- vient to the cause of the Gospel and the extension of the kingdom of God ; then, how the voluntary principle can grapple with existing evils in society, such as intemperance, Sabbath breaking, slavery, and war, by means of diverse associations formed for their repression or 366 THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE ES" AMERICA. [BOOK IV. removal ; and, finally, I have reviewed the beneficent and humane institutions of the country, and illustrated the energy of the volun- tary principle in their origin and progress. The reader who has had the patience to follow me thus far, must have been struck with the vast versatility, if I may so speak, of this principle. ISTot an exigency occurs in which its application is called for, but forthwith those who have the heart, the hand, and the purse to meet the case, combine their efforts. Thus the principle seems to extend itself in every direction with an all-powerful influence. Adapt- ing itself to every variety of circumstances, it acts wherever the Gos- pel is to be preached, wherever vice is to be attacked, wherever suffering humanity is to be relieved.* * There is one field in which the voluntary principle is perhaps accomplishing triumphs as great, and diffusing an influence as happy as in any other, but which I have not "yet noticed. I refer to that presented by the numerous manufacturing es- tablishments that have been springing up during the last five-and-twenty years in the Middle and Northern States. Large factories in the Old "World are proverbial for ignorance and vice. But if a man would see religion flourishing in manufactur- ing places and among "operatives," let him visit some of those towns in New En- gland where cotton, woolen, or other factories have grown up, and where hundreds, in some instances thousands, of men and women are collected under circumstances in which they are apt to exercise a most corrupting influence on one another. Let him there observe the pains taken by bands of devoted Christians, pastors, and members of their flocks, to gather these into Bible-classes and Sunday-schools, to induce them to attend church, to provide libraries of good books for them, to open public lectures on scientific and general as well as religious subjects; above all, let him mark the earnestness with which faithful ministers preach the Gospel to them, and the assiduity with which they watch for their souls ; and he will perceive how much may be done even under very unfavorable circumstances, for saving men's souls from ruin. I have never visited communities more virtuous than some of those villages, or in which the Gospel has triumphed more signally over all obstacles. No manufacturing town in the United States has grown up more rapidly than Lowell, near the Merrimac River, about thirty miles north-west of Boston. It was but a small village not many years ago, and in 1827 had only three thousand five hundred inhabitants. But in 1850 these had increased to thirty-three thousand three hundred and eighty-three. As it derives great advantages for cotton, woolen, and other factories, from the vast water-power it possesses, several companies have built large mills, and employ a great number of people, mostly young women above fifteen years of age, who have been led to leave other parts of New England by the induce- ment of higher wages than they could command at home. This is an object with some, in order that they may help their poor parents ; with others, that they may find means to prosecute their education ; and with a third and numerous class, who, being betrothed to young men in their native districts, come to earn for themselves a little " outfit" for the married life. Let us see what opportunities for religious in- struction are presented to those young persons. In 1850 there were more than twenty churches in Lowell, to nearly all of which Sunday-schools are attached. About three fourths of the scholars are girls, a large proportion of whom are above fifteen years of age. More than five hundred became CHAP. XXX.] CONCLUDING KEMAKKS ON ITS DEVELOPMENT. 367 Nor is this principle less beneficial to those whom it enlists in the various enterprises of Christian philanthropy, than to those who are its express objects. The very activity, energy, and self-reliance it calls forth, are great blessings to the individual who exercises these qualities, as well as to those for whose sake they are put forth, and to the community at large. Men are so constituted as to derive hap- piness from the cultivation of an independent, energetic, and benevo- lent spirit, in being co-workers with God in promoting His glory, and the true welfare of their fellow-men. We now take leave of this part of our subject, to enter upon that for which all that has hitherto been said must be considered prepara- tory — I mean the direct work of bringing men to the knowledge and possession of salvation. hopefully pious in 1830, yet that year was not more remarkable than others in regard to religion. A few years ago the whole number of scholars and teachers nearly equaled a third of the population. About one thousand of the factory girls had funds in the savings banks, amounting, in all, to $100,000. A decided taste for reading prevails among them. For several years two monthly magazines of handsome ap- pearance were published there. One of these was the "Operatives' Magazine," and the other the " Lowell Offering." Both were of 8vo form, the one containing sixteen pages, the other thirty-two. Both displayed very considerable talent, and the " Offer- ing" was filled with original articles, written solely by the female operatives. Even a third periodical was established, and conducted by the same class of people. BOOK V. THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. CHAPTER I. IMPORTANCE OF THIS PART OF THE SUBJECT. It is instructive to mark the influence of Christian institutions upon society — the repose of the Sabbath — the civilizing effect of assemblies of the people in churches — the great amount of knowledge commu- nicated in the numerous discourses of a well-instructed ministry. Apart from higher considerations, the benefits indirectly conferred upon a community by an evangelical ministry are well worth all that it costs. It softens and refines manners ; promotes health, by pro- moting attention to cleanliness and a regard to decency of apparel ; it diffuses information, and rouses minds that might otherwise remain ignorant, inert, and stupid. But what is this compared with the preparation of the immortal spirit for its everlasting destiny ? This world, after all, is but the place of our education for a better ; of how much moment, then, that the period of our pupilage should be rightly spent ! The Church, with her institutions, is of Divine ordination. She was appointed by her great Author to be the depositary of the econ- omy of salvation, so far as human co-operation is concerned ; designed to combine all the human agencies which God, in infinite wisdom, has resolved to employ in the accomplishment of that salvation. How important, then, that the Church should meet the design of her Di- vine Founder, not only as regards her proper character, but also in the development and right employment of the influences she was con- stituted to put forth for the salvation of the world ! As the Church on earth is but preparatory to the Church in heaven, she was obviously intended to bear some resemblance to the celestial state. As the depositary to which God has committed the custody of His revealed truth, and as His chosen instrument for its diffusion CHAP. II.] THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES MAINTAIN DISCIPLINE. 369 among mankind, she ought obviously to be kept, so far as an institu- tion placed in the hands of creatures imperfect at the best could be, pure from every thing which would impede the discharge of her high functions. But we must not misapprehend the office of the Church. She has received no power of original legislation. She is nothing but an agent. Christ is the Lawgiver and the Head of the Church. He has given her the revelation of His will, and has clearly defined her sphere of action. Nor can she justly expect His blessing if she goes beyond the boundaries of her duty. By a holy life on the part of her members ; by a conversation such as becometh saints ; by well-directed efforts to make known the Gos- pel everywhere to dying men, whether by the faithful proclamation of it on the part of the ministry whom God has appointed, or by more familiar instruction in the Sunday-school and the Bible-class, or around the family altar, or by the distribution of the Scriptures and other religious books ; united with constant, fervent, and believing prayer that the Holy Spirit may render all these means successful : the Church is required, to exert her influence in saving the world. It is thus that she becomes " the light of the world ;" it is thus that she proves herself " the salt of the earth." But, in order to fulfill this high mission, she ought to be as nearly as possible what the Saviour of men intended her to be — a company of saints redeemed by His blood, renewed by His Spirit, devoted to His service — ever bearing the cross, that she may wear the crown, and preparing for that day when she shall be presented to her Lord, "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing," but " holy and without blemish" — for she is " His Body." CHAPTER II. THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN THE UNITED STATES MAINTAIN DISCIPLINE. Discipline is a matter of inexpressible importance to the prosper- ity of a Church ; and I rejoice to say that such is the light in which it is viewed by Christians of all the evangelical denominations in the United States, almost without exception. I do not suppose that there is a single evangelical church in the country that does not keep a record of its members ; I mean of those whom it has received according to some regular form or other as 24 370 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. member s % and who, as such, are entitled to come to the Lord's Sup- per. As this whole subject is not only important, but by some readers may not be easily comprehended, I may venture upon some detail. 1. There is no evangelical church in the United States, that is, no organized body of believers worshipping in one place, that does not hold a creed comprehending at least the following points : the exist- ence of one God, in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the same substance, and equal in all the attributes of their nature ; the depravity, guilt, condemnation, and misery of all mankind ; an all-sufficient and only atonement by the Son of God, who assumed human nature, and thus became both God and man in one person, and by His obedience, suffering, death, and intercession, has procured salvation for men ; regeneration by the Holy Ghost, by which re- pentance and faith are made to spring up in the soul ; the final judg- ment of all men ; and a state of everlasting misery for the wicked, and of blessedness for the righteous. On these doctrines, in their substantial and real meaning, there is no difference among the evan- gelical churches in the United States. 2. Neither is there any evangelical church in America that does not hold the necessity of a moral life — a life against which no charge in- consistent with a Christian profession can be brought — in order to proper membership of a church of Jesus Christ ; or that would not promptly exclude an immoral person, sufficiently proved to be such. No doubt there are immoral persons among the members of churches. They are persons whose guilt can not always be established by such proof as the laws of Christ require ; but their number, it is believed, is comparatively small. 3. There are few, if any, evangelical churches in which the profes- sion of a mere general or " historical belief," as it is called, in the great doctrines above stated, accompanied even by an outwardly moral life, would be considered sufficient to render a man fit to be admitted to the Lord's Supper. Nineteen twentieths of all the evan- gelical churches in this country believe that there is such a thing as being " born again," " born of the Spirit." And very few, indeed, admit the doctrine that a man who is not " converted," that is, " re- newed by the Spirit," may come without sin to that holy ordinance. There may be difference of opinion among truly evangelical Chris- tians respecting the amount of evidence of conversion necessary in the case. But I may unhesitatingly affirm that, with few exceptions, all expect some evidence in every candidate for admission to the Church and participation in its most precious privileges ; and such evidence, too, as induces the belief that, as the Scriptures express it, CHAP. II.] THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES MAINTAIN DISCIPLINE. 371 he has " passed from death unto life." The belief is almost universal that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was appointed for the con- verted or regenerated, and should, as far as possible, be administered only to such. The number of those who hold a different opinion is small. Accordingly, it would be foimd upon inquiry that all the pas- tors of our evangelical churches are very careful to explain with what dispositions of the heart and will, as well as with what views of the understanding, one should come to the Lord's Supper, and that these are truly such as no unregenerate person can possess. This holy sacrament is rarely dispensed in our churches without being preceded by a discourse on the nature of the preparation required in order to a right " communicating," or receiving of this ordinance ; and all irre- ligious persons — in fact, all persons, be their lives outwardly what they may — who have not the testimony of their consciences that they possess, so far as they honestly perceive the state of their hearts, the qualifications described, are solemnly warned of the sin, and conse- quent danger to their souls, incurred by unworthily partaking of that holy Supper. It is, indeed, too true that, with all this care, unworthy persons do come to the Lord's Table. Many, no doubt, gain admission to the churches who, after all, are not converted. To say that many do so from base, hypocritical motives, would imply a very mistaken view of the case, for with us there is no visible inducement to such a course. No civil privilege hangs on the condition that a person should be a member of the Church and should receive the sacrament, as in some countries in Europe ;* nor is it reckoned dishonorable not to belong to some church. No one among us presumes for a moment that a man must have committed a crime, and on that account been ex- cluded, if he be not seen going twice or thrice a year at least — on the great festivals, for instance — to the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- per. Our pastors and other church officers, whose duty it is to gov- ern the churches, do not profess to be infallible. They can not know the heart. They can only judge according to the evidence presented to them. They lean, very naturally, to the side of charity ; and with every desire to do their duty, there are many, doubtless, in every church, admitted by them without being truly converted, and who, when once admitted, remain members, unless they withdraw of their own choice, or go to some other part of the country, or are excluded on the ground of some open immorality. But while we can not hope that even in those evangelical churches * In Sweden, for instance, a man can not give his testimony in a court of justice who has not taken the sacrament of the Lord's Supper within the year immediately preceding ! 372 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. most rigorously strict in their admission to membership, and to the communion of the Lord's Supper, all the members are converted per- sons : yet the number of such as lead scandalous lives is small. Nor are these suffered long to continue members when their character be- comes known. On this subject our churches form a very striking contrast with some that I have seen in other parts of the world. Nor have we, like them, crowds who come to the Lord's Supper on some great festival, such as Easter or Christmas, and stay away during the rest of the year. Still less will there be seen, what I have been told sometimes occurs in Protestant churches of other lands, persons waiting outside the church, on such occasions, until the communion service commences, and who then make their way in, approach the communion-table or altar, receive the emblems of the Saviour's body and blood, and as soon as possible hasten out and depart ! As if there were any virtue in such horrible mockery and profaneness ! I bless God that we have nothing that approaches to this in point of impiety ; and yet we must mourn over the fact that many of the members of our churches do not manifest that spirituality, devotion, and zeal which they ought to possess. But were there no discipline in our churches, and were all the world permitted to come to the Lord's Supper, the state of things would be in every respect infinitely worse. We make at least the effort to separate the Church from the World, and to render it manifest that there is a difference, and not a small one, between those who belong to the former, and those who seek their happiness in the latter, and have their desires bounded by it. CHAPTER III. THE WAT IN WHICH MEMBERSHIP IN OUR CHURCHES IS OBTAINED. Often has the question been addressed to me, "How do individ- uals become members of your churches in America ?" This has been said more particularly on the Continent, where but too generally dis- cipline seems to be almost unknown, and where, I have been assured, there are many churches in which all who choose may come to the Lord's Supper, without saying a word to the pastor, or any other officer of the church. Widely different is the practice that obtains in the evangelical churches of the United States. I will describe it in few words. Every faithful pastor, who preaches regularly in any place for a year or two, is supposed to become well acquainted with the people CHAP, in.] THE WAY IN WHICH MEMBERSHIP IS OBTAINED. 373 of his charge. In most cases, he not only comes to know the families that compose his flock, but also, more or less intimately, nearly every individual, especially of the adult population. With most, if not all, he endeavors to have some conversation on the subject of salvation, and the hopes of eternal life which they may be entertaining. In addition to this, his Bible-classes and Sunday-schools bring him into frequent contact with the juvenile part of the people over whom the Holy Ghost has made him overseer. He finds frequent oppor- tunities of speaking with them about their souls. Nor in this does he act alone. The elders, deacons, or other officers of his church, assist him much with their co-operation. Through these, as well as through zealous, judicious, and faithful private members of his church, he learns continually the state of mind of most, if not all, the people in his congregation. This knowledge is of the greatest consequence when persons come to converse with him respecting their salvation. In our revivals, as will appear presently, it is common for the pastor to appoint a time for meeting at his house, or at some other con- venient place, those who are awakened to a sense of the importance of religion. On these occasions he converses, if possible, with each individual, gives such directions as they may need, and prays with them. When their number is too great for him to speak to each, he makes use of the assistance of some of the most experienced of the officers of his church. Sometimes a neighboring minister will come and help him. I have seen twenty, fifty, a hundred, and even as many as three hundred persons, most of them adults, come together in deep distress of soul on such occasions. At such meetings the pastor learns the progress of religion in the souls of his people. But when there is no special " seriousness," as we say, or uncommon attention to religion among his people, then it may be that the number of those who come from time to time to speak to him respecting their salvation will be small. And if he ceases to be faithful in preaching the Gospel, and his church becomes cold in its zeal, in its faith, and in its prayers, then it may happen that for awhile he may not have any. In many of our churches the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administered once in three months, in many once in two, and in others every month. Some time before, the pastor gives notice that he will meet at a certain time and place all such as wish to join the church on that occasion, and receive the communion for the first time. He meets with them, converses with them, and learns the state of their minds, so far as it is possible for man to judge. In many instances persons come to him repeatedly to lay open their hearts, and receive his counsels. If he believes that they have met with the change of 374 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. heart of which the Saviour speaks in His interview with Nicodemus, he encourages them in the resolution to join the church. If he thinks that they are not prepared for this important step, he advises them to defer it for a season, that they may become so. In some cases, as among the Presbyterians universally, the pastor reports the matter to the session of the church, and the candidates have generally to appear before that body, consisting of the pastor and the elders, who may number from two to twelve. In the Congregational and Baptist de- nominations, it is the " church," that is, the body of the members, who hear the candidates relate the history of the work of grace in their hearts, and give their reasons for believing that they have be- come " new creatures in Christ Jesus." This is also sometimes done by the pastor and a committee of the church. If the person who ap- plies to be received as a member, be a stranger, or one of whose deep seriousness the pastor and the brethren of the church had been igno- rant, then he is examined more fully upon his " experience," or the work of God in his soul. He is asked to narrate when and how he became concerned for his salvation, he is questioned as to the nature and depth of his repentance, his views of sin, his faith in Christ, his hopes of eternal life. These examinations are sometimes long, and in the highest degree interesting. Solemn, and yet, to the faithful pas- tor, joyful work, to deal with souls in these important seasons ! But the faithful pastor is always engaged in guiding the souls of his peo- ple in the way that leads to life. The day arrives for administering the Lord's Supper ; the prepara- tory services, including a sermon, are gone through ; the moment comes for commencing those services which relate to this sacred ordinance. Before this, however, the pastor, in many churches, calls upon all those who are now about to join the church to come forward and take their places before the pulpit. He reads their names aloud, and baptizes those of them who have not been baptized before. He then puts certain questions to the adults, embodying the chief articles of the church's creed, and to these they answer in the affirmative. This is sometimes followed by his reading out the form of a covenant, to which they must assent and make their engagement.* The forms in * As the reader may be desirous of seeing one of these summaries of faith and covenant, I give the following, selected from among many such that I have seen. The pastor addresses the candidates standing in the midst of the church in the fol- lowing terms: PROFESSION OP FAITH. '• In the presence of God and this assembly you do now appear, desiring publicly and solemnly to enter into covenant with Him and His Church according to the Gos- pel, professing your full assent to the following summary of faith : "Art. 1. You solemnly and publicly profess your belief in one God, the Almighty CHAP. III.] THE WAY IX WHICH MEMBERSHIP IS OBTAINED. 375 which all this is done vary in different churches and denominations, but the substance is the same. Sometimes this ceremony takes place at the public services on Saturday, preparatory to the celebration of the communion on the Sabbath following. Maker of heaven and earth, who upholds all things, and orders all events according to His own pleasure, and for His own glory. " Art. 2. You believe that this glorious Being exists in three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost ; and that these three are one, being the same in substance, equal in power and glory. "Art. 3. You believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and are our only rule of faith and practice. " Art. 4. You believe that God at first created man upright, and in His own image ; that our first parents fell from 'their original uprightness, and involved themselves and their posterity in a state of sin and misery. "Art. 5. You believe that all men since the fall ar6 by nature depraved, having no conformity of heart to God, and being destitute of all moral excellence. " Art. 6. You believe that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of sinners, and the only Mediator between God and man. "Art. 7. You believe in the necessity of the renewing and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit, and that to be happy you must be holy. " Art. 8. You believe that sinners are justified by faith alone, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. "Art. 9. You believe that the saints will be kept by the almighty power of God from the dominion of sin, and from final condemnation, and that at the last day they will be raised incorruptible, and be forever happy. "Art. 10. You believe that the finally impenitent will be punished 'with everlast- ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.' " Thus you believe in your hearts, and thus you confess before men." COVENANT. " You do now, under the belief of the Christian religion as held in this church, publicly and solemnly avouch the eternal Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to be your God and the God of yours, engaging to devote yourselves to His fear and service, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments. With an humble reli- ance on His Spirit, you engage to live answerably to the profession you now make, submitting yourselves to the laws of Christ's kingdom, and to that discipline which He has appointed to be administered in His Church. That you may obtain the as- sistance you need, you engage diligently to attend, and carefully to improve all the ordinances He has instituted. "Thus you covenant, promise, and engage, in the fear of God, and by the help of His Spirit. "In consequence of these professions and promises, we affectionately recognize you as members of this church, and in the name of Christ declare you entitled to all its visible privileges. We welcome you to this fellowship with us in the blessings of the Gospel, and 'on our part engage to watch over you, and to seek your edification as long as you shall continue among us. " May the Lord support and guide you through a transitory life, and after this war- fare is accomplished, receive you to His blessed Church above, where our love shall be forever perfect, and our joy forever full. Amen." In some churches the summary of faith used on these occasions, and the covenant, 376 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMEEICA. [BOOK V. I may add that many of the Presbyterian churches, in the interior particularly, retain the old practice, according to which the communi- cants take their seats at a long table in the principal aisle of the church, the bread and wine being handed round, accompanied with prayer and a brief exhortation. In the cities and large towns the communicants occupy certain pews assigned to them, either in the middle of the church or at the end next to the pulpit. In the Epis- copal and Methodist churches, the communicants receive the sacra- ment kneeling round the altar. Though the administration of this sacrament takes place most commonly after the forenoon sermon, it is now celebrated in many churches in the afternoon, preceded by a short sermon or address. In a Presbyterian church in "Washington City, it was customary, a few years ago, to celebrate it at night. The effect was solemn, and more pleasing, and, in the eyes of those who attach importance to such matters, it had the advantage of co- inciding with the hour of its first institution. But a more important advantage, in my opinion, lay in the facility afforded to communicants of other churches for uniting in the celebration, on an occasion so well calculated to unite the hearts of all in Christian sympathy and love. Let me further add that in almost all our churches those who are not members usually remain and witness the solemn ceremony ; a custom most proper and profitable, for the very occasion speaks in language most affecting to the unconverted heart, and affords an ad- mirable opportunity for the faithful and skillful messenger of God to appeal to such on behalf of that Saviour whose sorrows are so touchingly set forth in this ordinance which may truly be called an epitome of the Gospel. CHAPTER IV. THE RELATIONS OF UNCONVERTED MEN TO THE CHURCH. Many persons in different parts of Europe, after listening to state- ments such as the above, have seemed at a loss to comprehend the position held, with respect to the Church, by those who are not its members, and they have asked again and again for explanations on the subject. I have told them, in reply, that such of these persons accompanied by a short and pertinent address to the members of the church, is printed in a little book, which also contains a list of all their names, and their resi- dences if in a city, a copy of which is possessed by each member. It is a convenient manual, as well as a solemn remembrancer, which it is profitable to consult fre- quently. CHAP. IV.] THE RELATIONS OF UNCONVEETED MEN TO THE CHURCH. 377 as are the children of pious parents, hold toward the Church a very interesting relation, which, though invisible, so to speak, is real ; and such of them as have been baptized in infancy, maintain, in my opinion, an important relation to it, to which greater prominence ought unquestionably to be given than is usual among the Psedobap- tist branches of the Protestant Church. We are very faulty on this point in the United States, but not more so, I apprehend, than are our Protestant brethren in other lands. Very affecting appeals, never- theless, are often made by our faithful ministers to such of their hearers as are not converted, yet have knelt by the side of a devout mother, have felt her hand resting on their youthful heads, and, in the arms of a pious parent, received the symbol of that "washing of regeneration," without which none can serve God acceptably, either on earth or in heaven. Nor are such appeals in vain.* But the question has often been proposed — "Are men who are not allowed to come to the Lord's Supper willing to attend your church- es ?" Most certainly they are. They have been too well instructed in religion not to be aware that admission to that ordinance would do them any thing but good, so long as they remained unreconciled to God through Jesus Christ.f Many of them, indeed, would recoil with horror were a minister to propose such a thing. Yet they value the privilege of going to the sanctuary. They have been taught from childhood that the preaching of the Gospel is the great instrument- ality appointed by God for the salvation of men. They go in the hope of one day finding that which they know to be essential to their happiness even for this life. Others may be influenced by the force * Some very interesting investigations have been made in the churches in New England, the portion of the United States where the Gospel has been longest, most extensively, and most faithfully preached, which have shown in the most decisive manner that the " children of the Church," that is, the children of believers, who have been dedicated to God, many of them in baptism, have shared most largely in the blessing of God's grace ; and that nothing can be more completely unfounded than the reproach that "the children of Christians, and especially those of ministers and deacons, do worse than those of other people." The very reverse has been demonstrated by a widely-extended and carefully-prosecuted inquiry. Indeed, what other result could a man who believes the promises of God expect ? f Foreigners sometimes commit great mistakes from ignorance of our customs in this respect. A Spanish gentleman once called on the late Rev. Sylvester Lamed, of New Orleans, one of the most eloquent pulpit orators of the day, to say that he wished to join his church, and to receive the sacrament of the Supper, "for," said he, with an oath, M you are the most eloquent man I ever heard !" Mr. Earned spent an hour with him in explaining what was required in order to his becoming a member of his church ; in other words, what it is to be a true Christian ; and the Spaniard went away with a heavy heart, to reflect on a subject which had never before been presented to his mind in the same light. 378 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. of education, or by that of habit, by fashion, by the desire of seeing and being seen, by the charms of the preacher's eloquence, and similar motives. In no other part of the world, perhaps, do a larger propor- tion of the inhabitants attend church than in the United States ; certainly no portion of the Continent of Europe can compare with this country in that respect. The contrast must strike any one who, after having traveled much in the one, comes to see any of the cities of the other. New Orleans, which is hardly as yet an American city, constitutes a solitary exception ; and even it, in point of church attendance, is far better than Paris, Rome, Vienna, Hamburg, or Copenhagen. Not only do those who have not yet become members, by formal admission, attend our churches ; they form a very large part of our congregations. In many cases they constitute two thirds, three fourths, or even more ; this depending much on the length of the period during which the congregation has been organized ; and hardly ever less than a half, even in the most highly-favored churches. Nor do they attend only ; they are cheerful supporters of the public wor- ship, and are often found as liberal in contributing of their substance for the promotion of good objects, as the members of the church themselves, with whom they are intimately connected by thcordinary business of life, and by family ties. Multitudes of them are like the young man whom Jesus loved, but who still " lacked one thing." They attend from year to year, as did the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda, nor do they, in many cases, attend in vain* It pleases God to make the faithful preaching of His Word instrumental to the salvation now of one, now of another ; and sometimes, by a special outpouring of His Spirit, He brings many at the same time into His kingdom. The non-professing hearers of the Word, then, are to be considered as simply what we term them, members of the congregation, not of * In the State of Connecticut a series of most interesting inquiries have been prosecuted, during the last few years, under the auspices, I believe, of the General Association of the Congregational churches ; one of which relates to the influence of the faithful preaching of the Gospel in a community, upon the mass of those who hear it for a long time. The results are most striking, and clearly illustrate the bless- ing of the stated and regular use of the means of grace. It has been found that, of those who habitually attend churches where the Gospel is faithfully preached, the number that, sooner or later, are made to experience its saving power, is surprisingly great ; and, on the contrary, the number of those who die without giving evidence of possessing true piety is small. The investigation has been made in all parts of the State, and everywhere has conducted to the same important and delightful conclu- sion. I know not whether such inquiries have ever before been prosecuted so thor- oughly and extensively elsewhere. CHAP. V.] THE ADMINISTRATION OP DISCIPLINE. 379 the church. We can look, as I have said, for their assistance in many, if not in all good undertakings, as well as in the ordinary support of the Gospel. Many, in the character of trustees, are faithful guardians of the property of the church and congregation. Many teach in our Sunday-schools, and find instruction themselves in their endeavors to instruct others. One great advantage in this is, that unconverted men, who know themselves to be such, occupy their proper place. No law, no false custom, compels them to be members of the Church. Hence their position is, in several respects, less dangerous. They are less tempted to indulge self-delusion, and are more open to the direct, unimpeded shafts of the truth. Their position, too, tends to give them a remark- able simplicity and frankness of character. The term " Christian" generally signifies with us, not a mere believer in Christianity, but one who professes to be a disciple of Christ, and is known as such. Nine persons out of ten of those who make no profession of religion would, on being asked, " Are you a Christian ?" promptly reply, " No, I am sorry to say I am not ;" meaning thereby to acknowledge with regret that they are not truly religious men, or what the word Christian ought to signify, and is with us so often employed to ex- press. This is obviously better for unconverted persons — better for their own consciences — than to be involved in a church relation, and yet be without religion. It is every way better, also, for the pastor and for the church ; and the prospect of an entrance gained by the Word of God into the heart of the unrenewed is many times more encouraging than if they were members of the church, and had " a name to live" while in reality " dead in trespasses and sins." CHAPTER V. THE ADMINISTRATION OF DISCIPLINE. I have often been asked what measures are adopted by the Amer- ican churches to enforce discipline — how are unworthy persons, for instance, prevented from coming to the Lord's Table ? The very question indicates familiarity with a state of things very different from that which prevails in the United States — a state of things in which the decisions of ecclesiastical authority are enforced by the civil power. Church discipline with us, though wholly moral, is thought quite 380 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. sufficient. The case must be rare, indeed, where any one, not a member of some recognized church, comes forward to receive the sacrament in an evangelical church. He hears the qualifications ne- cessary to a worthy participation in the ordinance ; he knows that none but Christians of good repute in other churches are invited to join the members on the solemn occasion ; and if he belongs to nei- ther of these categories, he is not likely to unite himself to the Lord's people. But if he should do so, it is on his own responsibility before God : the church is not to be blamed for his conduct. Even were a person who had been excommunicated for open immorality, and uni- versally known as such, to take his seat among the members of the church, its office-bearers, in carrying round the sacred symbols of the Saviour's body and blood, would pass him by ; or, if that could not be done, would allow the matter to take its course rather than risk confusion at so solemn a moment, in the conviction that the church, having done her previous duty to the unhappy man, is not to blame for his unauthorized intrusion. I have known of a solitary occasion upon which one of the office-bearers whispered in the ear of a person who ought not to have been among the communicants, that it would be better for himself, as well as due to the church, that he should re- tire, and he did so. But this was unobserved by most of those imme- diately around, or, if observed, the cause of his withdrawal was un- known. No difficulty whatever, I repeat, can arise on this score. Our discipline is moral, and the people are well instructed on the subject of their duties. We have no gens cParmes, or other j>olice agents, to enforce our discipline, and if such functionaries are ever seen about our churches in any character but that of worshipers, it is on extra- ordinary occasions, to keep order at the door ; nor are their services often needed even for that purpose. In regard to church members who expose themselves to censure for open sin, or gross neglect of duty, they are dealt with according to the established discipline of the body to which they belong ; and that, in all our evangelical churches, is founded upon the simple and clear directions given by our Lord and His Apostles. Unworthy members, having been dealt with according to Scriptural rule, are excluded until they give evidence of sincere contrition for their sin. Where the case is flagrant, and the sin persisted in, after the failure of all attempts to reclaim the offender, he is openly excommunicated before the church and congregation. In other cases a less open de- claration of the offence and punishment takes place. But whatever be the course pursued, in all our evangelical churches unworthy men are excluded as soon as their offence can be proj:>erly taken up by the CHAP. VI.] CHARACTER OF AMERICAN PREACHING. 381 church. I state this as a general fact. Once excluded, the world does not long remain ignorant of what has taken place, and the church thus avoids the charge of retaining persons of scandalous lives in her communion.* Any defect in our administration of church discipline does not lie, I conceive, generally speaking, in its harshness and impatience ; while, on the other hand, there is nothing in the in- stitutions of the country, or in the opinions and habits of the people, to prevent it from being rigid as the legislation of the great Head of the Church demands. CHAPTER VI. CHARACTER OF AMERICAN PREACHING. Adequately to describe American preaching, one should be inti- mately acquainted with the Churches of the country throughout its vast extent : but this knowledge it falls to the lot of few to possess. Foreign writers on the subject have been either travelers, whose books betray a very limited acquaintance with the Churches and their ministers; or untraveled authors, whose judgment has been formed upon such specimens as they could find in printed discourses, or hear from the lips of preachers from the United States during visits to Europe. In either case, however impartial the judges, the data for forming a sound opinion upon the subject have been mani- festly insufficient. Except in Great Britain and Ireland, and to a very limited extent in Germany, American preaching is unknown, save from books and the reports of persons who have visited the country. As for the American preachers who have visited Europe, they have been few, and have been confined for the most part to those of three or four denominations. Yet there have been some who, while in Europe, reflected no discredit on themselves or their country as pulpit orators.f * The deposition' of a minister of the Gospel, when it occurs — and this, considering how numerous the ministry is, can not be thought frequent — is commonly announced in the religious and other journals, in order that the churches may be duly guarded against the admission of the deposed person into their pulpits, through ignorance of his character and present position. \ Among the American preachers whose visits are still remembered with interest in Great Britain (and some of them on the Continent also), but who are no longer with us, may be mentioned the Rev. Drs. Mason, Romeyn, Codman, Bruen, Henry, Hobart, Milnor, Emory, Fisk, Olin, and Clark, who were certainly no ordinary men. Of those who have visited Europe within the last few years, and who are still per- mitted to prosecute their work among us, are the Rev. Drs. Spring, Humphrey, Cox, 382 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. Preaching in the United States varies ejsceedingly both in manner and in substance ; but most in manner. The clergy in the Presbyte- rian, Congregational, Episcopal, Reformed Dutch, Lutheran, German Reformed, Moravian, Reformed Presbyterian, Associate, and Asso- ciate Reformed Churches, have, with few exceptions, passed through a regular course of education in Latin, Greek, the Natural and Moral Sciences, and Theology, such a course as is now pursued at our col- leges and theological seminaries. Many, especially the younger men, have some knowledge of Hebrew. As for the Baptist ministers, it is not easy to say how many have gone through a similar course — cer- tainly not half, perhaps not a fourth. A still smaller proportion of the Methodist preachers have had that advantage, though, upon the whole, they are probably as well informed as the Baptist ministers are. Ministerial education among the Cumberland Presbyterians is much in the same state as among the Methodists. The clergy of certain denominations, who have not passed through a collegiate course, are often spoken of, but very unjustly, as " unedu- cated," " unlearned," " illiterate," and so forth. Very many of such, however, have, by great application, made most respectable attain- ments. Some have acquired a considerable knowledge of the Latin and Greek classics, and a far greater number have, by the diligent perusal of valuable works in English, stored their minds with a large amount of sound learning, which they use with much effect in preach- ing. Nor is this surprising. One may acquire an immense fund of knowledge through the sole medium of the English tongue. Ben- jamin Franklin knew nothing of the ancient languages, and not much of any of the modern, beyond his mother tongue and French ; yet few men of his day were better informed, or wrote their mother tongue with equal purity. So, also, with Washington. And who ever used the English tongue with greater propriety and effect than Bunyan ; or where shall we find a sounder or abler theological writer than Andrew Fuller ? Yet neither Bunyan nor Fuller was ever at a college. It is a great, though common mistake, for example, to suppose that Sprague, Breckinridge, Patton, and Kirk, of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches ; Bethune and Ferris, of the Beformed Dutch ; Mcllvaine (bishop of Ohio), Meade (bishop of Virginia), Hawks, and Tyng, of the Episcopal; Stevens, Durbin, and Bishop Soule, of the Methodist ; Stowe, and Sears, of the Baptist ; and the Rev. Drs. Kurtz, Schmucker, and the Rev. Mr. Riley of the Lutheran and German Re- formed Churches. These gentlemen are widely known in Great Britain, and some of them on the Continent. The last three were kindly received in Germany, and heard with attention, both when they spoke of the infant seminaries for which they pleaded, as well as when they proclaimed "that Name which is above every name," and which is "like ointment poured forth." CHAP. VI.] CHAEACTER OF AMERICAN PREACHING. 383 Methodist ministers, when " on the circuit," read nothing. As there are generally two on each circuit, each has a good deal of time, es- pecially in the older portions of the country, for making up his re- ports, carrying on his correspondence, and prosecuting his studies; and that this last is done to some good purpose is clearly shown by the preaching of the great majority. Those who are stationed in the cities and large towns have as much time for study as other ministers similarly situated. Many Baptist ministers, also, who have never at- tended college, are close students, and prepare carefully for the pul- pit ; while others, of whom so much can not be said, give themselves much to the reading of favorite authors. Nearly all the Episcopal and Congregational clergy write their ser- mons, and read more or less closely when delivering them. So do many of the Presbyterian and Reformed Dutch, and some, also, of the Baptist ministers. A large proportion of the Presbyterian and Baptist clergy, and nearly all the ministers of the Methodist, Cum- berland Presbyterian, and some other evangelical denominations, neither write their sermons in full, nor read any considerable part of them. Few, however, of any Church, commit their sermons to mem- ory ; the great majority of such as do not read out their discourses, carefully study the subjects of them, and generally note down the principal heads to be used in the pulpit. The delivery of the ministers who read is not, in general, very ani- mated ; still, it is in most instances sufficiently attractive to interest hearers endued with any capacity for distinguishing between sound and sense. Good reading, though in all countries much more rare than attractive and effective speaking, will generally be preferred by hearers of high intellectual acquirements. Ministers of all denominations who do not read their discourses, possess a much more animated delivery, and generally display more of what may be called " oratory" in their manner, than their brethren who read. But their sermons can hardly have the same order, clear- ness, and freedom from repetition. Still, they need not be deficient in instruct! ven ess, and they have greatly the advantage in point of fervor, and in those direct and powerful appeals which owe their effect almost as much to look, tone, and manner, as to the truths which the speaker expresses. N"'ot that such appeals can be of much avail if no truth be conveyed by them, but truth may become much more effect- ive when pressed upon the attention in an attractive and impressive manner. Those of the clergy of the Evangelical Churches in the United States who have passed through a regular classical and theological course of education — and who in point of numbers may be estimated 384 THE CHUKCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA [BOOK V. at more than twelve thousand — would, taken as ,a whole, be pro- nounced less animated than the most celebrated preachers in Great Britain and Ireland, France and Germany, and, I may add, Denmark and Sweden. Not a few of them, however, are not wanting? in fervor, and even fire in their delivery. But this is not the case with those of our ministers who have had a less complete education, and have been very differently trained. Our Methodist ministers have a certain course of reading prescribed to them for the four probation- ary years preceding their being ordained elders or presbyters. Dur- ing that time they have their circuit labors to perform ; what they learn is put to instant use, and incorporated, as it were, with their very being. Now, this preparatory course has no tendency to keep down the eagerness for energetic preaching, so much felt by men who regard themselves as called by God to preach His Gospel, but which is so much restrained by the precise knowledge and artificial rules of eloquence taught in colleges. Besides, as they generally preach to moderate assemblages, and these, in many cases, mainly composed of the plainer classes, they are far less apt to feel embar- rassed than youths who, having first spent several years at a college, and then several more at a theological seminary, have acquired so fastidious a taste, and have become so nervously sensible to the slightest deviations from the strictest rules of grammar and rhetoric, ithat they almost dread to speak at all, lest they should offend against both. But the grand advantage possessed by the Methodist itinerant preacher, and one which, if he has any talent at all, he can not fail to profit by, is, that he may repeat in many or all of the eight, ten, or more places in his circuit, the discourse with which he sets out, pre- pared during intervals of repose. This frequent repetition of the same sermon is an inestimable means of improvement. Each repeti- tion admits of some modification, as the discourse is not written out ; and enables the preacher to remedy what seemed faulty, and to sup- ply what seemed deficient in the preceding effort. No men, accord- ingly, with us become readier or more effective speakers. Their diction may not always be as pure as that of men who have spent several years in the schools ; yet it is surprising with what propriety vast numbers express themselves, while in forcible and effective de- livery they far surpass multitudes of preachers who have passed through the colleges. What has been said of the Methodists applies to the Cumberland Presbyterians, a body of Christians of whom we shall give some ac- count hereafter, and who are to be found almost exclusively in the West and South-west. Like the Methodists, they have circuit or itinerant preachers, and about one half of their ministers have never CHAP. VI.] CHARACTER OF AMERICAN PREACHING. 385 pursued a course of study at college. These remarks may be applied, also, "but not to the same extent, to what is called — neither with strict propriety, nor always in kindliness of feeling — the "uneducated" por- tion of Baptist preachers. They have not the advantages of the itin- eracy, and many of them are too much occupied with their secular pursuits to spare much time for study. Still, among them, also, there will be found a great deal of energetic eloquence — rather homely at times, yet often highly effective — and flowing from a mind more in- tent upon its conceptions than upon the language in which they are to be clothed, and more desirous of producing a lasting effect on the understanding and hearts of the hearers than of exciting admiration for the graces of a fine style and elegant delivery. Some of the tourists who visit the United States affect to despise our " uneducated" and " ignorant" ministers, and think what they call the "ranting" of such men a fit subject of diversion for them- selves and their readers. Such authors know little of the real worth and valuable labors of these humble, and, in comparison with such as have studied at colleges and universities, unlettered men. Their plain preaching, in fact, is often far more likely to benefit their ordin- ary audiences* than would that of a learned docter of divinity issuing from some great university. Their language, though not always re- fined, is intellioible to those whom it addresses. Their illustrations may not be classical, but they will probably be drawn either from the Bible or from scenes amid which their hearers move, and the events with which they are familiar ; nor would the critical acumen of a Porson, or the vast learning of a Parr, be likely to make them more successful in their work. I have often heard most solemn and edify- ing discourses from such men. I have met with them hi all parts of the United States ; and though some, doubtless, bring discredit upon the ministry by their ignorance, their eccentricities, or their incapac- ity, yet, taken as a whole, they are a great blessing to the country. A European who should denounce the United States as uncivilized, and the inhabitants as wretched, because he does not everywhere find the luxuries and refinements of London and Paris, would display no more ignorance of the world, nor a greater want of common sense, than in despising the plain preaching of a man who enters the pulpit with a mind replete with Scriptural knowledge, obtained by * Let me not be misunderstood. I would not for a moment convey the idea that the people who attend the preaching of the non-classically educated Methodist and Baptist ministers consist only of the poor and uneducated. On the contrary, in many places, both in the North and in the South, they have a fair share of the most intelli- gent and respectable part of the population among their hearers. At the same time, it has ever been the peculiar glory of the former, indeed, of both, that through their labors "the poor have the Gospel preached to them." 25 386 THE CHUECH AND THE PULPIT US" AMEKICA. [BOOK V. frequent perusal of the Bible, and the assistance of valuable commen- taries, besides being generally well-informed, and having a heart full of love to God and concern for men's souls, even although he may never have frequented the groves of an academy, or studied the nicer graces of oratory. To the labors of such men tens of thousands of neighborhoods in the United States are indebted for their general good order, tranquillity, and happiness, as well as for the humble but sincere piety that reigns in many a heart, and around many a fireside. To them the country owes much of its conservative character, for no men have inculcated more effectively those doctrines which promote obedience to law, respect for magistracy, and the maintenance of civil government ; and never more than within the last few years, during which they have had to resist the anarchical principles of self- styled reformers, both religious and political. No men are more hated and reviled by these demagogues, whose projects, I rejoice to say, find comparatively a small and decreasing number of friends and advocates. To the influence of the pulpit, and that of the religious and sound part of the political press, we owe a return of better senti- ments in several States, in relation to capital punishments in the case of murder in its highest degree, and the more frequent condemnation and execution of those who commit it. And in an insurrectionary movement in Rhode Island, some years ago, the leading journals of that State attested that the clergy of all denominations exerted a highly salutary influence.* But the subject of preaching ought to be viewed in its highest and most important aspect — that of the salvation of souls. The first characteristic of American preaching is, I should say, simplicity. It is simple in the form of discourse most usually adopted by the better-educated part of the ministry. The most natural and obvious view of a subject is preferred to the far-fetched, it may be the philosophical. The grand aim of our preachers, taken as a body, is rather to present the true meaning of a text than to produce what is called effect. Again, preaching in the United States is simple in point of language, the plain and familiar being preferred to the ornate and rhetorical. Such of our preachers as wish to be perfectly intelli- gible, prefer words of Saxon to those of Latin origin, as being better understood by the people. Vigor, too, is preferred to beauty, and perspicuity to embellishment. Not that we have no preachers whose composition is ornate, and even elegant, but I speak of the mass. Lastly, our preaching is simple in respect to delivery. The manner * "Nothing," says the Providence Journal of July, 1842, "has filled the enemies of law and order with greater rage than the high and noble stand taken by the clergy against their insurrectionary doctrines." CHAP. VI.] CHARACTER OF AMERICAN PREACHING. 387 of our preachers, their gestures, and their intonation, must be allowed to be extremely simple. There is little of the rhetorician's art in it, little that is studied and theatrical. There may be animation, and in some cases even vehemence, accompanied with a loud and power- ful utterance, but the manner remains simple — the hearer's attention is not ordinarily diverted from what is said to him that says it. Truth, accordingly, has, so to speak, a better chance of making its way to the hearts of the audience, than when announced with all the fascinations of a splendid address and captivating manner. Nor do our ministers affect a peculiar manner or intonation,* such as prevail in some countries, but every good preacher endeavors to take with him into the pulpit what is natural and habitual to himself in that respect. The second grand characteristic of American preaching lies in its being serious and earnest. Thanks be to God, the preachers of our evangelical Churches seem, in general, to be truly converted men, and preach as if they felt the infinite importance of what they say. " We believe, and therefore speak," seems to be the mainspring of all their endeavors, and to give the tone to all their preaching. They feel it to be a serious office to speak to dying men of their immortal souls, and help them to prepare for death, judgment, and eternity. They would recoil from the task under an overwhelming sense of its awfulness, were it not that they believe themselves called to it by the Holy Ghost. " Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel," are the words that often address themselves to their hearts, and urge them to the faithful discharge of their vows. Can we wonder that the preaching of such men is serious and earnest ? A third characteristic of American preaching is its dwelling much upon immediate reconciliation with God, by sincere repentance toward Him, and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Reconcilia- tion with God ! that is the great duty urged by the Gospel, and the doing of that duty " now," " to-day," while it is "the accepted time," and " the day of salvation," not postponing it till to-morrow, or a " more convenient season," is the lesson mainly urged by our evan- gelical ministers generally, so as to form a prominent characteristic of their preaching. This it is that communicates to their preaching so much of the style of Richard Baxter, as exhibited in his writings. * Many of the Methodist and Baptist preachers have more of what may be called English intonation than those of other denominations. This may doubtless be as- cribed to the influence of some leading English preachers, such as Drs. Coke and Ashbury among the former, and the late Dr. Staughton and others among the latter. This I mention not by way of disparagement, but solely because it appears to me to be a real peculiarity. 388 THE CHUKCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. ISTo excuse, no delay on the part of the unconverted sinner can "be ac- cepted ; the solemn call to repent, and seek now the salvation of his never-dying soul is sounded in his ear, and no peace is given until he has not only heard but obeyed it. A fourth characteristic of American preaching is its highly doctrinal nature. This is particularly the case with the discourses of such of our ministers as have passed through a regular course of classical and theological studies ; and of these the preachers who write and read their discourses indulge rather more, perhaps, than those who speak from premeditation merely, in what may be called a dogmatic style, using the word in its original signification. And although with the others the practical and hortatory style may prevail over the doc- trinal and exegetical, yet the latter has unquestionably a very consid- erable place in their sermons, as all will admit who have regularly attended such preaching for a sufficient time. Many of our pastors expound certain portions of the Bible in order ; but this, the most difficult, and yet, when happily done, the most profitable of all meth- ods of presenting truth, is not, I am sorry to say, so common as it ouoht to be. The Bible-classes, may, perhaps, be considered, so far, a substitute for it. As a fifth characteristic of our method of homiletics, I may state that it is systematic or consecutive. What I mean is, that the best preaching in our evangelical churches maintains a proper connection among the discourses successively delivered from the same pulpit, instead of presenting in each a separate or isolated statement of truth. A preacher ought, indeed, to change his topics according to the cir- cumstances and character of his hearers. But there is such a thing as dwelling on a subject in all its bearings, in successive discourses, so as to make it more thoroughly understood, and convey a deeper im- pression than could otherwise be done. And there is such a thing, also, as presenting all the subjects which should constitute the themes of a preacher's discourses in their proper connection with, and rela- tion to, one another. Preaching on isolated subjects, without any connecting link, and of which no better account can be given than that the preacher finds them easy to preach upon, is not likely to do much good. This is not the method chosen by men when they would fain produce a deep and effectual impression on any other subject. Thev strive, by all possible means, to present it in all its aspects and bearings, and do not quit one point until they have well established it. They cause every succeeding statement and argument to bear upon and strengthen that which preceded, and in this way make it mani- fest that they are steadily tending to a great final result, from which nothing, not even want of systematic process in argumentation, must CHAP. YI.] CHARACTER OF AMERICAN PREACHING. 389 be allowed for a moment to divert them. It is with them, "line upon line, line upon line ; precept upon precept, precept upon precept ;" and as the blacksmith can expect to shape the heated iron only by directing his hammer to the same point and its immediate vicinity in many successive blows, so the minister does not hope for success in opening the eyes of blind sinners, or rightly guiding those who are scarcely more than half awake, but by oft-repeated and faithful pre- sentation of the same truths in all their bearings. This characteristic can hardly be called a prevailing one, for, alas ! with a good deal of systematic preaching, we have still too much, even among our settled clergy, of that sort which, with more emphasis than elegance, has been called scattering. A sixth characteristic of American preaching is the extent to which it may be called philosophical. By philosophical I mean, founded on a knowledge of the faculties and powers of the human mind, and of the principles which govern its operations. Though not universal, this fact distinguishes the evangelical clergy of New England in par- ticular, and others who have devoted much of their time to theology as a study. Much that is true, and much, also, that is absurd, has been said against introducing philosophy into religion. True philos- ophy, in its proper place, is a valuable auxiliary or handmaid, rather than an enemy to theology ; but when she ceases to be a servant and assumes the mastery, undertaking that for which she is incompetent, she fails in doing the good she might otherwise have done, and be- comes purely mischievous.* * "I think," says M. de Tocqueville, " that in no country in the civilized world is less attention paid to philosophy than in the United States. The Americans have no philosophical school of their own ; and they care but little for all the schools into which Europe is divided, the very names of which are scarcely known to them. Nevertheless, it is easy to perceive that almost all the inhabitants of the United States conduct their understanding in the same manner, and govern it by the same rules ; that is to say, that without ever having taken the trouble to define the rules of a philosophical method, they are in possession of one, common to the whole people."* I have read with unmingled astonishment these opinions, which are faithfully trans- ferred from the author's original. Certainly one rarely finds such an acknowledg- ment of a widely-existing effect, for which the proper and only possible cause is denied. The fact is, that in few countries in the civilized world is philosophy, in the sense in which this word is used on the Continent, viz., metaphysical or psychological science, more pursued, at least to all practicable and valuable ends, than in the United States. There is scarcely a college — at least a Protestant one, and there are over one hundred such — in which it is not studied with no little care by the students in the last year of the course. In addition to reading such authors as Locke, Eeid, Dugald Stuart, Brown, etc., the professor of that department gives lectures or explan- ations of the text-book employed. Thus do the thousands of young collegians mako * Democracy in America, part ii., chap. i. (Reeves's translation), p. 1. 390 THE CHTTECH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. A seventh feature of the American pulpit is directness. This dis- tinguishes our preaching so generally that it were hard to say which of the evangelical denominations has most of it. Everywhere we shall find it the preacher's object, first of all, to be perfectly under- stood, and then to preach to the heart and conscience, as well as to the understanding. In doing this great plainness of speech is used, and care taken to avoid every thing by which the barbed dart may be arrested before it reaches the heart at which it is aimed. An eighth characteristic of American preaching is its faithfulness. I know not how often I have been asked in Europe whether our min- isters are not intimidated by the rich and influential in their congre- gations who may dislike the truth. The question has not a little surprised me, for I had never dreamed that the courage of evangeli- cal ministers in preaching the Gospel could be doubted. The de- pendence of our ministers upon their flocks for their salaries seems not to affect in the least their faithfulness in preaching " repentance toward God," and " faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." The rela- tion between pastor and people is certainly more intimate and kindly, and calls for more mutual forbearance, than where the law makes the former wholly independent of the latter. But the very kindness, tenderness of feeling, and respect which it creates, are only additional motives to render a good minister faithful to the souls of those with whom he maintains such an interesting relation, and who show him so many proofs of affection. Most certainly facts do not establish the superior faithfulness of ministers who are independent of their flocks, taken as a body. On the contrary, this very independence often leads to indolence, neglect, and, sometimes, even to insolence, quali- ties which it ill becomes a minister of Christ to display, and which are utterly inconsistent with the Gospel. And it may safely be affirmed that, with us, the great majority of men who have been considerable proficiency in this science, especially in its more popular and practical aspects. And thus do our public men, our professional men, all, in a word, who have passed through college (and they are the men, with few exceptions, that most influ- ence the public mind), become acquainted with the principles that guide the opera- tions of the human mind. There is not a country in the world, not even excepting Scotland itself, where metaphysics have so much influence upon preaching as in New England ; indeed, they have sometimes had too much influence. We have not in the United States great jprofessors who occupy themselves with nothing but philos- ophy, and who have rivaled Kant, Hegel, and Schelling, in the nature of their spec- ulations ; nor is it likely that we ever shall have such. The nature of our Anglo- Saxon mind hardly admits of the thing. Besides, we have too much public life, and too much to engross our attention to allow us to prosecute extensively unpractical speculations. Nevertheless, we have a few men, such as Mr. Ralph "W. Emerson, of Boston, who equal Mr. Carlyle himself in admiration of the German transcendental- ists, and have, probably, come quite as near to understanding them. CHAP. VI.] CHARACTER OF AMERICAN PREACHING. 391 brought up under evangelical preaching, but who have not yet been converted, would rather have a faithful than an unfaithful pastor. They know that religion, though they profess it not, is of vast im- portance, and they know well the difference between him that preaches " smooth things," and him that faithfully declares the " counsel of the Lord." Not only does their conscience approve of the former rather than the latter, but they feel that there is far more prospect of their salvation under the ministry of the one than of the other. Besides, other things being equal, a man who preaches faith- fully " Christ crucified," is sure to prove, in the end, a more attractive preacher than he who does not. For what theme can be compared with that of the love of God toward sinners of mankind, and the gift of His Son to redeem them from destruction ? Therefore, if a man wishes to be esteemed and supported by his people, let him be faithful ; that is, in the sense in which Paul was faithful, who was, also, neither rash nor unfeeling, but, on the contrary, prudent and mild, and strove to commend himself, " in love," to all to whom he preached the " unsearchable riches of the Gospel." The ninth characteristic of American preaching is, that it is emi- nently practical. Not only are the unconverted urged to " acquaint themselves with God, and be at peace, that thereby good may come to them," and believers exhorted to " grow in grace, and hi the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ," but the latter are also urged, from the moment of their conversion, to commence living for God, and for the salvation of men. The doctrine has of late years been more and more preached, that every Christian, whatever his sphere in life, is under obligation to live for the salvation of others ; and that by his conversation, by his holy example, as well as by personal sacrifices, he should do all that he can to promote this salvation far and near. Blessed be God, this style of preaching is not without effect. It is, under God's blessing, the cause of the annually increasing efforts made by Christians of this land, for the building up of Christ's king- dom, both at home and abroad. A tenth characteristic of American preaching, and the last that we shall name, is, that it speaks much of the work of the Spirit. I know of no one idea that has been so dominant in the American Churches for the last himdred years as that of the importance of the office and work of the Holy Spirit. The need in which" the world lies of the operations of this holy Agent, the indispensableness of His co-opera- tion with the preaching of the Gospel, and the use of all other means to effect the salvation of men, together with the gracious promise of this great ascension gift of the crucified and exalted Saviour, are 392 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. themes on which the ministry of the evangelical Churches in America often dwells, and not in vain. We come now to the consideration of the question of Revivals of Religion in America : a subject of the greatest importance, and, at the same time, attended with no ordinary difficulties in the minds of some. I would therefore earnestly call the attention of such, and, indeed, of all who may read this volume, to the chapter that follows. Though long, it will well reward them for any attention they may bestow upon it. I know not where the whole subject has been so well presented in any language, and can not but hope that, with God's blessing, it will prove eminently useful. The distinguished friend and professor to whom I am indebted for it, and of whom I have spoken in the Introduction, is, probably, better qualified by his position, and by his experience, to write such an article than any other man in the United States. God grant that the day may speedily arrive when the dispensation of the Spirit will be better understood and appreciated in all parts of Christendom than it is at present; and when the abundant gift of this blessed Agent will fill the Churches with light, and life, and holiness. No where, as it seems to me, is the Holy Spirit honored as He ought to be, and must be, before the world will be converted. This is true of even the best portions of the Protestant Churches ; while as to some of the rest, as well as the Roman Cath- olics in mass, it would seem as if they had not yet " heard whether there be any Holy Spirit." CHAPTER VII. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. Extraordinary seasons of religious interest, denominated Revivals of Religion, have existed in the American Churches from a very early period of their history. The cause of this peculiarity in the dispen- sation of Divine grace may be traced, in part, to the peculiar charac- ter and circumstances of the first settlers of the country. They were English Puritans, who had suffered the severest persecution for their principles in their native land, and who fled into the wilderness to en- joy those principles unmolested, and to carry them out in their full extent. The leading point in controversy between our fathers and the En- glish government was freedom of worship ; the right to have the Gospel preached among them, in its most searching application to the CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 393 conscience and the heart, " without human mixture or impositions.'' To secure this privilege, they willingly "endured the loss of all things," and it was therefore natural that they should prize it highly. Accordingly,, the attachment of the first settlers of New England to the ordinance of public worship, and especially the reliance they placed on "the preaching of the word" as the chief instrument, under God, for the conversion of their children and dependants, were among the most striking traits in their character. Strict as they were, even to sternness, in family discipline ; literally as they obeyed the injunc- tion, " Thou shalt teach these things diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest in the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up," they still felt that it is the Truth pre-eminently, as dispensed in " the great congregation," under the combined influence of awakened sympathy and awe of the Divine presence, which is made by the Holy Spirit " the power of God unto salvation." This feeling modified all their habits and institutions as a people. It made them settle in vil- lages around their places of worship, and not, like their Southern neigh- bors, upon scattered plantations ; it led them to support two religious teachers for each of their infant churches ; it founded colleges for the preparation of a ministry adequate to these high duties ; it established week-day lectures, on which those who lived in the outer settlements, at the distance of six or eight miles, felt it a privilege and a duty reg- ularly to attend ; it pervaded, in short, all the arrangements of society, and gave a prominence to preaching, a disposition to multiply relig- ious meetings, and a reliance upon this mode of urging truth upon the conscience, greater, perhaps, than has ever existed among any other people. Another trait in the character of the first settlers of New England, in common with their brethren at home, was a strong faith and ex- pectation of special answers to prayer. The English Puritans never regarded prayer as a mere means of grace, but (what it truly is) as a means of moving God, of inducing Him to grant what He could not otherwise be expected to bestow. Nor did they stop here. They did not expect merely the blessing of God in general on the requests they made, but direct and specific answers, according to their need, in every pressing emergency. This strong faith in the efficacy of prayer the first settlers of New England carried with them when they fled into the wilderness. It was their support and consolation under all the trials of famine, pestilence, and savage warfare. They felt that special and extraordinary answers were often vouchsafed them when they cried to God ; that there were periods in their history when His arm was made bare for their deliverance, in a manner scarcely less 394 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. remarkable than if He had interposed by direct miracle ; and the re- sult was, that the spirit of the early New England Christians was emphatically a spirit of prayer / which led them to the throne of grace, with the highest confidence of being heard, on every occasion of especial interest to themselves, their families, and the Church. To see the connection of these two traits of character with the spirit of revivals, we have only to consider the influence they would naturally exert at one of the most interesting crises which can ever happen to a minister and his church — I mean the commencement of increased thoughtfulness among the unconverted part of the congre- gation. Such seasons exist, at times, in every place where the Gospel is faithfully preached. Some alarming providence, some general calamity which weakens for a time the fascination of worldly things, some impressive sermon, some instances of sudden conversion, may strike upon the consciences of considerable numbers at once, and awaken that latent sense of guilt and danger, which it is impossi- ble for the most thoughtless wholly to suppress. At such a period, how has many a pastor felt, both in Europe and America, that if he could then enjoy the hearty co-operation and fervent prayers of the whole body of his church ; if he could draw the impenitent around him in more frequent meetings, and hold their minds fixed in the steady and prolonged contemplation of Divine truth, while the world was shut out from view, and the seriousness of one might spread by contact till it reached the hearts of many ; how has he felt, that, by the blessing of God, this interest in religion might extend throughout the whole congregation ; might rise to deep anxiety and pungent con- viction ; that the Holy Spirit might be present to renew the hearts of many ; and that more might be done for the salvation of his peo- ple in a few weeks or months, than, under ordinary circumstances, in as many years ! And what would this be, if his desires were realized, but a revival of religion, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as a result of the prayers and efforts of the people of God ! Now I need not say how entirely the early settlers of New England were prepared, by the traits of character described above, to enter at once on this very course of action. Prayer and preaching were the living princi- ple of their institutions ; special prayer upon special emergencies, with the confident expectation of direct and specific answers ; preaching, the most plain and pungent, enforcing those peculiar doctrines of grace which humble man and exalt God, and which have in every age been made " powerful to the pulling down of strongholds." There was much, also, in the state of their infant settlements to favor the desired result. They were a world within themselves, cut off by their dis- tance and poverty from most of the alluring objects which seize on CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 395 the hearts of the unconverted in a more advanced state of society. They were all of one faith ; there was none among them to question or deny the necessity of a work of the Spirit ; and the minds of their children were prepared, by their early religious training, to bow sub- missively under the sacred influence. In these circumstances, how natural was it to multiply the means of grace upon any appearance of increased seriousness ; to press with redoubled zeal and frequency to the throne of God in prayer ; to urge their children and depend- ants, with all the fervor of Christian affection, to seize the golden op- portunity, and make their " calling and election sure," to remove, as far as possible, every obstacle of business or amusement out of the way ; and to concentrate the entire interest of their little communi- ties on the one object of the soul's salvation ! How natural that these labors and prayers should be blessed of God ; that the Truth preached under these circumstances should be made, like " the fire and the hammer, to break in pieces the flinty rock ;" that extraordinary effu- sions of the Holy Spirit should be granted ; that there should be an " awakening," as it was then called, or, in modern language, a revival OF EELIGION ! That such was actually the result in numerous instances we have the fullest evidence. The celebrated Jonathan Edwards, author of the " Treatise on the Will," states that his grandfather, who preceded him as pastor of the church in Northampton, Massachusetts, was favored during his ministry with five seasons of this kind, which he called his " harvests," occurring at various intervals during the space of forty years. His father, he also says, had four or five similar periods of " refreshing from on high" among the people of his charge ; and he adds, that such had been the case with many other of the early ministers ; that no one could tell when awakenings commenced in New England ; that they must have been very nearly coeval with its first settlement. Some of the States further South were settled, to a limited extent, by Presbyterians from the west of Scotland and the north of Ireland, who had also suffered persecution. Many of these had the same general traits of character, and especially the same absorbing interest in religion, with their New England brethren. In addition to this, they had brought with them the cherished tradition of several re- markable outpourings of the Holy Spirit in their native land, at Kilsyth, at Stewarton, at Irvine, at the Kirk of Shotts, and in the county of Antrim, which led them to pray for and expect similar dis- pensations of the Spirit to their infant churches. These, at a later period, shared largely in the influences of Divine grace, and handed down the spirit of revivals to their descendants. 396 THE CHUKCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. The early awakenings, mentioned above, seem to have been gene- rally of a calm and silent character ; and it rarely happened that two congregations in the same neighborhood were visited at the same time. In the year 1735, a remarkable change took place in this re- spect. An increased power, and wider extent, were given to the dispensation of the Spirit : a large tract of country became in this and the following year the seat of numerous awakenings, which about this time took the name of revivals. As this forms an important epoch in the history of our revivals, I shall dwell upon it somewhat at large, and then trace more briefly the progress of these works of grace down to the present time. The revival of 1735 commenced at Northampton, Massachusetts, under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. The town, at an earlier period, had enjoyed five awakenings, mentioned above ; but at this time religion had suffered a very great decline, not only in North- ampton, but in New England at large. A pernicious practice had been gradually introduced of admitting persons to full communion in the Church on the gronnd of a blameless external deportment, with- out strict inquiry into their religious experience, or decisive evidence of renewing grace. The disastrous consequences were soon felt. The tone of spiritual feeling was lowered hi the churches by the admission of many who had a " name to live, but were dead." Prayer and effort for the salvation of the impenitent had greatly decreased; and, as a natural consequence, there had been for more than thirty years a very marked suspension of Divine influence throughout New En- gland. The preaching of Mr. Edwards which gave rise to this revival, like all preaching which prepares the way for extensive reformations, was doctrinal in its character. He dwelt with great force of argument and closeness of application on the leading doctrines of grace — which had begun to lose their power in the prevailing declension — -justifica- tion by faith alone, the necessity of the Spirit's influences, and kindred topics. Under such preaching, in connection with a sudden and alarming providence, in the beginning of 1735, a solemn, and very soon an overwhelming interest in religious truth, pervaded the whole town. For the space of six months, the revival went on with a power and extent never before known. Hardly a family could be found in the place in which there were not one or more under conviction of sin, or rejoicing in hope. So entire was the absorption hi the interests of the soul, that a report went abroad that the people of Northamp- ton had abandoned all worldly employments, and given themselves wholly up to the pursuit of eternal life ; and though this was an ex- CnAP. VII.] EEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 397 ao-seration, it is true that Mr. Edwards found it necessary to remind some of his flock that their secular duties were not to be neglected. The enlightened character of the population, all of whom were well educated (all, even the poorest, being taught in the same schools at the public expense), guarded them effectually against fanaticism; while, at the same time, the strength of emotion which prevailed, the distress under a sense of sin, and the joy in giving the heart to God, were, in most cases, far greater than in the early awakenings. The work was confined to no class or age. Ten persons above ninety, and more than fifty above forty years of age ; nearly thirty between ten and fourteen, and one of only four, became, in the view of Mr. Ed- wards, subjects of renewing grace. More than three hundred were added to the Church as the fruits of this revival, making the whole number of communicants about six hundred and twenty, being nearly the entire adult population of the town, which consisted of two hun- dred families. I will only add, that Mr. Edwards's well-known prin- ciples on the subject led him to guard his people, throughout the revival, with the most watchful care, against hasty and delusive hopes of having experienced renewing grace. He conversed with each in- dividual separately, not only while under conviction of sin, but in repeated instances after the supposed change of heart took place ; pointing out the evidences and nature of true piety ; warning them against self-deception, and leading them to the strictest examination into their spiritual state. Such has been the course pursued in the New England churches generally, down to the present day ; and the consequence has been, that neither in that revival, nor in most of our well-conducted revivals, has there been reason to suppose that more persons were self-deceived than in the ordinary accessions to the Church at times of no prevailing religious concern. The scenes presented in this work of grace were so striking and wonderful as to awaken the liveliest interest in the whole country round. Many flocked to Northampton from the impulse of curiosity, or even worse motives ; not a few of whom, struck with the order, solemnity, and strength of feeling which they everywhere witnessed, and cut to the heart by the powerful appeals of Mr. Edwards in the meetings they attended, were themselves brought under conviction of sin. Many of these gave evidence of genuine repentance after they returned home, and did much to extend the work into the places where they belonged. Members of the neighboring churches, also, and ministers of the Gospel from parts more remote, resorted thither to witness the triumphs of redeeming grace ; to catch the spirit of the revival, and bear it — a spirit of hope, and prayer, and fervent effort — to the towns where they resided. The blessing of God, in many in- 398 THE CHUECH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. stances, went with them ; the work spread from place to place, until, in less than a year, ten of the adjacent towns in Massachusetts, and seventeen in Connecticut, lying directly south of them, were favored with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit ; and some remote places were visited in other States, where settlements had been made by emi- grants from New England, or by the Scottish Presbyterians spoken of above. Many thousands gave evidence in their subsequent lives of having experienced a genuine conversion in this work of grace. In 1740, revivals commenced anew at Northampton, Boston, and many other places, very nearly at the same time, and spread within eighteen months throughout all the English colonies. For some time, this appears to have been, to an unusual degree, a silent, power- ful, and glorious work of the Spirit of God. An eye-witness states, under date of May, 1741, that from Philadelphia to the remotest set- tlements beyond Boston, a distance of nearly five hundred miles, there was in most places more or less concern for the soul. " Whole colleges are under conviction, and many savingly converted. Our minister (Mr. Pemberton, of New York), being sent for to Yale Col- lege on account of the many distressed persons there, in his going and coming preached twice a day on the road, and even children followed him to his lodgings, weeping and anxiously concerned about the salvation of their souls." At a later period, however, some were unhappily betrayed into intemperate zeal, which called forth opposi- tion, and produced great excitement and contention. Mr. Edwards came forward with his usual ability to defend the work, and, at the same time, repress undue excesses. One hundred and sixty of the most respectable mmisters of New England, New York, and New Jersey, joined in a public attestation to its genuineness and purity in most places, while they united with Mr. Edwards in condemning the improprieties which had occurred in too many instances. But a spirit of jealousy and strife was engendered, which is always fatal to the progress of a revival. It therefore terminated in the year 1743. Notwithstanding these unfortunate admixtures of human imperfec- tion, the work, as a whole, was most evidently shown by its results to have been of God. Those who had the best means of judging, es- timated the number of true converts, as proved by their subsequent lives, at thirty thousand in New England alone, at a time when the whole population was but three hundred thousand; besides many thousands more among the Presbyterians of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the more southern settlements. It will interest the reader to know, that about this time there was an outpouring of the Spirit upon one of our Indian tribes, correspond- CHAP. VII.] EEVIVALS OP RELIGION. 399 ing exactly in its character and effects to the widely-extended work of grace among the whites. In June, 1745, David Brainard, who has been so extensively known for his piety and missionary zeal, began to labor among a small collection of Indians in New Jersey. For the first six weeks, they manifested such entire indifference and stupid unconcern, that he was about to leave them, in despair, when he was somewhat en- couraged by the conversion of his interpreter. The interest with which this man now entered into the subject, and the warmth and unction with which he translated Mr. Brainard's discourses, struck the Indians with surprise, and arrested their attention. " On the 8th of August," says Mr. Brainard in his journal (which I slightly abridge), " I preached to the Indians, now about sixty-five in num- ber. There was much visible concern among them when I discoursed publicly ; but afterward, when I spoke to one and another particu- larly, the power of God seemed to descend upon them like c a mighty rushing wind.' Almost all persons, of all ages, were bowed down with concern together, and were scarcely able to withstand the shock. Old men and women, who had been drunken wretches for many years, and some children, appeared in distress for their souls. One who had been a murderer, apoio-woio or conjurer, and a notorious drunkard, was brought to cry for mercy with many tears. A young Indian woman, who, I believe, never before knew that she had a soul, had come to see what was the matter. She called on me on her way, and when I told her that I meant presently to preach to the Indians, she laughed, and seemed to mock. I had not proceeded far in my public discourse when she felt effectually that she had a soul ; and before the discourse closed, was so distressed with concern for her soul's salvation, that she seemed like one pierced through with a dart." Such scenes were repeated in a number of instances during the following eight weeks. Some months after, in reviewing the events of this revival, he says, " This surprising concern was never excited by any harangues of terror, but always appeared most re- markable when I insisted on the compassion of a dying Saviour, the plentiful provisions of the Gospel, and the free offer of Divine grace to needy sinners. The effects have been very remarkable. I doubt not that many of these people have gained more doctrinal knowledge of Divine truth since I visited them in June last, than could have been instilled into their minds by the most diligent use of proper and in- structive means for whole years together without such a Divine influ- ence. They seem generally divorced from their drunkenness, which is 'the sin that easily besets them.' A principle of honesty and justice appears among them, and they seem concerned to discharge 400 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. their old debts, which they have neglected, and, perhaps, scarcely thought of for years. Love seems to reign among them, especially those who have given evidence of having passed through a saving change. Their consolations do not incline them to lightness, hut on the contrary, are attended with solemnity, and often with tears and apparent brokenness of heart." After some months of probation, he baptized forty-seven out of less than one hundred, who composed the settlement. Surely we may unite with him in saying, " I think there are here all the evidences of a remarkable work of grace among the Indians which can reasonably be expected." The fifty years that followed were years of war and civil commo- tion ; first in a conflict of nearly twenty years between the English and French for ascendency in North America, and afterward in a struggle of the colonies for independence, and the formation of a Federal Government. During this long period the country was kept in a state of perpetual agitation, under the influence of passions hos- tile to the progress of spiritual religion in any form, and peculiarly hostile to the prevalence of any extended work of grace. Revivals, however, did not wholly cease, as might reasonably have been ex- pected. On the contrary, I have been struck with surprise, in look- ing over the accounts of that wide-spread work of grace which soon after commenced, to see in how many instances they point back to some preceding season of spiritual refreshing during those fifty years of war and civil strife. The period just referred to, of increased influence from on high, commenced at the close of the last century, and has often been styled the era of modem revivals. Owing to its importance in this charac- ter, I shall dwell upon it somewhat more fully, and shall then turn to other topics which demand our attention. It was preceded by a spirit of fervent prayer and deep solicitude among Christians, on ac- count of the growing tendency in our country to infidel principles. For this a preparation had been made by the crimes and vices of a long-protracted war ; and the breaking out of the French Revolution had given to the enemies of religion the most confident expectations of a speedy triumph. The minds of multitudes had become unset- tled. Wild and vague expectations were everywhere entertained, especially among the yoimg, of a new order of things about to com- mence, in which Christianity would be laid aside as an obsolete sys- tem. The }:>eople of God, under these circumstances, were driven to the throne of grace with redoubled fervor of supplication, that while the enemy came in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord would lift up a standard against him. Another subject of solicitude was the religious wants of our new settlements, which began at this time to spread CHAP. VII. REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 401 abroad in the wilderness, to an unparalleled extent. There was every reason to fear that, if left to themselves, in the rapidity of their prog- ress, they would leave behind them the institutions of the Gospel. This gave rise to a missionary spirit in the older States, which has been the salvation of that growing part of our country. Massachu- setts and Connecticut, especially, from which emigrants by tens of thousands were going forth every year, entered into this cause with the liveliest interest. Large contributions were made from time to time by the churches ; and as regular missionaries could not be pro- cured in sufficient numbers, many of the settled clergy were induced, by the exigency of the case, to leave their flocks under the care of the neighboring pastors, and perform long tours of missionary labor in the new States. The spirit thus awakened of more fervent prayer to God, and more active zeal in his service, was followed by the Divine blessing. A number of churches in the interior of Connecticut and Massachu- setts were favored, in 1797, with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which gradually spread into many of the neighboring towns. The utmost care was taken to guard, from the first, against any recur- rence of that spirit of intemperate zeal which had brought reproach, to some extent, on the revival of 1 740. These efforts, most happily, were attended with complete success. Rarely, if ever, has there been a series of revivals in our country more calm, more pure, more lasting and salutary in their effects. As one means of extending the work, ministers who had enjoyed the presence of God among their own people, were selected by some ecclesiastical body, and sent forth, generally two together, on preaching tours among the neigh- boring churches. The expectation of their coming drew large audi- ences wherever they preached. They came with that fervor of spirit, and that close and direct dealing with the consciences of men, which a preacher gains during the progress of revival, and which he rarely gains to an equal degree under any other circumstances. The churches which they visited being, in most cases, prepared to receive them by a previous season of fasting and prayer, and animated by their presence and labors to redoubled fervor of supplication, were, in many cases, favored with an immediate outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Under these and similar influences, the work of God spread into more than one hundred towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and into a still greater number of places in the new settlements of Vermont, N"ew Hampshire, Maine, and New York, which had but recently formed a wide-spread field of missionary labor. In the mean time, the Presbyterian, already mentioned, entered into the work with equal zeal and effect, and carried the spirit 26 402 THE CHTJKCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. of revivals west of the Allegheny Mountains, In Kentucky, lying in the centre of these new States of the West, a revival com- menced in the year 1801, which spread over the whole State, and within the two following years extended to the North and South, throughout a tract of country six hundred miles in length. Owing to the rude state of society in those new settlements, there occurred in these revivals some irregularities, which threw a suspicion upon them for a time in the view of Christians in the Eastern States. Some, undoubtedly, of the vast multitudes who were then awakened were wrought upon merely by the excitement of the occasion. But as to the character of the work in general, we have the follow- ing testimony from one of the most enlightened Presbyterian clergy- men of Virginia, who visited the scene of those revivals, for the sake of forming for himself a deliberate judgment on the subject. " Upon the whole, I think the revival in Kentucky among the most extraor- dinary that have ever visited the Church of Christ ; and, all things considered, it was peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of the country into which it came. Infidelity was triumphant, and religion on the point of expiring. Something extraordinary seemed necessary to arrest the attention of a giddy people, who were ready to conclude that Christianity was a fable, and futurity a delusion. This revival has done it. It has confounded infidelity, and brought numbers be- yond calculation under serious impressions." In the year 1802, in answer to long-continued and fervent prayer, the Holy Spirit was poured out in a remarkable manner on Yale College, then under the presidency of the Rev. Timothy D wight, D.D. As a work of this kind, in a seat of learning, will naturally be regarded with peculiar interest, I shall here transcribe (with some slight abridgement) an account of this revival, drawn up at the re- quest of the writer by the Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., who was then a member of the institution. " The gracious work which some of the students had witnessed, and of which they were all informed, in churches abroad, they longed to see in the college. That God would pour out His Spirit upon it was an object of distinct and earnest desire, and of their fervent and united prayers. For many months they were accustomed to meet weekly ' in an upper room,' and ' with one ac- cord,' for prayer and supplication. Those meetings are still remem- bered by survivors who attended them, as seasons of unwonted ten- derness of heart, freedom of communication, and wrestling with God. Early hi the spring of 1802, indications of a gracious answer to their prayers began to appear. It soon became obvious that quite a num- ber were especially impressed with Divine truth ; that a new state of things had commenced in the seminary ; that God had indeed come CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 403 to it in the plenitude and power of His grace. Some who, not know- ing that there were any to sympathize with them, had concealed their convictions, were now encouraged to speak out, and others, anxious to share in the blessing, joined them ; so that in the last ten days of the college term, not less than fifty were numbered as serious inquir- ers, and several, daily, and almost hourly, were found apparently sub- mitting themselves to God. These were truly memorable days. Such triumphs of grace none, whose privilege it was to witness them, had ever before seen. So sudden and so great was the change in in- dividuals, and in the general aspect of the college, that those who had been waiting for it were filled with wonder as well as joy, and those who knew not ' what it meant' were awe-struck and amazed. "Wher- ever students were found — in their rooms, in the chapel, in the hall, in the college-yard, in their walks about the city — the reigning im- pression was, * surely God is in this place.' The salvation of the soul was the great subject of thought, of conversation, of absorbing inter- est. The convictions of many were pungent and overwhelming, and the peace in believing which succeeded was not less strongly marked. Yet, amid these overpowering impressions, there was no one, except a single individual (who, having resisted former convictions, yielded for a time to dangerous temptations), in whose conduct any thing of a wild or irrational character appeared. But the vacation came, and they were to be separated. This was anticipated with dread. It was to be feared that their dispersion, and the new scenes and intercourse attendant on their going home, would ef- face the incipient impressions of the serious, and break up the hope- ful purposes of the inquiring and anxious. Such, however, was not the result. It may even be doubted whether the number of sound conversions was not greater, and more good was not done to the cause of the Redeemer generally, than would otherwise have been the case. Wherever they went, they carried the tidings of what God was doing for this venerated seat of learning ; they engaged simultaneously the prayers and thanksgivings of the Church in its behalf; and many of them came directly under the guidance and coimsel of deeply-affected parents, ministers, or other Christian acquaintances. By epistolary commimications and personal visits to each other, also, as had been agreed on at their separation, special means were employed to sus- tain the feelings which had been excited, and to conduct them to a happy result ; and it was so ordered by God that, when they again assembled, the revival immediately resumed its former interest, and proceeded with uninterrupted success. It was generally understood at the time, that out of two hundred and thirty students then in col- 404 THE CHTTKCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. leo-e, about one third, in the course of this revival, were hopefully converted to God." During the forty years which have since elapsed,* there have been fifteen similar works of grace in the institution, one of them more extensive, and the others less so, than the one here described. At a later period, Princeton College, which belongs to the Presbyterians, was favored with one of the most extraordinary effusions of the Holy Spirit ever experienced by any of our seats of learning. The younger colleges have also shared richly in these visitations of Divine grace. The consequence has been, that the number of pious students has been very greatly increased. In Yale College, not long before the revival of 1802, there were only four members of the church among the under-graduates ; for some years past they have exceeded two hundred, being more than half the number. In other colleges there has been a correspondent increase ; though in all these cases it is to be ascribed, in no small degree, to the general advance of spiritual religion in our churches. From the period we have now reached it is unnecessary, and, in- deed, impossible, to trace distinctly the progress of our revivals. They have become, if I may so speak, a constituent part of the relig- ious system of our country. Not a year has passed without numer- ous instances of their occurrence, though at some periods they have been more powerful and prevalent than at others. They have the entire confidence of the great body of evangelical Christians through- out our country. There exists, indeed, a diversity of opinion as to the proper means of promoting them, some regarding one set of measures, and some another, as best adapted to this end. But, while these differences exist as to what constitutes a well-conducted revival, all, or nearly all, agree that such a revival is an inestimable blessing : so that he who should oppose himself to revivals, as such, would be regarded by most of our evangelical Christians as, ipso facto, an enemy to spiritual religion itself. In the foregoing sketch of the rise and progress of our revivals, I have confined myself chiefly to the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches (which are substantially one), and have described these works of grace, particularly as they exist in New England. I have done so because, having their origin in those Churches, it was proper to trace them forward in the line where they commenced ; and be- cause I was best acquainted with their history, and the character they assumed, in the communion to which I belong. It is of such revivals that I shall continue to speak, and, without disparagement to others, * This was written in 1842. There have been several revivals of religion in Yale College since that year. CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 405 I may be permitted to express my preference for that mode of con- ducting revivals which has generally prevailed in the Congregational churches of New England. These churches have had a longer expe- rience on this subject than any others ; they have enjoyed more re- vivals in proportion to their numbers; and, what I deem of the highest importance is, that they have uniformly kept them under the guidance and control of a learned ministry, whose habits and princi- ples led them to repress all undue excitement, to check every thing extravagant, coarse, or disorderly, and to guard the supposed subjects of the work, by the severest tests, against self-deception. Nearly all the objections against revivals, which have any show of reason, have been occasioned by a want of caution in these respects. The things to which they apply are mere adjuncts and excrescences, forming no part of a genuine revival. They are passing away just in proportion as the ministry where they exist becomes more thoroughly educated, which, I rejoice to say, is continually more and more the case. The view of revivals which we have now taken, limited and imper- fect as it is, suggests many interesting topics of inquiry and remark. I have time, however, to touch on only two. First, What mode of presenting truth, in these seasons of religious interest, has been found most effectual to the conviction and conversion of sinners ? Secondly, What is the advantage of such seasons ? What is there in the fact that many are awakened at once, and are pressing together into the kingdom of God, which is peculiarly adapted (under the Divine bless- ing) to secure the desired result ? In entering upon the first of these subjects, I would remark, that the ordinary strain of preaching in the Congregational churches of New England, where revivals have prevailed with great frequency, is, to an uncommon degree, doctrinal in its character. A prepara- tion is thus made to give the Gospel its full effect whenever a season of religious interest arrives. The mind is preoccupied with clear and discriminating views of Divine truth. The argument, upon every point, has been gone over again and again in its full extent. Those humbling doctrines, especially, which men so love to misrepresent and abuse, are dwelt upon much, explained fully, and argued out at large ; and great pains are taken so to state them as to show their perfect consistency with the dictates of right reason and the con- sciousness of every honest mind. In seasons of revival, the most effective preaching is of the same general character, though, of course, more fervent and urgent. It does not consist, to any great extent, in exhortation, in any appeals, however forcible or just, to mere excited sensibility or feeling. Its object still is to pour truth upon the sinner's mind ; to make him see, under his new circumstan- 406 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. ces of awakened interest, the evidence of those doctrines which he has admitted, perhaps, in speculation, all his life, and yet never once truly believed ; to anticipate all his objections ; to strip him of every plea and pretence for delay ; to fill and occupy his whole soul with reasons for immediate right action, and thus shut him up to " the obedience of the truth." Such preaching, though it be plain, and even homely, if it flows from a full heart and large experience, is ordinarily much blessed of God in seasons of revival. The leading doctrine at such seasons is that of " the new birth" — of the sinner's entire dependence, for a change of heart, on the di- rect interposition of God. And yet, for this very reason, the other doctrine implied above, of duty, of obligation to immediate right ac- tion, is urged with redoubled force. Without feeling this, the sinner can not feel his guilt, for there is no consciousness of guilt without consciousness of having violated duty ; and where guilt is not felt, the influences of the Spirit are not given to renew the heart. And here, at this precise point, is the great difficulty in dealing with the impenitent. They do not believe that God requires them, in their present state, to become instantly holy. It is not possible, they think, that He should command them to do that very thing without the influences of His Spirit, which, if ever done, will be the result of those influences. They, therefore, feel that there must be, some- where at this stage of their progress, a kind of neutral ground — a resting-place, where, having done their part in " awaking out of sleep," they are allowed to " wait God's time" (in the customary phrase), until He has done His part, and renewed their souls. Nor are these views confined to the impenitent. They have been openly avowed by some theological writers, and have exerted a secret but most powerful influence upon far greater numbers who never main- tained them in form. There has' been, extensively, a feeling that all that the unconverted are bound to do is diligently to use the means of grace ; that if they do this, it would be hard in God to withhold the renewing influence of His Spirit ; and that He has promised that influence to their prayers and exertions, if sincere — meaning, of course, a kind of sincerity in which there is no true holiness. These views prevailed in New England previous to the revival of 1735, and were one cause of the great decline in religion which preceded that event. Mr. Edwards was therefore called upon, when that work commenced, to take his ground on this subject, and the principles which guided him in that revival have been the great controlling prin- ciples in all our revivals ever since. They are thus stated by his biographer : " To urge repentance on every sinner as his immediate duty ; to insist that God is under no obligation to any unrenewed CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 407 man ; and that a man can challenge nothing, either in absolute justice or by free promise, on account of any thing he does before he repents and believes." The celebrated Whitfield, when he first visited America, in 1740, was much struck with the power imparted to our preaching by these principles. " How can they possibly stand," says he in a letter to an English friend, " who were never brought to see, and heartily confess, that after they had done all, God might, not- withstanding, deny them mercy ! It is for preaching in this man- ner that I like Messrs. Tennents. They wound deeply before they heal. They know there is no promise made but to him that believ- eth, and, therefore, they are careful not to comfort overmuch those that are convicted. I fear I have been too incautious in this respect, and often given comfort too soon. The Lord pardon me for what is past, and teach me more rightly to divide the word of life in future." Against this disposition to " comfort too soon" — to allow the impeni- tent some resting-place short of instant submission, the following very pointed cautions were once given by Dr. Nettleton, who has had great experience in the conduct of revivals. " Now what do you mean by this ? Do you mean to encourage the sinner in his sins, and take his part against God ? You are attempting to ease and soothe him while he is in rebellion against God. When the sinner is in this distress, there are two things that press heavily upon him — a sense of his obligation to repent, and a fearful apprehension that he never will repent. Now, if you tell him to c wait God's time,' and the like, you take off this obligation at once. You remove all anxiety, and most probably cause him to sink down into a state of stupidity and indif- ference on the subject. You take away the apprehension, also ; and the danger is that he will sink down into a state of stupidity, or mis- take the relief he feels for a change of heart. Now, instead of quieting him in his sins by such language, you should endeavor to in- crease his distress as much as possible. You should press him down, and tell him he must submit to God, and generally he will. I know some have been brought out truly regenerated after all this flattery, but it was not in consequence, but in spite of it. Again, you say, 1 Look to the promises.' Now, there is no promise to the impenitent, and how can you expect him to look to the promises while he is in his sins ? I distinguish between promises and invitations. Men are invited to repent, but there is no promise to them till they do re- pent." Such has been the uniform mode of exhibiting this subject. The promises of God are a part of His covenant, and the indispen- sable conditions of the covenant are repentance and faith. But the impenitent, when thus pressed with the duty of at once giving their hearts to God, are extremely apt to say (or at least to 408 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. feel), "I cannot/ Christ has declared it to be beyond my power. It can not, therefore, be my immediate duty; I am authorized to wait till power is given me from on high." Here, as in the former case, the New England clergy are guided by the principles of Edwards. They apply that familiar distinction of common life which he made so clear and palpable in theological science, the distinction between natural and moral ability and inability. You are not unable in the sense you claim. You have all the faculties which constitute a moral being. He who is capacitated to do wrong, must, from the nature of the case, be capacitated to do right. Your can not, there- fore, is only will not. Christ, who has spoken of the inability you plead, has explained its nature : " Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life !" " O, Jerusalem, how often would I have gath- ered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." These views have formed the basis of New England preaching for nearly a century. Dr. Dwight, speaking of this subject, says, " The nature of this inability to obey the law of God is, in my view, completely indicated by the word indisposi- tion, or the word disinclination. A child is equally unable to obey a parent, against whom his will is as much opposed, as to obey God. In both cases this inability, I apprehend, is of exactly the same nature. Indisposition to come to Christ, therefore, is the true and the only difficulty which lies in our way."* Nor are these views confined to New England. A distinguished Scottish divine, Dr. Witherspoon, afterward president of Princeton College, speaking of the alleged impossibility, says, " Now consider, I pray, what sort of impossibility this is. It is not natural, but moral. It is not want of power, but want of inclination." 'f I am far from saying that no preacher is favored with revivals of religion who does not thus explicitly assert man's power as a moral agent to give his heart to God. Men see their way with very different degrees of clearness and confidence, through the numerous questions that arise out of such a statement. I only say that the views of Dwight and Witherspoon, given above, prevail almost universally among the New England clergy, and to a great extent in the Presbyterian Church ; and that those who main- tain them consider those views as lying at the foundation of all their successful efforts to promote revivals. When they can go to the im- penitent sinner and treat him (after the manner of Dr. Dwight) just as they would treat a child in rebellion against an earthly parent, and can make him feel that the whole difficulty in his case is a reluctance to duty, they find the great impediment removed out of the way. They feel an unembarrassed freedom in pressing obligation, and a * Theology, Sermon cxxxiii. f "Works, vol. ii., p. 219. CHAP. VII.] EEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 409 power of fastening conviction of sin npon the conscience, which they never possessed before. A writer of great experience in re- vivals has remarked, "Whatever may be the speculative opinions of ministers with regard to the nature of depravity, inability, regen- eration, etc., it is a fact, that where their ministry is successful, as it is in revivals, they preach to sinners as if they believed them to be possessed of all the powers of moral agency, capable of turning to God, and on this account, and no other, inexcusable for not doing so. Some have seen these points more clearly, and have explained them more philosophically, and more scripturally than others, but there has always been a substantial agreement in their mode of preaching among those who have been blessed in turning sinners to righteous- ness."* But it may be said, granting (as, indeed, we must on some ground) the duty of the unconverted to turn instantly to God, still they will never succeed in doing it without an influence from on high. Why, then, press them so urgently to the act ? Why multiply motives, as if you expected to produce the change by the force of moral sua- sion ? Is it not true, after all, that both you and they must " wait God's time ?" It would be enough to answer that God himself has set us the example : " Make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will ye die ?" Christ and His apostles urged to repentance by argument and persuasion, just as they did to any of the ordinary acts of life. The whole Bible is filled with warnings, expostulations, and entreaties, pressing a fost race, with every motive that two worlds can offer, to immediate right action. Nor is it diflicult to see at least some of the reasons. First : Let the sinner really put hi m self to the act of giving his heart to God, and he will learn, as he can never learn in any other way, the depth of his depravity, the utter and hopeless destitution of all spiritual sensibility within him. Noth- ing can so effectually crush his pride and self-reliance. This p)*actical demonstration of his entire helplessness, in himself considered, may be just the thing that was necessary to bring him to that point where it would be proper for God to grant him the renewing influences of His grace. Secondly : The Spirit, in sanctifying, operates " through the truth ;" and the presence of that truth upon the mind as an in- strumental cause is, therefore, just as necessary to the result (at least in the case of adults) as the renewing influence itself. While it was the uniform doctrine of the Apostle Paul, that the redeemed are " begotten of God," he thought it no arrogance to say, " Jhave begotten you through the Gospel." Without aflirming that * Views and Feelings requisite to Success in the Gospel Ministry. By W. Gr. Walton. 410 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMEEICA. [BOOK V. the influences of the Spirit are granted in exact proportion to the wisdom and power with which truth is urged upon the conscience, we may safely say that such, to a very great and prevailing extent, is the fact. It is, at least, all that man can do ; and if the doctrine of the sinner's dependence leads us to do this with one particle of dimin- ished force, if we do not ply him with truth and motive just as earn- estly as if we expected to convert him by our own efforts alone, it is a serious question whether our orthodoxy has not lost its true bal- ance. Is there not reason to fear that very excellent men sometimes err on this subject from the best of motives, the desire to exalt the grace of God ? " How often," says a writer quoted above (W. G. Walton), " do we hear the preaching of the Word compared to the blowing of rams' horns around the walls of Jericho ! The man who preaches has certainly, in himself considered, no more power to con- vert the souls of his hearers, than was possessed by the Jewish priests to demolish the bulwarks of that city. But are the instruments used in the two cases equally impotent ? Are the truths of the Gospel no more adapted to the conversion of the soul than the blast of a horn to the destruction of a city ?" No honor is done to the Holy Spirit by exalting His influences in conversion, at the expense of the Truth which He has Himself revealed. It is the glory of that blessed Agent, that hi turning the soul to God, He does it in strict accord- ance with the laws of our moral constitution. "Sanctify them through Thy truth," was the prayer of Christ Himself; and I believe it will be found that the most successful preachers are those who have the most exalted views of the power of Divine truth in turning the soul to God. Such views give a peculiar solemnity, and earnestness, and authority in preaching, by which attention is secured, and con- viction wrought in the minds of the hearers. Thirdly : The result produced by renewing grace is right action. " God," says Edwards, " produces all, and we act all. For that is what He produces, viz., our own actsP — [Efficacious Gh'ace, sec. 64.) Is it not, therefore, most reasonable to suppose that this grace (if bestowed at all) will be granted to those who are putting themselves to the act of giving their hearts to God, " who strive to enter in at the strait gate ;" and not to those who remain in the attitude of mere passive recipients ? Account for it as we will, there is no fact which our revivals have taught us more fully than this, the great success which attends the urging of sinners to turn immediately to God, as though we expected them to do it at once and upon the spot. Among the numerous cases in point which occur at once to my mind, I will briefly mention one. A young man, soon after joining one of our colleges, called on a friend one evening, and stated that he had always been taught to re- CHAP. VII.] KEVTVALS OF EELIGION. 411 gard religion as the highest interest of life, but had ever shrunk from making it a personal concern ; that his change of residence, separa- tion from friends, and sense of loneliness, had made him desirous to seek salvation, and that he now wished to learn the way. A long conversation ensued, in which the object was, not so much to point out what he should do when he returned to his room, as to lead him (if such were the will of God) to embrace the Saviour at once, even before the conversation closed. With this view, the character of God and Christ was dwelt upon at large ; His treatment of him during years of past rebellion, and his ungrateful conduct under the con- tinued invitations of divine mercy : with examples taken from the case of those whose absence had produced this unwonted tenderness, of unwearied assiduity and kindness on God's part, requited with in- sult, ingratitude, and rebellion on his. The design was to show him, in this familiar way, the exact state of mind into which he was re- quired to come; the ingenuous sorrow, heartfelt confidence, and grateful love, whose nature and reasonableness he could so perfectly understand in respect to an earthly parent. I have thus dwelt for a moment on the instructions given, for the sake of remarking how ex- tremely simple and elementary it has been found necessary to make them. Such is the case even with those who, like this young man, have been most religiously educated. As these views of the subject were seen to open his mind with continually deepening interest and solemnity, under the prolonged exhibition of Divine truth, the ques- tion was at length proposed, " Can there ever be a more favorable moment than the present for attempting to put forth the feelings now described ? You will not do it, indeed, without an influence from on high. That influence may justly be withheld, but it may, also, be granted : t Peradventure, God may give you repentance.' Will you, then, go with me to the throne of grace, not to gain more conviction, not to do any preparatory work (for this will defeat the object), but to put yourself at once, as I go before you in prayer, to the exercise of this ingenuous sorrow for sin, and grateful trust in the blood of Christ !" They knelt down together to perform this duty, and closed with a solemn dedication of the soul to God. They rose and read over the fifty-first Psalm, the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, and other appropriate passages, and went again, with increased solemnity, to the throne of grace. Four hours were thus spent, and they separated for the night. They met in the morning, and the young man said, " I hope I have given my heart to God ; I think I did it before we parted last evening." That hope he has never relinquished, and during a number of years which have since elapsed, the uniform tenor of his 412 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. life, as an active and devoted member of the Church of Christ, has given satisfactory evidence that he was not deceived. This, then, is the point to which all my observations are directed — the union of these two doctrines of activity and dependence, which are so commonly felt to be subversive of each other ; the bringing of both to bear with undiminished force on the minds of the impenitent. Establish one of these doctrines to the exclusion or weakening of the other, and just to the same extent is the Gospel robbed of its power. Inculcate dependence without pressing to the act of instantly giving up the heart to Christ, and the sinner sits down quietly to " wait God's time." Urge him to duty on the ground of his possessing all the requisite power, while (with the Pelagians) you do away his depend- ence, and his reluctant heart will lead him to take his own time, and that is never. Address him on the Arminian scheme of gracious aid, which is always ready at his call (except in cases of extreme contu- macy), and how strongly is he tempted to put off to a more "con- venient season" what he feels may at any time be done ! But place him under the pressure of both these doctrines — the necessity of action on his part in coming to God, the weighty obligations which urge him to it, the crushing sense of guilt every moment he delays, the momentous interests which seem to be crowded into the decision of the passing hour, the encouragement to " strive as in an agony" af- forded by the gift of the Spirit's influences to others around him (an encouragement peculiarly great in seasons of revival, and giving them so much of their power), the feeling that God may justly withhold those influences, and that every moment of delay increases the dan- ger of this fearful doom — and have we not here, most perfectly com- bined, all the elements of that system of grace which is emphatically the power of God unto salvation ? I will conclude my remarks on this part of my subject in the words of the late Rev. Dr. Griffin, formerly a professor at Andover, and afterward president of Williams' College, Massachusetts. Being re- quested to account for the prevalence of revivals in this country, he gave the following as the principal reason : " It is found in the distinct apprehensions which prevail in New England about the instantaneous- ness of regeneration, the sinfulness of every moral exercise up to that moment, and the duty of immediate submission. Such a view of things leads the preacher to divide his audience into two classes, and to run a strong and affecting line of demarcation between them. When one feels that the moral, sober, prayerful, unregenerated part of his audience are doing pretty well, and can afford to wait a little longer before they submit, he will not be so pressing, nor fall with such a tremendous weight upon their conscience. When he feels that they CHAP. VII.] EEYIVALS OF RELIGION. 413 can not do much more than they do, but must wait God's time, he will not annoy and weary them, and make them sick of waiting, and compel them to come in. But when one enters the pulpit under a solemn sense that every unregenerate man before him, however awakened, is an enemy to God, is resisting with all his heart, and will continue to resist till he submits ; that he must be ' born again' before he is any better than an enemy, or has made any approaches toward holiness ; when one looks round upon the unregenerate part of his audience, and sees that they are under indispensable obligations to yield at once, that they have no manner of excuse for delaying ; that they deserve eternal reprobation for postponing an hour ; when one feels from the bottom of his heart that there is nothing short of regenera- tion that can answer any purpose, and that he can not leave his dear charge to be turned from enemies of God to friends ten years hence ; delivered from condemnation ten years hence ; but must see it now : oh ! how will he pray and preach ! He will give God no rest, and he will give sinners no rest ; and he will bring down their imme- diate, pressing, boundless obligations upon them with the weight of a world. Under such preaching sinners must either turn to God or be miserable. There is no chance for them to remain at ease this side of infidelity itself." We pass now to consider the second question proposed, viz., What is there in the fact that many are awakened at once, and are pressing together into the kingdom of God, that is peculiarly adapted (under the Divine blessing) to secure the desired result ? This question has been virtually answered in the facts stated or implied in the preceding part of this chapter. I will, however, briefly advert to them again, and present in a single view some of those influences which unite to give extraordinary power to a well-conducted revival of religion. As far as human instrumentality is concerned, the conversion of sin- ners depends on two things — the clear and vivid presentation of Divine truth to their minds, and importunate prayer, on the part of Chris- tians, for the influences of the Holy Spirit to give that truth effect. I am, therefore, to show what there is in these seasons of concentrated religious interest, that is peculiarly adapted both to animate the prayers and efforts of the people of God, and to give the Gospel readier access to the hearts of the impenitent, and superior efficacy in bringing them to " the obedience of the truth." In doing so, I shall point to certain original principles of our mental constitution, which have confessedly very great power in moving the minds of men, and shall endeavor to show that revivals appeal to these principles or springs of human action, with a force and effect altogether greater than can ever be realized under any other circumstances. I shall 414 THE CHUECH AND THE PULPIT IN AMEEICA. [BOOK V. thus give what may not improperly be termed a theory of revivals, and shall show that they are not seasons of mere excitement and fanaticism, but might reasonably be expected, from their consistency with the laws of human action, to produce those great and lasting reformations with which they have actually blessed the American Churches. In pursuing the subject, I hope I shall not be suspected of losing sight for one moment of the fact, that the Holy Spirit is the author of all the good produced in this case, both in the hearts of Christians and impenitent sinners. But it is the glory of that blessed Agent, that, in dispensing His sanctifying influences, He does not set aside or destroy the established laws of human agency ; and it is not, therefore, detracting from these influences, but rather doing them honor, to point out their perfect consistency with the great principles of our mental constitution. 1. The first of these principles to which I shall now advert, and relating particularly to Christianity, is strongly-awakened desire. The scenes presented in a revival are eminently adapted to create those strong spiritual desires which express themselves in fervent prayer, and are indispensable to all successful Christian effort. Let any church, in its ordinary state of feeling, hear that the Holy Spirit is poured out on a neighboring town ; let some of its members visit the spot, and bring back a report of what is passing there ; that the people of God are animated with all the zeal of their first love, fervent in prayers and labors for the salvation of sinners, full of joy and hope ; let them tell of the crowded assemblies, the deathlike still- ness, the solemnity and awe depicted on every countenance; of some who but a few days before were thoughtless and even abandoned to sin, now bowed down under a sense of guilt, and of others rejoicing in the hope of having found the Saviour, and reconciliation through His blood ; let it appear that there is nothing disorderly or extrava- gant in this movement, nothing but the natural and appropriate effect of Divine truth applied to the conscience by the Spirit of God : and what is there that can appeal more strongly to all the sensibilities of a Christian heart ? What more natural, under the impulse of the fervent desires thus awakened, than to " put away all their idols," to bow before God in deep self-abasement for their past backslidings, to mourn over the multitudes around them who are in danger of perish- ing in their sins, and to pour out the prayer of the prophet from overflowing hearts, u O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known ; in wrath remember mercy." And if, through the grace of God, a similar dispensation of the Spirit is granted in answer to their prayers, how much more CHAP. VII.] EEVIVALS OF EELIGION. 415 fervent and absorbing do those desires become as the blessing is brought home to their own doors ! How do we see parents pleading for their children, wives for their husbands, friend for friend, with all the importunity of the patriarch of old, " I will not let Thee go, ex- cept Thou bless me." How is all reserve laid aside — all the ordinary- backwardness of Christians to speak and act openly on the side of the Redeemer abandoned, and every feeling absorbed amid these triumphs of Divine grace, in the one great question, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do" for the advancement of Thy cause ? Faint and feeble, indeed, when compared with these, are the spiritual desires which are found to prevail in any ordinary state of the church. 2. The second of these principles, now to be mentioned, is expecta- tion. If I were asked why revivals are so frequent in America, and so rare in Europe, my first answer would be, that Christians on one side of the Atlantic expect them, and on the other they do not expect them. These seasons of " refreshing from on high" are a part of the blessing that rested on our fathers ; and the events of the last forty years, especially, have taught us, that if we seek their continuance in the spirit of those with whom they commenced, we shall never seek in vain. Nor is there any thing to confine them within our own borders. They have been carried by our missionaries to a number of Indian tribes. Our stations in Ceylon have been repeatedly visited with the effusions of the Holy Spirit, and the Sandwich Islands, within the last three years,* have been favored with one of the most glorious dispensations of Divine grace that the world has ever witnessed. Similar periods of "refreshing from on high" existed formerly in Scotland ; and there are cheering indications in recent events, that God may even now be ready to bring down again the blessings of their fathers upon the churches in that country. In all the evangelical churches of Europe, indeed, where the Gospel is preached with plainness and power, there are seasons of more than ordinary religious interest, which, if not revivals in our sense of the term (and they sometimes are), would undoubtedly become revivals if the same expectation of this result could only pervade those" churches which animates their brethren of America under similar cir- cumstances. But, leaving this more general view of the subject, it is obvious that nothing is more calculated to fill the hearts of Christians with courage, and expectation, and hope, than the feeling that God is in the midst of them with the peculiar dispensation of His grace. One must witness the scene, indeed, to have any just conception of the * The years of 1839, '40, '41. 416 THE CHUECH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. power of a revival in this respect — of the multiplied appeals which it makes to this most essential element in all the successful efforts of men. " God is pouring out His Spirit in a neighboring town !" In how many hundreds of instances has this thought, and the encouragement it afforded, been the starting-point of those exertions, which resulted, under the Divine blessing, in the commencement of one revival more ! " God is here with the effusions of His Spirit !" Who does not feel the thrill of joy, of hope, of confidence, which pervades the heart of every spiritually-minded Christian! What can be more suited to revive the decaying graces of backsliders, and to bring the whole Church to harmonious action, to fervent prayer, and strenuous effort ? Where the confidence thus inspired has been high, and yet humble, resting on the mighty power of the Spirit and the eflicacy of Divine truth, when has God ever failed to bestow a signal blessing ? On the contrary, if the work of grace has not gone forward, as was hoped, how uniformly do we find that the people of God either became faint-hearted in consequence of some difficulty or delay, and did not expect to succeed ; or that their confidence was misplaced, that they rested on some favorite instrument or system of measures, and not on the arm of the Most High ! Nor is the influence of which I speak confined to Christians. It acts on the minds of the impenitent in various ways, and with great power. " God is calling some of my companions into His kingdom !" This thought strikes upon the hearts of many who have been religiously educated, who have always in- tended at some time to seek eternal life, and who are induced by what is passing around them to do it now, because they are encour- aged to hope they shall succeed. " God is renewing the hearts of many others, why may He not renew mine ?" This thought to the awakened sinner, writhing under conviction of sin, crushed by a sense of his utterly helpless condition in himself considered, tempted, under repeated failures, to give up all in despair — this thought affords him an encouragement which is worth to him more than worlds be- sides; and, as I before remarked, it is an encouragement which especially abounds in a season of revival. " God is causing the stout- hearted to fall before Him !" This thought often awakens in the impenitent another kind of expectation, mingled with dread, as a revival goes forward ; it is, that they will he compelled to yield; that they can not stand before it. Sometimes it disarms opposition, and sometimes it makes men flee. An instance occurs to me, which I will briefly mention. A student in one of our colleges, during a pow- erful work of grace, struggled for a time to ward off conviction, by argument and ridicule, and finding that he could not succeed, framed a plausible excuse, and obtained liberty to return home. As he drove CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 417 into his native village, at the close of the day, rejoicing at the thought of having escaped from the revival, he saw large numbers of people returning from the house of God. "What has happened? What is going on ?" was his first inquiry when he alighted at his father's door. " A revival of religion has just commenced,' , was the reply; and one and another of his most thoughtless companions were mentioned as under conviction of sin. He felt like one of old, that it was in vain to flee from the presence of God. All his former con- victions revived at once, aggravated by a sense of his guilt in striving to suppress them. He gave himself to the pursuit of eternal life, and, through the grace of God (as he hoped), within a few days found the Saviour from whom he had attempted to flee. He re- turned at once to college, called immediately on those whom he had deterred from seriousness by his influence and example, and invited them to his room that evening, telling them that he had a story to relate. When they met, he gave them a full account of the efforts he had made to resist the strivings of the Spirit, and the conclusion to which (through the grace of God) he had come, and ended with the exhortation, " Go ye and do likewise." Such are some of the ways in which revivals appeal to this powerful principle of our nature, with a force never to be expected at a period of no general interest in religion. 3. A third principle, intimately connected with this subject, is sym- pathy. God, in establishing public worship, has decided that the social and sympathetic feelings of our nature ought to be enlisted in the cause of religion. It would be strange, indeed, if it were other- wise ; if that powerful principle which binds man to his fellow were yielded up to Satan for the destruction of unnumbered millions who " follow a multitude to do evil," and were never employed by the Holy Spirit in bringing those who act in ,masses on every other sub- ject, to act, at least sometimes; together in coining to the "obedience of the truth." That strong tendency of our nature to be moved and excited because we see others excited around us, is not of necessity a blind and headlong impulse ; it may be guided by reason, and made subservient to the best ends of our intellectual and moral existence. In respect to every subject but religion, this is conceded by all ; and he would be thought superlatively weak who should refuse the aid of sympathy in any other enterprise for the well-being of man. But what is there so mysterious or unreasonable in the fact, that when the Holy Spirit has impressed one mind with a sense of its responsibilities and violated obligations, and awakened within it correspondent feelings of fear, shame, and self-condemnation, these views and feelings should spread by contact into other minds ; that this blessed Agent should 27 418 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. make use of sympathy as well as attention, memory, and various other principles of our nature, in bringing men to a knowledge of God ? That he does so operate where revivals are wholly unknown, that the awakening of one individual is frequently made the occasion of arresting the attention of a number of his associates, and fastening conviction on their minds, is matter of familiar observation in every religious community. When such cases become numerous, and other influences unite with this to deepen the impression of Divine truth, that is, when there is a revival, this principle operates with still greater power and much wider extent. Hundreds are drawn to religious meetings at first, simply because the current sets that way. When there, they are led by the awe and solemnity which pervade the place to listen, perhaps for the first time in their lives, with fixed attention and impartial self-application to the word dispensed. Their incipient conviction of sin is heightened by the emotion which prevails around them, and by conversation with those who have felt longer and more deeply than themselves. They are led to "strive as in an agony," to " enter in at the strait gate," and thus " the kin dom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." As the strong images I have used, so perfectly descriptive of the state of things in a revival, are borrowed from the language employed by our Saviour himself, with evident approbation, in describing similar scenes in his own day, it is certain there is nothing inconsistent with perfect soundness of mind, or the presence of the sanctifying Spirit, in a sea- son of simultaneous and highly-awakened interest on the subject of the soul's salvation. That such seasons are liable to be abused, and have, in some instances, actually degenerated, under the guidance of weak and rash men, into scenes of disorder or mere animal excite- ment, is no more an argument against them, than a similar abuse of any of the great powers of nature, or principles of our mental consti- tution, is an argument against their legitimate and well-directed use. We should remember, too, that if there is danger on one side, there is danger, also, on the other. Men die of palsy as well as fe- ver. And when so many millions are sunk in the anticipated slum- bers of the second death, we ought not to be too timid or fastidious as to the means employed in awakening them to the extremity of their danger. The fact, however, is (as more and more fully shown in our revivals), there can be in very powerful operation what may be called moral sympathy, that is, the action of one mind upon another in sober, calm, but very deep emotion, under just views of Divine truth, without any of that animal excitement or nervous agitation which lead to strong and sometimes disorderly exhibition of feeling. In this respect a very important change has taken place in our New CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 419 England revivals in the progress of a century. During the remark- able work of grace in 1735, persons were often so agitated under the powerful preaching of the word, as to groan and cry out in the midst of religious worship under the anguish of their spirit. The clergy did not encourage these strong expressions of feeling, but they thought them, to some extent, perhaps unavoidable, and, therefore, to be tolerated. In the progress of the next great revival, in 1740-43, this practice became still more prevalent, and was connected, to a great extent, with other forms of bodily excitement, such as trances, etc., which produced great contention, and created a prejudice, in the minds of many, against the entire work. This led our Congrega- tional clergy, when revivals commenced on a broad scale at the close of the last century, to unite from the first to discountenance this practice ; to repress mere animal excitement of every kind ; to make their religious meetings, especially in the evening, short (not gener- ally exceeding an hour or an hour and a half), in order to prevent exhaustion and nervous agitation ; and to impress upon their people that the presence of the Holy Spirit ought to be recognized in silence and awe, not with noise and confusion. So complete was their suc- cess that, although I have been much conversant with revivals for more than thirty years, I have never, but in one instance, and that a very slight one and for a moment, witnessed any audible expression of emotion in a religious assembly. All our experience has shown that it is wholly unnecessary, and from what we see in some sects where it prevails to some extent, we are constrained to feel that it is injurious, not only as creating prejudices against revivals, but as lead- ing many to mistake nervous excitement for the influence of the Holy Spirit. 4. A fourth of these principles is the spirit of inquiry awakened among the thoughtless and prejudiced by the striking scenes of a revival. When crowds are seen flocking to the house of God, many persons are drawn thither by the impulse of mere curiosity, and when thus brought under the power of Divine truth, are often taught of the Spirit ; like the Athenians assembled by the same impulse around Paul on Mars Hill, who, we are told, " clave unto him and believed." Others, who have always doubted or denied the doctrines of grace, are led, by what is going on around them, to enter into the argument for the first time with candor and attention ; until, struck by the blaze of evidence, not only from the word preached, but from the lives and conversation of Christians in their revived state, like the man de- scribed in the Epistle to the Corinthians, they are " convinced of all, are judged of all, and so falling down on the face, shall worship God, 420 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. and report that God is in you of a truth." Others still, who were wholly skeptical as to the existence of any inward principle of spir- itual life, when they witness the amazing change produced in the character of many around them, are compelled to exclaim, " This is indeed the finger of God." Many, too, who went to religious meet- ings purposely to find occasion to cavil and blaspheme, have had the scales fall from their eyes in the midst of their iniquity, and been led to cry out with the persecutor of old, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" Thus the notoriety given to religion by the scenes of a re- vival is turned with great effect to the furtherance of the Gospel. 5. As a fifth of these principles, I may mention the influence of that prolonged and exclusive attention to Divine truth which prevails in a revival. The power of fixed and continuous attention in deepening the im- pressions of any subject is one of the most familiar principles of men- tal science. To nothing, however, does it apply with so much force as religion, whose objects are at once so vast, so remote, and so re- pulsive to the natural heart. Men must look at their condition and ponder it deeply, before they can feel the extremity of their wretched- ness and guilt. It is the first step in turning to God ; and one reason, no doubt, why so many sit from year to year under the ordinary preaching of the word, moved and affected, in some degree, almost every Sabbath, and yet making no progress in Divine things, is, that the impressions produced are not folloiced up and deepened during the subsequent week. On the contrary, even when a person feels but slightly moved, if his mind can be held to the subject in steady and prolonged attention, while every object is excluded that can divert his thoughts, and the whole field of vision is filled with clear and vivid exhibitions of Divine truth, it is surprising to see how rapid, in many cases, the progress of conviction becomes. An instance has already been mentioned (and many others might be adduced) of a young man who appeared to be brought in this way, through Divine grace, into the kingdom of God, in a conversation of a few hours. The period was still shorter in the days of the Apostles ; and whether it be the will of God to make it long or short, the best means cer- tainly that a man can use is, to hold the mind fixed in the solemn contemplation of Divine truth. But the impenitent, to a great extent, are very imperfectly qualified for such a task. Their minds are so wandering, so unused to dwell on spiritual objects, so estranged from the throne of grace, so entirely in the dark as to the nature of those feelings with which they must come to God, that most of the time they give to contemplation is wasted in chaotic thought ; and they are often led to relinquish the CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 421 attempt in despair. It is not, therefore, sufficient, when their atten- tion is awakened, to send them to their Bibles and their closets. In addition to this, they need, at every step, the assistance of an expe- rienced mind to hold them to the subject, to remove obstacles out of the way, and throw light on the path before them. Here, then, is the great principle of revivals. At certain seasons which seem peculiarly to promise a Divine blessing, an extraordinary effort is made (such as can not from its nature last many months) to bring the impenitent completely under the power of Divine truth. Religious meetings are made so frequent, as not, on the one hand, to weary and distract the mind, nor, on the other, to leave the impression made at one meeting to be effaced or much weakened before the next arrives ; but to keep the impenitent constantly, as it were, in an atmosphere of Divine truth, brightening continually around them, and bringing their minds more and more perfectly under " the power of the world to come." There is preaching, perhaps, an hour every evening, but the subject is not left there. At the close of the service, all who are willing to be considered as serious inquirers are invited to remain for a half hour longer, to receive more familiar and direct instruction suited to their case; while the members of the church withdraw to the vestry, or some other convenient room, to implore the influences of the Holy Spirit on the meeting to be continued under these new and more in- teresting circumstances. There is much to awaken deep emotion in the separation thus made ; as parent and child, husband and wife, friend and friend, part from each other, the one to be prayed for and the other to pray. The great object of the meeting with inquirers, as thus continued, is to bring them at once to the point; to an- ticipate and remove objections; to draw them off from resting in any mere preparatory work ; to set before them the great objects in view of which, if at all, they will (through Divine grace) exercise right affec- tions, and then call them to do it / leading them to the throne of grace in the fervent expression of repentance for sin, faith in Christ, and deliberate consecration to the service of God. The inquirers are then invited to assemble again at some convenient hour the next day or the next evening, if there is preaching only every other night — at what is called the meeting for inquiry. Here the pastor converses for a few moments with each individual separately as to the peculiar state of his feelings, and then addresses them collectively, as before, on the one great subject of coming at once to Christ. An hour is also appointed at which he will meet those who are desirous to see him alone. Those who entertain hopes are strictly examined, formed into praying associations, encouraged to judicious effort for the salva- tion of others, and frequently assembled as a body to receive instruc- 422 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. tion in the evidences of genuine piety. The members of the church, in the mean time, if they do their duty, are actively engaged, ac- cording to their ability, in similar labors in their own families and neighborhoods. Their efforts, if well directed, present religion in a new and striking form. It is brought home to " the business and bosoms of men," as it can never be by mere preaching. Thus, in a great variety of ways, Divine truth is made to bear on the impenitent during the progress of a revival, with a directness, force, and con- tinuity of impression, which can never be attained under any other circumstances ; while the people of God are pleading before Him to give that Truth effect, with a fervor of supplication corresponding to the interest of the scene around them. 6. Another principle involved in revivals is, the removal of many causes %chich prevent the access of Divine truth to the mind under ordinary circumstances. I can barely glance at a few of these. In a season of general re- ligious interest, much of that reserve is laid aside which ordinarily prevails in respect to close conversation on personal religion, and which forms so effectual a guard for backsliding Christians and im- penitent sinners, against the intrusion of this unwelcome subject. Men are expected, at such times, to speak freely ; and if they do it with kindness and a little tact, they can converse with almost any one on the state of his spiritual concerns without wounding his pride or awakening his resentment. The sense of shame, the reluctance to be singular — one of the strongest impediments (especially with the young) to entering on a religious course — loses, at such times, almost all its power. In an ex- tensive revival, the singularity lies on the other side. Those changes in business or family arrangements, which must often be made as the result of becoming religious, are regarded at such seasons with diminished dread and repugnance. Is a man en- gaged in some dishonorable or sinful employment, as, for instance, the making or vending of ardent spirits ? The sacrifice is less when he is only one among many who are called to make it. Has the subject of family prayer been an impediment to his entering on a religious course ? Such are the habits and feelings of our churches, that no one can be recognized as a consistent Christian who refuses to lead his household statedly to the throne of grace. Has a feeling of diffi- dence or awkwardness as to commencing this duty been one reason for shrinking from the service of Christ ? How entirely does this obstacle disappear when so many around are erecting the family altar, when, as I once knew in a single small neighborhood, twelve CHAP. VII.1 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 423 plain and uneducated men in one week are seen entering on the duty of family worship. The ordinary amusements of life, which interest the feelings and divert the attention, are at such periods wholly laid aside among those who are friendly to revivals. The concerns of business are made to yield on such occasions to ^the higher interests of eternity. The people of God will find or make time for the numerous seasons of prayer and preaching which demand their presence ; and will so arrange that their children and dependents shall enjoy every facility that is requisite to the effectual pursuit of eternal life. Such, without dwelling further on the subject, are some of the ways in which the impediments to the progress of the Gospel are re- moved out of the way, by extraordinary seasons of attention to re- ligion. 7. The next principle which I shall mention is, the tendency of re- vivals to bring men to a decision, and to make them decide right on the subject of religion. "Hell," says a quaint old writer, "is paved with good inten- tions" — intentions never carried into effect, because the time for their execution never quite arrived. On these dreams of the future a re- vival breaks in with startling power, and calls men to instant decision : " Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." Those who believe in re- ligion at all, believe and know that they can never enjoy a more favor- able season to secure the salvation of their souls. Every thing, at such a time, presses upon them with united force to make them decide at once, and decide right. The well-known shortness of such a season, to them, perhaps, the end of their day of grace — the uncommon clearness and pungency with which the truth is preached — the solici- tude of Christian friends — the importunity of young converts who have just " tasted that the Lord is gracious" — the impulse of the mass of mind around them, moving in one direction, with all the mul- tiplied influences that concentrate in a revival, unite to impress the truth with irresistible force, " Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." In the mean time, one step prepares the way for another ; a decision on one point braces up the mind for further and more important decisions in the onward progress. " Shall I yield to the urgency of my friends, and regularly attend religious meetings?" The effort costs perhaps but little. " Shall I remain after the service ^closes, and thus acknowledge myself an inquirer ?" The struggle is far greater, but if the victory be gained over this backwardness and pride, he is still more likely to go on. " Shall I attend the meeting for inquiry ?" " Shall I go to my pastor, lay open my heart, and tell 424 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. him of the world of iniquity which I find within ?" In addition to the other happy consequences of taking such a step, the strength of purpose gained by the effort is one security against his going back : he is now committed, and a sense of consistency unites with higher motives to urge him forward. Thus the multiplied exercises of a re- vival bring the sinner continually to the trial; press him to in- stantaneous decision ; and prepare the way, through Divine grace, for his entering into the kingdom of God. 8. Another principle involved in revivals is the tendency of that lively joy which prevails among Christians and especially young con- verts, to render religion attractive to the unconverted. At ordinary seasons, a life of piety too often appears to the impeni- tent, and especially to the young, under a forbidding aspect. Chris- tians find but little in the state of things around them to call forth their affections, before the unconverted, in lively expressions of spir- itual joy. If they do not decline in the warmth of their feelings (as they too often do), they are apt at least to retire within themselves, and to seek their chief enjoyment in secret communion with God. But in times of revival every thing is changed. Their hearts naturally flow forth in warm expressions of thankfulness and joy, as they witness again the triumphs of Divine grace. They renew the fervors of their first love. In their intercourse with the unconverted, they naturally assume an unwonted tenderness of manner, as they seek to bring them by their faithful admonitions to the cross of Christ. The effect is often most striking. The impenitent look at religion under a new as- pect, as they see the kindness and solicitude of so many around them for their spiritual good. A lady, during a recent revival, as she en- tered the shop of a tradesman of infidel principles, recollected that, though she had dealt with him for some years, she had never spoken to him on the subject of religion. She alluded at once to the scenes which were then passing in the town ; to the surprising changes that had taken place in some of her acquaintance ; and inquired whether any of those whom he employed were interested in the work. The man was deeply affected as the conversation went on, and at last, wiping his eyes, he said, with much emotion, " I know not why it is that the ladies who deal with me are so anxious for my good. A number have spoken to me on the subject before, and one or two have conversed with some of my workmen. Religion must be some- thing very different from what I had supposed." But the effect on the impenitent is still more striking, when they witness the joy that is manifested in the countenance and conversa- tion of the new converts to religion. Every natural man bears in his bosom a testimony that he is in the wrong. He has, too, a sense of CHAP. VII.] REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 425 want, an insatiable desire of some good which he has never yet ob- tained ; and when he sees multitudes around him who have found that good, where he knows it can alone exist, in the favor of God, how strong is the appeal to one of the deepest principles of our na- ture, especially in the case of those who are already somewhat con- vinced of sin, and of the unsatisfying nature of all worldly enjoy- ment ! It is the very appeal so beautifully set forth in the parable of the prodigal son. It was the reflection that there was bread enough and to spare in his father's house, while he perished with hunger, that made him exclaim, "I will arise and go unto my father." Some years ago, two young ladies, under deep conviction of sin, went, after an evening meeting, to the house of their pastor for further instruction. As the preacher conversed with them much at large, and was urging them, by motives drawn from the love of Christ, instantly to accept the offered salvation, one of them was observed to rest her head upon her hand, as in deep abstraction, till her face sank at last on the table, in solemn and overpowering emotion. After a few moments of entire silence, she looked up with a countenance of serene joy, dropped upon one knee before her companion, and said, with the simplicity of a child, " Julia, do love Christ. He is so beautiful. Do come with me and love Him !" This led Julia to the reflection, " She has entered in while I remain out." " One shall be taken and another left." It was this which seemed to be the means (under God) of bringing her also to Christ before she laid her head that night upon the pillow. 9. The last of these principles to which I shall advert is, the solemnity and awe inspired by a sense of the pemliar presence of God, the sanctifying Spirit. The feeling of the supernatural is one of the strongest and most subduing emotions of the human heart. It has been used by the ad- versary of souls to convert unnumbered millions into bond-slaves of the most degrading superstition ; and it is worthy of being employed by the Spirit of all grace, as an instrument of bringing the chosen of God to that liberty wherewith Christ shall make them free. It is the great distinctive sentiment of a revival of religion. " How dreadful is this place : it is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven." Such is the feeling with which those who believe in the reality of Divine influence move amid the scenes winch are hallowed by the especial presence of the sanctifying Spirit. In the children of God, as they are employed in bearing forward the triumphs of His grace, it awakens that mingled awe and delight which we may im- agine filled the breasts of those who bore before the armies of Israel the ark of the covenant, on which rested the Shechinah of the Most 426 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. High. To the enemies of God it comes with a solemnity of appeal second only to that of the bed of death and the scenes of approach- ing judgment, as they see around them the striking manifestations of His presence who "will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth." " Grieve not the Spirit," is the admonition continually impressed upon them by the messengers of the Most High. " Grieve not the Spirit," is the argument urged especially by those who have recently tasted the sweetness of His renovating grace. " Grieve not the Spirit," is the admonition which comes to them at times from those who feel that they have wasted their day of grace. A striking instance of this kind occurred within my own knowledge. A lady who had passed unsubdued through more than one of these seasons of visitation from on high, and who had deliberately stifled her convictions and delayed repentance, was lying on the bed of death when another revival commenced. When entreated to avail herself of this last period (to her) of the Spirit's in- fluences, she replied that it was utterly in vain ; that she had deliber- ately resisted His grace, and now felt that the curse of abandonment was upon her. Nothing could change her views. She went down to the grave with the admonition continually upon her lips, to those who stood around her bedside, " Grieve not the Spirit." These were the last words she uttered as she entered the eternal world. Thus have I given a brief sketch of the rise and progress of our revivals; of the mode of presenting Divine truth which has been found most effectual at such periods ; and of those principles in our mental constitution which are appealed to with peculiar power by these seasons of concentrated religious interest. As the limits as- signed me have already been exceeded, I must here leave the subject, commending the very imperfect exhibition which has now been made to the candor and prayers of the Christian reader. CHAPTER VIII. SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS ON REVIVALS OF RELIGION. I will add but a few words to the full discussion of the subject of Religious Revivals contained in the preceding chapter. That chapter, as the reader will have perceived, treats particularly of the revivals that have taken place in New England, that being the part of the United States with which its author is most intimately ac- quainted. But as it has fallen to my lot to be conversant with the CHAP. Vin.J SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS ON REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 427 different evangelical denominations of all parts of the country, dur- ing several years devoted to religious and philanthropic enterprises, it may not be amiss that I should give the result of that experience. I should say, then, that the same blessed influences so signally manifested in the churches and many of the literary institutions of New England, have been experienced, perhaps in no less measure, among the evangelical churches of all denominations throughout the United States. I have been witness to these blessed movements in a large number of those States, and have ever found their effects to be, in all essential respects, the same. It may be fairly remarked that under a permanent, well-instructed minister, revivals are usually less alloyed with unnecessary, and, on the whole, injurious accompaniments, such as great physical excite- ment, manifesting itself in sobbing, or crying, or other forms of violent agitation. Still, it is not the case that a preacher has it in his power to repress all such indications. Much depends on the kind of people with whom he has to do. Among the rude and uneducated, who are accustomed to boisterous expressions of feeling, there will always be found more visible and irrepressible excitement than in other cases. It is not very wonderful, however, that when a considerable num- ber of persons who have been spending all their lives in rebellion against God, and in the neglect of their souls, become, as it were, suddenly awakened out of a profound sleep, they should be ready, in the distress into which they are thrown by a view of the jeopardy in which they stand, like Saul of Tarsus, to exclaim, " Lord ! what wilt thou have me to do ?" I have seen times when under the preaching of the Gospel, such pungent distress has been produced by pressing the truth on plain and comparatively ignorant minds, that it was im- possible to maintain the calmness to be found in a congregation of educated and refined persons, among whom, nevertheless, there might be quite as much real contrition of heart for sin. That some excellent men, who have been eminently useful in the ministry, are not sufficiently careful in repressing unnecessary mani- festations of feeling is certain, and they are to be found in all denom- inations. Some, even, are so much wanting in prudence as rather to encourage such outbursts of feeling. But among so many ministers, widely different from each other in education, intellectual acquire- ments, and modes of thinking on almost every subject, entire agree- ment as to the best ways of conducting a revival, so far as human agency is concerned, is not to be expected. It is delightful to think that revivals of religion have really occur- red, and do every year occur, to a greater or less extent, in all our 428 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT EST AMERICA [BOOK V. States, and among all the evangelical denominations. And although they may not always be so quietly and judiciously conducted as might be desired, in the newer parts of the country, and where the population is somewhat rude, yet they have certainly exerted a happy influence upon the churches and upon society, wherever they have occurred. CHAPTER IX. ALLEGED ABUSES IN REVIVALS OF RELIGION. It was my first intention not to add any thing to what has been said in the chapter on revivals respecting the abuses alleged to have been connected with them ; but, on further reflection, I consider that a few words more on that point will not be amiss. No man, certainly, who is at all acquainted with human nature, should be surprised to hear that the greatest blessings bestowed on mankind are liable to be abused, and even the purest and noblest qualities to be counterfeited. Where, then, is there any matter for astonishment should we find that abuses mingle with religious re- vivals, through man's imprudence and the malignity of the great ad- versary, or even should we discover some revivals which deserve to be called spurious ? Whatever abuses, notwithstanding, may at any time have taken place in the revivals in America, or whatever spurious ones may have occurred, it can not be disputed that our truly zealous, intelligent, and devoted Christians believe firmly in the reality of revivals ; and consider that, when wisely promoted, they are the greatest and most desirable blessings that can be bestowed upon the churches. There are, I admit, persons among us who oppose religious revivals, and it would be sad evidence against them if there were not. There are the openly wicked, the profane, Sabbath-breakers, enemies of pure re- ligion in every form, and avowed or secret infidels. These form the first category, and it is not a very small one. They may be found in our cities and large towns, and sometimes in our villages, and are the very persons whom strangers are most likely to meet about our hotels and taverns. Next, there are Roman Catholics, Unitarians, Universalists, and others whose Christianity is greatly marred with errors and heresies. These, too, almost without exception, hate re- vivals, nor can we wonder that they should. A third class consists of those members of our evangelical churches who conform too much CHAP. IX.] ALLEGED ABUSES IN EEVIVALS OF EELIGION. 429 to the opinions and practices of the world ; are so much afraid of what they call enthusiasm and fanaticism as to do nothing, or nothing worthy of mention, for the promotion of the Gospel ; and would never be known to be Christians, either by the world or by their fellow-Christians, were they not occasionally seen to take their places at the communion-table. Some such there are in all our evangelical churches, and in one or two of those whose discipline is more lax than it should be, they constitute a considerable party. Now it is natural that European travelers in the United States, when not decidedly religious themselves, should chiefly associate with one or all of these three classes ; and that, taking up their no- tions from them, they should have then* note-books and journals filled with all sorts of misrepresentations with respect to our religious re- vivals. Hence many, who have never visited America, owe all their ideas on that subject to writers whose own information was partial and incorrect, and who, as their very books show, know nothing of true religion, and would never have touched upon the subject, but that they wished to give piquancy to their pages by working up for the wonder and amusement of their readers every false and exagger- ated statement, and foolish anecdote, which had been poured into their ears. But serious and worthy people in Europe, and particularly in Great Britain, have been prejudiced against revivals in another way. There have been excellent men among us, who, apprehending much danger to the cause of revivals from certain measures taken to promote them by zealous, but injudicious persons, and perceiving the mischievous results of such measures, have faithfully exposed them, and warned the churches to be upon their guard. This they have done in the columns of our religious journals, in pamphlets, and in books. Their endeavors have met with much success against the enemy, who, fail- ing to prevent, had been seeking to pervert these blessed manifesta- tions of Divine mercy. But, as was natural, the strong language in which they were prompted to indulge by the actual view of some evils, and the apprehension of worse, have impressed foreigners with very exaggerated ideas of those evils. This result was perhaps una- voidable, yet it is much to be deplored ; for injury has thus been done to the cause abroad by men who would be the last to intend it. It is an infelicity to which all endeavors for good are subject in this evil world, that they are liable to be marred by proffered aid from men who, notwithstanding the fairest professions, prove, at length, to have been more actuated by their own miserable ambition than by a true zeal for God's glory and man's salvation. Such false friends did no small injury to the great revival of religion in 1740-43, 430 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. already mentioned ; and so, likewise, did the successive revivals that took place in the West in 1801-3 suffer much from the imprudence of some who desired to be leaders in the work of God. This was the case particularly in Kentucky. And within the last few years, after a blessed period marked by revivals hi many parts of the country, the same adversary who, when " the sons of God come to present them- selves before the Lord," seldom fails to obtrude himself among them, and who can, upon such occasions assume the garb, as it were, of " an angel of light," contrived for a while to do no little damage to the work. Some good men, as we still consider the greater number of them to have been, not content with the more quiet and prudent character which had hitherto marked the revivals, attempted to pre- cipitate matters by measures which many worthy and experienced persons, both ministers and laymen, deemed unwise and mischievous. The passions, instead of the judgment and the conscience, were too much appealed to ; too much stress was laid on the sinner's natural ability, and not enough on the needed influence of the Holy Spirit ; too superficial a view of the nature and evidences of conversion was presented ; in a word, the Gospel was not held forth in such a way as to lead to that self-abasement which becomes a sinner saved wholly by grace. One of the measures reprehended was the practice of earnestly pressing those who were somewhat awakened to a sense of their sin and danger, to come, at the close of the sermon, to seats immediately before the pulpit, called " anxious seats." These were seats provided for such as were anxious to be saved, in order that they might be specially prayed for, and receive some special counsels. This, though perhaps comparatively harmless, when adopted by prudent men among certain classes of people, was much the reverse when at- tempted in large congregations by men not gifted with extraordinary wisdom. It proved a poor substitute for the simpler and quieter method of meeting such as chose to remain after the public services, in order to receive the advice that their case might require ; or for the good old practice of holding special meetings at the pastor's house, or in the church vestry or lecture-room, for such as were " inquiring the way to Zion." Another measure, hardly deserving to be called new, for it has long existed in substance in the Presbyterian churches of the interior, and at one time, I understand, in Scotland also — that of having public serv- ices during three or four days on sacramental occasions — was found hurtful, when carried to the extent encouraged by some, in the shape of what are called " protracted meetings." These, when transferred from the West to the East, and held more frequently, were called CHAP. IX.] ALLEGED ABUSES IN REVIVALS OP RELIGION. 431 " four days' meetings" or " three days' meetings." But when pro- longed, as they were in some places— I know not how long, some- times, I believe, for a month or forty days— the practice was regarded as an abuse, and as such it was resisted. No one, perhaps, would con- demn such meetings when called for by particular circumstances ; but when people seem inclined to rely more upon them than upon the ordinary services of the sanctuary, and to think that without them there can be no revivals and conversions, it is time they were abol- ished, or at least restored to their proper use. But what was thought worst of all was the proposal, for it hardly went further, of an order of "revival preachers," who should go through the churches, spending a few weeks here and there, for the sole object of promoting revivals. This was justly opposed as sub- versive of the regular ministry, for it is easy to see that such men, going about with a few well-prepared discourses on exciting topics, and recommended, perhaps, by a popular delivery, would throw the pastors in the background, give the people " itching ears," and in a few weeks do more harm than good. No one would deny that " evan- gelists" might be very useful in the new settlements, where a regular clergy can not be at once established, and even in building up churches in the older parts of the country, or preaching to churches without pastors. Few, likewise, would deny that some zealous, able, and judicious ministers might render important services in going from church to church at the special request of the pastors for their assist- ance. Such men should have an eminently humble, kind, and pru- dent spirit, and an overruling desire to seek the interests of their brethren rather than to promote their own, and some such we have had who were widely useful. But should it be thought that the churches require such men, they ought to be placed under the special control of the ecclesiastical bodies to which they belong, and without whose express and continued approbation they ought not to under- take or continue such engagements. Nothing could be more danger- ous to the peace of the churches than that every man, who may fancy himself a " revivalist," or " revival preacher," should be allowed to go wherever people desire to have him, with or without the consent of their pastors. Accordingly, the institution of any such order was opposed, and the preachers who had been thus employed were urged each to settle at some one spot, which they did; and thus the churches hear little more of "revival preachers," or "revival makers," as some deserved to be called. I have said more on this subject than I intended, but not more, perhaps, than was required. Yet, should any of my readers have been led to suppose that the abuses I have described affected our 432 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. churches generally, he is mistaken. They began to manifest them- selves about the year 1828, and lasted some ten years, without, how- ever, having ever prevailed widely ; and in some extensive districts they have been altogether unknown. Of the thrice ten thousand churches of all denominations among us, in which " the truth as it is in Jesus" is preached, only a few hundreds are believed to have been affected by them, and even these have now become pretty well rid both of the abuses and of their consequences. During some of the sub- sequent years our churches were more extensively blessed with revi- vals than at any time before, and all well-informed persons, whom I have consulted, agree that those blessed seasons were more free from whatever could offend a judicious Christian. For these things we are glad ; they demonstrably prove that, though our sins be great, the God of our fathers has not forsaken us. Before closing the subject of the abuses attending religious revi- vals, I may say something, although there be no special connection between them, about camp-meetings, respecting which I have had many questions put to me in some parts of Europe. Most foreigners owe their notions of these meetings to the same sources from which they have taken their ideas of revivals — the pages of tourists, who have woven into episodes for their " travels," all the stories they have chanced to meet with. Some of them, possibly, have even gone to the outskirts of one of these assemblages, and looked on with all the wonder natural to persons who had never entered into the spirit of such scenes, so far as either to comprehend their nature or ascer- tain their results. Camp-meetings, as they are called, originated in sheer necessity among the Presbyterians of Kentucky, in the year 1801, during that great religious revival, which, after commencing in the western part of North Carolina, penetrated into Tennessee, and spread over all the parts of the West then settled. It so happened that, on one occasion, in the early part of that revival, so many people had come from a distance to the administration of the Lord's Supper at a particular church, that accommodation could nowhere be found in the neighbor- hood for all, during the successive days and nights which they wished to spend at the place. This induced as many as could to procure tents, and form something like a military encampment, where, as provisions were easily to be had, they might stay till the meetings closed. Such was the origin of camp-meetings. They were afterward held at various points during that extraordinary season of religious solicitude. The country was still very thinly settled, and as a jn-oof of the deep and wide-spread feeling that prevailed on the subject of religion, many persons attended from distances of thirty, forty, and CHAP. IX.] ALLEGED ABUSES IN REVIVALS OF KELIGION. 433 fifty miles ; nay, on one occasion, some came from a distance of even one hundred miles. It is not surprising that the meetings should have lasted for several days, since many who attended them had few opportunities of frequenting public worship and of hearing the Gospel iu the wilderness where they lived. These meetings were held, when the weather permitted, in the midst of the noble forest. Seats were made of logs and planks, the under rubbish being cleared away ; a pulpit was erected facing the rows of seats ; and there, in the forenoon, afternoon, and evening, the ministers of the Gospel made known the " words of eternal life." Public prayer was also held at the same spot early in the morning, and at the close of the services at night. Around, at proper dis- tances, were placed the tents, looking toward the seated area pre- pared for the great congregation. Lamps were suspended at night from the boughs of the trees, and torches blazed from stakes, eight or ten feet high, in front of each tent. In the rear of the tents, morning and evening, such simple cooking operations as were neces- sary went on. Each tent was occupied by one or two families, intimate friends and neighbors sometimes sharing one, when their families were not too large. A horn or trumpet announced the hour for the commencement of the public services. Such was a primitive camp-meeting in the sombre forests of Ken- tucky more than fifty years ago. Solemn scenes occurred at them, such as might well have caused many that scoffed to tremble. Such, also, both as respects their arrangements, and in many places even as respects the spirit that has predominated at them, have been the camp-meetings held since. They were confined for years to the frontier settlements, as they ought, perhaps, always to have been, for there they were in some measure necessary. I have attended them in such circumstances, have been struck with the order that prevailed at them, and have seen them become the means of doing unquestion- able good. They served to bring together, to the profit of immortal souls, a population scattered far and wide, and remaining sometimes for years remote from any regular place of worship. The reader must not suppose that all who come to these meetings encamp there. Only families from a great distance do so. Those within a circuit of even five miles, generally go home at night and return in the morning, bringing something to eat during the interval of public worship. In the remote settlements of the Far West, the utility of camp- meetings seems to be admitted by all who know any thing about them; but in densely-settled neighborhoods, and especially near cities and large towns, whether in the West or in the East, they are apt to 28 434 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. give rise to disorder. The idle rabble are sure to flock to them, es- pecially on the Sabbath, and there they drink and create disturbance, not so much at the camp itself, for the police would prevent them, but at taverns and temporary booths for the sale of beer and ardent spirits in the neighborhood. It is true that since temperance societies have made such progress, these evils have much diminished; and even in more populous places, good is undoubtedly done at these meetings; the thoughtless, who go to them from mere curiosity, being made to hear truths that they never can forget. Nor are these meetings blessed only to the lower classes, as they are called. A young man of the finest talents, once my class-mate at college, and afterward my intimate friend, having gone to one of them from mere curiosity, was awakened by a faithful sermon to a sense of his need of salvation ; his convictions never left him until he found peace by u believing in the Son of God." He lived to become a most popular and eloquent minister of the Gospel.* Camp-meetings are occasionally held in the Far West by the Pres- byterians, especially by the Cumberland Presbyterians, as also by some of the Baptists, possibly. But for a long time they have been held mainly by the Methodists ; and I understand that many among these have the impression that, except in the frontier and new settle- ments, they might with propriety give place to " Protracted Meet- ings," which is the course, I believe, they are now taking in some parts of the country. Such is the account I have to give of camp-meetings. Wicked men have sometimes taken advantage of them for their own bad pur- poses, and such abuses have been trumpeted through the world with the view of bringing discredit on the religion of the country. With- out having ever been a great admirer of such meetings, I must say after attending several, and carefully observing the whole proceed- ings, that I am satisfied that the mischiefs alleged to arise from them have been greatly exaggerated, while there has been a failure to ac- knowledge the good that they have done. In some parts of the West there is a practice, familiar to me in early life, and of which I still retain very tender and pleasing recol- lections. It consists in holding the services of the sanctuary in a forest during summer, both to accommodate a greater number of people, and also for the sake of the refreshing shade afforded by the trees. Seats are prepared in rows before a temporary pulpit made of boards, and there, from a temple made by God himself, prayer and * The late Rev. Joseph S. Christmas, some time pastor of a Presbyterian church at Montreal in Canada, and afterward settled in New York, where he died. An in- teresting memoir of him has been published. CHAP. X.] CONCLUDING REMARKS. 435 praise ascend unto Him " who dwelleth not in temples made with hands," and who is ever present where contrite and believing hearts are engaged in worshipping Him. In such scenes, too, it is now common, in almost all parts of the United States for Sabbath-schools to assemble on the Fourth of July, if the weather be good, for the purpose of hearing appropriate ad- dresses, more religious than political ; of uniting in prayer for the blessing of God upon the country, and the country's hope, the rising generation ; and of praising Him from whom all our privileges, civil and religious, have been received. Temperance meetings on the same occasions are now held in our beautiful forests, and something better is heard than the boastful and unchristian self-adulation, to say noth- ing of the profaneness and ribaldry, which too often characterized such scenes in the " olden time," when temperance societies and Sun- day-schools were unknown. CHAPTER X. CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. A stranger upon visiting extensively our evangelical churches of all denominations, would be struck, I am sure, with the order that prevails in their public assemblies ; and this applies equally to the smaller prayer-meetings to be found in every parish and congrega- tion that possesses any vitality. Foreigners who have never visited the United States, seem impressed with the idea that there is a great deal of disorder and lawlessness in that country, and they infer that there must be no less insubordination in the religious commonwealth than they ascribe to the civil. But both opinions are totally un- founded. It does not follow, because of a few disgraceful disturb- ances, arising from the opposition made in some places to abolitionists, and the resentment of an exasperated populace against gangs of gamblers in others, that the whole country is a scene of continual com- motion. In no part of the world have there been so few dreadful riots, attended with loss of life, as in the United States, during these last sixty years. There are bad men among us, and there are crimes, but, after all, life is quite as safe among us as in any country I have ever visited. As for the Church, a regard for law and order reigns to a degree not surpassed in any other country. There is no confusion of the respective rights of the ministry and people. The duties of both are 436 THE CHURCH AND THE PULPIT IN AMERICA. [BOOK V. well understood everywhere. Most of the churches, such as the Presbyterian and the Episcopalian in all their branches, possess and maintain a strong ecclesiastical government, and even the Congre- gational, however democratic in theory, have a government that exercises a hardly less powerful control. Seldom do we hear of dis- order occurring at the little meetings of Christians held for prayer and the reading of the Word of God — meetings so numerous, and very often conducted by pious laymen. Seldom do pious church members encroach by word or deed, at meetings of any kind, on the proper sphere of those who hold office in the churches. Indeed, on no one point are our churches more perfectly united in opinion than with respect to the necessity of maintaining due order and subordin- ation. The ministry enjoys its full share of influence. No one ever hears of unauthorized, unlicensed persons being allowed to speak in our meetings for public worship. Those leveling doctrines, now spreading in other countries — doctrines which would reduce the min- istry to nothing, and encourage " lay-brethren" to take it upon them to preach or teach in the churches — will, I dare affirm, make small progress among us. Attempts to introduce something of this sort have often been made, but in vain. We have, indeed, our meetings in which debate is allowed, and there the laity may even take the lead, but these meetings relate to the temporal affairs of the church, or the calling of a pastor, not the public worship of God. Experience has also taught us the necessity of maintaining order at meetings held during revivals — occasions on which, in consequence of the strong excitement of the most powerful feelings of the human heart, there is a special call for watchfulness in this respect. It is a sad mistake to multiply meetings unnecessarily during revivals, or to prolong them to unseasonable hours at night, to the exhaustion of strength, the loss of needed repose, and the unnatural and dangerous irritation of the nervous system. Yet these are the points in which the experienced are most liable to err. This is sometimes done under the idea that the people would lose their serious impressions were the services to be short. But here there is often a temptation of the adversary. No revival has ever suffered by a limitation of evening meetings to a moderate length. The people should be almost compelled to leave the house, rather than unduly protract such meetings. One of the most important and difficult duties of a minister in a revival is rightly to direct awakened souls. Alas! how often are even good men found to fail in this. Many, whom I have known, seem to me to excel in addressing unawakened sinners, and yet to fail when called to give clear, intelligible, and Scriptural directions to CHAP. X.] CONCLUDING REMARKS. 437 those who are awakened. Many, too, fail in judging of the evidences of conversion, and " heal the hurt of the people softly." But on no point, I am convinced, from what I have seen in America, is there a greater call for the exercise of a sound prudence, than in receiving into the Church persons who entertain the belief that they have " passed from death unto life." While they may possibly be kept back too long, the great error lies on the other side. The new convert naturally desires to join himself to those whom he now con- siders to be the children of God. He thinks it his duty to do so, and he may be right. But the office-bearers in the Church, whose duty it is to see that none but proper persons be admitted, are no less clearly bound to a careful ascertaining of the fact, that the candidate for membership gives such evidences of piety as, on Scriptural grounds, shall be deemed satisfactory. I consider hasty admission to our churches the greatest of all evils connected with revivals in some parts of the country, and among some denominations in particular. But this evil is not peculiar to re- vivals. It is quite as likely to occur when there is no revival. With all possible care it is difficult to keep a church pure. Experience shows the necessity of decided views on this subject, and of firmness in enforcing them. On this point, as well as on all others relating to the discipline and government of the Church, too much care can not be taken to avoid latitudinarian practices. The Church must be kept a living body of believers — a company of persons who have come out from the world, and are determined to adorn the profession which they have made. In their organization and action, order, which is said to be " heaven's first law," must be maintained. In this opinion, I am sure, Christians of all denominations in the United States sin- cerely and entirely concur. BOOK VI. THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS IN REFERENCE TO THIS SUBJECT. This part of our work we propose to devote to a brief notice of the doctrines, organization, and history of each of the evangelical denominations in the United States ; nothing beyond a sketch of these being consistent with our limits. We shall endeavor, of course, to confine ourselves as much as possible to what is important, omitting what is less necessary. We begin with the five most numerous evangelical denominations in the United States. These, in the order of their establishment in this country, are the Episcopalians, the Congregationalists, the Bap- tists, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists; and in that order we shall proceed to notice them. We shall then consider, as briefly as possible, the smaller orthodox denominations, such as the Moravians, the Lutherans, the German Reformed, and other German sects, the Reformed Dutch Church, the Cumberland Presbyterians, the Protest- ant or Reformed Methodists, the Reformed Presbyterians or Cov- enanters, the Associate Church, the Associate Reformed, the Qua- kers, etc. Numerous as are the evangelical denominations in the United States, yet when grouped in reference to doctrine on the one hand, or church government on the other, it is surprising into how small a number they may be reduced. In doctrine we have but two great divisions — the Calvinistic and the Arminian schools ; the former, with its va- rious peculiarities, comprehending the Presbyterian, usually so called, the evangelical Baptists, the Episcopalians (though they generally consider themselves intermediate between the two), the Congrega- tionalists, the German Reformed, the Dutch Reformed, the Cov- CHAP. II.] THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 439 enanters, the Associate and the Associate Reformed Churches ; the latter, with its variations, comprehending the Methodists of all branches, the Lutherans, the Cumberland Presbyterians, the United Brethren or Moravians, and some other small bodies. Considered in reference to their forms of church government, they all arrange themselves in three great families. The Episcopal, com- prehending the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal, and the Moravians ; the Presbyterian, including the Presbyterians, usually so called, the Dutch Reformed, the German Reformed, the Lutherans, the Cumberland Presbyterians, the Protestant Methodists, the Covenanters, the Associate, and the Associate Reformed; the Congregational (or Independent, as it is more commonly called in England), embracing the Congregationalists and the Baptists. But when viewed in relation to the great doctrines which are uni- versally conceded by Protestants to be fundamental and necessary to salvation, then they all form but one body, recognizing Christ as their common Head. Then they resemble the different parts of a great temple, all constituting but one whole ; or the various corps of an army, which, though ranged in various divisions, each having an organization perfect in itself, yet compose but one great host, and are under the command of one Chief. This suggests the observation that on no one point are all these Churches more completely united, or more firmly established, than on the doctrine of the supremacy of Christ in His Church, and the un- lawfulness of any interference with its doctrine, discipline, and gov- ernment, on the part of the civil magistrate. There is not a single evangelical church in the United States that does not assert and main- tain this glorious doctrine of the sovereignty of Christ in His Church, and that from Him alone comes all just and lawful authority in the same. On this point they hold unanimously the great doctrine for which the Church of Scotland has of late years so nobly contended. If the civil power has ever referred for a moment to the doctrine and discipline of the Church, it has only been in courts of justice, and that solely for the purpose of determining which of two parties has a legal title to be considered the church in question. • CHAPTER II. THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States derives its origin from the Church of England, of which it is not only an offshoot, 440 THE EVANGELICAL CHUKCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. but to which it is " indebted, under God, for a long continuance of nursing care and protection."* It agrees with that Church in doc- trine ; and its ritual and formularies, with some variations introduced after the Revolution by which the Colonies became independent States, are the same. Unlike the mother Church, however, it is in no way connected with the State, nor do its bishops, in virtue of their office, enjoy any civil powers, immunities, or emoluments. The chief particulars in which the Service-Book differs from that of the Church of England are as follows : 1. A shorter form of abso- lution is allowed to be used instead of the English, which is, however, retained, and frequently used in the public service. 2. The Athanasian creed is omitted. 3. In the administration ofbaptism, the sign of the cross may be dispensed with, if requested. 4. The marriage-service has been considerably abridged. 5. In the funeral-service, some ex- pressions, considered as liable to misconstruction, have been altered or omitted. 6. There has been a change, of course, in the prayers for rulers. V. It is allowed to omit in the communion-sendee the prayer called the " Oblation," and the Invocation. 8. It is permitted to change the words, " He descended into hell," which occur in the Ap6stles' Creed, into " He descended into the world of departed spirits," or words equivalent. The other modifications, being of less importance and chiefly verbal, need not be specified. As in the parent Church in England, there are three ranks or orders in the ministry, and these are believed, by its friends, to be of apos- tolical institution, viz., bishops, priests, and deacons. The churches choose their own pastors, but their installation, or induction, requires the consent of the bishop of the diocese.f The regulation of the temporal affairs of each church is confided to a board of church- wardens, and vestry, the former of which are chosen by the com- municants, the latter by the members of the parish generally. The spiritual rule rests mainly with the pastor, or rector, as he is more commonly called. The increase and wide diffusion of the Episcopal Church in the United States has led to the determination that each State shall con- stitute a diocese, except when its extent, and the number of churches in it, may require its being divided, like that of New York, into two dioceses. In some instances, however, as in Virginia, where the * Preface to the American Book of Common Prayer. f "When the bishop is unable to preside at the installation or institution of a min- ister as rector or pastor of a church, he appoints a committee of neighboring presby- ters to act as institutors on the occasion. So, also, in dioceses that have no bish- ops, if the services of a neighboring prelate can not be obtained, a self-constituted committee of neighboring presbyters may give institution. CHAP. II.] THE PROTEST ANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 441 State is extensive, and the churches not very numerous, and espe- cially where the principal or senior bishop does not enjoy good health, an assistant bishop has been appointed. Each diocese has its affairs directed by an Annnal Convention, composed of the diocesan clergy and one or more lay delegates from each parish, elected by the people, or appointed by the wardens and vestry ; the clergy and laity forming one body, but voting separ- ately whenever this is demanded, the clergy forming one house and the laity another. The bishop presides, should there be one ; if not, a president is chosen in his place. A concurrent vote of both orders, when voting separately, is necessary before any measure or law can pass. Every three years a General Convention is held ; the last always appointing the place of meeting for the next after. This body is composed of clerical and lay delegates from each State or Diocese Convention, who form the house of delegates, and of the bishops, who form the house of bishops. When any proposed act has passed one house, it is sent to fche other for its concurrence, the consent of both houses being requisite to its having the force of law. The Epis- copal Church, throughout the country, is governed by the canons of the General Convention. These canons regulate the election of bishops, declare the qualifications necessary for obtaining the orders of deacon and priest, the studies to be previously pursued, the ex- aminations to be undergone, and the age that candidates must have attained before they can be admitted to the three grades of the min- istry. The age of twenty-one is required for deacon's orders, twenty- four for those of priest, and before a priest can be ordained bishop he must have completed his thirtieth year. Candidates for ordination do not, as in the Church of England, subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles, but simply the following declara- tion : " I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- ments to be the word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation ; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrines and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in these United States." These doctrines are understood to be contained in the articles of re- ligion printed with the Book of Common Prayer, and implied in the Liturgy of the Church. The fall of man, the Trinity of Divine Per- sons in the Godhead, the proper Deity and humanity of the Saviour, the atonement through His sufferings and death, the regenerating and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, the general judgment, the everlasting reward of the righteous and punishment of the wicked — or, in other words, what are called the doctrines of the Reformation — are fully taught in these formularies, and are in reality professed by those who subscribe the above declaration. 442 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. The Episcopal was the first Protestant Church planted on the American Continent, and the reader has seen how it was the favored Church in Virginia from the earliest settlement of that State until the Revolution ; how, also, it came to be established in the colonies of Maryland, New York, and the Carolinas. But, notwithstanding all the aid which it received from the civil government, its prosperity was far from commensurate with these external advantages. When the Revolution commenced, it had not more than eighty ministers in the colonies north and east of Maryland, and even these, with the exception of such as were settled in Philadelphia, New York, New- port, Boston, and a few other of the most important cities and towns, were supported by the " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ;" while in the colonies south of Virginia, viz., the Carolinas and Georgia, all the clergy taken together were but few. The number in Virginia and Maryland, amounting to about one hun- dred and fifty, greatly exceeded that of all other colonies. The causes of this ill success during the colonial era lay, as we have stated, in the entire dej:>endence of the Church upon England for Episcopal supervision, and, in a great degree, for a supply of min- isters ; in the unfitness of many that were sent over by the Bishoj) of London, to whose diocese the Episcopal churches in America were then attached ; and the great difficulties attending the raising up of a native clergy, and sending them to England for consecration, though this had been done to a very great extent in the colony of Connecticut — and it was in that colony that the Episcopal Church had made by far the greatest advance. We have also seen how dis- astrous was the Revolution, with the changes it effected on the Epis- coj)al Church in all the colonies, and particularly in Virginia, and that it was many years before it could rise from the prostration in which the return of peace in 1783 found it. One of the first measures attempted after that event was the forma- tion of an ecclesiastical constitution, by a special convention of the clergy from several of the States, held in Philadelphia in 1785, for the purpose of uniting all the Episcopal churches in one body. An- other important measure was the ordination of American bishops. For this purpose, the above convention, the first that was held, opened a correspondence with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. This was followed by the passing of an act in the British Parliament authorizing the English prelates to consecrate bishops for America. The Rev. Drs. White and Provoost, the former of Phila- delphia, and the latter of New York, were thereupon sent over to England, and received ordination to the Episcopal office from the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York, CHAP. II.] THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 443 the Bishops of Bath and Wells, and of Peterborough assisting. Upon their return to America, Bishops White and Provoost entered upon the discharge of their Episcopal duties in their respective dioceses. A short time before the consecration of Bishops White and Pro- voost, the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., had gone over to England for consecration to the Episcopal office. But having abandoned all hope of success from that quarter, he went to Scotland, and was conse- crated by three of the non-juring bishops of that kingdom. Upon his return he became Bishop of Connecticut. In the Convention of 1789, it being proposed to ordain another bishop, that body re- quested Bishops White and Provoost to unite with Bishop Seabury in performing that act, the presence of three bishops being necessary. But Bishop White having some doubts whether it was consistent with the faith understood to have been pledged to the English bishops, to proceed to an act of consecration without having first obtained from them the number held in their Church to be canoni- cally necessary to such an act, the difficulty was terminated by send- ing the Rev. James Madison, D.D., of Virginia, to England, and his consecration there. At the next triennial convention, held in the city of New York in 1792, the four bishops, Drs. White, Provoost, Madison, and Seabury, ordained the Rev. Dr. Thomas John Clagget to the Episcopal office in the diocese of Maryland. About that epoch this Church may be said to have passed its apogee of depression, occasioned by the Revolution and its effects. Its subsequent history has been marked by an ever-increasing pros- perity. I have not the means of knowing what was the precise num- ber of its clergy in 1792, but I am sure that it could not have ex- ceeded two hundred, and its bishops were four in number. Just forty years later, in 1832, according to the Journal of the General Convention held in New York in October of that year, the number of the bishops had increased to fifteen, and that of the clergy to five hundred and eighty-three. In 1855, we find the number of bishops augmented to thirty-eight,* the clergy to one thousand seven hun- dred and fourteen, while the communicants were reported to be one hundred and five thousand three hundred and fifty. Nor has the spiritual prosperity of this church been less remarka- ble than its external growth. It possesses a degree of life and energy throughout all its extent, and an amount of vital piety in its ministers and members, such as it never had in its colonial days. It is blessed with precious revivals, and flourishes like a tree planted by the rivers of water. And in no portions of the country does it possess more * Of the bishops, two are not in service, one is a missionary bishop in China, one in Af- rica, and another, who was a missionary bishop in Turkey, has relinquished his diocese. 444 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. spiritual health than in the States of Virginia and Maryland, where, in the ante-revolutionary era, it was in a deplorable state as regards piety, both in its ministry and its laity. Happier days have dawned upon it in those States, and, indeed, everywhere else. I have already spoken of the societies which have sprung up in the Episcopal Church for the promotion of domestic missions, Sunday- schools, the education of poor and pious young men for the ministry, and the publication of religious tracts and books. I have also taken some notice of the theological schools or semina- ries connected with it, viz., one at New York, another in Fairfax county, Virginia, a few miles from Alexandria, in the District of Co- lumbia, and a third at Gambier, Ohio, in connection with Kenyon College. These institutions have already sent forth a large number of young men into the ministry, and one hundred and forty or fifty are at this moment pursuing their theological studies, under the in- struction of able professors. The clergy of the Episcopal Church in America, like those of the Established Church in England, are divided into two parties, the one termed "High Church" and the other "Low." Sometimes these parties are called " evangelical" and " non-evangelical," but not with accuracy, for not a few of the high- churchmen, that is, men charged with carrying their preference for Episcopacy to an extravagant length, are entirely evangelical in their doctrines and preaching. But a part of these high-churchmen are not considered evangelical — not so much because of what they do preach, as because of what they do not preach. Their sermons are of too negative a character ; an efficacy un- known to the Scriptures is ascribed to ceremonies and forms ; neither are the sinner's guilt and danger as fully and earnestly set forth as they should be, nor is the glorious sufficiency of Christ unfolded, and salvation by faith alone fully and clearly presented. Their preaching, consequently, does not reach the hearts of their hearers as does that of their evangelical brethren, nor does it lead the members of their churches to renounce the " world, its pomps and its vanities," to as great an extent as they should. Yet they are not to be classed with the fox-hunting, theatre-going, ball-frequenting, and card-playing clergy of some other countries. They are an infinitely better class of men and ministers. I know not the comparative numbers of the evangelical and non- evangelical clergy, but infer, from the statements of some well-in- formed ministers of that Church, that they are in the proportion of about two thirds of the former to one third of the latter. Of the thirty-eight bishops, more than half are considered, I believe, entirely evangelical. But all are laboriously occupied in their official work ; CHAP. III.] THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 445 and I believe it would be difficult to find an Episcopal body of equal number, in any other country, surpassing them in talents, zeal, and piety. To be a bishop with us is quite a different thing from holding that office where bishops live in palaces and have princely revenues. Our bishops are frequently parish priests also, and can find time to visit their dioceses only by employing an assistant preacher, or rector, to fill their places when they are engaged in their visitations. Their revenues do not much exceed, in some instances do not equal, those of many of their clergy. As for the Puseyite or Tractarian doctrines, or whatever they may be called, three, or perhaps four, of the high-church bishops are sup- posed to have embraced them, or at least to be favorable to them, as understood in America. But there is not one who adopts the ex- treme views put forth of late years by some advocates of this party in England, and but one who has ever declined the name of Protestant. Among the inferior clergy it has been feared that these sentiments have made considerable progress ; but those whose situation enables them to judge with a good deal of accuracy, say that this progress is much smaller than has been supposed. Among the laity there is scarcely any sympathy with these semi-popish doctrines, and I can not believe that they will make much advance in the country at large. The prospects of the Episcopal Church in the United States are certainly very encouraging. The friend of a learned and able minis- try, to form which she has founded colleges and theological institu- tions,* she sees among her clergy not a few men of the highest dis- tinction for talents, for learning, for eloquence, for piety and zeal. A large number of the most respectable people in all parts of the country are among her friends and her members, especially in the cities and large towns. Under such circumstances, if she be true to herself and her proper interests, with God's blessing she can not but continue to prosper and extend her borders. CHAPTER III. THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. The faith of the Congregational churches of America is common to the evangelical churches of both hemispheres, but their organization and discipline are, to a considerable extent, peculiar to themselves. * The founding of the Theological Seminary of this Church, at the city of New- York, was greatly promoted by the princely gift of $60,000 by a Mr. Jacob Sherred. Such beneficence deserves to be gratefully commemorated. 446 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. A large and most respectable body of dissenters in Great Britain, for- merly known as Independents, have of late preferred the name of Congregational, but the differences between American Congregation- alism and that which bears the same name in England are, in some respects, highly important. Some of these differences, as well as the points of agreement, will appear in the statements that follow. New England is the principal seat of the Congregational churches in America. This is the region which the Puritans planted in the first half of the seventeenth century ; and here they have left upon the structure and institutions of society, and upon the opinions and manners of the people, the deepest impression of their peculiar char- acter. In all these States, with the exception of Rhode Island, the Congregationalists are more numerous than any other sect, and in Massachusetts and Connecticut they are probably more numerous than all the others united. Out of New England the Congregationalists have not until lately been zealous to propagate their own peculiar forms and institutions. Of the vast multitudes of emigrants from New England into other States, the great majority have chosen to unite with churches of the Presbyterian connection, rather than to maintain their own peculiari- ties at the expense of increased division in the household of faith. In so doing, they have followed the advice and fallen in with the ar- rangements of the associated bodies of Congregational pastors in New England. Yet in the States of New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and California, many congregations retain the forms of administration which have descended to them from the New England fathers, and do not come into connection with any of the Presbyterian judicatories. Since the division in the Presbyterian Church in 1838, the number of such congregations is increasing. The whole number of Congregational churches in the United States is probably not far from two thousand four hundred and fifty, of which more than one thousand two hundred are in New England. The number of ministers is two thousand three hundred and twenty- seven, of whom one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight are pas- tors, and the members or communicants may be stated at two hun- dred and ten thousand. This estimate does not include those churches originally or nominally Congregational, which have rejected what are called the doctrines of the Reformation. These churches are better known by their distinctive title, Unitarian. The churches of this de- scription are nearly all in Massachusetts ; a few are in Maine, two or three in New Hampshire, one or more in Vermont, as many in Rhode Island, and one, in a state of suspended animation, in Connecticut. Out of New England there are perhaps fifteen to twenty churches of CHAP, in.] THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 447 the same kind, differing very little in their principles, or in their forms, from the Unitarians of England. The " Pilgrims," as they are called' — the little band of exiles who, having fled from England into Holland, afterward, in 1620, migrated from Holland to America, and formed at Plymouth the first settle- ment in New England — were separatists from the Church of En- gland,* and for the crime of attempting to set up religious institutions not established by law, they were compelled to flee from their native country, embarking by stealth and at night as fugitives from justice, as we have related in detail elsewhere.f But those bodies of emi- grants far more numerous and far better prepared and furnished, which, from 1628 onward, planted Salem and Boston, Hartford, and New Haven — the emigrating Puritans, who were the actual founders of New England, and whose character gave direction to its destiny — were men who considered themselves as belonging to the Church of England till their emigration into the American wilderness dissolved the tie. They were Puritans in England, it is true, but the Puritans were a party within the Church contending for a purer and more thorough renovation, and not a dissenting body, with institutions of their own, and separated from the Church. The ministers who ac- companied the Puritan emigrants, or, rather, who led them into the wilderness, and who were the first pastors of the churches in New England, were, before their emigration, almost without exception, ministers of the Church of England, educated at the universities, episcopally ordained, regularly inducted into livings; Nonconform- ists, it is true, as refusing to wear the white surplice, to use the sign of the cross in baptism, or other ceremonies which seemed to them superstitious, but yet exercising their ministry as well as they could under many disabilities and annoyances. Cotton and Wilson, of Boston ; Hooker and Stone, of Hartford ; Davenport and Hooke, of New Haven — not to extend the catalogue — were all beneficed clergy- men before their emigration. These men having emigrated to what were then called " the ends of the earth," and supposing that their expatriation had made them free from that ecclesiastical bondage to which they had been "subjected unwillingly," set themselves to study, with their Bibles in their hands, the Scriptural model of church-order , and discipline, and to form their churches after the pattern thus discovered. The result was Congregationalism— a sys- tem which differed as much from Brownism on the one hand, as it * In what sense they were Separatists the reader will have perceived from what was said in chapter iv. of book ii. He will also perceive in what sense they were not Separatists. f See book ii., chap. i. 448 THE EVANGELICAL CHUECHES EST AMERICA. [BOOK VI. did from Presbyterianism on the other. After the Puritans in Amer- ica had set up their church-order, the Puritans in England, having become a majority in Parliament, attempted to reduce the Estab- lished Church of that nation to the Presbyterian form ; and it was not till a still later period that Congregationalism, or, as it was more generally called there, Independency, began to make a figure under the favor of Cromwell. Thus it appears that Congregationalism in America, instead of being an offshoot from that in England, is the parent stock. No Congregational church in England, it is believed, dates its existence so far back as the Act of Uniformity in 1662 ; but many of the New England churches have records of more than two hundred years. It may also be remarked that American Congregationalists are not " dissenters," nor were they ever such. In New England the Con- gregational churches were for a long time the ecclesiastical establish- ment of the country, as much as the Presbyterian Church is now hi Scotland. The whole economy of the civil State was arranged with reference to the welfare of these churches ; for the State existed, and the country had been redeemed from the wilderness, for this very purpose. At first no dissenting assembly, not even if adopting the ritual and order of the Church of England, was tolerated. After- ward dissenters of various names were permitted to worship as they pleased, and were not only released from the obligation to contribute toward the support of the established religion, but were so incorpo- rated by law that each congregation was empowered to tax its own members for the support of its own religious ministrations. But still, until the principle was adopted that the support of religion is not among the duties of the civil government, the Congregationalists maintained this precedence — that every man who did not prefer to contribute to the support of public worship in some other form, was liable to be taxed as a Congregationalism Thus, though some of the members of one denomination in New England occasionally aflect to speak of the Congregationalists around them as " dissenters," those who do so only expose themselves to ridicule. Every man sees that if there be such a thing as " dissent" in New England, the Episcopal- ians, with the Baptists and the Methodists, and all the other sects who have at different times separated themselves from the ecclesias- tical order originally established on the soil, and still flourishing there, are the dissenters. The Congregationalists differ from most other communions, in that they have no common authoritative standards of faith and order, other than the Holy Scriptures. Yet their system is well known among themselves, and from the beginning they have spared no rea- CHAP. III.] THE CONGEEGATIONAL CHUECHES. 449 sonable pains to make it known to others. John Cotton, the first teacher of the first church in Boston, was the author of a book on u the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," published as early as 1644, which, in its time, was highly esteemed, not only as a controversial defence of Congregationalism, but also as a practical exposition of its principles. John Norton, too, teacher of the church in Ipswich, and afterward settled in Boston, gave to the Reformed Churches of Eu- rope, in 1646, a full account of the ecclesiastical order of New En- gland, in a Latin epistle to Apollonius, a Dutch minister, who, in the name of the divines of Zealand, had written to America for informa- tion on that subject. In 1648, a synod of pastors and churches, called together at Cambridge (a town near Boston) by the invitation of the civil authorities of Massachusetts, drew up a scheme of church discipline, which, from the place at which the synod met, was called the " Cambridge Platform." This platform, however, though highly approved at the time, and still quoted with great deference, was never an authoritative rule ; and at this day some of its principles have become entirely obsolete. In 1708, a synod, or council, repre- senting the pastors and churches of Connecticut, was assembled at Saybrook by the invitation of the Legislature of that colony. By this Connecticut synod a system was formed, differing in some re- spects from the Cambridge Platform, and designed to supply what were deemed the deficiencies of that older system. The Saybrook Platform was adopted by the churches of Connecticut, and was for many years in that colony a sort of standard recognized by law. Its application was gradually modified, and its stringency relaxed or in- creased by various local rules and usages, and by successive acts of the Legislature ; and at the present time this platform alone is a very inadequate account of the ecclesiastical order of Connecticut. The following outline, it is believed, will give the reader some idea of the system of New England Congregationalism as it is at this day: 1. The Congregational system recognizes no church as an organ- ized body politic other than a congregation of believers statedly as- sembling for worship and religious communion. It falls back upon the original meeting of the Greek word txxltjcrla, and of the Latin ccetus. Popery claims that all Christians constitute one visible, organized body, having its officers, its centre, and its head on earth. The first Reformers seem to have supposed that each national church has its own independent existence, and is to be considered as one organic body, which has somewhere within itself, in the clergy, or in the peo- ple, or in the civil government of the nation, a power to regulate and 29 450 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. govern all the parts. Congregationalism rejects both the Universal Church of the Papists, and the National Churches which the Refor- mation established in England, in Scotland, in certain States of Ger- many and Switzerland, and attempted to establish in France. Hence the name Congregational. Each congregation of believers is a church ; and exists not as a subordinate part, or as under the sovereignty of a National Church, nor as a part, or under the sover- eignty of an organized Universal Church, but substantively and inde- pendently. Other religious communions in America are organized under the form of National Churches, and are named accordingly. Thus we have " the Presbyterian Church in the United States," " the Protes- tant Episcopal Church in the United States," " the Methodist Epis- copal Church in the United States ;" but no intelligent person ever speaks of the Congregational Church in the United States, or of the American Congregational Church. Congregationalists always speak of the churches of America, or of New England, or of Massachu- setts, except when, in courtesy to other denominations, they use their forms of speech in speaking of them and of their affairs. 2. A church exists by the consent, expressed or implied, of its mem- bers to walk together in obedience to the principles of the Gospel, and the institutions of Christ. In other words, a church does not de- rive its existence and rights from some charter conceded to it by another church, or by some higher ecclesiastical judicatory. When any competent number of believers meet together in the name of Christ, and agree, either expressly or by some implication, to com- mune together statedly in Christian worship, and in the observance of Christ's ordinances, and to perform toward one another the mutual duties of such Christian fellowship, Christ himself is present with them (Matt., xviii., 20), and they receive from Him all the powers and privileges which belong to a church of Christ. At the orderly formation of a church, the neighboring churches are ordinarily invited to be present by their pastors and delegates, as witnesses of the faith and order of those engaged in the transaction, and that they may extend the " right hand of fellowship," recogniz- ing the new church as one of the sisterhood of churches. The neglect of this, though it might be deemed a breach of courtesy and order, would not, of itself, so vitiate the proceedings as to prevent the new church from being recognized ultimately by the churches of the neighborhood. 3. The officers of a church are of two sorts — elders and deacons. When the Congregational churches of New England were first or- ganized, two centuries ago, the plan was that each church should CHAP. III.] THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 451 have two or more elders — one a pastor — another charged with similar duties under the title of a teacher — the third ordained to his office like the other two, a ruling elder, who, with his colleagues, presided over the discipline and order of the church, but took no part in the official authoritative preaching of the Word, or in the administration of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Thus it was intended that each church should have within itself a presbytery, or clerical body, per- petuating itself by the ordination of those who should be elected to fill successive vacancies. This plan, however, soon fell into disuse ; and now, except in the rare cases of colleagues in office, all the powers and duties of the eldership devolve upon one whose ordinary official title is pastor. The office of deacons, of whom there are from two to six in each church, is to serve at the Lord's Table, and to re- ceive, keep, and apply the contributions which the church makes at each communion for the expenses of the Table, and for the poor among its own members. Originally, the deacons, as in the primitive churches, received on each Lord's Day the contributions of the whole congregation, which were applied by them for the support of the ministers, and for all other ecclesiastical uses. But at an early period other arrangements were adopted, as more convenient. 4. Admission to membership in the church takes place as follows : The person desiring to unite himself with the church makes known his wishes to the pastor. The pastor (or in some churches the pastor and deacons, and in others, the pastor and a committee appointed for the purpose), having conversed with the candidate, and obtained by conversation and inquiry satisfactory evidence of that spiritual reno- vation, that inward living piety which is regarded as the condition of membership, he is publicly proposed in the congregation, on the Lord's Day, as a candidate ; so that if there be any objection in any quarter, it may be seasonably made known. At the end of a week, or more, according to the particular rule of the church, a vote of the " brotherhood" (or male members) is taken on the question, " Shall this person be admitted to membership in the church ?" After this, the candidate appears before the congregation, and gives his assent to a formal profession of the Christian faith read to him by the pastor, and to a form of covenant, by which he engages to give himself up to God as a child and servant, and to Christ as a redeemed sinner, and binds himself to the church conscientiously to perform all the duties of Christian communion and brotherhood. 5. The censures of the church are pronounced by the pastor in ac- cordance with a previous vote or determination of the brotherhood. The directions given by Christ in regard to the treatment of an offending brother (Matt, xviii. 15-17) are, in most churches, literally 452 THE EVANGELICAL CHUECHES IN AMEEICA. [BOOK VI. and directly adhered to in all cases. First, one brother alone confers with the supposed offender, and this is the first admonition. Then, if satisfaction has not been obtained, the same brother takes with him one or two others, and the effort is repeated : this is the second ad- monition. If this effort be ineffectual, the whole case is reported to the church, i. e., the brotherhood ; and if the church do not obtain satisfaction, in other words, if they find him guilty of the offence al- leged against him, and do not find him at the same time penitent and ready to confess his fault, they, as a body, admonish him, and wait for his repentance. If he refuses to hear the church, that is, if the admonition, after due forbearance, is unsuccessful, the brethren, by a vote, exclude him from their fellowship, and the pastor, as Christ's minister, pronounces a public sentence of excommunication. In some churches a public and notorious scandal is sometimes taken up by the church as a body, without waiting for the first and second admonition in private. Yet, in such cases, the church commonly acts by a committee, who follow the method just described ; first one, and next two or more confer with the offender privately, and then they report to the church what they have done, and with what success. Some churches have a " standing committee," who, with the pastor, prepare all business of this nature for the action of the church. Every complaint or accusation against a brother is brought first to this committee, and an attempt is made by them to adjust the difti- culty, and to remove the offence without bringing the matter to the church. If that attempt be unsuccessful, the committee, having in- vestigated the case, having heard the parties and the witnesses, report to the church the facts of the case, with their own opinion as to what ought to be done. The committee are never invested with the power of inflicting any church censures. 6. The arrangements among the Congregationalists of New En- gland for the support of public worship are in some points peculiar. The church, of which we have thus far spoken exclusively, is entirely a spiritual association. But it exists in an amicable connection with a civil corporation called the parish, or the ecclesiastical society, which includes the congregation at large, or, more accurately, those adult members of the congregation who consent to be a civil society for the support of public worship. This civil corporation is the proprietor of the house of worship, of the parsonage, if there be one, and some- times of other endowments, consisting of gifts and legacies which have from time to time been made for the uses for which the society exists. It can raise funds either by voluntary subscription, or by the sale or rent of the pews in its house of worship, or by assessing a tax upon the estates of its members, in which last case the funds raised CHAP. HI.] THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 453 can be applied only to the current expenses of the society. It enters into a civil contract with the pastor, and becomes bound in law to render him for his services such compensation as is agreed upon be- tween him and them. A stranger may not easily understand the difference between the church and the society, and the relations of each to the other, with- out some further explanation. The church, then, is designed to be a purely spiritual body. The society is a secular body. The church consists only of such as profess to have some experience of spiritual religion. The society consists of all who are willing to unite in the support of public worship — it being understood only, that no person can thrust himself into its ranks, and obtain a voice in the administration of its affairs, without the express or implied consent of those who are already members. The church watches over the deportment of its members, they being all bound to help each other in the duties of the Christian life ; and on proper occasions it censures or absolves from censure those under its care. The society has nothing to do with church censures. To the church belong the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The society has no concern with the admin- istration of either ordinance. The church has no property except its records, and its sacramental vessels, and the eleemosynary contribu- tions received and dispensed by its deacons. The society is a body incorporated by law for the purpose of holding and managing any property necessary for the support of public worship, or designated by donors for that use. The church has its pastor and deacons, and some- times its committees, for the management of particular departments of the church business. The society has its clerk, its treasurer, and its pru- dential committee, elected every year ; and the pastor of the church is also the minister and religious teacher of the society ; and every family of the congregation is considered as belonging to his charge. The great advantage of this part of the system is, that it gives to every member of the congregation an interest in its prosperity, and a voice in the management of its affairs, while at the same time it gives to the church every desirable facility for keeping itself pure in doc- trine and in practice. There is nothing to secularize the church ; no temptation to admit irreligious or unconverted men as members for the sake of causing them to take an interest in the support of public worship ; and no temptation inducing such men to seek admission to the church. The pastor and the place of worship are as much theirs as if they were communicants. The pastor, it has been already remarked, is not only the president or bishop of the church, but also the religious teacher and minister of the society. Of course he is elected by a concurrent vote of the 454 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. two bodies. In this the church generally takes the lead. The candi- date is, to some extent, known to the people, for he has already preached to them on probation. His fitness for the place has been the subject of colloquial discussion in families and among neighbors. The church meets, under the presidency of a neighboring minister, or perhaps of one of its own deacons, and decides, sometimes by bal- lot, and sometimes by the lifting up of hands (x ei Q 0T0Pia ), to call him to the pastoral office, if the society shall concur. The society, in like manner, meet, and by a vote express their agreement with the church in calling this candidate to take the pastoral charge of the church and society. After this the society determines by vote what salary shall be offered to the candidate on the condition of his accepting the call, and proposes any other stipulations as part of the contract be- tween the people and their pastor. Committees are appointed by the church and by the society to confer with the pastor elect, and to report his answer; and, then, if his answer be favorable, to make arrangements for his public induction into office. Sometimes the society leads in the call of a pastor, and the church concurs. If either of these two bodies does not concur with the other — which very rarely happens — the elec- tion fails, of course, and they wait till another candidate shall unite them. 7. The pastors of neighboring churches form themselves into bodies for mutual advice and aid in the work of the ministry. This body is called an association. It has its stated meetings at the house of each member in rotation. At every meeting each member is called upon to report the state of his own flock, and to propose any question on which he may desire counsel from his brethren. In these meetings every question which relates to the work of the ministry, or the in- terest of the churches, is freely discussed. The associations of each State meet annually by their delegates in a General Association. But the most important part of the duties of the association is to examine those who desire to be introduced to the work of the minis- try. This is on the principle that, as lawyers are to determine who shall be admitted to practice at the bar, and physicians determine who shall be received into the ranks of their profession, so ministers are the fittest judges for the qualifications of candidates for the ministry. The candidate, therefore, who has passed through the usual course of studies, liberal* and theological, can not begin to preach — will not be recognized by any church as a candidate — till he have received from some association a certificate of approbation, recommending him to the churches, which is his license to preach the Gospel on trial. Such a certificate is not granted without a close examination, particularly * By the word "liberal," as applied to education, is meant that which is obtained in making the curriculum of a college. It is synonymous with "classical." CHAP. III.] THE CONGEEGATIONAL CHUECHES. 455 in respect to his piety, soundness in the faith, and acquaintance with the system of Christian doctrines. 8. The fathers of the New England churches seem to have ac- knowledged no minister of the Gospel other than the pastor or teacher of some particular church. In their zeal against a hierarchy, they found no place for any minister of Christ not elected by some organized assembly of believers to the work of ruling and teaching in that congregation. The evangelist was thought by them to be, like the apostle, only for the primitive age of Christianity. Accord- ingly, the pastor, when dismissed from his pastoral charge, was no longer a minister of Christ, or competent to perform anywhere any function of the ministry. In connection with this view, it was also held that the power of ordination, as well as of election to office, re- sides exclusively in the church, and that if the church has no elders in office, this power of ordination may be exercised either by a com- mittee of the brethren, or by some neighboring elders, appointed to that function by the church, and acting in its name. But these views were very early superseded. The distinction is now recognized be- tween a minister of the Gospel having a pastoral charge, and a min- ister who sustains no office in any church. The man ordained to the pastoral office is, of course, ordained to the work of the ministry, and if circumstances occur which make it expedient for him to lay down his office of pastor, he does not, of course, lay down the work of the ministry to which he was set apart at his ordination. Sometimes a man, having no call from any church to take the office of pastor, is set apart to the work of the ministry, that he may be a missionary to the heathen, or that he may labor among the destitute at home, or that he may perform some other evangelical labor for the churches at large. Such ordinations are rare, except in the cases of foreign mis- sionaries, or of missionaries to some new region of the country where churches are not yet organized. Ministers, therefore, whether pastors or evangelists, are now or- dained only by the laying on of the hands of those who are before them in the ministry ; for though it belongs to the church to make a pastor, it belongs to ministers to make a minister. 9. The reader has already learned that the American Congrega- tional churches disavow the name Independent. From the begin- ning they have held and practised the communion of churches. Con- tinually, and by various acts of affection and intercourse, they recog- nize each other as churches of Christ, as bound to render to each other, on all proper occasions, an account of their doings. They re- ceive each other's members to occasional communion in ordinances. 1 Members of one church, removing their residence to another church, 456 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. take from the one a letter of dismission and recommendation, and without that, are not received to membership in the other. The principle that, in matters which concern not one church alone, but all the churches of the vicinity, no one church ought to act alone, is continually regarded in practice. The ordination or installation of a pastor, and in like manner his dismission from his office, even by the mutual consent of himself and his flock, never takes place without the intervention of a council of pastors and delegates from neighbor- ing churches. When any act of a church is grievous to a portion of its members — when any contention or difficulty has arisen within a church which can not otherwise be adjusted — when a member ex- communicated deems himself unjustly treated, a council of the neigh- boring churches is called to examine the case, and to give advice ; and the advice thus given is rarely, if ever, disregarded. If a church is deemed guilty of any gross dereliction of the faith, or of Christian discipline, any neighboring church may expostulate with it as one brother expostulates with another, and when expostulation proves in- sufficient, a council of the neighboring churches is called to examine the matter ; and from the church which obstinately refuses to listen to the advice given by such a council, the neighboring churches withdraw their communion. In Connecticut the communion of the churches has been practised for about one hundred and forty-five years, in " consociations," or vol- untary confederations of from six to twenty contiguous churches, binding themselves to call upon each other in all cases of difficulty which require a council. Elsewhere councils of churches, though ordinarily selected from the immediate vicinity, are selected at the discretion of the church by which the council is convened. Under this ecclesiastical system the churches of New England have, it is believed by many, enjoyed for two centuries and a quarter, a more continued purity of doctrine, and fidelity of discipline, and a more constant prosperity of the spiritual religion, than has been en- joyed by any other equal body of churches, for so long a time, since the days of the Apostles. No religious communion in America has done more for religion and morals among its own people, more for the advancement of learning and general education, or more for the diffusion of the Gospel at home and abroad. None has been more characterized by that large and manly spirit which values the com- mon Christianity of all who " hold the Head," more than the pecu- liar forms and institutions of its own sect. The highest ecclesiastical bodies by which the Congregational churches in the United States are, in a sense, united or associated, are, the General Associations of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hamp- CHAP. IV.] THE KEGULAR BAPTIST CHURCHES. 457 shire, and New York ; the General Convention of Vermont, the Gen- eral Consociation of Rhode Island, and the General Conference of Maine. These bodies meet annually, and they maintain the " bond of fellowship" by sending delegates to each other. It must not be understood that all the evangelical Congregational churches in the States just named are " associated," that is, connected with the in- ferior associations, and through them with the " general association," " general convention," " general consociation," or " general confer- ence" of the State in which they are situated. But the number not thus united with their sister churches is not great. The Congrega- tional churches in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa are not yet sufficiently numerous to render the organization of general associations convenient, or else other causes have prevented this measure from being adopted. The Congregationalists in New England have eight colleges, five theological seminaries and faculties, and about two hundred and fifty students in theology. In the other States where they exist, they give their aid to the Presbyterian literary and theological institutions. CHAPTER IV. THE REGULAR BAPTIST CHURCHES. Next to the Episcopalians and the Congregationalists, the Baptists are the oldest of the various branches of the Christian Church in the United States. And if we were to include under this name all who hold that immersion is the true and only Scriptural mode of baptism, without reference to the orthodoxy of their faith, we should proba- bly find that they are also the largest denomination in this country. But if we separate from them a portion at least of those minor bodies which, though agreeing with them on that point, differ from them on important, and, in some cases, fundamental doctrines, we shall find that they are not equal in number to the Methodists. In their church government the Baptists of all denominations are Independents, that is, each church is wholly independent, as respects its interior government, even of those other churches with which it may be associated in ecclesiastical union. Each separate church pos- sesses and exercises the right of licensing or granting permission to preach the Gospel, and of ordaining elders or presbyters clothed with all the functions of the ministerial office. This is the old ground at first maintained by the Independents. The Congregationalists, spoken 458 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. of in the last chapter, seem to be Independents in theory, but in spirit and practice they are very nearly Presbyterians, and have often been called " Congregational Presbyterians." Delegates from different Baptist churches hold public meetings for purposes of mutual counsel and improvement, but not for the general government of the whole body, all right of interference in the con- cerns of individual churches being disclaimed by these ecclesiasti- cal assemblies. A very large majority of our evangelical Baptist churches are associated by their pastors in District Associations and State Conventions, which meet every year for promoting missions, education, and other benevolent objects. A general convention, called the " Baptist General Convention" of the United States, form- erly existed and met every three years, the last always appointing the place of meeting for the ne'xt after. The General Convention was restricted by its constitution to the promotion of foreign missions. It held its first meeting in 1814. But there are now two General Con- ventions, one in the North, and the other in the South. Within the last ten years, a Home Missionary Society, a General Tract Society, a Bible Society, and several societies for the education of poor and pious youths having talents adapted for the ministry, have sprung up in each of the two great branches of the Baptist body, and already exert a wide and happy influence. The Baptists, like the Congregationalists, make it a fundamental principle to adopt the Bible as their only confession of faith. Yet most, if not all, of the evangelical churches that bear the name, find it convenient in practice to have a creed or summary of doctrine, and these creeds, although they may vary in expression, all agree in the main, and, with few exceptions, among the Regular and Associated Baptists are decidedly Calvinistic. Some twenty years ago, the Baptist Convention of the State of New Hampshire adopted a Declaration of Faith, consisting of sixteen articles, and a form of church covenant, which they recommended to the Baptist churches of that State, and which are supposed to ex- press, with little variation, the general sentiments of the whole body of orthodox Baptists in the United States. The subjects of these articles are : The Scriptures ; the true God ; the fall of man ; the way of salvation; justification; the freeness of salvation ; grace in regen- eration ; God's purposes of grace ; perseverance of saints ; harmony of the law and Gospel ; a Gospel church ; Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; the Christian Sabbath ; civil government ; the righteous and the wicked ; the world to come. On all these subjects, excepting Baptism, these articles express the doctrines held by the Calvinistic churches of all denominations. CHAP. IV.] THE REGULAR BAPTIST CHURCHES. 459 The Bible is pronounced to have been " written by men divinely in- spired" — " has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter" — " is the true centre of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human con- duct, creeds, and opinions should be tried." The "true God," it is affirmed, is " revealed under the personal and relative distinctions of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; equal in every Divine per- fection, and executing distinct and harmonious offices in the great work of redemption." " The salvation of sinners" is taught to be " wholly of grace, through the mediatorial offices of the Son of God, who took upon Him our nature, yet without sin ; honored the law by His personal obedience, and made atonement for our sins by His death ; being risen from the dead, He is now enthroned in heaven ; and, uniting in His wonderful person the tenderest sympathies with Divine perfections, is every way qualified to be a suitable, a compas- sionate, and an all-sufficient Saviour." " Justification," it is affirmed, " consists in the pardon of sin and the promise of eternal life," and "is bestowed not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely of His (Christ's) own redemption and righteousness." On the freeness of salvation it is taught " that the blessings of salvation are made free to all by the Gospel ; lhat it is the immediate duty of all to accept them by a cordial and obedient faith ; and that nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth, ex- cept his own voluntary refusal to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ ; which refusal will subject him to an aggravated condemnation." " Regeneration consists in giving a holy disposition to the mind, and is effected in a manner above our comprehension by the Holy Spirit, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel ; and its proper evidence is found in the holy fruit which we bring forth to the glory of God." On the subject of God's purpose of grace it is stated, "That elec- tion is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regener- ates, sanctifies, and saves sinners" — is "consistent with the free agency of man" — " comprehends all the means in connection with the end" — " is a most gracious display of God's sovereign goodness" — " utterly excludes boasting, and promotes humility, prayer, praise, trust in God" — " encourages the use of means in the highest degree" — " is ascertained in its effects in all who believe" — " is the founda- tion of Christian assurance" — and that " to ascertain it with regard to ourselves, demands and deserves our utmost diligence." On the subject of the perseverance of the saints, it is affirmed, " That such only are real believers as endure unto the end ; that their 460 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark which distin- guishes them from superficial professors; that a special providence watches over their welfare ; and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." According to this Confession of Faith, " a visible Church of Christ is a congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ ; governed by His laws ; and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word; its only proper officers are bish- ops or pastors, and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and du- ties are defined in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus." And " Chris- tian Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; to show forth a solemn and beautiful emblem of our faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, with its purifying power," and " is a pre-requisite to the privileges of a church relation." The " Christian Sabbath is the first day of the week," and " is to be kept sacred to religious purposes ;" " civil government is of Divine appointment, for the interests and good order of society ; and mag- istrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience, and Prince of the kings of the earth." And finally, on the subject of the world to come, it is taught, " That the end of this world is approaching ; that at the last day Christ will descend from heaven, and raise the dead from the grave to final retribution ; that a solemn separation will then take place ; that the wicked will be adjudged to endless punishment, and the righteous to endless joy ; and that this judgment will fix forever the final state of men in heaven or hell on principles of righteousness." The covenant which follows this declaration of faith expresses in a few brief articles the determination of those who enter it : " to walk in brotherly love ;" " to exercise a mutual care, as members, one of another, to promote the growth of the whole body in Christian knowl- edge, holiness, and comfort ;" " to uphold the public worship of God, and the ordinances of His house ;" " not to omit closet and family re- ligion," nor the " training up of children and those under their care ;" to " walk circumspectly in the world," and be as the " light of the world, and the salt of the earth ;" and, finally, to " exhort" and " ad- monish one another." Such, in substance, is the " Declaration of Faith, and Covenant," adopted, as I have said, by the Baptist Convention of New Hamp- shire about twenty years ago, and no doubt substantially exhibiting CHAP. IV.] THE EEGULAR BAPTIST CHUECHES. 461 the doctrines held by the great body of the Regular and Associated Baptists throughout the United States. It will be perceived that it is moderately Calvinistic, and, indeed, to one or other shade of Calvin- ism all the Regular Baptists in America adhere. Part of their body, particularly in the Southern and South-western States, are regarded as Calvinists of the highest school. Their doctrinal views probably coin- cide with those of Dr. Gill more than with those of any other writer. But a far greater number of their ministers follow in the main the views of Andrew Fuller ; views which, take them all in all, form one of the best systems of theology to be found in the English language. The Baptist churches have increased in the United States with great rapidity, particularly within the last fifty or sixty years. For although they commenced their existence in the days of Roger Wil- liams,* formerly mentioned,! who, having changed his sentiments on the subject of Baptism a few years after his arrival in Massachusetts Bay, was the first Baptist preacher, and founded the first Baptist church in America, at Providence, in 1639; it was long before this denomination made much progress beyond Rhode Island. This arose, it would appear, from their being violently opposed in most of the other colonies, both in the North and in the South. In Massachusetts they were at first "fined," "whipped," and "imprisoned." And though they afterward obtained liberty of worship there, they had but eighteen churches at the commencement of the Revolutionary war. In Virginia, where they also met with much opposition and bitter persecution^ they had scarcely, at that epoch, obtained any footing at all. In fact, with the exception of Rhode Island, Pennsyl- vania, and Delaware, they almost nowhere enjoyed perfect freedom from molestation, until the country had achieved its independence by a struggle in which the Baptists took, to say the least, in proportion to their numbers, as prominent a part as any other religious body in the land. But slow as was their progress before the Revolution, it has been much otherwise since. This will be seen from the following statement taken from the very complete " View of the Baptist Interest in the United States," prepared by the Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D., of * The reader must not infer, from what is stated above, that Soger "Williams is to be considered as the founder of the Baptist Churches in America. His influence was mainly confined to Rhode Island. The greater part of the Baptist churches with us owe their origin to the labors of Baptist ministers who came such directly from En- gland. f Book ii., chap. iv. \ It happened often in that colony that their preachers were cast into prison for preaching the Gospel. And often they were to be seen addressing from the jail win- dows the people assembled outside ! Ministers. Members. 424 35,101 1150 65,345 1605 172,972 3618 384,920 5204 570,758 462 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMEEICA. [BOOK VI. Poughkeepsie, New York, and published in the American Quarterly Register, in the years 1840 and 1841. The number of Baptist minis- ters, churches, and members, at five different epochs, are stated there as follows : Churches. In 1784 471 1790-92 891 1810-12 2164 1832 5320 1840 7766 Dr. Babcock estimates the superannuated ministers and others who, from various causes, are not actively engaged in the ministry, at about a seventh of the number in the above table. Deducting these, and another seventh for the licentiates, who also are included, we shall have three thousand seven hundred and seventeen ordained ministers actually employed in 1840; which is, upon an average, less than one minister for two churches. Including the licentiates, who almost all preach more or less regularly, and many of them in vacant churches, the number of preachers for that year was four thousand four hundred and sixty. In the "Almanac and Baptist Register" for 1844, the number of the Regular Baptist churches hi 1843 is stated to have been eight thousand four hundred and eighty-two, the ordained and licensed ministers five thousand six hundred and fifty, and the communicants or members six hundred and thirty-seven thousand four hundred and seventy-seven. It is believed, however, that had the returns been complete, the last-mentioned number would have been at least seven hundred thousand. According to Dr. Babcock's mode of estimating them, the ordained and active ministers were, in that year, four thou- sand and thirty-six. In 1854, there were of "Regular" or "Associated" Baptists in the United States, five hundred Associations, ten thousand one hundred and thirty-one churches, six thousand one hundred and seventy-five ordained ministers, and eight hundred and eight thousand seven hun- dred and fifty-four communicants or members. Dr. Babcock makes a curious estimate of the probable proportion of the inhabitants in each State, supposed to be directly under the influence of Baptist preaching. Without going unnecessarily into his details, we find, as the result of his researches, that in 1840 these amounted to a fifth of the population in Massachusetts, and to a fourth in Virginia, being the two provinces in which the Baptists were most persecuted; whereas in Rhode Island, which was their asylum, the proportion rises to two fifths, or nearly a half. CHAP. IV.] THE REGULAR BAPTIST CHURCHES. 463 In this enumeration Dr. Babcock includes some of the smaller Bap- tist sects, such as those of the Six Principles, who hold as their creed the six principles mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap, vi., ver. 1, 2). These, in 1841, had sixteen churches, ten min- isters, and two thousand and seventeen members. But the shades of difference in doctrine are not of much consequence, so far as regards the vital interests of the truth. Above four millions five hundred thousand souls, being between a fifth and a sixth of the entire population of the United States, and embracing a respectable share of the wealth, talent, learning, and in- fluence of the country, are supposed to be connected with the Reg- ular Baptists. This estimate is probably too high. It would be true of the entire body of Baptists. A large and important part of their churches lies in the Southern States, and includes many slaves and slave-owners. With the exception of the Methodists, they form by far the most numerous and influential body of Christians in that sec- tion of the country. A strong prejudice against learning in the ministry unhappily pre- vailed at one time in this body, particularly in the Southern States, and this we might ascribe to several causes. In the religious denom- ination, which in Virginia, and the other Southern colonies, they con- sidered their greatest enemy, learning was too often associated with want of piety, and sometimes with open irreligion. The effects of this prejudice have been very injurious, and are felt to this day in the Baptist churches throughout the Southern and South-western, and to a considerable extent even in the Middle States. But a brighter day has dawned. Great efforts have been made by zealous and devoted men among them to establish colleges and theological seminaries, with what success we have stated elsewhere. I know not how many young men are preparing for the ministry in theological and other institutions, but it is very considerable. "We have already spoken of the efforts of the Baptists in the Bible, Tract, Sunday-school, and Home Missionary causes, and shall have yet to speak of what they are doing in the department of Foreign Missions. We shall conclude by remarking that, although not a third, per- haps, of the ministers of this denomination of Christians have been educated at colleges and theological seminaries, it comprehends, nevertheless, a body of men who, in point of talent, learning, and eloquence, as well as devoted piety, have no superiors in the country. And even among those who can make no pretensions to profound learning, not a few are men of respectable general attainments, and much efficiency in their Master's work. 464 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. Notices will be given of the smaller Baptist denominations in their proper place, and they will afterward be grouped together, when we come to arrange in families the various religious bodies constituting the great " household of faith" in the United States. CHAPTER V. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. In speaking of the Congregational Churches, we entered into a full analysis of their organization, because they comprise most of the great features of all the churches founded on what are called Independent principles, forming the basis of the churches of several other denom- inations, particularly the Baptists. For a like reason, in speaking of the Presbyterian Church, we shall go into considerable detail in re- gard to its principles and church organization, so as to save repetition when we come to notice other churches having the same principles and essentially the same organization. The Presbyterian Church is so called because it is governed by presbyters, and not by prelates. The name, therefore, applies to any church organized and governed on that principle. Usage, however, has confined it in America to one of several Churches, which agree in believing that the government of the Church belongs to its elders or presbyters. The Dutch Reformed Church, the German Reformed, and the Scotch Secession Churches, are as truly Presbyterian as that denomination to which the name is now, among us, almost exclusively applied. Presbyterians believe that the apostles, in organizing the Church, were accustomed, in every city or place where a congregation was gathered, to appoint a number of officers for the instruction and spir- itual government of the people, and for the care of the sick and poor. The former class of these officers were called presbyters, the latter deacons. Of these presbyters, some labored in word and doctrine, others in the oversight and discipline of the flock, according to their gifts, or to their designation when ordained. As the terms bishop and presbyter were indiscriminately used to designate the spiritual instructors and governors of the congregation, in every church there came to be three classes of officers, who are denominated the bishops or pastors, or teaching presbyters, the ruling presbyters, and the deacons. The Presbyterian Churches with us are organized on this plan. CHAP. V.] THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 465 Each congregation has its bishop or pastor, its ruling elders, and its deacons, except in cases where the duties of the last-mentioned class are assumed by the elders. The duty of the pastor is to preach the word, to administer the sacraments, to superintend the religious in- struction of the young, and to have the general oversight of his flock as to their spiritual concerns. He is always chosen by the people over whom he is to exercise his office. It will appear, however, from the following account of the method pursued in the selection and in- stallation of a pastor, that the choice of the people is subject to sev- eral important limitations. When a congregation is vacant, the people assemble, after due notice, to choose a pastor. This meeting must be presided over by an ordained minister invited for that pur- pose, who must indorse the minutes of their proceedings, and certify their regularity. If a majority of the qualified members of the con- gregation, i. e., of those who contribute to the support of the minis- ter, agree upon a candidate, a call is made out in the following terms, viz.: " The congregation of A. B. being, on sufficient grounds, well sat- isfied of the ministerial qualifications of you, C. D., and having hopes, from our past experience of your labors, that your ministrations in the Gospel will be profitable to our spiritual interests, do earnestly call and desire you to undertake the pastoral office in the said congre- gation ; promising you, in the discharge of your duty, all proper sup- port, encouragement, and obedience in the Lord. And that you may be free from worldly cares and avocations, we hereby promise and oblige ourselves to pay to you the sum of in regular quarterly payments, during the time of your being and continuing the pastor of this church. In testimony whereof we have respectively subscribed our names." This call is taken to the Presbytery under whose care the congre- gation is placed, and the Presbytery decide whether it shall be pre- sented to the person to whom it is addressed. If, in their judgment, there exists any sufficient reason for withholding it, it is returned to the people, who must then proceed to a new election. If the person called belongs to the same Presbytery to which the congregation is attached, or is a licentiate under their care, they put the call into his hands and wait for his answer to it. But if he belongs to a different Presbytery, they give the congregation leave to prosecute it before that body, who have the right to decide whether it shall be presented to the candidate or not. It thus appears that no man can become the pastor of a congrega- tion under the care of a Presbytery, whom that body does not deem to be a sound and competent minister of the Gospel. And in order 30 466 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. to enable them to judge intelligently on this point, before proceeding to his ordination they examine him " as to his acquaintance with ex- perimental religion, as to his knowledge of philosophy, theology, ecclesiastical history, the Greek and Hebrew languages, and such other branches of learning as to the Presbytery may appear requisite, and as to his knowledge of the constitution, the rules, and discipline of the church." Should the candidate be found deficient in any of these particulars, it is the right and duty of the Presbytery to reject him. But if they are satisfied with his ministerial qualifications, they appoint a time for his ordination in the presence of the people. When the time appointed has arrived, and the Presbytery are convened, a member appointed for the purpose preaches a sermon suitable for the occasion, and then proposes to the candidate the following questions, viz. : " Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice ? " Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith of this Church as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures ? " Do you approve of the government and discipline of the Pres- byterian Church in these United States ? " Do you promise subjection to your brethren in the Lord ? " Have you been induced, so far as you know your own heart, to seek the office of the holy ministry from love to God, and a sincere desire to promote his glory in the Gospel of his Son ? " Do you promise to be zealous and faithful in maintaining the truths of the Gospel, and the purity and peace of the Church, what- ever persecution or opposition may arise unto you on that account ? " Do you engage to be faithful and diligent in the exercise of all private and personal duties which become you as a Christian and as a minister of the Gospel, as well as in all relative duties, and the pub- lic duties of your office ; endeavoring to adorn the profession of the Gospel by your conversation, and walking with exemplary piety be- fore the flock over which God has made you overseer ? " Are you now willing to take the charge of this congregation, agreeably to your declaration at accepting their call ? And do you promise to discharge the duties of a pastor to them as God shall give you strength ?" The presiding minister then puts the following questions to the congregation : " Do you, the people of this congregation, continue to profess your readiness to receive , whom you have called to be your min- ister ? CHAP. V.] THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 467 " Do you promise to receive the word of truth from his mouth with meekness and love, and to submit to him in the due exercise of dis- cipline ? " Do you promise to encourage him in his arduous labors, and to assist his endeavors for your instruction and spiritual edification ? " And do you engage to continue to him, while he is your pastor, that competent worldly maintenance which you have promised, and whatever else you may see needful for the honor of religion and his comfort among you ?" These questions being answered in the affirmative, the Presbytery proceed to ordain the candidate with prayer and the laying on of hands. The elders are regarded as the representatives of the people, and are chosen by them for the discipline of the church in connection with the pastor. They must be male members of the church in full com- munion, and, when elected, are required to profess their faith in the Scriptures as the only infallible rule of faith and practice, their adop- tion of the Westminster Confession as containing the system of doctrine, and their approbation of the government and discipline of the Presbyterian Church ; and the members of the church are called upon publicly to acknowledge and receive them as ruling elders, and to promise to yield them all that honor, encouragement, and obedience in the Lord, to which their office, according to the Word of God and the constitution of the Church, entitles them. The pastor and elders constitute what is called the Session, which is the governing body in each congregation. They are authorized to inquire into the knowl- edge and Christian conduct of the members of the church ; to admit to the sacraments those whom, upon examination, they find to pos- sess the requisite knowledge and piety ; to call before them offenders, being members of their own church ; to decide cases of discipline ; and to suspend or excommunicate those who are judged deserving of such censure. It is then- duty, also, to keep a register of marriages, of baptisms, of those admitted to the Lord's Supper, and of the death or removal of church members. All the proceedings of the Session are subject to the review of the Presbytery, and may be brought before that body in several different ways. The Session is required to keep a record of their official acts, and this record is laid before the Presbytery, for examination, twice every year. Should any thing appear on the record which, in the judgment of the Presbytery, is irregular, inexpedient, or unjust, they have authority to see the matter rectified. Or if any one feels him- self aggrieved by a decision of the Session, he has the right of appeal to the Presbytery, where the case may be reviewed. Or if any mem- 468 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. ber or members of the inferior court, or any one affected by their decision, consider their action irregular or unjust, he or they have the right of complaint, which subjects the whole matter to a revision in the higher judicatory. The deacons are not members of the Session, and, consequently, have no part in the government of the church. It is their duty to take charge of the poor, to receive and appropriate the moneys col- lected for the support or relief of the sick or needy. A Presbyterian church, or congregation, has thus a complete or- ganization within itself, but it is not an independent body. It is part of an extended whole, living under the same ecclesiastical constitu- tion, and, therefore, subject to the inspection and control of the Pres- bytery, whose business it is to see that the standards of doctrine and rules of discipline are adhered to by all the separate churches under its care. This superior body, the Presbytery, consists of all the pastors, or ordained ministers, and one elder from each Session, within certain geographical limits. There must be at least three ministers to con- stitute a Presbytery, but the maximum is not fixed. Hence our Presbyteries vary from three to fifty or sixty members. It is the bond of union between the ministers and churches within its limits. Among its most important duties is the examination and ordination of candidates for the holy ministry. Every such candidate is required to place himself under the care of that Presbytery within whose bounds he ordinarily resides. He must produce satisfactory testimo- nials of his good moral character, and of his being in full communion with the church. It is made the duty of the Presbytery to examine him as to his experimental knowledge of religion, and as to his mo- tives in seeking the sacred office. And it is recommended that the candidate be required to produce a diploma of the degree of bachelor or master of arts, from some college or university, or at least authentic testimonials of his having gone through a regular course of academic instruction. The Presbytery itself, however, is required to examine him as to his knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and on the subjects embraced in the usual course of study pursued in our colleges. He must also present a Latin exercise on some point in theology ; a critical exposition of a passage of Scripture, as a test of his ability to expound the original text ; a lecture or homiletic ex- position of some portion of the Word of God; and a popular sermon. If these exercises and examinations are passed to the satisfaction of the Presbytery, the candidate is required to answer affirmatively the following questions, viz. : "Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments CHAP. V.] THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 469 to be the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and prac- tice? " Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith of this Church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures ? " Do you promise to study the peace, purity, and unity of the Church? " Do you promise to submit yourself, in the Lord, to the govern- ment of this Presbytery, or of any other Presbytery in the bounds of which you may be called ?" The Presbytery then proceed to his licensure in the following words, viz. : " In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by that authority which He has given to His Church for its edification, we do license you to preach the Gospel wherever God, in His providence, may call you, and for this purpose, may the blessing of God rest upon you, and the Spirit of Christ fill your heart. Amen." This licensure does not confer the ministerial office, or give authority either to administer the sacraments, or to take part in the government of the Church. It is merely a declaration that the recipient, in the judgment of the Presbytery, is qualified to preach the Gospel and to become a pastor. It is from this' class of probationers that the con- gregations select and call their ministers ; and when a licentiate re- ceives a call to a particular church, he is examined anew on all the subjects above specified before he is ordained. It is by means of these examinations, and by requiring assent to the Confession of Faith, that the Presbyterian Church in America has endeavored to secure competent learning and orthodoxy in its ministry ; and it is an historical fact, which ought to be gratefully ac- knowledged, that since the organization of the Church in this coun- try, more than a century and a half ago, the great body of its minis- ters have been liberally educated men ; and it is also a fact that no man who has avowedly rejected the Calvmistic system of doctrine, has been allowed to retain his standing as a minister of that Church. Its history contains not the record of even one Arminian or Pelagian, much less Socinian, as an approved or recognized minister in its con- nection. Some few instances have occurred of the avowal of such sentiments, but they have uniformly been followed by the ejection from the ministry or* those who entertained them. And more re- cently, the promulgation by a part of its ministers of doctrines sup- posed to be at variance with its standards, though those doctrines were not considered by their advocates as involving a rejection of the Calvinistic system, was one of the principal causes of the separation of the body into two distinct organizations. So also with regard to 470 THE EVANGELICAL CHUECHES IN AMEEICA. [BOOK VI. learning, when a portion of the Church in the western, and then more recently-settled parts of the country, insisted on introducing into the ministry men who had not received a liberal education, they were compelled to separate and form a denomination of their own. From their peculiar circumstances, such separations involve no civil penalties or forfeitures. If any set of men think that the interests of religion can be better promoted by an imperfectly educated and more numerous ministry, than by a smaller body of better-educated men, nothing prevents them from acting on their convictions and organiz- ing on their own principles. By so doing, however, they of necessity separate from a Church which makes a liberal education a requisite for admission into the sacred office. In like manner, if any man or set of men renounce the doctrines of the Westminster Confession, they are at perfect liberty to preach what they believe to be true, but they must not expect to remain ministers of a Church in which that Con- fession is the standard of doctrine. External union has, indeed, been sacrificed by acting on this principle, but spiritual fellowship has been rather promoted than violated thereby, as neither party, in such cases, have excommunicated the other. And there is no hardship or in- justice in the course above indicated, since the Church is in one sense a voluntary society, whose terms of ministerial communion are known to the world ; and those who disapprove of its doctrines need not, and in general do not, seek admission to its ministry. There are other denominations within whose pale they can minister without objection or difficulty. It follows, from what has been said, that it is the duty of the Pres- bytery to exercise a watch and care over its own members. Every minister, at his ordination, promises subjection to his brethren in the Lord ; that is, he promises to recognize the authority of the Presby- tery, and the other ecclesiastical bodies, as exercised agreeably to the constitution of the Church, and to submit to their decisions. He re- ceives his office from the hands of the Presbytery, and it is in the power of that body, on sufficient grounds, and after a fair trial, to suspend or depose him. It is, however, provided that no charge shall be received against a minister of the Gospel, unless on the responsi- bility of some competent accuser, or on the ground of public scandal. When a minister is accused, either of error in doctrine or immorality of conduct, he is regularly cited to answer the charge ; he is informed of the witnesses who are to appear against him, and full time is allowed for the preparation of his defence. In short, all the formali- ties which are the safeguards of justice are scrupulously regarded, so as to secure a fair trial to anv accused member. The Presbytery, then, is the court of review and control over all CHAP. V.] THE PEESBYTEEIAN CHTIECH. 471 the Sessions of the several churches within its bounds. It is the supervising body, bound to see that the pastors are faithful in the dis- charge of their duty ; having also authority to examine, license, and ordain candidates for the ministry ; to install them over the congre- gations to which they may be called ; to exercise discipline over its own members ; and, in general, to order whatever relates to the spir- itual welfare of the congregations under its care. With the Presbytery the organization of a Presbyterian Church is complete. So long as the number of ministers and churches is so small that they can conveniently meet at the same time and place, there is no need of any superior body. The formation of Synods and a General Assembly becomes necessary only when the Church is too large to be comprised under one Presbytery. It is desirable that the governing body should meet at least twice annually. This can not be done when the members of that body are very numerous, and scattered over a great extent of country. To remedy this in- convenience, instead of one Presbytery embracmg all the ministers and churches, several are formed, each exercising its functions within prescribed limits, and all meeting annually as a Synod. A Synod is, therefore, nothing but a larger Presbytery. Agreeably to this system, it must be composed of at least three Presbyteries. All the ministers within its bounds, and one elder from each Session, have a right to act as members. From 1705 to 1716 there was but one Presbytery, The number of ministers and churches had, at the latter date, so in- creased that three Presbyteries were formed, which continued to meet as a Synod until 1787, when convenience suggested the division of the body into four Synods, under a representative assembly, com- posed of delegates from all the Presbyteries. Under the present system, the Synod is a body that intervenes between the Presbytery and General Assembly. It has power to receive and determine all appeals regularly brought up from the Presbyteries ; to decide all references made to them ; to review the records of Presbyteries, and to approve or censure them ; to redress whatever has been done by the Presbyteries contrary to order ; to take effectual care that Pres- byteries observe the Constitution of the Church ; to erect new Pres- byteries, and unite or divide those which were before erected ; and, generally, to take such order with respect to the Presbyteries, Ses- sions, and people under their care, as may be in conformity with the Word of God and the established rules, and which tend to promote the edification of the Church ; and, finally, to propose to the General Assembly, for its adoption, such measures as may be of common ad- vantage to the whole Church. I The General Assembly is the highest judicatory of the Presbyte- 472 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. rian Church, and the bond of union between its several parts. It is composed of an equal delegation of ministers and elders from each Presbytery. Every Presbytery sends at least one minister and one elder ; if it consists of more than twenty-four members, it sends two ministers and two elders, and so on in like proportion. The Assembly has power to determine all appeals and references regularly brought before it from inferior judicatories ; to review the records of the several Synods ; \o give its advice and instructions in all cases submitted to it ; and constitutes the bond of union, peace, correspondence, and mutual confidence among all the churches under its care. To it also belongs to decide all controversies respecting doctrines and discipline ; to reprove, warn, or bear testimony against error in doctrine or immorality in practice ; to erect new Synods ; to superintend the whole church ; to correspond with Foreign Churches ; to suppress schismatical contentions and disputations ; and, in general, to recommend and attempt reformation of manners, and the promotion of charity, truth, and holiness through all the churches under its care. So long as all the ministers of the Church were united in one Synod, that body had a right to make rules which had the force of constitutional regulations obligatory on all the Presbyteries. This was reasonable and safe as long as the whole Church met in one body, as its rules were the voluntarily imposed conditions of membership. But since the formation of the General Assembly, composed not of all the ministers, but of a comparatively small delegation from each Presbytery, this power no longer belongs to this highest judicatory. The Assembly can not alter the Constitution of the Church. Every proposition, involving such change, must first be sent down to the Presbyteries, and receive the sanction of a majority of them, before it becomes obligatory on the churches. Having given this brief exhibition of the principles of church gov- ernment adopted by Presbyterians in the United States, it is neces- sary to advert to their doctrinal standards. The Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, prepared by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, were, as is well known, adopted by the Church of Scotland, and the same symbols have from the beginning constituted the creed of the Presbyterian Church in this country. The formal adopting act was passed by the Synod in 1729. In that act we find the following language, viz. : " We do agree that all the ministers of this Synod, or that shall hereafter be admitted into this Synod, shall declare their agreement in, and approbation of, the Con- fession of Faith, with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the As- sembly of Divines at Westminster, as being, in all necessary articles, good forms of sound words and systems of Christian doctrine ; and CHAP. V.] THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 473 do also adopt the said Confession and Catechisms as the Confession of our Faith." On the same page of the records is found the follow- ing minute, viz. : " All the members of the Synod now present, ex- cept one who declared himself not prepared (but who at a subsequent meeting gave in his adhesion), after proposing all the scruples that any of them had to make against any of the articles or expressions in the Confession of Faith, and Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, have unanimously agreed in the solution of those scruples, and in declaring the said Confession and Catechisms to be the confession of their faith ; except only some clauses in the twentieth and twenty-third chapters, concerning which the Synod do unanimously declare that they do not receive those articles in any such sense as to suppose the civil magistrate hath a controlling power over Synods, with respect to the exercise of their ministerial autnority, or power to persecute any for their religion, or in any sense contrary to the Protestant succession to the throne of Great Britain. The Synod, observing unanimity, peace, and unity in all their consultations and deliberations in the affair of the Con- fession, did unanimously agree in solemn prayer and praise." It appears that some doubt arose whether the expression, " essen- tial and necessary articles" in the above acts, was to be understood of articles essential to the system of doctrine contained in the Con- fession of Faith, or of articles essential to Christianity. To remove this ambiguity, the Synod, the following year, unanimously adopted the following minute, viz. : " Whereas some persons have been dis- satisfied with the manner of wording our last year's agreement about the Confession, supposing some expressions not sufficiently obligatory upon intrants ; overtured that the Synod do now declare that they understand those clauses which respect the admission of intrants, in such a sense as to oblige them to receive and adopt the Confession and Catechisms, at their admission, in the same manner and as fully as the members of the Synod who were then present ;" that is, they were to adopt it without exception, save the clauses relating to the powers of civil magistrates in matters of religion. When the General Assembly was formed in 1787, the Confession of Faith and Catechisms were revised, and those parts which relate to the power of the magistrates modified, and ever since it has with- out alteration been the standard of doctrine in the Presbyterian Church, and every minister, as already stated, is required at his or- dination to declare that he " sincerely receives and adopts the Con- fession of Faith of this Church as containing the system of doc- trines taught in the Holy Scriptures." We have elsewhere stated how church property is held; how 474 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. churches are erected ; how the salaries of ministers are raised ; and how feeble churches are aided by home missionary societies, boards of missions, etc. We shall now proceed to give a brief sketch of the history of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. The first Presbytery, consisting of seven ministers, and representing about the same num- ber of churches, was organized in Philadelphia in 1705. In 1855, the number of ministers in the two great bodies into which the Presby- terian Church in the United States was divided in 1838, was three thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and that of the churches four thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight. This extraordinary in- crease can only be explained by a reference to the settlement of the country. The New England States were settled by English Puri- tans, many of whom, especially those who arrived about the com- mencement of the Civil War in England, as well as those who came after the Restoration, were Presbyterians. New York was settled by the Dutch, who were also Presbyterians ; but these classes have re- tained their own separate ecclesiastical organizations, though both have contributed largely to the increase of the Presbyterian Church. The Germans, also, who settled in great numbers in Pennsylvania, and in the northern portions of Virginia, have m like manner formed extended Churches of their own ; yet they also have, in many cases, contributed to swell the number of American Presbyterians. The French emigrants, who came to this country toward the close of the seventeenth century, were almost all Protestants and Presbyterians. These are the collateral sources whence the Presbyterian Church in America derived the materials of its growth. From the beginning of the last century to the Declaration of Independence, there was a constant current of emigration of Presbyterians from Scotland, and still more from the north of Ireland. These emigrants settled prin- cipally in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, in the central portions of Vir- ginia, and in North and South Carolina. Since the commencement of the present century, the same process has been going on. The central and western portions of the State of New York, fifty years ago, were a wilderness ; that region has now a population of more than one million five hundred thousand people of European descent. The Western States in the Valley of the Mississippi, then in the almost exclusive possession of the Indians, have now a population of more than twelve millions. The progress of the Presbyterian Church, therefore, although rapid, has not been out of proportion to the prog- ress of the country. On the contrary, the widely-extended denom- inations of the Methodists and Baptists are, to a great extent, com- posed of persons whose ancestors belonged to Presbyterian churches. CHAP. V.] THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 475 It will easily be believed that the Presbyterian Church, in the midst of a population which doubles itself every twenty-four years, felt that her first and most urgent duty was to supply this growing population with the preaching of the Gospel. It has been a Mission- ary Church from the beginning. Its first pastors, though settled over particular congregations, spent much of their time in traveling and preaching to the destitute ; and as soon as their numbers began to increase, they adopted a regular system of missions. The Synod, at its annual meetings, appointed missionaries to go to the destitute portions of the country, and sustained them by the contributions of the churches. Soon after the formation of the General Assembly, that body appointed a " Standing Committee of Missions," whose duty it was to collect information as to the wants of the Church, to ap- point missionaries, to designate their field of labor, to make provision for their maintenance, and to report annually to the General Assem- bly. In 1816, this committee was enlarged, and constituted the Board of Missions, and has ever since been engaged in the benevo- lent work of sending the Gospel to the destitute parts of the Church. For some years past the number of missionaries sent out by this Board has ranged from four hundred and fifty to five hundred and twenty-five, and its income from $50,000 to more than $70,000, as has been shown in another part of this work.* As many members of the Presbyterian Church preferred voluntary societies to ecclesiastical boards for conducting missionary and other benevolent operations ; and as they wished different evangelical de- nominations to unite in this work ; as, moreover, there was an evi- dent necessity of doing more than had yet been done to meet the constantly increasing demands for missionary labor, they determined to form a society to be called the " American Home Missionary So- ciety," already spoken of elsewhere.f The Society has received the support of nearly one half of the Presbyterian Church, of the whole body of the Congregational Churches (one of the most efficient bodies in the country), and to some extent, of the Dutch Reformed Churches. It has, therefore, been extensively useful. Its income has varied of late years, from $150,000 to $180,000, and its missionaries from eight hundred to more than one thousand. It is in this way that the Presbyterian Church has endeavored, in some measure, to keep pace with the demands of the country for ministerial labor. These exertions have not, indeed, been adequate to the necessity, and yet the fact that, sixty-five years ago, this Church had less than two hundred ministers, and now has not far from four thousand, shows that it has not been entirely wanting in its duty. * Book iv., chap, viil \ Ibid., chap. vii. 476 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. It is obvious that this great demand for ministerial labor must lead the Church to look anxiously around for the means of obtaining an adequate supply of educated men. In the first instance, the attention of its members was naturally directed to the mother-country. The necessities of the numerous settlements were frequently urged on the Presbyteries of Scotland and Ireland, and on similar bodies in En- gland. From these sources a large proportion of our early ministers were obtained ; indeed, as far as can be ascertained, all the ministers connected with the Presbyterian Church, from 1705 to 1716, with two or three exceptions, were from Great Britain or Ireland. The older Provinces of New England subsequently furnished many able and faithful men, who aided efficiently in building up the Presby- terian Church. But the supply from these sources was precarious and inadequate. From an early period, therefore, measures were adopted to secure the education of ministers at home. About the year 1717, the Rev. William Tennent, who had been a presbyter of the Episcopal Church in Ireland, opened a classical academy in Penn- sylvania, familiarly known as the " Log College," where many of the most distinguished of the early native ministers received their educa- tion. Similar institutions were soon after established in various other places; and in 1738, the Synod, in order to secure a properly-edu- cated ministry, passed an act to the following effect, viz. : " That all the presbyteries require that every candidate, before being taken on trial, should be furnished with a diploma from some European or New England college ; or, in case he had not enjoyed the advantage of a college education, he should be examined by a committee of the Sy- nod, who should give him a certificate of competent scholarship when they found him to merit it." In 1739, the Synod determined to take measures to establish a sem- inary of learning, under its own care ; but the circumstances of the country, and of the Church itself, prevented the accomplishment of anything until 1744. In that year it was agreed, 1. That there should be a school kept open, where all persons who pleased might send their children, and have them taught gratis, in the languages, philosophy, and divinity. 2. In order to carry out this design, that every congregation under the care of the Synod be applied to for yearly contributions. 3. That whatever sum of money could be spared from that which was necessary to support a master and tutor, should be devoted to the purchase of books. This was the origin of what is now the college at Newark, in the State of Delaware. At this period of our history there were two synods, the old Synod of Philadelphia, and the Synod of New York, which was formed in 1745. The former, at this time, directed their efforts to the support CHAP. V.] THE PEESBYTEEIAK CHUKCH. 477 of the Newark academy, and of the academy in Philadelphia, out of which has sprung the University of Pennsylvania ; the latter raised and sustained the college of New Jersey, at Princeton ; and after the union of the two synods in 1758, the united body concentrated their efforts upon the support of the last-mentioned institution. Though the college at Princeton owes its origin to the Synod of New York, and sprang from the desire of furnishing a supply of educated men for the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, it has always been open to the youth of all denominations. The number of its alumni is more than three thousand five hundred, of whom about seven hundred became preachers of the Gospel. Since the establishment of the college at Princeton, more than forty similar institutions have been formed in different parts of the country, which are more or less intimately connected with the Presbyterian Church ; that is, their trustees, officers, and patrons, are either ex- clusively or principally Presbyterians.* For a long time, however, after the organization of the Presby- terian Church, there was no public provision for the theological edu- cation of candidates for the sacred office. After completing their academical studies, such candidates were accustomed to place them- selves under the direction of some experienced pastor, who superin- tended their studies, and assisted them in preparing for their examin- ations before the Presbytery. Sometimes a pastor whose taste or acquirements peculiarly fitted him for the task, would have a class of such pupils constantly under his care. As early, however, as 1760, a proposition was introduced into the Synod for the appointment and support of a regular professor of theology ; and a few years after- ward the trustees of the college of New Jersey having appointed such a professor, the Synod took measures to aid in sustaining him. The General Assembly, however, in 1811, determined to establish a separate institution for the theological education of candidates for the ministry; and in 1812 the institution was located at Princeton, New Jersey, and went into immediate operation. This semiuary is under the direct supervision of a board of directors, who meet semi- annually to examine its students and superintend its affairs. This board is appointed by the General Assembly, and to the latter body also it belongs to elect the professors, and determine their duties and salaries. Having already spoken of this seminary, as well as all the others which are under the control of the Presbyterians, when giving an account of the theological seminaries in the United States,f we say no more of it in this place. * The whole number under the influence of the Presbyterians and Congregation- alists is forty-five. t Book i y -> chapter xviii. 478 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. In a former part of this work, when describing the development and influence of the voluntary principle (Book iv.), we gave an ac- count of the American Education Society, and the Board of Educa- tion of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church; institutions which have done so much to increase the number of the ministers of the Gospel in this denomination. We spoke, also, of the Board of Publication, which the Assembly of one of the great divisions of the Presbyterian Church has established, and the good which it is doing. We therefore pass over these operations, which have so intimate a connection with the history of this Church. We also say nothing at present respecting the foreign missions of this Church, inasmuch as we shall have occasion to speak of these hereafter. It has been our object here to give our readers, in the first place, a distinct idea of the organization of the Presbyterian Church ; of the manner in which its several congregations are formed and governed ; what provision is made to secure the orthodoxy, learning, and fidelity of their pastors ; and, in the second place, briefly to state the means adopted to extend the Church, and, in general, to promote the cause of religion. There is still one general subject which should not be passed over : it is, What has been the result of this organization, and of these means ? or, What has been the character of the Presbyte- rian Church in the United States ? Has it been a pure, enlightened, laborious, and harmonious body ? Materials for an answer to this question may, in a measure, be found in the preceding pages ; we shall therefore say but little in reply to it. Purity in a Church may be understood either in reference to ortho- doxy, or adherence to the truth of God as revealed in His Word ; or in reference to the manner of fife of its ministers or members. In reference to the former of these views, we think it may safely be as- serted that the Presbyterian Church has, by the grace of God, been preserved pure to a very uncommon degree. The correctness of this statement is to be found, not so much in the early adoption of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the requisition of an assent to that Confession on the part of all candidates for ordination, as in the fact that there has never been any open avowal of Pelagian or Ar- minian doctrines in the bosom of our Church. Cases have occurred of ministers being censured, or suspended from office, for teaching such doctrines, but no case has occurred where a Presbyterian minister has avowedly rejected the Calvinistic system, and yet retained his standing in the Church as one of its authorized preachers. Of late years, indeed, there has been much discussion on doctrinal subjects, and many sentiments have been advanced, which many excellent men considered as virtually, if not formally implying the rejection of the CHAP. V.] THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 479 Calvinistic doctrines of original sin, election, and efficacious grace. With regard to these controversies, however, there are two remarks to be made. The first is, that the advocates of these sentiments stren- uously denied that they were inconsistent with the doctrines just mentioned ; and the second is, that the opposition made to the exer- cise of discipline on account of these sentiments, was the principal cause of the division of the Presbyterian tDhurch into two portions of nearly equal size. It therefore remains true, as stated in a preceding page, that no Presbyterian minister has avowed himself either a Pe- lagian or Arminian, and yet been allowed to retain his standing as one of the accredited teachers of the Church. This, indeed, may be con- sidered by many as great bigotry. But the very thing which its friends glory in is the fact that the Presbyterian Church in America, having a Calvinistic creed, has been faithful in adhering to it. As to the other application of the word pure, it may also be safely asserted that although painful cases of immorality in ministers have occurred, yet we know of no case in which it has been overlooked ; in which either drunkenness, licentiousness, or any similar offence, has been proved against any minister, or been notoriously true with regard to him, without leading to his suspension or deposition from office. If such instances have occurred, they have been exceedingly rare. We do not mention this as any thing peculiar to the Presby- terian Church ; the same remark, as far as we know, might be made with equal justice of any of the evangelical denominations in the country. As it regards the private members of the Church, since much depends upon the fidelity of the several Sessions, we can only say that, according to the rules of discipline, no person chargeable with immoral conduct can be properly retained in communion with the Church ; and that public sentiment is in accordance with these rules. The cases are certainly rare in which any such offence as falsehood, drunkenness, fornication, or adultery is tolerated in any church member. Discipline is so far preserved in our churches, that it would be a matter of general reproach if any congregation allowed the name of a man of known immoral character to remain upon its list of communicants. In asserting the claim of the Presbyterian Church in America to the character of an enlightened body, all that is meant is, that she has successfully endeavored to maintain as high a standard of literary qualifications in her ministry as other Christian denominations in the United States, or as the circumstances of the country rendered ex- pedient or possible. From the beginning she insisted on the neces- sity of learning in those who intended to enter the sacred office, and early endeavored to establish institutions for their suitable education. 480 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. Even when the demand for ministers was so great as to present a strong temptation to relax her requisitions, she constantly refused. The proposition was more than once introduced into the old Synod, that in view of the pressing necessity for ministerial labor, the Pres- byteries might be permitted to license men to preach the Gospel who had not received a liberal education ; but it was uniformly rejected. It has already been stated that the Constitution of the Church re- quires that every candidate should pass repeated examinations before he is admitted to ordinances ; that he must give satisfactory evidence of possessing a competent knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and He- brew languages ; of his acquaintance with the subjects usually studied in our colleges ; and he must, after completing his academical studies, spend at least two years in the study of theology under some approved, teacher. These requisitions have been enforced with a good degree of fidelity. For a long time, a knowledge of Hebrew was not gen- erally insisted upon, on account of the difficulty of obtaining compe- tent teachers ; but since the establishment of theological seminaries, a knowledge of that language has become with the Presbyterian min- isters (and many others also) an almost uniform attainment. In answer to the question, Whether the Presbyterian Church has had a laborious and active body of clergy ? it may be said that, if in this respect she has fallen behind some of her sister Churches, she has kept in advance of others. The rapid increase of the Church since its organization in 1705 ; the efforts she has made to found academies, colleges, and theological seminaries ; the labor and money contributed to the support of foreign and domestic missions, show that, although she has come far short of her duty, she has not been entirely unmind- ful of her high vocation. With regard to the last question proposed, viz., Whether the Pres- byterian Church has been a harmonious body? the answer may not appear so favorable. The existence of parties seems to be an un- avoidable incident of freedom. In other words, liberty gives occa- sion for the manifestation of that diversity of opinion, feeling, and interest, which never fails to exist in all large communities, whether civil or religious. The expression of this diversity may be prevented by the hand of power, or concealed from view by the force of coun- teracting motives ; but where no power exists to forbid its manifesta- tion, or where no interests are endangered by its avowal, it will not be slow in making its existence known. In the Romish Church, all expression of difference of opinion, on certain subjects, is forbid- den; in all others, where there is liberty, there is conflict. In richly-endowed and Established Churches, there is so much to be CHAP. V.] THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 481 sacrificed by the avowal of dissent, that conformity must ever be ex- pected to be more general than sincere. Nothing out of the analogy of history, therefore, has happened to the Presbyterian Church in the occasional conflicts through which she has passed. As the Church was composed of men sincerely attached to the doctrines of the Reformed Churches, it was not disturbed by any doctrinal controversy for more than one hundred years after its organization. Before the middle of the last century, there arose a great religious excitement both in Great Britain and in America. In England this excitement was produced principally by the instru- mentality of Wesley ; and hi this country by that of Whitefield, Ed- wards, the Tennents, Blairs, and other distinguished preachers of that day. In Scotland, it either increased or occasioned the secessions from the national Church which still exist in that country. In En- gland, it led to the formation of the great independent body of the Methodists. In New England, it gave rise to great controversy, and to separations from the Established Churches ; and in the Presbyterian Church, it caused a division of the Synod of Philadelphia, which was its highest ecclesiastical body, into two independent bodies, which continued separate from each other from 1741 to 1758. To any one who examines this period of its history, it will appear that it was not difference of opinion as to the nature of religion, or as to its doctrines, nor as to church government, nor as to the necessity of learning in the ministry, which led to this separation, but the difference of opin- ion as to the revivals then in progress, and to the disorders, mutual criminations, and consequent alienation of feeling which are so apt to attend seasons of great and general excitement. The terms of union adopted by the two Synods in 1758 expressly recognize the harmony of the two bodies on all the points above specified,* and declare their purpose to bury all remembrance of their differences respecting the revival. From the time of the union just mentioned, in 1758, until within twenty-five years, the Presbyterian Church in America constituted as harmonious and united a body of ministers and members as could be found in this or any other country. The causes of the unhappy division are numerous, many of them of long standing and gradual operation ; and all of them difficult of appreciation by those who are not familiarly acquainted with the history of that Church. It has already been stated, that before the commencement of the present century, the Presbyterian Church was in a great measure * There was, indeed, some difference of opinion on the subject of the nature of the evidence of a proper call to the ministry which the Presbyteries should require; one party held higher views on the subject than the other. 31 482 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. composed of those European Presbyterians and their descendants who were settled in the Middle and Southern States. Since the year 1 800, there has been going on a constant and very great emigration from the New England States, to the central and western parts of New York, and to the North-western States of the Union. These emigrants had, in general, been accustomed to the Congregational form of church government prevalent in New England. As they met, however, in their new locations with many Presbyterians, and as their ministers generally preferred the Presbyterian form of gov- ernment, they united with them in the formation of churches and ec- clesiastical judicatories. In 1 801, the General Assembly and the Gen- eral Association of Connecticut agreed upon what was called " The plan of union between Presbyterians and Congregationalists in the new settlements." Under this plan, which purports to be a temporary expedient, a great number of churches and Presbyteries, and even several Synods, were formed, composed partly of Presbyterians and partly of Congregationalists. Though this plan seems to have op- erated beneficially for a number of years, yet, as it was extended far beyond its original intention, as it gave Congregationalists, who had never adopted the standards of doctrine of the Presbyterian Church, and who were avowedly opposed to its form of government, as much influence and authority in the government of the Church as an equal number of Presbyterians, the scheme naturally gave rise to dissatis- faction as soon as the facts of the case came to be generally known, and as soon as questions of discipline and policy arose, in the decision of which the influence of these Congregationalists was sensibly felt. In addition to this source of uneasiness, was that which arose out of diversity of opinions in points of belief. Certain peculiarities of doctrine had become prevalent among the Calvinists of New En- gland, which naturally spread into those portions of the Presbyterian Church settled by New England men. These peculiarities were not regarded, on either side, as sufficient to justify any interruption of ministerial communion, or to call for the exercise of discipline, but they were sufficient to give rise to the formation of two parties, which received the appellations of Old and New School. Within the last twenty or twenty-five years, however, opinions have been advanced by some of the New England clergy, which all the Old School, and a large portion of the New School party in the Presbyterian Church, considered as involving a virtual denial of the doctrines of original sin, election, and efficacious grace, and which were regarded as in- consistent with ministerial standing in the body. Several attempts were made to subject the Presbyterian advocates of these opinions to ecclesiastical discipline. These attempts failed, partly on account of CHAP. V.] THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 483 deficiency of proof, partly from irregularity in the mode of proceed- ing, and partly from other causes. To these sources of uneasiness was added the diversity of opinion as to the best mode of conducting certain benevolent operations. The Old School, as a party, were in favor of the action of the Church, in her ecclesiastical capacity, by means of Boards of her appointment and under her own control, conducting the work of domestic and foreign missions, and the education of candidates for the ministry. The other party as generally preferred voluntary societies, disconnected with Church courts, and embracing different religious denominations, for these purposes. It might seem, at first view, that this was a subject on which the members of the Church could differ without incon- venience or collision. But it was soon found that these societies or boards must indirectly exert a great, if not a controlling influence on the Church. The men who could direct the education of candidates for the sacred office, and the location of the hundreds of domestic missionaries, must, sooner or later, give character to the Church. On this account, this question was regarded as one of great practical im- portance. It was in the midst of the differences and alienations arising from these various sources, that the General Assembly met hi 1837. Both parties had come to the conclusion that a separation was desirable ; but though they agreed as to the terms of the separation, they could not agree as to the mode in which it should be effected. The General Assembly, therefore, resolved to put an end to the existing difficul- ties in another way. It first abolished the plan of union, above men- tioned, formed in 1801 ; and then passed several acts, the purport and effect of which were to declare that no Congregational church should hereafter be represented in any Presbyterian judicatory ; and that no Presbytery or Synod, composed partly of Presbyterians and partly of Congregationalists, should hereafter be considered as a constituent portion of the Presbyterian Church. These acts were defended on the ground that they were nothing more than the legitimate exercise of the executive authority of the General Assembly, requiring that the Constitution of the Church should be conformed to by all its constituent parts. Had the Synods and other judicatories affected by these acts seen fit to separate from the Congregationalists, with whom they had been united, and to organize themselves as purely Presbyterian bodies, the General Assembly would have been bound by its own acts to recog- nize them as constituent parts of the Church. But those brethren having assembled in convention at Auburn, in the State of New York, unanimously resolved that they would consider the plan of union as 484 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. still in force, its abrogation by the General Assembly to the contrary notwithstanding ; that they would not separate from their Congrega- tional brethren. Accordingly, in 1838, the delegates from the Pres- byteries included in these Synods attended the General Assembly, and claimed their seats as members. As this was not immediately granted (though it was not refused), they rose, nominated a moder- ator and clerk, and being joined by those members who sympathized with them, they declared themselves the true General Assembly, and withdrew from the house. A suit was immediately brought by them before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, to decide which Assembly was to be regarded as the true one, or which had the right to appoint the professors, and administer the funds belonging to the theological seminaries under the care of " The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America." The decision of the judge and jury was in their favor ; but when the cause was taken before the " court in banc," that is, before the court with all the judges present, that decision was reversed, and the way left open for the New School Assembly to renew the suit if they should think proper. There the matter has rested, leaving what is called the Old School Assembly in possession of the succession, and in the management of the semina- ries. It may be remarked that this decision has given to that As- sembly, in the estimation of many, very little more than what was admitted by the opposite party to be their due ; that is, in the terms of separation, agreed upon by the two parties in 1837, but which were not acted upon, it was admitted that the seminaries and funds, having, in fact, been founded and chiefly sustained by them, should be under the control of the Old School body ; and these funds consti- tute almost the whole sum held in trust by the General Assembly. For the preceding account I am indebted to a very distinguished and excellent minister in one of the bodies into which the Presbyte- rian Church was divided in 1838. To one who takes no part in the question, and looks at it dispas- sionately, certain positions, I conceive, must appear manifestly just. In the first place, the compact between the General Assembly and the General Association of Connecticut in 1801, though made with the best intentions, was decidedly contrary to the Constitution of the former body. It was a measure which can only be ascribed to the desire of its authors to accomplish a present apparent good, without taking sufficient time or pains to examine all its probable bearings. Its immediate result was the building up of a large number of churches of a mixed character, and without the bench of ruling elders which is essential to the interior organization of a Presbyterian CHAP. V.] THE PEESBYTEEIAN CHUECH. 485 church. But granting this — and I do not see how it can well be de- nied — the measures consequent upon the dissolution of this " Plan of Union," by the Assembly of 1837, seem to have been harsh, abrupt, and revolutionary. Time should have been allowed for the churches affected by it to adopt the Presbyterian polity in its whole extent, if they had a mind to do so, before having recourse to so severe a measure. It is obvious, in the second place, that the Presbyterian Church from the first, or nearly so, was composed of diverse elements, which could not be easily assimilated. This diversity had been increasing every year, especially within the last half century. Look at the dif- ferent races that from time to time have entered into the composition of the Presbyterian Church. A large proportion of its ministers, on the one hand, are either from Presbyterian churches in Scotland and Ireland, or are descended from Scotch and Irish Presbyterians, and these naturally feel much attached to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and to the catechisms and form of government with which they have been familiar from their childhood. Another large propor- tion of its ministers are, on the other hand, from New England, where they received all their early impressions from the Congregational churches ; so that, however much they may have respected the Pres- byterian Church on entering it, and however that respect may have increased since, they can not, from the nature of things, feel as much attachment to all the details of its doctrines and government as others who, if I may so speak, were born Presbyterians. Hence the former have been more readily disposed to be satisfied with a general con- formity with its doctrines and government. This led to a variation, if not in doctrines, at least in statements of doctrine, perfectly toler- able in Congregational churches, where extended creeds are un- known ; and to less strictness in ecclesiastical administration : both of which were incompatible with the precision of a Church whose stand- ards are so full on every point, and with a discipline the rules of which are laid down with so much minuteness. In the third place, the doctrinal difference lay more in philosophy than in any thing else. It originated in the attempt, not at all im- proper in itself, to reply to the objections which the enemies of Cal- vinism have ever made to its distinctive features, so repugnant to the natural heart. In these explanations of certain points, views were expressed which were deemed at variance with the doctrines of man's depravity, election, efficacious grace, etc., as they had usually been held. Nor do I think it is to be denied that some of these speculations were pushed too far, and expressed in a manner calculated to excite 486 THE EVANGELICAL CHUECHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. alarm. There was, in some cases, a needless departure from the usual theological phraseology, and this excited concern and suspicion, even when at bottom there was no real diversity of doctrine. On the other hand, a proper disposition was not always shown to estimate unessen- tial shades of opinion, and even of doctrine, at their just value ; and consequences, even when denied on one side, were too strenuously alleged on the other. Thus were differences in some cases magnified, until what was philosophical in the explanation of a doctrine, and did not change the doctrine itself, was thought subversive of it, and fraught, of course, with imminent danger to the cause of truth. In the fourth place, as to the mode of conducting the benevolent undertakings of the Church, whether by boards appointed by the General Assembly or through voluntary societies (and this, after all, was the question that helped most to produce the division), it seems clear that the brethren and churches that preferred the former of these methods ought at once to have been allowed that preference, and that it was a mistake to attempt to shut them up to the support of what they did not think the safest or most scriptural modes of pro- moting the extension of the Messiah's kingdom at home and abroad. Faults, in short, there were on both sides, and, as happens so often in such cases, there was not a little ofman, in a matter where nothing should have been allowed to influence a single decision but a regard for the glory of God and the interests of His Church. But the division has taken place, and whatever of strife or agitation attended it is passing away. A better spirit is unquestionably pre- vailing, and these two powerful bodies are engaged in the only rivalry worthy of them — that of striving which shall do most for the cause of Christ throughout the world. In this each of them is now free to adopt the method it may think best. The Old School, as they are called, have their own boards of mis- sions, domestic and foreign ; of education, of publication, and of Church-extension. The New School combine their efforts with the Congregationalists of New England, and some other and smaller de- nominations, in supporting the American Home Missionary Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. They have now, however, their own Boards of Publication and Church-extension. Both zealously support the American Bible, Tract, and Seamen's Societies, and others of a like general kind. In fact, the unwieldy bulk to which the Presbyterian Church had grown, as well as the coexistence in it of two great elements, too dissimilar to admit of harmonious action, had long made it evident to many that it must be divided ; and the division that has taken place is about as fortunate a one as well could have occurred. Although it CHAP. V.] THE PEESBYTEEIAN CHFJECH. 487 must be referred, in a considerable degree, to sectional, doctrinal, and economical questions, yet none of these have in all cases deter- mined the present position of the parties concerned. Thus, in the New School Church we find Scotch and Irish ministers, and the de- scendants of emigrants from Scotland and Ireland, while New En- gland men may be found in the Old. In the former there are men who hold the old views of Calvinistic doctrine ; in the latter, there are some who hold the New England modifications of those views. Finally, the New School is not without adherents who prefer ecclesi- astical boards for benevolent operations, while the Old School has some who remain attached to voluntary societies. The division, how- ever, coincides more, if I may use the expression, with the natural line of demarcation, in the last-named particular, than in the others, and for a reason already mentioned. The relative proportions of the two bodies will appear from the following statement. In May last (1855), the Old School had under its care, 30 Synods, 148 Presbyteries, 3,079 Churches, 2,261 Ordained Ministers, 237 Licentiates, 435 Candidates,* 231,404 Communicants reported. At the same date, according to their minutes, the New School had under their care, 24 Synods, 108 Presbyteries, 1,659 Churches, 1,567 Ministers, 111 Licentiates, 238 Candidates, 143,029 Communicants reported. Thus it appears that the two together, and in almost all respects they may be considered as one body, have 4,738 Churches, 3,828 Ordained Ministers, 1,021 Licentiates and Candidates, 374,433 Communicants. Regarding them as one whole, it were difficult to find in any part of Christendom a branch of the kingdom of Christ more distin- guished than these Churches for general learning, zeal, enterprise, * That is, students of theology who have not yet been licensed to preach. 488 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IK AMERICA. [BOOK VI. liberality, and soundness in all essential doctrine. Their ministers present a body of three thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight men, almost without exception liberally educated, who, after all their debates, and their final separation, are more thoroughly sound Cal- vinists in point of doctrine than any equally numerous ministry to be found in any other country. The question is often asked, Whether they will ever unite again ? That is by no means improbable ; but whether they do or not seems to me of little consequence. In their separate state they will accom- plish more than if united. There will soon be, indeed there is now, the most perfect intercourse between the churches and pastors. The energies of both find free and ample scope, which was never the case before with either, but particularly with the Old School, who never felt at ease, or secure as to the future. In conclusion, let me add, that the General Assembly of the New School, in its session in May, 1840, proposed to the presbyteries un- der its care certain important changes in its constitution, which were adopted. One was, that the General Assembly shall be held trien- nially instead of annually. Another was, that all appeals from the decisions of a Church Session shall not, in the case of lay-members, be carried beyond the Presbytery, or in the case of ministers, be- yond the Synod. By these modifications they made the business of their General Assembly much more simple and easy, and gave more time to that body to deliberate on measures for the promotion of the best interests of the Church. But they have returned to annual General Assemblies, the triennial plan not having worked well. CHAPTER VI. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. This large and influential body holds the doctrinal opinions of the Wesleyan Methodists of England, and its ecclesiastical economy is, in all important points, identical with theirs. It took its rise in 1766, when a Mr. Philip Embury, who had been a local preacher in some of Mr. Wesley's societies in the north of Ireland, and had come over to America with a few other pious persons of the same connec- tion, began to hold meetings for exhortation and prayer in his own house at New York. A considerable society was gradually formed in that city, which at that time, it would appear, could count but a small number, comparatively, of living and zealous Christians CHAP. VI.] THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH. 489 among its inhabitants. In a few months it was found necessary to fit up a large hired room as a place of worship, and the congregation was further augmented by the preaching of a Captain Webb of the British army, who, having been converted under the preaching of Mr. Wesley in England, and being now stationed at Albany, paid frequent visits to the little flock at New York. It was not long, however, before similar meetings began to be held in several places on Long Island, in Philadelphia, and at other points. In 1768, a large place of worship was erected in New York, beino- the first Methodist church ever built in the United States. Next year, Mr. Wesley being requested to send over two of his preachers, Messrs. Richard Boardman and Joseph Pillmore came to New York, and about the same time, Mr. Robert Strawbridge, an- other local preacher from Ireland, came over and settled in Frederic county, Maryland, where he held meetings at his own house, and at the houses of other pious persons in the neighborhood. This exten- sion of the Methodists into the South was further promoted by a visit from Mr. Pillmore into Virginia and North Carolina. Pressing representations of the need of help having been made to Mr. Wesley, Mr. Francis Asbury and Mr. Richard Wright were sent over from England in 1771, and under the labors, particularly, of the former, the work went on increasing, year after year, until the com- mencement of the Revolution. That event greatly retarded the progress of Methodism in some places, not only by the ever unto- wardly influence of present war on such undertakings, but also by the suspicions attached by the revolutionists to Mr. Asbury, and several of his fellow-preachers, as being native Englishmen, who had been too short a period in the country to have its interests truly at heart. At length, with peace came independence, and thus, greatly to the encouragement of Mr. Asbury and his fellow-laborers, a wide and ef- fectual door for the preachhig of the Gospel was opened to them. Hitherto this attempt to revive true godliness had been confined en- tirely to laymen of the Episcopal Church, and with it their efforts are more connected than with any other, inasmuch as none of them had at first any intention of separating from its communion. But worthy ministers of that church being hard to be found in some places, while none were to be had at all in others, both before the Revolution broke out and during its progress, Mr. Wesley was urged to send over ordained ministers, who might administer the ordi- nances to his followers. To this he was greatly opposed, at first, but when the Revolution was over, considering that, from the change of circumstances, he might now lawfully do what he had refused doing 490 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. while the colonies were under the government of England, he sent over, as superintendent of the Methodist churches in America, the Rev. Dr. Coke, a presbyter of regular standing in the Established Church of England. He was accompanied by Mr. Richard Whatcoat and Mr. Thomas Vasey, whom Mr. Wesley, assisted by Dr. Coke and the Rev. Mr. Creighton, had ordained presbyters or priests, just before the sailing of the three from Bristol in September, 1784. These brethren were the bearers of a letter from Mr. Wesley to the Methodist preachers and societies in America, stating his reasons for considering himself now at liberty to accede to their requests, and informing them that he had appointed Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury to be joint superintendents of all the societies in that country founded upon his rules, and Messrs. Whatcoat and Yasey to act as elders among them, by baptizing and administering the Lord's Supper. On the arrival of these delegates, a conference of the preachers was immediately convened at Baltimore. It was opened on the 25th of December, 1784, and was attended by sixty out of the eighty preachers then in the country. One of its first acts was the unani- mous election of Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury as superintendents, there- by confirming Mr. Wesley's appointment. Dr. Coke and the other two presbyters then ordained Mr. Asbury, first a deacon, next a presbyter, and, finally, a superintendent. Thereupon the two super- intendents, or bishops, as they soon began to be called, and as their successors are styled to this day, ordained twelve of the preachers then present to the office of presbyters or elders. Thus was the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States organized seventy-two years ago. From that epoch they formed a new and independent religious denomination, which was soon vastly to outnumber that from which they had sprung. At that " their day of small things," their ministers and lay preachers, including Dr. Coke and his co-delegates from England, amounted to eighty-six, and the members, in all, to fourteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-six. But small as was this beginning, great and glorious has been their increase since. The proceedings of that conference were highly important. Twen- ty-five articles were adopted as the Confession of Faith for the infant Church. We will give first the titles of the whole, and then a few of them at large. The titles are as follows : Of faith in the Holy Trin- ity ; of the Word, or Son of God, who was made very man ; of the resurrection of Christ ; of the Holy Ghost ; of the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for salvation ; of the Old Testament ; of original sin ; of free-will; of the justification of man ; of good works; of works of supererogation ; of sin after justification ; of the Church ; of purga- CHAP. VI.] THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 491 tory ; of speaking in the congregation in such a tongue as the people understand ; of the sacraments ; of Baptism ; of the Lord's Supper ; of both kinds;* of the one oblation of Christ, finished upon the cross; of the marriage of ministers : of the rites and ceremonies of the churches ; of the rulers of the United States of America; of Christian men's goods; of a Christian man's oath. On almost all these subjects the articles express doctrines held by every enlightened Protestant. In fact, they are a selection from the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, with some verbal changes, and the omission of some parts of sentences. The seven- teenth article of the Church of England (on predestination and elec- tion) is, of course, omitted, the doctrine therein taught not being held by the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Nor do we find that of the certain perseverance of saints, for neither do they hold this. But on all the great doctrines essential to salvation, noth- ing can be more clear, or more consistent with the Word of God, than the sense of these articles. For instance, on original sin — what more Scriptural than the seventh article, which says, " Original sin standeth not in following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man; that is, naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually." On the subject of free-will, it is said, " That the condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he can not turn and prepare him- self by his own natural strength and works to faith, and calling upon God ; whereupon we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will." So in respect to justification by faith, good works, w r orks of super- erogation, the sacraments, and other subjects, the same doctrines are held as by the Reformers of blessed memory. Besides these twenty-five articles, the General Conference have adopted a system of polityf in thirty-five sections, which treat of the entire economy of their Church, the manner of life becoming its min- isters and private members, the proper style of preaching, etc. In giving directions as to the manner of treating the doctrine of perfec- tion, the twenty-second section runs as follows : " Let us strongly and explicitly exhort all believers to go on to perfection. That we * Or elements — bread and wine — both to be administered to the people. \ These rules, originally drawn up by Mr. Wesley, were considerably modified in America. 492 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES EST AMERICA. [BOOK VI. may all speak the same thing, we ask, once for all, Shall we defend this perfection, or give it up ? We all agree to defend it, meaning thereby (as we did from the beginning), salvation from all sin by the love of God and man filling the heart. The Papists say, ' This can not be attained till we have been refined by the fire of purgatory.' Some professors say, 'Nay, it will be attained as soon as the soul and body part.' Others say, ' It may be attained before we die ; a moment after is too late.' Is it not so ? We are all agreed we may be saved from all sin, properly so called, before death, i. e., sinful tem- pers ; but we can not always speak, or think, or act aright, as dwell- ing in houses of clay. The substance, then, is settled ; but as to the circumstances, is the change gradual or instantaneous ? It is both the one and the other. c But should we, in preaching, insist both on one and the other?' Certainly we should insist on the gradual change ; and that earnestly and continually. And are there not rea- sons why we should insist on the instantaneous change? If there be such a blessed change before death, should we not encourage all be- lievers to expect it ? And the rather, because constant experience shows, the more earnestly they expect this, the more swiftly and steadily does the gradual work of God go on in their souls ; the more careful are they to grow in grace ; the more zealous of good works ; and the more punctual in their attendance on all the ordinances of God (whereas just the contrary effects are observed whenever this expectation ceases). They are saved by hope — by this hope of a total change, with a gradually-increasing salvation. Destroy this hope, and that salvation stands still, or, rather, decreases daily. Therefore, whoever will advance the gradual change in believers, should strongly insist on the instantaneous." For a more thorough acquaintance with the doctrines of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, I may refer to Mr. Wesley's four volumes of Sermons, and his Notes on the New Testament, where all the pecu- liar views of that body are fully exhibited, and which may be re- garded as its real Confession of Faith. Its Discipline comprehends the " Articles of Religion," the " General Rules" relating to practice, the " System of Government," and the " Formularies," all of which, except the Articles of Religion, may, under certain circumstances and restrictions, be modified and enlarged from time to time by va- rious enactments of the General Conference. We shall attempt a summary of it from the very clear and succinct statements of the Rev. Dr. Bangs, in his " History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States,"* a work to which, in preparing this chapter, * Vol. i., p. 245-250. This work, in four vols., by the Rev. Nathan Bangs, D.D., brings the history of the Methodist Church down to the close of the General Confer- CHAP. VI.] THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH. 493 we have been greatly indebted on other points. We begin with the " societies" and " classes," which are the primary bodies of believ- ers in this extensive, well-adjusted, and most efficient ecclesiastical system. 1 . In the first place, there is what is called the society ', which in- cludes all the members of the church residing in any particular place, or connected with it. 2. Every society comprises one or more classes, each consisting of from twelve to twenty or more individuals, who meet once a week for mutual edification. These classes are the real normal schools, if we may so speak, of the Methodist Church. 3. The minister, under whose pastoral care the classes in a society are placed, appoints a leader to each, whose duty it is to see every member of his class once a week, to inquire how their souls prosper, and to receive what they are willing to give for the support of the church and the poor. 4. Stewards are appointed in each society by the Quarterly Con- ference, on the nomination of the ruling preacher. These have charge of all the moneys collected for the support of the ministry, the poor, and for sacramental occasions, and disburse it as the Discipline directs. 5. There are trustees, who have charge of the church property, and hold it in trust for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These are elected by the congregation in those States where the laws so provide ; in other places they are appointed as the Discipline directs. 6. There are, in most societies, exhorters, who receive their license from the preacher in charge ; but this license can not be renewed except by a vote of the Quarterly Meeting Conference ; they have the privilege of holding meetings for exhortation and prayer. 7. A preacher is one who holds a license to preach, but may not administer the sacraments. He may be a traveling or a local preacher. The former devotes his whole time to the ministry, and is supported by those among whom he labors ; the latter generally supports him- self by some secular employment, and preaches on the Sabbath, as well as occasionally at other times, but without temporal emolument. Both receive a license, signed by a presiding elder, from a Quarterly Meeting Conference, after being recommended each by his respective class, or by a leaders' meeting. Thus the people, in those nurseries ence held in 1840. It is an invaluable work, written in a truly calm and Christian spirit, and displays a sincere desire to present every subject which it treats in an im- partial manner. It contains a complete history of the Methodist Church in America from the first. 494 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. of the Church — the " classes" and " leaders' meetings" — have the in- itiative in bringing forward those who are to preach the Gospel. After this license from a Quarterly Meeting Conference, they may be taken into the traveling service by an Annual Conference ; after two years spent in which, and pursuing at the same time a prescribed course of reading and study, they may be ordained as deacons. Then, after two years' circuit traveling as deacons, and pursuing a further course of reading and study, they may be ordained presby- ters or elders. Such is the training for the ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and it is much more efficient than persons not well acquainted with it would suppose. 8. A deacon holds a parchment of ordination from a bishop, and besides his duties as a preacher, he is authorized to solemnize mar- riages, to administer Baptism, and to assist the elder or presbyter in the administration of the Lord's Supper. 9. An elder, in addition to these functions, is authorized to admin- ister all the ordinances of God's house. 10. A presiding elder has the charge of several circuits, collectively called a district. It is his duty to visit each circuit once a quarter, to preach and administer the ordinances, to convene the traveling and local preachers, exhorters, stewards, and leaders of the circuit for a Quarterly Conference, and in the absence of a bishop, to receive, try, suspend, or expel preachers, as the Discipline directs. He is ap- pointed to his charge by the bishop, who may, for the time being, have a special oversight of the Annual Conference in which he is placed. This office arose from the necessity of always having some one to administer the ordinances throughout the circuits, for it often happens that the traveling preachers, from their not having received ordination as elders, can not administer the Lord's Supper ; nor even Baptism, if they are not deacons. 11. A bishop is elected by the General Conference, to which body he is amenable for his official and moral conduct. It is his duty to travel through the country, to superintend the spiritual and temporal affairs of the Church, to preside in the Annual and the General Con- ference, to ordain such as are elected by an Annual Conference to the office of deacons and elders, and to appoint the preachers to their stations. As there are several bishops, they usually divide the coun- try among them, each having his own field, and all meeting at the General Conference. The Episcopacy in this Church is, however, an office, not an order. 12. A leaders' meeting is composed of all the class leaders in any one circuit or station, under the presidency of the preacher placed in charge of that circuit or station. Here the weekly class collections CHAP. VI.] THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 495 are paid into the hands of the stewards, and inquiry is made into the state of the classes, delinquents reported, and inquiries made as to the sick and poor. 13. A Quarterly Meeting Conference is composed of all the travel- ing and local preachers, exhorters, stewards, and leaders belonging to any particular station or circuit, under the presidency of the cir- cuit elder, or, in his absence, of the preacher who takes charge in his place. Here local preachers are licensed, the licences of exhorters annually renewed, and preachers recommended to an Annual Confer- ence to be received into the traveling ministry ; appeals are likewise heard from any dissatisfied member against the decision of the com- mittee of the society to which he belongs. This body performs, therefore, a most important part in the whole system. 14. An Annual Conference is composed of all the traveling preach- ers, deacons, and elders within a specified district of country. These are the executive and judicial bodies, acting under rules prescribed to them by the General Conference. Here the characters and con- duct of all the traveling preachers within the bounds of the confer- ence are examined yearly ; applicants for admission into the traveling ministry, if accounted worthy, are received, continued on trial, or dropped, as the case may be ; appeals from local preachers, which may be presented, are heard and decided ; and persons fit for ordina- tion, as deacons or elders, are elected. An annual conference pos- sesses original jurisdiction over all its members, and may therefore try, acquit, suspend, expel, or locate any of them, as the Discipline in such cases provides. 15. The General Conference assembles once in four years, and is composed of a certain number of delegates, elected by the annual conferences. It has the power to revise any part of the Discipline not prohibited by restrictive regulations ; to elect the book agents and editors, and the bishops ; to hear and determine appeals of preachers from the decision of annual conferences ; to review the acts of those conferences generally ; to examine into the general adminis- tration of the bishops for the four preceding years ; and to try, cen- sure, acquit, or condemn a bishop if accused. This is the highest judicatory of the Church. 16. A Love-Feast is a meeting of the members of a society, held occasionally, in which they partake of a simple repast of bread and water, during an hour, at which such as are disposed relate what God has done for their souls. These meetings were instituted by Mr. "Wesley, as a sort of resuscitation of the Jynnai (Agapce) of the an- cient Church. Their object is to make the members better acquainted with each other, and promote brotherly love and mutual edification. 496 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. 17. The salaries of the ministers are raised by various collections in the societies, and also in public meetings. Provision is made for ao-ed and infirm ministers who have continued to exercise the duties of the ministry until incapable of further service. Omitting unneces- sary details, I need only say that each traveling minister receives at present one hundred dollars a year for himself, the same sum for his wife, if he has one, sixteen dollars a year for each child under seven years of age, and twenty-four for children above that and under four- teen years. Besides, the stewards of each circuit and station are directed to provide a " parsonage," or house of residence, for the family of each married preacher on his circuit or station, and also to grant an allowance for his fuel and table expenses, which is estimated by a committee appointed by the Quarterly Meeting Conference. In these respects there is no difference between the preachers, deacons, elders, presiding elders, and bishops — all receive the same salaries; all have their traveling expenses. The widows of all the ministers re- ceive one hundred dollars each. The above is the provision fixed by the General Conference ; but we believe that in many circuits the collections, etc., do not fully meet it. Such is an outline of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, and it is as minute as a work like this could admit. Since its organization in 1784, though not without its share of difficulties, its career, upon the whole, has been remarkably prosperous, and God has enabled it to overcome every hinderance with wonderful success. We have seen the numerical amount of its ministers and members sixty years ago ; in 1843 it was as follows: 6 Bishops, 32 annual conferences. 3,988 Traveling ministers, who devote themselves entirely to the ministry. ■7,130 Local preachers, assisting the regular traveling ministers with frequent preaching. 1,068,525 Communicants. This was the state of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States in 1843. The year following it became divided into two bodies: "the Methodist Episcopal Church," and "the Methodist Church, South," by the question of slavery ; but the division is not completely geographical, Maryland, Delaware, and some churches in Virginia and Missouri going with the North. The Northern body had in 1855 seven bishops, two hundred and thirty-five presiding elders, four thousand eight hundred and fourteen effective ministers, seven hundred and eighty-three thousand three hundred and fifty-three members, eight hundred and twenty-three Home Missionaries, and forty-seven Foreign. Its principal " Book Concern" is at New York, CHAP. VI.] THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUBCH. 497 with a large branch at Cincinnati, and smaller ones in Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburg, Auburn, etc. The latter body had the same year six bishops, one hundred and thirty-one presiding elders, one thou- sand nine hundred and forty-two effective ministers, five hundred and ninety-six thousand eight hundred and fifty-two members, two hun- dred and seventy-one Home Missionaries, and thirty-four Foreign. Its "Book Concern" is at Nashville, with branches at Charleston, South Carolina, Richmond, New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis, etc. Surely we may well exclaim, " What hath God wrought !" The whole land is covered with a network system of stations and circuits, and the Gospel is carried into thousands of the most remote as well as the most secluded and thinly-peopled neighborhoods. This denomination has made great exertions to increase the num- ber of its church edifices within the last few years. But its itinerating ministers preach in thousands of places where no such buildings are yet erected, or at least none belonging to that denomination. In these cases they hold their meetings in school-houses, court-houses, and private houses. No American Christian who takes a comprehensive view of the progress of religion in his country, and considers how wonderfully the means and instrumentalities employed are adapted to the extent and the wants of that country, can hesitate for a moment to bless God for having, in His mercy, provided them all. Nor will he fail to recognize in the Methodist economy, as well as in the zeal, the de- voted piety, and the efficiency of its ministry, one of the most power- ful elements in the religious prosperity of the United States, as well as one of the firmest pillars of their civil and political institutions. We have already spoken of the Home Missions, the Tract, Book, and Sunday-school operations of this Church. In another place we shall have occasion to say what it is doing in the cause of Foreign Missions. The Methodist Episcopal Church was long reproached with neg- lecting to promote learning among its ministers, and it was charged even with having no wish that its ministry should be learned. There was, apparently, some truth in this : for, though its influential and en- lightened members were never opposed to learning, they had a well- grounded dread of a learned but unconverted ministry. Yet they attempted, even at an early period of their Church's history, to found seminaries for education. Among these there was a college in Mary- land, which flourished from 1787 to 1795, when the building was burned down. A second was attempted at Baltimore ; but there, too, the college building was burned, and a church that adjoined it shared the same fate. These calamities, involving a loss of about 32 498 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. ,000, had a discouraging effect for a time ; but for some years past the Episcopal Methodists have shown a noble desire to promote the education of young men for the ministry, and other walks of life in which they may advance the cause of Christ. In order to this, they have founded no fewer than twenty-one academic institutions, besides eleven colleges, two of which are called universities, and these fount- ains of knowledge God is blessing by shedding upon them the influ- ence of His grace. No fewer than four religious newspapers are published under the auspices of the General Conference, and four more under those of an- nual conferences, besides others that are edited and owned by individ- uals of that body. These journals must have a vast circulation in the aggregate. Having concluded our notices of the five larger evangelical denom- inations, we shall now proceed with the smaller in the same order, and thus associate them with the respective families of churches to which they more properly belong. CHAPTER VII. MINOR EPISCOPAL CHURCHES. THE MORAVIAN CHURCH. The United Brethren, or, as they are more familiarly called, the Moravians, form the only one of the smaller evangelical denomina- tions in the United States that is Episcopal, in the usual acceptation of that word. They claim descent, as is well known, from the ancient churches of Moravia and Bulgaria, founded by Methodus and Cyril- lus, two Greek monks. Notwithstanding repeated persecutions from the Roman Catholics, some remains of these churches survived in Bohemia and Moravia as late as 1722, when a party of them fled for refuge from continued vexation in Moravia to the estates of Nicholas Lewis, Count of Zinzendorf, in Upper Lusatia, and there they founded Herrnhut. Their protector, some years after that, became one of their bishops, and labored most zealously for more than twenty years in the cause of God, by forming societies of the United Brethren. While on a visit to America, in 1741, he took part in founding a mis- sion among the Indians, and greatly contributed to the establishment of several settlements for those of the Brethren who might choose to emigrate thither. Such was the origin of the pleasant villages of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Litiz, in Pennsylvania, and Salem in North Carolina. Moravian families, meanwhile, settled, and formed societies in Philadelphia, New York, and several other places. CHAP. VIII.] SMALLER BAPTIST DENOMINATIONS. 499 The peculiar economy of the United Brethren is too widely known to require any notice of it here. Their settlements in America are the same abodes of order, provident regard for the morals of the young, and for the comfort of the aged, of cheerful industry, and pleasant social life, enlivened by the sweet strains of music, and, withal, of that deep interest in missions, which characterize their set- tlements in the Old World. It may be said, perhaps, that too much worldly prosperity has been to them, as to many other Christians, a hinderance to their piety. They maintain flourishing boarding-schools for girls at Bethlehem, Litiz, and Salem, and one for boys at Nazareth, where, also, then- young men preparing for the ministry commonly pursue their studies. The Moravian missions among the Indians within the boundaries of the United States are mainly supported, as well as directed, by their congregations in that country * Their doctrines coincide, in the main, with those of the Augsburg Confession. The number of their churches and congregations in the United States is twenty- three; of their ministers, twenty-eight; of their communicants, about three thousand five hundred ; and the entire population under their instruction is about twelve thousand souls. CHAPTER VIII. SMALLER BAPTIST DENOMINATIONS. There are a few Baptist denominations in the United States not usually included with the Regular Baptists noticed in Chapter IV. They are as follows : 1. The Seventh Day Baptists— who have seventy-one churches, seventy-seven ordained ministers, seventeen licentiates, and about six thousand five hundred members. The population under their instruc- tion and influence is reckoned at about forty thousand. They are quite evangelical in the doctrines that relate to the way of salvation, and are in good repute for piety and zeal. They differ from the Regular Baptists as to the day to be observed as the Christian Sab- bath, maintaining, in opposition to these, that the seventh day was not only the Sabbath originally appointed by the Creator, but that that appointment remains unrepealed. Their churches are widely scattered throughout the States. There * An interesting historical sketch of these missions will be found in Mr. J. C. Latrobe's "Rambles in North America." 500 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. are four in New Jersey,* more than thirty in New York, six or eight in Ohio, eight in Rhode Island, and four in Virginia, and a number in Wisconsin and other parts of the country. They observe Saturday with great strictness as their Sabbath, have Sabbath-schools, and one religious newspaper. They have a Tract Society, a Missionary Soci- ety, and a Society for the Conversion of the Jews. They have four Associations, and a General Conference — all meet annually. Their collections for missions were $3,000 in 1855. Altogether they are a very worthy people. 2. Free- Will Baptists. This body dates in America from 1780, when its first church was formed in New Hampshire. In doctrine, they hold a general atonement, and reject election and the other Cal- vinistic points. On the subject of the Trinity, justification by faith alone, regeneration, and sanctification, they are, with some excej>tions, sound. Starting with the wrong principle that, dispensing with written creeds, covenants, rules of discipline, or articles of organization, they would make the Bible serve for all these, they were soon in great danger from Arians and Socinians creeping in among them. But of late years they have separated from the "Christians" (a heretical sect we have yet to notice, and likewise opposed to creeds), and are, con- sequently, endeavoring to regain a sound orthodox position. Some of them have come to see that creeds are unavoidable, and had better be definitely expressed in writing than merely understood. They have, accordingly, introduced creeds, and in some instances, even written articles in the form of a constitution. This augurs well. Their church government, like that of all the Regular Baptists, is vested primarily in the churches, or assemblages of believers con- vened for worship. These send delegates to Quarterly Meetings, the Quarterly Meetings to the Yearly Meetings, and these, again, to the General Conference. The office-bearers in their churches are elders and deacons. The former are ordained jointly by the church to which they belong, and by the Quarterly Meeting acting by a council. Each Quarterly and Yearly Meeting has an elders' conference, which, with the General Conference, regulates the affairs of the ministry as * In New Jersey, and I doubt not in other States also, there are special laws in their favor. The disposition on the part of the civil power in the United States not to coerce the consciences of any religious community, however small, strikingly con- trasts with the legislation of France in a like case. In the winter of 1840-41, when the factory-children's labor-bill was before the Chamber of Deputies, it was asked whether there ought not to be a clause for the protection of Jewish children in the ob- servance of their Sabbath. "No," said the committee upon the bill, "they are too few to make that necessary." To this M. Fould, the banker, himself a Jew, assented, saying that the Jews were only three hundred thousand in the kingdom ! CHAP. VIII.] SMALLER BAPTIST DENOMINATIONS. 501 far as the Presbytery is concerned. Thus they depart from the prin- ciple of a pure Independency. Within the last ten years they have entered on the work of sending the Gospel to the heathen, and there can be no better sign than this. They have also a Home Missionary Society, a Tract Society, and an Education Society. Many of their churches have Sunday-schools and various charitable institutions. A religious paper, also, is published under their auspices. Until a few years ago, these Arminian Baptists took but little in- terest in the education of young men for the ministry ; but they now have several academies. They had last year (1855) one thousand one hundred and seventy- three churches, one thousand one hundred and seven ordained min- isters, two hundred and fifty licentiates, and about sixty thousand communicants. 3. Disciples of Christ, or Reformers, as they call themselves, or Campbellites, as they are most commonly called by others. It is with some hesitation that, by placing these in this connection, I rank them among evangelical Christians. I do so because their creed, taken as it stands in written terms, is not heterodox. Not only do they not deny, but in words their creed affirms the doctrine of the Trinity, of salvation by the merits of Christ, and the necessity of the regen- erating and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Yet I under- stand that there is much about their preaching that seems to indicate that all that they consider necessary to salvation is little if any thing more than a speculative, philosophical faith, in connection with im- mersion as the only proper mode of baptism ; so that there is little, after all, of that " repentance toward God," and " faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," which are the indispensable terms of the Gospel. The founder of this sect is a Dr. Alexander Campbell, a Scotchman, who, together with his father, left the Presbyterian Church in 1812, and became Baptists. Soon after this change he began to broach doctrines that can hardly be called new, for the " Christians," now, though not always a heretical sect, had advanced them before his time. His views seem to be substantially as follows : " All sects and parties of the Christian world have departed, in greater or less de- grees, from the simplicity of faith and manners of the first Christians." " This defection" Dr. Campbell and his followers " attribute to the great varieties of speculation, and metaphysical dogmatism of count- less creeds, formularies, liturgies, and books of discipline, adopted and inculcated as bonds of union and platforms of communion in all the parties which have sprung from the Lutheran Reformation." All this has led, as they suppose, to the displacing of the style of the 502 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. living oracles, and the affixing to the sacred diction ideas wholly un- known to the Apostles. And what does Dr. Campbell propose to do ? Simply " to ascertain from the Holy Scriptures, according to commonly-received and well- established rules of interpretation, the ideas attached to the leading terms and sentences found in the Holy Scriptures, and then use the words of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic acceptation of them !" But let us hear him further : " By thus expressing the ideas communicated by the Holy Spirit, in the terms and phrases learned from the Apos- tles, and by avoiding the artificial and technical language of scholastic theology, they propose to restore a pure speech to the household of faith." And in this way they expect to put an end to all divisions and disputes, and promote the sanctification of the faithful. And all this is proposed by those who reject all creeds for churches ; except- ing, indeed, that which consists in making the Bible speak theirs ! However plausible it may be to talk in this way, all Church History has shown that there is no more certain way of introducing all man- ner of heresy than by dispensing with all written creeds and formu- laries of doctrine, and allowing all who profess to believe in the Bible, though attaching any meaning to it they please, to become members of the Church. For awhile, possibly, this scheme may seem to work well ; but, before half a century has passed, all mamier of error will be found to have entered and nestled in the House of God. " Every one who believes what the Evangelists and Apostles have testified concerning Jesus of Nazareth, and who is willing to obey Him, is a proper subject for immersion." And this is the sum and substance of what Dr. Campbell says respecting the way in which a shiner is to attain salvation. This is all well enough, if faith be truly explained, and the sinner does really come to Christ with that godly sorrow for sin from which saving faith is never dissevered. But if a mere general belief in what the Evangelists and Apostles have said, together with immersion, be all that is required, it is not difficult to see that churches may soon be gathered in which there will be but little true religion. It is on this account that evangelical Christians in America, Bap- tists as well as Paedobaptists, have many fears about Dr. Campbell and his followers. It is believed, however, that, as yet, there are not a few sincerely pious people among his congregations, who have been led away by his plausible representations respecting the evil of creeds. Time can only show the issue. Two or three religious papers are published by ministers of this denomination, and are almost entirely devoted to the propagation of the peculiar tenets of the sect. The churches in its connection are constituted purely on Independent CHAP. VIII.] SMALLER BAPTIST DENOMINATIONS. 503 principles. Its statistics are not well ascertained. It is said, however, by well-informed men in that body, that it now embraces from three hundred thousand to three hundred and twenty thousand persons. As for the churches and ministers, I have never seen their number stated. 4. Anti-Mission Baptists, supposed to have in the United States one hundred and fifty-five associations, one thousand seven hundred and twenty churches, eight hundred and twenty-five ministers, and fifty-eight thousand members. They are tinctured with an Anti- nomian spirit, it is believed. 5. " General Baptists," seventeen churches, fifteen ministers, and two thousand one hundred and eighty-nine members. 6. " Church of God," two hundred and seventy-four churches, one hundred and thirty-one ministers, and thirteen thousand five hundred members. V. Tunkers and Mennonites. These are of German origin. The Tunkers are supposed to have at least one hundred and fifty churches (mostly very small), two hundred ministers, and eight thousand mem- bers. The Mennonites are estimated to have three hundred churches, two hundred and fifty ministers, and thirty-six thousand members. In these statements, we follow the Baptist Almanac for 1856. They are not definite, but as accurate, probably, as can be expected. Summary of Baptist Churches in the United States. The Baptist Family of Churches in the United States in 1855 stood thus: Associations. Churches. Ministers. Members. Eegular Baptists 523 10,488 6,881 842,660 Anti-Mission 155 1,720 825 58,000 Free-Will Baptists — 1,113 1,101 49,809 Seventh-Day Baptists 4 11 11 6,500 Church of God, or Winebrennarians — 168 130 11,500 Disciples of Christ, or " Campbellites" — — — 300,000 Tunkers — 150 200 8,000 Mennonites — 300 250 36,000 Total 682 14,110 9,416 1,318,469 All these Churches are supposed to hold the doctrine of " salvation through grace," or "justification by faith." Among the " Regular Baptist" Churches, there are five associations, sixty-six churches, forty-eight ministers, and two thousand three hun- dred and seventy-five members, of German, Swedish, and Welsh people. The number of " licentiates" in this large branch of the Baptist Family of churches in the United States was, in 1855, no less than five hundred and ninety-six. They are not included in the number of ministers. 504 THE EVANGELICAL CHUECHES IN" AMERICA. [BOOK VI. CHAPTER IX. SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. THE CUMBERLAND PRESBY- TERIANS. The origin of the Cumberland Presbyterians was as follows : In the extensive and, in some respects, wonderful revival of religion that took place in Kentucky during the years 1801-3, the call for Pres- byterian ministers was far beyond what could be satisfied, and in this exigency it was proposed by some of the ministers that pious laymen of promising abilities, and who seemed to have a talent for public speaking, should be encouraged to make the best preparations in their power for the ministry, and thereafter be licensed to preach. This suggestion was carried into effect. Several such persons were licensed by the Presbytery of Transylvania ; and a new Presbytery, which had been formed in the southern part of the State in 1803, and was called the Cumberland Presbytery, admitted and ordained those licentiates, and took on trial others of similar characters and attain- ments. These proceedings were considered disorderly by the Synod of Kentucky, and a commission was therefore appointed to examine them, and to inquire what were the doctrines held by persons thus admitted into the ministry, in a way so foreign to the rules and practice of the Presbyterian Church. The upshot was, that the course pursued by the Cumberland Presbytery was condemned, and this sentence having been confirmed by the General Assembly of the whole Presbyterian Church, before which it had been brought by ap- peal, the censured Presbytery withdrew from that body, and consti- tuted itself an independent Church in 1810, since which has been called the Cumberland Presbyterian Chnrch. Its doctrines occupy a sort of middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism. It holds that the atonement was made for all mankind ; it rejects the doctrine of eternal reprobation ; holds a modified view of election ; and maintains the perseverance of the saints ; but on the other points is essentially Calvinistic. In its ecclesiastical polity it is Presbyterian ; the Session, Presby- tery, Synod, and General Assembly are all constituted in the manner described at length in our notice of the Presbyterian Church. It dif- fers, however, in one point, from all other Presbyterian Churches, by having adopted the itinerating system of the Methodists. By that system of circuits and stations, its ministers have been able to reach almost all parts of the Valley of the Mississippi, that being the CHAP. X.] REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH. 505 great scene of their labors. But their Church is not confined to the Western States and Territories of the American Union — it reaches into California. The General Assembly has under its superintend- ence seventeen synods, forty-eight presbyteries, about one thousand churches, three hundred ministers, four hundred and eighty licen- tiates and candidates, and one hundred thousand communicants. Several religious newspapers are published under its auspices. For the education of its youth, it has a flourishing college at Princeton, in Kentucky, one in Tennessee, one in the State of Ohio, and one or two others in other States. Among its preachers there are several men of highly respectable talents and acquirements. CHAPTER X. SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES I REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH. We have elsewhere stated that the country embracing what are now the States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsyl- vania, was at one time claimed by the Dutch in right of discovery. A trading post was established by them in 1614, at the spot now oc- cupied by the city of New York, but it was not until 1624 that any families from Holland settled there. A few years after, the Rev. Everardus Bogardus was sent over to preach to the colonists, and was the first Dutch pastor that settled in America.* He was succeeded by John and Samuel Megapolensis, the latter of whom was one of the commissioners appointed by General Stuyvesant to settle the terms on which the colony was surrendered to the English in 1664. The colony having been planted and maintained by the Dutch West India Company, to it the colonists applied from time to time for ministers, as new churches were formed or the older ones be- came vacant ; and the seat of the company being at Amsterdam, the directors naturally applied to the Classis of that city to choose and ordain the persons that were to be sent out. Hence that Classis and the Synod of North Holland, with which it was connected, came by the tacit consent of the other classes and synods of the Dutch Na- tional Church, as well as by the submission of the churches in the colonies, to have an influence over the latter, which, in the course of time, proved a source of no little trouble to the parties concerned.! * This excellent man left the colony to return to Holland in 1647, and is supposed to have been lost at sea in the same vessel with Governor Kieft. f The Classis of Amsterdam and the Synod of North Holland retain to this day the 506 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. To such an extent was it carried that the colonial churches were not thought entitled to take a single step toward the regulation of their own affairs. How far the West India Company aided the congregations that were gradually formed in its American colonies is not now known, but it is supposed to have done something for their support.* Some of its governors were decided friends and members of the church, and certain it is that those congregations in New Netherlands were considered as branches of the Established Church of Holland. The English took possession of the colony in 1664, and guarantied to the inhabitants all their religious rights. Nothing of any conse- quence to the churches took place for about thirty years, for there being but few English in the colony, the Dutch churches were at- tended by nearly the whole population. But in 1693, Colonel Samuel Fletcher becoming governor, succeeded, as we have else- w T here noticed, by artifice and perseverance, in having the Episcopal Church established in the City of New York and four of the princi- pal counties of the Province ; so that from that time all classes were taxed for the support of Episcopacy, though its partisans formed but a small minority of the colonists. But the inconvenience of having no ecclesiastical authority in America higher than a Consistory, could not fail to be felt by the Re- formed Dutch Church, and accordingly, in 1738, some of its ministers proposed having an association of the clergy, called a coetus, but which was to have no power either to ordain pastors or to determine ecclesiastical disputes. Innocent as well as inadequate as was this measure, the concurrence of the Classis of Amsterdam could not be obtained till 1746 or 1747. But it was soon found that nothing short of having a regular classis of their own could meet the wants of the churches. Not only was there the heavy expense and delay at- tending the getting of ministers from Holland, or sending young men thither to be educated, but, worse than all, the churches had no power of choosing ministers likely to suit them. Urged by such considerations, the coetus resolved in 1753 to propose a change of its constitution to that of a regular classis, and a plan to that effect w T as transmitted to the congregations for their approval. But the project charge of the churches in the colonies in the East Indies, and other parts of the world, belonging to the kingdom of the Netherlands. * It would seem that it was a considerable time before any church edifice of re- spectable appearance was erected in New Amsterdam, as New York was then called ; for De Vries, in the account of his voyage to New Netherlands, relates that he re- marked to Governor Kieft in 1641, "that it was a shame that the English should pass there, and see only a mean barn in which we performed our worship." CHAP. X.] KEFOEMED DUTCH CHURCH. 507 was opposed by a powerful party, mainly formed of those who had been sent over from Holland, and called the Conference. Amid the distraction and confusion caused by this opposition of parties, religion made little progress, and many influential families left the Dutch Church, and joined the Episcopal. All difficulties were at length adjusted through the prudent media- tion of the late Rev. John H. Livingston, D.D.,* then a young man. Having gone to Holland for the prosecution of his studies, in 1766, the Synod of Holland and Classis of Amsterdam were led by his rep- resentations to devise a plan, which, after Mr. Livingston's return to America in 1770, was submitted to a meeting held in New York in October, 1771, and attended by nearly all the ministers, and by lay delegates from nearly all the congregations. After a full discussion, having been unanimously adopted, it was carried into effect the fol- lowing year. The whole Church was divided into five classes, three in the Province of New Jersey, and two in that of New York ; and a delegation of two ministers and two elders from each classis consti- tuted the General Synod, which was to meet once a year. The prosperity of the Dutch Church, particularly in the City of New York, was retarded by another cause, namely, the long-con- tinued opposition to preaching in English. The Dutch tongue having been gradually disappearing ever since the conquest of the colony in 1664, many of the youth had grown up almost in utter ignorance of it, and had gone off to the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, es- pecially the former, for the latter had as yet but a merely tolerated and feeble existence. At length the Rev. Dr. Laidlie, a Scotch min- ister, was invited from Holland, and commenced preaching in English in 1764, from which time Dutch fell still more rapidly into disuse. The last Dutch sermon was preached in the collegiate churches in the City of New York in 1804, though in some of the churches in the country it was used some years longer. But it is now quite aban- doned in the pulpit throughout the United States, except in some churches in Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc., formed within a few years among the emigrants whom persecution has driven from Holland. The Revolutionary War, also, proved disastrous to the Dutch * Few men have ever lived in America who have been more useful or respected than Dr. John H. Livingston. For many years he was a pastor in New York city; but the latter part of his life was spent in New Brunswick, in the State of New Jersey, where' he was professor of theology in the seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church. He died in the year 1825, revered by all, of every denomination, who knew him. He has left an abiding impression of his character upon the Church of which he was so distinguished an ornament. 508 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. Church, particularly in the City of New York. One of the church- edifices there was used as a hospital, another as a cavalry riding- school, during the occupation of the place by a British force from 1776 to 1783. But with the return of peace, prosperity returned to this as well as other evangelical communions, and it has been steadily advancing ever since. In all the States it had only eighty-two con- gregations and thirty ministers in 1784; but the former have now risen to three hundred and seventy-eight, and the latter to three hun- dred and eighty, and fifty candidates and licentiates. The communi- cants were thirty-six thousand two hundred and ninety-seven, in 1855.* A college was founded by the Reformed Dutch Church at New Brunswick, in New Jersey, in 1770, which, after various vicissitudes, has now been open for many years, and is firmly established and flourishing. It is called Rutgers' College. Connected with it there is a theological seminary, with four able professors, and between thirty and forty students. The Dutch Church is doing much for Sunday-schools, Home Mis- sions, and the education of young men for the ministry. It has a so- ciety, also, for Foreign Missions, auxiliary to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and now maintaining some six or eight missionaries with their wives at two or three stations in Borneo and China. The Church is at present organized in a General Synod, two Par- ticular Synods, and twenty-eight classes. Its standards are those of the Reformed Church of Holland, viz., the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of the Synod of Dort, etc. Its doctrines are in all respects purely Calvinistic. From the first it has been favored with an able, learned, and godly ministry. In its earlier days the labors of such men as the Rev. Theodore J. Freling- huysen, Drs. Laidlie and "Westerlo, and others of like character, were greatly blessed. In our own times many of its ministers stand in the first rank among our distinguished American divines, and many of its congregations have enjoyed very precious religious revivals. For the edification of the people, one of the most instructive religious papers, called the " Christian Intelligencer," is published weekly in the City of New York. * The number of families reported as belonging to this denomination in 1843 was twenty-one thousand five hundred and sixty-nine ; and the number of individuals under its instruction was ninety-six thousand three hundred and two. It has now more than one hundred and fifty thousand. CHAP. XI.] SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 509 CHAPTER XI. SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES I THE ASSOCIATE CHURCH THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH AND THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. These are often called the " Scottish Secession Churches." They were originally established by emigrants from Scotland and Ireland, and are mainly composed, to this day, of Scotch and Irish people and their children. The first and last of the three were, in their origin, branches of similar Churches in Scotland, and out of an unsuccessful attempt made in America to unite them sprang the second. In the year 1733, as is well known, the Kev. Messrs. Ebenezer Ers- kine, Alexander Moncrief, William Wilson, and James Fisher, by a protest addressed to the Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, seceded from the prevailing party in the judica- tories of that Church. The ground of this separation was not a dis- agreement with the doctrines, order, or discipline of that Church, but dissatisfaction with what the dissenters considered to be an inadequate maintenance of those doctrines, and enforcement of that order and discipline. These seceders, joined afterward by many others, organ- ized the Associate* Presbytery, and soon became a numerous and important branch of the kingdom of Christ in Scotland. Seventeen years after this secession, a number of persons, chiefly Scotch emigrants, sent a petition from Pennsylvania to the Associate (Antiburgherf) Synod in Scotland, praying that ministers might be sent from that body to break unto them the bread of life. Two min- isters were accordingly sent over in 1753 or 1754, with power to form churches, ordain elders, and constitute a presbytery. The labors of these brethren were crowned with success ; several congregations were soon organized, and a presbytery formed in the eastern part of Pennsylvania ; and as other ministers were sent over from Scotland from time to time, there were about eight or ten in all before the breaking out of the Revolution. But in 1782, the presbytery was reduced to the original number of two ministers, in consequence of one or two being deposed, and others joining several ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, or Covenanters, in forming the As- sociate Reformed Church. * They took this name from the circumstance of their congregations not lying near each other, and therefore forming an association of churches rather than a ter- ritorial presbytery. \ The Secession became divided into Burghers and Antiburghers, by a controversy on the lawfulness of what was called the Burgess' oath. 510 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES EST AMERICA. [BOOK YI. Notwithstanding these untoward circumstances, the two ministers, with the congregations adhering to them, persevered, and their num- bers being speedily recruited from Scotland, such, at last, was their success in training young men among themselves, that hi 1801 they had four presbyteries, which that year, by a delegation from their ranks, formed the Associate Synod of North America, a body which meets annually. The presbyteries have now been quintupled, and extend over the Middle, Southern, and Western States. Accord- ing to the most recent statements which I have seen, this denomina- tion has one hundred and sixty-four ministers, fifty-six candidates and licentiates, two hundred and sixty-seven churches, most of which are small, and twenty-one thousand five hundred and eighty-eight com- municants. For a long time the energies of this Church, like those of many others, were directed to the building up of churches in the West and South. Of late years it has turned its attention to the for- eign field, and has sent two missionaries to the island of Trinidad, and two or three to India. They have a theological school, with two able professors and some forty or forty-five students, at Xenia, in Ohio. For their organ they publish a valuable monthly journal called the " Religious Monitor." The doctrines of the Associate Church are thoroughly Calvinistic ; its polity completely Presbyterian. It has enjoyed the labors of many able ministers. This small denomination, like some others, has been at strife among its own members, which led to a separation. The larger party ejected the smaller. The ejected ministers are fifteen in number, and the members of their churches were estimated at about two thousand. It is not known that there existed any difference in their doctrinal views. This schism, which existed when this work was written in 1842, we are happy to say exists no longer. The two bodies have coalesced. Associate Reformed Church. — This body, as we have seen, owes its existence to an attempt made in 1782 to unite in one body the few Associate and Reformed Presbyterian Churches then to be found in the United States. But as the success of the attempt was only partial, the coalition being refused by certain members of both Churches, both survive to this day, and thus a project for merging two denominations in one, resulted in the creation of a third. The Associate Reformed Church has rapidly increased. Starting with a small number of ministers and churches in 1782, it had in 1855, no fewer than eighty-four presbyteries and five synods ; the one in the State of New York is the largest. It has a theological seminary at Newburg in the same State, with three professors, and some fif- CHAP. XI.] SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 511 teen or twenty students. The Western Synod has a seminary at Allegheny City, near Pittsburg, with two professors, and about forty students. A third seminary is at Oxford, Ohio, and a fourth at Ab- beville, S. C. The doctrines of this Church are Calvinistic, and its polity Presby- terian; points on which it differs hardly at all from the Associate and Reformed Presbyterian synods. All three maintain a state of strict isolation from other communions, and in their church-psalmody, con- fine themselves exclusively to Rouse's version of the Psalms of the Bible. They also strenuously continue the custom of having fast and thanksgiving days to precede and follow the administration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ; and in the administration of that ordinance, the communicants sit around a table. The churches of the Associate Reformed are more than three hun- dred and seventy-five, their ministers three hundred and fifteen, and ninety licentiates and students, and their communicants at least forty thousand. About thirty-five years ago, part of this communion joined the Presbyterian Church, but the greater part preferred main- taining their independent position. They have a considerable num- ber of able ministers. The late Dr. John Mason was for the greater part of his life one of their most distinguished members, but he joined, a few years before his death, the Presbyterian Church. The Chris- tian Magazine, a monthly periodical, is published under the auspices of the Associate Reformed Church. Each synod has a Domestic Missionary Society, the object of which is to aid small congregations and plant new ones in destitute places, especially in the Western frontier States. In regard to foreign missions, the Associate Reformed Church acts in concert with the Presbyterian Board of the General Assembly, and contributes to the support of the missionaries sent out by that Board. The monthly concert of prayer is observed in their churches generally, and collections taken at each meeting to aid the cause of missions. Reformed Presbyterian Church. — Reformed Presbyterians (or, as they are sometimes called, Covenanters) are the descendants of the persecuted Presbyterians in Scotland who refused to accede to the Erastian settlement of religion at the Revolution of 1688, and still maintain a practical dissent from both Church and State on account of existing evils. They are distinguished from other Presbyterians chiefly by their rigid adherence to all the doctrines of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Catechisms, Larger and Shorter ; to the Scotch Covenants — maintaining that the obligations of the " National Covenant" and 512 THE EVANGELICAL CHUKCIIES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. " Solemn League" extend to all represented in the taking of them, though removed to this or any other part of the world, in so far as these Covenants bind to duties not peculiar to the Church in the Brit- ish Isles, but are of universal application. They also contend that nations enjoying the light of Divine revelation are bound to frame their government according to it ; and where the Bible is known they refuse to swear allegiance to any system of civil government which does not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as King, and rec- ognize the Bible as the supreme law of the land. As early as 1752 some Reformed Presbyterian congregations had been formed in North America ; but, owing to the defection of some of the ministers, the distance of the congregations from each other, and the troubles connected with the Revolution, the Church did not assume a regular organization until, in 1*798, the Reformed Presby- tery of the United States of North America was constituted in the city of Philadelphia. It may be supposed that the descendants of' the followers of " Cargill, Renwick, and Cameron," who had suffered so much in the cause of civil and religious liberty, and who had voluntarily resigned the privilege of citizenship in the land of then* nativity, rather than acknowledge the corrupt system established at the Revolution to be God's ordinance of civil government, would examine carefully the Constitution of their adopted country. They did so, and found (as they believed) evils so great incorporated in that instrument as ren- dered it necessary for them to refuse allegiance to the whole system. " In this remarkable instrument," say they, " there is contained no acknowledgment of the being or authority of God. There is no acknowledgment of the Christian religion, or professed submission to the kingdom of Messiah. It gives support to the enemies of the Re- deemer, and admits to its honors and emoluments Jews, Mohammed- ans, Deists, and Atheists. It establishes that system of robbery by which men are held in slavery, despoiled of liberty, property, and protection. It violates the principles of representation, by bestowing upon the domestic tyrant, who holds hundreds of his fellow-creatures in bondage, an influence in making laws for freemen j)roportioned to the number of his own slaves. This Constitution is, notwitstanding its numerous excellences, in many instances inconsistent, oppressive, and impious."* Their opposition to the Constitution, however, professes to be the opposition of reason and piety. The weapons of their war- fare are arguments and prayers. They consider themselves bound to live peaceably with men, to advance the good of society, conform to its order in every thing consistent with righteousness, and submit 8 Historical Testimony, page 152. CHAP. XI.] SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 513 to every burden which God, in His providence calls them to bear. During the late war with Great Britain, no portion of the citizens were more forward in defence of the country than Reformed Presby- terians. In 1807 they published a doctrinal Testimony, containing a brief statement of the principles which they hold, and a testimony against opposing errors, with special reference to the evils existing in the na- tional Constitution, and the Constitutions of the Churches around them. They continued united in the maintenance of this testimony, neither holding communion with other churches, nor offices in the State, nor voting at elections for civil officers, nor admitting any slaveholder to their communion, till about 1830, when, their number being considerably increased, several ministers began to entertain opinions different from those which were formerly held by the body on several points. These men were led to modify their views on the subject of acknowledging the government of the country, and avow- ing allegiance to it. This introduced what has been called the New Light controversy, which has since resulted in a division of the Synod, and the organization of another synod in the Reformed Pres- byterian Church, which still maintains a separate existence. This controversy greatly distressed the Church, and retarded the growth of the body. The members of the Church generally retained their attachment to the subordinate standards, but many congrega- tions were left without pastors. The Theological Seminary for a time suspended its operations, so that laborers for a foreign field could not be obtained ; but home missions, especially in the West, have been prosecuted with considerable zeal. A more prosperous season has returned. The Theological Seminary in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, has been revived. It has two professors, and ten or fifteen students are usually in attendance ; a considerable library for the Seminary has been collected, and the Synod established a mission in 1844, in the West Indies, making St. Thomas the centre of opera- tion. This body is composed of one Synod, six Presbyteries, fifty- nine ministers, eighteen licentiates and students, nearly or quite eighty churches, and nearly seven thousand members. On the other hand, the other Synod has now fifty or fifty-five or- dained ministers, seven licentiates, eight or ten students in theology, some seventy-five or eighty organized churches, and more than seven thousand communicants. It has seven presbyteries, and sustains, in connection with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Old School General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, two or three mission- aries in India. Besides supporting these missionaries, the Board of Missions of this Synod sustains a school containing twenty or thirty 33 514: THE EVANGELICAL CHUKCHES IX AMERICA. [BOOK VI. children, in connection with their Indian Mission. They have been active, also, in prosecuting the work of domestic missions, and, thus, of building up churches in the West and other parts of the country. The receipts of their Boards of Missions average about $3,500 an- nually. The entire body of the Reformed Presbyterians in the United States embraces, therefore, about one hundred and eight ordained ministers, fifteen licentiates, twenty-five students of theology, nearly one hundred and sixty organized congregations, and about fourteen thousand communicants. This small body has not been deficient in men distinguished for ministerial gifts and extensive learning. The late Alexander M'Leod, D.D., and Rev. Samuel B. Wylie, ranked in their day with Mason, Griffin, Dwight, and other giants of the land. CHAPTER XII. SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES : THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. This offshoot from the Church, bearing the same name in Germany, is, like it, Presbyterian in its government, and Calvinistic in its doc- trinal standards. The " Reformed" being mingled with the Lutheran in the early German emigrations, societies of the former soon appeared, particu- larly in Pennsylvania, and spread, ere long, to the south and west of that province. These, though long existing apart, were at last united in 1746, by the Rev. Mr. Schlatter, who, having been sent from Eu- rope for the purpose, succeeded in giving a better organization as well as more union to their Churches. Their increase since has given them an important place among American Presbyterians. It is a singular fact, that the first missionaries to the German Re- formed in America were sent out by the Classis of Amsterdam and the Synod of North Holland, through which channel their Churches continued to receive their ministerial supplies, and to which they were kept down to the year 1792, in the same subordination as the Dutch Churches in America used to be. Mr. Schlatter, the pioneer in this good cause, was soon followed by other men sent over by the said Classis and Synod.* The dependance of the Reformed German Church in the United * Among these were Weiber, Steiner, Otterbein, Hendel, Helfenstein, Helfrich, Gebbard, Dallicker, Blumer, Faber, Becker, and Herman. CHAP. XII.] SMALLER PEESBYTEEIAN CHUECHES. 515 States on the Dutch Church in Europe was brought to a close in 1792, in consequence of the difficulty of maintaining the previous relations of America with Holland after the conquest of the latter by the French. An independent constitution was accordingly adopted, con- stituting a Synod, consisting of clerical and lay delegates ; but it was not until 1819 that the Synod was divided into Classes or Presby- teries, and based upon a representation of the Classes by clerical and lay delegates. The Church being now left to its own resources, the training of young men for the ministry was for many years intrusted to such pastors as were willing to receive students of theology into their families ; still the want of proper institutions for that purpose was deeply felt. At length, in 1824, the Synod resolved that they would have a theological seminary, and this resolution took effect the following year, by the opening of an institution at Carlisle, a pleasant town in central Pennsylvania. Dr. Mayer was appointed the first pro- fessor, and continued in the discharge of that office until 1839, when his resignation was tendered and accepted. During this period the seminary was removed from Carlisle to York, and from that to Mer- cersburg in the same State, about fifty miles from Carlisle, and there it is now permanently established. Marshall College was opened in connection with it in 1837, and the Rev. Dr. Rauch, who had been president of the preparatory department of the seminary at York, was chosen president. Under that distinguished scholar and excellent minister it soon enjoyed an enviable reputation ; but in the spring of 1840 the Church was called to lament his premature decease. This college has been transferred to Lancaster, in the same State. It has an attendance of from eighty to one hundred youths. The theological seminary remains at Mercersburg, and has twenty-five or thirty students. The German Reformed Church seems to have experienced a crisis in 1841, that year having been appointed to be celebrated as a cen- tenary jubilee for all its congregations. A century having elapsed since its first organization in America, such an acknowledgment of God's mercies was deemed eminently becoming ; and that the occa- sion might be turned to the best account, it was resolved that an effort should be made to raise sufficient funds for the endowment of the seminary and college at Mercersburg. The result fully realized the expectations of the Church's most sanguine friends. The field which this Church has to occupy is very extensive. Be- sides the large German population in the Atlantic States, the Great West — The Valley of the Mississippi — over which German emigrants are now settling in vast numbers, cries to this and to the Lutheran Church for help ; and it is hoped that in a few years a host of laborers 516 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI from both will be raised up for the harvest, which is ripe for the sickle. The German Reformed Church has now in its connection about three hundred and fifty ministers, sixty-five licentiates and students, about one thousand congregations, and one hundred and ten thousand communicants. In home missionary, educational, and foreign mis- sionary efforts, this Church is taking a deeper and deeper interest every year, uniting with the Congregational and New School Presby- terian Churches in supporting the American Home Missionary Soci- ety, the American Education Society, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Since this work was written (in 1842), doctrines have been taught in the Theological Seminary, at Mercersburg, and promulged in the " Mercersburg Review," which have given great solicitude to the friends of the truth. These doctrines, or speculations rather, relate to the efficacy of the sacraments, and the office and authority of the Church. An efficacy is claimed in them for the sacraments, and an authority is claimed for the Church and its decisions, which are deemed by many to be subversive of the doctrine of Justification by Faith on the one hand, and of the proper authority of the Word of God as the only rule of faith and practice on the other. Dr. Nevin, who has taken the lead in advancing these opinions, is no longer Pro- fessor in the seminary, and it remains to be seen whether they will continue to be taught by his successor. It is believed that this species of Puseyism, or semi-Romanism, has spread very considerably in the German Reformed Church with us. Time will show whether it is to maintain itself in that Church, or to disappear as many other specu- lations that have tended to subvert the Gospel, and which conse- quently keep the soul from Christ and from true peace, have done. CHAPTER XIII. SMALLER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES I THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. The first Lutherans that emigrated to America came from Holland, and settled at New York about the year 1626, that is, two years after the regular settlement of New Netherlands by the Dutch. But they were few in number, and as long as the Dutch held the country, they CHAP. XIII.] THE LUTHERAN CHUECH. 517 worshiped in private houses only. But on the colony being trans- ferred to the English, in 1664, they obtained leave to open a place of public worship, and had for their first minister Jacob Fabricius, who arrived in 1669. Next among the Lutherans came the Swedish colony that settled on the Delaware in 1636. It flourished for a while, but receiving no new-comers from Sweden, the colonists gradually fell into the use of the English tongue, and as there was no Lutheran clergyman who could preach in English, on losing their Swedish pastors they went to the English Episcopal Church for religious teachers, and became ultimately merged in that denomination. Nevertheless, by their charter they are still styled Swedish Lutheran churches.* The third Lutheran emigration to the United States was that of the Germans. The first settlements were in Pennsylvania, soon after the grant of that province to William Penn, in 1680, whence they spread, by degrees, not only through Pennsylvania, but also into Maryland, Virginia, the interior of New York, and, since the Revo- lution, over the Western States. Emigration from Germany may be said to have fairly commenced on a large scale in 1710. Its primary cause lay in the persecution of the Protestants in the Palatinate. It has continued from that time to this day, adding tens of thousands almost every year to the population of the country. The western, northern, and southern parts of Germany, and the German parts of Switzerland, together with Alsace, in France, have, from first to last, sent immense multitudes to America in quest of homes. The first emigrants brought no pastors with them, but they had pious schoolmasters who held meetings on the Sabbath, and read the Scriptures, Arndt's True Christianity, and other religious books. The Swedish ministers, too, of those early times, visited the small scattered groups of faithful souls, and administered to them the or- dinances of religion. Among the first German ministers in America were the Rev. Messrs. Bolzius and Gronau, who labored in a colony from Saltzburg, in the south of Germany. These emigrants had been* driven from their native country by persecution, and had settled in Georgia. Other emigrants from Germany settled about the same time in the Carolinas, where a considerable number of Lutheran churches are to be found at this day. In 1742, the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlen- burg, ah eminently learned, zealous, and successful minister, arrived, and, during a course of fifty years, was the honored instrument of greatly promoting religion among the German population. He was * "Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware," by the Rev. J. C. Clay, pp. 3, 4, 101, etc. 518 THE EY ANGELICAL CHUKCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. one of the founders, in fact, of the Lutheran Church in America, which, by repeated arrivals of other distinguished men from Ger- many, had become widely extended before the commencement of the Revolutionary War. But it, as well as the other Churches, suffered much from that war. Many of the German colonists took up arms in defence of their adopted country. The early wars with the In- dians, also, proved very prejudicial to the Lutheran churches on the frontiers. The rapid progress made by this Church since the Revolution, and particularly since the constitution of its General Synod in 1820, may be seen from the following succinct summary, taken from the Lu- theran Almanac for 1855, and fully to be relied on: The number of Ministers and Licentiates is about 1,000 " " Congregations 1,900 " Communicants 225,000 Besides one General Synod, there are thirty-two District Synods, most of which are united with the General Synod. There are eight theological seminaries, six colleges, and several classical schools, one orphan house, a deaconess' Institute at Pittsburg, an education soci- ety, a foreign missionary society, and a book establishment. During the year 1841, the Lutheran ministry received an accession of fifty- eight new members ; nine thousand and twenty-two new members were added to the churches by confirmation, and nine thousand by immigration : seventeen thousand seven hundred and seventy-six children and adults were baptized. Three new synods were formed in 1841, seventy-six new churches built, and eighty-eight new congre- gations organized ; nor has the progress of this Church been less since. These results do, indeed, call for heartfelt thanks to the Giver of all good. I know not a single circumstance more promising in regard to true religion in America, than its rapid progress among the vast German population of the United States, as exhibited in the Lutheran churches. Wonderful, indeed, has been the change during the last twenty years. The establishment of Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, under the auspices of the General Synod, has been a great blessing. This college, which has been liberally assisted by the Legislature of Penn- sylvania, and receives $1,000 a year from that State, has a president, five able professors, and about one hundred and fifty students. The General Synod's theological seminary, which, also, is placed at Get- tysburg, has three distinguished professors, and usually from twenty- five to thirty students. It began in 1826, with one professor, the Rev. Samuel S. Schmucker, D.D., to whom, under God, it mainly CHAP. XIH.] THE LUTHERAN CHUECH. 519 owes its existence ; since which time it has educated upward of two hundred and fifty young men for the ministry. The institution is most pleasantly situated, and has a well-selected library, great part of which, together with a considerable amount of funds for the found- ing of the seminary, was obtained in Germany through the efforts of the Rev. Benjamin Kurtz, D.D. The Lutherans have seven other theological schools, at which sixty or eighty young men are prose- cuting their studies, and at least one hundred and fifty more are en- gaged in preparatory studies at academies and colleges. These sim- ple facts exhibit an extraordinary change in the state of this Church from what it was twenty-five years ago. Among its distinguished men we may mention the Rev. Messrs. Bolzius, Gronau, H. M. Muhlenburg, Kunze, Schmidt, Kurtz, another Muhlenburg, Helmuth, Melsheimer, Lochman, Schaeffer, Shober, Geissenheiner, Schmucker (father of the professor), all men of great influence in their day. Several of its living ministers, also, are men of acknowledged talents, learning, piety, and usefulness. Many of the earlier ministers were educated at Franke's Institute at Halle, which, indeed, may be regarded as the mother of the Lutheran Church throughout a large part of the United States.* The same doctrines are held as in the evangelical Lutheran churches in the various countries of Europe, with some differences which we shall presently notice. They comprehend the following points : " The Trinity of persons in one Godhead ;" "the proper and eternal Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ ;" " the universal depravity of our race ;" " the vicarious nature and unlimited extent of the atonement ;" " that men are justified gratuitously, for Christ's sake, through faith ;" " the Word and sacraments, means of grace ;" " a future judgment, and the award of eternal life and happiness to the righteous, and eternal mis- ery to the wicked." On the subject of election, presdestination, etc., they are well known to be rather Arminian than Calvinistic. The Lutheran Church in America has a short but excellent liturgy, while her ministers are at the same time allowed a discretionary power with regard to its use. It observes a few of the chief festivals, such as Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday. Like the Episcopal and the German Reformed churches, it administers the rite of confirmation to baptized persons after their arrival at years of discretion, and going through a course of cate- chetical and biblical instruction. * Nor have the churches in America ceased to feel a warm interest in the Alma Mater of so many of their pastors. "When she suffered so much from the French in 1814, collections were promptly made by them, and forwarded, to the amount of $2,334. 520 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. It deserves notice that the Lutheran Church in the United States, as those who are intimately acquainted with it will acknowledge, differs from what it once was, and from some of its sister churches in Europe, in regard to a few such points as the following : First, it en- tirely rejects the authority of the fathers in ecclesiastical controversy. The Reformers relied too much upon them. Secondly, it no longer requires assent to the doctrine of the real or bodily presence of the Saviour in the Eucharist. In other words, it has renounced the doc- trine of consubstantiation, and holds that of our Lord's spiritual pres- ence, as understood by other evangelical Protestants. Again, it has rejected the remnant of private confession, which it at first retained. Fourth, it has abolished the remains of Papal superstition in the Ab- juration of evil spirits at baptism. Fifth, it has made a more sys- tematic adjustment of its doctrines. Sixth, it has adopted a more regular and a stricter system of church discipline. This, as respects individual churches, is essentially Presbyterian. The Synods, in their organization and powers, resemble Presbyteries, but with fewer for- malities, and their decisions are couched more in the form of recom- mendations ; while the General Synod is altogether advisory, and re- sembles the General Associations of the Congregational Churches of New England. Conferences of several neighboring ministers, and protracted meetings, are held, with preaching, for the benefit of their congregations. And, lastly, its ministers are no longer bound to all the minute points of an extended human creed. All that is required of them is a belief in the Bible, and in the Augsburg Confession as a substantially correct expression of Bible doctrines. The American Lutheran Church thinks that a written creed should be short, com- prehending, like that of the Apostles, which was for a long time the only creed in the Primitive Churches, the doctrines necessary to sal- vation. So much for its doctrines, order, and discipline.* I have only to add, that this Church takes a deep interest, in- creasing every year, in the religious and benevolent undertakings of our times. Sunday-schools and Bible-classes are very generally to be found in her congregations. She has had an Education Society, with numerous branches, since 1835, which has assisted many young men in preparing for the ministry. We shall speak hereafter of her For- eign Missionary Society, founded in 1837. Finally, twelve valuable religious papers and other periodicals, six in English, and six in Ger- man, extensively diffuse among the people intelligence relating to the progress of the Redeemer's kingdom on the earth. * In making this statement, I have been greatly indebted to Professor Schmucker'3 "Portraiture of Lutheranism," and his "Retrospect of Lutheranism in the United States," both published at the request of the General Synod of the Church. CHAP. XIV.] SMALLER GERMAN SECTS. 521 SUMMARY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1855. Gen. Assemblies, Syn0( j s% Presbyteries. Ministers, Licentiates. Candidates. Churches. Members, or Gen. Synods. * O. S. Presb 1 30 148 2,261 23T 435 3,079 231,404 N. S. Presb 1 24 103 1,567 111 233 1,659 143,029 Associate Presb 1 — 20 164 21 35 267 21,533 Associate Ref. Presb. — 5 34 315 30 60 375 40,000 Ref. Presb — 2 13 103 15 20 160 14,000 Cumberland Presb... 1 25 90 1,000 400 80 1,200 100,000 German Ref......... 1 2 23 350 25 40 1,000 110,000 Ref. Dutch 1 2 28 380 15 35 376 36,297 _____ _____ __ . | _____ _ , — - 1. * . . Tota1 ' ^ ]• 6 90 464 6,145 854 943 8,116 696,318 eight branches. J This Presbyterian family, or group of Churches, have in all twenty Theological schools, in which are about six hundred students, and thirty colleges, with about five thousand students. In the year 1800, it is believed that there were not more than four hundred and fifty ministers, seven hundred congregations, and sixty thousand commu- nicants in all the Presbyterian bodies in the United States. The three Scottish bodies (the Associate, Associate Reformed, and Re- formed Presbyterian), which numbered in 1855 five hundred and eighty-seven ministers, eight hundred and two churches, seventy-five thousand five hundred and eighty-eight members, scarcely existed at that time. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church did not exist till 1810. The increase of the German Reformed Church has been great within the last forty years. CHAPTER XIV. SMALLER GERMAN SECTS. There are some smaller bodies of German Christians in the United States, which may be classed, though not, perhaps, in all cases with- out qualification, among the evangelical denominations. The Mo- ravians might have been placed here, but we have put them in a separate chapter, partly because they are Episcopal, partly because they are no longer purely German either in blood or language. First, then, there is a body called the " United Brethren in Christ." This is a Methodist sect which began to rise as early as 1770, and gradually attained an organization in the year 1800. The founders of it were the Rev. Messrs. Otterbein, Boehm, Geeting, and other German ministers who had once belonged to the German Re- 522 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES LN AMERICA. [BOOK TI. formed, the Mennonists, and the Lutherans. Their first Annual Conference was held in the year 1800. From that epoch this denom- ination has continued to increase among the Germans and German descendants in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and other portions of the Union, until they have at present one General Conference (which meets once in four years), nine Annual Confer- ences, four bishops, six hundred ministers, of whom two hundred and fifty are itinerant, and three hundred and fifty are local preachers. The number of places— churches, school-houses, private houses, etc., where they preach, is supposed to exceed two thousand. Many of their congregations are small. The number of their members or com- municants is reported to be more than sixty-seven thousand. This body, which is in all essential points the same, as it regards doctrines and modes of worship, as the Episcopal Methodist Church, has been becoming more thoroughly organized from the first. Within a few years successful efforts have been made to introduce discipline and order into their churches, and to require from the preachers regular and accurate reports of the number of communi- cants, etc. This looks well, and shows that this body has attained a good degree of organization and efficiency. 2. The " Evangelical Association." This denomination, also a sect of German Methodists, was founded in the year 1800. The founder was the Rev. Jacob Albright. His associates were the Rev. John Walker, George Miller, and others. With regard to doctrine and church government, there is some similarity with the Methodist Episcopal Church. This Association has at present two bishops and several annual conferences. It also has churches and stations in Maryland, Virginia, New York, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The annual conferences embrace districts, circuits, stations, and missions. There is a General Conference, which meets once in four years. This body has at present one hundred and ninety-five traveling, and nearly two hundred and fifty local ministers. The number of places of public worship, including churches, school-houses, and private houses, is about nine hundred ; and the number of com- municants is twenty-one thousand and seventy-six. 3. The Winebrennarians, a sect of German Baptists, so called from their founder, a Mr. Winebrenner, a pious and zealous Ger- man, who lives at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where his followers are chiefly found. They have six elders, one hundred and thirty preachers, one hundred and sixty-eight churches, four hundred and fifteen preaching stations, and seventeen thousand five hundred mem- bers, and are said to be quite evangelical in their doctrines, and, as a body, irreproachable in their lives. Their ministers, though not well- CHAP. XIV.] SUMMARY VIEW OF THE GERMAN CHURCHES. 523 informed, have the reputation of being devoted, laborious, and useful men. Winebrenner seems to have commenced his labors among the Germans very much in the spirit and with the aim of Hans Houga in Norway. 4. The Mennonists have some churches, but the most of their little congregations meet in private houses; they probably have about two hundred or two hundred and fifty preachers, four hundred small con- gregations, and thirty thousand members * They are an amiable, and, in the main, evangelical people, yet rendered somewhat luke- warm, it is to be feared, by their worldly prosperity. They are, for the most part, descendants from Mennonist immigrants from Holland and Germany. Their confession of faith, as stated by one of their min- isters, Mr. Gan, of Ryswick, in Holland, appears to be moderately orthodox.f They reject infant baptism, but though their founder, Simon Menno, maintained that Baptism should be by immersion, they do not deem it indispensable. On the contrary, they sprinkle, or, rather, pour water upon the head of the candidate, after which follow the imposition of hands and prayer. They have no order of preachers, but every one in their assembly has the liberty to speak, to expound the Scriptures, to sing, and to pray. The Mennonists of Holland, as is well known, claim to be descended in the main from those Waldenses who, toward the close of the twelfth century, emigrated in great numbers to that country. If this ' be so, then the Mennonists in America have in their veins the blood of those wonderful survivors of long ages of persecution and oppres- sion. SUMMARY VIEW OF THE GERMAN CHURCHES. The reader will find that all, or nearly all, of the German Churches, of an evangelical character, are included in the three families of Churches — Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist, excepting the Lu- therans. To the Presbyterians belong the German Reformed Church; to the Baptists, the "VVinebrennarians, Mennonites and Tunkers ; and to the Methodists, the " United Brethren in Christ," and the " Evan- gelical Association." The Lutherans, as we have seen, have about one thousand ministers and licentiates, nineteen hundred congrega- tions, and two hundred and twenty-five thousand members. * The Mennonists meet for their worship in private houses oftener than in church edifices. Their congregations are very small, and for a long time scarcely existed out of Pennsylvania. f I fear that their orthodoxy is less unequivocal and general than it was sixty or eighty years ago. They are opposed to the use of the words Person and Trinity, when speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 524 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. CHAPTER XV. SMALLER METHODIST DENOMINATIONS. Secessions of greater or less magnitude have detached themselves from time to time, and glided off like avalanches from the Mount Zion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, not, however so as to ma- terially diminish its grandeur, or change its physiognomy ; but most of them sooner or later have melted away to nothing. The first that occurred was that of the Rev. William Hammet, of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1785. His followers took the name of Primitive Methodists. The second was that of the Rev. James O'Kelly, in Virginia, about 1792. His followers called themselves Republican Methodists. This was by far the more serious of the two, but both soon and forever disappeared from the scene. In the year 1816, about one thousand of the people of color in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Philadelphia, headed by a Mr. Richard Allen, seceded from the main body. Allen was a man of consider- able talent, who, from having been once a slave in one of the South- ern States, besides procuring his freedom, had acquired a handsome property, and becoming a preacher in the Methodist connection, rose to be ordained an elder. After his secession he was ordained a bishop at the first General Conference of his followers, by prayer and the imposition of hands by five local elders, of whom one was a pres- byter in the Protestant Episcopal Church. This little body is called the " African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church." It has two bish- ops, one hundred and fifty-five preachers, and six thousand two hundred and three members. Another secession of colored members took place at New York in 1819, and it has now congregations of people of color in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. In 1855 they had three bishops, more than twenty-five circuits, three hundred minis- ters, and twenty-one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven mem- bers. The title of the body is : " The African Methodist Episcopal Church." They are believed to have adhered to the doctrines and polity of the body from which they seceded, their dissatisfaction with which arose from their preachers not being admitted into the itin- eracy, and, consequently, having no share in the government of the Church, nor a right to receive salaries, being only local preachers. There were one or two other secessions a little later, one of which was headed by the Rev. Mr. Stillwell, in the city of New York, by which the Methodist Episcopal Church lost a few of its congregations, ,.A CHAP. XV.] SMALLER METHODIST DENOMINATIONS. 525 but they were not of such consequence as to call for special notice. But it sustained a far more serious loss in 1828, when a considerable number of preachers, chiefly local, and of lay members, withdrew from it at Baltimore, and in other parts of the country. As this se- cession has resulted in the formation of a new communion, which promises to be permanent, it calls for further notice. In what was said of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the reader will have remarked that its constitution lodges the supreme power, legislative, judicial, and executive, in the itinerating ministers. They alone compose the Yearly and General Conferences. But, to two classes of the members, this has been felt to be oppressive. First, to the local preachers, who, although they may be ordained minis- ters, can have no voice in the government of the Church. Nay, ministers who may have been for years in the itinerating service, the moment that, from sickness, duty to their families, insufficient sup- port, or any other cause, they leave that service, have no longer any voice in the affairs of that Church. Next, there were laymen who thought that the laity ought to be represented in the Church courts ; that is, should be admitted to the Annual and General Conferences. This dissatisfaction began to assume a more decided character about the year 1820. A journal having been established for the pur- pose of advocating what were called " equal rights," this led to the sending up of numerous petitions to the General Conference held in 1824. These being unfavorably received, much excitement and dis- cussion followed. The party that wanted reform urged their demands with more eagerness, and, consequently, some suspensions from church privileges took place in Baltimore and elsewhere. Such was the state of matters when the General Conference met in 1828 ; fail- ing in obtaining redress from which, they who thought themselves aggrieved seceded, and formed a new body, under the title of the Protestant Methodist Church in the United States. In taking this step they have made no change in their doctrines, nor any inno- vations in church polity, beyond what they had unsuccessfully peti- tioned for — the admission of lay representatives and of the local preachers to the government of the Church. They have also ceased to have bishops, all ordination among them being now confined to the imposition of hands by presbyters. Their General Conference meets once in four years, like that from which they seceded. This body has one general and some twenty-five yearly conferences, nine hundred and sixteen effective preachers, seventy thousand and eighteen communicants, and six or seven hundred places of wor- ship. Its' General Conference has instituted a Board of Domestic and Foreign Missions, as also a Book Concern, which has its headquarters 526 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. in Baltimore. There are four or five religious newspapers, also, pub- lished under its auspices. Its churches are to be found in all parts of the country, but particularly in the Middle, Southern, and Western States. Calvinistic Methodists — a small Welsh communion, consisting of ninety-eight churches, eighty-one pastors, and about three. thou- sand nine hundred and fifty members. They are an evangelical and zealous body, and as it is only a few years since the greater part of them came to America, they still use the Welsh language in their public worship and in their families. Though found in several States, they are most numerous, I believe, in New York, Ohio, Pennsylva- nia, and Wisconsin.* SUMMARY OF THE METHODIST CHURCHES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1855. „. , Presiding Effective MoinhM-Rhln Missionaries. Bishops. Elders . b Ministers. Membership. Home# For< Meth. Epis. Church 7 235 4,579 783,358 823 47 Meth. Epis. Church, South... 7 131 1,942 596,852 271 34 United Brethren in Christ 4 250 67,000 — Evangelical Association 2 195 21,076 African Meth. Epis. Church... 3 300 21,237 — African Meth. Epis. Zion Ch. . 2 155 6,203 — Methodist Protestant Church.. - 916 70,018 103 — Wesleyan Methodist Conn. ... - 310 23,000 — Primitive Methodist Church. . . - 12 1,100 "Welsh Calvinistic Meth. Ch. . . - 81 3,950 — 25 366 8,740 1,593,794 1,197 81 We add a few other statistics: These several branches of the Methodist Family of Churches have 132 Annual Conferences, 12,618 * The number of national churches among the "Welsh emigrants and their descend- ants in the United States is far greater than commonly supposed. From a state- ment which has been kindly furnished me while the present edition of this work has been going through the press, by the Eev. Thomas Edwards, pastor of a Welsh Con- gregational Church in Cincinnati, I learn that there are, besides the Calvinistic Meth- odist churches mentioned above, no less than seventy-eight Congregational churches and fifty-eight ministers, thirty-four Baptist and twenty ministers, four Presbyterian and two ministers, three Episcopal and two ministers, and eleven Wesleyan Metho- dist and nine ministers. Making a total of one hundred and fifty Welsh churches and one hundred and fourteen ministers in the United States in the year 1855. With the exception of the Calvinistic Methodists, the Welsh churches are included in the estimate which is made of the denominations whose name they bear. For instance, the Welsh Baptists come in under the head of the Regular Baptists ; the Welsh Con- gregational ists are included in the statement which I have made respecting the Con- gregational body. Of the names of the pastors of the churches mentioned in the statement furnished by Mr. Edwards, we find Jones, Williams, Powells, Evans, Grif- fiths, Roberts, Lewis, Morris, Edwards, Richards, Powell, Davis, Morgan, Owen, Philips, Jenkins, and others which are purely Welsh. CHAP. XVI.] THE FRIENDS, OR QUAKERS. 527 " local ministers," who preach more or less every week, 811 "super- annuated ministers," many of whom preach a great deal ; making a total of 22,209 ministers of all classes; 1,255,897 members of Anglo- Saxon origin, 209,580 of African origin, 100,562 Germans, 1,024 Swedes and Norwegians, 4,465 Welsh, 4,929 Indians; 13,146 Sab- bath-schools, 129,885 teachers in such schools, 691,700 scholars, and 1,959,628 volumes in Sunday-school libraries; 17,949 conversions in Sabbath-schools in 1854; 138,093 members of mission churches in the home field; 56 foreign missions, 81 missionaries, 30 "local preachers," 6,869 members, 89 day and Sunday-schools, with 3,469 pupils, in the foreign field; amount expended in missions since 1819, $3,408,997. There belong to the Methodist Family of Churches in the United States, 13,280 church edifices, with 4,343,579 sittings, valued at $14,822,870; amount of stock in "Book Concern," $696,326; and annual sale (in 1852), $199,687; 10 quarterly and monthly periodi- cals, with a subscription-list of 225,000 ; 24 religious newspapers, with a weekly circulation of 127,900; 24 colleges, with 99 professors, 1,779 students, 61,270 volumes in their libraries; property in funds $1,327,115, and income of $43,824; 133 female seminaries and col- leges, 11,678 pupils; $505,129 vested in their behalf ; amount given in 1854, to the Bible, Tract, Missionary, Sunday-school Societies, and for support of superannuated ministers, $734,618. It is estimated that the amount invested by the Methodist Churches in their Book Concerns, colleges and seminaries, churches, etc., is $17,411,440; and the amount given in 1854, to the support of the ministers, religious societies, Sunday-schools, etc., including in- come from the college and other vested funds (but not including what was given in ordinary charities, building of churches, etc.), at $7,536,916 ; which, deducting the colored membership in the "Meth- odist Church, South," is, on an average, more than five dollars per member. The proportion of the population of the country which maybe said to be under the spiritual care of " American Methodism," may be stated to be 5,500,000. CHAPTER XVI. THE FRIENDS, OR QUAKERS. This religious community first appeared in England toward the middle of the seventeenth century, and had an early share in the 528 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. colonization of the United States. We have seen that its reputed founder and first preacher, George Fox, visited several of the South- ern provinces, and announced his message, as he himself relates, to a " willing people." But the proselytes to his peaceful doctrines, es- pecially if they attempted to propagate them, encountered violent persecution almost everywhere, and although they were from the first protected in Rhode Island, and did at length obtain toleration in the South, they never made much progress until, through the in- fluence and exertions of William Penn, they obtained an asylum, first in New Jersey, and afterward in Pennsylvania, toward the close of that century. They are now supposed to have six or seven hundred congrega- tions or " meetings" in the United States, and are chiefly settled in the South-eastern part of Pennsylvania, in New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Virginia, though some may be found in all the States. In Philadelphia alone they have six or eight large congregations or meetings. It is far from easy to jnake out what were the doctrines really held by George Fox, and some of the other early Friends, or Quak- ers, as they are more commonly called. They spoke so much about the " light within," and the " Christ in the heart," and so little about the proper divinity of Jesus Christ, the inspiration and Divine authority of the Scriptures, etc., that good men of that day much doubted how far they held the saving truths of the Gospel. But the subsequent writings of Penn, Barclay, and others, to whom may be added many excellent authors of the present day, make it certain that a portion of well-informed Friends have been sound in " the faith that saves." But within the last twenty-five or thirty years a deplorable schism has taken place. Doctrines of the most dangerous character, imbo- dying in fact, a kind of fanatical deism, having been widely dissem- inated by the preaching and writings of the late Elias Hicks, of Long Island, New York, who was one of their ministers, they sepa- rated into two quite distinct bodies, each maintaining that it held the doctrines of the original Quakers.* One party is called the Ortho- dox, the other the Hicksites, from the name of their leader, or rather, * The highest law court in New Jersey decided, a few years ago, in a suit respect- ing property held by one of the " Quarterly Meetings" in that State, that the so-called Orthodox Quakers are the true successors of the founders of the denomination; in other words, hold the true doctrines of the people called Friends. This decision was formed after a long and very thorough investigation of the subject, conducted by a master in chancery, who was employed during several months in taking the testi- mony of distinguished Friends as to what were the doctrines of the society. CHAP. XVI.] THE FRIENDS, OR QUAKERS. 529 founder. Their relative numbers are not exactly known, but the Orthodox are supposed to be fully three fifths of the whole, or to have three hundred or three hundred and fifty congregations. The peculiarities of the Friends, in respect to plainness of dress, re- fusing to uncover the head as a mark of respect to their fellow-men, whatever be their station, rank, or office, the use of the singular thou and thee instead of the plural you in all cases where custom has sanc- tioned the superseding of the former by the latter, their refusing to take an oath, and to bear arms, are too well known to require re- mark. They have no " hireling ministry," and think it wrong to educate men for that office, maintaining that those only should be suffered to preach who are moved from time to time by the Spirit to deliver a message from God. All remain perfectly silent at their meetings, unless some one feels thus moved to speak for the edification of those present, or to pray. In almost every congregation there are mem- bers who, from being often moved to speak, are called " preachers," and they may be of either sex. Some, too, think that the Spirit moves them to travel about for the purpose of visiting and preaching. But these, before receiving authority to proceed on such missions, must first be approved by the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings to which they belong. Though they have no salaries, provision is made, when required, for the support of them and their families by presents from richer Friends. The supervision of the churches is vested in the monthly meetings, composed of all the congregations within a con- venient distance from each other ; the Quarterly Meetings, which comprise all within a large circle ; and the Yearly Meetings, includ- ing all within one or more of the States, and of which, we believe, there are eight. The Friends have a Tract Society, a Bible Society, and some Sun- day-schools. They have made some attempts, also, but to no great extent, to bring the Indian tribes to the knowledge of the Gospel. The characteristic traits of this peace-loving people are the same in the United States as in England and elsewhere— frugality, simplicity of manners, strictness of morals, care for the poor of their society, and abhorrence of oppression in every form. This may be emphat- ically said of the Orthodox. Of the Hicksites, who, in my opinion, have departed fundamentally from the Gospel, it is to be feared that a far less favorable account will yet have to be given. The substan- tial orthodoxy of William Penn, and many others of the same school, has produced good fruits, which never can be looked for from the delusions of Elias Hicks. So far from rapidly increasing in America, I rather think that the 34 530 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. Friends are stationary, if not positively declining, in point of num- bers. The too frequent neglect of the religious education of their children, together with the rejection of the outward administration of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, must ever prevent them from en- joying great or continued prosperity as a Church. CHAPTER XVII. THE SUMMARY. We have now completed our notices of the various Evangelical Churches or Denominations in the United States, and to assist the reader in taking a general view of the whole, we proceed to place the results before his eye in a tabular form, pursuing still the order of time in which each Group or Family of Churches began to appear in the country : Churches. Ministers. Licentiates. Members. Population. L— The Episcopal Church... 1,300 1,114 105,350 1,000,000 With the Moravian 23 28 3,500 12,000 1,823 1,742 108,850 1,012,000 II.— Cong. Orthodox Chs.... 2,450 2,327 210,000 2,000,000 III.— Baptist Churches 14,070 9,476 596 1,322,469 5,000,000 IV.— Presbyterian Churches.. 8,116 6,145 854 716,318 3,500,000 V.— Methodist, (estimated).. 14,000* 8,740 12,618f 1,593,794 5,500,000 VI— Lutheran Church 1,900 1,000 225,000 750,000 Total 42,359 29,430 14,068 4,176,431 17,762,000 In this statement are included all the Evangelical Churches or Communions, excepting the Orthodox Friends, whose " Meetings" may be three hundred and fifty, but of whose membership we have no means of forming a reliable estimate. By uniting the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, which, as they are in many important respects the same, is entirely proper, we reduce the evangelical denominations in the United States to five "fcr * The number of church-edifices and of congregations worshiping in them, belong- ing to the Methodists, may be put down for at least fourteen thousand. It was twelve thousand four hundred and eighty-four in 1850. But the number of Metho- dist congregations in the United States, when estimated by the places in which they meet, viz.: "meeting-houses," private houses, school-houses, etc., is probably not less than thirty-five thousand, if not forty thousand. f Local preachers. CHAP. XVII.] THE SUMMARY. 531 great families ; and thus arranged, they present the following sum mary : Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, . Methodist, Lutheran, Churches. 1,323 10,566 14,010 14,000 1,900 Ministers. 1,T42 8,4*72 9,476 8,740 1,000 Members. 108,850 926,318 1,322,469 1,593,794 225,000 Population. 1,012,000 5,500,000 5,000,000 5,500,000 750,000 Total. . . • 41,859 29,430 4,176,431 17,762,000 Such an arrangement might be called a doctrinal one. On the question of Church government, the Lutheran Church may be ranked with the Presbyterian ; and though not Calvinistic in doctrine, it may be said to sympathize considerably with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Withal, it maintains an intercourse with the Presbyterian Churches generally that is not only fraternal but in many cases inti- mate. Ranging the Lutheran Churches with the Presbyterian, we have but four great families of evangelical Churches in the United States, viz. : Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, . Methodist, Total. Churches. 1,323 12,466 14,070 14,000 41,859 Ministers. 1,742 9,472 9,476 8,740 29,430 Members. 108,850 1,151,318 1,322,469 1,593,794 4,176,431 Population. 1,012,000 6,250,000 5,000,000 5,500,000 17,762,000 This synopsis suggests a few observations : 1. It is impossible to state the number of churches or congrega- tions, properly so called. Those of the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Baptists, taken together, amount to twenty-seven thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine. But those belonging to the different Meth- odist communions it is impossible to ascertain, no return of them having been made. There can be no doubt that they have at least fourteeen thousand church-edifices properly so called. This, then, would make the entire number of the churches of the evangelical de- nominations to have been in 1855 forty-one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine ; and supposing these to contain upon an average five hundred people each, they would accommodate more than twenty million seven hundred and twenty-nine thousand five hundred of the twenty-six million five hundred thousand, the population of the coun- try for that year. But if we take in all the places, whether churches or not, at which the Gospel is preached, in most cases once a week at least, and others once a fortnight, seldom less often, these will be found to amount to sixty-two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine or at the outside sixty-seven thousand three hundred and fifty-nine* * Including three hundred and fifty "meeting-houses" of the Orthodox Friends. 532 THE EVANGELICAL CHUKCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. 2. The summary gives twenty-nine thousand four hundred and thirty as the number of ministers who devote themselves entirely to the work. Adding the twelve thousand six hundred and eighteen Methodist local preachers, we have forty-two thousand and forty- eight as the number of actual preachers of the Gospel. Even this is exclusive of the licentiates in the Baptist and Presbyterian churches, who were in 1855 estimated at more than one thousand four hundred, and who may fairly be set against the deduction to be made on ac- count of ordained ministers employed as professors and missionaries. But taking, all things considered, the above-stated twenty-nine thou- sand four hundred and thirty as the number of ministers that are evan- gelical on all the saving doctrines of the Gospel : and dividing the population of the United States, which, in the beginning of the year 1855 could not have been more than twenty-six million five hundred thousand, by this number, the result will be one such minister for about nine hundred souls. Now, although figures can not express moral influences, such calculations are nevertheless not without their use. A country which has an evangelical preacher on an average for every nine hundred souls, may be considered as pretty well supplied, if they be well distributed and faithful. A perfect distribution is, in- deed, altogether inpossible with a population rapidly diffusing itself over immense, half-cultivated regions, yet much is done to obviate the disadvantages of such a state of things. The aid rendered by the Methodist local preachers must be regarded as an important auxiliary to the more regular ministry. The general faithfulness of this minis- try has already been fully discussed. 3. The members in full communion with the churches enumerated were, in 1855, four million one hundred and seventy-six thousand four hundred and thirty-one in number. Now, although it be very certain that all these do not live up to their profession, yet as they belong for the most part to churches that endeavor to maintain discipline, we may fairly presume that they comprehend at least as large a propor- tion of consistent Christians as any equal number of professors in other parts of Christendom. 4. The last column of the summary assumes seventeen million seven hundred and sixty-two thousand of the whole population as more or less under the influence of the evangelical denominations. Accuracy in such a calculation is hardly to be expected, but I have taken the best data I could find, and doubt not that the estimate I have made is not much wide of the truth. Including all the evangelical " Friends," this estimate would fall but little short of eighteen mil- lion. CHAP. XVIII.] NUMBER OF EVANGELICAL SECTS. 533 CHAPTER XVIII. NUMBER OF EVANGELICAL SECTS. Much has been said in Europe about the multiplicity of sects in the United States, and many seem of opinion that the religious lib- erty enjoyed there has led to the almost indefinite creation of different religious communions. This requires a little examination. No doubt absolute religious liberty will ever be attended with a considerable subdivision of the religious world into " branches" or sects. Men will ever differ in their views respecting doctrine and church order, and it is to be expected that such differences will result in the formation of distinct ecclestiastical communions. In the ab- sence of religious liberty, matters may be much otherwise, but how far for the better a little consideration will show. People in that case may be constrained to acquiesce, ostensibly at least, in a certain ecclesiastical organization, and in certain modes of faith and worship sanctioned and established by law. But such acquiescence, it is well known, instead of being real and cordial, is often merely external and constrained ; and if so, its worthlessness is certain and palpable. But as respects the evangelical communions in the United States, it must have struck the reader that this multiplicity has mainly arisen, not so much from the abuse of religious liberty by the indulgence of a capricious and sectarian spirit, a§ from the various quarters from which the country has been colonized. Coming in large numbers, and sometimes in compact bodies, from different parts of the Old World, nothing was more natural than the desire of establishing for themselves and their posterity the same religious formularies and modes of worship, church government, and discipline which they had cherished in the lands that had given them birth, and persecution for their adherence to which had led, in many instances, to their having emigrated. Hence we find, in the United States, counterparts not only to the Episcopalian, Congregational, Baptist, and Methodist Churches of England, and to the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland and Ireland, but likewise to the Dutch and German Reformed Churches, the German Lutheran Church, the Moravians, Mennonists, etc. Indeed, there is scarcely an evangelical communion in America which is not the mere extension by emigration of a similar body in Europe. The exceptions hardly can be reckoned such, for they con- sist for the most part of separations from the larger bodies, not be- cause of differences with regard to essential doctrines and forms of 534 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. church government, but on points of such inferior consequence that they can scarcely be regarded as new sects at all. In fact, if we take all the evangelical communions that have fallen under review, and contemplate the confessedly fundamental doctrines maintained by each, it is surprising to observe how nearly they are agreed. It may, we believe, be demonstrated that among the evan- gelical communions in the United States, numerous as they are, there is as much real harmony of doctrine, if not of church economy, as could be found in the evangelical churches of the first three cen- turies. Indeed, as we before remarked, by grouping the former in families, according to their great distinctive features, we at once reduce them to four, or at most five. Thus the Presbyterians, commonly so called, of the Old and New Schools, the Congregationalists, the Dutch and German Reformed, the Scotch Secession churches,* and, we may add, the Lutherans and Cumberland Presbyterians, form but one great Presbyterian family, composed of elder and younger members, all of them essentially Presbyterian in church polity, and very nearly coin- ciding, at bottom, in their doctrinal views. Between several of these communions there subsists a most intimate fraternal intercourse, and the ministers of one find no difficulty in entering the service of an- other without being re-ordained. Again, between the different evangelical Baptist sects there is no really essential or important difference ; and the same may be said of the Methodists. Indeed, the evangelical Christians of the United States exhibit a most remarkable coincidence of views on all import- ant points. On all doctrines necessary to sa vation — the sum of which is "repentance toward God," and "faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" — there is really no diversity of opinion at all. Of this I may now give a most decisive proof. I have already spoken of the American Sunday-school Union. Among the laymen who compose its Board of Directors, are to be found members of all the main branches of the evangelical Protestant Church — Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Dutch and German Reformed, Methodists, Quakers, and Moravians. It publishes a great many books for Sunday-school libra- ries every year, none, of course, being admitted the contents of which are likely to give offence to any member of the Board, or repugnant to the peculiarities of any of the religious bodies represented in it. In the summer of 1841 the Rev. Dr. Hodge, a Professor in the Prince- * An effort is now making to unite all the Scottish Secession Churches in one body. This coalescence of Churches holding similar doctrines and maintaining similar orga- nizations may be expected to occur from time to time. CHAP. XVIII.] NUMBER OF EVANGELICAL SECTS. 535 ton Theological Seminary, was requested by its committee of pub- lications to write a book exhibiting the great doctrines of the Gospel as held by all evangelical Christians. This he did to the entire satis- faction, not only of the Board, but I believe I may say of all evan- gelical Christians throughout the land that have read his work. It is appropriately entitled "The Way'of Life;" the subjects are the Scriptures, sin, justification, faith, repentance, profession of religion, and holy living, under which several heads the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel are presented in an able and yet most simple and familiar manner. It is a work, in short, which none can read without surprise and delight at observing the vast extent and fullness of the system of Truth, in which all evangelical communions are agreed. These communions, as they exist in the United States, ought to be viewed as branches of one great body, even the entire visible Church of Christ in this land. Whatever may have been the circumstances out of which they arose, they are but constituent parts of one great whole — divisions of one vast army — though each brigade, and even each regiment, may have its own banner, and its own part of the field to occupy. And although to the inexperienced eye such an army as it moves onward against the enemy may have a confused appearance, the different divisions of infantry being arranged separately, the ar- tillery interspersed, and the cavalry sometimes in the front, sometimes in the rear, sometimes on the flank, and sometimes between the col- umns, yet all are in their proper places ; and to the mind of Him who assigns them their places, and directs their movements, all is sys- tematic order where the uninitiated sees nothing but confusion. Momentary collisions, it is true, may sometimes happen — there may be jostling, and some irritation occasionally — yet they fulfill their ap- pointed parts, and discharge their appropriate duties. So is it with the " sacramental host of God's elect" with us. No doubt this multiplication of sects is attended with serious evils, especially in the new and thinly-peopled settlements. It often renders the Churches small and feeble. But this is an evil that diminishes with the increase of the population. With a zealous and capable ministry the truth gains ground, the people are gathered into Churches, congregations increase in numbers and consistency, and though weak ones are occasionally dissolved, the persons who com- posed them either going into other evangelical Churches, or emi- grating to other parts of the country, such as maintain their ground become only the stronger ; and it often happens, particularly in the rural districts, that the number of sects diminishes while the popula- tion increases. Great, however, as may be the disadvantages resulting from this 536 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERICA. [BOOK VI. multiplicity of different communions, were they all reduced to one or two, we apprehend still worse evils would follow. Diversity on non- essential points among the churches and ministers of a neighborhood often gives opportunity to those who reside in it to attend the services and ministrations which each finds most edifying, instead of being re- duced to the sad alternative of either joining in forms of worship which they conscientiously disapprove, and of listening to a minister whom they find unedifying, or of abstaining from public worship alto- gether. Rather than this, it is surely far better to bear the expense of having two or three churches in a community, for which, looking only at the mere amount of population, one might suffice. CHAPTER XIX. ALLEGED WANT OF HARMONY AMONG THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS OF THE UNITED STATES. It has been often and widely stated in Europe, on the authority of a certain class of visitants from the Old World, who have published their " Travels," " Tours," etc., that there is much unseemly strife among our various religious denominations. Here, I hesitate not to say, there has been much gross misrepresentation. No doubt our evangelical Churches feel the influence of mutual emulation. Placed on the same great field, coming into contact with each other at many points, and all deeply and conscientiously attached to their peculiar doctrines and ecclesiastical economy, they must naturally exercise, on the one hand, the utmost watchfulness with respect to each other, and, on the other, employ all the legitimate means in their power to augment their own numbers. The result of such mutual provocation to good works is eminently happy. There may, indeed, be temporary cases of disagreeable collision and unbrotherly jealousy, but ordina- rily these are of short duration. The best of men are, after all, but men. Hence even a devoted Gospel minister, after having long had some particular neighborhood all to himself, may dread the opening of a new place of worship of a different communion in the vicinity of his own, lest some of his hearers should thereby be drawn away ; and such an apprehension may, for a time, excite some not very kind feelings in his breast. But universal experience shows that such feel- ings are usually groundless, and soon cease to be indulged by any but the most narrow-minded persons. Sometimes, too, a zealous, and in most cases vain and ignorant CHAP. XIX.] ALLEGED WANT OF HARMONY AMONG CHRISTIANS. 537 preacher, will show himself in a neighborhood where the churches all belong to communions different from his, and there, in his self- sufficiency, begin to denounce and attempt to proselytize. Such men, however, soon create disgust rather than any other feeling ; for with us most of those who join this or that church, do so after examina- tion of its doctrines, government, and discipline, and when once sat- isfied on these points, above all, after finding its services edifying, they are not disposed to allow themselves to be disturbed by every bigoted and noisy brawler that may seek to gain them over to his creed and church, which, after all, may not essentially differ from their own. Notwithstanding such cases, I hesitate not to affirm that, taking the evangelical Churches as a whole, their intercourse, in all parts of the country, manifests a remarkable degree of mutual respect and frater- nal affection. While earnest in maintaining, alike from the pulpit and the press, their own views of Truth and Church order, there is rarely any thing like denunciation and unchurching other orthodox communions, but every readiness, on the contrary, to offer help when needed. Thus, among all but the Episcopalians, whose peculiar views of ordination stand in the way, there is a frequent exchanging of pulpits. I have known the pulpit of an excellent Baptist minister in Philadelphia, when he was laid aside by ill health, to be supplied during two years by other ministers, and by those of Psedobaptist Churches for much of that time. During more than twenty-seven years the author of this work was engaged in benevolent efforts in America, which led him repeatedly to visit almost every State in the American Confederacy, and while on this mission he preached in the pulpits of no less than fourteen evangelical communions, including all the leading ones. This brotherly feeling widely prevails among the laity also. In all parts of the country they scruple not, when there is no service in their own places of worship, to attend others, though of another commun- ion ; and, indeed, in our cities and large towns, not a few Christians regularly attend the lectures of pastors not of their own communion, when these fall on different evenings from those of their own pastors. Not only so, but as there is no bar to intercommunion, except in the case of the Baptists, whose views respecting Baptism in all but a few instances prevent it, and in that of the small Scottish Churches, the members of one evangelical communion often join with those of an- other in receiving the Lord's Supper in the same church. In this re- spect, a very catholic spirit happily prevails. The answer of the Rev. Mr. Johnes, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Morristown, New Jersey, to General Washington, who, on one occasion during the 538 THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN AMERCA. [BOOK VI. war of the Revolution, desired to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper with Mr. Johnes's congregation, but stated that he was an Episcopalian, is just what ten thousand ministers of the Gospel would make in like circumstances : " Sir, it is not a Presbyterian or an Episcopalian table, but the Lord's table, and you as well as every other Christian are welcome to it." IsTumerous occasions, moreover, bring all evangelical Christians to- gether. The Bible, Temperance, Colonization, Sunday-school, and Tract Societies, not to mention such as are formed from time to time for particular and perhaps local objects, Sabbath Observance, Educa- tion, and the like, all bring Christians of different denominations into better acquaintance with each other, and tend to promote mutual re- spect and affection. Taking all the professed Christians, amounting, it has been seen, to four million one hundred and seventy-six thousand four hundred and thirty-one, in our Evangelical Churches, I hesitate not to say that far more mutual respect and brotherly love prevail among them than would were they all coerced into one denomination. The world has already seen what sort of union and brotherhood can be produced by all being brought into one immense Church, that admits of no devia- tion from the decrees of its councils and conclaves. There may, in- deed, be external agreement, yet beneath this apparent unanimity there will be internal divisions and heart-burnings in abundance. There may be union against all who dare to impugn her dogmas, but who can tell the almost infernal hatred with which her Religious Orders have been found to regard each other ? Compared with this, all the temporary attritions, together with all the controversies and exacerbations of feeling that accompany them, that take place in our evangelical Protestant denominations, are as nothing. Common civility, on the contrary, concurs with Christian charity to make the enlightened members of one denomination respect and esteem those of another, and to appreciate the beautiful sentiment a few years ago attributed by a Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the British Parliament, to the late Mr. Wilberforce : " I experience," said that distinguished philanthropist, " a feeling of triumph when I can get the better of these little distinctions which keep Christians asunder. I would not that any one should sacrifice his principles ; but, exercis- ing the Protestant right of private judgment, leave each to his own conclusions. It is delightful to see that in this way men of different sects can unite together for the prosecution of their projects for the amelioration of human society. When I thus unite with persons of a different persuasion from myself, it affords me an augmented degree of pleasure ; I rise into a higher nature, into a purer air ; I feel that CHAP. XIX.] ALLEGED WANT OF HARMONY AMONG CHRISTIANS. 539 fetters which before bound me are dissolved, and I delight in that blessed liberty of love which carries all other blessings with it." Still, the question remains, Whence have foreigners, while visiting the United States, received the impression, which, by being promul- gated in their writings, has called for these remarks ? The answer is easy. While such are the prevailing respect and regard for each other among the members of our Evangelical Churches, they all unite in opposing, on the one hand, the errors of Rome, and, on the other, the heresy that denies the proper divinity and atonement of Christ, together with those other aberrations from the true Gospel which that heresy involves. Now, it is this refusal to hold fellowship with errors of vital moment, it is this earnest contending for saving truth, that leads tourists in the United States, whom chance or choice has thrown into the society of persons opposed in their religious tenets to the Evangelical Churches, to charge us with uncharitableness. Sine illce lachrymce. We deny not that in some of the divisions of Churches that have taken place in the United States, men have at times permitted them- selves to speak and write with an acrimony unbecoming the Gospel, and, by so doing, may have made an unfavorable impression on for- eigners. But such cases have been local and exceptional rather than general and ordinary, and never could justify any sweeping charge against the evangelical denominations as a body. BOOK VII, NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Having thus reviewed, as far as the compass of our work will permit, the Evangelical Churches or Denominations in the United States of America, we come now to speak of those that are considered by Orthodox Protestants as unevangelical ; and under this head we shall, for convenience' sake, range all those sects that either renounce, or fail faithfully to exhibit the fundamental and saving truths of the Gospel. Here, however, let us not be misunderstood. When we put Roman Catholics in the same category with Unitarians, we would not for a moment be supposed to place them on the same footing. The former, doubtless, as a Church, hold those doctrines on which true believers in all ages have rested their hopes for eternal life, yet these have been so buried amid the rubbish of multiplied human tra- ditions and inventions, as to remain hid from the great mass of the people. Still, as in their doctrinal formularies they have not denied " the Lord that bought them," however much they may have multi- plied other " saviours," they must not be confounded with those who have openly rejected that " sure foundation which is laid in Zion." While, therefore, we must deplore their " holding the Truth in un- righteousness," and instead of presenting through their numerous priesthood the simple and fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, their supplanting these, in a great measure, by introducing " another Gos- pel," we would not say that an enlightened mind may not find in their Church the way of life, obstructed though it be by innumerable obstacles. Neither would we be thought to put the Unitarians on the same foot- ing with the Universalists. The moral influence of the preaching of CHAP. I.] THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 541 the former, and their standing in society, make them far more valua- ble than the latter as a component part of the general population. Nor would we put the Jews, or even the more serious part of the Universalists, on the same level with " Socialists," " Shakers," and " Mormons." All that we mean by putting these various bodies in one category is, that they can none of them be associated with the evangelical Protestant Churches — with Churches whose religion is the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible — nor, indeed, do we suppose that, however much they may dislike being brought under a com- mon designation, they would any of them choose to be associated with the evangelical Protestant communions, or challenge for them- selves that appellation. The doctrines and economy of the Roman Catholics being well known almost everywhere, a very general account of that Church may suffice, though it is by far the most important of all the bodies that are to be noticed in this section of our work. As the appear- ance and the spread of Unitarianism in " the land of the Pilgrims," on the other hand, has been matter of much surprise and curiosity in Europe, as full an account of its rise, progress, and present pros- pects in the United States will be given as our plan will permit. Of the other bodies that find a place here, we shall take such notice, at least, as will enable the reader to form a correct idea of their true character and present condition. CHAPTER II. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Maryland, we have seen, was originally a Roman Catholic colony founded on most liberal principles, under the auspices and through the exertions of Lord Baltimore. And although Protestant Episco- pacy was established in the colony under the reign of William and Mary, the laws of England against Roman Catholics being at the same time rigorously enforced, they continued, nevertheless, to form the most numerous and influential body in the province down to the American Revolution. Even to this day, though now but a small minority of the entire population, not exceeding, it is believed, one hundred thousand souls, and inferior in point of numbers both to the Protestant Episcopalians and Methodists, they have much influence, and are perhaps the wealthiest communion in the State. 542 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. Except in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, I am not aware that the Roman Catholics anywhere enjoyed their share of political rights at the commencement of the war of the Revolution, but now, I believe, they are everywhere upon the same footing with others, and enjoy all the political privileges that our Constitution affords.* The acquisition of Louisiana, in 1803, of Florida, in 1821, of New Mexico and California, in 1848, very considerably increased the Ro- man Catholic population of the country. To this must be added an immense immigration from Europe, mainly from Ireland and Ger- many, during the last sixty, still more during the last twenty-five years. Their increase has been rapid since the Revolution, partly * I have often heard Roman Catholics in Europe reproach the Protestants of the United States with intolerance : and in proof of this, they have chiefly urged the burn- ing by the populace of a convent at Charlestown, near Boston, in 1834. That, in- deed, is the only case, I believe, which even they themselves can possibly urge as amounting to persecution ; and as, in the notoriety that it has obtained, it has been sadly misrepresented, especially by the late Bishop England, in his letters to the Propaganda Society, I need make no apology for taking some notice of it. The convent in question, which was one of Ursuline Sisters, and was founded in 1820, was rather a boarding-school for girls than anything else. The number of nuns varied from eight to ten, and that of the pupils from twenty to sixty. The buildings, furniture, and grounds were ample and valuable. The occasion of its being destroyed was as follows : One of the nuns, a Miss Harrison, who taught music, while suffer- ing from temporary derangement caused by excitement, left the establishment for a short time. Hence a report that she had been ill treated, which soon spread through the adjacent borough of Charlestown, and then through Boston, which is within two miles' distance. Strong suspicions having been entertained for several years, on what foundation I know not, of highly improper conduct on the part of some of the nuns, Miss Harrison's case inflamed the minds of the populace, and led to a riot on the night of August 11th, 1834, ending in the entire destruction of the convent with all its furniture, the actors being for the most part young men and boys from Charles- town and Boston. This outrage was condemned in the strongest terms by all respect- able people, and an able report was published a few days afterward, and subscribed by thirty-seven Boston Protestants, all of the highest moral respectability, in which the reputation of the convent was decidedly, and, I dare say justly, vindicated. Some of the rioters were identified and punished, and a considerable portion of the public demanded that the State of Massachusetts should indemnify the Roman Catholics for the loss they had sustained. I regret that, from various causes, no indemnification has to this day been made, mainly, I believe, because it was insisted that the State should rebuild the convent — a demand opposed by many who would grant a full pe- cuniary compensation, but have no idea that the State, as such, should give any ap- parent sanction to an establishment of that kind. It ought to be known, however, that the convent at Charlestown was not destroyed because it was a Roman Catholic institution. Indeed, I am satisfied, from what I heard at Boston a few weeks after its destruction, that had it been a Protestant one it would, under the same circumstances, have shared the same fate. This forms no justification of the barbarous act, nor even a palliation of it ; but it does show that it was not owing to hostility to its occupants because they were Roman Catholics. CHAP, n.] THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 543 owing to the above-mentioned territorial acquisitions, partly to con- versions, but most of all to immigration. According to the Metro- politan Catholic Almanac for 1856, published at Baltimore, there were in the preceding year in the United States, 41 Dioceses. 2 Apostolic Vicariates. 1 Archbishops, 33 bishops. 1,780 Priests, of whom 1,611 are employed in the ministry, and 169 as professors of colleges, etc. 1,910 Churches. 895 Other stations for preaching, where churches had yet to be built. In all, 2,805 places for preaching. 37 Ecclesiastical Seminaries. 460 Clerical students. 49 Literary institutions for young men, 26 incorporated and 9 unincorporated col- leges. 236 Female religious institutions. 130 Female academies. The Roman Catholics have nineteen weekly papers, of which four appear in German, and one in French, and one monthly, one bi- monthly, one quarterly, and one annual periodical. It is clear, from all this, that the Roman Catholic Church has gained a firm and extensive footing in the United States. From fifty to eighty church edifices are annually erected. For such objects large sums are received from the Propaganda Society in France, and the Leopold Society in Austria. It is believed that nearly $250,000 were received in 1855 from these two sources * The assertion has often been made by the opponents of the Ro- man Catholics in the United States, that they never can be safe citi- zens of a republic, and that the predominance of their Church would involve the overthrow of our political constitution. Such an opinion must rest, I should think, on the presumed hatred of the priests to republican institutions, and the impossibility of counteracting the in- fluence they possess over their people. However this may be, many valuable citizens and stern patriots in this country have belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, and it remains to be seen how far it is possible for the Roman Catholic priests to obtain or exercise the same influence over their followers here that they possess hi some European countries. One thing is certain : the Protestant population, and the clergy in particular, are not likely to be indifferent to their move- * If the Roman Catholics in the United States receive aid from their brethren in Europe, they also sometimes give aid to their friends in the Old World. For instance, large sums were raised some years since in our chief cities to aid in building a Cath- olic University at Thurles, in the centre of Ireland. 544 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. ments. The last few years have witnessed a great deal of discussion in the United States on the doctrines and influence of Romanism, and much distinguished talent and deep research have been exhibited in the course of it.* Neither has this discussion been confined to any particular denomination of evangelical Protestants, but it has extended almost to every pulpit in every branch of that body. Never was there so general a determination to give publicity to the opinions they entertain of the character and tendency of the Roman Catholic religion ; nor have its friends and abettors been silent under these at- tacks. Much curiosity is felt in Europe as to how far the increase of the Roman Catholics in the United States arises from proselytism. No doubt it may partly be ascribed to that, but much more to the immi- gration of Roman Catholics, and of persons of Roman Catholic ori- gin from Europe. As for proselytism, the Protestants probably gain as much as the Roman Catholics from that source.f The Roman Catholics of the United States have done much for the establishment of schools and other institutions of learning; and among their priests and higher clergy there is a considerable num- ber of men of distinguished talents and extensive erudition. A considerable proportion of the sums received from Europe is laid out in building churches and cathedrals, several of which are costly and splendid edifices. That at Baltimore cost $300,000 ; those of Cincinnati and St. Louis cost much less, yet are large and showy buildings. A visitor from Europe would, on entering the Roman Catholic churches of the United States, be struck with the few pictures and * Among the ablest writers on this subject may be reckoned the Rev. Drs. Brown- lee, R. J. Breckinridge, Cheever, Boardman, and Berg. To these may be added the late Rev. Drs. John Breckinridge and Nevins, men of distinguished piety and learn- ing, and whose memory is precious to many of the churches in America. Among the Roman Catholics, the late Bishop England and Archbishop Hughes have been the most able disputants. f Captain Marryat, in his work on the United States, asserts that the Roman Cath- olics are increasing rapidly in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and other parts of the Valley of the Mississippi, and states it as his opinion that theirs will, at no distant day, be the predominant religion in all that region. But his mere opinion, unsupported by au- thentic statistical documents, is really of very little worth in such matters. The gallant captain is at home on the seas, but when he attempts to describe the moral and religious state of the American Confederation, he is evidently in a world of which he knows little or nothing. A man who could allow himself to be hoaxed as he was when in this country — an author who could believe, and gravely relate, as actual oc- currences, some of the most ludicrous absurdities that could well be imagined — is hardly fit for the task of carefully collecting and comparing facts, and deducing from them fair conclusions. CHAP. II.] THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 545 other such ornaments that they exhibit. This may arise from the want of time and money required for such things. The priests, too, dress like other citizens when not engaged in their official duties. Nor will it escape a stranger from any part of Roman Catholic Europe, that processions and religious services in the streets are hardly ever seen in the United States. By the rapid multiplication of their priests in the United States the Roman Catholics have, no doubt, checked those conversions from their Church to Protestantism which were frequent in former times. Bishop England, in one of his letters to the Propaganda, stated, a few years ago, that " the Church" had lost no fewer than fifty thou- sand of her legitimate children in his diocese by such conversions, for want of shepherds to look after them. But whatever may be the fact in regard to the increase of the Ro- man Catholics in the United States, or whatever may be the .zeal and activity of the Protestants to prevent that increase, there is no well- informed American who does not rejoice in the perfect religious lib- erty which exists for all ; nor is there wanting a good degree of kindness and social intercourse among men of all religious opinions ; while as to the government, it fulfills the declaration of the Cartha- ginian queen : "Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discriminc agetury Of all forms of error in the United States, Romanism is by far the most formidable, because of the number of its adherents, the organ- ization, wealth, influence, and worldly and unscrupulous policy of its hierarchy. That Romanism is increasing in the United States can not be denied ; but that increase is not from conversion, but from the natural increase of the population on the one hand, and from the im- migration of Roman Catholics from Europe on the other. The Roman Catholic population may be reckoned at three millions or three millions two hundred and fifty thousand; but nothing very definite can be asserted, for high authorities among the Romanists themselves vary in their estimates from two to four millions. Al- though Archbishop Hughes and some of the other members of the hierarchy often boast of the progress of their Church in the United States, it is well known that some others of that hierarchy make very remarkable admissions when writing to their friends in Ireland — ad- missions which they have not had the prudence to conceal. These admissions are to the effect that large numbers of the young men, especially in the great cities and in the rural districts, are quitting the Church of their fathers, sometimes to embrace Protestantism, and still oftener, at least for a'time, to fall into infidelity. There is a 35 546 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK TIL vast amount of truth in all this. Father Mullen, an Irish priest, who visited the country extensively three or four years ago, believed and published that this awful " falling away," as he termed it, had cost Rome the loss of two millions of her children. What he means is, that Rome now has two millions less of followers in the United States than she would have had if this declension did not exist. But this is an over-estimate. Still there can be no doubt that her loss has been immense from this source. The freedom of the press in the United States, the freedom of speech, the constant contact with Protestants to which young Romanists are exposed, the manifest superiority of the Protestant population in intelligence, enterprise, wealth, and gen- eral influence, all conspire to make Roman Catholic young men in- quire into the nature and claims of the two systems ; and inquiry leads to great results. The infidelity into which they often fall is not likely to be lasting where favorable opportunities exist for learning the truth. Thanks be to God, much is now doing by the Protestants, in a kindly way, to cause the truth to reach the minds of their Ro- man Catholic fellow-citizens. Two or three things have occurred to arouse the American people in relation to Rome and her movements. 1. The simultaneous efforts which have been of late made by her hierarchy in many of the States to obtain a portion of the funds destined to the support of public schools, and employ them for the support of their own sectarian schools, in which neither the Sacred Scriptures, nor any portions of them, are read, but avowedly sectarian instruction is given ; and this, not so much for the benefit of their own children, as to prosecute effectually the work of proselyting the children of Protestants. This movement has been most signally defeated in all quarters. 2. The efforts making by the hierarchy to bring all the property of the Ro- man Catholic Church — church edifices especially, priests' houses, cemeteries, schools, colleges, hospitals, etc., into the possession of the bishops. It is but a few years since this movement, in which Arch- bishop Hughes has been very prominent, commenced ; and already some of their bishops are possessors of an immense amount of prop- erty. But this movement has awakened an extended and triumphant opposition ; and already several States' have enacted laws which re- quire that all Church property shall be held by lay-trustees appointed by each congregation, and accountable to them for the proper use of it ; the great States of New York and Pennsylvania taking the lead. This is a most important step ; and we can not doubt that similar laws will be enacted in all our States. 3. The disposition, long well known, of some of the leaders of the great political parties, to court the Romanists for their votes at the elections, and the willingness of CHAP. III.] UNTTARIANISM. 547 the hierarchy to be regarded as a " great power in the State," and as, in fact, holding the " balance of power," as has been often said — this obsequious meanness on the one hand, and unbounded arrogance on the other, have led to the formation of a political party called the " American Party," which has, for the time being, exerted a power- ful influence on our political institutions. All this has been eminently injurious to the interests and pretensions of the Roman Catholic Church among us. CHAPTER III. ITNTTARIANISM. To understand the history of Unitarianism in New England, the reader must have a clear idea of the leading ecclesiastical usages of the Puritans, and of the principles on which they were founded. The Puritans held that all men are by nature destitute of true piety ; that they naturally grow up in the practice of sin ; and that no one becomes religious except by a change in his habits of thought, feeling, and conduct, which they ascribed to the special operation of the Holy Spirit as its supernatural cause. They believed that the truly pious are ordinarly conscious of this change in the action of their own minds when it takes place, and are able to describe it, though they may not then know that the change of which they are conscious is regeneration. In some cases, they admitted, the man is not aware of any change at the time of his conversion ; yet he will be conscious of exercises afterward, such as no unregenerate man ever has, and he can describe them. Some may be regenerated in infancy, which it is lawful for us to hope is the case with all who die before they are old enough to profit by the external means of grace. If any of them live to maturity, they will not be able to remember the time of their change, but they will be conscious of sensible love to God and holiness, penitence for sin, and other pious exercises, and can give an account of them. They believed, therefore, that every converted person who has arrived at the age of discretion, has a re- ligious " experience" which he can tell, and by hearing which other pious persons may judge of his piety. The evidence thus afforded, however, was to be compared with his conduct in all the relations of life, and if this also was " such as becometh saints," he was to be ac- counted a pious man. 548 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMEKICA. [BOOK VII. A church they held to be " a company of faithful persons," that is, persons who have saving faith, regenerate persons, agreeing and con- senting " to meet constantly together in one congregation for the public worship of God and their mutual edification ; which real agree- ment and consent they do express by their constant practice in com- ing together for the worship of God, and by their religious subjec- tion," that is, by subjecting themselves voluntarily, from religious motives, " to the ordinances of God therein."* To become a member of a church, according to these principles, a person must voluntarily apply for admission. But if the admission were open to all applicants, bad men would come in, who neither knew their duty, nor were willing to perform it. With such mem- bers, Congregationalism would not be a safe system of Church gov- ernment. The applicant must, therefore, furnish evidence of his fitness for membership. He must give an account of his religious ex- perience. This being satisfactory, he must be " propounded ;" that is, his application for membership must be announced from the pul- pit, and his admission must be deferred for a given time, that all the members might have opportunity to acquaint themselves with his life and conversation. These being found such as the Gospel requires, he was allowed to become a member, by publicly entering into cove- nant with the Church and with God. It must be particularly observed, that the burden of proof rested on the applicant. Every man, the Puritans held, is born in sin ; and if no evidence of a change appears, the presumption is, that he is still in his sins. They regarded and treated all in whom no evidence of regeneration appeared as unregenerated ; as persons who must yet be converted or finally perish. Throughout Christendom, in that age, neither Jews, Turks, pagans, infidels, nor excommunicated persons could enjoy the full privileges of citizenship. These privileges belonged only to persons who were in communion with the churches established by law. The same rule was adopted in New England. None but members of the churches could hold offices or vote at elections. Here, however, it operated as it did nowhere else. As the churches contained only those who were, in the judgment of charity, regenerate persons, a large portion of the people, among whom were many persons of intelligence, of good moral character, and orthodox in their creed, were excluded from valuable civil privileges. The principles on which this system was founded, the Puritans brought with them from England ; but the system was first brought to maturity here ; and New England Congregationalists, when on * Cambridge Platform, 1648, chap, iv., sec. 4. CHAP. III.] UNITARIANISM. 549 visits to their fatherland, did much toward giving its form and char- acter to the Congregationalism that afterward prevailed there. The system appears to have been adopted in 1648 with a good degree of unanimity ; but as the number of unconverted adults increased, both by immigration and by the growing up of children without piety, there was an increasing dissatisfaction with it. By the year 1662, such a change of opinions had been wrought that what was called the " half-way covenant" was introduced, by a recommendation of a General Synod. According to this new system, persons baptized in infancy were to be considered members of the church to which their parents belonged; though they were not to be admitted to the Lord's table without evidence of regeneration. Such persons, on ar- riving at maturity, " understanding the doctrine of faith, and publicly professing their assent thereto, not scandalous in life, and solemnly owning the covenant before the church, wherein they give up them- selves and their children to the Lord, and subject themselves to the government of Christ in the church," had a right to Baptism for their children. This was an important change. It relieved the ap- plicant for church membership from the necessity of furnishing evi- dence of his piety, and obliged the church, if it would exclude him, to prove that he was heretical in his opinions or scandalous in his life. This change was strenuously opposed ; and as the synod had only advisory power, and many churches disapproved its decisions, it never became universal. One step more remained to be taken. In 1704, " the venerable Stoddard," of Northampton, avowed his belief that unregenerate persons ought to partake of the Lord's Supper; and in 1708, he pub- lished a sermon in defence of that doctrine. He maintained that the Lord's Supper is a means of regeneration, and that unrenewed men, regarding themselves, and being regarded by the Church as such, ought to partake of it as a means of procuring that desirable change in their own hearts. One of his arguments was, that it is impossible to distinguish the regenerate from the unregenerate, so as to admit the former and exclude the latter. After some controversy, this doctrine gained an extensive prevalence among the churches which had adopted the "half-way covenant" system. Among these churches, the principles and rules of admission were now completely reversed. The church was now obliged to convict the applicant of a scandalous life, or of heresy, or admit him to full communion ; and one reason for it was, the supposed impossibility of judging whether he was regenerate or not. Stoddard was a decided Calvinist ; but his system fostered the growth of Arminianism. It taught the impenitent that they had 550 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMEKICA. [BOOK VII. something to do before repentance, as a means of obtaining saving grace. Tbe unregenerate communicant supposed himself to be obediently walking in the way which God had appointed for such persons as himself. He could not, therefore, feel much to blame for being what he was, or much afraid that God would remove him from the world without first preparing him for heaven. This, combined with the belief that the regenerate could not be distinguished from the unregenerate by their Christian experience, was enough to throw the conscience into a profound sleep. The labors of the great Edwards, and the "revival of 1740," as it is usually called, form the next turning-point in this history. Ed- wards was the grandson of " the venerable Stoddard," and his suc- cessor at Northampton. In consequence of the manifest increase of Arminianism, and the consequent habit of relying on works done in impenitence as a means of preparing for heaven, Edwards commenced his course of sermons on justification by faith. These discourses, and others on kindred topics, were the means of a very powerful revival, which became fully developed at Northampton early in 1735, and spread into many other towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The converts in this revival were generally able to give a clear ac- count of the exercise of their own minds in their awakening, their conviction of sin, their submission to God, and acceptance of Christ as their all-sufficient Saviour. So many undeniable instances, in which the regenerate could be distinguished from the unregenerate by the history of their religious exercises, gave a serious shock to the doctrine that making such a distinction is impossible. It taught ministers to hope and labor for conversions of which evidence could be found. It made those who had no evidence of their own conver- sion afraid that they were still unregenerate. By special request, Edwards prepared a narrative of these " Surprising Conversions," which was printed in London, with an introduction by the Rev. Drs. Watts and Guise. It was soon reprinted in Boston, and was exten- sively read, and exerted a powerful influence on both sides of the Atlantic. From this time there continued to be similar revivals, on a smaller scale, in various parts of New England. In 1739, and the beginning of 1 740, they were evidently increasing. The celebrated Whitfield, who was ordained in 1736, had already excited much attention in England, and was preaching with great success in the Southern American colonies, To help forward this good work, he was invited to Boston, where he arrived in October 1740. The exciting point of his doctrine was the necessity of a sensible change of heart in order to preparation for heaven. Like the old Puritans, and like Edwards, CHAP. III.] T7NITAKIANISM. 551 he held that every man is born in sin, and unless some evidence ap- pears to the contrary, is to be esteemed an heir of perdition. The believers of this doctrine had always been numerous and powerful both among the clergy and in the churches of New England ; and by those who were not its believers, it was rather neglected than op- posed. It was now brought home to men's hearts as they had never known it to be before. All have heard of the eloquence of Whitfield; and that of Edwards, though in a different style, was at least equally effective, and more sure to leave permanent results. These men had powerful allies in several of the pastors in Boston and other parts of New England, and especially in the Tennents, and their fellow-labor- ers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These men assumed as an established truth, and proclaimed with all possible distinctness and earnestness, the doctrine that regenera- tion is a change accompanied with evidence by which it may be proved, and that all in whom no such evidence is found are unregen- erate, and in the broad road to perdition. They preached to them, accordingly, not as Christians who needed instruction, but as impen- itent, enemies of God and righteousness, who must be converted or perish forever. Multitudes were awakened, convinced, converted; and in a few years, tens of thousands were added to the churches ; and other multitudes who were already in the churches, were in like manner awakened and brought to repentance. Such an attack on men's hopes of heaven could not fail to provoke resistance. As has been shown already, the habit had been formed of hoping favorably concerning all who were not proved guilty of heresy or immorality, and of admitting all such to the communion of the churches, for this reason, among others, that perhaps they were regenerate. The promoters of the revival made unsparing war upon all such hopes, and pronounced all who had nothing else to rest upon, heirs of perdition. This their opponents called " censoriousness ;" and those who practised it were denounced as uncharitable, as usurp- ers of God's prerogative of judging the heart, as fanatics who de- lighted to throw orderly, quiet Christians into needless alarm. Such was the usual language of that part of the clergy who leaned strongly toward Arminianism, of their followers, and of many others. Some zealous promoters of the revival were guilty of great errors, and really deserved these reproaches ; and its adversaries were not slow in seizing the advantage thus brought within their reach. They convinced many that the revival was made up of unchari- tableness and fanaticism, and thus succeeded in setting limits to its progress. In a few years after the commencement of this revival, Edwards 552 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. became so fully convinced that the prevailing system of admission to the communion, introduced by his grandfather and predecessor, was wrong, that he could no longer practise it. He published his " Treatise on the Qualifications for Full Communion," in which he maintained that none ought to be admitted without such a declara- tion concerning the exercises of their own minds as, if true, would imply that they were regenerate persons. This change of opinion led to his dismission in 1750. His doctrine on this point, however, even then, had many advocates. It spread rapidly among the friends of the revival, and is now held by all the Congregational churches of New England that have not become Unitarian. Where the system of Stoddard and the half-way covenant have not been abolished by a formal vote, they have fallen into disuse, for none think it right to practise according to them. The ancient doctrine of the Puritans has been restored, and evidence of piety is required of those who would become members of the Church. The principal faults charged upon the promoters of the revival by its opponents were censoriousness and undue excitement. They labored to exclude both from their own parishes, and, as far as they could, from the country. To a considerable extent they were suc- cessful. They produced a profound calm on the subject of religion among all who were governed by their influence — a calm which amounted to indifference. And as to censoriousness, they adhered to the practice of admitting men to the communion of the church without evidence of their piety. Their doctrine was, that every man's piety is to be taken for granted, unless some scandalous error of doc- trine or practice proves him destitute of it. The most important char- acteristic — the fundamental element — of New-England Unitarianism was now fully developed. A party was formed, the members of which condemned and avoided all solicitude concerning their own spiritual condition or that of others. When this state of mind had been produced and confirmed, the remainder of the process was natural and easy. As in this party there was to be no strong feeling with respect to religion, except a strong unwillingness to be disturbed by the " censoriousness" of others, there could, of course, be no vigorous opposition to a change in doctrines, no vigilance against error. A system of doctrines, too, was wanted, con- taining nothing to alarm the fears or disturb the repose of the members of the party. The doctrines of man's apostacy from God, and depend- ance on mere grace for salvation, of the necessity of an atonement by the blood of the Son of God, and of regeneration by the special in- fluence of the Holy Spirit, were felt to be alarming doctrines. They were the doctrines by which Edwards and others had filled their hear- CHAP. III.] UNITARIANISM. 553 ers with anxiety, and produced excitement. They were therefore laid aside; but silently and without controversy, for controversy might have produced feeling. Men were suffered to forget that the Son and the Spirit have any thing important to do in the work of man's salva- tion ; and then it became easy to overlook their existence. In this way the Unitarian party was formed, and furnished with all its essential attributes long before Unitarian doctrines were openly avowed, and probably long before they were distinctly embraced in theory, except by a very small number. Unitarianism being introduced in this manner, it is evident that no distinct account of the successive steps of its progress can be given. The revivalists of 1740 asserted that " Socinianism" was even then in the land. This assertion was then repelled as a slander ; but Unita- rians now admit and assert that several leading opponents of the re- vival were Unitarians at that time, or soon after. The prevalence of Unitarianism, however, was not then extensive. The greater part of those who are now claimed as having then belonged to the " liberal" party were only Arminians, or, at the furthest, Pelagians ; and some of them were decided Calvinists. From 1744 to 1762 the colonies were engaged, almost incessantly, in the wars that secured them against the arms of France. In 1765 troubles with England began, and continued till 1783. Then came the formation of our system of government, and the anxious period of its early operations. Thus the attention of men was drawn off from religion, and fixed on other subjects for about half a century, affording a favorable opportunity for habits of indifference to become confirmed, and for error to make progress unobserved. Yet it was not wholly unobserved. In 1768, the Rev. Dr. Hop- kins preached in Boston on the Divinity of Christ, and published the sermon, assigning as a reason for the choice of this subject, his belief that it was needed there. From time to time other testimonies ap- peared of similar character. The first congregation that became avowedly Unitarian was that at the "King's Chapel," in Boston. It was Episcopalian. Being without a pastor, they employed Mr. Freeman, afterward Dr. Free- man, as reader, in 1782. In 1785 he succeeded in introducing a re- vised liturgy, from which the doctrine of the Trinity was struck out. He applied to several American bishops for ordination, but none would ordain him. He was, therefore, ordained by the church- wardens, in 1787. For many years he maintained a constant corre- spondence with the leading Unitarians in England, and was a con- venient medium of communication between them and the secret adherents of the same doctrines in America. 554 N0N-EV ANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. The first Unitarian book by an American author is said to have been " Ballou on the Atonement," published in 1803. Mr. Ballou was pastor of a Universalist society in Boston. But the term Universalist must not be understood here as it often is in Europe. It designates the belief that all intelligent beings — men and devils, if there are any devils — will be saved. Some Universalists hold that all men at death pass directly into heaven ; others, that a part of mankind will undergo a limited punishment in hell, or, rather, in purgatory, in proportion to the number and atrocity of their sins. The doctrine has been favored by a few men of considerable learning and respectable mor- als ; but its chief success has been among the ignorant, the vulgar, and the vicious, not one of whom was ever known to be reformed by it. Mr. Ballou was a man of some genius, but little learning. His works have done something to diffuse Unitarian opinions among Universalists. A Mr. Sherman, in Connecticut, published in favor of Unitarianism in 1805. He was dismissed from his pastoral charge about the same time, and in a few years left the ministry and lost his character. In 1810, Thomas and Noah Worcester began to publish their modification of Arianism in New Hampshire. The same year the church in Coventry, Connecticut, became suspicious that their pastor, the Rev. Abiel Abbot, was a Unitarian. The subject was brought before the Consociation to which that church belonged, and he was dismissed. He then called together a council, composed chiefly of men suspected of Unitarianism, who dismissed him a sec- ond time, and gave him a certificate of regular standing. The irregu- larity of this transaction called forth many expressions of disapproba- tion. In and around Boston no Congregational church had yet avowed itself Unitarian. Harvard College had an orthodox president and professor of theology till after the commencement of the present cen- tury. After the death of Professor Tappan, in 1 804, the Rev. Dr. Ware was elected as his successor. While the question of his election was pending, a suspicion of his Unitarianism was suggested, but it was repelled by his friends as a calumny. Even when President Kirk- land was elected, in 1812, it has been said, on high Unitarian author- ity, that he could not have been elected if he had been known as a defender of Unitarianism. No pastor of a Congregational church in or near Boston had yet avowed himself a Unitarian, either from the pulpit or the press. Yet the style of preaching adopted by many was such as to excite sus- picion ; several periodicals openly advocated Unitarianism, and Uni- tarian books were imported and published in considerable numbers. Orthodox ministers, when attending councils for ordaining pastors, CHAP. III.] UNITARIANISM. 555 found themselves opposed and thwarted in their attempts to ascertain the theological views of the candidates. Many other circumstances indicated the presence and secret diffusion of error ; but the means were wanting of fastening the charge upon individuals. There was, therefore, an increase of preaching and publishing against Unitarian- ism. In the " Panoplist," a monthly magazine commenced in Boston in 1806, this subject received special attention ; but all its warnings were denounced as " calumny." The facts, however, could not be much longer concealed. In 1812, the memoir of Lindsay, by Belsham, was published in London. Only a few copies of the work were imported, and these were carefully kept from the sight of all but a select few for nearly three years. At length, the Rev. Dr. Morse, after months of fruitless effort, succeeded in obtaining possession of a copy. The account there given of Unitarianism in America was extracted and published in a pamphlet. It contained letters from several Unitarians in Bos- ton, especially Dr. Freeman, of various dates, from 1796, or there- about, to 1812. In these letters the spread of Unitarianism, and the means used to promote it, were described without reserve. Conceal- ment was no longer possible. Unitarianism was, therefore, openly avowed by those who had been detected, and by others whose char- acter and interests were closely identified with theirs. The ecclesiastical results of this disclosure need to be particularly explained. Among Congregationalists, each church, that is, each congregation of covenanted believers, has full power to manage its own ecclesiastical concerns, without subordination to. any earthly tri- bunal. There was no way, therefore, of compelling churches that had become Unitarian to part with their Unitarian pastors. On the same principle, pastors and churches that continued orthodox were at liberty to withhold Christian fellowship from those in whom they had no confidence. There was no means of compelling orthodox ministers and churches to perform any act by which a Unitarian would be virtually acknowledged as a Christian minister, or his church as a Christian church. Orthodox ministers, therefore, refused to exchange pulpit labors on the Sabbath with those whom they be- lieved to be Unitarians, or to sit with them in ecclesiastical councils, or in any other way to recognize them as ministers of Christ. This practice, however, was adopted gradually. Many orthodox men were slow in believing that one and another of their neighbors was a Uni- tarian ; and many undecided men contrived to avoid for some time a declaration in favor of either party, and to keep on good terms with both. At length, however, successive disclosures made the dividing line so visible, throughout its whole length, that every man knew his 556 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. own side of it, and the parties are completely separated without any formal excommunication of one by the other. They meet only once a year in the " General Convention of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts," and they continue to meet together there only on account of a fund of about $100,000 for the support of their widows. On the publication of Mr. Belsham's disclosures, it was found that all the Congregational churches in Boston had become Unitarian, ex- cept the Old South and Park-street, which last had been established within a few years by some zealous Trinitarians. The whole number of Unitarian churches in various parts of ISTew England, but mostly in the eastern part of Massachusetts, was supposed to be about sev- enty-five, though subsequent disclosures showed it to have been con- siderably larger. They had then almost entire possession of Harvard College ; and, by a change in its charter, deliberately planned some years before, but hurried through the Legislature at a favorable mo- ment, they secured the control of it to their party. A considerable number of churches in Massachusetts had funds, given by the pious of former generations, for the support of the min- istry and of Christian ordinances. The main object of the donors was to secure to their descendants, in perpetuity, the services of learned, pious, and orthodox pastors ; and the funds were committed to the church, and not to the parish, because the church, being com- posed of persons of approved piety, would guard them most effect- ually against perversion. Such was the case with the First Church in Dedham. In 1818, a majority of the inhabitants of the parish with which that church was connected chose a Unitarian to be their pastor. The church refused to receive him as their pastor. A few of its members, however, seceded from the church, chose the Unita- rian for their pastor, and commenced a lawsuit against the church for the possession of its property. In March, 1821, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts decided in their favor, and established the principle that, in all such cases, those who act with the majority of the parish are the church, and have a right to the funds. By this decision many churches have been deprived of their funds, their houses of worship, and even the furniture of their communion-table ; and many Unitarian churches owe their existence to means thus obtained. After this decision the existence of a church, as distinct from the parish, became unimportant among Unitarians. Its secular interests were wholly in the power of the parish, and might as well be held by the parish directly. Their churches, as has been shown, were never intended to be bodies from which the unregenerate should be ex- cluded. There was, therefore, no longer any important end to be answered by their existence. Generally, it has not been thought best CHAP, in.] UNITAEIANISM. 557 to disband them ; but in a considerable number of instances they have been suffered to become extinct, and there remain only the parish, and the pastor, who administers the ordinances mdiscriminately to all who desire it. According to some of their own writers, the result is that the ordinances become cheap in men's esteem, and few care to receive them. Church discipline, of course, has fallen into entire disuse. The discipline of the clergy appears to be also extinct. If any of their clergy become scandalously immoral, they are not form- ally deposed from the ministry, nor visited with any ecclesiastical censure, but are allowed to continue in office till their reputation be- comes such that none will employ them, and then to retire silently to private life. In 1825 the number of Unitarian congregations was estimated at one hundred and twenty. In 1855, they were said to amount to about three hundred and sixty, of which all but eighty-six were in Massachusetts. Out of New England there were but thirty-nine. There are several causes of this increase. In 1825 the process of taking sides was not completed. Of the few which then remained without character, a part have doubtless become decidedly Unitarian. Mr. Ballou's work on the atonement has already been mentioned as the first Unitarian work by an American author. That and other works of a similar character prepared the Universalists, somewhat ex- tensively, to avow Unitarian opinions. The Unitarians have, to a great extent, and it is believed generally, embraced the doctrine of the final salvation of all men. There is, therefore, no doctrinal dis- tinction between the two sects. As Unitarianism is esteemed the more genteel religion of the two, Universalists are under a strong temptation to change their name, and call themselves Unitarians. Such changes very naturally occur when a Universalist congregation becomes vacant, and a Unitarian preacher of acceptable address offers himself as a candidate. Sometimes congregations change from one of these sects to the other, and back again, as temporary convenience dictates. Unitarianism, as has been shown, originally grew out of a dislike to the practice of requiring evidence of piety in candidates for admis- sion to the churches. There are many, in various parts of the coun- try, in whom this fundamental feeling of the sect is very strong, but who are yet unwilling to live without some form of religion. They are easily organized into a society which requires no creed, and sub- jects them to no discipline. Societies thus formed, however, often vanish as easily and suddenly as they are made. In 1787 a " Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians 558 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VTI. and others in North America" was incorporated by the Legislature of Massachusetts. It acquired permanent funds to the amount of 89,000. It elects its own members ; and a majority of them having proved to be Unitarian, the society has passed wholly into the hands of that sect. It expends the income of its fund in supporting two or three preachers among the remnants of Indian tribes in New England One or two other unimportant societies, not originally formed by them, have in like manner passed under their control. They have no organization for foreign missions. To the Bible Society they contribute something, but the amount is not known. The "American Unitarian Association," formed in 1825, is their principal organization for united action. Its object is declared to be " to diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Chris- tianity throughout our country." This association aids from ten to twenty churches, most of them in New England, and publishes a considerable series of tracts. Its receipts have been usually about $5,000 annually. The smallness of the amount expended by Unitarians in the way of associated action is not to be ascribed to parsimony, but to relig- ious indifference. A large part of the wealth of Boston, and of the eastern part of Massachusetts, is in their hands ; and their capitalists have made many splendid donations to literary, scientific, and humane institutions. Their churches probably contain some truly regenerate persons, who became members of them before they were avowedly Unitarian, and who remain there from reverence for ancient usages, attachment to the places where their ancestors worshiped, and other similar causes. Others of them are men of stern and almost Puritanic moral- ity, who have had from infancy great reverence for religion in the gross, but have never seriously studied its application to themselves in the detail of its doctrines and duties, and who would have re- mained steadfast members of the same congregations just as quietly had those congregations remained orthodox. In philosophy the Unitarians of New England were at first, and for some years, followers of Locke ; holding that all our ideas, or, at least, the elements of which they are formed, are received through the senses. Very naturally, therefore, they built their belief of Chris- tianity wholly on evidence addressed to the senses. They believed that miracles had been wrought, because it appeared so extremely improbable that the apostles were deceived concerning them, or at- tempted to deceive others ; or that the canonical writings ascribed to them are spurious ; or that the accounts of miracles which they con- tain are interpolations. Those miracles they held to be the testimony CHAP. III.] UNITAEIAOTSM. 559 of God, addressed to the senses of men, proving the truth of Chris- tianity. Yet they did not admit the infallibility of the apostolic writings as we have them. Many of them held that the authors of the several parts of the New Testament had no inspiration which secured them against mistakes and false reasoning : and they very generally held that strong texts in favor of the doctrine of the Trin- ity, the divinity of Christ, or the personality of the Holy Spirit, must be interpolations or corruptions. Their religious guide, therefore, was so much of the Bible as they judged to be true ; and their re- ligion was, in its theory, the conformity of their hearts and lives to certain external rules, which, in all probability, were originally given by God, and which have been transmitted to us in a record which is not free from error. To this, individuals among them append more or less of sentiment and imagination, according to the prompting of their own genius. A system like this can never long continue to sat- isfy any community. It fails to meet certain feelings of spiritual want, which are sure to spring up in many minds. Hence there has been among the more serious, ever since the separation, a gradual going over to orthodoxy, which has retarded the growth of Unita- rianism. Now the orthodox Congregational churches in Boston are about as numerous as the Unitarian, and the worshipers much more numerous ; and the result is similar in the surrounding country. About twenty-five years since, German Transcendentalism made its appearance among the Unitarian clergy, and has spread rapidly. Its adherents, generally, are not very profound thinkers, nor very well acquainted with the philosophy which they have embraced, or with the evidence on which it rests. It promises to relieve its disci- ples from the necessity of building their religious faith and hopes on probabilities, however strong, and to give them an intuitive and in- fallible knowledge of all that is essential in religion ; and it affords an unlimited range for the play of the imagination. It has charms, therefore, for the contemplative and for the enthusiastic. The controversy on this subject became public in 1836. It was brought out by an article in the Christian Examiner, maintaining that our faith in Christianity does not rest on the evidence of miracles ; that a record of miracles, however attested, can prove nothing in favor of a religion not previously seen to be true ; and that, therefore, we need to see and admit the reasonableness and truth of the doc- trines of Christianity, before we can believe that miracles were wrought to commend it to mankind. The " Old School" Unitarians, as they called themselves, pronounced this theory infidelity, for it struck at the foundation of the only reasoning by which they proved the truth of Christianity. The controversy was protracted, and somewhat bit- 560 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. ter ; but no attempt was made by the " Old School" to separate themselves from those whom they denounced as infidels. The charge of Pantheism is brought against the Transcendental- ists generally, by their Unitarian opponents ; and, in fact, some of their publications are evidently pantheistic, while others are ambigu- ous in that respect. Some of them have borrowed largely from Ben- jamin Constant, and maintain that all religions, from Fetichism to the most perfect form of Christianity, are essentially of the same na- ture, being only developments, more or less perfect, of the religious sentiment which is common to all men. According to them, all men who have any religious thoughts or feelings are so far inspired ; Mo- ses, Minos, and Numa, and a few others, had an unusual degree of inspiration ; and Jesus of Nazareth most of all. They do not be- lieve, however, that even Jesus was so inspired as to be in all cases an infallible teacher ; and they declare themselves by no means sure that we shall not yet see His superior. They reject Christ as medi- ator in every sense of the term, and declare that, in order to be true Christians, we must hold intercourse with God as Christ himself did, without a mediator. These impious doctrines have been promulgated in periodicals and otherwise, from time to time, with increasing boldness. In the spring of the year 1841, they were put forth without disguise and without reserve in a sermon at an ordination at South Boston. Several of the leading Unitarian clergy of the " Old School" were present, and took part in the services. It is said that some of them, in performing their parts, uttered sentiments at variance with those of the preacher, from which attentive hearers might infer that the sermon did not meet their approbation ; but there was no explicit condemnation of the sermon either then or afterward, till public attention was called to the subject by three evangelical clergymen who attended the or- dination as hearers, and took notes of the discourse. These three witnesses, some weeks after the ordination, published extracts from the sermon in several religious newspapers, and called on the members of the ordaining Council to say whether they recognized the preacher as a Christian minister. Public attention was roused. Several intel- ligent Unitarian laymen united in the demand. Continued silence became impracticable. A number of articles appeared in newspapers and magazines, in which individual Unitarian ministers denounced the sermon, and pronounced its doctrines deistical; but they carefully avoided the question, whether its author was recognized by them as a Christian minister. Others of them preached and wrote in his defence. His ecclesiastical relations still remained undisturbed. Some of his Unitarian neighbors recognized his ministerial character by CHAP. III.] UNITAEIANISM. 561 exchanging pulpits with him on the Sabbath ; and he, in his turn, preached the weekly lecture maintained by the Unitarian clergy of the Boston Association. It is understood, therefore, that the public avowal of doctrines like his, forms no obstacle to a regular standing in the Unitarian ministry. Why was not this defection arrested in its progress by ecclesiasti- cal authority ? The answer is easy. In Connecticut, where one or two ministers became Unitarian while the community remained orthodox, it was done. Those Uni- tarian ministers were removed from their places, and the progress of error was arrested. In Massachusetts, the defection was carried on by a different process. Men did not fall, one at a time, from ortho- doxy into open Unitarianism, but almost the whole community in the eastern part of the State sunk down gradually and together. For a long time there was no proof by which any one could be convicted of heresy ; and when proof was obtained, the heretics were found to be the majority in the ecclesiastical bodies to which they belonged, and of course, if any process had been commenced, would have de- cided all questions in their own favor. The friends and abettors of the Congregational independence of individual churches maintain that it has been the means of saving New England from universal apostacy. Had the Synod, in 1662, they say, instead of being merely advisory, possessed jurisdiction over these churches, it would have imposed the half-way covenant upon them all. As it was only advisory, a considerable number of churches rejected its advice, and adhered to the ancient practice of the Pilgrims. So, half a century later, had there been an ecclesiasti- cal government to which all the churches owed obedience, Stoddard's doctrine of admitting the unregenerate to full communion would have been enforced upon all ; for numbers and influence were in its favor. And when Edwards, after the great revival of 1740, pro- claimed the ancient doctrine concerning church membership, had there been an ecclesiastical tribunal having authority over all the churches, he and his Reformation would have been put down at once, and the admission of the unregenerate to the Lord's Table would have been required of all. And, finally, consider, they still further say, the state of things in 1815, when conclusive proof was first ob- tained of the existence of Unitarianism among the Congregational clergy in eastern Massachusetts. The Unitarians had the majority in the ecclesiastical bodies of which they were members. Had these bodies possessed jurisdiction over all churches within their bounds, they might have established Unitarianism in them all, and might have forbidden all efforts for the revival or preservation of orthodoxy. 36 562 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. If there had been a body representing all the churches in the State, and having authority over all, the majority would have been ortho- dox ; but the Unitarians were numerous and powerful enough to have thrown off its jurisdiction, and to have subsisted by themselves, as they now do. If the civil government had been invested with power to enforce religious uniformity, it could have prevented such a result ; but it would not have done it : for the most important powers of the civil government were then, and, with few exceptions, have been ever since, wielded by Unitarian hands. In all these instances, the independence of the churches, its friends firmly believe, secured to the most orthodox the privilege of adher- ing to the whole truth, both in doctrine and practice, and of exerting themselves in its defence and for its diffusion. This privilege there have always been some to claim and to use. Error, therefore, has always been held in check till truth could rally its forces and regain its ascendency. Many readers, however, will be of opinion that, but for the isolation of ministers and congregations under the Congregational system, error must have been much sooner discovered, and checked in its be- ginnings. The same remark applies to the apostacy of many nomin- ally Presbyterian ministers and congregations in England. These never were Presbyterians in fact. Error thus had leave to work its way unchecked by the oversight either of bishop or presbytery. We will only add that the number of Unitarian ministers in the United States is about two hundred and sixty. They have but two theo- logical schools, one at Cambridge, the other at Meadville, Pennsyl- vania. CHAPTER IV. THE CHRIST-IAN CONNECTION. The body that assumes the title of Christians is of purely Ameri- can origin. They are more generally called in the United States Christ-ians, the i in the first syllable being pronounced long, though this pronunciation is rejected by themselves. Dating their rise from about the year 1803, they appeared, it seems, in New England, Ohio, and Kentucky, some say also in the South, nearly about the same time. They boast of having no founder — no Luther or Calvin, no Whitfield or Wesley — that can claim any spe- cial influence among them. They are the largest no-creed sect in CHAP. IV.] THE CHRIST-IAN CONNECTION. 563 America, and had their origin in the dissatisfaction that existed in some minds with what they called the " bondage of creeds," and still more, with the bondage of discipline that prevails, as they insist, in all other churches. This may be easily accounted for. Many of the most active promoters of the new sect had been excluded from other communions because of their denial of some important doctrine, or their refusal to submit to discipline and government. The Christ-ians, according to some of their leading authorities, had a threefold origin. The first members of their societies, or churches, in New England, were originally members of the Regular Baptist connection ; in the West they had been Presbyterians, and in the South Methodists. Their Churches have all along been constituted on the following principles : " The Scriptures are taken to be the only rule of faith and practice, each individual being at liberty to deter- mine for himself, in relation to these matters, what they enjoin ; no member is subject to the loss of church fellowship on account of his sincere and conscientious belief, so long as he manifestly lives a pious and devout life ; no member is subject to discipline and church cen- sure but for disorderly and immoral conduct ; the name Christian to be adopted, to the exclusion of all sectarian names, as the most ap- propriate designation of the body and its members ; the only condi- tion or test of admission, as a member of a church, is a personal profession of the Christian religion, accompanied with satisfactory evidence of sincerity and piety, and a determination to live according to the Divine rule or the Gospel of Christ ; each body is considered an independent body, possessing exclusive authority to regulate and govern its own affairs."* Although their founders continued to cleave more or less closely to some, at least, of the peculiarities of the various bodies in which they had been brought up, a process of assimilation to each other has been gradually going on, and has at length brought them to a consid- erable degree of uniformity on most points of doctrine. Trinitarians for the most part at the outset, they have now almost unanimously rejected the doctrine of the Trinity as unscriptural ; and although they refuse to be tied down to a creed, the following may be consid- ered as a fair outline of the doctrines that prevail among them : " That there is one living and true God, the Father Almighty, who is un- originated, independent, and eternal, the Creator and Supporter of all worlds ; and that this God is one spiritual intelligence, one infinite mind, ever the same, never varying : that this God is the moral Gov- ernor of the world, the absolute source of all the blessings of nature, * See an u Account of the Christian Connection, or Christ-ians," by the late Rev. Joshua V. Himes, in the " Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge." 564 NON-EVANGELIC AT, DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VU. providence, and grace, in whose infinite wisdom, goodness, mercy, benevolence and love,, have originated all his moral dispensations to man : that all men sin and come short of the glory of God, and, con- sequently fall under the curse of the law : that Christ is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, and Saviour of the world, the Mediator between God and man, by whom God has revealed his will to man- kind ; by whose sufferings, death, and resurrection, a way has been provided by which sinners may obtain salvation — may lay hold on eternal life ; that he is appointed of God to raise the dead, and judge the world at the last day : that the Holy Spirit is the power and energy of God — that holy influence of God by whose agency, in the use of means, the wicked are regenerated, converted, and recovered to a virtuous and holy life, sanctified and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light ; and that, by the same Spirit, the saints, in the use of means, are comforted, strengthened, and led in the path of duty : the free forgiveness of sins, flowing from the rich mercy of God, through the labors, sufferings, and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ: the necessity of repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ : the absolute necessity of holiness of heart and rectitude of life to enjoy the favor and approbation of God : the doctrine of a future state of immortality : the doctrine of a righteous retribution, in which God will render to every man according to the deeds done in the body : the baptism of believers by immersion : and the open communion at the Lord's Table of Christians of every denomination having a good standing in their respective churches."* Although each church is wholly independent of all others in the management of its affairs, yet, for the promotion of their mutual prosperity, they have associations called " State Conferences," com- posed of delegates from the clergy and the churches, but with only advisory powers. In 1855 there were in the United States, it was estimated, five hundred ministers, six hundred churches, and about thirty-five thousand members. The population supposed to be under their influence is estimated at three hundred thousand, which is man- ifestly too high, for many of their congregations are very small, par- ticularly in the West. Generally speaking, their ministers are men of little education, but a laudable desire for improvement in this respect has been showing itself. They have lately established a college in Ohio, called " An- tioch College." It is said to be flourishing. They have no theological seminaries. For some years past they have had a religious journal * See " Account of the Christian Connection, or Christ-ians," by the late Rev k Joshua V. Himes, in the " Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge." CHAP. V.] THE UISTIVERSALISTS. 565 called " The Christian Palladium," published in the State of New York, and two or three other journals, one published in New Hamp- shire, the other in Illinois. They have a Book Association also. Upon the whole, much inferior as the Christ-ians are to the Unitarians in point of wealth, the size of their churches, the learning and elo- quence of then ministers, and the rank and respectability of their members, yet being far more numerous, and having doctrines of quite as elevated a character, their influence upon the masses, while kindred in nature, is perhaps greater in extent. CHAPTER V. THE UNIVERS ALISTS. In our chapter on the Unitarians, we expressed our views of the moral influence of the doctrines of the Universalists. The latter were little known as a sect in America until about the middle of the last century, when a few persons of reputation partially or wholly embraced their doctrines. These were afterward preached by the Rev. John Murray, who came from England in 1770, and were em- braced by the Rev. Elhanan Winchester, a Baptist minister of con- siderable talent. Both Murray and Winchester held the doctrine of restoration, that is, that after the resurrection and the judgment, the wicked, after suffering in hell for a time, and in a measure propor- tioned to their guilt, will eventually be recovered through the influ- ences of the Spirit, and saved by the atonement of Christ. About the year 1790, the Rev. Hosea Ballou appeared as a Universalist preacher, and taught that all punishment is in this life, and, conse- quently, that the souls of the righteous and the wicked alike pass im- mediately at death into a state of happiness— a doctrine which, being much more acceptable to the unrenewed heart, became much more popular than that of restoration as above described. The restora- tionist preachers in the United States hardly exceed twelve or fifteen in number, and their churches are even fewer ; whereas the Univer- salists, properly so called, have rapidly increased here within the last fifty years. In 1801 there were but twenty-two avowed Universalist preachers ; they now state their numbers to be as follows : six hun- dred and forty preachers, eight hundred and twenty-eight churches, under a General Convention, and many Associations, and six hundred thousand of the population under their influence. The last item, we suspect, is much too high. Their congregations are mostly small, and many attend from mere curiosity. 566 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. The doctrines of the American Universalists are well expressed in three articles adopted as a " Profession of Belief" by the General Convention of Universalists, held in 1803. It is said to be "per- fectly satisfactory to the denomination," and is as follows : 1. "We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest, and final destination of mankind. 2. " We believe that there is one God, whose nature is love ; revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of grace, who will finally restore the whole world of mankind to holiness and happiness. 3. " We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably con- nected ; and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practise good works ; for these things are good and profitable unto men." Although their churches are all severally independent of each other, yet for consultation they have local associations, State Con- ventions, and a General Convention. They have begun of late years to pay some attention to education, and have now what they call a university in the State of Vermont, and three or four inferior insti- tutions. Most of their preachers, though men of little learning, by directing all their thoughts to one point, and mustering every plausi- ble argument in favor of their doctrines, become wonderfully skillful in wielding their sophistry, so as readily to seduce such as want to find an easier way to Heaven than can be found in the Scriptures, when these are not tortured and perverted to serve some particular end. They say that they have no fewer than twenty newspapers, ad- vocating their doctrines in different parts of the country. The only Universalists whose preaching seems to have any moral influence, are the handful of Restorationists — the rest are heard with delight chiefly by the irreligious, the profane, Sabbath-breakers, drunkards, and all haters of evangelical religion. Their preaching positively exercises no reforming influence on the wicked, and what worse can be said of it ?* I take pleasure in stating that of late there seems to be a growing conviction among some of the leading Universalists that there must be some punishment for the wicked in the world to come. * On the opening of a Universalist place of worship in any of our cities and vil- lages, it is flocked to chiefly by low, idle, and vicious persons. Curiosity sometimes attracts others of a better description for a time ; but it is a remarkable fact, estab- lished by the testimony of Universalists on becoming converted to the Truth, that few can, however desirous, ever bring themselves to believe the doctrine of universal salvation. Most are like the New England farmer who, at the close of a Universalist service, went forward and thanked the preacher for his sermon, saying that he vastly liked the doctrine, and would give him five dollars if he would only make it true ! CHAP. VII.] THE JEWS. 567 CHAPTER VI. SWEDENBOEGIANS. The New Jerusalem Church, or Swederiborgians, are not numerous in America. Their doctrines were first propagated here, I believe, by some missionaries from England. Their churches, which are small, are about forty-five in number, and isolated members of the sect are to be found in various parts of the country. They have about thirty-five ministers, with hardly ten thousand souls under their instruction. Their churches, in point of government, are, in the main, Independent, with consultative conventions of their minis- ters, held from time to time. Their doctrines, which, the reader must be aware, are of Swedish origin, and have for their author Baron Emanuel Swedenborg, are a strange " amalgamation," as some one has justly remarked, " of Sabellianism, the errors of the Patripassians, many of the anti-Scriptural notions of the Socinians, and some of the most extravagant vagaries of mysticism. Their mode of interpreting Scripture is totally at variance with every principle of sound philology and exegesis, and necessarily tends to unsettle the mind, and leave it a prey to the wildest whimsies that it is possible for the human mind to create or entertain." They practise both Baptism and the Lord's Supper. They have two or three periodicals, in which their doc- trines are expounded and defended.* CHAPTER VII. THE JEWS. Whatever may have been the early legislation of the Anglo- American colonies in regard to the descendants of Abraham, it is certain that the Jew now finds an asylum, and the full enjoyment of his civil rights, in all parts of the United States. Yet I know not how it has happened, unless it be owing to the distance of our coun- * The Swedenborgians say that they are increasing faster in America than any- where else at present. If this be so, their increase throughout the world must be slow indeed. The late Judge Young, of Greensburg, in Pennsylvania, the Rev. Dr. Bush, of New York, and a few other men of some influence, have been reckoned among their converts. In some instances men who have grown tired of the coldness of Unitarianism, have betaken themselves to Swedenborgianism. Dr. Bush is their ablest writer. 568 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. try from Europe, and its presenting less scope for the petty traffic which forms their chief employment in the Old World, that it has been only at a comparatively recent period that any considerable number of Jews have found their way to our shores. So much have they increased, however, among us during the last twenty years, that it is now computed that there are no fewer than fifty thousand in the United States. They have about fifty synagogues and the same number of Rabbies. Five or six synagogues are now to be found in New York, instead of one, as a few years ago. There is one in which the service is conducted in English, at Charleston, in South Carolina, and no doubt in other cities also. A few instances of con- version to Christianity have taken place, but only a few, the atten- tion of Christians, we may truly say, not having been sufficiently turned to that object. This may have been from the fewness of the Jews, until of late years, causing them to be overlooked, or from the want of suitable persons to devote themselves to the work. We are pleased to see that some interest has begun to be taken in this sub- ject during the last few years. CHAPTER VIII. RAPPISTS, SHAKEES, MOKMONS, ETC. The Mappists are a small body of German Protestants, who came to the United States from Wurtemburg, about the year 1803, under their pastor, a Mr. George Rapp, now deceased. They settled at a place called Economy, on the Ohio, about fifteen miles below Pitts- burg. From Economy part of them, headed by Mr. Rapp, went to the Wabash River, in Indiana, and on its banks formed a new settle- ment, called Harmony, but this they afterward sold to the well- known Robert Owen, and returned to Economy, in Pennsylvania. Their distinguishing principle is an entire " community of goods," upon what they suppose to have been the example of the primitive Christians. The whole scheme, however, of this small community, for it comprises but a few hundred members, seems mainly of a worldly and merely economical character, though they keep up the form of religious observances and services. The Shakers are a fanatical sect of English origin. About 1747, James Wardley, originally a Quaker, imagining that he had super- natural dreams and revelations, founded a sect which, from the bodily agitations practiced in some parts of their religious services, CHAP. VIII.] EAPPISTS, SHAKEES, M0EM0NS, ETC. 569 were called Shakers, or Shaking Quakers ; it is not, however, to be supposed for a moment that they are connected with the respectable people called Quakers or Friends. Ann Lee, or, rather Mrs. Standley, (for she had married a man of that name,) the daughter of a black- smith in Manchester, England, adopted Wardley's views and the bodily exercises of his followers. From the accounts we have of her she must have become a thorough adept during the nine years which she spent in convulsions, fastings, etc. ; for she is said to have clenched her fists in the course of her fits so as to make the blood pass through the pores of her skin, and wasted away so that at last she had to be fed like an infant. About 1770 she discovered the wickedness of marriage, and began "testifying against it." She called herself " Ann the Word," meaning that the Word dwelt in her. And to this day her followers say that "the man who was called Jesus, and the woman who was called Ami, are verily the two first pillars of the Church, the two anointed ones." In other words, they hold that, as the first Adam 'was accompanied by a woman, so must be the second Adam. In May, 1774, Ann Lee, otherwise Mrs. Standley, together with three elders, and others of the sect, emigrated to America, and two years after formed a settlement at Niskayuna, a few miles from Albany, in the State of New York. From that, as from a centre, they put forth shoots, until at length there are now about fifteen Shaker settlements, or villages, in different parts of the United States, comprising some six or eight thousand souls. Their doctrines are a strange mixture of the crudest errors with some few Gospel truths, but it would be a sad misnomer to call them Christian. They call themselves the Millennial Church. They hold that the millennium has begun, and that they are the only true church, and have all the apostolic gifts. They insist that Baptism and the Lord's Supper ceased with the apostolic age ; that the wicked will be pun- ished for a definite period only, except such as apostatize from them, and these will be punished forever ; that the judgment has already commenced ; that Christ will not again appear in the world, except in the persons of his followers, that is, the Shakers ; that marriage is sinful, and that " they that have wives should be as though they had none," even now, and that thus alone purity and holiness, and the consequent beatitude of the heavenly state, can be attained ; that sin committed against God is committed against them, and can be pardoned only for Christ's sake through them. Such are some of their absurd tenets. The discipline of their churches rests for the most part with their " elders," who follow the instructions left by " Mother Ann Lee." In their religious worship, they range them- 570 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AiTEEICA. [BOOK VH. selves at intervals in rows, and then spring upward a few inches ; sometimes, however, they become so excited in this exercise as to throw off their upper garments, and jump as if they would touch the ceiling — all, as they say, to express their joy in the Lord. After this they sit down and listen awhile to their preachers, and then, when tired of hearing, resume their dancing freaks. They maintain the doctrine of a communion of goods. The men and women live apart. The children of the proselytes are instantly separated, the boys being sent into the male apartment, and the girls into the female. Of course it is only from such recruits that a com- munity of this kind can keep up its numbers. The Shakers have the reputation, in general, of being honest and industrious, but I have had no means of ascertaining what their in- terior life and conduct may be, beyond this, that no small number of their members have left them in disgust, and are far from speaking well of them. The reader will perceive their insignificance in point of numbers, yet to believe some European travelers, there is cause to fear that the United States may one day be overrun with this igno- rant and deluded sect. But the absurd importance which such writers would fain attach to the Shakers is easily accounted for ; their eccentricities afford a topic sufficiently marvelous and amusing to fill a chapter or two in a "Diary" or " Note-book," while in the United States nobody thinks it worth while to bestow much thought upon them. So long as they respect the persons, rights, and prop- erty of others, the government suffers them to gratify their fancies undisturbed. Accordingly, they remain a small and quiet obscure community, that must in time utterly disappear instead of growing into something like importance, which would be the probable result if they were persecuted. Were the Shakers to appear in some Euro- pean countries, a very different, and, in my opinion, a far less prudent course would be followed. Accustomed to meddle with every thing, even with conscience itself, their governments would probably inter- fere, under the plea of saving the children from being brought up in such delusion. But we prefer letting them alone, under the convic- tion that, all things considered, it is better to do so, and with the hope that the light that surrounds them, and with which they must come into contact in their intercourse with the world, will, in God's own time, reach their minds. To interfere with those parental ties, and that consequent responsibility which God himself has established, must always be a difficult and dangerous task even for the best and wisest of governments.* * A book of a character somewhat remarkable was published a few years ago by these deluded people. It is entitled " A Holy, Sacred, and Divine ROLL AND CHAP. VIII.] EAPPISTS, SHAKERS, MORMONS, ETC. 571 The Mormons, or Latter Day Saints, as they call themselves. The annals of modern times furnish few more remarkable examples of cunning in the leaders, and delusion in their dupes, than are pre- sented by what is called Mormonism. An ignorant but ambitious BOOK, from the LORD GOD OF HEAVEN, to the Inhabitants op the Earth ; REVEALED IN THE UNITED SOCIETY AT NEW LEBANON, COUNTY OF COLUMBIA, STATE of New York, United States of America. Read and understand all ye in mortal clay. Published at Canterbury, N. H., 1843." The history of this strange production is as follows : A certain Philemon Stewart asserts that a holy angel from the Lord came to him in the morning of the 4th of May, 1842, at New Lebanon, and commanded him to appear before the Lord on the Holy Mount, bowing himself seven times as he approached. He obeyed the heavenly messenger, and met a mighty angel on the summit of the hill or mount, who read to him six hours every day from the Roll which he had in his hand, in order that he, Philemon Stewart, might write down the sacred revelation. The contents of this volume are various. First, there is a Proclamation of the Almighty to all that dwell on the earth, announcing that he was going to make a great revelation through his holy angel, who is Jesus Christ. Next comes a procla- mation from God to his holy angel. Then follows a proclamation of the angel him- self. After this, we have the introduction to the Sacred Roll, by the holy angel, given also at New Lebanon (after the volume had been written), on the 2d of Feb- ruary, 1843, at twelve o'clock, M. Then comes the "Sacred Volume and Sealed Roll, opened and read by the mighty angel," consisting of thirty -three chapters, each of which is divided into verses, after the manner of the Scriptures. To give any thing like an adequate idea of its contents in a short space is impossi- ble. I will only say, that it proposes to give an account of the character of God ; the creation of man ; of his fall through the temptation of the serpent [irrational or ani- mal propensities] ; of God's dealing with mankind ; of Jesus Christ ; of the departure from the Gospel ; of the second advent, or the Christ in the female (Mother Ann Lee) ; of the way by which holiness may be attained, viz., the renunciation of sexual and sensual desires, and living as brothers and sisters, instead of husbands and wives; of the terrible judgments which men will encounter if they do not obey this revelation, As it is important that this book should be known to all mankind, it is enjoined by the mighty angel that every minister of the Gospel should have a copy, as soon as he can procure one, in the sacred pulpit, that people may see it. All boards of mis- sions are commanded to have it translated into foreign languages. One edition has been printed by the " Society" for gratuitous distribution. Copies have been sent, in the name of the Lord, to the principal booksellers, and a modest request is made that they would publish and circulate the work, and some directions respecting the man- ner of doing so are given.* We learn, furthermore, from a letter dated the 18th of December, 1843, addressed to the Messrs. Harper, that the committee or agents of the Society have resolved upon a pretty wide and thorough dissemination of the five hundred copies which they had, agreeably to the Divine command, printed for general distribution. " We do not feel it our province," say they, "to judge of the work and designs of the Al- * In fact, on page 161, it is expressly ordained that the book must be "bound in yellow paper, with red backs, edges also yellow ; and it is my command, saith the Lord, that if any person or per- sons shall add aught to this book, he or they shall not prosper in time, nor find rest in eternity." 572 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. person of the name of Joseph Smith, jun., then residing in the west- ern part of the State of New York, pretended that an angel appeared to him in 1827, and told him where he should find a stone box, con- taining certain golden plates, with a revelation from heaven in- scribed on them. Four years after this, the plates having, of course, been found as described, the impostor set about the writing out of this revelation, and pretended, with the aid of a pair of stone spec- tacles, found also in the box, to read it off to a man of the name of Harris, and afterward to one called Cowdery, these acting as his amanuenses. The "prophet," as he is now called, took care, of course, that neither of them, nor any one else, should see the plates, the part of the room he occupied having been partitioned off from that where they sat by a blanket. After three years spent in concocting this new revelation, the book at last was completed, and published as a 12mo volume of five hundred and eighty-eight pages, at Palmyra, in the State of New York. It is commonly called the Mormon's pible, but more properly The Booh of 3formon, and is divided into fifteen books or parts, each purporting to be written by the author whose name it bears. These profess to give the history of about a thousand years from the time of Zedekiah, king of Judah, to a. d. 420. The whole work claims to be an abridgment by one Moroni, the last of the Nephites, of the seed of Israel, from the records of his people. Not to trouble the reader with details respecting this most absurd of all pretended revelations from heaven, we need only say that it un- dertakes " to trace the history of the Aborigines of the American Continent, in all their apostacies, pilgrimages, trials, adventures, and wars from the time of their leaving Jerusalem, in the reign of Zede- kiah, under one Lehi, down to their final disaster, near the hill of Camorah, in the State of New York, where Smith found his golden plates. In that final contest, according to the prophet Moroni, about mighty in this matter ; but we feel ourselves under the most solemn obligations to obey His divine command, which has been revealed to us by the inspiration of His holy angel, with that degree of evidence which we can not doubt. "We have, there- fore, made arrangements to forward four copies to each of the governments of Europe and Asia, part of which are already on the way to Europe ; four to the chief magis- trate of these United States, and two to the executive of each State, and also to the different boards of foreign missions. " We are aware that the manner in which the book was revealed and written, in the name of inspiration from the Almighty, is not according to the generally-received opinions and present sense and ideas of mankind, but we solemnly testify that this work was not directed nor dictated by any mortal power or wisdom." The whole is a strange mixture, in which entire passages, as well as verses, of the Scriptures are mingled up with the speculations, often both impious and absurd, of the professed author. CHAP. VIII.] EAPPISTS, SHAKERS, M0RM0XS, ETC. 573 two hundred and thirty thousand were slain in battle, and he alone escaped to tell the tale."* But the JBook of Mormon, which they do not consider so much in the light of a substitute for the Holy Scriptures as of a supplement to them, does not contain all Joseph Smith's revelations ; a 1 2mo volume, of about two hundred and fifty pages, called ''''The Booh of Covenants and Revelations ^ and filled with the silliest things imagin- able, of all sorts, has been added to it by way of another supplement. Thoroughly to comprehend the whole system, however, one must read Mr. Parley P. Pratt's " Voice of Warning," for he is an oracle among the Mormons, and also the newspapers which they publish as an organ for the dissemination of their doctrines. We may add that, aided by his wonderful spectacles, Smith undertook to make a new translation of the Bible, although quite unacquainted with Hebrew and Greek ! The publication of Ins own Bible, in 1830, may be considered as the starting-point of the sect. For some years he made but few con- verts, but having removed to Kirtland, Ohio, he was there joined by Sidney Rigdon, formerly a heterodox Baptist preacher, who had been preparing the way for Mormonism by propagating certain doc- trines of his own, and being a much better-informed man than Smith, it was chiefly under his plastic hand that the religious economy of the sect has been formed. From Ohio they began to remove, in 1834, to Jackson comity, in Missouri, where they were to have their " Mount Zion," the capital and centre of their great empire. The people of Missouri, a few years after, compelled them to leave it ; upon which they went to Illinois, and there they set about building the city of Nauvoo, on the left bank of the Mississippi, and thither their disciples flocked, until their numbers amounted to several thou- sands. Smith and Rigdon were long their chief prophets. At last Smith was killed by the hands of those whom he cruelly injured in their domestic relations, and, driven by the enraged people of Illinois, the community removed to Salt Lake, in what is now Utah, where they have founded a city and a large settlement. For a while, they had many to sympathize with them on account of the severity with which they had been supposed to be treated in Missouri, but so much has lately come to light in proof of the inordin- ate ambition, and vile character and conduct of their leaders, who want to found a kind of empire in the West, that their destruction as a sect would seem inevitable. One dupe after another is leaving them, and exposing the abominations of the fraternity and its chiefs. Their leaders are evidently atrocious impostors, who have deceived a * Turner's "Mormonism in all Ages." 574 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. great many weak-minded persons, by holding out to them promises of great temporal advantage. But they will soon find that America is not another Arabia, nor " Joe Smith" another Mohammed ; and their hope of founding a vast empire in the Western hemisphere must soon vanish away. It is a singular fact that so large a proportion of them are from Great Britain. But it is not difficult to account for this. Their leaders know well that there is a large population in England of a low and ignorant character, who may be readily tempted, by the prospect of bettering their fortunes, to take part in such an enterprise. They have received a good many " recruits" to their ranks from Denmark and Norway. Unfortunately for the ambitious schemes of these men, they had not long been established at Salt Lake, in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, before the Government of the United States obtained possession of California ; and now our population is advancing toward them from the west as well as the east. It is probable that one of the railroads which must, before many years pass away, unite the Pa- cific coast to the Valley of the Mississippi, will pass through Utah and its capital. Every thing is conspiring to defeat the nefarious projects of these people. And now that their abominable doctrines and practices have become well known, at least in the United States, not only does the recruitment of their ranks from our American peo- ple diminish rapidly, but it is certain that there will be but little sympathy felt for them if they should be made to feel the strong arm of the Government of the United States the moment they attempt to establish their own independence, a consummation for which they have for years been laboring. It is probable that their own corrupt doctrines and conduct, however, will lead to the explosion of their scheme. The Government of the United States has wisely abstained from using physical force to suppress them ; for, until now, this would have created sympathy for them and augmented their numbers. But the time for sympathy is passed. Should the community continue to exist till the day comes for the admission of Utah into the confeder- ation as a State, there will be a decided crisis ; for it can not for a moment be believed that it will be received so long as polygamy is not only allowed, but sustained by the sanctions of a pretended reve- lation from heaven. For a long time the leaders held out the idea to their more serious dupes, that the book of Mormon was only a sup- plement to the Christian Scriptures. To the poor, especially, in the Old World, they offered great temporal advantages. But now that the true character of the whole infernal scheme is becoming well known, we have reason to hope that the evil has reached its apogee, CHAP. IX.] ATHEISTS, DEISTS, SOCIALISTS, FOURRIERLTES, ETC. 575 and that the destruction of the community will, before very many years pass away, be effected by moral influences. I am not able to state the number of Mormons, including a small community on an island appertaining to the State of Michigan ; but I do not think it can exceed forty or fifty thousand. Every year some people are leav- ing them, and many more would, it is believed, if they could. This difficulty will grow less, however, as our population approaches them from the east and the west. CHAPTER IX. ATHEISTS, DEISTS, SOCIALISTS, FOURRIERISTS, ETC. These sects can hardly be placed with propriety among religious denominations of any description : the most they pretend to, being a code of morals, such as it is. The avowed Atheists are, happily, few in number, and are chiefly to be found among the frequenters of our remaining groggeries and rum-holes. As for our Deists, including unbelievers in Christianity of all classes, there is a considerable number, especially in New York, and some of our other large cities and towns. A very large proportion of them are foreigners. The infidelity of the present times, however, in the United States, is remarkably distinguished from what was to be found there fifty or sixty years ago, when that of France, after having dif- fused itself in the plausible speculations of a host of popular writers, wherever the French language was known, became at length associ- ated with the great Revolution of that country, and obtaining credit for all that was good in a work which it only corrupted and marred, became fashionable in America as well as in Europe, among the pro- fessed admirers of liberty, in what are called the highest classes of society. At the head of these, in the United States, stood Mr. Jef- ferson, who was President from 1801 to 1809, and who in conversa- tion, and by his writings, did more than any other man that ever lived among us to propagate irreligion in the most influential part of the community. In the same cause, and about the same period, la- bored Mr. Thomas Paine, and, at a later date, Mr. Thomas Cooper, who endeavored to train to infidelity by sophistical reasoning, and still more, by contemptible sarcasms and sneers, the youth whom it was his duty to teach better things. Now, however, it is much otherwise. When men dislike evangeli- 576 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. cal truth, they take refuge in something which, under the name of Christianity, makes a less demand on their conscience and their con- duct. Open infidelity, meanwhile, has descended to the lower ranks. It now buiTows in the narrow streets and lanes, and purlieus of our large cities and towns, where it finds its proper aliment — the ignor- ant and the vicious to mislead and to destroy. Owenism, Socialism, and Fourrierism, are of foreign origin. The first two are from England, and are but economical or political schemes, in which infidelity seeks to imbody and sustain itself. Four- rierism is also an economical scheme. It is not necessarily allied to infidelity, and has had but little success in the United States, nor is it likely to have. Robert Owen, from Scotland, and Miss Frances Wright, from England, endeavored, some years ago, to form the first infidel com- munity upon the social principle adopted by the Shakers and the Mormons ; failing in which, they set about endeavoring to bring over the laboring classes of New York, and other great cities, to certain agrarian schemes. But after much labor in traveling, lecturing, and forming societies for the circulation of infidel tracts and books, their efforts have proved almost fruitless. Their lectures at first attracted crowds both of Americans and foreigners, who attended them from curiosity, but before long their audiences consisted chiefly of foreign- ers, and such is the state of things at present.* That there is a con- siderable amount of infidelity in America, is not denied, but it can not be compared to the vast amount of true religion, much less with the much vaster amount of respect for religion, and religious belief, which so largely pervades the moral atmosphere of the country. Of the truly great men of the nation, very few are infidels. SUMMAKY OF THE NON-EVANGELICAL BODIES. It will appear from what we have just said that the number of ministers in the non-evangelical bodies, great and small, is three thou- sand two hundred and fifteen ; of organized churches, three thousand six hundred and forty-three. Under this head, however, we only * At one time it was feared that vast numbers of the laboring classes in New York, as well as in Philadelphia and other cities, would be carried away by the plausible but vile discourses of Miss Frances Wright. But facts soon proved that those fears were groundless. Even in the acme of her popularity, a friend of mine who was present at one of her lectures told me that she was hissed no less than two or three times for making and repeating the assertion, that Washington was an infidel ! There are few people in the United States who would not consider it a dis- honor done to the name of that great and good man, whom Humanity claims as her own, to call him an infidel. CHAP. X.] REMARKS ON THE STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION. 577 reckon the Romanists, Unitarians, Universalists, Christ-ians, and Swedenborgians. The rest, however — Jews, Shakers, Mormons, etc. — ought to be called non-Christian rather than non-evangelical, and take rank with Deists and other Infidels. As to the number of members belonging to the non-evangelical bodies in the United States, it is not easy to speak with any thing like precision. We may safely say that the Unitarians, Christ-ians, Universalists, and Swedenborgians, have one hundred and twenty-five thousand members. But as to the Roman Catholics, we have no very precise information. They publish no statistics which give us any fight on the subject. They include in their statistics all who are called Ro- man Catholics — men, women, and children — but tell us not how many are communicants. Finally, the population which is under the influ- ence of the non-evangelical bodies, may be estimated at from four to five millions. CHAPTER X. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION IN AMERICA. Having concluded these notices of the various denominations — evangelical and non-evangelical — in the United States, I would now offer a few remarks on the history and present state of theological opinion in this country. Fully and philosophically treated, this could not fail to interest sincere inquirers after truth in all countries, but it would require not a chapter, but a volume, and would hardly be con- sistent with the nature of this work. We must leave such a discus- sion to another time, and, probably, to other hands, and shall now merely touch on a few general topics. I. Let us first mark some of the causes and influences to which the diversity of religious doctrines may be traced. The chief of these are, 1. Differences of origin and ancestry. This we have already no- ticed, but must refer to it again. Had the whole territory of the United States been originally set- tled by one class of men, holding the same system of religious opin- ions, more uniformity of doctrine might reasonably have been looked for. But what philosophical inquirer, knowing the different origins of New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York, would ex- pect that the mere federal union of States that differ so much in their original inhabitants, could ever bring them all to complete religious 37 578 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. uniformity ? Let us but look at the number of different religious bodies — different, I mean, in their origin — to be found in these and the other States of the Union. (1.) The New England Congrega- tional churches, formed by emigrant Puritans, and, down to the epoch of our Revolution, sympathizing strongly with all the changes of opinion among the English dissenters. (2.) The Presbyterian Church, in its larger and smaller branches, very much of Scotch and Irish origin, and still aiming at an imitation of the Church of Scot- land as its pattern. (3.) The Episcopal Church, an off-shoot from the Church of England, dreading and almost scorning to borrow ideas from any quarter save its Mother Church. (4.) The Dutch Reformed Church, which long received its ministers from Holland, and still glories in the Heidelberg Catechism and the decrees of the Synod of Dort. (5.) The Lutherans, the Reformed, and other German churches, who preserve their old nationality, both by being still organized as distinct communions, and by the constant emigration of ministers and people from their original fatherland. Now, why should we expect to see all these fused and amalgamated in the United States more than in Europe ? 2. Mark, too, that none of their ministers can extend any such direct influence over other churches than their own, as might make the exercise of brotherly love pass into close intimacy and final amal- gamation. Each denomination has its own colleges and theological seminaries ; each its own weekly, monthly, or quarterly periodicals ; and some of them may almost be said to have an independent religious literature, edited and published by their own responsible agents. All this is counterbalanced only by many ministers of different denomi- nations receiving their classical and scientific education at the same institutions, preparatory to their more strictly professional studies. 3. The freedom allowed in the United States to all sorts of inquiry and discussion necessarily leads to a diversity of opinion, which is seen not only in there being different denominations, but different opinions also in the same denomination. Perhaps there is not a single ecclesiastical convention in which there are not two parties at least, whose different views lead sometimes to discussions keenly maintained, yet turning generally upon points which, however interesting, are confessedly not of fundamental importance. On what may be called vital or essential points there is little disputation, just because there is much harmony in all the Evangelical Communions. Nor could it be well otherwise, seeing that in doctrine and practice they all take the Bible as their inspired and sole authoritative guide. 4. Nor must we forget that what may be called provincial pecu- liarities necessarily lead so far to diversities of religious sentiment. CHAP. X.] EEMARKS ON THE STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION. 579 A true Eastern man from Connecticut, and a true Western man, born and brought up on the banks of the Ohio, can hardly be ex- pected to speculate alike on dubious points in theology, any more than on many other subjects. So, also, are the inhabitants of the North and South distinguished from each other by peculiarities fully as marked as those that distinguish the northern from the southern inhabitants of Great Britain. II. Yet it is not difficult to draw a line between the various un- evangelical sects on the one hand, and those that may be classed to- gether as evangelical denominations on the other. The chief of the former, as we have said, are the Roman Catholics, Unitarians, Christ- ians, Universalists, Hicksite Quakers, Swedenborgians, Jews, Shakers, and so on down to the Mormons, beginning with the sect that has buried the Truth amid a heap of corruptions of heathenish origin, and ending with the grossest of all the delusions that Satanic ma- lignity or human ambition ever sought to propagate. Now it will be observed that, with the exception of the first two, these sects have few elements of stability. Their ministers are almost all men of little learning, and that little is almost all concentrated in specious en- deavors to maintain their tenets, by perverting the Scriptures, by appealing to the prejudices of their hearers, and by misrepresenting and ridiculing the doctrines of opponents who meet their subtle arguments with the plain declarations of Scripture, as well as with unanswerable arguments drawn from sound reason. The congrega- tions of the Universalists and Christ-ians— the latter of whom are Unitarian Baptists, and the most numerous of the non-evangelical sects next to the Roman Catholics? — are far from large, except in some of the largest cities and towns in New England, and they often last but a few years, disappearing almost entirely before the extension of the evangelical communions. At times a religious revival almost annihilates, in the course of a few weeks, the attempts made by some Universalist preacher to form a society of that sect, at places where the faithful herald of the Gospel has lifted up a standard for Truth. And as none of the unevangelical bodies, not even the Roman Cath- olics, can absolutely debar their members from attending the preach- ing of evangelical ministers when they come into their neighborhood, they present no insurmountable barrier to the advance of Truth. A better and more intimate acquaintance with the state of society in the United States than foreigners can well possess, seems necessary to account for the number, variety, and numerical magnitude of some of our unevangelical sects, and thus to abate the surprise which these may occasion to many of our readers. Nevertheless, to a certain extent, this may be brought within the comprehension even of those 580 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. who have never seen the country. First, then, be it observed that not only can a far larger proportion of the white inhabitants of the United States read than is to be found in almost any other country, but they actually do read and pursue the acquisition of knowledge in almost every possible way. Novelty, accordingly, has always great attractions for them. Next, with the exception, perhaps, of Scotland, in no other country is there so little work done on the Lord's day ; not only does the law require observance, but the disposition of the people enforces it ; and as they are not at all of a character that would incline them to spend the day at home in idleness, they naturally take ad- vantage of the opportunities within reach of attending public meet- ings, and listening to what may be said there. And religion being a subject to which they attach more or less importance almost uni- versally, it is what they most like to hear discussed on the Sabbath. Thirdly, where there is no evangelical preaching, vast numbers, par- ticularly of such as have no decided religious convictions, will resort to a Universalist, or even to an Infidel preacher, if one is announced in their neighborhood, rather than go nowhere at all. No doubt curi- osity leads them thither first, and perhaps for a long time afterward. Fourthly, absolute religious liberty being the principle of the govern- ment, the people may everywhere have what preaching they please, if they can find it, and choose to be at the expense of maintaining it ; and, accordingly, they who dislike faithful evangelical preaching, often combine to form a congregation where some heterodox preacher may hold forth doctrines more acceptable to them. Congregations so formed, especially in cities and large towns, may last for years, or even become in some sense permanent, but in far the greater number of cases they disappear, part of their numbers removing to some other place, and others becoming converts to the orthodox creed of the surrounding evangelical churches. Thus it will be perceived that the unevangelical sects in the United States are mainly composed of persons who, in other countries, would remain stupidly indifferent to religion, spending their Sabbaths in employments or amusements wholly secular. Even this may be thought better by some than that they should " give heed to doc- trines of devils," upon the principle that no religion is better than a false one. This may be true in many cases, but hardly in all. Ex- perience proves, I think, very decidedly in America, that persons that occupy their minds with the subject of religion, even when they doubt the Truth or embrace positive error, are more accessible to the faith- ful preaching of the Gospel, than others that are sunk in stupid in- difference and infidelity. The forms of error in that coimtry have, with one exception, no element of stability — no vigorous dogmatism CHAP. X.] EEMAEKS ON THE STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION. 581 or permanent fascinations to oppose to the solid orthodoxy of evan- gelical preaching. The one exception is Romanism, which presents a sort of mosaic of truth and error, so artfully combined as to exert a charm over the minds of those who have once received it, which it is almost impossible to dissipate. Next to Romanism, Unitarianism is, of all forms of error that as- sume the title of Christian, the most stable. Its professors are chiefly to be found in the eastern parts of Massachusetts ; but as those, as well as other parts of New England, are constantly sending out emi- grants to tho new settlements, small knots of persons with Unitarian preferences may be found in the Middle, Southern, and Western States. Still, this dispersion of Unitarianism, and its sprouting up at various points, elsewhere than in Massachusetts, has rather the appearance than the reality of increase. It may be more than doubted whether it be not positively declining in Boston and its vicinity. Except that it by no means prevails in the same proportion, it is very much in America what Rationalism is in Protestant Europe— a disease caught by the Church from the epidemic skepticism of the eighteenth contury — a skepticism which is now in both hemispheres taking the form of a mystical pantheism. The career of Unitarianism, which one of its former advocates* called not a " religion, but a fashion," as a sect or party, is manifestly drawing to a close ; and such, I rather think, is the impression of its most intelligent and eminent leaders. It seems to be given up as incapable of diffusion ; and the forty years' expe- rience it has had of a separate organization confirms to my mind this conclusion, though others may think differently. At all events, no one who is well informed with regard to the present aspect of things in America, can claim for Unitarianism much vigor or any greater positive increase than that of the natural increase of the population within its pale ; and it may be doubted whether it is increasing even so much as that. A certain amount of moral influence for good may fairly be attrib- uted to some of the unevangelical sects, but this can hardly be said of the Universalists — and they comprise nearly the whole — who deny a future judgment and all punishment beyond this life ; while as for the Atheists, Deists, and Socialists of every hue, it is hardly slander to say that their influence upon society is positively mischievous. As for the Shakers, Mormons, and other such agglomerations, they may be accounted for, I apprehend, on two principles. First, the blinding nature of human depravity, which makes men prefer any thing, however absurd, that looks like religion, and suits their fancies * The Rev. 0. A Brownson, who was once, and for years, a Unitarian, but is now a Roman Catholic, and editor of their chief quarterly review. 582 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. and their passions, to retaining, or, rather, to obtaining, the true knowledge of God. Next, these bodies always hold out some tem- poral good — some economical advantage — which, far more than any religious consideration, tempts persons to enter them. One would suppose, for example, that a religion which, like that of the Shakers, makes the sinfulness of marriage a fundamental principle, and obliges married proselytes to live single, could never find followers. Yet, as persons sometimes grow tired of the marriage relation, or, rather, of those with whom it has bound them as husband and wife, so some may be found willing, even by becoming Shakers, to rid themselves of a burden they feel to be grievous. So, also, in the separation of children from their parents, and the entire breaking up of the family relationships, weak people may always be found ready to snatch at any opportunity of ridding themselves of parental respon- siblity, by shifting it upon other shoulders. This despicable and un- manly selfishness may be regarded as the main foundation of all the forms of Socialism. III. We have yet to consider the extent of doctrinal agreement and diversity in and among the communions classed together as evan- gelical — a subject already noticed, but to which it is necessary to re- turn, in order that the reader may perceive its connection with certain other interesting and important topics. 1. They agree generally in holding the body of doctrines professed by the Reformed Churches of France and Switzerland, and embodied in the Westminster Assembly's Catechisms, and in the doctrinal ar- ticles of the Church of England. In particular, they hold the supremacy of the Scriptures as a rule of faith, and that whatever doctrine can be proved from Holy Scripture without tradition is to be received unhesitatingly, and that nothing that can not so be proved shall be deemed an essential point of Christian belief. They hold the Inspiration of the Scriptures ; the three Persons in the Di- vine Unity ; the holiness of the first human pair as created and placed upon probation ; their fall, and the involved or consequent apostacy of the whole human race ; the necessity of some atonement (sufficient to vindicate the justice of God's government) in order to the pardon of sin ; the fact of such an atonement having been made by the hu- miliation, sufferings, and death of Jesus Christ, who is both God and man ; the offer of forgiveness to all mankind, as provided for them by the mercy of God in Christ ; the free justification of the believer, not for his works past or foreseen, nor for his faith, but for Christ's sake alone ; the necessity of an inward spiritual renovation in order to salvation ; the fact that this spiritual renovation is the result not of human endeavors, but of the Holy Spirit operating upon the soul, CHAP. X.] REMARKS ON THE STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION. 583 and thus making the call of God in His Word, and by all instrument- alities outward to the soul, an effectual call ; the dependence of the believer, for his progress in holiness, on the continued communion with God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit ; the resurrection of the dead ; the universal judgment ; the eternal state of happiness for the saved, and of misery for the lost. 2. The Methodists and some smaller bodies reject the Calvinistic or Reformed doctrine of predestination, especially in its application to the individuals who, in the fulfillment of God's counsels, become the subjects of renewing grace. They also deny the doctrine that all who are once renewed to holiness are effectually and certainly kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. But in other communions these doctrines are held as clearly taught in the Scrip- tures, and as of great practical value. 3. A considerable proportion, perhaps a third, of the clergy and members of the Episcopal Church, agree with what is called the Ox- ford party in the Church of England ; so far, at least, as to ascribe to sacraments and other external institutions, a certain spiritual efficacy not recognized by other Protestants. 4. The theological discussions and disputes which sometimes agi- tate these various communions are such, for the most part, as to make it no easy matter to convey a just idea of them to a foreigner. In many instances, indeed, the disputants themselves can hardly state the point in debate to each other's satisfaction. For instance, I could not expect to state minutely the differences between the " Old School" and " New School," in the Presbyterian Churches, without giving offence to one party or the other, or perhaps to both parties. Let it suffice, then, to say that, generally, the debates among theo- loorians in America are debates about the constitution of the human mind, the analysis of responsibility and moral agency, and the old question of " fate and free-will." Some hold that all mankind, indi- vidually, are literally responsible before God for the sin of their first parents ; others hold only that, in consequence of Adam's sin, all his posterity are sinners. Some hold that sin consists in a propensity to sin concreated in the soul, or, at least, existing in the soul from the indivisible instant in which its existence commences, anterior to all choice, all intelligence, all desire or emotion ; others hold that sin consists only in the perversion of the powers of human nature. Some hold that the " new birth" is not only figuratively and morally, but literally and physically, a new creation ; that it is a change in the be- ing itself, from which a moral renovation inevitably proceeds ; that anterior to repentance, to faith, to any right movement of the soul, there is not merely an influence of the Holy Spirit upon the soul, but 584 NON-EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA. [BOOK VII. a subjective change within the soul, which change they call repent- ance. Others, on the contrary, hold that conversion, or the turning of the soul to God in repentance and faith, is regeneration, and is the effect of a Divine influence upon the soul. Some hold that the re- newed man will persevere in holiness, because the power of God upon him is such that he can not fall away; others that God's promise to keep him can not fail, and that, therefore, he will not fall away. Some hold that God, in His works of creation, providence, and redemption, has not constituted the best system possible to Him, and that He could have done much better than He has done ; others hold that the system of the universe, including all events, is abso- lutely the best ; the best which the mind of God could conceive; bet- ter, with all the sin which exists, than it could have been if all creatures had retained forever their allegiance to God ; and others still hold that this system, including all the evil which exists under it, is good and glorious, but not better than if all God's creatures had remained holy and happy. Some hold that in every instance in which sin takes place, God, on the whole, prefers that sin to holiness in its stead ; others hold that God never chooses evil rather than good, or sin rather than holiness, yet that in every instance in which sin actually takes place, He, for some wise reason, chooses to permit rather than to interj)ose His power to prevent it. Some hold that all the acts of voluntary agents are predestined in such a way that the agent has no power to act otherwise than he does ; others hold that while all the acts of moral agents are certain beforehand in the counsels of God, nothing in that certainty is inconsistent with the power of the voluntary agent to act otherwise. Such is a specimen of the controversial theology in the evangelical, and particularly in the Congregational and Presbyterian denomina- tions. Were I to indicate the probable direction of religious opinion and theological science in .the United States, amid this metaphysical strife, I should little hesitate to say that it is tending, on the whole, toward a higher appreciation of the simplest and most Scriptural Christianity, that is, of the Gospel as " glad tidings" to all men, tidings of forgiveness for guilt through the expiation made by the Son of God, and tidings of the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead sinners to repentance, and to carry on a work of sanctification in the hearts of the believing. The demand is everywhere for a Christianity that can be preached, and that, being preached, will commend itself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Under such a demand, wire-drawn speculations about Christianity — remote from any appli- cation to the conscience, to the sinner's fears, and to the hopes and devout affections of the believer — are felt to be impertinent. Thus CHAP. X.] REMARKS ON THE STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION. 585 the Gospel is preached less and less as a matter of traditionary dog- matism and speculation, and more and more as Gospel, the message of God's mercy to needy and guilty man, to be received by every hearer as suited to his wants, and to be hailed with faith and joy as life from the dead. Against this general tendency there is,' and there will be, occasional, local, and party resistance ; the surface may be ruffled from time to time by some wind of doctrine, or specula- tion, rather, and the current may seem to be setting in the opposite direction. But I am fully persuaded that, on the whole, if not from year to year, at least from one period of change to another, the progress of religious opinion will be found to be toward the simplest and most Scriptural views of the Gospel as God's gracious message, which every man may embrace, and should embrace immediately, and away from those philosophical and traditionary expositions of Christianity which it only embarrasses the preacher to deliver, and the hearer to receive. The increased attention which the theologians of America are giv- ing to the accurate and learned investigation of the Holy Scriptures, may be regarded as an indication of the tendency of theological science in this country. That the Scriptures are the only authority in matters of faith, is not only universally acknowledged in theory, but more and more practically acted upon. Thus the science and art of interpretation are more and more appreciated. The best theolo- gian must be he who best understands, and who can best explain the Bible. The questions, What did Edwards hold? What did the Puritans hold ? What did the Reformers hold ? What did Augus- tine, Jerome, or the earlier fathers hold ? though admitted to be im- portant in their places, are regarded as of small importance in com- parison with the questions, What saith the Scripture ? What did Christ and the Apostles teach ? Under this influence, the tendency of theological science, as well as of the popular exposition of Christi- anity from the pulpit, is toward the primitive simplicity of Christian truth. The great achievement of American theology is, that it has placed the doctrine of the atonement for sin in the clearest light, by illustra- tions drawn from the nature of a moral government. Nowhere is the distinction between the work of Christ as the propitiation for the sins of men, and that of the Holy Sprit in renewing and sanctifying the sinner, more clearly drawn — nowhere is the necessity of each to the salvation of the soul more constantly and forcibly exhibited. The tendency of our theology, under the impulse of the Edwardean expo- sition of the doctrine of the atonement, is to avoid the habit — so com- mon to philosophers and philosophizing theologians — of contemplat- 586 NON-EV ANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS IN AMEEICA. [BOOK VII. ing God exclusively as the First Cause of all beings and all events, and to fix attention upon Him as a Moral Governor of beings made for responsible action. Here it is that the God of the Bible differs from the God of Philosophy. The latter is simply a first cause — a reason why things are — sometimes, if not always, a mere hypothesis to account for the existence of the universe, another name for nature or for fate. The former is a moral governor, that is, a lawgiver, a judge, a dispenser of rewards and penalties. God's law is given to the universe of moral beings for the one great end of promoting the happiness of that vast empire. As a law, it is a true and earnest ex- pression of the will of the lawgiver respecting the actions of His crea- tures. As a law, it must be sanctioned by penalties adequate to ex- press God's estimation of the value of the interests trampled on by disobedience. As the law is not arbitrary, but the necessary means of accomplishing the greatest good, it may not be arbitrarily set aside. Therefore, when man had become apostate, and the whole human race was under condemnation, God sent His Son into the world, in human nature, "to be made a sin-offering for us ;" and thus, by His voluntary sufferings magnifying the law, " to declare the righteous- ness of God, that God may be just, and the justifier of him who be- lieveth." Thus it is that God, as a moral governor, is glorified in the forgiveness of sinners ; that He calls upon all men to repent, with a true and intense desire for their salvation ; that He sends into a world of rebellion the infinite gift of His Spirit, to impart life to those who are dead in sin ; that in a world of sinners, who, if left to themselves, would all reject the offered pardon, He saves those whom He has chosen out of the world ; that He uses the co-operation of redeemed and renewed men in advancing the work of saving their fellow-men. Men are saved from sin and condemnation, not by mere power, but by means that harmonize with the nature, and conduce to the ends of God's moral government. This method of illustrating the Gospel carries the preacher and the theologian back from the Platonic dreams and dry dogmatizing of the schools, to the Bible. It sets the theolo- gian upon studying, and the preacher upon imitating, the freedom, simplicity, and directness, with which the Apostles addressed the un- derstandings and sensibilities of men. And thus it may be regarded as coinciding with other indications of the tendency of religious opin- ion in the various evangelical bodies of America. I would remark, in conclusion, that few things in the history of the Gospel more strikingly prove its inherent life and divinity, than the extent to which it has secured and retains a hold upon the American people. Their Christianity is not the dead formalism of ecclesiastical CHAP. X.] REMAKKS ON THE STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION. 587 institutions — upheld by law, tradition, or the force of fashion.* It is not a body of superstitions, lying with oppressive weight upon the common mind, and giving support to a domineering priesthood. It is not that Rationalism which, retaining little of Christianity but the name, has had a brief ascendency in some parts of Protestant Europe. It is evangelical Christianity — the Christianity of the New Testament. Wherever the stranger sees a place of worship in our cities, or in the country, the presumption is, the probability is, with few exceptions, ten to one — that there God is worshipped in the name of the one Mediator, with faith and penitence ; that there pardon is offered to the guilty, freely through Christ the Lamb of God ; and that there the Holy Spirit is looked for, and is given to renew the heart of the sinner, and to fill the believing soul with joy and peace. The wor- ship may, in many instances, be such as would offend the sensibilities of certain cultivated minds — most unlike the choral pomp of old ca- thedrals — still, rude as it may be, it is often that only acceptable wor- ship which is offered in spirit and hi truth. The Gospel may be preached there ignorantly, and with many imperfections, still it is the Gospel, and often does it become " the wisdom of God, and the power of God unto salvation." * Much has been said in Europe about the tyranny of public opinion in the United States, but I confess I never have been able to comprehend what this expression means. M. de Tocqueville employs it, but without giving any clear idea upon the subject, as has been well remarked by the Hon John C. Spencer, in his Notes to the American edition of M. de T.'s work. If public opinion be strong and decided in America, it is because the character of the people makes it so. "When they form an opinion, more especially on any matter in which the judgment or the conscience is concerned (and what subject of a practical kind does not involve one or other of these ?), they are not willing to change it but for good reasons. And in all matters of religion, and morals especially, the Protestant Faith, which has so much influence with a large proportion of the population, concurs with the earnestness and steadiness of the Anglo-Saxon character, to make public opinion, not only strong, but right, on all points upon which it has been sufficiently informed. Mr. Laing, in his excellent work on Sweden, has some judicious remarks on this subject, proving that he takes a philosophic view of it. BOOK VIII. EFFORTS OF THE AMERICAN CHURCHES FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. We can not well close our view of the religious condition of the United States without a brief notice of what the Churches here are doing for the propagation of the Gospel in other lands. This forms a natural sequel to what has been said of their endeavors to plant and to sustain its institutions on their own soil. Some readers, indeed, may be surprised to learn that our Churches are doing, any thing at all for the spiritual welfare of other countries, while they have so much to do in their own. When they hear that our population is increasing at the rate of seven or eight hundred thousand souls annually, so that nothing short of the most gigantic efforts can effect a proportionate increase of ministers and congregations; when they read of several hundred thousand immigrants* arriving every year from Europe, the greater number of whom are ignorant of the true Gospel, and many of them uneducated, poor, and vicious : they may be astonished that the American churches, imaided by the government in any way, receiving no tithes, taxes, or * From 1844 to 1855, a period often years, three million one hundred and seventy- four thousand three hundred and ninety-five persons arrived from foreign lands. In 1854 alone, four hundred and sixty thousand four hundred and seventy-four ar- rived. But in 1855, the number of immigrants was only two hundred thousand four hundred and seventy-five (deducting natives of the United States), owing to " better times" in the Old World, especially in Ireland, and partially, also, to the influence of the " American" movement, as it has been called. Of the two hundred thousand four hundred and seventy-five persons who arrived in 1855, nearly, if not quite one half were from the British realm: the remainder were mainly from the Continent of Eu- rope. Not less than seventy thousand were from Germany, including Prussia. More than three thousand five hundred were from China, and came to California. CHAP. H.] EARLIER EFFORTS TO CONVERT THE ABORIGINES. 589 public pecuniary grants of any kind, even for the support of religion at home, do nevertheless raise large sums for sending the Gospel to the heathen. Such, however, is not the feeling of enlightened and zealous Christians in America itself. They feel that, while called upon to do their utmost for religion at home, it is at once a duty and a privilege to assist in promoting it abroad. They feel assured that he that watereth shall himself be refreshed, and that, in complying so far as they can with their Saviour's command to " preach the Gos- pel to every creature," they are most likely to secure the blessing of that Saviour upon their country. And facts abundantly prove that they judge rightly. Moreover, our Churches have a special reason for the interest they take in foreign missions. No Churches owe so much to the spirit of missions as they do. Much of the country was colonized by men who came to it not only as a refuge for their faith when persecuted elsewhere, but as a field of missionary enterprise ; and their descend- ants would be most unfaithful to the high trust that has been be- queathed to them, did they not strenuously endeavor to carry out the principles of their forefathers. Alas ! we have to mourn that we have not, after all, done far more to impart the glorious Gospel, to which our country owes so much, to nations still ignorant of it ! Still, we have done something, and the candid reader will perhaps admit that we have not been greatly behind the Churches of most other countries in this enterprise. CHAPTER II. EARLIER EFFORTS TO CONVERT THE ABORIGINES. Notwithstanding the common mistake at the present day, of those who conceive that religious liberty, and to some extent, also, the enjoyment of political rights, were the sole inducements that led to the original colonization of the United States, we have seen that the plantations of both Virginia and New England were designed to conduce to the spread of Christianity by the conversion of the Ab- origines, as is proved both by the royal charters establishing those early colonies, and by the expressed sentiments of the Massachusetts settlers. The royal charter granted to the Plymouth Company, having re- ferred to the depopulation of the country by pestilence and war, and its lying unclaimed by any other Christian power, goes on to say, " In 590 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK Till. contemplation and serious consideration whereof, we have thought it fit, according to our kingly duty, so much as in us lieth, to second and fol- low God's sacred will, rendering thanks to His Divine Majesty for His gracious favor in laying open and revealing the same unto us before any other Christian prince or state ; by which means, without offence, and as we trust to His glory, we may with boldness go on to the set- tling of so hopeful a work, which tendeth to the reducing and con- version of such savages as remain wandering in desolation and dis- tress, to civil society and the Christian religion." And in this, the charter professes to favor the " worthy disposition" of the petitioners to whom it was granted. Nothing could be more natural, therefore, than that John Robinson, pastor of that part of the church which re- mained at Leyden, in Holland, should exclaim, in his letter to the governor of the colony at Plymouth, " Oh that you had converted some before you killed any !" But, in fact, the Plymouth colonists applied themselves to the conversion of the natives from the very first. They endeavored to communicate the knowledge of the Gos- pel to the scattered Indians around them, and took pains to establish schools for their instruction. The result was, that several gave satis- factory evidence, living and dying, of real conversion to God. A poor, small colony, struggling for its very existence with all manner of hardships, could not be expected to do much in this way, yet in 1636 we find that it made a legal provision for the preaching of the Gospel among the Indians, and for the establishment of courts to punish trespasses committed against them. The Massachusetts charter sets forth that, " to win and incite the natives of that country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Christian Faith, in our royal intention and the adventurer's free profession, is the principal end of the plantation." The seal of the colony had for its device the figure of an Indian, with the words of the Macedonian entreaty, "Come over and help us." And here, as at Plymouth, some at- tempts not altogether abortive were made to convert the natives from the very first. Thus, these two colonies might be considered as self-supporting missions, and rank among the earliest Protestant missionary enter- prises. The Swedes had in the preceding century done something for their benighted countrymen in the northern part of the Scan- dinavian Peninsula. French Huguenots, too, as we have seen, made an attempt, as early as 1556, under the auspices of the brave and good Coligny, to carry the Gospel to America, by founding a settle- ment in Brazil. Calvin furnished several pastors for it from his school at Geneva, But Yillagagnon, who took the lead, having relapsed to CHAP. II.] EARLIER EFFORTS TO CONVERT THE ABORIGINES. 591 Romanism, put three of the Genevan pastors to death ; whereupon some of the colonists returned to Europe, and the remainder were massacred by the Portuguese. A subsequent attempt, made under the same auspices, to plant a Protestant colony in Florida, also failed. Thus, even assuming, which is not very evident, that these attempts were of a missionary character, certain it is that the New England colonies may be regarded as the first successful enterprises of the kind. In 1646, the Massachusetts Legislature passed an act for the en- couragement of Christian missions among the Indians, and that same year the celebrated John Eliot began his labors at Nonantum, now forming part of the township of Newton, about six miles from Bos- ton. Great success attended this good man's preaching and other modes of instruction. Nor were his labors confined to the Indians near Boston. . From Cape Cod to Worcester, over a tract of country near one hundred miles long, he made repeated journeys, preaching to the native tribes, whose language he had thoroughly mastered, and translated the Scriptures . and other Christian books into it. Both editions of his Indian Bible, the one of fifteen hundred copies in 1663, the other of two thousand copies in 1685, were printed at Cam- bridge, near Boston, and were the only Bibles printed in America until long after. Eliot, who has ever since been called the "Apostle of the Indians," died in 1690, at the age of eighty-five. "Welcome joy," was one of his last expressions. His labors, and those of others whom he engaged in the same great work, were blessed to the con- version of many souls, and many settlements of " praying Indians" were formed in the country round Boston. But Eliot was not the first who preached the Gospel with success to the Indians in New England. Thomas Mayhew began his labors among them on the island called Martha's Vineyard, in 1643. In 1646 he sailed for England to solicit aid ; but the ship was lost at sea. His father, Thomas Mayhew, the proprietor of the island, though seventy years of age, then undertook the task, and continued it till 1681, when he died, at the age of ninety-three. His grandson suc- ceeded ; and for five generations, till the death of Zachariah Mayhew in 1803, aged eighty-seven years, that family supplied pastors to the Indians living on Martha's Vineyard. In the Plymouth colony we find honorable mention made, among those who labored to evangelize the Indians during Eliot's life-time, of Messrs. Treat, Tupper, and Cotton ; while in Massachusetts, be- sides Eliot, there were Messrs. Goskin, Thatcher, and Rawson ; and in Connecticut, Messrs. Fitch and Pierson. The result of their united efforts were seen in 1675, in fourteen settlements of "praying In- 592 EFFORTS FOR THE COKTERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIII. dians, twenty-four congregations, and twenty-four Indian preachers." Besides religious instruction, the Indians were taught agriculture, and the other most necessary arts of civilized life. But that very year (1675), King Philip, the chief of the Pokanoket tribe, instigated by his hatred of Christianity, and still more, proba- bly, by jealousy of the growing power of the English settlers, made an unprovoked war upon the colonies. It ended in the annihilation of his party, not, however, without vast injury to the "praying set- tlements." Still, though the Gospel experienced a check, it soon be- gan again to make progress, so that in 1696 there were thirty Indian churches in Massachusetts colony, and two years later three thousand reputed " converts." In Rhode Island, Connecticut, and also Long Island (which be- longed to the province of New York, though its eastern part was colonized by emigrants from New England), missionary efforts were less successful. Still, the Gospel was not wholly without effect, and portions of the Narragansett, Pequod, Nantick, Mohegan, and Mon- tauk tribes were converted to Christianity, and long formed " Chris- tian settlements," some remnants of which exist to this day. The news respecting the progress of the Gospel among the Indians in New England excited so much interest in the mother country from the first, that " The Society for Propagating the Gospel in New En- gland" was incorporated in England so early as 1649, and though its charter was annulled at the Restoration in 1660, a new one was granted the following year, reorganizing the society, under the title of " The Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen Nations of New England and the parts adjacent in America." The celebrated Robert Boyle took a great interest in it, and was its " governor" or president for thirty years. The good Baxter was its friend. In 1698, " The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge" was founded by members of the Established Church in England ; and in 1701, "The Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts" was instituted. This last joined with the first in aiding the American missions, as did also, at a later day, " The Society for Propagating Christian Knowl- edge," which was founded in Scotland. A considerable portion of the funds expended by these societies, in the missions among the In- dians, was contributed by the churches in America ; for, before the Revolution, they had no independent missionary organizations of their own, owing to their dependent condition as colonies. In 1762, the Massachusetts Legislature incorporated a society formed at Bos- ton, "for promoting Christian knowledge among the Indians in North America," but the ratification of this act by the crown being refused, the missions had still to be conducted on behalf of the soci- CHAP. II.] EARLIER EFFOETS TO CONTERT THE ABORIGINES. 593 eties in Great Britain through American committees formed at Boston and New York. In 1734, Mr. John Sergeant began to labor among some Mohegans whom he had gathered round him at Stockbridge, in Massachusetts, whence the name given them ever after of " Stockbridge Indians." That good man, whose labors were greatly blessed, died in 1749, whereupon these Indians passed under the care of the great Jonathan Edwards, who had been settled at Northampton. It was while laboring as an humble missionary at Stockbridge that he wrote his celebrated treatises on the " Freedom of the Will" and " Original Sin." Having spent six years at Stockbridge, he was called to be Presi- dent of Princeton College, New Jersey. After the Revolution, the Stockbridge Indians, many of them being Christians, removed to the central part of the State of New York, thence to Indiana, thence to Green Bay, and at last to their present settlement on the east of Lake Winnebago, where they have a church and a missionary. Cotemporaneously with the commencement of Mr. Sergeant's labors at Stockbridge, the Moravians began a mission in Georgia, whence they were compelled by supervening difficulties to remove soon after to Pennsylvania. In compliance with applications trans- mitted by them to Herrnhut, in Germany, the Society sent over sev- eral missionaries, and these worthy men began in 1740 to labor very successfully among the Mohegans on the borders of the States of Connecticut and New York. But the opposition of wicked white men compelled them at length to remove, with as many of the In- dians as would accompany them, to the neighborhood of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, and there they remained for several years, but suf- fered much in consequence of the hostilities between France and Great Britain in 1755-63. From that place they went first to the banks of the upper Susquehanna, and afterward beyond the western borders of Pennsylvania, where they joined some Indian converts of the excellent David Zeisberger from the Allegheny River. These quarter^ they exchanged in 1772 for others on the Muskingum River, in Ohio, where they enjoyed great spiritual prosperity for a season. From that point they moved afterward to the Sandusky River, in the same State. After many calamities and much suffering during the Revolutionary war, in which the Indians generally took part against the Americans, and after several changes of quarters subse- quent to the return of peace, they finally settled on the River Thames, in Upper Canada, where they built the town of Fairfield, at which they now reside. David Brainerd commenced his short but useful career in 1743 38 594 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK YTII. among the Indians between Albany and Stockbridge, near what is now called New Lebanon. He preached afterward to the Indians at the Forks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, the site of the present town of Easton. And, finally, he labored for a short time, but with amazing success, among the New Jersey Indians at Crossweeksung. On the termination of his labors by death, at the age of thirty, his brother John continued them, and was much blessed in the attempt. Upon John's death in 1783, his Indian flock had the ministration of the Word continued chiefly by the pastors in the neighborhood until 1802, when it joined the Stockbridge Indians at their settlement in New York. A school for Indian youth was opened at Lebanon, in Connecticut, in 1748, under the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, and there the well-known Indian preacher, Mr. Occum, and the celebrated Mohawk chief, Brant, were educated, It was afterward removed to Hanover, in New Hampshire, where it is still to be found, and is nominally con- nected, I understand, with Dartmouth College. Its proper title is "Moor's Charity School." One of the most useful of the more recent missionaries among the Indians was the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, who began his labors with the Oneidas in the State of New York in 1764, and died in 1808, having preached the Gospel to the Indians, with some short interrup- tions, for more than forty years. We have elsewhere referred to something being done in the way of Indian missions in Virginia, but in none of the Southern colonies was there any thing of this kind accomplished deserving of particular mention. The wars between the Aborigines and the immigrants, that broke out soon after the arrival of the latter, and were repeat- edly renewed afterward, extinguished any little zeal they may have ever felt in such a cause. These notices will, no doubt, surprise such of our readers as have been under the impression that the colonists never did any thing for the conversion of the Indians to the Gospel. Still, who can but re- gret that more was not done to bring the original occupants of the soil to that knowledge both of Christianity, and the arts of civilized life, by which alone the gradual extinction of so many of their tribes could have been arrested ? The efforts of the colonists, however, encountered many obstacles. The wars between France, when mis- tress of the Canadas, and the British empire, of which the United States were then a part, invariably drew their respective colonies, together with the intervening Indian tribes, into hostilities. These were protracted, bloody, and cruel, so as to leave deep traces of ex- asperation in the minds of all who did not possess a large share of the v CHAP. II.] EARLIER EFFORTS TO CONVERT THE ABORIGINES. 595 spirit of the Gospel. All war is dreadful, but Indian warfare is horri- ble to a degree altogether beyond the conception of those who have heard of it at a distance ; and it ultimately begat such a spirit of hatred and revenge among the colonists as proved exceedingly un- favorable to missions. I stop not here to inquire who was in the wrong in the first instance. Only let me remark, in passing, that they are egregiously mistaken who assume that the colonists were always in the wrong. Again, the churches in the colonies were neither numerous nor rich, so that, upon the whole, those in New England, and perhaps those, also, in New York and New Jersey, did as much, probably, in proportion to their ability, then as they do now. At length came the long war of the Revolution, and the still longer period that followed of distraction, confusion, and spiritual desolation. Small, indeed, was the prospect then of sufficient atten- tion being paid to missions among the Indians, many of whose tribes were far from being peaceably disposed toward the United States' government. And no sooner did the country and the government begin to recover from this state of moral syncope, than they fell into fresh troubles in consequence of the wars between the British and French, following upon the French Revolution — troubles which ulti- mately brought on the war of 1812-1815, between the United States and Great Britain. Thus, it was not until the peace of 1815, and the general restoration of good-will between the Indian tribes and the United States, that a favorable opening for missions among the former was again presented. Blessed be God, our churches have ever since been becoming more and more interested every year in this good cause, as will appear from the operations of our societies for foreign missions. It is no easy task, indeed, to Christianize and civilize savages who, from times unknown, have been devoted to hunting and to war; and, when not thus occupied, lounge like their dogs about their miserable hovels and tents, clad in skins, and leaving to their women, or squaws, the drudgery of cultivating a little patch of maize or " Indian corn," making the fires, and even dressing the animals that have been slain in the chase, as well as all other domestic cares. Their aversion to the methodical labor required for the arts of civilized life, is such as none can conceive without a personal knowledge of them. Not a single noble aspiration seems ever to enter their souls, but all they care about seems to be that they may pass away their life as their fathers did, and then die amid the vague and shadowy visions of the unknown future. In short, as long as their forests last, and game can be found, they seem not to have a thought of adopting the habits of civilized life. 1 596 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VITI Some persons are forever indulging mawkish lamentations over the disappearance of the aboriginal tribes of North America, and, if one may interpret their sentimental distress on this subject, they would rather see this vast continent occupied by a few hundred thousand savages, roaming the forests, and continually at war with each other, than covered with a civilized and Christian population ; either forgetting, or else never having known, that a savage state is not only wretched, but necessarily tends to annihilation. But how civilized men are to share the same continent with the un- civilized, without the latter being supplanted and made to disappear, is a question by no means of easy solution. On the discovery of a continent of great natural resources, and possessing every thing calculated to invite civlized men to its shores, it is easy to see that the time can not be distant when civilized men, by natural increase and immigration, will crowd upon and displace the uncivilized. To save the latter from extinction, under such circumstances, one or other of two courses must be pursued : either the two races must be amalgamated, which is next to impossible while one remains uncivil- ized, and can only be done by reducing one of them to a species of slavery, and thus bringing them into the bosom of civilized society, as was very much the course pursued by the Spaniards in Mexico and South America ; or the uncivilized race be allowed to preserve their natural existence as tribes in some distinct territory. The plan pursued by the Spaniards was revolting to the feelings of the English colonists, and they adopted, accordingly, that of letting the Indians enjoy a separate existence. But even this, easy as it may seem at first sight, is attended with many difficulties. It would be very practicable if all men were what they ought to be ; for then, after the immigrants had purchased the territory they required, the Indians would be left in undisturbed pos- session of what they chose to reserve to themselves, and the two races would live in each other's presence, respecting each other's rights, and each contented with its own possessions. But this, alas ! is not a likely result among fallen men whom even Christianity has only partially restored. As the civilized inhabitants increased in numbers, they desired more and more territory, which the Indians did not hesitate to sell as long as their own domain seemed almost boundless, and so the white men went on pushing the red further and further toward the West. Meanwhile, the latter disappointed the expectations of those who had looked forward to their adopting the manners and customs of civilized life. Living in close proximity to the white men's settlements, they often visited these with the skins of animals or blankets thrown over their shoulders, and their extrem- CHAP. II.] EARLIER EFFOKTS TO CONVERT THE ABORIGINES. 597 ities exposed in the coldest weather ; and then, after lounging about the houses of the colonists, and taking such presents as might be offered, they returned to their comfortless wigwams without having acquired the slightest desire to exchange their wretched mode of living for the conveniences and comforts they had just witnessed. They were too fond of the habits in which they had been nurtured, and too averse to every thing like steady industry, to seek any change. 'Nov were the colonists wanting in efforts to induce their savage neighbors to adopt civilized usages. Provision was made in almost every treaty that they should be supplied with articles of comfort, and agricultural and other useful implements. But brandy, alas! was included at times, that being thought, in those days of ignorance, one of the first requisites of life — equally necessary to the civilized and uncivilized man. Addresses without number were presented to " chiefs" and " councils" by the colonial governors in favor of civili- zation, but these were all in vain. The little that was done must be ascribed to the missionaries sent to them chiefly by the churches in the colonies. These succeeded, in several instances, in partially civil- izing the Indians among whom they labored, and to this the still ex- tant remnants of tribes may be said to owe their preservation to this day, inasmuch as those in which Christianity never gained any foot- ing, and in which agriculture and the mechanical arts never made any progress, almost wholly disappeared, either by becoming extinct, or by being merged in other uncivilized and heathen tribes. The result would, doubtless, have been much more favorable had the missionary spirit of the earliest colonists continued to distinguish their followers. But, alas ! mere cupidity tempted many to those shores for the sole object of enriching themselves by all practicable means, however unjustifiable, and often by overreaching the poor ignorant savage. Nay, even good men suffered themselves to be too much influenced by the horrid massacres often committed by the In- dians upon the frontier settlements in their wars with the colonists. These atrocities could hardly fail to cool the zeal for promoting the best interests of their barbarous neighbors, which those men had pre- viously felt. Add to other untoward influences that of the phraseology of the royal charters, where what were called "rights" to certain lands were granted, without the slightest reference being made to the previous " rights" of the uncivilized occupants of the soil. This seems to have suggested almost all the subsequent efforts made to obtain, per fas aut nefas, the territories marked out by those charters. Thus the poor Indians had no certain resting-place. A few reservations 598 EFFORTS FOR THE CONTERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIII. which certain remnants of partially Christianized and civilized tribes have retained in some parts of New England and New York, are now the only Indian settlements to be found in all the Atlantic States. Had the wise though much vilified plan, pursued for some years past by the United States government, been sooner adopted — had the tribes whose lands were included in the royal charters been all col- lected on one territory, beyond the boundaries of any charter, and ample enough for their support by hunting in the first instance, and afterward by tillage, even the limited attempts that were made to civilize them might have taken effect. But where was there a ter- ritory ample enough to be found over which no charter extended its claims ? At last, by the acquisition of Louisiana, this desideratum was supplied, and men, as benevolent as America has ever possessed, soon comprehended the important use that might be made of it, and pressed it upon the attention of the government. Accordingly, the country lying between the State of Arkansas and the Great Ameri- can Desert, which stretches as far west as the Oregon Mountains, was set apart for the purpose, being sufficiently large, and containing much good land, and to it the government has succeeded in remov- ing above twenty tribes, or remnants of tribes, from its own organ- ized States and Territories. Soon all that remain will follow, so that there will probably be an Indian population of above one hundred thousand souls on a compact territory, stretching about four or five hundred miles from north to south, and about two hundred from east to west. Thither, also, have the missionaries, who had been laboring among those tribes, gone ; and though the removal of the several na- tions from their ancient homes, and from the graves of their fore- fathers, has been followed by some years of that hardship and suffering which all removals from ancient settlements, whether more or less civilized, to the denser forests must occasion, yet they are sur- mounting these, and gradually establishing themselves in their new homes. In process of time they will have their little farms and lots of ground cleared, comfortable houses erected, mills built, and the more necessary arts of civilized life introduced among them. Great progress is already making, and the time, I trust, will come when the inhabitants of this Indian Territory will accept the offer made by Congress to the Cherokees, shortly after the Revolution, to receive a delegation from them to the National Congress, and thus admit them as a constituent portion of the United States, and subject to its laws. As this removal of the Indian tribes to a territory west of the Mis- sissippi has subjected the General Government to great misrepresent- ation, and, in my opinion, to most unjust censure, I may say a few CHAP. II.] EARLIER EFFORTS TO CONTERT THE ABORIGINES. 599 words further respecting it. "What has been most censured is the removal of the Cherokees, a tribe of Indians formerly situated chiefly in the State of Georgia, and by far the most advanced in civilization of all the aboriginal race. By the charter granted to Oglethorpe and his friends, Georgia claimed an extensive territory to the west of her present limits, out of which the States of Alabama and Mississippi have since been formed. This territory she agreed to cede to the United States, pro- vided the General Government would buy out the claims of the In- dians residing within her present limits, and remove them elsewhere. The General Government accordingly removed the Creek Indians, after buying up their claims, from the south-western part of the State to the west of the Mississippi. But the Cherokees, whose lands lay in the north-western corner, refused to sell them, although the Gene- ral Government for years tried every method that it deemed proper to induce them to do so. Georgia at length resolved to survey those lands, and to extend her jurisdiction over both their Indian occupants and all who lived among them ; upon which the missionaries retired, with the exception of two, who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the State, on the ground that Georgia had no right of jurisdiction over the Cherokee territory. Being arrested and thrown into prison for this, they appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which gave judgment in their favor, and ordered them to be set at liberty. This was demanded, accordingly, by the marshal of the United States residing in the State of Georgia. The Governor of Georgia refused compliance. This was reported by the marshal to the Supreme Court. Its next yearly meeting was now drawing on, and the Constitution then required that the chief justice should call upon the President of the United States to enforce compliance, which, by his oath of office, the latter was obliged to do. At this crisis, the Governor of Georgia, well aware that the President would do his duty, first offered pardon to the imprisoned missionaries, and as they re- fused to accept this, as a last resort he convened the Legislature, and it, on some trivial ostensible pretext, abolished the penitentiary or State prison, and so turned the missionaries out of doors. Thus the af- fair ended. The cause of the Indians was, in fact, sustained by the General Government, and though they received much trouble from their Georgian neighbors, they remained several years longer on their lands, and then sold them to the United States for a great price,* and removed west of the Mississippi, where they are now settled. * Five millions of dollars, besides the expenses of their removal, and a year's sup- port in their new homes. All this was in addition to the lands which they received in exchange for their former country. 600 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK Vin. Although their removal was attended with much hardship, and a good deal of sickness, they are represented as doing well in their new territory, where they are placed beside the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and other tribes. It is hard to see wherein the General Government was to blame in all this. It was in favor of removing the Indians, believing that it would be best for them to leave a territory where they could never live in tranquillity, and place themselves in another, which, being the absolute property of the United States, could not, under any pretext, be claimed by any State. There, if anywhere, they can, and, I have no doubt, will be protected. So, also, the course pursued by the General Government in relation to the Seminole Indians in Florida has been held up as cruel and un- just in the highest degree, as designed to uphold slavery, etc., etc. Now, though far from believing that in this matter the government has acted wisely, I think it obvious that the situation of the long, narrow peninsula in question, although nineteen twentieths of it are quite unfit for any species of culture, might make the possession of it desirable. A large sum, accordingly, was offered for it to the three or four thousand Indians who roamed over it, and whose depredations on the white inhabitants of the country adjoining had long been ex- ceedingly vexatious. A treaty was made, as the government thought, with the chiefs having full authority to that effect. But this the In- dians refused to keep ; hence hostilities broke out, which having lasted for years are now terminated. That the government was de- ceived by its agents is very probable, but I do not believe that its intentions were unjust. Upon the whole, I think that the National Government, in its trans- actions with the Indians, has sincerely aimed at doing them justice. Its influence is happily exercised in promoting peace among the tribes of the West, the disputes constantly arising among which its officers and agents do their best to terminate in a peaceful way, and by the influence of persuasion alone. It has often, indeed, to bear the blame due only to unfaithful agents, by whom it is sometimes both deceived and committed. The General Government has been blamed because rum and other ardent spirits are carried by unprincipled men to the Indians on the borders, yet no government could well do more to prevent this. It has not only forbidden, but has taken measures to prevent all such traffic ; and these have not been wholly in vain. But what govern- ment on earth could effectually guard such an immense frontier of almost boundless forests as that of the United States ? England and France find it impossible to guard effectually a few hundred miles of CHAP. II.] EARLIER EFFORTS TO CONVERT THE ABORIGINES. 601 coast against smuggling ; how much more difficult the task which the United States are blamed for not accomplishing ! But the formation of Temperance Societies among the Indians, and the passing of se- vere laws among themselves against every villain, white or red, who may be found engaged in such commerce, will be a more effectual remedy. In conclusion, I would state that the United States government has done much incidentally, during the last twenty-five years, to promote missions among the Indian tribes, by a yearly grant of $10,000 for the establishment of schools, blacksmiths' shops, and other trades. This sum is generally expended through the several missionary so- cieties, and of course by the missionaries, as the persons most compe- tent for the task ; many, if not all of them being well acquainted with the various handicrafts most necessary to the partially civilized people among whom they live. The late Secretary of "War, the Hon. John C. Spencer, spoke in the highest terms of the judicious manner in which this money has been applied, and of the good which has been accomplished. A similar testimony has been rendered by a commit- tee of Congress, to which the same subject had been referred. It is pleasant to state a fact which shows the favorable disposition of the government toward the benevolent enterprise of Christianizing and civilizing the tribes on our borders, to whom we are far from hav- ing done all our duty. Many of the tribes, it may be added, appro- priate large sums from the yearly pensions they receive from the Unit- ed States government, to the establishment of schools and the pro- motion of the arts.* Several of the aboriginal nations now assembled on the territory which the government of the United States has assigned them, and which lies, as we have said, west of the State of Arkansas, are making astonishing progress in civilization. As a proof of this, the fact may be cited that in some of them, particularly the Cherokees, Choctaws, * The United States government has done much to procure a favorable reception for the missionaries among the Indians, and to induce the latter to set apart large sums from the price paid for their lands by the United States, and which is generally done in the shape of annuities, for the promotion of education and religion, as well as the useful arts. These annuities now exceed $1,000,000. To preserve these tribes, or, rather all the tribes to which it can find access, from the ravages of the smallpox, the United States government also sends fit persons from time to time to vaccinate them. Within the territory claimed by the United States, there are now above fifty mis- sionary stations among the Indians, about fifty missionaries, above forty assistant missionaries, American and native, and not much under 10,000 communicants or members of churches. There is also a very considerable number of schools and scholars. 602 EFFORTS FOE THE COISVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VTTI. and Creeks,* many schools are now maintained ; some of them by the several missionary societies who employ ministers of the Gospel and teachers among them, and others by the governments of those tribes. In some cases, individual natives bear the expense of a school themselves, for the benefit of their children. Many of the natives are sufficiently well educated to be good teachers. The Choctaw government has made provision for the education of their youth, which may well cause many nations more advanced in civilization to blush. Their National Council in November, 1842, re- solved to establish three academies for boys, and four for girls. For the former (one of which, I believe, is a sort of college) they made an annual appropriation of 618,500, and for the latter $7,800, making to- gether the sum of $26,300 as a public annual appropriation for the support of the schools ! And yet, a few years ago, these people were ignorant savages, of whom not one could read ! And who have, under God, been the authors of this change ? The missionaries who are laboring among them, and who are all Protestants. As to the Cherokees, the progress of civilization among them is not less wonderful. Very many of them can now read. Thirty years ago, one of their men, who had been educated by the missionaries, invented a syllabic alphabet, by which the art of reading has been wonderfully diffused among them — a phenomenon which has had no equal in any community in the whole world these two thousand years. There are several printing-presses in this nation, one of which has been introduced by their government for the purpose of printing a Cherokee newspaper ! In the course of the following notices of the various Missionary So- cieties in the United States, we shall have occasion to speak of what has been done since 1815 to introduce Christianity among the Indians. * The Report for 1855 of the Board of Missions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, contained the following important statement respecting these people : " All of these tribes have made considerable progress in civilization. Most of them live on farms that are cultivated and -well-stocked with domestic animals. They are as much in advance of the smaller tribes scattered over the north and north- west, in point of education, general intelligence, sober and industrious habits, and all the arts of civilized life, as they are in point of population. " For a short period after their removal to their present location, they were greatly dispirited ; and there were other evidences of retrogression, that occasioned no little anxiety to those who were laboring to promote their general welfare. But, of late years, there has been a decided change for the better. The climate has proved to be healthy. The soil yields more abundantly than the lands they formerly occupied on the opposite side of the Mississippi. The rich prairies enable them to raise almost any quantity of live stock, and their advantages of education for their children are even greater than they formerly were." CHAP. III.] BOAED OF COMMISSIONERS FOE FOEEIGN MISSIONS. 603 CHAPTER III. AMEEICAN BOAED OF COMMISSIONEES FOE FOEEIGN MISSIONS. With the exception of that of the United Brethren, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is the oldest society for foreign missions in the United States. It has also the greatest num- ber of missions and missionaries, and the largest amount of receipts. Several religious denominations, agreeing substantially in their views of the Gospel, and in their ecclesiastical organizations, unite in sustain- ing it. These are the Congregational, the New School Presbyterian, the Reformed Dutch and German Reformed Churches. Its Oeigin and Constitution. — The Board had its origin in the fol- lowing manner : Several young men, graduates of New England col- leges, and preparing for the Gospel ministry at the Theological Semi- nary at Andover, in the State of Massachusetts, agreed, in the year 1809, to unite their efforts in establishing a mission among the heathen in some foreign land. In this they were encouraged by the Faculty of the seminary. As the General Association of Congregational Min- isters in Massachusetts were to hold their annual meeting in June, 1810, these young men were advised to submit their case to that body. This was done by four of their number — Messrs. Mills, Jud- son, Newell, and Nott — in the following paper : " The undersigned, members of the Divinity College, respectfully request the attention of their reverend fathers, convened in the Gen- eral Association at Bradford, to the following statement and inquiries. " They beg leave to state, that their minds have been long im- pressed with the duty and importance of personally attempting a mission to the heathen : that the impressions on their minds have in- duced a serious, and, they trust, a prayerful consideration of the sub- ject in its various attitudes, particularly in relation to the probable success, and the difficulties attending such an attempt ; and that, af- ter examining all the information which they can obtain, they con- sider themselves as devoted to this work for life, whenever God, in His providence, shall open the way. " They now offer the following inquiries, on which they solicit the opinion and advice of this association. Whether, with their present views and feelings, they ought to renounce the object of missions as either visionary or impracticable ; if not, whether they ought to di- rect their attention to the Eastern or Western world, whether they may expect patronage and support from a missionary society in this country, or must commit themselves to the direction of a European 604 EFFORTS FOE THE CONVERSION OF THE WOELD. [BOOK VIII. society ; and what preparatory measures they ought to take previous to actual engagement. " The undersigned, feeling their youth and inexperience, look up to their fathers in the church, and respectfully solicit their advice, di- rection, and prayers." On the 29th of June, the Association elected a Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions, consisting of nine persons. The Board, at its first meeting, held in. the following September, adopted the name of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions, thus recognizing its high calling to act for all in every part of the nation, who might choose to employ its agency in the work of missions among the heathen. The transaction of its ordinary busi- ness, however, was delegated to an executive committee called the Prudential Committee, the members of which reside at or near Bos- ton, which is the seat of its operations. Subsequently it was found necessary to obtain an Act of Incorporation from the Legislature of Massachusetts, in order that the Board might the better manage its financial concerns. This act, being respected by the legal tribunals of all the other States in the Republic, has been found of great use, especially in the recovery of bequests contested wrongfully by heirs at law. It requires one third of the members to be laymen, and one third clergymen ; the remaining third may be either clergymen or lay- men. Members are elected by ballot. The object of the Board is expressly recognized in the act to be " the propagation of the Gospel in heathen lands, by supporting missionaries, and diffusing a knowl- edge of the Holy Scriptures ;" and full power is granted to hold an amount of permanently invested funds sufficient for the purpose of credit in the commercial world, and also to receive and expend an- nually, in pursuance of its object, any amount of contributions its pa- trons may think proper to place at its disposal. The number of corporate members is two hundred and nine, resid- ing in twenty of the States, religious men, having in general a high standing in their respective professions. These form the body cor- porate, the Trustees in respect to the financial concerns of the insti- tution. But with these are associated a large body of honorary mem- bers, amounting, at present, to more than nine thousand, who are made such by the payment of one hundred dollars if laymen, or fifty dollars if clergymen ; and who share equally in the deliberations of the annual meetings, but do not vote, as that would interfere with the charter. A third class of members are called corresponding mem- bers ; they are foreign members, and are elected by ballot. In addi- tion to the usual office-bearers for presiding at the annual meetings, and recording the proceedings at these meetings, there are three CHAP. III.] BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 605 Corresponding Secretaries and a Treasurer, whose time is fully occu- pied with the business. Its History. — The proceedings of the Board, and the results of its experience and operations for the forty-five years past of its exist- ence, must necessarily be stated in the most comprehensive and sum- mary manner. It is among the remarkable facts in the history of this institution, and in the ecclesiastical history of the country, that, at the outset, neither the Board nor its Prudential Committee, nor, indeed, any of the leading minds in the American churches at that time, could see the way clear for raising funds enough to support the four young men who were then waiting to be sent forth to the heathen world. One of them was accordingly sent to England by the Prudential Com- mittee, mainly to see whether an arrangement could not be made with the London Missionary Society, by which a part of their support could be received from that society, and they yet remain under the direction of the Board. That Society wisely declined such an arrangement, and at the same time encouraged their American brethren to hope for ample contributions from their own churches as soon as the facts should be generally known. From this time no further thought was entertained of looking abroad for pecuniary aid. Indeed, one of the largest legacies the Board has yet received was bequeathed to it by a benevolent lady in Salem, Massachusetts, in the early part of the year 1811. The first ordination of American mis- sionaries to the heathen in foreign lands was in that place, on the 6th of February, 1812. These were the Rev. Samuel Newell, Adoniram Judson, Gordon Hall, Samuel Nott, and Luther Rice, all from the little missionary band in the Theological Seminary at Andover. They proceeded forthwith to Calcutta, in the East Indies, but without being designated to any specific field by the Committee. There was not then the hundredth part of the knowledge of the heathen world in the American churches that there is now. The Prudential Committee seem to have been unable to point to any one country, and tell their missionaries decidedly to occupy that in preference to other contiguous countries. The comparative claims of the different benighted por- tions of the unevangelical world was a subject then but little under- stood. The missionaries were left to decide what field to occupy after their arrival in India. Messrs. Judson and Rice had not been long with the Baptist mis- sionaries at Serampore, near Calcutta, before they declared themselves converts to the peculiar views of those missionaries in relation to Baptism. Their consequent separation from the society which sent them forth, gave rise to the formation of a Baptist Board for Foreign 606 EFFORTS FOE THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIII. Missions in the United States. Messrs. Hall, Newell, and Nott, after much painful voyaging from place to place, occasioned by the reluct- ance of the East India Company to tolerate missionaries, and espe- cially American missionaries, in India (the United States and Great Britain being then, unhappily, at war), at length, in 1813, found a resting-place and field of labor at Bombay, in Western India. This was the commencement of the mission to the Mahrattas. The Mahrattas possess strong traits of character as a people, com- pared with other nations of India, as is evident in their history for ages past. The American missionaries were the first to go in among them, and they entered as the husbandman would into an unbroken forest. No preparatory work had been done, except merely that of conquest by a Christian power, and it must be confessed that not very many tangible results have yet been witnessed in that mission. But there is no doubt that the Mahratta people now stand differently re- lated to the Christian religion from what they did in 1813. Much unavoidable preliminary ground has been gone over; the truth stands nearer to the native intellect and heart ; the spiritual conquest of the country is far easier than it was then. Among the Tamil people, found in the northern district of Ceylon and in Southern India, there was some degree of preparation when the mission to that people was commenced in 1816; in Ceylon, by means of the Portuguese and the Dutch ; and on the Continent, by means of the celebrated missionary Schwartz and his associates. Hence, through the blessing of God, the obvious results have been greater there than among the Mahrattas. The systematic measures which were early adopted by the Ceylon mission for training a native agency, and the success attending them, did much to give an early maturity to the plans of the Board for raising up a native ministry in connection with all its other missions, of which more will be said in the sequel. The most efficient seminary for educating heathen youths for helpers in the work of the Gospel, is believed to be the one con- nected with the mission at Batticotta, in Ceylon. The number of pupils is one hundred, all of whom are boarding-scholars, and most of them are regarded as truly pious. There is also a female seminary, containing eighty-two boarding-scholars, where the educated native helpers of the mission may obtain pious, educated wives ; and there are free schools containing three thousand three hundred and ten pupils, which are a nursery for the seminaries, and among the most effective means of securing congregations to hear the preached Gos- pel. In 1834, a branch of this mission was formed at Madura, on the Continent, and in 1836 another at Madras, with the special object of printing books in the Tamil language on a large scale. CHAP. III.] BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOE FOREIGN MISSIONS. 607 The first mission sent by the Board to Eastern Asia was to China, in 1830. A pious merchant in New York city furnished many of the facts and arguments which justified its commencement, and then he gave two missionaries their passage to Canton and their support for a year. One of these missionaries subsequently visited Siam, and opened the way for a mission to that country ; as he did also to Singapore, and to Netherlands India. The mission to Singapore has not answered the expectations of the Board, and has been discontinued. The op- erations in Netherlands India have been much embarrassed hitherto by the restrictive policy of the Dutch Colonial Government. The mission in Siam has had a prosperous commencement ; but its pros- pects have not that cheering certainty which animates the labor of missionaries under such a government as now rules in British India. Turning our attention to Western Asia, we find a number of in- teresting missions under the care of this Board. The Greek mission, commenced in the year 1829, grew out of the sympathy which was felt for the Greek people throughout the Christian world, in their struggle for independence from the Turkish yoke. Dr. King, who commenced it, had previously been connected with the Palestine mis- sion. It was to the Holy Land, in fact, that the first mission in the series was sent, in the year 1821. Messrs. Fiske and Parsons were the pioneers in the enterprise. In 1828, after their decease, war, and the hostilities of the Maronites toward the mission, compelled the surviving missionaries to retire from Syria for a season ; and it is to this occurrence, in the developments of Providence, we trace the es- tablishment of the mission among the Armenians of Constantinople and Asia Minor, which has been so signally useful to that people. Two missionaries of the Board had, indeed, gone to Asia Minor as early as 1826, but their mission was to the Greeks. In the year 1830, Messrs. Smith and Dwight were sent on an exploring tour into Armenia, and were instructed to visit the Nestorians in the Persian province of Aderbaijan. This visit brought that remnant of the most noted Missionary Church of ancient times to light, and induced the Board to send a mission to restore the blessings of the Gospel to that people. The mission was commenced on the plain of Oroomiah, and has since been extended to the independent Nestorian tribes among the Koordish Mountains. The leading object of the mission is to educate the clergy, and by reviving among them, through the bless- ing of God, the spirit of the Gospel, to induce them to resume the preaching of it with more than their ancient zeal. The press has been introduced. More than one hundred Nestorians are in free schools, supported by the mission, and a large number are boarding- scholars in seminaries. There is also a class in theology, instructed 608 EFFOKTS FOE THE CONVEESION OF THE WOELD. [BOOK VIH. by the missionaries. We already begin to witness the gradual reviving of preaching among the ecclesiastics. The great thing wanting among this people is spiritual life. They number about one hundred thousand souls. The Syrian mission has for some years past been cultivating an ac- quaintance with the Druzes of Mount Lebanon. These are about as numerous as the Nestorians, and resemble them in the mountaineer traits of courage and enterprise. The Druzes are a sort of heretical Mohammedans. Recently those inhabiting the mountains of Lebanon have, as a community, placed themselves under the religious instruc- tion of the missionaries. Their motive may be the improvement of their civil condition, by becoming Protestant Christians, but the fact of their permitting the mission to open a seminary at the seat of their government, and to preach the Gospel, and introduce schools freely among them, should be acknowledged with gratitude to God. This mission has had much success. The Armenian Church has proved to be not less interesting as a field for missionary labors than the Nestorian. It has even afforded more abundant spiritual fruit. An evangelical influence is strongly developed among the Armenian clergy ; and in many instances, where they have had no personal communications with members of the mis- sion, but only with the Holy Scriptures, or with some of the books published by the mission, there are hundreds of Armenians, at vari- ous points, whose minds, rejecting the corruptions and superstitionsof their Church, have come under the salutary influence of a Gospel that looks for justification only through faith in Christ. In short, the grand principles by means of which the Spirit of grace wrought out the Reformation in EurojDe, are seen to be operating in Western Asia, and their progress ought to engage the prayerful interest of all Christians. A mission was sent to South Africa hi 1836, and high hopes were entertained of a prosperous issue. But these hopes have been in great measure blasted by the singular emigration of the Dutch Boers from the English colony, and their consequent wars upon the Zulus. The mission to Western Africa, though commenced in 1834, has not yet attained a very great extension ; but its ultimate destination, as soon as the way is opened up the Niger, is to the populous and healthful countries of the interior, to which already exploring parties have penetrated to some extent. Along the coast, however, eastward of Cape Palmas, there is work for many missionaries. The results of the mission of the Board in the Sandwich Islands, a group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean, constitute one of the great moral wonders of the age. The first missionaries landed on CHAP. III. J BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOE FOREIGN MISSIONS. 609 those islands in the year 1820. At that time the natives were savage and pagan, without letters, without a ray of Gospel light ; though they had just before strangely burned their idols — a fact unknown in the United States when the missionaries embarked on their errand of mercy. In 1840, after the lapse of only twenty years, this same people might properly have claimed the title of a Christian people. Though necessarily destitute in great measure, owing to their poverty, of the more imposing insignia of civilization, they then had the elements and basis of it in Christian institutions, schools, a written language, the press, and books, and in the extensive prevalence of pious dispo- sitions and habits. Within that space of time their language had been reduced to writing, and, in 1843, about one hundred millions of pages had been printed by the mission in the native language. As the alphabet contains but twelve letters, and each letter has but a single sound, it is easy learning to read. More than a third part of the population can read. The children of the chiefs are educated by a member of the mission in a boarding-school designed for them alone, which the chiefs support ; this is at Honolulu, in the island of Oahu. At Lahainaluna, on the island of Maui, there is a seminary, for which a large stone edifice has been erected, containing nearly one hundred boarding pupils ; and at Wailuku, on the same island, there is a cor- responding female institution, containing about fifty. At Waialua, on Oahu, there is a manual labor or self-supporting school, with forty- seven pupils. Two other boarding-schools are at Hilo, on the island of Hawaii, which are supported chiefly by the natives. The free- schools number about fourteen thousand pupils. Laws have been passed by the government defining and securing the rights of prop- erty to the people, and taking the power of imposing taxes from the individual chiefs, and vesting it exclusively in the National Council, which is to assemble annually. But the most remarkable fact of all, is the extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the years 1838 and 1839, in consequence of which many thousands of the natives were hopefully converted to God. The number of church members (who are admitted to that relation only after a credible profession of real piety) increased in that space of time from five thousand to more than eighteen thousand. The natives have erected many houses for public worship, and a still greater number of school-houses, and on the Sabbath day, which is generally observed by abstaining from la- bor and amusements, the sound of the church-going bell is heard in not a few of their valleys. The Board has very properly spent a portion of its funds in mis- sions to the more important and influential tribes of the North American Indians. It began with the Cherokees and Choctaws, in 39 610 EFFORTS FOE THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK YHI. 1816-18, who then inhabited a tract of country within the chartered limits of some of the south-western States. These two missions, for more than ten years, had great success. The poor Indians were then driven almost to desperation by those who wished for their lands, and were bent on inducing them to remove beyond the Mississippi River. These efforts had a cruel success. The missionaries have fol- lowed the two tribes above mentioned in their exile. Missions were also instituted at different times among the Creeks and Chickasaws, eastward of the Mississippi, and among the Osages westward ; but they have been discontinued. Subsequent to the year 1830, mission- aries were sent to the savage, wandering Ojibwas, Sioux, and Paw- nees, in the vast territory north-west of the United States ; and in 1835 they were sent across the continent, beyond the Rocky Mount- ains, to the Indians in the Oregon Territory. There are several missions among the feeble remnants of the once powerful Six Nations, found on the borders of Lake Erie, in the State of New York. The following is a summary view of what, through the Divine favor, has been accomplished by this Board. The amount received into the treasury of the Board during the year ending on the 31st of July, 1855, was $310,427 77 ; and the amount of expenditure was $318,893 18. The treasury is at present indebted to the amount of $20,507 90. The number of missions sustained during the year was twenty-nine ; connected with which are one hundred and twenty stations, at which were laboring one hundred and fifty-seven ordained missionaries, seven of whom were physicians ; besides seven lay physicians, seventeen other male, and two hundred and three female assistant missionaries — making the whole number of missionary laborers sent from this country and sustained by the Board three himdred and eighty-seven. If to these be added sixty-three native preachers and two hundred and twenty-nine other native helpers, the whole number of missionary laborers connected with the missions, and sustained from the treasury of the Board will be six hundred and seventy-nine. Of these mis- sionary laborers, eight ordained missionaries, one missionary physi- cian, one male, and seven female assistant missionaries, in all seven- teen, were sent forth during the last year. Organized by these missions, and under their pastoral care, are one hundred and fifteen churches, to which have been received during the last year six hundred and thirty-five converts, and which now em- brace, in regular standing, twenty-six thousand eight hundred and six members. The number of printing establishments connected with the missions is eleven. Printing has been executed for the missions in thirty-three CHAP. III.] BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 611 languages, exclusive of the English, fifteen of which were first re- duced to a written form by the missionaries of this Board. The number of pages printed at the mission presses during the past year is about twenty-five million eight hundred and twenty-two thousand seven hundred and eighty. In the department of education the missionaries have under their care eleven seminaries for educating preachers and teachers, in which are four hundred and twenty-nine pupils ; besides nineteen other boarding-schools, in which are five hundred and ninety-four pupils. Of free schools the number is seven hundred and eighty-seven, con- taining twenty thousand five hundred and fifty-five pupils ; making the whole number of pupils under the care of the missions twenty- one thousand five hundred and seventy-eight. Of the youth in the mission schools of this Board, somewhat more than one thousand are boarding-scholars, in schools where the leading object is to train up a native ministry. In general, the text-books for all the schools have to be prepared by the missionaries, and a very great progress, on the whole, has been made in this department, es- pecially in geography, arithmetic, geometry, sacred history, and the first principles of religion and morals. The printing establishments connected with the missions of this Board have printed books and tracts in thirty-three different lan- guages, spoken by more than four hundred and fifty millions exclusive of the English.* The one hundred and fifteen churches which have been gathered among the heathen are formed as nearly on the Congregational or Presbyterian model for such ecclesiastical organizations as the nature of the case would permit. None but converts who have been received as members of the church, after giving credible evidence of piety, are allowed to partake of the Lord's Supper. The spiritual fruits of the missions to the Oriental churches are, not completely included in this number, such not having been always gathered into distinct and separate churches, the effort there having been to infuse the spirit of the Gospel into those religious communities already existing. Theory of the Missions of the Board. — The Board does not regard any of its missions as permanent institutions. Their object is, through the grace of God, to impart the spirit and plant the institur * These languages are the Zulu, Grebo, Italian, Greek, Armenian, Turkish (in the Armenian character), Arabic, Mahratta, Portuguese, Goojurattee, Hindoostanee, Latin, Tamil, Teloogoo, Siamese, Chinese, Japanese, Malay, Bugis, Hawaiian, Chero- kee, Choctaw, Seneca, Abenaquis, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Creek, Osage, Sioux, Pawnee, and N"ez Perces, fifteen of which were first reduced to writing by missionaries of the Board. 612 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIIX. tions of the Gospel where they do not exist, and then to leave them to the conservative influences that shall have been gathered about them. This is true theoretically, and it will come out in fact as soon as the means are furnished for prosecuting the work with becoming vigor. The missionary is emphatically, in the essential principle of his calling, a sojourner, pilgrim, stranger, having no continuing city. The leading object of its missions, therefore, is the training and employment of a native ministry, as the only way in which the Gos- pel can soon become indigenous to the soil, and the Gospel institu- tions acquire a self-supporting, self-propagating energy. And the fact is important to be noted, that the elders or pastors, whom the apostles ordained over the churches they gathered among the heathen, were generally, if not always, natives of the country. While the apostles had not the facilities of the present day for training men for this of- fice by education, they had not the necessity for so doing. Among their converts at Ephesus, Berea, Corinth, Rome, and elsewhere, they had no difficulty in finding men who only required some instruc- tion in theology, and scarcely that when endowed with miraculous gifts, to be prepared for the pastoral office. How they did, or would have done, beyond the Roman Empire and the bounds of civilization, we are not informed ; but in the use they made of a native ministry, we recognize one of the grand principles of their missions, and also the true theory of those missions — simple, economical, practical, Scriptural, mighty through God. The manner in which the Board is endeavoring to carry out this theory in practice has perhaps been sufficiently indicated. But the subject is one of so much importance, that it will be worth while to quote part of an article upon it, which was submitted by the Pru- dential Committee of the Board, at the annual meeting in the year 1841. I. On the manner of raising up a native ministry. 1. "This must be by means of seminaries, schools of the proph- ets, such as, in some form or other, the Church has always found necessary. There should be one such seminary in each considerable mission. It is an essential feature of the plan that the pupils be taken young, board in the mission, be kept separate from heathen- ism, under Christian superintendence night and day. In general, the course of study should embrace a period of from eight to ten or twelve years, and even a longer time in special cases. Pupils can be obtained for such a course of education in most of the missions ; but, as a nursery for them, it is expedient to have a certain number of free schools, which also greatly aid in getting audiences for the preachers. CHAP. III.] BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 613 2. " There will be but partial success in rearing a native ministry, unless the seminary be in the midst of a select and strong body of missionaries, whose holy lives, conversation, and preaching shall cause the light of the Gospel to blaze intensely and constantly upon and around the institution. Experience shows that in such circum- stances we are warranted to expect a considerable proportion of the students to become pious. 3. " The student, while in the seminary, should be trained prac- tically to habits of usefulness. But this requires caution, and must not be attempted too soon. Those set apart for the sacred ministry might remain as a class in theology at the seminary, after complet- ing the regular course of study ; or, according to the old fashion in this country, which has some special advantages, they might pursue their theological studies with individual missionaries, and, under such superintendence, exercise their gifts before much responsibility is thrown upon them. 4. " The cotemporaneous establishment of female boarding-schools, where the native ministers and other educated helpers in the mission may obtain pious and intelligent partners for life, is an essential fea- ture in this system. A native pastor, with an ignorant, heathen wife, would be greatly embarrassed and hindered in his work. In this manner Christian families are formed, and at length Christian communities, and there is a race of children with Christian ideas and associations, from among whom we may select our future pupils and candidates for the ministry." II. On the employment of this native ministry. " The pupils in the seminaries will have different gifts, and the same gift in very different degrees. All the pious students will not do for preachers. Some may be retained as tutors in the seminary, others may be employed as school-teachers, others as printers, book- binders, etc. Those set apart for the ministry, while they are taught the way of the Lord more perfectly, can be employed as catechists, tract distributers, readers, or superintendents of schools, and thus gain experience and try their characters. In due time they may be licensed to preach, and, after proper trial, receive ordination as evan- gelists or pastors. " While care should be taken to lay hands suddenly on no man, there is believed to be danger of requiring too much of native con- verts before we are willing to intrust them with the ministry of the Word. Generations must pass before a community, emerging from the depths of heathenism, can be expected to furnish a body of min- isters equal to that in our country. " Could the present native church-members at the Sandwich Is- 614 EFFORTS FOE THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIII. lands be divided into companies of one hundred and eighty each, one hundred churches would be constituted. Native pastors should be in training for these churches, and evangelists for the numerous districts where churches are not yet formed, and where the people are conse- quently exposed to the inroads of the enemy. In the other missions the chief employment, at present, must be that of evangelists. In the Tamil missions hundreds might find ample employment ; and in the Oriental churches, our leading object should be to bring forward an able evangelical native ministry with the least possible delay." III. On the power and economy of the plan. " In most of our missions we are opposed by these formidable ob- stacles, namely, distance, expense, and climate. England was opposed by the same obstacles in her conquest of India. And how did she overcome them ? By employing native troops ; and it is chiefly by means of them she now holds that great populous country in subjec- tion. We, too, must have native troops in our spiritual warfare. Why not have an army of them ? WTiy not have as numerous a body of native evangelists as can be directed and employed ? " Such a measure would effect a great saving of time. Indeed, we can never leave our fields of labor till this is done. Our mission churches must have native pastors, and pastors of some experience, who can stand alone, before we can leave them. Besides, we should make far greater progress than we do had we more of such helpers. " And what economy of money there would be in the operation of this plan ! The cost of a ten years' course of education for five na- tives of India would not be more than the outfit and passage of one married missionary to that country. And when a company of mis- sionaries is upon the ground, it costs at least five times as much to support them as it would to support the same number of native preachers. The former could not live, like the latter, upon rice alone, with a piece of cotton cloth wrapped about their bodies for clothing, and a mud-walled, grass-covered cottage, without furniture, for a dwelling ; nor could they travel on foot under a tropical sun. They could not do this, and at the same time preserve health and life. " The cost of educating one thousand youth in India, from whom preachers might be obtained, and afterward of supporting two hun- dred native preachers and their families, would be only about $25,000, which is but little more than the average expense in that country of twenty-five missionaries and families. Now, if the preach- ing of two well-educated native preachers laboring under judicious superintendence, may be expected to do as much good as that of one missionary, we have in these two hundred native preachers the CHAP. III.] BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 615 equivalent, in instrumental preaching power, for one hundred mis- sionaries, and at an expenditure less by nearly $75,000 a year. And then, too, the native preacher is at home in the country and climate, not subject to a premature breaking down of his constitution, not compelled to resort for health to the United States, or to send his children thither for education. Besides, the native churches and converts might gradually be brought to assume a part or the whole of the support of the native ministry; while it is very doubtful whether it will ever be expedient for the missionary to receive his support from that quarter. " One hundred thousand dollars a year would board and educate four thousand native youth. That sum would support five or six hundred native ministers with their families ; and if the value of this amount of native preaching talent equaled that of only two hundred missionaries, the annual saving of expense would be at least $125,000. But it would in the end be worth much more ; so that we see, in this view, how our effective force among the heathen may, in a few years, be rendered manifold greater than it is at present, without even doubling our annual expenditure. Some progress has even now been made toward this result. We already have five hundred male youth in our seven seminaries ; and a still greater number, male and female, in our other twenty-seven boarding-schools. But the scheme, however promising and indispensable, can not be carried into effect without a large addition of first-rate men to the company of our missionaries." It is interesting to observe how the attention of Protestant mis- sionaries from Europe, as well as the United States, has been drawn of late to the importance of a native ministry as a means of carrying on the work of missions among the heathen. There can, however, be no doubt that this Board has taken the lead of all other mission- ary societies in giving that subject the prominence practically which it deserves in the great system of missionary operations. The Annual Meetings of the Board. — The annual meetings of the Board must receive a brief notice. They are held hi the month of September, in some one of the more important cities of the Eastern or Middle States, and occupy three days. The session is for delibera- tion and business. The annual meeting for the year 1841 is a fair specimen of the usual attendance of members. There were fifty-six corporate, and one hundred and two honorary members present. Of the corporate members five were heads of colleges (there are thrice that number belonging to the corporation) ; thirty-one were pastors of churches, or otherwise employed in the Christian ministry ; ten were civilians ; and the remaining ten engaged in mercantile or medi- cal pursuits. 616 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VHI. The first day of the session is employed in bringing forward the business of the meetings, so far as the Prudential Committee is con- cerned, which is done in writing. This, including the different parts of the annual report, is usually referred to some fifteen or more com- mittees, who report during the session. Their reports often give rise to friendly discussions, which are always interesting, and often eloquent. All the meetings are open to the public, and are usually held in a church, that there may be room for those friends and patrons who wish to attend. In the evening of the first day a ser- mon is preached before the Board by a member appointed to the service at the previous meeting, and the members unite in celebrat- ing the Lord's Supper during the session. A meeting for popular addresses is held in the evening of the second or third day. The last day of the session is generally the great day of the feast in point of interest ; and it may truly be said that the annual meeting of this Board, as a whole, has for several years past exerted a great and good influence on the community, its proceedings being more exten- sively and carefully reported in the religious newspapers than those of any other religious or charitable institution in the coimtry. Publications. — The publications issued by the Board directly are, 1. The " Missionary Herald," of which, in 1855, there were published monthly seventeen thousand six hundred and eight copies. 2. The " Journal of Missions," a monthly publication in the form of a small newspaper. 3. The "Youth's Day-Spring." 4. The "Annual Re- port," a document of about two hundred pages, of which four or five thousand copies are issued annually; and, 5. The "Annual Ser- mon," and occasional missionary papers of various descriptions.* * Among the numerous works which have been occasioned more or less directly by its missions, though not published by it or at its expense, the following may be mentioned : Memoir of Mrs. Harriet Newell, by Rev. Leonard "Woods, D.D., 1815. Memoir of the Rev. Levi Parsons, by Rev. Daniel 0. Morton, 1824. Memoir of the Rev. Pliny Fisk, by Rev. Alvan Bond, 1828. Memoir of Catharine Brown, a Christian Indian of the Cherokee nation, by Rev. Rufus Anderson, 1824. Memoir of Rev. Gordon Hall, by Rev. Horatio Bard well, 1834. Memoir of Mrs. Harriet L. Winslow, by Rev. Miron Winslow, 1835. Memoir of Mrs. Myra W. Allen, by Rev. Cyrus Mann, 1834. The Little Osage Captive, by Rev. Elias Cornelius, 1822. Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith, by Rev. Edward W. Hooker, D.D., 1839, Syrian Mission. Memoir of Mrs. Elizabeth D. Dwight and Mrs. Judith S. Grant, 1840. The Christian Brahmin, or Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Character of the Converted Brahmin, Babajee, by Rev. Hollis Read, 2 vols., 1836. Memoirs of American Missionaries, formerly connected with the Society of Inquiry respecting Missions in the Andover Theological Seminary, 1832. Tour around Hawaii (one of the Sandwich Islands), by Rev. William Ellis, 1826. A Residence in the Sandwich Islands, by Rev. Charles Samuel Stewart, 1828, History of the Sandwich Islands' Mission, by Rev. Sheldon CHAP. IV.] PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 617 CHAPTER IY. BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. We have entered into considerable detail in the preceding chapter in order to exhibit, once for all, the grand principles of our American missions — the establishment of schools for the Christian instruction of youth, and especially for raising a native ministry among the heathen themselves, and the employment of that most important auxiliary, the press. The views of the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions on these points are held, I believe, with- out exception, by our other missionary associations, so that we may dispense with a reconsideration of them in the notices that are to follow. We turn next to the Board of the Presbyterian Church for Foreign Missions, not because it follows in point of date or extent of opera- tions, but simply because it derives its support from a member of the same great Presbyterian family of Churches, while the Ameri- can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is the missionary organ of certain other branches. The two societies, in fact, comprise nearly all that is now done for the conversion of heathen, Mohamme- dans, and Jews, by Presbyterians of all shades, in the United States. This Board was constituted only in 1837, the congregations which it represents having before that combined with others in supporting the American Board, and some of them, indeed, with a truly liberal spirit, now support both. The latter of the two Boards arose from a conviction which had long been gaining ground, that the Presbyte- rians as a Church, and by the medium of their supreme ecclesiastical Dibble, 1839. Observations on the Peloponnesus and Greek Islands, by Rev. Rufus Anderson, 1830. Researches in Armenia, by Rev. E. Smith and Rev. H. G-. 0. Dwight, 1833. Residence at Constantinople, by Rev. Josiah Brewer, 1830. The Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes, by Asahel Grant, M.D., 1841. Missionary Sermons and Addresses, by Rev. Eli Smith, 1833. Journal of a Missionary Tour in India, by Rev. William Ramsey, 1836. Journal of a Residence in China and the Neighboring Countries, by Rev. David Abeel, 1834. The Missionary Convention at Jerusalem, or an Exhibition of the Claims of the "World to the Gospel, by Rev. David Abeel, 1838. Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, by Rev. Samuel Parker, 1838. Essays on the Present Crisis in the Condition of the American In- dians, first published in the National Intelligencer under the signature of Wilham Penn, 1829, by Jeremiah Evarts. Speeches on the Passage of the Bill for the Re- moval of the Indians, delivered in the Congress of the United States, 1830. History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by Rev. Joseph Tracy, 1840. 618 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK Yttl. judicature, ought, like the Church of Scotland, to undertake foreign as well as domestic missions. As the Old School Presbyterian Church, which appointed and sup- ports this Board, numbered, in 1855, two thousand two hundred and sixty-one pastors, and three thousand and seventy-nine churches ; and as nearly all these have it in their power to aid the cause, there is every prospect that in a few years it will become a very efficient association. Its receipts for the year ending May 1st, 1855, were $184,077, and its expenditures $174,705. Publications. — " The Home and Foreign Record," a periodical which contains, besides other matter, the missionary intelligence of the society, has a circulation of something more than sixteen thou- sand copies. Of the " Foreign Missionary," twenty thousand copies of the newspaper, and three thousand two hundred and fifty of the pamphlet edition, of thirty-two pages, were printed and circulated. Various circular letters were last year printed and circulated among the churches; and upon these and the Missionary Journals, the Committee relied mainly to do their agency work. Missionaries and Assistant-Missionaries sent out. — Six mis- sionaries (one of whom had been in this country on a visit), and twenty-two male and female assistant-missionaries, making twenty- eight in all, were sent out during the year. Missions among the Indian Tribes. — The Board has seven mis- sions among the Indian tribes, viz. : among the Chippewas and Otta- was, of the State of Michigan ; among the Omahas, of Nebraska ; among the Iowas and Sacs, of Kansas Territory ; among the Creeks, Seminoles, Chickasaws, and Choctaws, of the south-western Indian Territory. Measures have been adopted for the commencement of a new mission among the Otoes, of Kansas. Connected with these missions there are eleven stations and out-stations, and nearly as many more preaching-places ; eight missionaries, sixty-three male and female assistant-missionaries, and five native helpers ; seven churches, and two hundred and ten church members ; eight board- ing and two day schools, embracing two hundred and fifty pupils, in various stages of their education. The number of communicants in connection with these churches has been more than doubled during the past year. The schools have had a larger number of pupils, and better attendance than in former years ; while most of the tribes, but especially those in the State of Michigan and in the south-western Territory, are making most encouraging progress in every depart- ment of civilization. Missions in Africa. — The Board has two missions in Africa ; one in Liberia, which operates upon the colored American emigrants and CHAP. IV.] PEESBYTEEIAN BOAED OF FOEEIGN MISSIONS. 619 the natives of the country ; and the other at the Island of Corisco, twelve or fifteen hundred miles to the south and east of Liberia, and nearly under the equator, which operates exclusively upon the abo- riginal population of that island and the neighboring continent. In connection with these missions, there are six stations, six ordained ministers, three licentiate preachers, nine male and female assistant missionaries, of whom eight are white persons, and the remainder colored emigrants from this country ; seven schools, one of which is a classical school, with about one hundred and fifty pupils ; five churches, and about one hundred and fifty church members, being an increase of about thirty over the number last year. One small volume has just been printed in the language spoken by the Corisco people, and most of the missionary brethren there are engaged in the study of the language, and will soon be able to proclaim the un- searchable riches of Christ to thousands of the people around them in their own tongue. Missions in India. — In India, the Board has four missions, viz. : Lodiana, Furrukhabad, Agra, and Allahaba ; thirteen stations and out-stations ; twenty-six ordained missionaries, two of whom are na- tives of India ; twenty-three female assistant missionaries from this country ; thirty-four native helpers ; eleven churches, with two hun- dred and ninety-five native communicants ; four printing-presses, from which have been issued over eight million pages ; thirty-six schools, several of which are high-schools, with upward of four thousand seven hundred pupils. These statistics show an increase of two churches, thirty-nine native converts, about one thousand seven hun- dred pupils, and five million of printed pages over the last Annual Report. Some of the church members have finished their course, and have been enabled to triumph over the last enemy. There is still a loud call for more laborers in this field. The missionaries in India have formed themselves into three Presby- teries, and these have been organized as the Synod of Northern In- dia by the General Assembly in America, to which it is subordinate. Mission in Siam. — In Siam there is one mission, connected with which there are two ordained missionaries, one licentiate preacher and physician, two assistant female missionaries, and one native helper; one boarding-school with twenty-six pupils. The mission- aries have sustained the usual religious services, and have devoted more time than usual to missionary tours in different parts of the country, and in some regions where the Gospel had never before been heard. One of the missionaries is still engaged in the work of trans- lating the Scriptures into the Siamese. The Report contains brief notices of large evangelized communities, other than the Siamese, but 620 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VHI. who are accessible at Bangkok, and to whom the Gospel ought to be preached. China. — The Board has three missions in China, viz. : at Canton, Ningpo and Shanghai, and a mission, also, to the Chinese in Califor- nia. Connected with these missions there are fourteen ordained mis- sionaries ; two physicians ; fifteen female missionary assistants ; three native helpers ; eight schools, with one hundred and seventy pupils ; two printing presses, from which have issued upward of four million of pages. The missionaries have been actively employed in the va- rious duties of preaching, translating, teaching, distributing religious books and tracts ; and those of the medical profession in the duties of the dispensaries, in addition to their other labors. China is still suffering from the dreadful evils of civil war. How long this strife is to continue is known only to God. It should be the earnest prayer of the friends of the Redeemer, that it may be overruled for the ad- vancement of His kingdom among this unhappy people. Mission in South America. — The only mission that has yet been established in South America is at Buenos Ayres ; and this, though of only one year's continuance, has already received very encouraging tokens of the Divine favor. Measures have been adopted for the commencement of another mission at Bogota, the capital of the Re- public of New Grenada ; and it is confidently hoped that both of these missions may be reinforced at an early period, and prove a great blessing to the inhabitants of that country. Missions to Papal Europe. — The Board have no missionaries in Europe under their immediate direction. Their appropriations have been made to Evangelical societies, which are known to be prosecut- ing the work of evangelization with zeal, energy, and wisdom ; and the results of their labors, especially in France and Italy, are most en- couraging. The appropriations made by the Committee to these so- cieties, including $4,827 88 contributed for the endowment of the Theological Seminary at La Tour, during the year have amounted to $12,613 98. Mission to the Jews. — The Board has three missionaries among the Jews in this country, viz. : In New York, Philadelphia, and Balti- more ; two ordained ministers, and one licentiate preacher. These missionaries have free access to their brethren in all these places, and in many cases, it is believed, with happy results. Summary. — The Board has under its direction, beside what is done for Papal Europe, twenty separate missions ; fifty-nine ordained missionaries ; five licentiate preachers ; one hundred and thirteen male and female assistant missionaries ; forty-three native helpers ; twenty-four churches, and about six hundred and fifty native com- CHAP. V.] AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION. 621 municants ; twenty-six schools, and six thousand five hundred and ninety-six pupils ; six printing presses, from which have been issued more than twelve million of pages during the year. The Board con- clude this statement with the earnest and heartfelt prayer, that this great work of spreading the Gospel among the nations of the earth may be continued and enlarged until all shall have heard of the salva- tion of Christ. CHAPTER V. AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION. The operations of this society now extend through forty-two years. It was first constituted in 1814, by the Baptist General Con- vention for Foreign Missions, which met triennially until the year 1845, when it resolved itself into a missionary society, under the name of the American Baptist Missionary Union. This association has from small beginnings advanced from year to year in resources and efficiency, until, through God's blessing, it em- braces all the four great continents within the sphere of its operations. These have been conducted with singular wisdom, zeal, and persever- ance, and have been crowned with remarkable success. Its history shows how wonderfully God, in His providence, orders and overrules events while enlisting new agencies for the accomplish- ment of his purposes. In 1812, the American Board of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions, a Paedobaptist society, sent several mission- aries to Bengal. On then* voyage thither, two of these, the Rev. Messrs. Judson and Rice and their wives, changed their views and be- came Baptists ; an event that not only gave much distress to the other members of the mission, but produced, perhaps, for a time, other feel- ings beside disappointment in the minds of the members of the Board that had sent them out. On their arrival, they found that the British East India Company would not permit them to labor within its terri- tories ; so that after a few weeks' stay they had to leave Calcutta. Messrs. Judson and Rice, however, with their wives, were received with great kindness by the excellent Dr. Carey and his associates, Baptist missionaries from England, settled at Serampore, a small Dan- ish possession not many miles above Calcutta. There was no Baptist Foreign Missionary Society at that time in the United States, but as Messrs. Judson and Rice had become Baptists, were now in India, and wished to remain and preach the Gospel there to the heathen, 622 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIII. their case drew the attention of the Baptist churches in America, and a society was organized for their support. Meanwhile, Mr. Judson withdrew into the Burmese territory, and there commenced a mission which has been signally blessed. The society, which they were the means of originating, is now a great institution, with no fewer than twenty-two missions in various parts of the world. How wonderful are the ways of God ! bringing good from what seems to man, for a time at least, to be evil. Had not the two missionaries become Baptists, where would have been the blessed mission to Burmah, and how many years might have elapsed before the American Baptists entered on the prosecution of foreign missions ? And had not the Governor- general of India excluded American missionaries from Bengal, where would have been the promising American missions in Ceylon, in the southern part of Hindostan, and on the western side of the Indian Peninsula ? Such was the origin of the American Baptist Missionary Union ; let us now glance at its various enterprises. Missions in North America. — These embrace the following tribes : the Ojibwas, Ottowas, Delawares, Shawanoes, and others, Cherokees, Creeks, and Choctaws, the last three residing on the Indian Territory. Among these various tribes the Board has twenty-one stations and out-stations, fourteen American missionaries and assistants, and sev- eral Indian assistants. In Europe. — In France, the Union has eight stations and nine out- stations, one missionary and his wife, and sixteen native preachers and assistants. In Germany and Denmark it has fifty-three stations, five missionaries, and fifty-two native preachers and assistants. In Greece, the mission has been abandoned. In West Africa, the society has two stations, two preachers, two female assistants, four native assistants, and several churches among the Bassas, a native tribe near the colony of Liberia. In Asia, the Board has missions among the Karens on the borders of Burmah, in Siam, in China, in Arracan, in Assam, and at Madras and Nellore, in British India. These, forming fifteen distinct mis- sions, comprehended, in 1855, one hundred and seventy-seven stations and out-stations, ninety-four missionaries and assistant missionaries, and about one hundred and seventy native assistants. The total numbers, including all the missions, were, according to the Report for the year ending May 15, 1855, as follows : 22 Missions, s 93 Stations and 510 out-stations. 124 Missionaries and assistant missionaries (Americans), of whom 62 are or- dained. CHAP. VI.] FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 623 260 Native preachers and assistants. 238 Churches, comprehending more than lf,^ members. 3,961 Baptisms in the course of the year reported. 88 Schools and 1,818 pupils. The receipts for that year amounted to $102,327, and the dis- bursements to $132,948. In addition to its regular receipts, the Board had received $5,000 from the American and Foreign Bible So- ciety, for the publication of the Scriptures ; $2,200 from the American Tract Society for the publication of Tracts ; and $4,000 from the United States government toward the support of schools among the Indians. This brief notice will give the reader some idea of this excellent society's operations, and of the good that it is doing. A detailed ac- count of its missions, particularly of those among the Burmans and the Karens, would be interesting, but would far exceed the limits of this work. It is delightful to see how much interest in the cause of missions has sprung up in this numerous and important branch of the Church in the United States. May God grant that it and every other may soon come up to the full measure of their ability and duty in this great work. Let me add, in conclusion, that the " Missionary Magazine," an able and interesting monthly publication, has long been the organ of the society, and has a wide circulation among the Baptist denomination ; and so has the " Macedonian," which is a monthly sheet. The Southern Baptist Convention has a "Foreign Board," which employs some fifteen or twenty missionaries in the foreign field. The receipts last year (1855) were $36,274, and its expendi- tures $31,549. CHAPTER VI. FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCti. The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was formed in 1819, under the auspices of the General Conference, but for many years its efforts were chiefly directed to domestic missions, including those to the slaves in the Southern States, and to the ab- original tribes within, or adjacent to, the western frontier of the United States. It afterward directed its attention to the colonies of free colored Americans on the western coast of Africa, and, at a still later period, it established missions on the territory to the west of the 624 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK Vm. Oregon Mountains, and at some important points in South America. The German emigrants found swarming in our principal cities, at the same time engaged much of its attention. Its efforts in behalf of these and of the slaves, as properly falling under the head of home missions, we have already noticed, and will now give some account of what are, properly speaking, its foreign missions. North American Indians. — The Society has (in 1856) thirty-nine missions, with ten missionaries laboring within or beyond the western frontier of the United States among the following tribes, or remnants of tribes : the Wyandots, Oneidas, Shawnees, Delawares, Kickapoos, Pottawottamies, Chippewas, Choctaws, Cherokees, etc. The report for this year states that the Indian members of the mission churches gathered from these tribes number at present nine hundred and fifty-eight. The Liberia Mission, at and in the vicinity of the American col- ony on the west coast of Africa, was commenced in 1833 by the late Rev. Melville B. Cox, an excellent man, who fell a victim to the climate a few months after his arrival. With his dying breath he ex- claimed, " Though a thousand fall, Africa must not be given up." He was succeeded by others, and they, too, sank under a climate so fatal to white men. At length the Rev. John Seys was sent out, and he, through God's blessing, was spared for much usefulness. He was greatly successful in putting the affairs of the mission in order, and superintending the labors of colored preachers from the United States, the society having to depend chiefly on these. He was suc- ceeded by the Rev. Mr. Chase and others. The mission now includes an Annual Conference, consisting of twenty-two preachers, mostly colored men, and a missionary bishop. Of the church members, about thirteen hundred in all, one hun- dred and two are native Africans, who, till within a few years, were worshiping gods of wood, stone, leather, any thing, in short, that their imagination could fashion into a god ! South American Mission. — In 1841, the society had five mission- aries at Buenos Ayres, laboring, not unsuccessfully, to introduce the Gospel to a population, now so ignorant of the Truth. Other worthy men, formerly employed in this field of labor, the pressure of the times a few years since obliged the society to recall. This society has also a mission in New Mexico. Oregon Mission. — In its origin if not in its success this has been one of the most remarkable of all the missions of the Methodist Church. About the year 1828, the tribe of Indians called Flat Heads, living to the west of the Oregon Mountains, prompted, prob- ably, by what they had seen and heard of the Christian religion CHAP. VI.] FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 625 among the trappers of the American and Hudson's Bay Fur Com- panies, sent some of their chiefs into the United States to inquire as to the various forms of religious worship observed here, and to decide upon which to recommend. After a long and painful journey they reached St. Louis, and stated the object of their coming to the late General Clarke,* then Government Agent for Indian Affairs in that district, by whom it was communicated to the ministers of the Gospel in the place. A great sensation was naturally produced. The Meth- odist Missionary Society was the first that took the matter up, and, desiring to act with prudence, sent two judicious and experienced persons across the Oregon Mountains to visit the Indians, ascertain their present position, and choose a proper situation for a mission. On their arrival they found the way wonderfully prepared by the Lord's providential dispensations, so that after their return, a mission on a large scale left New York for the Oregon country. After a journey of some months it reached the place of its destination, and was welcomed by the Indians and the Agents of the Hudson's Bay Company stationed in that region. But it was soon found that this mission was formed on too large a scale. It has since been reduced to only two or three missionaries. In China the Methodist Episcopal Church sustains a mission at Fuh-chau, where three missionaries are laboring. In Europe it em- ploys several missionaries in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and France. The German missions are prosecuted by twenty-two missionaries, as- sistants, and colporteurs, at Bremen, Hamburg, Frankfort, etc. In Scandinavia there are three laborers, and in France thirty-one. The total number of this society's foreign missionaries amoimted in 1855 to eighty-four. Its total income for that year was $254,587 ; its disbursements $218,667, of which probably $90,000 were for home, and the remainder for foreign missions. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, supports missions among the Indians, of whom there are this year (1856) three thousand six hundred and thirteen members of the churches. There are thirty- two missionaries in this field. In China it has also a mission, with three missionaries. * The name of this gentleman is well known in connection with that of the late Governor Lewis, from the Exploring Tour they made in company across the Oregon Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, during Mr. Jefferson's presidency. 40 626 EFEOETS FOE THE CONVERSION OP THE WORLD. [BOOK Tin. CHAPTER VII. BOAED OF MISSIONS OF THE PEOTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHUECH. This Board was constituted in 1835. Its domestic operations we have noticed in another place, and have now to speak of its foreign missions, which extend to three continents. Westeen Afeica. — It has a very flourishing mission at Cape Palmas, and at several stations along the coast for three hundred miles. In 1855 it comprised a bishop and eleven ordained ministers, together with seven white and ten colored teachers and assistants. The place has been well chosen, for Cape Palmas is one of the healthiest spots on that notoriously unhealthy coast. Several American ladies have resided there in the enjoyment of good health for some years. Attached to the mission there are several schools, partly for the colonists, partly for the natives, and attended by a goodly number of children, youths, and adults. The preaching of the missionaries is well attended, and has been blessed to the salvation of souls. China. — The Board some fifteen years ago commenced a mission under favorable auspices. It has a bishop and four ordained mission- aries, and several lay-assistants, on this field, and is about to send others. Geeece. — The Board has a mission at Athens. There the Rev. Mr. Hill, with his wife (who is a remarkably efficient person), are sta- tioned, and an American lady, as teachers, besides whom there are several native teachers. Mr. Hill has been very successful in raising and supporting schools for children, for boys and for girls, attended by about four hundred scholars. He preaches, also, on the Sabbath, and other occasions, in Greek, to a congregation of young and old. Yet, owing to the perpetual jealousy of the Greek elergy, and their influ- ence with the government, the missionaries find themselves exposed to many difficulties. Mission in the East. — The Board sustained a mission for some years at Constantinople, as well as at Crete ; both have been discon- tinued. It hence appears that the whole number of the Board's ordained missionaries amounted, in 1855, to eighteen, including two bishops, laboring in three distinct missions, besides whom there were several American ladies, chiefly engaged in teaching, and no fewer than fifteen native teachers. The receipts amounted, last year, to $57,600 ; the disbursements exceeded the receipts by $3,000. The Board issues an interesting publication entitled " The Spirit of Missions," for the diffusion of missionary intelligence among the churches. CHAP. VHI.] FOREIGN MISSIONS OF OTHER DENOMINATIONS. 627 CHAPTER VIII. FOREIGN MISSIONS OF OTHER DENOMINATIONS. Missions of the Free-Will Baptist Churches. — The Free-Will Baptist Foreign Missionary Society was organized in 1833, and orig- inated in the correspondence of the Rev. Mr. Sutton, of the English General Baptist Mission, with Elder Buzzel, a Free- Will Baptist min- ister in the United States. Mr. Sutton wrote in 1831, representing the deplorable state of the heathen in India, and calling on his American brethren to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Re- turning to England in 1833, Mr. Sutton went thence to America, there spent several months preaching to the churches ; then, after another short visit to his native land, he made an extensive tour in 1834 through the Free- Will Baptist churches in the United States, preaching to them on the subject of missions, and acting as the cor- responding secretary of a missionary society which had been formed the preceding year. Having succeeded in rousing these churches to a sense of their duty, he sailed in 1835 for India with the Rev. Messrs. Noyes and Phillips and their wives, being the first missionaries from the new society. On their arrival they went with Mr. Sutton to Orissa, a province lying on the western shore of the Bay of Bengal, some hundred miles south-west from Calcutta. The society has now three missionaries in that province. The Rev. O. R. Bachelor and Rev. Jeremiah Phillips are now, with their families, in America, but intend shortly to return to India. The society owes much, we un- derstand, to subscriptions and collections at monthly prayer-meetings. The Rev. Luther Palmer, of ISTorwalk, Ohio, a Free- Will Baptist pastor, some time ago gave himself and all his property, valued at $5,000, to the society, wishing the latter to be applied to the sup- port of the press in India, Such liberality reminds us of Pentecostal days. The receipts of the society were, in 1855, $6,301 89. Foreign Missionary Society of the Lutheran Church in the United States. — This society, which dates from 1837, originated in an appeal from the German missionaries in India, Mr. Rhenius and his associates, to their brethren in the United States, for the assist- ance they required in consequence of their separation from the Church Missionary Society of England, on account of certain of its views and measures which they disapproved, after having labored for several years in its service. In answer to their appeal, a convention of Lutheran ministers and lay-members was held at Hagerstown, in Maryland, and the society was organized. But these missionaries 628 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIII. having renewed their connection with the English Church Mission- ary Society, the American Lutherans have resolved to send out mis- sionaries from their own churches, and now have five, with their families, laboring in India. The stations occupied are Guntoor, the Palnaud, and Rajahmundry, on the eastern coast of India. Foreign Missions of the Moravians, or United Brethren. — The Moravian Brethren in the United States formed a society for propagating the Gospel among the heathen hi 1787. An act for incor- porating it was passed by the State of Pennsylvania ; and it has been actively employed ever since in promoting missions. This society sustains two missions among the Indians (the one among the Dela- wares, the other among the Cherokees), and twelve missionaries, under whose care there are at present four hundred and thirty-five converts. Foreign Missions of the Scottish Churches. — The reader has remarked that in our notices of the Associate, Associate Reformed, and Reformed Presbyterian Churches, we mentioned that they have undertaken foreign missions, either in connection with the Board of the Old School Presbyterians or independently, within the last few years. Such are the societies in the United States which have been ex- pressly formed for the propagation of the Gospel in pagan countries, although some of them have missions in countries nominally Chris* tian. Let me add, that the American Bible Society, and the American and Foreign Bible Society, supported by the Baptists, have been making large yearly donations toward the circulation of the Holy Scriptures in foreign, and especially pagan lands. Some, also, of the State and other local Bible Societies, such as those of Massachusetts and Philadelphia, have done something in this way. The American Tract Society has likewise made yearly grants of from $10,000 to $40,000 for the publication and distribution of religious tracts in foreign, and chiefly in heathen lands. The American Sunday-school Union, too, has granted both books and money for promoting its objects abroad. I am unable to state the yearly amount of all these donations with perfect accuracy, but believe that, taking the average of the last ten years, they have exceeded $50,000. CHAP. X.] AMERICAN AND FOREIGN CHRISTIAN UNION. 629 CHAPTER IX. AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MELIORATING THE CONDITION OF THE JEWS. This society was formed in 182(f, for the purpose of providing an asylum, and the means of earning a comfortable livelihood in Amer- ica, for Jews whose conversion to Christianity exposed them to per- secution and the loss of the means of living. A farm, accordingly, of about five hundred acres was purchased, on which it was proposed to have a colony of converted Jews, who, by tillage and other useful arts, might support themselves and their families. Somehow or other this project did not answer the expectations of its projectors, and so much did the society lose the confidence of the Christian public, that for awhile it seemed quite lost sight of A few years ago, however, the impulse given in Scotland and other European countries to the work of converting the Jews, led some of the old friends of the American Society to think of reviving it, and directing its efforts to the em- ployment of missionaries among the Jews, either in America or else- where. Accordingly it has for some years employed several mission- aries in this country. Its receipts last year were about $8,000. CHAPTER X. AMERICAN AND FOREIGN CHRISTIAN UNION. This, which is the latest in its origin of all the missionary societies, was formed in 1839, under the name of The Foreign Evangelical Society, for promoting evangelical religion in all nominally Christian countries, and was suggested by the growing conviction of many per- sons in the United States, that until pure Christianity be restored in nominal Christendom, the conversion of the heathen world can hardly be looked for. There are millions of Protestants, and tens of millions of Romanists, so manifestly ignorant of the great doctrines of the Gospel, as to prove by their lives that they are little better than baptized heathen. Hundreds of thousands professing Christian- ity may be found in some countries, who have actually never read a page of the Book which God intended should be emphatically the people's Book, but which those who put themselves forward as their guides have kept from them, either from ignorance of its value, or from a dread of its influence when read. 630 EFFORTS FOR THE COZSWERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIII. Now, while many societies seek to promote true religion in the United States, and many, also, send the Gospel to the heathen, the organization of which we speak has made it its peculiar province to cul- tivate that great intermediate field, presented by professedly Christian countries in which, whatever may be their civilization, the Gospel is really almost as little known as it is to the very heathen ; some being buried in the darkness of Romanism, and others in the still worse darkness of Rationalism. In many such countries God, in His holy Providence, has been evidently opening the way for the admission of the long-excluded light. Stupendous revolutions have in the course of the last fifty years shaken, for a time at least, the spiritual despot- ism that had reigned so long over a great part of Christendom, both in Europe and America ; and the bitter fruits of infidelity, in all its forms, have disposed many, in countries where it had sapped the foundations of faith, to return to the simple truths of the Gospel, unperverted by human speculation and "philosophy falsely so called." The last revolutions in France and Belgium, in particular, seemed to lay those countries more open to evangelical effort; and it was hoped that, at no distant day, Italy, Spain, and Portugal also, would be found accessible to the Word of God. After much inquiry, partly conducted by an agent sent expressly to France and other countries of Europe, an association was formed in 1836, which, three years after, took the form of a regular society; not, however, for sending missionaries from America to Europe, but for assisting the friends of evangelical religion in France, Belgium, and other countries similarly circumstanced. It accordingly aided the Evangelical Societies of France and Geneva, and, though not to the same extent, some other and more local associations. Gradually extending the range of its efforts, it also promoted the same cause by the distribution of tracts in Germany, and even aided the friends of the truth in Sweden in what they are doing to communicate the blessings of the Gospel more effectually to the Laplanders. As the Society's Executive Committee was not restricted to any particular method of effecting its objects, it turned its attention to a variety of ways of procedure. While making these efforts in Europe, the Society found among the Roman Catholic population of Lower Canada, which is largely of French origin, an important and providentially-prepared field, which is now occupied by very prosperous missions. After an existence of ten years, from 1839 to 1849, the Foreign Evangelical Society was united with the American Protestant Society (which had been formed in 1842), and with the Christian Alliance, (which had been formed in 1843). Out of this iinion arose the CHAP. XI.] AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 631 American and Foreign Christian Union, which was organized in May, 1849. This society has existed seven years. In the year 1856 it has one hundred and nineteen missionaries; sixty-seven of whom labor among the Romanists within the limits of the United States, and fifty-two in Papal lands abroad — in France, Belgium, Italy, Ire- land, Canada, Hayti, Chili, Brazil, besides two in Sweden, and one in Turkey. The receipts of the society for that year were $69,330, and its expenditures $67,657. CHAPTER XI. AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. Finally, we propose to say a few words respecting the American Colonization Society, because of its connection with missions in "Western Africa, and its bearing upon the general interests of hu- manity. Though originating in a sincere desire to promote the benefit of the African race, on the part of some of the best men that America has ever seen, this society has for many years past been much decried in America, and misrepresented to some extent in Europe. The three persons who may be regarded as its founders have all passed from the present scene to their reward above. These were the late Rev. Dr. Finlay, of New Jersey, the Rev. Samuel J. Mills, of Con- necticut, and the Hon. Elias B. Caldwell, of Washington city, Clerk to the Supreme Court of the United States. The society was organ- ized in 1817, and its objects are expressed as follows, in the second article of its constitution : " To promote and execute a plan of colo- nizing (with their consent) the free people of color residing in our country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem most expedient." The primary motive of its founders was to place the colored man in circumstances in which he might acquire that real in- dependence of station and character and, consequently, that equality in social life which they supposed that he can not reach in the midst of a white population. Soon after the society was constituted, the Rev. Messrs. Mills and Burgess were sent as commissioners to explore the west coast of Af- rica, and select a site for the proposed colony. The first expedition was sent over in 1830, under the Rev. Samuel Bacon, who was ap- pointed governor ; but he and many of the colonists were cut off by the fever of the country, in attempting to form a settlement at Sher- 632 EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VTH. bro, which consequently failed. Another attempt followed a year or two afterward, and though the site was not so good as might have been found, it proved far better than the former, and is now called Liberia, lying between the eighth and eleventh degrees of north lat- itude. No great extent of country was bought at first, but other parcels have been added since, and the society has now obtained the entire coast from Cape Mount on the North to Cape Palmas on the south, and extending to about three hundred miles in length. The intervening coast is now in the possession of the society, which pro- poses to plant colonies at different points, for the double purpose of extending the present settlement and of abolishing the slave-trade on this part of the coast. Monrovia, the chief town in the northern cluster of colonies, has a convenient port, and is of considerable extent. There the Governor of Liberia resides. There are eight or ten villages, also, to the north and south, and in the interior settlements have been made on the Stockton and St. Paul's Rivers, as well as at other points, to the dis- tance of eight or ten miles from Monrovia. A colony planted at Cape Palmas by the Maryland Auxiliary Colonization Society, con- sists of about nine hundred or one thousand colonists from America.* Many natives, however, live both there and in Liberia on lands of their own, but within the limits of the colony, and subject to its laws; in fact, they form an integral part of the population. These colonies have been of slow growth, for the society, unaided by the General Government, has been unable to conduct the enter- prise on a large scale. Inexperience, too, led to several blunders in the first years, to which must be added want of union and energy on the part of the National Society, and the loss of the confidence of part of the public, particularly of the members of the Anti-slavery and Abolition Societies. Notwithstanding all this, the society has been gradually advancing. Its yearly income has for some time past exceeded $50,000,f and its colonies, now supposed to number about ten thousand emigrants, are in a tolerably thriving state. Fatal as the climate of Liberia is to white men, the colored find it so much otherwise, that the mortality among them has not been greater than was to be expected — not more than what was experienced by the first * It is an interesting fact, that the governor at Cape Palmas, Mr. Rushworm, is a gentleman of color, brought up in America as a printer, and who ably conducted for several years the Liberia Herald, a newspaper of respectable character, established at Monrovia twenty years ago. f But this is exclusive of that of some State societies which manage their own affairs, like that of Maryland, to which the State of that name granted $200,000, payable in ten yearly installments. The colony established by that society, it will be seen, is at Cape Palmas. CHAP. XI.] AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 633 settlers in Virginia and Massachusetts. Cape Palmas, from its ele- vated position, has been found remarkably healthy, and not oppress- ive even to the missionaries, though whites. It has been well ascertained that, at the distance of from fifteen to twenty miles the country rises in the interior, and at no great dis- tance further becomes even mountainous. Hence it is inferred that the climate there is salubrious. A few more years of success will en- able the colonies to purchase the lands east of the "back settle- ments," and to open a way to the hilly country. Already, in fact, they are making a road from Monrovia into the interior, so as to have a highway for trade in cam-wood and other productions of the country. The soil is almost everywhere fertile, and vegetation lux- uriant, so that a large population might be abundantly provided for. Instead of a single crop in a year, as in colder climates, two may be had of many vegetable productions. The sweet potato, rice, sugar- cane, the coffee-plant, and other tropical produce, can be raised with ease. A great difficulty in agriculture lies in the want of good fences, and the destruction of posts and rails by insects. This must be overcome by making hedges of the sour orange, or by employing shepherds, herdsmen, and boys. Many of the colonists have now their little farms. Others, and perhaps too many, are more occupied in trading with the natives. They keep a quantity of small craft for trading along the coast, and carry on a brisk barter with numerous vessels, American, British, etc., etc., touching from time to time at Monrovia. It appears from the testimony of impartial men, with good oppor- tunities of information, that these colonies have had a beneficial in- fluence on that coast, and have tended to repress the slave-trade. Such was that of Captains Bell and Paine of the United States navy, who were there in 1840, and, still more recently, of Lieutenant Foote, and who vindicate the colonies from many charges equally false and absurd ; among others, that of conniving at that infamous trade. That plantations mainly composed of liberated slaves should be alto- gether immaculate, no man of sense would expect or require. But that they are, as communities, thriving, and that they are also exerting a happy influence on the natives, is what every one must believe, from the abundant testimony of credible witnesses ; among others, of several excellent missionaries, with whom I have been long and intimately acquainted. I have remarked that the society has been much opposed, especi- ally by the friends of the Anti-slavery Societies in the United States. This opposition has arisen from the manner in which the society has been advocated. Some of its friends have been apt to recommend it 634 EFFOKTS FOE THE CONVERSION OF THE WOELD. [BOOK VIII. as presenting the sole method of ridding the United States of slavery. This is absurd. It has diverted the minds of slaveholders in the South from the duty of universally emancipating their slaves, whether they shall remain in the country or not ; and in this way has done mischief. Its friends have perhaps said too much, also, about the im- possibility of the colored population rising to respectability and political equality in the United States. The difficulties are indeed great, but good men should never lend their aid in fostering the un- reasonable prejudices against the colored race, entertained by too large a part of our people. Notwithstanding these and some other errors which might be mentioned, I can not but feel the deepest interest in the cause of African colonization ; first, because it may be advocated even before slaveholders in such a way as to favor emancipation, a thing which can not be done at present by the agents of our " Abolition" and " Anti-slavery Societies ;" secondly, because it provides slaveholders who wish to emancipate their slaves, and who, by certain State laws, are obliged to remove them out of the State when so emancipated, with an opportunity of sending them to a country which does afford the prospect of their rising to independence and comfort ; thirdly, because the colonization of Africa, in one way or other, presents the sole effectual method of breaking up the slave-trade ; and lastly, be- cause it is the surest way of introducing civilization into Africa, and also furnishes a point cfappui for the prosecution of Christian mis- sions. Such is the opinion of the late Rev. Dr. Philip, the distin- guished and judicious superintendent of the London Missionary So- ciety's missions in South Africa, as ably maintained in a letter ad- dressed by him, some twenty years ago, to the students at the Theo- logical Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey. The Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Methodists have all, as we have seen, flourishing missions in these colonies* The number of evangelical preachers, of all denominations, is no less than forty. God has greatly blessed His Word in these communities, which, considering the recent servitude and ignorance of most of the colonists, are said to exhibit an extraordinary prevalence of morality. I know not how any person can read without interest the follow- ing statement, contained in the Report of the Methodist Missionary Society, read at the annual meeting a few years ago : " The Liberia Mission includes an Annual Conference of seventeen preachers, all colored except the superintendent and the two breth- The Roman Catholics have also commenced a mission at Cape Palmas, and will doubtless do the same, ere long, at Liberia. The Right Rev. Dr. Barron and Patrick Kelly, priests, were sent in the year 1842 to Cape Palmas. CHAP. XI.] AMEKICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 635 ren lately sent out. It has a membership of nearly one thousand individuals, of whom one hundred and fifty are natives, who, until the last two years, were worshiping gods of wood, and stone, and clay. " There are thirteen day-schools within the bounds of the mission, in which from five hundred and fifty to six hundred children receive daily instruction ; fourteen churches, some of which are very neat, and one built of stone, in size forty by sixty feet. There are also eight mission-houses or parsonages, four school-houses, one of which (the academy) is a stone building twenty by forty feet ; and a large printing-office, also of stone, with an excellent press. In the schools there are upward of forty native children and youth, who are pre- paring for future usefulness. Many of them read the Scriptures, and write well, and are burning with zeal to carry the Gospel to regions yet beyond them. " Tribes at a distance have sent for missionaries, and the Board is anxious to push the victories of the cross still further into the inter- ior. If means can be furnished, the Board expect a vast amount of native agency will be called into operation. If the society were able to thrust forth but a few scores of such young men of Africa as Si- mon Peter,* who recently visited this country, the Liberia mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church would be rendered a blessing to thousands of the African race yet unborn." In view of the success which has attended this mission, the report exhorted the church to adhere to the motto of the dying and lamented Cox : ' Though a thousand fall, Africa must not be given up.' The chairman introduced the Rev. John Seys, superintendent of the African mission, who rose and spoke substantially as follows: " Mr. Chairman, I hold in my hand a resolution given to me for presentation to the society, with a request that I would make some remarks in sustaining it." He then read the following resolution : " * Resolved, That the Liberia mission, including as it does a portion of the interior of West- ern Africa, constitutes one of the most promising fields for mission- ary enterprise ; and that the touching appeals from the half-awakened natives of different tribes which have reached us through our mis- sionaries, while they proclaim the ripeness of the harvest, imperatively call upon the Church for the requisite supply of efficient laborers." " I presume this resolution was assigned to me on account of my connexion with the Liberia mission. I can say it affords me much pleasure to present such a resolution. Years have now elapsed since I stood among you — since I was sent by you as an almoner of the Gospel to poor, long-neglected Africa. * Since dead. 636 EFFORTS FOR TELE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK VIII. " The resolution speaks of Africa as one of the most promising fields of missionary enterprise. Is it so ? Yes, sir, it is so. And if the missionary sickle be but applied, the field will yield a rich and noble harvest to the Church. Out of one thousand church members, one hundred and fifty are native converts. But two years ago I found them bowing down to images of wood, and clay, and stone, and leather, and every thing which their fancy could make into a god. These idols they placed about their persons, put them in their houses, and carried about with them wherever they went. " Soon after a number of them had been converted, they appointed a day for meeting, when they were admitted to the Church. And what a scene ! Bonfires were kindled in the town of Heddington, and the praises of Immanuel ascended with the smoke of the burning idols. At the same time, the hearts of these young converts were burning with desire to carry the Gospel to the tribes beyond them. " Western Africa is a most promising field, because her native con- verts are eager to carry the Gospel to the country in the interior. The boys at the love-feasts tell the tale of their conversion, pray God to keep them good, to make them grow up men, and be missionaries to c the V other people? The natives will prove themselves doubly qualified for the missionary work, as they have less fear of the pecu- liar diseases of the climate, can be supported with less means, and understand the language of the country." The Gospel has made great progress in these colonies since this address was made, and many schools and churches have been estab- lished. CHAPTER XII. THE SUMMARY. Thus it will be perceived that almost every evangelical church in the United States is doing more or less for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign, and especially in heathen lands. I know not, in- deed, that there is a single exception, unless it be among some of the smaller German denominations, or some branches of the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches. Even these, however, seem almost all to contribute toward this great object through societies or boards, either belonging to other denominations, or common to several. Thus the Reformed Presbyterians or Covenanters support missiona- ries in the East Indies, in connection with the Presbyterian Church's Board of Missions ; the Associate Reformed churches so far aid the CHAP. XII.] THE SUMMARY. 637 same board ; the Associate churches have a mission in the island of Trinidad ; and some of the German Reformed churches aid the Amer- ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, as do, also, some of the Cumberland Presbyterian churches. This is a gratifying fact, whether we regard it as a sign of life, or an earnest of its still further increase in the churches. Not that these have done all that their glorious Lord may justly look for at their hands; but that what they have hitherto done is but the promise of much greater things for the future, we may reasonably infer from the comparatively recent period that either domestic or foreign missions began seriously to interest the Christian public of the United States. Previous to 1810, there was not a single foreign missionary society in the country, with the exception of that of the Moravian Brethren, and not till long after did the churches do any thing worth mention in that field. The last twenty-five years have witnessed much improvement in this respect, and we pray that it may go on in a far greater ratio until every church shall have come up to the full demands of its duty. It is difficult to present at one view the statistics of all these mis- sionary efforts with perfect accuracy, at least if we would include all the particulars upon which the reader may think information desira- ble. On the main points we may obtain pretty accurate results. In- cluding the missions of the evangelical churches alone, and those of the others are hardly of sufficient importance to call for notice, the receipts from all sources for propagating the Gospel in foreign and chiefly heathen lands, for the year 1855 may safely be reckoned at 8933,062* This is exclusive, also, of the income of the colonization * The following table gives the details on this point : The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions $310,427 Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church 184,074 Boards of Foreign Missions of the Baptist Churches 163,660 Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church 128,000 Foreign Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church 57,600 Foreign Missionary Society of the Free-Will Baptists 6,301 Foreign Missionary Society of the Lutheran Church, (about) 3,000 Foreign Missionary Society of the United Brethren, (about) 10,000 American and Foreign Christian Union (to the foreign field) about 15,000 Other Societies 5,000 Grants from American Bible Society, the American and Foreign Bible So- ciety, and the American Tract Society, estimated to be at least 50,000 Total $933,062 Nor does this statement include the annual grant of the general government of $10,000 for the support of schools among the Indian tribes, which is laid out through 638 EFFORTS FOR THE CONTEESION OF THE WORLD. [BOOK YIH. societies, amounting, say, to $80,000, these not being missionary societies. The number of distinct missions prosecuted by the United States churches is at least eighty ; that of stations and out-stations exceeds three hundred. These employed in 1855 at least four hundred and fifty preaching American missionaries, who, with a few exceptions, were ordained ministers, and above seventy American laymen, chiefly physicians, printers, teachers, and catechists. The American females, chiefly wives of missionaries and teachers, amounted to five hundred, making a total of nine hundred and fifty persons from the United States connected with these missions, and all laboring, in one way or another, to promote the Gospel among the heathen. The natives who assist as ministers, evangelists, teachers, distributors of tracts, etc., etc., amounted at least to five hundred. the missionary societies. I have not been able to obtain the exact amount raised by two or three of the societies ; but the supposed sums can not be far from the truth. CONCLUSION. #♦♦ In the foregoing pages I had proposed to treat of the Origin, His- tory, Economy, Action, and Influence of Religion in the United States of America, and in the execution of this task I have endeavored to omit nothing that seemed requisite to a full elucidation of the subject. The extent of ground necessarily traversed has rendered it indispensable that I should lay before the reader very numerous details ; but these, I trust, he has found at once pertinent and inter- esting. Here the work properly ends ; but I am desirous of recall- ing the attention of the reader to a few of the most important facts which it brings to light, and briefly to remark upon them, in order, if possible, to render them more useful to those who may be led to contemplate them. I wish, also, to make a reply to several charges against my country, and especially against its religious institutions, which I have heard in certain parts of Europe. I begin by giving a brief review of the progress of the country under several aspects which are not decidedly of a religious nature, but which have an important moral bearing. This will enable the reader to judge whether its religious progress has corresponded with and equaled that which may be called temporal. I. — The Progress of the Country in regard to its Material Interests. At first, and for a long period, as we have stated at length, the progress of the country was slow in all respects. Much time was demanded to clear away the forests, to open up roads, to build cities, to create harbors, and to find means to navigate the long rivers and extensive bays. The foreign commerce of the country was in the hands of England, with the exception of the fisheries and the West India Islands. Nevertheless, in the face of all these difficulties, and in the face of those which we have mentioned in the preceding section, there was a steady advance in all the material interests of the country during the colonial era. Independence introduced a new state of things. Still it required many years to recover from the depressed state in which a war of seven years left the nation. In the 640 CONCLUSION. mean while a constitution was to be formed, and a general govern- ment organized. Then followed disastrous wars with the Indians, difficulties with France and England, leading to a war with both — with the former, a short one, in 1798-99, and with the latter in 1812-15. All these things repressed the prosperity of the country for a long time ; but since 1815 the progress has been immense. The steamboat, an American invention, had just begun to ply on our long rivers at that epoch, and was destined to exert a mighty influence. Twenty years more passed away, and the railroad, an English inven- tion, had begun to be built and to exert its vast influence. But of the present state of things we can only give a summary. The value of the agricultural products of the country in 1854, is estimated by Professor De Bow — now at the head of the Census Bureau, and one of the best authorities on all subjects that relate to the material interests of the country — at the sum of $1,600,000,000. Of these productions, Indian corn ranks first, being, in 1850, no less than $296,035,552 ; wheat was next, being $100,485,944 ; and cotton stood third, being $98,603,720. The number of farms was 1,449,075, and the number of acres of cultivated land was 113,032,614. The manufacturing establishments were, in 1850, 121,855, employ- ing 944,991 persons, and the gross value produced was $1,013,336,463. The home and foreign commerce of the country, in 1850, has been carefully estimated by Professor De Bow, at $1,500,000,000 ; em- ploying, according to the census, 100,752 merchants proper, and 14,917 traders. The commerce of the Western rivers and of the lakes has been estimated at $653,976,202. The tonnage, on the 30th of June, 1855, was 5,212,000. It is now believed to exceed that of England. In 1854 there were 17,317 miles of railroad in operation ; 12,526 in process of construction; and the cost was estimated at $489,603,128. On the 1st of January, 1855, it was believed that there was 35,480 miles of railroad on the surface of the earth, of which 16,890 were in the eastern hemisphere, and 18,590 in the western. On the 1st of January, 1856, there were 23,242 miles of railroad in the United States, whose cost was estimated at $697,260,000. Of canals, in 1854, there were 4,798 miles. The value of real and personal estate, in 1850, was, by the census, estimated to be $6,024,666,909; but it is believed to have been in reality, all of $7,066,562,966. The entire number of steam-vessels in the United States, in 1852, was 1,392,* with a tonnage of 417,223. The number of ocean-steamers was 96. * Last year (1855) there were 120 steamers and 118 propellers on the lakes, and CONCLUSION. 641 The coinage of the United States, in the year 1800, was, in value, $571,335 ; in 1852, it was $57,104,569, of which $56,205,638 were in gold. In 1853, it was $64,358,537. In 1853, there were eighty-nine telegraphic lines, having 23,201 miles of wire. At the commencement of the year 1855, the miles of telegraphic wire were estimated at over 30,000. The receipts into the treasury of the general or central govern- ment, in 1852, were $49,728,386; those for 1855, from all sources, were $65,003,930. Its debt, July 1st, 1854, was $47,180,506; it is now less than $40,000,000. The revenues of the several States, from taxation, were, in 1852, $27,068,925; their expenditures, $24,628,666; and their debts, in the shape of bonds for internal improvements, were, June 30th, 1853, $190,718,221, of which $110,972,108, it is estimated, were held by foreigners. II. — The Progress of the Country in eegaed to its Moral and Intellectual Interests. If the progress of the United States has been great in what constitutes the material interests of the coun- try, it may be affirmed with truth, that its progress has not been less in what may be called its Moral and Intellectual Interests. "We will consider this subject from several points of view. Education. In no subject is a greater interest felt among us than that of Education. The six States of New England,* and New York, ISTew Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and California, have each a system of public schools, by which instruction, if not gratuitous, is given at a reduced cost to all the youth who attend them. It is done in some cases by taxation, in others by the proceeds of funds created for that purpose, and in some cases (indeed most generally) by means of both taxation and perma- nent funds. When to the aid thus received we add the sums con- tributed by the pupils, where, as in most cases, they are required to pay something per month, or for three months, the whole amount becomes great. In the other States the governments give large sums for the edu- cation of the children of the poor, derived from taxation, or from permanent funds. According to the census of 1850, the number of public schools (that is, of schools sustained or aided by the government, as ex- plained) was 80,978 ; the number of teachers was 91,966 ; of pupils, 816 steamers on the Western rivers; the tonnage of these 1,054 vessels was 435,848. * Maine, New Hampshire, Yermont, Massachusetts, Khode Island, and Connec- ticut. 41 642 CONCLUSION. 3,354,011 ; and the amount paid for tuition was $9,529,542, of which $4,653,096 were derived from taxation, 82,552,402 from public funds, $182,594 from endowments, and $2,141,450 were paid by the pupils. The number of academies and private schools was 6,089 ; of pupils attending them, 263,096; of teachers, 12,230; and the cost of tuition was $4,225,433, of which sum $288,855 were derived from endow- ments, $14,202 from taxation, $1 15,729 from public funds, and $4,225,433 from other sources — in other words, were paid by the pupils. The entire number of pupils in the schools, public and private, in 1850, was, therefore, 3,617,107, as returned by the teachers of the schools to the marshals who took the census ; but as returned by the parents, it was 4,089,507 ;* the former giving, it is probable, the number that attended with a good degree of regularity, while the latter included all that were sent for any period, however short. The entire cost of tuition, including public and private schools, as well as the academies, was that year $14,173,176. In 1850 there were 119 colleges, with 1,032 professors, 11,903 students, and 963,716 volumes in their libraries. There were 44 theological seminaries, 127 professors, 1,351 stu- dents, and 198,888 volumes in their libraries. There were 36 medical schools, 247 professors, and 4,947 stu- dents. There were 16 law schools, thirty-five professors, and 532 stu- dents.! The entire number of what are generally called colleges, male and female, was, in 1850, 215, and the number of students was 18,733. We should not give a complete view of what is doing for the edu- cation of the people of the United States, if we did not say that it is believed that there can not be less than 35,000 Sunday-schools, with at least 2,500,000 pupils in them. These schools have generally in- teresting libraries attached to them. Not a few persons, especially among the adult pupils, receive all the education they ever get at the Sunday-school. The public funds and endowments for the support of schools and academies in the United States exceed $50,000,000. Up to January 1st, 1854, Congress had appropriated to fourteen Western and South- western States (including Florida), and the Territories of Minnesota, a Of these 4,089,507 pupils returned as attending school, in 1850, those born in the country were 3,942,081 ; 147,426 were born in foreign lands, and 26,461 were free colored children. f The number of law students is great in America ; but most of them pursue their studies with lawyers of eminence, and do not attend the law schools. CONCLUSION. 643 Oregon, and New Mexico, no less than 48,909,535 acres of land for schools, and 4,060,704 acres for colleges and universities. Within the last twenty-five years, many of the large cities have done much to found admirable public schools. In this good work Boston stands at the head ; but Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, Baltimore, New Orleans, Louisville, and many others, have also done well. It may not be amiss to add that, according to the census of 1850, the white population was 19,558,088, and the free people of color 434,495 — making together a total of almost 20,000,000. Of this number there were 1,053,420 persons over twenty years who could not read — namely, 767,784 natives,. 195,114 foreigners, and 90,522 free colored. Finally, we have to say that, including the entire population, bond as well as free, the number of pupils in the schools, of all descriptions, was in the ratio of 1 to 5*6. Public Libraries. Of what we call Public Libraries in the United States, there were, in 1850, more than 1,200, containing 1,446,015 volumes. There were 213 college libraries, containing 942,321 vol- umes. If we add those of the common schools, of Sunday-schools, and of churches, the whole number of volumes could not have been less than 4,500,000. Several of the public libraries are large and well-selected. That of Harvard College has more than 85,000 vol- umes ; the Astor Library (at New York) has nearly, if not quite, as many ; the Philadelphia Library has more than 60,000 volumes. The library of Congress has at least as many. The Press. The first newspaper published in North America was the Boston News-Letter, issued April 24th, 1704. In 1720 there were seven newspapers in the American Colonies; in 1775 there were thirty-five; in 1800 there were 359; in 1840 there were 1,631 (in- cluding 227 periodicals, such as semi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual) ; and in 1850 there were 2,302 newspapers (daily, tri-weekly, semi-weekly, and weekly), of which 153,120,708 copies were printed annually. If we add 214 " periodicals," with their circulation, we shall have a total of 2,516 publications (newspapers, etc.), with an aggregate amount of circulation of 5,182,617. When reduced to a tabular form they will stand thus : Number. Circulation. Literary and Miscellaneous 569 1,692,403 Neutral and Independent 83 303,122 Political 1,630 1,907,794 Eeligious 191 1,071,657 Scientific 53 207,041 2,526 5,182,617 644 CONCLUSION. Since 1850 the number of newspapers has increased from 2,302 to more than 2,500. III. The Progress of Religious Liberty in America. — On this subject so much has been said in the second and third books of this work, that I need do no more than bestow a very brief review upon it. In no part of the world, I apprehend, can we find any progress, in this respect, which can be compared with what has taken place in the United States. In the year 1607, the plantation of the Southern group of colonies was commenced with the settlement of Jamestown. In 1620, that of the Northern was begun in the landing of the Pilgrims at Ply- mouth. Though originating in motives as widely different, almost, as possible, and having in view the diffusion of forms of Protestantism, so far as ecclesiastical organization is concerned, as completely an- tipodal as can be conceived, both were founded in that spirit of in- tolerance which prevailed at that day throughout the Old World, and which, alas ! reigns even yet in so large a portion of it. All that the Puritans who settled in Massachusetts and Connecticut expected to accomplish was the planting of colonies in which they and their children might profess and practise the religion which they preferred. The toleration of other doctrines and other forms of worship formed no part of their desire or design. Nor was there a better spirit in Virginia. In both, the narrow bigotry of Europe struck deep its roots, soon attained a vigorous growth, and brought forth its appro- priate fruits. In the year 1634, the colony of Maryland was founded, and two years later, that of Rhode Island, the one by Roman Catholics, who enjoyed their religious rights at that epoch in no Protestant country, and the other by a sect of Protestants, who could find no toleration either in Massachusetts or Virginia. Nearly fifty years later, Penn- sylvania was planted as an asylum for persecuted Quakers, who, till then, had no place of assured protection and repose in the whole world. The influence of these three asylum-colonies, one in the north, one in the south, and one in the middle of the entire series of plantations, where perfect religious liberty was established at the very outset — and in two of which its reign was never interrupted — though silent, was powerful. The complete demonstration which they furnished — in the internal tranquillity which prevailed, so far as religious questions were concerned, in the absence of all unhappy collisions between the Church and the State, and of corroding jeal- ousies and attritions between the various sects — not only of the justice, but also of the wisdom of giving to all men the fullest pos- CONCLUSION. 645 session of the rights of conscience and of worship, could not be lost upon the other colonies. Its influence concurred with the many long-protracted and severe discussions which took place in them, to bring about ultimately the triumph of better principles. And what is now the state of things in the United States, as regards religious liberty ? It is that of the universal enjoyment of this greatest of blessings. The Christian — be he Protestant or Catholic — the infidel, the Mohammedan, the Jew, the Deist, has not only all his rights as a citizen, but may have his own form of worship, without the possibility of any interference from any policemen or magistrate, provided he do not interrupt, in so doing, the peace and tranquillity of the surrounding neighborhood. Even the Atheist may have his meetings in which to preach his doctrines, if he can get any body to hear them.* It is a remarkable fact, that the United States is the only country in all Christendom where perfect religious liberty exists, and where the government does nothing, by " favor" or otherwise, to promote the interests of any one religion, or of any one sect of religionists, more than another. And I can not but think that the very freedom from a thousand perplexing and agitating collisions, from which we see the governments of other countries in the Christian world to be continually suffering, furnishes one of the most powerful arguments that can be conceived in favor of leaving religion to its own re- sources, under the blessing of its adorable Author. Whatever diversity of opinion may exist among Christians in America on other subjects, there is none on this subject. They would all acknowl- edge, without a moment's hesitation, the views expressed in the following paragraphs, which were uttered by a gifted and elegant writer.f " Almost every sect in turn, when tempted by the power, has re- sorted to the practice of religious persecution ; but to the credit of Rome it must be said that the baptism of fire is almost exclusively her sacrament for heretics. Good men of almost all persuasions have been confined in prison for conscience' sake. Bunyan was the first * Even as it regards the holding of political offices, while the Constitutions of almost all the States, as we have shown in the third book, are founded on Christian- ity, in a certain sense, and at present make no distinction between Protestants and Roman Catholics, the Jew is, with one exception, nowhere debarred from any civil privilege. There is, I am sorry to say it, one State, that of North Carolina, where the Israelite is still excluded from political privileges; and this, too, under her new Constitution. But it is the only relic of this species of intolerance which remains among us. f Rev. George B. Cheever, D.D., of New York, in a Lecture on Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 646 CONCLUSION. person in the reign of Charles II. punished for the c?'ime of noncon- formity. Southey's own language has the word punished ; it should have heen persecuted for the virtue / for such it was in Bunyan ; and any palliation which could be resorted to for the purpose of justify- ing an English hierarchy for shutting up John Bunyan in prison, would also justify a Romish hierarchy for burning Latimer and Rid- ley at the stake. Strange that the lesson of religious toleration should be one of the last and hardest, even for liberal minds, to learn. It cost long time, instruction, and discipline even for the disciples of Christ to learn it ; and they never would have learned it had not the infant Church been cut loose from the State, and deprived of all pos- sibility of girding the secular arm with thunder in its behalf. John had not learned it when he would have called down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans ; nor John, nor his followers, when they forbade a faithful saint (some John Bunyan of those days, belike) from casting out devils, because he followed not them. And they never would have learned it had the union of Church and State been sanctioned by the Saviour. Whenever one sect in particular is united to the State, the lesson of religious toleration will not be per- fectly learned ; nay, who does not see that toleration itself, applied to religion, implies the assumption of a power that ought not to exist, that in itself is tyranny. It implies that you, an earthly authority, an earthly power, may say to me, so condescendingly, I permit you the exercise of your religion. You permit me ? And what authority have you to permit me, any more than I to permit you ? God per- mits me, God commands me, and do you dare to say that you tolerate me ? Who is he that shall come in between me and God either to say yea or nay ? Your toleration itself is tyranny, for you have no right to meddle with the matter. But whenever Church and State are united, then there will be meddling with the matter ; and even in this country, if one particular sect were to get the patronage of the State, there would be an end to our perfect religious freedom. " In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the poet Southwell, who wrote one of the most exquisitely beautiful death-hymns in our language, and who seems to have been truly a devout man, was put to death violently and publicly, no other crime being proved against him but what he honestly and proudly avowed, that he had come over into England simply and solely to preach the Catholic religion. And he ought to have been left at liberty to preach it ; for if the Protestant religion can not stand against Catholic preaching, it ought to go down. No religion is worth having, or worth supporting, that needs racks, or Inquisitions, or fires and faggots, to sustain it ; that dare not or can not meet its adversaries on the open battle-field of Truth ; no re- CONCLUSION. 647 ligion is worth supporting that needs any thing but the truth and Spirit of God to support it ; and no establishment ought to be per- mitted to stand that stands by persecuting others, nor any Church to exist that exists by simply unchurching others. So, if the English Church Establishment dared not consider herself safe without shut- ting up John Bunyan and sixty other dissenters (several of whom were also, like himself, clergymen) with him in prison, the English Church Establishment was not worthy to he safe ; the English Church Establishment was a disgrace and an injury to the Gospel, and a dis- grace and an injury to a free people. No Church is worth saving from destruction, if it has to be saved by the destruction of other men's religious liberties ; nay, if that be the case with it, it ought to go down, and the sooner the better. No Church is worthy to stand that makes nonconformity to its rites and usages a penal crime ; it becomes a persecuting Church the moment it does this ; for, suppos- ing that every man, woman, and child in the kingdom is kept from nonconformity simply by that threat, and that, through the power of such terror, there comes to be never the need to put such penal laws in execution, and so never a single subject really molested or punished, still that Church is a persecuting Church, and that people a persecuted people, a terrified people, a people cowed down, a peo- ple in whose souls the sacred fire of liberty is fast extinguishing, a people bound to God's service by the fear of men's racks. Such a people can never be free ; their cowardice will forge their fetters. A people who will sell themselves to a Church through fear of pun- ishment, will sell themselves to any tyrant through the same fear ; nay, a people who will serve God through fear of punishment, when they would not serve him otherwise, will serve Satan in the same way. " If you make nonconformity a crime, you are therefore a perse- cuting church, whether your name be Rome, or England, or Ameri- ca, even though there be not a single nonconformist found for you to exercise your wrath upon, not one against whom you may draw the sword of your penalty. But it is drawn, and drawn against the liberty of conscience, and every man whom in this way you keep from nonconformity, you make a deceiver to his God ; you make him barter his conscience for an exemption from an earthly penalty ; you make him put his conscience, not into God's keeping, but into the keeping of your sword ; you dry up the life-blood of liberty in his soul ; you make him in his inmost conscience an imprisoned slave, a venal victim of your bribery and terror ; and though he may still walk God's earth as others, it is with the iron in his soul, it is with your chain about his neck, it is as the shuffling fugitive from your 648 CONCLUSION. penalties, and not as a whole-souled man, who, fearing God relig- iously, fears nothing else. There may, indeed, be no chain visible, but you have wound its invisible links around the man's spirit ; you have bound the man within the man ; you have fettered him, and laid him down in a cold, dark dungeon, and until those fetters are taken off, and he stands erect and looks out from his prison to God, it is no man, but a slave that you have in your service ; it is no dis- ciple, but a Simon Magus that you have in your Church." But though with us " heresy" is nowhere considered to be " trea- son," and all enjoy equal religious liberty, neither the General Gov- ernment, nor those of our individual States, are indifferent to relig- ion. One of the most striking proofs of this is to be found in the fact, that every year — almost without exception in the autumn — the governors of a large majority of our States recommend and name a day to be observed as a Day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God for his mercies, and of supplication for their continuance. And such days are generally observed by Christians of every name. Business is suspended, the churches are open, at least in the forenoon, and sermons are preached throughout the limits of the Commonwealth.* * The European reader of this work may be pleased to see a specimen of the pro- clamations issued on such occasions ; we subjoin one issued by a governor of New York a few years ago : " In obedience to that high sense of gratitude due the Almighty Ruler of the Uni- verse, I do hereby designate Thursday, the fourteenth day of December next, to be observed by the people of this State as a day of Prayer, Praise, and Thanks- giving to Almighty God for the numerous and unmerited blessings of the year. " I feel assured that this act of public duty is in accordance with the wishes of the people, and will meet with universal acquiescence. " As a people, We have great reason to be thankful, and to praise the Almighty Dispenser of all Good for the continued smiles of His providence on our State and nation. " During the past year we have been permitted to enjoy our religious and political privileges unmolested. "We have been exempt from those ravages of malignant dis- ease which sometimes afflict a people. The season has been highly propitious, and seldom has the harvest been more abundant. As a crowning blessing, the Spirit of the Lord has revived the hearts of Christians, and brought to a saving knowledge many that knew not God. " For the distinguished blessings we have enjoyed, we should raise our hearts in humble adoration to our Father in heaven, thereby presenting to the world the im- posing spectacle of the entire population of a great State abstaining from all secular engagements on the day designated, and devoting themselves to the service of the Almighty. We should always remember that ' righteousness exalteth a nation.' 4 : Given under my hand, and the privy seal of the State, at the [L. S.] city of Albany, this tenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-three. " Wm. C. Bouck." CONCLUSION. 649 IV. The True Means op Success. But our religious liberty, un- bounded and precious as it is, is not the cause of the success which has attended the Gospel in America. It is only the occasion, if I may so express myself, not the means, by which the Church of Christ has made so great advances in the United States. It has wonder- fully opened the way for this blessed prosperity : it has removed hinderances, allayed prejudices, and placed the country in a true po- sition in regard to Christianity. It has created an open field, in which Truth may contend with Error, clad in her own panoply, and relying on her own weapons. Much as I love the perfect liberty of conscience and of worship which we enjoy in America, there are other things which, to my mind, must be regarded as the causes of the success which has at- tended the efforts of God's people among us to promote his kingdom. Let us notice these for a few moments. 1. There is the grouping of our children, rich and poor, in the Sunday-schools, arranging them in small classes, and bringing their young minds and hearts into contact with the Word of God. 2. There is the continuation of this good work in the Bible-class. What a powerful means of doing good ! and how well calculated to follow up, or prepare the way for the instruction around the family altar. 3. There are our societies for educating in a thorough manner young men of piety and talents for the work of preaching the Gospel. And many hundreds of young men of promise, whom God's Spirit urges to preach salvation to their dying fellow-men, are thus every year brought forward for the work. 4. Next come the Home Missionary Societies and Boards, which send forth these young men, when prepared to preach, to the new and destitute portions of the country, and help the people to sustain them. 5. In connection with these the Maternal Associations, and other means for impressing on parents the duty of bringing up their chil- dren for the Lord, and for aiding them in the attempt, must not be overlooked ; nor those efforts which are made to disseminate the Sa- cred Scriptures and religious tracts and books. These are silent but efficient means of co-operation in this blessed work. 6. And, lastly and chiefly, there remains the preaching of the Word, the most effective of all instrumentalities for the conversion and sanctification of men. There is nothing which may supplant this. And here we have abundant occasion for thankfulness. We have many thousands of pious and faithful preachers ; very many of whom are able, skillful, and successful laborers in the vineyard of the Lord. 650 CONCLUSION". Let the reader review what has been said on all these points in the portions of this work which treat of them, and he will discover the true causes, under God, of the progress which religion has made in America from the first, and especially within the present century. V. The True Source of all Success. Still, these must all be considered as only means ; the success is of God. " It is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." Here is all our hope ; even Truth itself is impotent to renovate the heart of man, depraved and debased as he is, without the influence of the Holy Spirit. It is the province of this blessed Agent to take the things of Christ and show them unto men. It is He alone who can open the blind eyes, and cause them to see the beauty and fitness of the glo- rious plan of salvation through the crucified Son of God. It is He alone who can render the preaching of the Gospel " the power of God and the wisdom of God to the salvation of men." And He, blessed be God, can as easily render the same presentation of the glo- rious Gospel effectual to the salvation of many as of few — of hundreds and thousands, as on the day of Pentecost, as of one. But, alas ! when shall the Spirit be appreciated, honored, sought for by the Church as He ought to be ? Oh, when shall Christians awake to a proper sense of the desirableness, yea, the absolute neces- sity of His glorious effusion upon the world, in order to its conver- sion, which is the subject of so many and so remarkable predictions ? Many who profess the name of Christ seem almost not to know whether there be a Holy Ghost. ISTow, though the Churches in America, taken as a whole, are very far from a proper appreciation of this subject ; though even the best of them are far from having attained such views, and from having put forth such action respecting it as they ought to do, yet there is, in all evangelical and truly converted Christians among us, some sense of their dependence upon the Spirit for success in their efforts to grow in grace, as well as to turn sinners unto righteousness. There is, also, much earnest prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit upon their souls, and upon all those who hear or read the Gospel. There is no one thing which has more decidedly characterized the preaching of our best and most successful divines, or the feelings of our most devoted Christians, than the doctrine of the existence, the personality, the offices, and the saving operation of the Holy Spirit. It has been the great dominant idea, if I may so term it, which has pervaded and influenced the Church of Christ in America during the last hundred years. Hence the esteem in which revivals of religion are held. To this great subject I can not but entreat the religious reader to CONCLUSION". 651 t direct his most serious attention. It is one of vital importance. Surely God has led His people to expect a great outpouring of His Spirit in the " latter days." And, surely, the world, as well as the Church, has seen the need of such an influence, if it is ever to be brought under the renovating influences of the Gospel to a degree corresponding with its necessities. And whatever importance the author may attach to other portions of this work, beyond all com- parison he is desirous that the portion of it which relates to Religious Revivals may be most deeply pondered by every reader. VI. Grounds of Hope in relation to the Churches in America. I know of nothing which is so well calculated to inspire hope in relation to our American churches as the extensive diffusion of the spirit of missions among them within the last few years, for it is the spirit of Christ. Let us look at this fact for a moment. ' Forty years ago, with the exception of what was doing by a Com- mittee or Board of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and the missionary societies of some of the New England States — and this did not amount to very much — there was nothing doing in behalf of Domestic Missions. But within that period have been formed the American Home Missionary Society, which unites all the evangelical Congregational churches in the land, together with the New School Presbyterians ; the Board of Domestic Missions of the Old School Presbyterians, the Home Missionary Societies of the Bap- tists, Methodists, and Free- Will Baptists ; and the Boards for Do- mestic Missions of the Reformed Dutch, Lutheran, German Reformed, Associate, Associate Reformed, Reformed Presbyterian, Protest- ant Episcopal, Cumberland Presbyterian, and Seventh-day Baptist churches. No denomination is too insignificant to have its Society or its Board of Domestic Missions. And what do we see ? At least three thousand ordained ministers are laboring in new and destitute neighborhoods, in the East and the West, to gather congregations and build up churches. What a change ! And what a ground of hope ! Moreover, forty-six years ago there was not one Missionary Society in the United States for the promotion of Foreign Missions, save the small one of the Moravians. But now the Old and New School Pres- byterians, the Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Reformed Dutch, Lutherans, Free-Will Baptists, Associate, Associate Reformed, and Reformed Presbyterians, and perhaps some others, as well as the United Brethren, have their Foreign Missionary Socie- ties or Boards, and sustain a greater or less number of men on the foreign field. It can not be said that they have done all that they mio-ht. But it may be said that they have made a good beginning, 652 CONCLUSION. and that what they have done is nothing in comparison with what they will do with God's blessing. That they should have at least four hundred and fifty ordained ministers abroad, besides other la- borers, and raise more than three quarters of a million of dollars for the extension of the Gospel in that direction, is a subject which calls for thanks to God. It is the wide diffusion of the spirit of missions through our churches, rather than its positive and present results, which I am here holding up as a ground of hope. And in that light I am sure it may fairly be regarded. It is the best omen for good both to the Church and to the nation. It is our great palladium. It is also our best pledge, and even our most certain means, of prosperity to all the interests of Truth. As long as the spirit of missions is ex- istent and efficient in our Churches of every name, we may venture to hope that, whatever may go wrong in our political organization, or however wickedness may augment, God will regard us in mercy, and say of us as a nation, " Spare it, for there is a blessing in it." VII. Efficiency of the Voluntary Principle in America in raising up an Adequate Ministry. That the Voluntary Principle has not been inefficient in America in this respect, will readily appear from a simple statement of facts. If the reader will recur to chapter i. of book iii., he will learn that, at the epoch of the commencement of the Revolution, in 1V75, the number of ministers of the Gospel, of all denominations, including even the Roman Catholic priests, did not exceed one thousand four hundred and forty-one. Indeed, I am sure this estimate is too high. But let us suppose it to be correct. Now, if the population of the country was then three millions and a half, there was one minister of the Gospel for about two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight souls. But if the population then was only three millions, which I apprehend to be an estimate nearer the truth, then there was one minister, on an average, for nearly two thousand and eighty-two souls. On the other hand, the population of the country at the commence- ment of 1855 may be fairly estimated at twenty-six millions five hun- dred thousand souls. And if the reader will refer to what we have said in chapter xvii. of book vi., he will see that the number of or- dained evangelical or orthodox Protestant ministers alone, exclusive of licentiates and of the local preachers of the Methodist Churches (not far from fourteen thousand), was, in the year 1855, no less than twenty-nine thousand four hundred and thirty. That is, on an aver- age, one evangelical Protestant minister of the Gospel for nine hun- dred souls. It is not here asserted that all these ministers are pastors, or that they all have congregations to which they statedly preach. It is CONCLUSION. 653 certain that a good many are teachers and professors, secretaries and agents of religions and benevolent societies, who, nevertheless, preach a great deal ; and many, who are not pastors, preach to chnrches which are for a time destitute of pastors. But what is here meant is, simply to show the increase of evangelical ministers of the Gospel, and its decided gain upon the increase of the population. The fact is clear and striking ; there is at present at least one evangelical Protestant minister in the United States, we may safely say, for less than nine hundred souls; in 1775 there was one minister of the Gos- pel of every name, for about two thousand four hundred and twenty- eight souls, or, at best, for two thousand and eighty-two. In other words, the number of evangelical ministers is more than twice as great, in proportion to the population, as was that of the ministers, both Protestant and Catholic, in 1775 * I do not design here to assert the sufficiency of the evangelical ministry hi the United States to meet the wants of the population ; it will readily be admitted that it is not sufficient. If the evangelical Protestant ministers were twice as numerous as they are ; if, in other words, there was on an average one such minister for every five hundred souls, instead of one for nine hundred, it would not be too many, when we consider the sparseness of the population in certain districts, which renders it impossible for one minister to look after more than four or five hundred souls ; the number of denominations, which renders the number of ministers in many places greater than the amount of population demands ; and the fact that a goodly num- ber will always be engaged in our academies, colleges, and theolog- ical seminaries as professors, and in our religious and benevolent so- cieties as secretaries and agents. But if the Voluntary Principle has been so efficient as to more than double the number of evangelical Pro- testant ministers since the year 1775 (and the greater portion of this success has accrued since 1815, and can in no sense be attributed to the influence of the ancient establishments), f there is every reason to expect that it will, in the course of a far shorter period, again cause the number of the evangelical Protestant ministers to double upon the population. VIII. Efficiency of the Voluntary Principle in the United States in Supporting the Ministry of the Gospel. In this * If we were to include the Koman Catholic priests, and the Unitarian, Univer- salist, and other heterodox preachers, we should have at this time one preacher for every eight hundred and ten souls. f With the exception of Connecticut and Massachusetts, the union of Church and State, which once existed in many of the States, came to an end during or shortly after the Revolution; and in Connecticut it terminated in 1816. In Massachusetts it lasted, as we have elsewhere stated, till 1833. 654 CONCLUSION. respect, the Voluntary Principle has not been destitute of consider- able efficiency in America. It is not pretended that in a new coun- try, where wealth may indeed be much more equally distributed than in the old countries of Europe, but where its aggregate is not to be compared with that of England, Scotland, Holland, Germany, or France, the sum raised upon the voluntary plan is likely to be as large as that which is raised in Great Britain, and some countries on the Continent, from tithes, united with the revenues of ancient relig- ious foundations. We have as yet few such foundations,* and must, therefore, depend upon the voluntary offerings of the people. I say voluntary offerings, for, whatever may be the mode of raising the salaries of our ministers, they are, in reality, derived from the spon- taneous contributions of the people. No man is compelled to pay a cent for the maintenance of religious worship. Whatever he gives is decidedly of his own will. Every one is free to go to church or stay away ; and if he goes, he may, in many of our churches, avoid giving all his life ; this is true especially of those churches whose sit- tings are public, that is, do not belong to particular individuals. Whatever a man engages to pay toward the support of the institu- tions of the Gospel he is expected to pay, and may be required, ac- cording to law, to pay. Seldom indeed, however, is there a resort to legal enforcement of the payment of pew-rents and subscriptions. But let us see what the voluntary principle does accomplish. The number of ordained ministers in these denominations in 1855 was twenty-nine thousand four hundred and thirty. If we suppose that on an average (including parsonages or glebes, marriage-fees, presents in one form or another), they receive each $500 a year,f we have the aggregate of $14,715,000. If it be said that many are not pastors, but teachers, professors, etc., yet with few exceptions they preach and receive salaries or what is equivalent. Indeed, I am quite * By far the most important of all such foundations, with us, is that of Trinity- Church (belonging to the Episcopal denomination) in the city of New York, which is said to be as much as ten millions of dollars, and has furnished the means of build- ing many Episcopal churches in that State. f In some parts of the country it is certain that the Methodist ministers do not re- ceive as great a salary as that mentioned in the text ; but, on the other hand, the salaries of their ministers in many parts of the country exceed it. In the Confer- ences of the States of New England and of that of New York, they are probably, as a body, better supported than those of any other denomination. In those parts of the land their salaries, including perquisites of all sorts, exceed, on an average, $500. The salaries of the Congregational and Presbyterian ministers, including all perqui- sites, exceed $550 — indeed, they are nearer $600. The Episcopal ministers, being stationed chiefly in our cities and large towns, receive, as a body, larger salaries than those of any other Church. I am persuaded that they average more than $600. CONCLUSION. 655 sure that $550 would be a more just average estimate ; and this is also the opinion of others who have had better means of judging than I have had. At all events, if we include what is paid to licentiates (more than one thousand four hundred and fifty in number), and to "local preachers" (twelve thousand six hundred and eighteen in number), we may safely estimate the amount paid for the support of our Evangelical Ministry in 1855 at $15,000,000. This gives us a grand total of at least $15,000,000, as the amount paid for the personnel, so to speak, of our public religious ordi- nances. IX. Efficiency of the Voluntary Principle in the United States in the Erection of Church Edifices. The church edifices which are now annually erected in the United States, according to the best information which I have been able to obtain, from much personal observation and inquiry, may be stated at one thousand and sixty, rating them as follows : Among the Methodists of all the branches 300 u " Baptists of all branches 300 " " Presbyterians of all branches, and Congregationalists 350 " " Episcopalians 50 " " Lutherans . 60 1,060. It may be safely said that among the several branches of the Meth- odist Church in the United States, at least three hundred church edifices are erected every year. This is a low estimate. The same thing is true of the great family of Baptist Churches. They certainly erect three hundred church edifices annually, to say the least. As to the Presbyterian family or group of Churches, with the Congre- gationalists, they unquestionably build at least three hundred and fifty. The Old School branch has reported as many as eighty in one year. The Cumberland Presbyterians have reported sixty and seventy some years, while the German Reformed, the Congregationalists, and the New School Presbyterians are advancing steadily and even rapidly. It is impossible to calculate with exactness to what extent this yearly increase of church edifices meets the demands of a yearly in- crease of the population, now amounting to nearly, if not quite, eight hundred thousand souls, for four, if not five hundred thousand of whom church accommodation ought therefore to be provided. The whole population of the country that is supposed to be more or less under the influence of the evangelical denominations, estimated at nearly eighteen millions, being divided into about sixty-three thousand three 656 CONCLUSION. hundred and fifty-nine congregations, the average number of souls in a congregation must be about two hundred and eighty-four ; and as the number of church edifices already erected can not be short of forty-two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine in all, the new ones must consist partly of those required for existing evangelical con- gregations not previously supplied, partly of those required for ac- cessions to the evangelical churches from eight million five hundred thousand souls not previously attached to such congregations, and for the gradual increase of those congregations from births and im- migration. If we suppose the evangelical proportion of the yearly increase of the entire population to be about five hundred and forty- three thousand four hundred souls, and this proportion to be divided into congregations of two hundred and eighty-four souls each, the result would be an annual increase of about one thousand nine hun- dred and thirteen congregations, requiring the same number of church edifices. Such a result, however, is by no means probable ; for many of these would no doubt join and be merged in existing congregations, and many would be found living in remote places, rendering it im- possible for them to be gathered into congregations requiring church edifices. And if church accommodation is only required for half the actual amount of souls, then nine hundred and fifty-seven church edifices instead of one thousand nine hundred and thirteen will suf- fice, which approximates to the number of edifices actually provided. But in truth, nothing very definite can be stated until we have more complete returns from the Churches in shape of statistics. We may say that eighteen millions of the twenty-six millions five hun- dred thousand people of the United States in 1855 were under the instruction and influence, more or less direct, of the Evangelical Churches; but this is merely an estimate or conjecture, however carefully made. Of the eight millions five hundred thousand of the remaining population, four or five millions are under the influence of the non-evangelical bodies, of which the Roman Catholic is by far the most numerous. This would leave three or four millions who belong to no religious body, and who go nowhere, at least habitually. The number of even such, who hear not the Gospel from any quar- ter, more or less, is much smaller. As to the cost of the one thousand and sixty church edifices refer- red to, it is impossible to speak definitely. While some cost many thousands of dollars, some cost but a few hundred. If we take the average valuation of such property given in the census of 1850 ($2,357) as our guide, then we may estimate the cost of these one thousand and sixty church edifices at $2,498,420. This valuation, CONCLUSION. 657 however, is probably quite too low. If we add the cost of cemeteries, repair of churches, fuel, light, expenses of choirs, sextons' wages, etc., — in a word all that relates to the materiel of public worship, we shall have to increase this sum to something like $4,000,000, if not more. We speak now of the Evangelical Churches alone. If we were to include the church edifices or meeting-houses built by the Roman Catholics and the other non-evangelical bodies, we should increase the number annually built to at least one thousand one hundred and fifty, and the cost to $2,700,000, and the entire of the annual expenses for the materiel of public worship to a figure not much below $4,500,000. We would add that the census of 1850 shows that there were at that time thirty-eight thousand one hun- dred and eighty-three church edifices in the United States, each fur- nishing accommodation for, on an average, three hundred and seventy- six persons, and in the aggregate for fourteen millions three hundred and sixty thousand and thirty-eight, which was at the ratio of nearly sixty-two per cent, of the entire population. This would give us un- der evangelical influence, for more than eighteen millions out of twenty-six million five hundred thousand, the population in 1855. X. The Total Cost of Public Worship in the United States. It may be worth while to bring together the various estimates which we have made respecting the sums raised by the evangelical churches for the sustentation of religion at home, and its extension abroad, and add to them the amounts raised by the non-evangelical denominations : 1. We may safely put the salaries of the Evangelical ministry (perquisites of all descriptions included), at . $15,000,000 2. The salaries, etc., of the non-evangelical ministers (who were, in 1855, not fewer than 3,210), probably as much as $1,500,000 3. The cost of the building and repairing of churches, the cost of parsonages, cemeteries, expenses of music, fuel, and light, sextons' wages, etc., etc., at least . . $4,500,000 4. The receipts of the Religious Societies, . . . $3,000,000 5. The amount raised to endow theological semi- naries, to pay the salaries of professors, to found colleges, academies (male and female), with the view of promot- ing religion, together with the receipts of associations of a purely local nature — all this may be very safely es- timated to be, at least, a million or a million and a half of dollars. Let us put it at $1,000,000 Total, $25,000,000 42 658 CONCLUSION. And all this sum of $25,000,000 is raised annually at present in the United States on the Voluntary Principle,* for the sustentation and promotion of religion at home and abroad.f Nor have I included in the statements which I have made on this subject, all that the Voluntary Principle does in reference to religion. For instance, provision is made in some denominations, by incorpor- ated associations or otherwise, for the maintenance of the widows and children of ministers, and of superannuated preachers. The sums thus raised are to be considered a part of the sustentation which is given to the institutions of the Gospel among us, and they all owe their origin directly or indirectly to the Voluntary Principle. It is not pretended that the Voluntary Principle raises as much money in America for the support of Religion as do the legal provis- ions of some countries, where Christianity has created those opulent and time-honored establishments which overshadow them. In many cases, alas ! these establishments were founded in the age of supersti- tion, and owe their origin to the influence of a cunning and overreach- ing priesthood, exerted over an ignorant and debased people. But it is maintained that it can not be said with truth that Christianity, left to its own resources in America, is likely to go down, or that it does not lead to efforts for its propagation which correspond in a good measure with the wants of the country. Whatever men may think on the subject of the best means of supporting the Gospel, it can not be denied that the Voluntary Principle in America has demonstrated that it is not inefficient : a fact which was well established in the first three centuries of the progress of Christianity in the world. Thanks be to God, among our American population the sentiment is well-nigh universal, that Christian institutions — the Church, the Sabbath, the School — are indispensable for our temporal and material, as well as our spiritual and eternal well-being. The influence of these sentiments, or convictions, rather, is finely shown in our new settle- ments, in advance often of the civil government, and nowhere more than in California. To that new State on the Pacific, seven years * I say on the Voluntary Principle, for the sums raised from permanent endow- ments (which are themselves the fruit of the Voluntary Principle, and not of govern- mental gift or taxation) are not sufficiently great to deserve to be excepted. f If we were to add to the above-mentioned sum of $25,000,000 contributed an- nually to promote Religion in America, the amount which education costs in all its gradations, we shall increase it to quite $40,000,000. The single State of Massachu- setts bestows more than $1,000,000 annually upon the education of her youths in all classes of her literary institutions, though her population does not much exceed a million of souls. So that the sum of at least $40,000,000 is annually raised in the United States for the promotion of Religion and Education — a sum almost equal, at this time, to the whole revenue of the national Government ! CONCLUSION. 659 ago, there rushed a great number of men from all countries, attracted by the vast gold mines which it contains. The American element strongly predominated. The number of religious people was very small at first ; that of the wicked was overwhelming. Gradually, Christian institutions sprang up, and became more and more rooted in the soil ; and within the last two years the country has assumed a new aspect. The theatre, the gaming-saloon, the drinking-saloon, and the brothel, have found powerful antagonists in the house of God, the Sabbath-school, the temperance society. There are now more than two hundred and eighty thousand inhabitants in Califor- nia, and there are more than one hundred and sixty churches and re- ligious assemblies. Every denomination almost is there represented. The Episcopalians have even a bishop ; the Methodists alone have thirty or thirty-five regular ministers, and twice as many local minis- ters. Boys' and girls' seminaries are established ; a college has been chartered and opened, we believe. Two or three religious newspapers are published. San Francisco has sixty thousand inhabitants, and Sacramento, Benicia, Stockton, and other towns, are very consider- able places. One sees the same interest, in all that concerns religion and educa- tion, in the Territories of Oregon and Washington, which lie north of California on the Pacific coast. Already, a goodly number of churches have been built in these scattered settlements, and the Epis- copalians have a bishop there, also. If 825,000,000, given last year by the churches of America for the promotion of religion, be considered by any one to be a large sum, let him observe that the population of that country was not less than twenty-six million five hundred thousand that year ; and let him also observe the great prosperity of the country, in all that concerns its material interests. Twenty-five millions of dollars were less, on an average, than one dollar for each individual. And although there are families which could not give as much as one dollar per individual, there are very many that could give far more. Even the four mil- lions and more of members of the Evangelical churches are of them- selves abundantly able to give annually twenty-five millions of dol- lars to promote religion at home and abroad. Nay, if we were to subtract the four hundred thousand slaves and free people of color, who are members of the Evangelical churches, the remaining three million six hundred thousand members are fully able to sustain this burden, if we may apply the word to what is really no burden at all. But why subtract the slaves and free people of color who are mem- bers of the churches ? There are not many slaves with us who have no money to give. And they do give, and liberally too, to good ob- 660 CONCLUSION. jects. I have known them to make collections in their churches which might make many a church of white people ashamed. But we are not under the necessity of limiting the support of re- ligious institutions in the United States to those who are members of the churches. Blessed be God, it is one of the advantages of our economy, so far as this subject is concerned, that it makes thousands and hundreds of thousands of our citizens take an active interest in upholding these institutions, from motives of benevolence, and from a conviction of their importance to the best interests of the country, as well as to the happiness of every individual. This is a great matter, and its influence is immense. The fact that our people build and own their places of worship, and support the pastors, and maintain at their own charges all that relates to religion, contributes greatly to make them take a deep interest in religious matters, and encourages and conduces to proper feeling on the subject of religion, as a personal concern. After all, we have no hesitation in saying, that what is doing in the United States, spontaneously, if the word may be allowed, on the part of the people to sustain religion, is to be viewed merely as a be- ginning. It is almost nothing at all when compared with the means and resources of the country. It is almost nothing in comparison with what we believe the churches in that land will do when that day comes in which the " Spirit shall be poured out from on high." Most certainly the history of the churches of the United States, for the last fifty or sixty years, demonstrates that Christianity has nothing to fear when it ceases to have the arm of CaBsar on which to rely. The hearts of Christ's people constitute, under His Divine blessing, its best, its surest support. XI. Religious Destitution. There is no subject on which so much is said in Europe, and about which is so little understood, as the apparent, and in many respects real, destitution of the means of grace in the United States. When Europeans read, that there are eleven hundred Presbyterian churches or congre- gations more than the number of pastors, and similar statements, and even worse, in regard to some other denominations, especially the Baptists, the Lutherans, and the German Reformed, they will probably come to the conclusion that our " voluntary system" utterly fails to meet the demands of the country. They do not stop to think, that this surplus of congregations beyond the number of pastors does not prove that they are destitute of the means of grace or ministerial labors. It often happens that one minister preaches to two churches in the rural districts, and sometimes to three or four, especially in the new settlements. I have known German ministers who preached to CONCLUSION. 661 five or six. This is of course only temporary in many cases. As the population increases, the number of ministers becomes greater in pro- portion to the number of the congregations. It would be a sad mis- take to suppose that there are one thousand one hundred Presbyterian churches destitute of the preaching of the Gospel. There is, proba- bly, not one of them that does not hear the Gospel with more or less frequency. There are cases where one minister will, for a long time, serve two or more neighboring churches. That there are many new congregations which have no pastors, is certainly true, for the simple reason that congregations will be formed, and generally, church edi- fices of some sort or other will be built, before a minister is called to take the pastoral charge, or even to preach regularly. This is our way of doing things, and it would be hard to devise any other or bet- ter. In no part of the world are churches built in advance of the population. We go pretty fast in America, but we can not "go ahead" quite so fast as to build churches in the forests, or in places to which the suburbs of our cities and towns are destined to extend. But let there be some population, and soon there will be measures taken by the people themselves, or by the missionary societies among us, not only to have places of worship constructed, but also to find ministers of the Gospel to preach in them. So long as our population increases at the astounding rate that it now does, so long we shall have an im- mense work to do, in providing places of worship and religious in- struction. I do not hesitate to aflirm that one thousand five hundred churches are every year built by the Evangelical denominations in the United States, and the home missionary organizations are sup- porting, or aiding in the support of, between three and four thousand ministers. Can the world show any thing more conclusive, as to the inherent and all-powerful energy of Christianity when it has free scope for action ? As to need of ministers among us, what I have just said will ex- plain the reasons why it must be so. But they deceive themselves who suppose that the supply is not likely to correspond, in a good measure, to the demand. Yet this requires loud and earnest appeal, unremitting effort, and never-ceasing prayer. The representations made on this subject by some of our societies are often calculated, though undesignedly, to mislead a stranger. That there is much real destitution to warrant strong appeals is no doubt true ; but one is apt to forget that there is much that is hypo- thetical in what is said of the danger that threatens, if this destitution be not supplied. This danger is imminent : still it is, as yet, but a contingency. If the required efforts be not made, error and irre- ligion will overspread the country ; if the Protestants be not on the 662 CONCLUSION. alert, Romanism will conquer it for itself But it is to prevent such results that these appeals are made. Lastly, it is not to be denied that the agents and missionaries of our Domestic Missionary Societies and Boards have unintentionally and unwittingly promoted erroneous impressions respecting the re- ligious destitution of the country. When these societies were formed, some fifteen or twenty years ago, the first missionaries and agents sent into the West found many districts, and even whole counties, deplorably destitute ; and in their published reports and letters they gave most affecting accounts of the want of shepherds to collect the sheep scattered over those moral wildernesses. Sometimes they thought that, like Elijah of old, they were " left alone ;" not being aware, or if aware, not rightly estimating the fact, that men of other denominations were laboring in the same regions, as itinerating, if not as settled ministers. Such misrepresentations led the Methodist and Baptist churches to publish statements proving that the alleged destitution had been greatly exaggerated. Hence, of late years, it has been usual to give the names of places requiring ministers and churches, and the denomination to which the writer belongs, acknowl- edging, at the same time, the services of ministers of other denomin- ations, where they are to be found. Exaggerated statements may often be traced, also, to the warm feelings of extempore speakers at public meetings, leading them to commit themselves to expressions that have not been duly weighed, and to these finding their way, often with additional exaggerations, into newspapers. XII. The Observance of the Sabbath. There is no subject on which American Christians are more happily united than that of the importance of a proper observance of the Sabbath. And although there is no sort of union between the Church and the State, except- ing what is wholly of a moral nature, yet every State in the Union has made laws in favor of a proper observance of the Lord's Day, or Christian Sabbath ; and this, because our whole economy proceeds on the principle that the country is a Christian country ; and, there- fore, Christianity has been pronounced by our courts to be " part and parcel of the laws of the land." And though the laws which de- nounce punishment for Sabbath-breaking are not executed anywhere in the United States with rigor, yet so generally are the people im- pressed with the duty of observing the Sabbath, that it is seldom any one sees such violations of it as interfere with the public or private services of religion. It is universally believed with us that man needs the rest of one day in seven, for the benefit of his physical nature, to say nothing of his spiritual well-being. Even the beasts of labor need a Sabbath. It is, in a sense, according to the light of CONCLUSION. 663 nature that there should be a Sabbath ; and that government which does not secure the Sabbath for the laboring man does not do what it should to shield the poor from the exactions of the rich. A great deal is doing in the United States by the press, as well as by the pulpit, to enlighten the nation — the rulers, as well as the ruled — in relation to this great subject. Associations exist to promote the proper observance of the Sabbath ; nor are their labors in vain. The con- trast is wonderful between the noise and bustle of the other days of the week and the quiet calm of the Sabbath — between the confusion and din, and hurrying of the crowds to and fro in the streets on other days, and the peaceful movement of so many well-dressed and serious though cheerful people, on their way to or from the house of God, twice or thrice every Sabbath. I believe that I utter the language of every American Christian, when I say, " Woe to America w T hen it ceases to be a Sabbath-respecting land." XIII. Our Religious Liberty. And here, perhaps, it may not be improper that I should say a few things on the subject of Religious Liberty in the United States. The position which we maintain is simply this : The government should protect all in the enjoyment of their rights of conscience and of worship. And this is fully done. It is impossible, it seems to me, to conceive of a state of things more favorable hi this respect, than that which exists among us. The rights of citizenship, the rights appertaining to a man's standing in civil society, are with us in no way dependent on the faith which he professes. Let him be a Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jew, believer or unbeliever, this fact has no bearing on his civil, political, or relig- ious rights. Accordingly, we see Protestants of all shades of doctrine, Roman Catholics, and even Jews, and sometimes men of no fixed re- ligious opinions at all, holding offices under the General, State, and Municipal Governments. Sometimes, but not often, a man who is a skeptic, or an avowed unbeliever, may be found holding a civil office. Mr. Pierce, the President of the United States, is a Protestant ; Mr. Taney, the Chief Justice, is a Roman Catholic. In the Congress there is at this time one Jew, if not more. As the Protestants form the vast majority of the population, the majority of Protestants in the government is great, as might be expected ; but this affects neither the principle nor the action of the government. As to the right to worship God according to every man's con- scientious convictions, or even preferences, arising from education or other circumstances, it is enjoyed by every one. Even the humblest slave in the land possesses this right. While the master and his family go to an Episcopal, or Presbyterian, or any other church, his servants or slaves, and the poorest hired man on his plantation, 664 CONCLUSION. whether black or white, may go to the same church, if they choose, or to a Methodist or Baptist church. And this right they not only possess but exercise. It is lawful to purchase ground and build a church, or meeting-house, or chapel, or whatever we may call it, anywhere and at any time, without asking authorization from any government whatever — be it the General Government, a State Gov- ernment, or the government of a city, borough, or township. All that is necessary is, to comply with the laws regulating the purchase and tenure of such property, which are as simple and reasonable as any one ought to desire. And so, too, religious meetings may be held in private houses, and are so held all over the United States. The government is bound to protect such meetings; and there its functions cease, so far as religion is concerned. And who are the men that compose our government ? They are our fellow-citizens, holding office for short terms, excepting generally, though not always, in the judiciary. They form no caste, so unap- proachable that we can not confer with them save in the most formal and ceremonious manner. They are our friends and neighbors ; they and their families frequent our churches as other men; they are members of our congregations, and many of them are members of our churches. Not a few of them are active in our religious soci- eties. There are, in our national Congress, and the Legislatures of our thirty-one States and seven Territories, not far from five thousand members ; among them there are many teachers and superintendents of Sabbath-schools. The same thing is true of our judges, and of the officers of our municipal governments. These men are in posts of authority and influence for a few years, and then return to private life. They are of the people, and move among the people, even while holding office ; nor are there many of them who are without the pale of a kind Christian influence, which reaches them from some quarter or other. Such is the position of things with us ; nor can we be too thankful for it. The government and the Church are mutual friends ; neither one is the slave of the other. The Church simply asks for protection of the rights of conscience and of public worship, and this she receives in the amplest manner. And what does the State receive in turn ? It receives the immense moral influence of the Church — of the preaching of the Gospel, at so many thousands and tens of thousands of points, all over the land — of the Sabbath-school — of the Bible class, and all the other influences of Christianity. It is in these that the laws find their surest basis, and their most effective sanction. It is just because of these influences — the Sabbath, the Church, the Bi- ble — that a vast country of now more than twenty-seven millions of CONCLUSION. 665 people can be governed, and is governed, without the bayonet and the cannon. XIV. Evangelical Doctrines in our Churches. When we speak of the great bulk of the Churches in America being evangeli- cal, we simply mean that they teach the doctrines of the Reformers of the sixteenth century, of the apostles, and of the Saviour Himself; the sum of which is, that there is salvation only through faith in Jesus Christ, as the " Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world." We mean, that all such Churches will give to him who asks the question, What must I do to be saved? the same evangelical answer, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. On the fundamental doctrine of Justification by Faith (involving the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ, the Trinity, the Fall of Man, etc.) there is but one opinion. It is true that there are some sections of the great evangelical body of Christians with us which make too much of forms of Church government, of modes of worship, and of rites and ceremonies, and so become, in a sense, Puseyites, if I may employ the word. But even these, with few exceptions, hold to the merits of Christ as the sole ground of salvation. What may unques- tionably be asserted is, that the confessions of faith and other sym- bols of doctrine of all these Churches are evangelical and sound. XV. Individual Instances of Liberality in Supporting and Ex- tending the Institutions of the Gospel. It is one of the happy fruits of the voluntary principle that it cultivates a spirit of benevo- lence and self-reliance among Christians. It teaches men the true value and utility of wealth, in showing them that there are objects infinitely more worthy of living for than mere self-gratification. Pi- ous men of no country have an adequate conception of the amount of good which they can do until they have made the experiment. We subjoin a few instances of individual liberality, not because the authors of them were rich* men, but because of the systematic as well as delightful spirit which they displayed. In the course of this work many others have been mentioned, which are well worthy of imitation. One of the most remarkable instances of liberality in the middle walks of life is recorded in the memoirs of the late Normand Smith, of Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Smith was born in 1800, of pious pa- rents, and seems to have become decided in his religious character at the age of twelve, during a revival. He learned the trade of a sad- <* Had I been disposed to speak of what some (I am sorry to say too few) of our rich men havo done, I might mention one man — a merchant — who has, in the course of thirty years, given to religious and benevolent objects $800,000, and of one who gives from $40,000 to $60,000 annually. 666 CONCLUSION". dler, and commenced business himself at the age of twenty-two, on a small capital lent him by his father. He was remarkably prosper- ous in business from the first, so that he was soon able to repay this debt. But he did not allow his business to engross his time and thoughts. He frequently visited the poor with the view of inquiring into and relieving their necessities, was a constant Sabbath-school teacher, and for a long time was superintendent of a Sabbath-school for Africans. In short, he was the foremost to encourage and support every good undertaking. But we must let the memoir* speak for itself. " In the early part of 1820 he had great doubts whether it was not his duty to relinquish his business, in part at least, that he might have more time to do good. At that time he called to converse on this subject with the writer. He said that he found his business engrossed too much of his time and attention ; he wished to be in a situation more favorable for the cultivation of personal religion and doing good to others ; and, as he had acquired property enough for himself and family, he felt a desire to retire, that he might enjoy more quiet and leisure. In reply, it was said to him, ' The Lord has plainly indi- cated how you are to glorify Him in the world. He has greatly prospered you in your business ; the channels of wealth are open, and their streams are flowing in upon you, and it would be wrong for you to obstruct or diminish them. Let them rather flow wider and deeper. Only resolve that you will pursue your business from a sense of duty, and use all that God may give you for His glory and the good .of your fellow-men, and your business, like reading the Bible, or worship on the Sabbath, will be to you a means of grace ; instead of hindering, it will help you in the Divine life, and greatly increase your means of usefulness.' The effect of the conversation was not known at the time, but from an entry made in a journal which he began to keep about that period, it appears that the purpose was then formed to continue his business, and to conduct it on the principle recom- mended. " From that time it was observable by all who knew him that he made rapid progress in religion. One subject seemed to engross his mind, that of doing good ; and much good did God enable him to do. Besides many large donations in aid of various objects previous to his death, he bequeathed at his decease nearly $30,000 to the vari- ous benevolent societies of the day. The amount designated for these societies in his will was $13,200. But they were also made residuary legatees of property which he would have distributed while living, had it been practicable, without loss, to withdraw it from his business. * Written by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Hawes, of the first Congregational Church, Hartford, Connecticut. CONCLUSION. 66 7 " On his death-bed he said to a brother, * Do good with your sub- stance while living, and as you have opportunity; otherwise, when you come to die, you will be at a loss to know what distribution it is best to make of it. The trouble and care of such a distribution in a dying hour,' he thought, * should be avoided by every Christian, by disposing of his property while in life and health, as the Lord should prosper him, and present to him opportunities of doing good.' " From the period above referred to, it became his established rule to use for benevolent distribution all the means which he could take from his business, and still prosecute it successfully and to the best advantage. He was usually secret with regard to donations of a private or personal nature. A memorandum which he kept three or four years before his death, ' lest he should think that he gave more than he did,' shows that his gifts were numerous and large — sufficiently so to prove that he adhered to his principle of holding all as consecrated to the Lord. A slip of paper, taken from his vest pocket after his death, mentions the amount of his contributions at the monthly prayer-meeting for missions among the heathen, to have been $30, or $360 a year. " In personal and domestic expenditure, he studied Christian econ- omy. While he denied himself no reasonable comfort, it was his habit to consider what things he might dispense with, that he might have the more to give for charitable purposes. Modest and unassuming in his natural character, he thought it not consistent with the simplicity of the Gospel for one professing godliness to follow the customs and fashions of the world. While others were enlarging their expendi- tures, he studied retrenchment in all things. " When he set out in the world, it was with the purpose to be rich. But grace opened his heart, and taught him that the only valuable use of money is to do good with it ; a lesson which he emphatically exemplified in his practice, and which made him an instrument of good, the extent of which can never be known till it is revealed at the last day." Another instance is that of a cotemporary of Mr. Smith, Mr. Nathaniel Ripley Cobb, of Boston, who died only seven months after him. Mr. Cobb was a merchant in that city, and a member of one of its Baptist churches. At the age of nineteen he publicly professed his faith in Christ, devoting himself to the service of God in the sphere in which Providence had placed him, considering himself under the same obligation to employ his business talents for the glory of his Saviour, that devolved on the minister of the Gospel to consecrate the talents intrusted to him for the same great end. 668 CONCLUSION. At the age of twenty-three he drew up and subscribed the follow- ing remarkable document : " By the grace of God, I will never be worth more than $50,000. " By the grace of God, I will give one fourth of the nett profits of my business to charitable and religious uses. " If I am ever worth $20,000, I will give one half of my nett profits ; and if I am ever worth $30,000, I will give three fourths ; and the whole after $50,000. So help me God, or give to a more faithful steward and set me aside." " To this covenant," says his memoir, " he adhered with conscien- tious fidelity. He distributed the profits of his business with an in- creasing ratio, from year to year, till he reached the point which he had fixed as a limit to his property, and then gave to the cause of God all the money which he earned. At one time, finding that his property had increased beyond $50,000, he at once devoted the sur- plus, $7,500, as a foundation for a professorship in the Newton Theological Institution. " On his death-bed he said to a friend, in allusion to the resolutions quoted above, * By the grace of God — nothing else — by the grace of God, I have been enabled, under the influence of these resolutions, to give away more than $40,000. How good the Lord has been to me.' » Mr. Cobb — such is the testimony of those who, like myself, knew him well — was also an active, humble, and devoted Christian, seeking the prosperity of feeble churches ; laboring to promote the benevo- lent institutions of the day ; punctual in his attendance at prayer- meetings, and anxious to aid the inquiring sinner ; watchful for the eternal interests of those under his charge ; mild and amiable in his deportment ; and, in the general tenor of his life and character, an example of consistent piety. His last sickness and death were peaceful, yea, triumphant. " It is a glorious thing," said he, " to die. I have been active and busy in the world — I have enjoyed as much as any one — God has prospered me — I have every thing to bind me here — I am happy in my family — I have property enough — but how small and mean does this world appear when we are on a sick-bed ! Nothing can equal my enjoy- ment in the near view of heaven. My hope in Christ is worth infin- itely more than all other things. The blood of Christ— the blood of Christ— none but Christ ! O how thankful I feel that God has pro- vided a way that I, sinful as I am, may look forward with joy to an- other world, through His dear Son." But I know no instance of more systematic and long-continued be- nevolence, nor one that produced greater fruit from similar resources, CONCLUSION. 669 than that of the late Mr. Solomon Goodell, of Vermont, who died when about seventy. Mr. Goodell was a farmer. The following notice of him, though long, will be read with interest. It is from a source worthy of all confidence : "About the year 1809, the writer of these lines observed a dona- tion of $100 to the Connecticut Missionary Society, published in the annual accounts as from Mr. Goodell. Such donations were, at that time, very uncommon in this country, and with regard to that society, nearly or quite unprecedented. The thought occurred, that doubtless some gentleman of independent fortune had thought proper to take up his residence in the interior of Vermont, and that he con- sidered the society just named a good channel for his pious benefi- cence. This conclusion was strengthened by seeing a similar donation from the same source at the return of each successive year for a con- siderable period. " When the American Board of Foreign Missions began its opera- tions, Mr. Goodell did not wait for an agent to visit him, but sent a message (or went himself) more than fifty miles, to a member of the Board, saying that he wished to subscribe $500 for immediate use, and $1,000 for the permanent fund. He sent $50 as earnest-money, and said he would forward the remaining $450 as soon as he could raise that sum; and would pay the interest annually upon the $1,000 until the principal should be paid. This engagement he punctually complied with, paying the interest, and just before his death trans- ferred notes and bonds secured by mortgages, which (including the $1,000 above mentioned) amounted to $1,708 37 ; that is, a new donation was made of $708 37, to which was afterward added an- other bond and mortgage of $350. " Before this last transaction, he had made repeated intermediate donations. At one time he brought to the Rev. Dr. Lyman, of Hat- field (the member of the Board above referred to), the sum of $465. After the money was counted, Dr. Lyman said to him, ' I presume, sir, you wish this sum endorsed upon your note of $1,000.' 4 Oh, no,' was his reply ; * I believe that note is good yet. This is a sepa- rate matter.' He then expressed his wish that the money might be remitted toward repairing the loss sustained by the Baptist missiona- ries at Serampore. He regretted that he had not been able to make the sum $500 ; consoled himself with the thought that he might do it still, at some period not very far distant ; and said that, if any of the bank-notes proved less valuable than specie, he would make up the deficiency. " Mr. Goodell had made what he thought suitable provision for his children as he passed through life. After consulting his wife, he left 670 * CONCLUSION. her such portion of his estates as was satisfactory to her, gave sev- eral small legacies, and made the Board his residuary legatee. He supposed that the property left to the Board by will would not be less than $1,000 ; but, as some part of it was, and still is unsaleable, the exact amount can not be stated.* " On visiting Mr. Goodell at his house, you would find no gentle- man with an independent fortune, but a plain man in moderate cir- cumstances, on one of the rudest spots in the neighborhood of the Green Mountains, every dollar of whose property was either gained by severe personal labor, or saved by strict frugality, or received as interest on small sums lent to his neighbors. His house was com- fortable, but, with the farm on which it stood, was worth only be- tween $700 and $1,000. His income was derived principally from a dairy. " Besides the donations above mentioned, Mr. Goodell made many smaller ones to missionary societies formed to send the Gospel to new settlements. He paid fifty dollars or more, at one time, to a missionary whom he employed to preach in the destitute towns near him. He aided in the education of pious young men for the ministry, by furnishing them with money for their necessary expenses. He discovered no ostentation, so far as we have been able to learn, in his religious charities. Certain it is that he always appeared to con- sider himself as the obliged party, and as obtaining a favor from societies which he made the almoners of his bounty. Furthest of all was he from supposing that his charitable exertions could make any atonement for sin, or authorize any claims upon the Divine mercy. He held to the most entire self-renunciation, and to dependence upon Christ alone." A very lovely example of benevolence is to be found in one of our large cities. It is the case of a comparatively young man, who was born of parents belonging to the Episcopal Church, and was taught the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed by his pious mother ; he was instructed in a Presbyterian Sunday-school, learned his occupation (that of an apothecary) with a Baptist, and was brought to a saving knowledge of Christ under the preaching of the Metho- dists. After having gained enough to furnish a comfortable compe- tence to those of his family who are dependent upon him, he now gives all his nett profits to the promotion of the cause of his Lord and Master. Nor does he confine his charities to any one channel, or to any one denomination of Christians. On the contrary, his de- * In the summary view of Mr. Goodell'a donations in aid of missions to the heathen, we find that, from the 12th of February, 1812, to the 19th of November, 1816, they amounted to $3,885 16. CONCLUSION. 671 light is to aid every good work, no matter by whom it may be pros- ecuted. It is astonishing to learn what this devoted and excellent young man has been able to do during the period of ten years. One of the most remarkable instances of benevolence I have known was that of a colored woman, who gave sixty dollars on one occasion to educate pious but poor young men for the ministry. She sup- ported herself by her labor as a servant. When she offered the above sum, the agent refused to receive it all until pressed by the humble donor, who said that she had reserved five dollars ; that she had no one dependent on her, and that she hoped to earn enough to provide for her wants in her last sickness, and for her funeral ; nor in this was she disappointed. She often gave large sums, for one in her circumstances, and rejoiced to have it in her power to do any thing for Christ and His cause. Would that I could say that such benevolence is universal among the Christians of the United States. Alas ! all that is done by too many of our merchants and others, who profess to love Him who died to save the world, is in reality nothing in comparison with the means which they have, or have had. Too many have indulged in a luxurious and expensive style of living, while they knew that men were dying in their sins, and ignorant of the Gospel. It is for this sin, with others, that God has caused so many of our rich Chris- tians to lose their riches in the commercial and financial distress with which the country has been visited during the last few years. Nev- ertheless, it is certainly true that the spirit of benevolence is extend- ing itself more and more among the Christian portion of the com- munity. May God hasten the day when Christian men, in all spheres, will deliberately act on the principle of glorifying God in their busi- ness, and live for the promotion of His cause, laboring as diligently to make money for this high purpose as they now do for their own gratification. Such a day must come, or I see not how the world is ever to be converted to Christ. XVI. Misconception and Misrepresentations Abroad. To notice all the misconceptions and misrepresentations which are prev- alent in some, if not in all portions of Europe, respecting the relig- ious and moral condition of America, is wholly impossible in a work like this ; we must, therefore, confine our attention to but a few of them. 1. One of the most common objections against the religious insti- tutions of this country is, that they have not prevented the bankrupt- cies and other species of dishonesty which have here occurred, es- pecially a few years since. But is it reasonable to make the relig- ious institutions of a country responsible for the occurrence of such 672 CONCLUSION. things ? Must the churches in America be blamed for the unwise legislation of the country, as well general as local, which has been the primary cause of the overtrading and inordinate speculation which prevailed some years ago, and which was so disastrous in its reaction ? Must they be accountable for the avidity with which the foreign merchant, manufacturer, and money-lender encourage the adventurous American merchant and trader to purchase their goods on credit, and invest their money in American stocks, often with little or no effort to make a proper discrimination between them? Must they be expected not only to prevent our own people, whether in an individual or a corporate capacity, from committing acts of ras- cality, but also to exert a similar influence upon the foreign adventur- ers, who come among us from all parts of the Old World (and their number is not small), the real object of many of whom is to swindle the American creditor out of all they can, and then escape to Europe ? Take our merchants who are engaged in foreign commerce, and I hesitate not to say that, as a body, they have acted with as much good faith as any men in similar circumstances have ever done, dur- ing the years of commercial and financial difficulty through which the country has passed. Many of them ruined themselves in endeav- oring to meet their engagements abroad, by paying an exorbitant interest on the loans which they made for that purpose. I speak here of them as a body; that there have been instances of dishon- esty among them will not be denied, nor will any one be astonished at it. Our General Government has not failed to meet its engagements, nor is it likely to do so. And as to our thirty-one States and seven Territories, more than one third of them have no debts whatever ; more than another third have not failed for a single day to meet their engagements ; and of those which for a time failed to do so, only one has avowed and acted upon the doctrine of " repudiation," and that in the case of a loan which the Legislature of that State be- lieved to have been fraudulently contracted. But this doctrine of repudiation is itself repudiated with scorn in all other parts of the Union, and will be so in the State in which it had its origin. Some of our States were for awhile not able to meet the engagements which they made a few years ago in the enormous loans they had contracted at home and abroad, in order to accomplish the extensive lines of canals and railroads which they undertook during the years of unbounded, and, I must say, unnatural prosperity that the coun- try enjoyed. But they will fulfill all these engagements faithfully ; they have not repudiated. On this subject, the following extract CONCLUSION. 673 from a sermon preached in the city of Philadelphia,* on a public oc- casion, a few years ago, expresses the opinions and feelings of every Christian minister in the land. " The doctrine of repudiation, upon which the changes have been rung throughout Europe to our great discredit, has, I am happy to believe, but few advocates in our Commonwealth. There is a vast difference in point of honor and morality in admitting the justice of a claim, but inability to meet it, and denying that any such claim exists. Men, whose honesty is above suspicion, sometimes become involved, and are utterly unable to meet their engagements. It may be so with a community, a State, or a nation. It is deeply to be lamented that such an exigency should ever occur. The effect is eminently disastrous in impairing public confidence, and weakening the ties which should bind men together as a great common brother- hood. But poverty is not necessarily a crime in a government any more than it is in an individual. Public engagements may not be met at the time, and yet the public faith may eventually be preserved inviolate. I have nothing to say in defence of those who advocate the doctrine of repudiation in any form or under any circumstances. They deserve all the obloquy and reproach which are heaped upon them. It is nothing better than public swindling, where the means of redress are placed beyond the reach of those who are wronged. It matters not a particle that the money borrowed has been misap- plied, or squandered in projects which yield no profit. This is our misfortune, or, it may be, our fault. But it does not make void a solemn compact, in which the public faith has been pledged. I can not believe that the mischievous, disgraceful sentiments which have been promulgated by a few on this subject, will meet with any thing like general favor. Our resources, our love of justice, and our honor abroad and at home, all forbid such a resort to relieve ourselves from a pecuniary pressure. It is better to submit to any personal sacrifices than to bear the stigma of making loud professions and solemn prom- ises to swindle honest and unsuspecting creditors. Our debts to the last cent must be paid, whatever struggles the effort may cost. On this point there must be no shuffling or evasion, but an honest ac- knowledgment of our responsibilities, and a steady and honest aim to meet them. With this disposition prevalent, and proved by cor- responding action, the voice of vituperation and abuse will be hushed, and our enemies abroad and at home will confess that they have been too hasty and rash in their opinions of our national integrity." We are willing that religion should be held accountable for a great * By the Rev. Mr. Rood, at that time pastor of one of the Presbyterian churches in that city. 43 674 CONCLUSION'. deal ; but we are not willing that the Churches in America should be blamed for not preventing what the Churches in no other countries have been able to prevent. The members proper of all our Churches, evangelical and unevangelical, do not exceed a fifth part of our popu- lation ; and though the influence which they exert is unquestionably as salutary as that of any other body of equal number in the world, yet it is obvious they can not control circumstances such as I have alluded to. Would the Churches in Great Britain, France, Holland, Germany, or any other country, like to be held responsible for all the acts of legislation, domestic and foreign, of their respective countries, and all the villainies which have been and are annually perpetrated in them ? I think not ; nor should they apply to their brethren in America a rule by which they would not like to be measured them- selves.* 2. The Political disturbances which occur in America are not un- frequently spoken of in Europe in a way that conveys a reflection upon the Churches of this land, as if they ought to prevent these things. That these disturbances do take place, no one will deny. There is not a good man in the United States who did not lament what were called the "Abolition Riots," and other disgraceful scenes which occurred there some years since. These disturbances, how- ever, were very greatly exaggerated as to their frequency and their extent, in the reports which reached Europe. Our newsmongers, in their eagerness to concoct a piquant article of news for those for whom they cater, often give the most astounding exaggerations of what was a dispute or open quarrel between some firemen, or be- tween the blacks and whites in the suburbs of our cities, or affrays between the " native" population and the " foreign," or the interrup- tion which some lecturer on slavery has encountered in some of our villages.f These representations go abroad, are circulated there, * A great deal has been Baid in Europe, by men who have traveled in America, respecting the impositions which they have suffered in this country. There is no Christian man in the United States who is not distressed when he hears of such things. But is it just to blame the whole people of a land and their religious institu- tions for such occurrences ? The author of this book has traveled much in every country in Europe, and he can affirm, with truth, that he has suffered impositions, and some of them very gross, in them all ; but he would deem himself utterly desti- tute of common sense, as well as of that charity which his religion requires, if he were to judge the people of any of those countries by such instances. \ Much also has been said in Europe about the prejudice that exists in America against the colored people, and the difficulty of the two races living together. But it is a singular and indisputable fact, that almost all the disturbances (and these, after all, do not amount to much) that occur between the blacks and whites in the suburbs of Philadelphia, New York, and other cities, take place between the former and the Germans and Irish who live in those districts. CONCLUSION". 675 and lead many people to think that our whole country is in a con- tinual state of disorder. But every American knows how to appre- ciate these reports, and is no way concerned about them, except to regret their occurrence. Indeed, neither their frequency nor then- nature is such as to give him any serious apprehensions. For these things are local, unfrequent, and wholly insignificant in comparison with the bruit which our newspapers make about them. And they no more affect the peace of the country than the passing cloud ruffles the bosom of our beautiful lakes. Within the last fifteen or twenty years there have been some dis- graceful instances of summary punishment, without the intervention of a proper trial before the courts of law, in the case of some gamblers, swindlers, and negroes (who had committed shocking crimes) in some of our South-western States and Territories. But these instances have hardly exceeded in number that of the years in which they have oc- curred. They took place, too, in a part of the country which is new, and very thinly settled ; where religious institutions have scarcely taken root, and where the forms in which the administration of jus- tice is carried on have hardly begun to exist. However much every well-informed, good man in America must lament these things, he can not but be less astonished at their occurrence than at the infre- quency of them.* No man can look at the great extent of even the settled portion of the United States, the long line of sea-coast which bounds the country on the east, south, and west ; of wilderness and mountain-ranges in the centre, and the forests that abound almost everywhere, furnishing innumerable facilities for the commission of crime and escape from punishment, without being surprised that we have had so few disturbances of a serious character, especially when we have had so large a foreign element, with all its concomi- tant evils, to augment the difficulty of our position. It would require the army of the Czar of all the Russias to keep up a strong armed police, which some upbraid us for not having, and which would be necessary, if it were not that the moral influence that pervades the country — and owes its existence to our religious institutions — fur- nishes a substitute infinitely better. We have had three attempts, * When we speak of the instances of disorders that sometimes occur in the South-western and Western districts of the country, it is worth while to notice the remarkable instances of the triumph of order which are also sometimes witnessed in them, amid very peculiar circumstances. Some twelve or fifteen years ago, a man committed murder at the lead mines of Dubuque, in what is now the State of Iowa, be- fore there was any sort of political government established there. The people as- sembled of their own accord, arrested the murderer, chose judges, constituted a court, and gave him a fair trial before a jury. He was condemned after such a trial, and peaceably executed. 676 CONCLUSION. one in Pennsylvania, one in South Carolina, and one in Rhode Island, not to overthrow the political institutions of the country, but to ob- tain redress of grievances, real or imaginary, in an extra-constitu- tional way ; and yet all three were suppressed without the loss of one life taken away either in battle or by the administration of law. To what was this owing ? To the patience, the conciliation, and the due use of argument winch the Christianity of the country could alone inspire and teach.* A few other facts may be stated to show the happy influence which Christianity exerts in the United States in securing the maintenance of order in a nation of at present twenty-seven, if not twenty-seven and a half millions. Notwithstanding the unbounded facilities for highway robberies in almost all sections of the country, who has ever heard of the exist- ence of hordes of banditti either in our mountains or our forests ? And how few highway robberies and murders, comparatively, have ever taken place in this country. In many of the Western States, a solitary man, or even a boy, may be seen carrying the mail on horse- back through unbroken forests, from town to town, in perfect secur- ity. With such a population as is to be found in most countries in Europe, could such a thing be done with safety ? There have been seasons of great excitement, when the nation was agitated to its centre. For instance, during times of unparalleled commercial distress, when so many banks, and so many of our best merchants and traders, our enterprising mechanics and manufacturers — and, indeed so many men in all the walks of industry, and in every station of life — were ruined. How was all this borne ? Was there the slightest attempt to seek redress by revolution ? No. The gov- ernment was severely blamed ; all these evils were believed, by prob- ably a majority of the people, to have been occasioned by unwise legislation, obstinately persevered in ; and yet not a gun was seized, * That the political institutions of the United States rest upon a pretty sure basis, and are deeply planted in the affections of the people, is most certain, whatever in- ferences foreigners may sometimes make from the language uttered in moments of irritation and despondency by the organs of our political parties in the hour of defeat or disappointment. In proof of this, the fact might be cited that two newspapers have been published for several years in the city of New York, one in French and the other in English, which ably advocate the principles of monarchy as it exists in France and England, and often attack the measures and sometimes vilify the political institutions of the country which furnishes them hospitality and protection. And what is the effect ? These, perhaps, are read by the foreigners among us — for whom they are in fact published — and by some of our own people. But no American has the slightest regard for what they say, nor does the Government for a moment trouble itself about them. CONCLUSION. 677 not a sword was drawn, and not one human life was lost during the long and dreadful crisis. The only resort was to the ballot-box, as our elections are often termed. Take another instance. The autumn of 1840 witnessed the greatest political struggle which the country has ever seen. The question was that of maintaining or of overthrowing the party in power, in the election of a President. Nearly two millions and a half of men resorted to their respective places of voting, and gave their votes for one or the other of the two candidates. The excitement was almost unparalleled. At every poll, or place of holding the election, crowds of people assembled on the day which was to decide the question ; and yet not one person was either killed or injured, so far as I have heard, in this great political contest. Could such a thing have oc- curred in the British realms, or in France, or any other country in the world ? I believe not.* In the British realm, if we suppose the population to be twenty seven millions and a half (we speak of Great Britain and Ireland, and the islands adjacent), there is one regular soldier for about two hun- dred and seventy individuals ; in France, the army of the line is four hundred and fifty thousand, by which if we divide the population of the kingdom, now thirty-six millions, we have one soldier for eighty inhabitants; while in the United States — whose standing army was, for the period of more than twenty years which immediately succeeded 1815, but six thousand officers and men, and was on August 1st, 1855, only twelve thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine — there is one soldier to about two thousand one hundred and sixty individuals in the population. And yet there has been many a single year in which more people have been killed in broils and emeutes (insurrections) in both France and the British realm, than have lost their lives in all the " mobs" and " riots" — political, religious, anti-abolitional, anti- gambling, etc. — that have occurred in the United States since the independence of the country was established, eighty years ago. What a refutation does this fact furnish of all the miserable charges which are heard in Europe respecting the " riots," " disorders," etc., alleged to be continually occurring in America ! Nothing strikes more the observation of one who comes from the Old "World — where he can not turn the corner of a street in the * Some eighteen years ago, there were more serious broils and more lives lost in the political struggles in Canada, on our borders, though under the strong gov- ernment of England, and in presence of a standing army of fifteen or twenty thousand men, than have taken place in the United States from the first. And yet Canada had not then more than eleven or twelve hundred thousand inhab- itants. 678 CONCLUSION. principal cities and towns, especially on the Continent, without meet- ing a soldier — upon his landing in the United States, than the al- most complete absence of all military force. How is it that such force can be dispensed with ? Only because of the wide-spread and salutary influence of Christianity. If we have " disturbances" and "riots" sometimes — which will not be denied — we have fewer of them than any other country of equal population in the world. 3. The American people have been represented sometimes by foreigners as being an immoral people. Now, although I know it is not easy to reply to such charges in a satisfactory manner in the very restricted space which I must allow to them, nevertheless, I will say a few words upon this topic. That there are vices and crimes in America, and in no inconsider- able amount, is both acknowledged and deplored. But that they exist to such an extent as to justify the assertion that the American people are, par excellence, an immoral nation, is denied. It is certainly not extraordinary, as was well remarked a few years ago by a writer in the " Westminster Review," that there should be in the United States swindlers, counterfeiters, thieves, bigamists, murderers, and other criminals, since, in addition to those of indigen- ous growth, they receive so many from the Old World. This is a correct view of the subject. For it is a fact, that while there are cases in which foreign criminals, especially those who have committed crimes which most deeply affect the conscience and heart, who have come to our shores and changed their names, reform and do well in a land where their past history is unknown (and certainly the friends of humanity must rejoice that it is so), there are very many in which it is otherwise. A man who has been a thief, a robber, a counter- feiter, a bigamist, in Europe, is not likely to reform in America, un- less arrested by God's grace. There is more hope of a man who has committed manslaughter, or even murder, than of him. A few general statements will, however, best express all that I have to say on this subject. With the exception, perhaps, of Scotland, there is no country in Christendom where the Sabbath is as well observed as it is in the United States. Of this any one who has extensively traveled in the Old World can not fail to be convinced when he lands at any of our cities, I care not which, excepting New Orleans, which is more of a foreign city than any other. It is the capital of what may still be called a French State, where American influence, though fast gaining ground, is still inferior to that of the French and Spanish who remain in it. But the Protestant religion, when it gains the CONCLUSION, 679 ascendancy, will produce there the same good effects in this respect as elsewhere.* Although thieves and robbers are not wanting in our large cities and towns, where, all the world over, such people most congregate and find the greatest facilities for their nefarious vocation, yet, taking the country at large, it will be difficult to name another where prop- erty is more safe, or where people live in greater security. As to murder, the most horrible of all crimes, the most exact enumeration has seldom been able to show that more than one hun- dred cases have occurred (and some years not much more than one half that number), in any one year. This number is sufficient to excite deep distress in the heart of every good man ; but it is less than that which takes place in many other countries between which and ours comparisons on this point as well as others are sometimes instituted. For instance, in England and Wales alone, since the year 1812, the number of convictions for murder has varied from sixty to seventy-five, while the executions have been in the proportion of about one to four of the convictions. Were the comparison to be made between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland, it would be most decidedly in favor of the former. The murders in France are not only more frequent than those of the United States, but often more diabolically savage and shocking, as the records of her criminal courts clearly show.f And though there is a considerable amount of prostitution in some * As to traveling on the Sabbath, there is every prospect that the establishment of railroad and steamboat lines, taken in connexion with the just sentiments which prevail among the pious and strictly moral portion of the population, will, in time, almost put an end to it, especially on the long and important routes. Railroad and steamboat companies already know that they gain nothing by running their cars and their boats on the Sabbath, owing to the comparative fewness of the travelers on that day. By stopping their cars and their boats on that day, they will save a considerable portion of their expenses, give their laborers and agents the rest they need, and be sure of having on Monday the persons whom they would otherwise have carried on Sunday. Indeed, if it were not for the carrying of the mail on the part of the government, there would be no great difficulty in causing the cars and steamboats to cease on the principal routes. f A very large proportion of the murders which are committed in the United States are committed by foreigners. The same thing is true of the robberies and other great crimes which occur among us. Almost all the riots which take place in our Atlantic States are made by Irish and Germans congregated in the suburbs of our cities, or working on our railroads and canals. Indeed, it is this foreign element which gives us the greatest difficulty in almost every thing. Not only are very many of our criminals foreigners, but they form a large proportion — in some places a majority — of the persons in our hospitals. This is not stated as a reproach, but as a fact. 680 CONCLUSION. of our large cities on the sea-board — as, for instance, New York,* Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans — and something of it in the largest interior cities, yet, take the nation as a whole, there is far less of this sin than is to be found in most countries in Europe. In many of our cities and towns of ten and twenty thousand inhabit- ants, public prostitution is almost unknown. Scarcely any thing of the sort is openly seen in Boston, and other chief places in New England. In no nation in the world, I am sure, is there a greater amount of virtue among ladies, both married and unmarried, taken as a body. Foreigners are shocked at the familiarity which subsists between the youth of both sexes with us ; but foreigners, if they knew well the domestic life of our people, would know that this familiarity seldom leads to evil consequences in neighborhoods where the Gospel exerts its powerful influences. The youth of our relig- ious families are brought up under a strong moral influence, and are taught to have confidence in each other, and in themselves ; above all, they are taught to fear God. From their earliest years the children of both sexes frequent the same common schools. Even until quite grown up, in many districts they go to school together in the winter season. And yet, how seldom has any evil resulted. There are countries in Europe — it would be invidious to mention them — where such a thing could not be done with safety to their morals, and even where it is thought dangerous to allow grown girls to be taught by a male teacher. We have, indeed, enough of the sin of uncleanness to mourn over ; and yet, in comparison with the state of many other countries, we have great reason to bless God for the hallowed influences which His Gospel diffuses among us.f If we have many, too many, alas ! among * I have read, with great astonishment, some remarks of Mr. Tait, of Edinburg, on prostitution in New York, to be found in his work on Magdalenism (p. 5), and referred to by the Rev. Dr. "Wardlaw in his excellent Lectures on Prostitution. The sum of Mr. Tait's statement is, that " that city furnishes a prostitute for every six or seven adults of its male population." I have lived much in New York, and know something of its moral state ; and I affirm that this statement, founded on an ex- aggerated report published by the Magdalen Society of that city, some twenty-five years ago, is quite incorrect, and in no way approximates to the truth. f I have sometimes been amazed to hear the remarks of foreigners who have un- dertaken to be censors of American morals. A certain visitant from Europe, who has written three or four volumes about America, and has undertaken to represent the American cities as remarkable for the prevalence of prostitution, did, neverthe- less, when at the dinner-table of a gentleman in Philadelphia, boast of his having visited half of the houses of infamy in the city of New York, and declared his inten- tion to visit all the rest upon his return to that city — as a matter of curiosity, as he said! A young gentleman, who resides in a city not one hundred miles from that in CONCLUSION. 681 us who have not submitted their hearts to these influences, there are, on the other hand, a great many who have, and who are the " salt of the earth," and the " light of the world." "We may be charged, as a people, with being rude, and wanting in habitual politeness in our manners. Witlings who visit us to find subjects on which to employ their pens, and with which to garnish their worthless pages, may accomplish their ends, and carry home portfolios laden with stories respecting the oddities and awkwardness which they have remarked among certain classes ; but beneath the rough and unpolished exterior of our people there will be found much sincere benevolence, as well as many of those other enduring virtues which conduce to social happiness.* We are, comparatively, a new which this work was written, lately visited America, and spent two years there. On his return home, he spoke disparagingly of the religious state of the country, and charged the merchants of Philadelphia, and especially those of the respectable body of Friends, with being extremely loose in their morals, and unfaithful to their conju- gal relations. And yet this same young man boasted of his having given, when among a tribe of Indians on our borders, a rifle to a chief in exchange for his daugh- ter : and that after he had lived with her as his wife for three months, he abandoned her ! The wickedness of such persons is not so wonderful as their intolerable inso- lence in undertaking to misrepresent and slander a whole people. But so it ever will be ; bad men seek to hide their own infamy in charging others with the sins of which they are themselves guilty. * Among other charges brought against the Americans is one which I must not omit to remark upon. It is, that they have no discipline in their families ; that their children grow up in insubordination, pride, insolence, and want of respect for old age and parental authority. All this is inferred from the reports of foreigners (who, gen- erally, have had no very good opportunities of knowing the interior life of the families which they may have visited), or from some poor specimens of American families which have gone abroad, or from what they suppose must be the effects of republican institutions ; just as if republican institutions will not tolerate, or, rather, do not re- quire, due subordination and discipline. Now it is not to be denied that there are weak-minded and foolish parents in America, as well as in other countries, who do not govern well their children ; but it is their own fault, and not that of the institutions, religious or political, or the coun- try. On the other hand, we have parents, and not a few, who are as rigid in the government of their children as are the Scotch themselves ; we have few teachers who can not, or who do not, punish their scholars with the rod, if need be ; there is not a college in the land that would not, without a moment's hesitation, expel from its halls the sons of the greatest men in the nation, if they deserved it, as I have my- self witnessed. In our army, it is true that it is no longer allowed to flog men, save as a commutation for the punishment of death ; but other and severe modes of pun- ishing, though less degrading, are permitted. While in our navy, the discipline, I believe, was, till lately, the most severe in the world. Not very many years since, the commandant of a petty brig of war hung up three men for alleged mutiny, under the most remarkable circumstances ; one of them was a son of one of the first officers of the government. This instance was summary in its nature, quite without a parallel ; and how was it borne by the nation ? The overwhelming majority of the people, in- 682 • CONCLUSION. people ; this is emphatically true of a large portion of our popula- tion. And notwithstanding our vices, whether of native or foreign origin, there is among us a vast amount of practical and efficient goodness. We have much to learn, but I trust we shall not be slow to imitate whatever is excellent in the manners or the deeds of other nations. 4. But the last topic which I shall mention, on which we have been the subjects of more misrepresentation and abuse than any other, is slavery. On this difficult and humiliating question I can not enter into detail. It would require a volume to say all that might be said about it, and even all that ought to be said, in order to make our position fully comprehended by foreigners. I can say only a few words. Slavery is an inheritance which the Old World bequeathed to the New. England, France, Spain, and Holland, all contributed their respective shares to its introduction and establishment in what is now the United States. Several of the colonies remonstrated against the bringing in of slaves among them. But it was all in vain. Sla- very was fastened upon them for the purpose of promoting the com- merce of the mother-country, England. And when the struggle came, by which the colonies were dissevered from Great Britain, slavery was one of the causes which led to that event ; and of all the portions of the Declaration of Independence, as it was originally drawn up by Mr. Jefferson, the most severe Avas that which related to the slave-trade.* As opposition was made to it by some of the members, it was stricken out in order to secure entire unanimity. The war of independence found slavery existing in all the thirteen colonies. During its progress, or soon after its close, the original four New England States, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, abolished slavery within their respective limits. eluding almost the whole of the religious portion of them, approved of the act. Would such things be tolerated in a nation in which there is no domestic govern- ment? I think not. * It was in these words : " He (the King of England) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people, who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to more miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his prerogative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting these very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also has obtruded them ; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another." CONCLUSION. 683 Some years later, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York followed. In process of time Vermont and Maine, in New England, and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, in the West, were formed into States without slavery. To these we may add Iowa, Wisconsin, and Califor- nia. On the other hand, the six original slaveholding States, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, remain such to the present day, and to them have been added, in the west and south-west, the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Florida. And the number of slaves has augmented from about six hundred thou- sand, at the close of the Revolution, to at least three and a half mil- lions. How and when the abolition of slavery is to be accomplished in these fifteen States, is a question which no one can answer. It may not be amiss for me to say, however, that this mighty task will never be effected peaceably but through the influence of Chris- tianity. This has accomplished all that has hitherto been done — the destruction of slavery in seven States, and the prevention of its en- trance into nine more, besides several Territories ; the abolition of the slave-trade before any other nation had done any thing on the sub- ject, and the declaring of it to be of the nature of piracy, and mer- iting the same punishment. And however desperate the struggle may prove to be, she will not shrink from it. The example of England in abolishing slavery in her islands will not be lost upon us. It has given a great impulse to the moral move- ment which is steadily going on in the community. It is true that, as slavery is by our Constitution left to the government of each State in which it exists, to be managed by it alone, there can be no such ac- tion among us as that of England, by which the overthrow of slavery in her dominions was effected at a blow. It is in the midst of us ; it is not at a distance. Its destruction with us can be accomplished only by those whose pecuniary interests are at stake for its mainten- ance. This point foreigners should well comprehend. It is the slave- holders among us, or the inhabitants of each slaveholding State, who alone can overthrow it. This it is which makes our position so difficult. I am of opinion that it will require many years to efface this dread- ful evil from the midst of us. It will require long and persevering efforts on the part of good men, and a large amount of that " wisdom which cometh down from above." But of one thing I feel very sure : it is, that although some may act rashly, and sometimes attempt to promote the cause by unwise meaures; and others may be too supine, and, through fear of evil consequences, not come up to its help as they ought ; although both these parties may charge each other, and perhaps justly, with so acting as to retard the work, yet there is a 684 CONCLUSION. growing dissatisfaction with this great evil, a conviction that it should and must be terminated as speedily as possible, consistently with the true interests of all concerned, which will one day lead to its over- throw. I do not know how it will be brought about, but Christianity will effect it. God — our fathers' God — invoked more and more earnestly, as I am sure He is, will, by His providence, open the way for this great achievement. To this great struggle — which Christians with us must carry on, let it take what course it may, in order to be successful — we are far from wishing our brethren of other lands to be indifferent.* We want their sympathy and their prayers. We wish them to make a proper allowance for the difficulties of our position ; and while they reprove our delays and stimulate our zeal, we wish them to do it in a Christian spirit, not only because it best comports with the religion which we both profess, but also because of its influence upon those among us who are slaveholders, the majority of whom are not relig- ious men. It is easy to grow indignant on this subject, and indulge in hard epithets ; but the " wrath of man worketh not the righteous- ness of God." There are those abroad who see no difficulties in our position ; to whom the fact that slavery is entwined about our very vitals, so far, at least, as one half of the country is concerned, is of no importance ; and who vainly imagine that it is enough to demand that every slaveholder should let his slaves go free. This, indeed, is a very simple way of getting rid of the evil ; and if it were practi- cable, it would be well enough. So if all mankind would at once of their own accord give up their rebellion against God and yield a heartfelt obedience to Him, this world might be delivered from sin without the toil of preaching the Gospel, and the employment of so ~ The visits of foreign philanthropists can not fail to do good among us, "when made in the spirit of a great and a good man who came to us some years ago from England,* who traveled throughout all our States, and "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come ;" who, though he neglected no opportunity to speak of the wrongs done to the slave, was ever heard with respect and attention by the slaveholder, for he spoke words of mingled wisdom and love. And when he had accomplished his mission and returned to his natire land, he addressed a series of let- ters to one of our most distinguished statesmen on the subject of slavery, and es- pecially on the effects of its abolition in the British West India Islands, which have been widely and attentively read, and which can not fail to do good. What a con- trast between his course and that of some ardent, self-sufficient "friends of human- ity," as they consider themselves, who have visited us from Europe within the last twenty years, and who accomplished no good whatever for the cause which they pro- fess to have so much at heart ! * Mr. Gurney, a distinguished member and minister of the Society of Friends, and who, like his excellent brother, and his sister (the late Mrs. Elizabeth Fry), is one of the brightest ornaments of humanity. CONCLUSION. 685 many other instrumentalities which are now found to be necessary. And if all the men in the United States who were engaged in the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors twenty years ago had, of their own accord, or upon being simply requested or commanded, abandoned their wicked business ; and all who drank such liquors ceased to do so from the same influence, there would have been no need of all the labor and expense which it has cost to promote the cause of temperance among us. But how vain it is to talk in this way ! To overthrow slavery in the United States is a great work — the greatest and most difficult, I hesitate not to say, that ever man undertook to accomplish. And there is nothing but Christianity, employing its blessed influences, light and love, which can effect it. A good deal of time, and a great deal of patience and prudence will also be required, if we would see this evil come to an end in a peace- ful way. God has some great and good end in view in allowing the African race to be brought to America, and placed in a state of servitude. They were regarded at first just as the aboriginal inhabitants of the country were, as barbarous heathen — very much as the Jews regarded the Canaanites, whom the Almighty allowed them to destroy or to reduce to bondage. For a long time, no laws were made for them in some of the colonies — in fact, the laws seemed not to recognize even their existence. But what did Christianity do for them, even in the portions of the country where there was the least amount of true religion ? It took them up from their degradation ; gave them the manners of civilized life in a good measure ; made their masters, especially believing masters, to treat them with kindness ; gave them one day of rest in seven ; made many of them savingly acquainted with the way of life ; and secured to them manifold more blessings, hard as the lot of many may have been, than they could have enjoyed in Africa. Still more, while Christianity said to them, " If you can obtain your freedom, avail yourselves of it," it also said to their mas- ters, " If circumstances allow you to liberate these people in such a way as to secure their true and best welfare, it is your duty, in obe- dience to the law of Christian kindness, to let them go free." And was this influence of Christianity in vain ? Whence, then, came the fifty-four thousand three hundred and thirty-three free people of color that were in Virginia in the year 1850? or the seventy-four thousand seven hundred and twenty-three in Maryland ? Whence came the two hundred and thirty thousand four hundred and twenty- four that lived in the slaveholding States in that year ? These people, or their ancestors, obtained their freedom through the influence of the Gospel on the hearts of their former masters. And so, directly or 686 CONCLUSION. indirectly, did the two hundred and four thousand four hundred and eighty-four who were to be found in the free States. There are nearly half a million of free colored people in the United States to-day, who owe their freedom to the influences of Christianity. And, in my hum- ble judgment, if ever the three millions and a half still in bondage ob- tain their freedom in a peaceful manner, whether to go to Africa and carry civilization and true religion there, or to remain at home, the most effectual course to reach this great end will be, to augment the influences of the Gospel in the States where they are found, as greatly and as rapidly as possible. I am sorry to say, that this is about the last course which some men among us think of pursuing, and yet they deem themselves Christians. It would not be difficult to show that, discouraging as some things are in relation to this most important subject, there are, on the other hand, many that are highly encouraging. One of which is, that in no State is any slave forbidden by law to buy a Bible, or receive it as a gift ; and if he can read it, he may do so to his heart's content ; and if he can not read it, he may hear it read ; and in the ten States where it is not allowed to teach the slaves in schools, there is no law to for- bid the masters or members of their families to teach them privately, or to impart the knowledge of the word of God, orally, to them in large numbers. Above all, in no State in the American Union is it forbidden by law to preach the Gospel to any man, whether he be bond or free. Shall we say, then, that nothing can be done, and sit down in despair, even although the only men who have control over this question are the very men who are most interested in upholding the system ? On the other hand, the anti-slavery feeling of the Northern or Free States (which now form the majority, whereas, at the outset, all of the thirteen original States were slaveholding States) has become ex- ceedingly intense ; and while there is no intention to interfere with the subject in portions of the country where, according to the Con- stitution, the North has no power to act, yet there is a strong deter- mination not to allow slavery to be extended beyond its present lim- its. On this subject the excitement threatens to be productive of most serious consequences. Great wisdom will be requisite to carry the country safely through the difficulties which surround this great question. Our trust must be in God, that with patience and pru- dence, slavery will be done away in time, in a way consistent with the best interests of all concerned. But that the Infinite God had great ends in view in permitting a portion of the African race to be brought to the United States, there to be civilized and made acquainted with the Gospel, even through CONCLUSION. 687 the hard pathway of bondage, can not be doubted by any Christian man. And now that it is becoming so easy to transfer mankind in masses, if we may so speak, from one continent to another, as we see doing every year, who will venture to say that the day is very dis- tant when a great number of colonies of civilized colored men from America will be seen along the western coast of Africa, that will carry the blessings of Christianity and civilization into the heart of that great continent ? A good beginning has been made in Liberia ; nor do we believe that this world presents a more interesting and im- portant enterprise than the colonization of Africa which has there been commenced.* We have sometimes been not a little grieved by the severity — no doubt often inconsiderate — and the want of discrimination with which some of our Christian brethren in the Old World have spoken and written respecting the American Churches, in relation to this subject. ]STow I have no disposition to say that the American Churches have done all that they ought to do, that they feel all the solicitude, and distress, and sorrow, which they ought for the continued existence of this great evil. There is nothing more probable in itself than that our Churches should fail of coming up to their whole duty on this subject, more than on almost any other, when we consider how they are situated. I do not say this by way of apology, but to state the case truly. But to accuse our Churches throughout the land with approving of slavery, because, in some parts of the country, they think they are compelled to tolerate it as an evil from which circumstances do not at present allow them to extricate themselves (and this is the most which can be said against them on this point), is going beyond the bounds of Christian charity. Besides, to charge all the American Churches, as well those in the sixteen States and seven Territories in which slavery is unknown, as those in the fifteen States and one District in which it does still exist, with the sin of " robbery," " man- stealing," etc., is to be guilty of something more than a mere want of Christian charity. Nor are some other denunciations of a sweeping nature much less unjust or injurious. "Let America," said a distinguished Christian minister whom we all love, at a missionary meeting in one of the great capitals of Europe, a few years ago, " let America wash the stain of * Several years ago, the late Dr. Philip, of the Cape of Good Hope, Superintendent of the Missions of the London Missionary Society in South Africa, expressed himself in the strongest terms in favor of this great and good work, in a letter to the students in the Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, which was published at the time in America. It ought to be published in Europe, for it places this subject in its true light 688 CONCLUSION. slavery from her skirts, and then she will be worthy to come up and join us in the great work of converting the world." Indeed ! and must our American Churches be compelled to abstain from attempt- ing to obey the command of their risen Saviour — and which may be one of the means of staying, if not averting the Divine wrath, which would otherwise overwhelm their guilty country — until their land be freed from slavery ? And if they are to be condemned for national sins which they have not been able to overcome, where are the Churches which are to cast the first stone at them ? Shall it be those of England, or France, or Holland ? Blessed be God, our heavenly Father does not use such language toward us. He deigns to bless our humble efforts to make known His Gospel to the heathen nations, not- withstanding our many sins: nor does He forbid our co-operating with those who love His name in other lands to make known this great salvation to all men. Still more, He condescends to visit the Churches in all parts of our land with the effusions of His Holy Spirit, without which, indeed, we might well despair of our country. But sympathy, love, prayer, and co-operation better become those who love God in all lands, than crimination and recrimination. They form one vast brotherhood, and their trials, their labors, and their hopes are common. Neither difference of language, nor separating oceans, nor diversity of government and of ecclesiastical organizations, nor variety of modes of worship, can divide them. They have their various difficulties to encounter, and their respective works to per- form. And how they should delight to encourage each other in every good enterprise, rejoice in each other's success, stimulate and reprove each other (when reproof is necessary) with kindness, and not with bitterness ; and thus strive to hasten the universal triumph of the king- dom of their common Lord ! And how appropriate to them is the prayer of England's sweetest religious bard,* with which we bring this book to a close : " Come, then, and, added to Thy many crowns, Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, Thou who alone art worthy ! It was Thine By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth ; And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since, And overpaid its value with Thy blood. Thy saints proclaim Thee king : and in their hearts Thy title is engraven with a pen Dipped in the fountain of eternal love. Thy saints proclaim Thee king ; and Thy delay Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see The dawn of Thy last advent, long desired, "Would creep into the bowels of the hills, And flee for safety to the falling rocks. The very spirit of the world is tired Of its own taunting question, asked so long, 1 "Where is the promise of your Lord's approach ?' " * Cowper— "The Task," book vi. INDEX. •♦• Abolition Riots, how viewed in this coun-. try, p. 674. Abolition Riots, exaggerated report of, in Europe, 675. Aborigines (see North America). Academies and Grammar-schools, 300. Allenite Methodists, noticed, 524. America (see North America). Americans, best method for obtaining cor- rect knowledge of, 61. American Revolution, effects of the, on religion, 207. American morals, character of two foreign censors of, 680, note. American, meaning of. when annexed to religious societies, 283, note. American Sunday-school Union and Aux- iliaries, 308. American Education Society, origin of, 318. American Bible Society, notice of the, 334. American Tract Society, operations of, 336. American Prison Discipline Society, 351. American Home Missionary Society, ope- rations of the, 282. American and Foreign Christian Union, 629. American preaching, character of, 381, 386. American Unitarian Association, 558. American Theology, great achievement of, 585. American Colonization Society, history of the, 631. American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, origin and constitution of the, 603. American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, history of the, 605. American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, statistics of the, 610. American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, plan of, for training a na- tive ministry, 612. American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, annual meetings of, 615. American Board of Commissioners far For- eign Missions, publications of the, 616. Andover Theological Seminary, history of the, 322. Anecdote of two young ladies under con- viction, 425. Anglo-Saxon Colonists, character of, 49. Anglo-Saxon, effect of Norman conquests upon, in England, 62, 63. Anti-slavery Societies, 354. Associate Reformed Church, 509. Atheists, notice of, 575. Atonement, doctrine of, illustrated by American theology, 585. Ballou, Rev. H., work of on the Atone- ment alluded to, 554, 557. Banditti, no organized hordes of, in Unit- ed States, 676. Baptists, Regular, account of the, 457. Baptists, Independents in church govern- ment, 547. Baptists, Declaration of Faith of, 458. Baptists, statistics of the, 462. Baptists, Roger "Williams not the Founder of the, 461, note. Baptists, Missionary Union of the, 621. Baptists. Home Missions of the, 292. Baptists, Seventh-day, notice of the, 499. Baptists, Free-Will, history of the, 500. Baptists, Free-Will, Missions of the, 627. Baptists, Campbellite, account of the, 501. Benevolence, interesting examples of, 665. Bible-classes, 315. Blake, Joseph, notice of, 128. Blind, asylum for the, 363, Boston, early settlement of, 111. Bouck, Hon. W. C, proclamation of, 648. Brainerd, Rev. David, notice of, 399. Brainerd, Rev. David, missionary labors of, 593. Burr, Mr. Joseph, and Seminary, notice of 361. " Bush- whacking" defined, 47. Camp-meetings, origin and nature of, 432. Carolina, North and South, benefits of dis- solution of Church and State in, 233. Charters of American Colonies, curious character of, 57. Cheever, Rev. G-. B., extract from lecture of, 645. 44 690 INDEX. Cherokees, removal of the, 599. Christ-ians, origin and belief of the, 562. Christianity, happy influence of, on public order, 675, 676. Christianity, only remedy for slavery in the United States, 682-9. Churches and ministers at the Revolution, 209. Churches, membership in, how obtained, 372. Churches, Evangelical, order prevalent in the, 435. Churches, Evangelical, three divisions of, 439. Churches, Evangelical, general statistics of the, 530-2. Churches, Evangelical, missionary efforts of the, 637. Church, relation of unconverted men to the, 376. Church, union of, with State gradually dissolved, 211. Church, union of, with State, when and how dissolved, and effects, 213, 228. Church edifices, how built in cities and large towns, 268. Church edifices, how built in new settle- ments, 271. Church edifices, supply of, in the large cities, 272. Church edifices, number annually built in United States, 656. Church edifices, efficiency of Voluntary Principle in erecting, 655. Church edifices, average size of congrega- tions in, 656. Church edifices, estimate of number of, annually needed, 656. Church edifices, grounds of alleged desti- tution of, 661. Cobb, Mr. Nathaniel R., charitable resolu- tions of, 667. Colleges and Universities, 302. Colleges and Universities, effect of State control upon, 305. Colonial era, state of religion in the, 201. Colonists, religious character of the early, 90. Colonization Society, history of the, 631. Colonization, advantages of African, 633. Colonization, plan of G-ustavus Adolphus, 138. Colored people, disturbances chiefly be- tween them and foreigners, 674, note. Colony at Plymouth, account of the, 96. Colony at Plymouth, ecclesiastical regu- lations of the, 171. Colony at Plymouth, causes of aversion of, to prelacy, 175. Congregations, new, how formed, 269. Congregationalists, parent stock of those in England, 447. Congregationalists, not Dissenters, 448. Congregationalists, present religious sys- tem of, 449. Congregationalists, mode of church disci- pline among, 451. Congregationalists, mode of, for support- ing public worship, 452. Congregationalists, nature of the "Asso- ciations" of, 454. Congregationalists, pastoral office among early, lost by dismission, 455. Congregationalists, ordination among, how performed, 455. Congregationalists not Independents in practice, 455. Congregationalists, 'Consociations' among, nature of, 456. Congregationalism, opinions of, as to pre- venting heresy, 561. Connecticut, early settlement of, 38, 114. Connecticut, union of Church and State in, dissolved, 226. Convent at Charlestown, burning of the, 542, note. Conversion of a young man, illustrative of revival-preaching, 410. Covenant, Half-way, introduction of, 549. Covenanters (see Reformed Presbyterians). Deaf and Dumb, history of asylum for the, 361. Deists, notice of, 575. Delaware, early settlement of, 40, 137. Delaware, early relations between Church and State in, 184. Delaware, character of the Swedish settle- ments on the, 140. De Tocqueville, works of, on America no- ticed, 66. De Tocqueville, erroneous opinions of, no- ticed, 389, note. District of Columbia, origin of the, 73. Dwight, Rev. Dr., opinion of, on union of Church and State, 234. Education, attention of Puritans to, 297. Education societies of- different sects, 318, 321. Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, character of preaching of, 896, 550. Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, labors of, among the Indians, 593. Eliot, Rev. John, missionary labors of, 591. English language first introduced in Dutch Churches of New York, 132. Episcopal, (see Protestant). " Evangelical Association," account of the, 522. Evangelical churches, three divisions of, 439. Evangelical statistics of missionary efforts of, 638. Evangelical, General statement of, 530, 531. INDEX. 691 Foreign Evangelical Society, (see Ameri- can and Foreign Christian Union). Fourrierism, notice of, 575. Frelinghuysen, Rev. T. J., notice of, 133. French colonists, character of the, 54. Georgia, early settlement of, 42, 129. German colonists, character of the, 52. German Reformed Presbyterians, account of the, 514. German Transcendentalism, 559, 560. Germantown, Pennsylvania, when found- ed, 162. Germany, early immigration from, 162, 163. Goodell, Mr. Solomon, systematic benevo- lence of, 668. Gurney, Mr., happy influence of visit of, ■to the United States, 684, note. Gustavus Adolphus, colonization plan of, 138. Gustavus Adolphus, death of, 138. Half-way Covenant, introduction of the, 549. Hanover Presbytery, memorial of, to Vir- ginia Assembly, and opposition to, 216, 220. Harrison, Gen. "W. H., a Sunday-school teacher, 314. Harvard College, when founded, 306. Harvard College, early opposition to Uni- tarianism in, 554. Henrico, University of, noticed, 124. Henry, Hon. Patrick, notice of, 222. Hopkins, Rev. Dr., sermon of, in Boston, 1768, 553. Huguenots, origin of the, 152. Huguenots, immigration of, to America, 155, 158. Huguenots, interesting facts respecting the, 156. Huguenots, eulogium on the, 161. Hunt, Rev. Robert, notice of, 126. Immigration, extent of, from foreign coun- tries, 86. Immigration, influence of, on the Volun- tary Principle, 87. Indians, Society for Propagating the Gos- pel among, 557. Indians (see Aborigines of North America). Insane, asylums for the, 359. Irish colonists, character of the, 52. Italian colonists, character of, 52. Jefferson, Hon. Thomas, proposal of, for establishing religious freedom, 220. Jews, notice of the, 567. Jews, American Society for benefit of the, 629. Judicial order, striking instance of, in a new settlement, 675, note. Kentucky, peculiar character of revivals in, 402. Kirkland, Rev. Samuel, missionary labors of, 594. Laidlie, Rev. Dr., anecdote of, 132, note. Lamed, Rev. Sylvester, anecdote of, 377, note. Liberia, influence of colony at, 634. Liberia, Methodist mission at, 634. Lindsay, Memoir of, by Belsham, 555. Livingston, John and Robert, notice of, 133. Livingston, Dr. J. H, notice of, 134. Lowell, Massachusetts, statistics of, 366. Lutheran Church, history and statistics of the, 516. Lutheran Church, Theological Seminary of the, 516. Lutheran Church, Foreign Missionary So- ciety of the, 627. "Lynch-law" very rarely executed, 675. Maryland, early settlement of, 39. Maryland, effects of early union of Church and State in, 182, 195. Maryland, early religious toleration in, 126. Maryland, effects of separation of Church and State in, 232. Maryland, Declaration of Rights in, 226. Marryat, Captain, opinions of, noticed, 544, note. Mason, Dr. J. M., originator of Theological Seminaries, 322. Massachusetts, early settlement of, 38, 105. Massachusetts, the last to dissolve union of Church and State, 234. Massachusetts Bay Colony, trials and prosperity of, 111. Massachusetts, dissolution of union of Church and State in, 227. Massacre at St. Charles city, Virginia, no- tice of, 125. Maternal Societies, 316. Mather, Cotton, notice of, 204. Mayhew, Rev. Thomas, missionary labors of, 591. Mennonists, account of the, 523. Methodist ministers, salaries of, 654, note. Methodist Episcopal Church, history and organization of, 488, 490. Methodist Episcopal Church, religious be- lief and discipline of, 491, 493. Methodist Episcopal Church, statistics of the, 496. Methodist Episcopal Church, Home Mis- sions of, 293. Methodist Episcopal Church, Foreign Mis- sions of the, 633. Methodists, Primitive, account of the, 524. Methodists, Allenite, notice of the, 524. Methodists, Protestant, origin of the, 525 Methodists, Calvinistic, notice of the, 526. 692 INDEX. Methodists, Still well, notice of the, 524. f Ministers, salaries of, how raised, 275. Ministers, extent of support of, 276. Ministers, how trained and settled, 279. Ministers, proportion of Evangelical Pro- testants, to the population, 652. Ministers, Evangelical, not sufficient for present need, 653. Ministers, total amount raised to support, 654. Montgomery, rapid growth of the town of, 273. "Moore's Charity School," notice of, 594. Moravians, notice of the, 163. Moravians, Church of the, account of, 498. Moravians, Foreign Missions of the, 628. Mormons, origin and character of the, 571. Morris, Mr. Samuel, notice of, 214. Muhlenburg, Eev. Mr., anecdote of, 229, note. Murders, comparative number of, in En- gland and America, 679. Murders, large proportion of, in United States committed by foreigners, 679, note. Nassau Hall College, when founded, 137. New England indebted to the religion of the colonists for its character, 68, 69. New England, cause of rapid growth of settlements in, 117. New England, apology for the Fathers of, 118. New England, religious character of, 119. New England, influence of early union of Church and State in, 185-194. New England, relations between Church and State in, 171-7. New England, proposal to divorce the Church from the State in, how received, 233-4. New England, introduction and history of Unitarianism in, 547-562. New Hampshire, early settlement of, 38, 116. New Jersey, early settlement of, 40, 135. New Jersey, early eminent ministers of, 137. New Jersey, early relations between Church and State in, 184. New Jersey, College of, established, 137. New Orleans, more of a foreign than American city, 678. Newton Theological Seminary, notice of, 331. New York, early settlement of, 39, 129. New York, intolerance of early Episcopacy in, 200. New York, early Indian war in, 131. New York, character of first colonists of, 131. New York, early relation between Church and State in, 183. North America, geography of, 19-24. North America, discovery of, noticed, 31. North America, account of the Aborigine of, 24-31. North America, first attempt at coloniza- tion of, 31-35. North America, colonization of, accom- plished, 37-49. North America, colonial charters, of, 57- 61. North America, forms of government in, 70-72. North America, views of first settlers of, on religious toleration, 79. North America, character of early colo- nists of, 168. North America, relations between Church and State in, 171. North America, churches and ministers in, at the Revolution, 209, 210. North America, union of Church and State in, gradually dissolved, 211. North America, early efforts to convert the Aborigines of, 589. North America, obstacles to conversion of the Aborigines, 594, 598. North America, sentiments respecting the extinction of the Aborigines, 29-31. North America, causes of the decrease of the Aborigines, 597. North America, removal of the Indians by Government, 599. North America, governmental sanction to missions among the Aborigines, 601. North America, similarity of original tribes of, 25. North America, advance of civilization among Indians of, 599. North America, causes of success of evan- gelical religion in, 650. North America, General and State Govern- ments of, not indifferent to religion, 648. North America, grounds of hope in rela- tion to the churches in, 651. North America, union of Church and State in, when terminated, 653, note. North America, foreign objections to Te- ligious institutions of, 671. North America^ religious institutions of, not chargeable with prevalent immor- alities, 678. North America, religious institutions of, not chargeable with political broils, 674, North America, impositions in, as report- ed in Europe, 674, note. North America, prejudices against colored people in, 674, note. North America, financial integrity of Gen- eral and State Governments of, 673. ^ North America, settlement of the interior of, 43. INDEX. G93 Northampton, Massachusetts, notice of re- vival at, 396, 550. North Carolina, first settlement of, 42, 127. North Carolina, early relations between Church and State in, 1S4. Owenism, notice of, 576. " Panoplist," commencement of, in Boston, 555. Pantheism of the Transcendentalists, 560. Peace societies, 355. Penn, William, notice of, 141. Pennsylvania, early settlements of, 40, 141, 150. Pennsylvania, character of colonists of, 143. Perkins Institution for the Blind, 363. Philips Academy, notice of, 302. Piedmont, immigration from, 167. Plymouth Colony, account of the, 96-105. Plymouth Colony, ecclesiastical regula- tions of the, 174. Plymouth Colony, causes of aversion of, to prelacy, 175. Plymouth Company, notice of, 106. Poland, early immigration from, 166. Poland, early immigration, tradition re- specting the, 166. Political excitement, recent instances of, and results, 676. Political disturbances in United States, how exaggerated abroad, 674. Political institutions, firm attachment to, 676, note. Poor and afflicted, how provided for, 356. Presbyterian Church, history of the, 464. Presbyterian Churches, how organized, 465. Presbyterian Church, qualification for min- istry in, 466. Presbyterian Board of Domestic Missions of, 287. Presbyterian Church, mode of communion in the, 373. Presbyterian Church Session, how consti- tuted, 467. Presbyterian Church Session, deacons not members of, 468. Presbyterian Church, Presbytery of the, how constituted, 468. Presbyterian Presbytery, powers of the, 468. Presbyterian Church, ministers in the, how licensed, 469. Presbyterian Church, Synod of the, no- ticed, 471. Presbyterian Church, General Assembly of the, nature of, 471. Presbyterian Church, character and influ- ence of the, 478. Presbyterian Church, origin and prog- ress of Old and New School parties in, 482. Presbyterian Church, the separation in the. 484. Presbyterian Church, difference between Old and New School, 485. Presbyterian Church, statistics of the, 487. Presbyterian Church, Board of Foreign Missions of the, 486, 617-621. Presbyterians, Cumberland, history of the, 504. Presbyterians, Reformed, distinguishing traits of, 511. Presbyterians, Associate Reformed, 510. Presbyterians, Associate, 508. Primary schools, 296, 297. Princeton Theological Seminary, notice of, 329. Prostitution, foreign exaggerated account of, 680, note. Protestant religion established by law in South Carolina, 250. Protestant Episcopal Church, account of 1 the, 439. Protestant Episcopal Church, Puseyism, how extensive in the, 445. Protestant Episcopal Church, Board of Missions of the, 626. Protestant Episcopal Church, Theological Institution of the, 321. Providence, Rhode Island, settlement of, 115. Public worship, total cost of, in United States, 657. Public opinion, alleged tyranny of, in United States. 587, note. Public disturbances and crimes, compara- tive fewness of, 674. Puritans, origin and character of the, 92-95. Puritans, eulogy on the, 69. Puritans, attention of the, to education, 297. Puritans, religious views of the, 547, 548. Puritans, ecclesiastical usages of the, 548. Quakers, history and character of the, 527. Quakers, persecution of the, 141, 189. Rappists, notice of the, 568. Reformed Dutch Church, history of the, 505. Reformed Dutch Church, Home Missions of the, 293. Reformed Dutch Church, Theological Sem- inary of the, 331. Religious institutions of the United States, best means of knowing the, 66-68. Religious liberty, progress of, in America, 262, 644. Religious liberty, present state of, in America, 645. Religious toleration, extract on, 645. Religion, state of, in the colonial era, 201-206. 694 INDEX. Religion, exigences of, in United States, 263. Religion, evangelical, causes of success of, in United States, 649. Religion, true source of all success in pro- moting, 650. Religion, institutions of, not chargeable with public crime, 671. Religion, institutions of, not chargeable with political disturbances, 614:. Repudiation, wrong impressions respect- ing, abroad, 672. Repudiation, doctrine of, how viewed in this country, 673. Revivals of religion, nature of, 392. Revivals of religion, character of early, 394. Revivals of religion at Northampton, 396, 550. Revivals of religion extensive in 1740-41, 398, 550. Revival of religion, peculiar character of, in Kentucky, 402. Revivals of religion, remarkable, in Yale College, 402. Revival of religion, best mode of conduct- ing, 405. Revivals of religion, advantages of, 413. Revivals of religion, consistency of, with our mental constitution, 413. Revivals of religion, instances of opposi- tion to, disarmed, 416. Revivals of religion, importance of orderly meetings in, 436. Revivals of religion, happy instance of female influence in, 425. Revivals of religion, alleged abuses in, 428. Revivals of religion, injurious effects of late meetings in, 436. Revivals of religion, who oppose, 428. Revivals of religion, causes of prejudices against, 429. Revivals of religion, Unitarian objections to, in New England, 551. Revival preachers, objections to, 431. Rhode Island, early settlement of, 38, 115. Rochester, rapid growth of, 271. Roman Catholic Church, early establish- ment of, 541. Roman Catholic Church, conversions from, how checked, 545. Roman Catholic Church, statistics of the, 543. Roman Catholic Church, probable influ- ence of, 545. Sabbath associations, 354. Sabbath, comparatively good observance of, in United States, 678. Sabbath, interest of railroad and steam- boat companies to observe, 679, note. St. Charles city. Virginia, massacre at, 124. Scotch colonists, character of the, 52. Scotch, persecution of the, 147. Scotland, early cause of immigration from, 145, 146. Scotland, religious influence of immigrants from, 152. Scottish Secession churches, account of the, 509. Scottish Secession churches, Foreign Mis- sions of, 628. Seamen, efforts to promote the interests of, 346. Sects, advantages of numerous evangeli- cal, 533. Sects, nature and character of theological discussions among, 583. Sects, grounds of alleged want of harmony among, 536, 539. Sects, evangelical, often commingle, 537. Sects, differences between evangelical and unevangelical, 579. Sects, extent of doctrinal agreement among, 582. Shakers, account of the, 568. Shakers, extraordinary book of the, 570, note. Slavery, true position of the country re- specting, 682. Slavery, how entailed on this country, 682. Slavery, severe clause against, in original Declaration of Independence, 682, note. Slavery, when abolished by the free States, 682. Slavery, increase of, since the Revolution, 683. Slavery, how to be ultimately abolished, 336. Slavery, an obstacle to promotion of re- ligion, 83. Slavery, Christianity the only remedy for, 684. Slavery, extent of, in the U. States, 683. Slavery, difficulties attending the abolition of, 683. Slavery, severity of foreign Christians re- specting, 687. Slavery, proper Christian spirit in relation to, 684. Smith, Mr. Normand, extract from memoir of, 665. South Boston, Transcendental sermon at, 560. South Carolina, early settlement of, 41, 128. South Carolina, early relations between Church and State in, 182. Southern States, religious character of the early colonists of, 122. State legislation, friendly to Christianity, 252. Stoddard, Rev. Mr., peculiar sentiments of, 549. Story, Chief-justice, opinion of, on State patronage of religion, 235. INDEX. 695 Success, true source of all, in promoting religion, 650. Sunday-school Union, American, 338. Sunday-school Societies, other, 310. Sunday-schools, mode of conducting, 312. Swedenborgians, notice of the, 567. Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 139. Swedish settlements, character of the col- onists of, 140. Swiss colonists, character of the, 52. Temperance societies, 348. Tennent, Eev. Messrs., opinion of Whit- field respecting, 407 Thanksgiving-day, publicly appointed, 648. Thanksgiving-day, Governor's proclama- tion for, 648, note. Theological Seminaries, 322-333. Tract societies, 336. Transcendentalism, notice of, 559, 560. Transcendental sermon at South Boston, 560. Trinity Church, New Tork, funds of, 654, note. Union of Church and State, when termin- ated, 653, note. Unitarianism, introduction and history of, in New England, 547-557. Unitarianism, circumstances favorable to the growth of, 549. Unitarianism, different writers on, 554. Unitarianism, early opposition to, in Har- vard College and elsewhere, 554. Unitarianism, concealment of, 554. Unitarianism, first disclosures of, and re- sults, 555, 556. Unitarianism, first congregation that a- vowed, 556. Unitarianism, first American advocate of, 554. Unitarians, objections of, to early revivals in New England, 551. Unitarians, early philosophy of, 552. Unitarians, " American Association" of, 558. Unitarians, religious belief of, 558. Unitarians, introduction of Transcendent- alism among, and results, 559, 560. " United Brethren in Christ," account of, the, 321. United States, geographical notice of the, 35-37. United States, power of government of, in promoting religion, 235. United States, religious character of gov- ernment of the, 240. United States, action of government of, Christian, 243. United States, State governments of, Chris- tian, 247. United States, State government legista tion of, in favor of Christianity, 252. United States, Church discipline in the, 369. United States, moral character of the ec- clesiastical discipline in, 370. United States, causes of diversity of re- ligious doctrine in, 577. United States, difference between evan- gelical and other sects in, 579. United States, alleged tyranny of public opinion in, 587, note. United States, religious literature of, 341. United States, misrepresentation of family discipline in, 681, note. United States, character of political papers in the, 345. United States, commencement and prog- ress of religious liberty in, 262, 263. United States, comparative smallness of standing army in 333. United States, absence of military police in the, 677, 678. United States, comparative morality of the people of the, 678. United States, much of the gross crime of, imported, 678. Universalists, origin of, in the United States, 565. Universalists, doctrinal belief of the, 566. Universalists, difference between, and Unitarians, 540. Virginia, early settlement of, 37. Virginia, the first to dissolve union of Church and State, 213. Virginia, religious character of first set- tlers of, 123. Virginia, intolerance of Legislature of, 126. Virginia, early relations between Church and State in, and effects, 179-182, 495-201. Virginia, legislation in, about religion, 221. Virginia, effects of dissolution of Church and State in, 228. Virginia, state of Episcopal Church in, at close of Revolution, 230. Virginia, present state of Episcopal Church in, 232. Virginia, act for establishing religious freedom in, 224. Voluntary Principle in supporting relig- ion, obstacles to, 77-89. Voluntary Principle in religion, nature of the, 262. Voluntary Principle in religion, impor- tance of the, 264. Voluntary Principle founded in character and habits of the people, 265. Voluntary Principle developed in Home Missions, 282. Voluntary Principle, influence of the, on education, 296. Voluntary Principle, influence of, on moral reformation, 348. G96 INDEX. Voluntary Principle, influence of, on be- neficent institutions, 356. Voluntary Principle, influence of, in fur- nishing a ministry, 652. Voluntary Principle, efficiency of. in in- creasing the ministry, 652. Voluntary Principle, efficiency of, in sup- porting the ministry, 653. Voluntary Principle, efficiency of, in erect- ing church edifices, 655. Voluntary Principle, comparative in- fluence of, in raising religious funds, 658. Wales, notice of immigrants from, 144. "Welsh colonists, character of the, 52. Western States, extent of population of 1840, 48. Wheaton, the late Hon. Henry, remarks of, on relations between Church and State. 259. Wheelock, Rev. Eleazar. school of, for In- dian youth, 594. Whitaker, Rev. Alexander, notice of, 126. Whitfield, Rev. George, preaching of, at • Boston, 550. Williams, Roger, arrival of. 115. Williams, Roger, notice of, 188. Winebrennarians, notice of the, 522. Winthrop, Hon. John, notice of, 108. Winthrop, Hon. John, letter of; to mem- bers of Church of England, 109. Winthrop, Hon. John, arrival of, in this country, 111. Yale College, remarkable revivals in, 402. < * £A-4L*x£>fo Jy "VinfuL^ wu- XJLJLs^ yirTvo -**y& j "jrLuAJ "i+JUAS <") tiMU^S> WLatYI owf iLc+d+s 1 ^h-tKCAs ^P^tsu^ iLturf~; (~***Z»uv >UZT* ^^Wr ^ruU^ Qs^^wuii^ 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only: Tel. No. 642-3405, Renewals may be made 4 days priod to date due. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. X t\ STACKS "M AYll'^15 t BHTPin m 472 -5 gT TT%ot* ffn o »rrrv General Library fJSiittl™ 8 ' Wo University of California (N8837sl0)476 — A-32 Berkeley H&HHHH SHE H *\ l bHh M "UVM T*Rft!«l H 1 1 1 \h y, i HM : IH Hi SB ma HH '-M 'Wj'J'li 1 Wis!' I I illlMlMIII 1 1 gBH HJM mHjr BWmBHBWuBHBIWBgM^BnWKi i mm BBKBB&HBBOBDDHBtBHwH • ■ M—iMMHa i BBBBBBBBHi