»t«|ffHfv^ YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (yCsCA^t tA- J^jcryM^ty) CHRISTIANITY TN THE UNITED STATES FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT ERRATA. Page 689 should read, "About one half of the Christian En deavor Societies are Congregational." Pp. 740, 741 should say, " Methodist Episcopal Church edi fices, 20,263 ; total Methodist and kindred bodies, 40,321 ; aggregate of evangelical churches, 120,944." NEW YORK: PHITjIjIPS cfc HTJKTT. CINCINNATI : CRANSTON & STOWE. 1888. CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY DANIEL DORCHESTER, D.D. NEW YORK: PHIIjT-j-IFS cfc PHITJ- UST T. CINCINNATI : CRANSTON & STOWE. 1888. Copyright, 1888, by New York. PREFACE I "HE genesis and purpose of this volume are easily told. It had a genuine spiritual conception, birth and growth. Before the death of that eminent historian oi Religion in America, Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., the undersigned held correspondence with him upon questions pertaining to the religious history and prospects of our country — the beginning of a series of inquiries resulting in this volume. For over a dozen years the subject was studied for the author's personal satisfaction, with no expectation of putting the results into printed pages. The mental exercises which led him to undertake the volume and the difficulties encountered in the task need not be here related. The work, sometimes intermit ted for months and twice for several years, amid other heavy duties, though never out of thought, has constantly broadened and ma tured. Believing that Christianity is best known and attested by its influence in the actual life of communities, not only have the relig ious statistics ofthe churches been studied, but also the moral and social phenomena, and the tidal movements and trend of the nation's life. These phenomena, sometimes subtle and latent, sometimes overt and out-bursting, sometimes vibratory, and some times complex, require the most careful discrimination in the work of interpreting, analyzing and classifying. Conscious that the his torian cannot too carefully guard lest he discolor or distort by his lens, the work has been undertaken and prosecuted under conscien tious convictions, in the hope that the best interests of Christianity may be subserved by it, and that it may prove helpful to the Chris tian ministry and to the public at large. 4 PREFACE. No attempt has been made to write the history of the various religious denominations, for the author did not so conceive his task. Taking a bird's-eye view of the field, and apprehending what are currently regarded as three great competing forces in the relig ious life of the nation — Protestantism, Romanism, and a variety of Divergent Elements — he adopted and has kept this classification throughout the volume. As to the Protestant Churches, the beginning of each, the organic changes, schisms and reunions, and the great benevolent, illumi nating and evangelizing agencies employed by them, have been sketched, and, for the most part, kept grouped together, either by express statements or by implication, avoiding so far as possible invidious comparisons, and seeking to do full justice to all. Very much matter relating to individual denominations was, from neces sity, omitted. The Roman Catholic Church has been freely, fully and generously treated, eulogies have been expressed upon some of the earlier gifted and devoted emissaries, and a great amount of expensive and wearisome labor put forth in efforts to adequately represent the body in the later statistical tables. The Divergent Elements, existing, as they do, as drifts of sentiment only slightly organized, have required different treatment from either evangelical Protestantism or Romanism. The statistical exhibits of all the religious bodies are the best their own official " Minutes" or Year Books make possible. To go behind them would be unfair and impracticable. Newspaper statistics have been omitted almost en tirely, because very liable to errata, and only under stern necessities have estimates been accepted and used. Deeply sensible ofthe delicacy of an undertaking in which such diverse and multiform interests are involved, the author commends his work to the Christian indulgence ofthe public. DANIEL DORCHESTER. Chelsea, Mass., December i, 1S87. CONTENTS. I. THE COLONIAL ERA. CHAPTER I. The First Discoveries and Settlements— Under Roman Catholic Auspices. PAGE The Spaniards in the South 13 CHAPTER II. Protestant Beginnings. § 1 . Discoveries 23 j § 3. Churches Organized 35 § 2. Settlements 27 J CHAPTER III. Later Roman Catholic Beginnings. § x. The French in the North 44 ! § 3. The French in the Mississippi Valley. 68 § 2. The English in Maryland 66 | § 4. Resume of Early Papal Movements . . 78 CHAPTER IV. Church and State. 1. Diverse Colonial Constitutions 84 ¦*. Points of Agreement 86 3. Religious Limitations 87 § 4. Religious Legislation 89 § 5. Religious Intolerance 108 § 6. General Considerations 121 CHAPTER V. The Religious Life of Protestantism. 1. From 1607 to 1662 126 j:. From 1662 to 1720 '34 3. From 1720 to 1745 '39 § 4. From 1743 to 1776 145 §5. Fruits of the Half-way Covenant 150 CHAPTER VI. Religious Customs Among Protestants. 1. The Ministry 153 2. The " Meeting-houses." 156 3. Public Worship 161 4. The Catechism 167 5. Thanksgivings and Fasts 171 CHAPTER VII. Protestant Missions Among the Indians. 4. Jesuit and Protestant Missions Com pared ioo 5. Results 192 § .. In New England 172 § 2. In the Middle Colonies 185 § 3. In the South 189 6 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. Diverse Currents. PAGK i. Inception of American Skepticism 195 2. Inception of Unitarianism 196 PAfiH § 3. Inception of Universalism 209 1. The Drinking Habits 212 2. Sabbath Observance 214 3. Unchastity — Lotteries 217 4. Superstitions 219 CHAPTER IX. Morals. § 5. Indentured Servitude 220 § 6. African Slavery 222 § 7. Antislavery 225 CHAPTER X. Education Under Protestantism. § 1. The Common School System 230 1 § 3. Education of the Ministry 250 _ § 2. The Colleges 240 1 CHAPTER XI. General Summaries 253 II. THE NATIONAL ERA. Period l.-From 1776 to 1800. CHAPTER I. The Revolution and the Churches. i. Union Through Suffering 259 j:. Patriotism of the Clergy 261 3. Unfavorable Effects 267 4. Civil Troubles 271 § 5. Sundering of Ecclesiastical Ties 273 § 6. The Churches After the War 278 § 7. Revivals of Religion Rare 287 CHAPTER II. Protestant Beginnings Beyond the Alleghanies. 1. Roman Catholic Preoccupancy 289 I § 3. Evangelizing Efforts 292 2. Anglo-American Settlements 291 | § 4. Early Privations, etc 298 CHAPTER III. Diverse Currents. i. The Unitarian Trend 300 I § 3. The New Jerusalem Church 310 a. Universalism 304 | § 4. The Shakers 312 CHAPTER IV. The French-American Infidelity. 1. Type of French Unbelief 313 2. Introduction into America 314 3. Skepticism Among Statesmen, etc 315 § 4. Infidel Organizations 318 § 5. Testimonies 323 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. The Roman Catholic Church. § i. Patriotic Under Disabilities 325 § t. The Hierarchy Established 327 % 3. Progress in Individual States 330 4. Religious Orders and Publications 335 5. Indian Missions 335 CHAPTER VI. Morals. 1. Post bellum Irritations 337 ] 9' 4. The Socialand Physical Condition, etc. 343 *. Political Bitterness 339 § 5. Intemperance 347 3. The Family, Dueling, etc 341 | § 6. Survey of the Dark Period 348 CHAPTER VII. Reforms Initiated. 1. Early Temperance Seed-Sowing 351 | § 2. Early Anti-slavery Seed-Sowing 355 Period II.— From 1800 to 1850. CHAPTER I. New Life in the Protestant Churches — An Era of Revivals Inaugurated. i. A Survey of the Period 363 § 4. Subsequent Revivals 372 2. The Revival of 1800 Incepted 367 § 5. College Revivals 376 3. Character of the Revival 369 § 6. Effects 378 CHAPTER II. The New Life Expanding — The Mississippi Valley 1. Moral and Religious Conditions 381 2. Ecclesiastical Beginnings 383 3. Trials of Pioneer Preachers 388 4. Roman Catholic Opposition 390 - 5. Condition from 1830 to 1850 395395 6. Benevolent and Educational Work. § 2. CHAPTER III. The New Life Organizing. Evangelizing Agencies 399 1. Home Missions 399 2. City Missions 408 3. Foreign Missions 410 4. Societies for Seamen 415 5. Efforts for the Jews 416 Religious Publication Agencies 416 1. Tract Societies 416 2. Bible Societies 419 3. Denominational Publication Houses 421 4. Religious Periodicals 424 Religious Educational Agencies 426 1. Sunday-schools and Sunday- school Societies 426 2. Educational Aid Societies 429 3. Colleges and the Churches 435 - 4. Theological Schools 437 CHAPTER IV. The New Life Reformatory. i> 1. The Temperance Reform 440 j § 3- The Sabbath Reform. S ¦'¦ The Anti-slavery Reform 448 CONTENTS. Organic Changes. CHAPTER V. Organic Changes in Protestant Churches. pagb 478 CHAPTER VI. Divergent Currents a. Unitarianism 492 2. Universalism 510 3. The Christians S'S 4. The Progressive Friends 5*7 5. The New Jerusalem Church 5 1 B 6. Millerism 5'8 1. Radical Doubt. CHAPTER VII. Skepticism, Socialism, Etc. 521 1 § 2. Socialism . S30 CHAPTER VIII. Mormonism. § a. The Earliest Phases 538 I § 3. Organized Mormonism. § *. Secondary Stages 539 | 54 1 CHAPTER IX. The Roman Catholic Church. 1. General Progress 543 2. Bishop England and Bishop Hughes. 548 3. The Lay Trustee Contest 550 4. Common School Contest Begun 551 § 5. Native American Movements 55.5 § 6. Councils 554 § 7. Propaganda Funds 556 § 8. Statistics for 1850 558 Period lll.-From 1850 to 1887. CHAPTER I Moral Phases § i. Emancipation 562 § 4. § 2. Temperance 570 § 5. § 3. Sabbath Observance 575 Chastity and Divorce 578 Crime 580 CHAPTER II. The Roman Catholic Church, a. General Progress 585 2. The System of Church Tenure 595 3. The Common School Contest 599 4. The Religious Orders 604 5. Benevolent Institutions 609 6. Educational Institutions 6t 1 7. Growth 614 § 2. §3- 5 4- § s- CHAPTER III. Divergent Currents. The Jews 624 Shakers 625 Progressive Friends 625 The New Jerusalem Church 626 Universalism 626 9' 10. Unitarianism 628 ' ' Free Religion " 635 Multiform Skepticism 640 The Latest Socialism 64^ Mormonism 6^6 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Convergent Currents. i. From Atheism to Theism 653 2. From Science vs. the Bible to Science with the Bible 658 3. From Christ Discarded to Christ Honored 661 4. From Negative to Biblical Ethics. ... 663 § 5. From the Poverty of Skepticism to the Wealth of Christianity 664 § 6. From Defiant Discourtesy to Patron izing Respect 667 § 7. From Scholastic to Vital Truth 668 § 8. Vibratory Movements 673 CHAPTER V. Life in Protestant Churches. § 1. Organic Relations 675 I § 2. Lay Activity 680 3. Revivals 693 4. Spirituality 696 CHAPTER VI. Evangelizing and Illuminating Agencies. § 4. Religious Publication Agencies 717 1. Religious Periodicals 717 2. Religious Publication Houses. .. . 721 § 5. Higher Education and the Churches. . 724 § a. Foreign Missions 700 § 2. Home Missions 710 § 3. Progress and Test of Pecuniary Benev olences 714 CHAPTER VII. Growth of " Evangelical " Protestant Churches. a. The Actual Growth 733 2. The Population Test 742 a. The Large Cities 743 *. In New England 748 3. In the Whole Country 749 The Interdenominational Test 750 a. The "Evangelical" and the " Liberal " Churches 751 2. The Evangelical Protestant and Rom. Cath. Bodies Compared. . 75 1 CHAPTER VIII. Review and Outlook — Pending Problems. The Problem of the Population 757 The Spirit of Free Inquiry 766 The New Functions of Public Opinion 771 The Civil Problem 773 Modern Revolutionizing Tendencies 769 The Problem of Protestantism 775 Index 781 LIST OF MAPS, CHARTS, AND DIAGRAMS. PAGE Map of French, English, Dutch, Swedish, and Spanish Provinces facing 22 Map of Aboriginal America facing 70 Chart — Colonial Period facing 256 Map Showing Territorial Growth facing 393 Chart Showing Church Accommodations facing 675 Diagram I. Sunday-school Growth facing 693 II. Colleges, Denominational and Undenominational facing 726 III. Denominational Students facing 728 " IV. Growth of City Populations facing 743 V. The Foreign Elements in the Fifty Principal Cities. . . .facing 745 " VI. Protestantism and Romanism in New England facing 752 ' " VII. Relative Progress of Protestantism and Romanism in the United States facing 753 " VIII. Increase of Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches and Clergy from 1850-1886 facing 754 " IX. Growth and Status of Protestantism and Romanism compared with the Population ofthe United States, 1850-1886. .facing 755 X. Illustrating the Growth of Immigration from 1790-1885. facing 759 XI. Illustrating the Relative Immigration from Four Leading European Countries facing 761 I. THE COLONIAL ERA, CHAPTER I. THE FIRST DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS -UNDER ROMAN CATHOLIC AUSPICES. Tlie Spaniards in the South. RELIGIOUS motives manifestly acted a conspicuous part in the earliest discoveries and settlements in America, though consid erations of maritime enterprise and commercial advantage, not wanting from the first, soon directed and dominated the New World movements. It is a striking but not unfamiliar fact that those portions of our national domain, the last to become integral parts of the United States, were the first upon which the efforts of the papacy were expended, and that in all of them, for many years, the Roman Catholic became the dominant and only faith. These, therefore, will first receive attention. Columbus, Perez, and Isabella, a trinity of Roman Catholic devotees — a mariner, a monk, and a queen — under the solemn benediction of the Church, projected and achieved. the discovery of the New World. " Piety,'' says Prescott, " gave a peculiar coloring to Isabella's mind; " a remark not less true of Columbus, " the Christ-bearer," as his name (Christopher) signifies. Explorer though he was, and filled with enthusiastic conceptions of a new route to the East, opening up regions of untold wealth and splendor, he was also a deeply relig ious man and a diligent student of the Bible, especially of the proph ecies, in whose fulfillment, through his cherished plans, he saw an easy communication established between the uttermost parts of the earth, and the entire human family brought under the influence ofthe "Holy Catholic Church." Believing that God had singled him out and set him apart for this work, he solemnly declared, "God made me a messenger of the new heavens and the new earth ; " and the power and riches to accrue from his looked-for dis coveries were, in anticipation, consecrated to the bringing of souls to 14 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Christ, in the East as well as in the West, and even to the rescue of the Holy Sepulcher from the hands ofthe infidel. Juan Perez, the prior at Palos, deeply interested in maritime subjects, and a former confessor to Isabella, exerted his priestly influence to forward the interests of Columbus at the court. Starting from a deeply impressive service ofthe Holy Commun ion, in a temporary chapel on the shore of Palos, the adventurers broke the silence of ages over the trackless waters, with prayers and hymns to the Virgin Mary. The first sight of the New World was greeted with a Gloria in excelsis — " the first Catholic hymn whose swelling cadences were wafted to the shores of America ; " and the first landing witnessed Columbus upon his knees, with tears of joy giving thanks to God and kissing the earth. Religious names, San Salvador, Santa Trinidata, Santa Maria, etc., were given to the first islands discovered. On his second voyage Columbus was accompanied by the first band of missionaries, consisting of twelve priests and a vicar apos tolic, who, at Isabella, on the Island of Hayti, consecrated the first chapel, on the feast of Epiphany, iri the year 1494 — the date of the founding of the Roman Catholic Church in the New World. " Isabella the Catholic " took a deep interest in the welfare of the natives, " ordering," says Irving, " that great care should be taken of the religious instruction of the Indians ; that they should be treated with the utmost kindness ; and that Columbus should inflict signal punishment upon all Spaniards who should be guilty of outrage or injustice toward them." It will not be questioned that the discovery of the New World was a maritime enterprise ; but the religious auspices and inspira tion under which it was conducted were Roman Catholic, then almost the only religious faith of Europe, and every-where blended with the civil power. The great Protestant reformation was waiting for its leader, a lad of only nine years, when the cross first touched the shores of San Salvador. The success of Columbus aroused the spirit of enterprise and turned all minds to the West. In the fifty years following his first discovery, voyages of exploration were conducted by more than twenty adventurers, among whom were John and Sebastian Cabot. Gaspar and Miguel Cortereal, Vespucci, Ponce de Leon, Balboa, Cordova, D'Ayllon, Magellan, Verazzano, Gomez, Narvaez, Cartier, and De Soto, all acting under the patronage of Roman Catholic na tions, and most of them carrying on their expeditions ecclesiastics of that faith. FIRST DISCO VERIES AND SETTLEMENTS. 1 S Motives. The motives actuating these explorers, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, despite national jealousies, were essentially alike, secular considerations largely predominating, sustained in most, if not in all of them, by a substratum of devotion to the Church of Rome. At first, gorgeous visions of the " far Cathay," where, for centuries, had reigned " a line of mighty monarchs of the race of Kublai Khan," of which Marco Polo had told fabulous, entrancing stories — a land redolent with aromatic spices, filled with birds of gayest plumage, and teeming with all manner of precious things which enrich king doms, and make states and princes powerful — furnished the inspira tion for expensive, tedious and dangerous expeditions. Some Ophir or Aura Chersonesus of the Indies, filled with magnificent cities and crowded with commerce, flitted like bewitching lights before their minds. This fair land of the East they believed lay not far to the westward. When, after a few years of exploration, the discovery of a vast western continent, every-where presenting itself as an un reclaimed wilderness, peopled with naked savages, made it apparent that they had not found the short passage to the much-coveted East, their feverish imaginations were still haunted with glowing panoramas of tropical beauty, alluvial fertility, and inexhaustible riches. Under this alluring impulse, European sovereigns vied with each other to share the glory, wealth, and extended dominion of new discoveries. Voyagers were sent forth in quest of unknown islands and continents, full of gold and heathen men, or to find some north-west passage to the Indies, now further than ever from their insatiable grasp ; while other expeditions advanced beyond the un promising coast-line of the continent into the remote interior, attracted by stories of rich and powerful kingdoms far to the west ward. Explorers. Amerigo Vespucci, in early life an agent for a commercial house in Seville and a familiar acquaintance of Columbus, whose story of the newly-opened regions he had heard, longing to share in the glory and profit of the New World enterprises, sails upon extensive expe ditions which identify his name with an immense continent. Ponce de Leon, whose youth has been spent in the military serv ice of Spain, sharing in the wild predatory exploits of the wars of Granada, a fellow-voyager of Columbus in his second expedition, the subjugator and governor of Porto Rico, when trembling under the decrepitude of age, beguiled by marvelous stories of a land in 16 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the deep recesses of whose forests was a hidden fountain of perpetual youth, fits out an expedition, discovers, names and overruns the flower-clad peninsula of Florida. " The wise and prudent Coronado," inspired by the flaming reports by Mexican priests of cities far to the north larger and richer than those of Mexico, parting from his lovely wife and vast posses sions, leads forth a band of chivalrous adventurers to hunt in the wilderness for " the seven great cities of Cibola " and the fabled wealth of their mighty princes. Lucas Vasquez D'Ayllon, setting out in quest of a sacred river with healing waters akin to those of the fabled fountain of youth, and Stephen Gomez, in search of a passage to the romantic Cathay, sup posed to be reached through some ofthe broad estuaries to the north ward of Florida, return with cargoes of Indians doomed to servitude. Pamphilo de Narvaez leads a formidable expedition in search of gold to replenish the coffers of Charles V. And Hernando De Soto, the favorite companion of Pizarro, in Peru, returning to Spain with the opulence of South American con quests, blinded by avarice and an ambition to achieve new dominions, where he shall no longer be a subaltern, leads forth the elite of Spain and Portugal in a splendidly equipped but singularly ill-fated expedition for the subjugation of magnificent cities with richly endowed temples, supposed to be concealed in the interior wilds of Florida and Mississippi. However much inspired by cupidity and ambition, it should not be forgotten that patronizing princes and adventurers alike perform ed their parts in close subordination to the Church. So complete was the ecclesiastical ascendency, in that age, that each sovereign felt bound to promote its cause — an element serving both as an im pulse and a check. Expeditions were fitted out under impressive ecclesiastical benedictions; and adventurers, soldiers and priests landed together, taking possession of new countries in the name of " THE CHURCH — the Queen and Sovereign of the World." However strange the characters of many of these leaders, they seem not to have vacillated in their devotion to the Papal Church. Alonzo de Ojeda, a companion of Columbus in his first expe dition, subsequently sailing under the patronage of the Bishop of Fouseca, with stolen charts of the great navigator, explores the Isthmus of Darien, " his track every-where marked," says Bryant, "with lust for slaves, for women and for gold," but often pausing in those trackless wilds to worship the picture of the Madonna, to whom he was enthusiastically devoted. THE CROSS AS AN ENSIGN. 17 Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish freebooter, though " pitilessly cruel, unscrupulous and dissolute," is " at the same time zealous for the Church." Fighting his way through the hostile Indians of Darien, " he hews them in pieces," says the quaint Peter Martyr, " as the butchers doe fleshe in the shambles; from one an arme, from another a legge, from him a buttocke, from another a shoulder, and from some the necke from the bodie, at one stroke ; " but when, at last, from the top of a high mountain, he first beholds the vast Pacific, sparkling and glorious in the sunlight, overcome with mingled emotions of ecstasy and devotion, he prostrates himself upon the earth, giving thanks to God that it has " pleased his Divine Majesty to reserve for him on that day so great a thing," and praying for success in subduing those lands " to the glory of his holy name and the increase of his holy religion." De Soto, in whom " avarice rendered ferocious " is singularly united with religious zeal, in his great expedition from Florida to the Mississippi valley, while reveling in scenes of robbery, carnage and lust, massacring and " leading Indians in chains " with " iron collars around their necks," marches under the insignia ofthe cross, is attended by ecclesiastics, scrupulously maintains the solemn pro cessions and festivals of the Church, and even himself explains the significance of the cross, and discourses homilies on the atone ment to assembled natives. The cross, as a symbol of papal supremacy, was borne by Ma gellan in his world-wide voyages, and planted on the southernmost cape of South America ; by Fernando and Cortez, who subjugated the land of the Montezumas and made it obedient to the Roman Catholic faith ; by Cartier down the great river of Canada, to which he gave the name of a celebrated saint; and by Champlain, a devoted son of the Church, who established its ecclesiastical supremacy in all the northern region. Mexico. The first portion of North America subjugated and held by Europeans was Mexico. The thrilling story need not be here related. The Aztec priesthood was overthrown and the ecclesias tics of Rome were installed in their stead. Thenceforth, Mexico became a burning focus of the Roman Catholic Church, from which colonies and missions penetrated northward within the present limits of our national domain. These Spanish missions, radiating from Mexico, extended across the continent from Florida to California. A little later, we shall see Quebec also becoming a papal focus, and 2 18 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. radiating her missions along the valley of the St. Lawrence to the great lakes, down the Mississippi, till they meet those on the Gulf,. and sagaciously plotting and attempting the conquest of the vast region inclosed. These missionary movements present many scenes of unexcelled devotion, invincible purpose, patient toil, and sublime martyrdom. Unappalled by the New World barbarians, the emissaries of the papacy hasted to bring them to her embrace. Her wonderful religious orders, Franciscan, Augustinian, Dominican, and Carmelite, with organizations eminently adapted to missionary work, were already extended through many countries ; and in the same epoch with the American discoveries the new order of Jesuits, expressly intended for missionary labors, arose, and hastened to achieve its earliest triumphs on the new continent. However notorious this. celebrated order subsequently became, it must be allowed that the record of its earliest missionary toils in North America abounds in thrilling incidents and examples of rare devotion. " Habituated to self-denial, a solitary man, with no earthly tie to make life dearer than the call of duty, a man who had renounced not only the luxuries but most of the comforts of life, the Catholic missionary, crucifix in hand, bearing a few articles of church service, hastened to rear the cross amid the scenes of idolatrous worship. . . . Sometimes a mission rose by royal command, and a missionary, sup plied or supported from the public treasury like a soldier, proceeded to his post. Sometimes the settlers collected yearly means to en able the frugal priest to live and obtain what he needed for his. ministry ; but most generally the princes, nobles, and people of Europe raised funds for each particular mission, which enabled proc urators of religious orders, in seaport towns, to send across the Atlantic missionaries, books, church articles, and often objects of agricultural or mechanical industry for the Indian tribes." * Florida. Florida, from its first discovery to the founding of St. Augustine (1565), was the scene of numerous unsuccessful colonies and missions. Regarded as " a paragon of wealth and beauty," expeditions were fitted out to explore and settle it, soldiers and priests accompanying the adventurers. The savage inhabitants so effectually resisted their invaders that most of the latter perished. In 1526, Pamphilo de Narvaez, with the title of Governor, and accompanied by a large * John G. Shea, Catholic Missions in the United States, p. 29. PEACEFUL CONQUEST ATTEMPTED. 19 force of soldiers, undertook the conquest of the country. Fran ciscan priests, under Father Juarez, one of the first of that order who entered Mexico, attended the expedition. With great re ligious solemnities, they took possession of the Bay of Pensacola. Scenes of exacting toil and terrible suffering followed ; disease and savage hostilities decimated their numbers, and all but four perished. In 1547, Father Louis Cancer, a Dominican priest, hoping to win new conquests for the cross by " subduing unarmed and in peace a country that had baffled the hardiest military expeditions," projected the spiritual conquest of this region. Drawing into his plan " the great Labasas," Bishop of Chiapas, a fellow-passenger to Spain, he gained the full approbation of Philip II. for " the peaceful and bloodless conquest of Florida." With three other Dominican fathers Cancer landed upon the coast, and by presents and other friendly means sought to win the favor of the natives. But kindly acts failed to disarm their ferocity, and within a few days two of the missionaries were massacred, and the others immediately withdrew from the field. In 1553, five Dominican priests belonging to a large expedition bound for Mexico were wrecked upon the coast, and only one survived to reach Mexico. In 1559, Don Tristan De Luna, a scion of the nobility of Arragon, with a fleet of thirteen vessels and fifteen hundred men, accompanied by families and six Domini can missionaries, were sent to subdue and colonize the peninsula. After a series of terrible calamities and sufferings, extending through several years, the field was abandoned. In 1565, Pedro Melendez, the most distinguished naval command er of his day, whose banner had long floated over the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the North Sea, and who at his own expense had served his royal master against the Corsairs and the French, after a series of humiliating reverses was rewarded by Philip II. with the grant of Florida, on two conditions : twelve Franciscans and four Jesuits were to be carried as missionaries, and the Huguenot colony under Ribault, on St. John's River, was to be dispersed. " Melendez himself," says Bryant,* " was a bigot who could conceive no better manifestation of love to God than cruelty to man, when man was heretical." Fitting out his expedition with alacrity, he sailed with thirty-four vessels, two thousand six hundred and forty-six men, eleven Franciscans, one father of the order of Mercy, one sec ular priest, and eight Jesuits. His first work was to extirpate the Huguenots, which he effected with the most diabolical and mer- * Popular History of the United States, Vol. I., p. 206. 20 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ciless slaughter. The details* are too sickening to be related here — the first Protestant blood shed on American soil. St. Augustine was immediately founded, and a small colony, under the spiritual direction of the Jesuits, was also planted on the Chesapeake, the latter having, however, only a brief existence. Among the Indians in the vicinity of St. Augustine, missions were undertaken, the Jesuits leading, and Father John Baptiste Segura soon appeared as Vice Provincial, full of zeal and plans for action. The instruction of the natives in Christian principles was under taken, and a school for Indian children was established at Havana, while Father Segura and others made their novitiate in missionary life amid the hardships of the wilderness, in the provinces of Carlos, Tequestra, and as far as Tocobago on the Appalachee Bay. Grounds were selected, agricultural impliments obtained, and commodious houses erected ; but the natural fickleness of the Indians soon pre vailed, the village was abandoned, and the wild life in the woods was resumed. The Jesuits followed, patiently instructing, and bap tizing a few. Calling a council ofthe chiefs, they proposed that the tribe should renounce the devil and embrace the new faith. A scene of confusion followed. " The devil is the best fellow in the world," was the unanimous cry ; " we adore him ; he makes men valiant." The discomfited missionaries abandoned them. In 1572 the Jesuits left Florida for the more inviting field of Mexico ; three priests and four lay brothers having fallen victims to the perfidy of the natives, and one sinking under the exactions of his arduous toils. In 1573, a new band of Franciscans landed at St. Augustine, but no missions beyond the immediate vicinity of the colony were undertaken until after 1592, when a re-enforcement of twelve Fran ciscans arrived and efforts for the conversion of the Indians were resumed. Mission stations were established, an abridgment of Christian doctrine was drawn up and printed in the Indian dialect, and villages of neophytes were formed ; but suddenly a storm arose which turned the smiling garden into a howling wilder ness. Missionaries were massacred and the neophytes were scattered. The work was resumed in 1601. In the next twenty years about fifty Franciscans labored in Florida, and no less than twenty convents or religious houses were established. Subsequently missions were founded among the Appalachees and Creeks, in West Florida and Georgia, and in 1643 a Cherokee chief received baptism. The * A Roman Catholic writer, Mr. John G. Shea, says : " In no point of view can his conduct be justified." History of Indian Missions, p. 55. MISSIONARY HEROES. 21 founding of Pensacola, in 1693, gave a new impulse to missions in that region, and the Spanish colony, though small, was surrounded by Indian tribes most of whom received the Roman Catholic faith. Villages of converts, directed by Franciscans, existed along the the Apalachicola, Flint, and other rivers. New Mexico was the next scene of missionary labor within the recently adopted territory of the United States. Coronado's famous expedition from Mexico, in 1542, in search of a fancied realm of wealth and splendor, traversed the territory of New Mexico even to the borders of Colo rado. After a long and unsuccessful search, wearied of journeyings and disappointed in discoveries, he turned his course homeward ; but, when not far from the present site of Santa Fe, the two Fran ciscans, Father Padilla and Brother John of the Cross, who had accompanied the expedition, remained behind to establish a mission. Turning his steps to Quivira, Father Padilla labored assiduously among that fierce people, but with no success. Hearing of a tribe more docile in character, he started for their town, but on his way he fell pierced with a shower of arrows, sealing his mission with his blood. Of his companion no tidings were ever received. Only the previous year, the brilliant, cruel, and unfortunate expedition of De Soto had penetrated several hundred miles west of the Mississippi, into the territory above the Red River. Coronado's unfavorable reports discouraged further secular ex ploration of this region for a long time. Meanwhile the Indian missions of Mexico steadily advanced toward the north, and there dwelt in the valley of St. Bartholomew a pious lay brother, Augus tine Rodriguez, who had grown gray amid the austerities of the Franciscan missions. Hearing of populous countries far to the north, unvisited by Spaniards, he burned with desire to proclaim to them the Gospel. A mission was projected ; Father Francis Lopez was appointed Superior, and the learned and scientific Father John de Santa Maria and Brother Rodriguez accompanied him, escorted by ten soldiers and six Mexican Indians. Reaching the country of the Teheras, the soldiers, seeing seven hundred weary miles behind them, refused to advance further. Honor, pride, patriotism, and religion were appealed to in vain. They abandoned the missiona ries to their fate. A mission was commenced among a people dressed in cotton mantles and living in houses, unlike the wild Indians of the plains. Father Maria was sent back to Mexico for 22 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. auxiliaries, but while asleep by the wayside he was surprised and killed. In an attack upon the town, soon after, Father Lopez fell beneath the shafts of the assailants, and Brother Rodriguez was left alone until, weary of his presence and reproaches, the natives silenced his voice in death. Don Antonio de Espejo, a rich, brave, and pious man, set out the following year to explore the head-waters of the Rio Grande. He named the country New Mexico, and founded the city of Santa Fe, the second oldest city within the present limits of the United States — twenty-five years older than Jamestown, Va. The Francis cans immediately undertook the task of converting the natives — a work slow, difficult, and attended with dangers. The blood of the missionaries flowed freely ; their number was recruited ; the work went slowly on ; the dusky savages yielded ; whole tribes accepted the faith ; and, in the year 1608, eight thousand Indians had received baptism in New Mexico. In 1626 the twenty-seventh mission was established. Texas. Father de Olmos, a Franciscan, visited this region in 1546, and founded a mission among the wild tribes of the Chechimecas. Gathering around this solitary envoy, they listened in peace to his message. He studied their language and made translations into it ; but no further data have been transmitted to us concerning this " humble conquest of Olmos' hardy zeal," and a long interval with no records of missions followed. California. A series of explorers visited California at a very early date : Cortez, who is supposed to have reached its extreme southern part ; Cobilla, who landed at San Diego in 1542; Sir Francis Drake, who sailed along its coast in one of his expeditions, and spent the sum mer of 1579 in the Bay of San Francisco; and Viscaino, who ex plored the coast in 1596, and again in 1601, proceeding as far as Monterey, where the Carmelite Friars who accompanied his expe dition erected a rustic altar beneath the branches of a spreading oak and celebrated the mysteries of the papal faith. SUCCESSORS OF COLUMBUS. 23 CHAPTER II. PROTESTANT BEGINNINGS. Sec. i. Discoveries. Sec. 2. Settlements. Sec. 3. Churches Organized. Section l.— Disco Yeries. COLUMBUS and his successors in discovery accomplished great Providential purposes, opening up pathways for nations and imparting new impulses of progress to the world. The amazing foresight, indomitable purpose, superhuman energy and lofty hero ism of Columbus verify his personal conviction that he was " the called of God " to a great mission. A spirit so elevated and far- seeing, so patient and enduring, so potent to resist and wear out opposition, so fruitful in expedients and creative of resources, clearly evinces a divine co-working. But he had a very feeble conception ¦of the grand results of his wonderful career and the new life he im parted to the age. Nor was it necessary, in order to the part he performed, that he should see the far-reaching consequences. He was not chosen to be the founder of a perishable empire nor to wear the diadem of a fading royalty. But he fulfilled his mission and gained the crown of enduring immortality — the true saintship. The Successors of Columbus were men of inferior character, in whom, says Bancroft, " avarice and religious zeal were singularly blended ; and the heroes of Spain sailed to the West as if they were bound on a new crusade for which infinite wealth was to reward their piety." The visions of vast riches which the newly-discovered country inspired stimulated in the breasts of Europeans the powerful passions of ambition and avarice, and eager adventurers were sent forth with ships and stores to the new El Dorado. Numerous disasters and disappointments attended the early navigators, but countries were subdued and vast sums of gold and silver transmitted to Europe. These singularly mixed motives were potential factors, mysteriously working under a super intending Providence, by which willing agents were strangely led on, 24 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. though often effectually checked and frustrated. What striking evidences do those times afford of a superior power controlling the movements of men ! What alluring openings and also inscrutable reservations of Providence ! In this higher light how weak and nar row the schemes of human cupidity and ambition ! While thirst for gold, lust of power and love of daring adventure served the Provi dential purpose of opening the New World to papal Europe, and Roman Catholic colonies were successfully planted in some portions, the territory originally comprised within the United States was mysteriously guarded and reserved for another — a prepared people. The Upheaval in Europe. Under the great Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe a new social order, invested with new ideas and an improved civiliza tion, was developed, and soon thrust forth into the central portion of the American Continent — a fitting theater for the sublime achievements of the advancing age. Speaking of the Spaniards, Bryant says : * " Fortunately for the progress of the human race and the future history of North America, all their efforts to gain a permanent foothold north of the Gulf of Mexico were in the main unsuccessful." English enterprise followed, but with hesitating steps. English voyagers sailed along the main coast of North America as early as 1497, but no conquests or settlements were attempted. Distracted by civil disturbances, agitated by the Reformation and crippled by the poverty of her people, England was prevented from taking ad vantage of her first discoveries. One hundred and ten years passed from the time that Cabot, under the authority of Great Britain, sailed along the coast of North America until the first permanent English settlement. It was the most important century in modern history, noted for that mighty upheaval styled " The Reformation," which powerfully shook the continent of Europe and ushered in the brighter and wonderfully expanding phases of progress which have gladdened our day and prophesy of better days to come. Spain and Portugal, engrossed with avaricious schemes, only slightly affected by this great religious movement, remained in passive acquiescence to mediaeval ideas and absolutism, sacrificing intellectual and religious freedom upon the altar of lust and power. Not so with the more northerly nations. In Germany, Switzerland, France, England and Scotland, a great ' History of the United States, Vol. I, P- '7.V ENGLISH ENTERPRISES. 25 emancipation was going on, destined to bring in its train the higher and more enduring resources — intelligence, freedom of conscience, commercial enterprise, the triumphs of inventive genius, supremacy in the world of thought and social and religious elevation. In the pangs of the Reformation a new people was begotten, with new ideas, invested with loftier prerogatives and aims, and intended by Provi dence to found in the New World a great Christian Republic, one of the mightiest agencies in human progress. English Voyagers. Secular motives were not wanting in the early English discover ers in North America. England's conflicts with Spain had devel oped her navy and marine. To equip and command a ship had attractions for ambitious courtiers, and the capture of a richly-laden Spanish vessel from the New World amply repaid the cost of an ex pedition. To this was soon added the alluring hope of making profitable foreign settlements. The rich products of America glit tered before the vision of ardent Englishmen, who, on easy terms of paying one fifth part of the precious metals to the queen, eagerly exchanged a patrimony for a fleet in the hope of golden acres across the Atlantic. In 1576-78 Captain Martin Frobisher made several unsuccessful voyages to the frozen shores of North America, hoping to bring home large stores of gold. Quaint stories * are told of the expectations, delusions, and sufferings of the voyagers; of "cruel stormes of snow and haile, great islands of yee, and mighty deere that seemed to be mankind," of finding " spiders which are signs of great store of gold," of streams beneath the frozen surface, " by which the earth within is kept warmer and springs have their re course, which is the only nutriment of gold and minerals," and car goes of worthless " black ore " carried to England. These " pain full mariners and poore miners were faine to submit themselves and their ships to the mercy of the unmerciful yee," and endure " the brunt of so great and extreme dangers, praysing God, and altogether, upon their knees, giving Him due, humble, and heartie thanks." In those inhospitable solitudes the Lord's Supper was celebrated, " the first signe, seale and confirmation of Christ's name, death and passion ever knowen in those quarters." From 1579-1585 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a courtier of Queen Elizabeth, " with nobler aims than finding ore of gold," made several attempts at discovery and colonization. " To prosecute *Hackluyt, Vol. Ill, pp. 63-68, 87, 26 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. effectually the full possession of those so ample and pleasant coun- treys for the crown and people of England," " the honor of God, the compassion of poore infidels captivated by the Devil," and "the reliefe of sundry people within this distressed realme," are the ele vated motives under which Sir Humphrey went forth, authorized by letters patent, " to discover all such heathen lands as were not acutally possessed by any Christian prince or people." Sir Walter Raleigh followed, but both were unsuccessful, and as late as the year 1600 the American continent was wholly untenanted by the Anglo-Saxon race. At that time Roman Catholic countries had planted permanent colonies from Florida and New Mexico to Chili. A tabulated view of the discoveries and settlements in the New Hemisphere, from 1492 to 1733, will be helpful. PERIOD 1.— 108 Years. Settlements from countries not affected by the Reformation, made either before or during its progress. PERIOD II 133 Years. Settlements from countries pervaded by the Reformation. DATES 1492 M93 1404 1497 1498 1500 15021510 DISCOVERIES. PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS. RELIGIOUS FAITH. DATES PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS. RELIGIOUS FAITH. 1 ! West India ; Islands. Roman Catholic 16051607160816141620 1623 1626 1664 1 631 ^33 1634 163616501670 168217001733 Protestant. 1 The main coast ¦I of North Amer- New York Massachusetts New Hampshire. . Bay of Honduras. Isthmus of Darien Roman Catholic New Jersey Protestant. Florida 15171518 Connecticut Maryland North Carolina. . . South Carolina. . . Pennsylvania Protestant. Roman Catholic. Protestant.Protestant.Protestant.Protestant.Roman Catholic. Protestant. Southern Mexico. 1520 15=5!537 !545 Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Chili Bolivia 1600 Stirring Events in Europe. The Protestant colonies within the original limits of the United States were chiefly founded amid the stirring events of the first half of the seventeenth century. The long and prosperous reign of Queen EUROPEAN DISTURBANCES. 27 Elizabeth closed four years before the settlement of Virginia ; and under her successor the crowns of England and Scotland were united, James IV. of Scotland becoming James I. of England. Under Elizabeth's reign the Puritan agitation became a distinctive move ment, and it grew and expanded under James and Charles I. James town was settled in 1607; Plymouth in 1620. Charles I. ascended the throne in 1625. Buckingham was assassinated in 1627. Laud, the champion of prelacy, was tightening his clutch upon the Puritan throat, a reaction from which, a few years later, took off his head. Cromwell was born with the century, and in 1628 entered Parlia ment. In 1636 John Hampden uttered his bold protest against exorbitant impositions upon mariners. In 1642 the fomentations that drove many colonists to America culminated in a terrible civil outbreak at home. Under the administration of Richelieu, France was recovering from her disordered state and reviving her financial and political strength. The Thirty Years' War was raging in Europe, Protestantism and Catholicism being the sub-issues. Gus tavus Adolphus's grand career dates in the same period, and the victory of Protestant Germany at Lutzen. The glory of Spain was declining, and the emancipated Netherlands were growing into the dignity of " the Dutch Republic." Italy was turbid. The Crescent was waning and its military power was eclipsed. Cortez, Pizarro and Almagro had passed away during the previous century. Section 2— Protestant Settlements. French Protestants were vainly trying to establish colonies in Brazil while the Puritans were struggling with Elizabeth. Then followed the planters to Virginia ; next came, in the same year, the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock and a cargo of slaves to Jamestown, Virginia ; and after them, in rapid succession, the Puritans to Salem, Boston and Dorchester. At the time Boston was settled " William Shakespeare and the author of Don Quixote had been dead seven years ; John Bunyan was an infant of two years ; Pascal was but seven; La Fontaine nine; Bossuet but three. Tillotson and Barrow were born that very year and Dryden a year later. Jeremy Taylor, Cudworth, La Rochefoucauld were in their teens ; Cowley and Mo- liere had not reached theirs. Spinoza was born two years, Boileau six years and Racine nine years after. John Milton, Thomas Fuller, the church historian, Lord Clarendon, the author of the history of the English rebellion, were each twenty-two years of age ; and 28 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Hobbes, Des Cartes,Grotius, Lord Herbert, Isaac Walton, Massinger, Selden, Archbishop Usher, Guido and Van Dyke, were all in the prime of life. Ben Jonson was still living, and so was Robert Bur ton. Bacon had been dead but four years. The English Bible received official recognition only nineteen years before." * Such was the period, its actors and events, amid which the early Protestant settlements in the United States were effected. No previous century for long ages could parallel it. Three Parties in England. The earliest English settlers in America comprised three religious parties which had long been at sore variance with each other in the mother country, but all of whom agreed in their op position to the Church of Rome. The prelatical party who founded Jamestown, Virginia, exalted the order and functions ofthe clergy, investing them with hierarchical prerogatives and retaining ancient forms and ceremonies, hoping thereby to conciliate the papists to the Protestant faith. The Puritans bore an implacable hatred to the Roman Catholic Church, and contended that the work of the Refor mation was left half done so long as any of the forms of the Romish Church were retained in the Church of England. They rejected every ceremony and vestment not clearly enjoined in the Word of God. The surplice and square cap they regarded as the livery of superstition, and the decisions and prerogatives of the priesthood, the king and the parliament, in religious matters, as the setting up of human authority above the Divine Word. But both parties ad hered to the Church of England, the latter in the hope of purifying it. Seeing its evils they nevertheless acknowledged the value of the Church and hoped to reform it. They, therefore, remained in it. The third party was the Separatists, or Independents, who denounced the Church of England as an idolatrous institution, false to the truth and to Christianity, and fit only to be destroyed. They, therefore, separated from it. Thus the struggle went on through Elizabeth's reign. The acces sion of King James to the throne at first gave new hopes to the reformers; but they were not long cherished. He declared, " I will have no liberty as to ceremonies ; I will have one doctrine, one dis cipline, one religion, in substance and ceremony." Nor would he allow contradiction. In 1604 three hundred Puritan and Separatist ministers were silenced, imprisoned, or exiled. But their principles * Rev. S. J. Barrows, D.D., at the Quarter .Millennial of the first church in Dorchester, Mass. THE PLYMOUTH COLONY. 29 kept spreading. After severe trials and delays a company of Sep aratists, self-exiled, reached Holland, whence, after twelve years, see ing no hope for them in England, they sailed in the Mayflower for America, and landed on Plymouth Rock, December 22, 1620. Still the contest went on in England, until companies of Puritans, in 1628-1630, etc., embarked for New England and founded the Massa chusetts Bay Colony. The former came as Separatists, Independents, bringing the first Congregational Church to the New World. The latter still claimed to be Puritans, avowing that they were not Separatists,* but continued to adhere to the Church of England, though discard ing many of her ceremonies and her prelatical assumptions. In a few years, however, they too became Separatists, or Independents. The Founders of New England. Within twenty years from the planting of the Plymouth Colony all the other chief colonies in New England were founded, their governments organized, and the Atlantic coast, from the Kennebec River almost to the Hudson, was marked by various settlements. Such were the founders of New England. They were iconoclasts, reformers, in Church and State, men of strong religious convictions. To them the Bible was every thing ; the source of religious principles, the basis of civil law, the supreme authority in matters of common life. Numbering many men of great learning who had been edu cated at the English universities, they gave great prominence to clas sical education, and established schools, seminaries and colleges. They were men of self-denying, abstemious and industrious habits. Far in advance of their times in respect to integrity of conscience, they were nevertheless very defective in their views of toleration ; but they were eminently religious, with high conceptions of the duty of living for God and advancing his kingdom in the world. " In coming to this 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." The fathers of New England were no mean men. John Cotton, John Wilson, Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepherd, Governor Win- throp, Dunstan and Chauncy, associates or correspondents of Milton, Bunyan, Lightfoot, Selden, Baxter, etc., are names which can never be obscured in history. They have left a deep and lasting impress upon New England. * Cotton Mather, Book I, Chap. iii. SO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The Founders of the Southern Colonies. Widely different in character were the early colonists ofthe Southern from those of the Northern States. It has been said, if New England may be regarded as colonized by the Anglo-Saxon race, with its sim ple manners, more equal institutions, and love of liberty, the South was colonized by men very Norman in blood, aristocratic in feeling and spirit, and with superior dignity of demeanor and elegance of manners. 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 innocent amuse ments, and even morose, the other was the religion of the court and of fashionable life, and did not require so uncompromising a resistance to " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." The Virginia Colony was a Christian colony in intent and in fact. The charter required the maintenance of religious worship ; bor oughs were erected into parishes, with glebes and other provisions for the clergy. The assembly and the governor were urged to civ ilize the natives and bring them under the influence of the Gospel, and Indian children were educated. The Proprietaries of North and South Carolina were not wanting in high professions of zeal for the propagation of the Gospel, but it was left for later settlers to practically illustrate the purpose. Varied in origin, the number of those interested in promoting religious ends soon increased. " The good Oglethorpe, one of the finest specimens of a Christian gentle man of the cavalier school," led over a mixed people to settle upon the banks of the Savannah — poor debtors from English prisons, with godly Moravians from Germany, and brave Highlanders from Scotland. The Settlers of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, etc. " The spirit of the age 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 English Dissenters and the Anglican Hierarchy, colonized New England. The Reformation, emancipating the United Provinces, led to European settlements on the Hudson. The Netherlands NEW NETHERLANDS. 31 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 perfect freedom. If England gave our fathers the idea of popular representation, Holland originated for them the principle of federal union." * In the year 1609 the long conflict of Holland with Spain was suspended at the suggestion of Philip III., a confession on the part of Spain that she could no longer hope to successfully contest the supremacy of Holland, and a practical establishment of the inde pendence of the United Netherlands. In the very same year that Holland took her position among the nations as a free, self-govern ing republic, Henry Hudson appeared at Manhattan Island and took possession of the region from the capes of Delaware to Canada, which he styled New Netherlands. The first occupancy was trading stations by the merchants of Amsterdam, who quickly perceived its admirable adaptation as a center for trade and commerce. First, the New Netherlands Company, in 1614, then the West India Com pany, in 1621, held the situation, the latter purchasing the island of the Indians. The West India Company appointed its governors, and public affairs were conducted by Dutch men on Dutch prin ciples. Though trade was the prime object with the first settlers at Man hattan, colonization soon became the ruling motive. Bold and enterprising were the first colonists, and intent upon the acquisition of wealth, but, having been educated in the National Dutch Church, they were much attached to it, and adopted early measures to estab lish religious worship in their new home. Although the Dutch came to Manhattan in troublous times, they were not fugitives from papal persecution, as were the Huguenots, or from Protestant persecution, as were the Puritans. They belonged to the ruling party in the mother country, and brought with them the established Church order and the Calvinistic creed. These " contra-remonstrants " brought the Heidelberg Catechism stamped with the seal of orthodoxy by the Synod of Dort. A wise policy guided the West India Com pany in supplying their trading-posts and colonies with the means of religion and education at a very early date. The earliest settlers in New Jersey were from New York. En glish Puritans from the eastern end of Long Island, at an early period, settled at Elizabethtown ; and others from Connecticut soon followed. Later a considerable number of Scotch and Irish em- * Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. II, p. 256. 32 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. igrants — all Protestants and most of them Presbyterians — settled in the central portions. English Quakers settled in West Jersey. Among them all the Puritan type decidedly predominated. Delaware was claimed by the Dutch, in right of discovery, who made an unsuccessful attempt to settle it ; but subsequently it fell into the hands of Gustavus Adolphus, the eminent Swedish prince and benefactor, and an eager promoter of colonization. Falling on the plains of Lutzen, his minister, Oxenstiern, carried out his plans, and Delaware was settled with Lutheran Swedes. Though the col ony was subsequently subdued by the Dutch from New York the Swedes are supposed to have constituted a large part of the sub stratum of the population. Quakers, New Englanders, Scotch and Irish Presbyterians were subsequently added. The Quakers. The Quaker origin of the population of Pennsylvania is one of the familiar facts of history. A few settlers occupied positions with in its ample area prior to the settlement by William Penn, in 1682. Swedes, Dutch and New Englanders, who had previously established themselves within the limits of Penn's charter, were kindly tolerated, as were also the Moravians, Mennonites, Welsh, Irish, Scotch, Huguenots, etc., who came at a later date. A colony from Wales settled on " a sort of table-land " in the center of the Alleghany Mountains. Scotch Presbyterians. Not much behind the Puritans were the Scotch in their contribu tions to the religious character of the United States. On the acces sion of Charles II. to the throne of England, Presbyterianism was almost immediately abolished, and Episcopacy, in a very extreme form, was established in Scotland. An intense revulsion was awak ened among the Highlanders. Many Scotch Presbyterians went over from Scotland to Ireland, and others emigrated to America. A long and steadily flowing stream of Scotch and Irish Presbyterian em igration to America continued down to the time of the American Revolution. Some came to Londonderry, N. H., to Boston, Pelham and Palmer, in Massachusetts ; to Ulster County, Orange and Albany, New York ; to East New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Carolina, etc. The Huguenots. Closely after the Puritans and the Scotch Presbyterians follow the Huguenots, in the list of those who contributed largely to the HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS. 33 formation of the religious character of the United States. With the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, all public worship among Protestants was suppressed. Dark, lurid, bloody scenes of persecution and torture followed. Multitudes perished at the stake or on the gibbet and the wheel. It has been estimated that not less than half a million Protestants left France. In vain were the frontiers guarded. The fugitives sought refuge in all the Protestant countries of Europe, at the Cape of Good Hope and in America. Many of them, skilled in useful arts, introduced new manufactures in their new homes. In the American colonies they were welcomed every-where. New England cordially received them ; New York was not backward ; but "a warmer clime was more inviting to the exiles of Languedoc, and South Carolina became the chief resort of the Huguenots." But the Huguenot emigration to the English colonies of America had been going on from the time of the Siege of Rochelle, and even as early as 1656, and continued down through the whole colonial history. We find Huguenots in Boston in 1662. In 1686 they settled in Oxford, Mass., and also erected a church in Boston. From these excellent people were derived the Faneuils, the Bowdoins, the Le- gares, Dehons, etc. Smith, the historian of New York, says that in 1706, next to the Dutch, they were the most numerous and the wealthiest class of the population in that colony. New Rochelle, N. Y., was settled by them, and their descendants are numerous in Ulster and Dutchess counties. In 1679, Charles II. , at his own expense, sent two ship-loads to South Carolina. In 1690, William III. sent a large colony to Virginia, and two more colonies came thither within ten years. In 1752, no fewer than 1,600 settled in South Carolina, and more than 200 others in 1764. In Virginia they were exempted, by a special edict, from parochial assessments as early as the year 1700. It is evident that the Huguenots con stituted a very considerable element numerically, and a very potential and beneficent one in character, in our colonial population. Some of the most eminent persons, divines, educators, financiers and states men, that ever adorned the United States were Huguenots. " The very best of the old ministers of Virginia were from this stock ; Mon- cure, Latane, the two Fontaines, the two Maurys, and others." * In later times " the pious McDuvall, of Richmond," and, among the patriots and statesmen, Chief Justice Jay, Elias Boudinot, the Bayards, Legare, the Lawrences, the Grympys, Marion, Rutledge, etc., were of Huguenot origin. * Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. By Bishop Meade, Vol. I, p. 465. 3 34 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The Palatines, Moravians, Lutherans, etc. Large numbers of Protestant Germans, conspicuously those suf fering from the devastations of the French in the Upper Palatinate, a country lying on both sides of the Rhine, came to the United States in the colonial era. Successive waves of pillage, fire, and. blood rolled over that unhappy land, causing a long stream of emi gration. About 2,700 " Palatines," refugees in England, were shipped to New York in 1710; and 5,000 more came soon after and settled on the Hudson and the Mohawk. Mennonites from Ger many founded Germantown, Pa., about 1681-84, and in 1707 a large number settled in Lancaster County, Pa. In 1722 they were supposed to constitute the third part of the population of that re gion. Some of these German emigrants were Presbyterians of the Reformed Church, others were Lutherans, and others still Mora vians. The earlier German emigrations spread into Maryland, Vir ginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Maine. Previous to the time of the American Revolution the German emigration was not only exten sive but very pure, and almost wholly Protestant, with a high standard of morality and distinguished for Christian virtues. A few Protestant Poles settled in New Jersey about 1683, and a few Piedmontese, fleeing from persecution, found an asylum in the colony of New York. How different in respect to religious character and intelligence were these early settlers in the United States from the colonists of Phenicia, Greece and Rome, or, in later times, the papists from France, Spain, and Portugal. They were not the rich, the voluptu ous and the effeminate, nor were they poor and spiritless ; but from the middle class, noted for industry, temperance, and frugality. Taken as a whole, they were not ignorant, but well informed for their times. Many had acquired a good education, almost all could read, and were too much developed in thought to be slaves of despotic power. They were not vicious men of unbridled appetites and lusts, like the colonists of South America and Mexico, but virtuous. Some emigrants in the colonial era there were whose profligacy could no longer be endured at home ; and some broken- down gentlemen, too lazy to work, and some infamous dependents upon aristocratic families, sent away to screen their friends from shame. These were, however, not the earliest colonists who laid the new social foundations in the United States. The former were religious men, in whom religious motives predominated. Their minds had been agitated by the religious questions which had hith- CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT. 3S erto chiefly occupied the attention of the schoolmen, but were now brought prominently before the minds of the people. Not a few fled from persecution for conscience' sake. Secular considerations were not wanting, for they hoped to improve their temporal cir cumstances and found States. If some of the prejudices and errors of former ages adhered to them in respect to rights of conscience, etc., they were, nevertheless, even in these respects in advance of the rest of the world, and opened here the best asylum for liberty the world had ever known. To extend the kingdom of God was the prominent object of their labors. With the exception of the colony of Lord Baltimore, they were Protestants ; men " of stern and lofty virtue, invincible energy, and iron wills — the fitting substratum on which to build great States. Section 3.— Churches Organized. The Protestant Episcopal Church was the first planted within the limits of the original United States. Introduced by the Virginia Colony in 1607, only thirteen year's later within that jurisdiction there were eleven parishes and five clergymen. Being the only religious body legally recognized within the vast territory granted to that colony at a very early period, it acquired an extensive in fluence. It also soon entered Maryland, where, notwithstanding the Roman Catholic religion was the faith of the founders of the colony, yet, by the terms ofthe charter, toleration was allowed to all churches recognized by the crown at home.* In the latter State it soon out stripped the Papal Church, its adherents becoming a majority of the population before the close ofthe century, and the Church itself the established Church, in 1692. In Virginia, however, although it was the favored Church, sustained by the whole strength of the civil power to the exclusion of all others, yet its prosperity was not com mensurate with its external advantages. The Episcopal Church was not introduced into New York until after that colony surrendered to the British forces in 1664. It made no progress toward ecclesiastical distinction until after 1693, when, under the governorship of Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, who was devotedly attached to that communion, a foundation for the estab lishment of the Church was laid and the people were taxed for its support. * Maryland enjoyed religious toleration until 1692, when the Episcopal Church was legally established and the privileges of the Roman Catholics were curtailed. 36 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The first attempt to establish the Episcopal Church in New En gland was at the settlement of Portsmouth, in 1634, when John Mason, one of the first grantees of New Hampshire, sent from across the ocean a communion service, Bible, prayer-book and altar-cloth. William A. Gibbons, the assistant governor, and other persons pre sented a glebe of fifty acres of land. Rev. R. Gibson was rector until 1642, when the Puritan government at Boston compelled him to leave, and along interregnum followed, until 1732, when a church was permanently founded. In Massachusetts no Episcopal Church service was held until the arrival of Andros in Boston in 1686, when he compelled the opening ofthe Old South Church for a Church of England service. " King's Chapel " was erected in 1688. Dr. Bradford, in his biogra phy of Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, says that the governors of Massachu setts, being appointed by the king, were Episcopalians sent over from England. Thus, for nearly a hundred years before the Revo lution, the few Episcopal clergy enjoyed official patronage and favor in their efforts to build up the English Episcopal Church in America. It was considered important to extend and increase this Church here so as to secure obedience to the political measures of the crown. At the time of the Revolution the Episcopal Church had been established in most of the colonies. Some adverse circumstances operated against it. The American churches, forming a part of the diocese of London, were far removed from Episcopal supervision, and could obtain fresh supplies of clergy only from England. A very hostile feeling long before the Revolution existed in the north ern colonies toward Great Britain, biasing the people against clergy men coming from England. For these reasons, notwithstanding this Church had able ministers, yet her energies were only partially developed, and in the whole country north of Maryland at the com mencement of the Revolution the parochial clergymen did not ex ceed eighty, all of whom, with the exception of those in Boston, Newport, New York City and Philadelphia, received their principal support from the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and thirty of whom were in New England. In Virginia there were 164 churches and chapels and 91 clergymen supported by a legal establishment. American Congregationalism dates from the landing of the Pil grims in 1620. In its doctrines being very similar to the Presby terians of the Middle States, it did not extend much beyond New England until after the beginning of the present century. As early as 1700 its churches in New England numbered one hundred and CONGREGATIONALISTS AND BAPTISTS. 37 twenty, of which seventy-seven were in Massachusetts, thirty-five in Connecticut, six in New Hampshire, and two in Maine. At that time only five churches of all other denominations existed in Mas sachusetts ; namely, two Baptist, one Episcopal, one Quaker, and one French Protestant ; but at the time of the Revolution there were three hundred Congregational churches in Massachusetts to seventy-eight of all others. In the other New England States this denomination held nearly the same relative rank, though in Con necticut it was probably even stronger. Two memorable synods were held during the colonial era — at Cambridge in 1648, and at Saybrook, Conn., in 1708. It should not be overlooked that New Jersey had a considerable number of Congregational churches between 1640 and 1740, and a few even later. Being settled largely by emigrants from New England they naturally brought their ecclesiastical polity with them. In Morris County there was a cluster of those churches whose form of government was pure Congregationalism and which were served by Congregational ministers. The first church in Newark was or ganized on a Congregational platform at Branford, Conn., and emi grated to Newark in 1666. A competent authority affirms that the first churches (now Presbyterian) at Orange, Bloomfield, Caldwell, Shrewsbury, Piscataway, Connecticut Farms, Woodbridge, and a number of others were originally as thoroughly Congregational as the churches of Massachusetts or Connecticut. The same is true of the oldest churches of South Jersey, in Sussex and Warren counties, settled by sons of New England. But Presbyterianism and Congre gationalism in that day were so intertwined that the denominational names were often interchanged, until it was not easy to draw the line of separation. During the first half of the present century only a half dozen Congregational Churches were left in the State. The Regular Baptists had a purely American origin in Rhode Island in 1639. Baptist churches and ideas had previously existed, but the organization of the Church in America was entirely the re sult of local circumstances, and not from a foreign impulse. In 1663, twenty-four years after the beginning in Rhode Island, amid much opposition the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts was constituted in the town of Seekonk, or Swansea, and two years later another in Boston. The first Baptist Church in New York City was organized in 1669, but it existed only a short time. In 1702 the Baptist in terest was revived there in a permanent form. The first Church in Maine, formed at Kittery in 1682, was broken up. In 1768 perma nent churches were organized in Berwick and Gorham. The first 38 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. in South Carolina was organized in 1683, but in 1751 there were only four small Baptist churches in that State. The first in Penn sylvania dates back to 1684; in New Jersey, 1688; in Delaware, 1 701 ; in Connecticut, at Groton, 1705 ; in Virginia, 17 14; in North Carolina, 1742; in New Hampshire, 1755; in Georgia, 1755; in Vermont,. 1768; in Kentucky, 1781 ; in Tennessee, 1780; in Illinois, 1796. It should be added that many important accessions of Bap tists were received from England, Wales, the Isle of Wight, etc. For nearly a century the Baptists were a persecuted people in many ofthe colonies, and in 1762 they numbered only about 100 churches in this country. In 1775 they had increased to 227 and were situated as follows : in Maine, 3 ; New Hampshire, 7 ; Massa chusetts, 40; Connecticut, 15; Rhode Island, 28; New York, 7; New Jersey, 20; Pennsylvania, 15; Delaware, 1; Maryland, 4; Virginia, 55 ; North Carolina, 28; South Carolina, 11; Georgia, 3.* The Six Principle Baptists are accustomed to date their origin back to 1639, in Rhode Island. The Seventh-Day Baptist Church in the United States was first formed in Rhode Island. In 1665 Mr. Stephen Mumford, a mem ber of this denomination, came from England to Newport, R. I., and soon after Mr. Samuel Hubbard, a member of the regular Baptist Church, embraced these views. In 1671 there was an open separa tion, and a Seventh-Day Baptist Church was organized in that city. The " United Brethren in Christ " originated in this country in 1755. This body grew out of a great spiritual quickening in the mind of Rev. William Otterbein, a distinguished minister of the German Reformed Church. This occurred after he landed in Amer ica. Two other German ministers soon entered into hearty sympa thy with him. At one time they were called German Methodists, and were in close fellowship with Rev. Messrs. Asbury and Wright, early Methodist itinerants. The Reformed (Protestant Dutch) Church was planted on Man hattan Island in 1628, though some religious services had been pre viously held. Rev. Jonas Michaelius was the first pastor. Rev. Everardus Bogardus, a prominent early divine, came in 1633. This denomination held exclusive sway until the English took possession of the colony in 1664. During the next thirty years the English population increased. After the Episcopal Church was established, in 1693, all non-episcopal inhabitants in the counties of New York, * See articles cm the " Baptist Interest in the United States," by Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D., in the A?nerican Quarterly Register, 1840, 1841, 1842, and 1844, p. 185. DUTCH CHURCH, FRIENDS, PRESBYTERIANS. 39 Richmond, Queens and Westchester were compelled bylaw to sup port the Episcopal Church. The growth of the Dutch Church was therefore much retarded ; but immigration favored the Church, and from 1664 to 1737 about fifty churches were added to the denom ination. This Church being dependent on the Church of Holland for ministers, and in all ecclesiastical matters subject to the Classis of Amsterdam, existed at a great disadvantage, agitated by many internal troubles, until, through the influence of Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston, an independent organization was effected in 1 77 1 . In 1775 it numbered in New York and New Jersey 25 churches and 60 ministers. The Friends first appeared in New England about the middle of the seventeenth century, where they suffered severe persecution in all the colonies except Rhode Island. As early as 1672 George Fox found an established settlement of Friends, in Perquimans Coun ty, North Carolina. In 1674 another colony was founded in New Jersey, and in 1682 the famous William Penn Colony settled in Penn sylvania. They rapidly increased, and at the time of the Revolution exerted a large influence in some of the Middle States. Yearly meetings, which are in a limited sense diocesan, having each a de fined territorial jurisdiction and independent of each other in govern ing and legislative powers, were established in New England in 1661, in Philadelphia in 1683, in New York in 1695, in North Carolina in 1708. The Presbyterians were of Scotch and Irish origin, the first com ing to this country to escape persecution. The Huguenot exiles from France were of the same religious faith. The earliest Presby terians settled in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Eastern Maryland and Central Virginia. In 1688 they existed in considerable numbers in Pennsylvania. The first Presbyterian churches * in America of which we have record were founded on the eastern shore of Mary land, at Snow Hill, Rehoboth, Monokin, etc., about 1684 ; at Free hold, N. J., in 1692 ; at Philadelphia, in 1698 ; in New York City in 1716, after ten years of occasional services. Rev. Francis Makensie was the first pioneer of this denomination in the New World. The first Presbytery was constituted in 1706, consisting of seven minis ters, and was called the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Ten years later it became a Synod. The first Presbyterian church in New York was erected in 17 19. Others followed in the New York Colony and in * History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D., Vol. I, pp. 3, 4- 40 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. New Jersey, and the Synod was called the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. From 1713-1719 large emigrations from the North of Ireland and Scotland came to New England and the Middle States. Irish Presbyterians settled in Boston, Worcester, Pelham and New- buryport, in Massachusetts ; at Casco Bay, Macosquin, Boothbay, etc., in Maine ; and in Pembroke, Peterborough and Londonderry, N. H. The first Presbytery in New England was constituted at Londonderry, N. H., April 16, 1745. A new phase of Presbyterianism developed. The old Scotch and Irish Presbyterians mingled largely with Presbyterians from England, Wales and New England. The latter had more liberal views in regard to some practical matters than the old stanch men of Scotland and Ireland. The opinions began to differ until, in 1741, there was a complete division into the two synods of New York and Philadelphia. The old side, representing the Scotch and Irish Pres byterians, made a great deal of what they called " literature ; " the new side, representing the revival element, made a great deal of per sonal piety. Out of this division, under the new side, came the College of New Jersey, first at Elizabeth, then at Newark, and finally at Princeton. In 1758 these two bodies came together again. In 1773 the Presbyterian Church in the United States numbered 2 Synods, 10 Presbyteries and 104 ministers. The Reformed Presbyterian Church is composed of descendants of the persecuted Presbyterians in Scotland, who refused to accede to the Erastian " Settlement of Religion " at the Revolution of 1688, and who in that country still maintain dissent from the union of Church and State. As early as 1752 some Reformed Presbyterian congregations had been formed in North America, but owing to various difficulties they did not unite in a regular organization until the year 1798, when "The Reformed Presbytery of the United States of North America " was constituted in Philadelphia. The Associate Reformed Church in this country originated in a union formed June 13, 1782, between the Reformed Presbyterian and a portion of the Associate Church. The Associate body in Scotland commenced its existence in 1747, on the basis of opposition to the Burgess oath, by means of which the seceders were divided into the Burgher and Anti-Burgher Synods, the latter assuming the name of " Associate." Companies sympathizing with both of these parties emigrated and settled in Pennsylvania, and petitioned the mother churches for pastors, which resulted in the organiza tion of the Associate Presbyterian Church in the United States in 1754 and the Reformed (Covenanter) in 1765. THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 41 In 1734 a colony of Schwenkfelders emigrated from Silesia to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania, where their descend ants have chiefly resided in the counties of Montgomery, Bucks, Berks and Lehigh. The first German Reformed pioneer in the United States was Peter Minuit, a deacon of the Reformed Church in the city of Wesel, who led a colony of Germans to the banks of the Delaware. Of Minuit and his colony no permanent record exists. Revs. John Philip Boem and George Michael Weiss were the earliest German Reformed ministers in this country, and laid the foundations of that Church in Pennsylvania. Mr. Boem commenced preaching at Falk- ner Swamp, Skippack and Whitemarsh, as early as 1720, and within ten years of that date nearly a dozen churches were founded, though 1727 has been generally, but, as now thought, erroneously, re garded as the earliest date. These people, re-enforced by emigrants, spread into New Jersey, New York, Virginia, North and South Car olina. In 1746 Rev. Michael Schlatter arrived from Germany, author ized to collect and organize the scattered and confused congregations. The preliminary steps for the formation of a Coetus, or Synod, were taken in 1746, and the first annual meeting was held in Philadelphia, September 29, 1747. Thirty-one persons were present, 5 ministers and 26 elders. The meetings were regularly held each year, except during the Revolutionary War, and the proceedings were reported to the Synods of Holland, no action being final without their approval. In the colony of New York there were many early German Reformed churches. The church on Nassau Street, New York City, numbered among its pastors such men as John Michael Kern, Dr. J. Daniel Gross and Dr. Philip Milledoler, who were famous in their day. There were churches at Claverack, Montgomery, Schoharie, and in the Mohawk Valley, some of which passed over to the Dutch Reformed Church. The Lutheran Church, though early represented in America, was slow in gaining an organized existence. Lutherans appeared on Manhattan Island as early as 1621, but they came without a shep herd. The Swedish Lutheran settlers, who came to the banks of the Delaware in 1638, brought with them a minister, but no Church organization long existed. Other Lutherans came to New York in 1644, but were dependent on lay instruction. In 1653 they had so increased as to seek the services of a preacher, but vainly presented their petition to the Dutch Directory. In 1664 the English author ities granted the Lutherans religious liberty, and in 1669. Rev. Jacob 42 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Fabricius, their first pastor, reached this country. Two years later the first house of worship was erected. The Lutherans received large accessions in 1710 to 1717, when 4,000 Germans, victims of oppression, took refuge in New York, Pennsylvania and South Car olina. In 1734 a colony of German Lutherans, accompanied with pastors, settled in Georgia. As early as 1739 Waldoborough, Maine, was settled by Lutherans. The towns of Frankfort and Kennebec, in Maine, and Leyden, in Massachusetts, were also settled by Ger man Lutherans. With the year 1742 opens a new epoch in the his tory of the Lutheran Church in America, when it assumed an organic form under the leadership of that eminent man Rev. H. M. Muhlen berg, D.D. In 1748 a Synod was formed, and in 1765 a private the ological seminary was started. The German Seventh-Day Baptist Church was introduced into this country by a company of German emigrants, who settled in Germantown, Pa., in 1723. The " Dunkers," " German Baptists" or " Brethren" as they have been variously called, came in considerable numbers from 1719 to 1730, and settled in Pennsylvania. The Mennonites first came from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1683. Others followed in 1698, settling near Germantown, where they erected their first school and meeting-house in 1708. Others followed in 171 1, 1717 and 1727. In 1735 they numbered five hun dred families in the county of Lancaster alone. The first colony of Moravians came in 1734. Count Zinzendorf visited the United States in 1741, and churches had been consti tuted in Bethlehem, Emmaus, Philadelphia and Lancaster, in Penn sylvania, and in New York City, before 1750. Methodism commenced its career in this country twenty-seven years after its origin in England. Followers of Rev. John Wesley had settled in different localities, not as colonies, or by any concerted action, but as individuals and families. Their first religious services, held in New York City in 1766, were the result of spontaneous relig ious convictions ; but the first societies were organized under the ecclesiastical supervision of Mr. Wesley, who sent some of his preachers as missionaries to America. The first church edifice was erected in 1768. Francis Asbury came to America in 1771. The first Conference was held in Philadelphia, in 1773, consisting of ten preachers, whose fields of labor, as indicated in the Minutes of that year, were in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia; 1,160 communicants were reported. In 1776 their number had increased to 24 preachers FIRST SYNAGOGUE ERECTED. 43 and 4,921 communicants, and they had extended their labors as far south as North Carolina. Paul and Barbara Heck, Philip Embury, Capt. Webb, a local preacher, who preached the first sermon, and Robert Strawbridge, * were the earliest Methodist names in America, if we except the transient visits of John and Charles Wesley thirty years before, and of George Whitefield, who, at the time of his first tour through the colonies, had not broken away from Rev. John Wesley. The Jews first came to America for the same reason that the Puritans, Huguenots and others did — to escape persecution. Man hattan Island was their first refuge, whither Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent fled to escape the Inquisition. The name of Assur Levy, a Jew, appears on the New York City Records for 1660. Peter Stuyvesant opposed giving them protection, and it was not till the end of the century that they obtained freedom of worship. In 1728 their first synagogue was erected, and the following year their first cemetery was dedicated. Noe Willey, of London, gave the land to his three sons, who were New York merchants, as a lasting heritage for the Hebrews. Subsequently the terms of the gift were violated by the Tradesman's Bank, and later still by the New Bowery. A Jewish synagogue was built at Newport, R. I., in 1658 ; at Savan nah, Ga., in 1733 ; in Charleston, S. C, in 1750; in Richmond, Va., in 1719. * Strawbridge is now claimed by some as being the first to actively and formally promote Meth odism in America. See History of Methodism, by Bishop H. N. McTyeire, D.D., p. 253. 44 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER III. LATER ROMAN CATHOLIC BEGINNINGS. Sec. i. The French in the North. I Sec. 3. The French in the Mississippi Valley. " 2. The English in Maryland. I " 4. Resume of Papal Movements. Section 1— The French in the Horth. AS in the South, so also in the North, papal missions closely follow in the wake of discovery; in the former section the Spaniards leading the way ; in the latter, the French. In a short period, the Spaniards subjected the continent south of 3.1 degrees north latitude to their dominion. France promptly en tered the lists, competing for the possession of the New Hemisphere. But within seven years of the discovery of the continent the bold mariners of Normandy became familiar with the fisheries of New foundland, and as early as 1506, a map of the Gulf of St. Law rence, drawn by a citizen of Honfleur, was exhibited in Paris. Two years later North American Indians were presented at the French Court. During the next 130 years French-American exploration clus tered around three distinguished names — Verrazano, Cartier, and Champlain — the second following ten years after the first, and the last seventy years after the first voyage of the second. Verrazano sailed for America in 1524. Touching the coast of North Carolina, he proceeded northward, entered New York harbor, tarried fifteen days off Rhode Island, inspected the broken line of New England, reached Newfoundland, and returned to France with a detailed ac count of his discoveries. Cartier next bore the flag of France into the Western Hemi sphere. Reaching Newfoundland, he entered the great gulf and river beyond, to both of which he gave the name St. Lawrence, sailed up the river as far as Montreal and returned to France. Two other expeditions under Cartier, with colonists, reached the territory of the St. Lawrence, but made no permanent settlement. During the next fifty years, rent by civil strife at home, France CHAMPLAIN. 45 made no attempt to gain new possessions in America. Under the mild and tolerant reign of Henry IV. the star of France once more emerged from the clouds that had enshrouded its glory. After several futile attempts, the period of permanent success dawned, and French dominion in America was extended from the Frozen Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Champlain. Champlain, a naval officer of high repute for science, keen intel lect, cautious inquiry, and versatility, had also become noted for enterprise and courage. Delighting in bold adventure, he had already, in the service of Spain, visited Porto Rico, St. Domingo, Cuba, and the City of Mexico ; and his fertile, penetrating mind had suggested the project of uniting the two great oceans, by a canal at Darien. Him the merchants of Rouen selected to secure a monopoly of the fur trade in the vast regions which Cartier had explored. But Champlain could not be restricted to so narrow a sphere. Faithfully executing the designs of his patrons, he aspired not merely to the profits of trade, but also to the higher glory of founding a State. Sailing from France in 1604, after leaving colo nists in Nova Scotia, he visited various points along the New England coast and the River St. Lawrence. In 1608, he founded Quebec. For about a quarter of a century, he presided over the province, extending his exploration up the Saguenay and the Ottaway, into northern New York, and as far as Lake Nippissing and the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, and entered into friendly negotiations with all the Indian tribes except the implacable Iro quois. His wise policy and energetic administration firmly estab lished French dominion in all those vast regions. The standard of the papacy was every-where united with that of France ; Verrazano, Cartier, and Champlain all being devoted sons of Rome. When Champlain embarked with colonists the benediction of the Roman pontiff followed the families which exiled themselves to evangelize the Indians. Roman Catholic missionaries accompanied the expedition, Mary de Medici contribut ing money for their support ; and the Indian tribes, soon " touched with the humanity of the French, listened attentively to the mes sage of redemption." A little earlier than this, De Monts, the Huguenot founder of Nova Scotia, to obtain the free exercise of his own religion consented to allow the Indians of that province to be instructed in the Catholic faith. This was the first foothold of the papacy in the north. Two Jesuit missionaries labored among 46 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the Micmacs in Nova Scotia, but soon removed to the coast of Maine, where, seven years before the Pilgrim fathers anchored with in Cape Cod, they planted a French Catholic mission on Mt. Desert. The latter was soon destroyed by fishermen from the Virginia Colony on their way to Newfoundland. Quebec Founded. Quebec furnished a more secure as well as a more strategic cen ter for French and papal aggression, and religious zeal, not less than commercial ambition, inspired its settlement. The commercial monopoly of a privileged class alone could not foster a colony ; the climate " where summer hurries through the sky " did not invite to agriculture; no persecution of the Catholics in France swelled the stream of emigration, and at first " there was little except religious enthusiasm to give vitality to the province." First, three Recollets, a reformed branch of the Franciscans, re sponded in 1615, one establishing a mission at Quebec, another at Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, among the Montagnais, and the other among the Hurons and other tribes of the great north-western lakes. In 1625, three Jesuit priests arrived to aid them. On the capture of Quebec by the English, in 1629, all the missionaries were carried to England. The province was restored to France in 1632, when the missions fell exclusively into the hands of the Jesuits, who soon returned to wrestle with paganism in the northern and western wilds. They traversed not only the Canadian solitudes, but also entered within the present domain of the United States, in Maine, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Missis sippi Valley. But Quebec was the center whence they issued forth on their widely-extended missions. We shall soon see them dis covering the Mississippi River, founding missions at Mackinaw, on the Green Bay, in Illinois, in Arkansas, and Louisiana, all except the last three subject to the Superior at Quebec* " Thus," says Bancroft, " it was neither commercial enterprise nor royal ambition which carried the power of France into the heart of our continent ; the motive was religion. Religious enthu siasm colonized New England, and religious enthusiasm founded Montreal, made a conquest of the wilderness on the upper lakes, and explored the Mississippi. . . . Within three years after the second *Quebec was the burning focus of the papal faith — the strategic center of Roman Catholic prop- agandism, above the tropics, as Mexico, for more than ico years, had already been, within the tropics. THE JESUITS. 47 occupation of Canada, the number of Jesuit priests in the province reached fifteen." They rapidly increased, and " the history of their labors is connected with the name of every celebrated town in the annals of French North America; not a cape was turned nor a river entered but a Jesuit led the way." The Jesuits. At an early morning hour, near the end of May, 1633, the boom ing of cannon from the fort on the hill at Quebec heralded the ar rival of the old Governor, Samuel de Champlain, who had returned to resume the command of the province. He was accompanied by four Jesuit fathers. Conspicuous among them was Jean de Brebeuf, " a tall, stern man, with features which seemed carved by nature for a soldier, but which the mental habits of years had stamped with the visible impress of the priesthood." A descendant from a noble family of Normandy, he had become more eminent for self- mortification, austerities, and devotedness. He had been abundant in labors, in vows, in visions, and ecstasies ; and, as the highest of all human attainments, he eagerly coveted the crown of martyrdom. Edward Masse, Anthony Daniel, and DaVost were his companions. " These men," says Parkman, " aimed at the conversion of a continent. From their hovel on the St. Charles they surveyed a field of labor whose vastness might tire the wings of thought itself — a scene resplendent and appalling, darkened with omens of peril and woe. They were an advance guard of the great army of Loy ola, strong in the discipline that controlled not alone the body and the will, but the intellect, the heart, the soul, and the innermost consciousness." On Christmas day, 1635, the spirit of Champlain, the founder of New France, passed away. Who will be his successor ? Will he be zealous for the faith ? These anxious inquiries of the Jesuits were soon satisfactorily answered. The following June, Charles de Mortmagny, a knight of Malta, arrived. Climbing to the heights of Quebec, he prostrated himself before the uplifted crucifix and zealously espoused the cause of the missions. Slowly the popula tion of Quebec increased. A school for Indian children, a convent, and a hospital were founded. The fort was rebuilt with stone ; be hind the fort a church was erected and streets were laid out. In 1640, the inhabitants did not exceed two hundred, chiefly agents of the fur company and men in their employ, few of whom had fam ilies. The remainder were priests and nuns. There were few 48 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. motives to emigration. Hunting was freely allowed, but trade and fishing were restricted, and the rude soil yielded meager crops. The climate was rigorous, and the civil affairs arbitrary. All were kept in passive subjection to the priest and the soldier, and liable, for the neglect of any religious service, to be tied like a dog, with collar and chain, to a post. Quebec life was mediaeval. Monastic and military appendages were every-where visible. Processions, penances, masses, and confessions were punctiliously observed. All were under the watchful eye of the Jesuit, not even the Gov ernor excepted. A system of espionage was established — a female association, called Sainte Familie, met every Thursday in the church, with closed doors, and related, as they had previously pledged them selves to do, all they had learned, good and evil, concerning other people during the week. It was not strange that some people became restive, and that deputies were sent to France begging relief " from the hell in which the consciences of the colony were kept." But little relief, however, came. " To the Jesuits," says Parkman, " the atmosphere of Quebec was well-nigh celestial. ' In the climate of New France,' they wrote, ' one learns perfectly to seek only God, to have no desire but God, no purpose but for God.' And again, ' To live in New France is to live in the bosom of God.' " In the still depths of convent cells, and in the self-sacrificing scenes of distant missions, there were doubtless deep fervors, enkindling quenchless longings in devout hearts unperverted by the prestige of royalty, the wiles of intrigue or the patronage of power. It would be difficult to do justice to some great examples of self-for- getfulness and devotion in this truly heroic period of Jesuit mis sions. But others possessed a different spirit. Blinded by love of power, they aspired for extended dominion. Regarding the Church as supreme over the State, the political Jesuit schemed to make them play into each other's hands. I would not asperse this distinguished order nor its Canadian missionaries, however credulous, supersitious, or shorn of some of the best attributes of real manhood under the self-mortifying proc esses of their peculiar discipline. The patient, toiling, suffering, dying sons of Loyola, scattered through those rigorous, barbarous, and far-reaching wilds, were not open to the suspicion of personal ambition. And yet, in this early period of the comparative purity of the order, their religious propagandism seems to have been di rected by worldly policy, which had reference largely to the ends of commerce and national expansion. They sought to establish MONTREAL FOUNDED. 49 French dominion in the hearts of savages by subduing their stub born necks to " the yoke of the Faith." The power ofthe temporal ruler was to follow the power of the priest. Thus it was hoped, with the divided and scattered Indian bands, to build up " a vast united wilderness empire which in time might span the Continent." Montreal Founded. The founding of Montreal, in 1642, and its early history were not less religious. For several years it was almost wholly a religious community. Its founders bound themselves to seek no earthly re ward, but hastened to this perilous outpost, then exposed to the inroads of the ferocious Iroquois. It was an excellent position for a mission ; for here met two great rivers. The St. Lawrence flow ing from the west, the outlet of the great inland lakes, with their countless tributaries covering the heart of the continent, and the Ottawa, draining a vast northerly region, jointly embraced, in their uniting waters, the island of Montreal, " the key of a bound less heathenism." Montreal and Quebec continued under the governor, with his seat at Quebec, down to the conquest of the province by the English in 1763. From this burning focus of intense religious propagandism the emissaries of Rome irradiated the northern borders of the United States, and bore the torch of discovery and missions through the great western regions. Champlain could conceive of no more feasible plan of building up the French kingdom in Canada than an alliance with the Hurons, the most mighty and stationary of all the Indian tribes, and of no method of confirming that alliance but by the establishment of missions. The charter of the province favored the measure, " for it recognized the neophyte among the savages as an enfranchised citi zen of France." The Hurons, in respect to location, held the key of the great west. They must therefore be the first to be won to the faith. With their aid he hoped to be able to subdue the Iroquois, whom he had failed to attach to him, and thus ultimately gain possession of New York. The Huron Mission. About eighty miles north of the present city of Toronto, on an irregular indented peninsula extending from Lake Simcoe into the southern portion of the Georgian Bay, lived the great Huron tribes. Dwelling compactly in eighteen populous villages, they numbered 4 SO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. thirty thousand souls. The region was " an alternative of meadows and forests interlaced with footpaths leading from village to village." The fields afforded evidence of careful industry, rewarded with abundant crops of corn, beans, squashes, etc., in autumn frugally stored for winter's use. In respect to language, superstitions, and many other things, they were like most Indian tribes ; but in size of brain they far exceeded other Indians, equaling the famous Iroquois of New York, of whom they were a cognate tribe. Their large, com pact villages, their domestic, agricultural, and trading habits, their brave warriors, and favorable situation, made them a powerful people, with great political influence over all other Canadian Indians. The sagacious mind of Champlain was not slow to perceive the advantages which would accrue to France and the papacy from the conversion of the Hurons to the Catholic faith. He therefore re solved upon special efforts to evangelize this remarkable people, three hundred leagues away. In 1615, Le Caron, an unambitious Franciscan, through many privations and wild experiences, on foot or paddling a birch canoe, reached this far-off region. Other Franciscan priests followed, and, in 1625, three Jesuit priests, who remained until the capture of Can ada by the English, in 1629. We have already seen one of these, the indomitable Father Brebeuf, after four years' absence, once more at Quebec, with co-laborers, preparing to renew the Huron mission. In the summer of 1634 a party of Hurons visited Quebec, and the Jesuit fathers, obedient to their vows, amid salvos of cannon from the fort set forth with them for their distant homes. They journeyed by way of the Ottawa and its interlocking streams for more than nine hundred miles, through a region horrible with forests, wild beasts, and wild men. All the day long, and day after day, the missionaries paddled the canoe, or waded in the shallow streams drawing it along against the swift current, with no food but a scanty measure of crushed corn mixed with water, and no couch at night but the bare earth and rocks. Five and thirty water-falls and fifty rapids and shallows were counted, where they lifted their canoes from the water and carried them upon their shoulders for leagues through thick and tangled woods. Thus these " consecrated envoys" pursued their way by rivers, lakes, and forests, making solemn vows to St. Joseph, and snatching intervals from their imperfect sleep to read their breviaries by moonlight or the camp fire. At the end of thirty days they descended the French River, passed along the lonely shores of the Georgian Bay, and reached the heart of the Huron wilderness, stretched in its unbroken savage slumbers. The mission- THE HURONS. SI aries were worn and exhausted. Even the iron frame and resolute spirit of Brebeuf, the Ajax of the mission, were severely taxed. Recovering from their fatigue, they commenced their mission ; first the language, then translations, then instruction, baptisms, etc. " All that the church offered to the princes and nobles of the Euro pean world," says Bancroft, " was showed to the humblest of the savage neophytes. The hunter as he returned from his wild rovings was taught to hope for eternal rest ; the braves, as they returned from war, were warned of the wrath which kindles against sinners a never dying fire, fiercer far than the fires of the Mohawks ; and the idlers of the Indian villages were told the exciting tale of the Saviour's death for their redemption." The mission was re-enforced in due time, and new missions were founded among neighboring tribes. In 1649 the mission force numbered more than fifty priests and assistants, laboring in eleven stations. The news from this Huron mission awakened in France the strongest sympathy. The king, the queen, the princesses, and the clergy sent presents and substantial aid. Even Italy listened with interest to the novel story, and the pope himself expressed his favor. But reverses severe and overwhelming, just at the time when the labors of the missionaries were achieving their best suc cess, came upon both priest and people. The Hurons were a doomed nation. Between them and the Iroquois, as the Six Nations in New York were called, an old feud existed. In the years 1648 and 1649 a succession of vengeances almost annihilated them. While the braves were absent at a great distance, on a hunting expedition, the Iroquois suddenly burst upon the Huron country, and their villages were destroyed with a destruc tion almost as sudden as lightning from a cloud. A series of ter rible scenes too fearful to relate transpired under the several inva sions of their implacable foes. The missionaries had no thought of flight, but stood like steel in the teeth of danger. Hurrying from cabin to cabin, they prepared the sick and infirm for death, soothed the wounded, cheered the courage of the defenders, until they themselves became victims of the assailants. Their enemies seized them, fiercely tore off their finger-nails, compelled them to run the dreadful Indian gauntlet, and then bound them to stakes. Brebeuf's hands were cut off, but he gloried in his sufferings and exhorted his captive converts. Hatchets heated in the fire were forced under his armpits and between his thighs, and a collar of heated hatchets was placed round his neck. He exhorted his converts until a stone crushed his mouth. They cut off his nose and underlip and thrust 52 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. a burning torch into his mouth. In derision, the priests were bap tized with boiling water. Brebeufs iron frame endured unaccount ably. Seeing him nearly dead, they opened his breast, and crowdea around to drink the heart-blood of so valiant a man, thinking thus to imbibe his courage. The death-knell of the Hurons had sounded. Left in scattered remnants, without a leader or an organization, crazed and paralyzed, their towns were deserted, and they wandered as fugitives. Some settled in small groups on the islands of Lake Huron. Pressed from point to point by the insatiable Iroquois, they passed into the far west. With the fall ofthe Hurons closed the brightest period of Jesuit propagandism in North America. Henceforth the Jesuits were more prominently identified with schemes of discovery and conquest. Maine and New York Invaded. On the 29th of August, 1646, twelve years after the commence ment of the great Huron mission, and three years before its destruc tion, twenty-three years after the erection of Fort Orange, at Albany, and sixteen years after the founding of Boston, two missions were simultaneously projected by the Canadian Jesuits within the north ern limits of the United States — one among the Abenakis, in Maine, and the other among the Mohawks, in New York. The mis sionaries were Fathers Gabriel Druellettes and Isaac Jogues. The Abenakis belonged to the great Algonquin race and resided iii five communities; two in Canada, and the others upon the Saco, the Androscoggin and the Kennebec rivers. They have been char acterized as very brave, tenacious, remarkably faithful to covenants, and possessing stronger family attachments than other Indians. The French very early and permanently attached this people to themselves, fostered their hostility to the English, and made them thorns in the sides of the New England colonists. It was this peo ple, i,i alliance with the French and often under French leaders, that ravaged the northern settlements of New England in the colonial period. Upon the banks of the St. Lawrence, near Quebec, a Jesuit mission station was founded, in 1637, by Noel Brulart de Sillery, a KnignL 01" Malta, who, after a brilliant career at the Court of Louis Xii., Dccanie a model of sanctity and devoted himself to good woik',. rrom its founder it received its name, Sillery. Here were gathered a few scattered Algonquins and Montagnis, who, from their JESUITS IN NEW ENGLAND. 83 love for the faith, gave up a life of wandering, and under the direc tion of spiritual guides cultivated the soil. Among the noblest of the neophytes in this papal elysium was Charles Meiaskwat, who became noted for extraordinary purity and sanctity. Hearing of some Abenakis held as prisoners, and cruelly tortured by a party of pagan Algonquins, he hastened to their rescue, and returned with them in triumph to Sillery, where they were kindly received, care fully nursed by the nuns of the hospital and instructed in the faith. When sufficiently recovered, one of them, accompanied by Meiask wat, departed for his native village on the Kennebec. They visited extensively among their people, every-where extolling the Christian doctrine and awakening great desire to know it more fully. One of the chiefs accompanied Charles to Quebec, where he was instructed and baptized. Subsequently two other chiefs came to Quebec and asked for priests to instruct their people. " Apart from the saving of souls," says Parkman, " there were solid reasons for acceding to their request. The Abenakis were near the colonies of New England ; indeed, the Plymouth Colony, under its charter, claimed jurisdiction over them ; and, in case of rupture, they would prove serviceable friends or dangerous enemies to New France." Charlevoix (I, 280) also gives this as one motive for the mission. When the temporary peace was concluded with the Iroquois, in 1646, Father Druellettes was sent to the Kennebec and Father Jogues to the Mohawks. Accompanied by Noel Nagobamat and a party of Indians, Druellettes pursued the route by which, one hundred and twenty-nine years later, Arnold led his soldiers to Quebec, reached the waters of the Kennebec and descended to the Abenakis villages. He devoted himself at once to the study of their dialect, visited the sick, baptized the dying, and imparted such instruction as he could, with his limited knowledge of their language. Descending the river from Norridgewock, he reconnoitered the country from the English trading-post at Augusta to the ocean, thence along the coast to the Penobscot, visiting all the English posts on the way. Being kindly received, he returned to his starting-point, above Augusta, where a chapel was erected and a central station established. He went to Quebec in May, according to previous agreement, much to the grief of the Indians. In the summer of 1650 Druel lettes returned, and was joyfully received. Amid a volley of fire-arms the chief embraced the missionary, saying, " I see well that the Great Spirit who rules in the heavens deigns to look favor ably on us, since he sends us back our patriarch." Universal joy 84 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. prevailed, a banquet was spread in every cabin, and he was forced to visit all. A Jesuit Priest in Boston. After a brief period of labor in the mission, Druellettes set out for Boston on an embassy from the Governor of Canada to the New England cofonies. " His journey," says Parkman, " is worthy of notice, since, with the unimportant exception of Jogues's em bassy to the Mohawks, it is the first occasion on which the Canadian Jesuits appear in a character distinctly political. Afterward, when the fervor and freshness of the missions had passed away, they fre quently did the work of political agents among the Indians, but the Jesuit of the earlier period was, with rare exceptions, a mis sionary only; and, though he was expected to exert a powerful influence in gaining subjects and allies for France, he was to do so by gathering them under the wings of the Church." The Iroquois had brought Canada to an extremity, and the gov ernor desired military aid against them, proffering as a compensa tion a reciprocity of trade, known to be much desired by the New England colonies. The time for Druellettes' visit seemed inauspi cious ; for, only three years before, the Massachusetts Legislature had enacted that a Jesuit entering the colony should be expelled, and, if he returned, hanged. Nevertheless, November found him coasting along Cape Ann to Boston. " Amid the homes of the Puritans," says Shea, " the son of Loyola was well received, and at Roxbury, Eliot, devoted like himself to the conversion of the Indians, invited him to pass the winter under his hospitable roof; but rest was not a part of a Jesuit's life. His Abenakis called him, and by February he was back among them and engaged in his mis sionary toils." Tarrying a few months, he instructed his catechu mens until they were ready for baptism, and in June returned to Quebec. A second visit was made to Boston, but without success. The ambassador, however, on each journey, tarried awhile, minister ing to the Abenakis as before. Thus was the Roman Catholic faith planted among the Indians in Maine. A few more brief visits by this ambassador-priest, and for thirty years they were left without the ministrations of the Church, except a portion of the neophytes who were drawn to the mission at Sillery, and subsequently, on its removal, to the Falls of St. Chaudiere, where they continued to receive instruction. The scattering of the fathers among the dispersed Hurons on the lakes of the far West, the death of some, and the recall of others to JESUIT INTRIGUES. SS France, had greatly reduced the supply of pastors. Druellettes himself, in company with Dablon, was sent upon an important expe dition to Hudson's Bay, and subsequently with the celebrated Mar quette, one of his pupils, to the West, where he labored at Sault St. Mary's. After forty years of toil and privation among the Indians of North America, he died at Quebec, in 1681, aged 88 years. In 1687, the missions among the Abenakis were re-established by Fathers James and Vincent Bigot, and from that time to the American Revolution, thirteen missionaries, chiefly Jesuits, labored among them ; but few details of their labors, however, are now available. We have now come to a new period in the history of these mis sions, when we find them disturbed and perverted by the turmoils of war and political conquest. In this new phase, the neophytes bear a decidedly militant and savage part and the Jesuits lose their distinctively missionary character and become active intriguers for political ends, and even fomenters of bloody strifes. These hostilities cover three periods — the King William's war (1689-1697), the Queen Anne's war (1700-1713), and a local irritation, more or less inter mittent, occasioned by the imperfectly defined north-eastern bound ary, finally settled in 1727. In the national wars the colonists par ticipated. The region of the Abenakis was a disputed territory between the French and English ; and the Indians being attached to the former by many favors, and particularly through the influence of the Jesuits, were kept in a state of continual hostility. Impartial justice concedes jealousies, irritations and encroach ments on both sides, in these unfortunate and destructive contests ; but the terrible massacres of the infant settlements of Casco Bay, Pemaquid, Wells and York, in Maine; Oyster River, Salmon Falls and Dover, N. H., and Haverhill, Mass., by these Indians, under the inspiration of their Jesuit instructors, can never be expunged from the pages of New England history. The Roman Catholic version of the conduct of their missionaries by no means exonerates them. Mr. J. G. Shea, following the Jesuit Charlevoix, says : * " The missionaries, often in jeopardy, remained manfully at their posts, inculcating mercy in war, as well as every other Christian vir tue. Sometimes they accompanied the war parties as chaplains, at others they remained with the women and children. We may judge of the fervor of the neophytes by the fact that when the braves of Panawaniske set out to attack Fort Pemaquid, in 1689, they all approached the sacraments with their wives and children, that the * History of Catholic Missions Among the Indian TriOes, p. 143. 66 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STA TES. latter might raise pure hands to heaven while they were in deadly combat with the enemies of their race and faith. During the whole period of the expedition a perpetual rosary was established, not even the time of meals interrupting so edifying an exercise." The Penobscot. Sober history records that the Jesuits actively participated in schemes for territorial conquest and occupation. Bancroft says that, to protect Acadia, " The Jesuits Vincent and James Bigot collected a village of Abenakis on the Penobscot." He also says, " The missionaries, swaying the minds of the Abenakis, gave the hope of savage allies " to France, in attempting to extend her territorial line to the Kennebec. Again he says, " For a season, hostilities in Maine were suspended, by a treaty of peace with the Abenakis ; but in less than a year, solely through the influence of the Jesuits, they were again in the field, led by Villieu, the Freneh commander on the Penobscot ; and the village of Oyster River, in New Hampshire, was the victim of their fury. Ninety-four per sons were killed or carried away," etc. And it may be added that when the powerful " Five Nations" of New York made a treaty of neutrality with the French and English, in 1701, in which the Abenakis of Maine joined with them, the Jesuits prevailed upon the latter to break their compact, and the first notice of treach ery was a fearful massacre, the whole country from Wells to Casco Bay, in Maine, being devastated with burning and butchery. In Maine and New Hampshire the war was marked with great barbar ities. Prowling bands of savages penetrated even into Massachu setts, and the people were massacred or carried into captivity. " Nor did the thought occur," says Bancroft, " that such inroads were atrocious. The Jesuit historian of France relates, with pride, that they had their origin in the counsels and influence of the missionaries, Thury and Bigot ; and, extolling the hardihood and the success of the foray, he passes a eulogy on the daring of Taxus, the bravest of the Abenakis. Such is self-love : it has but one root, with a thousand branches. The despot believed his authority from God, and his own personality to constitute the State ; the mistresses of kings were, without scruple, made by patent the mothers of hereditary legislators ; the English monopolist had no self-reproach for prohibiting the industry of the colonists ; Louis XIV., James II. and his successors, Queen Anne, Bolingbroke and Lady Masham, thought it no harm to derive money from the slave-trade ; and, in FA THER RALE. S7 the pages of Charlevoix, the unavailing cruelties of midnight incen diaries, the murder and scalping of the inhabitants of peaceful vil lages, and the captivity of helpless women and children, are diffusely narrated as actions that were brave and beautiful." Father Sebastian Rale. The case of Sebastian Rale, the Jesuit missionary at Norridge- wock, Me., from 1699 to 1724, has received extended notice from Roman Catholic writers, who have given him a high rank in their an nals, characterizing him as " learned, zealous, laboring, careful of the religious progress of his flock, careless of his own comfort and life, and desirous even of martyrdom." Bancroft has represented this distinguished Jesuit in a very favor able light: "Severely ascetic, using no wine, and little food except pounded maize; a vigorous observer of the days of Lent, he built his own cabin, tilled his own garden, drew for himself wood and water, prepared his own hominy, and, distributing all that he received, gave an example of religious poverty. Himself a painter, he adorned the humble walls of his church with pictures. There he gave instruc tion almost daily. Following his pupils to their wigwams, he tem pered the spirit of devotion with familiar conversation and innocent gayety, winning the mastery over their souls by his powers of per suasion. . . . " The Government of Massachusetts attempted, in turn, to estab lish a mission, and its minister made a mocking of purgatory and the invocation of saints, of the cross, and of the rosary. ' My Chris tians,' retorted Rale, ' believe the truths of the Catholic faith, but are not skillful disputants ; ' and he prepared a defense of the Roman Church. Thus Calvin and Loyola met in the woods of Maine. - But the Protestant minister, unable to compete with the Jesuit for the affections of the Indians, returned to Boston, 'while the friar remained, the incendiary of mischief.' " * Some of Rale's papers fell into the hands of the Government of Massachusetts, from which it appears that he was in correspondence with the Governor of Canada, by whose aid he hoped to exclude the English settlers from the region where he resided, and that he accom panied an expedition of the Indians against the colonies, and acted a conspicuous part in at least one attack upon their settlements. The evidence was so conclusive that the Massachusetts Government undertook to arrest him, and at last, August 23, 1724, the Indian * Bancroft's History of the United States, Centennial Edition, Vol. II, pp. 354, 471. 88 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. village at Norridgewock was attacked and destroyed, and Rale fell in the battle.* The cession of Canada to England, in 1763, militated against these missions, and for a few years before the American Revolution they were without a priest ; but they retained their attachment to the papal faith. In the Revolution they joined with the colonists, and took a noble part in that long struggle, Orono, the Penobscot chief, holding " a commission, which he ennobled by his virtues and bravery." On the restoration of peace, the Abenakis asked Dr. Car roll, of Baltimore, for a missionary, when Father Ciquard, a Sulpitian, was sent to them ; and as a tribe, they have continued to this day, steadfast in their devotion to the papacy. In New York. The result in New York was very different. The deep-laid plan of the Jesuits at Quebec was to hem in the English settlements in New York on the east, and separate them from the Protestants in Nova Scotia, by getting the control ofthe Indian tribes in Maine. The second part of their plan had reference to the west ; to cut off New England from the Protestant colonies ofthe present middle States by making their way from the north, down by Lake Cham plain, Albany, and the Hudson River, to Manhattan Island. Having thus divided the Protestant colonies, they hoped to make them an easy prey. In seeking to accomplish this last part of the programme they desired the aid of the Iroquois Indians of New York, which they hoped to secure by converting them to the papal faith. Had they succeeded in gaining as complete control of them, as they did of the Maine Indians they would have been able to accomplish the destruction of all the Protestant colonies on this continent, and would have consigned the continent to the papacy. The numbers and power of the Iroquois would have been sufficient to enable the French to make a complete conquest. Besides, in that case, the Hurons would not have been slaughtered, but would have been powerful allies in the movement. The Iroquois. Under the Indian name, Hotinnousinouni, the complete cabin, and the French name Iroquois, was comprised a confederacy of five distinct Indian nations — the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Senecas, and the Onondagas — cantoned from the mouth of the * See Massachusetts Historical Collections. Second Series, Vol. VIII, pp. 250, 266. THE IROQUOIS. 89 Mohawk, near Albany, along a series of beautiful lakes, bearing the names of the tribes, as far as the Genesee River. They were noted for large and vigorous physical development, extraordinary courage, and unequaled ferocity. They possessed a larger brain than any other tribe except the Hurons, a kindred body, and were in many respects more advanced and better organized than any other Indians. Under chiefs, half hereditary and half elective, and a government an oligarchy in form and a democracy in spirit, ensconced in pali saded villages, surrounded by fertile and cultivated fields, faithfully maintaining a time-honored league of fraternity, and achieving a great reputation for war and savagery, before the close of the seventeenth century they had subjugated the vast region from Quebec to Lake Superior above the lakes, and from Albany to the Mississippi below, and had become the most conspicuous and dreaded of all the American Indians of their day. They have left behind no evidence of any tendency to emerge from their wild hunter life ; but they stand upon the pages of history as the stern conservators of barbarism, in the arts of torture and cruelty matching the worst of their kind. The hereditary enemies of the Hurons and Algonquins in Canada, by the early alliance of the great Champlain with those tribes and his hostile invasion of the Mohawk territory in 1609, the Iroquois became the deadly enemies of the French. At a restoration of some French captains unharmed, in 1640, a collision took place which gave new zest to their hatred ; and the Mohawks formally pro claimed that henceforth French and Huron should be treated alike, and sent out their fierce war-bands to infest all the water communi cations of the north. The subsequent history of Canada for thirty years, except in a few brief intervals, is full of the wars of the Iroquois, destroying the best missions and rendering the efforts for their establishment among the " Five Nations " themselves abortive. It is early in the morning of the 2d of August, 1642. Twelve Huron canoes are slowly moving up the St. Lawrence at a point two days distant from Quebec. The lading consists of supplies for the suffering Huron mission. The living freight is chiefly heathen Indians who are returning homeward. A few catechumens in course of instruction for baptism are in the party, and some Huron con verts, among whom is the noted Christian chief, Eustache Ahatsistari. There are also two young Frenchmen, Rene Goupil and Guillaume Couture, donnes, or lay- brothers of the mission. Goupil, once a Jesuit novitiate in Paris, compelled by failing health to forego the rigorous discipline of the order, but skilled in surgery, has already 60 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. identified himself with the service of the Church. Couture, his companion, a man of intelligence and rigor, is no less devoted to the missionary work Jogues. In the leading canoe sits a Jesuit father, in his black gown, whose oval face and delicate mold of features bespeak a modest, thought ful, and refined nature. Physically slender, constitutionally timid, sensitively conscientious, and profoundly religious, in the fiery ordeal about to open before him he is to be tested to the utmost, and gain a crown of martyrdom. Born in 1607, of a highly respectable family in Orleans, France, in his childhood he became eminent for piety, and at the age of seventeen years was admitted to the celebrated Jesuit Novitiate at Rouen. His brilliant course of study made him a finished scholar and gave promise of a successful literary career. But he earnestly desired a foreign mission, and talked seriously of Ethiopia as his field of toil. At his graduation, however, in 1636, he was sent to the Canadian wilderness. Amid the rigors and priva tions of the Huron peninsula, under the direction of the eminent Brebeuf, he spent five years of devoted service ; and then, accom panied by Raymbault and a few Huron converts, he went forth to plant the cross in fields still more remote. Passing the Manitoulins ofthe Georgian Bay, and the clustering archipelagoes of Lake Huron, they reached the confines of Lake Superior, and there, at the Falls of St. Mary, " five years," says Bancroft, " before the New England Eliot had addressed the tribe of Indians that dwelt within six miles of Boston Harbor," he preached the Gospel to two thousand Ojib ways and Algonquins. Worn by his toils, Raymbault has been borne to Quebec to die of consumption, and his companion is now retrac ing his course, reserved to encounter a far more dreaded foe. Isaac Jogues, the first to carry the cross into Michigan, is also to be the first to bear it, under the sorest tortures, through the villages of the Mohawks, for those savage red men are about to " gird him and lead him whither he would not." The twelve canoes have reached the western end of Lake St. Peters, where the St. Lawrence is filled with numerous islands. Suddenly from me rushes ring out wild war-whoops, sharp reports of guns and whistling bullets, and canoes filled with savage Mohawks push out from concealment and bear down upon them. A shameful panic seizes the Hurons; but, rallying a little, they make an in effectual defense, and fall into the hands of their enemies. The seventy Iroquois, with twenty Hurons and three French- AMONG THE MOHAWKS. 61 men, speedily embark upon the Richelieu homeward ; and all the way from the St. Lawrence to the Mohawk horrible inflictions of savage cruelty are endured. Sore with wounds, and suffering from hunger and heat, they are hurried along. By day, with keenest relish, their savage captors re-open their wounds and pierce their flesh with awls, and clouds of mosquitoes torment them by night. Several times they meet war parties of Mohawks, and on each occa sion they are compelled to run the fearful Indian gauntlet. Jogues sinks under one of these assaults. The chief man among the cap tives, he fares the worst. He is dragged to a scaffold, and again bruised and burned. His closing wounds gape afresh, his remaining nails are torn out and his hands are mangled. The water-course finished, the mangled prisoners are loaded down and forced to stagger on, half-starved, subsisting chiefly upon wild ber ries, until they reach the first palisaded town of the Mohawks on the 14th of August. Another gauntlet ordeal through long lines of fierce dusky savages here awaits them. Couture leads and Father Jogues brings up the rear. A heavy stroke from the stoutest Indian knocks J ogues breathless upon the ground; but, recovering instantly, he stag gers on " through the narrow path to Paradise," as he afterward called it. New tortures await them upon the much-dreaded Indian scaffold. Goupil streams with blood ; Jogues's left thumb is hacked off by an Algonquin slave ; Goupil's right thumb, with a clam-shell ; and none escape. Nor does night bring relief. Tied to the ground, with legs and arms extended, they writhe in vain to escape hot coals placed upon them by Indian children. Through three Mohawk villages these tortures are endured, Jogues improving every oppor tunity to confess the neophytes and baptize the catechumens. A difficulty embarrasses him — a prisoner, he cannot procure water. A passing Indian throws him a stalk of maize. It is morning and the broad leaves glisten with dew, with which he baptizes two ; and, while crossing a streamlet, he confers the sacrament upon the third. Thus begins the mission on the Mohawk, though years of darkness and savagery elapse before its establishment. In one of the villages Jogues is hung by the wrists to two upright posts, an infliction reminding us of some of the tortures inflicted upon Protestants by the Spanish Inquisition. In this excruciating position he remains until upon the point of swooning, when a pity- in? Indian cuts the cords and releases him. A council of sachems decree his death, but another sentiment soon prevails and he is spared. Devoted to servitude, Jogues performs the menial offices of a squaw, does their bidding without a murmur, patiently bears 62 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. abuse, and never rebukes except when they laugh at his devotions or mock his God. A portion of his leisure is devoted to the spirit ual comfort of the Huron neophytes, imparting counsel, granting absolution, and baptizing the dying. He acquires the dialect ofthe tribe and gives instruction in astronomy and theology. Gradually his liberty is enlarged, and he quietly roams through the fields and lofty forests of the Mohawk Valley, telling his beads, repeating passages of Scripture and chanting psalms. On a stately tree, upon an elevated knoll, he rudely carves a huge cross and pros trates himself in prayer, or sits in deep meditation, assuaging his grief in loving contemplation of Him who was "made perfect through suffering." In the bark of the trees all through the dense groves he carves the name of Jesus, thus consecrating that dark land to him. A living martyr, maimed, mangled, half-clothed, and half-starved, crouching in the corners of rude cabins, or bowing in solitude before the emblems of his faith, this gentle, cultivated man, a scion of a noble stock, and a striking symbol of self-forgetful sacrifice, is the vanguard of his nation's banner and his nation's faith, upon the confines of a vast, revolting heathenism — a worthy theme for an eloquent pen. Hitherto Jogues has not thought of escape. Meeting the Dutch settlers on the Hudson, they advise him to flee, and offer aid. He thanks them warmly, but to their astonishment he asks for a night to consider and to counsel with God in prayer. It is a night of deep agitation, fearful lest self-love shall beguile him from duty. Should he remain some timely drop of sacramental water applied by his hand may rescue souls from torturing devils and eternal flames. The indications, however, make it probable that his relent less captors will not spare him much longer. He reaches his decis ion, and, aided by his Dutch friends, escapes to Albany, to Manhat tan and to France, after a captivity of fifteen months. In Paris this remarkable man became a center of curiosity. He was ushered into the presence of the queen, who kissed his mutilated hands, while the ladies of the court thronged around him in hom age. Indifferent to their honors, Jogues thought only of returning to his work of converting the Indians. There was one impediment, however, for by a canon of the Church a priest with any deformity was debarred from celebrating mass ; but the pope, by a special dispensation, restored the privilege, saying, " It were unjust that a martyr of Christ should not drink the blood of Christ." The fol lowing year Jogues was again in Canada. In the meantime the Iroquois have filled all Canada with alarm. ANOTHER JESUIT IN NEW YORK. 63 The fire-arms with which the Dutch had supplied them, added to their numbers, their courage, and their united councils, gave them an advantage over all other tribes which they well understood, and inspired them with an unparalleled audacity. They boasted that they would wipe out the Hurons, the Algonquins and the French from the face of the earth. "At Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal and in the little fort of Richelieu, that is to say, in all Canada," says Parkman, " no man could hunt, fish, till the fields, or cut a tree in the forest, without peril to his scalp. The Iroquois were every-where and nowhere. A yell, a volley of bullets, a rush of screeching savages, and all was over. . . . While the Indian allies of the French were wasting away beneath this atrocious warfare, the French themselves, and especially the traveling Jesuits, had their full share of the infliction. In truth, the puny and sickly colony seemed in the gasps of dissolution. The beginning of spring, particularly, was a season of terror and suspense ; for, with the breaking up of the ice, sure as destiny came the Iroquois. As soon as a canoe could float they were on the war-path, and with the cry of the returning wild fowl mingled the yell of these human tigers. They did not always wait for the breaking ice, but set forth on foot, and when they came to open water made canoes and embarked. Well might Father Vimont call the Iroquois ' the scourge of this infant Church.' They burned, hacked, and devoured the neophytes ; exterminated whole villages at once, destroyed the nations whom the fathers hoped to convert, and ruined that sure ally of the missions, the fur trade. Not the most hideous nightmare of a fevered brain could transcend in horror the real and waking perils with which they beset the paths of these intrepid priests." About five months have elapsed since Father Jogues escaped from the Mohawks. It is early in April, and the needs of the Huron mission are very pressing, for no succor had reached them for three years. Starting early with supplies, a Huron flotilla is pushing its way westward through the perils of floating ice, hoping to pass from the St. Lawrence into the safer waters of the more distant Ottawa before the Iroquois shall have struck the northern war-paths. Father Joseph Bressani, six young Huron converts and a French boy con stitute the party. Reaching the fatal spot where Father Jogues was seized, twenty-seven Iroquois suddenly issue from a covert, attack and seize them. Thanking the sun for their victory they plunder the canoes, cut up, roast and devour a slain Huron, and start for the Mohawk region. Passing over Lake Champlain, Bressani is driven barefoot over the rough and rocky road that Jogues traveled before him. He is beaten, mangled, mutilated, scourged by whole villages, runs fearful guantlets, has his hands split open and his fingers hacked off; is hung by his feet with a chain ; is burned, pricked, gashed, and endures the most excruciating torments — only a little less refined, however, than those of the papal inquisitions. " Yet some mysterious 64 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. awe," says Bancroft, " protected his life, and he, too, was at last humanely rescued by the Dutch." A year after the capture of Father Bressani, the French, still anxious to secure possession of the Iroquois country, seek a treaty of peace with the Five Nations. A meeting is held at Three Rivers, in 1645, at which Couture, the lay-Jesuit captured with Father Jogues, in the dress of an Iroquois, is present, exerting great influ ence with his adopted Indian friends. Jogues and Bressani, who remained only a short time in Europe, are also in the council. All agree to smooth the forest path and hide the tomahawk. The Iro quois say, " Let the sun shine on all the land between us." The Algonquins join in the agreement. " There is peace " says Park- man, " in the dark and blood-stained wilderness. The lynx, the panther and the wolf, have made a covenant of love ; but who will be their surety ? " The Iroquois ambassadors acted, without doubt, in sincerity, but the wayward, capricious, and ungoverned nature of the Indian parties to the treaty, and the fact that the Mohawks alone had represented the Confederacy, made it desirable that further steps should be taken to ratify the covenant. Couture had returned to winter among the Mohawks, that he might exert his influence to hold them to their pledges ; but an agent of more acknowledged weight, one, too, who knows their language and character well, must be sent. All things pointed to Father Jogues as the man, and it was proposed that the errand should be " half political and half religious ; for not only was he to be a bearer of gifts, wampum belts and messages from the governor, but he was also to found a new mission, christened in advance with a prophetic name, The Mission of the Martyrs." * " For two years past Jogues has been at Montreal, and it is here that he receives the order of his superior to proceed to the Mohawk towns. At first nature asserts itself, and he recoils involuntarily at the thought of the horrors of which his scarred body and mutilated hands are a living memento. It is a transient weakness, and he prepares to depart with more than willingness, giving thanks to Heaven that he has been found worthy to suffer and die for the saving of souls and the greater glory of God." * In company with Sieur Bourdon, the governor's engineer, Jogues departs. They are hospitably received ; the peace is ratified, and they return to Quebec through a tranquil wilderness. But the Mohawks have requested a missionary, asking particularly * Packman's History of the Jesuits in North America, p. 298, THE IROQ UOIS MISSION FR USTRA TED. 6S for Jogues himself. In anticipation of that result, on his visit he left behind his trunk containing the sacred vessels. But indications of the bad faith of the Iroquois already appear, making the question of his return a very serious one. His superior holds a council. Political as well as religious considerations enter into the question, for France looks to the conquest of the territory of New York, and the Church must prepare the way. After full deliberation Jogues receives orders to repair to that dangerous post. " I shall go, but shall never return," are his prophetic farewell words. On the 24th of August, 1646, five days before Druellett's departure for the Abenakis mission, with dark forebodings, Jogues sets out for the dreaded Mohawk country, accompanied by a young lay-brother, Lalande, and several Huron converts. On their way they meet Indians who warn them of a change of feeling in the Mohawk towns, and the Hurons, alarmed, refused to advance further; but Jogues, naturally the most timid man in the company, and the devoted Lalande, proceed on their way. Arriving among- the Mohawks they find the rumors true. They are immediately seized, stripped, and treated as prisoners. A pestilence had ravaged the cabins, and caterpillars had devoured the crops of the canton, which, in their superstition, the Indians attribute to the mysterious trunk Jogues left behind, and no protestations or explanations will avail. He is condemned as an enchanter, notwithstanding some remonstrated and stood firm for the Frenchmen. A savage crowd assembles, beating them with sticks and fists. '• You shall die to-morrow, but you shall not be burned," they cry; " you shall die by our hatchets." In vain does Father Jogues plead that he is not an enemy. Deaf to all reason, they commence the work of butchery. Cutting thin strips of flesh from his arms and back, they say, " Let us see if this white flesh is that of an Otki." "I am but a man like yourselves," replies the fearless confessor, " though I fear not death nor your tortures." Tranquil in spirit he approaches the cabin where the death festival is held, and in passing through the door, receives the death-blow. Thus died Isaac Jogues. Among the sons of Loyola no purer or more illustrious example of virtue and sublime devotion has been seen. The founder of the Mohawk mission, his sufferings, rather than his labors, give him the most prominent place in its annals. Such were the New York Indians whom the Jesuits at Quebec sought to convert to the papacy and make subservient to the ac complishment of their schemes ; but these powerful tribes proved to be the bulwarks raised up by Providence, and stationed all along 5 66 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. that long line ofthe State of New York, for the protection of Prot estant colonies against the machinations of the papacy. It would be interesting to sketch the attempts of the Jesuits in the seven teenth century to found missions among this people. It would fur nish many thrilling pages, examples of heroic adventure, sublime endurance, and lofty devotion, but all in vain. The failure frustrated a gigantic political scheme of territorial extension, and saved the continent to Protestantism. Section 2.— Tine Englisli in Maryland. As early as 1570, the attention of the Jesuits in Florida was called to the region ofthe Chesapeake, and eight priests were sent to found a mission there ; but they encountered the implacable hatred ofthe natives, and all soon perished by violence. More than sixty years passed before the attempt was renewed. In the meantime, Roman Catholic missions and settlements had been founded in the south, from Florida to the Pacific, and in the north, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Lake Huron. Hitherto no colony of English Roman Catholics had been undertaken ; but the way was pre paring. The Jesuits, intent upon securing the continent to the papacy, seem to have determined to insert a wedge between the Protestant colonies in Virginia and those of New York and New England. If successful it would ultimately secure to them the great Atlantic coast region, which had fallen out of the hands of the papal nations. With a Catholic colony in the center, and the steadily encroach ing lines of the Spanish Jesuits in the south and the French Jesuits in the north, and the cherished antagonism of the Indians against the English, they shrewdly calculated to gain the desired end. But if such a colony were planted it is evident that it must be composed of English papists, for England was in possession of the coast from Nova Scotia to Florida. What subtle hand shall direct the scheme? Let us see. Father Andrew White was born in London in 1579, ar>d edu cated at Douai, in a college instituted to train priests for England. On receiving orders he was sent to London to exercise his ministry in secrecy, as the penal laws then made necessary. This he was not long allowed to do, but with forty-six others was sentenced to perpetual banishment. Forced to retire to the continent, he resolved to enter the Society of Jesus, and, at the close of his JESUITS IN MARYLAND. 67 novitiate, returned to England. After ten years in London he was called to a professor's chair in the Jesuit college near Seville. But in a few years this eminent Jesuit returned again to England, and became an intimate acquaintance and adviser of Lord Baltimore. Sir George Calvert, a member of the Privy Council of James I., abjured Anglicanism and relinquished his positions at court. His sovereign, intent upon retaining his services, made him a peer of Ireland, under the title of Lord Baltimore. He solicited and obtained a grant of territory on the coast of America, with a charter allowing freedom of worship to Roman Catholics. On the death of Lord Baltimore, his oldest son Cecil proving incompetent to execute his plan, it was committed to another son, Leonard. Accompanied by Father Andrew White, Father John Altham, and two lay brothers, the expedition sailed from England Nov. 22d, 1633, with St. Ignatius as their chosen patron. On the 3d of March, the day of the Feast of the Annunciation, they reached the mouth of the Chesapeake. Landing on Blackstone Island, they offered the sacrifice of the mass, raised the cross as a trophy to Christ, and chanted on bended knees the litany of the cross. From the friendly Yoacomico and his tribe, a site was purchased for the city of St. Mary's, and a wigwam for a chapel. Missions were established among the Indians, the Conestogues being the dominant tribe. Father White prepared a grammar, dictionary, and catechism in the Indian dialect. Many difficulties were encountered ; some priests died ; but others arrived in 1635 and 1636. Missions were established at Mettapaiy, on Kent Island and Kittamaquindi. Chilomacon, the chief, received Father White cordially, and installed him in his own lodge, where the missionary taught the dogmas of the Church. The chief and his braves were deeply impressed, and renounced polygamy. In a general council, the chief and his family abandoned their ancient superstitions, accepted Christ, and received baptism. Indian wars sometimes interrupted, but the mission went on, and new missionaries came from England. Under a wise administration the dreary wilderness was converted into a prosperous colony. It was not long, however, before they suffered from the opposition of the Virginia planters, which cast a gloom over their history. The civil war in England, the defeat of the papal party, and the enactment of severe laws against them, produced not a little disquie tude and commotion in the Maryland Colony. In 1644, Clayborne, the evil genius, raised a rebellion, expelled 68 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the governor, and the next year sent off the priests prisoners to England. After an absence of three years they returned. But a new storm soon arose ; the priests were under the ban of condem nation, and could officiate only in secret. The Indian missions in Maryland were then closed forever. Freedom of Religion. From the beginning, the Maryland Colony was characterized by a broader and more liberal religious policy than any other, until the settlement of Pennsylvania, about fifty years later. Lord Balti more and his associates have been highly praised for the constitu tional guarantees in form of religious liberty. It is probable, how ever, that the conditions of the grant to the original proprietors re quired the toleration of all those religious bodies which were allowed by the crown at home. An eminent Roman Catholic writer, De Courcey,* has taken this view. But, to whatever the toleration of the Protestants by the Catholic colony of Maryland is due, it is, nevertheless, the just verdict of impartial history, that, " under the enlightened policy of Lord Baltimore, the colony steadily advanced in prosperity, increasing both in comfort and in numbers. Roman Catholics and Protestants alike found protection and security, and lived in harmony." \ Toward the close of that century, the Catholics fell into a minority, and, in 1704, bishops and priests were prohibited by law from saying mass and exercising other spiritual functions, except in private houses. They also suffered from other oppressive enact ments. No churches were allowed to be built, and, at the time of the Revolution their priests numbered only twenty.:]: Section 3.— The French on the Great Lakes and in the Mississippi Valley. Upon the rugged picturesque peninsula interlocked by Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, a region varied by undulations, table lands, and mountains, rigorous in climate, rich in minerals and furs, and abounding in streams, rapids and water-falls, two great aboriginal races met. The fierce Dahcotas or Sioux, called by the Jesuits * History of the Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. New York. Edward Dunigan & Bro., 1857, p. 30. t History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks D.D., New York. 1839. By John S. Taylor, p 30. \ See a fuller statement in the chapter on the Church and State in the Colonies — Intolerance in Maryland. BE YOND MA CKINA W. 60 " the Iroquois of the West," traversing the vast wilds from the Rocky Mountains, had pushed forward their Winnebago tribe and established their eastern outpost on the Green Bay of Lake Michi gan ; and the Algonquins, roaming through all the region above Lake Erie and Lake Ontario as far east as Nova Scotia, were repre sented in their western outpost by the Ottawas and the Chippeways, on the southern shore of Lake Superior. In this wild paradise of hunters, dwelt the Ojibways, the Menominees, the Foxes, and the Kikapoos. The Ottawas, or traders, the most numerous and enter prising of all, became known to the French by their fur-trading with the Hurons. At this point also the Illinois and other prairie tribes met in their annual fishing excursions. Such was the com mercial importance of this locality, and its value also for political and missionary purposes. Jean Nichollet. Almost a century after De Soto's famous ill-fated expedition into the lower valley of the Mississippi, a French explorer, sent out as an ambassador to the western tribes, reached the banks of the Wisconsin. Jean Nichollet, a Roman Catholic layman, had been twenty years in Canada, was familiar with all the Algonquin tribes, and had spent eight years among the Nipissings, north-east ofthe land ofthe Hurons. Here he became an Indian in his habits, and heard wonderful stories of a remarkable people in the far West, whom he conjectured might be the Chinese, said to come to trade with tribes beyond the great lakes. The curiosity of this hardy pioneer was excited, and he longed to penetrate that fabulous region. He first returned to civilization, took the sacraments of the Church, and was commissioned to negotiate a peace between the Winnebagos and the Hurons. Years spent in Algonquin cabins had fitted him to travel in safety those wild regions, and in 1639, having reached the land ofthe Hurons, he started upon a voyage of three hundred leagues into the still more distant wilderness. Filled with visions of Mandarin grandeur, he had provided himself with " a robe of Chinese damask, embroidered with birds and flowers." Approaching the Winnebago town, he sent an Indian messenger " to announce his coming, put on his robe of damask, and advanced to meet the expectant crowd with a pistol in each hand. The squaws and children fled, screaming that it is a manito or spirit armed with thunder and lightning; but the chiefs and warriors regaled him with so bountiful a hospitality that a hundred and twenty beavers were devoured at a single feast." Passing westward, TO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. he ascended the Fox River, crossed to the Wisconsin, and floated for some distance toward the Mississippi, without, however, fully understanding the character of that river. He returned to Quebec. This was the boldest exploit of the hardiest pioneer in the annals of New France. In 1641, at the request of the Chippeways visiting the Hurons, Fathers Jogues and Raymbault, eager to extend the conquests of their faith, launched their canoes and started for the home of this tribe at the outlet of Lake Superior. For seventeen days, over the crystal waters of those great inland seas, fringed with picturesque scenery and gemmed with beautiful islands, those zealous envoys of France and the cross pursued their toilsome way. At the Falls of St. Mary, a point nearly equidistant by traveled route from Quebec, on the east, and Santa Fe, the nearest Catholic mission, on the west ; amid joyful greetings, they proclaimed the faith to two thousand Ottawas and Chippeways ; and, from this remote outlook of the Church, gazed with awe upon the magnificent savage solitudes stretching in un measured distances around them. They were urged to remain, but, obedient to the instructions of their superior, they returned, Raym bault, worn and emaciated by disease, to die at Quebec, and Jogues to suffer horrid tortures and martyrdom in the dark land of the ^treacherous Mohawks. Some years passed. The importance of the Lake Superior re gion for both commercial and missionary purposes was fully esti mated. Missionaries were sent forth, but they were destroyed by the savage Iroquois. For several years these powerful, bloodthirsty warriors were every-where above the lakes, from Quebec to Michi gan, and travel was dangerous. The Jesuits waited for two things — tranquillity in the wilderness and a fitting man. Claudius Allouez. In 1665, Claudius Allouez embarked for the upper lakes, and spent twenty-five years among the Indians in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Rowing along the southern shores of Lake Superior, with its alternating scenery of forests, fertile plains, reed-covered marshes, stupendous piles of drifting sands, towering cliffs of " pict ured sandstone," and " erect columns, covered with fantastic entab latures," he celebrated the mass and consecrated those rugged wilds to Christ and his king. He erected an Indian Church, amid many struggles with super- stitition and vice. The natives revered the lakes, the rapids, the beetling cliffs, and even the metals, as gods, and talked indefinitely Nv30R.6,NAL AMEBl0^ DISTRIBUTION AND TERRITORIAL LIMITS Th£ indian"nat\o^5 IN THE NEW WORLD. PCAI.K OF MILBS •100 300 4U0 500 itnie West 95 from Greenwich FRENCH POWER EXTENDING. 71 of " the great Messipi," as a wild chimera, but an object of adora tion. Some faithful ones consoled him with their constancy and fervor. A choir of Chippeways chanted the Pater and the Ave ; and from many a tribe the wandering hunters came to listen and to wonder. For more than twenty different tribes — the Hurons, scat tered and disconsolate ; the Ottawas and Chippeways, from the fishing regions ; the Sacs and Foxes, from the country of the beaver and deer ; the Sioux, from the great buffalo plains beyond the Missis sippi ; the Pottawattomics, from the deep unexplored recesses of lower Michigan ; and the Illinois, from the broad fertile prairies by " the Great River " — he lighted the torch of faith. From them he learned the story of the " Messipi," and longed to gaze upon the great father of waters and traverse its immense tributary valley. Allouez was deeply impressed with his surroundings. The well- authenticated narratives of the mammoth rivers, the broad alluvial prairies, the gigantic forests, the rich mineral deposits, the countless herds of wild animals, the innumerable bands of pagan Indians, the entrancing beauty of the scenery, and the magnificent vastness of the new mission region excited in his mind the most romantic con ceptions of the grand, the sublime, and the infinite, aroused his deepest sympathies for humanity, and stimulated to the formation of political, social and religious schemes, commensurate with the vast possibilities of this great continental center, the key of the richest heritage of North America. Filled with such enthusiastic concep tions, he returned to Quebec, reporting the facts of the situation. Re-enforcements were sent to this region — Fathers Nicholas, Mar quette, Dablon, and later, Druellettes and Andre. France in the Heart of the Continent. In 1670, Talon, the governor of the Canadas, determined to formally extend the power of France into the depths of the western wilderness, and sent Daumont de St. Lusson and fifteen men to take possession of it for his king. Messages were sent to all the great western tribes to meet at the Falls of St. Mary. In the spring of 1671 representatives of fourteen tribes arrived, and on the morn ing of the 14th of June, on the top of a hill designated, a crowd of Indians stood or crouched or reclined at length, with eyes and ears intent, as a large cross was erected, and the Frenchmen sang the Vexilla Regis. St. Lusson, with a loud voice, " In the name of the most high, mighty, and redoubted monarch, Louis XIV., king of France and Navarre," took possession of the place, and all the " rivers, lakes, and streams contiguous and adjacent thereto, both 72 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. those which have been discovered and those which may be discovered hereafter, in all their length and breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas of the North and of the West, and on the other by th* South Sea," etc. Thus was the standard of France planted in the heart of the American Continent, in the midst of its ancient races. " Yet," says Bancroft, "this daring ambition ofthe servants of a military mon arch was destined to leave no abiding monument ; this echo of the Middle Ages, to pass away." In this field the Jesuits began to appear in a character some what different. " The epoch of saints and martyrs," says Parkman, " was passing away ; and henceforth we find the Canadian Jesuit less and less an apostle, and more and more an explorer, a man of science, and a politician." The Mississippi Valley. The next move was the boldest of all. The Jesuits seized the great arteries of the North American Continent. The hardy Nichollet, adventurer and ambassador, and the sagacious Allouez, pioneer and priest, had opened the pathway of France and the papacy as far as Lake Winnebago, and even to the banks of the Wisconsin ; and the Congress of the great western valley tribes at the Falls of St. Mary had prepared the way for more extensive exploration, commerce, and civilization. In the vast and vague domain on that important occasion by solemn announcement claimed for France, the grandest object was the Mississippi, indefinitely shadowed forth in the weird stories of the red men as a mysterious stream, rising far in the north, and flowing southward, they knew not whither. To explore it, and establish a post on the southern waters, hemming in the English on the Atlantic coast, was the bold policy of France. This great region was an unknown world. Roving tribes had vaguely described it ; but who shall penetrate its wild solitudes ? Father Marquette. James Marquette, at the age of seventeen, entered the Order of the Jesuits, and, after twelve years of study and teaching, came to Canada, and labored in the missions at the Falls of St. Mary and at Mackinaw. He was described as gentle and self-forgetful, of superior linguistic abilities, and of no mean tact in diplomacy. His name stands high on the entablature of Jesuit missions as a pioneer and explorer. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception commanded THE BOLDEST ADVENTURE. 73 his absorbing devotion. It was mentioned in all his letters ; and, like a subtle element of romance, it imaged to his mind the Virgin in forms of transcendent loveliness, inspiring him in the harsh realities of his daily life, and stimulating him to chivalrous achieve ments. From this sublime passion was born an ardent desire for discovery, that he might consecrate new domains to his celestial mistress. Early visiting the lands ofthe treacherous Foxes, success fully conducting valuable negotiations with the implacable Sioux, and studying the mixed dialects of the Illinois more fully than any other Jesuit father, he had learned the story of the Mississippi, and prepared himself to communicate with the numerous tribes upon its banks. Louis Joliet. Louis Joliet, son of a wagon-maker in Quebec, educated by the Jesuits for the priesthood but, declining the clerical vocation, became a fur-trader, explored the copper mines of Lake Superior, and was commissioned with Marquette to discover the Mississippi. Passing up the lakes to Mackinaw, Joliet found Marquette eagerly anticipating the journey. With five companions, and a a simple outfit of two birch canoes, smoked meat, and Indian corn, on the 17th of May they began their voyage " under the protection ofthe Holy Virgin Immaculate," to whom, in advance, they con secrated their discoveries. Paddling along the west shores of Lake Michigan they reached the Menominee, and ascended the stream to an Indian village, where they announced their intentions. The boldness of the project astonished even the wild men, who endeavored to restrain the adventurers by stories of ferocious tribes along the great river, of frightful monsters in the stream, and a fierce demon in its far-off waters, whose terrific roar could be heard at a great distance. Disregarding these appeals to their fears, they pushed on. Green Bay, Lake Winnebago, and Fox River, with its rapids, quiet meanderings, and wild rice marshes, were successively passed, until they reached the celebrated portage. The Mystic Center of the Continent. Here in this mystic centre of the great continent, where the flowing waters divide — to the St. Lawrence, on the one hand, and to the Gulf of Mexico, on the other — they carried their canoes upon their shoulders for a mile and a half, and launched them upon the Wisconsin. Dismissing their guides, the adventurers were solely in the hands of Providence. Down the tranquil stream, by islands, bluffs, forests, marshes, and prairies — " the parks and pleasure- 74 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. grounds of a prodigal nature" — they glided, bivouacing at night on the shores under their inverted canoes. The 17th of June was a memorable day in their career. Looking expectantly ahead, what is it that greets their gaze? At the foot of lofty heights thickly wrapped in forests a wide and rapid cunent courses athwart their way. The Mississippi River Discovered. What can be the name of this great stream ? Is it indeed the Mississippi, the object of their search? It is. We see them, for a few moments, gazing at the mysterious river, their souls filling with delight, and then, under an impulse of inexpressible joy, urging their light barks into its calm, strong waters. In fulfillment of an oft-repeated vow to the Virgin Mary, Marquette gives to the stream the name of " Conception River." But no papal saint was destined to be the patroness ofthe Father of Waters; and the Indian name has ever prevailed. Down this magnificent stream Marquette and Joliet floated, rapturously contemplating its mysterious possibilities ; passing broad sand-bars, enlivened by sporting waterfowl, islands tufted with massive thickets, natural parks and fertile prairies clothed with rich summer verdure, and deep solitudes locked in the embrace of primeval slumbers. They passed the mouth of the Illinois, the fantastic rocks of " The Ruined Castles," the boiling, surging, muddy torrent of the Missouri, and the beautiful Ohio, until they reached the Arkansas. Convinced by conversations with the natives that the Mississippi emptied not, as they had supposed, into the Gulf of California, but into the Gulf of Mexico, and fearing that some fatality might befall them, and the results of their discoveries be lost, they resolved to return to Canada and report what they had seen. They began their homeward voyage, on the 17th of July, taking a shorter route, by the Illinois River to Lake Michigan. La Salle's Explorations. In prodigious contrast with the gentle, single-hearted, unpre tending Marquette, stands the bold, self-reliant, invincible La Salle — the one a beautiful example of mediaeval saintship, and an unques tioning imitator of Loyola and Xavier, and the other, a man of ideas and progress, with "the energies of modern practical enter prise." Educated by the Jesuits, and a candidate for their Society, he soon withdrew from them, his strong personality, that could D' IBERVILLE. 7S obey no initiative but its own, revolting from their relentless iron system, which made every member the passive instrument of another's will. Parting on friendly terms, he sailed for Montreal and devoted himself to a life of adventure. After some years of wild vicissitudes, we find him projecting a voyage to the mouth of the Mississippi, that he may claim and colonize those marvelous regions for his king, He was formally commissioned for the enterprise. Four years of reverses and struggles followed, taxing to the utmost his adamantine fortitude. At last, he embarked upon the great river, followed its winding channel, descended its turbid eddies, received the welcome of wandering tribes along its banks, until its waters grew bitter, the roar of the sea-surf was heard, and the broad Gulf of Mexico opened upon his vision. The goal of his eagle imagination was reached, and on the 9th of April, 1682, the Valley of the Mississippi, by solemn proclamation, was formally added to the domains of Louis XIV., King of France and Navarre. La Salle returned by the river, reached Quebec, and hastened to France to report his discovery. With a fleet of four vessels and two hundred and eighty persons he sailed for the mouth of the Mississippi. The ill-fated expedition was overwhelmed with disasters on the coast of Texas, and the iron-hearted discoverer, while trying to make his way across the country to Quebec, was fatally shot by a traitorous comrade. For force of will, vast con ceptions, and quick adaptation to untried circumstances, this daring adventurer had no superior among Frenchmen. He was the father of colonization in the great valley of the West. Louisiana Founded. A new era in the history of these missions was ushered in by the establishment of a colony at the mouth ofthe Mississippi. The honor of the achievements belongs to an illustrious Canadian. Born in the midst of the papal fervors at Montreal, Lemoine D'Iberville, early in life, became a zealous champion of the old Regime in Canada, and an active promoter of the vast schemes for ihe extension of French dominion in America. A volunteer in the midnight attack on Schenectady, the captor of Pemmaquid, the commander of an expedition which wrested Fort Nelson and the Indian trade of those regions from the English, the successful invader of the English possessions in Newfoundland, and a second time, in spite of icebergs and shipwreck, a victor in naval contests, 76 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. on the gloomy waters of the Hudson Bay, he was esteemed the most skillful naval officer in the service of France, and the most suitable person to undertake the colonizing of the lower Mississippi. On the 17th of October, 1698, he sailed from France with four vessels and 200 colonists, and, after various delays, on the 2d of March, guided by floating trees and turbid waters, he entered the mouth of the great river. At the head of Biloxi Bay he erected a fort, as a testimony of French jurisdiction from Pensacola to the Rio Del Norte, and left his two brothers in command. He returned to France for re-enforcements, and in the year 1700 established a colony about thirty-eight miles below the present city of New Orleans. In the year 1700 Tonti came down from Arkansas, under whose guidance the D'Iberville brothers ascended the river, made peace with the tribes on its banks, and established a post at Natchez. Montigny, a man of vast designs and boundless zeal, newly invested as vicar-general of the missions in the Mississippi Valley under the direction of the Bishop of Quebec, came from the St. Lawrence with greetings for their brethren on the Gulf. Western Louisiana was explored, and the valley of the Red River far toward the confines of New Mexico. Jesuit fathers accompanied Louisiana colonists, and their missions among the Taenas, the Ton- icas, the Natchez, the Arkansas, and the Oumas were coeval with the settlement. Zeal, however, did not command success. Like other missions, some of these were baptized with blood, and, in the first thirty years, five missionaries fell by violence. Jesuit Missions. Jesuit missions followed closely in the path of exploration, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The germ ofthe Louisiana Colony, securely planted in the year 1700, gradually rose in importance. Illinois became subject to it, and its missions were subject to the Superior of the Jesuits at New Orleans, and those north-east of Illinois to the Superior at Quebec. Thus established at the mouth of the Mississippi and on the St. Lawrence the two extremities of this French-American domain, the next part of the scheme was to fill the intervening solitudes with missions, forts, and settlements. They were distributed with admirable skill, guarding the lakes, streams, and thoroughfares of the wilderness. But they lacked elements of permanence. " Agriculture was neglected for the more congenial pursuit of the fur trade, and the FRENCH TERRITORY CEDED TO ENGLAND. 11 restless, roving Canadians, scattered abroad on their wild vocation, allied themselves to Indian women, and filled the woods with a mongrel race of bush-rangers." * The Jesuits were every-where present ; many Indian tribes were converted to the papal faith, and, in process of time, their dusky neophytes descended the river to New Orleans, reciting beads, and chanting prayers and hymns. Two Illinois chiefs, Chicago and Mamantonenza, went to France. As the people multiplied the soil received more attention, and, about 1746, six hundred barrels of flour, besides hides, tallow, wax, and honey, were shipped from the Wabash country alone to New Orleans annually. The condition of morals was low, as might be expected from the strange mixture of the population : fur-traders, a hare-brained, reckless class ; vagabond Indians and easy-tempered Creoles, a debauched and drunken rabble. Such was the condition of these early communities, after many years of Jesuit influence. The intrepidity and enterprise ofthe Jesuits have drawn forth our encomiums, but the moral results were meager and full of blemishes. Copious lists of conversions were reported, but they were reckoned by the number of baptisms, and La Clercq observes, "an Indian would be baptized ten times a day for a pint of brandy or a pound of tobacco." Crucifixes and medals were beautiful trinkets which pleased his fancy, but his heart was as thoroughly unchanged as when he wore a " necklace of the dried fingers of his enemies." But "the lilies of France " grew where the cross declined. The Jesuits reported the movements of Indian tribes, won them to French allegiance, and fostered their hatred of the English. A single Jesuit missionary was sometimes counted by the government as " equal to ten regiments." Notwithstanding the unparalleled facilities and resources of the Mississippi Valley, these settlements possessed in themselves no impulse of growth, so thriftless were the populations. In the middle of the last century the missions were stagnant, if not de clining. The inconstancy of the French Government at home, and the mismanagement in Louisiana affected the whole valley. With these things came the French and Indian wars, from 1755 to 1763, the defeat of France, and the surrender of all her territory east of the Mississippi, including all the Canadas, to England, and west of the river, to Spain. The wars ofthe Revolution and of Pontiac followed. Thus in rapid succession the flags of France, England and the United States floated over the Valley of the West. * Parkman. 78 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Section 4.— Resume" of Papal Movements. In Florida.— -We have before noticed * that, early in the seven teenth century, villages of converts directed by Franciscans existed along the Apalachicola, Flint and other rivers. But the English colonies planted in the Carolinas rapidly extended their bounds. Conflict arose with their Spanish neighbors and also with the Indians, resulting disastrously to the missions. Indian wars followed, and when Charlevoix visited this region, in 1722, many of the missions had been abandoned, and the influence of the others had seriously waned. " From this period, few details of the missions have reached us, down to the time when Spain ceded Florida to England by the treaty of Paris (1763). This was the death-blow of the missions. The Franciscans, with most of the Spanish settlers, left the colony; the Indians, who occupied two towns under the walls of St. Augus tine, were expelled from the grounds cultivated by their toil for years, and deprived of the church which they had themselves erected. All was given by the governor to the newly-established English Church. In ten years no native was left near the city. The Indians thus driven out became wanderers, and received the name Seminoles, which has that meaning. By degrees all traces of their former civilization and Christianity disappeared, and they have since been known only by their bitter hatred of the successors of the Spaniards." f When the Spaniards left Florida, the English found little to pos sess but the country. " The whole number of its inhabitants," says Bancroft,:]: " men, women, children and servants, was three thousand ; and of these the men were nearly all in the pay of the Catholic king. The possession of it had cost him nearly two hundred and thirty thousand dollars annually ; and now, as a compensation for Havana, he made over to England the territory which occasioned this fruitless expense. Most of the people, receiving from the Spanish treasury indemnity for their losses, migrated to Cuba, taking with them the bones of their saints and the ashes of their dis tinguished dead, leaving at St. Augustine their houses of stone, and even the graves without occupants." Texas. — The missions in Texas during the earlier period were not successful. In 1688, fourteen Franciscan priests and seven lay- * See Chapter I of Colonial Era. t Shea's History of Roman Catholic Missions Among the Indians, p. 75. X Bancroft's History of the United States, Centennial Edition. Vol. Ill, p. 403. THE PACIFIC COAST. 79 brothers, with fifty soldiers under Don Domingo Teran, entered this region and founded eight missions. Two fathers, a lay-brother, several families of civilized Indians from Mexico, a supply of stock and agricultural implements, and a small guard of soldiers as a pro tection, were assigned to each mission. One father attended exclu sively to spiritual affairs, and the other taught agriculture and tbe various arts of life. Indians joining the colony were instructed, and their labor went to the common stock, from which they drew food, clothing, etc. When capable of self-direction, fields were allot ted to them and houses erected. If single, they were urged to select wives from the Christian women. Each mission thus grew to a vil lage, Spaniards and Indians intermarrying. Reverses soon came — crops failed, cattle died, the soldiers became offensive, and the field was abandoned. The missions were re-established in 1 717, but abandoned again in two years. Between 1721 and 1746, missions were established in the center of Texas and extended northward to the borders of New Mexico. These missions continued until within the present century, when the country was unsettled by the Anglo- American colonization, the revolt of Texas, etc. New Mexico. — We have previously noticed that, in 1608, eight thousand Indians in New Mexico had received the papal faith, and in 1626 the twenty-seventh Roman Catholic mission was founded in that country. Villasenor, in 1748, gave a flattering picture of the state of this country. The Indians were clothed with materials woven by women, and industry was the prevailing habit, rewarded with peace and plenty. Religious edifices of a high order, " even rivaling those of Europe," had been erected, and the people were not much inferior to their Spanish neighbors. Twenty-two mis sions averaged one hundred families each. The political changes which more recently occurred have not seriously affected the condition of the Roman Catholic Church. Since the cession of the country to the United States, New Mexico has been made a vicarate apostolic, and finally a bishopric, by the erection of the see of Santa Fe. The first California missions were founded on the peninsula, from which point, at a later period, they were extended into the more northern portion. The Jesuits and the Franciscans shared in the former, but the Franciscans alone achieved the latter. Father Juniper Serra, an Italian Franciscan, the apostle of the missions in Upper California, was early trained in the missions of Mexico. With the assistance of eleven brothers of his order, on the 16th of July, 1769, he founded the mission of San Diego, in a long, narrow 80 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. valley, formed by chains of parallel hills embosoming a delightful prai rie. Favorable omens encouraged the missionaries, and buildings were erected ; but just as they were congratulating themselves upon the prospects they were attacked by the Indians and six persons were killed, among whom was Father Viscaino. Amicable relations were soon restored and the mission continued. The establishment of another mission at San Carlos, in 1770, occasioned great joy and the ringing of bells in the City of Mexico. Thirty new auxiliaries were immediately sent to the missions, the Dominicans also asking permission to enter the promising field. Proceeding to a beautiful site on the River San Antonio, in the bosom of Sierra Santa Lucia, where a towering canada encircles the stream, on the 14th of July, 1771, Father Serra founded the mission of St. Anthony of Padua, in the wide territory of the Telames. The missions of San Gabriel and San Luis Obispo were soon after planted. A bloody Indian massacre occurred in 1775, and the mission of San Diego was the scene. A thousand Indians attacked and pil laged the mission, and many fell, among whom was Father Louis Jayme, whose body was terribly hacked and mangled. " Thank God ! the field is watered ! " exclaimed the intrepid Serra, as he proceeded, though broken in health, to inspire his co-laborers. After a short delay San Diego rose from its ruins. The mission of San Francisco was founded June 27, 1776, at the time when the Continental Congress was discussing the great question of American Independence. Other missions were commenced at Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Jose, San Miguel, etc., etc., and the Indian con verts were soon numbered by thousands. The Indian missions of the Roman Catholics in the North were numerous. Missions among the Hurons began in 161 5, among the Iroquois and Ottaways in 1642 ; the Winnebagos, at Green Bay, in 1660; the Chippeways in 1661 ; the Sioux, west of Lake Superior, in 1661 ; the Miamis in 1680. Sault St. Mary, Mackinaw and Green Bay were mission centers for many years. Father Gravier, a dis tinguished Jesuit, was superior of the missions in Illinois from 1687 to 1706. Early Papal Missionaries to the Indians.* Number of Indian Tribes. Missionaries. Period of Service. Abenakis 22 1613 to 1796 Hurons 30 161 5 to 1650 Iroquois 40 1642 to 1832 Number of Indian Tribes. Missionaries. Period of Service. Ottaway 30 1642 to 1781 Illinois 33 1673 to 1757 Louisiana 16 1699 to 1748 * For a full list of these missionaries, with names, dates, etc., see History of Catholic Mis sions Among the Indians of North America, by J. Gilmary Shea. 1857. New York : Edward Dunigan & Bro., pp. 499-502. HOSTILITY AGAINST THE JESUITS. 81 Results. Of the thirty-three missionaries who had entered the Illinois coun try from the visit of Marquette, in 1673, to 1750, only three or four remained at the latter date. At this time, also, a deep hostility was rising in Europe against the Jesuits, and the order was formally expelled from France, Naples and Spain in 1763. The French Court confiscated all their property, and the royal officers in New Orleans, without waiting for the king's decree, dispersed the Jesuits at the point of the bayonet, and con fiscated their property, appraised at $186,000, prior to February, 1764. Nine years later, this celebrated order was formally suppressed by the pope. At the close of the French war, more than eighty years had elapsed, of exclusive French and papal sway, since La Salle estab lished his first military post on the Mississippi; but the population of this new and attractive region was very inconsiderable. Accord ing to Fraser, as quoted by Bancroft,* there were in Illinois, in 1765, of white men able to bear arms, 700 : of white women, 500; of their children, 850; of negroes of both sexes, 900. One hundred and ten French families were at Vincennes and along the banks of the Wabash. At St. Genevieve there were " at least five and twenty families," and at St. Louis " about twice that number." New Orleans, according to the census of 1769, had a population of nearly thirty-two hundred, and Detroit was a village of little more than one hundred houses. Prior to 1 77 1, Irish Catholics had not settled much in America, only in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Those settling elsewhere gen erally gave up their religion. A considerable number of German Catholics settled in Pennsylvania, but their priests were few in num ber. " It is asserted that more than half of the regular troops furnished by Pennsylvania during the war of the Revolution, or, as they are now called, 'the Pennsylvania lines,' were Irish Catholics; from which it may be inferred that, though the Church had suffered enormous losses, ... it still presented, at the time of the Revolution, an imposing mass, composed in a great measure of Irish, of whom, perhaps, a third were born in Ireland." f The number of Catholic priests in the United States when the Revolution commenced was twenty-six. * History of the United States, Centennial Edition. Vol. Ill, p. 511, t Letter to the Lyons Propaganda, by Dr. England, Catholic Bishop of Charleston, S. C. See Am. Quart. Reg., 1841, p. 141. 6 82 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER IV. CHURCH AND STATE, Sec. I. Diverse Colonial Constitutions. " 2. Points of Agreement. " 3. Religious Limitations. Sec. 4. Religious Legislation. " 5. Religious Intolerance. " 6. General Considerations. IN the Hebrew theocracy the Church and the State were in timately blended, the latter subject to the former. Ancient paganism was a part of the State and dependent upon it. In both religion had no separate existence. But Christ proclaimed his Church a spiritual kingdom, " not of this world," nor dependent on the civil power, that it might be kept free from worldly limita tions and contaminations. In the decline of spiritual Christianity, after the apostolic age, religion became corrupted with paganism and sought alliance with the State. When the empire decayed, the Church advanced her influence by new assumptions of power, or ganized herself with hierarchical orders and prerogatives, and seized the scepter of supreme dominion. For a thousand years she wielded a more than imperial power. The great European monarchies which sprang up in the fifteenth century were allies and vassals of the papal Church. The Reforma tion ofthe sixteenth century became an established fact over nearly half of Europe, but it brought no deliverance to the Church from its unnatural alliance with the secular power. The reformers, not withstanding all their sufferings from papal persecution, had no such conception of religious freedom as has since been entertained. Hence, when they separated themselves from Rome, they allied themselves with the civil powers, and availed themselves of the civil arm for the punishment of heresy and the prevention of dissent. The same tendency was every-where visible, among the Lutherans in Germany, the Episcopalians in England, and the Presbyterians in Scotland and Geneva. The early religious emigrants to this country came with these ideas, a part of the common heritage of the times. The mutual recognition and support of the Church and State were supposed to be a necessity, and it is doubtful whether THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. 88 the English Government would have granted colonial charters on any other conditions. Among the English colonists there were two classes — high churchmen, who were admirers of prelacy, and Puritans, who fled from its oppressions — both members of the Established Church of England ; the former settling in the Middle and Southern States, and the latter in New England.* Both of these classes agreed in seeking for the Church the aid of the State, but with marked dif ferences in their methods ; the one monarchical, perpetuating the English Church in connection with the English Government, and the other democratic, organizing independent churches on the prin ciple of the equality of the individual members, and in vital union with the local civil power, but disowning ecclesiastical responsibility to English authority. The civil power and patronage, in some form, were every-where felt to be a necessity. In the present century the question of " Establishment " or '* Disestablishment " has enlisted the best thought of Christendom, and prompted careful, anxious and profound inquiries. European statesmen and divines are deeply pondering the problem whether religion is dependent for its prestige, success, and permanency upon the civil power; or whether, if left to itself and to purely voluntary agencies, it will be able to make its influence felt in purifying and elevating society, producing peaceable and orderly citizens, and maintain itself against elements of weakness from within and oppo sition from without. In the history of the American churches this problem seems destined to find a solution ; for here Christianity has existed under the necessary conditions, and in forms somewhat experimental.')' It has already been subjected to a twofold test under diverse condi tions—in the colonial and in the national eras. In the latter the churches have sustained only voluntary relations, amid which their progress will be unfolded in the principal part of this volume. In the former they were united with the civil authority in all the older and larger colonies. This will first receive attention. What was the ecclesiastico-civil situation in the early colonies of the United States ? The civil condition must first be understood. The peculiarities of the colonial governments, their points of difference and agree ment, the religious limitations of their constitutions, and the legis lation upon religious matters must be carefully considered. It will * The Pilgrims, or Separatists, were another class. See pp. 28, 29. t See last chapter in this volume. 84 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. then be possible to appreciate the religious progress of the earlier times, the changes which took place after the Revolution, when the relations of the churches to the States were dissolved, and the new conditions of purely voluntary support amid which Christianity has since existed. • Section 1.— The Early Colonial Const itntions. The thirteen English colonies in North America by whose in habitants the American Revolution was achieved existed prior to that time as separate communities, with domestic governments, pe culiar to themselves, derived from the crown of England. In re spect to their civil polity the colonial organizations have been classed as Provincial, Proprietary, and Charter governments. Provincial or Royal Governments. To this class belonged Vir ginia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. In these the organic constitutions were simply " the respective com missions issued by the crown to the governors," and the instruc tions which accompanied them. By his commission the governor was the appointee and representative of the crown, to which he was responsible. The crown also appointed a council, which, to some extent shared in the executive duties with the governor, and also constituted the upper house of the provincial legislature. The lower house consisted of representatives of the freeholders of the province. These bodies had power to make local laws not repug nant to the laws of England. Proprietary Governments. To this class the provinces of Mary land, Pennsylvania and Delaware belonged, in which " the subordi nate powers of legislature and government were granted to certain individuals called the proprietaries, who appointed the governor and authorized him to summon legislative assemblies." * These pro prietary governments exercised all the prerogatives which in the provincial governments belonged to the crown. Only one limita tion was stipulated — that the ends for which the grant was made by the crown should be observed in the local legislation, and that " nothing should be done or attempted which might derogate from the sovereignty of the mother country." In Maryland the laws en acted were not subjected to the supervision of the crown, but in Pennsylvania and Delaware they were.f * History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution ofthe United States, By George Ticknor Curtis. New York : Harper & Brothers. 1854. Vol. I, p. 5. t Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, with a Preliminary Review. By Joseph Story, LL.D. Abridged edition. , Boston : Hilliard, Gray & Co. 1833. Pp. 68, 69. EARLY DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 83 Charter Governments. Plymouth, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut were the only colonies of this class, and each had some peculiarities of its own. The Plymouth Colony landed without any charter. " A large patent " had been granted by the London " Company; " but, " be ing taken in the name of one who failed to accompany the expedi tion, the patent was never of the least service."* The Pilgrims, therefore, prior to their landing, drew up and signed " an original compact," in which they acknowledged themselves subjects of the crown of England, and combined themselves into " a civil body politic," " to frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, con stitutions, and offices from time to time as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony," to which all promised " due submission and obedience." It was the essence of a pure democracy. After several ineffectual attempts, in 1629 a patent was obtained under the original charter of 1620. This charter furnished them "with the color of a delegated sovereignty." f The first charter of the Massachusetts Colony " provided only for a civil corporation within the realm, and did not justify the assump tion of the extensive, exclusive legislative and judicial powers which were afterward exercised upon the removal of the charter to Amer ica." \ The same thing was true of the Plymouth Colony. These charters were both lost in the Revolution of 1688. The new charter of William and Mary, in 1691, combined these two colonies and also the province of Maine under one jurisdiction. It was upon a broad foundation, and not a mere corporation " empowered to appoint by laws," but " in the strictest sense a charter for general political gov ernment ; a constitution for a State with sovereign powers and pre rogatives." It was " dependent, indeed, and subject to, the realm of England ; " but still it possessed within its own territorial limits "the general powers of legislation and taxation." The governor was appointed by the crown, but the council was annually chosen by the assembly, and the assembly by the people. " In Connecticut and Rhode Island the charter governments were organized altogether upon popular and democratic principles, the governor, council and assembly being annually chosen by the freemen ofthe colony." § * Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 305. t Story on the Constitution. Edition of Hilliard & Gray. Boston 1833. P. 17. X Ibid, pp. 69, 70. § For a fuller statement of the character of the early colonial governments see Commentaries on the Constitution ofthe United States. By Hon. Joseph Story, LL.D. 86 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Section £.— Points of Agreement. Notwithstanding the diversities of the colonial constitutions, they all agreed in several particulars. I. All the colonists enjoyed the rights and privileges of British born subjects and the benefits of the common laws of England. All the early colonial legislatures passed declaratory acts acknowledg ing and confirming these immunities, thus securing a real and effective magna charta of their liberties, and firmly establishing the trial by jury, in all civil and criminal cases. 2. Practically, however, it seems to have been left to the colonial judicatures to determine what portions of the common law were applicable to the colonies, and hence a considerable difference of interpretation and administration prevailed in the different sections. 3. Appeals from the highest colonial courts were adjudicated by "the king in council." In most of the colonial constitutions this right was secured by express reservation. 4. There was one fundamental limitation upon all the legislation of the colonies, stipulating that no laws should be enacted repug nant to those of England. A considerable latitude, however, was sometimes allowed in the exposition of this clause. 5. Though the colonies had a common origin, owed a common allegiance, and the inhabitants of each were British subjects, yet they had "no direct political connection with each other; each was independent of all the others ; each, in a limited sense, was sovereign within its own territory. There was neither alliance nor con federacy between them." 6. And yet they were not wholly alien from each other, for they were all subjects of a common sovereignty, and, for many purposes, one people. Every colonist had a right, as a British subject, to inhabit any other colony, and to inherit or hold property in them all. 7. But, as colonists, they were excluded from all connection with foreign powers. They were known only as dependencies ; and they followed the fate of the parent country, both in peace and war, with no power of diplomacy. No treaty or league between them selves could possess any obligatory force without the assent of the crown, and whenever their mutual wants led them to associate for the purposes of common defense these confederacies were of a temporary character, and were allowed as an indulgence rather than as a right. 8. Every-where in the colonies the attributes of sovereignty, VARIOUS RESTRICTIONS. 87 perpetuity, and responsibility were recognized as inhering in the political capacity of the king. He was the head of the Church, the fountain of authority and justice, the generalissimo of the forces, entitled to share in the legislation, to enter a nolle prosequi in civil prosecutions, to pardon crimes, to release forfeitures, to pre sent benefices, to appoint governors, to grant commissions, and perform any other acts not expressly yielded or renounced in the colonial constitutions. Section 3.— The Religions Limitations. Under the Provincial Governments. Virginia. The original charter was vested in a commercial corporation, located in London, which, with the aid of a subordinate council, in the colony, governed the emigrants by royal authority. " Religion was specially enjoined to be established according to the doctrines and rites of the Church of England ; and no emigrant might withdraw his allegiance from King James or avow dissent from the royal creed."* After the fall of the London Company, under the new charter, granted in 1624, the governors were required to uphold public worship according to the form and discipline of the Church of England, and to " avoid all factions and needless novelties." In New Hampshire liberty of conscience was allowed to all Protestants, but " those of the Church of England were to be specially encouraged." New York. The Dutch, who first settled this State, set up the Reformed religion, according to the acts of the Synod of Dort, and the colonial clergy were commissioned by the Classis of Am sterdam ; but no formal constitutional restriction was enacted until 1640, when the West India Company, which then controlled the colony, decreed that " no other religion shall be publicly admitted," " except the Reformed Church." f In New Jersey liberty of conscience was allowed to all persons except papists. In the Carolinas an express clause in the charter opened the way for religious freedom. Georgia was an asylum for the persecuted Protestants of Europe of every name. * Bancroft's History ofthe United States. Vol. I, p. 123. t Documents of Colonial History of New York. " Holland," I, p. 123. 88 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Under the Proprietary Governments. In Maryland no religion tolerated by the crown at home could be excluded. In Pennsylvania and Delaware liberty of conscience and of worship, and eligibility to public office were granted to all persons professing to believe in Jesus Christ. Under the Chartered Constitutions. The case of the Plymouth Colony was peculiar. The Pilgrims were Independents, and previous to their departure from England they petitioned the king for liberty of religion, to be confirmed under the king's broad seal. " ' Who shall make your ministers ? ' was asked of them ; and they answered, ' The power of making them is in the Church ; ordination requires no bishops ; ' and their avowal of their principles threatened to spoil all. . . . While the negotiations were pending, a royal declaration constrained the Puritans of Lancaster to conform or leave the kingdom ; and nothing more could be obtained for the wilds of America than an informal promise of neglect. On this the community relied, being advised not to entangle themselves with bishops." * With this implied guaranty they founded the colony at Plymouth, in 1620, without a formal charter, as has been previously mentioned. They had security for their own religious freedom, but were not bound by any chartered stipulations to others. The charter which was formally granted in 1629 made no change in their religious status. The charter of the Massachusetts Colony simply conferred the rights of English subjects, without any enlargement of religious liberty. The patentees being Churchmen at the time of their de parture from England, this fact was supposed to be, in itself, a sufficient guaranty ; and they were left unrestricted. In Maine the early charter expressed " the will and pleasure of the crown that the religion of the Church of England should be pro fessed, and its ecclesiastical government be established, in the province." In 1691 a new charter was granted, by which the three colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Maine were united under one colonial government, and "liberty of conscience in the worship of God to all Christians except papists " was decreed. . In Connecticut the original charter was silent in regard K religious rights and liberty. * Bancroft's History ofthe United States. Vol. I, p. 305. RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION. 89 The charter oi Rhode Island, which was not obtained until 1663, decreed that " no person, within the said colony, should be in any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any difference of opinion in matters of religion, which did not actually disturb the civil peace of said colony ; but that all and every person and persons might, from time to time, and at all times thereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judg ments and consciences in matters of religious concernments." Section 4.— Early Religions Legislation. This phase of the subject opens a broad field from which ex amples will be given. The religious legislation of Virginia, Mas sachusetts, New York, and Maryland, will be the most fully sketched, and only brief references will be made to the other colonies. Virginia. This State was colonized by the admirers of English prelacy, and it has been already noticed that its charter established the religion of the Church of England. " Thus the two bulwarks of English loyalty — an aristocracy and a hierarchy — were set up on the soil of Virginia."* From the arrival of Lord Delaware, in 1610, a new administration was introduced, under a new charter granted the previous year, according to which officers were selected and sent out by the London Company. Such was the dread of popery that it was stipulated that no person should enter the province of Virginia * but such as had first taken the oath of supremacy. Henceforth specific instructions were sent to the colony from the mother country, often extending to religious matters. On the failure of his health, Lord Delaware returned to England, and Sir Thomas Dale was sent to Virginia. The arrival of Sir Thomas Dale, as governor, in 161 1, "marks the period at which penal laws were first introduced to aid the colonists in keeping a good conscience." The governor was furnished with a bodyf of " Lawes, diuine, ' morall, and martiall," for the colony.;]: * Bancroft. t Stith's Virginia, p. 122. Burk's Virginia, Vol. I, p. 165. X Two specimens of these lams are here given : VI. " Euerie man and woman duly twice a day, vpon the first towling of the bell, shall vpon the working daies repaire vnto the Church to heare diuine service, vpon paine of losing his or her 90 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. They were chiefly translated from the martial laws of the " Low Countries, and were entirely at variance with the spirit of English liberty. In this singular code of bloody enactments, the Church was provided for ; but it is due both to the governors and the governed to state, that on the one hand there was as little disposition to en force as on the other to submit to, the penalties of the code." * In 1618, Captain Argall, the deputy governor, in revisingthe code provided that " every person should go to church, Sundays and holy days, or lie neck and heels that night, and be a slave to the colony the following week; for the second offense, he should be. a slave for a month ; and, for the third, a year and a day." f The tyranny of Argall led to a remonstrance to the London Company, and the following year a new governor appeared, bringing a new charter. It provided that the clergy should have in each borough a glebe, to consist of one hundred acres, and should receive from the profits of each parish a standing revenue, to be worth at least two hundred pounds. Thenceforth also, a colonial legislature assembled, consisting of " two burgesses chosen for every town, hundred, and plantation." Among the first laws of this body was one for the daye's allowance for the first omission ; for the second, to be whipt ; and for the third, to be con demned to the gallies for six months. Likewise, no man or woman shall dare to violate or breake the Sabbath by any gaming, publique or private, abroad or at home, but duly sanctify and observe the same, both himselfe and his familie, by preparing themselves at home by private praise, that they may be the better fitted for the publique, according to the commandments of God and the orders of our Church ; as also, euerie man and woman shall repaire in the morning to the diuine service, and sermones preached vpon the Sabbath daie, and in the afternoon to diuine service and catechising, vpon paine for the first fault to lose their provision and allowance for the whole weeke following ; for the second, to lose the said allowance, and also to be whipt ; and for the third, to suffer death." XXXIII. "There is not one man nor woman in this colonie now present, or hereafter to arrive, but shall give up an account of his and their faith and religion, and repaire vnto the minister that by his conference with them he may vnderstand and gather whether heretofore they have been sufficiently instructed and catechised in the principles and grounds of religion; whose weakness and ignorance herein, the minister finding and advising them in all love and charitie to repaire often vnto him to receive therein a greater measure of knowledge ; if they shall refuse so to repaire vnto him, and he the minister give notice thereof vnto the governor or that chiefe officer of that towne or fort wherein he or she, the parties so offending shall remaine, the governor shall cause the offender, for the first time of refusal, to be whipt ; for the second time he shall be whipt twice, and to acknowledge his fault vpon the Sabbath daie in the assembly of the congregation ; and for the third time, to be whipt every day vntil he hath made the same acknowledgement, and ask forgiveness of the same, and shall repaire vnto the minister to be further instructed as aforesaid ; and vpon the Sabbath, when the minister shall catechise and of him demand any question concerning his faith and knowledge, he shall not refuse to make answer vpon the same perill." " For the colony in Virgineia Brittannia : Lawes, Diuine, morall, and martiall, etc." Lon don, 1612. Collected and published by Wm. Strachey. See also Hazvhs's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 25, 27. * History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia. By Rev. F. L. Hawks, D.D. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1836, p. 24. Also, I. Buch's Appendip, 304. tStith's Virginia, 145; Burk's Virginia, 195. CONFORMITY IN VIRGINIA. 91 church. In 1621-22 it was enacted that each clergyman should receive from his parishioners fifteen hundred pounds of tobacco and sixteen barrels of corn, no person paying more than ten pounds of tobacco and one bushel of corn. Every male who had reached the age of sixteen years was liable to this tax. * Again, in 1624, there was special legislation with reference to the Church, by the colonial assembly convened by Sir Francis Wyatt. Of the thirty-five laws passed, the first seven laws were for the benefit of the Church and the clergy. They provided that, in every plantation, " a house or room " should be set apart for the worship of God, and also a place for burial ; that absence from church for one Sabbath, without a good excuse, should be punished by a fine of a pound of tobacco, and, for a month, fifty pounds ; that all persons should yield conformity to the canons of the Church of England, upon pain of censure ; that the 22d of March (the day of the great Indian massacre in 1622), should be solemnized and kept holy, and that all other holy days should be observed ; that no minister should be absent from his cure above two months in the whole year, upon penalty of forfeiting half his salary, and, if absent four months, his whole salary and cure ; that whoever should disparage a minister, without sufficient proof to justify his reports, should pay five hundred pounds of tobacco, and ask the minister's forgiveness publicly in the congregation ; that no man should dispose of any of his tobacco before paying the minister, upon forfeiture of double his part toward the salary, and that one man in every plantation should be appointed to collect the minister's salary out of the first and best tobacco and coi'n.f This was the last legislation that affected the Church, under the jurisdiction of the London Company. The same year the king arbitrarily re sumed the charter, and henceforth, for the next one hundred and fifty years, the government was provincial in its character. In 1629 an act was passed, enjoining, under severe penalties, a strict conformity to the canons of the Established Church ; and, in 1642, another, declaring that "no minister should be permitted to officiate in the country but such as should produce to the governor a testimonial that he had received his ordination from some bishop in England," and should pledge " conformity to the Church of England," and that any other person pretending to minister should be compelled to depart from the country. The civil code of this period was very severe in its penalties. A woman convicted of * Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, p. 35. t Hening's Virginia Statutes at Large, 122 ; Stith, 319. 92 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. scolding was ordered to be ducked three times from a vessel lying in James River ; a man guilty of slandering a minister was required to pay a fine of five hundred pounds of tobacco, and to ask the pardon of the minister before the congregation. In the year 1633 a citizen of Hungar parish, for the offense of slandering Rev. Mr. Cotton, was ordered by the Court to make a pair of stocks, and sit in them several Sabbath days, during divine service, and then ask Mr. Cotton's forgiveness. In the year 1643 the Court ordered that Richard Buckland, who had written a slanderous song on Ann Smith, should stand, during the " Lessons " at the church door with a paper on his hat, on which should be written " Inimicus Libellus" and that he should ask forgiveness of God, and also of Ann Smith. In 1664 Mary Powell was ordered to receive twenty lashes on her bare shoulders, and be banished from the country, on account of slander. Quakers quietly worshiping God, but not according to the methods of the Established Church, were convicted of blasphemy and banished from the country. * In 1664 the condition of the Church in Virginia was very unfavora ble, and an extended representation of its affairs was made to the Bishop of London and the king by the governor, SirWm. Berkeley, in his visit to England that year. In reply he received " a body of instructions," which formed the basis of the colonial legislation for the Church, after his return, in 1662. These acts provided for the erection of church edifices, the arrangement of parishes, the supply of Bibles, prayer-books, and other church requisites, regulated the compensation of the clergy, the frequency of public services and the sacraments, the appointments of vestrymen, and the observance of the Sabbath. In 1689, Rev. James Blair, D.D., was appointed by the king and his council, and duly commissioned by the Bishop of London, as a commissary "to supply the office and jurisdiction of the bishop in the outlying places of the diocese." Virginia was his special field of labor, and his functions were restricted to the inspection of churches, the delivering of charges, and, in some instances, the administration of discipline. In the year 1705, additional statutes were enacted for the sup pression of vice and the punishment of blasphemy. They provided that the denial of God, or the Trinity, or the truth of the Christian religion, or the authority of the Scriptures, for the first offense, should be punished by the forfeiture of all official positions within the * Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. By Rev. Bishop Wm. Meade Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857, vol. I, pp. 254, 5. DISSENT INCREASING. 93 province ; for the second, disqualification from being guardian, administrator, grantee, legatee, devisee, etc.; and that the offender should also suffer three years' imprisonment. Stringent statutes were also enacted to promote the observance of the Lord's day. Any person who should be absent from the parish church for one month, or be present at any disorderly meeting, gaming, or tippling, or make any journey, or travel on the road, except to and from church (cases of necessity and mercy excepted), should be fined, and, on failure to pay the fine, should be whipped. * The legislature of the colony, in 1727, fixed the annual salary of the clergy at sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco, and ordered that not less than two hundred acres of land should be purchased and appropriated, as a glebe, in each parish, with comfortable buildings. Passing by other similar legislation, in which the mutual relations of the civil and ecclesiastical bodies are exhibited, the close of the colonial period is reached, when a great revolution took place. Dur ing several years a spirit of opposition to the Established Church had been augmenting, and finally it fully engaged the attention of the legislature of 1776, in which, after a desperate contest, an act was passed repealing all laws implying criminality for differences of opinion in matters of religion, neglect of attendance upon church services and laws restricting the mode of worship. Dissenters were also, by law, exempted from paying taxes for the support of the Episcopal Church. Arrears of salaries due the clergy, and glebes already purchased, with church edifices, books, etc., were secured to them. This was the second statute enacted by the first repub lican legislature of Virginia, f At this time, about two thirds % of the people of the State had become dissenters, or at least were not connected with the Established Church. Maryland. The early history of this celebrated colony was characterized by great liberality, which made it a marked exception in those days. The Legislative Assembly, in 1645, adopted a strong statutory declaration in favor of religious liberty, for which that colony has received many high encomiums. § Its language is strikingly in con- * Trott's Laws of Virginia No. 46 ; 3. Hening's Statutes at Large, p. 358. t Hawks's History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, p. 143. X Benedict's History of the Baptists. New York, Lewis Colby, etc., 1848, p. 653. § It should not, however, be overlooked that this virtue was not a purely voluntary thing. The home government, to which all the colonies were amenable, was intensely Protestant, and it was a condition of the grant that all religions must be allowed which were tolerated by the crown at 94 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. trast with the spirit of the early colonies of Virginia, New England and New York, and especially with that shown in the history of the Papal Church. It declared that " the enforcement of the conscience has been an unlawful and dangerous prerogative ; " that no person professing to believe in Jesus Christ should be molested in respect to his religion, or in the free exercise thereof; that persons molest ing any others in respect to their religious tenets should be heavily fined, but that persons speaking reproachfully of the Virgin Mary, or guilty of blasphemy, should be punished, the latter with death. Such a statute is the more remarkable because a great variety of religious classes, although, probably, not formed into churches, were already in the colony, at this early period, as may be inferred from the terms used in this celebrated document ; namely, " Heretic, Schismatic, Idolater, Puritan, Independent, Presbyterian, Popish priest, Jesuit, Jesuited Papist, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist, Brownist, Antinomian, Barronist, Roundhead and Separatist." To whatever the toleration of the Protestants by the Catholics of Maryland may be attributed, it is, nevertheless, the just verdict of impartial history that, " under the enlightened policy of Lord Baltimore the colony steadily advanced in prosperity, increasing both in comfort and in numbers. Roman Catholics and Protestants alike found protection and security, and lived in harmony." * Under the administration of Governor Fendall, in 1658, the Quak ers were persecuted, and four years before, when Cromwell's commis sioners took possession of the colony, attempts to worship, by Cath olics and Episcopalians, were suppressed. Before the close of the century there were repeated changes f in the civil condition of home. In fact, the Maryland Colony was a Protestant measure affording an asylum for Roman Catholics at a time when they were suffering severe persecution. De Courcey, an eminent Roman Catholic writer, has frankly dissented from the encomiums which have been pronounced upon this papal colony on account of toleration. He says, " When a State has the happiness of possessing unity of religion, and that religion the truth, we. cannot conceive how the government can facilitate the division of creeds. Lord Baltimore had seen too well how the English Catholics, were crushed by the Protestants, as soon as they were the strongest and most numerous ; he should then have foreseen that it would have been so in Mary land, so that the English Catholics, instead of finding liberty in America, only changed their bondage. Instead, then, of admiring the liberality of Lord Baltimore, we prefer to believe that he obtained his charter from Charles I. only on the formal condition of admitting Protestants on an equal footing with Catholics'1' See The Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. Translated and enlarged by John Gilmary Shea New York. Edward Duni^an & Bro., 1857, p. 30. * History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D.D. New York. John S. Tyler, 1839, p. 30. t There were several embarrassments. During the middle of the first century a civil war was in progress in England, and the supreme power was first in the king, then in Cromwell and Par liament, then in the king again, which changes affected the civil condition of the colony. Con- CA THO LIC TRAINING PROHIBITED. 95 England, which often proved unfavorable to the Maryland Catholics. As one of the effects of the English Revolution in 1688 a wide spread abhorrence of popery prevailed, extending to all the colonies. In the meantime other sects were increasing in numbers more rap idly, especially the Episcopalians. When the proprietary govern ment was closed up, in that province, in 1692, and the colony was brought directly under the officers of the crown, the Church of England was established by the colonial legislature, and a tax was imposed by law for its support.* The law of 1692 provided that the Church of England should enjoy all her rights, liberties and fran chises wholly inviolable, that the several counties should be laid out into parishes, that taxes for the support of the clergy should be levied, and that the vestries should be bodies corporate, f The ten counties were divided into thirty-six parishes. The number of the clergy at that time was sixteen, and the population twenty-five thousand. % The Episcopal Church remained under this regimen until the American Revolution, favored with the patronage of the civil power. Other sects were tolerated, except the papists, who were absolutely forbidden to assemble for worship. Catholic school-masters were followed up by the officers of the law, and Catholic parents were prohibited from educating their chil dren in the faith of their ancestors. But the learned and zealous Jesuit missionaries in the province had established at Bohemia, a remote and secluded spot on the Eastern Shore, a grammar school, where, without observation or molestation, the Catholic youth of the province received a preparatory training for the European col leges. Here the youthful Carroll, with his illustrious cousin, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and his relative, Robert Brent, entered on their preparatory studies. § In South Carolina, the first proprietaries protected all the sects. In 1704, the colonial oligarchy, who were churchmen, by political chicanery obtained a majority of one in the Legislature — notwith- tentions arose, and the Catholics and proprietors at one time arrayed themselves against the rul ing powers in England. Civil war was thus transferred to the colony, in which the governor and the Catholics were defeated. Hence, in 1654, when Cromwell assumed the protectorate, the Catholics having arrayed themselves against the government, a new assembly was convened, and an act was passed by which persons who held to popery or prelacy were restrained from the free exercise of their religion. Other changes followed under subsequent sovereigns. *History of the Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. Enlarged by John Gilmary Shea. New York, 1857. Edward Dunigan & Bro., p. 33. + Bacon's Laws of Maryland, 1692, Ch. II. Also Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Maryland, pp. 71, 72. X Griffith's Sketches of Maryland, p. 36. § Lives of the Deceased Catholic Bishops, vol. I, p. 34. 96 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. standing two thirds of the inhabitants were not Episcopalians— dis franchised all but themselves, and gave the Church of England the exclusive monopoly of political power. The dissenters appealed to the House of Lords, in England ; the acts complained of were annulled by the crown, and were repealed by the Colonial Assembly two years afterward. From that time until the American Revolu tion dissenters were tolerated, and allowed a share in civil matters, but the Church of England remained the established Church of the province. * At the commencement of the last century almost all denomina tions existed in North Carolina, Quakers, Lutherans, Presbvterians, Independents, etc., constituting the majority of the people. But the proprietaries forced a church establishment upon this province in 1704, claiming that the majority were only "Quakers, Atheists, Deists and other evil-disposed persons." From that time, churches were erected at public expense, and other provisions for an Estab lishment, such as parishes and clergy, were made. But the Episcopal Church never became very strong in that province. East and West New Jersey united into one province, and placed under the administration of the crown in 1702, had its future gov ernment laid down in the commission and instructions to Lord Cornbury ; toleration being allowed to all but papists, and special " favor " invoked for the Church of England — that Church being so far established there seventy-three years before the American Rev olution. In Pennsylvania there never was any union of Church and State, nor any attempt to bring it about. Delaware was separated from Pennsylvania in 1691, and, from that time, had its own gov ernors under the immediate control of the crown. But in Dela ware, as well as in New Jersey and in Georgia, the colony of the good Cavalier, James Oglethorpe, who loved " the king and the Church," there can hardly be said to have been an Establishment. The "favor" shown to the Episcopal Church secured a mainten ance for a 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 people, who preferred other modes of worship. New York. It has been mentioned that the Reformed Dutch Church was established in this colony by the first settlers, and that in 1640 it * Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. Ill, pp. 18, 19. FREEDOM OF WORSHIP IN NEW YORK. 97 was confirmed by the decree of the West India Company. In 1664, the City of New York was taken by the English, who stipulated that the Dutch should enjoy entire liberty of conscience and wor ship, while, at the same time, the new government established the Church of England in every parish of the colony. But a public pledge was given that " no person should be .molested, fined or imprisoned, for differing in judgment in matters of religion, who professed Christianity." * At the Quarter Millennial Anniversary of the Reformed Prot estant Dutch Church of New York City Rev. Dr. Dix said : New Amsterdam was taken ; it became New York, and the Church of England was planted where the Classis of Amsterdam had been the supreme and only ecclesiastical authority. But observe how scrupulously the rights of your fore fathers were respected. There is nothing like it in history ; never did conquerors 'treat the conquered with such deference and consideration. As far as possible, the old customs were preserved ; private rights, contracts, inheritances, were scru pulously regarded ; and, as for the Reformed Dutch Church, it seems to have been treated as a sacred thing. It was more than protected; it was actually established by law, by an 'English governor, under English auspices. This was, perhaps, no more than a fair return for the good deeds done by your people. When your turn came to be under the yoke, it was said to you in substance: "You shall still be free;, not one of your old customs shall.be changed, until you change them your selves ; by us you shall not be meddled with ; 'keep your places of worship, your 'flocks, and all you have, in peace." And so, to their old church of St. Nicholas, inside the fort, did your people continue to wend their way in absolute security, though English sentries were at the gates ; and within the walls over which the standard of England waved did the good Dutch dominie speak his mind as freely as ever to his spiritual children ; nor was it until they had "finished their devotions and withdrawn, that the English chaplain ventured within the same house of wor ship to read his office from the Book of Common Prayer. Subsequently (1686) \ an effort was made to put the province under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canter bury; and, three years after, it was embraced within the diocese of the Bishop of London, without whose approval no clergyman could be inducted into any parish. About this time, taxes were levied upon all the inhabitants for the support of the Episcopal clergy, although liberty o. conscience was granted to all persons except * N. Y. Historical Society's Collections, I, p. 332. t In 1686, Governor Dougan, of the Colony of New York, was instructed as follows : "You are to take especial care that God Almighty be devoutly served throughout the government, the Book of Common Prayer, as it is now established, read every Sunday and Holy Day, and the blessed sacraments administered according to the rites of the Church of England. . . . Our will and pleasure' is, that no minister be preferred by you to any ecclesiastical benefice in our province without a certificate from the Archbishop of Canterbury, of his being conformable to the doc trine and discipline of the Church of England, and of a good life and conversation.'' 7 98 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. papists. Under the governorship of Col. Benjamin Fletcher (1693), the Church of England made considerable progress toward eccle siastical distinction. It was recognized and sustained by the gov ernment, while the Reformed Church was still allowed. Dissent was not, however, encouraged. In 1706, a petition was presented to the government " to exempt Protestants from any taxation for the support of ministers of churches to which they did not belong ; " but it was rejected, and down to about the time of the Revolution Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc., were compelled to support the Epis copal Church. * New England. It has been said that the Plymouth Colony, at the time of their landing, were without a formal charter ; but in the cabin of the Mayflower they drew up a form of civilgovernment which was " the germ of the republican institutions ofthe United States." " Standing around the table in the ship's cabin, they organized themselves into a Commonwealth, and pledged themselves to make just and equal * The following additi >nal items will be of interest : " The letter of the Bishop of London to the king in council, in February 1759, as found in the Colonial Documents, Vol. VII, page 360, is full of valuable facts : ' In 1696, the king directed that the president, council and ministers, should provide that the live word and service of God should be preached, planted and used, according to the rites and doctrines of the Church of England. . . The Church of England being established in America, the Independents and other Dissenters who went to settle in New England could only have toleration, and, in fact, they had no more, as appears by their several charters, and more particularly by the Rhode Island charter, granted in the fourteenth year of Charles II. Thus stands the risht of the Church of England in America. And, in fact, at least one half of the plantations are of the Established Church, and have built churches and ministers' houses, and have by-laws of their respective assemblies, confirmed by the crown, pro viding maintenance for the Church of England clergy.' In September, 1693, the Colonial Assem bly passed an act for settling a ministry and raising a maintenance for them, and for enforcing collections by taxation for this purpose. This act received the king's assent in council on May 11 1697. It is very evident that many of the colonists were dissatisfied with the operations of this law, for in 1695 the Colonial Assembly of New York resolved that the wardens and vestrymen had power to call a dissenting minister under the act of 1693. " Notwithstanding Governor Fletcher rebuked the assembly for such an assumption, a bill was passed in 1699 for settling a ministry of Dissenters. The Earl of Bellomont maintained that such a measure was in conflict with his instructions and he rejected it. As freeholders elected the wardens, who chose the ministers, it is evident that those in sympathy with Dissenters were largely chosen. At Jamaica, in 1702, a dissenting minister, Mr. Hubbard, was called by the war dens and vestrymen. In 1704, Lord Cornbury put into possession of this church a minister of the Chutch of England, by his warrant alone. After his death his widow put into possession a dissenting minister who had married her daughter. Litigation followed, but the Presbyterians were never dispossessed of the church or property. As illustrations of the sentiments which pre vailed at that day even in New York, the following facts are pertinent : ' In 1706, a bill was intro duced to exempt the Protestants of the counties of New York, Westchester, Queens and Rich mond, from any taxation for the support of ministers of churches to which they did not belong. The bill was rejected. In 1769, attempts were made by the assembly to secure an act for allowing churches of Reformed Protestants to the northward of the counties of Dutchess and Ulster, to take and hold real estate to the value of ^100 per annum, given to them for the support of the Gospel and the uses of schools. The council refused its assent.' " THE PL Y MOUTH COLONISTS. 99 laws for the general good, and promised to obey the laws of the majority, and the officers whom they should elect. There were forty-one men in all, representing different conditions of life. Every one of these signed this compact, and they elected one of their number to be their governor. This is believed to have been the first example of a written constitution based upon the equal rights of men as members of the State. These men recognized one another as equals before the law ; and, as the foundation of govern ment, they laid down the broad principle that laws should be framed for " the general good," and should be just and equal toward all alike." " As the Plymouth colonists were all of one faith, and were, in fact, members of one church, they naturally made provision for the support of religion from the public treasury ; and, as the colony extended, they ordered that churches should be built and main tained in every town at the public cost. At a later period, when the peace and safety of so small a Commonwealth were threatened by innovations, they passed laws compelling attendance upon public worship, and forbidding churches to separate from those already set up and approved, unless the consent and approbation of the government should first be obtained. Theirs was not strictly an established church, but the pretext for such restrictions upon the very liberty which they came to establish was the preservation of a homogeneous colony, and of a pure and independent church. They required also that a " freeman," or voter in the town meetings, should be of good personal character and ' orthodox in the funda mentals of religion.' Such regulations show that these colonists were not wholly emancipated from the notions and customs of their times, nor quite equal to the occasion of proclaiming religious liberty to all men. Nevertheless, the Plymouth colonists made a great step forward, and were never betrayed into gross intolerance. Though even this most notable colony — the mother of civil and religious liberty — was still hampered by the notion that the State should provide for the maintenance of religion, and should punish blasphemy, profaneness, Sabbath-breaking, and heresy as crimes, yet it did not, like later Puritan colonies of New England, go to the oppressive extreme of restricting civil offices and privileges to members of the church." " The original Pilgrims were more just and liberal than their immediate successors. In the second generation, the prosperity of the colony tempted mere commercial adventurers to join it, and these brought with them elements of discord, disorder, vice, and lOO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. irreligion, that seemed to call for severe measures of proscription. Yet harsh laws, passed in an emergency of public danger, were repealed as soon as the excitement had subsided, and Ply mouth was, in the main, a model of a well-regulated colony." * " For eighteen years all laws were enacted in a general assembly of all the colonists. The governor, chosen annually, Was but president of a council in which he had a double vote. It consisted, first of one, then of five, and finally of seven counsellors, called assistants. So little were political honors coveted at New Plymouth that it became necessary to inflict a fine upon such as, being chosen, declined to serve as governor or assistant. None, however, were obliged to serve for two years in succession. " The constitution of the Church was equally democratic. For the first eight years there was no pastor, unless Robinson, still in Holland, might be considered in that light. Lyford, sent out by the London partners, was refused arid expelled. Brewster, the ruling elder, and such private members as had the gift of prophecy, officiated as exhorters. On Sunday afternoons, a question was pro pounded, upon which all spoke who had any thing to say. Even after they adopted the plan of a pastor, no minister stayed long at Plymouth." f It has been noticed that tbe colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut, were left almost entirely without consti tutional restrictions in regard to religious matters, and hence were at liberty to frame their own ecclesiastical institutions and politico- religious regulations. It is a remarkable fact that, with the exception of the Plymouth settlers, all the first New England colonists, up to their leaving England, were Puritan members of the Church of England ; % but when they settled in their new homes they all proceeded to found their churches on the " Independent " plan, confining every church within the limits of a single congregation, and making its govern- * Church and State. By Rev. J. P. Thompson, D.D. Boston. James R. Osgood & Co., 1873, PP- 54-57- t Hildreth's History of the United States. New York : Harper & Bros., 1849, vol. I, p. 175. J The emigrants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay belonged to the Low Church party, and their ministers, Higginson, Hooker, and Cotton, although regularly ordained clergymen of the Established Church, shared so largely in the growing revolt against prelacy that they were ready to improve the earliest opportunity to cast off their bonds. Bancroft says: " Considering the subject from the historical point of view, it must be observed that the establishment of Episcopacy in New England, as the religion of the State, was impossible, since the character of the times was a guaranty that the immense majority of emigrants would prove its uncompromising opponents. Episcopacy had no motive to emigrate ; it was Puritanism almost alone that came over, and freedom of Puritan worship was necessarily the purpose and the result of the colony." Vol. I., p. 344. THE BALLOT FOR CHURCH MEMBERS ONLY. 701 ment a pure democracy. The membership of the Church was made up of persons who sought admission, made a confession of their faith and experience, and signed a " covenant." The entire power of admitting and excluding members, and the decision of all con troversies, was with the brotherhood, by whom the officers were elected. Such, in brief, was the idea ofthe Church in the colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut. How was the State constituted ? It must be premised that, with these colonists, religion was the stock upon which every thing must be ingrafted. They emigrated for religious ends. Every thing, therefore, must be shaped by religion and subordinate to it. The State became an outgrowth from the Church, its offspring and handmaid. In all affairs, civil and ecclesiastical, the Church took the precedence, and gave character to the civil administration; the State was only the Church acting in secular and civil affairs. Predicating their action upon this principle, the ballot was limited to members of the Church. This law, adopted in 1631, discloses their strong religious feelings — " 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 mem bers of some of the churches within the limits of the same." * This principle was incorporated into the colonial laws of Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut. A desire to promote the welfare ofthe State led to the adoption of this restriction upon the character of the men who should choose their rulers, make their laws, and manage the affairs of the colony. It was not to benefit or aggrandize the little organizations which constituted these churches, but to secure good and honest citizens to administer the civil government. Nor was this practice of the Puritan Commonwealth altogether strange and exceptional in that age. Throughout Christendom, neither Jews, Turks,, pagans, infidels, nor excommunicated persons could enjoy the full privileges of citizenship. They must be in communion with the churches established by law. It was the universal prerogative of the Church to confer the civil franchise. Until recently this test has existed in England. But in New England the principle worked differently from anywhere else, for the churches admitted to their fellowship only those who, according to their spiritual standard, were regenerated persons, the evidence * Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 360. Also Massachusetts Colonial Records, 1631. Vol. I, p. 87. 102 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. of which was required to be recited before the church, including an internal assurance of a change of heart and a lively sense of justi fication, as one of God's elect. Such was the basis on which the civil constitution was established. It became the primary object of civil legislation to provide for the support of public worship. Towns of convenient size were laid out as " parishes," and the people were ordered by law, through the proper authorities of their respective towns, to levy taxes for the erection arid suitable repair of " meeting-houses," for the maintenance of a minister, and all other necessary expenses connected with public worship. The town voted with the Church in the call of the minister. The town and the parish in New England were united by a vital ligament which closely blended the civil and the religious life. The key principle was that government, civil and ecclesiastical, is constituted and administered upon the Bible as the source of knowledge and authority, with no kingly nor episcopal supremacy. The discipline ofthe Church in the early days was prompt, vigilant, judicial, and carried out with a strong public authority. And it took cognizance, too, of offenses which since then have been more wisely referred to other tribunals. In the early period there were usually two ministers to each church, one denominated a " teacher," or " elder," and a "pastor;" but this distinction did not long continue, for by degrees they soon came to support one minister. There were " ruling elders " selected from among the laymen, who were active promoters of good order and doctrine, and deacons, who managed the finances. These two offices were subsequently blended in one under the latter title. " According to the system established in Massachusetts, the Church and State were most intimately blended. The magistrates and general court, aided by the advice of the elders, claimed and exercised a supreme control in spiritual as well as temporal matters ; while, even in matters purely temporal, the elders were consulted on all important questions. The support of the elders, the first thing considered in the first court of assistants held in Massa chusetts, had been secured by a vote to build houses for them, and to provide them a maintenance at the public expense. This burden was indeed spontaneously assumed by such of the planta tions as had ministers." * The northern colony in Connecticut, consisting of three towns, held a convention of all the freemen and adopted a written con stitution, based on that of Massachusetts, but different in one * Hildreth's History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 191. NOT A " THEOCRA CY." 1 03 important particular. As at Plymouth, residents of an acceptable character might be admitted freemen, though not church members, but the governor must belong to the Church. The first general court (1638) enacted a body of laws, deficiencies in which were to be supplied by the " Word of God." The New Haven Colony effected an organization in 1639. They limited the right of par ticipation in the government to church members, and adopted the Scriptures as the law of the land. The Church was organized with great care. After prayers and a sermon, twelve persons were elected by the body of the colonists, with power, after the trial of each other, to designate seven of their own number as pillars. These seven were to admit such additional church members as they saw fit. The Church being organized, and a body of freemen provided, the governor was chosen. In 1667, these two Connecticut colonies were consolidated, but they retained essentially the same character. The government of the early Puritan colonies has been repeat edly characterized as a " Theocracy." Bancroft, Hildreth, a large number of other writers, and more recently Rev. Dr. J. P. Thomp son,* have thus denominated it, but exceptions have been taken to this view by some of the ablest New England divines, although they say that " it is difficult to combat a theory so deeply rooted." A writer f in the Congregational Quarterly says: '" This state of affairs did not make a' theocracy,' as is sometimes inconsiderately, nay, fool ishly supposed. If Massachusetts was then a' theocracy,' every Chris tian church and every Christian family, and every mercantile establish ment conducted on Christian principles, is now a theocracy ; for in neither case was anything done beyond this : to live according to the mind and will of God, as signified to us in the Holy Scriptures. In neither case is any direct or immediate revelation from God enjoyed or expected, as in the theocracy of old." The founders of these colonies were devout and religious men, intent upon escaping persecution for non-conformity ; they also desired to establish a body politic in which the habit of thought and course of legislation should favor that sobriety and good order in the community which grow out of a prevalence of religious * Church and State. Published by James R. Osgood & Co., Boston, 1873, pp. 46, 57, etc. See critical review of this book by the editors of the Congregational Quarterly, Oct., 1873, pp. 588, 59°- t Rev. John A. Vinton. See July number, 1873, p. 408. In a foot-note, Mr. Vinton adds — " the word 'Theocracy' is defined by Webster: 'Government of a State by the immediate direction of God ; or, the State thus governed. Of this species the Israelites furnish an illustrious example. The theocracy lasted till the time of Saul.' Worcester's definition is ' A government directed by God.' The etymology of the word should be sufficient." 104 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. culture ; and they sought to accomplish their ends through the instrumentality of civil government. Hence they organized the civil body as they did. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1638, a law was enacted subjecting to assessment and distress all who did not voluntarily contribute according to their ability to all town charges, " as well for upholding the ordinances of the churches as otherwise," and another, exposing excommunicated persons to fine, imprisonment, and banishment. The revised code of 1641 conferred upon the magistrates and general court — themselves the representatives of a constituency of church members — the right of superintending the churches, and to deal with church members " in a civil way " without waiting for the action of their particular churches. It provided that no church censure should degrade or depose any civil officer, and that no proscription or custom may prevail to establish any thing " morally sinful by the law of God." It limited the hospital ities of the colony to people of other nations professing " the true Christian religion." The punishment of death was inflicted for idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy, and nine other offenses. The code concludes with a declaration of " the liberties which the Lord Jesus has given to the churches." But the strict union between Church and State, and the despotic authority assumed by the aggregate of the church members, as represented by the magistrates and deputies, reduced the liberties of the individual churches within very narrow limits. Almost every clause in this section is burdened with a qualification which destroys its force. " Every church has free liberty of election and ordination of all their officers, provided they be able, pious, and orthodox." " We allow private meetings for edification in religion among Christians of all sorts of people, so it be without just offense for number, time, place, and other circumstances." " The polity of Massa chusetts conferred, in fact, unlimited powers in matters of religion, as in every thing else, upon the majority of church members, as represented by the magistrates and General Court. Those in the minority, whether churches or individuals, had no rights, and no alternative but silence and submission or withdrawal from the colony."* In 1644, a law was enacted inflicting banishment upon all such as, after " due time and means of conviction, continue obstinate " in opposing infant baptism. The following year a petition was presented to the general court asking for a reconsideration of the * Hildreth's History ofthe United States. Vol. I, p. 279. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM. IOS law against the Baptists. " A portion of the court were inclined to listen to this petition, but the elders went first to the deputies and then to the magistrates, and, representing what advantage it would give the Baptists, whose notions were fast spreading, they succeeded in obtaining a peremptory note that the laws complained of should neither be altered nor explained. The Commissioners for the United Colonies aided their support, advising at the next meeting the suppression of the influx of error, ' under a deceitful color of liberty of conscience.' " * In 1646, a petition was presented by Messrs. Maverick, Dr. Child, and five others, praying for the rights of English subjects, and complaining of the exclusion of all but church members from civil and ecclesiastical privileges. Those who signed it were accused of a very " linsie-wolsie disposition, some for prelacy, some for presbytery, and some for plebsbytery." Dr. Child was summoned before the court ; he and his associates were fined from $50 to $250 each, and were exhorted to be quiet, to study to mind their own business, and to " recollect the sin of Korah, in resisting Moses and Aaron." A similar effort in behalf of religious liberty had been made in the Plymouth Colony, about the same time, by Vassall and others. One of the magistrates had made a proposal for general toleration, and two others had supported him. " You would have admired," wrote Winslow to Winthrop, " to see how sweet this carrion relisheth in the palate of most of the deputies." " But Governor Prince, sustained by a majority of the magistrates, refused to put it to the vote, as being that, indeed, which would eat out the power of godliness." f The intimate relations of the Church and State in New England will be still further seen from the action of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, who recommended the drawing up of a common confession of faith and a common scheme of discipline for the New England churches. The general court subsequently proposed a synod for that purpose. After some delays, the synod assembled in Cambridge, in 1648, and framed a confession of faith almost identical, except in the matter of church government, with that of the famous Westminster Assembly. The latter declared for Presbyterianism, claiming for the Church, under " King James," a divine authority independent of the State. But the Cambridge platform of New England Churches recognized the intimate union * Hildreth's History ofthe United States. Vol. I, pp. 310, 311. t Hildreth's History ofthe United States. Vol. I, p. 319. 106 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. of Church and State, as they had been organized in the Massa chusetts Colony, limiting political power to church members. Two early governors of the Massachusetts Colony, Winthrop and Dudley, who had been deeply devoted to the peculiar politico- ecclesiastical policy * which had been adopted, survived the synod but a short time. Winthrop died in 1649, and Dudley in 1652. In 1649, the code of laws ofthe Massachusetts Colony was com piled and published under the direction of a commission consisting of two magistrates, two ministers, and two able persons from among the people in each county. In this code were several enactments, borrowed from the Jewish code and others, sustaining the fundamental doctrines upon which the policy of the colony was founded. The following language appears in the code : " Although no human power be lord over the faith and consciences of men, yet because such as bring in damnable heresies, tending to the subversion of the Christian faith and destruction of the souls of men, ought duly to be restrained from such notorious impieties," therefore, " any Christian within this jurisdiction, who shall go about to subvert or destroy the Christian faith and religion by broaching and maintaining any damnable heresies, as denying the immortality of the soul or resurrection of the body, or any sin to be repented of in the regenerate, or any evil done by the outward man to be accounted sin, or denying that Christ gave himself a ransom for our sins, . . . or shall openly condemn or oppose the baptizing of infants,"etc, etc., were liable to banishment. Jesuits were forbidden to enter the colony, and their second coming was punishable with death. A code for Connecticut, adopted the following year, followed closely that of Massachusetts. In 165 1, the town of Maiden, having settled a minister without consultation with neighboring churches was subjected to a fine. " The offense thus punished without any law for it— a practice in those times too common in Massachusetts— a law was afterward enacted making it essential to the settling of a minister to have the consent both of a council of the neighboring churches and of ' some of the magistrates ' also.f '" 0 *Zhmlnn-[nS IlneS' found in the P°cket °f """Hey after'his death, express the sentiment " Let men of God, in courts and churches watch O'er such as do a toleration hatch, Lest that ill egg bring forth a cocatrice, To poison all with heresy and vice. If men be left, and otherwise combine, My epitaph's—' I died no libertine 1 ' " ' &'}dreth. Vol. I, p. 381. LAWS AGAINST QUAKERS. 107 In 1654, it was enacted that every town should support a minister, the burden to be laid '• upon the whole society jointly, whether in church order or not." It was also enacted that none should be allowed to sit as deputies in the general court who did not hold to the creed of the established churches of the colony. In 1656, a special law was enacted against Quakers, which denounced them as " a cursed sect of heretics lately risen in the world." To bring a "known Quaker" into the colony was made punishable with a fine of ;£ioo, besides bonds to carry him back again, or, in default thereof, imprisonment. The Quaker himself was to be whipped twenty stripes, sent to the house of correction, and kept at hard labor until transported. The importation or possession of Quaker books was strictly prohibited, and all such books were to be burned by the nearest magistrate. Any one who should dare to defend Quaker opinions was subjected fo a fine, and for the third offense was liable to be banished. The following year the fines were increased : for an hour's entertainment of a " known Quaker " a fine of forty shillings was specified ; male Quakers were compelled to lose one ear on the first conviction, and on the second the other, and on the third both males and females were to have their tongues bored through with a hot iron. Similar laws were adopted in the Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven colonies, by the recommendation of the Commissioners of the United Colonies. In 1658, the Massachusetts Colony made the second visit of a Quaker punishable with death. Charles II. was restored to his father's throne in 1660. Ne gotiations soon took place in reference to points at issue between the king and the colony, in which the king demanded the repeal of all laws inconsistent with his due authority, a complete toler ation for the Church of England, the repeal of the law which restricted the tenure of office and the privilege of voting to members of the churches, and the admission of all persons of honest lives to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The advocates of toleration, heretofore suppressed with great severity, were encouraged by these demands of the king, and raised their heads again. During the next thirty years, the State was divided into three parties, which arose upon the issues springing out ofthe question of toleration. One party represented and defended the old system ; another advocated a limited toleration ; and another still wholly rejected all the so-called " theocratic ideas," as untenable and even undesirable. Internal causes, too, had somewhat relaxed the existing system. Among the baptized 108 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. children of the members of the churches were many men of property, of estimable character, reputable lives, and social influence, who conformed to all the outward observances, of the established religion, but who made no profession of regeneration, and consequently were not members of the churches, nor entitled to exercise the elective franchise. Taught from earliest childhood to reverence the institutions of religion, they insisted upon the benefits of baptism for their offspring and the civil privileges pf church membership for themselves. In Connecticut, churches had been rent in pieces by this demand, and the Massachusetts Council was called to promote a reconciliation. About the time that the letter containing the king's demands was received, a synod had met to consider the question. After extended deliberatiqn, the majority of the ministers and members voted to enlarge the basis of their polity by adopting the famous " half-way covenant." The children of reputable parents, who were orthodox in principle, and had themselves been baptized in infancy, although not members of the church were admitted to baptism, and became members of the Church so far as to become voters, although not allowed tq parT take of the Lord's Supper. They became half-way members. This measure was adopted in 1662. From this period a gradual modification took place in the extreme politico-religious policy of the New England colonies, but the parish system, the levying of taxes for the support of the churches and other kindred provisions remained until some time after the American Revolution. Section 5.— Religious Intolerance. In New England. It has been before noticed that the charter ofthe Massachusetts colony simply conferred the rights of English subjects. The first colonists being Churchmen at the time of their departure from England, this fact was supposed to be in itself a sufficient guaranty, and the colonists were left unrestricted in respect to religious liberty. The colony being settled and organized under the auspices of the English Government, there was no thought that the Church of England could be excluded or its introduction attended with diffi culty. But we have seen that, almost from the first, these colonists broke away from the Church of England, and proceeded to consti- FIRST EPISCOPAL SERVICE IN BOSTON. 109 tute independent churches and a civil polity based o>n the Church. Having thus sundered their former ecclesiastical relations, they hence forth regarded themselves as owing no obligations of allegiance or courtesy to the English Church, and were imbued with such preju dice and antagonism toward it that only with great difficulty could it be introduced into New England. The Episcopalians. " The people of the sturdy Puritan stock are not blameworthy for desiring to keep the country of their own way of belief, if they could. For nearly half a century they had had the opportunity to grow far toward an independent nation, on that ecclesiastical basis, and the presence of the Church of England would be a perpetual sign that this state of things was ended. Nor is it strange that they feared many evils from the admission of the Book of Common Prayer which never came to pass. But they resolutely shut their eyes to the fact that there were those among them who had an equal right with themselves to such religious institutions as they might choose. The Church of England had the misfortune to be, in the estimation of the mass of New Englanders, a part of the tyranny of the Stuarts. If it had been more free from such associa tions, perhaps they would have feared and hated it less." * It is a fact to be noted that for over sixty years after the Pilgrims landed there was not a single Episcopal church in New England. On the arrival of the royal commissioners in Boston, in 1686, they caused the English Church service to be celebrated in that city — -the first ever observed in the town. The local authorities remonstrated, but in vain, and the Old South Church was jointly occupied by it's owners and by an Episcopal congregation. For a long time no one could be found willing to sell land on which to erect an Episcopal church ; but finally Governor Andros ahd his council used their authority as the supreme governing body, appropriated a corner of the old burying ground for that purpose, and King's Chapel, the first Episcopal church in New England, was erected in 1688. After the organization of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1701, something more was accomplished, despite bitter hatred and penal enactments. Missionaries were sent into various portions of New England and into other colonies. So much progress was made that the Church of England was petitioned *The Memorial History of Boston. J.R.Osgood. 1880. Edited by Justin Winsor, LL.D. Vol. I, p. 196. Article by Rev. H. W. Foote. 110 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. to appoint Bishops for America ; but the application was opposed by dissenters in England, and by Puritans and others in America. Two non-juring Bishops, however, were appointed (1722) for America- Rev. Drs. R. Welton and J. Talbot, the former in Philadelphia, and the latter in Burlington, N. J. " But they were not allowed to ex ercise their episcopal functions, except by stealth, and the govern ment soon interfered, and put an entire stop to all action on their part." When, about 1720, several persons prominently connected with Yale College were discovered leaning toward episcopacy, grave fears were entertained "lest the introduction of Episcopal worship into the colony should have a tendency to gradually undermine the foundations of civil and religious liberty." When, a little later, Episcopal churches were organized in Connecticut, their members were imprisoned, their property was taxed for the support of the " Standing Order;" and when appeal was made to the Governor for relief, he showed them no favor, but ordered a rigid enforcement of the obligations, even to the imprisonment of those refusing to pay. These are a few specimens of the difficulties, the severities, vigorous persecutions, and civil disabilities amid which the Episcopal Church was introduced into some of the colonies. The Baptists. The Congregational were the only churches organized in Massa chusetts, until the founding of the first Baptist church in 1662. Numerous attempts to establish Baptist churches in that State had been previously made, in which the names of Messrs. John Clarke and Obadiah Holmes figure largely. In 1639, the same year in which the first Baptist church was founded in Providence, an at tempt was made in Weymouth, near Boston ; but the promoters of the design were arraigned before the general court and subjected to fines, disfranchisement, imprisonment, etc. In 1644, a poor man by the name of Painter, for expressing an opinion against infant bap tism, was tied up and whipped.* In 1644, a law was passed provid ing for the banishment of Baptists from the colony. In 165 1, Messrs. Clarke, Holmes and Crandall, representatives ofthe Baptist church at Newport, R. I., visiting one of their aged and infirm brethren at Lynn, Mass., and holding religious services in his house, were ar rested, put in prison, and sentenced to pay fines of £30, £20, and £5 each, or to be publicly whipped. The case of Mr. Holmes was * Backus's History. Vol. I, pp. 151, etc. LAWS A GAINS T BAP TIS TS. Ill pushed to the extreme, and after being confined in prison he was publicly whipped with a three-corded lash upon his bare back, re ceiving thirty strokes administered with the utmost strength of the administrator. Warrants were issued against thirteen persons whose only crime was showing some sympathy with Mr. Holmes. In 1663, the first Baptist church in Massachusetts was formed in Swansea, near the line of Rhode Island, and, two years after, the first in Boston. " In a few months after the organization of this feeble church their trouble commenced, and continued with much severity for a number of years, and some ofthe members spent most of their time in courts and prisons ; they were often fined, and finally the sen tence of banishment was pronounced against them, which, however, they did not see fit to obey." ..." The burden of all the com plaints was that they formed a church without the approbation of the ruling powers!'* In Maine there were similar experiences. The first Baptists suffered slanders, abuse and legalized tyranny ; and persons who met with them for worship were repeatedly summoned before a magistrate and threatened with fines in case of future of fenses. Fines as high as £\o were inflicted upon some. The first Baptist church in Maine, organized at Kittery in 1681, encountered storms, violence, obloquy, fines and imprisonment, and, in less than one year from its formation, the church was dissolved, and its mem bers scattered like sheep upon the mountains. No other Baptist church was organized in Maine until 1764. The Baptists were numerically few in all the colonies, especially in New England. They were Congregational in polity, but did not submit the control of their churches to outside parishes, not even in part. In their estimation, the existence of parish societies, com posed in part or altogether of persons who are not members of the ¦ Church, and allowed directly or indirectly to control the action of the Church, was to be avoided. All such extraneous organizations they believed to be contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the Bible, erroneous in principle and pernicious in results. Until with in comparatively a brief period, the laws of Massachusetts did not recognize a Baptist church as entitled to any rights of property, or as having any corporate existence. It was necessary, therefore, for individual members to organize as " private societies," asso ciated for the secular business of the Church. In New York and Virginia, the Baptists suffered from similar privations and intoler ance. * History ofthe Baptists. By David Benedict. 1848, p. 383. 1 12 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Cases of Roger Williams, the Quakers, etc. Numerous instances of alleged religious intolerance have been popularly cited, in both the historical and the more transient literature of the last two centuries, until they have become as familiar as household words. The cases in the sub-heading above are the more notable ones. A different view from that pop ularly entertained has been taken by some of the most intelligent and discriminating persons; and a just exhibit ofthe cases requires that the considerations by which they have been led to dissent from the popular verdict should be briefly given. It is claimed that an the cases of Roger Williams, Ann Hutchinson, the Quakers, and some others, there was no persecution for merely holding religious opinions different from those of the established church of the colony ; that there was no attempt at enforcement of the conscience ; and that therefore these persons cannot be regarded as martyrs for the faith, inasmuch as they had liberty to entertain whatever religious opinions they chose, and their relations to their Maker were never matters of civil inquiry. In the case of Roger Williams, it is claimed that he was banished because he disturbed the civil order ofthe colony, stirring up strife and revolt, so that he could no longer remain consistently with the public safety; that he made himself justly obnoxious to the magis trates by denying their power to punish ;perjury, blasphemy, and Sabbath-breaking, crimes still punishable under civil statutes; that he caused great alarm by publicly proclaiming that the patent under which the colony was settled was invalid, and the titles to the land under it worthless, thus exposing the colony to the displeasure of the English Court at a time when the relations to the crown were very critical ; that when, for the greater security of the colony, the colonial legislature enacted that all males over sixteen years should take an oath of fidelity, Mr. Williams not only refused to take it, but also strenuously maintained that it Was wrong for a magistrate to administer an oath to an unregenerate man, thus striking a blow at the root of civil -society and embarrassing the ordinary administration of justice ; and that Mr. Williams induced the church at Salem to write to the churches of which the magistrates were members, complaining of their official acts, and urging that they should be disciplined— an act so seditious in its character that, according to the custom of those times, it would have resulted in their disfranchisement and removal from office. BANISHMENT OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 113 The act of the general court (Sept. 3, 1635), expelling Mr. Williams from the colony, was in these words : " Whereas, Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders of the church in Salem, hath broached and divulged new and dangerous opinions against the authority of the magistrates, and also writ letters of defamation, both of the magistrates and churches here, and yet maintaineth the same without retraction, it is therefore ordered," etc. Mr. Williams himself, in a book published by him in London, in 1643,* states the grounds of his banishment to have been the following opinions : — 1. That we have not our land by patent from the king, but that the natives are the true owners of it, + and that we ought to repent of such a receiving of it by patent. 2. That it is not lawful to call a wicked person to swear or to pray, as being actions of God's worship. 3. That it is not lawful to hear any of the ministers of the parish assemblies in England. 4. That the civil magistrate's power extends only to the bodies and goods and outward state of men. To this publication Mr. Cotton replied that it was not for the mere holding of opinions, but for the turbulent assertion of them, that Mr. Williams was banished. He dwelt at length upon two reasons which caused his banishment : — 1. His violent and tumultuous carriage against the patent. 2. His vehement opposition to the Oath of Fidelity. % Hon. John Quincy Adams (Address before the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1843), sa'd — " Can we blame the founders ofthe Massachusetts Colony for banishing him (Williams) from within their jurisdiction? In the annals of religious persecution is there to be found a martyr more gently dealt with by those against whom he began the war of intolerance ? " § As to the Quakers, the number who suffered fine, imprisonment, or whipping in Massachusetts was about thirty ; twenty-two were banished on pain of death, if they returned ; three had their right ear cut off, and four suffered death by hanging. No sufficient excuse can be offered for these severities, and yet some alleviating considerations demand attention. * Entitled "Mr. Cotton's Letter, lately printed, examined, and answered." t Excepting the lands of the Pequots and Narragansetts, which were gained by conquest, our fathers bought the soil from the Indians, paying them a fair value for it for the mere purpose of hunting — for which it was chiefly held — and the Indians made no complaint of dissatisfaction with the price. The patent protected them only against European adventurers. See Palfrey's History of New England. Vol. I, p. 387. X Cotton's Reply to Williams, pp. 27, 30. § For a fuller discussion see Congregational Quarterly, July 1873, pp. 395, 402. 8 114 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. It is claimed that the Quakers of that time were not the quiet, peace-loving, amiable, benevolent Friends of the more recent times, but " rioting, turbulent, and provoking ; " * that they were " guilty of blasphemy, sedition, and general disorder;" and that "they continually disturbed congregations assembled for worship." It is related that " Margaret Brewster went into a meeting-house with her face smeared over as with black paint; " that " Deborah Wilson went through the town of Salem naked, as a sign to the people ; " that " Lydia Wardwell went into the meeting-house in Newberry, Massachusetts, as naked as she was born ; " that they initiated strife, trampled on the laws, set at naught the constituted civil authority, and with a stiff audacity courted the extreme penalties of the law ; and that the general court of Massachusetts at first only threatened, then sent them away, and finally banished them.f The treatment of Ann Hutchinson and the Antinomians has also been vindicated on considerations of public order. £ One of the editors of the Congregational Quarterly, § who discusses these questions in a very able manner, deserves attention here : "We can only judge correctly of their motives by placing ourselves in the situation in which they found themselves. A feeble and struggling colony, they had no means of self-preservation but by guarding against the intrusion of men from abroad, either disorderly in conduct, unruly and insubordinate in spirit, or hostile or unsympathetic in their views, who might come in, under their popular form of government, and defeat the very purposes for which they had exiled them selves from the mother country. For half a century or more they had been smarting under the rod of persecution inflicted by the Episcopal Church, and they might, moreover, have seen the effects of its policy upon the Virginia Colony. Did it partake of theocracy that they sent home the half dozen, more or less, who had undertaken without being invited to settle among them, and that they were not willing that others of the same class should come into their communion? Worthy as the Baptists | have proved themselves to be of the confidence and respect of good men in our time, the time was, and that as late as the settlement * Bishop Burnett speaks of them as the most dangerous sect known in England in his time. t Congregational Quarterly, April, 1873, PP- 28i, 283. X Congregational Quarterly. Articles by Rev. John A. Vinton, April, July, and Octo ber, 1873. § Congregational Quarterly, October, 1883, pp. 590, 592. || The law against the Baptists was enacted in 1644. On Nov. 4, 1646, the general court put forth the following explanation : "The truth is, the great trouble we have been putt unto and hazard also by Familisticall and Anabaptisticall spirits, whose conscience and religion hath been only to sett forth th mselves and raise contentions in the country, did provoke us to provide for our safety by a lawe that all such should take notice how unwelcome they should be to us either coming or staying. But for such as differ from us only in judgment in point of baptism or some other points of lesse consequence, and live peaceably among us without occasioning disturbance, . . such have no cause to complaine, for if hath never beene as yet putt in execution against any of them, although such are knowne to live amongst us." See Hutchinson Papers. THE CONNECTICUT "BLUE LAWS." 113 of New England, when the wild and lawless extravagance of the Anabaptists in Munster was still fresh in the public memory ; * and an outbreak of men of the same denomination in London, under one of their preachers, as late as 1661, and which was only suppressed after => bloody conflict with the troops, shows with what dread the men of New England must have regarded an influx of religious zealots whose antecedents, as to a quiet and orderly life, must have been so alarming. So with the Ouakers. Aside from the estimate in which they were held in England, the people of Massachusetts had seen enough in their own streets and houses of worship to feel that the public order would never be safe if such open disturbers of the peace went unpunished ; and though we might not, by anv means, be ready to commend the wisdom or humanity of the treatment extended to these sects, there is no occasion to ascribe this to any other motive than a wish to maintain civil government and preserve peace and good order in the com munity. Nor is it necessary to infer that those who made and administered laws to this effect were actuated by a desire to interfere with the consciences or religious opinions of any class of the people, independent of their conduct as citizens, any more than it is that, in making war upon the indecencies or polygamy of the Mormons, the government is hostile to the freedom of religious opinion." "The Blue Laws of Connecticut" have been popularly referred to as specimens of the narrowness and intolerance of the colonial fathers. It is due to their memory to state that these legendary laws never existed except in the imagination of their originator, as is well known to persons of historical information. They originally appeared in a burlesque .history of Connecticut, written some one hundred years ago by Rev. Samuel A. Peters, born in Hebron, Connecticut, in 1735. He preached for several years in Hartford and also in his native town. When the Revolution broke out he made himself obnoxious by his intemperate advocacy of Tory principles, denouncing the American cause, from the pulpit and in private, in such terms that his parishioners turned against him. The storm rose f so high that he fled to England in 1774, and in 1781$ he published the work alluded to, in London, in revenge for his treatment by his countrymen. It was never regarded in any other light than as a burlesque, until about forty years ago, in the heat of the anti-slavery excitement, a Southern orator in Congress, by way of retaliation, in an extremity of debate quoted from Peters's book ¦-John Bockholdt, an Anabaptist of Leyden, with a body of followers, seized the city of Munster, usurped the government, and committed crimes and outrages against decency. He and his followers, men and women, after praying and preaching four hours, stripped themselves naked and ran through the streets of the city. Mosheim, Cent, xvi., sec. ii. Robertson's Charles V., Book V. t We cannot here relate the whole story. X Republished in the United States in 1829 as a curiosity. 116 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the laws referred to as an illustration of Yankee bigotry. It soon became a popular stock argument against New Englanders. A gentleman who has closely investigated the matter says—" On examining the more prominent statements of Peters, not one has been found which is not either false or so deformed by exaggerations and perversions as to be essentially erroneous." Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., called Peters's book " that most unscrupulous and malicious of lying narratives." * Hon. John S. Peters, M.D., LL.D., ex-governor of Connecticut, re ferring to the book in question, said—" It contains many statements which are alike apochryphal and ludicrous, and I am not aware that it was ever quoted as historical authority." \ Doubtless in all the New England colonies, and in the New York, Virginia and other colonies, it is easy to find laws and usages which we should now call wrong and severe, not to say bigoted and cruel, but they were universally characteristic of those times, in Europe as well as in America. By the law of Massachusetts, 1692, a man absenting himself from public worship on Sunday for a month was punished by a fine to be imposed by a civil court. By the law of Elizabeth (see " ist Elizabeth,") he was liable to be punished by the censures ofthe Church and also to forfeit a sum of money. Intolerance in Virginia. Instances of religious intolerance occurred in the Virginia Colony, extending through a period of about one hundred and thirty years. A few Puritans settled in the colony as early as 1619,^: but the number was too small to make much change in the religious opinions of the people. In 1642, certain citizens who deplored the low state of religion made application for religious teachers from Massa chusetts, and Rev. Messrs. Thompson, of Braintree, Knolls, of Watertown, and James, of New Haven, went as Congregational missionaries to labor in Virginia. Their stay, however, was short, for the legislature immediately enacted that no minister should be allowed to officiate in the colony but such as had been ordained by some English Bishop, and pledged conformity to the form and usages ofthe Church of England. They were soon banished from the colony, and after a few years their followers were wholly dispersed. § The law of 1661 enforced, with great stringency, conformity to * History of Discipline at New Haven. By Mr. Kingsley, 1838, pp. 83, 90. tSprague's Annals of the Americin Pulpit. Volume on the Episcopal Church, p. 194. X Graham's History of the United States, p. 219, and Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, p. 35. § Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 36, 53, 57. PA TRICK HENR V. 117 the Established Church against Quakers and other non-conformists. It provided that each Quaker attending " an unlawful assembly or conventicle," if taken there, should pay a fine of two hundred pounds of tobacco for each offense, and that " schismatical persons, either out of averseness to the orthodox, established religion, or out of the new-fangled conceits of their own heretical inventions," who should " refuse to have their children baptized, in contempt of the divine sacrament of baptism," should be fined two thousand pounds of tobacco ; half to the parish and half to the informer.'* French colonists, fleeing after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, were allowed to settle and establish their worship (Presby terian) under the provisions of the special act of the Assembly in 1700. In 1713, a similar favor was granted to a colony of German emigrants. Both of these classes were exempted from taxes for the support of the Established Church. In 1746, the governor issued a proclamation forbidding, under the severest penalties, "the meeting of Moravians, New Lights, and Methodists." f Early in the last century the Baptists began to appear in Virginia. At first they excited no alarm, being very poor, their ministers generally illiterate, and their efforts being directed to places remote and obscure. It was not until they began to in crease rapidly that they were assailed and persecuted. They were constantly kept in view in the legislation of the colony, and persecuting laws were framed with the special design of hindering the spread of their opinions or driving them from the colony. In some parts of the colony the Baptists were not disturbed ; but in others, alarmed by their increase, the men in power strained every penal law in the Vfrginia code to suppress them. " About thirty ministers were imprisoned, and some as many as four times each, for different periods of time, besides a number of exhorters and their companions, whose only fault was their being in company with their clerical brethren. . . . In some cases drums were beaten in the time of service ; high inclosures were erected before the prison windows by malicious opponents ; matches and other suffocating materials were burnt outside the prison doors. . . . In the midst of their struggles this oppressed people were so fortu nate as to secure the interest of the famous Patrick Henry, who espoused their cause." % * See Hawks's History ofthe Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 66, 68 ; also, Trott's laws of British Plantations in America. + I3th, B. Burke. Pp. 124, 5,6. X History of the Baptists. By David Benedict, 1848, p. 655. 118 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The Presbyterians entered Virginia almost simultaneously with the Baptists, and were subjected to many annoyances and persecutions. After 1745 they were allowed to settle in the more remote portions of the State, to the westward, where their first churches were established. They sent a deputation to the Synod of New York, which met that year, asking aid in their troubles. The Synod prepared an address to the governor, and commissioned Rev. Messrs. Tennent and Finley as bearers of the message. The governor received them respectfully and gave them liberty to preach. But, soon after they left, fines were again inflicted upon Presbyterians for not attending upon the services of the Established Church. In 1747, the Synod sent the Rev. Samuel Davies to labor in Virginia. This gentleman became more influential than any other Presbyterian divine in placing the denomination on a secure founda tion. "At the time of his settlement in the county of Hanover, according to his own testimony, there were not ten avowed dissent ers within one hundred miles of him. On his arrival, his first care was to secure himself and his followers from molestation by a com pliance with the laws of the colony. The terms on which dissenters were tolerated were, obtaining a license from some judicial body for each meeting-house, causing such license to be put upon record, taking the usual oaths of fidelity to the govern ment, and subscribing to the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, with certain enumerated exceptions. These exceptions embraced the thirty-fourth, concerning ' traditions in the Church,' the thirty-fifth, ' of the homilies,' the thirty-sixth, ' of the conse cration of bishops and ministers,' and so much of the twentieth as declares that the ' Church has power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith.' " * Mr. Davies complied with these terms and obtained licenses for four " meeting-houses," and, soon after, for three more. Among these he divided his labors, although some of them were forty miles distant from the others. They were in the counties of Hanover, Henrico, Caroline, Louisa, and Goochland. In this region Presbyterianism in Virginia had its origin, under the ministrations of this eminent servant of God. Mr. Davies possessed talents of a high order ; was gifted with remarkable eloquence, readily attracting hearers. In three years his congregation became large, and three hundred communicants were gathered into his churches. He was subsequently removed to the presidency of Princeton College, but not until he had distinguished himself in contesting the provisions of the English " act of toleration " before * Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, p. 108. RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION IN NEW YORK. 1 19 the colonial courts, and sustained his cause against the legal acumen and eloquence of Hon. Peyton Randolph. Intolerance in Maryland. In 1704 "An Act to prevent the increase of popery in the prov ince" was passed, prohibiting bishops and priests from saying mass and exercising other spiritual functions except in private houses. Subsequently Catholics were deprived of the elective franchise, unless they took a test oath and renounced their faith. Other oppressive enactments followed, so that, in 1752, Mr. Daniel Carroll, father of the subsequent Bishop Carroll, went to France to negotiate with the French government for the emigration of the Maryland Catholics to Louisiana.* The project, however, failed. For .seventy years no mass was said anywhere in the State, except in private chapels and families. During this time no Catholic churches were erected, and only a few chapels on plantations owned by the Jesuits ; to whom large tracts of land had been conveyed by the Indian kings, thus eluding the reach of the law. In 1774, there was no Catholic chapel even in Baltimore ; that city was then only a " station," vis ited once a month by a " father " from a farm at Whitemarsh, car rying his vestments and plate with him, and mass was said in a private room. At last, on the eve of the Revolution, early in 1776, a " Declaration of Rights " was voted by the assembly, granting full religious toleration. But, in the whole extent of Maryland, there were then only twenty priests, Jesuits, and they were under ecclesi astical condemnation, the order having been suppressed as a society only three years before by the famous bull of the pope. In New York. Instances of religious oppression occurred in this colony. The ties of relationship, a common faith, and the persecutions endured by Protestants before coming to America, were not sufficient to teach them the lessons of charity and toleration, and the Lutherans of New Amsterdam were doomed to experience from their fellow Protestants some of the rigor and unkind treatment both had suf fered at home. Among the earliest colonists there was no formal union of the Church and State, and yet they were very unwilling to allow any but the Reformed Dutch Church to exist in the province. A little band of Lutherans, who joined the colony almost at its com- * History of the Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. Enlarged by John Gilmary Shea. New York. 1857. Published by Edward Dunigan & Bro. P. 33. 120 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. mencement, were not allowed to hold their worship publicly until after the English rule was established, in 1664. In 1656, George Stuyvesant forbade ministers from holding religious gatherings not in harmony with the Reformed Church. Under his administration Quakers were fined, imprisoned, and banished ; but he was not fully sustained in all these proceedings by the magistrates of Amsterdam. They formally reproved him, and declared that "The consciences of men ought to be free and unshackled so long as they continue mod erate, peaceable, inoffensive, and not hostile to the government." When the New Netherlands were surrendered to the English crown (1664) the Lutherans received the privilege of worshiping God ac cording to their own convictions.* The Church of England took the place of the Classis of Amsterdam, hitherto the supreme and only ecclesiastical authority. Under the English, attendance upon the Episcopal Church was not made compulsory. But the first Baptist minister f who preached in New York City, about 1665, was imprisoned four months, and no further efforts were made to estab lish that denomination in that province until about 1712, when they were not molested. The first Presbyterians % also were persecuted, and their first ministers, Revs. Francis Makemic and John Hamp ton, were imprisoned and heavily fined, in 1707, for preaching in a private house. Treatment of the Roman Catholics by the Protestant Colonists. From nearly all the Protestant English settlements the Roman Catholics were excluded. The colonists, recently escaped from the intolerance of Rome, were slow to forget what they had suffered, and were jealous of her approach. Only in Rhode Island and Pennsylva nia was there more liberty ; hence from the settlement of Maryland down to the war of the Revolution there was little opportunity! for the Roman Catholics to settle in the other colonies. * Professor Schmucker's Retrospect of Lutheranism in the United States. P. 6. t Rev. Win. Wickenden, of Providence, R. I. See Benedict's History of the Baptists. New York. Louis Colby & Co. 1848, p. 541. X History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. GiUett, D.D. Presbyterian Publication Society, Philadelphia. Vol. I, pp. n-16. § Catholics have complained of the intolerance of the early colonial governments against them, particularly in New York and New England. It should be mentioned that the inti mate and friendly relations of the Jesuit missionaries with the Indians brought the former under the imputation of complicity with them, in the frequent bloody massacres which were occurring in the settlements. The colonists thought they had good evidence of such co-operation in many cases. The preamble of " An Act against Jesuits and popish priests," which passed in the New York Assembly in the year 1700, shows that they acted under this conviction. It charged that "divers Jesuits, priests, and popish missionaries have of late industriously labored to debauch, seduce, and withdraw the Indians from their obedience, and to excite and stir them up to sedition, STANDARD OF JUDGMENT. 121 At this early period there were no Roman Catholic churches in Rhode Island. In Pennsylvania, while religious liberty was indeed under no legal restraint, and the State was an asylum for Roman Catholics excluded elsewhere, yet the papists complained that it was difficult for the Quakers to see that Romanists ought to enjoy as much liberty as the Friends. Romanists confessed that they were neither " hanged, banished, pillaged nor taxed by the Ouakers," but they felt there was " something cold and repulsive in the coun tenances of their hosts which expressed plainly enough what no one was willing to say." * Section 6.— General Considerations. In considering the severity of the civil penalties and the acts of intolerance in any of the early American colonies, it would be unjust to judge our fathers by any other standard than that of their own times. It should not be forgotten that in the two centuries which have since intervened great progress has been made in re gard to the rights of conscience and the nature of religious liberty. The right of individual belief was then admitted only in a very nar row circle. On the continent of Europe, and in Great Britain, cruel persecutions and severities were every-where inflicted upon dissenters. According to Neale,f 1662, by the "Act of Uniformity " two thou sand English ministers, called by Locke " worthy, learned, pious, orthodox divines," were deprived of their " livings " because they could not conscientiously submit to re- ordination, and assent to every word and sentence of the Book of Common Prayer. Under the "Conventicle Act" (1664), it became a crime to attend religious rebellion, and open hostility. They were therefore ordered to depart from the province, and threatened with death if they did not obey. The terrible scenes of Schenectady were fresh in their minds. This law was clearly an act of state policy, for the promotion of the public safety. The Massachusetts Legislature acted on the same policy in the much-complained-of treatment of Father Sebastian Rasles, the French Jesuit missionary at Norridgewock, Me. Some of his own papers fell into the hands of the government of Massachusetts, from which it appeared that he was in correspondence with the French governor in Canada, by whose aid he hoped to exclude the English settlers from the region where he resided, and that he accompanied an expedition of the Indians against the colonies, and acted a conspicuous part in at least one attack upon their settlements. The evidence was so conclusive that the Massachusetts Government undertook to arrest him, and at last, August 23, 1724, the Indian village at Norridgewock was attacked and destroyed, and Rasles fell in the battle. See Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Second Series. Vol. VIII., pp. 250, 266. Also, American Quarterly Register. i84i. P. 23. * Letter on Roman Catholic missions in the United States to the Lyons Propaganda, by Rev. Bishop England, Catholic Bishop of Charleston, S. C. Published in the Annales of the Propa ganda for May 1838. See American Quarterly Register. November, 1841. P. 142. t History ofthe Puritans. Vol. IV., pp. 306-406. 122 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. services, conducted otherwise than according to the liturgy of the Church of England ; punishable by heavy fines, imprisonment, trans portation, and, in case of return, death. Without the verdict of a jury, on the oath of a single informer, and without appeal, in the course of two reigns about eight thousand dissenters perished in prison, and sixty thousand suffered in various other ways, the loss of property alone amounting, it is supposed, to twelve millions ster ling.* Such were the prevailing customs of the times and the cur rent of public sentiment. Under such an ecclesiastico-civil polity as then every-where prevailed, the relations of man with his Maker were presumed to come within the province of human law. Re ligious intolerance was therefore the natural fruitage of such a sys tem, and only under the more favorable circumstances of an enlightened Christian civilization and culture will it be restrained. It must be admitted that among the American colonists, even in those rude times, examples of religious oppression were far less numerous and severe than in the countries from which they emi grated. In respect to toleration they were far in advance of the rest of the world. The penal inflictions of the colonial era are often referred to as severe and barbarous ; especially have those among the Puritans of New England been denounced in terms of intense detestation, as though they were exceptionally brutal. A review of the times, how ever, will afford evidence that those of the New Englanders were sim ilar to the penalties inflicted in other colonies, and also in England and Continental Europe, only very much more humane. It would be unreasonable to expect the men of the seventeenth and eighteenth century to be abreast with those of the nineteenth century in philan thropy and the gentle amenities of life. We are to compare them with the customs of the country from which they came, in order to judge of their status. When the Mayflower left England thirty-one offenses were punishable with death in the mother country. By the middle of that century the black list had enlarged to 223, of which 176 were without the benefit of the clergy. How far in advance the New England colonies were is evident from the fact that not a single colony code recognized more than fifteen capital crimes. So enormous an English list argues an excessive brutality of public sentiment. And we shall find this confirmed from many sources. For example: In 1604 a man named Ford petitioned the king to the effect that the Lord Chancellor had done him great injustice. For the offense of this petition, " traducing and scandal- izing" that high functionary— the said Lord Chancellor— the said Ford was sen- * Neale's History of the Puritans. Vol. IV, p. 4S0, etc., Vol. V, p. 161, etc. PUNISHMENTS INFLICTED IN ENGLAND. 123 tenced to ride with his face to the tail of the beast from the Fleet prison to West minster, with his crime placarded on his head ; to acknowledge that crime in all the courts of Westminster ; to stand " a reasonable time " in the pillory; to have one of his ears cut off; to be remanded to jail for a few days and then have the other ear cut off at Cheapside ; to pay a fine of ^1,000 ; and to be imprisoned for life. Two years before the Mayflower sailed a man named Wrennum was con victed of a like offense and condemned to the same penalties. Two years before Boston was settled a Scotch divine of eminence named Alexander Leighton, Pro fessor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, published a book called an Appeal to the Parliament, in which he used strong enough language to call the prelates " men of blood," the bishops " ravens and magpies," the canons of 1603 " nonsense canons," and so on. We have two editions of the book, and while there are several such earnest expressions which the best taste must condemn, we find nothing in either which in our day would subject an author to any further penalty than the criticism, that his blows would have hurt more if he had not struck quite so hard. Leighton was put on trial belore the Star Chamber and confessed the writing, but pleaded good intent. The court made short work of him, declaring that he had committed "a most odious and heinous offense, deserv ing the severest punishment the court could inflict, for framing and publishing a Book so full of most pestilent, devilish and dangerous Assertions, to the scandal of the King, Queen and Peers, especially the Bishops." It was accordingly unanimously ordered that he be degraded from his ministry into a lay condition, in which he could be legally whipped ; that he be whipped and set in the pillory at Westminster ; that one of his ears be cut off, one side of his nose be slit, and he be branded on one cheek by a red hot iron, with the letters S. S. [stirrer of sedition] ; that, fourteen days thereafter, he be whipped again at Cheapside, the other ear cut off, the other side of his nose slit, and the other cheek branded as the first ; that he pay the (then) enormous fine of ^10,000 ; that he be imprisoned for life. In 1633 William Prynne, one of the most learned and industrious barristers of his time, having written a book called Histriomastix, whereby — as also aforetime in other ways — he had especially angered Archbishop Laud, was put through the same sort of discipline which poor Leighton had suffered. Three years later he in some way found means to publish a few more plain words distasteful to the archbishop, when he was hauled out of prison, the stumps of his ears cut down clean, _£5,ooo added to his fine, and his cheeks branded S. L. [seditious libeler] all of which was, with full barbarity, executed.* What was done in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, for an offense much more henious, transpiring at the very same time? Roger Williams, for " trying to knock the bottom out of all their civil and social fabric by publicly teaching that the colony had no valid title to its land," ranting against official oaths, and inciting the people against the magistrates, instead of being fined, pilloried, cropped, imprisoned, branded, flayed alive, was simply sent out ofthe colony. Dr. H. M. Dexter cites a few more cases which will help the reader to appreciate the situation : ' * Editorial in the Congregationalist , November 20, 1884. 124 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The English law down to 1772 condemned the prisoner who refused to plead to his offense to be pressed to death [peine Jort et dure], and so late as 1741 this horrible punishmemt was inflicted there. Until 1790 (and that lacks yet three years of being a century) any woman convicted of counterfeiting English gold or silver coin was burned to death, although after 1700 it became humanely usual to strangle the victim quietly before kindling the fire. Twenty thousand people collected in 1773 to see Elizabeth Herring burned, and as late as 1786 a woman was burned in England for having made counterfeit shillings. Plymouth Colony must have been fifty years old before the burning of heretics became unlawful in England. In the good old days of Henry VIII., it was legal to boil to death prisoners, and it was several times done. Long after that form of death was repealed in England it remained in force on the Continent for coiners and counterfeiters, and, by a re finement, of cruelty, the boiling was made gradual, the victim being suspended by a rope over the bubbling oil and lowered by degrees into it. An intelligent writer tells us how, in 1617, the body of the assassinated Ancre, Marechal of France, was treated. They " broke up his Grave, tore his Coffin to pieces, rip'd the Winding-sheet, and tied his Body to an Asses Tail, and so dragg'd him up and down the Gutters of Paris, which are none of the sweetest ; they then sliced off his ears, and nail'd them upon the Gates of the City, they . . . [too indecent to be cited] . . . the rest of his Body they carried to the New-Bridg, and hung him with his Heels upward, and Head downwards upon a new Gibbet." It was a mob which did thus, but Jorty-three years later we find the English Parliament deliberately passing a law whose results Evelyn describes under date of 30 Jan.-9 Feb., 1660-1 : " This clay . . . were the carcasses of those arch-rebels, Cromwell, Bradshawe (the judge who condemned his majesty), and Ireton (son-in-law to the usurper) dragged out of their superb Tombs in Westminster, among the kings, to Tyburn, and hanged on the gallows there from nine in the morning till six at night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument in a deep pit ; thousands of people who had seen them in all their pride being Spectators. [N. B. Cromwell had been dead nearly 2 yrs. 5 mos. ; Bradshawe, 1 yr. 2 mos. ; Ireton, more than 9 yrs. 2 mos.] " Moreover, it was as late as 16 Aug., 1746, when Walpole wrote to Montagu how people on the Strand before Temple Bar in London made a trade of letting, for a half-penny a sight, spyglasses to passers-by who wanted a good look at the traitors' heads, then impaled on the irons over the Bar: and in April, 1772, it is on record that one such head was still miserably sticking there. These " dreadful and disgusting inhumanities " were perpetrated by whom? Refined and cultivated Europeans, mostly English Churchmen, graduates of Cambridge and Oxford. Such are the facts of modern history which should moderate our denunciations and charges of severity, brutality and narrow-mindedness against the colonial forefathers, who, it clearly appears, were much in ad vance of their times. CHAPTER V. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF PROTESTANTISM. Sec. I. From 1607 — 1662. " 2. From 1662 — 1720. " 3. From 1720 — 1745. Sec. 4. From 1745 — 1776. " 5. Fruits of the Half Way Covenant. AMID the convulsive throes of the reformation of the sixteenth century, a new people, with new ideas and institutions, was begotten. Escaping from the intolerance of the Old World, and moved by profound convictions of great religious responsibilities, they sought an asylum in America. As yet Protestantism had only passed through its inceptive stage. It had been neither fully de veloped nor tested, for the necessary conditions had not hitherto ex- existed. In America, unembarrassed by the institutions of the Old World, it found the needful opportunity. By its doctrine of justi fication by faith Protestantism broke the thraldom of the hierarchy, which claimed to be the only medium of Divine communication, and threw each individual upon himself and his God. Thus personal re ligion passed from under the exclusive control of the sacraments and arbitrary prerogatives into stern and irrepressible conflicts with in dividual lusts and worldly influences. Instead of pompous rituals there were the deep realities of the inner life. The scourge of the hierarchy disappeared, but the struggle with sense and self went on. Still recognizing the neccessity of a church, Protestantism never theless pressed with powerful intensity upon each individual the fact of his personal responsibility, and that he must carry the burden of his own sins to the foot ofthe cross. He must seek for himself access to God, and, in the spirit of adoption begotten in his heart by the Holy Ghost, must find a sweeter satisfaction than priestly absolutions or benedictions can impart. What was to be the effect of these new religious conditions in the actual life of Protestant communities? Would religion under the fluctuation of individual affections, and the vacillation of indi vidual wills, be characterized by alternations from enthusiasm to apathy ? Or would this be only the more apparent and earlier aspect, while a closer scrutiny would reveal a deep, strong flow of 126 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. religious life, more spiritual and real than the products of priestly functions? Such was one phase of the religious problem to be solved on the American continent. The religious life of the new communites in the colonial era — an era of crudeness, privation, fluctuation and embarrassment, with a semi-dependence upon European States and churches— now opens to inspection. The survey of this period will not be exhaustive, leading phases being chiefly noticed, but with sufficient fullness to show the moral and religious character of the times. Section 1.— From 1607 to 1662. The colonies comprised within this period were those of Virginia, New England, New York, and Maryland. Virginia. Among the cavaliers who founded this " Mother of the Southern Colonies" religious ideas were not the most prominent, and yet the early records afford ample evidence that it was founded as a Christian colony.* The piety of the emigrants, stimulated by the exhortations of their pastor, led to the almost immediate erection of an edifice which was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. When Lord De La War arrived with a new body of colonists, in 1610, the church bell was rung, and the people repaired to the sanctuary and united in thanksgiving and prayer. In the same year the Council of Virginia put forth an eloquent and stirring appeal, full of the genuine spirit of missions, seldom exceeded by public religious bodies in more recent times. f Such was the spirit of the first colonists of Virginia, who up to -The language of the royal instructions to the first colonists was, " to provide that the true Word and service of God be preached, planted, and used, not only in the said colony, but also as much as might be among the savages bordering upon them, according to the rites and doctrines of the Church of England." Bulk's History of Virginia. Vol. I, p. 91. One of the reasons for the grant assigned in the first charter was that the colony, " under the providence of Almighty God, might tend to the glory of his divine Majesty, in propagating the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God." Chapter I. Hazard's State Papers, p. 51. tllO, all ye worthies, follow the ever-sounding trumpet of a blessed honor; let religion be the first aim of your hopes, and other things shall be cast unto you ; your names shall be registered to posterity with a glorious title. These are the men whom God raised up to augment the state of their country and to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Neither ought any man to live under Augustus as if he lived under Domitian, to whom sluggishness and privacy is imputed for wisdom and policy. The same God that hath joined three kingdoms under one Caesar will not be wanting to add a fourth, if we would dissolve the frosty iceinesse that chilleth our zeal and SIR THOMAS DALE. 127 this time had been left to their own sense of piety and the instruc tions of their spiritual teachers in promoting the cause of religion. Nothing more definite had been said than that the colonists were expected to conform to the Church of England. But from the ar rival of Sir Thomas Dale, as governor, in 1611, the London Company attempted to regulate the religious affairs of the colony. " Lawes Diuine, morall, and martiall,"* were furnished, " to aid the colon ists in keeping a good conscience." This was supposed to be neces sary from the character of the emigrants who at that time were added to the colony. Many of them were " broken down gentlemen or per sons fleeing from crime and shame, dissolute and profligate in habits, and unwilling to devote themselves to honest toil." Such laws, however, produced little restraint upon these classes, and a serious deterioration in morals was every year perceptible in the colony. This tendency was increased by the difficulty in obtaining good clergymen from England, and the tyranny and rapacity of Captain Argyll, who became deputy governer in 1617. Amid the general corruption, there were two ministers in this earliest period who were eminent for piety and usefulness. Rev. Robert Hunt was a leader in the original colony and the first pas tor. A man of modest and sterling Christian character, he exerted a salutary influence upon the people. He was especially noted for reconciling animosities, restraining the passionate, cheering the de spondent, and for unselfish devotion to his work. In 161 1, the second church was established, in the town of Henrico, and committed to the care of Rev. Alexander Whitaker. f At his hands the celebrated maketh us so cold in the action. But it is a mere idea, speculation, and fancy to sowe spareingly, and to expect for to reape plentifully; when a penurious supply is like the casting on of a little water upon a great fire, that quencheth not the heat, but. augments it. Let no man adore his gold as his God, nor his mammon as his Maker. If God have scattered his blessings upon you as snow, will you return no tributary acknowledgements of his goodnesse? If you will, can you select a mure excellent subject than to cast down the altar of divels, that you may raise up the altar of Christ, to forbid the sacrifice of men, that they may offer up the sacrifice of contrite spirits. . . . Doubt ye not but God hath determined and demonstrated that he will raise our state and build his Church in this most excellent climate, if our action be seconded with resolu tion and religion." See A True Declaration of the Estate of the Virginia Colony. Published by advice and direction of the Council of Virginia, London 1610. Also History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia. By Rev. Franicis L. Hawks D.D. 1836. Harper & Brothers. Pp. 30, 31. *Stith's History of Virginia. P. 122, and Burk's History of Virginia, Vol. I, p. 165. tThe following description of Mr. Whitaker's character was sketched by a contemporary : "I hereby let all men know that a scholier, a graduate, a preacher well borne and friended in En gland, not in debt nor disgrace, but competently provided for, and liked and beloved where he lived ; not in want, but (for a scholier, and as these days be) rich in possession, and more in possibilitie ; of himself, without any persuasion, (but God's and his own heart) did voluntarily leave his warme nest, and to the wonder of his kindred and the amazement of them that knew him, undertook this hard, but in my judgement, heroicall resolution, to go to Virginia, and help to beare the name of God unto the Gentiles." 128 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Indian princess Pocahontas received Christian baptism, and by him also she was united in marriage to Mr. Rolfe. Mr. Whitaker was honored with the title of " the Apostle of Virginia." The Virginia Company seem to have felt the importance of pro moting education in the colony. As early as 1619 they recom mended " that each town, borough and hundred, should procure, by just means, a certain number of Indian children, to be brought up in the first elements of literature; and that the most towardly of them should be fitted for college," * in an edifice to be erected for that purpose. In furtherance of this object the king sent letters to the bishops of England, directing that collections should be taken in all the churches. The object, as stated, was " for training up and educating infidel (heathen) children in the knowledge of God." \ In the midst of these efforts the project received a death-blow by the great Indian massacre of March 22, 1622, which was followed by a long and distracting Indian war. Seventy years then elapsed before another attempt to found a college. Forty years after the founding of the colony the condition of religion was very low. In 1642 a messenger from Virginia visited Boston, bearing letters from individuals in that colony, "bewailing their sad condition, for the want of the means of salvation, and earnestly asking a supply of faithful ministers." The ministers sent were warmly welcomed by a few, and their labors were attended with some success, % but they were soon dismissed from the colony and their congregations scattered. § In referring to this period Bishop Meade || has said, " I do not question the piety and fidelity of some of the people and pastors during the whole history. But that its spiritual condition was ever at any time even tolerably good, bearing a comparison with the mother Church, over whose defects also there was so much cause to mourn, faithful history forbids us to believe. Many were the disad vantages under which she had to labor during nearly the whole period of her connection with the Government of England, which were well calculated to sink her character beneath that of the Church of England and of some other churches in America. Immense were the difficulties of getting a full supply of ministers of any character, * Burk's History of Virginia, p. 225. t Stith's History of Virginia, p. 162. X Winthrop's foui-nal, By Savage, p. 334. Aho American Quarterly Register, .'Nov. 1831, pp. 125, 126. § History ofthe Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, by Dr. Hawks, p. 57. I Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, by Bishop Meade. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857, Vol. I, pp. 13, 14. PURITAN RELIGIOUS LIFE. 129 and of those who came how few were faithful, and duly qualified for the station ! " The Council of Virginia also addressed the most solemn and pathetic appeals to the clergy of England, beseeching them to come over to the work of the Lord in the colony, though it is to be feared with little success; for, in the year 1655, it is recorded that many places were destitute of ministers and likely still to continue so, the people not paying their ' accustomed dues.' * There were at this time about fifty parishes in the colony, most of which were destitute of clergymen, as there were only ten ministers for their supply." New England. The settlement of New England followed thirteen years behind Virginia. The high religious character of its Pilgrim and Puritan founders has passed into undisputed history. Their religion was not merely an abstract principle. It existed in vigorous concrete forms and was both a dogma and a life. Whatever became its sub sequent condition, religion was the chief concern of the first set tlers. From 1630 to 1660 revivals of religion were very numerous, well-nigh uninterrupted, in some of the leading churches. The pulpit ministrations of some early Puritan ministers have been described as very spiritual, " lively, searching and awakening." The Holy Spirit was copiously poured out, and spiritual power was the distinctive glory of the churches — the legitimate result of the intense religious motives that prompted the emigration. In the early colonial annals it is said, " some of their ministers seldom preached without producing religious awakenings." This was particularly true of Revs. Messrs. Cotton, of Boston, and Shepard and Mitchell, of Cambridge. In 1634, under the ministry of Mr. Cotton, marked revival influences f were enjoyed, and from that time to 1652 six hundred and forty-nine \ persons were received into the First Church, in nearly equal numbers of men and women. The Sabbath services were usually protracted to a great length, and in the evening o'f the Lord's day the sermons which had been listened to in public were repeated and reviewed at home. Meet ings were also held during the week, by the male members of the church, for recapitulating and discussing the Sabbath services. The * The clergy were supported by a tax paid in tobacco. t Winthrop's Journal, Dec. 1633, gives a valuable testimonial to the character of Mr. Cotton. as a man and a minister. X See Emerson's History of the First Church, Boston, p. 81. 9 130 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. time not absolutely required for secular business was given to relig ious discourse. Religious lectures were delivered each week, involv ing an amount of labor which made two pastors necessary in the larger churches. It is said that at one time an excess of religious services in some places interfered with the necessary secular labors of the infant colony, and obliged the magistrates to restrict the week-day lectures to one each week. But even then some of the people would go from town to town to attend them. An annual fast-day in the spring, and a day of thanksgiving in the autumn, were the only holidays, and they were religiously observed. Christ mas, Lent and other festivals of the Romish and English churches, were wholly discarded as idolatrous, and the eating of mince pies on Christmas, or any thing else giving to the day a festive character, was regarded as superstitious and wicked. In their revolt from the papal doctrine of marriage as a sacrament, they declared it to be a civil contract, to be administered by a magistrate; while baptism, instead of being dispensed to all, as in the older churches, was restricted to the spiritually regenerated and their offspring. All amusements were proscribed and gayety was regarded as a sin, so that the colony became noted for the rigor and austerity of its morals — " a convent of Puritan devotees." The New England fathers of this period were men of prayer, with an overpowering sense ofthe sovereignty of God, his direct interven tion in all human occurrences, and the power of prayer to reach and influence him. The annals of the old churches are full of records of special days of fasting and prayer, and davs of thanksgiving and praise. Nothing seemed too great or too trivial to be brought to the throne of grace. The early churches of Cambridge and Watertown were favored with the labors of eminently spiritual men — Revs. Thomas Shep ard and George Phillips — the former styled the Baxter of New England. When the location of Harvard College was being deter mined, in 1638, Cambridge was selected because of "the energy and searching character of Mr. Shepard's preaching and his skill in detecting errors." * His congregation was quaintly described f as " a gracious, savory, spirited people, principled by Mr. Shepard, liking a humbling, mourning, heart-breaking ministry and spirit ; liv ing in religion, praying men and women." Mr. Shepard deeply impressed the students of the infant college, and many eminent preachers trained there confessed their great indebtedness to his * American Quarterly Register, Nov., 1831, p. 126. t By his successor, Mr. Mitchell. RE V. JON A THAN MI TCHELL. 1 3 1 words and example. One of them, Rev. Jonathan Mitchell, a grad uate of Harvard College in 1648, followed Mr. Shepard in the pastorate of the Cambridge Church in 1650, and nearly rivaled him in talents and piety. He was called " the holy, meek and heav enly Mitchell; " " the matchless Mitchell." Richard Baxter said of him that " if there could be convened an Ecumenical Council of the whole Christian world Mitchell would be worthy to be the moderator of it." Cambridge was an important religious center. Five sessions of the early Synod were held there between 1637 and 1689.* The Synod which settled the famous controversy with Ann Hutch inson and the other Antinomians met with this church. In this place, also, the celebrated " Cambridge Platform " was adopted, and missionaries were first sent forth among the Indians — the first Prot estant missionaries to the heathen. The first printing-press in America, said to have been the gift of friends in Holland, was set up in Cambridge under the charge of Stephen Day, and a metrical version of the Psalms, prepared by Eliot, Welde and Mather, was published, and long continued in use in the New England churches. The first Protestant translations into a heathen tongue — Eliot's Indian Bible and religious tracts for Indians — were also printed there. In these works the Cambridge Church, under the lead of its eminent pastor, took a lively interest. \ In 1636, the General Court founded in Cambridge a school for the education of ministers, which was soon after endowed by Rev. John Harvard (who died soon after his arrival in the colony), with the gift of his library and half of his estate (£800). Thereupon, the school was erected into a college, received the name of its ben efactor, and was placed under the supervision of a board of over seers composed of magistrates and ministers from six neighboring churches. In fixing upon a location for this institution Salem was passed by, on account of some Antinomian tendencies which had appeared there, and Newtown, subsequently called Cambridge, was chosen. The piety \ of the students was diligently cared for as * Mather, II, pp. 192, 207, 238, 279, 289. t See historical sketch of the First Church in Cambridge, Mass., in the Congregational Quar terly, July, 1873, pp. 384-394. Also Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. I, p. 263. X An old book (New England's First Fruits, in respect to the progress of learning in the college at Cambridge, in Massachusetts Bay. London, 1643), gives the following among other rules of the college at this time : "2. Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, that the maine end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 17. 3), and, therefore, to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning." 132 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. of primary importance, while they were seeking intellectual culture. During the first one hundred years of its existence a little more than three sevenths* of its graduates became ministers ofthe Gospel. One who lived sufficiently near the early colonial period to be familiar with those times has said : " Although the generality, both of the first leaders, heads of families, and freemen, were persons of noted piety ; yet there were great numbers, not only of the younger sort, both children and servants, but also of every age, both in the year 1630 and in the ten following years, that came here only under the common impressions of a pious ministry, or education, or the religious influence of their friends, or the heads of families they belonged to ; and who were, therefore, fit materials for the numerous conversions which quickly followed under the lively, searching and awakening preaching of the primitive ministers." f " The Spirit from on high was poured upon them, and the wilder ness became a fruitful field. In twenty-seven years from the first plantation there were forty-three churches in joint communion ; and, in twenty-seven years more, there appeared more than fourscore churches ; twelve or thirteen in Plymouth Colony, forty-seven in Massachusetts Colony and the Province of New Hampshire, nine teen in Connecticut, three on Long Island, and one at Martha's Vineyard.":): The communicants in the New England churches in 1650, were reckoned at 7,750 § The morals of this early period were of a high order. In 1641 Governor Winthrop made the following entry in his Journal: "A great training in Boston, two days. About 1,200 persons were exer cised in most sorts of land service ; yet it was observed that there was no man drunk (though there was plenty of wine and strong beer in the town), not an oath sworn, no quarrel, nor any hurt done." It is stated by an early annalist that servants and vagrants were the authors of most of the open crimes which were committed. A prominent minister in the province, in 1650, said to his congrega tion, " I have lived in the country seven years, and all that time I " 4- That they, eschewing all profanation of God's name, attributes and ordinances, and times of worship, do studie with all good conscience, carefully to retaine God and the law Of his truth in their minds, else let them know that (notwithstanding their learning) God may give them up to strong delusions, and in the end to a reprobate mind. 2 Thess. 2. n, 12; Rom. 1.28." * From 1642 to 1742, there were 1,421 graduates, of whom 641 became ministers. t Rev. Thomas Prince, in a sermon before the General Assembly of the province, in May, 1730. X Christian History, pp. 63, 64. § Emerson's History of the First Church in Boston, p. Si. In 1674 there were also 3,600 praying Indians. American Quarterly Register, Feb., 1832, p. 203. LUTHERANS IN DELAWARE. 133 have never heard one profane oath nor seen a man drunk." * The Sabbath was kept with extreme strictness. All men, even strangers temporarily stopping in a place, were required to attend public wor ship, or " to keep themselves quiet in their houses." f Some individ uals who found the atmosphere too pure and religion too prominent returned in disgust to England and grossly slandered the colonists. That there was an extreme and impracticable rigidity in the spirit of many of these early Puritan settlers cannot be denied. But this was a relic of the intolerance against which they had revolted and into which they were betrayed in their zeal for the truth. % New York. The trading stations which constituted the first occupancy of New York soon grew into permanent settlements, after the organization of the Dutch West India Company in 1621. While the chief motive was the acquisition of wealth, they very early adopted measures to have the Gospel preached, and churches were established. But the progress of religion in the Dutch colonies was slow, owing to the worldly spirit of the early settlers, the formal character of their piety, the agitations connected with the Indian hostilities, and the dependence of the churches for pastors upon the classis of Amster dam, which, at so great a distance, could only imperfectly judge as to the character of the ministers best suited to the circumstances of the colony. And yet, with all these disadvantages, religious institu tions were maintained, education was promoted, and morals, though not austere, were strict and wholesome. Delaware. In 1637 two ship-loads of Swedish Lutherans settled in Delaware. This settlement was in the interest of Protestant Christianity. Much desire was manifested for the evangelization of the Indians, and Luther's Smaller Catechism was published in their language. At the time Eliot was performing his truly apostolic work in behalf of the Indians in New England, Lutheran missionaries were engaged *See preface to sermons published in Boston, in 1721, by Dr. Increase Mather. t Winthrop's Journal, 1646. X " If a body of men be deprived of their dearest rights for professing conscientious opinions, it is natural that they should attach more importance to those opinions than if they were allowed their free exercise. It not only makes them more sturdy champions of their belief, but it leads them into intolerance toward others." Essays and Reviews, by Edwin P. Whipple, New York. D. Appleton & Co. 1848. Vol. I, p. 204. Article, Neal's " History of the Puritans," North American Review, January, 1845. 134 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. in the same holy work in Delaware and Pennsylvania. The royal in structions to the governor of this colony especially enjoined that the true worship of God and a pure faith should be maintained. * Section 2.— From 1662 to 1720. This was a period of marked religious declension in all the colonies. Virginia. That it should be necessary in Virginia to enact a law requiring the clergy to preach constantly every Sabbath, and to administer the sacrament ofthe Lord's Supper at least twice each year, is, of itself, a significant fact. Passing down to the close of the first century of the colony, only a few more churches appear to have been established, and, though glebes and parishes had been provided, not more than one half of the congregations were supplied with ministers, the others being served by lay-readers. " As to the unworthy hireling clergy of the colony, there was no ecclesiastical discipline to correct or punish their irregularities and vices. The authority of a commissary f was a very insufficient substitute for the superintendence of a faithful bishop. The better part of the clergy and some of the laity long and earnestly petitioned for a faithful resident bishop, as the Bishop of London was, of necessity, only the nominal bishop. For about two hundred years did the Episcopal Church of Virginia try the experiment of a system whose constitution required such a head but was actually without it. No such officer was there to watch over the conduct and punish the vices ofthe clergy; none to administer the rite of confirmation, and thus admit the faithful to the Supper of the Lord." % Under such circumstances the religious tendency was inevitably down ward, and the morals also correspondingly declined. A passing tribute is due to the memory of Rev. James Blair, D.D., who contributed in his day more than any other individual in the southern colonies to the cause of learning and the diffusion of Christianity. A native of Scotland, where he also received his * Article on the " Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States," in the Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1868, by Rev. J. A. Brown, D.D., Professor in Gettysburg Theological Seminary, PP- 437, 438- fAn officer of the bishop exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction in distant parts of his diocese. X Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. Vol. I, p. 15. By Bishop Meade? Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857. WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE. 1 35 education, and was beneficed in the Episcopal Church, he quitted his preferments and went to England near the close of the reign of Charles II. The Bishop of London prevailed upon him to go as missionary to Virginia in 1685. Having studied the wants of the colony, and performed valuable service to the cause of religion, in 1689 ^e was appointed commissary ; the first officer of this class ever appointed, and a position which he held, in intimate association with the Bishop of London, for fifty-three years. Dr. Blair has been described as " eminently a practical man," of " sincere piety, a clear mind, and indefatigable perseverance." To his labors may be directly attributed the founding of William and Mary College, in 1693, of which institution he was president forty-nine years. He died at the age of eighty-six, after a ministry of sixty-four years, and for fifty years he was a member of the king's council. He left four vol umes of sermons, which were highly commended by Dr. Doddridge.* Maryland. There is no evidence of the organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland until about i6j^.f There were, doubtless, communicants of that Church in the province, but they were not numerous. In 1676 the moral and religious condition of the province was represented X as most deplorable. In ten or twelve counties there were only three clergymen of the English Church. The Lord's day was generally profaned, religion was despised, and " all notorious vices were committed, so that it had be come a Sodom of uncleanness and a pest-house of iniquity." In 1684 the number ofthe clergy had increased, but they were " remarkable for their laxity of morals and scandalous behavior, utterly inconsistent with the sacred office." § From 1678 to 1692 there was a series of movements indicating a revolution against the Roman Catholics. Protestantism was in the majority, | and a spirit of deep unrest under Catholic administration rapidly increased until 1692, when the accession of William and Mary to the English throne afforded an opportunity to change the character of the government. The pro prietary came to an end and the provincial form was adopted, bringing the province directly under the officers of the crown, and * See Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 74, 75. t History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks. New York, 1839. Published by John S. Taylor. X Letter from Rev. Mr. Yeo, of Patuxent, to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Hawks, p. 48, 49. § Hawks, p. 54 ; also, British Empire in America. Vol. I, p. 333. | Hawks, p. 53. 136 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the Episcopal Church was formally established as the religion ofthe State. This was fully consummated in 1702, but the condition of morals was not improved. A letter from one of the clergy to the Bishop of London, in 1714, drew a dark picture of the moral and religious condition of the province.* In 1722 the number of parishes was thirty-eight, varying from nine to seventy miles in length, with eleven hundred Episcopal families and three thousand communicants. During this period a considerable number of Baptist, Quaker, and Presbyterian churches were founded in this province. New York. But little religious progress was made in the colony of New York. Local circumstances embarrassed the churches. The Dutch churches were still ecclesiastically dependent upon the mother church in Amsterdam. The colony fell into the hands of the English, and a new class of settlers came in, resulting in the establishment of the English Church in 1693, and general taxation for its support. This produced dissatisfaction and irritation. Pennsylvania. It was during this period that Pennsylvania was settled by the Quakers. Founded upon the principle of unlimited toleration, the colony became a favorite resort for people of all creeds, where they dwelt together in delightful tranquillity and harmony. No act of intolerance or of persecution ever disgraced this colony. Churches multiplied and spread into the interior, the Quakers and Presby terians being the most numerous. The morality of the people was of a high order, and the spirituality of religion was genuine and unaffected. To Rev. Francis Makemie belongs the honor of laying the foundation of the Presbyterian Church in this country. A man of indefatigable zeal, clear-sighted, sagacious, fearless, and inspired by a truly apostolic spirit, he was pre-eminently adapted to the work. But the circumstances of the times taxed his virtues and his strength to the utmost. A true " itinerant missionary, and in reality the bishop of a primitive diocese," f he was emphatically "in labors abundant." He extended his circuit from Long Island to Maryland, and visited New England, Old England, and Scotland in * Hawks, p. 136. tGillett's History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Vol. I, p. 5. RELIGIOUS COLDNESS IN NEW ENGLAND. \2>1 furtherance of his work, founding churches and obtaining ministers and funds. The obstacles which he everywhere encountered were spiritual coldness and formality. Presbyterianism in America had its origin during the dark and gloomy period preceding the great Edward ian and Whitefieldian revivals. In addition to the unfavorable local circumstances and tendencies in this country, it was a time of spiritual decay .and heresy abroad. " The Presbyterian churches of Switzerland had extensively fallen away from the vital doctrines of the Gospel. The writings of Whiston, Clarke, and Hoadley, in England, followed by the debates and publications of dissenters at Salter's Hall, showed that in London all was not sound, even among those who bore the honored name of the Puritan ancestry. In Scotland, moreover, the seeds of unsound doctrine had been widely sown." * In receiving ministers, therefore, from the mother country at this time, the early Presbyterian churches in America were com pelled to exercise the greatest care. New England. In New England, also, where, in the earlier period, such deep spirituality had prevailed, a sad and general decline of piety and morals was manifest. The year 1662 marks a transitional point in the churches of New England. The adoption of the celebrated half-way covenant \ that year opened the door for worldliness, formality, and dangerous errors. In 1670 a decay in spirituality was very apparent. Rev. Samuel Danforth, of Roxbury, spoke of " the temper, complexion, and countenance ofthe churches as being strangely altered," and " a cold, careless, dead frame of spirit " as having " grown steadily " upon them. In 1678 Increase Mather spoke of " conversions " as " rare." " The body of the rising generation is a poor, perishing, unconverted, and, except the Lord pour down his Spirit, an undone generation. Many are profane, drunkards, lascivious, scoffers at the power of godliness." In 1683 Rev. Samuel Torry, of Weymouth, said : " Oh, the many symptoms of death that are upon our religion ! " " As converting work doth cease, so doth religion die away ; though more insensibly, yet most irrevocably. How much is religion dying in the hearts of sincere Christians!" In 1702 Increase Mather said: "Look into our pulpits and see if there is such a glory there as there once was. Look into * History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H, Gillett, D.D., Vol. I, p. 50. t See chapter on the Diverse Currents of Religious Sentiment, and Section 5 of this chapter. 138 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the civil State. Does Christ reign there as he once did ? How many churches, how many towns there are in New England over which we may sigh and say, the glory is gone!" Dr. Trumbull represented the condition of things in Connecticut at that time as very similar. In 1705 there was a partial reformation in Eastern Massachusetts, and in the western part of the State there were occasional revivals. Under the ministry of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, at Northampton, in a period of sixty years there were five revivals — in 1679, 1683, 1696, 1712, and 1718. Notwithstanding these few revivals, in 1720 the moral and religious condition of New England had sadly declined from what it was eighty years before. Several causes contributed to this general declension in religion, the most important of which were — the stormy political aspect of the times, being a period of frequent ahd violent changes in the mother country, for the most part, under the licentious and debauched court of Charles II. , then of James II. , and finally under the some what improved but constantly disturbed administration of William III., all of which very sensibly affected the English colonies ; the emigration of new classes of inhabitants who, unlike the earliest settlers, were actuated by worldly motives, and were restive under religious restraints; in New England the celebrated "half-way covenant " which involved a vital change in the conditions of church membership, destroying the fundamental distinction of the Church as a separated and consecrated community, and the new currents of sentiment which were setting in from the Old World under the influence ofthe rising spirit of radical inquiry. A corruption in manners had been working downward through English society from the reign of Charles II. The pages of Addi son, Steele, Johnson, and Goldsmith afford ample evidence of the general prevalence of frivolity and profligacy. The example ofthe mother country was contagious, and the children ofthe Pilgrims, the Covenanters and the Cavaliers sadly deteriorated in style of character and life. A growing liberality in thought, and an increasing tend ency to deistical philosophy, during the reigns of William III. and the Georges diverted men's minds from the old channels of opinion and threatened to undermine the long-cherished doctrines. The first results of these influences were felt in the American churches early in the last century. The religious enthusiasm of the fathers had passed away, and their devotion, self-sacrifice, and sanctity of life had subsided into staleness of thought and stagnancy of feeling in all the colonies. IMPRESSIVE EVENTS. 139 Section 3.— From 1720 to 1745. The Whole Field. At the opening of this period, the Episcopal was the Estab lished Church in Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mary land, and New York, and it also commanded the special favor of the civil authorities in New Jersey. The Dutch Church also existed in New York and New Jersey, and the Quakers held ex tensive sway in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The Presbyterians and the Baptists had established a few churches in all the Middle States. The Baptists had some churches in three of the New England States. The Roman Catholics existed only in Maryland, but even there they were deprived of the privilege of holding public religious services. There were a few Mennonites and other small bodies. The largest denomination of Christians was the Congregational, which had almost exclusive possession of New England. The total population ofthe colonies in 1700 was about 320,000, and in 1750 they had increased to about 1,320,000.* In 1733, Georgia, the last of the original thirteen United States, was settled under Governor Oglethorpe. New England. At this time several startling events in New England deeply impressed the people. In 1721 nearly six thousand cases of small pox occurred in Boston and vicinity, of which one seventh proved fatal. In 1727 the greatest earthquake ever known in New England occurred, in the clear night of Oct. 29, while the moon was shining brightly. In 1735 a fatal throat epidemic raged. In New Hamp shire, then consisting of only fifteen towns, one thousand persons fell victims to the terrible malady, of whom nine tenths were under twenty years of age. Temporary revivals of religion followed, but the communities soon relapsed into indifference. The venerable Increase Mather died in 1723, and his distinguished son, Cotton Mather, in 1728. In 1727 Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Massachusetts, the most influential public man in western New England, passed away. Three years before his death Cotton Mather presented a petition to the Legislature of Massa chusetts, in the name ofthe general convention of ministers, praying that, in view ofthe great and visible decline of piety, a synod might be called to remedy the unhappy condition. No synod was called. * See Seaman's Progress of Nations, p. 583. New York, 1852. Charles Scribner. 140 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Jonathan Edwards and the Great Revival. It was in the midst of such a religious condition that the memor able movement known as " the great awakening " occurred. It was a series of far-reaching revivals, with Edwards as the prime mover, supplemented by Whitefield, each acting independently of the other — Edwards in New England and Whitefield throughout the colonies. Edwards was confessedly a man of rare intellectual power, the ablest preacher of his time, who subsequently acquired the reputa tion of being the " most distinguished metaphysician from Leibnitz to Kant." He was acute in analysis and intense in thought. From early childhood he was deeply religious. Somewhat phlegmatic in temperament, trained up to a Puritanical primness, scrupulously precise in ministerial dignity, an absorbed student, solitary, and even ascetical in his habits, he was, nevertheless, a man of delicate sensibility, of fine esthetic taste, of rapt contemplation, and deep enthusiasm. Strong of will, of lofty temper, and large moral consciousness, he was earnest even in his most deliberate actions; and, however wanting in practical qualities and knowledge of men, he nevertheless possessed some very important qualifications for a religious reformer. His religious character was his most notable trait. His whole existence was a conscious longing after the Divine, springing from a profound conviction of the painful reality of sin and the glorious reality of redemption. A descendant from a London clergyman in the days of Elizabeth, a graduate and tutor of Yale College, most fortunately united in marriage to a woman * of the rarest qualities both of mind and heart, and called to the pastorate of one ofthe largest and most influential churches in New England, he began his ministry at Northampton in 1727 under circumstances exceedingly auspicious. But the heart of Edwards could not rest in outward circum stances, however bright. He looked for spiritual life, but found it not. In his church the ripest and worst fruits of the " half-way covenant " were conspicuous. For about twenty years his dis tinguished predecessor had received unconverted persons to the communion and the Church, and had openly defended the prac tice in controversies with his ministerial brethren. A worldly spirit prevailed ; the young people absented themselves from public worship and the restraints of family influence ; licentiousness grossly abounded, and the Sabbath was turned into a day of amuse- * Daughter of the Rev. James Pierpont, of New Haven, Connecticut. THE GREA T A WAKENING. 1 4 1 ment. Edwards was deeply impressed with the prevailing laxity in morals, discipline, and doctrine. The virus was deeply seated, requiring radical treatment. He resolved to preach thoroughly upon the fundamental phases of doctrine involved in the situation. Influential friends endeavored to dissuade him, but he went forward, some finding fault and others ridiculing. He struck massive blows against the foundations of false hope, and set forth boldly the great principles of evangelical truth. In the latter part of December, 1734, a new religious condition became apparent, attended by inquiry and conversions. After several months the deep interest in Northampton extended to South Hadley, Sunderland, Deerfield, Hatfield, West Springfield, Hadley, and Northfield, in Massachusetts, and to Suffield, Windsor, Coventry, Lebanon, Durham, Hartford, Stratford, Tolland, Bolton, Hebron, Preston, Groton, New London, and other towns in Con necticut. In Northampton alone three hundred persons professed conversion in about six months. The influence extended to the Presbyterian churches in New Jersey and some parts of Penn sylvania under the labors of the Tennents, and subsequently of Cross, Frelinghuysen, and others. The revival spirit prevailed through several years. Powerful revivals occurred in 1739 in Newark, New Jersey, and Harvard, Massachusetts, and in 1740 in New Londonderry, Pennsylvania, and New Bruns wick, New Jersey. In many places where there was no visible movement there was a quiet quickening of religious interest, and an increased attention to religion in the inner and outward life. Nine years after this revival Edwards attested that " there had been a great and abiding alteration in the town," " more general seriousness and decency in attending public worship," " less vice than for sixty years before," and a more " charitable spirit toward the poor." Nor in Northampton alone were these perma nent benefits. The good effects were widely visible after the excite ment had passed away. The churches were stronger in numbers and piety. Public morals were improved ; theology was more evan gelical and the line of demarkation between the Church and the world more visible. Considered as a work of grace, this great revival was attended by many marks of genuineness,* deep views of sin and unworthiness, clear convictions ofthe truths ofthe Gospel, firm persuasions ofthe fullness and sufficiency of Christ as a Saviour, exalted apprehensions of the majesty of God, profound self-abnegation, utter dependence * See Edwards's Works. Vol. Ill, pp. 123, 140 ; also, History of tlie Great Awakening. 142 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. on the Holy Spirit, restitution for wrongs, reconciliation of enemies, and extraordinary self-dedication to God. That there were cases of self-delusion, extravagance, and excesses, was freely con fessed and deeply mourned by Edwards and his co-workers, who faithfully analyzed and exposed them. These things were made occasions for gainsaying and opposition, but great and lasting good was nevertheless accomplished. Whitefield. The revival under Edwards had nearly spent its force when White- field appeared and gave it a new impulse. He landed in Philadelphia in November, 1739, warm in the fresh glow of a new religious experi ence, and flushed with his successes upon the plains of Moorfields. From a fiery ordeal of agonizing self-conflicts, and the deep melan choly of ascetic follies, his struggling spirit had emerged into the liberty of spiritual adoption, and longed to proclaim its transports to the world. With a heart of great capacity and simplicity, with oratorical powers unexcelled in effectiveness, and imbued with rich spiritual influences, he was eminently fitted to be an evangelist. Inwardly moved with the conviction of a divinely appointed mission, and overflowing with sympathy, he began his labors in Philadelphia. The whole city was powerfully stirred, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quak ers, and Churchmen, all flocking to hear him. From Philadelphia he went to New York, then to Philadelphia again, then to Chester, Pa., then to Delaware, then to Charleston, S. C, and Savannah, Ga., then to Philadelphia and New York, then to Savannah, and thence to New England, moving like the angel in the apocalyptic vision, ' his progress every-where a spiritual triumph. He reached Newport, R. I., Sept. 14, 1740. Reputation ran before him as a herald, pro ducing a popular contagion and drawing multitudes to he'ar him. He preached incessantly, often sixteen times a week. High and low persons, clergymen, civilians, college professors and students, were alike swayed by his matchless eloquence. The hearts of tens of thousands from Maine to Georgia were stirred, and many pro fessed conversion. He returned to England, but revisited America many times, traversing the length of the land and proclaiming the Gospel message with unparalleled power and success. At last he died, in 1770, at Newburyport, Mass., saying, almost with his latest breath, " Lord Jesus, I am weary in thy work, but not of thy work." It was Whitefield's mission to revive in the churches faith in Pen tecostal power and results. What a sublime example of the conse cration of the highest oratory to the work of saving souls ! REV. WILLIAM TENNENT. 143 A considerable revival interest followed Whitefield's labors in Boston. A deep seriousness and an increased attendance upon Sabbath worship were for some time manifest. Rev. Wm. Tennent, of New Jersey, came and preached searchingly and powerfully for several months, with good results. " The very face of the town," it was said, " seems altered." The revival spread as far as Ports mouth, N. H., Plymouth and Enfield, Mass., and Westerly, R. I. Tennent was followed by Rev. James Davenport, of New Jersey, under whose more erratic labors, guided by visionary impressions, a reaction set in. The Edwardian and Whitefieldian revivals continued, with vary ing degrees of interest and success, from 1734 to 1745, and in some localities to 1750, but they were chiefly confined to the Congregational churches in New England and the Presbyterian churches in the Mid dle States.* "The Log College" Work in the Middle States. The Presbyterian churches in the Middle States had sunken low in apathy and formalism, and the unsound doctrinal tendencies which had paralyzed many of the Presbyterian churches of Great Britain threatened to destroy those of the colonies. But Providence was raising up agencies to avert the threatened evils. Rev. William Tennent, a native of Ireland and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, came to America in 1718, became a Presby terian minister, and settled at Neshaminy, about twenty miles from Philadelphia. Here he founded what was long known as the famous " Log College," for training young men for the ministry. He had four sons, Gilbert, William, Jr., John and Charles, all eminent preachers. To this remarkable family, called " the right-hand men of Whitefield," and their intensely evangelical school, the first educa tional institution ofthe Presbyterians in America, is largely due the spiritual resuscitation and aggressive power of this denomination in the Middle States. Rev. Samuel Finley, D.D., an Irishman by birth, 'entered the " Log College," became a wise, zealous, and useful minister, a coad jutor of the Tennents in the spiritual revolution which saved the Presbyterian Church, and in later life was President of Princeton College. Rev. William Robinson — " one-eyed Robinson " — was another evangelist who studied at the " Log College." The son of a rich * The Quaker, Reformed, and Baptist churches received some benefits. 144 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Quaker, he became a zealous Presbyterian minister, laboring in neglected and scattered settlements in southern New Jersey, west ern Virginia, and North Carolina. Threatened by the civil authori ties because an itinerant, but allowed to go on his way, he became a shining light in the dark southern borders. Dr. Alexander said of him that he was probably instrumental in the conversion of as many souls as any man who ever lived in this country. There were " unconverted ministers " in many of the Presbyte rian pulpits of that time, says Dr. Gillett * and great religious apathy; and the position of the Tennents and their .coadjutors, in regard to revivals and the spiritual qualifications of ministers, awakened bitter conflicts in the Synod, resulting in its division into the " Old " and the " New Side " in 1741. In the end the spiritual side triumphed, and the parties were reunited in 1758. Many other ministers were raised up at the " Log College." The occasional visits of White- field and these evangelical allies kept the revival work alive many years, greatly augmenting the communicants in the churches and trebling the ministers in seventeen years. Princeton College grew up out of this revival in 1746. Results of Whitefield's Labors. Whitefield caused great commotion and disturbances in the churches, and serious divisions and animosities followed. Bitter con troversies were kindled which did not die with that generation. But the old question comes back, Was it Ahab or Elijah who troubled Israel? The judgment of history affirms that not only the Middle Colonies but also New England were benefited rather than injured by Whitefield's visits. Whitefield often overrated both his audiences and his converts, but much of the fruit of his way-side sowing, never numbered on earth, maybe seen in eternity. Dr. Coggswellf estimated the num ber added to the New England churches at 25,000 ; Trumbull X at 30,000 to 40,000; others as high as 50,000. The Congregational and Presbyferian churches shared largely. Many Separatist and Baptist churches were formed. Many ministers and church mem bers were converted (twenty ministers, it was said, in the vicinity of Boston). The standard of the religious life was raised. Indian missions received a new impulse ; Brainerd was thrust out on his missionary career ; and from the same influence Dartmouth College had its inception, under Wheelock, in Lebanon, Conn. *Hist. Pres. Ch., vol. I, pp. 82, etc. t Christian Philanthropist. X History of Connecticut. WHITEFIELD IN THE SOUTH. 143 Maryland and Virginia. From 1725 onward, in Maryland the character of the clergy is said to have very much improved. Whitefield visited this State in 1740, but his labors were attended with little success. Baltimore was just beginning to be a place of some importance, and the Epis copalians were the first to erect a church there. The St. Paul's church was begun in 1732.* No Roman Catholic Church was built there until more than forty years later. Virginia, too, as well as Maryland, received but little benefit from the great revival. Says Dr. Hawks.f " It is not calumny to say that religion was in a deplorably low state." Another writer,^: whom he quotes, said : " There are and have been a few souls in various parts of the colony who are sincerely seeking the Lord, and groping after religion, in the communion of the Church of England." " In the year 1740 Mr. Whitefield visited Virginia and preached at the seat of government and other places, and it is not improbable that his ministrations tended to create an increased interest on re ligious subjects among some of the members of the Establishment. At any rate he obtained a ready and unprejudiced hearing because he was a clergyman of the Church of England, and a deeper sense of piety was exhibited among some of the Establishment soon after his visit." § Section 4— From 174S to 1776. This period was one of varying fortunes in the colonial churches. The influence of the great revivals which have been mentioned was felt in some localities for a considerable time, but it was a period of many distractions. The French and Indian war, con tinuing through nearly nine years (1754-1763), and the agitations preceding the war of the Revolution seriously militated against the religious life and morals of the people. In eastern Massachusetts, where the Arian and Socinian defection was already extensively working, there were no revivals. In the western part of the State there were large churches, in North ampton, Stockbridge, Westfield, and Southampton. In Connecti cut, notwithstanding several ecclesiastical difficulties, there were * Griffith's Annals, p. 23. t Histof-y ofthe Episcopal Church in Virginia, by Dr. Hawks, p. 100. X State of Religion Among Dissenters in Virginia. By Rev. Samuel Dalls, p. 10. § History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, by Dr. Hawks, p. 100. 10 146 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. quickenings in the churches in Canaan, Killingly, Lebanon, Bethlehem, Preston, Somers, etc. Rev. Drs. Bellamy, Backus, and Hart, of that State, were ministers eminent for piety and influence. In East Hampton, on Long Island, Rev. Samuel Buel, a man of extraordinary piety and talents, settled in 1746; and, in 1764, through his efforts, an extensive revival of religion spread on the island. Among the Presbyterians in New York, New Jersey, and Penn sylvania several eminent men were raised up. Rev. Samuel Davies, D.D., the great pulpit orator and president of Princeton College, commenced his ministry in 1747; Rev. John Brainerd, the worthy brother of the great missionary to the In dians, in 1748 ; Rev. John Rodgers, D.D., as associate of Davies, and also a pastor in New York City, in 1749; Rev. Elihu Spencer, D.D., one of the strongest names that adorn the Presbyterian annals, in 1748 ; Rev. Naphtali Daggett, D.D., subsequently president of Yale College, in 175 1 ; Rev. John Todd, who was called to bear the mantle of Davies on his departure for England, in 175 1 ; Rev. Robert Smith, D.D., the honored theological instructor of many ministers ofthe Presbyterian Church, in 175 1 ; and Rev. George Duf- field, D.D., a man of marked abilities and pulpit power, pastor of a church in Philadelphia, in 1756. The Tennents, Drs. Blair, Finley, Sproat, and their co-laborers in evangelistic work, were yet alive, and the savor of their influence was extensively felt in the schools and in the churches. In the Dutch Church Rev. Drs. Archibald Laidlie and John H. Livingston were eminent names, the patriarchs and fathers of the Church. Laidlie, a Scotchman by birth and a graduate at Edin burgh, commenced his labors in New York in 1764. This event marks a new era in the history of the Reformed Dutch Church. His evangelical and powerful ministry resulted in great spiritual blessings. His pastoral tact and success were remarkable. Crowds attended his ministry, and he was a successful winner of souls.* Livingston, a native of Poughkeepsie, a graduate of Yale and of the University of Utrecht, Holland, commenced his labors in New York in 1770. During his ministry he established a great reputation as an orator and a theologian. His pastorate in New York continued forty years. To him, more than any other man, is attributed the separate organization of the Reformed Dutch Church in this country. f * See Historical Discourse, 1856. By Dr. Thomas De Witt. Life of Dr. Livingston. By Dr. Gunn. Sprague's Annals of American Pulpit, Vol. IX. tSee Life of Livingston. By Dr. Gunn. Sprague's Annals. Vol. IX. DISSENT IN VIRGINIA. 1 47 Baptists and Presbyterians in Virginia. No noticeable event occurred during this period in Maryland ; but Virginia was the scene of new movements. Until near the middle of this century, with the exception of a few Quakers and Independents who had occasionally appeared and were almost as promptly dismissed, Virginia had been exclusively occupied by Episcopalians. A few Baptists had entered the colony in 1714, and others from Maryland in 1743. But not many permanent Bap tist churches were established until soon after 1750. The first Baptist Association was organized in 1766, and at the time of the Revolution about seventy* churches had been constituted, but they were located chiefly in the western part of the State. In the same sections the Presbyterian churches were established. " The Virginia Government encouraged emigration along its frontier settlements, where the hardy pioneers might serve as a defense against the incursions of the Indian tribes. There was no question now raised in regard to their faith and order. If they could carry a rifle, or plant along the western forest a line of pro tection against savage inroads, they were sufficiently orthodox. Their distance, moreover, from the settlements on the eastern shore prevented any umbrage being taken at a dissent which did not attract notice or give offense. Thus, in obscurity and neglect, Presbyterianism, in spite of Virginia laws, planted itself unmolested west of the Blue Ridge. Germans, Quakers, and Irish Presbyterians from Pennsylvania took possession of the county of Frederick." f From 1719 to 1755, at various times, the people at " Potomoke," near Martinsburg, at Opekon, south of Winchester, at Wood's Gap, in Albemarle, at Timber Ridge, at the Triple Forks of the Shenandoah, at Staunton, and numerous other places, were supplied with preachers by the Synod of Philadelphia and the New York Presbytery. In 1755 the Hanover Presbytery was constituted, from which time the cause prospered more fully. That distinguished minister. Rev. Samuel Davies, D.D., was the most able and successful promoter of Presbyterianism in this region. The celebrated Patrick Henry was a frequent attendant upon his ministry. Great revivals attended his labors, and at the time of the Revolution the Presby terian churches in western Virginia were quite numerous. In the eastern part of Virginia the Episcopal churches were life- *See List, by Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D. in Amei lean Quarterly Register, Nov. 1840, pp. 182, 187. t See History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D., Philadelphia. Presbyterian Publication Committee. Vol. I, p. 106. 148 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. less. To say that the clergy were worldly and formal comes short of the truth. Many of them were not only irreligious, but also immoral. According to Jarratt,* " the Sabbath was usually spent in sporting." In the pulpits natural religion and essays on morality were substituted for the Gospel. " Tillotson's sermons," says Bishop Meade,f " abridged into moral essays and dry reasonings on the doctrines of religion, were, I fear, the general type of sermon izing among the clergy who came over to America for the seventy or eighty years before the war of the Revolotion." There were only a few exceptions. The most distinguished of these deserve a a more extended notice. Under their labors, in some portions of Virginia a new spiritual life was promoted. Morgan Morgan, an eminent Episcopal layman, a native of Wales, emigrated in early life to Pennsylvania. In the year 1726 he removed to the county of Berkeley in Virginia, and erected the first cabin between the Blue Ridge and the North Mountain. As a man of exemplary piety, and devoted to the Church, " he went about doing good," visiting the sick, and impressing upon all the value of per sonal religion, training his own family in the ways of piety, and died at the ripe age of seventy-eight years, full of faith and good works. In the absence of the clergy he often officiated as a lay- reader, visiting destitute localities, quickening the piety of the churches, cheering the desponding, extending his labors through the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson, and a part of Frederick, Hamp shire, and a small portion of Maryland. He was every-where welcomed, beloved alike by the rich and the poor, and attracted attentive audiences. His character was his passport, and the fruit of his labors was long seen in the valley of Virginia. % The second, Devereux Jarratt, was a clergyman of deep spiritual character and zeal. In 1763 this remarkable man became the pastor of Bath parish, in Din- widdie County, Virginia, having received ordination in London the previous year. In his autobiography he presents many striking facts relative to the condition of religion in this State. He was an * Autobiography of Rev. Devereux Jarratt, p. 28. t Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. By Rev. Bishop Meade. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857. Vol. II, p. 355. X Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 112, 113. REV. DEVEREUX JARRATT. 149 earnest and laborious minister, of very decided evangelical senti ments. In a time when the parish ministers preached little but " morality and smooth harangues, in no wise calculated to disturb the carnal repose of the people," he says, " My doctrine was strange and wonderful to them, and their language one to another was to this effect : ' We have had many ministers, and heard many before this man, but we never heard anything till now of conversion, the new birth,' etc. At this time I stood alone, not knowing one clergyman in Virginia like-minded with myself.' " Bishop Meade says, * " It is to be feared that about this time, and for some years before, the clergy of Virginia were not only wanting in seriousness, but were immoral and ignorant." Com plaint was made to the Bishop of London of the gross ignorance of four clergymen and the immorality of others. Mr. Jarratt was a man of extraordinary character, and his ministry extended through a period of thirty-eight years. He devoted himself zealously to his work, and was both pastor and evangelist, not only in the three churches in his parish, but often in many adjacent towns. In his preaching he discarded the merely moral and sentimental homilies, then the staple instruction of the clergy, and enforced often " in a bold and alarming man ner " the guilt of sin, the depravity of mankind, their danger, and portrayed in most inviting strains the way of salvation by faith in Christ. When the spirit of religious inquiry was awakened in his parish, he extended his labors through the week, by night and by day, often in private houses, holding meetings for prayer, singing, preaching and conversation. His churches were crowded to over flowing : his labors were sought for elsewhere, and extended through a circle of five or six hundred miles. Twenty-nine counties in Virginia and North Carolina were visited by this great Episco palian evangelist, and for some years, as his journal shows, his sermons averaged five each week. Says Bishop Meade, " He was, of course, very obnoxious to many of the clergy. One of them charged him with violating an old English canon by preaching in private houses. To this he replied that no clergyman refused to preach a funeral sermon in a private house for forty shillings, and he preached for nothing; moreover, that many of the brethren transgressed the 75th canon, which forbids cards, dice tables, etc., to the clergy, and yet were not punished. Some complained of his encouraging pious laymen to pray in his presence, which he answered by reminding them how * Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. By Bishop Meade. Vol. I, p. 467. ISO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. often they permitted ungodly laymen to swear in their presence, without even a rebuke. Mr. Jarratt adduced in proof of the low state of religion the small number of communicants, none but a few of the more aged, perhaps seven or eight, attending. The rest thought nothing about it, or else considered it a dangerous thing to meddle with. The first time he administered it there was only that number. About ten years after he entered the ministry there were at his three churches, including a number who came from other parishes, about nine hundred or one thousand, although he endeavored to guard the table closely against unworthy receivers. For many years this happy state of things continued, but after a time a melancholy change appeared." * The Revolution ary war and French infidelity swept over the State. Returning to New England, we notice : Section 5.— Tlie Fruits of tlie Half-way Covenant. The introduction of the half-way covenant into the New England churches, and the subsequent action of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, have been sketched in these pages. A few things need to be stated as to its actual workings and its later history. The two systems (that of the Synod of 1662 and that of Stoddard), during the last century, ran largely together. This fact should be considered in order to a proper understanding of the current events. As is often the case, some parts of the systems were not fully observed, and there was much laxity, an inherent tendency in the nature ofthe case. Says Dr. Buddington,t " Had the theory of the covenant been carried out, it might have been a source of all the good anticipated, but probably it was the vice of the system that it could not be carried out faithfully. It was looked upon by many as a form devised to procure a respectable standing in the community, and it was practiced as a form, with no intent to discharge its duties or submit to the discipline it implied. In this way it happened that the discipline of the churches was neglected; indeed, so numerous had the children of the covenant become, that it became well-nigh impossible to exercise a faithful discipline, inasmuch as almost the whole community were members of the Church by baptism." * Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. By Bishop Meade. Vol. I, pp. 47 1 1 472- ^History of the First Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, p. 127, THE HALF-WAY COVENANT. 151 The South Church, Hartford, Connecticut, as already stated, came into being out of the controversy which arose over the subject of baptism in the first Church in that city. It was organized in 1670, under a protest against the half-way covenant, though it subsequently fell into the same practice. At its two hundredth anniversary Dr. Leonard Bacon said : " In the days of the half-way covenant, whatever else was neglected, the baptism of children was well attended to. Looking into the records of an old church in Fairfield County, Connecticut, not very long ago, I saw something to this effect : the minister, in his old age, recorded this regret, that he had not kept an accurate registry of baptisms, and therefore supplied that deficiency by certifying, once for all, that according to his best knowledge and belief, every body* then living in the parish was baptized, except a few Indians in a remote corner." We are credibly informed that those who were baptized were urged and accustomed to come to the communion. We thus gain some conception ofthe condition of things in the churches of the last century. The churches were generally walking in this way. Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D., says : \ This one historical fact is so comprehensive that it includes many others. In the light of if we can easily understand why the churches of Massachusetts were in a very unhealthy condition one hundred years ago. They had not, it is true, lost all their power as churches of Christ, but they were greatly shorn of their strength. From 1745 on to the close of the century there was a woeful absence of those special breathings of the Hply Spirit which we call revivals of religion. The churches were built up as to numbers, but largely with earthly materials, and the standard of Christian conduct came to be very low. We talk of the good old times, but all through the last century there were strifes and contentions in many of the churches, such as were far below the Christian standard of the present day. We refer to these things not to dishonor our fathers, but rather to honor the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its power to overcome evil and make the world better from generation to generation. When Rev. Peter Thacher was ordained in Boston over the New North, in 1723, there were disorders such as would not be endurable in our times. The vote that called him was not unanimous, though nearly so, but the few dissentients were so stout and hateful in their opposition that they actually undertook to interrupt and stop the public services on ordination day, and in doing this were guilty of most mean and dastardly acts. Not prevailing, however, to stop the ordination, one man afterward nailed up his pew door, and it remained in this condition for years, until some young men sawed it out one night and fixed it as a kind of sign on his shop. *The baptisms in the old church in Windham, Connecticut, from 1700 to 1800 were 2,389, Almost every person was a church member, and all had their children baptized. t Historical Survey of the Churches, 1776-1886. 152 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The type of religious experience, even in the most religious, was very somber, dull and gloomy — little of the cheerful, hopeful, happy piety of more recent times. The most experienced Christians were sadly in bondage to fear. When talking of spiritual things it was common for them to remark — " O, if I only knew I had a spark of grace I should be so happy." Some of the churches voted that no person should be required to make a relation of his religious experience when admitted to the Church, and in some, " no assent to the covenant " was required. Outwardly the people, especially in New England, were more religious one hundred years ago than now. They all supported religious institutions, taxing themselves for that purpose. The mass of the population was more generally found in the sanctuary on the Sabbath than now, but aside from the Sabbath services there were few religious meetings. Even if they had been disposed to gather for extra services, their scattered condition, poor roads, scarcity of bridges, etc., would have been hinderances. They thought more of being members of the Church and having their children baptized than now ; but the reasons for these things were semi-political, and church attendance was not voluntary, but enforced under heavy penalties. In respect to the formalities of religion, that age was in marked contrast with the present. People were more reverent of God, of His Church, of the Bible, of ministers and magistrates, and more solemn and devout in worship. Devout, solemn airs, whining tones, and long faces commanded a high premium. But there were less than ten years of good average spirituality in the whole century. The effect of the half-way covenant upon the theology of the Churches will be developed in the chapter on Diverse Currents. THE RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS. 153 CHAPTER VI, THE RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AMONG PROTESTANTS. Sec. I. The Ministry. " 2. The " The Meeting-Houses.'' " 3. Public Worship. Sec. 4. The Catechism. " 5. Thanksgiving and Fast Days. Section 1.— The Ministry. THE parish minister was a conspicuous personage in the colonial times. In the very earliest years of the settlement of New England each of the larger churches had two ministers, one of whom was the "teacher" and the other the pastor; but this custom did not long continue. The minister was known by his dress. His pow dered wig was surmounted with a three-cornered clerical hat, usually of beaver. A ministerial coat, single-breasted, with an ample curve on each side, and a vest of enormous length, with large pockets and lappets, covered his body. He wore short pants, met at the knees by long, smooth silk or worsted stockings, and soft calf or deer-skin shoes, fastened together by shining silver buckles. He was a grave man, of imperturbable dignity, and of great importance in all the town, and " his person was sometimes made a bug-bear to frighten refractory children into obedience." So greatly was he revered that the people usually took off their hats and bowed to him as he passed. It has been jocosely said that men passing the parsonage with teams always put the best wheel on the end of the axle nearest the parson's house. In New England the minister was " the parson," which meant the person, in the parish— a much more important personage than now. He was consulted concerning the enactment of laws and questions of civil administration. To speak against him or his preaching was punished by fine, whipping, banishment, or cutting off ears. Every person was obliged to contribute for his support, usually, however, by tax ; all were required to hear him preach on the Sabbath, Fast and Thanksgiving days, or pay a fine of five shil lings for every absence ; and all were expected to keep awake dur- 154 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ing the sermon. Marriages were, however, performed by magis trates, and, in the earlier period, the dead were buried without prayer, lest that should bring in papal customs. At this early time the term Reverend was not applied to the parson, but on portraits and pamphlets the name was followed by V. D. M. {Verbi Dei Minister). Among the Dutch in New York he was called the " Dominie." The salary of the minister at Danvers, Mass., in 171 3, was £60 a year and 15 cords of wood while single, and £j$ when married. In Schenectady, in 1700, the allowance was .£100 New York currency (about $250), house and garden rent free, pasturage for two cows and a horse, 60 cords of wood delivered at the parsonage, and traveling expenses from Holland.* Generally the salary was paid in money, but often, in part, in country produce. The Ply mouth Legislature decreed that a portion of any whales " in God's providence " cast upon the shore should be set apart for " the en couragement of an able, godly minister among them." Much is said of the narrow-mindedness and sectarianism of the ministers of that period, but we should not forget that all through the colonial era there was progress, and the minister of 1 750-1775 was far in advance of those of 1630-1660 in respect to toleration and breadth of ideas. There was a constant general advance, far- sighted men leading the van and obtuse ones following far behind. As a whole, the ministers of those times were the leaders in public sentiment. There were no lyceum lectures, concerts, plays or amusements, outside of a very few large towns, and the sermons were the events of the week. In New England the sermons were often strongly tinged with philosophy, and varied with discussions of obscure points in science and metaphysics, which afforded new topics for conversation among the people. Crude as some of those discus sions now seem, they were then the skirmish lines beyond which the intellect of this age has passed, only to be superseded by the generations to follow us. Such is the progress of ideas. The minister's influence was felt in every hamlet, but the lawyers and the physicians owed more to the parson than any other class of persons. The long sermons, often dealing in abstruse metaphysical questions, afforded the professional and educated men intellectual occupation and amusement. The pulpit served for the stage and the circulating library, and the sermons heard on Sunday were thought over and discussed during the week. * In 1784 it was advanced to ^140 ($350), in 1796, ^200. INFLUENTIAL MINISTRY. 155 The Influence of the Minister. Five reasons have been given why ministers had so great influ ence in the colonial times, i. Religion, in the earlier period, at least, was regarded by the people as a very serious business, the subject on which their lives and destinies turned, and the parish minister was both the Moses and the Aaron of their hopes. 2. He was really an important officer in the theocracy, the ecclesiastical order being the power behind magistrates and courts. 3. The superior learning of the clergy, they being the learned men of the settlements. 4. The simplicity of colonial life afforded them rare opportunities for personal influence. The complexity and expan sion of society, with its great interests developing able men in their departments, now every-where surrounding us, was then unknown. The parson was a natural center of influence, as he cannot be now. He was often the physician and surgeon, and the more advanced schools were under his roof, where young men fitted for college and the ministry. There were few college graduates outside of the min istry in the first century of our colonial history, and few lawyers, educators, editors and financiers. Managers of manufactories, rail roads, etc., etc., were unknown. And there Were no newspapers. 5. The length of the pastorates was also favorable to the growth of influence. Long Pastorates. In 1782 Rev. Timothy Walker died at Concord, N. H., after a settlement of fifty-two years as pastor of that church. Among his contemporaries in that State were thirteen ministers* all of whom had long pastorates ; namely : Years, Rev. Ebenezer Flagg, of Chester. . . 60 " John Wilson (Presbyterian), of Chester 45 " John Odlin, of Exeter 48 " William Allen, of Greenland. 53 " Samuel McClintock, of Green land 47 " John Tuke, of Gosport 41 Years. Rev. Jeremy Fogg, of Kensington . . 52 " William Davidson, of London derry 51 " Joseph Adams, of Neurington. 68 " John Moody, of Newmarket. . 48 " Samuel Parsons, of Rye 48 " Jonathan Cushing, of Dover. . . 52 " James Pike, of Somersworth. . 60 Ministers were settled for life. Of 271 pastors in Massachusetts in 1776, 223 retained their pastorates until death; and only 48 were terminated by dismission or resignation. One had a ministry in the * Congregational Quarterly, July, 1873, pp. 362, 363. 1S6 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. same parish over 70 years; 21, between 60 and 70 years; 51, be tween 50 and 60 years ; 66, between 40 and 50 years; 62, between 30 and 40 years; 24, between 20 and 30 years ; 32, between 10 and 20 years ; 14, under IO years. A small farm was attached to the parsonage in most towns, and the parson was often a skillful farmer. Sometimes he became very worldly and secular, neglecting study, and his sermons became stale. An eminent New England divine, himself a son of a Puritan clergy man, used to relate that, when a boy, he heard the deacons in his father's house discussing the merits of their respective ministers. After many had spoken an old deacon said : " Wa'al, our minister gives so much attention to his farm and orchard that we get pretty poor sermons, but he is mighty movin' in prayer in caterpillar and cankerworm time." Section 2.-— The Meeting-Houses. When the legions of Rome attempted to conquer the Anglo- Saxons they found the tribes bound together by a league they had nowhere else encountered — the league of the tuns. Each village was a tun, independent, managing its own affairs, each householder hav ing the right of suffrage on all questions affecting the welfare ofthe tun. Every village had its moot, or meeting-house, where the in habitants met to discuss all questions in tun meeting. Each tun man aged its own affairs, and each united with its neighboring tun to repulse invaders. Rome could not conquer this people. The term moot (?«w/-question, moot-zouxt, etc.), signifying debate, gave char acter to the buildings used for mooting, and the moo ting-house in the course of time was called a meeting-house. The first settlers at Plymouth Rock were a tun, the beginning of a State — a Republic. In the wilderness they reared their moot — the meeting-house — where on Sundays religious questions were mooted, and where, on other days, they mooted the affairs ofthe tun, elected tun officers, etc., every voter mooting his opinions upon all subjects relating to the tun, money for roads,, schools, bounties on foxes and wolves, down to the question of putting yokes upon geese and wires in the snouts of swine. The meeting-house was the legislative house of the minia ture commonwealth, aswell as a sanctuary where spiritual and eternal things were considered. The town meetings held in New England meeting-houses have become potenL factors in the nation. In the meeting-houses troops were raised to fight the Pequots. From the EARLY CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 157 pulpits patriotic fires were fanned that flamed into the Revolution, and from the meeting-houses the troops went forth to fight. Outside of New England, on some of the frontiers, meeting houses were not so promptly reared, and Sabbaths and general morals ran low. But in New England, it may be said, in the beginning was the meeting-house. The edifice belonged to the town, in its paro chial character, and the town meetings were opened with solemn religious services. All parish business was transacted in many New England towns at the regular town meeting. Even the most trivial matters, such as the appointment of a chorister, the purchase of sup plies for the ordination dinner, arrangements for the ordination ball, which sometimes occurred, etc., were decided in this popular assem bly. The records of one town meeting show a vote authorizing a committee " to purchase a pitch-pipe for the use of the chorister." For many years this was the only instrument used in singing in New England. " A barrel of rum to raise the meeting-house " was an other town charge. The meeting-house always belonged to the town, in its parochial character ; but at the close of the last and the beginning of the pres ent century these arrangements were gradually modified until, by the adoption ofthe amended "Bill of Rights " in Massachusetts, in 1834, towns were discharged from all care of the Gospel and all con nection with its institutions and agencies. In most other States this change came sooner. Rude Edifices. As to the character of the edifices, the very earliest belonged to the nondescript style of architecture — four walls of logs, with crevices stuffed with clay, no ceiling but the rough wood, often unhewed, and a thatched roof. Such were the first houses of worship in Virginia, New York and New England. They could do no better. In a little while the log church gave place to a square framed house, with a " tunnel " roof, the latter style of roof prevailing chiefly among the Dutch. In these buildings town business, courts, and many local contentions were held and criminals sentenced ; and stocks and whip ping-posts were conveniently near. In the southern colonies the early churches were without spires for a hundred years or more, and were often located in retired places. In the days of Indian hostilities the sanctuary was loop-holed and surrounded with a palisade built of tall stakes as a protection against attacks. This building also stored the powder and served as a fort. A certain number of men were detailed to go every Sun- 158 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. day to the place of worship, with arms and ammunition, ready to repel an assault. Advance in Church Architecture. Only a little time, however, elapsed before the house of worship became a more worthy edifice. An old church, erected in eastern Massachusetts in 171 3, was 28 by 42 feet, three stories high, covered with plank one and a half inches thick, and clap-boarded. It was voted " to leave the inside to be plastered when ye precinct are able." There were no carpets, cushions, or pews, only hard oaken seats ; the men sitting on one side and the women on the other until pews were introduced. Heavy beams crossed overhead, bare and unsightly, and when the building was crowded " some of ye sprightly lads sat on ye beams over ye heads of ye congregation." Dignita ries of the State sat " on ye high seat by ye pulpit." It was long before the family or square pew was adopted. Most ofthe church buildings standing in the older towns in 1800 were built from 1730 to 1770, the third of the series built since the first settlements. In the newer towns they were the second. Many of them were the best buildings of the period, the largest, most expensive and best cared for, requiring sacrifices from the people that would now be considered intolerable. They were painted white externally. An unpainted meeting-house, or one without a steeple and a bell, was an exception to the general rule. Sometimes, even in this more advanced period, the building of the steeple was deferred for lack of means, the modern expedient of a church mortgage not having been adopted ; but the glory of the sanctuary was deemed wanting until a lofty spire pointed heaven ward and the welcoming notes of a bell reverberated to the remot est corner of the town. It was then an imposing structure, located in the center, where the paths and lanes of the settlement converged, and often, in New England, on a high hill, where the first houses were built. The square house gradually gave place to an oblong structure of two stories and a gallery. Sometimes it was plastered only below the galleries, the portions above being left unfinished to the roof. Kegs of powder often stood on the great oak cross-beams for safe keeping, there never being any fire in the house. No cur tains softened the light nor cushions the hard seats, except in the pulpit. No flue or chimney appeared in church architecture until near the close ofthe last or early in this century. Men warmed their hands by keeping them in their stout coat pockets, and knocked their feet CHURCH INTERIORS. 1 59 together with not a little noise. Judge Sewall, of Boston, wrote (Diary, Jan. 24, 1685) : "This day was so cold that the Sacramen tal Bread was frozen pretty hard and rattled sadly on the plates." The women brought small foot-stoves,* replenished with charcoal, which sometimes occasioned fainting, though generally the cold and the fumes of gas were borne without complaint. The first stoves were mounted on high platforms, sometimes nearly as high as the gallery, until the philosophers discovered that heat rises. A peculiarity of the early times were the " Sabba'-Day Houses ; " buildings erected near the church, about sixteen feet square, with small windows on three sides, a chimney built of stone or perhaps partly of brick, with a large fire-place. This room was furnished with rough seats. In this place the women passed the short inter mission in mutual greetings, inquiries after health, commenting on the morning sermon, gossiping, etc., while the men lingered around the horse-sheds, or the bar-room of the tavern. The pulpit was lofty, reached by a flight of stairs ; so high that those who kept their eyes fixed upon the preacher did so at the peril of a stiff neck. Behind was a curtainless window, and above a curiously gilded canopy about six feet in diameter, in form resem bling a flat turnip cut transversely. It was called a sounding-board and hung just above the speaker's head by a slender iron rod from the ceiling. Just beneath, in front of the pulpit, were the deacons' seats, in a sort of pen, where they sat on communion days, facing the congregation, with the communion table hanging by hinges in front of them. When pews were introduced they were constructed about six feet square, with high perpendicular walls, and a railing on the top. Within were uncushioned seats on two sides, and sometimes two or three plain chairs. The seats were hung by hinges, so that they might be turned up when the congregation rose, as it was the universal custom to stand in prayer time ; and " the slam-bang as they were turned carelessly down again at the close of prayers, not unlike a volley of musketry, was no inconsiderable episode in the ceremonies." Before bells were introduced a flag was raised and drums were used to call the people to worship. A good deacon, as was some- * From time immemorial only aged women and feeble persons were allowed to carry foot- stoves, which were replenished with coals at noon from the " Sabba'-Day House" or a neighbor's. In a town-meeting debate on the question of introducing a stove into the church in Brimfield, Mass., one speaker said : " We do nnt need a stove in this house to warm it, the preaching is hot enough for that purpose." When a stove was introduced into a certain meeting-house a leading man fancied the air so uncomfortable that he walked out of the house in a rage, when a by stander examined the stove and found that no fire had yet been kindled in it. 160 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. times the case, with cocked hat and small clothes, solemnly beat the drum from hill to hill on Sabbath morning. The people came forth from their brown houses and wended their way to the meeting-house. A story is told of a faithful deacon who rode the same white horse to church for twenty years without missing a Sabbath ; but at length, taken sick, the deacon was kept at home. The venerable steed, however, without saddle or bridle, joined the worshipers as usual at the sound of the drum, went to the church, lingered till the services were over and then trotted home again. When carriages were first introduced those who used them were subjected to serious criticism, as extravagant and proud. The Congregations. " Behold now the congregation as it assembles on the Sabbath. Some of them are mounted on horses, the father with his wife or daughter on a pillion behind him, and perhaps also his little boy astride before him. They ride up to the stone horse-block and dis mount. The young men and maidens, when not provided with horses, approach on foot. They have worn their every-day shoes until just before coming in sight, and have exchanged them for their clean calfskins or morocco, having deposited the old ones in some unsuspected patch of brakes or some sly hole in the wall. They carry in hand a rose, a lilac, a pink, a peony or a pond-lily (for this was the whole catalogue of flowers then known in the coun try towns), or, what was still more exquisite, a nice bunch of caraway seeds. Instead of this in winter they bear a tin foot-stove contain ing a little dish of coals, which they have carefully brought from home or filled at some neighboring house ; and this was all the warmth they were to enjoy during the two long hours of the service. In winter they come a long distance on ox-sleds, or perhaps skim over the deep untrodden snow on snow-shoes. They enter the house stamping the snow from their feet and tramping over the uncarpeted aisles with their cow-hide boots. " Let us enter with them. The wintry blast howls around and shrieks among the loose clap-boards ; the half-fastened windows clatter ; and the walls re-echo to the thumping of thick boots as their wearers endeavor to keep up the circulation in their half frozen feet, while clouds of vapor issue from their mouths ; and the man of God, as he raises his hands in his long prayers, must needs pro tect them with shaggy mittens. So comfortless and cold — it makes one shudder to think of it. In summer, on the contrary, the sun THE MEETING-HOUSE SERVICE. 161 blazes in, unscreened by window curtains ; the sturdy farmer, accus tomed to labor all day in his shirt-sleeves, takes the liberty to lay aside his coat in like manner for the more serious employments of the sanctuary." * Section 3.— Tlie Worship. It is winter ; nevertheless the people are gathered, many of them from distant homes, in a cheerless sanctuary. Upon rough boards arranged on rude blocks sit the fathers of the church, in stout woolen frocks with snow-shoes near by and fur caps hung upon the muzzle of guns leaning against their shoulders. The pastor, too, has hung his three-cornered hat upon his own trusty musket, which stands by the side of the pulpit. The forenoon service begins at ten o'clock. A solemn tune is sung in nasal strains. The congregation rise and stand during the pastor's prayer, which is never less than fifteen minutes long, often twice or thrice as long, f Then a psalm is " lined off" by "the ruling elder," and sung by the congregation in " a most solemne tune." The sermon follows, never less than an hour in length, some times extending to an hour and a half and two hours, so that "the hour-glass " on the preacher's desk is turned twice. " The Improve ment " is often as long as the argument. It advances by regular stages to eighthly and even to sixteenthly. The elderly men, unac customed to long sittings, occasionally stand up, stretching over the breastwork of the pew or gallery to relieve the fatigue of their posi tion. It was the duty of the tithing-man to keep the people awake, X striking the boys with a knob at one end of his pole, and tickling * From the history of an old New Hampshire town. t Sometimes a pause was made at a certain stage of "the long prayer'' to accommodate those who chose to sit down. X In a satire, one of the preachers of that time is pictorially represented as saying to his audi ence, " I know you are good fellows, stay and take another glass." Another minister who stood in a pulpit on the side of the church next to the cemetery, seeing many asleep, sarcastically remarked that those behind him could hear as well as those before him. " In one town in eastern Masssachusetts it was voted 'that the three hindmost seats in the meeting-house be left for the boys that are under twelve years old, and three seats above in the men's gallery be left for older boys to sit in, and that the select men see to the getting of two men to look after the boys, that they be made to sit in the seats appointed for them and they be kept from playing.' If any of the boys above twelve years old should play on the Sabbath day in the time of public worship they were to be ' brought below and compelled to sit with the smaller boys, until they leave off playing on the Sabbath.' It was also voted that the same course be taken with the girls. Two misses in one case were fined for laughing in meeting, and for speak ing deridingly of God's Word and ordinances men were sentenced to pay five pounds or be whipped." . . . 11 162 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the ears of the girls with a feather at the other end. * After the sermon another psalm is read. " Tate and Brady" is lined off and sung with a strong nasal twang and hearty good will to some good old St. Ann's or St. Martin's, and finally the benediction is pronounced. The congregation still remain in place, to go out in prescribed order: first, the minister ; then, the deacons ; then, those in the front seats below; and at the same time, those in the front gallery seats and those in the pews, etc., etc. The Intermission. They separate for a short intermission, and to dispatch their lunch f of doughnuts or apples ; in summer they stroll in the grave yard hard by, to hold silent converse with those who sleep there and be impressed with the lesson of their own mortality. In win ter those from a distance take refuge before the blazing hearth of some friend in the village, and are, perhaps, regaled with a hos pitable mug of cider or something stronger ; and after an hour's inter mission all re-assemble' for the afternoon service, which is much like that of the morning. Some ministers, however, in the morning usually preached a doctrinal sermon, and in the afternoon drew infer ences and practical lessons. This logical, connected style of preach ing trained the minds of their hearers to habits of consecutive thought. Sanctuary Items. There were some incidental items in the religious services of those times which have been well described by a writer:}: in The * An old document speaks of a disturbance in an old church at Danvers, Mass., in 1713 : "There was a disturbance in ye gallerie when it was filled with divers negroes, mullattoes and Indians. And a negro called Pomp Shester, belonging to Mr. Gardner, was called forth and put in ye Broad Aisle, when he was reproved with great awfulness and solemnity ; he was then put in ye deacon's seat, between two deacons, in view of ye whole congregation, but ye Sexton was ordered by Mr. Prescott to take him out because of his levity and strange contortions of coun tenance giving great scandal to ye grave deacons, and put him in the lobby under ye stairs. Some children and a mulatto woman were reprimanded for laughing at Pomp Shester." t " It was not an uncommon thing in those days for people to bring their dinners to meeting. In a certain instance a pitcher of milk was set on the pulpit stairs by the occupant of a pew near by. During the long prayer a dog found his way into the meeting-house, and in wandering about in the aisles espied the pitcher. Putting his nose into it he kept on lapping tiil his head had forced itself so far into the vessel that it was impossible to shake it off . To see the dog work ing vehemently to get the pitcher from his head, as he ran up and down the aisle, was too much f >r the risibles of the congregation, even in the time of prayer. The minister, opening his eyes, caught sight of the dog and was himself overcome by the ludicrousness of the scene. The con gregation were too much demoralized to resume worship for that occasion, and it was found practicable to adjourn till afternoon." X To this writer the author is indebted for some of the previous items, as well as some which follow. A PURITAN CHRISTENING. 163 Congregationalist. Before "the long prayer" a string of notes was read. "A H asks prayers for herself, sick and weak;" " B S requests prayers for him, sick and low, that he may be restored to health or prepared for God's will concerning him." " That T S 's death may be sanctified to wife, parents, chil dren, brothers and sisters." Then a note of " thanks for mercies received " by the parents of a new-born child, which occasions some sheep's eye glances in the congregation. Last comes one which stirs every heart. " Prayers are desired for Thomas Cobbett, son of Rev. Thomas Cobbett, of Ipswich, who has been taken captive by the Tarantine savages, that the Lord who preserved the life of Joseph and delivered him out of prison may be with our friend and brother, to preserve his life and health, and restore him to his dis tressed and sorrowing family." The long prayer that followed pre sented every case separately before the Lord. In the afternoon, " during the opening prayer," the "mercies re ceived " for which thanks were offered in the morning, in a little red bundle of wrappings and adornments from over the sea, is brought by its pleased but timid father, half way up tlie pulpit stairs to the font, at the end of the railing in front of the deacons. The descend ing pastor takes the infant tenderly, sprinkles her tiny forehead, pronounces her significant name, " Welcome," and after the rite returns to the pulpit and goes on in his suspended prayer — " Now, O Lord, be pleased to ratify in thy courts above what has been done in thy courts below, and grant in thy great mercy that the name of this dear child may be written in thy Book of Life." Then follows singing and the sermon. The sands ofthe glass at the left end of the deacon's railing run their hour and the sermon closes. " One of the deacons says, ' Breth ren, now there is time left for contributions.; wherefore, as God hath prospered you, so freely give.' The magistrates and chief gentle men first, and then all the congregation, go up oneway, putting their offering, if it be money, into a box, or if any other chattel — as a squash, a bag of beans or a spare-rib — depositing it before the dea cons, and all return by another way to their seats. These gifts are for the poor and needy, many of whom from their designated places in the front galleries anxiously watch the deposits." The service closes, and just as all are ready to start they halt to hear the voice of the town clerk cry out, " Jonathan Bishop and Esther Jennison intend marriage." As this is their second announce ment it awakens no surprise, and all depart for their homes. In some meeting-houses there was a stool of repentance for transgressors, 164 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. who were placed on elevated seats, with labels designating their offenses so fixed upon their persons as to be seen by all. Confes sions were also required to be made by penitents before the congre gation on Sabbaths and lecture days. In the seventeenth century no Scripture lessons were read in the New England pulpits. About 1700, the Brattle Street Church, Bos ton, introduced the practice of reading a Bible lesson, but they were called to order by the other churches. Some New England churches did not introduce this practice until near the close of the last cent ury, and then only in the morning service. When the meeting was over, says the writer already quoted, the people hurried home to kindle their fires, raking open the bed of coals on the hearth. If the fire had gone out they rekindled it by striking a flint against a piece of steel, throwing a spark upon tinder. After supper was over the family sat around the old fire place and recited the catechism, beginning with " What is the chief end of man?" all taking part. It was a long time to bed-time, but there were no Sunday-school books, no religious papers, nothing to read except the Bible'and the Primer, with the rhymes : " Xerxes the Great did die And so must you and I." As the Sunday ended at dark, it came to be a question with many how dark it must be before it would do to work or play. The prevailing rule was that " when five stars could be seen the Sun day was at an end." When the boys could count the five stars their pent-up spirits burst wildly out in whoops and jumps. The Music. The music of the early part of the eighteenth century, in the better congregations, while not artistic, was doubtless essentially good, and expressive of devout feeling. Manuals and collections of sacred music had been published and were freely used.* Handel died in 1759 and Haydn was born in 1733. Rev. Dr. Chauncy, of Durham, Connecticut, published an able pamphlet on " Singing by Rule," as early as 1728. One of the smaller collections of Hymns and Tunes shows more than fifty tunes in use prior to 1800, and more than twenty-five which antedated 1760. This in a few ofthe better congregations, while the sparser and newer seldom used more than two or three, or perhaps a half dozen tunes. * Before the close of the last century some collections of hymns had been published in N England, one of them containing 500 pages. They were expensive, however, and for that and because many could not read, the hymns were "lined off." ew reason, CONGREGATIONAL SINGING. 16S Congregational singing was the general custom. In the latter part of the last century a few choirs were formed, and a revolution in the singing customs began. Musical instruments came in — bass viols, or " big fiddles," as they were contemptuously called, occasion ing serious quarrels. In the early New England churches the singing never ministered to the har mony of a Sabbath congregation. And there was a greater discord than ever in the meeting-houses when an attempt was made to improve the singing by forming choirs, and teaching them to read notes and sing " by rule." This was first done in the Brattle Street meeting house, Boston, in 1720. In the country towns the innovation met with stout opponents, who declared that it would lead to popery, and that "fa," "sol," "la," was the voice of the pope in disguise! Each party- accused the other of disturbing the public worship of God, one in attempting to perpetuate the " old way," the other to force in the "new way" of singing. The opponents of the new way said that the old way was more solemn, and that the new way must be wrong because the young people so readily fell into it ! Some congregations did not understand the merits of the controversy well enough to have any opinion about it. On the Stamford, Connecticut, records is the following amiable decision : — " Genewary ye 28, 1747. Voted yt. Mr Jona. Bell, or any other man agreed upon to sing or tune ye Salm in his absence in times of publick worship, may tune it in ye old way or new way, which suits you best." At Windsor, Connecticut, in 1736, it was decided to sing " in the old way " in the morning and " in the new way" in the afternoon. The new way of singing gradually broke up the custom of employing a town reader to read aloud the hymns, line by line, to the singers, which was first introduced at Plymouth, in 1685, at the request of worshipers who could not read. This custom, which finally attached itself to the deacon's office, prevailed in all parts of New England for a hundred and fifty years, because it removed " the embarrassment resulting from the ignorance of those who were more skillful in giving sound to notes than in ciphering letters " (Lincoln's Worcester.) Education finally rendered the custom unnecessary, and the formation of choirs caused it to be destroyed. At Worcester, Massachusetts, August 5, 1779, it was " voted that the singers carry on singing in public worship, and that the mode of singing be without reading the psalms line by line, to be sung." On the next Sabbath the aged Dea. Chamberlain, unwilling to abandon the old custom, arose and read aloud the first line of the hymn as he had been accustomed to do. The singers, whose bold array stretched along the front of the gallery, sang line after line without noticing the deacon, while he, raising his voice, read the lines as usual, until the strength of the choir overpowered him. Then he took his hat and left the meeting-house, weeping and mortified. But the Church, not satisfied with this triumph over the old man, publicly censured him, and deprived him of communion because he had absented himself "from the public ordinances on the Lord's day."* Long Sermons and Long Prayers. The prayers as well as the sermons in those days were very long. A little more than two hundred years ago Jasper Dankers and Peter * A writer in The New York Observer, 166 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Sluyter, of Friesland, visited Boston, and gave the following account of the exercises on a certain day for fasting and prayer : We went into the church, where, in the first place, a minister made a prayer in the pulpit of full two hours in length, after which an old minister delivered a ser mon an hour long, and after that a prayer was made and some verses sung out of the Psalms. In the afternoon three or four hours were consumed with nothing except prayers, three ministers relieving each other alternately; when one was tired the other went up into the pulpit. A suggestive record of an early Thanksgiving Day service (Dec. 22d, 1630) is worth introducing. Beginning some half an hour before nine, and continued until after twelve o'clock, ye day being very cold — beginning with a short prayer, then a psalm sung, then more large in prayer, after that another psalm and the Word taught, after that prayer and then a psalm. A certain preacher of the olden time, after exhausting his sand glass, which ran an hour, turned it and kept on. When he had gone through with three fourths of another hour the congregation had nearly all retired, and the clerk, tired out, audibly asked his reverend superior to lock up the church and put the key under the door when the sermon was done, as he and the few remaining auditors were going home. The stories which have come down to our day about the length of the prayers by the ministers in the early times seem exaggerated and fabulous, but they are doubtless true. The author of this volume, while writing these lines, has before him a book of written sermons by Rev. Thomas Clapp, who graduated at Harvard College, and was settled in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1725. On the introductory leaves is a "Scheme of Prayer," covering six pages, in fine writing. It is divided into five general heads, with numerous sub-heads ; there are four and even seven grades of sub-divisions as follows : — Part I. Adoration of God — thirty-one sub-heads. Part II. Confession — forty-nine sub-heads, in tive classes, designated by He brew numerals, capital letters, Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, and small letters. Part III. Petitions — ninety sub-heads, in five classes, as above. Part IV. Thanksgiving — forty-two sub-heads, in seven classes. Part V. Intercession — twenty-eight sub-heads, in four classes. Total, two hundred and forty sub-heads. We can easily imagine that an hour would be consumed in offering a prayer upon this elaborate plan.* It would contain a body of divinity. *Hon. Samuel Sewall mentions a fast at which, after three persons had prayed and one had preached, " another prayed about an hour and a half," Diary, vol. I, p. 76, THE CATECHISM. 161 The sermons of this minister are also a curiosity. The pages measure seven inches by four and a half, but so closely written that the average number of words in a page is eight hundred and nine teen.* The North American Review, at the present time, averages about four hundred and fifty printed words per page. The printed matter is six and a half inches by four inches, a little smaller than the pages ofthe MS. in question. But the North American Review has forty-one lines per page, and averages eleven words to a line, while this MS. has sixty-three written lines, and averages thirteen words in a line.f We can easily understand why the reading desks in those times were built so high — a necessity in reading such closely written sermons. Section 4.— The Catechism. The Catechism was an important element in the religious history of New England, but its origin antedates the Puritans. Two hundred and fifty years before the Pilgrims landed on our shores, John Wickliffe wrote the first catechism of which there is now any knowledge. R. Legatt's catechism appeared in 1545 ; King Edward VI. 's Short Catechism, in 1553 ; Calvin's catechism, in Geneva in 1536, and in England in 1560. A great number of catechisms, large and small, were published by the Puritans, Non conformists, and Independents, in the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries. Rev. William Perkins's catechism was translated into Dutch and printed by William Brewster (Father of the Pilgrims) at his press in Leyden, in 1617, in a stout quarto of 184 pages. It was much used by Nonconformists in Old and New England, and was translated (probably by one of the Mayhews, though not printed) into the Indian language. Rev. Daniel Rogers, son of the proto-martyr, prepared a catechism which was much used by the Puritans, and to some extent in New England. Thomas Lechford, an English attorney and scrivener, who passed about three years in Massachusetts, 1638-41, and after his return to London published his Plaine Dealing or Newes Jrom New England, complained that there was here •' no catechising of children or others in any church, except in Concord church, and, in other places, of those admitted [to Church membership] in their receiving. . . . But God be thanked," he adds, "the Generall Court was so wise, in June last [1641], as to enjoyn or take some course for such catechising, as I am informed." *Some of them contain over eight hundred and fifty words per page, t These sermons cover about eighteen or twenty pages. 16S CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The vote of the court as it appears in the record was, " It is desired that the Elders would make a catechism for the instruction of youth in the grounds of religion." The fact seems to be that the early Congregationalists in New England did not object to catechising, but had some differences of opinion about catechisms ; and, moreover, they regarded the catechetical instruction of the young as a duty of the household rather than a distinct office of the Church. As Mr. Cotton ex pressed it (in his answer to John Ball's discourse of Set Formes oj Prayer), " The excellent and necessary use of catechising young men and novices . . . we willingly acknowledge ; but little benefit have we seen reaped from set forms of questions and answers devised by one church and imposed by necessity on another." The objection to " set forms " was not to be removed by any action of the general court. If any form must be adopted, every church looked to its own minister to provide one. " Public catechising of children or others, in church," was not generally practiced, but there is abundant evidence that catechising in the family and in schools was not neglected, and soon there was no lack of approved cate chisms written and printed in New England. At the end of the century Cotton Mather wrote : "Few pastors of mankind ever took such pains at catechising as have been taken by our New English divines. Now, let any man living read the most judi cious and elaborate catechisms published, a lesser and a larger by Mr. Norton, a lesser and a larger by Mr. [Richard] Mather, seve'-al by Mr. Cotton, one by Mr. Davenport [and sundry others], and say whether true divinity were ever better handled." * Catechisms were prepared by Richard Mather and John Cotton {Spiritual Milk for Babes) and printed in numerous editions. In 1697 Cotton Mather wrote that " the children of New England are to this day most usually fed with this (John Cotton's) excellent catechism," and in 1702 he called it "peculiarly The Catechism of New England" and predicted that " it will be valued, studied, and improved until New England ceases to be New England." " It made a part of A Primer for the Colony of Connecticut, printed about 171 5, and of The New England Primer, improved in the editions of 1775, 1777, and after. A translation of it into the Indian language of Massachusetts, by Rev. Grindal Rawson, was printed in 1691, and again in the Indian Primer of 1720." \ The Assembly's Shorter Catechism was before Parliament in 1647. But many catechisms were prepared by individual pastors : Rev. Thomas Shepard, of Cam bridge ; John Fiske, of Chelmsford ; John Norton, of Boston ; Davenport, of New Haven ; Stone, of Hartford ; Fitch, of Norwich ; Noyes, of Newbury ; Cotton Mather and others. The Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism (first printed in 1647) was reprinted at Cambridge in 1665, and again, with " the proofs out ofthe Scriptures,'' * Articles on Catechisms in Old and New England. By J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D., in the Sunday-School Times, September 8 and 15, 1883, to which the author is greatly indebted. t J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D. THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER. 1 69 Boston, 1683. At what date it was introduced into the New England Primer is not ascertained. It does not appear in the contents of the " enlarged " Primer of 1691, or of the Connecticut Primer of 1715, but it makes a part of the earliest New England Primer of which any complete copy is preserved — the one printed at Boston, in 1737. Cotton Mather tells us that the Rev. John Fiske, of Chelms ford, who died in 1677, " did, by most laborious catechising, endeavor to know the state of his flock, and make it good," and, " although he did himself compose and publish a most useful catechism, Watering oj the Olive Plant, before mentioned, yet he chose the Assembly s Catechism for his public expositions, wherewith he twice went over it in discourses before his afternoon sermons." The Rev. Samuel Willard, of Boston, gave his people a course ot two hundred and fifty lectures, continued for more than nineteen years (1688-1707), on the Shorter Catechism, and these lectures were published after his death, in a stout folio, as a " body of divinity.'' But, until the middle of the eighteenth century, " the children of New England " were (as Mather said) " most usually fed with Cotton's Milk for Babes," or some of the many catechisms written for the use of particular congregations. * Describing The Neiv England Primer, Dr. Trumbull says : The contents of the little book are nearly the same as in the editions of fifty years ago, which some of us remember. There are " The Great Capital Letters " and "The Small Letters," the "Easie Syllables for Children" — ab, eb, ib, ob, ub, and the rest — the " Words of One Syllable," and upward, to those terrible " words of five syllables, beginning with " A-bom-i-na-tion " and ending with " Qual-i-fi-ca- tion." Then comes the chief attraction of the Primer, the rude woodcuts and their associated rhymes, from " In Adam's Fall We sinned all," down, through the alphabet, to " Zaccheus he Did climb the Tree." These are followed by "The Dutiful Child's Promises" (which take the place given in later editions to the series of Scripture questions beginning with "Who was the first Man?") ; then " An Alphabet of Lessons for Youth," in verses or parts of verses from the Bible ; " A wise son maketh a glad father," etc. After these the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments ; texts teaching the "Duty of Children toward their Parents," and, on two following pages, six verses, one of which every child was directed to "learn by heart: " " Have communion with few, Be intimate with ONE. Deal justly by all, Speak evil of none." Another of these short verses every child did learn from his mother if not from his Primer — the prayer at lying down ; more familiar to English-speaking Protest ants than any other, the Lord's Prayer only excepted. Lisped in infancy, breathed — with closed lips possibly — in middle age, reaching beyond and above all distinc tions of creed and differences of doctrine, its every syllable hallowed Dy early *J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D. 170 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. associations, that evening prayer has ascended to God from the hearts of " a great multitude which no man can number : " " Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep ; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Only a short time before his death the venerable John Ouincy Adams said that he had never laid his head upon his pillow without saying this prayer, as his mother taught him to do in childhood. After the short verses, prayers at lying down and for the morning, and the " Names and Orders of the Books of the Old and New Testament," come (in the Primer of 1737) the "verses for little children," beginning : " Though I am young, a little one," and the hymn — " Lord, if Thou lengthen out my days." Then, turning the leaf, we have the principal embellishment of the volume, in the rude type-metal cut of "Mr. John Rogers, minister of the Gospel in London, the first martyr in Queen Mary's reign, 'about to be burnt at Smithfield, "his wife with nine small children, and one at her breast, following him to the stake." Without giving Dr. Trumbull's description in full, we pass to what he says of later editions of the Primer. Between the Primer of 1737 and that of 1768 carne the great revival of religion. Edwards and Bellamy, and the niinisters they had trained, had given a new cast to New England theology. This is not the time or place to discuss the nature or extent of the change which had taken place in the religious teaching of New England, but we may observe some indications of it even in the Primer. The earlier Primers were distinctly Protestant, or rather anti-papal. They were de signed to inculcate hatred of Romanism — hatred which, for the first century and a half of our colonial existence, was intensified by fear. In the Primer of 1768 " the Pope, or Man of Sin " no longer appears as a bugbear on the first page. The general tone becomes evangelical rather than anti-papal. This point deserves notice, because an exactly opposite conclusion has been formed by previous writers, who had not an opportunity of examining the earlier editions. Mr. George Livermore, to whose articles on The New England Primer I have more than once referred, had seen no copy of earlier date than 1775. This was the edition which was reprinted in 1843 by Mr. Ira Webster, and which has been popularly regarded as the " original New England Primer." It was, in fact, one ofthe few editions which copied the " improved " Primer of 1768. More modern editions are founded on the earlier type, and the deviations in these editions from the Primers of 1768 and 1775, instead of being, as Mr. Livermore and other critics have argued, "unwarrantable alterations," are, in fact, a return to the original Puritan standard. The catechism was used in the religious families with great uniformity and punctiliousness during the last century. The time FEASTS AND FASTS. Ill most generally observed for catechising the children was after the return from worship on Sunday afternoon. Besides this, in some places, the parish minister visited the district school twice each term, when all the pupils were required to repeat the catechism. In some schools in Connecticut the catechism was attended to at the close ofthe half-day school on Saturday, or, if no session Satur day, on Friday afternoon. Section 3.— Thanksgivings and. Fasts. The Thanksgiving custom did not originate with the colonists. Among the Jews the Feast of Tabernacles was a thanksgiving for the harvest. In England, under Edward III., after the battle of Cressy there was a national thanksgiving; another under the Black Prince ; another under Henry V., after the battle of Agincourt. The Puritans brought this custom to America. On December II, 162 1, o. s., the first thanksgiving on American shores was observed at Plymouth, in view of a good harvest. In 1630 a general thanks giving was appointed for the safe arrival of Winthrop and his party, and another the following year for the arrival of provisions. During the infancy of these colonies this festival had no stated season, but was appointed on occasions of success, the civil power ordaining the feast, although the religious element was the power behind them. Later it was a stated yearly observance. Outside of New England this festival was unknown till late in the last century. Fast days were also extensively observed, and with great punctiliousness, at first only occasionally, but later a regular yearly observance. 172 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VII. PROTESTANT MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS. Sec I. In New England. " 2. In the Middle Colonies. " 3. In the South. Sec. 4. Jesuit and Protestant Missions compared. " 5. Results. THE early Protestant colonists have been severely aspersed for their treatment of the Indians. They have been accused of maintaining an unkind, suspicious attitude, of rushing hastily into hostilities * and making only a few tardy, feeble efforts for the con version of the natives to Christianity, while the Spanish and French colonists, it is claimed, drew the red men into cordial relations and converted them in large numbers to the papal faith. The situation should be considered. The Spanish and French, in advance of all Protestant settle ments, had occupied the northern and southern borders, and were intent upon the possession of the whole country. Studiously attaching the Indians to themselves and fostering jealousy and hatred toward the English, the Jesuits, working in the interests of Spain and France, kept the Indian mind biased against the English colonists and strongly predisposed to hostility. Even the natives living within or near the lines of the Protestant settlements were tainted with the infection, and with difficulty were held in affiliation. Almost all the troubles of the English colonists may be traced to this source. Section 1.— In Hew England. The principal tribes of Indians in New England were the Pequots, in north-eastern Connecticut ; the Mohegans, in south-eastern Con necticut ; the Narragansetts, in Rhode Island, and Bristol County, * Bishop Wilberforce, in his History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United St.tes, says : " It is calculated that 180,000 of the aboriginal inhabitants were slaughtered by them (the colonists) in Massachusetts and Connecticut alone." How absurd 1 It is probable there were not 30,000 in Massachusstts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, in 1630. PURITAN WORK AMONG THE INDIANS. 173 Massachusetts ; the Pawkunnawkutts, on Nantucket, Martha's Vine yard, and the neighboring shores, as far as the Plymouth Colony and the Cape ; the Massachusetts, around Massachusetts Bay and back to the center of the State ; the Pawtucketts, in the northern and eastern part of Massachusetts, and extending into New Hamp shire and a small part of Maine ; the Algonquins, further east, roaming through northern New Hampshire, Vermont, and the Canadas ; the Housatonnocs, on the rivers in western Massachusetts and Connecticut. At one time, shortly before the settlement at Plymouth began, it is said that the Pequots could muster 4,000 warriors; the Narragansetts, 5,000; the Pawkunnawkutts, 3,000; the Massachusetts, 3,000; the Pawtucketts, 3,000; a total of 18,000 men, indicating an Indian population of about 70,000. About 161 2-1 3 a terribly fatal epidemic swept them off by tens of thousands. The Pawtucketts were reduced to about 250 men, be sides women and children. The other tribes were greatly decimated, but not so seriously. Probably 30,000 would be a high estimate for the number of Indians, if we except the Algonquins, in all New England in 1630. The Royal Charter of the Plymouth Colony called for " the con version of such savages as yet remain wandering in desolation and distress to civil society and the Christian religion." The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony enjoined the duty to win the natives "to the knowledge and obedience ofthe only true God and Saviour of mankind," and the seal of the colony presented the figure of an Indian with a label at his mouth on which was inscribed the Macedonian cry, " Come over and help us." And when it was reported to Rev. John Robinson, at Leyden, that, in an early skirmish with the Indians, some of them had been killed, he wrote to the governor, " O that you had converted some before you had killed any." In less than one year from the landing at Plym outh Robert Cushman wrote to England that many of the Indians were " tractable both to religion and humanity ;" that if the colonists had means they would instruct many of the native children, and that young men of wealth in England would do well to come over and devote themselves to this work. During the earlier years of hardships and privations much was done, by both ministers and laymen, as opportunity offered, to impart the Gospel to their heathen neighbors, and some of them gave satisfactory evidence of conversion to Christ. As early as 1636, in the Plymouth Colony, laws were enacted providing for the preaching ofthe Gospel among the Indians. 174 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. These Pilgrims and Puritans were the pioneers ofthe Protestant world in attempts to convert heathen to Christ. They were mis sionary colonies — self-supporting missions— composed of men who went on their own responsibility and at their own expense, to establish their posterity among the heathen, whose salvation they sought. Nor should it be omitted^that for more than fifty years, if we except one short, sharp, bloody conflict, brought about by an out-settlement of factious men who could not be tolerated at Plymouth, the founders of Massachusetts lived in peace with the Indian tribes. Scarcely a gleam of light shone into the minds of these savages. They adored the sun and the moon, and were in bondage to a system of conjuring and of professed intercourse with evil spirits. Their condition was so degraded that Rev. John Eliot, in his first letter to England in regard to the Indians, said : Wee are oft upbraided by some of our countrymen (i. e., in England), that so little good is done by our professing planters upon the hearts of natives. Such men have surely more splene than judgment, and know not the vast distance of natives from common civility, almost humanity itself; and 'tis as if they should reproach us for not making the winds to blow when we list ourselves. It must certainly be a spirit of life from God which must put flesh and sinews unto these dry bones. If wee would force them to baptisme (as the Spanish do about Cusco, Peru, and Mexico, having learnt them a short answer or two to some popish questions), or if wee would hire them to it by giving them coates and shirts to allure them to it, wee could have gathered many hundreds, yea thousands, it may be, by this time into the churches ; but wee have not learnt, as yet, the art of coyning Christians, or putting Christ's name and image upon copper mettle." The General Court of Massachusetts (Nov. 19, 1644) ordered : That the county courts should take care that the Indians residing in their several shires should be civilized, and that they should have power to take order, from time to time, to have them instructed in the knowledge and worship of God. Two years later the court Ordered and decreed that two ministers should be chosen by the elders of the churches every year at the court of election, and so to be sent with the consent of their churches, with whomsoever would freely offer themselves to accompany them in that service, to make known the heavenly counsel of God among the Indians, in most familiar manner, by the help of some able interpreter, . . . and that something might be allowed them by the General Court to give away freely to those Indians whom they should perceive most willing and ready to be instructed by them. Rev. John Eliot. Rev. John Eliot was educated in Cambridge University, En gland, came to Boston in 1631, and was settled as " Teacher " of the REV. JOHN ELIOT. 1 73 Church, in Roxbury, in 1632. He was eminently an intellectual and devout man of high character. Almost simultaneously with Thomas Mayhew, on Martha's Vineyard, he gave himself to the work of converting the Indians, and urged the subject upon the attention of the colonists in their legislative assembly. President Dunster, of Harvard College, advised that they be instructed through their own language rather than the English. From his first settlement in Roxbury, Eliot had given much attention to the wel fare of the natives. Long after his efforts seemed hopeful to himself he encountered incredulity and opposition from those around him. Eliot's preliminary preparation extended through several years. An Indian captured in the Pequot wars, and who lived in Dor chester, was the first native, " whom he used to teach him words and to be his interpreter." He took the most unwearied pains in his strange lessons from this uncouth teacher, finding progress very slow and baffling, receiving no aid from the other tongues which he had learned and taught in England, and which were so " difficultly constructed, inflected, and augmented." Though he is regarded as having gained an "amazing mastery of the Indian language, he frequently, even to the close of a half century in his work, avowed and lamented his lack of skill in it. He secured from time to time what he called the more ' nimble-witted natives, young or grown,' to live with him in Roxbury and to accompany him on his visits, to interchange with him words and ideas." * First Sermon to the Indians. After two years of study Eliot ventured to preach in the Indian tongue. On the 28th of October, 1646, on a hill f in Nonantum, about four or five miles from Roxbury, he discoursed for an hour and a quarter to the dusky natives, from Ezekiel 38: 9. Here resided Waban, one of the principal chiefs, who had gathered his tribe to listen to the new message. Eliot's " prayer was in English, as he scrupled, lest he might use some unfit or unworthy terms in the solemn office." This prompted an inquiry from his interested but bewildered listeners, whether God would understand prayers offered to Him in the Indian tongue. His method in subsequent visits, when he gained more confidence, was to offer a short prayer in Indian ; to recite and explain the ten commandments ; to describe * Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D., in Memorial History of Boston, Vol. I, p. 260. + Within the present limits of the city of Newton, on the south bank of the Charles River, opposite to Watertown. 176 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the character, work, and offices of Christ as Saviour and judge ; to tell his hearers about the creation, fall, and redemption of man, and to persuade them to repentance. He then encouraged them to put any questions that rose in their minds, promising answers and explanations. Some of their queries were so apt and pertinent, indicating so much acumen* that their good friend was often puzzled to satisfy them. Cotton Mather, in commending Eliot's style in sermonizing, said: " Lambs might wade into his discourses on those texts and themes, wherein elephants might swim." Such a style must have been equally suited to his white and red auditors. Some of the leading men of the colony, magistrates and ministers, occasionally accompanied Eliot on his preaching visits, and however they may have fallen short of his enthusiasm and hopefulness, they gratefully appreciated his devotion and zeal." f The following week Eliot met another company of Indians at Neponset, about four miles south-west from his own home, in the wigwam of Chicatabut, chief of another tribe. Between Nonantum and Neponset he alternated his labors. These chiefs soon became zealous helpers of Eliot, and their people generally accepted Christianity. Interest in England. Eliot's narrative of his Indian labors was printed in England, in 1647, under the quaint title, The Day-Breaking if Not the Sun Rising of the Gospel with the Indians in New England. In 1648 another from Rev. Th imas Shepard appeared, entitled, The Clear Sunshine of the Gospel Breaking Forth Upon the Indians in New England, and dedicated "To the Godly and Well-affected of This Kingdom of England." This tract " begat a debate," in the House of Commons, " how the Parliament of England might be serviceable to the Lord Jesus to help forward such a work begun." After two years' delay, in 1649 an act was passed entitled, " A Corporation for the Promoting and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England." This ordinance set forth that Divers heathen natives of New England had, through the blessing of God upon the pious care and pains of some godly English, from being very barbarous become civil, but many of them forsaking their sorceries and other satanical delusions, did * Being told that they were the children, not of God, but of the devil, they were naturally interested chiefly in the latter. They asked, "Whether ye devil or man was made first? Whether there might not be something, if only a little, gained by praying to ye devil ? Why does not God, who has full power, kill ye devil that makes all men so bad ? If God made hell in one of the ' six days,' why did he make it before Adam had sinned ? If allye world be burned up, where shall hell then be ? ' " t Memorial History of Boston, Vol. I, p. 262. MISSIONARY CORPORATION FORMED. 177 then call upon the name of the Lord; and that, for the propagation of the Gospel among these poor heathen, universities, schools and nurseries of learning must be settled, and instruments and material fit for labor and clothing, with other neces saries, must be provided. The ordinance enacted that a corporation of sixteen persons should be formed with power to hold lands, goods, and money. Collections for the corporation were ordered in all the cities, towns and parishes of England. Under the superintendence of Edward Winslow £12,000 were soon raised and invested. Correspondence was opened with the Commissioners ofthe United Colonies in New England, through whom the work of evangelization was to be carried on, meeting annually in September, in Boston, Hartford, New Haven and Plymouth, in rotation. Edward Rawson, Secretary of Massachuetts Bay Colony, held the treasuryship till his death, in 1693. The commissioners kept in close communication with Eliot and the Mayhews, and employed others as assistants, both Englishmen and natives, as circumstances permitted. Young men were selected to be fitted at Harvard College for future service as teachers of Indian youth, and a small building for the accommodation of native pupils was erected within the college precincts. Provision was made for printing catechisms and an Indian Bible. Between 165 1 and 1660, six tracts in the Indian language, known as " Eliot's Tracts," were published in England. The death of Cromwell, under whose patronage the English movement had been sustained, and the restoration of the Stuarts affected all the interests of religion as well as of the State. Hugh Peters, who had been for a short time an honored pastor in Mas sachusetts, an active promoter of the cause of Indian evangelization, suffered death on Tower Hill. The corporation,* being a creature of the Long Parliament, ceased to exist, and even its invested prop erty was in danger. But by the wise management of Hon. Robert Boyle the king was conciliated and a royal charter obtained. Boyle presided over the company nearly thirty years. Eliot's translation of the New Testament into the Mohican dialect of the Indian lan guage was published in Boston, in 1661, and dedicated with fulsome compliments to Charles II. In 1663 the publication of the Indian Bible was completed, by a font of type sent from England by the society. The second edition of Eliot's Bible appeared in 1685, in which he was aided by Rev. John Cotton, of Plymouth. The follow- * For a fuller account of this early organization see Andover Review, October, 1885. Article by Hamilton Andrews Hill, to whioh the author acknowledges indebtedness. 12 178 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ing year the The Practice of Piety, by Bishop Bayly, translated by Eliot, appeared in the Indian language. The First Indian Settlement. Worldlings complained of Eliot for injuring the trade in peltries, by calling off the Indians from the chase, and settling them in agricultural pursuits. Magistrates were sometimes unfaithful to their covenants. Indian powwows, magicians, sorcerers, and med icine-men were secretly jealous, sometimes actively hostile. King Philip, hearing of Eliot's work, refused to receive the missionaries, and spoke in bitter contempt of the English religion. On one occasion he heard Eliot, but scorned his message, and, taking hold of a button on Eliot's coat, told him he cared no more for his religion than for the button. Cotton Mather called the hard-heart ed Philip "a blasphemous Leviathan." Uncas, the Mohegan sachem, forbade any proselyting work among his Indians. After deliberate examination of several localities Eliot made choice of a region which stills bears its original name, Natick, for his first experiment for the subjects of his care, who came to be known as " the praying Indians." A considerable number of the natives were gathered here in 1651. Eliot kept the general court informed of all his proceedings and sought its sympathy and aid. It is curious to read on the records enactments by which portions of one wilderness territory, the whole of which had so recently been regarded by the savages as in their unchal lenged ownership, were bounded off as henceforward to be their own for improve ment. * The experiment at Natick, the first of a series of a dozen others subsequently made under the care of Eliot, was thoroughly under taken. Retaining for a short time his parish at Roxbury, he alter nated between Natick and Neponset, riding on horseback in all weathers, through woods, swamps and streams, carrying miscellaneous burdens for his neophytes. With quiet enthusiasm, meek patience, and steady advances, he met the obstacles almost constantly pre sented by an intractable race, and with mild virtues he parried the coldness and distrust of many of the colonists, looking in hope " for the coming in of ye fullness of ye Gentiles." The Indian community at South Natick was divided by the Charles River, over which the natives built a strongly arched foot bridge, eighty feet long. Three streets ran parallel with the stream, two on one side and one on the other, with lots marked for houses, tillage, and pasturage. A palisaded fort inclosed a meeting- * Memorial History of Boston. Article by Rev. Geo. E. Ellis D.D., Vol I, p. 262. J. R. Osgood & Co. SOUTH NATICK. 179 house fifty feet long and twenty-five wide, built of squared timber, in English fashion, by the natives, and used for worship and a school. The village soon began to wear an aspect of industry, thrift and comfort. In deference to the Indians the wigwam was allowed, but cleanliness and decency were insisted upon. A gov ernment by rulers of tens, fifties, and hundreds was formed, with magistrates and school-teachers of both sexes of their own race. September 24, 1651, they entered into a solemn religious covenant, " with God and each other, to be governed by the word of the Lord in all things." The house for public worship also answered for a school-room. "Here it was," says Cotton Mather, "that in the year 1651 those that had heretofore lived like wild beasts in the wilderness now compacted themselves into a town, and applied themselves to forming a civil government. . . . Mr. Eliot, on a solemn fast, made a public vow that, seeing these Indians had not any form of civil government, he would instruct them in such a form as we have in the Word of God, so that they in all things might be a people ruled by the Lord. . . . The lit tle town of Indians being thus pitched upon this foundation, they utterly abandoned that polygamy which had hitherto been common among them; they made severe laws against fornication, drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, and other immoralities. They soon desired to be organized as a church. A day was therefore set apart, called a day of asking questions, when the minis ters of neighboring churches, assisted by interpreters, examined a goodly number of these Indians as to their knowedge and religious experience. The results were satisfactory, and it was decided that a church should be constituted. They proceeded very cautiously, however, and the Church was not formed until 1660, the Indians being kept as catechumens for several years. South Natick was the first of the Indian communities. In 1670 it consisted of 29 families, from whom 60 or 70 persons had become communicants. The other Indian communities were : Packemitt, in Stoughton, 12 families; Hassanamessett, in Grafton, 12 families; Okommackamesit, in Marlborough, 10 families ; Wamesit, in Tewks- bury, 15 families; Nashobah, Chelmsford and Groton, 10 families ; Maqunkaquog, Hopkinton, 5 families. There were others in Oxford, Dudley, Auburn, Littleton, Uxbridge, Brookfield and Woodstock, Connecticut — 14 towns, within 70 miles of Boston, with 1,100 souls, all of which Eliot visited, and in all of which there were some praying Indians under his spiritual supervision. In 1656 the General Court commissioned Daniel Gookin, a man of high character, and Eliot's most attached co-worker, as the gen- 180 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. eral magistrate over all the Indian towns. The income of the English society for converting and civilizing the Indians, amount ing to the then large sum of about £700 annually, was expended for the salaries of the missionaries, in printing books, furnishing goods, tools, clothing, etc. Eliot's salary, even after his whole time was devoted to this work, never exceeded £50. Eliot died in 1690. Tackawambit, an Indian neophyte, succeeded him as pastor of the Natick church ; but he did not long survive the apostle Eliot, and the church fast declined. An Indian Magistrate. Thomas Waban, an Indian justice of the peace in this settle ment, was highly esteemed. How he enforced law may be judged from the following warrant which he issued : " You big constable, you quick catchum, Jeremiah Offscow ; strong you hold um ; safe you bring um afore me." THOMAS Waban, JUSTICE. When Waban became superannuated a younger magistrate was appointed to succeed him. Cherishing respect for age and experience, the new officer waited upon Waban for advice. Hav ing stated a variety of cases and received satisfactory answers, he at length proposed the following ; " When Indian get drunk, and quarrel, and fight and act like devil, what you do ? " Waban quickly answered, " Tie um all up, and whip um plaintiff, whip um fendant and whip um witness." Eliot traveled extensively among the Indians from Cape Cod to Worcester County, and occasionally visited Martha's Vineyard. He translated the Bible into the Indian language,* a work attended with great difficulty, from the Indian habit of clustering together in one prolonged word the separate ideas which, in our language, are expressed in several words. This Indian Bible, f with catechisms, psalms, primers, grammars, " Practice of Piety," Baxter's " Call," etc, translated into the Indian tongue by Eliot, were printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the expense of the English Society. Other Laborers in Eastern Massachusetts. In 1 72 1, thirty-one years after Eliot's death. Rev. Oliver Pea body was induced to go Natick and labor for the good of the *" Its words," said Cotton Mather, " are long enough to tire the patience of any scholar in the world ; one would think they had been growing ever since Babel." + In 1663, 1,500 copies were printed ; in 1685, 2,000 copies— the first and only Bibles printed in America until the time of the Revolution. REV. OLIVER PEABODY. 181 Indians. At that time there were but two families of white people in the town. Among the Indians there was no church, nor a mem ber of a church, nor even a person known to have been baptized ; for though a church had been formed there sixty years before, by Eliot, it had become extinct* In 1729 a church was gathered, partly of English and partly of Indians, three of the former and five ofthe latter. Under Mr. Peabody's influence the Indians were con formed to the usages of civilized society, and some of them exhib ited fruits of a religious life. In about twenty-two years one hun dred and sixty Indians were baptized, of whom thirty-five were admitted to the church. Mr. Peabody died in 1752, greatly beloved. In the colony of Plymouth, Revs. Richard Bourne and Rowland Cotton, of Sandwich, John Cotton, and Thomas Tupper, labored among the Indians. The praying Indians in Massachusetts, in 1685, were numbered at 1,435, besides other members ofthe Indian families. Rev. Samuel Treat, eldest son of Robert Treat, Governor of Connecticut, while pastor at Eastham, Massachusetts, 1672-1717, became interested in the welfare of the Indians, who were numer ous in his vicinity. He commenced the study of their language, and so far mastered it as to be able to preach intelligibly to the Indians, fully equaling Eliot himself. Through his influence they were brought into a condition of order, civilization, and a practical knowledge of Christianity. There were five hundred and five adult Indians in the township, of whom he said he did not know one habitually absent from religious worship. They were organized in four villages, with four teachers in religion and general knowl edge, who every week conferred with Mr. Treat in regard to their work. Six justices of the peace and other officers of their own people regulated civil affairs. A Confession of Faith was trans lated into their language. But before Mr. Treat's death a fatal dis ease swept off most ofthe Indians. The Mayhews on Martha's Vineyard. The same year that Eliot began his labors at Nonantum the two Thomas Mayhews (father and son — the father the governor of the island and the son the minister) commenced a similar work on Martha's Vineyard. The son had been educated at Cambridge, Mass., but his English flock was small, and his compassion was * There had been a very great and serious decline of spiritual religion in all the Massachussets churches. It extended from about 1660 to 1735. 182 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. moved toward the untaught natives, several thousand of whom existed on the islands of Buzzards' Bay. He treated the Indians with great kindness, learned their language, and gradually won many of them to Christ. Thus was begun a series of labors which extended through several generations. These missionary Mayhews were: *Thomas, the second, 1646-1657 ; Thomas, the elder, 1658-1681 ; John, 1673-1689; Experience, 1694-1758. The story of the labors and privations of the Mayhews is full of heroic and thrilling interest, but it cannot be here related in detail. As early as 165 1, 199 men, women and children, had become wor shipers of the true God, and thirty Indian scholars were collected in a school. By the end of 1652, 282 Indians, besides children, had re nounced their false gods, and eight of the powwows had forsaken their trade. In 1657 Thomas Mayhew, the son, perished on his way to En gland to seek assistance for his mission, and his venerable father,though governor ofthe island, and sixty years old, took up the work, visited the plantations, learned the language, and persevered in his mission toils until his death, at ninety-two years of age. He was succeeded by his grandson, John Mayhew, who followed closely in the steps of his father and grandfather, and died in 1689, after sixteen years spent in his ministry. His eldest son, Experience Mayhew, followed in the same field of toil five years after his father's death, and died in 1758. Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, subsequently an able minister of Boston, was his second son. In 1727 Experience Mayhew published a volume in which he gave an account of the lives of thirty Indian ministers and about eighty Indian men, women and chidren, who resided on Martha's Vineyard, worthy of remembrance on account of their piety. His son, Zaccheus Mayhew, was employed in pro moting the Gospel among the Indians in North America until his death in 1803. King Philip's war, in 1675, greatly injured this mis sion work, but it soon recovered, and in 1698 Revs. Grindal Rawson and Samuel Danforth, visited the several plantations of Indians in Massachusetts and reported to the Society for Propagating the Gos pel thirty distinct assemblies of Indians, with thirty-six teachers, five school-masters and twenty rulers, comprising, in all, 3,080 souls. All the above officers and teachers were Indians. The commissioners expressed a favorable opinion of the improvement and manners of the Indians, their sobriety, dress, and proficiency in reading and writing. In Connecticut and Rhode Island Indian missions were less successful. The Narragansetts were decidedly opposed to Chris- * See Sprague's Annals, Trinitarian-Clergymen. Vol. I, p 131. PRAYING INDIANS. 183 tianity, though they permitted Roger Williams to preach among them occasionally. Revs. Messrs. Pierson and Fitch labored indus triously among the Pequots, and the Mohegans also received much attention. In 1733 the Indians in Westerley and Charlestown, R. I., were visited by Rev. Mr. Parks, and Rev. Mr. Horton labored sev eral years among the Montauk tribe on eastern Long Island. Distinguished Friends of the Indians. At the time of Eliot's death, in 1690, the celebrated Judge Sewall was a good friend of the Indian race, and devoted much time and thought to the1 society organized in their behalf. In their interest he officially visited Martha's Vineyard in 1702, 1706 and 1 7 14. During this last visit arrangements were made for the occu pation and cultivation of lands belonging to the society by the Indian families severally. Other friends of Indian evangelization were William Dummer and Thomas Hutchinson, among the laity; and Benjamin Coleman, Edward Wigglesworth, Joseph Sewall, Thomas Prince, etc., among the clergy. This society continued in force until the Revolution. The aggregate number of praying Indians in eastern Massachu setts in 1664 was estimated : * Under Mr. Eliot's care 1,100 In Plymouth, under Mr. Bourne.. 530 In Plymouth, under Mr. Cotton. . 170 On the island Nantucket 300 On Martha's Vineyard, etc., under the Mayhews 1,500 Total 3,600 In Berkshire County, Mass. The Stockbridge mission was full of interest. In the western part of Massachusetts was the small Housatonnoc tribe, so named from a river, which signifies over the mountains, flowing through that section. About 1720 the General Assembly of Massachusetts purchased two townships, Sheffield and Stockbridge, with a reserva tion of two tracts for the exclusive occupancy of the Indians, Skate- kook and Wahktukook. When the English commenced their settle ments near them, Kunkapot, the principal Indian personage at the latter place, was soon discovered to be a worthy, industrious man, and favorably inclined toward Christianity. The Commissioners for Indians Affairs at Boston, hearing this, sent Revs. Messrs. Bull, of Westfield, and Williams, of Longmeadow, to confer with the Indians in reference to the establishment of a mission among them. The * American Quarterly Register, February, 1832, p. 203. 184 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. conference took place in July, 1734, resulting in an agreement to receive a minister. In the following October Mr. John Sargeant, a tutor in Yale College, left New Haven to enter upon this mission field. Immediately on his arrival he delivered a discourse through an interpreter, named Ebenezer, to an interested audience. This Indian, having already some knowledge of Christianity, expressed a desire to make an open profession, and was baptized in his wigwam the following day. An intermediate spot between the two reservations, which were eight or ten miles apart, was agreed upon, where the Indians should live together for the greater convenience of Sabbath worship and the instruction of their children. In addition to other difficulties attending such work among untutored savages he encoun tered trouble from an unexpected quarter. The Dutch traders on the Hudson sold rum to the Indians, taking advantage of their fits of intoxication to make dishonest and extravagant bargains. The introduction of Christianity these traders regarded as unfavorable to their business, and hence they exerted their influence to resist the establishment of the mission. By wise management, however, Mr. Sargeant effectually neutralized the base influence of the traders. In January, 1735, deputies from the several clans which consti tuted the tribe of River Indians met in council, nearly two hundred in number, under Corlair, the chief sachem, and after repeated con ferences approved of the action of their Housatonnoc brethren in con senting to be taught the Christian religion. In the autumn a con siderable number were baptized. The year following the land grants to the Indians were reconstructed by the State so as to accommodate the Indians and the work of the mission also, and they were settled in one village, at Stockbridge, in 1737. No missionary ever exceeded Mr. Sargeant in his devotion to these red men. When they went into the woods for some weeks at a time every year, to make maple sugar, Mr. Sargeant, unwilling that they should remain so long without instruction, accompanied them, in their own language prayed with them morning and evening, and preached on the Sabbath. In the day-time he taught their children to read, and in the evening the adults to sing, sleeping at night upon boughs and blankets. Several prayers and Dr. Watts's first catechism for the use of children were translated into their language, and another mission station eighteen miles to the north-west was opened, into which a few years later David Brainerd entered. So zealous was Mr. Sargeant to extend the blessings of the Gospel that he made extended tours to Indians occupying an island in the Hud- THE STOCKBRIDGE MISSION. 186 son River, and even visited the Shawanoos, two hundred and twenty miles distant, on the Susquehanna. At length Mr. Sargeant became convinced that the best results could not be accomplished until the Indians should be in some degree civilized, and exchange their barbarous language for the English. He therefore formed a plan for the education of Indian children which would more thoroughly affect their habits of thought and life. The plan included study, manual labor, and a knowledge of agriculture; for the girls, besides study, training in the duties of domestic life ; and for all, knowledge of the principles of Christianity. By great exertion Mr. Sargeant carried his plan into effect before his death. Mr. Sargeant's annual salary of $125 from the Commis sioners of Indian Affairs at Boston was supplemented by individual donations, the General Court building the school-house and the house of worship. When he entered upon the field he found fifty Indians on the ground; when he died, in 1749, the number had increased to two hundred and nineteen, of whom one hundred and twenty-nine had been baptized and forty-two were communicants. In 175 1, through the joint action of the church at Stockbridge and the " Society in London for Propagating the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent," Jonathan Edwards, who had just been dismissed from his church at Northampton, entered upon the Stockbridge mission. Here he continued six years, but his more important labors were performed in his study, elaborating his great works on Original Sin and the Freedom of the Will. When Edwards was called to the presidency of Princeton College, he was followed at Stockbridge by Rev. Samuel West. Rev. John Sargeant, son of the preceding missionary, soon followed Mr. West, and, after many years of labor among the red men, died in 1824. The Indians, how ever, under the westward migration, gradually disappeared from their old haunts. Some were absorbed in the war of the Revolution ; some went to western New York, thence to White River, Indiana, thence to Green Bay, thence to Lake Winnebago, etc. Section 2.— In. the Middle Colonies. In the New York Colony Rev. Joannes Megapolensis preceded Rev. John Eliot, by three years, in labors for the religious welfare of the Indians. At Albany, then an extreme outpost of civiliza tion, he interested himself in the Indians who came thither to trade, and so learned their " heavy language " as to speak and preach 186 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. fluently in it. The early records of the First Reformed Church in Albany contain many names of Indians converted, baptized and reeeived into the communion under his labors. During his stay in Albany, the celebrated Jesuit missionary, Isaac Jogues, was cap tured on the St. Lawrence by the Mohawks, and subjected to horrible cruelties. The Dutch at Albany tried to ransom him. At length escaping from his captors he was kept in close concealment by the Dutch for six weeks. During this time Megapolensis was his con stant friend and rendered him every kindness in his power. Another Jesuit father, Simon Le Moyne, also became intimate with this Dutch parson at Fort Orange, and wrote three polemical essays to convert him to the papal faith ; but the stanch dominie wrote a vigorous reply. At Schenectady. Almost all the early Dutch churches in New York and on the Delaware performed missionary work among the Indians, and their old records contain many names of Indian neophytes. The Dutch Church founded in 1680, in Schenectady, was in the midst of the Mohawks, with whom they held friendly relations. One of their pas tors, in 1700, speaks of thirty-six of them as having received the Christian faith. Rev. Bernardus Freeman became well versed in the Indian tongue, speaking fluently and writing in it. The Liturgy of the Dutch Church was translated into the Indian language, par ticularly the morning and the evening prayers, the Creed of St. Athanasius and portions of the Old and New Testament. When they heard them read in their own tongue the natives were " mightily affected." The Dutch fathers at Albany and Schenectady looked upon the Mohawks as " something more than brutes from whom beaver-skins could be obtained." Three of the pastors at the latter place were missionaries to the Indians, and the records of that church show that hundreds of the red men became proselytes to the Chris tian faith, worshiping with the fathers in the old churches. There they partook of the same communion together. There the Indian pap- pooses were held in the arms of their dusky mothers, who stood in beads and blankets before the same baptismal font at which awaited the white lady and her infant in christening quilt of silk and embroidery. There, too, the Indian lover stood with his Indian bride, and in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost vowed to love and cherish one wife in his wigwam. And when the fathers came annually to pay their pew rent or subscriptions in beaver-skins, the Christianized Indian came with like gifts for the sanctuary.* * Memorial volume commemorating the two hundredth anniversary of the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in Schenectady, in 1880, p. 38. Keformed AMONG THE MOHAWKS. 187 Under the Episcopal Church in New York, at an early date, mis sions were undertaken among the Mohawks. Rev. Thoroughgood Moore arrived in New York in 1704 and proceeded to Albany as missionary among the Mohawks. Owing to the influence of the fur traders his labors proved fruitless, and he returned to New York. Rev. Thomas Barclay, missionary at Albany under the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, often visited the Indians beyond Schenectady, as early as 1708. He was fol lowed in 1712 by Rev. William Andrews, who was welcomed with great formality and respect. Next Rev. Thomas Barclay and Rev. John Miles, successively rectors at Albany, extended their labors to the Mohawks. In 1734 Rev. Henry Barclay was appointed catechist to these Indians, at Fort Hunter. He found them docile and attentive, and catechised them Sunday evenings. Called away a few years, on his return he was received by his Indian neophytes with tears of joy. On an occasion of gathering of the Six Nations, to renew their league of friendship with the English, he preached to a large number of them, and had the pleasure of hear ing the Mohawks make their responses regularly in the service. In 1741 Mr. Barclay reported 500 Indians settled in two towns, thirty miles from Albany, and 58 Indian communicants. In 1743 only two or three of the whole tribe remained unbaptized, and two Mohawks were employed as school masters. But his work was checked by the hostile intrigues and invasions of the French Indians. In 1739 a zealous Moravian Christian, Henry Rauch, began a mission in New York State, not far from Kingston, but in five years he was compelled to move his converts to Pennsylvania. Numerous other Moravian missions were started. Brainerd. In 1742 Rev. David Brainerd, a young man of quenchless zeal and superior purity, was appointed missionary to the Indians by the British Society. At Kaunameek, an Indian village fifteen miles from Kinderhook, N. Y., he opened his commission. The following year he visited Indian villages on the Delaware River, in Pennsylvania, where he was favored with remarkable success, his congregation often being in tears under his fervent appeals, and in less than one year seventy-seven persons were baptized. Many who had been debased and profligate seemed wholly reformed. In 1746 he visited the Indians on the Susquehanna Eiver. During this trip he con tracted disease, which soon ended his life, at the early age of thirty years. 188 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Among the Six Nations. Rev. Gideon Hawley graduated at Yale College in 1749, early resolving to devote himself to labors among the Indians. First he assisted Edwards as a teacher at Stockbridge. Later, the commis sioners at Boston engaged him to establish a mission in the country of the Iroquois, a hundred miles at least beyond the remotest boundary of civilization. Mr. Timothy Woodbridge, a gentleman of high character and great influence among the Indians, accompanied him. On their way they secured the influence and aid of Sir William Johnston at Albany. After encountering various perils and some hostility from wandering Indians, one of whom attempted to shoot Mr. Hawley, they reached Onohoghgwage, on the Susquehanna, where they were welcomed, In 1756 he was obliged to withdraw on account of the French and Indian war. Subsequently he settled among the Maeshapee Indians, in Massa chusetts, in 1758, where he spent the residue of his long life in the most benevolent and self-denying labors for the salvation of the Indians, dying in 1807. In 1762, at the request of the commissioners at Boston, Rev. Eli Forbes, D.D., of Brookfield, Mass., undertook a mission to the Oneida Indians, the chief tribe of the Six Nations in New York. With a colleague and an interpreter he set out for the distant field, reached the Mohawk River, which he followed for seventy miles, then turned southward to the Otsego Lake, then down one of the branches of the Susquehanna River, a hundred and twenty miles to a town called Onoquagie, containing three hundred inhab itants. Here he preached, established two schools and gathered a church. After tarrying three months he left them in the care of his colleague, Rev. Asaph Rice, and brought home several Indian children to be educated, some of whom became highly respectable and useful persons. Rev. Samuel Kirkland, after long study of the dialects of the Six Nations, in 1771 undertook a mission to the Oneidas. The troubled condition of the country prevented Mrs. Kirkland from accompanying her husband and occasioned many interruptions in his labors. During the Revolution his mission was virtually dis continued and he was long absent from Oneida, sometimes serving as a chaplain in the Continental Army, and sometimes negotiating with the Indians in behalf of the Continental Congress. He was especially active in endeavoring to preserve the neutrality of the Six Nations during the war, making long journeys among the MR. GEORGE THORPE. 189 tribes, and attending their councils. But through the influence of Brandt, the famous Mohawk warrior, the worst fears of the colonial patriots were realized by the rejection of overtures of peace and friendship by most ofthe Indians. In 1777 and 1778 he spent most of his time among the Oneidas. On the return of peace, at the earnest request of the Indians he returned to Oneida, and until his death, in 1808, performed a large amount of mission labor, and numerous valuable public services among the Indian tribes.* As early as 1748 Rev. Elihu Spencer, one of the ablest men in Presbyterian annals, went as a missionary among the Oneidas. In 1752 the Presbytery of New York formally ordained and commis sioned a missionary to the Indians, and in 1756 Mr. John Brain erd entered upon this service and continued his faithful labors until his death, in 1781. In 1761 a mission was established by the Presbyterians among the Oneidas, under the care of Rev. Samson Occum, an Indian of the Mohegan tribe, educated by Rev. Dr. Wheelock, at Lebanon, Conn. In 1763 the New York Presbytery appointed a committee of exploration among the Indians in the West, consisting of Rev. Drs. Allison, Witherspoon, and Rodgers, and Messrs. Brainerd and Ewing, to devise and report plans for more extensive operations. Section 3.~ In the South. The Protestant efforts for the conversion of the aborgines to Christ date from the beginning of their settlements. The charter of the Virginia Colony enjoined that " all persons should kindly treat the savage and heathen people in those parts, and use all proper means to draw them to the true service and knowledge of God." The first minister, Mr. Hunt, entered upon the work of propagating the Gospel among " such people as live in darkness." f Mr. Whit aker, his successor, was not backward in this work, and Pocahontas was the first Indian convert. In the infancy of the colony £500 were sent from England to be expended "in instructing the young Indians in the faith in Christ." Ten thousand acres of land were set apart for this, institution, which was to comprise both English and Indian youth, and other large sums of money were contributed. The Colonial Legislature in 1619 and 1620 showed commendable zeal in this movement. Mr. George Thorpe, who *For fuller account see Sprague's Annals of the Trinitarian Pulpit. Vol. I, p. 621, etc. t Hazard's State Papers. 190 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. accepted the headship of the school, visited the Indian chiefs in their own haunts, to win them to Christ. The treatment of the natives was mild and friendly. The settlers' houses and tables were open to them, and Mr. Thorpe and his co-laborers fondly looked forward to the time when the Indian tribes should obtain salvation. But jealousies were secretly working in the minds of the Indians, and out ofthe apparent calm, suddenly, in 1622, there arose a fearful hurricane. The Indians sprang at once upon the slumbering colony, and within one hour three hundred and forty- seven persons, including Mr. Thorpe, were slaughtered. The mas sacre would have been complete but for the disclosure ofthe plot the night before by a converted Indian. A spirit of distrust and deadly hostility thenceforward prevailed ; and for many years no more efforts were made by the Virginia colonists to convert the natives. In 1735 John and Charles Wesley went to Georgia, the latter as a missionary to the Indians ; but his efforts were unsuccessful. Whitefield soon followed, made an unsuccessful attempt to frame a grammar of their language, and became satisfied that his call was not to them. But the Moravians were on the ground achieving success among the Creeks. They founded a mission the same year that Sargeant went to Stockbridge. Section 4.— Jesuit and Protestant Missions Com pared. From the first, Protestant missionaries to the Indians worked upon a plan very diiferent from the Jesuits, involving more radical treatment and attended with greater difficulties. The Jesuits only slightly interfered with the native habits, wild ways and impulses of the savages. For the most part, the French, lay and clerical, compromised themselves and their own civilization by meeting the Indians more than half way, by living with them on easy if not equal terms, carefully avoiding any thing that might cross their inclinations or shock their prejudices. The French Jesuits did not seek to settle them in fixed residences* to make them cleanly, and improve their dress, but shared the native wigwam and loathsome cookery, regardless of filth, vermin, and immodesty. The religion *The Spanish Jesuits did promote local settlements of Indians; but the French encouraged their roving, hunting life, in deference to the secular interests of the French fur traders, who were eager for peltries. SAMSON OCC UM. 1 9 1 they taught consisted of a few simple ritual ceremonies, the repeti tion of a prayer or chant, and the baptismal rite. Thus the doomed heathen was easily turned into a professed Christian and an enfran chised citizen of France. Didactic moral and intellectual training was deemed unessential. The simplest assent of a savage to a few dogmas of the Church was sufficient.* Such was their converting, Christianizing process. Quite otherwise with Eliot and other Protestant missionaries. They aimed to establish communities of Indians in fixed settle ments, exclusively their own, with changed habits of life, dependent no longer upon roaming and hunting, but pursuing industrious occupations, with lands cleared and fenced, modestly clothed, living in houses, regarding property and decency. Ultimately they were to have local magistrates, mechanics, teachers, and preachers of their own race, with all the comforts and securities of the towns of the white men, and organized and covenanted churches. Eliot wrote, " I find it absolutely necessary to carry on civility with religion." The educational efforts of Protestantism among the Indians in this early period were very considerable, some of which have been already mentioned. But much more was done for the education of the Indian. Under the lead of the Apostle Eliot free tuition was provided for Indian children in the public schools of the Massachusetts Colony, the expense to be defrayed by a yearly contribution — voluntary, or by rate if any refused ; and the order was confirmed by the general court. Eliot also planted schools among the converted Indians, and sent their brightest lads to English schools to learn Latin and Greek. The Connecticut code of 1650 ordered that the teaching elders should go among the Indians and give them religious instruction. Schools were also established among them. A very successful one, at Farmington, was taught from 1648 to 1697 by the minister of the parish, and as late as 1736 notices of this school are found in the colonial records. In December., 1743, Rev. Eleazar Wheelock of Lebanon, Conn., was induced to receive into a school which he kept in his own house Samson Occum, a Mohegan Indian, aged about nineteen. Occum was under Mr. Wheelock's tuition about five years, and subse quently became a preacher of distinction. Encouraged by this suc- * The Jesuit Biard, in Acadia, says he was satisfied with translating into Indian "ye Lord's Prayer, ye salutation of ye Virgin, ye Commandments of God, and of ye Church, with a short explanation of ye Sacraments, and some prayers ; for this is all ye theology they need." 192 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. cess Mr. Wheelock formed a plan of an Indian mission school. He thought that educated Indians would be more successful than white men, as missionaries among the red men. Gradually his plan was carried out, until, in 1762, he had more than twenty youths, chiefly Indians, under his care. Funds for their maintenance were obtained from benevolent individuals, from the legislatures of Con necticut and Massachusetts, and from the Scotch Society for Prop agating Christian Knowledge. Joshua Moor, a farmer in Mansfield, Conn., having about the year 1754 made a donation of a house and two acres of land in Lebanon, contiguous to Mr. Wheelock's house, the institution was called " Moor's Indian Charity School." Sev eral gentlemen were associated with Mr. Wheelock as trustees. Here Brandt the Mohawk chief received his education, and also Rev. Samuel Kirkland, an eminent missionary among the Oneidas, from 1764 to 1808. In 1765 the Scotch Society sent white missionaries and Indian school-masters to the Mohawks in New York. Occum had preceded them among the Oneidas. In 1766 Mr. Wheelock sent Mr. Occum and Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker to Great Britain, to solicit benefactions for the school. Mr. Occum made a favorable impression. He was the first Indian preacher from America that had visited Great Britain, and he preached several hundred times to large assemblies. The king sub scribed .£200, Lord Dartmouth fifty guineas, and, in all, ,£7,000 were collected in England and more than .£2,000 in Scot land. After conducting Moor's school in Lebanon, Conn., fourteen or fifteen years, Dr. Wheelock, in order to increase its usefulness, removed it to Hanover, N. H., in 1770, where it became the foun dation of Dartmouth College. Section 5.— Results. Later results do not correspond with the noble beginnings. Before King Philip's war it was estimated that " about a fourth part of all the Indians in New England— those of Massachussetts being 3,000 of that quarter — had been more or less influenced by civilization and Christianity, and that had these been in full league with Philip the whites would have been exterminated." That ter rible war very seriously affected the mission work. " After the war the stated places for Indian church settlements were reduced to four, while there were other temporary stations. There were ten stations in Plymouth Colony, the same number on the Vine- DEC A V OF INDIAN RACES. 1 93 yard, and five oh Nantucket. President Mather, writing in 1687, said there were in New England 6 regular churches of baptized Indians, 18 assemblies of catechumens, 24 Indian preachers, and 4 English ministers who preached in Indian. A committee to visit Natick in 1698* reported a church there of 7 men and 3 women (Indians), a native minister ordained by Eliot, 59 native men, 5 1 women, and 70 children. Up to 1733, all the town officers were Indians. The place was incorporated as an English town in 1762. In 1792 there was but a single Indian family. At a local celebration, in 1846, the two hundredth anniversary of Eliot's first service, a girl of sixteen was the only known native descendant." f There were places in Massachusetts where feeble remnants of partially civilized natives remained longer than at Natick. On Martha's Vineyard some still exist. A strange fatality has overhung the Indian races. They had been decimated by disease before the Pilgrims landed, and they have dwindled ever since, from natural causes inhering in the races, which unfriendly influences from without have accelerated. The Pequot wars, the King Philip's war, the French and Indian wars, the war of strong liquors and debauchery, the wars of rapacious greed, and— may we not add ? — civilization itself have terribly wasted them. How forlorn the spectacle of these poor pensioners and vagabonds, crushed in abject abasement before the white man, tac iturn, retrospective, and without heritage, name or progeny ! * Eight years after Eliot's death, at the age of 86. + Rev. Mr. Ellis, in Memorial History of Boston. Vol. I, p. 274. 13 194 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VIII. DIVERSE CURRENTS. Sec. i. Inception of American I Sec. 2. Inception of Unitarianism. Skepticism. I " 3- Inception o.f Universalism. AN inspection of the religious life of the colonial era reveals new currents of theological sentiment, silently but steadily setting in, at various points, against the long accepted theories. In the subsequent periods they will appear as more active assailing forces, openly antagonizing the old beliefs and seriously engaging the attention of the world. As to their origin, they were chiefly exotic, out-growths from the modern spirit of inquiry in Europe, evoked by the revival of learning,* and the bold revolutions inaugurated by Luther and Descartes. Those great and devout minds never dreamed of the reckless extravagances which followed their action. Not contented with freedom from hierarchical and scholastic intolerance, many wild spirits broke loose from all moorings, threw overboard anchor, compass and chart, and recklessly sailed out into the stormiest seas. Investigation extended to all departments of inquiry ; the meta physics of religion became a disputed domain ; errors were disclosed in natural science ; skeptical criticism was fostered and incredulity was accepted as a token of superior wisdom. " Speculation glided into doubt, as all morbid conditions of the body sometimes glide into the prevailing contagion. Not a land nor a church in Western Europe was exempt from the pestilence. Theologians felt the influence, many yielding to it seemingly without consciousness." f However varied in its minor phases, there was one point of unity in this movement — a disposition to break from the traditional theology and adopt rationalistic methods. X *The Neo-Platonic philosophy, Arianism, etc., were brought to the surface, in the Renais sance in Italy, as early as the middle of the fifteenth century. t Bishop Burgess, in Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England. X See Problem of Religious Progress. By Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt, New York City, 1881. Pp. 55-70 . Ueberweg's History of Philosophy. Vol. II. History of the Reformation. By Prof. Fisher, of Yale College. ENGLISH DEISM. 193 Section i.—The Inception of American Skepticism. As early as the middle of the seventeenth century symptoms of this great revolt appeared, in the English mind, in the gradual un folding ofthe principle that the natural consciousness ofthe Divine existence and man's conscience are all the materials necessary for the construction of a perfect religion, and that Christianity is of no value except as containing germs of this natural religion. In the course of the following century these sentiments obtained a formal recognition under the name of English deism, accompanied often with a denial of the historic verity of the Christian records and a denunciation of the Christian system as priestcraft. The history of English deism covers a period of about one hundred and seventy- five years (1625-1800)* from Herbert to Gibbon, embracing groups of essayists, poets and novelists distinguished for splendid talents and extensive acquisitions. A large portion of the English mind was tainted with these ideas, and a serious deterioration in faith and morals became apparent. Introduced into America. Down to the middle of the last century the common American mind had known but little of the producions of these men; only a few of the more learned or curious and some of the later emigrants. But the celebrated French and Indian war, extending through a period of nine years (1754-1763), afforded an opportunity for their inculcation. During this war American citizens were brought into close relations with English officers and soldiers who had accepted deistical sentiments. " Most of their American companions had never heard the divine origin of the Scriptures questioned, and their minds were, of course, unprovided with answers even to the most common objections. To such objections as were actually made was added the force of authority. The British officers were from the mother country — a phase of high import — -until after the com mencement of the Revolution. They came from a country renowned for arts and arms, and regarded by the people of New England as the birth-place of science and wisdom. These gentlemen were also, at the same time, possessed of engaging manners : they practiced all those genteel vices which, when recommended by such manners, generally fascinate young men of gay, ambitious minds, and are * Herbert died 1648 ; Hobbes, 1679 ; The Earl of Shaftesbury, 1713 ; Toland, 1722 ; Man- deville, 1733; Collins, 1729 ; Woolston, 1733 ; Morgan, 1743; Tindal, 1733; Chubb, 174,7;, Bolingbroke, 1751 ; Hume. 1776 ; Gibbon, 1794. 196 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. often considered as conferring an enviable distinction on those who adopt them. Many of the Americans were far from being dull proficients in this school. The vices they loved, and soon found the principles necessary to quiet their consciences. When they returned home they had drunk too deeply of the cup to exchange their new principles and practices for the sober doc trines and lives of their countrymen. The means that had been pursued to corrupt them they now employed to corrupt others. From this prima matt labes the contagion spread, not indeed through very great multitudes, but in little circles surrounding the individuals originally infected. As these amounted to a consider able number, and lived in a general dispersion through the country, most parts of it shared in the malady." " The period intervening between the French war and the Revo lution was characterized by a perceptible relaxation of morals, and it is certain that religion suffered serious decline. -The Origin of American Unitarianism. Simultaneously with these more radical departures from Chris tianity, as a system, there appeared a revolt against some of its vital doctrines by those who still clung to its records and institutions. Arian and Socinian sentiments had their advocates on the Continent of Europe from an early period of the Reformation,! and iu En gland as early as the latter part of the sixteenth century.:}; In the following century they became more common. Near its close Unitarians had places of worship in London, and the great Trini tarian controversy was waged by South, Sherlock, Howe, etc. * Travels in New England and New York. By R»-v. Timothy Dwight, S.T.D., LL.D. Vol. IV, p. 365. t Before 1500 Arian sentiments were revived in Italy. Among the early continental advocates of these views may be mentioned John Dork, who died 1528 ; Hitzer, a learned friend of Zwingle, beheaded in 1529 ; Servetus, burned 1553 ; Campanus, died in prison, at Cleves, 1 578 ; Gentilis, a Calabrian, died 1566 ; Daniel Jarvis, died at Basle, 1556 : Laelius Socinus, " an inquiring but skeptical man of letters," died 1562 ; Faustus Socinus, who organized the Uni tarians in Poland and gave them a system of theology, died 1604. A printing office was established at Racon, Poland, before the close of the sixteenth century for the publication of the writings of Faustus Socinus. X From 1550 to 1612 Arians and Socinians perished in the fires of Smithfield. John Biddle (1615-1652) has been styled " The father of modern Unitarianism." In 1652 copies of the Raconian catechism were burned in London. In 1655 Dr. Owen wrote, " there is not a city or town where some of this poison has not been poured forth." THE " LIBERAL" THEORIES. 197 The English Sources. Unitarian sentiments invaded the English Church, and some distinguished ministers became Arians or Socinians* Whitby, Emelyn, Whiston, Samuel Clarke, all strongly tended that way, some of them avowedly. Emelyn was a decided Arian, and advo cated those views in an " Inquiry into the Character of Jesus Christ ; " Whitby sifted them into his Commentary on the New Testament ; and Clarke was an opposer of creeds, especially the Athanasian, and a decided Arian, To such an extent had those views pervaded the Established Church that.it was stated, in 1705, that there were " troops of Unitarian and Socinian writers, and not one dissenter could be found among them." Natural religion was the favorite study of the English clergy and of the learned generally. While Collins and Tindall pro nounced Christianity to be priestcraft, Whiston, learned, intrepid, and earnest, declared the miracles to be Jewish impositions, and Woolston called them allegories. In David Hartley these two tendencies were combined, and " the publication of his book, Obser vations on Man, based on the sensational philosophy, gave rise to a new school, of which Joseph Priestley was the head." "Of this stamp was the Unitarianism that first made its appearance in America about the middle ofthe last century." f Traces of it are very perceptible in the writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., of Boston, the champion of the new and then unnamed tendency in America, who held correspondence with several English writers of this class. Drs. Gay, of Hingham ; Chauncy, of Boston ; West, etc., etc., also patronized these productions. The high literary and scientific reputation of Clarke, Whitby, Whiston, Woolston, etc., gave their numerous writings great currency. They exerted a leading influence upon the thinking minds of that age, among whom the rising divines of New England occupied prominent positions. It will not seem strange, therefore, with these facts before us, that about the middle of the last century there was a very perceptible change in the theological opinions of some of the New England clergy. The same thing was also to some extent apparent in Virginia and New York. "The liberal theories" in philosophy and religion in Europe exerted a great influence upon many leading minds in America. They were important factors in *Revs. Daniel Whitby, D.D., 1638-1726; Thomas Emelyn, 1663-1743; Rev. William Whiston, D.D., 1667-1752 ; Rev. Samuel Clarke, D.D., 1675-1729. t Appleton's Cyclopedia. Article: "Unitarianism." 198 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the development ofthe " Liberal Christianity," which, under various minor designations, has come down to the present time. The American Sources. But the origin of this defection was not altogether, nor even chiefly, foreign. The most potent and far-reaching causes were engendered in the New England mind, and hence this great de parture made its first appearance in that section, while it was generally withstood elsewhere. Local causes prepared the way, but the process of development was slow. The vital and conserving elements of ecclesiastical life were gradually eliminated before the most far-sighted minds even conjectured the result. The Unitarian departure had its inception in the introduction of the famous " half way covenant," * which was adopted in the infancy of the colonies, only forty-two years after the landing of the Pilgrims. This measure was a politico-religious expedient resorted to for the pur pose of relieving themselves from embarrassments growing out of an extreme and impracticable application of Christianity to the relations of the Church and the civil power. " The founders of the chief colonies of New England were of one heart and of one mind, and this was a source of a great error in their ecclesiastical system. They forgot that never again could the community which they founded be what it was at first ; that they had collected and brought into the wilderness a peculiar people, but that they must afterward meet human nature as it arose in all its varieties. They could exclude from their communion or banish from their territory the man who would not share their faith, but they could not decide the character nor annul the birth right ofthe children who should succeed to their own places. The apostolical conception of the Church, as an assembly of believers received, on the profession of their faith, to the sacraments and to the fellowship of the saints, and seeking there the grace by which they might be trained for heaven, and subject to exclusion on proof of willful and persevering sin, till they should furnish the fruits of penitence, was not at all obscure or difficult. It was no objection that it might be compared with the net of a fisherman, which gathers up all alike, or with a field in which tares are nightly sown by an enemy. The settlers of New England, however, had learned to dread chiefly the ills of a church which was identical with a nation ; and it was their endeavor so to fence round their own * See Chapter IV, on Church and State ; also Chapter V, on Religious Life. PERVASIVE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 199 that, as far as might be, it (the civil power) should embrace none but spiritual, accepted followers of the Captain of Salva tion." * It has been already observed that the early churches of New England held very strictly to the necessity of saving faith and spiritual regeneration as conditions of membership. And their religion was not a dreamy speculation, or a mere sentiment, or an abstraction, but it was carried out in concrete forms in the practical details of life. Religion was the stock upon which every thing must be ingrafted, and that which could not bear the process must be rejected. Hence we find the State growing out of the Church. Under their regimen no person could hold public office, or vote in elections, or enjoy any of the ordinary privileges of citizenship, who was not a member of the Church. In 1633 Rev. John Cotton preached a sermon in Boston, entitled, "A Discourse About Civil Government, in a New Plantation, whose Design is Religion." Its object was " to prove the expediency and necessity of intrusting free burgesses, who are members of churches, gathered amongst them according to Christ, with the power of choosing from among themselves magistrates and men to whom the managing of all public and civil affairs of importance is to be com mitted." This was in accordance with the general usages of the New England colonies.-!/ Religious ideas were carried into every thing they did. The recluses of the Middle Ages had removed religion from practical life, into caves and cloisters, but the Puritans reversed the order and carried it into the most common affairs. Thus actuated, they made the franchise of the Commonwealth dependent upon church membership, and the latter upon a genuine religious experience. A solemn form, too, was observed in the relation of religious ex perience before the Church, and inquiries were made into the previous conviction for sin and the radical character of the change. Thus were the membership of the Church and the franchise of the State hedged in with impressive and uncompromising religious ideas and usages. It is not strange that in a few years this system should be felt to be unjust. Appeals were made to the Crown, petitions were sent to the General Court, and a strong agitation was carried on in the principal towns. Favorable responses were given by the En- * Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England. A pamphlet. By Bishop Burgees. Pp. 10, ii. f The Ecclesiastical History of New England. By Joseph B. Felt. Vol. I, p. 169. 200 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. glish Government, and the way was prepared for the adoption of a new measure to remedy the evil. The Half-way Covenant. In 1662, by the recommendation of the General Synod, the half way covenant was introduced into the churches. This celebrated measure provided that persons baptized in infancy were to be regarded as members of the church to which their parents belonged, although they were not to be admitted to the communion without giving evidence of regeneration ; and, that such persons, on arriving at maturity, " understanding the doctrine of faith and publicly pro fessing their assent thereto, not scandalous in life, and solemnly owning the covenant before the Church wherein they give them selves up 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 a great change ; it relieved the applicant for church membership from the necessity of giving evidence of regeneration, and it compelled the Church, if it would exclude him, to convict him of heresy or of a scandalous life. The object was to confer so much of church membership as would bring men fairly within the State, and so little as would leave them short of full communion with the Church. They hoped thus to conserve both the purity of the Church and the Christianity of the State. Events have since proved that it would have been better not to have yielded any thing in respect to the membership ofthe Church, but for the Church to have relinquished to the State the full control of the right of suffrage. But they hoped, how vainly will hereafter appear, that such a concession would promote the spiritual welfare of their children. This measure, however, in its practical results, proved to be full of evil to the churches,* an inlet for dangerous errors and the most disastrous consequences, which spread through generations. It was the " wooden horse " admitted within the walls of Troy. The adoption of this measure was soon followed by a very marked religious decline. f Ten years later the declension was a sub- * The half-way covenant was not adopted by all the churches at once. Some delayed many years, a few more than thirty years, and there was much strife and debate over it. The writings of those who favored the action of the Synod were called Synodalia, and of those opposed, Anti- Synodalia. The Old South Church, Boston, sprung into being out of this division, being an off-shoot of the first Church, a majority of which opposed the Synod, This majority formed the Old South. In Connecticut the opposition was more extensive. In the New Haven colony it was general. In 1664 the General Court of Connecticut, seeing no movement toward adopting the action of the Synod, took the matter in hand and urged its acceptance. t See Chapter V, Religious Life, Section 2. THE HALF-WAY COVENANT. 201 ject of frequent remark and was deeply deplored by many. The published sermons, ecclesiastical reports, and other religious litera ture of the next seventy years in New England are full of con fessions, lamentations, and pungent appeals on account of the low state of the churches and the increase of immorality, in striking contrast with the first forty years of their history. It has been already noticed that during the seventy-three years following the adoption of this measure, down to the great Edwardsian revival, the average condition of the churches was very low. Another Departure. Forty-five years later another departure still more seriously aggravated the downward tendency, and the predecessor of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton, was the innovator. Rev. Timothy Dwight has said of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, that " he probably possessed more influence than any other clergyman in the province during a period of thirty years."* In 1707 Mr. Stoddard preached that " sanctification is not a necessary qualification for par taking of the Lord's Supper," that " the Lord's Supper is a con verting ordinance," " a means of regeneration," and, therefore, " unre newed persons ought to be permitted to partake of it as a means of procuring that desirable change." He contended that it was " especially important, since it is impossible to distinguish the regen erate from the unregenerate so as to admit only the former and exclude only the latter.'' To this sermon Dr. Increase Mather replied the following year, and in 1709 Mr. Stoddard rejoined. After strenuous opposition the new view prevailed in Northampton, and quite extensively in other parts of New England, and thenceforth persons who had been baptized in infancy, not convicted of " scan dalous conduct or of heresy " were in full communion in the Church. Religious experience, being no longer a test of Church member ship, disappeared from the pulpits as a theme of discourse, and the ministry — aswell as the churches — was filled with unregenerate men. The cognate doctrines were also set aside, and moralizing and spec ulation constituted the topic of pulpit ministrations. Church dis cipline, too, was relaxed, for unregenerate men would not call others to an account. Laxity of belief and morals prevailed, creeds and confession of faith were discarded, and candidates for the ministry often refused to answer inquiries in regard to both faith and experi ence. In the " Convention Sermon " in 1722, Rev. Cotton Mather * Travels in New England. Vol. I, p. 333. 202 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. lamented " the threatened banishment from the ministry of the truths which all real and vital piety lives upon." Thus was a state of things currently called "dead orthodoxy" developed, in which truth had little hold on the conscience, and many abandoned them selves to frivolity and corrupt practices. In the meantime New England thinkers were drawn into sym pathy with English non-conformists, and English literature was infiltrated through the compact structure of New England social and religious life. The great Trinitarian controversy of South, Sherlock, etc., was studied in Boston scarcely less than in London. The sub sequent writings of Emelyn, Whiston, Dr. Samuel Clarke, etc., found ready readers in New England. About 1720 Cotton Mather wrote of " the most grievous apostasy of so many of our English brethren, going off to Arianism, Gentileism, etc., and the Laodicean temper of many more who have withheld the testimonies which the labor ing truth has called for." While this great spiritual declension was going on, God was pre paring on both sides of the Atlantic great counter movements for the preservation of spiritual Christianity — the Methodistic revival in England, and the Edwardsian revival in New England — the latter accomplishing a great, though temporary, work, to be supplemented in due time, and carried steadily forward, by the introduction of Methodism. The Great Revival. In Chapter V the revival under Edwards and Whitefield was sketched. The revival brought into new prominence the subject of Christian experience and the doctrine of the insufficiency of works done without grace as a fitness for heaven. Wherever therefore, it went, it awakened opposition, chiefly in the churches and the ministers favoring the "liberal" tendencies. White- field's first visit to the Puritan metropolis was warmly welcomed, and multitudes waited with deepest interest upon his power ful ministrations. Within two years he was followed by Revs. Gilbert Tennent, Wheelock and Davenport, who visited Boston and other New England towns. Tennent was bold and unsparing, pro ducing " a wide and tumultuous swell of religious emotion,"&under the influence of which many professed conversion, and " towns were invested with a new aspect." Davenport " was not afraid to pro nounce publicly the names of unconverted ministers," and every Congregational pulpit in Boston was soon closed against him. Whitefield and Tennent had also " disowned the prevailing rever- THE "NEW LIGHTS." 203 ence for authorities," and had quite distinctly intimated their opin ions of the spiritual state of many of the clergy. Whitefield pro nounced the college at Cambridge to be, " as far as he could gather, not far superior to the English universities in piety and true godli ness." A tide of censorious enthusiasm set in and seriously marred the revival work; but it grew out of the stern resistance which spiritual religion every-where met — often the effect, and perhaps as often the cause of the opposition. Amid the prevailing excitement in 1743 a convention was held, soon followed by another. In the first a " Testimony " was drawn up against the new movements, which was sustained by a majority of thirty-eight. The minority called the second convention and put forth a cautious and discriminating paper — decided and solemn — warning the people against being drawn into Arminianism and Antinomianism through fear of the opposite errors. The latter paper received the signatures of one hundred and twenty ministers in New England. About half of the one hundred and seventy- five Congregational ministers in Massachusetts were opposers of the revival measures. This was the first marked division of the two parties in the New England churches. When Whitefield returned in 1744 he encountered a wide-spread prejudice, entire Associations declining to receive him to their pul pits. Coleman, of the Brattle Street Church, invited him to assist in the administration of the Lord's Supper, contrary to the remon strance of his ministerial brethren. Chauncy and others preached against him, and did not hesitate to characterize the revival as an unmixed evil. The faculties of Yale and Harvard colleges entered the lists against him. Counter statements also appeared. The exciting point of this conflict was the question of " a change of heart." The old doctrine of the fathers had declined and the churches were dead. They were filled with men who had never been regenerated, who, according to the new theology, were to be regarded as Christians needing instruction ; but, according to the revivalists, they were impenitent persons, enemies to God, far from righteousness, and must be converted or perish forever. Such preaching, as might be expected, provoked resistance, and nowhere more than in the churches. The " New Lights," as the revivalists were called, were accused of censoriousness and extravagances. Edwards went on, however, and attempted to fully revolutionize the system which had been introduced by his predecessor, wrote a trea tise upon it, and would not practice it. In a sharp contest which finally arose upon it in his parish he was dismissed, in 1750. But 204 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the friends of the revival generally adopted his theory, and the system of Stoddard gradually fell into disuse in those churches which did not subsequently become Unitarian. Those who rejected the views of Edwards continued to admit men to the communion without regeneration if moral in life. The remaining steps of the transition were easy and natural. Thus were the leading elements of the so-called " Liberal Chris tianity " engendered long before the formal separation took place. Such were the local causes in the New England churches which con spired with the latitudinarianism of the English mind to produce the great defection which has been so marked in more recent times. The change that had been going on before the " Great Awakening " was hastened * by it. Calvinism f was fading, and men were becoming accustomed to the charge of " Arminianism," \ and a word of more radical significance — Socinianism — was brought into use. "Thus," says Mr. William C. Gannett, "the first stage in the rise of Unitarianism was completed so far as this, that now Arminianism, or anti-Calvinism, was an established fact in Massachusetts. The change toward Rationalism had been long and gradual — first crum bling away certain Church rites, then silently affecting doctrine, till toward the middle of the century, when it grew yearly into clearer recognition. The new name, however, was very vaguely used. . . . No split in the church was thought of yet. But from this time forward the two parties constantly and consciously diverged and watched each other." § Extent of the Movement in the Middle of the last Century. Having traced the inception and progress of this defection down to the middle of the last century, it is desirable to briefly set forth its proportions and its character in the period intervening before the Revolution. A considerable number of distinguished and very excellent min isters who did not favor the movements of the " New Lights " were, *In 1750 Edwards said, rife as the dangerous doctrines were before the revival, "Within seven years (that is, from its crisis) they have made vastly greater progress than ever before in the like space." + Some New Hampshire ministers revised the Catechism by leaving Calvinism out of it. X Really Pelagianism. They evidently did not use the word Arminian in its strict historical sense. They meant by it a system of doctrine in opposition to Calvinism, without due discrim ination in regard to all the phases of the case. The new departure then going on was, indeed, a revolt against Calvinism ; but, more than that, it was also a revolt against the Trinitarian and sacrificial theology to which Arminius and his followers closely adhered. § Lecture on the rise of Unitarinism in New England. Index, Feb. 15, 1873. PROGRESS TOWARD UNITARIANISM. 203 nevertheless, still faithful in their adherence to the old Calvinistic theology. One * every way qualified to speak upon this matter has expressed the opinion that there were in 1750 not less than forty-six ministers who either " openly opposed or did not teach and advocate the Calvinistic doctrines, and whose orthodoxy was either denied or suspected." President John Adams,f writing May 15, 1815, said, "Sixty years ago (1755) my own minister, Rev. Lemuel Bryant, Dr. Jona than Mayhew, of the West Church, Boston ; Rev. Mr. Shute, of Hingham; Rev. John Brown, of Cohassett ; and, perhaps equal to all, if not above all, Rev. Dr. Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians. . . . Among the laity how many could I name, lawyers, physicians, tradesmen, farmers." In 1754 Whitefield was again in Boston, but his advent awak ened no enthusiasm. The spirit of freedom of inquiry so rife in England was the burden of the leading minds. Under this broad and specious shield doubt found ample shelter, and slyly pushed its attacks upon the citadel of faith. Creeds and confessions were abhorred and freely denounced in sermons, particularly on ordina tion occasions. Mayhew called the Athanasian creed " a riddle, still somewhat enigmatical, notwithstanding all the labors of the pious and metaphysical Waterland," and jested on the Canticles. A little later, in 1769, Rev. John Lathrop declared to a friend that creeds and confessions had been generally laid aside, and that it was impossible to get a vote in the Convention for their revival. In 1756 Emelyns's Inquiry into the Scriptural Account of Jesus Christ was republished in Boston at the suggestion, it is said, of Dr. May hew, to which President Burr, of Princeton, replied. In 1768 Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D. 4 preached a sermon in the Old South Church, Boston, on the Divinity of Christ, which was composed for that occasion, as he said, " Under the conviction that the doctrine was * Hon. Alden Bradford, LL.D., biographer of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., was personally acquainted with Drs. Gay, Chauncy, Cooper, Shute, Turner, West and other prominent actors in this movement. He mentions in this class (Memoir of Mayhew, p. 24), Revs. Nathaniel Apple- ton, D.D., of Cambridge ; Ebenezer Gay, D.D., of Hingham; Charles Chauncy, D D., of Bos ton ; William Rand, of Kingston ; Nathaniel Ellis, of Scituate ; Edward Barnard, of Haver hill : Samuel Cooke, of West Cambridge ; Jeremiah Fogg, of Kensington, N. H. ; Andrew Elliot, D.D., of Boston; Samuel Webster, D.D., of Salisbury; Lemuel Bryant, of Braintree; Stevens, D.D., of Kittery, Me. ; Tucker, D.D., of Newbury; Timothy Harrington, of Lancaster ; Jonathan Mayhew, of Boston, and nineteen others. A little later he speaks of twelve others, making forty-six in all. Some of them, however, as in the case of Dr. Appleton, of Cambridge, did not finally go over to this party, and. have been ranked with the " Orthodox " por tion, although they had been at times somewhat shaken by the prevailing tendencies. t Letter to Rev. Dr. Jedediah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass. X Autobiographical Sketches of Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D., p. 95. 206 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. much neglected, if not disbelieved, by a number of the ministers in Boston." A few of the leading minds of this period deserve more extended notice : Dr. Gay was the pastor of the church in Hingham, a town about fifteen miles from Boston, for a period of seventy years (17 17-1787). He was an intimate friend of Chauncy and Mayhew. Dr. Brad ford thinks that Dr. Mayhew was indebted to him for some of his " liberal and rational views." He was a man of consummate pru dence, especially in expressing his opinions publicly. Hon. Solomon Lincoln says, " By some who fully understood the position of Dr. Gay, after the middle of the last century, he has been claimed to have been the father of modern Unitarianism. This must be con ceded — that his discourses will be searched in vain, after that point of time, for any discussions of controversial theology, any advocacy of the peculiar doctrines regarded as orthodox, or the expression of any opinions at variance with those of his distinguished successor in the same pulpit, the Rev. Dr. Henry Ware."* Dr. Chauncy was the pastor of the First Church, Boston, sixty years ( 1 727-1787). In him were singularly combined great frank ness, courage and prudence, with a mind remarkably acute and vig orous. He was not an orator, but he wrote with transparent clear ness and extraordinary facility, and published more volumes than any other New England minister of his time, although none of them were very extensive or elaborate. He employed vigorous argu ments with exceptional ability, writing against Whitefield and the revivalists, and resisting their measures for promoting the spirituality of the churches with all his might. He was also a strenuous oppo nent of episcopacy. It has been said, "To him, among all the eminent divines of New England, belongs the unhappy pre-eminence of having been the first to take the spirit of doubt to his bosom," that he " questioned the consciousness of the soul between death and the resurrection," and that he " nourished that sarcastic hos tility to the sentiments of past ages, and the determination of ven erable bodies on doctrines which, like a light troop of scouts, pre cede the main assault and explore the danger. Deeply significant was his sneer against the ' Homoousianity' of the Nicene Coun cil." f Dr. Mayhew was pastor of the West Church, Boston, from 1747 to 1766. Younger than Gay and Chauncy, and shorter lived, he ran * Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit. The Unitarian Pulpit, p. 7. t Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England, p. 25. JONATHAN MAYHEW. 207 a more brilliant career. He was a man of great talents, of exten sive learning, of remarkable frankness and boldness, somewhat eccentric, and sometimes rash and impetuous. The most open and undisguised of all the clergymen referred to in opposing the pre vailing system of theology, he became the champion of the " lib eral " tendency in his day. He was the third in a line of ministers, the Mayhews of Martha's Vineyard, who labored for the conversion of the Indians upon that island. His father, Rev. Experience Mayhew, A.M., is described as a man of great independence and vigor of mind, writing against the extreme Calvinistic tenets in a volume entitled Grace Defended, and also conducting a controversy with Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, President of Princeton College, New Jersey, against necessity. Jonathan Mayhew was regarded as unsound in his theological opin ions at the time of his settlement, on which account some of his ministerial brethren refused to participate in the services of that occasion. Dr. Bradford says, " He early gave his views on most of the doctrines then called orthodox, and expressed his opinions with unwonted clearness and decision* He was accustomed to speak out his sentiments freely, and did not hesitate to ridicule many things which had long been held as sacred by the Church. It was to him, doubtless, that Bellamy referred when he said, " Come from New Hampshire along to Boston, and see there a celebrated doctor of divinity at the head of a large party! He boldly ridicules the doctrine of the Trinity, and denies the doctrine of justification by faith alone, in the sight of all the country in his Book of Ser mons." He was a man of extensive personal acquaintance, numbering among his intimate friends Hons. John Hancock, John Winthrop, for forty-one years Professor in Harvard College ; Stephen Sewall, Chief Justice of Massachusetts; Samuel Adams, James Otis, James Bowdoin, Rev. Oxenbridge Thatcher, Robert Treat Paine, John Adams, Samuel Dexter, Rev. Nathaniel Appleton, D.D., of Cam bridge, and many others. Among his correspondents in Great Britain were such names as Lardner, Benson, Kippis, Blackburne and Hollis. In this wide circle Dr. Mayhew exerted a powerful influence, contributing more than any other American clergyman in his lifetime to spread "liberal sentiments." His enthusiastic biographer says, " By the influence of his elevated theological views a new era commenced in the Christian Church among the descendants of the Puritans. And from his day men have no longer * Memoir, p. 25. 20S CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. been obliged to discard reason to be religious, either as to their belief or practice." * Dr. Bradford also sheds some light upon The Character of the Movement. He says that at this early period " It was not wanton nor extrav agant," although it was strong and decided. It did not boldly assert itself, except in opposition to Whitefield, yet it was quietly work ing. The more liberal clergy of that period " bowed as reverently as ever before the majesty of divine truth, accepting and advocat ing zealously and ably the moral government of God, his overruling providence, and many other cardinal doctrines, while they either denied or doubted the Trinity, total depravity, personal election and reprobation irrespective of moral character, miraculous and instantaneous conversion, the inability of man to become religious without special and irresistible grace," etc. As yet only " a few had either expressly denied or openly opposed these doctrines." " But many refrained from inculcating them, without denying man's moral freedom or accountability, or endeavoring to show that the trinitarian tenet, as they held it, was not inconsistent with the doctrine of the divine unity. These were called " Arminians," or " moderate Calvinists," and " Arians," or " semi-Arians," as they deviated more or less from the orthodox or Calvinistic creed. The doctrine of the Trinity was approached with caution and reluctance, for most considered it of difficult interpreta tion, and as involved in mystery which could not be fully explained or comprehended, and had, therefore, better not be discussed; and thus they contented themselves with the phraseology of the Script ures on the subject. That of total depravity, and others flowing from it or connected with it were more openly opposed." f The controversy in regard to the Trinity came on at a later period. It was not openly debated until the beginning of the present century. So great was the impulse given to the new theo logical tendencies by the spirit of freedom in inquiry which per vaded the literary circles of England, and also by the bold and able leadership of Mayhew, that it has been said that the rupture in the New England churches would have occurred thirty or forty years earlier than it did had not the exciting topics of the Revolu tionary period engrossed the attention of the people. * Memoir. Preface, p. i. f Memoir of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D. By Alden Bradford, LL.D. Boston, C. C. Little & Co., 1838. P. 23. RES TOR A TIONISM. 209 Section 3.— Inception of Universalism. At the same time that the leaven of Unitarianism was silently working, another, and, in some respects, very similar movement was going on, which was also destined, in due time, to attract attention. The origin of Universalism in America has generally been traced to Rev. John Murray, who landed in this country in 1770. But a careful observation ofthe field, both in Europe and America, will afford evidence, as early as the middle of the last century, of the existence of tendencies, entirely independent of any influence which Mr. Murray exerted, toward the adoption, in some form, of the doctrine of the final salvation of all men. It was a revulsion from the old and repulsive dogmas of " High Calvin ism." The writings of Siegvolck, Whitby, Law, and other Euro pean authors abound in traces of that sentiment. In 1741 Dr. George De Benneville, a refugee from persecution in Europe, appeared in Germantown, Pa., and became extensively and favorably known as a skillful physician and a lay preacher. Occa sionally, for many years, he made extensive tours through Pennsyl vania, Maryland, and Virginia, preaching the doctrine of the final restoration of all men to holiness and happiness. In 1753 an edi tion of Paul Siegvolck's Everlasting Gospel was published in Ger mantown, in which the doctrine of restorationism was inculcated. In this place there was a society of German Baptists, descendants from the Anabaptists of Germany, who held those sentiments. Rev. Philip Clarke, rector of St. Philip's Church, Charleston, S. C, 1754-1759, was a believer in the doctrine of universal salvation. It was not an uncommon thing for this doctrine to be preached by the Virginia clergy about the middle ofthe last century. Rev. Mr. Yancy. of Louisa, published a sermon on' the subject, and Rev. Mr. Talley, of Gloucester, Va., also inculcated it.* In the old churches of New England the same tendency existed. Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., of Boston (1747-1766) preached the doctrine ofthe final restoration of all men to holiness and happiness.f Rev. Charles Chauncy, D.D., of Boston (1727-1787), wrote a book entitled. The Mystery Hid from Ages; or, the Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing Aimed at in the Scheme of God, in which the doctrine of restorationism was advocated. It was not pub lished until 1784, but it was written more than twenty years before, and shows the tendency of religious inquiry in the middle of the *Old Families. Ministers, and Churches of Virginia. By Bishop William Meade. Vol. I, p. 183. t See Sermon on " The Goodness of God," published in 1762. 14 210 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. century. The delay in the publication of the volume has been attributed to the extreme cautiousness of Dr. Chauncy.* Rev. Joseph Huntington, D.D., of Coventry, Conn. (1763-1794), a clergyman in the Congregational Church, is another striking example of this tendency. According to Rev. Abiel Abbott, D.D., he was one of the most popular preachers of his day, a man of superior talents, a laborious student, and at one time a candidate for the presidency of Dartmouth Col lege. During his lifetime he sometimes introduced in public and private discourses inquiries in reference to the final salvation of all men ; but at his death a manuscript volume.f entitled Calvinism Improved, was found among his papers, containing a vigorous defense of the doctrine of the salvation of all men in the article of death. In the preface the author says that this volume was " a small part of a system of divinity which he had been meditating for more than twenty years," showing that as early as about 1770, his mind had adopted those views. Drs. Huntington and Chauncy agreed in recognizing the literal resurrection of the body and the future general judgment. Dr. Huntington denied all future misery, but Dr. Chauncy held to future punishment, in its strict penal form, " for ages of ages," in a local hell and in literal fire. The latter wholly revolted from the old doctrine of predestination, but the former construed it so as to embrace all men among the elect. Dr. Chauncy held to Arian views of depravity and atonement, but Dr. Huntington accepted the " evangelical " doctrines, except in regard to the salvation of all men. Three Other Preachers of Universalism appeared before the American public about the time of Mr. Mur ray — Revs. Adam Streeter, Caleb Rich, and Thomas Barnes. Mr. * Dr. Bradford in his Memoir of Mayhew, said : " When Dr. Chauncy had written on the final salvation of all men, which he chose not to publish for many years after the work was prepared for the press, he showed it to Dr. Gay and a few other particular friends. Dr. Gay inquired if Dr. Mayhew had seen it. " No," said Dr. Chauncy ; " he cannot keep a. secret. I am not yet ready to determine to publish it ; but if he sees it, such is his frankness that all the world will soon know it." t This volume was published in accordance with Mr. Huntington's will, in 1796, in New Lon don, Conn., by Samuel Green (8vo). "It had but a limited circulation, much the greater part of the edition being consigned to the flames by one of his daughters, a lady of rare excellence, who loved simple Calvinism better than Calvinism Improved, and whose regard for orthodoxy seems to have been an overmatch for her filial reverence." See Sprague' s Annals of the American Pulpit. Vol. I, p. 604. In 1796 Rev. Nathan Strong, D.D., pastor of the Congregational church in Hartford, Conn., replied to Dr. Huntington's volume, in a i2mo book of 408 pages. RE V. JOHN MURRA V. 211 Streeter was an ordained minister of the Baptist denomination, and on becoming a Universalist he proclaimed his new opinions very freely in various parts of New England. He died in Smithfield, R. I., September 22, 1786. Mr. Rich joined the Baptist church in Warwick, N. H., in 1771, but soon became a Universalist, and preached those doctrines for many years. Mr. Barnes was an early convert of Mr. Rich, and subsequently became the founder of Universalism in Maine. These three preachers had never seen or heard of Rev. John Murray when they adopted these views. Such were some of the first outcroppings of a revulsion from Calvinism,* which soon became more general. In the Congrega tional churches the revolt was in the direction of Unitarian and Universalist ideas ; in the Regular Baptist Church it took two directions — toward Universalism and the Free-Will Baptist move ment, the latter denomination having its origin in 1780, in the midst of this revulsion. In 1770 Mr. Murray landed in this country and immediately made the doctrine of the final salvation of all men the special topic of his preaching, traveling extensively and organizing those who accepted these views. He thus gave to them the form of a denom ination and acquired the title of the founder of Universalism. *A11 of the first preachers of Universalism were < >f Calvinistic antecedents. Murray himself was a Calvinistic Methodist, of the school of Whitefield and Lady Huntington, and so was Rev. Thomas Jones, his successor, in Gloucester, Mass. Messrs. Streeter, Rich and Elhanan Win chester were Regular Baptists. In later periods, Rev. Hosea Ballou, and his nephew, Hosea Ballou, second, D.D., Adin Ballou, Walter Balfour, Sylvanus Cobb, D.D., Abner Kneeland, and many others were Baptists, reared under strong Calvinistic influences. 212 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER IX. MORALS. Sec. i. The Drinking Habits. " 2. Sabbath Observance. " 3. Unchastity, Lotteries. " 4. Superstitions. Sec. 5. Indentured Servitude. " 6. African Slavery. " 7. Anti-Slavery. WE have noticed the influence of the licentious and debauched court of Charles II. among English people at home and abroad, and the infusion into the colonial population of new classes of immigrants, not actuated, like the first settlers, by high religious motives, but chiefly by secular aims, and also paupers and criminals from work-houses and jails. The corruption of manners, working downward through English society during the reigns of William III., Queen Anne and the first two Georges, extended to American shores, changing the moral aspects of the people. In the first third of the eighteenth century this deterioration was very apparent. Section J.— The Drinking Habits in the first century were very moderate. Subsequently they were intensified, though they did not reach their greatest virulence until the opening of the nineteenth century. West India rum was intro duced in connection with the trade with those islands; but the manufacture of rum in New England in 1700, reducing the price, led to its more general use. In the period preceding the Edwardian revival there was much hard drinking; but darker days followed. "It is easy to praise the fathers of New England," says Theodore Parker; "easier to praise them for virtues they did not possess than to discriminate and fairly judge those remarkable men. . . . Let me men'ion a fact or two. It is recorded in the probate office that in 1678, at the funeral ot" Mrs. Mary Norton, widow of tne celebrated John Norton, one of the niinisters of the First Church, in Boston, fifty-one gallons and a half of the best Malaga wine were consumed by the mourn ers. In 1685, at the funeral of Rev. Thomas Cobbett, minister of Ipswich, there were consumed one barrel of wine and two barrels of cider; and, 'as it was cold,' DRUNKENNESS PREVALENT. 213 there were 'some spice and ginger for the cider.' You may easily judge ofthe drunkenness and riot on occasions less solemn than the funeral of an old beloved minister. Towns provided intoxicating drinks at the funeral of their paupers. In Salem, in 1728, at the funeral of a pauper, a gallon of wine and another of cider are charged as 'incidentals ; ' the next year six gallons of wine on a similar occa sion. In Lynn, in 171 1, the town furnished ' half a barrel of cider for the widow Despau's funeral.' Affairs had come to such a pass that in 1742 the General Court forbade the use of wine and rum at funerals." * Among the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who settled in London derry, N. H., about 1719, drinking habits became quite as bad as in other localities. In allusion to their inflexible adherence to their creed, and their social irregularities on festive occasions, it was com monly said, " The Derry Presbyterians never gave up ' a pint of doctrine ' or a pint of rum." The " Derry Festival," introduced and kept up for many years, was "a sort of Protestant carnival," "a wild, drinking, horse-racing, frolicking merry-making, at which strong drink abounded." Those who good-naturedly wrestled and joked in the morning not infrequently closed the day with a fight. Will iam Stack, in describing his ancestors, the first settlers of Amoskeag Falls, says : Of the goodly men of old D^rryfield, It was often said that their only care, And their only wish and their only prayer, For the present world and the world to come. Was a string of eels and a jug of rum. Rev. Mr. Wildman, of Southbury, Conn., was accustomed to sharp sparring with Rev. Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem. One day Mr. Wildman asked Dr. Bellamy what to do to get the people out to meeting: " Put a barrel of rum under your pulpit," said Belamy. " I am afraid I should have half of the church of Bethlehem down here on Sunday," replied Wildman. An old minister, in a fast day sermon in 1775' said: Vast numbers, young and old, male and female, are given to intemperance, so that it is a common thing to see drunken women as well as drunken men, and I fear that many of our youth are training up for rank drunkards. The Consistory of Schenectady supplied their dominie liberally with wood, the parishioners making "a bee," on the occasion of cut ting it up, which sometimes lasted two or three days. The old church records (January 16, 1748) show a charge for " five gallons of rum and a half gallon of wine for the Dominie s bee." These charges * Speeches, Addresses and Occasional Sermons, by Theodore Parker, pp. 341-397. Boston, Horace B. Fuller, publisher. 1871. 214 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. are repeated year after year. On funeral occasions no woman attended the body to the grave, but after the corpse was carried out they remained to eat cakes and drink spiced wine. The women retired before the men returned, who resumed the feast and regaled themselves. Spiced wine, cakes and pies were provided, and wine and cakes were sent to the friends of the family. Wealthy citizens, in anticipation of a death in the family, were accustomed to procure a cask of wine during their lifetime and preserve it for this pur pose. Whole pipes of wine and several hogsheads of beer were consumed at single funerals in New York. In Pennsylvania punch and cake in large quantities were provided on such occasions. The cost of wine for one funeral in Virginia exceeded 4,000 pounds of tobacco. These customs extended as far south as the Carolinas, and the dissipation was so great that here and there individuals pro tested against it. The drinking habits of all classes, ministers included, hung like a dead-weight upon the churches. Ordinations were seasons of festivity in which copious drink ing had a large share, and an ordination ball often ended the occasion. Not very far from the period of the Revolution, several councils were held in one of the towns of Massachusetts where the people were trying to be rid of a minister who was often the worse for liquor even in the pulpit, and once at least at the com munion table ; but some of the neighboring ministers stood by him, and the people had to endure him till his death.* Section 2.— Sabbath Observance. In the first century of colonial history the Sabbath laws were very stringent, many of which have reached our day and are so familiar that it is not necessary to relate them. There were also, for a time, many peculiarly strict customs of Sabbath observance in most of the colonies. In New England the Sabbath began at sun set on Saturday, but labor usually ceased about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the time was generally spent in catechizing and pre paring for the Sabbath. Little food was cooked on the Lord's day and no labor but the most necessary was done. A lunch of plain bread was the mid-day repast at the church on Sunday. But after the long day, two long walks to and from the sanctuary, and two long services, a more carefully prepared meal was deemed necessary. * Centennial Discourse by Rev. I. N. Tarbox, D.D. 1876. Minutes of General Association of Massachusetts, 1876, p. 42. SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 21S When the master of a Dutch ship sailed into Boston Harbor, on Sunday, and fired four shots, he was fined forty shillings a shot. When it was found that none of his crew could speak English the penalty was remitted to forty shillings in all. The Indians hardly knew what to make of the Sunday laws, and when asked if they would refrain from working on the Sabbath in Christian towns they answered, " It is very easy for us ; we have not much to do any day, and we can well rest on that day." The punishment for violating the Sabbath was usually a fine of thirty shillings and to sit one hour in the stocks. An ancient document written in Danvers, Mass., in 1713, gives an interesting case of Sabbath scruples, which were strangely com mon in those days : When ye services at ye house were ended, ye Council and other dignitaries were entertained at ye House of Mr. Epes, on the hill near by, and we had a bountiful table, with Bear's meat and venison, the last of which was from a fine Buck shot in the woods near by. Ye bear was killed in Lynn Woods near Reading. After ye blessing was craved by Mr. Garrish, of Wentham, word came that ye Buck was shot on ye Lord's day by Pequot, an Indian. Like Ananias of old, ye council, therefore, refused to eat of ye venison, but it was afterward agreed that Pequot should receive 40 stripes save one for lying and profaning the Lord's day, restore Mr. Epes tKe cost of ye deer; and considering this a just and righteous sentence on ye sinful Heathen, and that a blessing had been craved on ye meat, ye council all partook ot it but Mr. Shepard, whose conscience was tender on ye point of venison. Work and recreation were forbidden on Thanksgiving and Fast days. Sabbath observance was under strict surveillance, and any one had a right to stop a traveler on the Sabbath. After bells came into use, the church bell, which on other evenings was rung at nine o'clock, was rung on Saturday evenings at eight o'clock, and persons out after that hour were liable to be arrested for Sabbath desecration. The reaction in morals after the great revival under Edwards has been mentioned. But before that awakening a strong and general downward tendency was very apparent, and the revival only slightly and temporarily checked it. Edwards, referring to the previous period, said, " The Sabbath was extensively profaned and the decorum of the sanctuary not unfrequently disturbed." In the Province of Maryland, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the Lord's day was generally profaned. In New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl vania and Virginia the Sabbath was more seriously disregarded than in New England. 216 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Attendance Upon Public Worship was rigidly enforced at first in the middle colonies, as well as in New England, the local laws being based upon current English statutes. The difference between the legislation of Massachusetts and England in this respect is illustrated by the statute of 1692, compared with that of the " 1st Eliz.," in England. By the first of these a man absenting himself from public worship on the Lord's day for a month was liable to a fine, to be imposed by the civil court. By that of Elizabeth he was forbidden to absent himself from church, " on pain of punishment by the censures oj the Church, and also on pain of forfeiting" a certain sum of money. One was an injury and dishonor to the Church, which the State punished conjointly with the Church ; the other was a violation of a State law, of which the State, by its officers, alone took cognizance. Very few were excused from attendance upon church. The family went to church " bodily," though one or more remained at home — the very aged and infirm, the sick and those caring for them, and not unfrequently some younger and active member, to see that the piemises were protected, that the cattle and other animals did not break away nor harm growing crops. The stay-at-homes were few. Absentees from the sanctuary were looked after. In some sec tions officers were appointed, each of whom had the inspection of ten families, to see that every one went to church. Sometimes two officials walked the fields in search of non-worshipers, who, if unable to give a satisfactory account of themselves, were reported to the magistrates. In the early part of the seventeenth century attend ance upon public worship was so rigidly enforced, that persons stand ing outside of the " meeting-house " during divine service were set in the stocks. Inn-keepers were obliged to clear their houses of all persons able to go to meeting, excepting strangers in town. All absentees without good excuse were fined. During the eighteenth century these customs lost much of their rigidity, especially in the larger towns and the new settlements. In comparing church attendance in these early times with that of the present day, as indicating the relative condition of morals in the two periods, it should not be overlooked that the attend ance in our days is purely voluntary, and, therefore, a moral act ; but in the olden times it was enforced under heavy pen alties, and consequently largely void of moral qualities. As late as 1 740-1 750, persons in Boston were fined for non-attend ance upon public worship. This law continued on the statute- book of Massachusetts as late as 1820, and the habit of church attendance which had been inwrought in the communities by such ATTENDANCE AT CHURCH. 217 protracted discipline conserved attendance upon worship long after the statute ceased to be enforced. It was, probably, not enforced after 1775, and very much neglected in large areas after 1750. In the year 1776 there were 353* churches of all denominations in Massachusetts, in a population of 295,080, or one church for 835 inhabitants. In 1876 there were 1,884 churches, or one for 876 per sons. But the churches of our day are, as a whole, several times larger than those of the former period. As to the apparent emp tiness of the churches in these days, to which there is frequent allusion, it is a just query whether, if the audiences of 1776 were put into the churches of our day, there would not be as much empty space. And yet their churches were, relatively to the population, as numerous as ours. Such discrimination is necessary in forming a judgment in regard to church attendance in the two periods. Section 3.— Uncnastity— Lotteries. The character of the early settlers and their first descendants in respect to chastity has doubtless been greatly overrated. We find Jonathan Edwards describing the moral condition of Northamp ton, Mass., near the beginning of his ministry in that place, saying that " licentiousness for some years has greatly prevailed among the youth." This is believed to have been a fair sample of many New England towns ; while the average morality in Maryland, Virginia, and some other sections, was even lower, not having so many con serving elements as New England. The clergy ofthe Virginia Col ony, following the style of many in England, were morally low, and the people lower still. Bishop Meade said, " As to the unworthy hireling clergy of the colony, there was no ecclesiastical discipline to correct or punish their irregularities and vices." In the Province of Maryland, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and in the eighteenth century also, " all notorious vices were committed, so that it had become a Sodom of uncleanliness and a pest-house of iniquity." " The clergy were remarkable for their laxity of morals and scandalous behavior." In the forty years following the establishment of the Episcopal Church, as the State Church, in Maryland, in 1692, there was no improvement, but rather a decline, as letters to the Bishop of London, quoted by Rev. Dr. Hawks, fully show. * Congregational, 289 ; Baptist, 38 ; Episcopal, 12 ; Quaker, 10 ; Presbyterian, 4. 2 18 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The Consociation of Litchfield County, Conn., in its address to the churches in 1752, deplored the low state of religion and morals, the want of family government, the neglect of family prayer, the profanation of the Sabbath, intemperance, licentiousness, rioting, wantoning, cheating, extortion, etc., which like a deluge overflowed the land. It called upon the churches to stop the abominations committed on ordination occasions, in the form of ordination balls, " frolicking at ordinations," etc." In other respects the morals in the churches were low. " A sen tence," says Dr. I. N. Tarbox, " from the Andover Manual, (Mass.,) shows the real condition of the churches in the last century. We are told, as part of the history of that Church, that ' the chief causes of discipline, for 125 years, were fornication and drunkenness.' And the writer adds, ' He who investigates the records of this or any other church for the same period will be astonished at the prevalence of these vices as compared with the present time.' To find such items, however, we must, as a general rule, go to those records which yet remain in manuscript." The historian of a small town within twenty miles of Boston said, " I carefully examined the records of the parish church and found numerous instances of discipline on account of maternity too soon after matrimony. The usual course of discipline in the church was to require such persons to make a confession, before again receiving the communion. There were twenty-six cases in twelve years in that church." Such offenses were gen erally more common then than now, as might be demonstrated by the citation of numerous testimonies. The mode of courtship known as "bundling" or "tarrying" then prevalent in certain portions of New England, and which deli cacy forbids us to explain, doubtless promoted unchastity. It was brought over by some of the early emigrants, and strangely flour- ised side by side with Puritan morals through a considerable part of the colonial era. Such is the power of traditional custom. Rev. Jonathan Edwards boldly assailed it and met formidable opposition among his people. Besides the Connecticut valley, it prevailed in Pennsylvania among people of English and German extract, and in some sea-coast towns. Lotteries. It is difficult to realize that this form of gambling, now so strongly disapproved and so rapidly passing away under the ban of Christian sentiment, could have had so general and high recogni- LOTTERIES. 219 tion a century and a half ago in New England. In March, 1744, lotteries were officially authorized in Massachusetts ; in 1757 the town of Boston instituted a lottery to raise money to pay for paving the streets; in 1763 Faneuil Hall was repaired by the aid of a public lottery; in June, 1771, there was an extensive drawing of lottery prizes in the same building; and in 1803 the sign of the horn of plenty was adopted as a symbol over the doors of houses where lotteries were held. Section 4.— Superstitions. Superstitions were rife. The witchcraft delusions have passed fully into history. They were not, however, peculiar to the Amer ican colonies. Indeed, they only slightly existed here, as compared with the older countries across the Atlantic, where tens of thou sands, during the century from 1620-1720 were put to death as witches. But the affair at Salem, Mass., was a grievous matter and the action of the civil powers a gross offense, though they treated the cases more leniently than they were treated by the best jurists in the Old World. All through the eighteenth century strange supersti tions abounded. What stories have reached us of Captain Kidd's hidden treasures along the Atlantic coast, for which numerous deluded parties digged ! Mrs. H. B. Stowe's Old-Town Folks gives a clear view of some of the superstitions ofthe last century. Witch- hazel and sweet apple rods were supposed by many to have a mar velous virtue ; but these were only smaller specimens * of current delusions. In Boylston, Mass., about thirty persons from that and the adjoin ing towns, on the impulse and authority of dreams, began to dig on the lands of Nathaniel Davenport, Esq., continuing their labors for several weeks, excavating to the depth of eight or ten feet, and forty feet in circumference. The labor was principally performed * The following advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette (New Haven), October a, 1757, will show the superstition of that period : To be Sold by the Printers Hereof. A True and Wonderful Relation of the appearance Of Three Angels (Clothed in white raiment) to a Young Man in Medford, in New England, at night : — together with the substance of the Discourse, delivered by one of the Angels, from the 3d Chapter of Colos. and the 4th Verse. The Public may depend that the above Narrative is no imposition, but that it is a true account as related by the young man himself to numbers of people, many of whom can attest he is a person of good character. 220 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES in moonlight evenings, with a table on the ground, with an open Bible and a rusty sword upon it, one man sitting upon the bank, with sweet apple or witch-hazel rods in his hands, to inform the working men in what particular spot the money was. As it was believed the money had the power of locomotion it was uncertain whether it would remain stationary for any length of time. This money, for what reason is unknown, was supposed by these credu lous and avaricious fortune-hunters to have been placed there by pirates, and that some person was murdered and buried there to take care of it. To appease the spirit of this person, a dove was one day procured and bled over the spot where the money was sup posed to be, and the blood was sprinkled around the excavation. Profound silence was believed to be a sine qua non in obtaining the treasure. One man while at work alone in the evening struck the point of his bar, as he reported, under the bail of the kettle which contained the money, and heard very distinctly the sound ofthe specie, but unfortunately at that moment he heard- the sound of musketry, looked up, and, in his excited imagination, saw on the brow of the hill an army firing upon him. The bail of the kettle took this opportunity to slip off the point of the bar and could be found no more. The writer * of this sketch said he recollected, when a youth, going to see the money-diggers operate. Section 5.— Indentured Servitude. Human serfdom antedates reliable history. A system of villein age of immemorial duration prevailed all over Europe at the time America was first settled. " The first Virginia tenants were little better than villein ; they were bound to remain seven years on the land, and to pay one half of the whole produce for rent." But this rigid system did not long continue. Under such severe conditions many emigrated from Virginia to Maryland, and from the New York Colony to New Jersey, to escape the exactions of the great proprietors, who held their thousands of acres. In the earliest traces of the tribes occupying the British Isles we find slaves or serfs. Under the beneficent influence of the princi ples of the Magna Charta, the preaching of Wicliffe and the Lol lards, and the later stages of the Reformation, English serfdom was greatly modified ; but some relics of this form of ancient villeinage, * Mathew Davenport's Sketch of the History ofthe Town of Boylston, Mass. INDENTURED SERVITUDE. 221 which involved bondage to the soil, survived the Restoration. Long terms of service, with wages arbitrarily fixed by authority, took the place of the more ancient serfdom, and any resistance, shrinking or evasion was rigorously repressed by law. Many servants bound for long terms, and treated as property, were brought to the English colonies in America. Poor children, vagrants, unfortu nates, criminals, debtors, etc., became stock in the colonial market and suffered monstrous abuses. A Dutch writer called the English " a villanous people, who would sell their own fathers for servants." The victims of privateers were sold into bondage in the colonies. English laborers, despairing of bettering their condition at home, men in domestic troubles, runaway husbands, runaway wives, run away children, prison-breakers, etc., bound themselves to serve a term of years and took their chances, hoping to find a better estate in the New World. Little lads were ' inveigled and by lewd sub tleties ' enticed aboard vessels on the Thames and carried to the colonies. The furnishing of servants to the colonies became a specu lation. The capturing and selling persons into servitude was a common traffic in English cities. In the most paradoxical scene in judicial history the worst of judges, George Jeffreys, himself reeking with corruptions and cruelties incredible, is found arraign ing the aldermen of Bristol, England, for their share in this trade. Ordering the scat let-robed mayor from his seat on the bench to a place in the prisoner's dock, he cried with brutal exultation, "See how the kidnapping rogue looks! " He ranted at the aldermen in words too vile to be reprinted. Yet the selling of condemned men and the condemning of men that they might be sold were practiced openly in the court of James II. at this very time. The ladies of the queen's bed-chamber, and the queen herself, eagerly snatched at the profits from the sale of the rebels of Monmouth's Rebellion, whom Jeffreys had just then condemned. Even William Penn begged for twenty of them for the Philadelphia market. To Philadelphia, in the later periods, were brought great numbers of Germans inveigled by artful agents to sell themselves through brokers at the Dutch ports. . Many hardy Germans, having money enough to pay their fare, preferred to sell themselves for a term of years, in order to learn the language and the ways of the country. Others paid half the fare and were sold for the remainder ; and some paid the passage of the family by selling one or two of their surplus children into bondage during minority. One reads in the Philadelphia papers, in 1729, of "choice maid-servants fit for town and country," to be had of a certain wine- cooper, and of " a parcel of likely servant-men and boys for sale " about the same time The development of the back country produced the "soul-drivers," as they were contemptously called — men who peddled servants in droves of fifty or more. . . . The sending over the dissolute and criminal ha'l begun in the reign of James I. The severity of English penal laws, by which sometimes " twenty were hanged up at a clap," occasioned evasions of all kinds. . . . The need for men in the colonies offered a new opportunity for merciful evasions of the death penalty in 222 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. cases of minor felony. It became common to pardon thieves on condition of their accepting a seven-years' term of service in the colonies. . . . Franklin proposed to send a present of rattlesnakes for the king's garden as a fit return for the con victs out of English jails. The number of bond servants even in New England seems to have been large, and the supply was much greater in the wheat and to bacco countries. Every kind of business in Pennsylvania depended upon the labor of indentured servants. In 1670 Virginia had 6,000 English servants, while there were yet but 2,000 negroes. The treatment of servants was as various as the character of their masters. ... It was an age of flogging ; criminals, soldiers, sailors, pupils, children, and now and then even wives, were thought the better for scourging. One ought hardly to be surprised, therefore, at the numerous and cruel whippings of English servants, women as well as men, who were scourged naked, with hickory rods, and washed with brine, the punishment continuing sometimes at intervals for hours or being renewed day after day. There were also in use, by masters and overseers, thumb-screws, sweatings, and other such devil's devices. The food allowed was sometimes a scant diet of Indian meal. The sick servant was neglected lest the doctor's charge should exceed the value of his remaining service; and one thrifty master required a servant, sick of a mortal disease, to dig his own grave in ad vance in order to save the other men's time. In 1705 Virginia prohibited the secret burial of servants and the whipping of " Christian white servants " naked without the consent of a justice; and in 1715 Maryland made several protective provisions, one forbidding the giving of more than ten lashes for one offense, unless with approval of a magistrate. In New England, where servants were often re garded as Christian brethren, and where settlements were more dense, care could be and was exercised to prevent injustice and cruelty ; but there were instances of brutal hardships notwithstanding, and even of a servant's dying from a master's cruelty.* The servile classes were a source of moral corruption, especially to the young. Many, however, were of excellent character and rose to good positions. Some bond-maids were married to those who purchased them. Through industry and frugality some serv ants acquired wealth and founded families that rose to respecta bility and honor ; but others were the basis of criminal and pauper classes of later years. Section 6.— African Slavery. But a more radical form of personal bondage — human chattel- ship — was introduced at the very beginning of the colonial era. As early as about 1450, thousands of African negroes were annually brought into Europe, and as early as 1553 we find them in England. The Spaniards employed them in their colonies to work the mines. The English colonists in America followed, and four- * Edward Eggleston, in The Century, Oct., 1884, pp. 854-856. NEGRO SLAVERY IN NEW ENGLAND. 223 teen " negroes " were introduced into the Jamestown Colony, in 1619, by a Dutch frigate. Others were soon brought from the West Indies, and also many directly from Africa. " The Royal African Company " in England promoted the African slave traffic, and publicly advocated the business before Charles II. , in 1663, as necessary to the development of the Anglo-American " planta tions." All the American colonies shared in this form of servitude. In 1735 the Lords Commissioners of Trade said that without the advantage of slave labor the colonies " could not possibly subsist." In 1646 the General Court of Massachusetts, whose fundamental law prohibited villeinage and other feudal servitudes, undertook to send back to Africa negroes who had been kidnapped by a slaver, so flagrant in their eyes seemed the offense of " man-stealing." Nevertheless the Puritan conscience did not hesitate to sell Indians captured in war into chattel slavery, or to buy slaves who came into bondage otherwise than by stealing. Thousands of negro slaves were sold into New England. Boston merchants engaged in the Guinea trade, but Newport R. I., was the great center of this traffic. In 1700 the "free colored" and slaves in all the colonies were estimated at 32,000; in 1750, 220,000; in 1775, 500,000; or IO per cent., 16 per cent, and 19 per cent., respectively, of the whole population. In Massachusetts a few negro slaves were owned prior to 1639, but the African slave trade was never prosecuted by the inhabitants of this colony to any extent, and a degree of infamy attached to the character of those engaged in it. As early as 1700 there were few African slaves in the whole province. The official report of the governor to the Board of Trade states the whole number to be 550, of which all but 150 were in Boston. In 1720 the official returns show 2,000 in the whole province; in 1765 the number was 5,779, which was never exceeded. Slaves were imported into Connecticut direct from Africa during the middle of the last cent ury. The following advertisements taken from the Connecticut Gazette (New Haven) October 1, 1757. wiI1 tdl the story of the African slave trade in Connecticut at that time : To BE Sold, several likely Negro Boys and Girls : arrived from Coast of Africa. Samuel Willis, at Middletown. A Likely Negro Wench and Child to be sold :— Inquire of the Printer. TO be Sold by the subscriber, of Branford, a likely Negro Wench, 18 years of age, is acquainted with all sorts of House work ; is sold for no fault. 224 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Fresh from Africa, they were received and treated as untamed barbarians. Some, whose backs had been long " bent to the burden of their inheritance," were patient and submissive ; others, unaccus tomed to authority and warfare, captured in recent wars, were defiant, scorning obedience and despising toil. Savage dances ¦constituted their amusement and strange mummeries their funeral ceremonies. Their fetich superstitions and sorceries linked them, in the alarmed imaginations of their masters, with evil spirits. The Salem witchcrafts grew out of the juggleries of African serv ants domesticated in the households. Severe treatment and extra ordinary penalties were inflicted under a legislation which in those times was full of harshness even toward white people. Death was a frequent penalty for offenses of slight criminality. Thirty lashes, and even more, cutting off an ear, ham-stringing, branding in the face, slitting the nose, and even worse mutilations were inflicted upon these children of the Dark Continent. Driven to desperation, negro insurrections and incendiary fires occurred. In the period from 1730- 1740 there was general alarm in some sections, and many slaves were tortured and put to death. Few women were imported from Africa in the earlier period, and the men lived together in gangs, in brutal vice, with none of the ameliorations of family life. Some time elapsed before the slave women came to bear a fitting proportion to the slave men. Even then for a long time marriage and family life were only faint sem blances. Gradually the negro became domesticated, more gentle and tractable, and the relations between the races more kindly. Efforts for the Improvement of the Slaves. Some efforts were made to convert the slaves to Christianity. James II. had his attention called to the pagan condition of the negroes, and resolved, in 1685, that all slaves on the English plan tations should be christened ; but the purpose was never executed. William Penn, in 1700, had "a concern for the souls ofthe blacks." Elias Neau, a catechist for the Society for the Propagation ofthe Gospel, 1704 to 1718, labored among the negroes in New York city. About 1728 a widely extended but feeble movement, under the direction of the Bishop of London, for the Christian instruc tion of the slaves, was attempted, in which the clergy and ladies of South Carolina were most successful. At the same time there was in Boston a negro school, and ministers preached to them special sermons. In 1743 a school for negroes was founded in Charleston, ANTISLAVERY PROTESTS. 223 S. C. In Maryland they were sometimes taught with white chil dren in the parish schools. Under the Whitefieldian revivals greater attention was given to the blacks. Rev. Samuel Davies, subsequently President of Princeton College, while pastor in Vir ginia, in 1756, received forty or fifty to the communion and gave them Sabbath instruction. Gradually humane restrictions were imposed by legislation upon the master. Section 7.— Antislavery. It was with the common consent, and in accordance with the common practice, of Christian nations that African slavery was introduced and became domesticated in America. A half century passed in some of the colonies before any scruples in regard to it appeared. The negroes were " heathen," " infidels," and instruc tion in the Christian religion was resisted by planters lest baptism should emancipate them. In process of time some colonies found themselves in danger of being overrun by the blacks, liable to insur rection and other evils. They, therefore, sought to check the importation of negroes. South Carolina placed a duty upon slaves. Bristol merchants protested against such laws. The crown sustained the complainants, and the royal governors were told that the col onists must not "discourage a traffic so beneficial to the nation." In Massachusetts negro slavery came into existence without legis lative action. Asearlyas 1641 the General Court adopted this order; " It is ordered by this court and the authority thereof that there shall never be any bond slavery, villeinage or captivity among us, unless it be lawful captives taken in just wars, as willingly sell them selves or are sold to us." Subsequently the colonial legislature, finding the evil had gained a foothold, recognized and undertook to regulate it. Rev. John Eliot, the Quakers, etc., Protest. In 1675 Rev. John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, memorial ized the governor and council of Massachusetts against selling captured Indians into slavery, because " the selling of souls is dan gerous merchandise." He also, " with a bleeding and burning pas sion," says Cotton Mather, remonstrated against " the abject condi tion of the enslaved Africans." As early as 1688 a body of Quakers in Germantown, Pa., presented to their Yearly Meeting a protest against "buying, selling and holding men in slavery \." and five 15 226 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. years later Mr. George Keith, also a Pennsylvania Quaker, denounced slavery as " contrary to the religion of Christ, the rights of man," etc. ; and, three years later still, the Yearly Meeting took formal action against the introduction of slaves. In the year 1700 Samuel Sewall, Esq., subsequently Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, published a tract entitled, The Selling of Joseph, in which he characterized with singular boldness the system of slavery as an outrage, and enunciated " the primal truth of human equality and obligation." In the year 1700 the public mind was agitated in relation to slavery, and the next year the town of Boston instructed its representatives " to promote the encouraging and the bringing of white servants, and to put a period to negroes being slaves." In 1716 the Quakers in Dartmouth, Mass., memorialized the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting on the evil of slavery, and the Nantucket Society of Friends declared it to be repugnant to the truth to pur chase and hold slaves. In 1729 the same society sent a serious address on the subject of slavery to the Philadelphia Yearly Meet ing. In the same year William Burling, in the Yearly Meeting on Long Island, bore faithful testimony against slavery, and Elihu Coleman and Ralph Standifred published pamphlets condemning the institution of slavery as " iniquitous and anti-Christian." Eight years later Benjamin Lay, another Quaker, pleaded the cause of the bondmen in a volume published in Philadelphia. Rev. John Wesley and Others Protest. In 1736 Rev. John Wesley, during his residence in Georgia, pro tested against slavery ; and in 1739 Rev. George Whitefield addressed a letter to the Southern colonies, denouncing the system and its bar barities. In the years 1755, '56, '57, a correspondence on the sub ject of slavery was carried on between Rev. Samuel Davies, in Vir ginia, and Rev. John Wesley, the latter donating books for the ben efit of the colored people in Mr. Davies's parish. From 1746 to 1767 Mr. John Woolman, a distinguished Friend in New Jersey, trav eled extensively through the Middle and Southern colonies, preach ing against the practice of holding men in bondage. In 1767 an attempt was made in the Massachusetts Legislature to abolish the slave trade, by introducing a bill " to prevent the unnatural and unwarrantable custom of enslaving mankind and the importation of slaves into the province." Owing to some disagree ment between the two branches of the legislature, and the absolute certainty of a veto from the loyal governor, the measure was not ANTISLAVERY LEGISLATION DESIRED. 227 passed. The bill finally passed both houses in January, 1774, but Governor Hutchinson refused his assent, his " instructions," he said, " forbidding." His successor, Governor Gage, refused for the same reason. The blacks had better success in the judicial courts. Slaves brought action against their masters for detaining them in bondage. Between 1770 and the Revolution several of these suits were brought, and the juries invariably gave their verdict in favor of liberty. In the latter part of this period Anthony Benezet, of Huguenot parentage, a man of practical piety, appeared in the field toiling for the oppressed. During the ten years preceding the Revolution a desire for emancipation and the extinction of the slave trade became very general, and found frequent utterance in pulpits and pamphlets. Nor were these efforts without apparent fruit. Many towns passed •resolutions praying the colonial legislatures to take action at once in the interest of humanity ; and many slave masters, who subse quently aided in inaugurating the Revolution and fighting its bat tles, became hostile to the slave trade, and even to the existence of slavery itself. The general agitation of questions relating to the rights of man, and particularly the colonial rights, aided this movement, and made the sinfulness and wrong of slavery more apparent. Benezet, Rush, Hopkins, etc. But this great work was not advanced chiefly by the efforts of statesmen and philanthropists. The prime impulse and support came from Christian laymen and divines, who furnished its pabulum and inspiration. In the six years from 177010 1776 the antislavery efforts of several Christian gentlemen attracted particular attention. In Pennsylvania that sterling Christian nobleman, Anthony Benezet, was still in the midst of his indefatigable labors—" few men," accord ing to Dr. Benjamin Rush, " ever lived a more disinterested life ; " the supreme objects of his enthusiastic philanthropy were the aboli tion of the slave trade and the emancipation and instruction of the negroes. He conducted evening schools in Philadelphia for their benefit, and wrote, published and distributed throughout the col onies, at his own expense, tracts against slavery. In 1771 he pub lished his Historical Account of Guinea, and an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, which enlightened and quick ened the youthful mind of Hon. Thomas Clarkson, the great English antislavery reformer, and imparted the impulse to his great life-work. 228 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. In 1773 another eminent Philadelphian, Dr. Benjamin Rush, conspicuous as a Christian, a physician, a philanthropist and a states man, in whose home Asbury and other early Wesleyan evangelists often received hospitality, published an address on the injustice and inhumanity of slavery. The following year, under his advocacy, the First Continental Congress determined that the United Colonies should " neither import nor purchase any slaves, and would wholly discontinue the slave trade." Soon after the North Carolina, Vir ginia and Georgia conventions pledged their " utmost endeavors for the manumission of the slaves in their colonies." April 6, 1776, Congress resolved, without opposition, that " no slaves be imported into the thirteen United Colonies." All these movements are largely credited to Dr. Rush. One of the most decided and resolute champions of abolition in this period was Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D., of Newport, R. I., famous for the phase of theology which bore his name. A frequent witness of the landing of slaves from Africa, near his church and home, he became deeply stirred with the abominations of the sys tem. As early as 1770 he boldly attacked the infamous trade in his own congregation (deeply involved in the guilt of slave trading and slave holding), sharply rebuked the sin, and pleaded the cause of its victims. Through his efforts in 1774 the further importation of negroes was prohibited in Rhode Island. In 1776 he published a famous pamphlet against slavery — the ablest document that had then appeared on the subject — dedicated to the Continental Con gress, " urging the duty and interest of the American States to emancipate all the African slaves." At their Yearly Meeting in Philadelphia, in 1774, the Friends enacted regulations against slavery more stringent than any that had preceded, and in 1776 they resolved that " owners of slaves who refused to enact proper instruments for giving them their freedom shall be disowned." In 1774 Rev. John Wesley's celebrated tract, Thoughts on Slavery, subsequently sown broadcast throughout England, Scotland and Ireland during the great English emancipa tion movement, was published and circulated among his societies in America. His first American itinerants were active disseminators of his antislavery views, suffering persecution in some quarters on account of them. The Revolution, with its exciting events, was at hand. In another place consideration of the antislavery movement will be resumed. EDUCATIONAL SURVEY. 229 CHAPTER X. EDUCATION UNDER PROTESTANTISM. Sec. I. The Common School System. " 2. The Colleges. Sec. 3. Education of the Ministry. THE schools of Judea and Egypt were ecclesiastical, conven ience and gratitude confirming the monopoly of the clergy. The schools of the Nile gave character and direction to those of Greece and Rome. Education became secular only in countries where the priesthood did not exist as a separate body. At Rome children were trained for the duties of life in the forum and the senate house. The literary education of the first Christians was obtained in pagan schools, which flourished down to the fourth cent ury, in Southern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. The first attempt to provide a special education for Christians was made at Alexandria, under Clement and Origen. The education of the Middle Ages was either that of the cloister or the castle, the one aiming to form a monk and the other a knight. Those illustrious monasteries, Monte Cassino, Fulda and Tours, kept the torch of learning ablaze during the Dark Ages, and should not be ungrate fully forgotten, though the character and value of the teachings they imparted should not be exaggerated. Both of these forms of education disappeared under the brighter illuminations of the Renaissance and the Reformation. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the rise of uni versities and academies almost all over Europe. For one hundred years no part of Europe shone with brighter luster than the North ern Netherlands. But even in this advanced era education was not dissociated from ecclesiastical influence. The name of Erasmus best represents the education of the Renaissance, and Luther and Melanchthon that of the Reformation. Luther introduced the school-master to the cottage, and laid the foundations of the system which is the chief honor and strength of modern Germany. Melanchthon, with his numerous editions of school-books and 230 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. practical labors in education, earned the title of Preceptor Ger manics. The purification and widening of education kept pace with the purification of religion. It would not be difficult to trace a picture of the education which the Reformation furnished to the middle classes of Europe, if the limits of this brief preliminary sketch allowed it. Suffice it to say that the Protestant schools became the best in Europe and the monkish institutions were left to decay, until the Jesuits arose and to some extent redeemed them for a season ; but the Jesuits were liable to the charge of taking too rigid possession of the pupils in body and soul. The great universities of England and Scotland, in which the founders of the Anglo-American colonies received their education, had their origin and growth in close relations with the Christian Church. Thus it appears that, in both ancient and modern times, educa tion has been almost wholly an outgrowth from ecclesiastical life. Pre-eminently has this been true since the Christian era was inau gurated. The educational beginnings and growth in the American colonies, we shall soon see, conspicuously illustrate this rule. Section 1.— Tne Common School System. It has already been noticed that the Protestant colonists in America were actuated primarily by religious aims, and that the first companies of settlers represented church organizations. Southern Colonies. Almost at the beginning of the settlement at Jamestown the Bishop of London raised £1,000 toward a college, and it was resolved that " each town, borough, and hundred, ought to procure by just means a certain number of children (natives) to be brought up ; that the most towardly of these should be fitted for college." Ten thousand acres of land were laid off for the " University of Hen rico," for the education ofthe English as well as the Indians. The minister of Henrico, Rev Mr. Bargrave, gave his library. Prepar atory to the college, an institution was about to be established at St. Charles City ; but the whole project received its death-blow from the terrible Indian massacre in March, 1622. Long and dis astrous Indian wars followed, and the project of founding a college was deferred until the establishment of William and Mary Col lege, in 1692. We find no traces of common schools in the colony. FREE SCHOOLS IN THE COLONIES. 231 In the South, the sons of the great planters were liberally edu cated and polished in manners, while the scattered common people had no schools and were very rude and ignorant ; but the masses in New England, with few exceptions, had some rough schooling, besides the advantages for intellectual culture afforded by the meeting-house and the debates of the town meeting. Such advan tages were not appreciated in Virginia. One of the governors of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, in 1670, replying to inquiries addressed to him by the Lords of Plantations, said, " I thank God there are no 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!"* In Maryland the Legislature made provisions for high schools in all the counties as early as 1723, and lands and money were appropriated in their aid. A poll tax for the aid of education was laid on negroes and Irish Catholic servants coming into the prov ince. In the Carolinas no efficient system of education was provided for a long time, and meager results were therefore reached. The constitution of North Carolina in 1776 made it the duty of the Legislature " to establish schools for the convenient instruction of youth," and " one or more universities ; " but no adequate pecun iary provision for the latter was furnished. South Carolina was some what more alive to this work, and as early as 1700 the Legislature provided for a free school at Charleston, and gave aid to the country schools. It is said that, during the first three fourths of the eighteenth century, a larger number of students from South Caro lina than from any other colony went to Europe for a university education. In 1769 a bill for founding a college was introduced into the Legislature, but it failed. The Constitution of Georgia adopted in 1777 provided that every county should " establish and keep a school at the public expense." The first school in Pennsyl vania, in 1683, was private — tuition, eight shillings per annum. New York. Those three Protestant peoples, the Dutch, the Huguenots, and the Puritans, all brought the Church, the Bible and the school master with them. In 1626 two school-masters arrived on Manhat- * Hening's Laws of Virginia. Appendix. 232 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. tan Island to instruct the young, to comfort the sick, to read sermons on Sunday, and to teach the Heidelberg Catechism. The name of Adam Roelansen figures prominently as a pedagogue in the early history of that colony ; but the progress of education was slow, there being in 1656 only three schools in the whole province. In 1659 a Latin school was started which was soon resorted to by students as far south as Delaware and Virginia. After the province fell into the hands of the English, in 1664, a better impulse was given to education. In 1670 we find schools at Albany, and family schools sprang up elsewhere without any system of law. New England. Students of the genesis of the New England States are impressed with the intelligence, mental grasp and wise foresight of the founders of these colonies. They loved the State, the Church and the school, and by organized voluntary action in individual towns a school system was generated which was subsequently incorporated into law. The leading founders of the New England colonies were well educated men, who believed and asserted " that the good education of children is of singular behoof and benefit in any Common wealth." In the year 1636 there were living in Massachusetts between three thousand and four thousand emigrants, domiciled in log huts and wretched hovels often little better than Indian wigwams. Even their first house of worship in Boston was built with a thatched roof and mud walls. But no sooner had they built their rude dwellings and simple temples for divine worship than they began to instruct their children, first around their own firesides, but very soon in public schools, under a system in which the families of the poor and unlearned, as well as those of better circumstances, equally shared. The Plymouth Colony having a smaller population, the first schools were feeble, and came more slowly into a system. As early as 1623 the children of Plymouth were " catechised and learned to read," though they had " no common school or means to maintain one " till some years later. The Massachusetts Colony led the way. A Boston record of April 13, 1635, says: " It was generally agreed upon that our brother, Philemon Pormont, shall be entreated to become a school-master for ye teaching and nourishing of children with us." * * Snow's History of Boston, p. 348. BOSTON LATIN SCHOOL. 233 In August, 1636, Daniel Maude was chosen to the office of " free school-master," and a subscription was made " toward the mainte nance of a free school-master, Mr. Daniel Maude being now chosen thereunto." Forty pounds were raised, a sum then equal to the sal ary "of a Reverend Pastor." In 1641, Deer Island was set apart and rented " for the maintenance of a Free Schoole for the Towne." This island was thus leased for thirty-one years, after which Long Island and Spectacle Island were also leased for the same purpose. Thus was established, first by voluntary subscriptions, and after ward by the action of the town, the first public school in Boston, and probably in New England, which abides to this day under the title of the " Public Latin School of Boston." This school was the only place of instruction in Boston for forty-seven years. In 1682 two other schools were established, for instruction principally in writing and arithmetic. During this period the only reading- book used was the Bible. Next came the formation of a department since called " Gram mar Schools." In 1686, £200 were expended for three public schools. The earliest record of a public school in Charlestown, Mass., is June 3, 1636; in Salem, 1637; in Beverly, 1656; in Roxbury, 1645 ; in Dorchester, 1639 ; in Watertown, 1649. In Salem, in 1641, when a subscription was raised for school expenses, it was ordered : " If any poor bodie hath children or a childe to be put to schoole, and is not able to pay for their schooling, that the town shall pay it Try a rate." This is the seed from which sprang the public free schools of Massachusetts and America. In the records of the New Haven Colony, at a session of the General Court in 1641, it was ordered that " A free school be set up in this town, and our pastor, together with the magis trates, shall consider what yearly allowance shall be given to it out of the com mon stock of the town, and also what rule or laws are meet to be observed in and about the same." In 1642 the first school was established in Hartford, and an appropriation of £30 was settled upon it. Parents able to pay were required to pay " twenty shillings the year ; " others had their children instructed at the town's charge. In subsequent legislation the pastors are often referred to as superintending the school. In May, 1714, the General Court recom mended the general association ofthe churches to inquire into the 234 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. state of religion and education, in accordance with which an act was passed designed to secure the due execution of the law for the education of children. After the establishment of the parish socie ties within the limits of incorporated towns the common schools were under the supervision of officers appointed by school socie ties coterminous with the parishes.* The minister was almost always one of these officers. As early as 1 701, the year of the found ing of Yale College, the General Court established " a grammar school, in the four chief counties, to fit pupils for college," and also granted an annual appropriation for their benefit. The author of Ntw England's First Fruits, \ after giving an account of Harvard College and its " appointment to be at Cam bridge (a place very pleasant and accommodate)," says, " And by the side of the colledge a faire grammar schoole for the training up of young schollars and fitting of them for academical learning," etc. In this school, besides English scholars, several Indians were fitted for college. This was the origin of the present Cambridge High School. By the will of Governor Edward Hopkins (d. 1657) £500 was given to the college and school at Cambridge, in order " To give some encouragement to those foreign plantations for the breed ing up of hopeful youths in a way of learning, both at the grammar school and college, for the service of the country in future times." The original agreement at the founding of the school in Roxbury shows the convictions under which the work of education was under taken. It was " in consideration of a relligeous care of posteritie," and " how necessarie the education of theire children in literature will be to fitt them for public service, both in churche and common wealth, in succeeding ages." They therefore agreed " to erect a free schoole." May 30, 1639, the town of Dorchester, by vote, imposed a rent of £20 a year upon Thompson's Island, to be paid '' by every person who hath proprietie in said island," " towards the mayntenance of a schoole in Dorchester," and " to such a school master as shall undertake to teach English, Latine and other tongues, and also writing, the said school-master to be chosen from tyme to tyme by the freemen ; and it is left to the discretion of the elders and the ' seven men' for the time being, whether maydes X shall be * David N. Camp in Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut , p. 249, etc. t Published in London, in 1643. X " Itisacuriousfact in the history of our schools that not until 1789 were girls admitted, and then only on account of a peculiar circumstance, which also shows us the primitive character of the times. From the middle of April to the middle of October so large a number of boys were engaged in agricultural or industrial labor that the schools becam - greatly deserted ; and to occupy in some way this incidental vacancy girls were allowed during the interval to attend the schools. COMMON SCHOOLS. 23S taught with the boyes or not." The town of Dorchester is claimed by those who have closely investigated the matter to have been two years ahead of similar action in Boston, which is " the first pub lic provision in the world for a free school supported by a direct taxation on the inhabitants of the town." The Common School System Begun. Inasmuch as we have here, in the action of the people of Dor chester, the beginning of the common school system which has characterized New England, and has spread throughout so vast an area beyond her borders, it will be a matter of interest and profit to reproduce in this place some of " the rules and orders " adopted March 14, 1645, for the regulation of these schools. They com prise seven articles. Article first provided for the election of the " school committee ; " the second gave the power to collect and raise money ; the third authorized and directed them in employing teachers ; the fourth instructed them to pay the teachers ; the fifth required them to keep the school-house in repair and instructed them how to provide for such expenses ; the sixth required them " to take care that every yeare, at or before the end of the 9th month, there bee brought to the school-howse 12 sufficient cart or wayne loads for fewell," the cost to be borne by the scholars. The seventh article pertains to the mode of conducting the school and is too precious a curiosity to be omitted : * Lastly. — The sayd Wardens shall take care that the Schoolm' for the tyme beeing doe faythfully p' iorme hisdutys in his place, as schoolmr ought to doe, as well in other things as in these whch are hereafter expressed, viz., First, That the Schoolm' shall dilligently attend his Schoole, and doe his vtmost indeavc for Ben efitting his scholle's according to his best discretion, w,hout vnnecessaryly absent ing himself to the p'iudice of his scholle " and hindering their learning. 2'>'. That from the beginning of the first moneth vntill the end of the 7 "\ he shall eu'y day beginn 10 teach at seaven of the Clock in the morning and dis- inisse his schole r! at fyue in the afternoon". And for the other fyue months, that is, from the begins of the 8 th moneth vntill the end of the 12 tb month he shall eu'y day beginn at 8 of the Clock in the morning, and [end]' at 4 in the afternoon. 3 ' y . Eu'y day in the yeere the vsuall tyme of dismissing at noon shall be at II, to beginn agayne at one, excert that This summer privilege for girls was continu d for thirty years, when it was found to be so satis factory in its results that the time was extended to eight months ; but not until thirty-nine years after they were first admitted to the schools, and not until ninety-three years after the earliest public school for boys was established, were the girls admitted to a full and equal share in all the privileges ofthe public schools." — Annual Report of Massachusetts Board of Education for 1868, p 15. * See Fortieth Annual report of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, 1875, 1876, pp. 114. etc. 236 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 4'y. Eury second day in the weeke he shall call his schollerstogeither betweene 12 and one of the Clock to examine them what they haue learned on the saboath day pr ceding at w° h tyme also he shall take notice of any misdemeanor or outrage that any of his scholle" shall have committed on the saboath, to the end that at somme convenient tyme due Admonition and Correction may be administered by him according as the nature and qualitie of the offence shall require, at wch sayd examination any of the Elders or othe' Inhabitants that please may bee present, to behold his religious care herein, and to give thei* Countenance and app r bation of the same. 5'y. Hee shall equally and impartially receive and instruct such as shal be sent and committed to him for that end, whithe' there parents bee poore or rich, not refusing any who have Right and Interest in the schoole. 6'y. Such as shall be committed to him he shall diligently instruct, as they shalbe able to learne, both in humane learning and good litterature, and lykewyse in poynt of good marine" and dutifull behaviou' towards all, specially their supio " as they shall have occasion to bee in their p'esence, whithe1' by meeting them in the streete or otherwyse. 7'y. Every six day of the weeke at 2 of the Clock in the afternoone, he shall catechise his scholle" in the principles of Christian religion, eithe' in some cat echisme wch the Wardens shall prvide and p'sent, or in defect thereof in some othe' . 8'y. And because all man's indeavo' wtbout the blessing of God must needs bee fruitlesse and vnsuccessfull, theirfore. It is to be a chief p'te of the school- m '* religious care to commend his scholle'8 and his Labours amongst them vnto God by praye' morning and evening, taking Care that his scholle 's doe reu 'endly attend during the same. 91?. And because the Rodd of Correction is an ordinance of God, neces sary sometymes to be dispensed vnto Children, but such as may easily be abused by oue ' much seu ' itie and rigou' on the one hand, or by oue r much indulgence and lenitye on the othe'; It is therefore ordered and agreed that the schoolemaster for the tyme beeing shall have full powe' to ministe' Correction to all or any of his scholle " w'hout respect of pe'sons, according as the nature and qualitie of the offence shall require ; whereto all his scholle'" must bee duely subject ; and no parent or other of the Inhabitants shall hinde' or go about to hinde' the maste' ther e in : neu ' theless yf any parent or othe' shall think there is iust cause of Com- playnt agaynst the maste' for too much seue'itie such shall have liberty friendly and louingly to expostulate w ' b such maste' about the same; and yf they shall not attayne to satisfaction, the matte' is then to be referred to the wardens, who shall imp ' tially Judge betwixt the maste' and such Complaynants. And yf yt shall appeare to them that any parent shall make causelesse Complaynt against the mr in his behalfe, and shall p'sist in and Continue so doeing, in such case the wardens shall have powe' to discharge the mr of the care and charge of the Children of such parents. But yf the thing Complayned of be true, and that the mr have indeed bene guiltie of ministering excessive Correction, and shall appeere to them to continue therein, notwithstanding that they have advised him otherwise, in such case, as also in the case too much lenitye or any othe' great neglect of dutye in his place pe'sisted in, It shall be in the power of the Wardens to call the Inhabitants together to conside' whithe' it be not meet to discharge the mr of his place, that so somme other' more desirable may be p'ovided. And because it is difficult, yf GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 237 not Impossible, to give p'ticula' rules yt shall reach all cases wch may fall out, therefore, fo' a Conclusion, It is ordered and agreed in generall, that, where p'ticula' rules are wanting, there it shall be a p'te of the office and dutye of the Wardens to orde' and dispose of all things that Concerne the schoole, in such sort as in thei' wisdome and discretion they shall Judge most Conducible fo' the glory of God and the trayning up of the Children of the Towne in religion, learning and Civilitie:— And these orde's to bee continued till the maio' p'teof the Town shall see cause to alte' any p'te thereof. The foregoing facts show what were the methods of the fathers in founding the common schools of this country. The example of these towns was followed by others, and in all cases we see the schools growing up out of the influence of the churches and fos tered by them. These schools were grammar schools, in some of which " the Greek and Latin tongues " were taught, and in all of which there was instruction in reading, writing and keeping of accounts and a careful training in the principles of Christianity, as the only sure foundation of public and private morality. The teachers were often continued in the same school twenty, thirty and even fifty years, laying broad and deep the foundations of the Commonwealth. Hence Cotton Mather, alluding to some of these old teachers, wrote : 'Tis Corlet's pains, and Cheever's we must own, That thou, New England, art not Sythia grown. The management of the schools was confided by the towns to a body of men known under different titles, " Prudentials," " War dens," " Foeffees," and, later, the " School Committee." Other schools sometimes existed, of lower grades, kept by private persons, those by elderly women being called "dame schools." It was not until twelve years after Philemon Pormont was engaged for the " nurturing of ye youth of Boston," that the General Court, in November, 1647, recognized and gave the sanction of public law to the schools and made the support of them compulsory upon every town having fifty householders. This famous order deserves a place here : It is therefore ordered, that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of 50 householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their towne to teach all children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such chil dren, or by the inhabitants in general by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint ; provided those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than in other towns. And it is further ordered, that where any towne shall increase to the number of 100 families or householders, they shall set up a grammar schoole, the master 238 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the University ; provided that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one yeare, every such towne shall pay five shillings to the next schoole till they shall perform this order. " This notable law," says Hon. Joseph White,* " giving voice as it did to the convictions of the people, was every-where cheerfully obeyed. On every side, as the ancient forests gave way before the hardy pioneers, in their slow but sure advance from the seaboard into the interior, the meeting-house and the school- house arose side by side with the log huts of the settlers, thus converting the des olate places of the wilderness into the homes of a Christian people — the 'seed- plots ' of a higher and purer life, for ages yet to come. " No grander spectacle is presented in the history of any people than that of these ancient men thus struggling for a scanty subsistence amid the privations and dangers of border life, and often for life itself, against the attacks of a stealthy and relentless foe, and yet, as if with a prophetic prevision of the future, sparing no effort, and in their deep poverty shrinking from no sacrifice of time or money needful to plant the pillars of the new Commonwealth — their beloved 'New En gland,' as they were wont to call it — on the everlasting foundations of universal intelligence and virtue. " Thus, within a single score of years from the landing on the shores of the bay, the new State is successfully launched, fully equipped for the voyage, we trust, of all the ages, with a good array of towns, each with a government wisely adapted to its needs, and all bound together by the strong bonds of a vigorous central gov ernment of their own creation, and administered for the common good, while the meeting-house and the school-house in every township, and 'ye Universitie' at Cambridge, were all working together ' for the building up of hopeful youths in a way of learning, ... for the service of the country in future times.' " From our present stand-point the school system of New England in the colonial era seems very crude and rude, but it was far in advance of other sections of the country. In Pennsylvania and New York in those times there were no school-houses outside of villages or town centers, and the children walked to school for miles through regions infested with savage beasts. f In the south ern States, and especially in South Carolina, according to Ramsay, education, outside of some wealthy families, was almost wholly neg lected, no grammar school existing prior to 1730, and from 1731 and 1776 only five. The number of newspapers published in any community is supposed to be no mean gauge of the education of the people. We find in 1775, in the entire country, thirty-seven papers in circu lation. Fourteen of them were in New England, four in New York, nine in Pennsylvania, two each in Virginia and North Carolina, one in Georgia, and three in South Carolina. X * Report of Massachusetts Board of Education, 1875, 1876, p. 119. For fuller information see also the Twenty-ninth Report, 1866, pp. 70-87. t See Life of Dr. Charles Alexander, pp. it, 12. See Life of Charles Caldwell, p. 64. X McMaster's History ofthe People ofthe United States. D. Appleton & Co. 1884. P. 27. ACADEMIES. 239 Down to the close of the Revolution only three States— Massa chusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire— had town schools. * Academies. The grammar schools in Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, Cam bridge. Salem, New Haven, Hartford, etc., soon rose to the grade of more advanced schools. Mather says : When scholars had so far profited at the grammar schools that thev could read any classical author into English, and readily make and speak true Latin,' and write it in verse as well as in prose, and perfectly decline the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, they were judged capable of admission into Harvard College.f Such was the standard of scholarship of this period. But no institutions under the distinctive title of academies arose in Mas sachusetts till a later date : Dummer Academy, at South Byfield, Mass., in 1763. Phillips Academy, at Andover, Mass., in 1778. Leicester Academy, at Leicester, Mass., in 1784. Derby Academy, at Hingham, Mass., in 1785. New Salem Academy, at New Salem, Mass., in 1795. Bristol Academy, at Taunton, Mass., in 1796. VVestford Academy, at Westford, Mass., in 1792. Deerfield Academy, at Deerfield, Mass., in 1799. Westfield Academy, at Westfield, Mass,, in 1800. Of the academies % founded in Massachusetts prior to 1800, six were given, as an endowment, a township of land each ; -one 15,000 acres, and others a half of a township each. These lands were located in Maine, then a province of Massachusetts. " The term ' academy, ' which in the mother country had been applied to semi naries of learning established by non-conformists, to distinguish them from the schools and colleges of the Church of England, seems to have been applied very naturally by the sons of the Puritans to similar institutions in this country, and though not confined to schools founded by Congregationalists, was very generally applied to such." § Dr. Magoun | sums up as follows the secondary institutions of the colonial period : " Aside from those which preceded or grew into colleges — Moor's Charity School ; Liberty Hall, Pennsylvania ; * Rev. Dr. Magoun in New Englander, 1877, p. 483. t Mather's Magnalia. Vol. II, p. 64, Sec. 4. X See Fortieth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Appendix, pp. 174-347, § David N. Camp, Esq. 1 New Englander, 1877, pp. 483, 484. 240 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Prince Edward University Grammar School, Rhode Island — there were Kingston (1774), Rutgers Grammar (1770, coeval with the col lege), Columbia and Dunmore (1763), Germantown (1760), Hope well (1756), the three Hopkins schools at New Haven, Hartford, and Hadley (1660, 1665, 1669), and the Boston Latin (1635)— all before the Revolution. But there were private Latin schools ear lier than these ; and it was common for clergymen to take academic pupils. Mr. Chauncy did so at Scituate. Before Manning and and Stelle, in Warsaw and Providence, Roger Williams did so in 1654. No public school then existed in Rhode Island, an attempt at Newport, in 1640, having failed. Dorchester had a Latin school, mixed in its support, in 1639, and Hartford in 1638. The year before this Ezekiel Cheever had arrived at New Haven, and his school there for twelve years — preparing students for Harvard — was of the same mixed character. That of Daniel Maude, at Boston, two years earlier still (1636) seems to have been altogether private, supported by contributions of Winthrop, Vane, and Bel- lingham." Section 2.— Tlie Colleges. Harvard College was founded by the Puritans, or Congregationalists. The propor tion ofthe first New England colonists who had received a classical education exceeded that in England. Not less than twenty ofthe 4,000 who came to Massachusetts Bay in the first five years had been educated at the English universities, most of whom were clergymen not inferior in culture to those of the mother country. It is not strange, therefore, that even while struggling for an existence in new and scattered settlements, under the heavy expenses incident to laying the foundation of the colony, they should entertain a purpose of establishing a college. " It is an object near our hearts," they said " to have an able and learned ministry when those of the present age are laid in their graves." The first step toward founding Harvard College was a grant of £400 by the magistrates and deputies of Massachusetts, in 1636, for a " school or college " at Cambridge, with an order that ^200 more* should soon be added. An able committee was designated * Equivalent to a tax of half a dollar to every person in the colony. Governor Winthrop said, " It was equal to a year's rate of the whole colony." Such a tax in Massachusetts at the present time would yield $900,000. HARVARD COLLEGE. 24 1 to carry out the plan. In 1637, it was denominated a college ; Nathaniel Eaton was appointed principal, and on the bequest of nearly £800 from Rev. John Harvard of Charlestown it received the name of Harvard College. In 1639, the Legislature granted five hundred acres of land to Mr. Eaton, on condition that he should continue his labors, and ordered the income from the Charles town ferry (£30 to £50 yearly) to be appropriated to the institu tion. Mr. Harvard also bequeathed his library of 320 volumes, which example was followed by many other clergymen of that time, and other grants of land were made by the General Court. All the towns in the colony also contributed funds, which soon reached ^"2,000, in addition to the first donations of the Legislature and that of Mr. Harvard. In the year 1640 Rev. Henry Dunster, a very estimable and learned man, came over from England and was installed president of the college. He had been educated at one of the English uni versities, and had served as a regular clergyman of the Church of England. He was -at the head of Harvard College from 1640 to 1654, during which time many young men were educated who became eminent for learning and piety. The first printing estab lishment in America was founded at Cambridge, in 1638. Presidents of Harvard College from 1640 to 1775. When inducted. 164016541672 1671; 16831686 1701 1707 1725 173717701774 NAMES. Rev.Rev.Rev. Rev. Hon. Rev.Rev. Hon. Rev. Rev.Rev.Rev. Henry Dunster, A.M Charles Chauncy, D.D Leonard Hoar. M.D Urian Oakes. A.M John Rogers, A.M Increase Mather, D. D* Samuel Willard, A.M John Leverett, A.M., F.R.S. Benj. Wadsworth, A.M Edward Holyoke, A.M Samuel Locke, LL.D Samuel Lanpdon, D.D Resigned. Died. 1654 1659 1672 1675 1675 1681 1684 1 701 1723 1707 1724 1737 1769 1773 1777 1780 1797 Age. 8l 45 5053 84676268 80 44 75 In 1652 the Legislature of Massachusetts granted to the college 800 acres of land ; in 1653, 2,000 acres : in 1658, 2,100 acres; in 1683, 1,000 acres.f In the course of the colonial and provincial periods, the Legislature made no less than one hundred and three distinct grants to this college.^: President Quincy declares f that, during * First President of American birth. \ Hist, of Harvard University. By Quincy. Vol. I, p. 40. X Report of Visiting Committee, 1849, p. 24. 16 242 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the first seventy years of its history " its officers were dependent for daily bread upon the bounty of the General Court." Numerous presents and legacies were given to the college, " toward establish ing for learning a resting-place, and for science a fixed habitation, on the borders of the wilderness." Between 1636 and 1786 the colony gave Harvard College $116,000 in small sums, being an average of $773 a year. The foundation and growth of the venerable seat of learning at Cambridge show the high intellectual and religious* character ofthe New England colonists. The mottos upon two of its ancient seals are " In gloriam Christi" and " Christo et Ecclesiae." Pre-eminent among its benefactors was Thomas Hollis, who sent numerous installments of books from England for the library. In 1766 he wrote to Rev. Dr. Mayhew, " More books, especially on govern ment, are going to New England. Should these go safe it is hoped that no principal books on this first subject will be wanting in Harvard College, from the days of Moses to these times. Men of New England, brethren, use them for yourselves and for others, and God bless you ! " f Again, after expressing great affection for the people of New England and his confidence in them as good and brave, he says, " Long may they continue such, and the spirit of luxury, now con suming us to the very marrow here at home, be kept out from them ! Our likeliest means to that end will be to watch well over their youth by bestowing on them a reasonable, manly education ; and securing thereto the wisest, ablest, most accomplished of men that art or wealth can obtain ; for nations rise and fall by individ uals, not numbers, as I think all history proveth. With ideas of this kind have I worked for the public library at Cambridge, in New England." The writings of Milton, Sidney, Marvell, Lock, and Harrington, almost all tinctured with republican notions, were included in Mr. Hollis's collections, and doubtless contributed largely to the spread of the spirit of republicanism among the young men of New England. The College of William and Mary was founded by the Episcopalians. As early as 1660 the Colonial Assembly of Virginia passed an act " for the establishment and endowment of a college." Twenty-eight years passed in inaction. After Rev. James Blair, D.D., came to the colony, in * See pp. 130-132 of this volume. + New Englander, July, 1877, p. 454. WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE. 243 1685, the subject was again agitated. This eminent divine " was deeply affected with the low state of both learning and piety in the colony, and, as the most effective means of elevating both, resolved, if possible, to secure the establishment of a college. With a view to this he set on foot a subscription which, being headed by the governor and his council, soon amounted to £2,500. In the first Assembly held by Nicholson, in 1691, the project of the college was warmly seconded, and recommended to the patronage of their Majesties. Mr. Blair, being appointed to present the address, crossed the ocean to execute the trust ; and both William and Mary received the plan with marked favor." * The crown gave him " £2,000 and twenty thousand acres of land, and a penny a pound on tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland." f On the 14th of February, r692, a charter for the college was granted, the Bishop of London being appointed chancellor, Mr. Blair president, and the college was named Williatn and Mary. The Assembly gave "a duty on skins and furs for its plentiful endowment.''^: Jefferson says § the Assembly also gave the college " a duty on liquors imported," and that " from these sources it received upward of £3,000 com- munibus annis." Among the most liberal contributors to the col lege in Great Britain was Robert Boyle, who was particularly anx ious for the education of Indians. The care of the college was in the hands of a close corporation, all of the Church of England. The professors were required to subscribe to the Church of England, and the students to learn and recite the catechism. At the out break of the Revolution it is said || to have become the richest col lege in America, but it subsequently declined in funds and influence. In Virginia " the son of the great landed proprietor usually grew up to manhood on his father's plantation, rode every morning attended by his servant to the school kept in the neighboring parish by a clergyman of the English Church, passed thence to William and Mary College, spent a winter at Richmond, and came back to the old hall an aspirant for a seat in the House of Deputies. His opinions respecting forms of government and forms of creed were not the result of long study or of deep meditation, but were inherited with his estate, which passed from father to son by the strictest laws of entail." T * Annals of the American Episcopal Pulpit. By Rev. William B. Sprague, D.D. P. 8. iB-rk's History of Virginia. Vol. II, pp. 312-314. J Burk. Vol. II, p. 316. § Notes on Virginia. 1 Kiddle and Schem, p. 853. H History of the People of the United States. By M'Master. Vol. I, p. 74. 244 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Yale College was founded by the Congregationalists. Rev. John Davenport, of New Haven, as early as 1652 made a proposition to the govern ment of that colony respecting the establishment of a college within their jurisdiction. The project was delayed for a while. " We should not, however, infer," says President Dwight,* " that the colonists of Connecticut and New Haven were less friendly to learning than those of Massachusetts. The project of establishing a college in each of these colonies was very early taken up, but was checked by well-founded remonstrances from Massachusetts. It was very justly observed, that the whole population of New- England was scarcely sufficient to support one institution of this kind, and that the establishment of the second would, in the end, be a sacrifice of both. These objections put a stop to the design for a considerable time." The number of students who resorted to Cambridge, Mass., for collegiate training, from the Hartford and New Haven colonies, bore a fair proportion to the students from the territory of Massachusetts ; and among them were a considerable number who became eminent ministers in Massachusetts, Connec ticut and New Jersey. But the distance by the inconvenient methods of travel in those days was an urgent reason for a college nearer home. In 1698 a synod of the churches devised a plan for erecting a college in Connecticut, and appointed eleven trustees, who met in New Haven, in 1700, and resolved to establish a college. Subse quently each one brought books from his library and formally devoted them to the founding of the college. This act has been regarded as the beginning of the institution. Rev. Messrs. Pier- pont of New Haven, Andrew, of Milford, and Russell, of Branford, were the most active in the project. Hon. James Fitch, of Nor wich, donated six hundred acres of land, in the town of Killingly, to the college, with glass and nails for the buildings ; and on the 9th day of October, 1701, the Colonial Legislature granted a char ter. Rev. Abram Pierson, of Killingly, was chosen president, and Saybrook was designated as the location. Disputes arose, and though the institution was commenced, yet it remained in an unsettled condition until 1716, when it was removed to New Haven, where a wooden edifice was completed in 1718. Elihu Yale, Esq., of London, Governor of the East India Company, made * Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight's Travels in New England and New York. Vol. I, p. 168. YALE AND PRINCETON. 245 liberal donations of books, goods and money, in honor of whose generosity the institution was called Yale College.* Presidents of Yale College. When inducted. NAMES. Resigned. Died. 1707 1722 1765 1739 1755 1766 1767 1777 I7S0 1795 1817 Age. 17011719 1726173917661777 1795 Rev. Abram Pierson, A.M Rev. Timothy Cutler, D.D Rev. Elisha Williams, A.M Rev. Thomas Clapp, A.M Rev. Naphtali Daggett, D.D Rev. Ezra Styles, D.D., LL.D Rev. Timothy Dwight. D.D., LL.D 60 82 6063 53 6865 Princeton College was founded by the Presbyterians. Down to 1746, in the vast area between Connecticut and Virginia, there was no educational institution authorized to confer degrees. What was termed the " Log College," at Neshamany, near Philadelphia, had existed since 1726, under the care and patronage of the Presbyterians. Students were taught the classics and divinity, but degrees were not conferred. It was the germ of Princeton College. In 1746 the charter of the College of New Jersey, as it was first called, was obtained under the auspices of the Presbyterian Synod of New York, and Rev. Jonathan Dickinson of Elizabethtown, N. J., was the first president. Mr. Dickinson died the following year. In the first year there were about twenty students, boarding in the *The following are some of the rules of Yale College, in 1720, which the students were obliged to copy, so that they could not plead ignorance of them : "AU students shall be slow to speak, and avoid (and as much as in them lies take care that others may avoid) prophane swearing, lying and needless asseverations, foolish garrulity, chiding, strife, railing, reproaching, abusive jesting, uncomely noise, spreading ill rumors, divulging secrets, and all manner of troublesome and offensive behaviour." " No student shall, under any pretence whatsoever, use familiar acquaintance of persons of unquiet and dissolute lives, nor intermeddle with other men's business, nor intrude himself into the chambers of other students, * * * or go a fowling or hunting without the leave of his Proc tor or tutor, nor shall any student be absent from his chamber after nine of the clock at night, nor watch after eleven, nor have a light before four in the morning, except of extraordinary occasions." " Every undergradute shall be called by his surname unless he be the son of a nobleman or a knight's eldest son." " Seeing God is the giver of all wisdome, every scholar, besides private or secret prayer, wherein all we are bound to ask wisdome, shall be present morning and evening at publick prayer in the hall at the accustomed hour, which is to be ordinarily at six of the clock in the morning, from the tenth of March to the tenth of September, and then again to the tenth of March, at sunrising, at between four and five of the clock, all the year long " " No scholar shall use the English tongue in the collegiate school with his fellow scholars unless he be called to public exercises proper to be attended in the tongue, but scholars in their chambers and when they are together shall talk latine." 246 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. family of the president and other neighboring families, no public buildings then existing. After the death of Mr. Dickinson the students were removed to Newark and placed under the care of Rev. Aaron Burr, who succeeded in the presidency. The first commencement was held November 9, 1748, when six young men received the degree A. B. To this time the institution was with out funds. Small contributions were gathered in America during several following years; and in 1753 two agents, Revs. Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Davies, solicited benefactions in Great Britain, which were bestowed beyond the most sanguine expecta tions. The inhabitants of Princeton having provided for the insti tution two hundred acres of wood-land, ten acres of cleared land, and £1,000 of " proclamation money," it was resolved, in 1753, to establish the college ih that place. The buildings were at once erected, the principal one receiving the name of Nassau Hall, in honor of William III., Prince of Orange and Nassau. The build ings were ready for occupancy in 1656. Two days before the com mencement, in 1756, President Burr died; and Rev. Jonathan Edwards D.D., of Stockbridge, Mass., father-in-law of Mr. Burr, was subsequently elected his successor. Mr. Edwards arrived at Princeton in January, 1758, and on the 22d day of the following March died of small-pox. August 16, 1758, Rev. Samuel Davies, D.D., of Virginia, was chosen president, and entered upon his duties in 1759. In Febru ary, 1761, Mr Davies died. In June, 1761, Rev. Samuel Finlay, D.D., was chosen president, and died in 1766. Rev. John Wither spoon, D.D., LL.D., of Scotland, succeeded Mr. Finlay, in 1768. All the men prominently connected with Princeton College, as founders and presidents, except Dr. Witherspoon, were actively associated with the great Whitefieldian and Edwardian revivals of religion. Columbia College was founded and governed chiefly by the Episcopalians. From its founding until 1784 it was called King's College. The earliest mention of this institution is in the records of Trinity Church, in 1703, when some preliminary inquiries looking toward its establish ment were made. Its founding was, however, delayed until 1746, when by a public lottery, " for the encouragement of learning," £2,250 was -raised for this purpose. In 1751 the fund had increased to £3,443 18s ; and in 1754 the charter was granted. Its first president, Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D., a native of Guil- COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 241 ford, Conn., a graduate of Yale College, and the first tutor in that institution on its removal from Saybrook to New Haven, was an eminent man in the ranks of scholarship and literature. Originally a member of a Puritan Church in Connecticut, he early exhibited a predilection for the Episcopal Church, and in 1723 was received into that communion. Eight young men constituted the first class entering this col lege. Among its first governors were ministers of the Reformed Dutch, the Lutheran, the French Protestant, and the Presbyterian churches. The charter provided that no laws should be adopted " to exclude any person of any religious denomination whatever from equal liberty, advantages," etc. The annual charge for tuition was equivalent to about $17 of our money, and the salary of the president was £250. Trinity Church made the president an assistant minister, with a yearly compensation of £150. In 1755, Trinity Church " granted to the college a piece of ground in ' the West Ward,' bounded by Church, Barclay and Murray streets, and running down to the North River, on condition that the president should always be a member of the Episcopal Church, and that the college prayers should be drawn from the Prayer Book. The con sideration was the sum of ten shillings and an annual rental of a pepper corn." The corporation held its first meeting May 17, 175 5. A building was soon erected. The corner-stone was laid August 23, 1756, by the governor, Sir Charles Hardy, who presented the college £500. In 1760 the building was completed, and President Johnson " set up house-keeping and tuition there." The officers and students " messed " in the institution. In 1762, Dr. James Jay, of England, solicited funds for the college, collecting nearly £6,000, including a special donation of £600 from George III. An estate of £9,000 was bequeathed to the institution by Mr. Joseph Murray, and Dr. Bristowe, of England, gave a library of 1,500 volumes. In 1763 Dr. Johnston resigned the presidency and was succeeded by Rev. Myles Cooper, Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. At this time a gram mar school was established, in connection with the college, under Mr. Matthew Cushing, from Charlestown, Mass. In 1767, twenty- four thousand acres of land were granted to the college by the prov ince ; but the grant was unfortunately located, so that ultimately it was included in the lands ceded to Vermont, without any compen sation to the college. In 1769 a medical department was founded. Alexander Hamilton was matriculated in 1774. In 1776 the insti tution was broken up, and British troops occupied it until the 248 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. English evacuated New York, in November, 1783. Prior to 1773 one hundred students were educated within the walls of King's College, many of whom attained the highest distinction in their professions. Dartmouth College was founded by Congregationalists. Elsewhere * the origin of the Moor school, kept in Lebanon, Conn., by Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, D.D., for fourteen or fifteen years, was sketched. To increase its usefulness Dr. Wheelock resolved to remove it to a new locality, and have it incorporated as an academy. Offers were received from three towns in Berkshire County, Mass., and from Albany, N. Y. In New Hampshire several thousand acres of land were offered. Finally the western part of New Hampshire was fixed upon, and a charter, dated December 13, 1769, was obtained for a college, endowed partly by Governor Wentworth, and partly by private individuals, with about 40,000 acres of land. In all these steps Dr. Wheelock was the leading spirit, and in the charter he is called " the founder of the college." In August, 1770, Dr. Wheelock took leave of Lebanon, Conn., and proceeded to Hanover, N. H., to make preparation for his family and pupils in the wilderness. Pine-trees were felled, and without nails or glass he built a log-cabin. Then with the aid of forty or fifty laborers other buildings were erected, a well dug, and about the first of November the institution was ready to commence operations. The first commencement was held in August, 1 771, when four young men were graduated, one of whom, John Wheelock, son of Dr. Wheelock, became his successor in the presidency of the school and of the college ; and another, Mr. Ripley, was the first professor of theology in the college. Dr. Wheelock lived to preside at seven other commencements, and conferred the usual college degrees upon seventy-two young men, of whom thirty-nine became ministers of the Gospel. Revivals of religion were enjoyed in the college in 1771 and in the winter of 1774-75. It should be added, that the Moor school, which was removed from Lebanon, Conn., was not blended with Dartmouth College, but was kept separate and dis tinct, though located at the same place, and it was to this school that the Earl of Dartmouth was benefactor, and not to the college. The Indian college did not succeed. Dartmouth College was amply endowed, the State of New Hamp shire giving it 78,000 acres in successive grants, and the Legislature * See pp. 144, 191, 192. OTHER COLLEGES. 249 of Vermont the town of Wheelock, This liberality made it the best endowed of any college in New England at that time. Sub sequently, however, it became penniless through bad management. Brown University, the first Baptist college in America, was founded in 1764. It existed originally at Warren, R. I., where, in 1769, its first com mencement was held. The following year it was removed to Prov idence. It took its name from Nicholas Brown, its most distin guished benefactor. In the disturbed condition of the country during the American Revolution its operations were suspended. This institution was projected by the Philadelphia Association of Baptists, who sent James Manning to Newport, R. I., to start it. Providence raised for it £4,280, and other towns £4,000, as early as 1770. Rutgers College, originally Queen's, was established at New Brunswick, N. J., in 1770, by the Dutch Reformed Church. Hampden Sidney College, in Prince Edward County, Va., was founded in 1775. The University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1747, and received its charter in 1755, in Philadel phia. Its resources were gathered by subscription in England, South Carolina, Jamaica and Philadelphia. Thomas Penn, one of the proprietaries, was the largest contributor. The Washington and Lee University was founded at Lexington, Va., in 1782. The first steps for its founding were taken in 1749, under the name of Augusta, and sub sequently Liberty Hall, Academy, under the control of the Hanover Presbytery, which secured subscriptions and appointed trustees, attracting to it a gift from General Washington, from whom it was subsequently named. As to the character of the studies pursued in these colleges, they were for theological as well as secular education. " At Harvard, Hebrew, Chaldee and Syriac, as well as New Testament Greek and catechetical theology, were taught. ... In Yale, from the first, the Hebrew of the Old Testament was translated into Greek, and the Latin New Testament into Greek at the beginning of every recita- 280 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. tion. The Assembly's Catechism in Latin was recited every Satur day evening ; Ames's Medulla Theologia Saturday mornings, and his Cases of Conscience Sunday mornings. Thirty years after Wolle- biers's Theology was taught. Every student was required to study these things. There were also, from an early day, college lectures in ecclesiastical history, and a professorship of divinity. Harvard had the latter twenty-five years earlier. At Harvard, if any scholar transgressed the laws of God, or of the school, he was to be cor rected or publicly admonished. One must be able 'to render the orignals of the Old and New Testaments into Latin and resolve them logically, withal being of godly life and conversation,' in order to receive the first degree." * Graduates from Colleges in the Colonial Period. PERIODS. rtIffl X cS .2 £ iS S "ffl> c0OJu c 'C fflS 'o0 60 u m .5 a0a 0 93 c0) eS ffl-o Win 1638 to 1700 1700 to 1710 1741 to 1750 1771 to 1776 .446 122 151 365312 239 270 422 278 CJ ffl «¦= 111 tt-S = " M.S 0 c\l ZT= S JB. > T3 QJ 32 56 141 179 219 2gO325 I76 19 142Ig2137 I 5 4 22 1 4 1 2 4: i •• Total 2,605 I,4l8 49° in 53 43 NOTE.— The data for the above table have been collected from valuable articles in the American Quarterly Register, by John Farmer Esq. Vol. Vll, pp. 341, 342, and Vol. IX, p. 44g. Rev. Ezra Styles, D.D., LL.D., President of Yale College, in his famous Election Sermon, in 1783, said, " There are ten colleges in the United States, from New England to Virginia, inclusive, besides two intended ones in the Carolinas. The number of under-graduates in the most considerable are estimated as follows-: Harvard Col lege, 150; William and Mary, 100; Jersey, 60; Philadelphia, 30; Dartmouth, 80." Section 3.— Education of the Ministry. The ministers of the churches in the colonial period were almost altogether educated men — graduates either from the European or the eatly American colleges. Of the fifty-two settled ministers in *Dr. Magoun in New Englander, 1877, p. 465. STUDENTS OF THEOLOGY. 231 the Province of New Hampshire in 1764, forty-eight were grad uates of colleges. Of thirty-two in one county twenty-nine were graduates from Harvard College, one from Yale, and one from the University of Scotland.* In all New England the educated min istry bore about the same proportion to the whole number as in New Hampshire ; and in the other colonies the uneducated ministers were a small minority. But there were no theological seminaries in those days, and the young men, after graduation, pursued the study of theology for several years in the families of the leading divines. Some of them were amply qualified as theological teachers and attracted many young men around them, training fifty and more, each, for the ministry, in their long lives. They thus gave character to New England theology. Most of them were of the Edwardian type. Soon after the Great Awaken ing of 1740 Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem, Conn., whose pastorate extended from 1737 to 1790, began to receive theological students, and was a distinguished pioneer in this department. Dr. Smalley, of New Britain, Conn., 1757-1820; Dr. Charles Backus, of Somers, Conn., 1773-1803 ; Dr. Levi Hart, of Griswold, 1761-1808, and Rev. Asahel Hooker, of Goshen and Norwich, Conn., 1790-1813, were noted for this work. There were also Rev. Jedediah Mills, of Hunt ington, Conn., 1724-1776,- the instructor of David Brainerd; Dr. Wheelock, of Lebanon, a trainer of missionaries ; Dr. Stephen West, of Stockbridge, Mass., 1756-1819; Dr. Samuel Hopkins, of New port, R. I., 1742-1803, and Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, of Franklin, Mass., 1769-1840, all eminent teachers of theological students, who did much to mold New England theology. Dr. Asahel Hooker taught thirty-three students for the ministry ; Dr. Charles Backus instructed about fifty; Dr. Asa Burton about sixty; Dr. Bellamy still more, and Dr. Emmons one hundred. Dr. Smalley had in his home only some twenty-five or thirty, but among them was Dr. Emmons himself. Hon. Oliver Ellsworth, third Chief Justice of the United States, and Jeremiah Mason, United Slates Senator from New Hampshire, both, on leaving Yale College, studied for a time with Dr. Smalley. The former was in the cabinet of Washington and among the foremost statesmen of his time. For the latter, Webster had great admiration, and to him acknowledged large indebtedness. Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., Pres ident of Andover Theological Seminary, was trained for the ministry by Dr. Smalley ; also Rev. Andrew Rawson, the great revival preacher, who led Titus Coan to Christ, afterward the missionary to Sandwich Islands, who baptized sev enteen hundred converts in one day. Through his mark on these distinguished men Dr. Smalley 's influence reached to the high places of the land and touched almost every important interest. Dr. Bellamy studied with Jonathan Edwards ; * Congregationl Quarterly, July, 1873, p. 370. 2B2 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Dr. Smalley studied with Dr. Bellamy ; Dr. Emmons studied with Dr. Smalley. What an illustrious line ! The ministerial lives of the three last were, respectively, fifty, sixty-two and seventy-one years, after licensure. Their combined ages were two hundred and fifty-three years. They preached the Gospel one hundred and sixty-five years. They were active pastors, without colleagues, one hundred and fifty-five years. They trained two hundred students at least for the ministry, and gave to the press several hundred publications. But the length of the labors of these men, wonderful as it seems in these clays, is not altogether exceptional. There have been two hundred and forty Congregational ministers reared in Con necticut who have had a ministry of half a century and over. Dr. Smalley was surrounded by men of this class. On the south-west, in Southington, Rev. William Robinson was settled forty-one years. On the south, in the parish of Kensington, Rev. Benjamin Upson, D.D , forty-seven years, followed by Rev. Royal Rohbins, forty-five years. On the east, in Newington, Rev. Joshua Belden was settled sixty- six years, and an active pastor fifty-eight years ; and Rev. Joab Brace, D.D., sixty- one years, and an active pastor fifty-one years. These two ministers also followed each other. In Farmington, on the north, Rev. Noah Porter was settled sixty one years, and was an active pastor fifty-five years. Then, in the bordering towns, and a little further away in the same Association, were many other half-century pas torates — Rev. Dr. Chapin , of Rocky Hill, sixty years, and Dr. Perkins, of West Hartford, sixty-six years, and so on. Dr. Smalley exercised his commanding influence through his preaching, his students and his books. In 1769 he published two sermons on Natural and Moral Inability, which widely circulated in this country and in Great Britain. In this treatise he made a substantial contribution to the theological thinking of his age, and one which will always remain. It was a position which brought upon him furious charges from the older Calvinists, who held to the moral ruin of man's entire nature, but the "new light" made its way. Dr. Emmons has preserved an amusing record of his first experience with this new-divinity man : "When I first went as a pupil to Dr. Smalley I was full of old Calvinism, and thought I was prepared to meet the doctor on all points of his new divinity. For some time all things went on smoothly. At length he began to advance some sen timents which were new to me, or opposed to my former views. I contended with him, but he quietly tripped up my heels and there I lay at his mercy. But I had no thought of giving up so. I arose and commenced the struggle anew, but before I was aware of it I was floored again. Thus matters proceeded for some time — he gradually leading me along to the place of light and I struggling to remain in dark ness. At length he gained the victory : I began to see a little light ; it was a new point and seemed distant ; by degrees it grew and came nearer. From that time to this the light has been increasing, and I feel assured that the great doctrines of grace which I have preached for fifty years are in strict accordance with the law and the testimony." * Congregational Quarterly, July, 1873. NEW ENGLAND STATISTICS. 2S3 CHAPTER XI. GENERAL SUMMARIES. IT is impossible at the present time to set forth a full statis tical exhibit of either the churches, the communicants, or the clergy connected with them, at the close of the colonial period. The necessary data do not now exist. A few fragmentary items have, however, been gathered, after considerable research, which will afford tolerable satisfaction. They are statements in regard to particular sections. New England. From a discourse preached by Rev. Ezra Styles, D.D., before the Congregational clergy of Rhode Island, April 23, 1760, a number of interesting particulars have been collected respecting the ecclesias tical condition of New England.* The following, as he supposed, was the condition of the different sects. Jews, 70 persons ; Mora vians, 70 persons; Episcopalians, 2,100 families, or 12,600 souls. There were 27 Episcopal missions, including two " itinerances." The 27 missionaries, with three other ministers, officiated in 47 churches and places of divine worship. Six or seven of the con gregations were large, others were small, some not exceeding fifteen or twenty families each. Friends, 16,000 — a large estimate ; Baptists, 22,000. " At present," said Dr. Styles, " the Congregationalists have about 530 churches, which double in less than thirty years. The aged ministers now living have in their day seen 130 churches increase to 530. In 1643 the 15,000 souls in New England were cantoned into 34 churches. In 1650 there were 40 churches and 7,750 communicants. Perhaps there may now be (1760) 60,000 to 70,000 communicants. In 1696 there were 130 churches, of which 35 were in Connecticut. Now there are 530 churches, of which 170 are in Connecticut, hence the period of doubling for the churches is thirty years at furthest. In 115 years we have increased 500 churches upon 34 churches." * See American Quarterly Register, August, 1834, pp. 20-26. 254 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Accompanying this discourse there is a list of the clergy of New England, each given by name with his residence and denomina tional relations, from which the following table has been compiled. Clergy in New England in 1760. DENOMINATIONS. Maine N. H. Mass. R. I. Conn. Total. 24 3 39 424 2gl 2 16 20 15 II 0 1914 165 2 24 3 1 530 8 48 42 39 Total 27 48 344 50 195 664 Note. — Vermont had but a few scattered inhabitants in 1760. Province of New York in 1771.* The number of inhabitants in the colony was estimated at 1 30,000. Dutch Reformed. — There were 23 Dutch Reformed ministers, who had congregations all of which were considerably large. Most of the ministers had two, and some three churches. There were besides 24 vacant congregations, some of which were of respectable size, and were able to support the Gospel if they could have obtained ministers. Presbyterians. — There were 45 Presbyterian clergymen in the province, most of whom had fixed charges, and three of whom had none. Many of the congregations were large. There were 15 vacant congregations. Considerable numbers of Presbyterians were scattered in the new settlements who were not collected into con gregations. Episcopalians. — There were 21 clergymen in the colony, some of whom had large congregations. The churches in New York City, " as a corporation, had a very large estate in lands in and adjoin ing the city, granted them by Lord Cornbury," the greater part of which, however, some persons for a time claimed as their right ; besides a large tract of land in Gloucester County, which they held free of encumberance. This tract consisted of 25,000 acres, and was granted March 31, 1770. Lutherans. — There were 3 Lutheran ministers in the colony, and 10 vacant congregations. Anabaptists. — There were 12 Anabaptist ministers in the province, and 4 vacant congregations. * American Quarterly Register, August, 1834, pp. 26, 27. STATISTICS OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 255 There were also 2 French Protestant congregations, 3 Moravian, 17 Quaker meeting houses, 1 congregation of Jews, and a number of separate or lay preachers. There were no Roman Catholics, as the public exercise of their religion in the province was prohibited by law. The Middle States, in 1759.* Presbyterians. — This body previously consisted of two synods, the New York and Philadelphia; but in May, 1758, they were united in one, and called the New York and Philadelphia Synod. The following were the presbyteries and the number of ministers in each : Hanover, Va 14 Donegal, Md 11 Lewistown, Pa 6 Newcastle, Pa 11 Total — 8 presbyters and 99 ministers. Philadelphia, Pa 12 New Brunswick, N. J 11 New York, N. Y 21 Suffolk, L. 1 13 Dutch Reformed. — One coetus, or synod, with 20 ministers. Lutherans. — In New York, 2 ministers ; in Philadephia, 4. French Protestants. — Two ministers, in New York City. Independents. — On Long Island, three ministers. Baptists. — In New York, 3 ; New Jersey, 5 ; Pennsylvania, 4 ministers. Episcopalians. — In New York, 7 ministers ; New Jersey, 5 ; Pennsylvania, 4 ministers. English Missionaries in America, in 1762.* The Society for Propagating the Gospel employed the following number of missionaries in this country ; Massachusetts 8 New Hampshire 1 Connecticut 16 Rhode Island 4 New York 10 New Jersey 8 Pennsylvania 9 North Carolina 5 South Carolina 4 Georgia and Bahama 2 Total, 68 missionaries, besides about a dozen school-masters. In 1775 all the foregoing denominations had considerably increased. Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., who devoted very close atten tion to this subject, gave the following statistics of the number of ministers and churches at that time as the result of his investiga- *American Quarterly Register, August, 1834, p. 26. 256 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. tions. It is doubtful whether any thing more satisfactory can now be found : Statistics of Churches and Ministers in the United States, 1775.* DENOMINATIONS. Ministers. Churches. Episcopalians 250 300 Baptists 35° 380 Congregationalists 575 7°° Presbyterians 140 300 Lutherans 25 60 German Reformed 25 60 Reformed Dutch 25 60 Associate 13 20 Moravians 12 8 \ Methodists 20 30 Roman Catholics 26 52 Total 1,461 1,970 POPULATION IN THE COLONIAL ERA. | COLONIES. Maine New Hampshire.. Vermont Massachusetts Plymouth Rhode Island Connecticut New York New Jersey., Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland Virginia North Carolina. . . . South Carolina.. . . Georgia Total White Free Colored and Slaves. 1637. 7.9" 549 400 20,000 1654. 16,026 2,941 1,959 3,186 1665. 23,467 5,320 10,000 16,000 30,000 1700. 4,000 10,00066,000 10,000 30,00018,000 15,000 15,000 5,000 25,00075,000 8,000 7,000 288,000 32,000 1750. 16,000 30,000 10,000 190,000 32,000 110,000 72,000 60,000 130.000 20,000 90,000 200,000 80,000 50,000 10,000 1,100,000 220,000 1775. 45,00090,000 40,000 280,000 50,000 195,000 175.000120,000 275,000 35,000 160,000 360,000 200,000 90,000 25,000 ,140,000 500,000 Aggregate . 320,000 1,320,000 2,640,000 Note.— The number of Indians in New England in 1675, according to Mr. Bancroft,! was about 30,000 ; but the white population, according to the above estimates, was not much less than 70,000 at that time. The foreign increment for eighty years before the Revolution was not large. Savage (Introduction to his Genealogical Dictionary) says : " I suppose that nineteen twentieths of the people of these New England colonies in 1775 were descendants of those found here in 1692." The proportion was probably not much larger in other colonies. Dr. Franklin thought that of the one million English souls in North America in 1751 not eighty thousand had been brought over the sea. * Religion in America. By Rev. Robert Baird, D.D. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1856. P. 210. t Added by the author of this volume. X From Seaman's Essays on the Progress of Nations. New York : Charles Scribner. 1852. pP. 579-583, 1 History ofthe United States. Vol. II, p. 93. lOOO 11. Clustavvis Adolphus the Great. Grotius. Galileo. 18. The Thirty Years' War begins. Kepler. 48. Peace of Westphalia. 24-42. Richelieu. 43. Louis XIV. Shakespeare. Bacon. Milton. 49. Croniwell. 85. Revocation o 87. Habeas ci Locke. 88. Secon 88. Williai of Mary, 94. W 3. James VI. James 1} 25. Charles I. 42. The Revolution. %¦ Jfe ^Restoration. 60. Charles 11. 85. James I 7. 9. Second Charter granted. 42. Berkeley's administration. 12. The Third Charter. 44. Indian massacre. 76. Bacon's Rebellion. 19. House of Burgesses established. 77. Virginia becomes VIEGINIA colonized by the London 51. First Navigation Act. 84. Royal govei Company at Jamestown. 24. Dissolution of the London Company. 19. Introduction of Slavery. John Smith, governor. 83. Seth Sothe 50.:N0ETH 0AE0LINA settled by the Englisl 63. Grant made to Lord Clarendon. 85. Sir Johr 65. Sir John Yeamans, governo 77. Culpepper's rebe 34. MAEYLAND settled by the Catho- 91. Ma lies under Lord Baltimore. 75. Charles Calvert. 39. Representative government established. 92. I. : 38. Governor Kief. 64. Taken by the English. 91. Sl< 14. : NEW YOEK settled by the Dutch. Berkeley and Carteret. 92. ] : 47. Stuyvesant. 70. Lovelace. 9 56. New York City founded. 74. Edmni : 25. Minuits, governor. : 38. Wilmington settled by the Swedes. 82.:DELA"WAB 23.: NEW JEESEY settled by the Dutch. 81. First General j 29. NEW HAMPSHIEE settled. 30. Boston founded. 30. : MAINE settled.' " ' : 79. : New Hampshire £ : as a distinct colony. 76. King Philip's defef 20, : MASSACHUSETTS settled by the Puritans at Plymouth. 84. Massach : 30. Winthrop, governor. 90. First : 38. Harvard College founded. 90. Kinj 39. First printing-press set up at Cambridge. • 92. Wib : exci : 36, : EH0DE ISLAND settled by Roger Williams. : : 39. Newport founded. 87. Rhode 1 30. 37. Pequod War. CONNECTICUT granted to the earl of Warwick. 35. Saybrook founded. 33. Hartford founded. 62. New charter granted. 9. The h 0v ^l&lHPO 70. // SOUTH 0AE0LIIU Locke's Constitution ado 86. Arrival o 82. PENNSY the Qua 92. Pen; 1700 the Great. Charles XII. War of the Spanish Succession. Leibnitz. 13. Peace of Utrecht. Edict of Nantes. pus- 15. Lonis XV. Revolution. and Mary, and after the death liam III. 2. Anne. 14. George I. 27. George II. 62. Catharine II. 40. Frederick the Great. 40. War of the Austrian Succession terminated by 48. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 89. French Revolution. 93. Reign Voltaire. 74. Louis XVI. of Ter ror. Dr. Johnson. Burke. 65. The Rockingham Ministry. Newton. Chatham. Pi". 55. War between France and England. Fox. 65. The Stamp Act. 60. George III. Proprietary government. ment re-established. 32. Birth of Washington. 65. The Virginia: Resolutions. governor. 9. Arrival of the German immigrants. Archdale, governor. 11. The Coree War. 29. Final separation of the Carolinas. land becomes a royal government. nel Copley. ghter, governor. etcher. 1. Cornbury. Bellamont. Andros. 44. Negro plot. 58. Fall of Louisburg. 32. Cosby, governor. 65. Declaration: of Rights. 54. French and Indian : War. 65. First Colonial Congress assembles at New York. separated from New York. Union of East and West Jersey. sembly. Dr. Benjamin : Franklin. 3S. Royal government established. : United with Massachusetts. 41. : New Hampshire finally sepa- : 20. Introduction of tea. : rated from Mass. 67. The tea tax. and death. 4. First newspaper. etts loses her charter. sue of paper money William's War. 2. Queen Anne's War. iraft 10. First post-office. ment. 61. Writs of Assistance. 73. The Boston " Tea Party." 44. King George's War 45 75. Lexington. Louisburg taken. 74. Boston Port Bill. 68. General Gage arrives in Boston. 59. 1 1 Quebec 75. taken. 70. J Bunker Hill. Tumult in Boston. ind joined to New York. ng of the charter. 1. Yale College founded. lettled by the English. :d. 2. Expedition against St. Augustine. he Huguenots. 29. Royal government established. 7ANIA settled by irs under Penn. oses his commission. 55. 76. Independence. Braddock's defeat. 74. Second Congress assem bles at Philadelphia, 33, GE0EGIA settled by the English : under Oglethorpe. : 52. Royal government established. II. THE NATIONAL ERA. PERIOD I -From 1776 to 1800. 17 THE REVOLUTION FORESEEN. 259 CHAPTER I. THE REVOLUTION AND THE CHURCHES. Sec. I. Union Through Suffering. " 2. Patriotism of the Clergy. " 3. Unfavorable Effects. 4. Civil Troubles. Sec. 5. Sundering of Ecclesiastical Ties. " 6. The Churches After the War. " 7. Revivals of Religion Rare. THE colonial planting and training had its natural consumma tion in the American Revolution. Wise European states men had foreseen it. The colonies of Jamestown and Massa- chusetts possessed the genius and daring which ushered in the tedi ous ordeal, and sustained it from Lexington to Yorktown. In the Colonial, the Revolutionary, and the National eras the American peo ple bear the same impress and exhibit an essential unity of drift and character. The problems of free conscience and free citizenship have struggled for solution, with improving phases, from the first settlements until now. What an arena for working out these high aspirations of humanity ! Struggles which had convulsed the con servative institutions of the Old World were renewed amid the semi- conservative conditions of the New World. But, even here, only by the throes of a mighty revolution could the better conditions intended by Providence for humanity be attained. Section 1.— Union Through Suffering. A union of the colonies was a condition precedent to American nationality. The seed-thought germinated in the mind of Rev, Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., of Boston, and was by him first cast into the mind of Samuel Adams. In Dr. Mayhew's church there had been a communion of the churches. The next day, on the streets of, Boston, Mayhew met Adams, and, placing his hand upon his shoulder, exclaimed, "We have just had a communion of the churches, now let us have a union of States." Such was the gene sis, first, of the Colonial, and, later, of the Federal Union. 260 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. One nationality was essential to constitutional liberty in North America. The alternative was petty divisions, waste, and wars — the story of continental Europe repeated. France and England had competed for the possession of the North American Continent — the former the champion of intellectual and political subserviency to the papacy, and the latter the asserter of enlightened freedom. The contest of these two great powers ended in 1763, when France ceded her Canadian possessions to England, abandoned her long military cordon along the northern and western frontiers, and thus left the Atlantic colonies in assured fealty to the English crown. A great impulse was at once given to emigration, and the country rapidly filled. But no sooner were the colonies relieved from the harassing presence of the French-Indian hostilities than they became restless under the restraints of dependency and sighed for relief from for eign taxation and dominion. Disputes arose, the most prominent, in reference.to "The Stamp Act," continuing eighteen years. En gland's right to regulate the foreign commerce was not questioned, but " The Stamp Act " violated domestic independence. Claiming that Parliament had no jurisdiction within their territory, the colo nies refused to submit. Common interests impelled them to a league of domestic amity and fraternal resistance to foreign dicta tion. Gradually they became fused and united ; but time was re quired. The organization of the scattered and disjointed American col onies under a general government was brought about by a long series of agitations, struggles, and triumphs, extending through a period of about forty years — from the French and Indian wars to the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The central event of this period was the war of the Revolution, a movement, which, con sidered either in respect to its immediate or its more remote conse quences, Americans have proudly regarded as the greatest event of modern times. When it occurred it attracted universal attention, taxing the sagacity and the energies of the greatest English states men. In the colonies resources unknown before were developed, surprising even the most sanguine and determined champions of independence, and resulting in the establishment of a new West ern Empire on the principles of freedom and progress. In both hemispheres it inaugurated a long series of progressive movements and revolutions, emancipating and elevating society, establishing law and authority on a new basis, and investing it with an ever-increas ing importance. SUFFERING CAUSED BY THE WAR. 261 To sketch in detail the manifold calamities of the war, the rav aging of the country, the burning of towns, the spirit of fury, vin- dictiveness and hatred which fired the hearts of multitudes, with many other features of this great contest, does not come within the scope of this volume. And yet these things require some allusion because of their influence upon the cause of religion. Indeed, the war was an event of great religious as well as political significance. It was detrimental to morals and religion, opening the door for French infidelity by intimate affiliation with that people during the struggle, and seriously crippling and enfeebling the churches for more than a generation. There was no department of society, public, private, social, sec ular, or religious, which did not suffer. The country was impover ished and exhausted. The pecuniary expenses of the war amounted to not less than $170,000,000 — a greater outlay, in proportion to the wealth of the country, than twenty times that sum would be at the present time.* A very considerable portion of this amount re mained in the form of a debt. The sacrifice of human life was also great, not less than eighty thousand Americans perishing, or one for every forty of the inhabitants. Twelve or fifteen cities and numerous villages were burned to ashes. f Industry was fatally crippled, and de mands were made upon the resources of the country which but few families could afford to sustain. The virtuous sons of many house holds were transformed into dissipated, discontented, ruined men. Numerous houses of worship were either destroyed or so seriously desecrated and injured as to be unfit for future use. These were the common sufferings of the people. Section £.— -Patriotism of the Clergy. The parish ministers in those days commanded unbounded influ ence and profound respect, and effectively molded thought in civil * Massachusetts, with about 240,000 inhabitants, expended in the war about .£818,000 ; for ^400,000 of it she received no reimbursement. Connecticut, with a population of 146,000, ex pended upward of .£400,000. Massachusetts annually, according to Dr. Trumbull, sent into the field 5,500 men, and in one year 7,000 men. Connecticut had about 3 000 men in the field, and for some time 6,000. In some years these two colonies alone had 10,000 men in actual service. fThe city of New York was nearly ruined by the war. The very week of the capture of the city five hundred houses were destroyed by fire, and three years later three hundred more. Dur ing the seven years of the war there was little building, and the burnt districts were blackened heaps. The commerce was gone ; the treasury, what was it ? and her citizens were starving in the wilds whither they had fled. 262 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. as well as ecclesiastical matters. The reverential regard for the clergy* of the early colonial times had not much waned in New England at the time of the Revolution. Politico-religious sermons were early introduced into New En gland. As early as 1633 the governor and council of the Massa chusetts Bay Colony began to appoint one of the clergy to preach on the day of election— which was the first of the long list of " Election Sermons." Governor Winthrop's critical notice of the discourse of Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, in June, 1641, is the earliest sketch of an Election Sermon now extant. By the charter of William and Mary, October 7, 169 1, the last Wednesday in May was established as " election day," and it remained so until the Revo lution. This was the date on which the new General Court, as the Legislature of Massachusetts has ever been called, assembled, and the election sermon was at the opening of the session. Another sermon was also delivered, a little time after, on what was called the artillery election day. The sermons on these occasions discussed politico-religious topics, were printed, and widely circulated. They reasoned, instructed, and discussed speculative questions of govern ment, " when there was nothing in practice which could give any grounds for forming parties." These discourses were a remarkable feature in the opening of the war of the Revolution. In his speech on conciliating the colo nies, March 22, 1775, Edmund Burke referred to the effects of this custom. He said : It contributed no mean part toward the growth of the untractable spirit of the colonies — I mean their education. In no country in the world, perhaps, is the law so general a study. ... All who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in that science. I have been told by an eminent book-seller, that in no branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on law transported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in America as in England. General Gage marks this disposition very particularly. He states that all the people in his gov ernment are lawyers, or smatterers in law. The annual election sermons widely promoted the study of political ethics, which had become a prominent feature in New En gland history in the middle pf the last century, and laid the founda tion for that " earnestness which consciousness of right begets, and those appeals to principle which distinguished the colonies." The highest glory of the American Revolution, in the estimation of Hon. * See pp. 153-156. PATRIOTISM OF THE CLERGY. 263 John Quincy Adams, was the ripe fruitage of this old custom : " It connected, with one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil gov ernment with the principles of Christianity." Occupying a position of such eminent respect and influence in society, it is not strange that the clergy shared the sympathy of the people in the civil struggles through which they were passing, and that "The Pulpit of the Revolution" came to be one of the great factors of the times in the Middle and the New England colonies. God was invoked in the civil assemblies, and the teachers of religion were called upon for counsel from the Bible. Sermons were preached, religion and politics were closely united, and with Bibles and bayo nets they entered into the struggle. "This was the secret of that moral energy which sustained the Republic in its material weakness against superior numbers and discipline, and all the power of En gland. To these sermons the State fixed its imprimatur, and thus they were handed down to future generations with a twofold claim to respect."* The first sermon bearing directly upon the new era dates back to the inception of the pre-Revolutionary struggle. In 1750, Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., the foremost minister of Boston, preached " A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers?' In 1766 Rev. Charles Chauncy, D.D., of Boston, preached a thanksgiving sermon on the repeal of the Stamp Act, in which political matters were ably handled. In 1770 Rev. Samuel Cook, D.D., of Cambridge, preached an election sermon upon "Civil Government for the Good of the People." In 1774 Rev. William Gaden, of Roxbury, preached upon the " Christian Duty of Resistance to Tyrants; Prepare for War; Appeal to Heaven." In 1775 Rev. Samuel Langdon, D.D., of Watertown, Mass., preached upon "Government, Corrupted by Vice; Recovered by Righteousness." In 1778 Rev. Phillips Paxson, of Chelsea, preached a sermon upon "Popular Government, the True Spirit of Liberty." These are typical specimens of the numerous sermons by the New England clergy. Those of the Middle States were not back ward. While all classes of citizens entered heartily into the war, the clergy, as a body, were pre-eminent for their attachment to lib erty, sharing in the patriotic and self-denying spirit of the struggle, encouraging and stimulating the hearts of the people. The pulpits of the land rang with the notes of freedom. Thanksgiving, fast- day and election sermons abounded in pointed, patriotic appeals, in * The Pulpit of the American Revolution. Preface by J. W. Thornton. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, i860. 264 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. clear expositions of Divine law and its application to civil govern ments and to rulers. The Martial Spirit. Interesting examples may be cited. The town of Sturbridge, in Massachusetts, " voted to provide four half-barrels of powder, five hundredweight of lead, and five hundred flints," as a donation to the public service. At another meeting, held a month later, the selectmen were instructed to furnish still more. On this occasion the pastor of the Congregational Church " came forward and pro posed to pay for one cask of powder himself," at a cost of about one- fifth part of his salary, and a Baptist deacon, in the absence of his minister, became responsible " for bullets to match." In Danvers, Mass., the deacon of the parish was elected captain of the minute- men, and the minister his lieutenant. The company, it is said, after its field exercise, would sometimes repair to the "meeting house " to hear a patriotic sermon, or would partake of an enter tainment at the town-house, where the zealous "sons of liberty" would exhort them to fight bravely for God and their country. At Lunenburg, Mass., the minute company, after drill, marched to a public house for an entertainment, honored by the presence of pa triotic clergy from adjacent towns, and then marched in procession to the " meeting-house," where a sermon was delivered. Nor was the First Church, Boston, at all behind in patriotism. It voted to melt up the lead weights upon the church clock for bullets and use other metal in their stead. The parish kept up its stated worship during all the troublous period. It was said that the great revivalist, Rev. William Tennent, who, like Enoch, " walked with God," was a most strenuous asserter of the liberties of his country, both in council and in the field. Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, of New Jersey, preached a sermon in May, 1776, in which he entered fully into the great political questions of the day. Rev. Mr. Miller, of Dover, N. J., preached from these words : " We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tent, O Israel." Rev. Robert Davidson, of Philadelphia, at the commencement of the war preached before several military companies from these words: "For there fell down many slain ; because the war was of God." Nor was their zeal in word only. In numerous instances the younger ministers girded on their country's armor and fought with carnal weapons, while others served as chaplains, and others still per formed the best practical service at home. INVENTION OF THE BLUE LAWS. 26S Of Rev. John Craighead it is said that " he fought and preached alternately." Rev. Dr. Cooper was captain of a military company. Rev. John Blair Smith, president of Hampden-Sidney College, was captain of a company that rallied to support the retreating Americans after the battle of Cowpens. Rev. James Hall com manded a company that armed against Cornwallis. Rev. Wm. Graham rallied his own neighbors to dispute the passage of Rock- fish Gap with Tarleton and his British dragoons. Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green was an orderly sergeant. Rev. Dr. Moses Hodge served in the army of the Revolution. Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, of Sharon, Conn., entered the army as chaplain, where his conduct was so ex emplary that he won the special confidence of his commander, Gen eral Schuyler. Many of the clergy suffered for their patriotism. Rev. John Rodgers, D.D., was forced to absent himself from New York until after the close of the war ; Rev. Mr. McKnight, of Shrewsbury, N. J., was carried off a captive ; Richards, of Rahway, N. J., took warn ing and left ; McCalla was confined for months in a loathsome prison ship, near Quebec ; Azel Roe, of Woodbridge, N. J., was confined, a prisoner, in the old Sugar House; Rev. John Bosborugh, of Al- lentown, N. J., was shot down in cold blood by a party of Hessians to whom he had surrendered ; and Rev. Samuel Mills, of Saybrook, Conn., was wounded and taken prisoner. Peters, of Blue Law Notoriety. In Connecticut the war spirit ran high, and every body took sides. Rev. Samuel Andrew Peters, an Episcopal minister, of Hebron, used his Tory pen and influence in a way very offensive to " the Sons of Liberty." They determined he should be stopped. General Peters often minutely described the mobs which he witnessed. He was a nephew of the victim, though not a Tory. Men came on horseback from the neighboring towns, and the reverend gentleman was marched down to the central green, where a pot of tar was simmering, with a bag of feathers close at hand. These articles, however, were not used, because from the horse-block, under the pressure, Rev. Mr. Peters read a recantation. The recantation, however, did not hold, and after three repetitions Mr. Peters fled to England, where he revenged himself by writing a History of Connecti cut, by a Gentleman of the Province. It was indeed a revenge, for, says an eminent divine, "It has been impossible to squelch the lies of that book." His tales of the Blue Laws — base fabrica- 266 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. tions* — have been repeatedly disproved and as often re-asserted.f " Even annihilation seems to have had no effect upon them." Prayer in Congress. The voice of the clergy was also heard, as chaplains, in halls of legislation. By the request of the first Congress, Rev. Jacob Duche, D.D., of Philadelphia, offered prayer at the opening of its deliber ations, a copy of which has been transmitted to me to-day. Dr. Duche preached a sermon on the death of Hon. Peyton Randolph, first president of the Congress, and also on the occasion of a public fast, both of which, says Bishop White, were strongly imbued with a patriotic spirit, and led to his appointment as chap lain to Congress. Dr. Duche subsequently vacillated, however, when the British took possession of Philadelphia, and left the country. It must be confessed that the preaching of the Gospel and the influence of the ministry, in those days, were " rather martial than sanctifying and spiritual." It seems, however, to have been una voidable. The cause of the country was believed to be a just one and divinely sanctioned. The resources of the country, in men and means, were felt to be small. In some of the colonies there was great hesitation, in others the royalist party was numerous and con fident, and their enemy had been long accustomed to victory on sea and land. The odds were fearful indeed, and every influence was needed to support the cause of independence. The colonial pulpit, having always wielded immense power, improved their opportuni ties to address the people, thinly scattered over a large territory, and accustomed to assemble only on the Sabbath. As a natural result, in the course of such exciting scenes, every-where engrossing the attention of all, ecclesiastical matters received little attention. In some cases, however, and probably not a few, the more devout members of the churches were drawn nearer to God in prayer, and days of fasting and prayer were numerous and well observed. But in many localities the means of grace were wholly suspended for a long time and the religious safeguards were broken down. In cities occupied by the enemy the pastors fled. Out of nineteen church edifices in New York city only nine were fit for worship when the war closed. ¦-Hon. J. S. Peters, M.D., LL.D., ex-Governor of Connecticut, says of them, that they are " apochryphal and ludicrous," and never should be quoted as of " historical authority." tSee pp. 115, "6. RELIGIOUS BODIES AFTER THE WAR. 267 Section 3.— Unfavorable Effects. The unfavorable influence of the war upon the different relig ious bodies deserves more extended notice. The Congregational churches, being confined almost wholly to New England, suffered chiefly in Boston during the possession of the city by the English. All their pastors except two, Drs. Samuel Mather and Andrew Eliot, left during the siege. In a few other localities pastors supposed to be favorable to the royal cause were dismissed from their churches. The Episcopal Church was the greatest sufferer. All its pastors in Boston left, with Gen eral Howe, on the memorable 17th of March, 1776. The colonial clergy of the English Church, being almost wholly foreigners and loyal to the British Crown, mostly deserted the country. In Vir ginia this denomination suffered most seriously. No statesmen were more forward in the cause of the Revolution than those of Virginia, notwithstanding a majority of its people were Episcopalians. A part of the Episcopal clergy, among whom may be mentioned Rev. Messrs. Bracken, Belmaine, Buchanan, Jarratt, Griffith and Davis, were assured friends of the colonies. Rev. Mr. Miihlenburg became a colonel in the American Army, served through the war and retired with the rank of brigadier. But most of the clergy fled to England. The celebrated Virginia rector of those times, the Rev. Devereux Jarratt, in a letter to Rev. John Wesley, in 1773, said that within the limits of the Virginia Colony there were ninety-five parishes, all of which except one were supplied with clergymen. At a later period the historian of the Episcopal Church in Virginia gave the following statistical statement : When the colonists first resorted to arms Virginia in her 61 counties contained 95 parishes, 164 churches and chapels, and 91 clergymen. When the contest was over, she carne out of the war with a large number of her churches destroyed or injured irreparably, with 23 of her 95 parishes extinct or forsaken, and of the remaining 72, 34. were destitute of ministerial services, while of her 91 clergymen 28 only remained who had lived through the storm ; and these with eight others, who came into the State soon after the struggle terminated, supplied 36 of the par ishes. Of these 28, 15 only had been enabled to continue in the churches which they supplied prior to the commencement of hostilities, and 13 had been driven lr. Jin their 'cures by violence or want.* * Hawks's Contributions, pp. 153, 154. 268 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The Methodist Church. Methodism was scarcely ten years old in America when national independence was declared, and it was not organized as the Meth odist Episcopal Church until eight years later ; but it was already an active, earnest and growing power. The first Methodist mission aries coming from England, and ecclesiastically under the direction of Rev. John Wesley, public suspicion was, naturally, provoked against them, occasioning in some cases severe suffering. All but three of those who came from England — Asbury, Dempster and Whatcoat — left the country at the outbreak of the Revolution. But the imputation of disloyalty was unfounded. Wesley, however, gave some occasion to this suspicion by his "Calm Address to the American Colonies" — an abridgment of his friend Dr. Johnson's " Taxation No Tyranny " — breathing a spirit of devout loyalty. This was before the war, and it is due to Wesley to say that when the war really began he was on the side of the colonists. The day after the news of the battles of Lexington and Concord came to England, Wesley wrote to Lord North and the Earl of Dartmouth, saying : I am a High Churchman, bred up in my childhood in the highest notions of passive obedience and non-resistance ; and yet, in spite of my long-rooted prej udices, I cannot avoid thinking these an oppressed people, asking for nothing more than their legal rights, and that in the most modest and inoffensive manner that the nature of the thing would allow. But, waiving this, I ask, is it common sense to use force toward the Americans ? Nevertheless the Methodists came to be regarded as a danger ous people. The remarkable prudence and caution of Rev. Francis Asbury,* the chief minister of the denomination in America, only for a short time shielded him. He was compelled to remain com paratively quiet during a considerable portion of that long and ter rible struggle. In some sections of the country American-born Methodist preachers, such as Waters, Garrettson, Cooper, Hartley, Boyer, Gatch, Abbott and others, in the midst of many embarrassments and stern conflicts, pursued their itinerant rounds, zealously exhorting, preach ing and building up societies. In Maryland, where the Methodist preachers were the most numerous, the civil magistrates seemed to be disposed to construe every * Mr. Asbury was arrested near Baltimore, and fined, not because he had been guilty of any overt act against the new government, but because he, in common with his brethren, was suspected of loving the Church of England, and, therefore, of entertaining dangerous political views. He afterward was released and discontinued preaching, living in Delaware two years in retirement. SUSPICIONS AND PERSECUTIONS. 269 legal restriction vigorously against them. "Some ofthe preachers were mulcted or fined, and others were imprisoned, for no other offense than traveling and preaching the Gospel ; and others were bound over in bonds and heavy penalties and sureties not to preach in this or that county. Several were arrested and committed to the com mon jail ; others were personally insulted or badly abused ; some were beaten with stripes and blows nigh unto death and carried their scars down to the grave." Freeborn Garrettson was one of the sufferers, being committed to prison several times in different counties, and also beaten and wounded, to the shedding of blood, nigh unto death. Nathan Forest and William Wren were com mitted to jail ; another was treated to a coat of tar and feathers ; Joseph Hartley was but under penal bonds of five hundred pounds not to preach again in Queen Ann's County ; and in Talbot County the same preacher was whipped by a young lawyer and imprisoned ; Caleb Fedicord was whipped and badly injured on the public road.* In the midst of these indignities and sufferings they toiled and triumphed. At the close of the war it was found that the number of Meth odist preachers had more than doubled, and the communicants had increased two and a half fold. But it was the result of an unsur passed zeal and prudence in formidable difficulties. Probably no other religious body can show such a record of progress during this trying period. The German Reformed Church was well represented in the Revolutionary struggle. There were German regiments and generals of " the line," like De Kalb, De Woedtke and Baron Steuben, the latter of this communion. Some German ministers were ardent advocates of Independence, as Rev. John H. Weikel, of Montgomery County, Pa., and Rev. C. D. Wey- berg, D.D., of Philadelphia, who was imprisoned for his patriotism, and his church occupied by British soldiers. He had not only preached patriotic sermons to the American soldiers, but had sub sequently addressed the Hessians on the justice of the American cause ; and it was said that had he not been silenced the whole body of those mercenaries would have left the British service. On the first Sunday after his liberation he suggestively addressed his congrega- *The Assembly of Maryland at last became satisfied that these preachers had no treasonable aims, and allowed them to exercise their functions without taking the oath of allegiance. Dur ing the remainder of the war the few Methodist preachers who remained in the country preached freely in Maryland. 270 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. tion on the words, "O God, the heathen have come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled." Psa. 79. 1. Schlatter was imprisoned for his sympathy with the American cause. Hendel was accompanied by armed men, when he preached at Lykens Valley, to protect him from the Indians made hostile by British influence. Rev. John Conrad Buckner, a military officer during the French and Indian war, had become a minister of the Gospel, and rendered great service to the Revolutionary army. Rev. J. C. A. Helffenstein, pastor at Lancaster, when the captive Hessians were kept there preached to them on, " For thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." * The Presbyterian Church. " The influence of the war upon the condition and prospects of the Presbyterian Church throughout the country was most disas trous. Its members were almost all decided patriots, and its minis ters almost to a man were accounted arch-rebels. Their well-known views and sympathies made them especially obnoxious to the enemy, and to be known as a Presbyterian was to incur all the odium of a ' Whig.' It is not strange, therefore, that they should have been the marked victims of hostility, or that they should have been in many cases mercilessly molested in property and person. In initiat ing the Revolution and in sustaining the patriotic resistance of their countrymen to illegal tyranny the ministers of the Presbyterian Church bore a conspicuous and even a foremost part. . . . They preached the duty of resisting tyrants. They cheered their people in the dreary periods of the conflict by inspiring lofty trust in the God of nations. Some of them were engaged personally in the army ; some occupied a place in the civil councils ; others were personal sufferers from the vengeance of an exasperated foe ; and others still sealed their devo tion to their country by their blood." f " The church edifices were often taken possession of by an insolent soldiery and turned into hospitals or prisons, or perverted to still baser uses, as stables or riding-schools. The church at Newtown, N. J., had its steeple sawed off, and was used as a prison and guard house till it was torn down, and its siding was used for the soldiers' huts. The church at Crumpond was burned to save it from being * Historic Manual of the Reformed Church. By Rev. Joseph Henry Dubbs, D.D. Lan caster, Pa. 1885. Pp. 229-232. 1 History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. Vol. I, p. 180. AFTER THE WAR. 271 occupied by the enemy. That of Mount Holly was burned by accident or design. The one at Princeton was taken possession of by the Hessian soldiers and stripped of its pews and gallery for fuel. A fire-place was built in it and a chimney carried up through its roof. . . . The church at Westfield was injured by the enemy and its bell carried off to New York." Similar facts might be given concerning the churches at Babylon, L. I., New Windsor, Morris- town, Elizabethtown, N. J., etc. We have previously stated that the enemy took possession of the churches in New York. They were used for prisons and as stables for horses. Ethan Allen said that the filth which accumulated in one of which he knew "was intolerable." " The loathsome victims of disease, foul with their own excrements, lay stretched upon the floor." Even where church edifices were unmolested the congregations were often scattered, the ordinances of religion ceased ; and, in numerous instances after the war, churches had to be reorganized. Such pastors as Rodgers, of New York ; Richards, of Rahway ; Prime, of Huntington ; Duffield, of Philadelphia, etc., were com pelled to flee for their lives, while Caldwell, of Elizabethtown ; Allen, of Midway, Ga., and others fell victims of the fierce conflict. Schools and colleges were broken up or suspended. Young men who should have entered the ministry were turned aside from their purpose. Religion suffered serious decay, and the churches presented a wide scene of desolation. The church at Newtown, N. J., is said to have numbered only five members at the close of the war, and many others were in the same condition. The session of the Synod of Philadelphia and New York, in 1780, was held with only fifteen min isters and four elders, and in 1781 with only twenty-one ministers and four elders. At the close of the war the country was impoverished, the cur rency had depreciated, and the churches were in a state of profound religious apathy, from which, for some years, it seemed impossible to arouse them. Other denominations passed through similar priva tions, especially the Baptists, who were stanch supporters of the rebellion against Great Britain. Section 4.— CiYil Troiibles After the War. But the war itself was not the only cause of embarrassment to the churches. A long series of national difficulties, dissensions and distractions followed. The condition of the country was not one 272 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. of entire quiet and repose, even after the peace of 1783, notwith standing the relief from the tumult and vexations of war. The achievement of national independence brought with it new and more difficult responsibilities as well as greater advantages. Relief from external enemies was followed by internal clamors and animosities, which sprang out of complications in adjusting the civil polity. The task of harmonizing the foreign relations was not an easy one, but it was even more difficult to satisfactorily arrange the internal affairs — questions of trade, of finance, and the relations of the States both to each other and to the general government. Difficulties soon arose with Great Britain in regard to the treaty, taxing the wisdom and firmness of the best statesmen. The financial distress, too, which grew out of the impoverished condition of the country, the paper currency and its depreciation, and the enforcement of the taxes upon a people who had been reduced to such sad extremes, kept the nation in a state of constant irritation and despondency. Several local rebellions broke out ; the affair at King's Mount ain, Virginia, and soon after another in Washington County, Vir ginia (1785); the insurrection against the Pennsylvania authorities by the Connecticut settlers in Wyoming (1786) ; the armed mob at Exeter, surrounding the New Hampshire Legislature and demand ing a remission ofthe taxes, etc. (1786), and the Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts, originating from a similar cause (1786-87). Con tentions also sprang up with Spain in regard to boundaries and the navigation ofthe Mississippi (1786). The National Constitution. In all these troubles the weakness of Congress, under the old articles of confederation, was seen and deeply felt — a want of power to act strongly and effectively. The confederation produced no security against foreign invasion, Congress not being permitted to prevent a war nor to support it by its own authority. The Federal Government could not check a quarrel between States nor a rebellion in any, not having the constitutional power nor the means to interpose; nor could it defend itself against the encroach ments of the States,* not even being paramount to the State con stitutions. These defects in the articles of confederation became increasingly apparent each year, and the embarrassments which grew out of them were becoming so serious as to threaten the dis- * Speech of Hon. Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, in the convention that framed the Consti tution of the United States. Madison's Works. Vol. II, p. 730. THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 273 solution of the national government. Hon. James Madison, in a letter to Hon. Edmund Randolph (Feb. 25, 1787), s?aid : Our situation is becoming every day more and more critical. No money comes into the Federal treasury, no respect is paid to the Federal authority, and people of reflection unanimously agree that the existing Confederacy is tottering to its foundation. Many individuals of weight, particularly in the Eastern District, are suspected of leaning toward monarchy. Other individuals predict a division of the States into two or more confederacies. It is pretty certain that if some radi cal amendment of the single one cannot be devised and introduced, one or other of these revolutions, the latter, no doubt, will take place. I hope you are bending your thoughts seriously to the great work of guarding against both.* Such was the condition of things which called for the framing ofthe Federal Constitution in 1787. But after its completion great agitations attended its adoption in some ofthe States. The Jacobin intrigue followed in 1793-94, with numerous " Democratic societies," or politico-infidel clubs, organized in all parts of the Iand under the instigation of M. Genet, minister of the Jacobin Government in Paris, for the purpose of involving our nation in another war with England. Then came the Whisky Rebellion in Pennsylvania, in 1794. Near the close of this decade a powerful party called the " State Rights Party " sprang up in several States, threatening serious mis chief by their radical theories antagonistic to the central principles of the Federal Constitution. Such were the Kentucky resolutions of 1798, and those of Virginia in 1799, which agitated and disturbed the public mind. The last thirteen years of the last century have been character ized as " an era of bad feeling." There was much political excite ment growing out of questions connected with the organization of the government, together with the wild, reckless, revolutionary spirit with which the French Revolution and French infidelity had fired many minds. Parties grew out of the issues, Federalism and Democracy ran high, separating families and churches. In the midst of such distractions it was difficult to accomplish very much in the more quiet sphere of religious efforts. It was the dark age of American Christianity. Section 5.— Sundering of Ecclesiastico-.Ciizil Ties. But the influence of this great contest was not altogether disad vantageous. The great struggles and sacrifices were followed by great gains. The scattered colonies, united by fellow-sufferings in * Papers of James Madison. Vol. II, p. 620. 18 274 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. a common cause, became an independent nation, a condition for which they were clearly destined by Providence. In respect to territory and material resources it was already an empire of no mean proportions, located apart from the rest of the world, with distinctly marked natural boundaries. Thus situated civil in dependence started the country upon a grand national career with great advantages, in which the churches must inevitably par ticipate. Among these advantages, particular prominence should be given to the liberation of the churches from the trammels of the civil power. Freedom of thought and action had come to be regarded as essential conditions for the unrestrained operation ofthe religious motives. In the exercise of such inalienable rights no civil power should interfere. Where they are untrammeled, a congenial soil is found for the growth of deep religious convictions and the quick propagation of religious impulses. Such guarantees also invest the personal religious convictions with peculiar dignity and sanctity. During the Revolutionary struggle the idea of religious liberty gained a fuller development than ever before, and the popular cur rent, setting so strongly against both monarchical and hierarchical assumptions, afforded an opportunity for numerous bodies of dis senters from the established churches in the various colonies to cast off the yoke which had long oppressed them. Two results, there fore, followed the achievement of national independence : the sun dering of the ecclesiastico-civil relations at home, and separation from European ecclesiasticisms. Prior to the Revolution several religious denominations had been dependent upon official bodies in the mother countries for ecclesi astical prerogatives and the sacraments. The Protestant Episcopal and the Roman Catholic churches were subject to their respective bishops in London. Similar relations were sustained by the Meth odist societies, the German Reformed, and some other bodies. On account of these foreign relations, many embarrassments and re ligious privations were suffered. Immediately after the Revolution these relations were dissolved and national organizations were formed. The first that effected a national organization was the Methodist Episcopal Church ; then the Roman Catholic in part, receiving American bishops but still remaining subject to the Roman Pontiff; then the Protestant Episcopal Church, etc. Each also, in nearly the same order, recognized the Federal Government, and tendered their congratulations to General Washington on his elevation to the Presidency of the United States. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 273 In the Several States. The sundering of the civil relations in the several States was also inevitable, although not very easily effected, and not so com plete at first as at a subsequent period. On the eve of the Revo lution the equality of all Protestant sects had been acknowledged in Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania, and only in the two latter colonies did toleration extend to the Roman Catholic re ligion. In New York and Massachusetts Roman Catholic priests were liable to imprisonment and even death. It has been noticed that in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire Congre gationalism was the established religion.* In all the southern col onies the Church of England had a similar civil support, and, with some slight modifications, it sustained such relations in New Jersey and New York. But after the Revolution there was a general breaking up of these ecclesiastico-civil unions, in some instances immediate and complete, while in others it was only begun. The Church of England, the great majority of whose members were Loyalists, lost by the Revolution the establishment it had possessed in the southern colo nies, and the official countenance and the privileges it had enjoyed in New York and New Jersey. But it retained its parsonages, glebe-lands and other endow ments, which in some of the States, and especially in the city of New York, were by no means inconsiderable.! But " there were not wanting those who cast a lingering look on the care of the State for public worship.'' The conservative convention of Maryland declared that "the Legislature may, in their discretion, lay a general and equal tax for the support of the Christian religion, leaving to each individual the apportioning the money collected from him to the support of any particular place of public worship or minister ;" but the power granted was never exercised. For a time Massa chusetts required of towns or religious societies " the support of public Protest ant teachers of piety, religion and morality " of their own election ; but as each man chose his own religious society the requisition had no effect in large towns, and was hardly felt elsewhere as a grievance. J In Connecticut the Puritan wor ship was still closely interwoven with the State, and had molded the manners, habits and faith of the people ; but the complete disentanglement was gradually brought about by inevitable processes of legislation. § The Second Constitution of South Carolina declared " the Chris tian Protestant religion " to be the established religion of that State. Persons assenting to certain doctrinal tests were allowed to form churches and elect their own ministers, but pecuniary contri butions were to be voluntary. . * See chapter on Church and State, pp. 82-124. , t Hildreth's History of the United States. Vol. Ill, p. 383. X This provision was not wholly amended until 1833. The grievance was greater, however, than here acknowledged. ¦ § Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. IX, p. 277. 276 ' CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. In New England, in the early modifications of the relation of the Church to the State, the Puritan principle was not at once wholly eliminated ; but provision was still retained that every man, as a good citizen, was in duty bound not only to "attend meeting," but he must " support the minister ; " voluntarily, if he would, otherwise, from necessity. Between 1780 and 1795, the law was so amended in the New England States that a person in order to be exempt from taxation must be a member of some other than the Congre gational denomination, and must prove by certificate that he regu larly attended religious services elsewhere on the Lord's day. If satisfactory evidence was not produced, he was assessed and taxed. In default of payment, the parish collector often entered the dwell ing of honest poverty, took away platters, tables, chairs and andirons, and even sold at auction " the cow of the poor laborer." Appeals were made to higher tribunals, but only to the disadvantage and perhaps ruin of the plaintiff. Men were thus compelled to build " meeting-houses " they never entered, and to support ministers they never heard. After the commencement of this century men were exempted from taxation at their express request, and finally '• Tol eration Acts" swept from the statute-books the last vestige of these obnoxious laws. In Virginia, by the " Religious Freedom Act " of 1785 all parish rates and doctrinal tests were abolished. The constitutions of New York, Delaware and Maryland excluded priests and ministers of re ligion from all public offices. In Georgia they could not beeome members of the Assembly. In Maryland all gifts for pious uses were absolutely prohibited by the Constitution, except grants of land, not exceeding two acres each, for churches and church-yards. The constitutions of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia expressly repudiated all com pulsion in church attendance and church rates. A Few Religious Tests Remained for a short time, in some of the States, which excluded Roman Cath olics and Jews from citizenship, but They were eliminated almost as soon as their inconvenience attracted atten tion. The great result was accomplished from the beginning; the Church no longer formed a part of the State, and religion, ceasing to be a servant ofthe gov ernment or an instrument of dominion, asserted its independence and became a life in the soul. Public worship was voluntarily sustained. The Church, no longer subordinate to a temporal power, regained its unity by having no visible head and becoming an affair of the conscience of each individual. Nowhere was persecu- THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. 211 tion for religious opinion so nearly at an end as in America. ... In this universal freedom of conscience and worship, America, composed as it was of emigrants from many countries, formed its nationality ; for nationality is not an artificial prod uct, and can neither be imported nor taken away.* Early Pecuniary Disadvantages. The sundering of these relations to the civil power was attended with some pecuniary disadvantages at first. The pastor's salary, which had been promptly paid out of the town treasury in New England, and by some similar arrangement elsewhere, was thence forth often delayed and sometimes paid in barter. His home was sometimes turned into a seminary for a half dozen boys whom he fitted for college. Rev. Elihu Goodrich, D.D., of Durham, Conn., had usually from fifteen to thirty young students under his care at once. In this way, with his small salary of $333 34 per year, and a few acres of parsonage land, he was enabled to educate his five sons at college and prepare them for public life. A hundred years ago, outside of large towns the minister's salary was a mere pittance. Even the highly-esteemed Joseph Buckminster's "settlement was upon the value of wheat and Indian corn, and varied extremely in different years; but never did the amount exceed six or seven hun dred dollars." f In some sections the pastor was allowed " $130, with glebe-lands and parsonage, and the donations from strangers," or money put upon "the plate " which was kept in a conspicuous place in the meeting-house to receive the offerings of transient attendants. The union of Church and State, and the paying of Church ex penses out of State or town funds for so long a period, largely sus pended voluntary giving. Dandled in this profane lap and schooled under this profane tuition, it is not strange that prejudice against voluntary pecuniary offerings should have become strongly in trenched in the natural selfishness of the human heart, and that for some time the churches should have suffered. Giving and worship, in all the earlier ages, and in the letter and spirit of Christianity, had been blended. Under the Church and State regimen they were divorced. After the Revolution the banns, long discarded, were pro claimed anew. But the affinities had been seriously deranged, and the reunion was slowly consummated. Poverty, inconvenience and shame were for a while experienced in the churches under the new voluntary system, but in the subsequent periods we shall record its triumph. After the Revolution, too, the language of the people and the * History of the United States. By Hon. George Bancroft. Vol. IX, p. 275. + Memoir of Joseph Buckminster, D. D. , p. 69. 278 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. language of the Church services, which had in some localities been foreign, became Anglicised. The Dutch peculiarities became less distinctive in New York. The signs over the stores- showed the change. Along the slips of the Hudson the Dutch language was no longer the media of commerce. The three great Dutch churches, in which none of the services had ever been heard in English, soon surrendered the language ofthe Stuyvesants, though the pastor was still styled " the dominie." and preached in the high pulpit in a black silk gown, with the hour-glass at his right and the sounding- board over his head. Section 6.— The Churches After the War. The orthodox Congregational churches, the direct lineage of the Puritan churches, being almost entirely confined to New England, suffered less from the ravages of war than those in the portions of the country overrun by the contending armies. From 1773 to 1780 there was an increase of ten churches in Massachu setts alone ; and from 1780 to 1800 thirty more churches were organized, making 344 Congregational churches in that State. In Maine, in 1800, there were 63 ; in New Hampshire, 96 ; in Vermont, 75; in Rhode Island, 6; in Connecticut, 196; total in New England, 780 churches of this denomination. Outside of New England they had about thirty churches, twenty-four of which were in New York.*f * Historical Sketches of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts. By Rev. Joseph S. Clark, D.D., Boston, 1858. + The Congregational ministers of this period were: Nathan Peikins, D.D., 1771-1838; David Ely, D.D., 1771-1816; David M'Clure, D.D., 1771-1820 ; Joseph Lyman, D.D., 1 771-1828 ; Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., 1771-1823 ; Joseph Willard, D.D., LL.D., 1772-1804 ; Benjamin Wadsworth, D.D., 1772-1826 ; Nathan Strong, D.D., 1772-1816; Nathaniel Porter, D D., 1772- 1837; William Hollingshed. D.D., 1772-1817 ; Charles Backus, D.D., 1773-1803; David Osgood, D.D., 1773-1822 ; Samuel Spring, D.D., 1774-1819 ; John Smith, D.D., 1774-1809 ; Mathias Burnett, D.D.. 1774-1806; David Tappan D.D., 1774-1803; Elihu Thayer, D.D., 1775-1812 ; Joseph Buckminster, D.D., 1775-1812; David Parsons D.D., 1775-1823 ; Eliphalet Pearson, LL.D., 1775-1826; Joseph Eckley, D.D., 1776-1811 ; Asa Burton, D.D., 1777-1836 ; Daniel Chaplin, D.D., 1777-1831 ; Timothy Dwight, D.D., 1777-1817 ; Isaac S. Keith, D.D., 1778-1813; Samuel Wood, D.D., 1779-1836; Jonathan Homer, D.D., 1780-1843 ; Lemuel Haynes, 1780-1834; Samuel Nott, D.D., 1781-1852 ; David Austin, 1781-1831; Seth Payson, D.D., 1782-1820; John Crane, D.D., 1782-1836 ; Joseph McKeen, D.D., 1784-1807 ; Samuel Austin, D.D. , 1 784-1830 ; Moses Cook Welch. D.D., 1-784-1824; Abiel Holmes, D.D., 1784- 1837 ; Jedediah Morse, D.D., 1785-1826 ; Richard S. Storrs, 1785-1819; Jacob Catlin, D.D., 1786-1826; Elijah Parish, D.D., 1787-1825 ; Abel Flint, D.D., 1 788-1 825 ; Jonathan Strong, D.D.. 1788-1814; Walter Harris, D.D., 1789-1843; Azel Backus, D.D., 1789-1817 ; Chauncy Lee, D.D.. 1789-1842 ; Alvan Hyde, D.D., 1 790-1 833 ; Asahel Hooker, 1790-1813 ; John Elliot. D.D , 1791-1824 ; Calvin Cliapin, D.D., 1791-1851 ; Giles H. Cowles, D.D., 1791-1835 ; Asahel S. Norton, D.D.. 1792-1853; William Jackson, D.D. , 1793-1842; Ebenezer Porter, D.D., 1794- 1834; Daniel Dow, D.D., 1795-1849. CONSECRATION OF AMERICAN BISHOPS. 279 Prior to the Revolution the Protestant Episcopal Church was under the oversight of the Bishop of London. During the Revo lution that jurisdiction could not be exercised. At the close ofthe Revolution this bond, though not formally sundered, was superseded or in abeyance, and it became necessary to combine on some new plan of association. Organization was undertaken by two methods, the conventional and the Episcopal, the former in the Middle States and the latter in Connecticut. In May, 1784, a few clergymen of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania met at New Brunswick, N. J., for consultation. Again in October, in New York city, they reassembled, and agreed upon a basis for future ecclesiastical organization. In September, 1785, another meeting was held in Philadelphia, in which seven States between the Hudson River and the Savannah were represented. The book of Common Prayer was accommodated to the recent changes. In the meantime in Connecticut the Episcopal method was under taken. Rev. Dr. Seabury, of Connecticut, a little in advance of his brethren in the Middle States, applied to the English bishops for Episcopal ordination. Discouraged by delay, he transferred his appli cation to the non-juring bishops of Scotland, received ordination November 14, 1784, and returned to America on the 3d of August, 1785. The first exercise of his Episcopal functions was in August, 1785, in Connecticut. The members of the Philadelphia Conven tion at first looked with disfavor upon the Scotch episcopacy, and pressed an application for ordination directly from England. On the 4th of February, 1787, Revs. William White, D.D., of Philadel phia, and Samuel Provost, D.D., of New York, were consecrated bishops in Lambeth Palace, London. At a general convention held in September, 1789, the clergy from New England were present, the union became general and complete, and Bishop Sea- bury's ordination was recognized. Five other bishops were conse crated prior to 1800, and seven of the eight bishops were living at that date. In the year 1800 this denomination had 264 clergymen and 1 1,978 communicants,* and the following dioceses had been con stituted : Connecticut and Maryland, 1783; Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, 1784; New York, New Jersey, and South Carolina and Virginia, 1785; Vermont and Rhode Island, 1790 ; Delaware, i79*-f . * Episcopal Record for i860. tThe Episcopal ministers of this period were, James Madison. D.D., 1775-1812; John Buchannan, D.D., 1775-1822; Nathaniel Fisher, 1777-1812 ; Charles H. Wharton. D.D., 1784- 1833; Collin Ferguson, D.D., 1785-1806; William Smith, D.D., 17S5-1821 ; Philo Shelton, 1785-1825 ; Joseph G. J. Bend, D.D., 1787-1812 ; Slater Clay, 1787-1821 ; Tillotson Bronson, 280 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The Episcopal Church in its organized form was reluctantly recognized by many in New England. The propriety of admitting bishops into Massachusetts was gravely questioned and discussed in the Boston Gazette (January 1785). When the news came of the ordination of Bishop Seabury the Gazette exclaimed, " Two Won ders of the World — a stamp act in Boston and a Bishop in Connec ticut." The Presbyterian Church was located principally in the Middle States, where the ravages of the war were most severely felt, but the Synod of New York and Philadelphia kept up its annual meet ings, although the attendance was generally small. After the par alyzing effects of the Revolution had begun to pass away, this denomination gradually extended itself,* and, in view of its prospec tive growth, it was felt that measures must be taken for perfecting its organization and a fuller declaration of its principles. The question was considered and matured during several years (1785- 1788), resulting in the organization ofthe General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, which held its first ses sion in the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in May, 1789, Rev. Dr. John Rodgers moderator. At this session an address of recognition and congratulation to the President of the United States was adopted. A Committee on Home Missions was also appointed, f which is believed to have been the earliest action of this kind, except that of the Congregationalists. Pre-eminent among the Presbyterian clergy of this period was Dr. John Witherspoon, Professor of Divinity in Princeton College. A native of Scotland, called to this position in 1769, he was a man of varied and profound scholarship, an elegant and powerful preacher, with a vigorous physical constitution, a statesmanlike mind, and possessed a personal " presence second only to that of Wash ington." He was for several years a member of the Continental Congress, where his sagacity and discernment were highly esteemed, and his pen was brought into frequent requisition upon important state papers, involving intricate subjects of political economy. Rev. John Ewing, D.D., for thirty years pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and for twenty years Provost D.D., i787-i826; John S. J. Gardner, D.D.,1787-1830 ; Richard Channing Moore, D D..1787- 1841; James Kemp, D.D., 1789-1827; John Croes, D.D., 1790-1832 ; William Harris, D.D., 1791-1829; David Butler, D.D, 1 792-1 842 ; James Abercrombie, D.D., 1793-1841; Charles Seabury, 1793-1844; Walter D. Addison, 1793-1848; Daniel Burhans, D.D., 1793-1853 ; Alexander V. Griswold, D.D., 1795-1843. * In 1788 it numbered 419 congregations, about one half of which were destitute of pastors. t Minutes of the Synod of Philadelphia and New York, 1788,1789. DISTINGUISHED MINISTERS. 281 of the University of Pennsylvania, was eminent for his knowledge in classical and scientific studies, and also for his ability as a preacher. The pastor of the Second Church for nearly half a century, Rev. Dr. James Sproatt, was also a distinguished minister, pre-eminent for per sonal piety and for his mastery ofthe art of persuasion. He fell a vic tim to the yellow fever in 1793. The pastor of the Third Church, Rev. Dr. George Duffield, in whose veins mingled Irish, English and Huguenot blood, was an earnest, ardent, and fearless man, and a powerful champion of civil and religious liberty. The celebrated John Adams was one of his hearers and admirers. Revs. John Blair Smith, D.D., President of Hampden-Sidney College, and subsequently of Union College, and his brother, Samuel Stanhope Smith, D.D., President of Nassau Hall, were leading men of this period. The former has been styled " a model preacher, whose soul glowed with evangelical fervor and love of souls." Dr. William M. Tennent also is worthy of special mention as a man of devoted piety, of great sweetness of temper and politeness of man ner. Rev. James Grier, of Delaware, was an effective preacher, of deep sonorous voice, earnest, and often deeply impassioned. " The patriarch of the Presbytery of Carlisle " was Rev. John Elder, who for more than fifty most eventful years discharged the duties of the pastoral relation in the towns of Paxton and Derry, Pa. He was a man for the times, with a robust constitution, large stature, commanding presence, and indomitable courage and energy. Dr. Charles Nisbet, first president of Dickinson College, was a Scotch man by birth, an able debater, abounding in ready wit, brilliant in conversation, and so extensively read that he was proverbially called a walking library. Dr. Patrick Allison, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, was a man of impressive personal appearance, in a remarkable degree graceful and dignified in his demeanor, of irreproachable character, and possessed intellectual gifts of a high order. Rev. Dr. Isaac S. Keith, of Alexander, and subsequently of Castleton, S. C, is a name noted for the honorable memories of usefulness and devotion associated with it. To these might be added numerous other names of distinction and great per sonal worth. There was the Rev. James Waddell, of Virginia, the preacher of unrivaled eloquence, and Thomas Moore, of Western Pennsylvania, called ' the scourge of Arminianism ; ' Dr. John Anderson, the zealous pioneer missionary preacher ; John Watson, of Canonsburg, the youthful genius ; the venerable John Clark, of the Redstone Presbytery ; Dr. John King, the elaborate thinker ; Dr. Rodgers and his colleague, Dr. J. McKnight, of New York ; Dr. 282 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Stephen B. Balch, of Georgetown ; Dr. Samuel Buel, of East Hamp ton, L. I., the friend of Branerd, Whitefield, Belamy, and the elder Edwards ; Dr. Phillip Milledoler, of Philadelphia, and subsequently of New York city, the faithful preacher and successful pastor .in Connecticut about fifteen years previous. The extent of this denomination, at the close of the century, will be seen from the following data for 1798:* Congregations. Ministers. Licentiates. Synod of New York and New Jersey 1 15 72 5 Synod of Philadelphia 129 38 12 Synod of Virginia 69 41 10 Synod of the Carolinas 93 58 10 Number of Presbyteries 19 In Ohio there was one presbytery, with 9 ministers, 3 licenciates, and 15 congregations. In Kentucky there were 5 ministers. The above statistics are supposed to be not quite complete. Rev. Dr. Baird gave the statistics of the Presbyterian Church in 1800 as follows : 500 churches, 300 ministers, and 40,000 communicants. The Associate and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian churches both prospered after the Revolution. The New York Synod ofthe latter branch was organized in 1782. Among the distinguished ministers of this body were Revs. John M. Mason, D.D., Thomas Clark, Robert Arnan and James Proudfit, D.D. " The Associate Presbyterians," a secession from the Presbyterian Church, under the leadership of Rev. Jacob Green, originally con sisted of four ministers, who quietly withdrew and organized the " Presbytery of Morris County," at Hanover, May 3, 1780. Their platform has been characterized as " Presbyterian in form, but Con gregational in fact." This new body received sympathy in regions where Congregational influence was felt, in the counties of Dutchess and Westchester, N. Y., along the New England line, and in course of time five Presbyteries were organized. This movement started under a vigorous impulse of growth, which was felt for almost twenty years. It subsequently, however, declined, and before 1 830 its presbyteries had been disbanded, its churches had all been absorbed into Presbyterian or Congregational organizations, and all its memorials passed away.f Dr. Crooks, in his history of the one hundred years of Dickin son College, says : * Minutes of the General Assembly, 1798. t History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. Vol. I, p. 218. BAPTIST GROWTH. 283 The debt which this country owes to the Scotch and Irish Presbyterians has not been understood, much less acknowledged. They, in their Synod which met at Philadelphia, in 1775, were tne first religious body to declare themselves in favor of open resistance to the king. They issued the first Declaration of Independence, that of Mecklenberg, May 20, 1775. They were the founders of the schools of learning in the Middle States, and notably the founders of Dickinson College. Their history has as yet been but imperfectly told, but the time will come when the Scotch and Irish Presbyterian of Pennsylvania will take his place alongside the New England Puritan as one of the founders of liberty and learning in the New World. The race which has given to the country John Witherspoon, Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson, Andrew Jackson, Robert Fulton, Horace Greeley, and others of equal or lesser fame, is one whose memory men cannot willingly let die. At the time of the Revolution the Baptists were. few in number, suffering pitiless persecution in the chief colonies — fines, mobs, imprisonment, scourging. Against terrible odds they strove to realize their ideal of a Church of regenerated persons, baptized on a profession of personal faith, and exercising absolute freedom of conscience. They numbered about fifteen thousand communicants. They entered into the Revolution with great zeal, hoping for relig ious as well as political liberty. In the triumph of the Revolution they, therefore, doubly rejoiced, and rapidly won upon popular favor on account of their conspicuous advocacy of freedom of conscience. They grew rapidly,* in 1792 numbering 891 churches, 1,1 56 ministers, f and 65,345 members. These were distributed as follows: in New England, 266 churches, 342 ministers, and 17,174 members; in the Middle States, 126 churches, 155 ministers, and 8,025 members; in the Southern States, 437 churches, 565 ministers, and 36,100 mem bers ; in Kentucky and Tennessee, 60 churches, 82 ministers, and 3,984 members; in Ohio there were 2 churches, 2 ministers, and 62 members. In Virginia alone there were 261 Baptist churches and 20,443 members. Exact data for 1800 have not been compiled, but it has been estimated that this denomination had at that time about 100,000 members. After the Revolution the Methodist preachers, relieved from their * Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D., in American Quarterly Register, 1840, 1841, p. 185. t The Baptist ministers of this period were Joseph Cook, 1776-1790 ; Benjamin Foster, D.D., 1776-1798; Caleb Blood, 1776-1814; John Pitman, 1777-1822; Lewis Richards, 1777-1832 ; Ambrose Dudley, 1778-1823 ; Isaac Case, 1780-1852 ; Thomas Baldwin, D.D., 1782-1826 ; Henry Holcomb, D.D., 1784-1824; Joseph Grafton, 1784-1S36; Stephen Gano, 1 786-1 828 ; William Elliot, 1786-1830; Aaron Leland, 1786-1833 ; John Stanford, 1786-1834 ; Andrew Marshall, 1786-1856; Thomas B. Montanye, 1787-1829; Elisha Andrews, 1787-1840; John Tripp, 1787- 1847 ; Henry Smalley, 1788-1839 ; Jesse Mercer, D.D., 1788-1841 ; Andrew Broaddus, 1789-1848 ; Jonathan Maxcy, D.D. , 1790-1820; Robert B. Semple, 1790-1831 ; Abel Woods, 1790-1850; Daniel Wildman, 1791-1849 ; William Bachelder, 1792-1818 ; Asa Messer, D.D., LL.D., 1792- 1836; William Staughton, D.D , 1793-1829; Morgan J. Rhees, 1794-1804; Zenas L. Leonard, 1794-1841 ; John Heaky, 1794-1848 ; John Williams, 1795-1825. 284 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. embarrassments, went freely forth in every direction, accomplishing their heroic mission. In 1784, having increased to 83 preachers and 14,988 members, the Methodist societies were formally organized, by Constitution and Discipline, into the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Revs. Francis Asbury and Richard Whatcoat were elected and ordained bishops. Although then one of the youngest of the American religious denominations, it was the first in the United States to effect a national organization. In the year 1800 it num bered 3 bishops, 287 preachers and 64,894 members, and had extended itself as far eastward as the St. John's River, and south ward to Georgia, to the west as far as Natchez, and into Indiana and Illinois. Methodism did not enter New England until 1789; but in 1800 it had 5,828 members in those States, notwithstanding the region was largely preoccupied by other denominations. At its organization, in 1784, the Methodist Episcopal Church was the first religious body to formally recognize the new civil government, in its constitutional law,* enforcing loyalty and patriotism upon its communicants. The Methodist Episcopal Church in advance of any other relig ious body recognized the organization of the National Government and the presidency of Washington. In behalf of the Conference in session in New York, Bishops Coke and Asbury waited on Wash- inton, then just inaugurated, May 29, 1789, and Bishop Asbury read to him the Address of the Conference, to which Washington appropriately replied, f The first schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church occurred in 1792, under the leadership of Rev. James O'Kelley, and organized under the name of " Republican Methodists." This division pre vailed chiefly in Virginia and North Carolina; but it was not long before this body was subdivided several times, and the only portion * See Centenary of Methodism. By Rev. Abel Stevens, LL.D. Pp. 203, 204. t The Methodist ministers of this period were, Robert Strawbridge, 1766-1781 ; Thomas Webb, 1766-1782; Francis Asbury, 1771-1816 ; Thomas Rankin, 1773-1778; George Shad ford, 1773-1778; Benjamin Abbott, 1773-1796; William Watters, 1 773-1833 ; Philip Gatch, J773_I835; Freeborn Garrettson, 1776-1827; John Dickins, 1777-1798; John Haggerty, 1779- 1823; Nelson Reed, 1779-1840; Joseph Everett, 1781-1809; Philip Bruce, 1781-1826; Peter Moriarty, 1782-1813; Jesse Lee, 1783-1816 ; William Phcebus, 1783-1831 ; Wilson Lee, 1784- 1804; Richard Whatcoat, 1784-1806; Isaac Smith, 1784-1834; Ezekiel Cooper, 1784-1847 ; Hope Hull, 1785-1818; Thomas Ware, 1785-1842; John McCIaskey, 1786-1814 ; Daniel Asbury, 1786- 1825; Thomas Coke, 1787-1804; Barnabas McHenry, 1787-1833; Thomas Morrell, 1787-1838; Valentine Cook, 1788-1820; William McKendree, 1788-1835; Daniel Smith, 1789-1815 ; George Roberts, 1789-1827; Stephen G. Roszel, 1789-1841 ; John Kobler, 1789-1843; Daniel Hitt, 1790- 1825; Enoch George, 1790-1828; George Pickering, 1790-1846; Shadrach Bostwick, 1791-1805 ; Laurence McCombs, 1792-1836; Daniel Ostrander, 1793-1843; John B. Matthias, 1 793-1848; Enoch Mudge, 1793-1850 ; John Bmadhead, 1794-1838 ; Nicholas Snethen, 1794-1845 ; Thomas F. Sargent, 1795-1833; John Collins, 1795-1845. DIVERS DENOMINATIONS. 28S that remained in 1810 blended with two other factions from the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches, and constituted the " Inde pendent Christian Baptist Church," more recently called the " Christians." The German Reformed Church was dependent upon the Dutch Church in Europe until 1792, when an independent constitution was adopted. The statistics for 1800 are unknown. The Revolutionary war proved very disastrous to the Reformed Dutch Church, particularly in the city and vicinity of New York, where their church edifices had been freely used by the British for cavalry and hospital purposes. In 1784 they had been reduced to 82 congregations and 30 ministers. In 1800 they had 137 congre gations and 60 ministers. The Lutherans had become widely extended throughout the Middle States before the Revolution, but during its progress they suffered severely. In 1784 they had 25 ministers, and about 5,000 members in the United States. After that time they gained rapidly. The Friends numbered about 50,000 communicants in 1800. The Free Will Baptist Church is purely of American origin. Elder Benjamin Randall,* of New Hampshire, a convert of White- field, is regarded as its founder, and the date of its organization is June 30, 1780. The first Yearly Meeting was held in New Durham, N. H., in 1792. Elder Randall was an eminently pious and success ful minister, very extensive in his labors, a powerful promoter of revivals, for which this denomination was long noted. In the year 1800 they numbered 2,000 communicants, with one yearly meeting, six quarterly meetings, 51 churches, 28 ordained ministers and 22 unordained. About the year 1800 they received the name Free Will Baptists. They were opprobiously called " General Provis ioned," " Randallites," " Free Willers," " New Lights," " Open Communionists," At this date they had no churches outside of New Hampshire and Maine. The German Seventh-Day Baptists were a small body in 1 800. The Dunkers keep no registry of their members. The Mennonites in 1800 had spread quite extensively in Penn sylvania and Maryland. The Moravians had about 20 churches in the United States in 1800. The Seventh-Day Baptist Church had 1,648 communicants in 1807. * Besides Elder Randall, Joseph Boody, Daniel Hibbard, James McCorsen, Nathan Merrill, Samuel Weeks and John Whitney, were ministers in this period. 286 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The origin of the United Brethren has been already traced to Rev. Messrs. Ottenbein and Boehm, in the latter part of the colonial period. The first Conference of this body of Christians was held in Baltimore in 1789, consisting of seven preachers; but their or ganization was more fully constituted by the ordination of the gen tlemen just mentioned to the office of Bishop in the year 1800. The Evangelical Association, formerly called Albrights and Ger man Methodists, had their origin with Rev. Jacob Albright, in Penn sylvania. He experienced religion in connection with the Method ist Episcopal Church, about 1 790, and was licensed as a local preacher. Actuated by an ardent desire to do good, he went forth and zealously labored for the salvation ofthe German people, preach ing somewhat irregularly wherever opportunity was found. About 1800 he began to organize classes, which was the beginning of what has since been known as the Albright or Evangelical Association Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church had its inception in this period, in difficulties arising in St. George Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia. The colored members withdrew from the church in 1786, and united in a provisional association. Under the leadership of Richard Allen, who subsequently became bishop, a sep arate place of worship was erected and dedicated by Bishop Francis Asbury, June 29, 1794. They styled their church Bethel, Mr. Allen serving as pastor. In 1799 he was formally ordained bishop by Bishop Asbury- — the first colored person ordained to the ministry in the United States. The denomination was more fully organized in 1816. The Jews came to America, as did the Puritans and the Hugue nots, to escape religious persecution ; but they were not tolerated in some of the colonies. Gaining a foothold in a few places they slowly increased in numbers, some of them became wealthy and contributed liberally to the cause of the Revolution. They estab lished synagogues In New York city, in 1650. In Newport, R. I., in 1658. In Richmond, Va., in 1719. In Savannah, Ga., in 1733. In Charleston, S. C, in 1750. In Philadelphia, Pa., in 1782. In New York city, in 1793, in a population of 41,000 there were 22 ministers of the Gospel: Episcopal 4, Dutch 3, Methodist 3, German Calvinists 1, Lutheran 1, Associate Congregationalist 1, Independents 1, Moravians 1, Baptist 1, Roman Catholic 1, Jews 1, Scotch Presbyterian I, Presbyterian 3.* * Life of Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller. Vol. I, p. 81. PREVALENCE OF INFIDELITY. 287 Section 7.— Revivals of Religion Rare. Not many revivals of religion can be cited from the records of this period. A few seasons of refreshing were enjoyed in two of the colleges. In Dartmouth College in 1781, extending into the towns twenty miles around, and again in 1788, but not so extensive and powerful. After the latter date a season of declension followed, continuing seventeen years. In 1783 a revival occurred in Yale College, which swelled the membership of the college church larger than it had ever been before ; but twelve years later the college was wholly pervaded with French infidelity, and only four or five students were professedly pious.* From 1770 to 18 10 no revival of religion occurred, in Princeton College. During the Revolution the college was broken up. Its exercises were wholly suspended for three years, and the edifice served as barracks for both British and Ameri can troops in turn. When it was reopened, in 1780, for college pur poses it was found that there had been a great change in the moral and religious atmosphere. Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, who entered the institution in 1782, has said: While I was a member, of the college there were but two professors of religion among the students, and not more than five or six who scrupled to use profane language in common conversation ; and sometimes it was of a very shocking kind. . . . Dr. Smith, the president of the college at that time, used to complain grievously, and justly, of the mischievous and fatal effects which the prevalent infidelity had on the minds of his pupils. The condition of things was not much better in the churches. A few revivals have been reported in the closing portion of the last century. At Elizabethtown, N. J., in 1784, the Holy Spirit was poured out in a special manner, and the gracious influence was felt about two years. In 1790 there was a revival in Hanover, N. J. In 1778 a revival occurred in " Vance's Fort," in western Pennsylvania, growing out of the labors of one man, Joseph Patterson, a layman. From this revival the Cross Creek Presbyterian Church was formed. From 1781 to 1787 the work of reformation was carried extensively forward in the churches of Cross Creek, Upper Buffalo, Chartiers, Pigeon Creek, Bethel, Lebanon, Ten Mile, Cross Roads and Mill Creek, during which more than one thousand persons professed con version. In the year 1795 a quickening influence descended upon the congregation at Chartiers, in which the academy at Canonsburg shared largely. The winter of 1798 was marked by a great revival of religion in the Presbyterian churches in western New York. * Professor Goodrich in American Quarterly Register. 288 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Palmyra, Canandaigua, and several of the large towns along the southern border of the State were first visited. The gracious influ ence then extended through the counties of Delaware, Otsego, Oneida, and also further to the west, and laid the foundation for many churches in those regions. In 1788-89, there was considerable attention to religion in the upper part of Georgia. The Baptist churches shared largely in it through the ministry of Revs. Silas Mercer and Abram Marshall. The Methodist churches were also much increased under the labors of Rev. Hope Hull and others. The Presbyterian churches in that region were then few, but they were considerably increased in num ber by the exertions of Revs. Daniel Thatcher and John Springer. Just before this there was a great religious interest in North Caro lina, in connection with the labors of Rev. Dr. James Hall. Rev. Richard Furman, D.D., an eminent Baptist divine of Charleston, S. C, was a very successful minister of Christ. In a few other places in the Middle States the Presbyterians were favored with revivals during the last decade ofthe century, and the Methodist and Baptist churches throughout the whole country were gradually laying and extending their foundations. In 1796-98 a few revivals occurred in the western part of Connecticut and Massachusetts, most of which had had no spiritual refreshing for long periods — from twenty to sixty years. Almost all of Eastern New England, beyond the Berkshire and Green Mountain ranges, was exempt from revival in fluences from 1745 until long after 1800. The same condition existed in eastern New York and the remainder of the Middle States, except in the portions already referred to. The state of religion and morals * was lower than at any other time in the nation's history, and thou sands of minds were paralyzed by the fatal influence of infidelity. f * See chapter on Morals in this period. t See chapter on French-American infidelity in this period. RECAPITULATION. 289 CHAPTER II. PROTESTANT BEGINNINGS BEYOND THE ALLEGHANIES. Sec I. Roman Catholic Preoccupancy. I Sec 3. Evangelizing Efforts. 2. Anglo-American Settlements. I " 4. E..rly Privations, etc. THE valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries became an ob ject of increasing interest and desire to the Anglo-American people in this period. During the last thirty years ofthe last cent ury the foundations of the great States, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, were laid, and the principal religious bodies had their begin nings within their borders. The area of this great valley has been calculated at about 1,200,000 square miles —equal to that of Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Bel gium, Norway and Sweden. Section 1.— Roman Catholic Preoccupancy. In sketches of the colonial era* it was noticed that on the 15th of June, 1673, the Mississippi River was discovered by two French Catholic missionary explorers, Marquette and Joliet. In 1680 Fa ther Hennepin explored the Illinois river to the Mississippi, and, taken a prisoner by the Sioux Indians, was carried up the stream as far as the Falls of St. Anthony. In 1672 La Salle descended the Mississippi to its mouth, and formally took possession of the vast valley region in the name of his king, Louis XIV., from whom he named it Louisiana. In 1683 Cahokia and Kaskaskia, in Illinois, were founded — another step in the execution of the plan for insulating all the English settlements, by establishing an unbroken line of forts and papal missions from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1699 and 1700 D'Iberville and Bienville explored the lower Mississippi and founded a colony, which in 1713 had a population of 400 whites and 20 blacks. New Orleans was founded by the French in 1717, and *For a fuller view of the movements of the Roman Catholic Church in the Mississippi Valley see pp. 68-80. 19 290 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the Spanish colony at Pensacola was taken by the French two years later. About this time emigrants began to come in considerable numbers from Europe into Lower Louisiana. The colony was divided into nine districts, with New Orleans as the principal post. It proved a heavy tax upon the parent country, in five years occasion ing a loss of 125,000 livres to the French Government. The cele brated " Mississippi Bubble," by which European capitalists lost three million dollars, was an advantage to Louisiana. In the meantime papal emissaries, penetrating all parts of the West, had established mission stations at most of the prominent points from Montreal to New Orleans. Trappers and traders, eager for gain, kept equal pace with the enthusiastic Allouez, the holy Marquette, the devout Gravier ; and in their train some of the oldest permanent settlements of the West were founded. Detroit, Cahokia and Kaskaskia, called by La Salle " a terrestrial paradise," date as far back as Mobile and Philadelphia. Fort Chartres, at the junction of the Osage and Missouri rivers, a place of immense importance to the French for fifty years, was founded in 1720, and Vincennes in 1735. These settlements gradually increased, made up of a mixed French and Indian population devoted to the simple pursuits of industry, the luxuriant soil amply repaying their toil with plenteous crops. We have noticed that as early as 1746, 600 barrels of flour were annually shipped from the Wabash region to New Orleans, besides hides, tallow, wax and honey. The religion of these settle ments was Roman Catholic; their laws consisted of a few elements of the old Roman code and their education comprised little beyond reading and writing. Thus lived missionaries, fur-traders, voyageurs, farmers and hunters, in simple quiet, in the midst of the vast western wilderness. Previous to 1750 the French made a settlement at Fort Du quesne, now Pittsburg, as a part of their system of forts to command the valley on the east. In 1755 General Braddock met a memorable defeat near this place, but the victory of General Wolfe at Quebec, four years later, giving the English the ascendency in the North, was a serious check to French dominion. At the close of the French and Indian war, in 1763, the eastern valley of the Mississippi was ceded to England, and west of the river to Spain. The year following Florida was ceded to England. At the commencement ofthe Revolution the Spaniards in Louisiana, joining the French as allies of the colonies, captured the English posts at Baton Rouge, Mobile and Pensacola ; and about the same time the American gen eral, Clark, surprised and captured the English force at Vincennes. THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 291 By the peace of 1783 Great Britain ceded Florida to Spain, and all of the territory north ofthe 31st degree of latitude to the United States. In 1800 Napoleon had compelled Spain to cede Louisiana to France ; but on the 13th of April, 1803, France sold to the United States the vast region of ancient Louisiana, then extending from the Gulf of Mexico to Missouri and the region north and west of that State. Access was thus opened to the ocean for the enterprising settlers of the great valley, and a new impulse was given to its future pros perity. In the last ten years ofthe century bloody Indian wars raged in the West. In September, 1791, General Harmer was defeated by the Indians with great loss, and in November, 1792, General Clark was routed with a terrible slaughter; but by the decisive victories of General Wayne in 1794 peace was for a season restored among the Indian tribes. Section 2.— Anglo-American Settlements. Anglo-American emigration to the Mississippi valley received a fresh impulse after the fall of Fort Chartres — the last of the French fortresses. Glowing reports of the magnificent valley beyond the Alleghanies awakened the eager cupidity ofthe settlers ofthe coast States, and the eastern populations commenced a westward march over the mountains. Military detachments, families, bands of hunt ers and single adventurers pushed steadily on. Some of these move ments were very early. Land " companies " were formed ; the " Ohio Company," in 1748, the " Transylvania Company" and the " Missis sippi Company " near the close of the French war, chiefly by inhabi tants of Virginia, for the purpose of obtaining from the English crown grants of land in the great valley, with power to hold and dispose of them. In 1786 the "Ohio Company" was reorganized, enterprising gentlemen from Massachusetts* entering into it, and liberal land bounties were granted by the General Government. By these means the settlement of the country was facilitated. In 1754 an attempt was made by North Carolinians to settle in Tennessee, but they were driven off by Indians. The first perma nent settlement was effected in eastern Tennessee by emigrants from Virginia and North Carolina. Following the waters of the Holston and Clinch rivers, they located near Knoxville as early as 1756, and were soon followed by a few others. Kentucky was explored and settled from Virginia, in 1769, by Messrs. Henderson, * Generals Parsons, Rufus Putnam and Rev. Mannasseh Cutler were appointed directors. 292 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Knox, and the famous Boone. Marietta, Ohio, was settled in 1788, by a company led by General Rufus Putnam and Manasseh Cutler, of Massachusetts. The following year Cincinnati was founded, and in 1794, the Western Reserve, in the north-eastern part of the State, was settled by families from Connecticut and Massachusetts. Small beginnings were also made in Indian;i, Illinois, and Missouri, just prior to 1800. Indian massacres and the great national war seriously retarded the growth of these early set tlements, but new impulses were successively given to them by the close of the French war, then by the war of the Revolution, and finally by the successful expedition of General Wayne, in 1794. The celebrated ordinance of 1787, perpetually devoting the North-west Territory to freedom, and the reorganization of the " Ohio Com pany " the same year, turned public attention strongly toward the latter State. In the year 1800 the population of these States was: Tennessee, 105,602 ; Kentucky, 220,965 ; Ohio, 45,365. Indiana Territory had 4,875, and Illinois was not reported. Such were the beginnings of the great populations now filling the Mississippi valley. These early inhabitants comprised some of the best classes of people in respect to morals, religion and general culture ; but very many were dissipated, reckless men, refugees from the better civili zation ofthe older communities, and not a few outlaws from justice, and duelists red with the blood of their victims. Society was inchoate, or at best crudely organized, and summary processes of " regulators " constituted the only public defense. The Cherokees, on the south, and other Indian tribes, north and west, were restless and aggressive, and not less than five treaties with them were made and broken between 1783 and 1790. Buried hatchets were easily dug up, and war-dances resumed on the slightest provocation. Section 3.— Evangelizing Efforts. The first Protestant missionary beyond the Allegheny Mount ains, Christian Frederick Post, a devout and godly Moravian, had become familiar with Indian habits and languages in his labors among the Delawares, on the banks of the Susquehanna. A calm, simple-hearted, but intrepid man, he feared not the dangers and pri vations of the Indian wilderness. During that perilous period after the fall of Braddock, he was selected by General Forbes and sent into the Indian territory to win over the red men from the French MORAVIAN BEGINNINGS. 293 to the English. The fall of Fort Duquesne was claimed to be one of the consequences of his negotiations. After the close of the French and Indian war, Post, accompanied by another Moravian, the celebrated Heckewelder, returned to this region, proceeding as far as the Muskingum, on whose banks a tribe of the Delawares had settled, and recommenced his labors. "The war of Pontiac beginning in the following year, the two missiona ries, warned of their danger by friendly Indians, returned east of the mountains and remained six years, when, together with David Zeisberger, they came back to the Muskingum, and laid the founda tions of the town of Gnadenhutten, a memorable settlement of the good Moravians and their Indians. This was the first establishment of those devout and useful missionaries beyond the mountains. Many an Indian heart was won to the cause of truth by their pa tience, constancy, and judicious, humble instructions ; and flourishing out-stations began to grow up all around them. During all the Revolutionary struggle the Moravians were successfully laboring toward the conversion of the Delaware Indians. But, unfortunately, the towns which they occupied were just upon the frontier, between the whites on the one side and the Indians on the other." * These Christian Indians became the victims of suspicion from the fierce Wyandots, the Shawnees, and the British, on the one hand, and the Americans, at Fort Pitt.f on the other, and were at last cruelly massacred by the latter — one of the darkest spots in the records of American arms ; an unprovoked, causeless, and irrational slaughter. A few of them escaped and remained true to their religious instruc tions. The settlement was subsequently re-enforced and re-estab lished by the Moravians. The Moravian brethren were the first to carry the Gospel in its purity into the vast region of the Mississippi Valley. To the Baptist denomination belongs the honor of the first intro duction of the Gospel into Tennessee and Kentucky ; being very strong and numerous in Virginia and North Carolina, whence the first settlers came. As early as 1765 the first Baptist churches were organized in eastern Tennessee, along the Holston and Clinch Rivers. They were for a time broken up by the Indian war of 1774, but after 1780 they were re-enforced and reorganized by new settlers. In 1786 the Holstein Association was organized, consisting of seven churches and seven ministers. At first but few preachers came for the single purpose of preaching the Word, and yet there was quite * See Pioneers, Preachers and People of the Mississippi Valley. By Rev. W. H. Milburn, D.D. New York, Derby and Jackson, i860. Pp. 349, 350, etc. tNow Pittsburg. 294 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. a goodly number who were authorized to administer the sacraments, who had emigrated primarily, as settlers, to improve their temporal prospects. In 1790 there were 18 Baptist churches and 889 members in Tennessee.* About the year 1781 several Baptist preachers and a few members emigrated from Virginia into Kentucky, and in the course of the following year the churches at Cedar Creek and Nel son Creek were organized. In 1783 two others were formed, and, in 1785 nine others. Among their first preachers were the Craigs, the Bledsoes, Bailey, etc. In 1 790 they numbered 42 churches, 40 ordained ministers, 21 licensed preachers, and 3,095 members. The Baptists were the first Protestants to enter Illinois. The conquest of the country by General George R. Clark, in 1778, and the organization of a civil government, by Virginia, soon after, opened the way for American emigration, and as early as 1786 a number of families had settled on the "American Bottom " and the high lands of what is now Monroe County. They came chiefly from west ern Virginia and Kentucky. In 1787 Rev. James Smith, a Baptist minister in Kentucky, visited these people and preached to them, and some professed conversion ; but the first Baptist Church was not organized until May, 1796, at New Design, St. Clair County. In 1805 they had seven churches, five ordained and three licensed min isters, and 153 members. The Baptists were also among the first to organize churches in Ohio. Among the early emigrants to Fort Washington (Cincinnati), were several Baptist families from New Jersey. A Baptist church was constituted at Columbia in 1790 The Miami Association was formed in 1797. In 1800 a number of Baptists from New England settled in the Scioto Valley and formed the Ames Church. No Baptist churches were organized in Indiana and Missouri until after 1800. The earliest Presbyterian emigration from Virginia followed the line of the Holston into eastern Tennessee. They organized churches in Upper Concord, New Providence, Salem, Mount Bethel, and Chartiers Valley, in 1780; New Bethel, in 1782; Providence, in 1784; and Hopewell, in 1785. In 1785 the Abingdon Presbytery was organized, and in 1797 it numbered, in Tennessee, nineteen congregations. The first preachers were Rev. Messrs. John Cossan, John M. Doak, D.D., Hezekiah Balch, James Balch, Robert Hender son, D.D., Samuel Carrick, and Gideon Blackburn, D.D. Revs. Charles Cummings and Samuel Doak, D.D., maybe regarded as the founders of Presbyterianism in eastern Tennessee — the former, for * American Quarterly Register, August, 1841. Article by Rev. James M. Peck, M.A., of Illi nois, pp. 40, etc. £ARLY CINCINNATI DAYS. 295 more tho.'.). thirty years, being devoted to pioneer missionary work, and the letter simultaneously organizing and giving form and sta bility to the early ecclesiastical beginnings. They mutually supple mented each other in building up and establishing the Church. The beginnings of Presbyterianism in Kentucky were a little later. In October, 1783, Rev. David Rice, long familiarly called " Father Rice," established a home in Mercer county. He was a man of education, a graduate of Princeton College. In 1784 Revs. Adam Rankin and James Crawford located at Walnut Hill. Two years later Revs. Andrew McClure and Thomas B.Craighead followed. These five ministers, with Rev. Zerah Templin, then recently or dained as an evangelist, constituted the Presbytery of Transylvania, October 17, 1786. Twelve congregations were then partially organ ized. In 1790 Revs. Robert Marshall and the celebrated Carey H. Allen were sent from Virginia to Kentucky as missionaries. When Cincinnati was laid out, in 1789, certain lots were dedi cated to church and school purposes. The following ye ir " Father Rice," of Kentucky, organized in the place the First Presbyterian Church,* and the first house of worship was erected in 1792.7- But the progress was slow, the church being much of the time without a pastor. The growth of the city was very small during the first decade. In 1796 it is said to have been " a small village of log- cabins, including, perhaps, a dozen coarse frame houses with stone chimneys, most of them unfinished."^: In 1800 it had but 750 in habitants. In 1799 the Presbytery of Washington, consisting of seven ministers, was formed out of the Transylvania Presbytery, Kentucky, and embraced the field around Cincinnati, on both sides of the Ohio River. § The earliest introduction of Methodism into the west was in the State of Tennessee. In 1785, less than twenty years after its com mencement in America, Rev. Messrs. Richard Swift and Michael Gilbert, early itinerants, visited the Holston country. The region through which they traveled and organized their circuits was for the most part rough, mountainous, thinly settled with ignorant and uncultivated people, and exposed to Indian depredations. They were followed by Mark Whitaker and Mark Moore, zealous, plain, "old fashioned Methodist preachers."! These in turn were suc ceeded by Jeremiah Matson, Thomas Ware, Joseph Doddridge, * History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. GiUett, D.D. Vol. II. p. 123. t United States Gazetteer. X Judje Bennett in Ohio Historical Society Transactions. $ History of Presbyterian Church. Gillett, Vol. II, p. 125. | Sketches of Western Methodism. By Rev. J. B. Finley, D.D. P. 57. 296 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Jeremiah Able, John Tunnell, John McGee, John West, and others. In the year 1800 the Methodist societies in Tennessee numbered 743 communicants. Methodism was introduced into Kentucky by a few devoted local preachers, among whom were Francis Clark, Wm. J.Thompson, Nathaniel Harris, and the Woodfields, who came with the early tide of emigration from Virginia and North Caro lina, soon after the close of the Revolutionary war. But the first itinerant ministers were Revs. James Haw and Benj. Ogden, who were sent to Kentucky in 1786. The next year they reported 90 members. They were successively followed by Rev. Messrs. Thomas Williamson, Francis Poythress, Peter Massie, Benjamin Snelling, Wilson Lee, etc. In 1800 there were 1,741 Methodists in Kentucky. The first Methodist sermon in Cincinnati was preached in 1793, by a local preacher from Kentucky, named Francis Clark. Toward the close of the year 1795, Rev. James Smith, a local preacher from Virginia, crossed the Ohio River on a tour of inspection, and preached in or near Cincinnati, at the house of a Mr. — Talbert. Again, in 1797, Mr. Smith returned to Ohio and preached in Cincin nati, in the cabin of Mr. — Smalley. He also preached in Colum bia and elsewhere, though he did not organize any " class." The first " regular itinerant," Rev. John Kobler, was sent by Bishop Asbury, in 1798, as missionary in " the North-west Territory," as Ohio was then called. He found the site of Cincinnati a dense for est, with only a fort and a few cabins erected in " the clearings " around it. The place was under the command of General Harrison, and was the rendezvous of the forces sent by the Government to guard the frontiers. Here Mr. Kobler desired to preach, but, unlike Mr. Smith, could find no opportunity. He went forth exploring settlements, traversed trackless woods and forded deep streams, forming " classes " and " a circuit." Two years later 257 communi cants were reported in Ohio. Kobler became a magistrate, and a member of the convention which formed the constitution of the State of Ohio. In 1799 Rev. Tobias Gibson, impressed with a strong desire to visit Natchez, offered himself to Bishop Asbury, and was sent to open the way for Methodism on the lower Mississippi, eighteen years before the Mississippi Territory was admitted into the Union. " He set out from Pedee, his native spot, and bent his course to ward the Cumberland River. For six hundred miles he traveled through the wilderness. Arriving at the river he sold his horse, bought a canoe, and embarked for twelve hundred miles, with saddle, bridle and saddle-bags, and a supply of provisions. Paddling CONGREGATIONALISTS IN OHIO. 297 himself down the Cumberland he dropped into the Ohio and soon after reached the Mississippi. . . . He continued his solitary course down the great river until he reached Natchez. Here he founded a Methodist church. He subsequently made four land journeys through the wilderness lying between Natchez and the Cumberland to procure additional laborers. In the Minutes of 1800, sixty mem bers were reported as the result of his first year's work.* The Congregationalists came very early to Ohio. In 1788 Marietta was settled by a company of forty-seven persons from Massachusetts under General Rufus Putnam, an intimate and highly-esteemed friend of General Washington, one of the directors of the Ohio Company, and subsequently Surveyor-General of the United States. The enlightened men who managed the affairs of the " Company " in one of their first meetings made arrangements for the support of the Gospel and the instruction of the youth in their new colony. In 1788 Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., one of the directors, engaged Rev. Daniel Storey, a graduate of Dartmouth College, then preaching in Munson, Mass., to go to the West and serve as chaplain to the new settlements of the company. After a tedious and laborious journey across the Alleghany Mountains, Mr. Storey arrived at Marietta in the spring of 1789^ and commenced his labors as an evangelist. The settlements were new and scat tered, some of them at a considerable distance from Marietta ; nevertheless he visited them in rotation, in conformity with the arrangements of the directors, according to which he was to preach about one third of the time at the settlements of Wolf Creek and Belpre. During the Indian war, from 1791 to 1795, Mr. Storey preached the larger portion of the time in the North-west block-house of Campus Martius, the upper room of which was fitted up, with benches and a rude desk, so as to accommodate a hundred persons. This room was also used for a school taught by Major Anselm Tup per, a gentleman of good education, the first school-teacher probably in the North-west. Colonel E. Battelle, a graduate of Harvard College, kept a school about this time at Belpre. These intellec tual and spiritual labors were carried on under the direction of the Ohio Company. When the Indians were quiet, Mr. Storey visited other points, fifteen or twenty miles distant from Marietta. * Bishop H. N. McTyeire's History of Methodism. Southern Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, Tenn. 1884. P. 463. t Early History of the North-west. Cincinnati. Hitchcock & Walden. By Samuel P. Hildreth, M. D. 298 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The first Congregational Church in Ohio, composed of persons residing in Marietta, Belpre and Waterford, Ohio, and Vienna, in Virginia, was organized at Marietta, in 1796, by Rev. Mr. Storey. Called to the pastoral charge of the church, and there being no ministers of that persuasion west of the mountains, he returned to the East and was duly ordained, in Danvers, Mass., on the 15th of August, 1797. ' He maintained his pastoral relation with the church in Marietta until March, 1804. Other colonies of Congregational ists from Massachusetts and Connecticut settled in the north-eastern part of Ohio, called the " Western Reserve," about 1796-7, and in 1800 the Connecticut Missionary Society sent a missionary, Rev. Joseph Badger,* into this region, who organized, at Austinburg, Oct. 21, 1801, the first Congregational church in the " Reserve," consisting of eight males and six females. Section 4.— Early Privations, etc. The first preachers in the West shared largely with the people in the hardships and trials of the new country. A primitive state of society greeted them every-where. Deer-skin was a common article of clothing for men and boys, and a blanket or a coverlid served for an overcoat in the winter. Homespun cloth was worn only by the better classes, and this the preachers were glad to ob tain. The best dwellings of the settlers for many years were huts or log-cabins ; and stools, pots, a " Dutch oven," or no oven at all, with a hard bed of straw or of bear and buffalo skins, constituted the usual furniture. Boxes served for tables. The pioneer preacher was often compelled to sleep on the cold ground in the forest or under the open sky of the prairie. The food of the people was also very simple, with little variety. Often no bread would be had for weeks together. Pumpkins, potatoes, " hog and hominy " were the staple articles in the earlier times, and at some seasons bears' meat, venison, and wild fowl. Bears' oil sometimes took the place of butter. The idea of erecting churches could not be entertained for a long time after the beginning of the settlements. The cabins, the forts and the forests were the first meeting-houses, and the stumps of trees were the first pnlpits. The "howling wilderness'' was on every side; the roads only bridle-paths ; blazed trees their guide- * For an account of his labors and privations among these early settlements see American Quarterly Register, February, 1841, pp. 322-328. BACKWOODS LIFE. . 299 boards. As there were no bridges the streams were forded on horse back. Religious services were attended from ten to twenty miles around, and those were fortunate who had not more than five or six miles to go. In the earliest times every man came armed. The guns were stacked, and the sentinel was appointed to give an alarm in case ofthe approach of Indians. The toils and hardships ofthe ministers were excessive. They shared the common lot of the people in respect to food, clothing and lodging ; but their journeys from place to place, to preach, to administer the ordinances and to visit their scattered sheep, made their labors arduous and hazardous. The settled ministers often traveled from fifteen to fifty miles in the discharge of parochial duties, and the early Methodist itiner ants were constantly traveling their large circuits four or five hun dred miles around. Peter Cartwright facetiously said of one of his large circuits on the frontier, that " it took in one half of cre ation, for it had no boundary on the west ; " and he penetrated six hundred miles due west in pursuit of scattered emigrants. In their journeys the preachers often encountered savage Indians, savage beasts, and sometimes more savage white men. Thus did these heroic men toil to build up Christ's Church. It was a period of rough, resolute courage and independence, and great controversies were frequent. There were sharp conten tions about baptism and pedo-baptism, free grace and predestination, falling from grace, unconditional perseverance, etc., etc. Challenges and public debates were common, and these things, with Indian wars, French intrigues, French infidelity aud contentions about State rights, greatly retarded the progress of religion. Infidelity- was rife in these western regions at this early period, permeating, as it was estimated, one half ofthe population of Kentucky. Vice and dissipation flooded the country. It required great boldness to attempt to stem the tide which rolled in with irresistible power every-where. At the close of the century the Presbyterians and the Method ists sometimes found it necessary to unite their efforts and concert their action for the common cause. This was done in the southern part of Kentucky, where " union meetings " and " sacramental meetings " were held, the two denominations working together as kind and efficient yoke-fellows. In connection with these union efforts the great revival of 1800 commenced, which will constitute the theme of another chapter.* * Period II, Chapter I. 300 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER III. DIVERSE CURRENTS. Sec. I. The Unitarian Trend. j Sec. 3. The New Jerusalem Church. " 2. Universalism. I " 4- The Shakers. Section 1.— Tne Unitarian Trend. THIS tendency in the New England churches had its inception in the Half- Way Covenant * adopted in 1662. Through the century this leaven had steadily worked, materially changing the current theology of New England. The Edwardian and Whitefieldian revivals for a time broke the force of this tendency, successfully combated Stoddard's innova tion, and led many of the churches back to the old strict terms of membership. In the remainder of the churches, however, the old Calvinistic theology died a speedier death. The strengthening of one class increased the revolt in the other. After the revival the word " Arminian," which had been so much dreaded, grew familiar. The type of thought, however, was not pure Arminianism, but rather Pelagianism mixed with Socinianism. As the term was used it meant Anti-Calvinism. The change had been long and gradual. First, certain church rites crumbled, then the doctrines. There was a new emphasis in behalf of man's free will and ability to gain sal vation, and in respect to God's impartiality. There were two parties, and after 1750 they were perceptibly diverging. The new party was rising and extending. The mottoes were, Few funda mentals ; no human creed ; only Bible words to express mysteries. Broad toleration was advocated in ordination and convention ser mons, and the examination of candidates for ordination was dis carded. The works of English Unitarians were in circulation. The orthodox party were becoming alarmed, grew more defiant, and charged the " Liberals " with evasion. Such was the drift at the close ofthe Revolution. * See pp. 100-102, 107, 108, 137, 140, 150-152, 198-201. UNITARIANISM. SO 1 Although the schism out of which the Unitarian body was or ganized did not occur until 1815-1825, yet so deep and extensive was this drift that the exciting events ofthe Revolution only slightly checked its progress; and in 1786 it was said that " the general tone of thought in Boston was decidedly Unitarian." The elder Edwards and Mayhew had departed; Chauncy and Gray were feeble with advanced age ; Styles was in his meridian at Yale Col lege ; Dwight was a rising light ; Emerson and Ware had just com menced their ministry ; Channing and Beecher were boys ; Norton and Buckminster were tender babes ; and Hopkins and Belamy were leading a small party in an effort to relieve orthodoxy of the odi- ousness of High Calvinism. It was at such a time that the first open avowal of Unitarianism in the United States was made in the city of Boston, not among the Congregationalists, but among the Episcopalians. King's Chapel the First Unitarian Church in America. When the British troops left Boston all the Episcopal clergy went with them, and King's Chapel was occupied by the " Old South " congregation while they were repairing the injuries to their house made by the English soldiery who had occupied it. In 1782 the remaining proprietors of King's Chapel determined to re store the Episcopal form of worship. In the absence of a regular cler gyman Mr. James Freeman, a rising young man and a recent gradu ate of Harvard College, was employed to read the liturgy. " He was attached to the ritual, but had yet to frame his theological opinions. He gave himself to the current of free investigation, and no eccle siastical authority restrained his progress or menaced him with public annoyance. Some changes in the Common Prayer were re quired by the change in the political relations, and after a time Freeman avowed his wish to change, with them, those parts in which the Trinity was acknowledged. . . . By a vote of twenty to seven the proprietors of the chapel adopted the ritual with its proposed alterations. He asked in vain for orders from the new bishops in the United States, and in 1787 the warden* proceeded deliberately to ordain him, seventeen proprietors protesting." f The amend ment to the liturgy was adopted June 19, 1785, which may be re garded as the date of the formation of the first Unitarian Church in *The warden "laid one hand upon him and with the other delivered to him the Bible." Lindsay's Vindication, p. 25. t Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England, p. 37. 302 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. America. " Thus the first Episcopal Church in New England became the first Unitarian Church in the New World." * In London a Mr. Lindsay, a friend of Freeman, had just tried a similar experiment. They conferred together. Freeman told him the whole story — how shy the public were at first ; how Dr. Priest ley's books were being, read, and other books of English Unitarians ; how many of the clergy had given up the Trinitarian doxology; that there was only one minister in New England who openly preached " the Socinian scheme," although " there are many churches in which the worship is strictly Unitarian, and some of New England's most eminent laymen openly avow that creed." " Although Dr. Freeman was the first who in this country openly preached Unitarianism under that name, he never claimed the credit of that movement, but referred to Dr. Mayhew and others as having preached the same doctrine before. This was no doubt true. . . . Yet as he was the first to avow and defend the doctrine by its distinct name he may be considered as its first preacher." f Before his death he became a decided humanitarian. X Revs. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, and William Bentley, of Salem, class mates of Freeman in Harvard College, were also among the first to adopt these views. Bentley was very learned and bold. Of him Hon. Edward Everett said, at his funeral, " He dared to speak what others did not dare to think." In 1794 Dr. Priestley, the distinguished leader in the Unitarian ranks in England, and a decided humanitarian, came to this country to spend the remainder of his days. His great talents and learning were universally acknowledged ; but not much was accomplished by his efforts to promote the spread of Unitarianism here.§ He preached to a small congregation in Northumberland, Pa., where he resided, but his lectures in Philadelphia drew large audiences. Hon. Thomas Jefferson was much influenced by him, adopting some of his opin ions in the latter part of his life. On the 1 2th of June, 1796, thirteen persons holding Unitarian views assembled in Philadelphia to establish religious worship ; but the growth of the congregation was slow and their services were sev eral times entirely suspended. The new leaven was steadily working in Boston, and Dr. Bradford has said, " It was confidently believed that there was not a strict Trinitarian clergyman in Boston in i8oo."| * Greenwood's History of King's Chapel. t Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, p. 169. Xlbid., p. 173. § Ibid., Introduction, p. n. ] Life of Mayhew, p. 468. He probably meant in the Congregational churches. See more fully on this point, Period II, Chap. VI. ANTI-TRINITARIANS. S03 The Attitude. The first marked victory which the " liberal" party in New En gland gained occurred in the early part of the last century, " in the defeat of the Mathers and the ascendency of the Brattles. Leveretts and Willards, in the administration of Harvard College." The founders of the Brattle Street Church, who were leaders of this movement, "headed the social and intellectual tendency that de veloped itself into Unitarianism." But the most sensitive point in the earlier stages of the movement was practical liberty, a revulsion against the party of Edwards and Whitefield, who endeavored to re store the old practice of doctrinal tests and the relation of Christian experience. It was a contest against what was called ecclesiastical proscription. This practical protest was very soon vindicated by new metaphysical theories in regard to man's moral nature and spiritual capabilities, at variance with the old doctrines of necessity, depravity, regeneration, justification by faith, the atonement, the character and person of Christ and, at a later period, of the Trinity also. While they could not submit to the rigid discipline and the exacting creeds of the older divines, they nevertheless, for the most part, cherished sterling Christian principles and a high sense of per sonal responsibility. They intended to remain in the Church, but meant to contend for liberty of thought and action. They were supported by a large share of the wealth, culture, civil influence and social distinction of the New England churches. Nor was the spirit of this period of a controversial character, but calm, yet in dependent. Freeman, in a letter to Belsham, in 1795, thus described the attitude of the new party. I am acquainted with a number of ministers in the southern part of Massa chusetts who avow and publicly preach Unitarian doctrine; while others, more cautious, content themselves with leading their hearers, by a course of rational and prudent sermons, gradually and insensibly to embrace it. In some cases the line of demarcation between the two schools was very slight. Such men as Belknap and Eliot differed from the majority of the liberalists. Rejecting the Athanasian creed, they accepted the " indwelling scheme," without assailing the Trinitarian theology as such, and spoke of God as Father, Son and Holy Ghost, as a few Unitarians of a later period have done. Some prominent ministers of this party, down to the close of the last cent ury, and also in the earlier part of the present, refused to be called Anti-Trinitarians, while nevertheless they rejected what they called 304 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. " Tritheism." Others preferred Athanasius to Arius ; some set forth " a Trinity of divine manifestations," which has been facetiously called " the effective evolution, or the differentiating and integrating of the unity of the Divine Being." Diversity of opinion, however, cannot be regarded as peculiar to this period, but it has been charac teristic of this movement from its inception to the present time, only with an ever-increasing divergence, as will be shown in the sketches of its subsequent history. Section 2.— Universalism. In a previous chapter,* the inceptive stages of a revolt against extreme Calvinism toward Universalism were sketched. It was shown to be confined to no single locality, but was apparent in all sections and in all classes of minds. But two men stand forth more conspicuous than any others as the founders of Universalism in this country, and are referred to by the Universalists themselves as the patriarchs and pioneers of the denomination — Revs. John Murray and Elhanan Winchester. Of these Mr. Murray occupies the more prominent position, hav ing been currently styled The Father of Universalism in the United States because of the extent and publicity of his labors, and his suc cess in awakening public attention to his doctrines and in founding societies of that faith. Originally a Whitefieldian Methodist, he was converted to Universalism by Rev. James Relley, of London. He held to the doctrine of the trinity, substitutional atonement, the peculiar saving efficacy of divine grace through faith in Christ, re generation and sanctification by the Holy Ghost, a personal devil, the resurrection ofthe literal body, the future general judgrnent, resulting in the salvation of all men, and a literal hell, in which devils will be punished forever. Mr. Murray entertained very high views upon the question, What constitutes a Universalist? Speaking of some " who," he says, " are not heart believers, but only head be lievers," and " who contend that because Jesus is the Saviour of all men therefore they will be saved," he says: I am more and more convinced that nothing but the spirit and power of God can make a consistent Universalist. Do you ask me what it is that constitutes a consistent Universalist? I answer, a consistent Universalist must be taught of God, and under the influence of the Divine Spirit, t * See Colonial Era, Chapter VIII. Diverse Currents, pp. 194-211. tSee Hints Relative to the Forming of a Christian Church. A pamphlet. By Rev. John Murray. Boston, 1791, p. 45. UNIVERSALISTS. 303 Speaking of those who " suppose that all will be on a level in the article of death," he says : Neither in life nor death, in the body or out of the body, can any of the ran somed of the Lord be saved from misery till they are made acquainted with God as their Saviour ; and though in death the spirit does not go with the body into the dust, and must be under the eye of the Father of Spirits, yet "where Christ is," that is, in " fullness of joy," they never can be till they have peace and joy in be lieving; no, he who dies in unbelief lies down in sorrow and will rise in the resur rection of damnation, or, more properly, condemnation.* He regarded the Bible as teaching the judgment as past and present, and also yet to come. " The /adjudgment " was " by Christ, when on earth." " Now is the judgment of this world." " The present judgment " is that in which " every one taught of God judges himself." " Judge yourselves, and ye shall not be judged." " The judgment yet to come" is that of "the last great day," in which all who have not judged themselves, all unbelievers of the human race and all fallen angels through whose influence the unbelieving part of mankind are held in darkness and blindness, shall be judged by the Saviour of the world ; but these two characters shall then be sepa rated — one placed on the right hand and the other on the left — the one, the " sheep," for whose salvation he laid down his life ; the other, " accursed," whose nature he passed by. In that future judg ment, believers who have judged themselves shall not be judged, nor will they be present, f Rev. Elhanan Winchester, pastor of a Baptist church in Philadelphia, avowed himself a Res- torationist in 1781. He was converted to these views by reading the works of Siegvolck and Stonehouse. Like Mr. Murray, he was a deeply devoted and zealous man, of respectable literary qualifi cations, and their theological views seem not to have differed, except in regard to the punishment of the wicked after the future general judgment, which Mr. Winchester taught would result in the holi ness and happiness of all men. But Mr. Murray denied that there would be any misery after the general judgment. Mr. Winchester was very definite and positive in his views of future retribution, holding to a literal hell, literal fire and brim stone, whose torment will be strictly penal, which he proclaimed in the most terrific strains, and the duration of which he taught would be unequal, in different cases ; in some extending to forty-nine thousand years. This period he seems to have deduced from a * Hints Relative to the Forming of a Christian Church. t Murray's Hints, pp. 9, 10, 33. 20 306 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. fanciful interpretation of certain prophetic types and numbers. He died in Hartford, Conn., in 1797, at the early age of forty-six years, leaving behind him more than forty volumes and pamphlets, but few of which now exist except in rare libraries. He had been very zealous and extensive in his labors, preaching seven years in England, where he made many converts to his views, as well as in this country. Dr. Charles Chauncy, of Boston, has been before alluded to* His book f on this subject, {The Mystery Hid from Ages ; or the Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing Aimed at in the Scheme of God) was published anonymously in London, 1784, although written about twenty years before. With his characteristic caution he first published in Boston, in 1782, a pamph let of twenty-six pages of extracts from the volume. It advocated the final restoration of all men to holiness and happiness as a doctrine of the Bible. A sharp controversy was immediately awakened. Two replies to his pamphlet appeared, one written by Rev. Samuel Mather, D.D., pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Bos ton, and the other by Rev. Joseph Eckley, D.D., ofthe "Old South." Mr. Shippie Townsend, of Boston, a layman, also participated in the debate. After his volume was published, in 1784, the contro versy took a wider range, and in the midst of it, in 1787, he died, aged eighty-two years. Two years after Chauncy' s death, Rev. Jona than Edwards, D.D., of New Haven, published an able volume in re ply to Dr. Chauncy. Dr. Belknap said, " The Chauncy controversy engaged every body's attention more or less.":]: The extent of this tendency to these views may be judged from the following testimonies: Rev. Nathan Strong, D.D., of Hartford, Conn., in 1796, said: "This error (disbelief in future punishment) is not confined to those who are commonly called Universalists. There is a more numerous class of people who have not, and perhaps never *See Colonial Era, Chapter IV. Diverse Currents, p. 206. fSvo., pp. 400. X See Sprague's Annals ofthe American Pulpit. Volume on Unitarian Ministers, p. 77. Note. — Dr. Chauncy seems to have had some knowledge of Murray's preaching in Boston and vicinity before his book was published, and to have had no sympathy with his theory of uni versal salvation without future punishment. Being a Restorationist he protested against Mr. Murray's teachings as dangerous in their influence. In the preface to his volume he says : "The doctrine of universal salvation has in this and some other towns been held forth by a stranger, who has, of himself, assumed the character of a. preacher, in direct contradiction not only to all the beforetime writers, but to the whole tenor of New Testament books, from their beginning to end. According to this preacher a man may go to heaven notwithstanding all the sins he has been guilty of in the course of his life. Such doctrine looks very like an encouragement tu liber tinism, and falls in with the scheme of too many in this degenerate age, who, under the pre tense oi promoting religion, undermine it at the very root. It is certainly fitted to this end, and has already had this effect upon many." RESTORA TIONISM. 307 will, separate from the other denominations of professed Christians."* Rev. Bishop Mead, of Virginia, has said. " It was not an uncommon thing for Universalism to be preached by the Virginia clergy, in the last quarter of the last century. f These early Universalists seem not, however, to have united in general movements. Dr. Chauncy never met with Murray and Win chester; and Mr. Winchester moved in an orbit entirely his own, except on two occasions. Once he occupied Murray's pulpit, in Boston, and he was present with Murray at the first general conven tion of Universalists, in Oxford, Mass., in 1785, where he preached a sermon of which Murray speaks favorably in his Autobiography. This convention was a small body, made up of only three ministers and delegates from the societies at Gloucester, Boston, Milford, and Oxford. The third minister was Rev. Caleb Rich. We have no evidence of any united action of Mr. Winchester with Mr. Murray at any other time. Murray and Winchester. The differences between these two men, although not numerous, were very decided, Murray being absolutely and uncompromisingly opposed to the doctrine of the punishment of sinners, even for a limited period, in the future world, and Winchester preaching and writing upon it in the most flaming and alarming strains.:): *See reply to Dr. Huntington's book, Calvinism Improved. By Rev. Nathan Strong, D.D., of Hartford. 1796. P. 11. tS e Old Churches and Families of Virginia, By Bishop Wm. Meade. Vol. I, p. 183. He cites Rev. Messrs. Yancy, of Louisa, and Talley, of Gloucester, Va. X At this point a controversy has arisen between Universalists of a later period. We occa sionally find it stated in the Universalist literature of the last fifty years that Murray was a Res- torationist. It was not an uncommon thing to meet this assertion, from 182310 1838, in the writings of Revs. Adin Ballou, Paul Dean, and others, who were the leaders in a split in the de nomination, in favor of Restorationism, which then occurred. In. their circular, sent out at that time, they say that "there has been of late years a great departure from the sentiments of the first Universalist preachers in this country," and that they "believe with Murray, Win chester, Chauncy, and the ancient authors who have written upon this subject, in future re wards and punishments, to be followed by the final restoration of all mankind to holiness and happiness." But these assertions were ably and unanswerably refuted by Rev. Thomas Whittemore, then editor of the Trumpet, by abundant quotations from Mr. Murray's writings, explicitly declaring his dissent from Mr. Winchester's doctrine of Restorationism. And yet, in The Universalist, February 11, 1871, Rev. Adin Ballou re-asserts the same thing, declaring that the Universalist denomination " was originally Restorationist in faith, and so re mained, in doctrinal exposition, till after tlie year 18(5." "The doctrine of universal salvation, without any disciplinary punishment after death, was advocated by certain persons in England and America before and after the Universalist Convention in 1785, but was strongly denounced by Winchester and Murray, the leading founders of that convention." " Hosea Ballou was the first preacher (at least of any note) inside the Universalist denomination who advocated univer sal salvation without any disciplinary punishment after death, some time between 1815 and 1820." Such were Rev. Adin Ballou's assertions, nothwithstanding the demonstrations of Mr. Whitte more to the contrary, from thirty to forty years ago, over and over again in the Trumpet. 308 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. A brief statement of the peculiar views of these two leading founders of American Universalism is necessary, that the character of the opinions in this early period maybe understood, and the drift of sentiment in more recent times may be more distinctly appre hended and appreciated. Mr. Winchester has stated his views of the punishment of the wicked in these words. Some suppose that all punishment and pain shall end at the coming of Christ, and mankind at once shall be restored ; but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity and to those who refuse to submit to the Lord ; and as for punishment ceasing when he first comes, it is a mistake of great magnitude, for the punish ment of the wicked will continue ages of ages after the day of judgment.* Again he says : They can never be loosed from it until they are wholly subdued.f To a friend Mr. Murray said, in regard to the doctrine of restoration: Mr. Winchester considers weak, ruined individuals as paying their own debts; yea, to the uttermost farthing. I see no strength but in Christ Jesus ; be you as sured, therefore, I am not of Mr. Winchester's school.}: Again be says : A second class of Universalists insist on purgatorial satisfaction, according to which every man must come to be his own saviour ; for if I must suffer as much in my own person as will satisfy Divine justice, how is or how can Jesus Christ be my saviour? If this purgatorial doctrine be true, the ministry of reconciliation com mitted to the apostles must be false, to wit: " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses." In fact, I know no description of people further from Christianity, true Christianity, than such Uni versalists. ... As I descend into the vale of life these discoveries give me a touch of sorrow, and I anticipate a harvest of evil. § In these extracts, more of which might be given, Mr. Murray ex plicitly declares that he is " not of Mr. Winchester's school," and joins direct issue with Restorationists. Mr. Murray believed that all men had broken the law of God, and were all, therefore, justly exposed to its penalties, that these penalties had been fully suffered by Christ for us on the cross, and that " His punishment on the cross was our punishment for sin." Hence, strictly speaking, Mr. Murray did not hold to punishment for sin either in this life or in the next, for Christ had suffered all the punishment due to sin, and every man must be saved by faith, by a personal acceptance of Christ. Hence the miseries attendant upon unbelief will continue as long as unbelief shall continue, whether in this world or the next; but he regarded them as unavoidable consequences, and not penalties. It is these unavoidable consequences of sin and unbe- * Winchester on the Prophecies. Vol I, p. 265. f Murray's Letters. Vol. II, p. 263. Xlbid., p. 278. § Ibid_ vol. II, p. 130. MURRAY AND WINCHESTER. 309 lief, and not punishment for them, which will extend into the future world, because sin and unbelief will exist there. Mr. Winchester held to a day of judgment after death, at which men would be sen tenced to punishment; but the judgment in which Dr. Murray believed was designed to deliver men from all sin and unbelief, by revealing to them the character of God, " showing the things that belong to their peace," and "making them acquainted with salvation." "In that day all knees should bow and accept Christ and enter into eternal rest."* The early conventions of 1785 and 1803, and of the intervening period also, embraced men of the two schools, Murray's and Win chester's, who agreed as to the final happiness of all men ; and in the platform which was adopted in 1803 the differences were ignored, as in the second Article : We believe in one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ by one Holy Spirit of grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness. Such was the condition of things during the first period of Uni versalism. 1. It was a departure from the generally accepted evan gelical theology chiefly at one point — the final salvation of all men. It had no taint of Unitarianism or of Rationalism. 2. Murray held to the salvation of all men at the general judgment, and that unbe lievers would be in a state of misery until that time ; not penal, but the natural consequence of sin and unbelief, f Christ having endured the penalty for them. 3. Winchester held to a local hell and a long period of disciplinary punishment after the general judgment, *See Trumpet, August ii, 1832. Also Murray's Hints to the Forming of a Church. Bos ton, 1792. t In further confirmation of the decidedly evangelical character of the views of Mr. Winches ter on all points except that of the final restoration of all men, we adduce the following testimony from Rev. Enoch Mudge, the first native Methodist preacher raised up in New England. In a letter in Zion's Herald, March, 1827, he gave an account of an interview which he had with Mr. Winchester a short time before his death, in which Mr. Winchester related his conversations with Rev. John Wesley, whom he had frequently met in England, in the latter part of his life. In those conversations their doctrinal agreements and disagreements were freely discussed. " In stating the points of agreement (with Mr. Wesley) I well recollect," said Mr. Mudge, "Mr. Winchester commenced with a view of the doctrine of the depravity of man in his fallen state, a full and complete atonement by Christ, the necessity of repentance and regeneration, of justifica tion by faith, of sanctification. On this he enlarged fully, observing that the doctrine was the same ; their only difference was in the manner of preaching it. He also dwelt on the similarity ' of their views with regard to the general calls and invitations of the Gospel, the moral accounta. bility of man and of future rewards and punishments — the necessity of being holy in order to be happy. Thus far, " said he, "we could usually preach in nearly the same strain ; but when we went to speak of the nature and duration ofthe punishment ofthe wicked, we differed, Mr, Wesley supposing the state of probation to close with the present life, and that the states of all men are unalterably fixed in the day of judgment. He viewed punishment as penal and eternal ; as chastisatory and designed for reclaiming the criminal, and that when reclaimed they shall be restored." 3lO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. resulting in the final salvation of all men. In what proportion these different opinions then prevailed in the denomination we have no means of judging. The first Universalist society in the United States was organized by Rev. John Murray, in Gloucester, Mass., January, 1779. At the end of the first ten years from the landing of Murray, there were two societies and four or five ministers. In 1801 there were twenty- two preachers of that faith in America. * Section 3.— The Hew Jerusalem Churcli. was introduced into the United States during this period. In the life-time of Emanuel Swedenborg there were but few individuals who were known to have cordially received the doctrines taught in his writings. Swedenborg did nothing, and there was nothing done in his day to effect an organization of those who accepted the doc trines taught by him. Swedenborg lived many years in London for the purpose of publishing his works, and died there, in 1772, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. In 1782 a society was formed in Manchester to print and publish Swedenborg's volumes in the English language. This society is still in active existence. In 1783 meetings were es tablished in London for reading Swedenborg's works and for free conversation, and the first public meeting was held the same year. Those who attended it were so highly gratified that they determined to promote their " plan of holding up to the view of the world a light which could no longer be concealed in a secret place nor hid under a bed or a bushel." Rooms were immediately engaged, and advertisements were inserted in some of the newspapers giving a general invitation to all the readers of Swedenborg's writings in London and elsewhere, to join the Standard, " and by a common exertion to assist in extending the knowledge of them." This ad vertisement was immediately noticed by Mr. James Glen, a Scotch gentleman, about to settle in Demarara, in South America. He introduced himself to the newly-formed society at its second meet ing. Mr. Glen had accepted the doctrines ofthe New Church from reading the treatise on Heaven and Hell while on the ocean, on his return to Europe from America, where he had been to pur chase a plantation, the book having been presented to him by the captain of the vessel on which he sailed. * Universalist Centennial Volume, p. 35. SWEDENBORGIANISM. ' sn Meetings for worship soon grew out of these first meetings for study and conversation, and the next year, 1784, in the month of June, Mr. James Glen, who had now reached the United States, delivered public lectures in Philadelphia— the first promulgation of the doctrines of the New Church on the continent of America. These lectures were well attended, and some of those who were present became the first receivers of these doctrines in the New World. Mr. Glen traveled in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ken tucky, for the purpose of making these doctrines known. He also gave lectures in Boston not long after. He had brought with him from England such English translations of these writings as were there published ; and after he had left for Demarara a further sup ply of books from England gave opportunity for others to study the writings of the Church. The work of republication was immedi ately begun and earnestly prosecuted. In 1795 Rev. Wm. Hill came to America from England. He preached new Church doctrines in Massachusetts — in Boston, Ded- ham, Cambridge, and Salem. He went back to England, but after ward returned to this country, where he died, in Philadelphia, in the year 1804. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Jacob Duche, rector of St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia, and chaplain to the first Continental Congress. In the year 1792 a sermon explaining the doctrines of the New Church was preached in the court house in Baltimore, Md., by Rev. James Wilmer, formerly a cler gyman ofthe Protestant Episcopal Church. Others took up the work. Among the most efficient laborers was Rev. John Hargrove who had been a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first regularly organized society of the New Church in this country which continued in existence was formed in Baltimore, in the year 1798, under the ministry of Rev. Ralph Mather and Rev. John Hargrove. Mr. Mather was an Englishman, and had preached in England. Mr. James Glen, who attended the second public meeting in London, and who first made known the doctrines of the New Church in Philadelphia, was the first who lectured upon them in Boston. A few years after Mr. Glen was followed, as has been said, by Rev. Wm. Hill, who presented the Arcana Celestia, and a number of the smaller works of Swedenborg, in Latin, to the college library at Cambridge, Mass. A small number of persons were led by his labors to receive the doctrines taught in Swedenborg's writings.* *The author is indebted to Rev. Samuel M. Worcester, M.D., of Salem, Mass., for the fore going sketch. 312 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Section 4.— Tlie Shakers. These religionists arose in Europe in the first half of the eight eenth century. In 1705 they appeared in England. In 1757 Mrs. Ann Lee joined the Society and soon became its conspicuous head. In 1774 she came to the United States and settled in Watervliet, near Albany, N. Y. In a religious revival among the Baptists, at New Lebanon, Columbia County, in 1780, some of those most visi bly affected visited " Mother Lee," and through her were led to be lieve that they had found the " key to their experiences." Mother Lee traveled widely several years, performing alleged miracles, broaching the idea of a community of property, forming her follow ers into a model for Shaker organizations, and died in 1784. James Whitaker, called " Father James," who came from England with her, succeeded her at the head of the organization, and died in 1787. The same year, Joseph Meacham, a Baptist preacher, and a convert of Mother Lee, collected her followers in a settlement in New Leba non, which thenceforth became a center of union. Under his ad ministration in the course of five years eleven Shaker settlements were founded; namely, at New Lebanon and Watervliet, N. Y. ; at Hancock, Tyringham, Harvard and Shirley, Mass. ; at Enfield, Conn. ; at Canterbury and Enfield, N. H. ; and at Alfred and New Gloucester, Me. No other societies were formed until after 1800. FRENCH SKEPTICISM. 313 CHAPTER IV- THE FRENCH-AMERICAN INFIDELITY. Sec. I. Type of French Unbelief. " 2. Introduction into America. " 3. Skepticism Among Statesmen. Sec. 4. Infidel Organizations. " 5. Testimonies. THE most serious opposing influence encountered by Christianity during this period was the gross infidelity which then abounded, surpassing in virulence, extent and influence all manifestations of skepticism in previous or more recent periods. The rising spirit of " free inquiry " * in the colonial period has been briefly sketched in previous pages, and was traced to its twofold origin — deism in England and atheism in France, but reaching the colonies through English channels. It will now be seen coming from another source. Section 1.— Peculiar Type of French Unbelief. Although somewhat later in its origin than the English, French infidelity soon outstripped the former in the evil race, and exerted a wider and more destructive influence. About the time of the American Revolution, French deism culminated in atheism ; athe ism and naturalism, in materialism. Doubt soon became almost universal, and scoffing burst into " a scream of maniac rage." The growing climax of skepticism which had been rising through the century reached its height in France among the most active, daring, witty and philosophic minds of that age. There, too, infidelity became organized, and from that burning focus it went forth upon its evil mission. We cannot pause to speak at length of the apostles of the movement nor of the passion and genius with which they entered upon their work. By jibes and jeers corrupting the moral sensibilities, by shining sophistries and soft subtleties of sentiment relaxing the moral sense, by specious generalities upon personal liberty and freedom of Pp. 194-196. 314 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. thought sifted into its literature, then every-where eagerly sought for, French infidelity went forth to intoxicate the world with its false but delicious dreams. Men laughed at the brilliant Satanic wit of Voltaire, wept in sympathy with the exquisite romance of Rousseau, and stood in wonder, or followed in hesitating thought those master magicians, the Encyclopedists, as they pursued their problem of reconstructing the universe without a God. It sum moned to its aid the handmaids of the highest culture; Criticism dipped her pen in venom and performed its most destructive service ; Art chiseled its ideas into marble, traced them in glowing colors upon canvas, and warbled them in most entrancing strains ; Poetry invested them with charms of imagination and measure; History, becoming a colored glass, vitiated the testimony of the past; while Philosophy degraded herself to the profane vocation of under mining human society under the specious pretense of emancipat ing it. There was one extenuating condition which, however, only became more deceptive and ruinous. In France, infidelity was largely a revolt against a most gigantic and relentless despotism with which religion had become identified during a long period of papal intrigue and misrule ; and the revolutions which it instigated were professedly in the interest of popular deliverance. -Introduction into America. To Americans infidelity was introduced in plausible forms in connection with the ideas of liberty and self-government then very popular. Statesmen and scholars were the first victims. In a short time French styles of thought became fashionable in the higher classes of society, more especially in some of the Middle and Southern States, among gentlemen who had traveled in Europe, the wits and sprightly young men in the colleges, and the extreme Republicans. In addition to these things, peculiarly friendly relations existed between our countrymen and the French people. They had assisted the American colonies in the war of the Revolution — a fact which had considerable influence in predisposing many leading Americans toward French thought. Imbibing their ideas, men in high official positions through a long period of years gave them the benefit of their favor. Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight, writing of this period, with the cir cumstances of which he was personally familiar, said : INFIDEL LITERATURE. 3 IS Youths, particularly, who had been liberally educated, and who, with strong passions and feeble principles, were votaries of sensuality and ambition, delighted in the prospect of unrestrained gratification, and, panting to be enrolled with men of fashion and splendor, became enamored with the new doctrines. The tenor of opinion, and even of conversation, was to a considerable extent changed at once. Striplings scarcely fledged suddenly found that the world had been involved in general darkness through the long succession of preceding ages, and that the light of wisdom had just begun to dawn upon the human race. All the science, all the information that had been acquired before the last thirty or forty years stood in their view for nothing. Experience they boldly proclaimed a plodding instructress who taught in manners, morals and government nothing but abecedarian lessons, fitted for children only. Religion they discovered, on the one hand, to be a vision of dotards and nurses, and, on the other, a system of fraud and trick, imposed by priestcraft for base purposes upon the ignorant multitude. Revelation was found to be without authority or evidence, and moral obligation a cobweb which might, indeed, entangle flies, but by which creatures of stronger wing nobly disdained to be confined. The world they resolutely concluded to have been, probably, eternal, and matter the only existence. Man, they determined, sprung like a mushroom out of the earth like a chemical process ; and the power of thinking, choice and motivity were merely the result of elective affinities. If, however, there was a Gocl, and man was a created being, he was created only to be happy. As, there fore, animal pleasure is the only happiness, so they resolved that the enjoyment of that pleasure is the only end of his creation. At this period Europe, which annually ships to our shores a vast quantity of useful merchandise, and together with it a proportional assortment of toys and mischief, consigned to these States a plentiful supply of the means of corruption. From France, Germany and Great Britain, the dregs of infidelity were vomited upon us. From the System de la Nature and the Philosophical Dictionary, down to the Political Justice of Godwin, and the Age oj Reason, the whole mass of pollu tion was emptied upon this country. The last two publications flowed in upon us as a deluge. An enormous edition of the Age oj Reasonwas published in France and sent over to America to be sold at a few pence per copy, and, where it could not be sold, to be given away.* But I am losing both you and myself in this forest of enormities. Future ages will hardly believe that any part of this portentous story could pass for truth with men of acknowledged wisdom and piety. Nothing, however, is more certain.f Section 3.— Skepticism Among Statesmen, Gen erals, etc. Theoretical infidelity was unknown in the earlier colonial period. The Colony of Virginia was entirely exempt until near the middle of the last century. When the first infidel book was imported into Virginia, sometime subsequent to 1730, it produced such anexcite- * It has been asserted by a good authority that the infidels of France raised among them selves in the course of several years three million francs for the purpose of purchasing, printing, and distributing books to corrupt the minds of the people. t Dwight's Travels. Vol. IV, pp. 376, 379, 380. 3 16 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ment that the governor and commissary communicated with the authorities in England. Subsequently infidelity overran the State and her public men were borne away by its influence. It has become a familiar fact that many of the rising statesmen of Revolutionary fame were seriously in bondage to French skepticism. Some should be exonerated from this charge. It is well known that General Washington and Patrick Henry escaped the contagion, though they have been incorrectly classed with the skeptics of their time. Washington, in his address to the governors of the States in 1783, referred to "the pure and benign light of revelation," and " the Divine Author of our blessed religion." Of Patrick Henry, Bishop Meade * said, " He had an abhorrence of infidelity. Early in life he was a deeply interested attendant upon the ministry of Rev. Samuel Davies, D.D., and later in life he wrote an answer to Paine's Age of Reason, though it was never published. Concerning Edmund Randolph, we have his own testimony in a letter : " When we were united (married) I was a deist, made so by my confidence in some whom I revered, and by the labors of my two preceptors, who, though of the ministry, poisoned me with books on infidelity." He was afterward recovered from the snare by the example and prayers of his pious wife.f Hon. Thomas Jefferson for a long time yielded to the skepticism of his times, and General Charles Lee was noted for the boldness of his infidelity and his reckless blasphemy. In his will he instructed his survivors " not to bury him in any church or church-yard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting house." x As late as 1810, says Bishop Meade: Infidelity was rife in the State, and the College of William and Mary was regarded as the hot-bed of French politics and religion. I can truly say that then and for some years after in every educated young man in Virginia whom I met I expected to find a skeptic, if not an avowed unbeliever.§ Infidelity became rife in Virginia, perhaps, beyond any other portion of the land. The clergy for the most part were a laughing stock or objects of disgust. [ Even Bishop Madison became subject to the suspicion of infi delity, though unjustly. General Dearborn, Secretary of War under Jefferson, was an avowed unbeliever. On one occasion when travel ing in a public stage-coach from Washington, D. C, he declared it to be his opinion that, " So long as those temples stand (alluding to * Old Families and Churches of Virginia. V> 1. II, p. 12. \ Ibid. Vol. I, p. 182. X Ibid. Vol. II, p. 368. § Ibid. Vol. I. p. 29. || Ibid. Vol. I, p. 52. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S MOTION. 317 the church edifices) we cannot hope for order and good govern ment." Passing by a meeting-house in Connecticut, he pointed at it and with the utmost scorn exclaimed : " Look at that painted nuisance." The Framers of the Constitution. It will not be questioned that many of the framers of the Con stitution of the United States were deeply imbued with the ideas of the French atheistical school.* Recently it has been a matter of boasting that " the great founders of our Government were her etics," and that " the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded upon the Christian religion." f It is well known that in the convention of 1787, which framed the Constitution of the United States, great difficulty was experi enced in harmonizing upon various conflicting questions, and at one time in the course of their deliberations it was feared that all their efforts to find a common basis of union would utterly fail. Many days passed and they made no progress. Finally, on the 28th of June, Hon. Benjamin Franklin arose in the convention and expressed a regret that they had had no religious devotion during their session, and proposed that a chaplain be engaged to implore the Divine blessing and guidance, each morning, during the remain der of the session. His speech was a beautiful and appropriate recognition of dependence upon God for guidance and success. Hon. Roger Sherman seconded the motion. Hon. Alexander Hamil ton and others feared lest prayers being introduced at that late day should excite among those outside a suspicion of dissensions within, and lead to some disagreeable animadversions. Others suggested that the convention had no funds. Some other strange and incon sistent pleadings were made, and finally, says Hon. James Madison, in his History of the Debates of the Convention, " after several un successful attempts for silently postponing the matter, by adjourning, the adjournment was at length carried, without any vote on the motion." No further action was had, and not a single prayer was offered in the entire session of the convention which framed our national Constitution. Is it strange that a convention which allowed * A writer in the Index (Toledo), May 13, 1871, said : "All the great men who took part ¦ with Mr. Paine in laying the foundations of the Government of the United States, with very few exceptions, held the same theological sentiments " (as he did), although " they did not publicly identify themselves with him in his attacks upon the Church and its religion." " And they w>uld have completely revolutionized the sentiments of the American people but for the influ ence of George Whitefield and John Wesley." t Mr. T. W. Higginson, in Horticultural Hall Discourse, Boston, January 12, 1873. 318 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. no recognition of God in its deliberations, should have framed an instrument in which God is not acknowledged ? * The statesmen of this period are entitled to great credit for their intellectual abilities and resources, forming a constellation of the first magnitude in the realm of mind. The spirit inspiring the Rev olution, and the energy in counsel and in action demanded by the memorable crises f/om 1773 to 1787, fostered and developed the strongest intellectual powers/and a nobility of character belonging to a superior order. We honor their abilities, are grateful for their services and admire their heroism. But their minds were evidently tainted with the subtle poison of French philosophy, vitiating their religious perceptions. Section 4.— Infidel Organizations. Infidel clubs were very common at the close of the last and the beginning ofthe present century, in the Middle and in some ofthe Southern States, on the same plan and in affiliation with those in France. An early memoir of Hon. Thomas Jefferson, published in 1809, says : A society of Illuminati, or, more properly called by themselves, Illumines, had been established in Virginia. It consisted of one hundred members, had its regular officers as well as members, and was set afoot in 1786 by the Grand Orient of France. From this society a deputy was sent to reside with the mother society in France, in order to hold communication between the infidels and revo lutionists of the two countries, and to give the American society its instructions. In New York there was another society of the same kind, out of which fourteen others at least had sprung. The following testimony, from a well-accredited source, will still more fully show the character and tendency of the infidelity and its affiliated clubs at this period : I knew a party formed more than fifty years ago (about 1 786), in Orange County and Smith's Cove, in the State of New York, for the avowed purpose of destroying Christianity and religious government. They claimed the right to in- * " The opinion that the religious defect of the Constitution is due to the irreligion of some of the leading statesmen of the time is sustained by the testimony of Dr. Franklin, who, in refer ence to his motion for prayers in the convention, ' imploring the assistance of Heaven an'l its blessings upon our deliberations,' sadly wrote that, ' with but few exceptions the convention thought prayers for Divine guidance unnecessary.1 And further, by that of Luther Martin, a delegate from Maryland, who, in a letter to the Legislature of that State, said ' there were some members so unfashionable as to think that a belief in the existence of a Deity, and of a state of future rewards and punishments, would be some security f"r the good conduct of our rulers.' " Letter of Hon. Felix R. Brunot, of Pittsburg, to the Convention to Consider the Subject of Insei ting a Recognition of the Divine Being in the Constitution of the United States. Held in Boston, Dec. 16 and 17, 1874. ATHEISM IN THE COLLEGES. 319 dulge in lasciviousness and to recreate themselves as their propensities and appe tites should dictate. Those who composed this association were my neighbors ; some of them were my school-mates. I knew them well, both before and after they became members. I marked their conduct and saw and knew their ends. Their number was about twenty men and some females. I can give the names and the particulars of these individuals. For the sake of the living I will introduce the in itials of their names only, except a few. Joshua Miller was a teacher of infidelity, and was shot off a stolen horse by Colonel J. Woodhull. N. Miller, his brother, was shot off a log while he was play ing at cards on first day morning, by Zebed June, on a scouting party for rob bers. Benjamin Kelley was shot off his horse for the murder of one Clarke, by a boy, the son of the murdered man ; he lay above ground until the crows picked his bones. J. Smith committed suicide by stabbing himself while he was imprisoned for crime. W. Smith was shot by B. Thorpe and others for robbery. S. T. be trayed his own confidential friend for five dollars ; his friend was hung and himself afterward was shot by D. Lancaster ; said to be an accident ; I heard the report of the gun and saw the blood. J. A. was shot by Michael Coleman for robbing Abimel Young, in the very act. J. V. was shot by a company of militia. J. D. in one of his drunken fits laid out and was chilled to death.* A similar fate befell the others. These facts, the author says, are supported by the affidavits of responsible men. Atheism in Yale College and Other Institutions. On the election of Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., to the presi dency of Yale College, in 1795, he found atheistical clubs existing there, and infidelity in its most radical forms prevailed among the students. It was a time of great laxity of moral and religious sen timent. Young men were fascinated with radical notions of mental as well as political independence, and were much inclined to shake off what they regarded as the shackles of superstition. "The de gree to which it prevailed may be judged from the following fact : A considerable portion of the class which he (Dr. Dwight) first taught had assumed the names ofthe English and French infidels and were more familiarly known by them than by their own."f It required all the tact and eloquence of that able man to suppress this great evil. But under his administration it was nearly rooted out. Several re vivals of religion, one of which has often been referred to on account of its power and extent, were among the effectual means of this result. Mr. Thomas Cooper came to this country in 1797 and figured as a naturalist, a lawyer and a politician. A friend of Priestley, an * Practical Infidelity Portrayed. By Abner Cunningham. i2mo. New York, D. Coolidge ; Boston, J. Loring ; Philadelphia, N. Kite. 1836. Pp. 42-46. t Introduction to Dwight' s Theology. Vol. I, p. 20. 320 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. early member of the democratic clubs of England, then of the affili ated Jacobin clubs and a Girondist, under Mr. Jefferson he rose to favor, and was for many years Professor of Chemistry and Political Economy in Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. Subsequently he held high positions in the University of Pennsylvania, and finally in Co lumbia College, South Carolina. In all these situations, by sophis tical reasonings, sneers and sarcasm, he trained many youthful minds in unbelief. Paine's Age of Reason was introduced here about the close of the century, and had an extensive circulation. Great was the activity of European infidels in disseminating their senti ments in our country. In the year 1800, Hon. John Adams, then President of the United States, received a letter from Ger many proposing to introduce into this country " a company of school-masters, painters, poets, etc., all of them disciples of Thomas Paine." His reply was characteristic of the man : I had rather countenance the introduction of Ariel and Caliban with a troupe of spirits the most mischievous from the fairy land.* So threatening were the dangers which then menaced the coun try through the secret politico-infidel clubs organized in affiliation with those of France that President Adams referred to them in terms of warning in a public proclamation. The facts are set forth in the Memoir of Thomas Jefferson, to which reference has already been made. Illuminism had been systematically embraced by various bodies of men who as sociated for its propagation. President Adams, in a proclamation in which he briefly disclosed the dangers that threatened the country, had said : " The most precious interests ofthe United States are still held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and insidious arts of a foreign nation (France), as well as by the dissemination among them of those principles subversive of the foundation of all religious, moral and social obligations, that have produced incalculable mischiefs and misery in other countries." The violent assaults which were made upon this passage of the proc lamation proved the truth and accuracy of the sentiment. Enraged at this public disclosure of their plans the whole faction attacked it. The objects of these societies were to destroy Christianity and to revolutionize government and society generally. The belief in a God, the immortality of the soul, moral obligation, civil and do mestic government, the right of property, marriage, chastity and decency were objects of their hatred and conspiracy, as they had been in France. Wherever they prevailed the most gross and brutish manners and shameless immorality followed. * Life and Works of fohn Adams. Vol. IX, p. 73. FRENCH INTRIGUE. 321 Jacobinism in America. The Jacobin Club of Paris was established at a time when the French Revolution had prostrated all legitimate government, and invested the mob, under the name of " the sovereign people," with the fullest prerogatives, even of plunder and violence. Among its members and leaders were Robespierre, Danton, Marat, Collot- d'Herbois, and Santerre, supported by more than two thousand affiliated clubs in France, and a host of ferocious demagogues. M. Genet, the minister of this Jacobin government to the United , States, landed at Charleston, S. C, April 8, 1793. England, then at war with France, had secured Russia, Austria, Spain and Sardinia as allies. The United States were professedly neutral, although the sympathies of a large portion of the people were with France, and' it was only with extreme difficulty that Washington could restrain them from violating the rules of neutrality. Extensive depredations upon American commerce by English vessels, under a series of official orders at variance with the rights of neutrality, increased the difficulty by aggravating the popular feeling against England. The real object of Genet's mission was to involve the United States in a war with England, and thus effect a diversion in favor of France. For this purpose immediately on his arrival he commenced to dis tribute naval and military commissions, and performed many other offensive acts. So great was the popular sympathy with the French Revolution that at his reception in Philadelphia " the dinner-table was decorated with the ' Tree of Liberty,' and a red cap called the ' Cap of Liberty ' was placed upon the head of M. Genet, and from his passed in suc cession from head to head around the table."* Those who readily adopted the badges of the Jacobins were ready for further steps. Immediately a club was organized in Philadelphia with a constitu tion a la mode de Paris, which sent out an invitation for the for mation of similar clubs elsewhere. The response was general, and they soon existed in every direction. Their object was to thwart the endeavors of Washington to maintain a neutral attitude, to force the nation into an alliance with France, and bring on a war with England. Great pains were also taken to incorporate French follies and ex travagances into American manners. The addresses Mr. and Mrs. were held to be aristocratic, and Citizen and Citizeness were urged as more republican. On the Fourth of July the President ofthe United * Life of Hon. fohn fay, LL.D. By his son, Wm. Jay. Harpers, 1832. P. 302. 21 " , 322 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. States was toasted in New York City as " Citizen George Wash ington." " It is scarcely credible to what an extent the absurdities devised and practiced by the French demagogues, to influence the passions of the mob, were adopted and applauded by multitudes of the hitherto staid and reflecting citizens of the United States." * The French revolutionists had denounced all heraldic bearings as aristocratic, and some began to fastidiously inquire whether the eagle upon the coins of our Government and elsewhere did not savor of royalty, and consequently become a scandal upon a repub lican government. "The Tree of Liberty" and "The Cap of Lib erty " were everywhere popular. Posterity will with difficulty believe the prostituted state to which Genet and his satellites, the democratic societies, had brought the public feeling. By a variety of those artifices which familiarize the heart to cruelty, they had inured the multitude to the contemplation of bloodshed and to habitual ferocity. At a dinner in Phila delphia, at which Governor Mifflin and his friend Dallas were present, a roasted pig was introduced as the representative of the unfortunate Louis XVI. It was the joyful celebration of the anniversary of his murder. The head, being severed from the body, was carried round to each at the table, who, after putting on the liberty cap, pronounced the word "Tyrant ! " and gave the head a chop with his knife, j In America, as well as in France, the most atrocious villainies were maintained to be patriotic acts. Robbery was held to be moral and correct justice ; murder was maintained ,to be laudable ; and those most execrable of all crimes, treason and rebellion, were dignified by the name of national justice, because Jacobinized France gave the fashion to the morals and opinions of this country, and fidelity to her, under her new rulers, was best asserted by treason to every other country. J A liberty cap, decorated with French and American flags, was placed with great pomp in the Merchants' Exchange, in New York. A large concourse assembled on the occasion and united in singing patriotic songs, while a detachment of militia attended, under arms, in honor of the ceremony. A fite was given in Philadelphia in honor of the revolution in Holland. A great crowd assembled, an altar was erected to Liberty, and before this altar the mob chanted hymns to the goddess, took an oath to be faithful to her and never to forget the genius and the arms that had restored freedom. § The profanity and folly of this oath indicate its French origin. Such was the infatuation that then prevailed under French in fluence. The intimate relations which existed between the two countries, and an indebtedness for aid rendered in our Revolu tionary distresses, made Americans easy victims to their specious * Life of fohn Jay, p. 319. t Memoirs of Hon. Thomas Jefferson, with a View ofthe Rise and Progress of French In fluence and French Principles in the United States. 1809. Vol. I, p. 132. Xlbid, p. 133. %Life of John Jay, p. 321. JACOBINISM IN KENTUCKY. 323 theories and frenzy. But for the fairness and integrity of Wash ington and the success of that wise and incorruptible statesman, Hon. John Jay, in adjusting our pending difficulties with England, the nation must have been involved in fatal complications with France, and become still more fearfully demoralized in manners. These Jacobin clubs extended as far west as Kentucky, then in its infancy, and the seeds of infidelity were sown broadcast over that State. Their character has been thus described : " Politically they were violent and dogmatic; morally they were corrupting; and, in respect to religion, they were utterly infidel." The nomen clature of towns and counties in Kentucky still attests the French sympathies of the first settlers, and it is a very significant fact that at this period French agents were able to enlist two thousand recruits in this State to attack the Spanish settlements on the Missis sippi. Transylvania University, founded by the Presbyterians, was wrested from their hands and given over to the influence of infidel ity.* In 1793 Kentucky dispensed with the services of a chaplain of the Legislature — a measure significant of the influences in the ascendency in high places. Before the close of the century a con siderable majority of the inhabitants of the State were reputed to be infidels, and the usual concomitants of vice and dissipation were not wanting. * ? Section 5.— Testimonies. Dr. Lyman Beecher, in his Aiiotobiography,\ bears a striking tes timony. Speaking of this period he says, That was the day of the infidelity of the Tom Paine school. Boys that dressed flax in the barn, as I used to. read Tom Paine and believed him. I read and fought him all the way. I never had any propensity to infidelity But most ofthe class before me were infidels, and called each other Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alem bert, etc., etc. They thought the faculty were afraid of free discussion. But when they handed Dr. Dwight a list of subjects for class disputation, to their sur prise he selected this : " Is the Bible the word of God ? " and told them to do their best. He heard all they had to say, answered them, and there was an end. He preached incessantly on the subject for six months, and all infidelity skulked and hid its head. Chancellor Kent said : In my younger days there were very few professional men who were not in fidels, or at least they were so far inclined to infidelity that they could not be called believers in the truth of the Bible. % * History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. Vol. I, pp. 420, 421. t Vol. I, p. 43. X In a conversation with Governor Clinton, New York. Mr. Kent lived 1765-1847. 324 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Rev. Ezra Ripley, of Concord, Mass., said: A large portion of the learning not possessed by the clergy leaned to Deism, it it was not decidedly in its favor. Christianity and its institutions were treated with more than indifference and not seldom directly opposed. ... I have been an eye and ear witness of the proud boasting and confident assertions of profane and blasphemous infidels and have seen the poison plentifully cast into the fountain of literature. * Of Thomas Paine much has been written without due discrimi nation. He has been overestimated and overblamed. Mr. McMas- terf describes him : We doubt whether any name in our Revolutionary history, not excepting that of Benedict Arnold, is quite so odious as the name of Thomas Paine. Arnold was a traitor, Paine was an infidel Since the day when the Age oj Reason came forth from the press the number of infidels has increased much more rapidly than it did before that book was written. The truth is, he was one of the most remark able men of his time. It would he a difficult matter to find anywhere another such compound of baseness and nobleness, of goodness and badness, of greatness and liltleness, of so powerful a mind left unbalanced and led astray by the worst of animal passions Of all the human kind he is the filthiest and the nastiest, and his disgusting habits grew upon him with his years. In his old age, when the frugal gifts of two States which remembered his good work had placed him beyond immediate want, he became a sight to behold. It was rare that he was sober; it was still rarer that he washed himself, and he suffered his nails to grow till, in the language of one who knew him well, they resembled the claws of birds. What gratitude was he did not know. The French Revolution inspired the enemies of religion for a time with confident expectations of a speedy triumph. The minds of multitudes were unsettled, and there was a breaking away from , the old creeds. " Wild and vague expectations were every-where entertained, especially among the young, of a new order of things about to commence, in which Christianity would be laid aside as an obsolete system." X It was confidently asserted by some that in two generations Christianity would altogether disappear. Such was the skepticism that prevailed at the close of the last century and the beginning of the present. The growth of Christianity in this country since these vain predictions has been the most marvelous § ever known in any land or any age. *In his Half-Century Sermon, covering 1778-1828. \ History of the People of the United States. D. Appleton & Co. 1884. Vol. I, pp. 150, etc. See also Period II, Chapter VII, Section t. X Religion in America. Rev. Robert Baird, D.D. Harper & Bros. 1886. § See next to the last chapter in the book. ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 32S CHAPTER V. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Skc. I. Patriotic Under Disabilities. " 2. The Hierarchy Established. " 3. Progress in Individual States. Sec. 4. Religious Orders and Publica tions. 5. Indian Missions. Section 1.— Patriotic Under Disabilities. BEFORE the Revolution the Roman Catholic Church had no organized existence in the original thirteen United States. Scarcely any representatives of this faith existed in New England, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Maryland had ceased to be a Roman Catholic colony, about one hundred years before the Revo lution ; the descendants of Lord Baltimore and his companions and nearly all the population of the colony were Protestants, when our national independence was declared. The number of families that retained the Roman Catholic faith and a part of their property was very small ; and among the servants who continued faithful to that religion but few could have access to their ministers or transmit their faith to their children. The clergy were objects of persecution, were few in number, and carefully kept out of the sight of the Protestants. It had been arranged by the pope that the English colonies in America should be under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicar in London. This arrangement proved disastrous, for the London official was himself exposed to so many difficulties and persecutions that he could render but little aid. Maryland had a few private Roman Catholic chapels, and Baltimore was a station privately- visited once a month by a priest. Until 1776 the devotees of the papacy in Maryland were hampered by civil restrictions. In Pennsylvania the Roman Catholics were under no legal re straints, so that this colony afforded an asylum for Roman Catholics persecuted in Maryland and elsewhere. But it was difficult for the Quakers to understand that the papal faith ought to enjoy the same 326 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. share of liberty which they exercisedt Many obstructions were put in the way of erecting Roman Catholic churches, and such impedi ments were encouraged by the English Government. On one occa sion, in the colonial era, the Philadelphians appealed to the Privy Council in England to decide whether it was expedient to allow the Roman Catholics to erect a building for religious purposes. The response was, " There is no law in the colony which authorizes you to oppose the attempt of the Catholics, but the Privy Council de sires that its execution may be impeded as much as possible." Every-where else the Catholic religion was formally excluded. On account of these obstacles, prior to 1771 the Irish Catholics had settled scarcely anywhere except in Maryland and Pennsylvania. About twenty-six priests and 25,000 to 30,000 communicants, with no bishop, college or academy, represented the Catholicity of the United States and Territories in 1775. The Continental Congress in 1774 proclaimed the broadest tol eration, and in 1776 the Roman Catholics in Maryland — some of them very rich and influential — were granted civil and religious equality. The other twelve original States soon followed, though eligibility to hold political offices was not granted in many States until after the present century opened — not until 1806, in New York; 1821, in Massachusetts; 1836, in North Carolina; 1844, in New Jersey. In the States where Roman Catholics were the original proprietors of the soil, Louisiana, Florida, Texas. Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Wisconsin, New Mexico and California, the free exercise of the Roman Cath olic religion was guaranteed by solemn treaties, when they were ceded to the United States. Roman Catholics and the Revolution. The Roman Catholics took an active part in the war of the Revolution. One of the most distinguished laymen, Charles Car roll, of Carrollton, Md., was a signer ofthe Declaration of Independ ence. " Here go millions," said Benjamin Franklin, as Mr. Carroll signed the paper. The first " sea fight " of the Revolution, in Ma- chias Bay, Maine, May 11, 1775, resulting in the capture of two British store-ships, was fought under Captain Jeremiah O'Brien, an ardent Roman Catholic. Commodore Barry, a pious Roman Cath olic, has been styled the " Father of the American Navy." Sev eral Roman Catholics were members of General Washington's " Life Guard." Colonel Moylan, prominent in many battles of the Rev olution, was a Roman Catholic. Roman Catholic France supplied ROMANISTS AND THE REVOLUTION. 327 the cause of the Revolution with soldiers and money. Roman Catholic Spain threw open her ports as neutral to the American marine, and contributed aid to the struggling Republic. Bishop England said* " More than half the regular troops furnished by Pennsylvania during the war of the Revolution were Irish Cath olics." After the " Act of Toleration," adopted by Maryland in 1776, the Roman Catholics began to erect churches in the towns and cities ; but, like other denominations in that period, growth was re tarded by the distracting events of the Revolution. Nothing was done in the other colonies until after the peace of 1783. The proc lamation of peace was a signal for a general emigration from Europe to America. Among the new comers were large numbers of Roman Catholics. Ireland sent over a considerable number, with a half dozen priests, who settled chiefly in the cities. In 1784 the papal nuncio at Rome wrote to Rev. Father Carroll at Baltimore, inquir ing what number of missionaries were needed to serve the interests of the Church in America. Mr. Carroll, in his reply, represented the Roman Catholic population as follows: Maryland, 16,000; Pennsylvania, 7,000; other States, 3,000; total, 26,000. Besides these other Roman Catholic authorities have estimated their popu lation in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and the Mississippi valley at 4,000, Indian converts not included. But this Church had reached a point of very rapid growth, chiefly by immigration. By 1800 they numbered about 100,000. Section 2.~ The Hierarchy Established in the United States. We have noticed that previous to the Revolution the Roman Catholics in America depended, in spiritual matters, on the Vicar Apostolic residing in London. Peace being restored and independ ence gained, this relation could no longer be maintained. It was deemed desirable to give dignity and stability to the Roman Cath olic religion by the establishment of the hierarchy in the United States. The clergy, therefore, in 1784, petitioned the pope to pro vide for their necessities. His holiness applauded their zeal, com plied with their request, and appointed Rev. Dr. John Carroll, S.J., " Superior of the missions in the United States." In 1789 he was appointed and consecrated Bishop. * Letter to the Lyons Propaganda in 1836. 328 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The First Roman Catholic Bishop in the United States. Bishop Carroll was a native of Maryland, a son of Daniel Car roll, a stanch Irish Roman Catholic, " who had preferred the con fiscation of his property to the renunciation of his faith." When thirteen years of age, this son was sent to Europe to be educated. He became a novitiate and in due time took the full vows of the Society of the Jesuits. After spending more than twenty years in Europe, he returned June 6, 1774* and identified himself with the interests of the Roman Catholic Church in Maryland. In 1776, by request, he accompanied the American embassy, consisting of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and his own brother, Charles Car roll, to seek the active assistance of the Canadians in the Revolution. His religious influence and ecclesiastical relations, it was supposed, would be helpful ; but the mission was not successful. Throughout the great struggle he sympathized with the colonies, and is said to have cherished great respect for General Washington. By the unanimous resolution of Congress he was elected to pronounce the eulogy upon General Washington, Feb. 22, 1800, a master-piece of eloquence, patriotism and classic taste. Immediately upon his accession to the episcopacy Bishop Carroll undertook four enterprises for the development and the ex tension of the Roman Catholic Church in this country — the educa tion of youth, the formation of a national clergy, the erection of churches and the foundation of female communities to care for the sick and orphans. The preliminary steps toward the erection of a college at Georgetown were taken by him in 1789, the " ex-Jesuits " having appropriated a part of the society's property for that pur pose. This religious Order, as has been before noticed, had existed in the Maryland Colony from its foundation, but Jesuits, after 1773, were under the ecclesiastical ban of the pope. " They kept up a sort of union among themselves, in Maryland and Pennsylvania, after the suppression of their Order, for the purpose of more effectually conducting the Maryland mission and of managing their temporal ities, of which they were not despoiled in America as they had been in Europe." \ Being too few to perform the functions both of mis sionary priests and teachers, they called to their aid priests of other * At this time there was not a single public place of Roman Catholic worship in Maryland. Old St. Peter's, at Baltimore, had been closed before its completion and so remained several years. The chapels on the Jesuit farms and a few private chapels or oratories were the only places of worship possessed by the Catholics of the province. The number of Catholic clergymen in Maryland at that time was nineteen, all ex-Jesuits. There were also three in Pennsylvania, ex-Jesuits also. For names and localities see Lives of Deceased Catholic Bishops, Vol. I, p. 39. t Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States. Vol. I, p. 123. THE CLERGY REINFORCED. 329 orders, among whom were Rev. Louis Dubourg, subsequently Bishop of New Orleans, and Rev. Ambrose Marechal, two distin guished Sulpicians. But before the restoration of the Jesuits, in 1814, this Order had exclusive direction of this college. The institution was opened in 1790, just two years before Washington was selected for the national capital. In 1791 the Theological Seminary of St. Sulpice, and soon after St. Mary's University, were founded near Baltimore, by members of the Sulpician Order who fled from France to escape the terrors of the French Revolution. Exiled French Clergy. The reign of terror drove to this country a large number of Roman Catholic clergy, many of whom were eminent for learning. Between 1791-1799 twenty-three French priests sought our shores. With their aid Bishop Carroll furnished his rising educational insti tutions with competent instructors, multiplied missions and ex tended the circle of the Church into New England, the South and the West. The most celebrated of these exiled French Catholic priests were Abbe John Dubois, who landed in 1791 and subse quently became Bishop of New York ; the Abbes Benedict Flaget, John B. David, Stephen Badin, Francis Matignon, Ambrose Mare chal, Gabriel Richard and Francis Ciquard, all of whom came in 1792. In the year 1794 Abbe Louis Dubourg and Abbes John Moranville, Donatian Oliver, and Rivet arrived. In 1796 came Abbe Fournier, a missionary in Kentucky, and Abbe John Lefevre Cheverus, afterward Bishop of Boston. In 1798 Abbe Anthony Salmon joined his friend, Fournier, in the wilderness of Kentucky. " The Catholic Church in the United States," says a Roman Catholic writer* " is deeply indebted to the zeal of the exiled French clergy. No portion of the American Church owes more to them than that of Kentucky. They supplied our infant missions with most of our earliest and most zealous laborers, and they likewise gave to us our first bishops. There is something in the elasticity and buoyancy of the French character which adapts them in a peculiar manner to foreign missions. They have always been the best mis sionaries among the North American Indians ; they can mold their character to suit every circumstance and emergency ; they can be at home and cheerful every-where." The foundation ofthe Georgetown College (opened in 1790) and * Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky. By Rev. M. J. Spalding, D.D. Louisville. 1845. P. 56. 330 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the Sulpician Seminary at Baltimore gave character and stability to Mr. Carroll's diocese, and in November, 1791, he called his priests together and held the First Roman Catholic Synod in America. Twenty ecclesiastics were present. At this meeting it was re solved to ask his holiness for a division of the United States into several dioceses, or at least the appointment of a coadjutor who should share with Bishop Carroll the burdens of the episcopate. Pius VI. acceded to the last request, and Father Leonard Neale was appointed coadjutor in 1800. Mr. Neale was born in Maryland, in 1746, and was a descendant of one of the first colonists under Lord Baltimore. He was educated in Europe, at St. Omers, Bruges, and also at Liege, where he was ordained a priest, in the Society of the Jesuits, a short time before the issuance of the famous bull of Pope Clement XIV, suppressing the Order. Fulfilling a mission in South America, he came to Maryland in 1783. Aftet serving the Church in Philadelphia, and as president of Georgetown Col lege, in 1800 he was appointed coadjutor of Bishop Carroll, cum jure successionis. A large accession to the Roman Catholic Church in the United States was realized in 1793 by French Catholic refugees from St. Domingo. The French population of the island is estimated to have been 40,000, most of whom emigrated to escape massacre, and many of the mulattoes followed them. A very large portion of them came to the United States. In a single day, July 9, 1793, fifty-three vessels bearing refugees came to Baltimore. These ac cessions largely augmented the wealth and the Roman Catholic populations of New York city, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston and New Orleans. Section 3.— Progress in the Several States. New York. The stringent laws enacted in the colonial era against the Roman Catholic priests have been duly noticed. In conse quence of these severe enactments but few Roman Catholics could be found in that province down to the time ofthe Revolution. When the new Government arose, independent of the English crown, the minds of the people were strongly averse to Romanism, and the prejudices already existing were strengthened by the pro tection extended by the English Government to the Roman Cath- ROMANISM IN NEW YORK. 331 olics in Canada, by the celebrated "Quebec Act" of 1774. On the assumption of power by the Provincial Congress the Roman Catholics remained fettered. Bonds so tightly riveted could not be easily sundered. Even during the severe struggles of the Rev olution, when the colonists largely predicated their hope of success upon the co-operation of Roman Catholic France, and when La fayette was leading our troops and Kosciusko and DeKalb were training our crude soldiery, the New York Convention of 1777 did not modify the restrictions against Roman, Catholics. Hon. John Jay moved that persons seeking naturalization should be required "to abjure and renounce all allegiance and subjection to all and every foreign king, priest, potentate and state, in matters ecclesias tical and civil." The restriction, though adopted, became inope rative through the action of Congress, which assumed the control of naturalization, and with this attempt all legislation opposed to the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion ceased. After the evacuation of New York city by the British in 1783, such Roman Catholics as were in the city assembled for the public celebration of the offices of religion. In 1784 the Legislature re pealed the law of 1700 in regard to "popish priests and Jesuits." Rev. Father Farmer, S.J.,* who came on occasionally from Philadel phia, was the first officiating priest, using for religious purposes such large rooms as could be obtained, sometimes a loft over a carpen ter shop near Barclay Street, sometimes the parlor of the Spanish Consul. An Irish Capuchin, Rev. Charles Whelan, succeeded Father Farmer and became the first settled priest. His flock in 1785 numbered about 200 persons. In 1785 an act of incorporation of St. Peter's Church was obtained from the Legislature, and early in 1786 five lots were purchased from the trustees of Trinity Church, at the corner of Barclay and Church Streets. The Spanish Ambas sador, Don Diego de Gardoqui, laid the corner stone, and its chief benefactor was Charles III., King of Spain, who contributed $10,000 f toward the erection of the edifice. Father Nugent assisted a short time in the care of the church. In 1787 Rev. William O'Brien, a Dominican, was appointed to the charge of St. Peter's. Soon after, he visited Mexico for the purpose of collecting funds to finish and adorn the church. The Archbishop of Mexico, a former fellow- student of Father O'Brien, received him kindly and aided his col lections so that $4,900 were raised, besides $1,000 from Puebla de los Angeles. * Father Farmer came to this country in 1752 and died in 1786. t There is some question about this amount. 332 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. New England. The early settlers in this section brought with them the strong prejudices of their times, and took every possible precaution against the intrusion of papal emigrants. Their measures were so effect ual that but few entered New England until after the Revolution. None came as voluntary emigrants, but some poor Irish were sold there as slaves,* and others, at a later period, came as redemptioners. These unfortunates, occasionally visiting French settlements as sailors or servants, sought the religious services of Roman Catholic priests. On the devastation of Acadia, in 1756, some of the de, ported inhabitants were landed in utter destitution on some points of the New England coast. Reduced from a state of competence, they disdained to become menials, and claimed, though without much avail, the rights of prisoners of war. The law prevented Ro man Catholic priests from entering the colonies; and, thus deprived of their favorite religious ordinances, they were called " Neutrals," and were spoken of as " still ignorant, bigoted Catholics, broken- spirited, poor," etc. Many of them died leaving their children amid Protestant influences ; others returned to Nova Scotia, others reached Canada, and others went to Louisiana, France, or the West Indies. A few Roman Catholics are supposed to have gathered in Bos ton, and others were scattered in the interior, but, under penal laws, and deprived of religious instruction, their children grew up Protest ants. Among these was General Sullivan, a hero of the Revolu tion. But with the Revolution changes came. When General Washington appeared in the camp at Boston, at the opening of the war, he found preparations on foot for burning the pope in effigy, and issued an order forbidding the " ridiculous and childish custom." He expressed surprise " that there should be officers and soldiers in his army so void of common sense as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this juncture, at a time when we are soliciting, and have already obtained the friendship and alliancef of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as brethren embarked in the same cause — the defense of the liberty of America. At this junc ture and under such circumstances to be insulting their religion is so monstrous as not to be suffered or excused." About this time Washington sent a message to the Roman Cath olic Indians in Maine, inviting them to join the cause of freedom. * See section on Indentured Servitude, in the Colonial Era, page 220. t The alliance for which the colonists were then laboring was not obtained, though they were then hopeful of securing it. TOLERATION INDUCED BY THE WAR. 333 Delegates of those tribes, led by Ambrose Var, came and conferred with the Massachusetts Council and promised to aid in the struggle, stipulating one request : " We want a black gown or French priest. Jesus we pray to, and we will not hear any prayer* that comes from Old England." The terms were accepted by the very body that had ever before bitterly pursued the Roman Catholic priesthood. The Indians joined the American cause sincerely — the St. Johns, the Pas- samaquoddies, the Abenakis, and the Penobscots ; Orono, a chief of the latter tribe, bearing a commission, which he honored by his vir tues and his bravery. The alliance of the Americans with France brought Roman Catholic fleets and armies across the Atlantic. Count D'Estiang entered Boston harbor in 1778, tarrying there three months, and the Roman Catholic services performed for the fleet were witnessed by many Bostonians. A funeral procession of an officer, with a crucifix at its head, traversed the streets of the city. Such were some of the modifications wrought by the circumstances of the times. After the close of the Revolution a few Roman Catholics were found in Boston — some French and Spaniards, and about thirty Irish. A chaplain of the French navy, Claude Florent Bouchard de la Poterie, settled among them. He was soon followed by Rev. Louis Roussellet. The next was Rev. John Thayer, a native of Boston and a descendant of an old New England family, educated for the Congregational ministry, who, during his travels in Europe, renounced Protestantism and adopted the Roman Catholic faith. After a period of study at the Seminary of St. Sulpice, in Paris, he was duly ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood and assigned to the care of the Church in Boston, where he arrived January 4, 1790. The chapel on School Street, first erected by French Protestants, was formally consecrated for Roman Catholic worship in 1788. Here they remained about fifteen years, until the Cathedral on Franklin Street was consecrated, in 1803. Of the four eminent Roman Catholic clergy exiled from France on account of the Revolution, who came to this country in 1792, two were sent by Bishop Carroll to New England — Rev. Francis Mat tignon, D.D.,'.o Boston, and Rev. Francis Ciquard, to Maine. After the arrival of Dr. Mattignon, Father Thayer extended the scope of his labors to more remote points, continuing in New England until 1799. In 1796 Rev. John Louis de Cheverus, another French clergy man, came to Boston. He visited the scattered Catholics in Salem, * Namely, religion. 334 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Newburyport, Portsmouth, Damariscotta, Bristol, Waldoboro, Plymouth, etc. South Carolina. In 1786 the mass was first celebrated in Charleston by an Italian priest, a chaplain on a ship bound for South America. It occurred in the house of an Irish Catholic, and twelve persons were present. A little later Father O'Reilly, an Irish priest, began to exercise his ministry among them, and in 1789 the erection of a church was commenced. In 1793 Rev. Dr. O'Gallagher, a native of Dublin, a man of superior intellect and eloquence, was sent to Charleston by Bishop Carroll, and cared for the flock. Papal refugees from St. Domingo and emigrants from Maryland soon swelled the number, and they were enabled to erect a very creditable church edifice. Kentucky. The first Roman Catholics known to have settled in this State were Dr. Hart and Wm. Coomes, the former a devoted Irish Catho lic and the other a native of Maryland. " They both came," says Archbishop Spaulding* "in the spring of 1775, among the very first white people who came to Kentucky." In 1785 about twenty Ro man Catholic families emigrated from Maryland to Kentucky, which number was steadily augmented hy new arrivals. Rev. Mr. Whalen, an Irish Franciscan, took charge of the Kentucky mission, traveling by a wild and dangerous path to the scene of his arduous duties, and reaching his destination in the spring of 1787. After two and a half years of excessive labor his failing health compelled him to leave, and Rev. Father Badin followed in 1793, traveling on foot from Baltimore to Pittsburg, descending the river on a flat-boat to Mayville, and thence on foot to Lexington. Here a church was erected, " a temporary hut covered with clapboards, and unprovided with glass in the windows. A slab of wood, roughl}' hewed, served for an altar. Such was the first Catholic church in Kentucky." Louisiana. In 1793 New Orleans, then under the Spanish dominion, was made an episcopal see, and Rev. Don Luis Penalver y Cardenaz, D.D., a distinguished Spanish divine, was appointed the first bishop, but did not take possession until 1795, and remained only until 1802, when he was elevated to the archbishopric of Guatemala. * Sketches of Early Kentucky Missions. ROMAN CATHOLIC PUBLICATIONS. 33S Indiana. In 1795 Father Joseph Flaget, a refugee from the troubles in France, arrived in Baltimore, and was appointed by Bishop Carroll to the distant mission of Vincennes. After a slow journey by wagon to Pittsburg he was detained there six months by the low waters of the Ohio, and late in December reached Vincennes. He found both church and people in an unhappy condition. Though origi nally settled by Roman Catholics, Vincennes had been so long with out priest or sacraments that their religion was nearly extinguished. After two years of very trying labor he returned to Maryland. Section 4.— Religions Orders and Publications. In 1790, at the solicitation of Bishop Carroll, four Carmelite nuns came from Antwerp and founded a convent of their Order near Port Tobacco, Md. In 1792 the Order of the Sisters of St. Clare, or Visi tation Nuns, established a convent in Georgetown, D. C. In 1790 the Order of St. Augustine was established in Philadelphia. In the same year the Sulpicians founded a seminary near Baltimore. The Jesuits have been elsewhere mentioned. Before the Revolution a few Roman Catholic books were printed in Philadelphia, such as the Garden oj the Soul, Following of Christ, etc., and some Catholic books were kept on sale near old St. Joseph's. In 1784 " C. Talbot, late of Dublin, printer and book seller," issued in Philadelphia an edition of Reeves's History of the Bible. He appears to have been the first Roman Catholic publisher in the United States. In 1789 another publisher issued Roman Catholic books — Mr. T. Lloyd. Matthew Carey published a quarto Roman Catholic Bible in 1790, and for twenty years published a large number of prayer-books, catechisms, and controversial and devotional works. Section 5.— Indian Missions. The Illinois and the Lake missions among the Indians had con siderably declined before the country was ceded to Great Britain in 1763. In 1660 Menard began to convert the Kiskakons, and undertook to minister to the fugitive Hurons. His successors established missions among the Chippewas and Nez Perces, on Lake Superior ; the Ottawas, both Kiskakon and Sinagos, in their various posts, among the Pottawotamies, Wtnnebagoes and Menominees, on 336 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Green Bay ; and among the Sacs and Foxes, Mascoutens, Kickapoos, and some families of the Miamis in the interior of Wisconsin. All these tribes still exist,* except the Mascoutens, merged probably into the Sacs and Foxes. All were to some extent converted to Catholicity before that sad period for the French missions when Choiseul directed the destinies of France. For thirty years there was no priest west of Detroit, and the Catholic Indians, thus left to themselves, when not well-grounded by time in Christianity, or removed from pagan influence, lost much ol their fervor and even of their faith. So complete was the failure of these Jesuit Indian missions, as related by Mr. J. G. Shea.f He adds : Not only have the narratives of the missionaries perished, but also the philolog ical works % which they composed ; and at this day there is no trace of any gram mar, vocabulary, catechism, or prayer-book in any of the dialects of Wisconsin and Michigan. Small bands of Indians retired west of the Mississippi, some of which are now under Roman Catholic influences. But frequent in termarriages took place between French officers and soldiers and the Indians, out of which many of the older French families in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Missouri sprang. Among these the Roman Catholic religion was retained, and they constituted the nucleus of the earliest Roman Catholic churches in those States.^ Michigan was settled by Roman Catholics from France and Canada, not far from 1680, and the papal religion was the only religion known in that region until about the close of the war of 1812. Of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri almost the same statement may be made. The first settlements were papal, and the nuclei of Roman Catholic churches now existing in those States were in existence long before the Protestant churches entered them. The Roman Catholic population in Ohio and the Upper Mississippi valley in 1785, which is earlier than the date of the first Protestant Church in those regions, has been estimated by a Catholic writer at 4,000. § Louisiana and Florida were wholly Roman Catholic until after the opening of the present century. There are no evidences of mission ary efforts under the Spanish rule. In 1793 the Papal Church in Louisiana was deemed to be of sufficient importance to call for the establishment of an episcopal see in New Orleans. * J. G. Shea, writing more than thirty years ago. t History of the Catholic Missions in the Indian Tribes of the United States, pp. 379, 380. X These were very few and of a meager character. § De Courcey's History of the Catholic Church in tlie United States, p. 54. WHIGS AND TORIES. 337 CHAPTER VI. MORALS. Sfx. I. Post bellum Irritations. " 2. Political Insubordination and Bit terness. '' 3. The Family, Dueling, etc. Sec 4. The Social and Physical Condition, Penal Inflictions, etc. " 5- Intemperance. " 6. Survey of the Dark Period. Section 1.— Post oellnm Irritations, etc. THE Revolution at last accomplished, and the foreign evils which it threw off being no longer felt, but forgotten, new troubles arose, the remedies for which could not be easily devised. The people began to grumble, became sullen and hard to please. No longer united by external danger, old animosities and new jeal ousies broke forth and the Union seemed likely to be dissolved. British debts had been confiscated in some colonies ; British creditors were making common cause with refugees and other enemies of independence, and the treaty stipulations in regard to the Tories were not satisfactory. There were three parties; the smallest the Tories, who hoped for forgiveness and the advantages of place and power, the largest and most influential the violent Whigs, who would drive every loyalist from the States ; then there were other Whigs, less extreme, who recommended leniency. Between the two branches of the Whigs an active discussion went on, the loyalists saying little. A multitude of sermons were preached and pamphlets published. " Letters to Refugees," " Last Advice to the Refugees " and "Considerations for the Refugees" crowded upon the editors of the newspapers. The editor of a New England paper exhorted his readers " never to make friends with those fiends, the refugees." "As Hannibal," said he, " swore never to be at peace with the Romans, so let every Whig swear by his abhorrence of slavery, by liberty and religion, by the shades of departed friends who have fallen in battle, by the ghosts of those of our brethren who have been destroyed on board 22 338 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. of the prison-ships and in loathsome dungeons, never to be at peace with those fiends, the refugees, whose thefts, murders and treasons, have filled the cup of woe." At Worcester, Mass., and Stamford, Conn., the Tories were forbidden to return. Harsh laws, passed while the war was still raging, were in many ofthe States re-enacted or suffered to remain on the statute-books ; but in New York the most severe acts were necessary to satisfy the angry multitude. Tories and Englishmen were scarcely safe. Summary vengeance was sometimes inflicted. Offensive names which the newspapers refused to publish were proclaimed by the watchman — " Past ten o'clock, and is a vile hypocrite and an enemy of freedom." In South Carolina refugees coming to recover their abandoned plantations were slaughtered. The people of Charleston vowed that no Tory should find an asylum in their city. Wretched, indeed, was the condition into which Congress fell. " Rudely formed amid the agonies of the Revolution," the Confed eration had never been revised and perfected. Each of the States retained its sovereignty and asserted this right against the general Government, toward which they acted as though dealing with a for eign foe. The general Congress degenerated into a debating club of an inferior order. Neglected by its own members, discarded by mutinous troops, reviled by the press, its acts possessed no influ ence. Driven by the jibes and taunts of a band of drunken plow men it entered upon a career of uncertain wanderings. First, it goes to Princeton, where, under the guns of fifteen hundred regulars, it passes its resolutions in Nassau Hall. Thence it adjourns suc cessively to Annapolis, to Trenton and to New York, mercilessly ridiculed at every step by the press. We cannot here follow further these unhappy events, but must sketch more widely. Moral deterioration is a concomitant and a consequence of war. About one halfofthe thirtyyears extending from i753to i783were oc cupied by the French and Indian and the Revolutionary wars, and other Indian wars followed. The moral effect was what might be easily conceived. The withdrawal of so many men of all ages from the quiet and conservative pursuits of industry to military life, away from the restraints of the Sabbath and the sanctuary, and in intimate asso ciation with unprincipled and skeptical men of foreign lands, engen dered, in many minds hitherto virtuous, laxity, unrest and moral reck lessness. The twenty years following the Revolution was a time of the lowest general morality in American history, fully attested by the biographies and newspapers of that period and the records of eccle siastical bodies. In the churches there was much complaint of gen- MORAL DETERIORATION. 330 eral lukewarmness and grievous apostasies. Many were the lamenta tions and warnings of good men, though faintly heard by the public ear, and exerting but little influence to arouse the people to relig ious activity. Primitive morality passed away and Sabbath-break ing, profanity and other gross vices abounded. The faithful minis ters of the Presbyterian Church deeply deplored the moral condition of the country. At the session of the Synod of Phila delphia and New York, in 1778, the Report on the State of the Church emphasized " the lamentable decay of vital piety " and " the gross immoralities," " increasing to an awful degree." The next year they mention the " great and increasing decay of vital piety, the degeneracy of manners, the want of public spirit, and the prevalence of vice and immorality throughout the land."* Section 2.— Political Insubordination and Bitterness. A general sentiment of insubordination growing out of the polit ical revolutions of the civilized world seized young and old, and developed high notions of freedom, personal independence and a strong tendency to. resist authority. "Infidel philosphers found ready listeners when they represented the restraints of religion as fetters upon the conscience, and moral obligations as shackles imposed by bigotry and priestcraft." \ Resistance to authority, which for the purpose of revolution had been prescribed as a remedy, had now become habitual from constant application. That which was at first nauseous, and reluctantly taken as a medicine, had now become pleas ing to their palates, and, like their daily food, seemed necessary, almost, to their existence. The wholesome jealousy of power which had hitherto been so salutary now degenerated into a distemper, and the great object of it, the British Govern ment, being removed, another was necessary to supply it with the means of existence. For the very purpose of revolution a spirit had been raised in the country which it was easy to foresee would with great difficulty, if at all, be laid, or confined within proper bounds. Every individual had for years been encouraged and accustomed to vaunt about his rights, and even to think any sort of government an imposition. The very lessons taught them . . . were to be brought forth in domestic scuffle against their leaders ; and demagogues of a subordinate class were thickly scattered through the country to influence the tempers and poison the opinions of the masses of the people even against the shadow of government.^ In consequence of these things, a spirit of misrule and injustice, accompanied by a general relaxation of moral principle, discontent, * Minutes of the Synod of 1778, 1779. t Annals of Yale College. By Hon. Ebenezer Baldwin. New Haven, 1831. P. 145. X Memoirs of Thomas Jefferson, 1809. Vol. I, p. 17. 340 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. heart-burnings and complaints, prevailed. Licentiousness of sen timent and of conduct followed directly in the footsteps of liberty, the offspring of the profane alliance into which she had been drawn with French infidelity. Desecration of the Sabbath, neglect of the sanctuary, profanity and disrespect of the Bible, shown in low cavils, were common in not a few of even the New England towns, in which the last vestiges of Puritan morals seemed to have been irre coverably effaced. This corruption extended into civil and literary circles. The newspapers of those days partook of the general demoralization. Mr. Jefferson referred to it in decided terms in 1807. He said: " Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misapprehension is known only to those who are in a situation to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day," etc. These lines were written in an era of bad feeling between the Republicans and the Federalists of the old school — a period of bitterness which has had no parallel in any of the partisan strifes of our days. But the state of feeling referred to in the preceding paragraph had existed much longer than some may suppose. It sprang up soon after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The Jacobin intrigue inflamed it still more. It was the bane of Washington's second term and of the administration of Adams also. Washington Assailed. With the exalted views of Washington which now prevail it is difficult to conceive to what an extent he was then assailed and maligned. This great and good man was attacked with great as perity ; his conduct was reprobated by the press, and in public and private addresses ; he was even accused of " desiring to join the coalesced despots of Europe in their crusade against liberty." People were warned against making Washington " an idol who might become dangerous to liberty." One libeler applied to him the epithets, " Faithless, unprincipled and aristocratic moderatist, who would offer up the liberties of thy fellow-citizens on the altar of administration, and the sacred obligations of our country, though perhaps not thine, on the altar of treachery and dishonor!" The Aurora* charged upon him that he was " the source of all the mis fortunes of our country," and said that the name of Washington * Article on the Abdication of Washington. ATTACKS ON WASHINGTON. 341 " gave a currency to political iniquity and legalized corruption." The notorious Thomas Paine bitterly assailed Washington in a private letter, from which we take the following extract : " And as to you, sir, treacherous in private friendship, and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor ; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any." These extracts show the temper of the times, the bitter animosi ties and severe party strifes of the last ten years of the last cent ury. Washington deeply felt this personal abuse, and referred to it in a letter to Mr. Jefferson in 1796. He said: " I have been ac cused of being the enemy of America and subject to the influence of a foreign country ; and, to prove that, every act of my adminis tration is tortured and the grossest and most insidious misrepresen tations of them made by giving one side only of a subject, and that, too, in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, or a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket." It was a dark period in our national history. Early in 1796 an intimate acquaintance of Washington, a gentleman of the highest character, said, in a letter addressed to his great friend : Our affairs seem to lead to some crisis, some revolution ; something that I can not foresee or conjecture. I am more uneasy than during the war. Then we had a fixed object ; and though the means and time of obtaining it were problematical, yet I did 'firmly believe that we should ultimately succeed, because I did firmly be lieve that justice was with us. The case is now altered ; we are going and doing wrong ; and therefore I look forward to evils and calamities. There doubtless is much reason to think and to say that we are woefully and, in some instances, wick edly misled. Private rage for property suppresses public considerations, and per sonal rather than national interests have become the great objects of attention. In answer to the foregoing letter, Washington, among other things, said : Your sentiments that we are drawing rapidly to a crisis accord with mine. What the event will be is beyond my foresight. * Section 3.— The Family, Dueling, etc. The demoralization consequent upon the spread of French ideas extended also to the family relation. As in France, so in America, in those days there was a weakening of matrimonial ties ; the legiti mate harvest of deistical and atheistical sentiments. A gentle- * Memoirs of Hon. Thomas Jefferson, before quoted. Vol. I, pp. 66, 67. 342 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. man writing a little later, at the beginning of the present century, said : I once cut out of all the newspapers we received the advertisements of all the runaway wives, and pasted them on a slip of paper, close under each other. At the end of a month the slip reached from the ceiling to the floor of the room, more than ten feet high, and contained more than one hundred and twenty-three adver tisements. We did not receive, at most, more than one twentieth part ofthe news papers of the United States. Dueling was another glaring evil of those times. It had become a great national sin. With the exception of a small section of the Union, the whole land was deeply stained with blood. From the northern lakes to the Gulf of Mexico were heard the cries of lamen tation from widows and the fatherless. This flagrant crime was often committed by men high in office — the appointed guardians of life and liberty. Challenges passed within the halls of Congress, and a duelist * was nominated and by a large majority elected to the Vice-Presidency of the United States. We had become a nation of murderers by tolerating and honoring the perpetrators of the crime. Many of the safeguards of our day did not then exist. Letters and packages were opened and read by the mail-carriers. For a long time after the Revolution, men who transacted important business corresponded in cipher. Some cities were famous for routs and riots, luxury and display ; but the routs were generally over before nine o'clock in the evening. Theaters were proscribed and, in Massachusetts, held in abhorrence, and the stringent laws against them in earlier times were re-enacted in 1784. In New York and Philadelphia also they were discarded, and plays were pronounced immoral. But in Baltimore, which had obtained "a high reputation for jollity," they were allowed, and in some other places. Balls, routs and dancing assemblies, alternating with theaters, were the favorite amusements of the Baltimoreans. Lewd songs and coarse jokes were not uncommon. But a large part of the community kept aloof from such spectacles. About 1784-85 a long discussion sprang up in many cities in regard to theaters, which continued several years. It was not until the close of Washington's first ad ministration that a company of players showed themselves in Boston. In the autumn of 1792, under various pretenses, several perform ances were allowed in Boston. Finally, " it was announced that ' Douglas and the Poor Soldier,' a moral lecture, in five parts, would be presented. But Hancock was Governor, and not a man to be de- * Aaron Burr. FIRST THEATER ERECTED IN BOSTON. 343 ceived by a name or to tolerate so bold an invasion ofthe law. One night in December, therefore, while the company was playing the moral lecture of ' School for Scandal,' and the play had gone as far as the end of the second act, the sheriff suddenly rushed upon the stage and carried off Sir Peter to the jail. The house in a fit of fury denounced the Governor, damned liberty, and pulled down and trampled under foot a painting of the Governor's Arms that hung before the stage box. The next number of the Centinel was full of cards. One expressed the thanks of Harper, the arrested comedian, for the sympathy manifested by the audience on the evening of his arrest. A second informed the public that, at the request of the selectmen, the performance would be discontinued for a while. A third, it was pretended, came from the tavern-keepers, and stated, amid a profusion of thanks, that since the theater had been stopped the tap-rooms had been crowded, that the tapsters no longer slept over the empty pots, and that the cry of ' Coming, sirs ; coming, sirs,' was nightly heard on every side." * The plays were soon resumed, and a year later the first theater was erected in Boston. Section 4.— The Physical and Social Condition, Penal Institutions, etc. There can be no doubt, says Mr. McMasters.t that a wonderful amelioration has taken place since that day in the condition of the poor. Their houses were meaner, their food was coarser, their clothing was of commoner stuff, their wages were, despite the depreciation that has gone on in the value of money, lower by one half than at present. A man who petformed what would now be called un skilled labor, who sawed wood, who dug ditches, who mended the roads, who mixed rnortar, who carried boards to the carpenter and bricks to the mason, or helped to cut hay in the harvest time, usually received, as the fruit of his daily toil, two shillings. Sometimes, when the laborers were few, he was paid more, and be came the envy of his fellows if at the end of a week he took home to his family fifteen shillings, a sum now greatly exceeded by four dollars. Yet all authorities agree that in 1784 the hire of workmen was twice as great as in 1774. On such a pittance it was only by the strictest economy that a mechanic kept his children from starvation and himself from jail. In the low and dingy rooms which he called his home were wanting many articles of adornment and of use now to be found in the dwellings of the poorest of his class. Sand sprinkled on the floor did duty as a carpet ; there was no glass on his table ; there was no china in his cupboard ; there were no prints on his wall. What a stove was he did not know ; coal he had never seen ; matches he had never heard of. Over a fire of fragments of boxes and barrels, which he lit with the sparks struck from a flint, or * History ofthe People ofthe United States. By McMasters. Vol. I, pp, 94, 95. ilbid. Vol. I, p. 96. 344 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. with live coals brought from a neighbor's hearth, his wife cooked up a rude meal and served it in pewter dishes. He rarely tasted fresh meat as often as once in a week, and paid for it a much higher price than his posterity. Every thing, indeed, which ranked as a staple of life was very costly. Corn stood at three shillings the bushel, wheat at eight and sixpence ; an assize of bread was fourpence ; a pound of salt pork was tenpence. Many other commodities now to be seen on the tables of the poor were either quite unknown or far beyond the reach of his scanty means. . . . If the food of an artisan would now be thought coarse his clothes would be thought abominable. A pair of yellow buckskin or leathern breeches, a checked shirt, a red flannel jacket, a rusty felt hat cocked up at the corners, shoes of neat's skin set off with huge bucklers of brass, and a leather apron comprised his scanty wardrobe. The leather he smeared with grease to keep it soft and flexible. His sons followed in his footsteps, or were apprenticed to neighboring tradesmen. His daughter went out to service. She performed, indeed, all the duties at present ex acted from women of her class ; but with them were coupled many others rendered useless by the great improvement that has since taken place in the conveniences of life. She mended the clothes, she did up the ruffs, she ran on errands from one end of the town to the other, she milked the cows, made the butter, walked ten blocks for a pail of water, spun flax for family linen, and, when the year was up, received ten pounds for her wages. . . . But there is one other change which has, it must be admitted, done far more to increase the physical comforts of the poorest class than better food, higher wages, finer clothes — men are no longer Imprisoned for Debt. No crime known to the law brought so many to the jails and prisons as the crime of debt ; and the class most likely to get into debt was the most defenseless and dependent, the great body of servants, of artisans, and of laborers — those, in short, who depended on their daily wages for their daily bread. One hundred years ago the laborer who fell from a scaffold, or lay sick of a fever, was sure to be seized by the sheriff the moment he recovered, and be carried to jail for the bill of a few dollars which had been run up during his illness at the huckster's or the tavern. There is, indeed, scarce a scrap of information bearing upon the subject extant which does not go to prove beyond question that the generation which witnessed the Revolution was less merciful and tender-hearted than the generation which witnessed the civil war. Brutality. Our ancestors, it is true, put up a just cry of horror at the brutal treatment of their captive countrymen in the prison-ships and hulks. So great and bitter was their indignation that money was to be stamped with representations of the atrocities of which they complained, that their descendants to the remotest generation might hold in remembrance the cruelty of the British and the sufferings of the patriots. Yet even then the face of the land was dotted with prisons where deeds of cruelty were done in comparison with which the foulest acts committed in the hulks sink to a contemptible insignificance. For more than fifty years after the peace there was in Connecticut an under ground prison which surpassed in horrors the Black Hole of Calcutta. This den, PRISON HORRORS. 345 known as Newgate Prison, was in an old worked-out copper-mine in the hills near Granby. The only entrance to it was by the means of a ladder down a shaft, which led to the caverns under ground. There, in little pens of wood, from thirty to one hundred culprits were immured, their feet made fast to iron bars and their necks chained to beams in the roof. The darkness was intense ; the caves reeked with filth ; vermin abounded ; water trickled from the roof and oozed from the sides of the caverns ; huge masses of earth were perpetually falling off. In the dampness and the filth the clothing of the prisoners grew moldy and rotted away and their limbs became stiff with rheumatism. The Newgate Prison was perhaps the worst in the country, yet in every county were jails such as would now be thought unfit places of habitation for the vilest and most loathsome of beasts. At Northampton the cells were scarce four feet high, and filled with noxious gases of the privy vaults, through which they were supposed to be ventilated. Light came in from two chinks in the walls. At the Worcester prison were a number of like cells, four feet high by eleven long, without a window or a chimney or even a hole in the wall. Not a ray of light ever penetrated them. In other jails in Massa chusetts the cells were so small that the prisoners were lodged in hammocks swung one over the other. In Philadelphia the keeps were eighteen feet by twenty feet, and so crowded that at night each prisoner had a space six feet by two to lie down in. Into such pits and dungeons all classes of offenders of both sexes were indis criminately thrust. It is therefore not at all surprising that they became seminaries of every conceivable form of vice and centers of most disgusting diseases. Pros titutes plied their calling openly in the presence of men and women of decent sta tion and guilty of no crime but an inability to pay their debts. Men confined as witnesses were compelled to mingle with the forger, besmeared with the filth of the pillory, and the fornicator streaming with blood from the whipping-post, while here and there among the throng were culprits whose ears had just been cropped or whose arms, fresh from the branding iron, emitted the stench of scorched flesh. The Entire System of Punishment. was such as cannot be contemplated without mingled feelings of pity and disgust. Offenses to which a more merciful generation has attached no higher penalty than imprisonment and fine stood upon the statute-books as capital crimes. Modes of punishment long since driven from the prisons with execrations as worthy of an African kraal were looked upon by society with a profound indiffer ence. The tread-mill was always going. The pillory and the stocks were never empty. The shears, the branding-iron, and the lash were never idle for a day. In Philadelphia the wheel-barrow men still went about the streets in gangs, or ap peared with huge clogs and chains hung to their necks. In Delaware, which to this hour treats her citizens with the degrading scenes ofthe whipping-post, twenty crimes were punished with a loss of life. Burglary and rape, sodomy and witch craft, were among them. In Massachusetts ten crimes were declared by the Gen eral Court to be punishable with death. There the man who, in a fit of anger or in a fit of drunkenness, was heard curs ing and swearing, or spreading evil reports of his neighbor, was first set in the stocks and then carried off to the whipping-post and soundly flogged. If, how ever, he was so unfortunate as to be caught in the arms of a prostitute he was suffered to escape with a fine. In Rhode Island a perpetual mark of shame was 346 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. for many offenses judged to be a most fitting punishment. There a counterfeiter was punished with a loss of a piece of his ear, and distinguished from all other criminals by a large C deeply branded on his forehead. A wretch so hardened as to be recommitted was branded on the arm. Keepers knew no other mode of silencing the ravings of a madman than tying him up by the thumbs and flogging him till he was too exhausted to utter a groan. The misery of the unfortunate creatures cooped up in the cells, even of the most humanely kept prisons, surpassed in horror any thing ever recorded in fiction, No attendance was provided for the sick, no clothes were distributed to the naked. Such a thing as a bed was rarely seen, and this soon became so foul with insects that the owner dispensed with it gladly. Many of the inmates of the prisons passed years without so much as washing themselves. Their hair grew long, their bodies were covered with scabs and lice and emitted a horrible stench. Their clothing rotted from their backs and exposed their bodies tormented with all man ner of skin diseases and a yellow flesh cracking open with filth. The death rate often stood as high as sixty in the thousand. As if such tortures were not hard enough to bear, others were added by the half-maddened prisoners. " Garnishing." No sooner did a new-comer enter the door of a cell than a rush was made for him by the inmates, who stripped him of his clothing and let him stand stark naked till it was redeemed by what, in the peculiar jargon ofthe place, was known as drink-money. It sometimes happened that the prisoners were in possession of a carefully pre served blanket. Then this ceremony called garnishing was passed over for the yet more brutal one of blanketing. In spite of prayers and entreaties the miser able stranger was bound, thrown into the blanket and tossed till he was half dead and ready to give his tormentors every superfluous garment to sell for money. With the tolls thus exacted liquor was bought, a fiendish revel was held, and when bad rum and bad tobacco had done their work, the few sober inmates ofthe cell witnessed such scenes as would be thought shocking in the dance-houses which cluster along the wharves of our great seaboard towns. To a generation which has beheld great reforms in the statutes of criminal law and in the discipline of prisons and jails, to a generation which knows but two crimes worthy of death — that against the life ofthe individual and that against the life of the State — which has expended fabulous sums in the erection of reforma tories, asylums and penitentiaries, houses of correction, houses of refuge and houses of detention all over the land ; which has furnished every State prison with a library, with a hospital, with workshops and with schools, the brutal scenes on which our ancestors looked with indifference seem scarcely a reality. Yet it is well to recall them, for we cannot but turn from the contemplation of so much misery and so much suffering with a deep sense of thankfulness that our lot has fallen in a pitiful age, in an age when more compassion is felt for a galled horse or a dog run over at a street crossing than our greatgrandfathers felt for a woman beaten for cursing or a man imprisoned for debt.* But there was one great evil which stood out more prominently than others, requiring a more extended notice. * History ofthe People ofthe United States. By McMasters. Vol. I, pp. 96-102. INCREASE OF INTEMPERANCE. 347 Section 5.— Intemperance. The first Continental Congress, in 1774,* uttered a decided manifesto against the evil of intemperance in these words : Resolved, That it be recommended to the several legislatures immediately to pass laws the more effectually to put a stop to the pernicious practice of distilling, by which the most extensive evils are likely to be derived if not quickly prevented. But this action was soon forgotten by the Government itself during the war of the Revolution, and supplies of distilled liquors were voted by Congress for the army under the fatal delusion that they were necessary in the hardships and dangers to which the soldiers were exposed in that severe struggle. In consequence of this action a diseased appetite was not only fostered where it already existed, but was also awakened in many who had not hith erto experienced its insatiable longings. During the war the commerce of the colonies was cut off and with it the supply of foreign beer and wines, and hence almost all the liquor which was then used was distilled spirits — the most fiery and vitiating of all the beverages ever presented to the lips of man ; and this was soon in demand for almost every purpose of cure or sustenance. The absence of the foreign supply, and a more exten sively vitiated appetite, increased the demand and gave a great im pulse to the business of distillation. In the course of three years the consumption of grain became so great that it was feared that a famine would ensue in the army. In 1779 the army began to suffer, and the State of Pennsylvania enacted a law preventing the distil lation of all kinds of grain or meal, except rye and barley. But the check was only temporary. As might have been expected, there was a great increase of this terrible evil after the close of the Revolution. The soldiers, on being discharged, carried out into the communities the appetites which they had formed, and many others, long inclined to the mod erate use of the milder articles from which they had been cut off, had become addicted to those of the most powerful and deteriorat ing character. Hence we find that during the forty years after the close of the war intemperance attained its greatest proportions, and it was often referred to in those days by European travelers as " the most striking characteristic of the American people." The statistics of 1792 and 1810 afford abundant confirmation of these statements. In 1792 there were 2,579 distilleries in the United States. In 1810 *For a sketch of intemperance in the colonial era, see pp. 212-214, Liquor Problem in all Ages. By Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt. New York City. 348 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. they numbered 14,191, being an increase nearly sixfold, while the population had increased less than twofold. During the year ending September 30, 1792, there had been of foreign distilled spirits im ported (exports deducted, leaving the quantity actually consumed) 4,567,160 gallons; wines (exports deducted), 1,267,723 gallons ; dis tilled in the United States, 5,171,564 gallons. Total consumed in this country, 11,008,447 gallons. But the population of the country at that time was 4,173,024, which would be an average of two and one half gallons for every man, woman and child, including slaves, who, however, were not allowed to use liquors. Section 6.— General Surrey of the Dark Period. During the last decade of the last century many good men be came seriously concerned in view of the low condition of piety and morals which almost every-where prevailed. A few testimonies from some of these men will assist in reproducing a distinct view of the situation. Rev. Devereux Jarratt, a distinguished Episcopal clergy man of Virginia, writing in 1794, said: The present time is marked by peculiar traits of impiety and such an almost universal inattention to the concerns of religion that very few will attend, except on Sunday, to hear the word of the Lord.* . . . The state of religion is gloomy and distressing ; the Church of Christ seems to be sunk very low.f . . • Little regard and reverence is paid to magistrates and persons in public office \ on account of the prevalence of the spirit of the French Revolution. The state of morals in the new Territories was especially bad. Rev. Peter Cartwright in his Autobiography bears testimony to the condition of a portion of Kentucky. Logan County, when my father moved into it (1793), was called " Rogue's Har bor." Here many refugees from almost all parts of the Union fled to escape pun ishment or justice ; for, although there was law, yet it could not be executed, and it was a desperate state of society. Murderers, horse-thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters fled there, until they combined and actually formed a majority. Those who favored a better state of morals were called " Regulators." But they encountered fierce opposition from the "Rogues,'' and a battle was fought with guns, pistols, dirks, knives, and clubs, in which the " Regulators " were defeated. Gallipolis, Ohio, was originally settled by French infidels, and as late as 1815, although it was the " county seat and a flourishing town," yet it was without a minister of the Gospel. Cleveland, * Life of Rev. Devereux Jarratt. Written by himself. Baltimore, Warren & Hanna, 1805. P. 5- flbid., p. 129. XHid; p. 15. GENERAL DEMORALIZATION. 349 Ohio, was settled in 1799. In 1803 Rev. Joseph Badger visited this place and said of it : Infidelity and profaning the Sabbath are general. They bid fair to grow into a hardened corrupt society.* Western New York, like many other new localities, was settled by bold and enterprising men, speculators in land, and men whose misfortunes or vices or roving disposition inclined them to disregard the more staid habits and associations of older communities, and to cast off the obligations of religion and good morals. It was then a common saying that " Religion had not got west of the Genesee River." Some of the towns were hot-beds of infidelity, and the books of Paine, Voltaire, etc., were largely circulated. A writer in those days describing the condition of the new regions, said : " In most ofthe communities there was no other vestige ofthe Christian religion than a faint observance of Sunday, and that merely as a day of rest for the aged and a play-day for the young." In the older communities many of the pulpits were filled by a formal and worldly ministry, or by men who had fled from the ecclesiastical censures of the lands across the ocean, and the Church was generally conformed to the gay society around it. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1798, in its pastoral letter, indulged in language of alarm and expostulation: Formidable innovations and convulsions in Europe threaten destruction to morals and religion ; scenes of devastation and bloodshed unexampled in the his tory of modern nations have convulsed the world, and our country is threatened with similar calamities. We perceive with pain and fearful apprehension^ gen eral dereliction of religious principle and practice among our fellow-citizens, a visi ble and prevailingimpiety and contempt forthe laws and the institutions of religion, and an abounding infidelity which, in many instances, tends to atheism itself. The profligacy and corruption of the public morals have advanced with a progress proportioned to our declension in religion. Profaneness, pride, luxury, injustice, intemperance, lewdness, and every species of debauchery and loose indulgence greatly abound. Solemn exhortations to the churches followed, to be read from all the pulpits, and a day of fasting and prayer was appointed. In some Presbyteries the first Tuesday of every quarter throughout each year was observed for this purpose, from 1796 to the close of the century. On the first Friday in March in 1796, the Methodist Episcopal Church f observed a general day of fasting and prayer for the same reasons as those here given. The means of resistance against these evils were then comparatively small. There were * Memoirs, p. 46. + See Bangs's History of Methodism. Vol. II, p. 22. 3SO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. large tracts of the country in which the people were either not sup plied with churches at all or the supply was very scanty. There were also but few religious books, and no tracts, for tract societies had not then been organized, and the age of Bible societies had not dawned. During all the colonial history no English Bible was per mitted to be published in the land, and the people were entirely de pendent on the mother country. Bibles were therefore very ex pensive and scarce. After the troubles arose with the mother country it became difficult to obtain a supply of the Holy Scriptures. It has been estimated that at the time of the Revolution there were not more than four million Bibles in the whole world. Since the organization of Bible societies hundreds of millions have been printed and scattered abroad. In 1777 the American Congress directed the Committee on Commerce to import, at their expense, twenty thou sand English Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere, into the different States of the Union. In 1781 Congress recommended an edition of the Bible which had then been just published by Robert Aiken, of Philadelphia, the first edition ofthe Holy Scriptures ever printed in America. These things occurred before the influence of French infidelity had become so general. So meager were the means of resistance against the great evils which were flooding the nation. Our country was peculiarly adapted to be the battle-ground of a great impending religious conflict. Here was no State Church, nor could the civil arm be stretched out to defend or sustain Christianity. The right of free discussion was secured by law to belief and unbe lief alike. Nor was the battle to be fought for America only, but for mankind, for we were destined to be a great cosmopolitan people, a mediatorial nation among the nations of the earth. Under such disadvantages did Christianity commence the work of the present century in the United States, and with such high re sponsibilities. The question to be decided was, Shall this American nation be Christian or infidel ? A question which could not be decided by an appeal to arms, but by the working of silent and subtle convictions pervading the realm of ideas, and relying on spiritual influences and agencies alone. TEMPERANCE SEED-SOWERS. 351 CHAPTER VII. REFORMS INITIATED. Sec. i. Early Temperance Seed-Sowing. | Sec. 2. Early Antislavery Seed-Sowing. Section 1.— Early Temperance Seed-Sowing. LIKE all other reforms from a low condition of general demoral ization penetrating the entire framework of society, the re verse movement was very small, feeble and inconstant in its begin ning. A long succession of temperance men can be traced down through the ages to our times, who have withstood the prevailing drinking usages, by which vast multitudes have been borne down to ruin. Even during the dark and troublous period of the last quarter of the last century, the first seed-sowing of reform may be traced, chiefly in scattered individual movements, from which ample harvests have since been reaped. The efforts of the Hon. John Adams to restrain the sale and use of intoxicating drinks in his native town, near the close of the colonial era, have been frequently noticed. Dr. Benjamin Franklin was a man of strict temperance habits. While employed as a jour neyman printer in London he often protested against the drinking usages of his fellow printers, and, in after life, amid the allurements of more exalted stations, maintained his strict temperance princi ples. The Society of Friends from their origin, in a very corrupt and dissolute age, were noted for the inculcation, both by precept and example, of the strictest doctrine of temperance, and scrupu lously instilled those ideas into the minds of their children. The Yearly Meeting ofthe Friends in New England,* in 1784, incorpo rated into the discipline a special clause respecting the use of ardent spirits, which was regarded as permanently binding on all their members. Rev. John Wesley at the beginning of his ministry was convinced that intemperance was a great foe to true religious prog- * American Quarterly Temperance Magazine. Albany, Nov., 1833, pp. 367, 368. 352 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ress, and not only preached against it, but also insisted upon the most rigid temperance among his ministers and people. A rule which he prescribed for his societies excluded " drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, except in cases of extreme necessity." The early Methodists in this country were not less decided than Mr. Wesley in their opposition to the drinking usages of that period. At the Conferences held in 1780 and 1783 decided action was taken. In the latter year they inquired : Shall our friends be permitted to make spirituous liquors, sell and drink them in drams ? Answer. By no means ; we think it wrong in its nature and conse quences, and desire all our preachers to teach the people, by precept and example, to put away this evil. In 1784 the first Conference was held, by which the Methodist Episcopal Church was formally organized. This body adopted the foregoing rule of Mr. Wesley, and made it obligatory upon every member of the Church. Revs. Dr. Thomas Coke and Francis As bury, the first Bishops of the Church, in their Notes on the Disci pline, alluding to this rule, said : Far be it from us to wish or endeavor to intrude upon the proper religious or civil liberty of any of our people. But the retailing of spirituous liquors and giv-. ing drams to customers when they call at the stores are such prevalent customs at present, and are productive of so many evils, that we judge it our indispensable duty to form a regulation against them. The cause of God, which we prefer to every other consideration under heaven, requires us to step forth with humble bold ness in this respect. Thus it will be seen that the founders of the Methodist Episco pal Church in America deserve to be regarded as among the first and most decided movers in this great reform. It is also a well- known fact that the house of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, was the constant home of the early Methodist itinerants, toward whom he was strongly inclined. Asbury and Coke visited him often, and doubtless in their conversations contributed something to pre pare him for the active part he performed in this great reform. It is a just tribute to the memory of a great and good man, a man of superior scientific attainments, of patient, philosophic re search, of rare progressive spirit, a zealous reformer and a devout Christian, to say that this great movement is indebted for its origin to Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia. Other men had inculcated temperance, both by precept and example, and thus stood as lights in dark ages, DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. 353 but Dr. Rush resolutely undertook, by extensive efforts, long persevered in, amid the arduous duties of his profession, to withstand this great and desolating evil, both through the press and by personal influence with the leading men of his time. And it will be seen as we proceed that to his efforts the earliest perma nent temperance organizations may be directly traced. His antece dents indicate that he was a fit man for such a work. As early as 1774, when a member of the provisional assembly of Pennsylvania, he moved the first resolutions in favor of our national independ ence, and on the 23d of June, 1776, when a member of the Conti nental Congress, he was appointed the chairman of the Committee on Independence. Such a spirit was not to be appalled in view of the antiquity and magnitude of this terrible scourge. As early as 1785 Dr. Rush published his celebrated essay on The Effects of Ardent Spirits on the Human Mind and Body. It attracted considerable attention and exerted a manifest influence for good ; so that, according to Hildreth,* at the celebration of the adoption of the Federal Constitution in Philadelphia, July 4, 1788, ardent spirits were excluded from the entertainment, American beer and cider being the only liquors used. Nor was this all. He made earnest and repeated efforts with the leading official ministers and ecclesiastical bodies of that day to influence them to proper action on this subject; and we find him corresponding with the elder Adams and Dr. Jeremy Belknap, of New Hampshire, on this subject. In his first letter, dated May 6, 1788, he says : The commerce in African slaves has breathed its last in Pennsylvania. . . . I am encouraged by the success that has finally attended the exertions of the friends of universal freedom and justice to go on in my romantic schemes (as they have often here been called) of serving my countrymen. My next object shall lie the extirpation of the abuse of spirituous liquors. For this purpose I have every year for several years past republished the inclosed tract two or three weeks before harvest. The effects of this perseverance begin already to show themselves in our State. A family or township is hit with this publication one year that neglected or perhaps ridiculed it the year before. Associations are forming in many places to give no spirits at the ensuing harvest. The Quakers and Methodists take the lead in these associations, as they have often done in all enterprises that have morality or the happiness of society for their object. t The following extract from another original autograph letter from Dr. Rush to Dr. Belknap, dated July 13, 1789, in the posses sion of the New England Historical Society, will show in his own * Vol. IV, p. 69. t Original autograph letter in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass. Copied by consent of the Society. See Belknap Papers. Vol. I, p. 138. 23 354 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. words the depth of interest in this subject, and also present some other interesting facts. I have borne a testimony (by particular desire) at a Methodist Conference against the use of ardent spirits, and I hope with effect. I have likewise written to the Roman Catholic Bishop in Maryland to set an association on foot against them in his society. I have repeatedly insisted upon a pub lic testimony being published against them by the Presbyterian Synod of this city, and have suggested to our good Bishop White the necessity of the Episcopal Church not standing neutral in this interesting business. Go thou, my friend, and, in your circle of influence or acquaintance, " Do likewise." * The First Temperance Association in this country was formed in the early part of the year 1789, in the town of Litchfield, Conn. In the Federal Herald, \ July 13, 1789, it is recorded that — Upward of two hundred of the most respectable farmers in Litchfield County, Conn., have formed an association to encourage the disuse of spirituous liquors, and have determined not to use any kind of distilled spirits in doing their farming work the ensuing season. Whether this association had a constitution and by-laws does not now appear, but they had a temperance PLEDGE, thus recognizing a principle which has long been the key-stone of the temperance reformation. The original copy of this pledge was found in 1833 by Hon. Seth P. Beers, while administering upon the estate of Mr. Ephraim Kirby, of Litchfield, the first signer.;): After a long preamble setting forth the grounds of their action stands the following pledge : We do hereby associate and mutually agree that hereafter we will carry on our business without the use of distilled spirits as an article of refreshment, either for ourselves or for those whom we employ ; and that, instead thereof, we will serve our workmen with wholesome food and the common simple drinks of our produc tion. Signed by Ephraim Kirby, Timothy Skinner, David Buel, and nearly two hundred others. Forty-four years afterward, ten of the original number were still living in Litchfield, and one of them, Mr. David Buel, was residing in Troy, N. Y., at the advanced age of ninety years, a zealous advo cate of temperance. This was the first voluntary association of individuals pledged to abstain from strong drink ever formed in this country. To the unfading glory of the farmers of Litchfield County let it ever be told. They were the first to originate and * For fuller information in regard to Dr. Rush see Liquor Problem in all Ages. By Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt. New York City. t Vol. Ill, No. 74. Published in Lansingburg, N. Y. X See Litchfield Enquirer, Sept. 26, 1833. EARLY ANTISLAVERY ACTION. 355 introduce into practice the principie of a social covenant to promote the disuse of ardent spirits. In the next period this reform will unfold itself through successive stages of progress into a great and mighty moral revolution. Section 2.— Early AntislaYery Seed-Sowing. Societies for the abolition of slavery are not of recent origin. A considerable number of them sprang up in the latter part of the last century. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the first ever formed, was organized before the Revolution. In 1784 it was resuscitated. The New York Abolition Scociety was formed in January, 1785, the Rhode Island Society, in 1789; the Connecticut Society, in 1790 ; the New Jersey Society, in 1792 ; and other societies were organized in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. National abolition conventions were held in 1794, in 1795, in 1804, and subsequently. These early abolition societies embraced in their membership some of the purest philanthropists, the ripest scholars, most eminent jurists, and the best statesmen of that age. They were deeply imbued with the spirit of liberty and were loyal to the pre cepts of Christianity. Ever zealous, earnest, and devoted, they labored effectively in the cause of emancipation and the general elevation of the African race. For several years national conventions, in which these societies were represented, were annually held. Earnest arguments and appeals were made by these conventions to Congress, to the State legislatures, to the free people of color, and to the country, to aid in the suppression of the slave-trade, the repeal of inhuman statutes, the pro tection of free persons of color, and the promotion of the general interests of freedom.* Among the prominent civilians engaged in these movements were the following : John Baldwin, Benjamin Franklin, Anthony Benezet, and Benjamin Rush, in Pennsylvania ; John Jay and Alex ander Hamilton, in New York; Judge Baldwin, in Connecticut; Levi Lincoln, Caleb Strong, and Theodore Sedgwick, in Massachu setts, and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, in Virginia. The more enlightened statesmen and philanthropists of that period regarded slavery as "an atrocious debasement of human nature," f and desired to find some plan by which it might be abolished by law. This was especially true of the best portion of the cultivated Christian mind of that day. They saw the essential injustice and enormity of slavery, and the duty of its removal, as clearly as they ever have since that time. * Rise and Fall of the Slave Power. By Hon. Henry Willson. Boston. 1872. James R. Osgood & Co. Vol. I, p. 29. t Benjamin Franklin. 356 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. But there was a powerful class in the Carolinas and in Georgia that actively and persistently resisted every thing that tended to the destruction of a system which secured to them wealth, social distinction, and political power. There were also " the uneducated and unreflecting masses," taking counsel of their feelings of indolence and avarice, and of those induced, in the language of Jefferson, " by the quiet, monotonous course of colonial life, largely influenced and led, too, by the dominant class, who had little sympathy with these abstract ideas of right, justice and humanity, and little dis position to legislate in harmony with them." These two classes hindered and prevented all legislative enactments in the Southern States which tended either to the modification or the abolition of slavery, and succeeded in obtaining a recognition of slavery and guarantees for its protection in the Constitution of the United States. In the more northern States different results were secured. During the Revolution public opinion in Massachusetts was so strong in favor of the abolition of slavery that in many of the towns votes were passed in the town meetings that they would have no slaves among them. The present Constitution, adopted in 1780, declares that "all men are born free and equal." "This," says Chief Justice Parsons, a member of the committee which re ported it, " was inserted not merely as a moral and political truth, but with a particular view to establish the liberation of the negroes on a general principle, and was so understood by the people at large," who adopted the Constitution by a two thirds vote. " It would be difficult," said Chief Justice Shaw, "to select words more precisely adapted to the abolition of slavery." But even before this action slavery was virtually abolished by public opinion. Nor is there evidence that the blacks were sold and sent south. In 1783 a great deal of public indignation was expressed at the con duct of Dr. A , who decoyed three blacks on board of his vessel and took them to the West Indies for sale. Governor Hancock sent to all the West India Islands, and the men were promptly returned to Boston.* In 1780 Pennsylvania passed "an act of gradual abolition." Rhode Island took early action, providing that all born of African descent, after March, 1784, should be free. Connecticut, with not quite three thousand slaves at the time, as early as 1784 provided *The fullest account extant of slavery in Massachusetts was written by Rev. Dr. Jeremy Belknap, in response to inquiries by Judge Tucker, of Virginia, and published in the Massachu setts Historical Collections. Vol. IV. GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. 357 for the gradual emancipation of slavery. The same year New Hampshire became a free State by a judicial interpretation of her Constitution. The Legislature of New York in 1785 refused to adopt a system of gradual emancipation. After persistent appeals, however, in 1799, it enacted that all children born thereafter were free. The Religious Origin of the Antislavery Movement. The opinion sometimes expressed, that the antislavery move ment was in its origin a purely humanitarian reform, is the result of hasty thought. Some have been accustomed to consider Franklin, Jefferson, Jay, Rush, etc., as philanthropists under whose labors the early abolition societies and emancipation acts in the Northern States were inaugurated, and forget that the prime impulse was Christian, and that Christian men, includ ing many eminent divines, acted a conspicuous and the leading part in the programme. Such men constituted not only some of the best leaders but also the rank and file, while the religious sentiment furnished the chief pabulum and inspiration ofthe reform. It started directly out of the religious convictions of the people, and was dependent for its success upon the religious public. This aspect of the case has been so constantly overlooked by writers and speakers on antislavery themes that it is necessary to dwell upon it here and unfold the action of the religious bodies. By referring to pp. 225-228, the earliest seed-sowing of antislavery will be seen, under which public opinion was so far developed at the time of the Revolution that the abolition of slavery followed in many States immediately after that event. By the faithful and self-denying labors of devoted pioneers and early advocates of antislavery, and others of less note, covering a period of a hundred years, was the Society of Friends at length persuaded to rid itself of the system of enforced servitude. Nor was this great work accomplished without much of exciting dis cussion, stern rebuke and stirring appeal. For with them, as with others, the love of ease and the lust of dominion were strong, nor did they at once and easily let go their hold on the victims of their power. And not until the conscience of the Society was aroused by the unequivocal decisions of its ecclesiastical tribunals, showing slavery to be a sin to be repented of and forsaken, did it achieve the high distinction of being the first and only denomination to purge itself entirely of this great iniquity. * The Presbyterian Church and Slavery. The Presbyterians also shared a part in this early seed-sowing. As early as 1774, and again in 1780, this subject was before their * Rise and Fall of the Slave Power. By Hon. Henry Wilson. Vol I, p. 10 358 CHRISTIANI TY IN THE UNITED STATES. Synod. In 1787 the Synod of New York and Philadelphia declared its approval of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that prevail in America and of the interest which many of the States have taken in promoting the abolition of slavery ; yet, inasmuch as men introduced from a servile state to a participation of all the privileges of civil society, without a proper education and without pre vious habits of industry, may be in some respects dangerous to the community, therefore they earnestly recommend to all the members belonging to their com munion to give those persons who are at present held in servitude such good edu cation as might prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom. Re-affirmed in 1793 and 1795. The Methodist Episcopal Church was not formally organized until the Conference called for that purpose in Baltimore, December 27, 1784. The following is the substance of the action of this body in regard to slavery : 1. As to the nature of slavery. An abomination; the deepest debasement; the slavery of America more abject than any other. 2. They considered slavery to be contrary to the golden law of love, on which hang all the law and the prophets ; contrary to the inalienable rights of mankind ; contrary to every prin ciple of the Revolution. 3. Every one possessing slaves, whether by inheritance or otherwise, was required to emancipate them if it could be done ; and no persons holding slaves for the future was to be admitted into the Church unless he pre viously promised to emancipate them. 4. These rules were to affect the members of the Church only so far as they were consistent with the laws of the States in which they resided. 5. But those who bought or sold slaves, or gave them away, were immediately to be expelled, unless they bought them in order to free them. * " These rules," says Rev. Jesse Lee, t " were but short-lived and were offensive to most of our southern friends, and were so much opposed by many of our private members, local preachers, and some of the traveling preachers, that the execution of them was suspended at the Conference held in June following, about six months after they were formed, and they were never afterward carried into full force." The Conference of 1796 adopted a fuller expression of its views, among which we notice astern disapproval of slavery; security for emancipation required of official members holding them in States where emancipation was allowed ; no slaveholder was to be received into the Church until the preacher had spoken to him freely and faithfully on the subject; every member who should sell a slave was to be excluded from the Society ; members purchasing slaves were required to execute a legal instrument of manumission after a spec ified term, etc. This remained with little modification for some time. All through these earlier years the Methodist Church maintained a positive hostility to slavery, which was felt in the high places in ''¦¦History of the Great Secession. By Rev. Chas. Elliott, D.D. Cincinnati, Swormsted & Poe. 1855, p. 35. t History of the Methodists. 1810. HOSTILITY TO SLAVERY. 359 the nation. Its leading officials freely conferred with presidents and governors, and were listened to in legislative halls in behalf of the slave. In the - onvention that framed the Constitution of the United States Mr. Marshall, afterward Chief Justice, kept back the words slave and slavery from that instrument by urging with great em phasis that if the Government thus countenanced slavery it would lose the support of the Methodists and the Quakers. The Congregationalists and Slavery. Congregationalism was originally confined almost entirely to New England, and consequently has been less embarrassed by the institution of shvery than any other religious body. But in the colonial period, and for a considerable time after the Revolution, this institution existed in almost all the Northern States where this denomination prevailed. Several noble champions of antislavery arose in her ministry at an early date. " Among the earlier apostles of emancipation was Dr. Samuel Hopkins, pastor of the Congregational church in Newport, R. I., who was as much distinguished for his advocacy of the doctrines of human rights as of the doctrines of the school of theology which bears his name. In 1770 he deliberately and solemnly resolved to attack the system of kidnapping, purchasing and retaining slaves. Although Rhode Island had, as early as 1652, passed an act against the purchase of negroes, she had become deeply involved in the slave trade. Newport was the great slave mart of New England. Cargoes of slaves were often landed near the church and home of the great divine. Before his congregation, thus deeply involved in the guilt of slave-trading and slave-holding, he boldly rebuked the sin, and pleaded the cause of these victims in a discourse of great plainness and power. It was an unselfish and heroic act, imperil ing his position both as pastor and as a recognized leader in the Church. Of this noble act Whittier says, ' It may well be doubted whether on that Sabbath day the angels of God, in their wide sur vey of his universe, looked upon a nobler spectacle than that of the minister of Newport rising up before his slave-holding congregation and demanding, in the name of the Highest, " the deliverance of the captive and the opening of prison doors to them which were bound." ' " From 1770 to 1776 Dr. Hopkins frequently spoke in behalf of the slave, visited from house to house, and urged masters to free their bondmen. In the latter year he published his dialogue con cerning slavery, together with his address to slave-holders. He 360 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. dedicated this remarkable production, said to have been ' the ablest document which had at that time and on that theme appeared in the English language,' to the Continental Congress. It had a large circulation among the statesmen of that day and exerted a potent influence on public opinion. This early champion of the black man was cheered by the passage in 1774 of a law prohibiting the im portation of negroes into Rhode Island ; and in 1784 by the passage of an act declaring all children born after the next March free — re sults to which he had largely contributed by his early, persistent and self-denying labors. His heart was gladdened, too, by the action of his church. Instructed by his teachings and inspired by his zeal, it declared slavery to be 'a gross violation of the righteous ness and benevolence of the Gospel,' and therefore it resolved, ' We will not tolerate it in this church.' " * The first meeting for the formation of the Rhode Island Abo lition Society was held in the house of Dr. Hopkins, at Newport. The New York Abolition Society, among its earlier acts, printed Dr. Hopkins's masterly arguments against slavery and gratuitously circulated them. The Connecticut Abolition Society had for its first officers Rev. Ezra Styles, D.D., President of Yale College, and Judge Baldwin, both eminent Congregationalists, and numbered among its members many who were eminent for piety and learning. Before this society, in 1791, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D.D., the younger, proclaimed the radical and uncompromising declaration that, " To hold a man in a state of slavery who has a right to his liberty is to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of man-stealing, and is a greater sin in the sight of God than concubinage or forni cation." Rev. Dr. Edwards performed good service on other im portant occasions. In the national Antislavery Convention of 1795 he was present, and acted a conspicuous part. This conven tion sent out addresses to South Carolina, Georgia, and the people of the United States. The address to South Carolina was written by Mr. Edwards. Thus it will be seen that the original impulse of the antislavery movement was religious, and that all through the earlier history which has been sketched it derived its chief force and strength from religious sentiment. (See also Period II, Chap. IV, Sec. 2.) * The Rise and Fall of tlie Slave Power. By Hon. Henry Wilson. Boston. James R. Osgood & Co. 1872. Vol. I, pp. 11, 12. PERIOD II, FROM 1800 TO 1850. HOPEFUL INDICATIONS. 363 CHAPTER I. NEW LIFE IN THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES-AN ERA OF REVIVALS INAUGURATED. Sec. i. Survey of the Period. I Sec. 4. Subsequent Revivals. " 2. The Revival of 1800 Incepted. " 5. College Revivals. " 3. Character of the Revival. j " 6. Effects. Section l.—A StLnrey of tlie Period. WITH the opening ofthe present century appeared numerous indications of an immense advance of Christ's kingdom. Formidable oppositions were still arrayed against it, but some old institutions, long standing in its way, were falling in pieces, and a few nations which had long rejected the Gospel were opening their doors to receive it. In India there was a favorable change in the administration of civil affairs. Infanticide was prohibited,* and European education and Christian chaplains, teachers and mis sionaries had entered. China, under the tuition of European monopolies, began to sympathize a little with European ideas, and was about to admit an installment of missionary f teachers. The Turkish Empire, successively humbled by Venice, Russia and Austria, and finally by France and England, had settled into a state of submission, and was slowly adopting the ideas, arts and education of Western Europe. Africa, also, the land of darkness and parodoxes, was conscious of new influences encircling her. In 1787 Sierra Leone, purchased as a refuge for emancipated bonds men, became a dependency of the British crown. In 1795 the re generation of the Cape of Good Hope commenced under English influence. From 1796 to 1800 the world became acquainted with the wonderful explorations of Bruce and Mungo Park. In 1799 Vanderkemp commenced his labors among the Kafirs and the Hot tentots, and Egypt and the Barbary States were learning to stand in awe of Christian nations. * In 1802. i Dr. Morrison went to Canton in 1807. 364 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Europe had been shaken by the throes of the French Revo lution, the power of papal intolerance was broken, and Napoleon Bonaparte was making gigantic strides across the Continent re constructing its governments and institutions. In the East Indies the influence of Dutch supremacy was already felt, and Christian schools and usages were being established. Great Britain also showed signs of progress. In her American war she had learned useful lessons about popular liberty, and was favorably inclined to a fuller recognition of civil and religious rights. New Christian institutions were organizing for the spread of Christ's kingdom. On the Continent of Europe the Netherlands Missionary Society was formed in 1797, the Berlin Missionary So ciety in 1800, and a little later Gutzlaff went to the coast of China bearing the Gospel. In Great Britain six missionary societies had been organized between 1792 and 1800; the Religious Tract Society in 1 799, three Bible Societies between 1800 and 1809. Sunday-schools had sprung up in England and were being adopted in Protestant countries on the Continent. Such is the world-wide survey of the religious situation at the opening of this century. A general survey of the period (1800-1850) now to be considered, especially in respect to the unfavorable circumstances with which the cause of religion had to contend, and also a brief view of some of the more striking peculiarities and movements of the times, will prepare us to appreciate the rare achievements of American Christianity in the first half of the nineteenth century. Unfavorable Circumstances. The progress of American Christianity during this period was not unattended with disadvantages. The war of 1812 and the ex citing circumstances preceding and following it, covering a period of ten years, were a serious detriment to the cause of piety. The embargo and non-intercourse acts, from 1807 to 1810; the capture of more than nine hundred American vessels in ten years, and the Indian hostilities on the frontiers under British instigation, kept the country constantly excited long before the war commenced. During the war (1812-1815) frequent scenes of savage butchery by Indians and British soldiers on the northern and western borders, the capture and burning of the national capitol, the attacks upon Baltimore and New London, Conn., and the threatening attitude of the British fleet toward New York and Boston, at times inflamed the popular heart to frenzy. Then followed the wars with Algiers TEMPERANCE AND OTHER REFORMS. 365 and the Florida Indians. Moreover, considerable division of opinion existed among American citizens in regard to the war of 1812. Party politics ran high and domestic disputes pervaded all classes, from the halls of legislation to the fireside. In consequence of these things the work of religion in many places was sometimes either greatly embarrassed or wholly checked. After 1820 the country was free from foreign irritations, and the rapidly-extending populations were becoming established in their new centers. The two decades from 1830 to 1850 are among the most im portant in the history of American Christianity. If inferior to the former three in the inauguration of new religious agencies, they were nevertheless characterized by other movements which distinctly marked them upon the pages of history. The churches were in the wake of the great religious revivals which exerted such exten sive and sweeping power from 1826 to 1832. Immediately after the latter date the spiritual interest abated somewhat, and there commenced a series of great and powerful agitations. It was pre eminently an era of agitations — ecclesiastical, reformatory, social istic, Native-American, and that occasioned by the Mexican war. In the year 1830 the great temperance reformation, slowly in augurated in the preceding decades, was moving forward under a powerful influence, and soon attracted universal attention, enlisting the best minds of the nation in its behalf. It powerfully shook the whole land, penetrated every locality, kindled its fires on other shores, and became an object of world-wide inquiry and admiration. The close of this period (1850) is believed to have been the time of the best temperance habits in this country since the introduction of distilled liquors as a beverage. The great antislavery reform started upon a bolder and wider career soon after 1830, and down to the close of the period most powerfully stirred the nation, producing strife, bitterness, divisions and mobs. The fight was a severe one, and the results were long unfavorable, producing distress and anxiety. Instances of mob violence were common in the largest cities. After 1843 the question of slavery entered largely into political action in primary assemblies, in. elections and in the halls of legislation ; while the churches were at no time exempt from this seriously-disturbing influence. From 1841 to 1850 the subject of Sabbath observance was kept prominently before the attention of the country, and very great im provement in the habits of the people was every-where visible. The internal difficulties over questions of policy and principle arising out of these reformatory agitations disturbed and rent asun- 366 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. der several of the largest religious denominations. Previous to 1830, schisms were produced by Arian and Socinian doctrines which had crept into the churches. The schisms of the next two decades were not occasioned by theological differences, if we except some alienations caused by the spread of " New Divinity" among the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists, but by great questions of ecclesiastical polity or policy. The divisions which occurred in the three greatest denominations — the Presbyterians (1838), the Meth odists (1844), and the Baptists (1845) — were preceded and followed by long and exciting agitations, which seriously diverted the churches from their appropriate work. The " New Divinity," the " Bushnell " and the " Tractarian " controversies also engrossed the attention of many, while the excitements connected with the Mor mon movement and exodus, and the Millerite, or Second Advent agitation had a very pernicious effect. Socialism was first introduced by Robert Owen in 1826. Later came the more widely-felt epoch of American Socialism, when Fourierism was introduced (1842) and recommended to public favor by men of superior, literary culture and influence. Fourierism at tracted much attention and spread like an epidemic, so that in less than ten years thirty-four socialistic communities were organized. Many persons were considerably influenced and religiously unsettled by socialistic speculations. Christianity was tested in with standing this assault. Almost simultaneously the Native American excitement agitated the leading cities, and the common school con test was inaugurated by the Roman Catholics under the leadership of Bishop Hughes. In this period Naturalistic and Materialistic ideas were introduced in connection with the teachings of Combe and the phrenologists, and the first installments of Rationalism and Spiritualism were received. Such were the agitations which affected the condition of the churches during this period, distracted their attention, divided their energies and embarrassed their religious action and influence. Em phatically an era of agitation, the atmosphere was full ofthe dust of strife and the din of tumults. The virtue and conserving power of Christianity were sorely tested ; how much more her aggressive power ! And yet new benevolent, evangelizing and educational agencies were organized in large numbers, and the churches greatly increased their number, strength, and efficiency. The statistics of the churches from 1800 to 1850 show a surprising increase, redupli cating upon the population, and exceeding any previous ecclesi astical growth in ancient or modern times. The growth of the THE GREAT REVIVAL. 367 evangelical churches under such circumstances is doubtless owing to the fact that most of the great agitations were moral and religious — a legitimate part of true militant work, fulfilling the pre diction, " I came not to send peace but a sword." These agitations came chiefly out of the quickened religious life of the churches, stirring the consciences of men. Christianity was both a factor and a beneficiary. Whence came the new life and its intensity? Section 2.— The RemYal of 1800 Incepted. Having taken this survey of the period and its exigencies we turn back to the opening of the century, that we may ascertain how the American churches were prepared by God for such mag nificent achievements. Under the influence of the Wesleyan movement, and the preach ing of Rowland Hill and John Newton, the churches of Great Britain were rising to a higher spiritual life, and more fully compre hending their responsibilities to the masses of their own countrymen and to the world. British Christianity had been powerfully quick ened and new beneficent agencies were starting into being. There were indications of an immense advance all along the lines of Christ's militant host. Were the churches of the New World to share in this onward movement ? Or were they to falter and fail under the blighting influence of French infidelity and gross immorality abounding in American communities ? We shall soon see how it pleased God to deliver them from their spiritual embarrassments, and how they came forward to share in the grandest advancement of His kingdom since the apostolic age. The dark and trying period through which the country passed at the beginning of its national career has been shown to be one of such moral and spiritual desolation that many intelligent citizens wete alarmed in view of the dubious religious prospects. Days of fasting and prayer were observed annually, quarterly, monthly, or weekly, varying in different localities, with earnest intercession that God would interpose in behalf of his suffering cause. The Great Revival (1799-1803). At this time a great revival of religion commenced, the influence of which extended into almost all portions of the country, quicken ing and multiplying churches, turning back the dark and desolating 368 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. floods of infidelity and immorality, and giving birth to numerous powerful religious and reforming agencies. The Bible, Tract, Ed ucational, Foreign and Home Missionary Societies springing up in the first twenty years of this century were outgrowths from the new life infused by this revival into the American churches. The revival had its origin on the remote frontiers, in that portion of Kentucky and Tennessee lying west of the Cumberland Mountains then known as the " Cumberland Country " — a region of such rare beauty of scenery and fertility of soil that it early attracted settlers from Virginia and the Carolinas. The first token of divine favor was manifested in these new settlements, where the greatest hard ships were experienced and the people of God most needed and most earnestly sought his aid. Like a wave the new religious life rose beyond the Alleghanies, and, rolling over the mountains, swept onward to the Atlantic. This frontier population was chiefly Presbyterians. Methodists and Baptists. Rev. Dr. Craighead, a man of eloquence and learning, formerly from North Carolina, then stood at the head of the Presbyterian ministry in that region. The preaching at that time, in most localities, consisted princi pally of dry discourses upon a stiff and technical theology, or a cold, speculative orthodoxy, which led to no heart conviction nor change of life. Persons of quiet and orderly lives were admitted to the churches without a religious experience.* Five men, three Presbyterians and two Methodists, seemed to have acted prominent parts in the forthcoming revival. Of the former were Revs. James Gready, William McGee and Hodge ; of the latter, John McGee and William Burke. The McGees f were brothers. Covenants were entered into by Christian people to spend the third Saturday in each month in fasting and prayer for the outpour ing of the Holy Spirit, and one half hour at sunset every Saturday night and at sunrise every Sunday morning in prayer for the same object. In the latter part of 1799 the two brothers McGee, one a Methodist and the other a Presbyterian, started upon a preaching tour from Tennessee into Kentucky. Their meetings on Red * History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. By Rev. E. B. Crisman. Nashville, Tenn. 1870. Pp. 19, 20. Rev. David Rice (Memoirs), who went to Kentucky in 1783, said : "I scarcely found one man and but few women who supported a credible profession of religion. Some were grossly ignorant of the first principles of religion; some were given to quarreling and fighting, some to intemperance, and perhaps most of them were totally ignorant of the forms of religion in their own houses." And yet " many of them produced certificates of having been in full communion and in good standing in the churches from which they had emigrated." t Sometimes written Magee. THE FIRST CAMP-MEETING. 369 River were attended with remarkable effects. At the next, on Muddy River, many distant families came with wagons and camped in the woods. This was the beginning of religious "camp-meet ings "* in this country, which have since become a prominent in stitution. In its origin it was Presbyterian-Methodist. In June, 1800, one of these meetings was held on Gaspee River, a large number of people coming together from a radius of sixty miles, the services continuing from Friday to the following Tuesday. The exercises were attended with powerful " awakenings," children, young men and women, old gray-headed people, white and black, dissolute and moral, were deeply stirred. Other meetings followed in this region, attended by the same influences and producing simi lar results. Many were sacramental occasions, in which Presbyterian and Methodist ministers united in the ordinances and other services. A meeting was held in Cambridge, Ky., soon after the introduction of these peculiar gatherings, which produced a general sensation. Thousands of persons were present from many parts of the State, and even from Ohio, and it continued one week. Hundreds fell to the earth as dead men under the preaching. At another, held at Cobbin, Ky., it was extravagantly estimated that " twenty thousand persons were present," that " thousands f fell as if slain in battle ; " and the " influence was felt throughout the State." Astonishing effects attended another on Desher's Creek, at which it was said that " the people fell under the power of the word like corn before a storm of wind." Rev. William McKendree, subsequently Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, then presiding elder in this region, engaged heartily in the work, and his biographer has said that " no small part of the impetus which was given to the work was by his preaching and superior wisdom." X Rev. William Burke, a Methodist itinerant, was also an active laborer. The work went on in Kentucky and Tennessee several years, and left behind per manent results. Section 3.— Character of the Revival. From deists, then numerous in Kentucky, and from formal religionists the revival encountered opposition; but it went on, and Sabbath-breakers, profane swearers, drunkards and skeptics were transformed. Congregations increased ; new churches were organ- * See Methodist Magazine, 1821, p. 189, for an account of these first meetings, from the pen of John McGee. tBangs's History of Methodism. Vol. II, p. 108. X Fry's Life of McKendree, p. 68. '24 370 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ized, and old ones were built up. Strange and astounding were many of the phenomena, yet deists were constrained to confess that " from whatever cause the revival might proceed it made the people bet ter." It promoted friendly tempers where before there were numerous and fatal feuds. The religious engagedness and sincerity were so great as to disarm suspicions of hypocrisy and produce a deep conviction of divine power. Eminent divines closely scruti nized the character ofthe work. Rev. Samuel Ralston, D.D., of Al leghany County, Pennsylvania, was in the midst of the scenes, and declared that " the work was agreeable to the word of God and kindred to the great revival in Scotland and New England." Rev. Moses Hedge, D.D., of Virginia, in a letter to Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D., of Philadelphia, said : This work seems to lead to a more clear and distinct view of the operation of the Divine Spirit upon the heart of a sinner in his conversion and subsequent communications than can be obtained from ordinary revivals. Rev. George A. Baxter, D.D., of Washington Academy, Virginia, who visited Kentucky in 1801, and personally inquired into the character of the revival, in a letter to Dr. Archibald Alexander recorded the following testimony : On my way I was informed by settlers on the road that the character of Ken tucky travelers was entirely changed, and that they were as remarkable for sobriety as they had formerly been for dissoluteness and immorality. And indeed I found Kentucky, to appearance, the most moral place I had ever seen. A profane ex pression was hardly ever heard. A religious awe seemed to pervade the country. . . . Upon the whole, I think the revival in Kentucky the most extraordinary that has 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 was on the point of expiring. Something extraordinary seemed necessary to arrest the attention of a giddy people who were ready to con clude that Christianity was a fable and futurity a delusion. This revival has done it. It has confounded infidelity and brought numbers beyond calculation under serious impressions. Similar testimonies were given by Rev. David Rice, a leading Presbyterian minister of Kentucky, and by Rev. Messrs. Samuel Miller, D.D., Archibald Alexander, D.D., and James Welsh, a com mittee ofthe General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, appoin ted to investigate the character of the revival. Such was the origin of this great revival in the South-west. But it was not confined to that region. In August, 1801, it had reached Cross Roads, Orange County, N. C. ; the next year the eastern part of the State ; then it spread into South Carolina, northern Georgia and Virginia, and thence northward through the Middle States. EXTENT OF THE REVIVAL. 371 Revivals in New England, etc. Simultaneously with these movements the revival influences ap peared in the more northern section of the country. In Connecticut it preceded the work in Kentucky and Tennessee, although it seems not to have been so extensive. Powerful revivals* were experienced in the following Connecticut towns: Somers, in 1797; Canton, 1798-9; Torringford, 1798; New Hartford, 1798-9; Torrington, 1798-9; Plymouth, Harwinton, Goshen, Farmington, Norfolk, Bristol, Burlington, Avon, Bloomfield and Middlebury, in 1799. From the year 1800 they became more numerous and extensive in western New England. Rev. Bennett Tyler, D.D., said : Within the period of five or six years, commencing with 1797, not less than one hundred and fifty churches in New England were visited with "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." t Rev Ebenezer Porter, D.D.,;j: said : The day dawned which was to succeed a night of more than sixty years. As in the valley of Ezekiel's vision, there was a great shaking. Dry bones, animated by the breath ofthe Almighty, stood up new-born believers. The children of Zion beheld with overflowing souls, and with thankful hearts acknowledged "this is the finger of God." The work was stamped conspicuously with the impress of its Divine author, and its joyful effects evinced no other than the agency of Omnipotence. Rev. Edward D. Griffin, D.D., said :§ I could stand in my door at New Hartford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, and number fifty or sixty contiguous congregations laid clown in one field of Divine wonders, and as many more in different parts of New England. Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D., and Mr. Samuel J. Mills, both emi nently successful laborers in great Christian enterprises in the first half of the present century, were converts | in these revivals. In the year 1800 a revival commenced in Palmyra, New York, and extended to Bristol, Bloomfield, Canandaigua, Richmond, Lima, and other places. In New Jersey revivals of extraordinary extent and continuance were experienced under the labors of Rev. E. D. Griffin, D.D., at Newark, in 1802; and another at Baskingridge in 1803, under the pastorate of Rev. Robert Finlay, D.D., which ex tended to many neighboring churches, and also into more distant and mountainous regions among the workmen in the iron mines and furnaces. Four years later these seasons were renewed. *See New England Revivals. By Rev. Bennett Tyler, D.D. Massachusetts Sabbath-school Society. Boston. 1846. t Ibid. Preface, p. 5. X Subsequently professor in Andover Theological Seminary. § Lectures on Revivals. By Rev. W. B. Sprague, D.D. Appendix, p. 152. | Am. Quar. Register, 1840. Vol. I, p. 346. Also Life of Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D. Pp. 12, 13. 372 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Section 4.— Subsequent Revivals. Since the great quickening of 1800, revivals of religion, before so rare, have been of more frequent occurrence, affording some ofthe brightest pages in religious history. Modes of divine operation characterizing Christianity in the apostolic age have become more common, and large masses of people have been wonderfully moved and changed. It will be impossible to fully sketch these religious phases and mention all the places where these visitations have occurred, but a few data will be given which will show a marked advance upon the two previous centuries. Inasmuch as such an exhibit must necessarily be only partial, and the history of no other denomination affords such good materials prepared at hand as Rev. Dr. Gillett's History of the Presbyterian Church, a comprehensive statement of the revivals of the latter denomination during the first quarter ofthe century will be given. Beginning with the year 1804, a marked advance in nearly all parts of the Church was mentioned. The report on the state of religion to the General Assembly of 1805 was of "a varied char acter;" that of 1806 speaks of the general extension and pros perity of the Church ; that of 1807 speaks in language of admoni tion and apprehension; that of 1808 speaks of a powerful revival in Newark, New Jersey, under Dr. Griffin, and another in the Synod of Albany, but expresses " cause for sorrow and humiliation." From 1808 to 1813, a troublous period in the nation, there were few extended revivals, but a steady growth, increasing the member ship of the denomination in four years twenty-five per cent. The assemblies of 1814-15 mention some special outpourings of the Spirit, but with loud warnings on account ofthe deleterious influence ofthe war, intemperance and other vices. The report of 1816 men tions great revivals in New York city, Philadelphia, Albany, Troy and other large places, and in nine presbyteries. The report in 1817 speaks of " wonders of mercy " in the Presbytery of New Jersey, in which fifteen hundred conversions were reported, of five hundred in the city of Troy, and of other revivals in seven other diiferent presbyteries. The report of 181 8 speaks of revival's in seventeen of the twenty-six congregations in the Cayuga Presbytery, of six or eight in New Jersey, and in four other presbyteries. In 1819 revivals were reported as having prevailed in northern, central and western New York; in the Grand River Presbytery, Ohio ; in northern New Jersey and in eastern Tennessee. In 1820 there were reports of revivals in between seventy and eighty churches, fifteen ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCHES. 373 of which were contiguous congregations. In 1821 fourteen hun dred accessions were made to the church in the Presbytery of Albany; one-thousand in the Presbytery of Hudson, while four teen other presbyteries had also been visited and about seven thousand other accessions had been made to the churches. In 182 1 mention was made of revivals in nine presbyteries, as well as throughout the Synod of Pittsburg and in numerous localities in northern and central New York. In 1823, thirty presbyteries repor ted revivals. Less revivals were reported in 1824; but in 1825 more than twenty presbyteries reported revivals. It has been esti mated that during the period often years (181 5- 1825) not less than fifty thousand additions were made to the Presbyterian Church as the fruits of these revivals. Similar movements continued during the remainder of this period. Such were the revivals during the first thirty years of this cent ury in the Presbyterian Church, one of the most staid religious bodies of the land. The Methodist and Baptist churches, if their record could be fully sketched, would show still more numerous and powerful revivals and greater accessions. The additions to the churches, from 1800 to 1830, were relatively very large. The Presbyterian Church increased from 40,000 to 173,229, or fourfold. The Congregational Church increased from 75,000 to 140,600, or twofold. The Baptist Church increased from 100,000 to 313,138, or threefold. The Methodist Episcopal Church increased from 64,000 to 476,1 53, or sevenfold. Nothing like such an increase had ever before been known, though it has since been paralleled and even exceeded, for the new revival era has continued to our times. The revivals thus far mentioned occurred chiefly in the Presby terian and Congregational churches. At the same time among the Baptists and the Methodists the movement was even more power ful. In the space of three years (1 800-1 803) the communicants of the Methodist Episcopal Church increased from 64,890 to 104,070. * A New Condition. How great the contrast as compared with almost any period in the previous one hundred and fifty years, if we except the time of the Edwardian and Whitefieldian revivals, extending through little more than a single decade! Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., said that until this time there had been no revival in his church f in its entire history. Many New England churches had had no * General Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1800-1803. t Washington, Conn. 374 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. revival for twenty-five, forty, sixty and even one hundred years. Rev. Mr. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., had a revival in his church in 1811, but could find no evidence of a previous revival in the preceding one hundred years. * Rev. Dr. Snell, of North Brook- field, Mass., said : f From the time that Rev. G. Whitefield passed through this county to 1817, a period of about seventy-five years, there was no extensive movement of a religious nature upon the minds of the people in this place. The first revival of religion with which God ever blessed this people, so far as can be ascertained, commenced in the autumn of 1816. Rev. E. D. Griffin, D.D., said : % Long before the death of Whitefield, in 1770, extensive revivals in America had ceased, and except one in Stockbridge, and some other parts of Berkshire County, Mass., about the year 1772, and one in the north quarter of Lime, Conn., about the year 17S0, and one in several towns in Litchfield County, Conn., about the year 1783, I know of none which occurred afterward until the time of which I am to speak (about 1 797-1 803). Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D., President of Princeton College, said :§ For the long period of forty years (1773-1813) there was nothing in Nassau Hall that had the appearance or name of a religious revival. Rev. Luther Hart, of Connecticut, said : fl From an examination of all the records which we have been able to command, and from a pretty extensive inquiry of the living, we cannot find more than fifteen places in New England in which there was a special work of grace during the first forty years after the " Great Revival " — that is, under Edwards and Whitefield. Thus was the spell of worldliness, formalism and unbelief effect- uallv broken and New Spiritual Movements Ushered In. Conspicuous among the evangelists of this period were Rev. Asahel Nettleton, of Connecticut, who commenced his ministry in 181 1, and Revs. Charles G. Finney, Jacob Knapp, and John Lord, who came forward later. About the year 1826 certain "new meas ures," as they were called, began to be employed for arresting the attention of men and bringing them to Christ. They consisted chiefly in a bolder and more denunciatory style of preaching, pray ing for individuals by name, reading at the commencement of a meeting notes handed to the preacher by individuals requesting * Semi-centennial Sermon. f Ibid. X Lectures on Revivals of Religion. By Rev. Wm. Sprague, D.D. Albany. 1832. Ap pendix, p. 151. § Ibid, p. 130. 1 Christian Spectator, June, 1833. FOUR DAYS' MEETINGS. BIS prayers for impenitent friends, inviting seekers to an " anxious seat," and committing seekers to special promises. In the Presbyterian and Congregational churches these were new measures, and much controversy and estrangement was produced. A convention for the consideration of these measures was held at New Lebanon, N. Y., July 18-28, 1827, composed of twenty clergymen from New York and New England. The discussion was able and spiritual, but no agreement was reached ; the revivalists continued to use their peculiar methods as before, and the revivals went on. * In 1827 " Four Days' Meetings," so called because usually held through four days, the entire time each day and evening being sacredly devoted to religious services, were instituted in New Hampshire by that remarkable man, Rev. John Lord, and widely adopted in other States with great results. From 1826 to 1832 revivals of religion were very common and of unusual power, con sidered by some "the most general and remarkable work of grace recorded in the annals of the American Church." Divine influences descended like abundant showers of rain, cities and rural localities sharing alike in the blessings. It laid and cemented the foundations of many city churches, and filled the colleges and theological semi naries with consecrated young men, who have spent many years since in the Gospel ministry. In the city of New Haven in a single year(i83i) nine hundred conversions were reported. Revivals of religion were intimately connected with the great temperance reform f of that time, the two movements mutually supplementing and help ing each other. From about the first of February, 1831, through five succeeding months an unusual interest pervaded the whole United States. Thousands never before moved gave attention to personal religion. It was estimated upon a credible basis of facts that during these five months a special revival interest was felt in not less than fifteen hundred towns, besides more than as many otheis which shared in some degree in the refreshing, and that more than fifty thousand persons professed to have become partakers of saving grace, over three hundred of whom were students in colleges. Many persons of eminent character and influence shared in the quickening. The principal cities were signally favored, all the lead ing denominations kindly and vigorously co-operating. Very few extravagances were witnessed, and the practical fruits were numer ous instances of reparation of injuries and restoration of plundered property. In the six years from 1826 to 1832 it was estimated that two hundred thousand people united with the leading de- * See Christian Spectator for 1827, p. 499. t See Chapter IV of this period, Section I. 376 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. nominations as communicants, sixty thousand of whom were young men. The financial panic of 1836-37 was followed by powerful re vivals; and, again, revivals accompanied the Millerite excitement from 1842-45. In the latter the work was largely abnormal, and the churches were filled with converts who soon dropped out of the ranks. A serious reaction followed, and a painful declension closed the period, extending through about a dozen years, until the revival of 1857-58. Section 5.— College Revivals. Nor were the colleges passed by in these divine visitations. In Yale College, in 1802, then under the presidency of Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., the Holy Spirit was poured out. Infidelity in the college at this time has been elsewhere * sketched. In 1795 only eleven under-graduates were members of the college church. Four years after the number was reduced to four or five, and at one communion only a single student was present, several others being absent from town. In 1801 a strong desire for an out pouring of the Holy Spirit prevailed among the faithful few, who met in " an upper room " for prayer. Early in the spring of 1802 promising indications appeared. First a senior yielded to the gra cious influence, followed soon by another senior, Jeremiah Evarts ; then by several more, then by fifty more, and others, until seventy-five out of about two hundred and thirty students in all professed conver sion and united with the church. About one half became ministers of the Gospel. Those were " memorable days." The change in the moral and social aspects of the college deeply impressed the city. After the usual vacation interruption the same character predomi nated. This revival exerted such a powerful influence in breaking the power of the infidelity of that period that it never recovered. In 1808 there was a revival in which about thirty students professed conversion, three fourths of whom became ministers of the Gospel ; in 1812 and 1813 about twenty students professed conversion, among whom was Rev. Elias Cornelius, for many years a promi nent Congregational minister in Boston, of most estimable char acter, and Secretary of the American Education Society; in 1815 another revival, numbering eighty converts, one of whom was Rev. Wm. Nevins, D.D., subsequently a distinguished minister in Balti- * See Chapter IV, Period I. REVIVALS IN THE COLLEGES. 311 more; in 1823-24, about thirty converts ; in 1827, thirty more, and still another in 1828. The spring of 1831 will be long remembered for its wonderful revival, and the three following years were char acterized by an abiding religious interest. In the year 1835 about fifty students became hopeful converts, and in 1836-37 there were spiritual visitations. In the space of ninety-six years (1741— 1837) this college was favored with twenty distinct effusions of the Holy Spirit, of which only three were in the last century. * In Dartmouth College, from 1800 to 1830, there were five re vivals — in 1805, 1815, 1819, 1821, and 1826. In the revival of 1815 sixty students professed conversion. There were also revivals in 1831 and 1834, and later. It was said that in the first sixty-five years of this institution, as the result of the revivals, ninety-five ministers of the Gospel were thrust out, one of whom, not to speak of others, Rev. Dr. Alvan Hyde, gathered into his church more than seven hundred converts. In Amherst College, founded in 1821, after the Congregationalists abandoned all idea of retaining any control of Harvard University, there were marked revivals in 1823, 1827, 1828, 1831, and 1835, be sides others of lesser power, making twelve in the first twelve years of its existence. Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey has said : f During a considerable part of the time three fourths of the under-graduates were professors of religion, and there has always been a majority. No class has ever passed through the college and graduated without witnessing at least one revival and sharing in its blessings. Of the whole number of alumni in 1838, which amounts to 556, nearly three fourths are professors of religion, and more than half of them are in the ministry or preparing for it, and about twenty have gone forth as missionaries. In Williams College there were great revivals of religion. Founded when morals were low, and when French infidelity was rife, the progress of religion was slow at first ; but a revival commenced in 1805 and progressed slowly through the summer. In the summer of 1806 the interest deepened and widened, Messrs. Samuel J. Mills and James Richards, subsequently widely known in evangelizing labors, being prominent actors. In 1812, the era of serious national embarrassments, the religious interest ran low and intemperance appeared among the students. Some hearts were moved to earnest prayer, and nearly forty students professed conversion. In 181 5 there was another revival ; another in 1819, and one of wider extent and * For a fuller account of Revivals in Yale College see American Quarterly Register, 1838, article by Prof. Chauncy Goodrich, D.D. P. 289, etc T American Quarterly Register, 1839, p. 327. 378 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. power, under the presidency of Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin, in 1825, 1826, and 1827. Revivals also occurred in 1832, 1838, 1840, and still later. Those of 1838 and 1840 were very powerful, effecting a great change in the morals of the students. * In the year 183 1 revivals occurred in fifteen colleges, gathering in over three hundred students as converts. Similar occurrences in numerous years might be stated in the other colleges. The old academies at Wilbraham, Mass. ; Newbury, Vt. ; Kent's Hill, Me. ; Poultney, Vt. ; Amenia, Cazenovia and Lima, N. Y., and many others elsewhere, of all denominations, have seldom passed a year without some revival interest. Thousands of young persons have been brought into the churches while attending these institutions. Section 6.— The Effects of the revival of 1799- 1803 were extensive, abiding, and in the highest degree salutary. 1. It was the beginning of a reformation from a low state of morals and religion which had long and alarmingly prevailed. 2. It gave the first check to the rampant infidelity of the times. 3. It exploded from the evangelical churches the remains of the " Half- Way Covenant," whose influence had been so deleterious. Thenceforth spiritual religion came into greater prominence in the churches. 4. It gave rise to the numerous evangelizing enterprises so con spicuous in the churches during the century. The Home Missionary movements, then slightly incepted, were infused with new life, mul tiplied, expanded, and energized. An immediate powerful impulse was felt to spread the Gospel in destitute frontiers, among the blacks and Indians. Out of this new life also sprang Tract, Bible, Sunday-school, educational, city and foreign mission societies. Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring \ said: From the year 1800 down to the year 1825 there was an uninterrupted series of these celestial visitations spreading over different parts of the land. During the whole of these twenty-five years there was not a month in which we could not point to some village, some city, some seminary of learning, and say, " Behold, what hath God wrought ! " Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey said : In looking back fifty years and more the great revival of that period strikes me in its thoroughness, in its depth, in its freedom from animal and unhealthy excite- *Am. Quarterly Register, 1841, pp. 472, 473. f Personal Reminiscences. Vol. I, p. 160. EFFECTS OF THE REVIVALS. 379 ment, and its far-reaching influence on subsequent revivals, as having been de cidedly in advance of any that had preceded it. It was the opening of a new revival epoch, which has lasted now more than half a century, with but short and partial interruptions — and, blessed be God, the end is not yet. The glorious cause of religion and philanthropy has advanced till it would require a space that cannot be afforded in these sketches so much as to name the Christian and humane so cieties which have sprung up all over our land within the last forty years. Exactly how much we at home and the world abroad are indebted for these organizations, so rich in blessings, to the revivals of 1800 it is impossible to say, though much every way — more than enough to magnify the grace of God in the instruments he employed, in the immediate fruits of their labors, and the subsequent harvests spring ing from the good seed which was sown by the men whom God delighted thus to honor. It cannot be denied that modern missions sprung out of these revivals. The immediate connection between them, as cause and effect, was remarkably clear in the organization of the first societies, which have since accomplished so much ; and the impulse which they gave to the churches to extend the blessings which they were diffusing by forming the later affiliated societies of like aims and character is scarcely less obvious. TAKEN ALTOGETHER THE RE VIVAL PERIOD A T THE CLOSE OF THE LAST CENTURY AND THE BEGINNING OF THE PRES ENT FURNISHES AMPLE MA TERIALS FOR A LONG AND GLO RIOUS CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.* * Dr. Humphrey was a member of Yale College in 1802. See his Revival Sketches. 380 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER II. THE NEW LIFE EXPANDING-THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Sec. i. Moral and Religious Condition. " 2. Ecclesiastical Beginnings. " 3. Trials of Pioneer Preachers. Sec. 4. Roman Catholic Opposition. " 5. Improven-ent from 1830 to 1850. " 6. Benevolent and Educational Work. DURING the fifty years of this period a great change came over the vast western valley. Twelve vigorous States with rapidly-multiplying people were added to the Union, and still larger Territories, with the beginnings of civil order and numerous schemes and enterprises, were soon after received into the sister hood of States. The population of this region increased from 500,000 in 1800 to 8,247,373 in 1850 — a sixteenfold advance. The material resources unfolded in a still greater ratio, and the bound less capabilities, outreaching the largest expectations, called for the utmost activity and zeal of the churches. It soon became evident that there was to be a struggle for the possession of this inviting field. At the outset the Roman Catholic Church was the only religious occupant. Shall Protestantism enter, and will Protestant enterprise keep pace with the growth of society and promptly bear her ministrations to the new communities? Such was the question — one of great interest and importance. The early Roman Catholic occupancy of this region has been already noticed at considerable length in previous chapters. In Illinois, as early as 1683, the year of the founding of Philadelphia, several permanent settlements were made under Roman Catholic direction, and in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisi ana and Mississippi, for about one hundred years prior to the present century, many points were held by the papists ; in Alabama nearly as long, and in Florida for more than two hundred years prior to this century. Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana remained under foreign rule and papal control until 1803, and Florida until 1820. At the beginning of this century, therefore, all the vast territory from Lake St. Clair to " the howling SABBATH DESECRATION. 381 wilderness " beyond Wisconsin, and from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and eastward on the coast line to Florida, was under the sole religious control of Roman Catholics. Whatever religious oc cupancy there was, was papal, and in some localities there were very considerable populations mixtures of French, Spanish and Indians. Section 1.— Tlie Moral and Religious Condition. of these new regions at the opening of this century was most deplorable. Rev. Jacob Young, who went to Illinois in 1804, said : " The bulk of the people are given up to wickedness of every kind. Of all places this is the worst for stealing, fighting and lying. ' My soul, come not into their secret places ! ' " Rev. Jesse Walker, who went to St. Louis in 1820, said " the population was made up mostly of Catholics and infidels, very dissipated and wicked." It was thought that no Protestant minister could gain access to them, and he was advised to return to his family. Rev. Elisha B. Bow man, who went to New Orleans in 1805, said : As for the settlements of this country, there are none that are composed of Americans. From Baton Rouge, the Spanish fort, which stands on the east bank of the Mississippi, down two hundred miles, it is settled immediately on each bank by French and Spaniards. When I reached the city I was much disappointed in finding but few American people there, and a majority of that few may be truly called beasts of men. . . . The Lord's day is the day of general rant in this city. Public balls are held, traffic of every kind is carried on, public sales, wagons running, and drums beating ; and thus is the Sabbath spent. ... I reached the Opelousas country, and the next day I reached the Catholic church. I was surprised to see race-paths at the church door. Here I found a few Americans, who were swearing with almost every breath ; and when I reproved them they told me that the priest swore as hard as they did. They said he would play cards and dance with them every Sunday evening after mass; and, strange to tell, he keeps a race-horse and practices every abomination. About twenty miles further he found another settlement con sisting of American people. " They knew," he says, " but little more about the nature of salvation than the untaught Indians. Some of them, after I had preached to them, asked what I meant by the fall of man, and when it was that he fell. They are perishing for lack of knowledge and are truly in a pitiable condition." Detroit. " Although Detroit was visited as early as 1610, and a settle ment effected and a fort erected in 1701, it was not until 1805 that a Territorial government was established in Michigan. Among the 382 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. earliest settlers were emigrants sent out (1749) from France at the expense of the Government.* In 1801, when Rev. Mr. Badger, a Congregational missionary, reached Detroit he reported that ' there was not one Christian to be found in all that region, except a black man who appeared pious.' In 1 804 it was spoken of as ' a most abandoned place.' At this time Rev. Dr. Nathan Bangs visited it as a Methodist missionary, and a Congregational minister told him that he had preached in Detroit until none but a few children would come to hear him. ' If you can succeed,' he added — ' which I very much doubt — I shall rejoice.' * He did not succeed, but 'shook off the dust of his feet as a testimony against them and took his departure.' Barely a month elapsed after this significant expres sion of disappointed effort before the place was almost entirely destroyed by fire, a single house only remaining uninjured." f Rev. Mr. Monteith, in 1816, said; "There is no Sabbath in this coun try." It was said of Mackinaw, in 1 820, that "the Christian Sab bath had not got so far." " The general aspect of manners among the troops gave an idea of infernal spirits rather than of human beings.":]: Kentucky. The low state of morals and the prevalence of infidelity in Ken tucky at the close of the last century have been before referred to. This condition was somewhat improved after the great revival of 1800, but some localities were not reached by its influence, and new centers of population were constantly forming in wild regions. Professional men were generally avowed unbelievers. In many places with a considerably large population there was not a place of worship. Mr. Samuel J. Mills, who visited that section in the interest of home missions in 1813, spent a Sabbath in Kentucky in a town of two or three thousand inhabitants without being able to collect a congregation to listen to the word of life. Negroes stood in groups in the streets, laughing and swearing; boys played and hallooed, while the men on the outskirts were shooting pigeons and the more respectable class were riding about for amusement. The Sabbath was distinguished from other days only by greater noise, amusement, profanity and dissipation. This was by no means a solitary case. Ten years later there were three large flour ishing churches in that place. In 1818, in Danville, Ky., with a population of twelve hundred people, there was not a single male * Sketches ofthe City of Detroit, p. 3. f Bangs's History of Methodism. JGillett's History ofthe Presbyterian Church in the United States. Vol. II, p. 437. DENOMINATIONAL PIONEERS. 383 member of the Presbyterian church ; and the only other church was the Roman Catholic. There were many deists there. Lex ington had been the head-quarters of Jacobinism in Kentucky, and for many years after it remained under the dominion of infidelity, which supplanted the Presbyterians in Transylvania Uni versity. This was the predominant influence until 1828, when a powerful revival spread through the place, in which five hundred persons united with the churches. From that time infidelity lost its ascendency. Rev. Benjamin Low, who visited Shawnee Town, 111., about eight miles below the mouth of the Wabash, in 18 17, said that among its two or three hundred inhabitants there was not a single one that " made any pretensions to religion." " Their shocking profaneness was enough to make one afraid to walk the street, and those who on the Sabbath were not fighting and drinking at the taverns and grog-shops were either hunting in the woods or trading behind their counters." Of the five hundred inhabitants of Kaskaskia one half were French and Roman Catholics. Among the other half were six professors of religion, two Presbyterians, two Methodists, one Congregationalist and one seceder. The Sabbath was scarcely recognized.* Section 2.— Ecclesiastical Beginnings. In the preceding period the origin of the leading religious bodies in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio was briefly sketched. Still more distant frontiers in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, etc., were penetrated and occupied by the advancing population of the present period, opening new doors for Christian zeal and enterprise. The Baptists were among the first religious pioneers in these new States. In Indiana several small Baptist churches were formed along the Whitewater River about the year 1802. Seven years later they had increased to nine churches, with 380 members, and were organized into an association. In Illinois the first Baptist church was organized at New Design, in 1796, and the first association in 1807, consisting of five churches. The first Baptists in Missouri (then Upper Louisiana) consisted of families emigrating from North Carolina and Kentucky as early as 1796 and 1797, where they lived several years under the Spanish Government without church priv- * Gillett's History of the Presbyterian Church. Vol. II, p. 416. 384 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ileges. Rev. John Clark, an Englishman by birth and originally a Methodist, was the first Baptist preacher in this State. No tole ration being allowed to Protestant worship under Spanish rule their meetings were often broken up. After this region was ceded to the United States, in 1803, Protestants more freely entered it, and the first Baptist church was organized in 1804, at Tywappity. The first church of this denomination in St. Louis was constituted in 1818. In Arkansas a Baptist church was organized at Fourche a Thomas, Lawrence County, in 18 18. In Michigan no Baptist church was organized until 1824, and in ten years they had increased to fifty. In Mississippi Rev. Richard Curtis organized a church in 1797, consisting of Baptist emigrants from South Carolina. Mr. Curtis suffered much from Spanish and papal intolerance, and for a while was driven from the region. Revs. Messrs. Cooper, Snodgrass and Stamply were some of the early pioneer preachers of this faith, and a Baptist Association was organized in 1807 in the south-western part of the State. In 181 5 there were two associations, with 46 churches, 30 ministers, and 2,348 members. A State Convention was formed in 1822. From this State Baptist emigrants entered Louisiana. The earliest Congregational church in Michigan was organized in 1827, in Indiana in 1835, in Illinois in 1833 ar>d in the other States at still later dates. They claim to have suffered much in the West as a denomination from the relations which they sustained to the Presbyterians, many of their first churches and members being absorbed by the latter. The Presbyterians. The first movement of the Presbyterian Church in Mississippi was made in the autumn of 1800 by Rev. James Hall, of North Carolina, under a commission ofthe General Assembly. He began a mission in Natchez, assisted by two brethren. Missions were subsequently established at Bayou Pierre, Bethany and Amity. In 1816 the Mississippi Presbytery was constituted with four ministers. The first Presbyterian church in Natchez was not formed until 1817. The oldest church was that at Bethel, organized in 1804. In 1815 the General Assembly sent Rev. Ezra Fisk to New Orleans to labor four months. The following year Rev. Elias Cornelius was appointed by the trustees of the Connecticut Missionary Society to visit New Orleans to examine into its moral condition and establish a church. He was followed in 18 18 by Rev. Sylvester Larned. By the united labors of these men the foundations of Presbyterianism in that city were laid. In 1825 the Presbytery of Mississippi and Louisiana PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARIES. 38S consisted of but thirteen ministers, of whom eight were mission aries sent out by the Assembly's Board. The population of these two States was then 250,000. One of the earliest Presbyterian mis sionaries in Alabama was Rev. J. W. Piatt, sent out by the Young Men's Evangelical Missionary Society of New York. He entered upon his labors in Huntsville in 1819. Revs. Francis H. Porter, Lucas Kennedy, James L. Sloss and Highland Hurlburt were also early laborers in this field. In 1825 the two presbyteries of Alabama and Northern Alabama, covering the whole State, contained seven teen ministers, and in 1830 they numbered 29 ministers, 41 churches and 1,713 members.* The first Presbyterian church in Florida was organized by Rev. William McWhir in 1824, at St. Augustine. At this time there was no other Protestant missionary in that State. A mis sionary of the Methodist Church had been laboring there, but had left. For several years this was the only Presbyterian church in Florida. The first Presbyterian missionaries sent into Indiana were Rev. Thomas Williamson, in 1805, and Rev. Samuel Holt, in 1806. The first Presbyterian church was constituted at Vincennes in 1806, by Rev. Samuel B. Robinson. Rev. Samuel Thornton Scott, of Ken tucky, was the first resident minister. In 1830 Presbyterianism numbered in Indiana 34 ministers, 84 churches and about 3,000 members. The earliest notice taken of Illinois as a missionary field by the Presbyterians was in 1816, when Rev. Backus Wilbur was sent to labor in that State. The next year he was followed by Revs. John F. Crowe and Eliphalet W. Gilbert. In 1828 the Presbytery of Illinois Center was organized. The first Presbyterian missionary to Missouri reached St. Louis in 1816. The population was largely French and Roman Catholic, with only two or three professed Presbyterians. The first church was organized in 1816, at Bellevue, in Washington County. The first in St. Louis was formed in 1817, consisting of only nine members, and it was eight years before they were able to complete their house of worship. In 1830 the Presbytery of Missouri had but 8 ministers, with 86 churches and about 400 members. The first Presbyterian missionary, Rev. John Monteith, reached Michigan in 1816, and commenced his labors at Detroit. Others were sent soon after. In the course of a few years churches were gathered at Monroe, Meigs, Detroit, Ypsilanti, Dexter, Farmington, Bloomfield, Pontiac, Mackinaw, Strasburg, Ann Arbor, etc. The Presbytery of Detroit was erected in 1827, consisting or five ministers. * History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H, Gillett, D.D. Vol. II, p. 392. 25 386 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. " A plan of union between Presbyterians and Congregationalists, in the new settlements," for the purpose of facilitating the estab lishment of churches on the frontiers, was arranged and adopted at the beginning ofthe century. It was first agreed upon in 1801 by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and the General Association of Connecticut — the only body of the kind then existing among the Congregationalists — and subsequently adopted by the General Association of Massachusetts. The provisions of this " Plan " were, that " Presbyterians and Congregationalists emi grating to the new settlements of the West should be encouraged to foster a spirit of mutual forbearance and accommodation ; " that a Congregational church settling a Presbyterian minister, or vice versa, may still " conduct their discipline " according to their own ecclesiastical principles ; and that in case the church should be of a mixed character — partly Presbyterian and partly Congregational — they should " choose a standing committee from the communicants of said church," to issue all cases of discipline without consulting any body else, but allowing the condemned member to appeal, if he were a Presbyterian, to the Presbytery, if a Congregationalist to the Church. This compact is claimed by eminent Congregational authority to have been uncongregational, the General Association having no right to make it, being merely a body of ministers, and that under its operation " scores of churches gradually slid off from the Congregational platform, as hundreds have since."* Yet it is probable that it was the means of more widely extending the Gos pel. The Methodists. The Methodists ventured within the present limits of the State of Indiana in 1802, f when there were only a few scattered settlers, and the first society was organized in Gassaway, Clark County. In 1 8 10 three circuits had been formed, with four preachers and 760 members. Rev. Benjamin Young was sent to Illinois in 1804, when the population numbered a few hundreds. The following year he reported 61/ communicants. In 1830, in Illinois and Indiana, there were reported 22,000 Methodist communicants. In 1803 a Meth odist local preacher by the name of Freeman found his way to De troit and preached there. The following year Rev. Nathan Bangs, then traveling a circuit in Canada, visited Detroit and preached, though without apparent success. He was followed five years later * Historical Sketch of the Congregational Church. By Rev. Joseph S. Clark, D.D. Pp. 24I"3' t Annals of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Indiana. By Rev. Aaron Wood, 1854. P. 3- METHODIST ADVANCES: 387 by Rev. William Case, and subsequently by an Irish local preacher named Mitchell. The first Methodist Society in Michigan was or ganized in 1810, in the town of Monroe, but it was soon broken up. The population at that time was a very difficult class to mold. The first permanent Society was formed in 181 5, and in 1830 6j6 Methodist communicants were reported from that State. Method ism was introduced into Missouri in 1804, by Rev. Joseph Oglesby, who reconnoitered Missouri Territory to the extremity of the settle ments, preaching wherever he could find a few people. In 1806 he was followed by Rev. Jesse Walker — "the Daniel Boone of Western Methodism " — one of the most indomitable spirits in its band of heroic pioneer preachers. The next year Rev. John Travis, then a mere youth, was assigned to this circuit. In 1816 Missouri and Illinois were united in a Conference, and called the Missouri Con ference, with no western boundary, but " including the last Meth odist cabin toward the setting sun." About 181 5 or 1816 Methodism was introduced into Arkansas. In 1799 Rev. Tobias Gibson, a native of Georgia, commenced to lay the foundations of Methodism in Natchez, Mississippi. It was a far-off region, reached by several hundred miles of travel on horse back through the wilderness, mostly along Indian trails, until he struck the Cumberland River, thence down that river and the Mis sissippi in a canoe six or eight hundred miles further. " The new Society here organized was like a new sign in the far-off southern heavens. To the pioneer preachers of Kentucky and Tennessee it was as the constellation of the cross to spiritual mariners in the southern seas. It opened a boundless prospect of progress, and the word Natchez sounded like a new order of march to the itiner ants and their cause — that march which they have since made over Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and even to the Pacific boundary of California."* Eight years later five circuits were reported in that south-western region, with six preachers and 41 5 members. In 1803 the eccentric Lorenzo Dow penetrated into the present limits of Alabama, and was there again in 1804. Colonel Rickett, in his His tory of Alabama, says that he preached the first Protestant sermon de livered in that State. In 1 807 missionaries were sent there by Bishop- Asbury from the South Carolina Conference. The term " mission ary " in those days implied that " they were to push to regions be yond." They commenced their labors between the Oconee and the Tombigbee rivers, an Indian country of four hundred miles extent. f * Stevens's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Vol. IV, p. 131. f Ibid. Pp. 201-2. 388 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. In 1805 Rev. Elisha W. Bowman was sent by Bishop Asbury to intro duce Methodism into Louisiana. He made his way to Opelousas and New Orleans, traversing the whole country, preaching and warning the people, whom he found in a very low state of morality, thus laying the foundations of the Church in that region. In 1807 Rev. Jacob Young was sent to preside over the work in Mississippi and Louisiana, and was successively followed by Revs. John Mc Clure and Miles Harper, and soon after by Rev. William Winans, a noted name in the history of that country. In 1830 there were 37 Presbyterian churches in Indiana, with 1,700 members; in Illinois, 13 churches, with about 500 mem bers; in Missouri, 17 churches, with 605 members ; in Michigan, 6 churches ; in Mississippi and Alabama, 64 churches, with about 2,500 members. The Protestant Episcopal Church had 16 clergy men in Ohio, 4 in Mississippi, 5 in Kentucky, 3 in Tennessee, 3 in Louisiana, 1 in Arkansas, 3 in Missouri, and 5 in Michigan. The Cumberland Presbyterians numbered about 7,000 communicants and 70 churches in all the West. At this time the German Reformed Church had organized a Synod in Ohio ; the Tunkers had 40 or 50 churches in the West ; the Shakers had two churches in Kentucky and 2 in Ohio ; and there were a few other small sects. The Friends were established in Ohio in 1812 and in Indiana in 1821 Section 3.— The Trials of the Pioneer Preachers. and missionaries in the West, often of the most disheartening char acter, deserve mention. Their labors extended through sparse vil lages and open prairies, with individual settlers widely scattered. They traveled by Indian trails and marked trees. In the winter the roads were so bad and the bridges so few that they were some times obliged to desist from traveling. Often sleeping in the woods or on the open prairies on their saddle blankets ; cooking their coarse meals by the way ; fording streams on horseback with saddle bags and blankets lifted to their shoulders; exposed without shelter to storms, and drying their garments and blankets by camp-fires when no friendly cabin could be found, in a few years they became sal low, weather-beaten and toil-worn, and appeared among their brethren in the occasional ministerial gatherings without decent ap parel and unused to the amenities of civilized society. A pioneer preacher in Louisiana in 1805 wrote: LARGE CIRCUITS. 389 Every day I travel I have to swim through creeks or swamps, and I am wet from head to feet, and some days from morning to night I am dripping with water. I tie all my " plunder " fast on my horse, take him by the bridle and swim some times a hundred yards and often further. My horse's legs are now skinned and rough to his hock joints, and I have rheumatism in all my joints. . . . What I have suffered in body and mind my pen is not able to communicate to you ; but this I can say, while my body is wet with water and chilled with cold my soul is filled with heavenly fire, and I can say with St. Paul, " But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy." These bold emissaries of the cross often lost their way and widely wandered over unbroken fields. They constantly encoun tered the most godless, reckless and degraded men — sometimes more malicious and savage than the wild Indians and ferocious beasts — who had fled thither from the retributions of justice in the older settlements. Often prostrated by fevers or wasted by malaria the years of pioneer service with many were few and severe, while others, endowed with extraordinary constitutions, lived to become apostles of moral heroism, venerable in years and weighty in words and character. Peter Cartwright, Peter Akers, Alfred Bran son and Aaron Wood came down to our times, while James B. Finley, Jacob Young, William Winans, James Axley, Jesse Walker, Tobias Gibson, and a long list of other honored names, belonged to the militant ranks that fell in the earlier struggles. Much has been said of the large circuits of the early itinerant preachers of the West. The following careful statement will convey a very clear view of them. Rev. Alfred Brunson, who traveled one of these large circuits in 1822-3, says that it "extended to all the white settlements of the Territory (Michigan), except the one at St. Mary's, the outlet of Lake Superior, which was perhaps hardly white. From Detroit we went north to Pontiac, then but a small village. From thence we went down the Upper Huron, now the Clinton River, to Mount Clemens, and thence down Lake St. Clair and river to Detroit, and thence again to the River Rouse, and up that stream some seven miles to the upper settlement, thence back to the river and lake-road leading to Monroe on the River Raisin ; up that nine miles, mostly on an Indian trail, to the upper settlement, and back by the same path to the lake-road, and on to the Maumee at the foot of the rapids, and thence right back on the lake-road fifty-eight miles to Detroit. It required four weeks to get round, though we had but twelve appointments." * *A Western Pioneer, or Incidents in the Life of Rev. Alfred Brunson, D.D. Cincinnati. 872. Hitchcock & Walden. Vol. I, pp. 267-8. 390 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Section 4.— Roman Catholic Opposition. L-- It has been already stated that as late as 1803 the region now comprised in the States of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missis sippi and Alabama (and until 1820 Florida also), was subject to foreign sway, which tolerated only the Roman Catholic faith. For a long period, too, in Michigan and other localities in the North west the papal religion held the ascendency among the early mixed populations, greatly embarrassing Protestant efforts. In Missouri the early Baptists suffered from severe privations and were denied freedom of worship. Their ministers were threatened with the Calaboza (Spanish prison), but- through the leniency of the com mandant they were permitted to escape. They were wholly surrounded by the rites and laws of Romanism. " In these times of restriction Rev. Abraham Musick applied to Zeno Trudeau, the commandant at St. Louis, an officer quite friendly to. the Protestant emigrants, for leave to have preaching at his own house. The commandant was secretly inclined to favor the Americans, but was compelled to reject all such petitions openly, and replied promptly that such a petition could not be granted." * St. Louis in 1820. The religious sentiment of St. Louis was almost wholly Roman Catholic, and it was not until 18 18, fifteen years after ancient f Louisiana was ceded to the United States, that the first Protestant society was organized in that city. This was a Baptist church. An Episcopal church was erected about that time, and the first move ment to collect and organize a Methodist society was made in 1820. The struggle for its accomplishment has had but few parallels in the modern history of Christianity. Any other man than Jesse Walker would have been appalled and left the city. He had resolved to plant a Methodist society in the Romish metropolis, where, up- to that time, the Methodist itinerants had " never found rest for the soles of their feet." He laid his plans and selected two young min isterial brethren of undoubted courage to go and stand by him "to the bitter end." When they reached St. Louis the Territorial Legislature was in session there, and every public place appeared to be full. The missionaries preferred private lodgings, but could obtain none. Some people laughed at them and others cursed them to their face. Thus embarrassed at every point, they rode into the public square and held * American Quarterly Register, 1840-1, p. 173. Article by Rev John M. Peck, A.M., of Illinois. t Louisiana, in the earlier period, comprised Missouri, Arkansas, and all the country west of the Mississippi River. JESSE WALKER IN ST. LOUIS. 391 a consultation sitting on their horses. The prospect was gloomy enough, and every avenue seemed closed against them. The young preachers expressed strong doubts as to their being in the path of duty. Their leader tried to encourage them, but in vain. They thought, if the Lord had any work for them to do there, there would surely be some way to get to it. They thought it best immediately to return to the place from which they had come, and, though their elder brother entreated them not to leave him, they deliberately shook off the dust of their feet for a testimony against the wicked city, and, taking leave of Walker, rode off and left him sitting on his horse. Perhaps that hour brought with it more of the feeling ¦of despondency to Jesse Walker than he ever experienced in any other hour of his eventful life; and stung with disappointment he said in his haste, "I will goto the State of Mississippi and hunt up the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He immediately turned his horse in that direction, and with a sorrowful heart rode off alone. Having proceeded about eighteen miles he came to a halt and entered into a soliloquy in this wise, "Was I ever defeated before in this blessed work ? Never. Did any one ever trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and get confounded ? No ; and by the grace of God I will go back and take St. Louis." Then reversing his course, without seeking either rest or refreshment for man or beast, he immediately retraced his steps to the city, and with some difficulty obtained lodgings in an indifferent inn, where he paid at the highest rate for every thing, The next morn ing he commenced a survey of the city and its inhabitants. He met with some members of the Territorial Legislature who knew him, and said, " Why, Father Walker, what has brought you here ? " His answer was, "I have come to take St. Louis." They thought it a hopeless undertaking, and to convince him that it was so remarked that the inhabitants were mostly Catholics and infidels, very dissipated and wicked, and that there was no probability that a Methodist preacher could obtain any access to them. They seriously advised him to abandon the enterprise and return to his family, then residing in Illinois. But to all such expressions . Walker returned one answer, " I have come in the name of Christ to take St. Louis, and by the grace of God I will do it." * His first public experiment was in a place occupied by the Baptists, but he was soon excluded from this. He then rented an unfinished dwelling-house. This he fitted up himself with his own hands. Five days in the week he taught, without fee or reward, the rudiments of education to the children who would come; and several evenings each week he gave instruction to servants and other adults. Gradually his rude chapel was filled with hearers and the school with children. Then the hired house changed hands and he was com pelled to vacate it. A gentleman gave him permission to cut timber for a chapel in his forest, a little way off across the Missis sippi, and he built a house of worship. New friends rose up to aid him. At the close of the year he reported seventy members and the chapel erected and paid for. He was reappointed to St. Louis the next year, and in 1822 the Missouri Conference held its first session in that city. * Sketches. By Rev. Thomas A. Morris, D.D , Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 392 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Similar struggles attended the introduction of Protestantism into Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi, amid the formidable opposition of Romanism. In Mississippi the first Baptists were driven away by the papists. Michigan has been alluded to. It has been noticed that the Methodists did not obtain a permanent foothold there until 1815, and even after that time until 1830 their growth was very slow. The first Protestant church edifice was not erected until 18 18. The first Baptist church was organized in 1824, and the first Con gregational church in 1827. The Presbyterians entered the State about 1820. Rev. Alfred Brunson says* that in 1822 there were only fourteen Methodist communicants in Detroit, and that in his whole circuit, which embraced the entire settled portion of the Territory, and, in addition, the Maumee settlement in Ohio, there were only 130 communicants of that denomination. The only other Protestant minister at that time in the Territory besides himself and colleague was a Presbyterian licentiate who was unordained, and to whose flock Brunson was accustomed to administer the sacra ments. So slow amid the early papal influences of that region was the introduction and spread of Protestant Christianity. We have prepared the following exhibit of the ecclesiastical sta tistics of the Valley of the Mississippi, reckoning from the Alleghany Mountains westward, and south to the Gulf of Mexico for the year 1830 :f Denominations. Ministers. ctiurches1" Communicants. Presbyterian 614 924 60,407 Methodist 638^: 1,500 173,083 Baptist 1,063 1,701 90,000 Protestant Episcopal 51 60 § 2,000 § Cumberland Presbyterian 40 § 70 § 7,000 § Other small sects 70 § 200 16,000 § Total 2,476 4,455 348.490 The population of this region was about 4,000,000 at that time. Testimonies as to the Moral Condition of the West, dating about 1830, show that notwithstanding all that had been done, and the numerous religious bodies organized and established in the Mississippi valley, yet in many localities great immorality and religious destitution still prevailed. *A Western Pioneer. Cincinnati. 1872. Hitchcock & Walden. Vol. I, p. 265. t In part from the American Quarterly Register, 1830-1, p. 135. X Traveling preachers. § Estimated. RELIGIOUS DESTITUTION. 393 A gentleman, writing from Louisiana, said : It is no uncommon thing to find families who have not heard the Gospel for five, or even ten, years. The part which lies west of the Mississippi is in a very great degree destitute of all the means of grace. Infidelity and other destructive errors extensively prevail, and as a consequence dueling, gambling, horse-racing, profaneness, intemperance, and Sabbath-breaking often cause the Christian's heart to bleed, and in many places seem almost to have incorporated themselves with the fashionable, approved customs of society. A Baptist clergyman, writing from Ohio, said : We visit whole neighborhoods sometimes where there has not been a sermon preached for ten or fifteen years. A gentleman from West Virginia said : The whole country, to an astonishing extent around, is destitute of almost every kind of religious information. The people are generally indifferent to religious subjects. A clergyman from Arkansas wrote : In my seclusion here in these western wilds my heart at times is ready to sink within me at the slowness of evangelical movements toward poor, neglected, un known Arkansas. As to the religious and moral condition of this country, it is deplorable indeed. On this subject I could tell you a tale which would cause your hearts to bleed. Said another gentleman : I have seen enough of the West to know that, in a spiritual sense, large por tions of it are growing up with briers and thorns. Said another : The progress of Romanism, together with open and disguised infidelity, in the great valley of the Mississippi, will require, according to present appearances, but a few years, to prepare from your presses a tract, which you may entitle, The Last Hope oj the World Fallen — America Ruined. Be assured that in all the de partments of benevolence unprecedented efforts must be made, and made soon, or our country is lost. Our civil and religious institutions, all the blessings of a free government, will be swallowed up as with a flood, and Woe ! Woe ! will be written, in tears and blood, all over this once fair and happy land. Said another: The truth is that Satan, plotting the destruction of our nation, and the over throw of Christianity in it, has fixed his eye on our new settlements, and has erected and fortified his strongholds, and if they are not wrested from him his object in a few years will be inevitably attained. In some parts of the West at that time it was said that any one "might travel hundreds of miles and in vain look for a single temple dedicated to Jehovah or a preacher of the Gospel to break the bread of life to its perishing inhabitants. The consequence is 394 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. that many of them, in regard to religious information, are approaching a state but little better than heathenism." Rev. Alfred Brunson went to Detroit in 1822. In a sketch of his life* he says : When 1 first came to the place Sunday markets were as common as week-day ones. The French brought in their meats, fowls, vegetables, etc., on Sunday as regularly as on any week-day. After selling out they would go to church, attend mass, and perhaps confess, and pay for absolution out of their market money, and then go home apparently in good spirits. Nor did the American and foreign pop ulation generally pay any more respect to the day, for they patronized the thing to the fullest extent. On this practice I proclaimed a war of extermination. At first it made a stir. But a young Presbyterian minister who was there joined me in the denunciation of the practice, and in a short time the city council decreed that Sun day markets should cease, and in the place thereof a market should be opened on Sunday night. This raised a great fuss among the French, who from time imme morial had thus broken the Sabbath and after the market gone to mass, then to tne horse-races in the afternoon, and fiddled and danced and played cards at night. But they made a virtue of necessity, and soon yielded to authority and gave up the Sunday market, but adhered to the other practices. The following statement in regard to a western locality appeared in the Annual Report of the American Tract Society for 1830. A circuit judge, residing here, told me that in trying a certain case two individ uals were brought in as witnesses, one 15 and the other 11 years of age. On questioning them respecting the nature of an oath he found that they had never seen a Bible, had never attended a school or religious meeting, had never heard of future punishment, of God, or the devil. The father of the children was con fused at the questions asked, and upon inquiry the judge found him to be a justice of the peace in the county, though he could neither read nor write. In Kentucky, with a population of 687,917 in 1830, there were only about 550 ministers, and they had access to about 250,000 inhabitants, leaving more than two thirds of the people of the State unprovided for. Mississippi and Alabama had a population of 446,148 souls and about 275 ministers, who had access to not far from 150,000 inhabitants, leaving two thirds unprovided for. Ohio had 937,903 inhabitants and about 600 ministers, who had access to not far from 400,000 souls, leaving over half of the people unpro vided for. Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana were in a still more destitute condition. But the attention of the churches in the older States was aroused to the urgent necessities of this field, and home missionary, Sunday-school, and tract societies were sending numerous laborers into it. * A Western Pioneer. Vol. I, p. 273. WISCONSIN, IOWA, TEXAS. 395' Section 5.— Condition from 1830 to 1850. The Methodists and Baptists entered Wisconsin simultaneously. The first Baptist church was constituted in 1836, -and the first Asso ciation in 1S38, composed of the churches at Rochester, South- port, Milwaukee, Lisbon, Sheboygan, Jefferson, and Salem. In 1840 there were 15 Baptist churches in the State, with 11 ordained ministers and 455 communicants.* In 1836 two Methodist preach ers were appointed in this State, Rev. M. Robinson, to Milwaukee, and Rev. W. Royal, to Fox River. In 1837, 172 members were reported, and in 1850 there was an Annual Conference, with 75 preachers and 8,400 communicants. Congregationalism entered the State in 1838, and in 1850 numbered 53 churches. The first settlements in Iowa began soon after 1830. In 1840 the population of the State was 43,000. The first Baptist church was formed at Long Creek, Des Moines County, in 1834, and the first Association in 1839, consisting of 3 churches. An Anti-Mission Baptist Association was formed the same year. In 1840 there were 12 regular Baptist churches, 8 ministers, and 300 members in Iowa. Methodism entered the State in 1834. That year the appointment in the Minutes stood, " Dubuque and Galena Mission, Barton Ran dle, J. T. Mitchell." In 1850 there was an Iowa Conference, with 5 Presiding Elders' Districts, 62 preachers, and 11,420 communicants. The Congregationalists entered the State in 1838, and in 1850 they had 32 churches. Methodism entered Texas in 1836. In 1838, 450 members were reported, and a Presiding Elders' District was constituted with 7 preachers, among whom was Rev. Abel Stevens,f who was appoint ed to Houston and Galveston. In 1840 the Texas Conference was organized, with 19 preachers, 25 local preachers, and 1,878 members. The first Baptist Association was organized in Travis, Austin County, in 1840, consisting of 3 churches, located at Travis, Lagrange, and Independence. Section 6.— Benevolent and Educational Work. During the year 1829-30 the American Home Missionary Soci ety sent 62 missionaries into the State of Ohio, who served 90 congregations or mission districts; 18 to Indiana, who served 26 congregations or districts ; 3 to Louisiana, who served 4 congrega tions or districts; 12 to Illinois, who served 15 congregations or * American Quarterly Register, 1841, p. 182. t The distinguished historian of Methodism. 396 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. districts ; 10 to Michigan, who served 14 congregations or districts; and 19 to other Western States and Territories, who served 28 congregations or districts — total, 124 missionaries, serving 177 congregations or districts. The Board of Missions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church the same year sent to Ohio 45 missionaries; to Indiana, 11 ; to Illinois, 4; to Alabama, 42; to Kentucky, 6; to Tennessee, 6; to Mississippi, 5 ; to Missouri, 3, and to the North-west Territory, 1 — total, 85. The American Tract Society also entered this field. Prior to 1827 only $700 worth of tracts had been sent to the West. In the year 1829-30 it reported 57 auxiliary societies in the West and 6 general agents. One hundred thousand pages of tracts had been gratuitously distributed in Mississippi, and 500,000 pages had been granted for distribution in Louisiana. Permanent depositories were established in some of the principal towns. The whole amount of tracts sent into the Mississippi valley during the year were 24,099,800 pages, of which 2,655,067 were for gratuitous distribution. The American Temper ance Society reported about 200 temperance organizations in the West, with about 20,000 pledged members. The American Bible Society reported 12,944 Bibles, besides about 11,000 Testaments, sent into Ohio during the year 1829-30; into Kentucky, 14,404 Bibles and about 5,000 Testaments ; into Tennessee, 6,757 Bibles and about 4,000 Testaments; into Indiana, 7,761 Bibles and about as many more Testaments. Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, etc., received some, but the difficulty of obtaining agents and making other preliminary arrangements had retarded the work. In all the West there were 192 auxiliaries. The American Sunday- school Union had about 700 Sunday-schools and 43,659 scholars in the West, and the Methodist Sunday-school Union had about 600 more schools and about 30,000 scholars in those regions. The Dutch Reformed, the Baptist, Congregational, and other denomina tions were also making strenuous efforts in this direction ; but con siderable difficulty was experienced on account of the scarcity of ministers of the Gospel with stated religious services to give a per manent nucleus to these organizations. Educational Institutions. Notwithstanding the arduous labors, privations, and poverty of the early settlers of these regions they did not overlook the work of education, but began to lay the foundations of these institutions simultaneously with the organization of the communities. In the EDUCATIONAL PROVISION. 397 year 1800 there were 2 of these higher institutions of learning be yond the Alleghanies — 1 at Greenville, Green County, Tenn., founded in 1794, and the other, the Transylvania University, at Lexington, Ky., founded in 1798. From 1800 to 1830, 24 others were estab lished ; namely, the University of Nashville, at Nashville, Tenn., in 1806; another at Knoxville, Tenn., and the South and West Theo logical Seminary, at Maysville, Tenn., in 1821 ; 3 in Kentucky — at Danville, Princeton, and Augusta ; 2 in Illinois — Illinois College at Jacksonville, and the Theological Seminary at Rock Spring ; 2 in Indiana — at Madison and Bloomington ; 6 in Ohio — a medical col lege and Lane Seminary at Cincinnati, and at Oxford, Athens, Hudson, and Gambier; 5 in Pennsylvania, beyond the mountains — Washington College at Washington, Jefferson College at Cannons- burg, Western University at Pittsburg, Alleghany College at Meadville, and the Western Theological Seminary near Pittsburg ; 1 in Alabama — the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa ; 1 in Mississippi — Jefferson College, at Washington; 1 in Louisiana — at Jackson. In 1830 there were 26 institutes of this class connected with the Protestant churches in the great Mississippi valley, and 2 Catholic institutions — at Bardstown, Ky., and at New Orleans. Seven hundred and sixty-six young men had then graduated from these institutes, and they contained 1,430 under-graduates and had 38,666 volumes in their libraries ; * a most remarkable beginning, when all the circumstances of the country are considered. This work, however, had been greatly aided by grants of public lands by Congress, amounting to 583,840 acres, which, at the minimum price, were worth $1,064,000. * These facts were gathered at that time by Rev. Elias Cornelius, and published in the Amer ican Quarterly Register for 1830-31, p. 131. 398 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER III. THE NEW LIFE ORGANIZING. Sec. i. Evangelizing Agencies. I Sec. 3. Religious Educational Agencies. " 2. Religious Publication Agencies. | THE beginning of the nineteenth century is one of the most strongly illuminated points of all Christian history. There were numerous indications of extraordinary events. Napoleon was astonishing the world, and awakening enlarged conceptions of the possibilities of human power, and commerce was stretching out her giant arms as never before, encircling far-off lands in her embrace. Every department of human activity was being enlarged, and enter prises vaster and sublimer than ever before dreamed of were being inaugurated. Such was the period chosen by Him who is the " head over all things unto his Church " for the ushering in of a better day — an era of new developments of Christian character, of new departments and methods of religious labor, and new combinations of moral in fluence, linking in bonds of fellowship nations and tribes as well as individual hearts all over the earth, and assimilating human senti ments and laws to the spirit of his universal kingdom. These new religious agencies may be classified as the evangelizing, the religious publication, the educational, in all of which the vital spirit of the Gospel organized itself into concentrated forms to enlighten, ameli orate and save the world. These numerous benevolent societies have become so prominent every-where as to justly claim a large share of our attention. The incipient stages of the great benevolent organizations which have characterized the age afford many instructive lessons in the great volume of divine providence. The early actors in these move ments found that even the pathway of benevolence is beset with trials and difficulties. Incredulity, covetousness, and lethargy were every-where encountered, so that for many years the pecuniary offer ings of the American churches were very meager. To lay the foun dations and to conduct these enterprises in their infancy required DOMESTIC MISSIONS. 399 great wisdom, an invincible energy and extraordinary strength of character, developing such illustrious examples of inflexible purpose, directness of aim and faith in God as the records of the Christian Church have rarely disclosed. The names of Messrs. Jeremiah Evarts, Samuel J. Mills, Revs. Elias Cornelius, Samuel Worcester, D.D., Justin Edwards, D.D., Nathan Bangs, D.D., Elias Boudinot, Samuel Spring, D.D., Samuel Miller, D.D., and hosts of others, the foster- fathers of these children of Providence, engraved in the structures of these great institutions of Christ's imperishable Church, can never be forgotten. Section 1.— Evangelizing Agencies. i. Home Missionary Societies. The American population from the beginning was migratory in its habits. Settling at first upon the easternmost border of a vast continent, which opened numerous new and inviting fields extending into an almost limitless interior, but few of the sons of the early colonists allowed themselves to live and die upon the spot which recorded their birth. The enterprising spirit which had prompted the adventures of the fathers was inherited by the sons, and thus field was joined to field and State to State. To this were added constant accessions from other shores. Thus it was early seen that the new Republic gave promise of be coming a great nation, numbering many millions in its population and covering millions of square miles. It soon became evident also that such a rapid diffusion of the population must be attended with a general decline in the power of Christianity, unless it should be followed by energetic religious influences. Many of those who emigrated to the wilderness, separated from the Christian restraints of home society and institutions, and subject to the temptations of worldly enterprises and increasing wealth, soon forgot their spiritual interests. Others, however, retained their steadfastness, and showed their abiding interest in the Redeemer's kingdom by calling often and loudly for missionaries and for aid in sustaining them. Liberal responses were made, and the records of the older New England churches afford interesting evidences of their efforts in behalf of their brethren in the new settlements.* This was the commence- * In the earlier period of Massachusetts, when there were but four or five churches outside of the " standing order," frequent applications for aid came before the Legislature of the State. In the archives of the State are to be found fifty applications from feeble parishes, presented to the Legislature between 1695 and 1711, and a. record of appropriations amounting to ^1,000 for their relief in supporting the ministry. 400 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ment of the work of domestic missions among the older de nominations in this country. It had its beginning in the action of Legislatures and individual churches in behalf of particular neigh borhoods whither their former neighbors had migrated, to which they were accustomed to grant aid for the support of the Gospel. As the new settlements multiplied, and their wants became greater and were better known, it was apparent that the separate efforts which, among the older denominations, had been hitherto put forth by the individual churches were inadequate to the demands. The increasing spiritual and moral desolation of the frontiers was vividly portrayed and became the subject of just alarm. Christians and Christian ministers conferred and prayed together. The grossest infidelity ever known had become rampant, and it was felt that vigorous and combined efforts must be put forth to propagate the institutions of religion, or both the civil and the religious privileges must be lost. In consequence of the interest thus awakened several home missionary societies were organized. For nearly one hundred and fifty years the only heathen for whom any of the colonists attempted missionary efforts were the North American Indians. The policy of the English Government did not allow the incorporation of societies in America for the work of missions, and not until after the Revolution did the first asso ciation of this kind receive a charter. The Society for the Propa gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, organized in 1701, in London, extended its operations through most of the colonies in the interest of the Established Church of England. Connecticut Home Missions. — As early as 1724 the General Court of Connecticut allowed a brief to " be emitted " to " encourage the building and finishing of a meeting-house in Providence," R. I. In 1774 the General Association of Connecticut recommended subscrip tions among the people for supporting missionaries " to the scattered back settlements in the wilderness to the north-westward," in what is now Vermont and the northern part of New York, the settlements being composed chiefly of emigrants from Connecticut. Rev. Messrs. Williams, of Northford ; Goodrich, of Durham, and Trumbull, of North Haven, were a committee to receive funds and take charge of the supplies. The Revolution interrupted the work; but in 1788 and 1791 the subject came again before the Association. In 1792 Rev. Joseph Vaill was missionary to the new settlements, and an nual contributions in aid were taken in the churches. Pastors left their flocks temporarily to minister to the destitute in the wilder- MISSIONARY PERIODICAL LITERATURE. 401 ness. Seventeen pastors are known to have gone on these mission ary tours before 1800, and more are supposed to have gone. Some of the points visited " were north and south of the Mohawk River, in Otsego and Herkimer counties," at Manlius and Pompey, N. Y., and Utica, consisting in 1794 of "a log tavern and two or three other buildings." In 1798 a constitution for the " Missionary Society of Connecticut" was adopted, the object of which was declared to be " to Christianize the heathen in North America and to support and promote Christian knowledge in the new settlements of the United States." But the work of this Society formally dates back to 1792. In 1800 Rev. David Bacon, father of Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., was sent to explore the condition of the Indian tribes and settlements on the southern shore of Lake Erie. In 1787 the " Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in North America " was organized in Massachu setts. Gradually it passed into the hands of the Unitarians. A similar society was formed in New York city November 1, 1796, Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D., participating actively in it. The officers comprised three Presbyterian, four Reformed Dutch, one Associate Reformed, and one Baptist minister. On the day of its organization Rev. Alexander McWhorter, D.D., of Newark, preached a sermon on the " Blessedness of the Liberal." The field of its labors was in the frontier settlements and the Indian tribes, but chiefly the latter; and hence its missions were called " foreign missions." The Con necticut Evangelical Magazine was started in July, 1800, and four such periodicals are said to have been in existence in 1805. The Presbyterian "Home Missions" began in 1789, when the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was organized, and from that time until 1802 missionary operations were managed by a committee annually appointed by that body. In the latter year, owing to a great enlargement of the work, a standing committee was appointed which conducted this work until 18 16, when the powers of this committee were extended and it received the desig nation of " Board of Missions." In 1801 the Sandusky Mission was established, and in 1805 the Synod of Pittsburg reported missions on the Alleghany, and on the Lake Erie shore among the Wyandots and Senecas. In 1 803 a mission was established among the Catawbas, and in 1805 among the Cherokees. In the year 1828, 101 mission aries were employed by this Board in 21 States and Territories. The New York Missionary Society was formed November 1, 1796. In 1798 the Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society was organ- 26 402 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ized for the purpose of propagating the Gospel in the new settle ments and among heathen nations. It originated in Berkshire County, Mass., and Columbia County, N. Y., receiving about an equal share of patronage from each State. Subsequently most ofthe New York members became connected with other organizations in that State, and the society then became an auxiliary to the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. Up to that time it had supported four mission aries annually, besides distributing religious books. In 1802 the Western Missionary Society at Pittsburg commenced operations. Some of these early home missionary societies were characterized by the union and fraternal co-operation of different denominations. The New York Society sustained a Baptist missionary among the Indians of central New York. A plan for social prayer was adopted (January 18, 1798) by this Society, and the second Wednesday evening of each month was observed by a concert of prayer in the Reformed Dutch, Presbyterian and Baptist churches. The Congre gationalists and Presbyterians co-operated very extensively in New York and Ohio, on a " Plan of Union " which was entered into. On the 23d of January, 1809, young men of different denomina tions in the city of New York formed themselves into a society to> raise funds to aid in promoting the objects of the New York Mis sionary Society. So unexpected was its success, and so hopeful the promise of this institution, that on the 14th of February, 18 16, it resolved on the future management of its own funds independently of the parent society, and was no longer the Assistant New York Missionary Society, but the Young Men's Missionary Society of New York. Subsequently serious differences arose, which led to the organization of the " New York Evangelical Missionary Society of Young Men," numbering four hundred persons. Mr. Samuel H. Cox was employed as missionary, and the city and State of New York were designated as the field of labor. The Massachusetts Home Missionary Society was organized May 28, 1799, Rev. Dr. N. Emmons, president. The Massachusetts Mis sionary Magazine started in 1803. The field of this Society was Western New York, Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and among scattered Indian tribes. In 1826 it was united with the Massachu setts Domestic Missionary Society, which had been formed in 1818, and both thus united became auxiliary to the American Home Missionary Society. Similar societies were organized in New Hamp shire in 1801, in Rhode Island in 1803; in Vermont in 1818 ; in Maine in 1807; all subsequently becoming auxiliaries of the Amer- THE CIRCUIT SYSTEM. 403 ican Home Missionary Society. In process of time intelligent ob servers were impressed with the conviction that a stronger impulse must be given to the work of home evangelization. The strong, steady, onward march of the population into the Territories rapidly enlarged the field of spiritual needs, called for larger plans, the multiplication of resources and a concentration of effort. How to accomplish this end was a topic of frequent and extensive consul tation, and guidance was sought from on high. The organization oi the American Home Missionary Society in 1826 was the result, the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Dutch Reformed and Asso ciate Reformed churches participating, in a convention called for consultation. In the first three years of its existence, it extended aid to more than six hundred congregations in twenty-two States and Territories. (See Period III.) The Methodist Home Missionary Work has been chiefly performed in connection with the regular operations of the itinerant circuit system, by which one, two or three ministers, aided by local preachers and exhorters, extended their labors over a territory sometimes of several hundred miles around. This system was pre eminently adapted to this work. Visiting each of the scattered hamlets of the new settlements once in two or three weeks, zealously appealing to their spiritual convictions, laboring for immediate results, organizing new converts in classes for weekly meetings under leaders, they occupied the new Territories with societies in advance of the older denominations, which, according to their methods, must wait for communities of sufficient population to maintain a settled pastor. Every Methodist presiding elder, having the oversight of several of these large circuits, was a home mission ary manager and director, under whose watchful eye aggressive evangelizing operations were carried forward and new mission ary circuits were planned. Such labors developed a large class of ministers of heroic endurance and sublime courage, such as Finley, Young, Cartwright, Akers, Brunson, and a host of others, whose sufferings, deeds and triumphs have awakened universal admiration. In consequence of this essentially mission ary character of early Methodist labors, whether in the older or in the newer settlements, no distinct organization for home missionary purposes was formed at this early period. In prosecuting its work in this way the Methodist Church made a liberal outlay of men and money, and extended its influence among the aborigines and the slaves as well as the needy white population. 404 CHRISTIANI TY IN THE UNITED STATES. It 1 8 19 the Methodist Missionary Society was organized in New York city, for the purpose of giving more distinct form and efficiency to this work. Until 1832 its work was wholly confined to our own country, in frontier circuits, among the slaves, the free colored people and the Indian tribes. In 1831, in Upper Canada, it had twenty mission stations and 2,000 Indians under instruction, most of whom had become communicants in the Church. Among the Cherokees in Georgia it employed seventeen missionary laborers and had about 1, 000 Indian communicants. Among the Choctaws there were about 4,000 communicants, embracing all the principal men of the nation, their chiefs, captains, etc. Mission stations were established among the Indians all along the frontier. Meanwhile throughout the domestic work, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, there were numerous stations yearly passing off from the missionary list to the catalogue of self-supporting churches. Some others of the younger denominations, which had no old- established churches — the Free-Will Baptists, the Cumberland Presbyterians, etc. — were, from the first organization, home mission ary bodies in almost their entire work. The Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church was organized in 1820, for both foreign and domestic purposes, and reorganized in 1835. The meetings ofthe Society were long held in connection with the triennial session of the General Convention. Bishop Meade has given the following account of its origin : " The first impulse given to us was the tender of some pecu niary help from the Church Missionary Society of our mother country, if we would enter upon the work. The missionary charac ter of the Colonization Society did much to excite our Church to action. The plea for Africa was a pathetic one, addressing itself to all hearts. But it was not heard at once by all. Even after our first efforts in behalf of that unhappy land I heard an old and respectable clergyman of our Church, preaching at one of our Gen eral Conventions, designate the foreign missionary effort as a wild crusade, and another of high standing express the opinion that the foreign missionary work was for other denominations and the domestic for Episcopalians. In three years after, however, I heard the latter plead zealously for the foreign missionary cause. An effort for preparing colored missionaries for Africa was made at Hartford, under the patronage of Bishop Brownell and Dr. Wain- right, but from various causes it proved of but little avail. The efforts of our Virginia Seminary commenced with preparing Mr. THE FOREIGN EVANGELICAL SOCIETY. 406 and Mrs. Hill for the Greek mission, and have ever since success fully continued." * The American and Foreign Christian Union \ was organized May 10, 1849, by merging three previously-existing societies into one body. The first of these formed was The Foreign Evangelical Society. Very soon after 1830 " a number of persons in different parts of our country — some of them distinguished for their high standing and great influence in the churches — began to think that the state of the papal world, and other portions of Christendom in which a corrupted Christianity exists, was such as to demand the attention and the help of churches so highly favored as are those of this country, which God has so remarkably blessed with his Word and the means of salvation." With this view they organized "The French Association," in 1834, and sent to France as its repre sentative the late Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., instructing him to inform himself upon the spot with reference to the prospects of success of evangelical labor in that country and elsewhere upon the European Continent. Up to this time the interest of American Protestants in the conversion of Roman Catholics had lain almost entirely dormant. The result of Dr. Baird's inquiries was so encouraging that the scope of the " French Association " was enlarged to embrace mis sionary work in all parts of papal Europe, and its name was changed to the " Foreign Evangelical Society," which, during the ten years of its existence, not only continued to prosecute its labors in France, but was also called " to extend them to Belgium, Italy, Poland, Russia, and in some measure to Sweden and Germany, in the Old World, while it aided the work of evangelization in Canada and commenced missions in South America, Hayti, and among the Mexicans in Texas and the French population of New Orleans and New York." The American Protestant Society, the second, and by far the most important, of the three organizations that were merged in the American and Foreign Christian Union, came into existence in 1843, as the successor ofthe " Protestant Reformation Society," which had been in operation for a number of years previous, under the presidency of that distinguished and uncompromising champion for the truth, the Rev. William C. Brownlee, D.D., LL.D. The aim of the American Protestant Society during its prosperous independ- * Old Families and Churches of Virginia. t For a fuller account see sketch prepared by Rev. Professor Henry M. Baird, D.D., in Christian World, March, 1873. 406 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ent existence of six years was to further the conversion of Roman Catholics in this land, and to forestall those perils to which our country was exposed from the great emigration setting in upon us from the Old World. Among the most interesting incidents con nected with the last two years of its separate history was the aid it rendered to the poor Portuguese exiles from Madeira. The Christian Alliance.— Ihe third association— first named the Philo-Italian Society and afterward the Christian Alliance — was founded in 1842, with special reference to Italy, but subsequently enlarged so as to take in a wider field of usefulness. It had shown promise of doing so much good that it had been specially honored in calling forth a bull of condemnation from Pope Gregory XVI. The Union Consummated. — The existence of three distinct organ izations, all having kindred and often identical aims, was felt to be a mistake, and great pleasure was felt at their consolidation, in 1849, under tne most auspicious circumstances. " We think," said the directors, in their address to the Christian public, " that the times call for the formation of such a society." The Home Field. — The new Society from the very first adopted a large and generous policy. At home it sought out Roman Cath olics of all nationalities in every part of our wide territory. In the second year of its existence it already had in its employ in the United States 78 laborers, belonging to six different religious denom inations and using not less than seven distinct languages in the course of their missionary work. The next year this number had increased to 85 laborers in 15 States of the Union, and in i860 its 73 laborers were to be found in not less than 23 States. At the same time there were under its care in Sabbath and day schools 18,860 chil dren, instructed by 406 teachers — mostly volunteers whom the Society's agents had enlisted in this glorious work. And this home work — both the purely evangelistic and that prosecuted by means of schools — was crowned with the evident blessing of God. The American Missionary Association should receive more than a passing notice. Its decided devotion to the cause of humanity, and the magnitude ofthe work which it has accomplished in differ ent and most important departments of Christian philanthropy, entitle it to a prominent position before the Christian public. It is a child of Providence, and was brought into existence in a time of most urgent needs. The story is well told in its Quarter Century Report : * "•i87i. Pp. 16, 17, 18, 19. THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 407 " Twenty-five years ago slavery ruled in this land in the pleni tude of its power. Texas had just been annexed, the Mexican war was in the first flush of an unbroken series of victories, the inso lence ofthe slave.-holder was at its height, and the truckling of his minions at the North was scarcely less abject than the cowering of his slaves under the lash in the South. . . . " It was under these circumstances that a handful of men gathered at Albany, N. Y., September 3, 1846, to form the Ameri can Missionary Association. The number present did not greatly exceed two hundred. The meeting was held in the small Baptist church south of the Capitol. The gathering excited no local or public attention either of opposition or approval. The discussions were harmonious and spirited. The inducement to ignore an evangelical basis was kindly, not factitiously, made, and the young organization gained its first victory in the hour of its birth by rejecting the proffer. We now can hardly realize the relative numbers and wealth which it thus rejected, nor how sorely it then needed these elements of strength ; but it marked out its future life by adopting a liberal but unequivocally evangelical creed. It was true to Christ as well as the slave, and Christ has not deserted it. " Thus quietly was planted this grain of mustard seed, but its germination was rapid and its growth vigorous. The celebrated Amistad captives and the missionaries that went back with them to Africa were fittingly transferred to the care of the new organ ization. Congenial fields were opened in the West Indies, among the newly-emancipated slaves ; in Canada, among the refugees from slavery; in our western wilds, among the wronged and cheated Indians; and the deep interest it felt for the slaves in the South impelled it to enter that dark land with the Gospel, preached alike to bond and free. Its missionaries there had a stirring experience — apostolic in the two elements of zeal and persecution. After enduring stripes, imprisonment and threatened death they were at length cast out by the tumultuous heavings which preceded the volcano of war. " The home missionary department of this Association was one of its marked features, giving aid at one time to about one hundred churches, whose sympathy for the slave threw them upon the Asso ciation for the support they could not get or would not ask elsewhere." The Baptist Home Missionary Society was organized in 1832, and in a short time it embraced a large number of auxiliaries in all 408 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. parts of the Union. In 1843 it had in its employ 93 agents and missionaries, besides 275 more, through its auxiliaries — total, 368 ministers preaching on 762 stations, traveling 175,035 miles annu ally, reporting 4,920 conversions, and 50 churches organized. 2. — City Missionary Societies, a kind of organization unknown before, also sprang up in this period in some of the larger cities. After 1850 they became common in every part of the country. One of the earliest organizations of this class was the Boston City Missionary Society, whose early history is full of interest. " On the 29th day of September, 18 16, a few gentlemen met at the house of Rev. Joshua Huntington, pastor of the Old South Church, to consult together upon the expediency of attempting to do something for the moral and religious welfare of the poor of Boston. Ten days later, on the 9th of October, they met at the house of Mr. Charles Cleveland, and there foimed a new benevolent organization, to which they gave the name of ' The Boston Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Poor.' On the 8th of October, 18 17, they held their first anniversary and presented their First Annual Report. " Nine of the eleven Congregational churches of Boston had de clined from the faith of the fathers, and the controlling influence in the metropolis of the State, by wealth, by social position, by intel lectual culture, and by political power, was unfriendly to vital relig ion. It was a day when fervent piety was ridiculed, and when the animosity manifested toward evangelical truth was sometimes bitter. " At the beginning of the century the Old South Church stood fast, ' faithful found among the faithless.' In 1809 Park Street Church arose, coming out of great tribulation, and stood up, ' fair as the moon, clear as the sun,' and sometimes, in the days of Dr. Griffin and ' Park Street Lectures,' ' terrible as an army with ban ners.' In 1815 a heavy artillery pamphlet-war opened, conducted by Evarts, Channing, and Worcester. The conflict, went on into 1820, and the Andover professors came into the field. . . . " One of the first fruits of the organization of this Society was the establishment of Sunday-schools in Boston. A committee ap pointed at the preliminary meeting, held September 29, 1816, 'to ascertain facts in relation to the poor and destitute, and form a plan for their instruction and relief,' reported ten days after that out of 540 families visited 141 were in want of Bibles, and 801 children and 37 adults would attend Sunday-schools should they be opened. BOSTON CITY MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 409 Two such schools were established in 1817, one in Mason Street and the other in School Street. During the same year aid was also rendered to a Sabbath-school already established in South Bos ton. These schools rapidly multiplied, and in 1828 the Society had 18 under its care, containing 325 teachers and 2,400 scholars. The following year they were transferred to the care of the ' Boston Sabbath-school Union,' which continued in existence for twelve years. For the last twenty-five years our Sunday-schools have been conducted and sustained by the churches with which they are sev erally associated. Several mission schools have been formed, and in this wide and important field of usefulness our missionaries are vig orously engaged. "In the year 1818 a meeting for seamen was established on Central Wharf. Investigations were made as to the character and condition of sailors, the treatment they received at their boarding- houses was exposed, and efforts were made for their improvement by the distribution among them of tracts and Bibles, and by open ing a Bethel boarding-house. These labors were efficiently carried on by this Society for ten years, when the Boston Seaman's Friend Society was formed, to whose hands the care of this work was com mitted." Such was the origin of this, probably the oldest city mission society in the United States. Table* Showing the Work of this Society in Ten Years. ui4> > Vr. Ih' £| 5 O 1 .A3¦a O A» H O flj" c3V — > In "Eb ** S 0' 0 c j: 0 c t>. Oh 1 >2 S ^ p- ¦ B-a.'S3 w « u ¦" . s «" -a .^ u -S3" e 8 « 3 aS T3 4J . .2 0 UJu1*- • tu 0 »- *-^J 0 1) 0 £ ^ p. O'S 4-. p $ 225 354 422 43' v>5S4 612343260 850 ¦§«§' g 3 g IaSI 1841 184218431844 1S4518461S47184S18491850 344454 4 5 3 5 5,6687,0416,591 8,8168,7156,8206,2137,109 4,5io8,501 1,366 1,7641.5781,827 2,3102,049 1*527 1,485 868 2,596 3514785-8446488527 372 339 202 1,071 69,580 206,366 206,412 232,656 240,771 223,746267,529261,591221,000 191,600 124172 169 164 9890 199161 95 176 71 9757 875°53 TOO 91= 4 149 '74 493 2403'5264209 268 421205306 596 278345435330 239 472 53217'547 104 63 517954 61 121109 44 404 378414 540 396363 317230 325 129 401 49 119 '5 25 =3 1115 3 14 155 178 200300421261304259 180 555 465 534 610 905 I,i75 702820710 522 1,075 $ 3.463 3,596 3.501 3.013 3,825 3,7984,35i3,8322,7957,269. 41 70,014 17,37° 4.792 2,121,251 1,448 779 2,895 3.945 1,090 3.493 270 2.813 7,5i8 $4,667 S39.443 Other City Missions. City missionary societies began to be more numerous during the latter part of this period. Nothing like a complete statement of them can, however, be given. A few statistical items in regard *See Half Century Report, 1866. 410 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. to another of the leading societies of this class at this time will be of some value. New York City Mission and Tract Society. — About the close of 1825 the New York Young Men's Auxiliary Tract Society was formed. On the 19th of Febru ary, 1827, the New York City Tract Society was formed, chiefly by the agency of the officers of the Young Men's Society, and the Young Men's Society was merged into it. In 1829 the New York City Female Tract Society, which had been directly auxiliary to the American Tract Society, transferred its relation, and became a branch of the City Society. The City Society, for two years from the time of its formation, devoted its efforts to supplying with tracts the shipping, markets, humane and criminal institutions, the outskirts of the city, etc. On the 20th of October, 1828, a meeting of gentlemen was held at the Tract-house for raising funds with a special view to extending the American Tract Society's opera tions in the West, and the question was asked, Why not supply the accessible population on this side of the mountains and immediately around us, as well as the West? The result was that in March, 1829, a city committee was appointed by the New York City Tract Society, consisting of one member for each of the fourteen wards into which the city was then divided, who, in connection with dis tributers from the churches, entered upon monthly distribution, each member of the committee being the agent for his ward. In January, 1832, was introduced, especially by the lamented Harlan Page, the subject of concentrating effort and prayer for the salvation oj individuals, which gave directness and efficiency to the Society ; and in March, 1833, an agent (Mr. S. B. Halliday; was employed in connection with Mr. Moses Allen, member of the committee for the Eighth Ward, to devote himself to labors in that ward ; and previous to April, 1834, an agent (Mr. D. M. Moore) had been employed for a short time in the Fifth Ward, in con nection with Mr. A. R. Wetmore. In November, 1834, the plan of employing missionaries throughout the respective wards was adopted, and in March, 1835, twelve missionaries were employed, whose number in December of the same year had been increased to Jourteen. Since 1850 this society has greatly enlarged its operations and become one of the great evangelizing institutions of New York city. 3. Foreign Missionary Societies. The missionary idea is as old as Christianity. Tn this country long before Mills, Hall, Judson and Newell had offered themselves for the work of Christian missions, from 1643 to 1808, the churches had put forth earnest and successful efforts for the conversion ofthe native Indian tribes ; and the Mayhews, Eliot, Sargent, Brainerd and Wheelock had toiled in these self-sacrificing labors. But soon after the opening of the present century it became obvious that the missionary spirit was rising and extending, and that new channels must be opened for the diffusion of the Gospel ; yet no leader ap peared. The Massachusetts Missionary Society had been organized in 1799. In 1804 its constitution was amended so as to allow a FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 411 Avider scope of effort among the Indians and also in the distant parts of the earth. In the annual sermons, preached about this time, before this Society and before the General Assembly of the Presby terian Church there was a very general outcropping of the mission ary spirit. The same thing appeared in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, established in 1800; in the Massachusetts Missionary Magazine, established in 1803; in the Massachusetts Baptist Mission ary Magazine, first published in the same year ; and in the General Assembly's Missionary Magazine, or Christian Intelligencer, which commenced in 1805. It was also diffused among the churches, and from 1806 to 1 8 10 individual donations, amounting to $6,000 in some years, had been made to the mission at Serampore. Such were the indications. The American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions. " In 1806 Samuel J. Mills became a member of Williams College. While a child he had heard his mother say, ' I have consecrated this child to the service of God as a misssonary,' and from the time of his con version, in 1802, he had ardently desired to engage in the mission ary work. In college, while laboring faithfully to promote true piety among the students, he kept this work constantly in mind. In 1807 he invited Gordon Hall and James Richards to a walk, and led them to a retired spot in a meadow, where they spent all day in fasting and prayer, and in conversing on the duty of missions to the heathen. He was surprised and gratified to learn that the subject was not new to these brethren, but that their hearts were already set upon engaging in such a work. September 7, 1808, a society was privately formed at Williams College by these and a few other pious students, the object of which, the constitution says, ' shall be to effect, in the persons of its members, a mission or missions to the heathen.' The 5th article provided that ' no person shall be admit ted who is under an engagement of any kind which shall be incom patible with going on a mission to the heathen ; ' and the 6th article was, ' Each member shall keep absolutely free from every engagement which, after his prayerful attention, and after consul tation with the brethren, shall be deemed incompatible with the objects of this Society, and shall hold himself in readiness to go on a mission when and where duty may call.' "In the autumn of 1809 Richards became a member of the Theological Seminary at Andover, and ' labored with diligence and success in promoting a spirit of missions among the students.' Mills followed him to Andover in the spring of 1810, and Hall soon joined 412 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. them. At least one other young man was there also, whose thoughts had been independently directed to the same great subject — Samuel Nott, Jr. ' There seemed now to be,' says one who was there, ' a movement of the Spirit, turning the attention and the hearts of the students in the seminary to the condition of the perish ing heathen.' Several had already come, or soon came, to the reso lution of spending their lives in pagan lands, among whom were Adoniram Judson, and Samuel Newell. The faculty of the sem inary were consulted, and approved the design, and on the 25th of June, 1 8 10, according to previous arrangement, Rev. Dr. Spring, of Newburyport, and Rev. Samuel Worcester, of Salem, met with the professors and a few others for further consultation. It was thought that the time for action had come, and the young men were advised to present their case to the General Association of Massa chusetts, which was about to meet at Bradford. The next day Rev. Messrs. Spring and Worcester rode together in a chaise to Bradford, and, during that ride, between those two men 'the first idea ofthe American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was sug gested ; and the form, the number of members, and the name were proposed.' On Thursday, June 28, Messrs. Judson, Nott, Newell, and Hall, came before the Association and presented a written paper in which they stated ' that their minds had been long impressed with the duty and importance of personally attempting a mission to the heathen ; ' and they solicited the opinion and advice of the Association as to their duty and as to the source to which they might look for support in their contemplated work. The subject was referred to a committee, who reported the next day, recommending ' that there be instituted by this Association a Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, for the purpose of devising ways and means and adopting and prosecuting measures for pro moting the spread of the Gospel in heathen lands.' The report was adopted, and the following persons were chosen to constitute, in the first instance, that Board : His excellency John Treadwell, Esq., Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D. , General Jedediah Huntington, and Rev. Calvin Chapin, of Connecticut ; Rev. Joseph Lyman, D.D., Rev. Samuel Spring, D.D., William Bartlett, Esq., Rev. Samuel Worces ter, and Deacon Samuel H. Walley, of Massachusetts. " The commissioners had their first meeting at Farmington, Connecticut, on the 5th of the following September, five only being present. A constitution was adopted and officers were chosen. The Prudential Committee appointed consisted of William Bartlett, Esq., and Rev. Messrs. Spring and Worcester. Mr. Worcester was THE AMERICAN BOARD. 41 S chosen Corresponding Secretary, and an address to the Christian public was prepared, accompanied by a form of subscription." * Mr. Judson was sent to England to confer with the London Missionary Society and ascertain whether the young men who desired to be sent abroad could be supported, for a time, wholly or in part by that Society. They declined to do it, and expressed a hope that the American churches when appealed to would send out not four but forty foreign missionaries. On the 18th of September, 1811, the Board at its meeting in Worcester resolved to found their first mission in India, and on the 19th of February, 1812, Judson, Newell, and their wives, set sail from Salem, Massachusetts, and on the following day Hall, Nott and Rice, from Philadelphia. Up to this time the Treasurer of the Board had received $6,000. During the following summer the Board was duly incorporated by an act of the Legislature of Massachusetts. After a few years two other denominations, the Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches, united with this Board in its foreign missionary work. The Old School Presbyterians withdrew in 1837, and the Dutch Re formed Church in 1857. The New School Presbyterians continued until 1870. Such was the origin of the first foreign missionary board in the United States, whose subsequent history has been a record of most honorable and successful enterprise for the advancement of Christ's kingdom. In 1829 the American Board numbered 68 elected mem bers, 446 honorary members, and the receipts were $106,928 26. During the first nine years (1811-1819) the average annual income was $18,103 29. From 1819 to 1829 the average receipts were $64,- 424 70, and the total receipts from 181 1 to 1829, inclusive, were $826,176 67. The American Baptist Missionary Union was organized May 18, 1 8 14. This Society entered at once upon the work of propa gating the Gospel among the heathen, and its first missionaries were Revs. Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice. Rev. Messrs. Judson and Rice were two of the first missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M., and became Baptists on their way to India. Mr. Judson was sup ported by the English Baptist Mission, while Mr. Rice returned to America to attempt the organization of a Board of Missions among the Baptists. The intelligence of the change of opinions in Judson and Rice reached this country in February, 18 13. The effect was electrical, and a missionary society was organized in * Newcomb's Cyclopedia of Missions, 1S54. Pp. 107-8. 414 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Boston soon after, and in May, 1814, the General Missionary Con vention of the Baptists was organized in Philadelphia. At first it met triennially, and its Board of Managers annually. During the first year of its existence this Society received $13,476 10, and up to 1830 its total receipts were $124,251 57. The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was or ganized in 1819, but its work was exclusively domestic until after 1832. The Episcopal Board of Missions was organized in 1820. It was partly domestic and partly foreign. From 1820 to 1835 $50,683 had been received by this Society for foreign missions. The Presbyterian Board of Missions was, not organized until 1837. Previous to that time some foreign mission work had been done by the " Western Foreign Missionary Society," formed by the Synod of Pittsburg, and also in connection with the A. B. C. F. M. But from 181 7, when the United Foreign Missionary Society was formed, it had carried on extensive missions among the Indians of our country. The Foreign Missionary Society of the Lutheran Church was organized in 1837, and the Home Missionary Society in 1845. The Free- Will Baptist Missionary Society was organized in 1833. The Seventh-Day Baptist Missionary Society was organized in 1842. The American Indian Missionary Association was formed in 1842; the Baptist Free Missionary Society in 1843, the Board of Foreign Missions of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, and the Do mestic and Indian Mission Board in 1846. The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church was constituted in 1837. The Board of Foreign Missions of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church was organized in 1844. In 1832 the Reformed (late Dutch) Church organized boards of domestic and foreign missions. In 1845 the Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was organized. All the early missionary societies devoted considerable attention to the Indian tribes within our borders. In 1830 their work was distributed as follows : Societies. Stations. Missionaries.. Moravians „ 6 20 Episcopalians ! i Cumberland Presbyterians I I Baptist Board j 15 Methodist Episcopal Church 12 48 A. B. C. F. Missions „ 29 23 Total.... 56 108 The number of Indian communicants was 7,142. MISSIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IN 1830. 415 Missions Throughout the World in 1830. Missions 122 Principal Mission Stations 502 Ordained Missionaries 656 Assistants from Europe and America 776 Communicants 70, 289 Scholars in Day Schools 80,656 Home Missionaries in Christian Lands 2,000 4. — Societies for the Benefit of Seamen. Soon after the war of 1812 individuals began to inquire what could be done for the evangelization of seamen. In 1816 a society was organized in New York city for promoting the Gospel among seafaring men who visited that port, and in 18 19 a church was erected for their accommodation. Other cities soon followed this example. In October, 1819, in Philadelphia, Rev. Joseph Eastburn com menced to hold religious meetings for the benefit of seamen ; a house of worship was built in 1824, and a church was organized in 1830. In 1823 the first efforts were put forth in Baltimore, a house was erected in 1825, and a society was formed the same year. In 1819 Christian men in Boston began to bestow labor upon seamen • the Seamen's Friend Society was organized in January, 1828, and a meeting-house was soon after erected. In 1823 similar operations were commenced in Portland, Me. The American Seamen's Friend Society was organized in New York city in 1826, by men who had had a large experience in labors in behalf of sailors. During the first two years not much was accomplished. In 1828 Rev. Joshua Leavitt, of Stratford, Conn.v was appointed its permanent agent, and entered upon his labors with that extraordinary efficiency for which he was ever noted in his long and useful life. In 1828 he started the Sailors Magazine, a monthly periodical of thirty-two pages. This Society soon became a recipient of aid, not only from the inhabitants on the sea-coast, but also from those residing in the interior. It provided sailors with religious instruction while in port, and also established board ing-houses, where they might be kept from intoxicating liquors and from squandering their money. They were encouraged to deposit their earnings in savings banks and to respect themselves. Chapels and boarding-houses were opened for sailors in all the prominent commercial cities on the Atlantic coast, and also in Havre, Canton, Honolulu, and Sidney. Registration offices were also opened, by means of which worthy seamen might avail themselves of the advantages of a good character. In 1829 there were ten places of 416 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. worship for sailors in the United States, and missionaries were early sent for the benefit of seamen into all the leading seaports ofthe world. For more than forty years Rev. Edward T. Taylor, a man of remarkable genius and power, ministered to the seamen in the Mariners' Bethel, in Boston. He was characterized by Charles Dickens as a " cataract of eloquence," and was one of Boston's celebrities. 5.— The American Jews' Society. This Society was formed in New York in 1820, for the purpose of establishing a colony or an asylum in this country to which Jews who had embraced Christianity might resort, and thus avoid the persecution and oppression to which they were subject in some parts of the world. A farm was purchased by the Society at New Paltz, on the west side of the Hudson River, comprising five hundred acres. The plan did not prove successful. The farm was subsequently sold and the money put to interest, but the Society has continued until this time, and has performed a good work in leading many Jews to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Saviour of men. Section £.— Religious Publication Agencies. 1. — The Tract Societies. One of the new features of the great onward movement in the American churches was the seizing of the power of the press and subsidizing it for Christ. It had its origin in England, springing out of the great Wesleyan revival, and organizing in two distinct forms — Tract and Bible Societies. In tracing these new measures to their source many persons have looked no further than to the Religious Tract Society, organ ized in London, in 1799, and the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1804. In a general sense they are the fruits of the invention of printing. But both of these had their immediate inception from Rev. John Wesley's efforts to elevate the masses, whom he and his efficient co-laborers were leading to Christ, into a higher intellectual and Christian life. As early as 1749 Mr. Wesley published religious books and " Tracts," and all of his preachers, besides many other excellent persons, both male and female, became " colporteurs." * * See Life of Wesley. By Rev. Richard Watson. Chap. 8. History of Methodism. By Rev. Abel Stevens,. LL.D, Vol. I., p. 326. Some of his early "Tracts" were entitled, "A Word to a Swearer,'' "A Word to a Sabbath Breaker," etc., etc. TRACT SOCIETIES. 417 In 1782 Wesley and Coke organized a " Society for the Distribution of Religious Tracts among the Poor." Its "plan" was sent out in a printed sheet, * and comprehended the essential features of the tract societies since organized. In 1779, a quarter of a century before the organization of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a " Naval and Military Bible Society" was organized by the Wesleyan Methodists, " which afterward obtained high patronage." \ Rev. Dr. Dobbin, of Dublin University, himself a Churchman, alluding to the origin of these early societies, has said : Never was there such a scene before in the British Islands ; there were no Bible, tract, or missionary societies to employ the Church's powers and indicate its path of duty ; but Wesley started them all ; the Church and the world were alike asleep ; he sounded the trumpet and awoke the Church to work. \ Religious tracts were also issued in 1780, in London, by Dr. John Stamford; in 1781 by Rev. George Burder, and in 1792 by Hannah More. The Religious Tract and Book Society was formed in Scot land in 1794. But there was another cause which indirectly stimulated to these great movements in Great Britain — the work ofthe French infidels. The splendid talents of Voltaire were devoted to writing small tracts against Christianity, and a society was organized in France for their dissemination. Three million francs were raised for their distri bution. Whole editions of these publications were sent to America and other countries. The efforts of the French skeptics had an influence in awakening the zeal ofthe British Christians "to foil the enemy in his own weapons." But the immediate impulse to this work in the United States was the great revival movement inau gurated in 1800, awakening the spirit of religious activity in the churches and leading to a union of the power of the press with the living voice. The first efforts in the United States were of an individual and local character. Rev. Alexander Proudfit, D.D., of Salem, N. Y. ; Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., of Charlestown, Mass. ; Rev. D. Tappan, DD., of Harvard, Mass., and others, led in this movement, issuing tracts as early as 1802. Dr. Morse published not less than thirty thousand, which were chiefly circulated in Maine, Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1803 the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was formed by Rev. Drs. Morse, Tappan, and * See the November number < >f the Arminian Magazine, 1784. History of Methodism. By Rev. Abel Stevens, LL.D, Vol. II, pp. 492, 493. ^Seefackson's Centenary of Methodism. Chap. 6. X See Kitto'1 s Journal of Sacred Literature. London, 1849. 27 418 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Holmes, at the suggestion of Lieutenant-Governor Phillips, of Massa chusetts. This was the first tract society organized in America, and within twelve years it printed 8,224 volumes and more than thirty thousand tracts. In 1807 the " Connecticut Religious Tract Society" was formed at New Haven, by Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., Jeremiah Evarts, and others, publishing in a brief time a series of twenty-six tracts, of which one hundred thousand copies were cir culated. In 1808 the "Vermont Religious Tract Society" was organized at Middlebury. In 1810 the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society was established in New York city through the agency of Bishop Hobart. Then followed in rapid succession, in i8u,the Evangelical Tract Society in Boston and the Religious Tract Society at Albany; in 18 12 the " New York Religious " in New York city; in 1815 the " Religious," at Philadelphia, subsequently absorbed into the American Sunday School Union; in 1816, the "Religious," at Baltimore, and the " Hartford Evangelical ; " in 18 17 the New York Methodist, the " Protestant Episcopal Female," at Baltimore," and the "Newark Religious," of New Jersey; in 1819 the "Western Navigation Bible and Tract Society; and in 1824, the "Baptist General," at Washington, and the " New York State," at Albany. In 1814 the "New England Religious Tract Society," afterward known as the American Tract Society (Boston), was formed for the purpose of combining and directing the tract cause in New En gland. Revs. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., and Justin Edwards, of An dover, were its prime movers. It became incorporated in 1816, and assumed the name of the American Tract Society in 1823. Andover, Mass., was the center of its publishing operations in its earlier history. Toward the close of 1824 the Religious Tract Society of New York and the American Tract Society of Boston initiated measures for the formation of a National Society, in which the local societies of the country should be united as anxiliaries. Delegates from the principal societies were invited, and a convention was held May 10, 1825, in the "Session Room" of the "Brick Church," corner of Ann and Nassau Streets, New York city, Rev. James Milnor, D.D., Chairman, and Rev. Howard Malcom, Secretary. A constitution was adopted, and on the following day the Society was organized, Hon. S. V. S. Wilder, Esq , President, and Rev. Wm. A. Hallock, D.D., Secretary. The New England Society became a branch of the new Society, taking the stereotyped plates and publications at cost. This union continued until 1859, when the New England Society withdrew on account of the unwillingness of the New York BIBLE SOCIETIES. 419 Society to publish productions against slavery, and the Boston Society resumed an independent existence. In 1824 the Baptist General Tract Society was organized in Phila delphia, maintaining an independent existence. In 1829 it had 136 auxiliaries, besides three branch societies at Rochester and Utica, N. Y., and in Charleston, S. C, and a series of sixty-two tracts had been published. The number of tracts issued, from 1824 to 1829, was 1,188,250, amounting to 13,263,000 pages. 2. — Bible Societies. The scarcity of Bibles during the Revolution and the action of Congress in providing for a supply have been referred to, and also the action of Robert Aiken, of Philadelphia, who printed the first edition of Bibles ever published in this country. Thus it has been well said, " The first Congress assumed the right and performed the duty of a Bible society long before such an institution had an exist ence in the world." In 1804 one ofthe most glorious achievements of modern Christianity dates its occurrence— the organization ofthe British and Foreign Bible Society — of which Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring said, " England has no brighter jewel in her crown." The Jubilee Volume* of the American Bible Society says : The Bible-diffusion spirit was developed early in this century in this country, and with great rapidity atter the British movement. The first organization was that in Philadelphia, in 1808 ; the second, that of the Connecticut State Society in May, 1809; the third, that of the Massachusetts Society in July, 1809; the fourth, that of the New Jersey Society late in the same year; and the fifth, that of the New York (City) Society in 1810. At the commencement of 1816 there were one hundred and thirty-two societies in our country, each independent in its work and entirely local, classified thus : In Georgia 1 Ohio 7 Kentucky 3, Tennessee 1 Louisiana 1 Mississippi 1 Indiana 12 In New Hampshire. ... 2 Massachusetts 9 Rhode Island 2 Connecticut 2 Vermont 12 New York 35 New Jersey 7 In Pennsylvania 15 Delaware 1 Maryland 5 Dist. Columbia I Virginia 12 North Carolina 1 South Carolina 2 Besides these there were numerous Bible associations. The supply of the destitution within their own range was all that these societies aimed at, and this was very imperfectly met. It is matter of history that the Christian heart of our own country was first effectively moved in behalf of the mul titudes perishing in the newly and sparsely settled West and South-west, through the agency of one of the devoted band of young men who, in the shadow of the * Issued in 1867. 420 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. haystack in the meadow near Williams College, planned the foreign missionary movement (and gave themselves to it), whose results have been most blessed. Samuel J. Mills, whom we refer to, having completed his theological studies at the Andover Seminary in 1812, was moved, in his large benevolence, at once to under take a tour of investigation into the spiritual condition ofthe western and southern parts of the land. He made two tours— the first in 1812 and 1813, in company with the Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, a minister of the Reformed Dutch Church ; the second in i8i4and 181 5. in company with Rev. Daniel Smith, of the Congrega tional Church. Correspondence and addresses in large cities followed. Appeals were made to the public in the Panoplist, * calling for the co-oper ation of the Christian people in the work of Bible supply. The practicability of such a union was illustrated early in 1816, by the organization of two Sunday-school unions in New York city. In response to a call issued by Hon. Elias Boudinot, at the advice of leading Christian gentlemen, on the 8th of May, 18 16, an assemblage of sixty clergymen and laymen gathered in the lecture-room of the Collegiate Dutch Church in Garden Street, New York city. They represented twenty-eight Bible societies, and the Congregational, Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, and Reformed Dutch churches and the Society of Friends. They were men of highest character and wide influence. The occasion was momentous, the scene most solemn, the interchange was free and fraternal. The Jubilee Volume says : Differences there were, as was to be expected in so novel a movement; but they were happily adjusted, and the result was the adoption of the Constitution prepared by their own committee by a unanimous vote, and the full organization by the choice of a Board of Managers, and subsequently of the officers according to the Constitution, at the head of whom was placed the venerable man whose call had convened them, and who regarded the whole action as the most blessed event of his long life. . . All Bible-loving hearts throughout the country were looking anxiously for the final action, and when it came there ascended the sweet incense of praise from many an altar, and soon there followed large accessions of auxiliaries from all quarters of our land. Thus the period from the 8th to the nth of May inclusive, 1816, has become memorable in the annals of the Church of Christ and of the world, as opening an era for good whose range only the revela tions ofthe last day can fully exhibit. In 1829 the Society undertook to supply every destitute family in the United States with a copy ofthe word of God. In 1832 it was announced that the work was nearly completed. Several times since this work has been repeated. f The American and Foreign Bible Society X was formed by the * A religious monthly publishe 1 at Andover, Mass. t See also Period III. , Chap. VII, Sec. 3, X See Christian Retrospect and Register. By Robert Baird, D.D. New York. M. W- Dodd. Pp. 240-2. PUBLICATION HOUSES. 421 secession of members of the Baptist denomination from the Amer ican Bible Society in 1836, because the Board declined to render aid in printing the Bengalee Scriptures translated on the principle adopted by the American Baptist missionaries in Burmah, involving the Baptist translation of the word baptizo. The seceding parties organized the American and Foreign Bible Society May 12, 1836. Its efforts were expended chiefly in foreign fields, in the missions of the Baptist denomination. In 1850 its receipts amounted to $41,625. In 1849 a controversy arose in this Society, occasioned by its refusal to publish a new translation of the Bible in the English language, giving renderings in accordance with Baptist ideas of immersion, which resulted in the formation of the American Bible Union, June 10, 1850, under the presidency of Rev. Dr. Cone, who had been president of the older Society. 3. — Denominational Publication Houses. The Methodist Book Concern was the first of this class. From the year 1773 different individuals had taken a deep interest in the publication of Methodist books and tracts. Robert Williams has the credit of being the leader in this movement, publishing Rev. John Wesley's books and sermons, many of them in small pamphlets, which were widely distributed. After the full organization of the Church, in 1784, a new impulse was given to this work. It was enacted that the publication of books should be done under the supervision of the Conference, and that the profits of the sales should be devoted " to the college, the preachers' fund, the deficien cies of preachers, distant missions, and debts on the churches." In 1788 John Dickins was appointed to Philadelphia, and was officially designated as " Book Steward." He was the first editor and pub lisher, beginning his work with a capital of $600, which he loaned to the Church. The first entry in the books of the institution is in his handwriting, dated August 17, 1789. This may be regarded as the beginning of that great publishing house, the Methodist Book Concern. The first book that was issued was a Kempis's Imitation of Christ. Mr. Dickins died in 1798, and was succeeded by Rev. Ezekiel Cooper in 1799, under whose administration during six years the business was more fully organized and extended, and " the cap ital stock rose from almost nothing to $45,000."* In 1804 the "Concern" was moved to New York city. Previous to 1822 its publication work was carried on by contract, but during that year it * Stevens's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Vol. Ill, p. 132. 422 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. established a bindery, and in 1824 added printing-presses and also secured premises of its own. It was located in Crosby Street until 1833, when it removed to 200 Mulberry Street, where, in the great fire of 1836, it was burned. It was immediately rebuilt and greatly enlarged its work. Soon after the Western Methodist Book Concern was established in Cincinnati, Ohio. * The Baptist Publication Society. — In the first quarter of the present century most of the older Baptist State Missionary conven tions or associations were organized. The first local Baptist Pub lication Society was formed in New England in 181 1, under the name ofthe Evangelical Tract Society. It was "not, however, strongly denominational, never became vigorous, and long since ceased to exist except in name. The necessity of some means for the pub lication of Baptist tracts was very generally felt in different sections of the country. Mr. John S. Meehan and the students for the ministry under the care of Dr. Stoughton, in Philadelphia, as early as 1820 discussed the question of organizing a society for this pur pose. But Mr. Meehan's sudden removal to Washington, D. C, pre vented the consummation of their plan. Rev. Samuel Cornelius, oi Virginia, and others seriously contemplated a movement in this direction. But it was reserved in the providence of God for Rev. Noah Davis, a young minister ordained at Salisbury, Maryland, December 21, 1823, to take the first effectual steps toward the organ ization of a tract society. Very soon after his ordination he wrote a letter on the subject to Mr. J. D. Knowles, his former class-mate, a student at Columbian College, Washington, D. C, and the editor ofthe Columbian Star." This letter was the occasion of much con versation, and led to a meeting on the 25th of February, 1824, at the house of Mr. George Wood, in Washington, for the purpose of organization, which was accomplished. It was originated " as a national society, a center around which the Baptists of every section of the country might rally, a fountain from which should go out streams of blessing to every corner of the land. Its support, how ever, for the first few years came almost exclusively from southern Baptists." Of the $1,010 33 received the first two years, all but $133 73 came from the Southern States. " About six weeks after the Society's organization a few tracts were printed, and the first Depository was opened April 2, 1824, in the office of the Columbian Star, Washington, D. C. At first it was under the care of Mr. John S. Meehan, afterward in charge of * See also Chap. VII, Sec 3, the last periud in this volume. PUBLICATION SOCIETIES. 423 Mr. Baron Stow, then a student in Columbian College. On Novem ber 14, 1826, a special meeting of the Society was held in Washing ton city, at which it was resolved to transfer the head-quarters ofthe Society to Philadelphia. This was done that better facilities for shipping to southern cities and elsewhere might be secured. A committee of brethren residing in Philadelphia was appointed to act in behalf of the Board, and on the 25th of December of the same year that committee convened at the house of Dr. J. L. Dagg. The first meeting of the Society in that city was held January 3, 1827, Dr. J. L. Dagg acting as chairman and Dr. Howard Malcom as secretary." * The Evangelical Knowledge Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church was formed in 1847. Bishop Meade,-)- of Virginia, has left the following record of its origin : " When tractarian publications began to multiply in our own mother Church the character of the issue of this Society became more and more tinctured with the false doctrines of that school. Complaints became so numerous and heavy that in the summer of 1846, when a number of bishops were in New York at the annual meeting of the General Missionary Society, the Exec utive Committee of the Union was convened and the complaints stated. An order was then passed that a set of all the books ofthe Society should be sent to each bishop for examination Seeing that there was no promise or hope of amendment, a number of those who believed that better books and tracts might be pro cured determined to form another voluntary society, in which those who agreed in sentiment might with more harmony and efficiency benefit the Church by the press, and resist that torrent of evil which was pouring itself over our own and mother Church. Wherefore, a number of bishops, clergy and laity, who met together at the Con vention of 1847 in New York, united in forming what is called the Evangelical Knowledge Society." The Congregational Publishing Society came into existence through a tortuous course. The Congregationalists, the Baptists, the Episcopalians, and the Methodists co-operated in the organ ization ofthe Massachusetts Sabbath-School Union, May 24, 1825, auxiliary to the American Sunday-School Union, organized in Phil adelphia the previous year. The Episcopalians and the Methodists soon withdrew from the Massachusetts Society, but the Baptists and * For a fuller sketch of the early history of this Society see the Fiftieth Annual Report (1874), pp. 7-12, from which the above account has been abbreviated. For later information see sectic m on Publicati< >n Houses in the last period in this volume. t Old Churches and Families of Virginia. 424 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the Congregationalists continued to work together until 1832. On the 30th of May of that year they made an amicable separation, and the Society was dissolved. The next day the Congregationalists formed the Massachusetts Sabbath-School Society, which, for a time at least, co-operated with the American Sunday-School Union. The Amer ican Doctrinal Tract Society was oiganized in 1829. Its name was changed in 1850 to The Doctrinal Tract and Book Society, and further changed in 1854 to The Congregational Board of Publication. This Society united with the Massachusetts Sabbath-School Society in 1868, under the name of the Congregational Sabbath-School and Publishing Society, and the present name, The Congregational Publishing Society, was assumed in 1870/" The Old School Presbyterian Board of Publication was organized in 1840, although considerable had been done in the publication of book's and tracts during the eight years previous, under the direction of a committee annually appointed by the General As sembly. The New School Board of Publication was organized about 1840. The Southern Methodist Book Concern at Nashville had its origin soon after the great division in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844- 1 4. — Religious Periodicals in the United States were first published during this period. The earliest were monthly journals — the Connecticut Evangelical Maga zine, a valuable religious periodical, commenced in 1800, at Hartford, and continued ten years ; the Massachusetts Missionary Magazine, in Boston, in 1803 ; the Panoplist '; in Boston, in 1805, was joined with the former in 1808, and the name changed to the Missionary Herald in 1822, under which title it has continued to the present time ; the Christian Disciple, a Unitarian monthly, originated in Boston, in 1813, changed to the Christian Examiner (a quarterly) in 1825, and continued about forty-five years ; the Christian Spectator, first pub lished in 1819, and after twenty years merged into the American Biblical Repository, at New York ; and the Methodist Magazine, at New York city, in 181 8, subsequently changed to the Methodist Quarterly. These were some of the valuable periodicals which came into existence during this fruitful period, and shared in the great work of molding the public mind. It is believed that the * Congregational Quarterly, October, 1876. Pp. 546. t All the aforementioned societies are further presented in Period III, Chap. VII. RELIGIOUS PERIODICALS. 425 whole number of this class of religious publications in the United States in 1830 was not far from fifty. For a list of the religious magazines published in the United States in 1828, see American Quarterly Register, 1828, p. 132. Religious newspapers soon followed the first religious magazines. As nearly as can be ascertained there were in the United States in 1800 about 200 newspapers. In iSiothey had increased to 359, and in 1830 to 1,000. But no religious newspaper was published in Amer ica, and probably in the world, until January 3, 18 16, when the Boston Recorder, a Congregational (orthodox) paper, was first issued, superintended and published by Nathaniel Willis. Mr. Sidney E. Morse edited the paper for one or two years and, in 1849, claimed to be the originator of this class of publications. In 1849 it was joined with the New England Puritan, a paper commenced in Lynn, in 1840, under the editorial care of Rev. Parsons Cooke, D.D., and was thenceforth called the Puritan Recorder. It should be men tioned that the Religious Remembrancer, commenced in Philadelphia, in 1810, and several others elsewhere were published weekly and devoted to religious intelligence, but in form * and matter they were more like monthly periodicals of a later day. The following religious newspapers come next in order: The Religious Intelligencer, at New Haven, in 1816; The Watchman (Bap tist), at Boston, in 1819 ; the Christian Mirror, at Portland, Me., in 1822; Zions Herald (Methodist), at Boston, January 9, 1823; the New York Observer, May 17, 1823; the Tract Magazine, Boston, 1824; the Wesleyan Journal, at Charleston, S. C, September 30, 1825 ; the Christian Advocate, New York city, September 9, 1826; the Morning Star (Free- Will Baptist), Dover, N. IL, 1826; The Reformed Church Messenger, Philadelphia, 1827; the Youth's Companion, Boston, 1827; the Presbyterian, Philadelphia, 1827; the Christian Intelligencer (Dutch Reformed), New York, 1829, and the New York Evangelist, in 1829. These are some of the leading religious newspapers started between 1800 and 1830. This class of publications soon became very popular, and in 1830 nearly every denomination had one or more of these papers devoted to its interests. In 1832 there were said to be eighteen of these religious papers west of the Allegha nies, and probably there were not less than fifty in the whole country, besides the fifty magazines published monthly or quarterly in the quarto or octavo form. Thus did the Christian churches contribute to the advancing intelligence of that rapidly-expanding period. * They were in octavo and quarto form. 42 6 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. i Section 3— Religions Educational Agencies. i.— Sunday-schools and Sunday-school Societies. Prior to the existence of the modern Sunday-school the instruc tion of the young in religious knowledge had been by no means overlooked, and in the minds of some eminent Christians and divines it had assumed considerable prominence. As early as 1680 the children of the Plymouth Church had received religious instruc tion on Sundays, during the intermission, from the pastor and deacons. The same custom prevailed for a time in Rev. Dr. Belamy's society, in Connecticut, as early as 1740, and also at Ephratah, Pa., between 1750 and 1760. In these examples the germinal idea of the modern Sunday-school must be recognized. After Mr. Raikes had founded his Sunday-schools for gratuitous secular instruction with paid teachers, Rev. John Wesley conceived the idea of Sunday-schools for gratuitous religious instruction by unpaid teachers, and introduced them into his societies. Acting upon this suggestion, Rev. Francis Asbury, the first Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, organized the first Sunday- school in the United States, in the year 1786, in the house of Mr. Thomas Crenshaw, in Hanover County, Va. " In 1787 George Daughaday, a Methodist preacher in Charleston, S. C, was drenched with water pumped from a public cistern ' for the crime of conduct ing a Sunday-school for the benefit of the African children in that vicinity.' "* In the year 1790 the Methodist Conference passed an ordinance establishing the institution of Sunday-schools. " Let us," say the Minutes of that year, " labor as the heart and soul of one man to establish Sunday-schools in or near the place of wor ship." "The Council shall compile a proper school-book to teach them learning and piety." f This is believed to have been the first official recognition of Sunday-schools by an American church. In 1790 Bishop White is said to have established a Sunday-school in Philadelphia, and in December, 1790, the "First Day" or Sun day-school Society was organized in that city, among whose found ers were Bishop White, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Robert Ralston, Paul Beck, Jr., William Rawle, Thomas B. Cope, Matthew Carey, etc. It was composed of persons of different denominations and derived its support from voluntary contributions. Other similar institutions * Dr. John McClintock in the Methodist Quarterly Review, 1857, pp. 516, etc. t See Early History of the Methodists. By Rev. Jesse Lee. Baltimore. 1810. Pp. 162-3. Als0 History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. By Rev. Abel Stevens, D.D., LL.D. Vol. II, pp. SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNIONS. 427 rapidly followed. In 1797 Mr. Samuel Slater established a Sunday- school for his operatives in Pawtucket, R. I. It is also said that a poor colored woman in New York city established the first Sunday- school in that locality in 1793, which was held in her own humble dwelling. In the years 1801 and 1804 three Sunday-schools were formed in the city of New York by Mrs. Isabella. Graham. In 1806 Rev. S. Wilmer commenced a Sunday-school in Kent, Md., and in 1808 the same person opened a similar school in Swedesborough, N. J. In 1809 a Sunday-school society was organized in Pittsburg, Pa., by which a school was opened in September of that year, con taining two hundred and forty scholars. In 181 1 Rev. Robert May, a missionary from London, was active in organizing Sunday-schools in Philadelphia. In 1813 a Sunday-school was established in Albany, N. Y. ; and in 18 14 in Wilmington, Del. From this time they rapidly multiplied in every direction. Sunday-school societies next began to be organized. The New York Sunday-school Union was formed February 26, 1816. In 1818 the " Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union " was founded, and continued in operation seven years. About the same time similar unions for Sunday-school work were organized in Boston, Baltimore, Albany, and elsewhere, and Sunday-schools soon existed in all the larger towns and the cities. At first they continued only through the warm season of the year, and comprised learning to read and spell in their list of studies. The American Sunday-School Union was formed in May, 1824, absorbing the Philadelphia and other societies as auxiliaries, in compliance with a widely expressed wish of the friends of Sunday- schools in many States. This organization extended its work throughout the country, making charitable donations of books and other Sunday-school requisites, and collecting valuable information in regard to the religious situation in the land. In 1824 the Amer ican Sunday-School Union commenced the publication of the Sunday-School Magazine , a monthly periodical. In 1828 it began its labors in the great valley of the Mississippi, and did much to awaken an interest in the religious education of the young in the new settlements. The Massachusetts Sunday-School Union was organized in 1825, embracing chiefly the Congregational and Baptist denominations, and was an auxiliary of the American Sunday-School Union. In 1828 it employed a secretary and a general agent and became a publishing society. This union was amicably dissolved in 1832, and 428 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. two denominational societies were organized in its stead — the Mas sachusetts and the New England Sunday-school societies — the first a Congregational and the other a Baptist society. The Sunday-School Union of the Protestant Episcopal Church, says Bishop Meade, was established in the General Convention of 1826, though the printed journal contains no record of it. He fur ther says : The Episcopal Sunday-School Union was, therefore, as has been since formally and publicly admitted by itself, a voluntary institution. Several attempts were made at different general conventions to have it enrolled and recognized among the general institutions of the Church ; but they failed, the Convention being reminded that it was only a voluntary society. . . . There was, however, from the time of its formation, a general disposition to encourage the Episcopal Sunday- School Union as a voluntary society. The American Sunday-School Union and the American Tract Society were noble institutions, and furnished many excellent and suitable works for individuals, families, and Sunday-schools; but they could not supply certain books setting forth the peculiarities of the different denominations connected with the Gospel. It was therefore desirable that Episcopalians, as well as others, should have some organization for supplying such. It was distinctly understood, at the establishment of ours, in 1826, that it should assume no party character, but be conducted on liberal, comprehensive principles, setting forth only those common truths about which Episcopalians are agreed — which platform has been repeatedly declared since then. The Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church. — For many years this denomination made no provision for the gen eral organization or affiliation of its Sunday-schools. The Book Concern, however, issued some volumes suitable for their libraries, under the direction at first of Rev. John P. Durbin, D.D., who pre pared its first library-book and its first Question Book. Thus things went on until the 2d day of April, 1827, when the Methodist Sun day-School Union was formed in New York city. This organization was hailed with delight, at once received the indorsement of the Annual Conference, and of the General Conference also the follow ing year. At the first annual meeting, in 1828, it reported 251 auxiliaries, 1,025 schools, 2,048 superintendents, 10,290 teachers, and 63,240 scholars. In 1844 Rev. D. P. Kidder was appointed the first corresponding secretary, and editor of Sunday-school publica tions, holding the office until May, 1856, when he was followed by Rev. Daniel Wise, D.D. The Sunday -School Messenger, originally a magazine, started in Boston, in 1837, by Rev. D. S. King, was the first Sunday-school paper published by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Sunday-School Advocate was started in 1841. EDUCATIONAL AID SOCIETIES. 429 Summary of Sunday-Schools, 1830, In the United States. Connected w?.th The American Sunday-School Union Methodist Sunday-School Union All others (estimated) , Total 9,401 101,663 56g,202 Schools. Teachers. Scholars. 5,901 52,663 349,202 2,000 34,000 130,000 1,500 15,000 90,000 In Great Britain and Ireland Continent of Europe " " Asia , " Africa New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land and Isles of the Pacific Islands of Mauritius and Madagascar." Canada , Nova Scotia Newfoundland West Indies Buenos Ayres In Other Parts of the World. Schools. Teachers. 9,423 92,866 Scholars. 922,282 4,500 15,000 3,600 28,000 2,100 1,200 3,678 r,5°° 8,000 100 Total 989,960 Total Sunday-school scholars in the whole world in 1828-9,* Ii559,I°2. 2. — Educational Aid Societies. Another secondary effect of the great revival of 1800 was the development of educational societies for the aid of indigent young men in preparing for the Christian ministry. First, we have noticed the impulse to Christian activity leading to efforts to occupy new and distant fields, and the formation of home and foreign missionary societies and numerous local church enterprises. With these came a great demand for ministers. Simultaneously, under the impulse of the new life in the churches, numerous young men were moved to preach the Gospel. Out of these twofold demands grew up another great Christian organization whose special function was to furnish pecuniary aid to candidates for the ministry while pursuing their preliminary studies. In the first forty years after the first settlement of Massachusetts there was one liberally-educated clergyman in every 600 souls, f But in 1816, when the American Education Society commenced its * The data embraced fin the above summary has been collected partly from official sources and in part from the American Quarterly Register, 1829-30, for which they were prepared under the careful hand of Rev. B. B. Edwards, D.D. + American Quarterly Register, 1831, 1832, p. 337. 4SO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. work, it was authoritatively declared * that in nine of the south western States and Territories, containing a population of 1,078,815, there were but 116 liberally-educated ministers. In four of the Southern States, with a population of 2,197,670, there were but 126 educated ministers, or one in 17,400 inhabitants. Even in New England there were then only 803 educated ministers for a popu lation of 1,471,927 souls, or one to a little less than 2,000 inhab itants. By a liberal estimate there were not more than 2,000 educated ministers in the whole United States and Territories. Such was the condition of the field in which were to be widely laid the foundations of Christ's kingdom. The safeguards of the Republic — virtue and intelligence — demanded the higher education of those who were to act so prominent a part as the instructors of the nation. The country was rapidly filling with people, a very large part of whom were without intellectual and moral culture. Institutions of learning must be established and manned, and the churches must largely do this work. They must have well-qualified ministers, that they might identify themselves with the advancing intelligence of the age, and lead and mold the best thought. The fathers of this period, as wise master builders forecasting these things, acted from intelligent convictions of the necessities both of the present and the future, and laid broad and deep foundations for God's kingdom in true knowledge and vital piety. The custom of aiding pious young men of meager pecuniary means while pursuing their studies for the ministry was not a new one. It had been done in the older colleges. It became much more common after the founding of the theological seminaries. At the Theological Seminary in Andover, Mass., valuable pecuniary assistance had been furnished by its patrons and founders from the date of its establishment in 1807. The same was true at Princeton, N. J., Auburn, N. Y., etc. But the first society formed for this specific purpose in the United States was organized in Dorset, Vt., in 1807. In 1813 another, called the "Benevolent Education Society," was formed in the three counties of Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable, Mass. It aided young men by loaning them money without interest. Others were formed on a similar basis. The 'Baptists organized education societies in Massachusetts in 1814, in New York in 1817, in Connecticut in 1820. In 1819 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church formed a board of education, which soon became the official organ of that body. The Western * Discourse before the Society by Rev. Dr. Pearson. See Report" 1866, p. 9. ' THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY. 431 Education Society was also a very efficient body at this early period, and in common with many others was subsequently merged into the American Education Society. The organization of the latter Society was effected in 1815. It soon became, for many years, the leading body of its kind, combining in its organization and work a large number of prominent gentlemen, among whom were Revs. Eliphalet Pearson, LL.D., Jedediah Morse, D.D., Samuel Worcester, D.D., etc. Rev. Elias Cornelius was an early secretary, and Rev. B. B. Edwards his assistant. In July, 1827, the Quarterly Journal of this Society was started; it was subsequently changed to the American Quarterly Register — a most valuable periodical, to which frequent reference is made in these pages. In the first eleven years of its existence this Society received 589 different young men as beneficiaries. It received numerous auxiliary bodies in 1827, which greatly augmented its scope. In 1830 its receipts amounted to $204,011, and it aided 872 beneficiaries. Rev. I. N. Tarbox, D.D., was for many years its secretary. The first Education Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church had its origin under circumstances very similar to those which had given rise to the other societies elsewhere. " In the year 18 18 a number of clergymen, with several lay- gentlemen of character and influence, had assembled at George town, in the District of Columbia, to witness the services connected with the laying of the corner-stone of an Episcopal Church then about to be erected. v\mong the gentlemen of the laity then present there was one who had taken under his protection an indigent youth of piety, with the view of educating him for the Christian ministry, which he earnestly desired to enter. The topic of preparatory and theological education was familiar to the minds of all the churchmen of Virginia, and, the case of this young man having led to an interchange of opinion, they found that all were ready for action. Accordingly those present agreed to support the youth whose case was before them by their voluntary contributions, and scarcely was this determined on before their minds were led to the reflection that there were probably many other young men whose situation was similar to that of their newly-adopted bene ficiary. This thought gave rise to a suggestion that a society might be advantageously formed for the purpose of educating any number of pious young men desirous of entering the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The suggestion was so favorably received that the individuals present resolved to meet shortly 432 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. thereafter in the city of Washington and form a society. They did meet, and the Society was duly organized. As soon as the existence of the Society was known young men from various parts of the Union sought and received its bounty. The plan adopted in the commencement of its operations was one suited to what it was supposed would be the Society's limited sphere of action. If an applicant required preparatory education he was placed in some college most convenient to himself, and if ready to pursue his theological studies he was commonly put under the supervision of the clergyman to whose congregation he belonged. The expenses in either case were defrayed by the Society. . . . These considera tions led to measures which contributed in part to a result not dreamed of in the fondest expectation of the Society — this was the establishment of the theological school at Alexandria." This Society steadily pursued its course of usefulness and com mended itself to the affectionate interest and cordial support of its friends, both in Virginia and elsewhere. In 1835 nearly one tenth of the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States had in whole or in part been aided by this Society. One sixth of the clergy of Ohio, one eighth of those of Pennsylvania, one fifth of those of Maryland, and a large portion of those of Virginia derived aid from its funds.* In 1 83 1 the principal education societies in operation were the Baptist Education Society of New York, the Northern Baptist Education Society, the Education Society of the Protestant Epis copal Church, the Connecticut Church Scholarship Society, the Board of Education of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Education Society and the American Education Society. The Baptist Education Society Of New York, besides the appropriate duties of an education society, supplied the place of a board of trustees of Hamilton Theological Institution. It was formed in 1817. In 1820 it started the institution at Hamilton. Up to 1832 it had aided 251 students. The Northern Baptist Education Society embraced the New England States, except Connecticut, in the sphere of its operations. Rev. Ebenezer Thresher was its secretary for many years. Educational boards were organized by the Reformed Dutch Church in 1832, by the Lutherans in 1835, by the Penn sylvania Baptists in 1839. Another form of educational aid were societies for furnishing * History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D.D. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1836. Pp. 260, 26i. MISS BEECHER'S PLANS. 433 the West with accomplished and well-qualified common-school teachers.* About 1836 Miss Catherine E. Beecher established a Female Sem inary in Cincinnati, the chief object of which was to educate teachers for the West. She entertained the idea that much good might be done by locating in western towns and cities well-educated teachers. She employed herself in collecting facts and making inquiries respecting what could be done, and, in 1845, published a small volume, entitled The Duty of American Women to Their Country, which was' distributed gratuitously. This volume contained a graphic description of the low state of education at the West, and in it she expressed her belief that there were at the East a thousand females qualified and willing to go West and teach, provided their traveling expenses could be borne and a school gathered ready for them on their arrival. This volume announced that a committee was selected, to whom application might be made by persons at the West in want of good teachers, and called upon ladies in eastern cities to appoint committees to select and send out teacheis to supply the wants of those who should make application. At the same time she offered the profits arising from the sale of two volumes she had published toward defraying the traveling expenses of teachers, and called upon females to purchase the volumes and to extend the sale of them. In the beginning of 1846 the ladies in Boston organized a society for promoting education at the West. This Society was independent of Miss Beecher, though it was called into existence in consequence of her appeal. It received applications from western towns, selected teachers, and bore their expenses to their fields of labor. The Board of National Popular Education was organized at Cleveland, Ohio, in April, 1847, which was an enlargement of the committee announced by Miss Beecher at Cincinnati in 1845. The first annual meeting was held in January, 1848. Ex-Governor Slade was the general agent of the Society. This Society collected a class at Hartford. Conn., in the spring, and another in the autumn, and sent out about fifty annually. The Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Edu cation in the West has performed a great work during the forty years of its existence. The circumstances leading to its organization were as follows : \ In the month of June, 1842, a convention was held in the city of Cincinnati. composed of about one hundred delegates from the States of Ohio, Kentucky, * Seethe Half Century Tribute. By Rev. Emerson Davis, D.D. Pp. 128, 129. t Report of the Quarter Century Anniversary of the Society in 1868, pp. 39, 40. 28 434 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Ever since the disruption of the Presbyterian Church in 1837, matters had been very much afloat at the West, and the object of the Convention was to compare notes and decide upon the best methods, under the altered circumstances of the churches, to promote the interests of Christ's kingdom in the "Great Valley." It was organized by the appointment of the Rev. J. H. Linsley, D.D., of Marietta College, President, and Rev. Thornton A. Mills, then pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, as Secretary. The first four of the nine special topics proposed for consideration by the Committee of Arrange ments were the following, namely : Education for the Ministry, Home Missions, a Religious Newspaper as an Organ of the Western Churches, and Colleges. The reports on the state of religion, which occupied one whole afternoon, furnished manifold evidence of the wide-spread destitution of the West, and almost every speaker called energetically for more laborers. The condition of western colleges was also fully considered. Nothing, however, was done at this first meeting beyond the passing of preliminary resolutions. Soon after this meeting Rev. Theron Baldwin visited the East, and held interviews with the late Hon. William W. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D., Rev. Edward Beecher, D.D., and others. He also conferred with prominent educators in the West on the subject of organizing a society for the purpose of carrying out the educational ideas of the Convention at Cincinnati. The result was that the second Convention was called to meet in Cin cinnati. The Convention assembled at the house of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, on the 27th of March, 1843 — present, Rev. Drs. Beecher and Stowe, and Professor Allen, of Lane Seminary ; Professor Henry Smith and Colonel John Mills, delegates from Marietta College; Rev. J. H. Johnston, a delegate from Wabash College, and Pro fessor Sturtevant, of Illinois College. The following exhibit of the institutions in the West was reported to the Convention : Resources. Debts. Marietta College $59,000 $18,000 Wabash CoUege 30,000 15,000 Illinois College 112,000 25,000 Lane Seminary 100,000 11,000 Western Reserve College 107,000 32,000 A large part of the above property had but little value except for educational purposes. A plan of association was agreed upon, and arrangements were made for the organization of a society at New York, in connection with the May anniversaries. The Society was finally organized on the 29th of June, 1843, m tne lecture-room of Rev. Dr. Skinner's church, in New York city. The receipts for 1849 anc* 1850 amounted COLLEGES AND THE CHURCHES. 433 to $44,623 31, which was divided among six institutions. After a varying history of a quarter of a century this Society was, in 1.874, united with the American Education Society, under the name of the American College and Education Society. 3. The Colleges and the Churches. True Christianity has ever been associated with intellectual progress and culture.* It has been the active factor and promoter of the best enlightenment, a powerful quickener of thought, a leader and inspirer of all true inquiry. It is its function to lift up the masses into a higher intelligence and to share a primary part in the advancement of society. From the beginning of its career it has manifested an original instinct for education. In the earlier period the fathers, Clement, Origen, etc., diffused the elements of sound learning in church schools. The great Reformation allied itself with the universities. Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Melanchthon, Farel and Calvin turned their lecture-rooms into preaching-places, and Wittemburg, Heidelburg. the great Sor- bonne, Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, with their thou sands of students, made those countries Protestant. We have noticed that within ten years after the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock they made an appropriation out of their scanty funds for the establishment of a college. " Christo et Ecclesice " was their motto, and at every period of its progress down to our times Christianity has planted and fostered colleges as her allies. They have been the fastnesses of true religion — centers of its influ ence and power. It will be impossible within our limits to sketch a history of these educational institutions. We can give only a few tabular exhibits. At the present time, in the investigation of many questions of progress, it is desirable to find definite and reliable bases of com parison with former periods. The educational progress of the country as a whole, and the part the churches are performing in the good work, are topics which start many important inquiries and call for information not easily accessible to many. The author has therefore availed himself of the data furnished in the following tables, taken from the American Quarterly Register,\ and prepared with great care and faithfulness by Revs. Elias Cornelius, D.D., and Bela Bates Edwards, D.D., Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the American Education Society : * See pp. 229-252. t May, 1830. Pp. 238, 239. 436 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Colleges in the United States in 1830. [" Our information is derived the present year, 1830." — Ed. of Register.] Name. Waterville Bowdoin.. Dartmouth ........ V niversity of Vt. . . . Middlebury Williams Amherst Harvard University. Brown University.. Yale Un.on.. Geneva Rutgers College of N. J University of Penn. Jefferson West Univ. of Pa. .. Madison Alleghany Wm. and Mary's University of S. C. . Charleston University of Ga Greenville Univ. of Nashville. . Center Cumberland Augusta Transylvania Univ. West. Reserve Miami University.. Location. Waterville, Me Brunswick, Me Hanover, N. H Burlington, Vt Middlebury, Vt Will iamstown, Mass. Amherst, Mass Cambridge, Mass... Providence, R. I.... New Haven, Conn . . Schenectady, N. Y.. Geneva, N. Y N. Brunswick, N. J. Princeton, N. J. . .. Philadelphia, Pa.... Canonsburg, Pa.... City of Pittsburg. .. Union Town, Pa. . . Mead.Township,Pa. Williamsburg, Va. .. Columbia, S. C Charleston, S. C. . . . Athens, Ga Green Co., Tenn... Nashville, Tenn. . . . Danville, Ky Princeton, Ky Augusta, Ky Lexington, Ky Hudson, Ohio Oxford, Ohio.... . . . 182017941770:7qi1800 J79318216381764 1700 ^7951823 17701746 1755 180218201829181516931 801 17S5 1785 £7941 Sob 1822 1825 1823 17981826 1824 President or Provost. Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, D.D... Rev. William Allen, D.D Rev. Nathan Lord, D.D Rev. James Marsh, D.D Rev. Joshua Bates, D.D Rev. Edward D. Griffin. D.D.. Rev. Heman Humphrey, D.D. Hon. Josiah Quincy, LL.D . Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D... Rev. J. Day, D.D. LL.D Rev. E. Nott, D.D. LL.D Rev. R. S. Mason Rev. Philip Milledoller, D-D . . . Rev. James Carnahan, D.D Rev. W. H. De Lancey, D.D.. Rev. M. Brown, D.D Rev. R, Bruce, Principal Rev. Henry B. Bascom Rev. Timothy Alden Rev. Adam Empie Thomas Cooper, M.D Rev. Jasper Adams, D.D Rev. Alonzo Church Henry Hoss, Esq Rev. Philip Lindsley, D-D .... Rev. Gideon Blackburn, D.D... Rev. F. R. Cossitt Rev. Martin Ruter, D.D Rev. Alva Woods, D.D Rev. Robert H. Bishop, D.D . 54 373 1,609 i78 495 695 177 5,538 1,768 4.355 1,202 IS I.9J3 193 196 36 i.377 238 '.257 248 6 ii » T3 CO _56 243518 4039 102 '26 91 Additional. Name. Washington Columbia Hamilton Dickinson Washington St. Mary's Columbia University of Va. . Ham. Sidney Washington University of N. C. Kast Tennessee. . . . University of Ohio Blooinington Kenyon Hartford, Conn New York city Clinton, N. Y Carlisle, Pa Washington, Pa Baltimore, Md Washington, D. C Charlotteville, Va.. Prince Ed. Co., Va. Lexington, Va Chapel Hill, N. C. Knoxville Athens, Ohio Bloomington, Ia. . . . Kenyon, Ohio 1826 1754 1812 1783 18061805 1821 1814 18121791 1802 1828 i3?S President. 1828-91827-8 1826-7 1828-91827-r1827-!1828-91828-91827-81828-91828-9 1828-91828-9 Rt. Rev. T. C. Brownell, D.D. Hon. William A. Duer, LL D. . Rev. H. Davis, D.D Rev. Samuel B. Howe Rev. E. Damphoux. D.D Rev. Stephen Chapin, D.D. Hon. James Madison James Cushing Esq Rev. G. A. Baxter, D.D.... Rev. J. Caldwell, D.D Rev. Charles Coffin, D.D... Rev. R. G. Wilson, D.D Rev. A. Wylie, D.D Rt. Rev. P. Chase. D.D. 538 11 c By an examination ofthe preceding tables it will be seen that we have returns from thirty-one colleges for the present year (1829-30), and that for fifteen col leges we were obliged to use the returns of 1828-9, 1827-8 and 1826-7. In making out a general estimate, therefore, we shall make a small addition to most of the STATISTICS OF COLLEGES. 437 sums total in the returns made previously to this year. In so doing we shall come very near the truth ; certainly we shall not go beyond it. Colleges in the United States 46* Instructors at thirty-nine colleges 290 Whole number of alumni at thirty colleges 21,693 Alumni living at twenty-six colleges 12,784 Alumni ministers at twenty-three colleges 4.671 Total under-graduates at forty colleges 3, 582 Professors of religion at twenty-seven colleges 683 Volumes in twenty-seven college libraries 149,704 " in social libraries in thirty colleges 69,281 — Ed. American Quarterly Register. Of the foregoing forty-nine colleges only nine were State insti tutions, all the others having been founded and sustained under the direct supervision of the American churches ; namely, eight Congregational, nine Presbyterian, five Episcopal, four Baptist, • two f Methodist, two German and Dutch Reformed, four Roman Catholic, one Unitarian, and seven are supposed to have been non- denominational, though five of them were under the presidency of Christian ministers. These facts show that the American churches were the leaders in the cause of higher education. Twen ty-eight of these institutions were established between 1800 and 1830 and the remainder prior to 1800. 4. Theological Schools. We have noticed that it was formerly customary for young men in America, qualifying themselves for either of the learned profes sions, to spend some time with an individual distinguished for his professional knowledge, who directed their reading and by conver sation furnished them with such information as his time and circum stances would permit. \ But the rapidly-increasing demands for ministers in our large territory, and fast expanding population, and the inadequacy of the libraries and lectures of these single private teachers to furnish their pupils with a full and systematic view of all the topics on which it was desirable that students for the Christian ministry should have extended and thorough information, suggested the importance of systematizing the work of ministerial education, by organizing institutions for this purpose with several instructors and * There should be three other Roman Catholic coUeges, though at that time in their incipiency. t Neither of which became permanent institutions. The Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., founded in 1831, was the first permanent Methodist College. X See pp. 250-252. 438 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. a regular course of study. The transition, however, from the single divine to the full theological seminary, as now existing among us, was not at once realized. There seem to have been a few instances where an intervening link for a time existed — a theological depart ment with a single professor in collegiate -institutions. The first movement toward the establishment of a theological department in a collegiate institution was in Harvard College, where a professorship of theology was established, in 1722, by Mr. Thomas Hollis, a wealthy London merchant. A professorship of divinity was continued until 18 16, when definite measures were adopted for a more general and systematic instruction in theology, and in 1826 a building was finished at a cost of $25,000, which was called Divinity Hall. The Dutch Reformed Church took the next step in this direction. As early as 1773 it proposed to establish a professorship of theology in connection with its college at New Brunswick, N. J., and Rev. Dr. Livingston was appointed professor- by the Classis of Amsterdam. The movement, however, was inter rupted by the Revolutionary War immediately following. In 1784 the appointment of Dr. Livingston was confirmed by the Conven tion of the Dutch Church, and he began his lectures in the city of New York to young men preparing for the ministry. Rev. Drs. Dirck Romeyn and Solomon Froeligh were afterward associated with him. In 1807 the college at New Brunswick, which had been in a languishing condition, was revived, a professorship of theology was soon after established, and Dr. Livingston was appointed both professor and president. In 18 IO the theological class at New York was removed to New Brunswick, and the theological depart ment in that institution was more formally established. It 1793 Rev. John Anderson, D.D., of Beaver County, Pa., a minister of tbe Associate Presbyterian Church, began to devote special attention to the instruction of students in theology. He was the sole instruc tor, and the movement was a private affair, in eight years introducing only six men into the ministry. He continued in this way until 1818, when the theological seminary at Canonsburg was opened. From 1804, through a period of about fifteen years, Rev. John M. Mason, D.D., a distinguished Associate Reformed Presbyterian minister in New York city, gave theological instruction and became the first pro fessor in the Union Theological Seminary. But all of these begin nings prior to 1807 were only single professorships, and can hardly be designated as theological seminaries until some time afterward. The Andover Theological Seminary was established by the "Orthodox" Congregationalists, in 1807, immediately after the THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 439 election of Rev. Henry Ware, a Unitarian, to the professorship of theology in Harvard College. It was endowed by the donations of Mr. John Norris and his widow, of Salem, Mass. ; of Widow Phebe Phillips, John Phillips, and Samuel Abbott, of Andover; Moses Brum and William Bartlett, of Newburyport. Theological Seminaries in the United States in 1830.* Name. Bangor Theological Seminary. .. Academy and Theological Inst.. Theological Seminary Theological School Theological Institute Theol. Dep. in Yale College Gen. Theol. Sem. Prot. I Epis. Ch. U. S f Theological Seminary of Auburn. Hamilton Lit, and Theol. Inst... Hartwick Seminary Theol. Sem. Dutch Ref. Ch .... Theol. Sem. Pres. Ch. in U. S. . . Sem. Gen. Synod Evan. I Luth.Ch. U. S. \ German Reformed "Western Theological Seminary.. Epis. Theol. School of Virginia., Union Theological Seminary. . ,. Southern Theological Seminary. Southern and West. Theo. Sem.. Lane Seminary Rock Spring ". Hanover Location. Bangor, Me New Hampton, N. H... . Andover, Mass Cambridge, Mass Newton, Mass New Haven, Conn New York city Auburn, N. Y Hamilton, N. Y Hartwick, N.Y New Brunswick, N. J... Princeton, N. J Gettysburg, Pa York, Pa Allegheny town, Pa Fairfax County, Va Prince Edward Co., Va. Columbia, S. C Mary ville, E. Tenn Cincinnati, Ohio Rock Spring, 111 Near Madison, Ia Denomination. £ a. o ° CJ Congregational F.-W. Baptist Congregational Unitarian Baptist Congregational Protestant Episcopal . . . Presbyterian Baptist Lutheran Dutch Reformed Presbyterian Evangelical Lutheran . . German Ref, Church... Presbyterian Episcopal Presbyterian Presbyterian Presbyterian Presbyterian Baptist Presbyterian 1816i82q1K081824182518221819182118201816 18121826 1825 1824 18291821 1829 1827 1829 1,200 100 6.000 1,400 8,0003,°5°3,S5o 1,300 900 6,0006,000 Total. — Theological seminaries, 21; number educated in thirteen seminaries, 1,558; number of graduates in 1829 at thirteen seminaries, 180 ; total at thirteen seminaries, 639 ; volumes m fourteen semi nary libraries, 45,300. The Theological Seminaries founded from 1830 to 1850 were the following: By the Congregationalists, Gilmanton, N. H., in 1835, at East Windsor, Conn., 1833, at Oberlin, Ohio, 1834; by the Presbyterians, at Columbia, S. C, in 1832, in New York city, in 1836, at Cincinnati, Ohio, 1832 ; by the Baptists, at Thomaston, Me., in 1837, at Richmond, Va., in 1832, at Eaton, Ga., in 1834, at Granville, Ohio, in 1832, at Marion, Ala, unknown, at Cov ington, Ky., in 1840, at Rochester, in 1850; by the Lutherans, at Lexington, S. C, in 1835, at Columbus, Ohio, 1830; by the Associate Reformed Church, in New York city in 1836; and by the Methodists, at Concord, N. H., in 1847 — total, seventeen. The evangelical churches had 37 theological seminaries in 1850 with 1,150 students; and the Unitarians one. * See American Quarterly Register, May, 1830. P. 247. 440 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER IV. THE NEW LIFE-REFORMATORY. Sec. i. The Temperance Reform. I Sec. 3. The Sabbath Reform. " 2. The Antislavery Reform. I Section 1.— The Temperance Reform and the Churches. WHEN this century opened the evil of intemperance was near its culmination — the darkest time in respect to the use of alcoholic intoxicants in American history, and probably in all his tory. In such a period the temperance reformation had its inception (1785-1825). Had it been undertaken six centuries earlier, when the only alcoholic liquors used were beer, cider, ale, wine and metheglin, the task would have been easier. Prior to that time there were no distilled liquors, except the little employed by Mohammedan alche mists in search of a universal solvent. About the year 1260 Ray mond Lully, an eminent physician of southern Europe, conceived the idea that a spirit distilled from wine possessed life-giving prop erties, and under the name aqua vitce introduced it as a medicine. For about three hundred years brandy was thus used. In the mean time whisky, and gin also, to some extent, had been introduced into materia medica. In the last half of the sixteenth century these spirits passed into common use as beverages. West India rum came into being with the development of sugar-cane and molasses, about the middle of the seventeenth century, and about the year 1700 New England rum was first manufactured. Thus within the short period of about three centuries those most fiery, potent, and vitiating of all beverages, whisky, brandy, gin and rum, became thoroughly domesticated in all ranks of society. How much easier to have emancipated humanity from bondage to intem perance before distilled spirits were added to the milder intoxicants! In those centuries, too, the reform impulses were wanting, or were expended in other directions, and humanity was left to suffer on REFORMATORY MOVEMENTS. 441 until, by its very sufferings, it was goaded to resistance against the deadly inflictions. Midway in the period in which this giant evil was culminating (1750-1825)* the struggle for deliverance from its merciless grasp commenced. The Nineteenth Century is conspicuous as the first of all the long Christian centuries to wit ness any perceptible amelioration of the giant evil of intemperance. The great temperance reformation as we now witness it, filling so large a place among the best endeavors of the age, organized in a great variety of forms, combining in its swelling ranks multitudes of earnest, intelligent men, women, and children among all Anglo- Saxon peoples, was in the feeble stages of its incipiency when this century opened. In the previous period we traced the first links, in the connected chain of this reform, back to the publication of Dr. Benjamin Rush's celebrated essay on The Effects of Ardent Spirits Upon the Human Mind and Body, in the year 1785. Soon after its issue as a tract it appeared in several newspapers, and subsequently in tract editions in 1794, 1804, 181 1, etc., etc. Later the American Tract Society sent out repeated editions, aggregating, down to 1850, 172,000 copies. After the opening of this century there appeared sporadic move ments looking toward a reform. Almost simultaneously, and widely separated, clergymen, physicians and civilians, impressed by the reading of Dr. Rush's essay, and by the painful facts of their own observation, spoke out against intemperance, and began to confer together in reference to some kind of organization for reform. This reform has not been, either in its inception or in its later stages, a merely humanitarian movement, springing up and moving on independently of Christianity and the churches. In the begin ning it grew out of the religious life of the churches. Dr. Rush was a devout, practical Christian gentleman. The first most conspicuous efforts were put forth by clergymen ; clergymen were leading advo cates and actors in the first organizations ; the first and most com plete organizations were effected pursuant to formal action by ec clesiastical bodies and through committees appointed by them ; and, moreover, through all the struggles in the first half of this century, as well as in more recent years, the reform received its best impulse, * For a fuller account of the inception of the temperance reformation see Liquor Problem in all Ages. By Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt. New York city. 1884. Pp. 159-216. 442 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. its surest support and its chief pecuniary supplies from the Chris tian churches. In 1805 Rev. Ebenezer Porter, of Washington, Connecticut, preached a temperance sermon, the earliest now extant in a printed form. In 1808 Rev. Lyman Beecher, then in his first parish at East Hampton, Long Island, similarly moved, preached his first temper ance sermon and " blocked out " a fuller discussion of the subject, which he subsequently expanded and delivered in a series of six'ser- mons at Litchfield, Connecticut. These sermons were published in 1826, and republished in large editions and in half a score of lan guages. In 1808 the first temperance society was organized in a village on the borders of the towns of Moreau and Northumberland, Saratoga County, New York, by a clergyman, a physician, and a lawyer, and the following year another society, which became per manent, reaching even to the present day, in the town of Greenfield, in the same county. In 18 10 Rev. Heman Humphrey, then of Fairfield, Connecticut, subsequently for twenty-two years president of Amherst College, preached a series of very able sermons on intem perance. The same year Jeremiah Evarts,* Esq., a devoted Christian layman in Boston, in the Panoplist, began to direct public attention to the great evil of intemperance. The following year Rev. Nathaniel S. Prime, father of Dr. Prime, of the New York Observer, preached a pungent sermon against intemperance before the Presbytery of Long Island. All these efforts were inspired by reading Dr. Rush's essay, as could be definitely proved. At the session of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, May 16, 181 1, the report on the stateof religion deplored the alarming prevalence of intemperance in the following words : We are ashamed but constrained to say that we have heard of the sin of drunkenness prevailing — prevailing to a great degree — prevailing even among some ofthe visible members of the household of faith. What a reflection on the Chris tian character is this, that they who profess to be bought with a price, and thus redeemed from iniquity, should debase themselves, by the gratification of appetite, to a level with the beasts that perish ! At the same session, two years before his death, Dr. Rush pre sented to the General Assembly one thousand copies of his essay on the Effects of Ardent Spirits, for general distribution, accompanying * Father of Hon. William M. Evarts, of New York. TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 448 the donation with a letter urging them, as he had repeatedly done before, to take some decisive action on this question. A committee was appointed, who favorably considered the subject and reported the following resolution ; Resolved, That Rev. Drs. Miller, Milledoller, Romeyn, and Rev. Messrs. James Richards, M'Neice, E. S. Ely, Gardner Spring, Dr. John, R. B. Rogers, Colonel Henry Rutgers, and Mr. Davie Bethune, be a committee to endeavor to devise measures which, when sanctioned by the General Assembly, may have an influence in preventing some of the numerous and threatening mischiefs which are expe rienced throughout our country by the excessive and intemperate use of spirituous liquors; and that this committee be authorized to correspond and act in concert with any persons who may be appointed or associated for a similar purpose, and report to the next Assembly. This action of so influential a body of ministers awakened con siderable attention. The General Assembly set in motion a ball whose onward progress was destined never to cease. The nail was at last " driven in a sure place." The result of this action can be traced, through certain and definite links, to the present time. There now exists in the State of Massachusetts an incorporated temperance society, organized as one of the direct results of this movement in the leading religious body of the land ; namely, the " Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance." * All other later temperance movements may be clearly traced, link by link, to the movement of Dr. Rush. This Massachusetts Society was organized by a committee, Rev. Samuel Worcester, D.D., of Salem, chairman, appointed by the General Association of the Con gregational churches of Massachusetts at their annual session in June, 1811, and in response to an appeal by the committee of the Presbyterian General Assembly just referred to, who personally appeared before the Massachusetts body. Some other societies grew out of this action in Connecticut and elsewhere, but the Mas sachusetts Society alone became permanent. Hon. Samuel Dexter, LL.D, formerly Secretary of War and also of the Treasury of the United States, was elected the first president. Numerous auxiliaries were formed in Massachusetts and in Maine, and the annual meetings were occasions of great interest. Mr. Dexter was followed in the presidency of the Society by Hon. Nathan Dane, 1816-1821 ; Hon. Isaac Parker, 1821-1827; John Collins Warren, M.D., 1827-1856. * Hon. Jacob Sleeper is now the President, and Rev. J. W. Chickering, D.D,, Corresponding Secretary of this old Society, 444 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Annual addresses of extraordinary ability were delivered by the most eminent clergymen and citizens : 1821,* Rev. Wm. Jenks, D.D. 1822, Hon. Edward Everett. 1823, Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., D.D. 1824, No address. 1825,* John Ware, M.D. 1826* Gamaliel Bradford, M.D. 1814, Rev. J. T. Kirkland, D.D. 181 5,* Rev. Abiel Abbott, D.D. 1816,* Rev. Jesse Appleton, D.D. 1817,* Rev. Samuel Worcester, D.D. 1818, Rev. Wm. E. Channing, D.D. 1819, Hon. Samuel Haven. 1820, Rev. Eliphalet Porter, D.D. Under such eminent leadership the movement, inaugurated in 1811-13, did not lack social prestige. It had the benefit of the per sonal attention and counsel of the most prominent divines and statesmen, and the churches of the largest influence were fully committed to it. The best physicians also lent their aid, and money was not wanting. The moral basis of this Society, viewed in the light of the present, seems very low. It only aimed to restrict " the too free use of ardent spirits," as distilled liquors were then called, and put no re straints upon the use of wine, beer, or cider. Dr. Lyman Beecher, referring to these beginnings, said, " We began as well as we knew." But, as might be expected, little improvement in respect to in temperance was realized. In the year 1825 the necessity of organizing a temperance society with more radical principles, on a broad national basis, was widely felt. This feeling found a clear expression in an able prize essay by Rev. Cyrus Yale, of New Hartford, Connecticut, and also prompted the personal efforts of Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D., then pastor in Andover, Massachusetts, and Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D., of the Andover Theological Seminary. They personally visited Boston, and held consultations with prominent Christian gentlemen preparatory to the organization of " The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance," which was effected on the 13th of February, 1826. Drs. Edwards and Woods, Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., and others who participated in the formation of this Society had been among the most active members ofthe Massachusetts Society formed in 1813, and Mr. Evarts was one of the committee appointed with Dr. Worcester by the General Association ofthe Congregational churches in 181 1, so intimate was the connection of the two Societies. * These addresses were published. TEMPERANCE LEADERS. 445 No pledge was at this time adopted, nor were the movers of this advance, though fully intent upon a more radical reform, prepared to formally insist upon entire abstinence, even from distilled spirits, by any direct obligation or vow. They were personally total abstainers ; and in all their public addresses they unequivocally advocated this course. But considerations of prudence held them back from pledging the people. Writing to Rev. William A. Hal- lock, of New York city, March 3, Dr. Edwards said : " A society is formed not for the suppression of intemperance, but for the promo tion of temperance. . . . We want for members holy men who do not use intoxicating liquors unless prescribed by a physician as a medicine." In the years immediately following the organization of the Society the active laborers, either in counsel or in the field, were Revs. Justin Edwards, D.D., Leonard Woods, D.D., Nathaniel Hewett, Lyman Beecher, D.D., Timothy Merritt, Wilbur Fisk, D.D., Phineas Crandall, Heman Humphrey, D.D., Jeremiah Day, D.D., LL.D., Thomas C. Brownelle, D.D., LL.D., William Collier, Calvin Chapin, D.D., William Goodell, William A. Halleck, William Jenks, D.D., Joshua Leavitt, D.D., William A. Drew, John Pierpont; and among the laity, Hons. Marcus Morton, Samuel Hubbard, George Sullivan, John Cotton Smith, LL.D., Thomas S. Williams, LL.D., Reuben H. Walworth, LL.D., William Ropes, Esq., John Tappan, Esq., James Harper, Esq., Edward C. Delevan, Reuben D. Muzzey, M.D., Amos Twitchell, M.D., Thomas P. Hunt, etc., and a long list of other names scarcely inferior or less effective in service. In 1830 eleven State societies, with numerous county and local auxiliaries, had been formed. Thenceforth for twenty years the movement was very prominent and powerful. Soon after 1830 the immorality of the liquor traffic was a topic of frequent elabo rate and sharp discussion, and the business was sternly repro bated. Then followed a strong Revulsion Against the License System, as immoral in principle and an impediment in the way ofthe temper ance reform. The utterances of such eminent gentlemen as Hons. Theodore Frelinghuysen, Gerritt Smith, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, John Cotton Smith, Mark Doolittle, George Sullivan, Rev. Drs. Heman Humphrey, Justin Edwards, John Pierpont, Joseph Tuck- erman, W. E. Channing, etc., against the license system were ofthe 446 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. clearest and most incisive character. * Gradually, from 1833 to 1845, by local option methods, those old offensive laws were thrown off in many localities. In the meantime great advances were also made in respect to the principle of total abstinence ; and, from 1826 to 1836, many individuals and some local societies adopted the rule of total abstinence from all alcoholic beverages. In 1836, total abstinence, as the only practicable and reliable measure of reform, was formally adopted by a large national convention of citizens of the first rank, held at Saratoga Springs. At this time the cause was advancing with great rapidity, rally ing to its support many of the first citizens, statesmen and divines. Public meetings, with large audiences, were held in all localities, in churches, halls and neighborhood school-houses. From 1838 to 1840 a slight diminution of interest was perceptible, but The Washingtonian f Movement, beginning in 1840, swept over the land like a tidal-wave, carry ing the reform to a greater height than ever before, and reaching large masses not hitherto touched. The effects, however, were largely transient. The return of 450,000 of the 600,000 professedly reformed drunkards to their cups, as was estimated by Mr. John B. Gough, after the Washingtonian wave had passed, awakened a new interest in the question of legislation for the suppression ofthe liquor traffic. With liquor saloons tempting the reformed men at every turn, they easily lapsed into inebriety and were swept away in the maelstrom of drink. It came, therefore, to be a general conviction that more stringent laws must be enacted to protect society against the temptations and inflictions of the liquor traffic. Out of such convictions the advanced movements for the prohibition ofthe traf fic in alcoholic beverages by legal enactments had their origin, culminating in the adoption of the Maine Laws in more than a dozen States, between 1850 and 1856. In this rapid sketch many very important matters in the history of this reform have been reluctantly but necessarily omitted. The action * These utterances covered two points : that the licensing of the traffic in alcoholic beverages is wrong in principle, and that it promotes the evil of intemperance. These men had never lived under any other system than the license system, and uttered their mature convictions. t Mr. Hawkins, one of the prominent leaders in the Washingtonian movement, often gratefully acknowleged the indebtedness of the movement to religious influences. Mr. Hawkins and his comrades had been in attendance upon the revival meetings then being conducted in the city by the famous evangelist, Elder Jacob Knapp, and greatly impressed by them. It was on coming together late in the evening, after one of the meetings in which the terrible evil of intemperance was a prominent topic, that the first step was taken. The author of this volume often- heard Mr. Hawkins's story of his reform in public and by the fireside. See also Life of Hawkins. THE WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT. 447 ofthe medical societies in opposition to the use of alcoholic beverages ; the resolutions of the ecclesiastical bodies ; the valuable facts in the annual reports ofthe National Temperance Society and ofthe State Societies ; the reform literature published in large quantities ; the critical examination of the Bible view of wines; the elaborate dis cussions upon total abstinence, license and prohibition ; the testi monies of eminent civilians and divines against the license system ; the Congressional Temperance Society and its valuable reports; the action of the Navy and War departments of the General Govern ment in regard to spirit rations, etc.; the simultaneous temperance meetings in 1833 in Great Britain and the United States ; the Na tional Temperance Conventions ; Rev. Dr. Baird's efforts for tem perance in Europe : Rev. John Pierpont's trials with the liquor dealers of his congregation ; Rev. Thomas P. Hunt's exposure of the adulterations of liquors ; Rev. Dr. George B. Cheever's contests over Deacon Giles's distillery; Lucius M. Sargent's effective pen por trayals; Hon. Edward C. Delevan's exposure of the Albany brewers, and his legal defense ; the liberal pecuniary offerings for the cause ; the details of the Washingtonian and the Father Mathew move ments ; the rise of the secret temperance brotherhoods ; Dr. Thomas Sewall's physiological discoveries and stomach plates; the World's Temperance Convention in London ; the rise of inebriate asylums ; the judicial vindication of the principle of prohibition by the highest court of the United States ; the commencement of John B. Gough's wonderful career ; the Cold Water armies, etc., etc, can only be briefly mentioned in these crowded pages.* During the forty years from 1810 to 1850 there was a very great reduction in the average quantity of intoxicating liquors con sumed in the country. The consumption of distilled spirits, includ ing those imported and those manufactured in the United States, and also foreign wines (the exports of each kind being deducted), was as follows : Year. Gallons Consumed. Average per each Inhabitant. 1810 33,278,505 4.60 gallons. 1823 75,000,000 7.50 " 1830 77,196,120 6.00 " 1850 51,833,473 2.23 " The above figures have been carefully computed from data selected from official sources, except those for 1823, which are given * For fuller information upon these points the reader is referred to the Liquor Problem in All Ages. By Rev. D. Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt, 805 Broadway, New York city. Pp. 656. 8vo. 4 48 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. on the authority of the Boston Recorder, and for 1830, on the authority of the Old American Cyclopedia. They show a decrease of nearly one half, on the average, in the consumption of alcoholic liquors from 1810 to 1850, and one third as much drank in 1850 as in 1823. Cider is not included, but was probably reduced one half. The average consumption of other liquors in 1850 was, wine, 0.27 gallons per capita; malt liquors, 1. 58 gallons per capita. Such a decrease of the average consumption of all kinds of in toxicants in the country was a great gain. Governor Briggs is reported to have said before he died that the temperance reforma tion had been .worth one hundred millions of dollars to Massachu setts alone. Section £.— Antislavery and the Clmrches. * In the first part of this century the invention and general intro duction of the cotton-gin into the South, the rapid increase of cotton manufacturing, and the growing mercantile and commercial interests connected with southern products, all combined to make slave labor more profitable than formerly, and to deteriorate the moral sentiment in regard to the institution. Under such circum stances a determined purpose was formed to retain slavery where it already existed and to extend its domain in the Territories. Hence laws prohibiting emancipation, the Missouri Compromise, and the intense excitement attending its adoption. After this the fires of agitation declined; a general condition of stupor followed; the public conscience was clouded, and southern legislatures repealed the more humane provisions of the slave codes. Large numbers of all classes bowed in subserviency to the slave power, and treated the discussion of slavery as dangerous to the perpetuity of the Union. During this period the radical pro-slavery theories, for the advocacy of which Hon. John C. Calhoun was noted, were echoed by many divines and statesmen, and became a common sentiment in the South, and even with some at the North. It was contended that slavery was a divine institution, defensible from the Bible, and " the corner-stone of all enduring political institutions." From about 1805 to 1830 the general tendency of sentiment in regard to slavery deteriorated. The disciplinary regulations of the churches against slavery became more or less a dead letter, seldom enforced, and * So much adverse criticism has been bestowed upon the attitude of the churches in regard to slavery that a larger space has been given to this topic. See also p. 360, from which this sketch is continued. ANTISLAVERY WORKERS. 449 perhaps never, in large sections, and the advocacy of antislavery principles was often severely denounced. In the North many sym pathized with the South, and co-operated with them in every possible way, in the legislative councils of the States and of the churches. But even in this period of decadence strong antislavery senti ments burned in many Christian hearts. Among the Quakers, in 1814, Elias Hicks published a volume on slavery, containing the most radical principles of abolition. About 1820, in Kentucky and Tennessee, some ministers proclaimed with great clearness and force the distinctive doctrines of abolition. Dwelling in the midst of pro-slavery communities, increasingly intolerant toward emancipa tion, the residence of these ministers became uncomfortable and unsafe. Accordingly such men as Rev. John Rankin, a Pres byterian minister, and others, removed with their flocks to Ohio. The Methodist itinerants sometimes spoke freely in public against slavery. Rev. Jacob Gruber, of the Baltimore Conference, was especially outspoken, and while presiding elder, in 1818, at a camp- meeting preached plainly against the slave system, for which he was arrested and tried for felony. He was defended by Roger B. Taney, Esq., subsequently Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and acquitted. In his eloquent plea Mr. Taney affirmed that " the Methodist Church had steadily in view the aboli tion of slavery," that " no slave-holder was allowed to be a minister in it," and that " its preachers were accustomed to speak of the injustice and oppression of slavery." Several Other Active Antislavery Workers appeared between 181 5 and 1832. Near Wheeling, Va., resided a man of stanch New Jersey Quaker stock, who had deep convictions of the wrongs of slavery and clear views of duty in regard to the great evil. Benjamin Lundy seized the trailing banner of anti- slavery, and, for about a score of years, was a conspicuous standard- bearer. From 1 81 5 to 1830 his labors were immense, involving great personal hardship and sacrifice, placing him in advance of all contemporaneous abolitionists. From him Mr. Garrison derived his first positive antislavery convictions. Residing in Wheeling, a great thoroughfare of the interstate slave-trade, Mr. Lundy was powerfully stirred by the atrocities of the slave system, and could obtain no peace of mind until he espoused the cause of the oppressed. In his own house, in 18 15, he 29 450 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. organized the " Union Humane Society," which soon numbered five hundred members in that region. Auxiliaries were formed in Kentucky, Tennessee, etc., and appeals were widely scattered. Charles Osborne, Esq., soon became his fellow-laborer, the two pub lishing The Philanthropist, at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, in 1821. Visiting Illinois and Missouri, Mr. Lundy portrayed the evils of the slave system. Returning, he started the Genius of Universal Emancipa tion, at Steubenville, Ohio — destined to a marked and stormy career — for about ten years the only distinctive antislavery journal in the country. In 1822 he boldly removed his paper to Greenville, Tenn. In midwinter, early in 1824, he traveled on horseback to Philadelphia to attend the National Abolition Convention. Return ing, he removed his paper to Baltimore. Traveling on foot in the summer, and carrying his own knapsack, he lectured on slavery through North Carolina and Virginia, and organized antislavery societies, which, in the course of three years, comprised three thou sand members. He was received in Baltimore "civilly, but coolly," even by antislavery men, with only words of discouragement for his paper. In 1825 a series of articles on the domestic slave-trade enraged the slave-dealers, who assaulted him in the streets and com pelled the removal of his paper to Washington. He visited Hayti and Texas in the interest of the slaves. In 1826 a National Aboli tion Convention was held in Baltimore, attended by delegates from eighty of the one hundred and forty abolition societies in the country, nearly all of which traced their origin to Mr. Lundy's efforts. In the meantime antislavery sentiment was developing in minds destined to become Standard-Bearers in the great reform. In 1816 Alvan Stewart, subsequently an able lawyer and orator in New York, and one of the leaders in the antislavery agitation from 1830 to 1850, visited the South, witnessed the abomination of slavery, and became an ardent abolitionist. From that time he was accustomed to portray the horrors of slavery in fervid language, and rendered effective service to the cause of antislavery in the days of its weakness. In 1822 to 1824 Mr. Theo dore D. Weld, a candidate for the Congregational ministry, visited the South, traveling extensively, and witnessing the terrible aspects of slavery. Some years later he said, " On this tour I saw slavery at home, and became a radical abolitionist." Before Mr. Garrison published the Liberator, we find him exerting his influence positively against slavery, and in 1831, in Huntsville, Ala., discussing the CHAMPIONS OF ABOLITION. 4S 1 subject of slavery with Rev. Dr. Allen, a Presbyterian minister, who; unable to answer his cogent arguments, appealed to Mr. James G. Bimey, an elder in his church. Several interviews followed, in which Mr. Birney was convinced of the wrong of slavery, and en tered upon the work, first of colonization, and afterward of abolition. Rev. James Dickey, of Kentucky, in 1824 became deeply impressed with the wrong of slavery and published his views in an able volume; and in the same year Rev. John Rankin, to whom reference has been made, published a series of letters, addressed to a Virginia slave-holder, denouncing slavery as " a never-failing fountain of grossest immoralities, and one of the deepest sources of human misery." From this volume Rev. Samuel J. May, in 1824, received his first antislavery impressions. It took strong ground in favor of " immediate emancipation." * Mr. Rankin was untiring in his antislavery efforts, organizing societies in Kentucky and in the vicinity of Ripley, O., developing around him a strong antislavery sentiment. He was among the first movers of the anti- slavery societies formed under Mr. Garrison's leadership, always declaring, says Mr. Wilson, that " he himself, and the antislavery societies he had organized, believed and avowed the doctrine of immediate emancipation." f In the spring of 1828 Mr. Lundy visted New York city and the New England States, enlisting new laborers in the field. The Tap- pans, in New York city, were interested. Then we find him visiting Rev. Samuel J. May, at Brooklyn, Conn., and deeply impressing his already awakened mind. Thence he went to Providence and found William Goodell, of whom he said, " I endeavored to arouse him, but he was slow of speech on the subject." His labors, how ever, were not in vain. Mr. Goodell's mind moved surely and strongly, and his paper, The Weekly Investigator, started the pre vious year, devoted to moral and political discussion, thenceforth gave increasing prominence to temperance and slavery. We find Mr. Goodell, hand in hand with Mr. Garrison:]: in 1829, calling upon prominent Boston ministers to secure their co-operation in the cause of antislavery, and, for more than thirty years, a sturdy champion of abolition. Mr. Lundy moved on to Boston, § where he could find no aboli- *See Slavery and Antislavery, by William Goodell, p. 490. t Rise and Fall of the Slave Power. Vol. I, p. 178. X Slavery and Antislavery, by William Goodell, p. 4or, note. § The following is an extract from Lundy's private journal, and justifies the above statement: " At Boston I could hear of no abolitionist resident of the place. At the house where I stayed I became acquainted with William L. Garrison, who was a boarder there. He had not then 452 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. tionists, but, " in the same house where he boarded," he met Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, then editing The Philanthropist, a temper ance paper, not having particularly turned his attention to the subject of slavery. Mr. Lundy's conversations awakened' Mr. Gar rison's mind,* and became the connecting link between the earlier and later antislavery movements. After visiting Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York, Mr. Lundy returned to Washington, where the last of the abolition conventions, origi nated in 1794, was held in 1829. The English antislavery movement, directed first against the slave-trade, then for the amelioration of the condition of the slaves, and, later still, for gradual emancipation, rapidly assumed a more radical type, and the reform literature abounded in appeals for Immediate Emancipation. In 1825 Miss Elizabeth Herrick, a member of the Society of Friends, published in England a pamphlet entitled, Immediate, not Gradual, Emancipation, which soon became the watch-word of the reform. This doctrine had been urged by Rev. Dr. Hopkins and the younger Edwards in the last century. The latter, in 1791, pro claimed that " every man who cannot show that his negro hath, by his voluntary conduct, forfeited his liberty, is obligated immediately to manumit him." We have noticed Rev. John Rankin advocating this doctrine in 1824, and Rev. Samuel J. May imbibing it from Mr. Rankin's book. When Mr. May heard Mr. Garrison's lecture, in Boston, October, 1830, advocating immediate emancipation, he was fully with him in his views, for he declared that Mr. Garrison's ideas " satisfied his mind and heart." Mr. William Goodell,f also, is sup- turned his attention particularly to the slavery question. I visited the Boston clergy, and finally got together eight of them, belonging to various sects. Such an occurrence, it was said, was seldom, if ever, before known in that town. The eight clergymen all cordially approved of my object, and each of them cheerfully subscribed to my paper, in order to encourage by their exam ple members of their several congregations to take it. William L. Garrison, who sat in the room and witnessed our proceedings, also expressed his approbation of my doctrines. A few days afterward we had a large meeting. After I had finished my lecture several clergymen spoke. William L Garrison shortly afterward wrote an article on the subject for one of the daily papers." * At the Anniversary of the American Antislavery Society in New York city, in 1863, Mr. Garrison said: " Had it not been for him I know not where I should have been at the present time. My eyes might have been sealed for my whole life, and possibly, though I trust in God I should not have been, I might have been led in some direction or other so far as even to care nothing for slavery in my country." tMr. Goodell commenced, in 1827, the editing and publication of the Weekly Investigator, in Providence, R. I., "devoted to moral and political discussion and reformation in general, WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 4S3 posed to have antedated Mr. Garrison in adopting this radical prin ciple, and in early conversations to have led him to adopt it. Another name deserves honorable mention as a pioneer in anti- slavery movements. Rev. George Bourne, of the Presbyterian Church, was one of the most noteworthy antislavery men of this period, and one of the most radical and uncompromising in his utterances, far in advance of his times. While editing a paper in Baltimore (1805-1809) he wrote freely against the slave-trade and the slave system. As pastor of churches in Virginia (1809-18 16) he delivered powerful antislavery utterances, and published (Harri sonburg, Va., 1812, subsequently republished in Philadelphia, 1816,) a volume, The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable, containing the doc trine of immediate emancipation. Driven from Virginia by the slave-holders, in 1816, he maintained the same testimony, as pastor, at Germantown, Pa. In the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in 1818, he took a decided part in the great debate on slavery. In 1830 he edited The Protestant, (New York city;) in 1834 the Protestant Vindicator, and, later, the Christian Intelli gencer. His name appears as an active participator in the organiza tion of the first antislavery societies (1833, 1834) in New York city and Philadelphia. In 1833 he published (Middletown, Conn.), Pictures of Slavery in the United States, from his personal observa tions in Virginia, the volume also containing the former book enlarged. In 1837 this was republished (Isaac Knapp, Boston) with an addition — Slavery Illustrated in Its Effects Upon Woman — con stituting one of the strong antislavery documents of those times, (1833-1840). In a letter to Mr. Bourne's son, in 1858, Mr. Garrison said : " I confess my early and large indebtedness to him for ena bling me to apprehend with irresistible clearness the inherent sinfulness of slavery under all circumstances, and its utter incom patibility with the spirit and precepts of Christianity." William Lloyd Garrison. It appears that Mr. Garrison is not entitled to the credit of orig inality — as some have claimed — for his peculiar views, but was preceded by others, and even guided by them. including temperance and antislavery." Some time in 1827 or 1828 Mr. Garrison came to Boston to assist Rev. William Collier (Baptist) in editing and printing The National Philanthropist , devoted wholly to temperance. Late in 1828 Mr. Garrison went to Bennington, Vt., to edit The Journal of the Times; and in January, 1829, Mr. Goodell's paper was merged into the National Philanthropist, in Boston, Mr. Collier retiring. In July, 1830, it was removed to New York, and published by W. Gonriell and P. Crandall as The Genius of Temperance, and sub sequently discontinued, Mr. Goodell then taking charge of the Emancipator. 454 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. In the latter part of 1828 Mr. Garrison went to Bennington, Vt., where he edited The Journal of the Times, and soon achieved the reputation of a fanatic. In his mind, sharper and intenser than Mr. Lundy's, antislavery assumed a sterner type than the sturdy Quaker ever dreamed of, and, in the midst of the prevailing stupor, he rang out the astounding notes of immediate emancipation. Here he was again visited by Mr. Lundy, whose invitation to aid him in editing his paper in Baltimore he accepted, in which service he became a victim of slave-holding vengeance, fully determining his life career. The story of his severe attacks upon the slave system, his arrest, trial, and incarceration, and release through the gener osity of Arthur Tappan, is familiar to all. He returned to Boston, and on the ist of January, 1831, commenced the publication of The Liberator, a redoubtable knight-errant, helmeted, greaved, and mounted upon a fiery charger, the hero of many a desperate tour nament, of many a bloody fray, of many a fierce encounter. Thus far the leading champions of antislavery have been chiefly representatives of the churches, and the churches have uttered emphatic testimony and enacted stringent disciplinary regulations against slavery, though sometimes hesitating and hindered because of the complex political environment of the institution. The field, therefore, was not an uncultivated one, nor destitute of resolute, experienced workers, when Mr. Garrison arose. One hundred and fifty-seven years of antislavery seed-sowing by religious men, fifty- eight years of organized movements by societies and conventions, composed chiefly of members of the churches, and more than sixty years of legislation against slavery by ecclesiastical bodies, preceded the advent of Mr. Garrison in the field, who, a child of the Church, and originally inspired by her ministrations, came forth as one of the long succession of apostles of antislavery. More than this : At the time when Mr. Garrison came before the public this cause was gaining prestige from the culmination and assured speedy triumph of British emancipation, incepted, cham pioned, and sustained, from first to last, by the best representatives of British Christianity in and out of Parliament. The 1st of August, 1834, witnessed the consummation, and the example of that sublime achievement stirred the world with powerful pulsations of universal liberty. Mr. Garrison's advent into public life was at an opportune moment. While many friends of the slave were waiting and praying for some providential way to be opened for the liberation of the oppressed multitudes, Mr. Garrison reached man hood and caught inspiration from the examples of the English ORTHODOX ABOLITIONISTS. 45S antislavery reformers, brilliant with omens of approaching success. On January i, 1831, he issued the first number of the Liberator, and three years and a half later, emancipation was an accomplished fact in the British West Indies. Under the influence of such inspiring events Mr. Garrison boldly proclaimed his distinctive thesis of immediate and unconditional emancipation. Following in the wake of British antislavery reformers, and ignoring the radical difference in the constitutional possibilities of the two governments, he uncompromisingly, severely, and bitterly maintained a line of antislavery action which necessarily separated many good, discreet men from affiliation with him. It was impos sible for them to see any way in which immediate and unconditional emancipation could be effected. They deemed his policy unwise and impracticable, hurtful, and perilous to the best interests of the slave. But, with him, to be non-Garrisonian was to be pro- slavery, deserving of implacable denunciation. We shall see him ofttimes practically working against the cause he sought to promote. The Garrisonian Antislavery Societies grew out of the religious sentiment and the churches. Nearly all of the twelve persons who organized the New England Antislavery Society in Boston, January, 1832, were members of the evangel ical churches. From the pen of Mr. Oliver Johnson,* the youngest of them all, then an editor of a religious paper, a member of Dr. Beecher's church, and a candidate for the ministry, we learn the religious relations of each. Robert B. Hall was a theological stu dent, and a member of the Essex Street Congregational church. Arnold Buffom, the first president of the Society, was a Rhode Island Quaker, who had traveled in England and was acquainted with Clarkson and Wilberforce. William J. Snelling was a journal ist. John E. Fuller was a business man and a member of Dr. Beecher's church. Moses Thatcher was the editor of the Boston Telegraph and pastor of the Congregational church at North Wren- tham. Joshua Coffin was the gentleman honored in Whittier's lines, "To my old School-master." Stillman J. Newcomb was an earnest religious man. Benjamin C. Bacon was a religious young man, an employe in the office of the American Education Society. Isaac Knapp was Mr. Garrison's partner in publishing the Liberator. Henry K. Stockton was a printer by trade, connected with the Bos ton Telegraph. Nearly all were religious men, connected with evangelical churches. * Christian Union, August 12, 1874. 456 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Mr. Garrison's Religious Position at that time deserves fuller notice. His later religious views hav ing undergone a considerable change, and excited diverse inquiries and comments, it is a matter of considerable interest to state in detail his earlier religious convictions, under the influence of which he entered upon this great movement. Those who knew him well, in his earlier years, have said that he possessed a nature deeply religious, "a positive genius for ethics," unusual keenness of moral perception, an invincible moral courage, and " sympathy for the unfortunate that scorned the limitations of race, color, or clime." On coming to Boston, in 1826, at the age of twenty-one years, he was recognized as soundly orthodox, and was a devout worshiper in Dr. Lyman Beecher's church. He was not a communicant, but had great reverence for God, for Christ, and the institutions of Christianity. " His views," says Oliver Johnson, " were neither Rationalistic nor Liberal, but soundly orthodox. The Bible was his constant companion, the armory from which he drew the weap ons of his warfare. No clergyman or theological professor was more familiar with the Old Testament or the New than he was. The Hebrew prophets, Christ, and his Apostles were his model reformers, and his faith in God and the moral law was scarcely infe rior to theirs." His interpretation of Christianity was eminently orthodox, and he relied upon revivals of religion as the hopeful instrumentalities for the liberation of the slaves. In 1831 he declared, in the Liber ator, that " nothing but extensive revivals of pure religion could save the country from great plagues and sudden destruction ; " that religious conversions are scriptural occurrences; that "the kingdoms of this world can never become ' the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ ' independently of great revivals;" that "if the present revivals be (as we trust they are) the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we pray that they may embrace the nation," etc. Mr. Garrison was also at this time a strict observer of the Sabbath, and " would no sooner have gone to the post-office for his letters and papers, or taken a walk for recreation on that day, than he would have committed a theft." His antislavery career was the legitimate outcome of a heart pro foundly stirred with deep religious convictions, and all his early compeers derived their impulse from the same source. New labor ers, inspired by the same feelings, came forth through the successive years of this great agitation, representing the ANTISLAVERY SOCIETIES. 457 Piety and the Philanthropy of Pure Christianity. Under the leadership of prominent representatives of the churches other antislavery societies and several antislavery papers were soon started. The Emancipator was established in New York city in March, 1833, by Hon. Arthur Tappan, under the editorial supervision of Rev. Charles W. Dennison. In October following, in response to a call issued by Rev. Joshua Leavitt, the New York City Antislavery Society was organized, and on December 4 the American Antislavery Society, in Philadelphia, the latter holding its first anniversary meeting May 6, 1834, in the Chatham Street Chapel, New York. In June, 1835, the New England Wesleyan Antislavery Society was organized in Lynn, Mass., by about seventy ministers of the New England Conference of the Methodist Epis copal Church. The following month the New Hampshire Confer ence of the same Church organized a similar society. These are a few of the leading societies constituted at this early period, and which in the course of eight years numbered more than two thou sand, with two hundred thousand members. Of the persons participating in the organization of the American Antislavery Soci ety, and in its first anniversary, more than one third were ministers of the Gospel, and two thirds of the remainder were either lay offi cials or private members of the churches. As early as 1832 Rev. Beriah Green, Professor of Sacred Literature in Western Reserve College, Ohio, published four stirring antislavery sermons, and in 1833 Rev. Elizur Wright, another professor in that institution, published a powerful essay against slavery. Mobs. The first antislavery meetings encountered violent opposition. Hissing, mobs, peltings, personal abuse and social ostracism followed the reformers. The New York City Antislavery Society was driven from its place of meeting, and the celebration by the American Antislavery Society on July 4, 1834, was broken up. The house of Lewis Tappan was sacked, and the churches and homes of colored people were assaulted and damaged. In August, 1834, a fearful riot raged three nights in Philadelphia, and similar outrages were perpetrated elsewhere. Cruel and dastardly assaults were made upon abolitionists, countenanced and often excited by men of posi tion and wealth, and sometimes by members of churches. The public journals were vehicles of scandalous accusations against the reformers, misrepresenting their purposes, motives, and acts. 458 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Churches and public halls alike were often closed against them, and they were made to feel that they held property and liberty, if not life itself, at the mercy of excited, lawless men. It was indeed a reign of terror. Rev. Orange Scott, a presiding elder in the Meth odist Episcopal Church, while delivering an antislavery address in Worcester, Mass., August 10, 1835, was assaulted, and his notes seized and torn to pieces, by a mob led by a son of an ex-governor of the Commonwealth. In the same year Rev. George Storrs, another Methodist minister, while lecturing in New Hampshire, was arrested by a deputy sheriff on the charge of being " a common rioter and brawler." Soon after, at another antislavery meeting, he was again arrested and dragged from his knees while Rev. Mr. Curtis was in prayer. A meeting of an antislavery society com posed of some of the most cultured ladies in Boston was broken up in October, 1835, by a mob composed of " gentlemen of property and standing," the mayor and marshal declining to protect them. On the same day Mr. Garrison was seized, led with a rope around his neck, and his clothes were torn from his body. The mayor* finally interposed, rescued him, and lodged him in jail to save him from fury. These are a few of a long series of outrages, in which the mobbing of Hon. George Thompson, the eminent English philanthropist, the assassination of Lovejoy and Bewley, and the martyrdom of Torrey and John Brown were conspicuous. The Churches Censured. The action of the churches and the ministry during this period has been severely censured. The clergy were accused of backward ness and even of positive opposition. It was said that some had to be dragged into the service if they rendered any aid. In the autumn of 1830 Mr. Garrison made several efforts to obtain a church \ or a hall in Boston in which to deliver three free antislavery addresses. After many unsuccessful personal applications he advertised in the Courier ; but no church in Boston responded to his appeal. This was before the publication of the Liberator, and fifteen months before the New England Antislavery Society was organized. Mr. Garrison's religious views were not then distrusted, for he was * In 1837 Massachusetts' most classic orator and governor warned the abolitionists that the agitation of the slavery question would be regarded as "an offense against the peace of the Commonwealth, which might be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at common law." t Per contra, it may be said that Jesse Lee and other early Methodist preachers could not obtain the use of churches for religious services. For several successive weeks he sought in vain in Boston to get a church to preach in. INDIFFERENCE OF THE CHURCHES. 459 known to be "soundly orthodox" and a regular worshiper at Dr. Lyman Beecher's Church. Failing to obtain a church, a society oi avowed infidels, organized in Boston by Abner Kneeland, having control of Julien Hall, in Milk Street, offered it gratuitously to Mr. Garrison, and it was thankfully accepted. But this was only the beginning of a long series of adverse movements by religious bodies against this reform. Many Chris tian men of positive antislavery principles turned their backs upon the Garrison societies, while some filled their mouths with apol ogies for slave-holding, and others stoutly and learnedly defended the institution from the Bible. The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of a New England diocese belonged to the latter class. Another, the president of a New England college, declared that slavery was not only a positive institution of revealed religion, but also compatible with the law of love. A Boston minister, visiting the South for his health, pictured slavery in a rose-colored hue, and a learned the ological professor in a treatise called the higher-law doctrine a heresy, and advocated the duty of returning slaves to bondage. The moral jargon increased, and the opposition grew fiercer, hotter, and more implacable. The American Churches became deeply stirred, and appropriate action was taken in many conferences and associations, while in others the action was some times reprehensible. The Friends, who inherited and cherished their earlier anti- slavery testimony as a precious legacy from their fathers, after the Missouri Compromise contest, in common with other churches, felt the general stupor, and were disinclined to attack slavery. This spirit manifested itself particularly among wealthy Friends engaged in the manufacture or sale of cotton, and in other commercial pursuits. " The Quakers in New England," said Oliver Johnson, " as a body, instead of welcoming the antislavery movement and giving it en couragement, set themselves firmly but insidiously against it, gen erally refusing to open their meeting-houses for antislavery lectures, preventing their members, as far as possible, from uniting with the Antislavery Society, and sometimes dismissing those who were inde pendent enough to co-operate with the Abolitionists." There were honorable individual exceptions. But many of those included in Mr. Johnson's censure were persons whose only fault was that they did not pronounce the Garrisonian shibboleth. The Congregational Churches, wholly a Northern body, and con- 460 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. sequently without ecclesiastical entanglements with the South in any organic form, were embarrassed, and often seriously compro mised, by the influence of prominent members engaged in the manu facture of cotton, or connected with slavery in commercial, social, or political relations. Nevertheless, they were well represented in the struggle. Revs. Amos A. Phelps, of Boston ; William Goodell and Joshua Leavitt, of New York city ; S. S. Jocelyn, of New Haven, and David Thurston, of Maine, were in the antislavery field as early as 1833, attending and actively participating in the organization of the American Antislavery Society in Philadelphia, in December of that year. Rev. Mr. Thurston was for many years one of its agents, and Rev. Messrs. Phelps, Leavitt and Goodell were editors and agents for many years in the service of antislavery societies. As early as 1 837 fully one third of the Congregational ministers in Massachusetts were enrolled members of antislavery societies. The Antislavery Society in Amherst College, in 1834, had 76 members, of whom 70 were professors of religion ; 30 of them had consecrated themselves to the foreign missionary work, and 20 to home missionary service in the West. In 1834 the trustees of Lane Seminary (Cincinnati) prohibited the open discussion of slavery by the students, and four fifths of the students withdrew from the institution. A number of them, including Theodore D. Weld, * Henry B. Stanton and Ichabod Codding, became at once anti- slavery lecturers, and went from State to State defending the rights of the slave. The breaking up of the classes in Lane Seminary led to the organization of the theological department at Oberlin, and in this great reform Oberlin took an early and prominent part. Mr. Finney refused to become president of a college unless colored students were allowed to enjoy its privileges. The Hon. Salmon P. Chase was wont to ascribe his elevation to the United States Senate to the influence of Oberlin. f " So far as Congregationalism is concerned," says the editor of the Congregational Quarterly, " it should be remembered that the leading Garrisonians, Henry C. Wright, Parker Pillsbury, and Stephen S. Foster, imbibed their antislavery sentiments, but not their fanaticism, from Congregational sources, for they were orig- * While Mr. Weld was holding a series of meetings in Steubenville, Ohio, he noticeda young lawyer in his audience evening after evening, taking notes. At the close of his last lecture the young man came forward and introduced himself, remarking, " I came here resolved to answer you, and have taken notes of every lecture ; but you have converted me." That young lawyer was Edwin M. Stanton, and thus God raised up for Mr. Lincoln's administration a fit Secretary of War. t Congregational Quarterly, 1876, p. 554. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 461 inally Congregational ministers or candidates for that office. . . . I freely acknowledge that the Church did not do its whole duty. In our own denomination the prominent ministers particularly seemed to be unduly subject to commercial influences. Still the true picture, although it has dark shades, is luminous and attractive." * The Free- Will Baptists, located almost entirely in the North, kept clear of the evil, and were decided in their protests against it, on account of which the New Hampshire Legislature, for many years an ultra-Democratic body, refused to grant an act of incor poration for their publishing house. The Protestant Episcopal Church, extending through the South, every-where maintained extremely conservative ground. Through all the antislavery agitations, and even during the late civil war, her ministry, in their pulpits and ecclesiastical assemblies, stu diously avoided the question of slavery and all politico-religious matters. As the result a considerable number of conservative, " South-side " politicians, disturbed by what was stigmatized as "political preaching" in other denominations, united with that Church, which tended to make it still more conservative. The action of two other large denominations will be sketched more at length. The Presbyterian Church had many sharp contests on this question. In 1833 the Synod of Kentucky, after discussing for two days with much spirit a reso lution declaring slavery within its bounds a great moral evil, incon sistent with the Word of God, indefinitely postponed the subject ; whereupon Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckenridge left the house, declaring, " Since God has forsaken the Synod of Kentucky Robert J. Breck enridge will forsake it too." The following year an able committee was directed to prepare a plan for the instruction and future eman cipation of slaves. They reported the next year, recommending gradual emancipation. But the committee were in advance of the Synod, and their report failed of approval. Under what was char acterized as "Northern aggressions," "inflammatory periodicals," etc., a reaction set in, and the prospects of emancipation became less hopeful. Slave laws were made more stringent, and Sabbath- schools for the slaves were suspended. The subject of slavery was brought to the attention of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1836 by the report of a committee appointed the previous year to consider certain petitions and me- * Congregational Quarterly, 1876, p. 553. 462 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. morials. The majority recommended that no action be taken on the subject. The minority report proposed certain resolutions strongly opposed to slavery. After a variety of motions and prop ositions the whole subject was indefinitely postponed by a vote of 156 yeas to 87 nays ; 28 members protested against the decision. The excitement was very great during the debates. * A purely ecclesiastical question in regard to the benevolent " boards " of the Church? with which the slavery question became complicated, hindered and embarrassed their action. A compromise quieted the South and prevented a rupture ; but it was accomplished on the humiliating condition that slavery was no more to be allowed to disturb the General Assembly, f Subsequently the agitation was renewed. Year, after year memorials and overtures were presented, eliciting warm and extended discussion and resulting in action which failed to satisfy the more zealous antislavery men of the North, and excited dissatisfaction at the South. The antislavery sentiment of the Church was increasing, as was evident from the utterances of the General Assembly ; but its official action under the preponderating desire for unity continually exposed it to criticism from radical re formers at the North and from apologists for slavery at the South. In 1857 a secession % on account of the slavery question took place, forming the United Synod of the Presbyterian Church. A very considerable portion of the strength of the Presbyterian Church was within the limits of those States which seceded from the Federal Union in 1861 ; and " upon the Assembly of that year the long-deferred question pressed with the weight of an avalanche." The Assembly indicated its loyalty by appropriate resolutions, de claring its repugnance to a rebellion instituted in the interest of slavery, which were passed by a vote of 156 yeas to 66 nays. The result was the secession of the Southern churches and presbyteries and the formation of the Southern General Assembly. Methodist Episcopal Church. The first movements against slavery in this body after 1830 were made in the New England and New Hampshire Conferences, under the leadership of Rev. Orange Scott in the former and Rev. George Storrs in the latter. When Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D.D., in the New England Conference, in June, 1834, offered resolutions in favor of the Colonization Society, Mr. Scott moved to lay them on the table, which was carried after a stormy debate. In January, 1835, Mr. * History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. GiUett, D.D. Vol. II, p. 524. f Ibid., pp. 526, 527. %Ibid„ pp. 555-559. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 463 Scott commenced a long series of articles on slavery in the Zions Herald (Boston), and on the 4th of February following, an "Appeal " to the Church on the subject of slavery appeared in the same paper over the signatures of LeRoy Sunderland, Orange Scott, Abram D. Merrill, Shipley W. Wilson, George Storrs and Jared Perkins. On the 8th of April a " Counter Appeal " appeared, written by Rev. D. D. Whedon and signed by Wilbur Fisk, John Lindsay, Bartholomew Otheman, Hezekian S. Ramsdell, Edward T. Taylor, Abel Stevens, Jacob Sanborn and H. H. White. In June the New England and New Hampshire Conferences organized antislavery societies* and made arrangements to circulate Wesley's " Thoughts on Slavery " and other documents. Thus was reopened the antislavery agitation in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Then followed in rapid succession a long series of exciting events : the address of fourteen Baltimore ministers and the report of the Ohio and Kentucky Conferences disapproving of abolitionism ; the address of Bishops Hedding and Emory, September 10, 1835, to the ministers and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church within the bounds of the New England and New Hampshire Conferences, expressing great solicitude on account of the excitement occasioned by agitating the subject of " immediate emancipation ;" the address of Dr. Wilbur Fisk, one ofthe purest and best constituted minds in the Church, on the eve of his departure for Europe, in a similar style ; the establishment of Zions Watchman in New York city January 1, 1836, devoted especially to the cause of abolition, with LeRoy Sunderland as editor ; the resolutions of the Baltimore and New York Conferences strongly condemning abolition and the Watchman ; the presentation to the General Conference at Cincin nati (May, 1836,) of petitions from New England, signed by 200 ministers and 2,284 laymen, praying for action against slavery; the censuring by that body of two of its members for attending and ad dressing an abolition meeting in Cincinnati ; the passage of a reso lution disclaiming any "right, wish or intention to interfere with the civil and political relation between master and slave as it exists;" the attempt of the southern members to elect a slave-holding bishop contrary to the established policy of the Church ; the exciting scenes in 1837 over the slavery question at the New England and the New * By invitation the Hon. George Thompson, an English Wesleyan local preacher, preached a powerful sermon before the New England Conference, from Ezekiel 28. 14-16. The North Bennett Street Methodist Episcopal Church was opened to Mr. Thompson, on fast day, for a sermon, and also for a meeting of the Ladies' Antislavery Society, which Mr. Thompson rd- dressed ; which acts, at a time when Mr. Thompson was every-where denounced, were highly commended in the Liberator. 464 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Hampshire Conferences and in Methodist antislavery conventions held in Utica and Cazenovia, N. Y., and Lynn, Mass. ; the action of the New York Conference, the following year, calling to account two of its members for attending the Utica Convention; the issuing of the Wesleyan Quarterly Review in 1838, by Rev. Orange Scott, for the fuller discussion of antislavery questions, and Mr. Scott's arraign ment by Bishop Hedding at the following session of the New En gland Conference in Boston ; the arraignment of LeRoy Sunderland by Rev. Dr. Nathan Bangs for a similar cause ; the discussion of the famous " Plan of Pacification " and questions of" Conference Rights " in 1838 and 1839; the extreme pro- slavery utterances of southern Conferences declaring that " slavery as it now exists in these United States is not a moral evil;" and the starting of the American Wes leyan Observer, a new antislavery paper, in Lowell, Mass., November 7, 1839, edited by Revs. Jotham Horton and Orange Scott. These events, occurring between 1834 and 1840, show the intense aggressive spirit of opposition to slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the no less determined resistance to antislavery action by southerners and southern sympathizers. During these six years the Church was agitated by the most exciting contests ever known in her history. The South threatened to divide the Church, and many at the North, fearing it, sought to avert the calamity, but the antislavery sentiment steadily increased. The Last of the Retrograding Series. The General Conference of 1840 was in harmony with that of 1836, where the downward tendency of conservatism touched bot tom. The action of the Missouri Conference, condemning a minister of maladministration for receiving the testimony of colored persons against white persons in a church trial, was approved, and by a vote of seventy-four to thirty-six this Conference declared that " such a practice is inexpedient and unjustifiable in those States where colored persons are not allowed to testify in trials at law." But the most remarkable action was taken upon a memorial from Westmoreland, Va. The Conference affirmed that ownership of slave-property, in States and Territories where the laws do not admit of emancipation, or permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom, con stitutes no legal barrier to the election and ordination of ministers to the various grades of office known in the ministry of the Meth odist Episcopal Church, and cannot therefore be considered as oper ating any forfeiture of right in view of such election and ordination. ACTION OF THE MISSOURI CONFERENCE. 465 These concessions, contrary to the time-honored policy of the Church, aroused attention and augmented the immense antislavery force in process of development within and without the ecclesiastical lines. The tide turned in 1840, after which no more concessions were made to the slave-power. The "Wesleyan" schism, in 1842, in which about twenty traveling elders and five thousand members seceded, chiefly on account of the relation of the Church to slavery, contributed somewhat to this end. When the General Conference met in 1844 it found on its hands a great question to settle — whether the bishops should be allowed to hold slaves ; Bishop Andrew having become a slave-holder by marriage — the first instance in the history of the denomination. The northern members contended that the episcopal chair must be kept free from this evil, as it always had been, and that he must therefore resign his position. His friends pleaded, protested and threatened division if he was not let alone. But the Conference, by a vote of no to 68, declared that he must desist from the exercise of his office. The result was the secession of a large number of southern ministers and members, and the formation of the Meth odist Episcopal Church, South. Sixteen more years of contest remained before the unequivocal rule against all slave-holding could be enacted by the necessary three fourths vote of the General Conference. In i860 the chapter on slavery in the Discipline was strengthened so as to embody this exclusive principle, and four years later the specific rule was adopted by a vote of 207 to 9. The civil war, occasioned by the triumph in the nation ofthe policy of the non-extension of slavery in the Ter ritories, achieved very largely by the prayers, appeals and suffrages of antislavery church members, aided the final solution. It is hardly necessary to trace the antislavery struggle in the Baptist Church, so similar to those already sketched, which culmi nated in the division of the denomination in 1845, and the organ ization of the northern and southern Baptist Conventions. Nor have we space to enter into the details of the humiliating compro mises of various benevolent boards. In the course of these agitations another movement took place, one of the most painful to record, because of The Bitter and Destructive Spirit It Engendered. I have no disposition to detract from any credit due to Mr. Gar rison as an antislavery agitator. His peculiar talent made him con spicuous and left a deep impression. But the time came when the 30 466 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Garrison party diminished in numbers and in influence, and the anti- slavery cause was carried forward, not merely without his aid, but even in spite of his hinderance. He possessed an extraordinary power of vituperation, and his philippics were terrible irritants. " He prej udiced the minds of good men against the antislavery cause, while the political movement, which ultimately proved the successful one, ever after 1838 met with his opposition." * In less than five years from the organization of the first society under Mr. Garrison the American Antislavery Society numbered 1,350 auxiliaries, existing in every free State except Indiana and New Jersey, and its annual receipts reached $45,000. But notwith standing this rapid progress he became impatient, and his intensely radical spirit, panting for still more radical reforms, repelled his best tried friends. He forgot that he drew his first antislavery breath from the Church ; that his best supporters were the people of the churches ; that of the persons participating in the organization of the American Antislavery Society and its auxiliaries, and those at tending the antislavery anniversaries and conventions, full one third were ministers, while more than half of the remainder were com municants of the churches ; that three fourths of the antislavery agents and editors were clergymen ; that Hon. George Thompson, with whom he had communed so closely, was a Wesleyan local preacher ; that his ablest adherents and confreres were Revs. A. A. Phelps, Joshua Leavitt, William Goodell, Nathaniel Colver, Baron Stow, Orange Scott, Jotham Horton, Samuel J. May, etc., and that instead of a decline there was a steady growth of reform sentiment and activity in the churches. All these things and many more he forgot. He abhorred and denounced the Church and State, and sought their overthrow. In a Fourth-of-July address at Providence in 1837 he frenziedly declared, " I stand forth in the spirit of prophecy to proclaim in the ears of the people that our doom as a nation is sealed," adding, "If history be not wholly fabulous, if revelation be not a forgery, if God be not faithless in the execution of his threatenings, the doom is certain and the execution thereof sure. The overthrow ofthe Amer ican Confederacy is in the womb of events. . . . The corruptions of the Church, so-called, are obviously more deep and incurable than those of the State, and therefore the Church, in spite of every pre caution and safeguard, is first to be dashed in pieces." f Mr. Garrison and his intimate friends were soon intent on other * Editor of the Congregational Quarterly, October, 1876, p. 552. \The True History of the Late Division in the Antislavery Societies, p. 8, 1841. EXTREME SENTIMENTS. 467 reforms. "Anti-church," "Anti-ministry," "Anti-Sabbath," "No Government," " Woman's Rights," etc., were the watch-words. Standing alone on their individual merits these reforms could get no hearing before the public; therefore it was attempted to "sift them in " upon the antislavery reform. * The ultraists pleaded f that both the ecclesiastical and the polit ical organizations failed to grasp the question of slavery as its im portance demanded ; that the slave power was aggressive, arrogant, mandatory and grasping ; that Church after Church had looked on with little interest, often using their influence rather to quiet aboli tionists than to harm slavery ; that politicians were afraid to attack the monster in the halls of Congress, and quailing statesmen cowered before the bowie-knife and revolver. Under such circumstances these champions of reform became impatient, bitter, vindictive and desperate. Out of this feeling the " Comeouter " movement arose, dividing the opposers of slavery into two parties. The "Comeouter" Party, led by the Liberator, edited by Mr. Garrison, opposed the American Church — not merely the pro-slavery part, but the Church itself — as the bulwark of American slavery, and consequently an institution that could not be reformed, and, therefore, to be abolished before slavery could be reached. The ministry, as dumb dogs (D.Ds.) that would not bark, were placed in the same category, and must go with the Church. The Sabbath was denounced ; all days were to be re garded alike. The Bible received a liberal share of abuse, most of them discarding its authority as a standard of appeal. It was a stench in their nostrils, because slave-holders and their apologists perverted it to sustain slavery. Reason and conscience were above the Bible. The Old Testament was rejected as of no authority whatever, and the New also when it confronted their theories. These topics were forced upon the antislavery meetings for dis cussion and indorsement, and special meetings were called and their doings published in the Liberator as antislavery literature. Another obstacle in the way of emancipation was the Constitu tion of the United States. Human governments, they affirmed in general, were " of the devil," and the United States Constitution in particular was a "covenant with death, a league with hell." It was * The True History of the Late Division in the Antislavery Societies, p. r5. tFor some of the facts connected with the origin of the "Comeouter" movement the author is indebted to a letter in the Boston Daily Advertiser, June 9, 1873, by J. W. Alden. 468 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. a sin to vote under it even to free the slave, because their tender consciences could not approve the act of voting. Slave-holding politicians for fifty years had construed the Constitution in favor of slavery, and pro-slavery divines had done the same thing with the Bible. Inasmuch as the Church, the ministry, the Sabbath, the Bible and the United States Constitution all lay in the way of the abolition of slavery, they must be removed before slavery could be reached. " The antislavery movement at the start favored the use of the elective franchise in behalf of the slave;" but in 1838 the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, under the lead of Mr. Garrison, "was made to abandon its own original doctrines on the subject of political action, and became subservient to the promotion of the dogma of non-governmentism." These views caused a division and a new organization of anti- slavery workers. From that time Mr. Garrison's influence declined, and the sphere of his operations was narrowed to a small, dwindling circle of sour, wrangling spirits, while the great movement to which his earlier labors contributed an impulse rolled on in widening cir cles under Other and Wiser Leaders. The division occurred in the Massachusetts Antislavery Society in May, 1839, anc^ 'n the American Antislavery Society the year fol lowing. By packing the business meeting of the latter Society in 1839 with Massachusetts delegates in sympathy with Mr. Garrison's peculiar views, equal in number to nearly one third of all the votes cast, the Woman's Rights and Non-government party triumphed. In 1840 this victory was made sure, by transporting, by special steam boat arrangements, several hundred women from Boston and vicinity to New York to vote in the meeting. The party opposed to the peculiar dogmas of Garrison withdrew, and organized the American and Foreign Antislavery Society in May, 1840. In Massachusetts, where the split occurred the previous year, the new party was organ ized as the " Massachusetts Abolition Society," under the leadership of Rev. Amos A. Phelps. The party was chiefly composed of evan gelical antislavery Christians of all denominations who believed in using the ballot-box for the purpose of freeing the slaves. Its paper, The Abolitionist, was edited at first by Rev. Mr. Phelps, then by Elizur Wright, Jr. Subsequently its name was changed to the Free American, and it was edited by Rev. Charles T. Torrey. Agents were sent out and auxiliaries were formed. Antislavery churches opened their pulpits to the agents, and those who would not commit them- CONSCIENTIOUS DISAPPROVAL. 469 selves to antislavery action were glad to part with antislavery mem bers, who formed churches on the basis of non-fellowship with slave-holders. But no evangelical church, however antislavery, re ceived the approbation of the other party. While this work was going on " the scattering system " at the polls was abandoned, and the " liberty party" was organized in 1840. About this time The Emancipator, which had been started in New York city, was removed to Boston and united with the Free American, with Rev. Joshua Leavitt, D.D., and J. W. Alden as edi tors and proprietors, while Rev. George B. Cheever, D.D., and Rev. William Goodell published the Principia in New York. Those Christian men who did not unite with the antislavery so cieties were doubtless conscientious, of high character and intel ligence, and not wanting in true sympathy for the slave. Some could not approve the impracticable measures of the reformers. Others, from taste or principle, disliked such associations, and felt that they could not be held responsible before the public for either the policy or the opinions advocated by the radical agitators. Deeply abhorring slavery, and desiring to do something for its removal, never theless Mr. Garrison's doctrine of immediate emancipation seemed impracticable and impossible. They also shrank from contact with violent and denunciatory persons, who scornfully repelled prudential suggestions or more moderate measures. On the other hand, other Christian men enjoyed the reform asso ciations, even the stormiest scenes ; organizing, leading, and sustain ing the meetings vigorously, imparting to the cause its most reliable and influential support, tempering it with their presence, inspiring hope and confidence in the darkest moments, and securing the divine blessing by their prayers. From the beginning to the close of the movement the churches were largely represented * by the ministry and the laity, usually con stituting a large majority and often seven eighths of the working force. Of 146 delegates whose names appear in the annual report of the American Antislavery Society for 1838, the year before the division, 50 were ministers, nearly all of them belonging to " evan gelical churches." It was so every year from 1833 and onward until the division. And yet in the Liberator, in 1837, Mr. Oliver Johnson said : " The antislavery car has rolled forward thus far not only with out the aid, but against the combined influence ofthe ministers and churches of the country." Could any statement more completely * It is difficult to do justice to the numerous toilers in this work of reform. We will not at tempt it, so great would be the risk of overlooking many whose names deserve mention. 470 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ignore the real facts up to that time ? Rev. Amos. A. Phelps, of the Congregational Church, was regarded by many as "the head and front of antislavery movements in Massachusetts, doing more solid work than almost any other person." Revs. Joshua Leavitt and William Goodell were little behind him, and some will place Rev. Orange Scott, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on a parallel with him in effective, self-sacrificing labors. Statistics exist showing that, in 1837, the antislavery societies in Massachusetts numbered 19,206 members, equivalent to one in thirty-six of the whole popu lation of the State, while of the 792 ministers in the State, 367, or almost one half, were enrolled members of these societies. Of the fifty-six agents employed by the American Antislavery Society prior to 1837, forty-three were ministers. Thus, in this unpopular period ofthe agitation, while the ministers were one in five hundred ofthe whole population, they were one in five of the front ranks of this reform. * And yet Theodore Parker, who espoused this cause nearly ten years later than the date under consideration, was wont to ex claim, "When did the Christianity of the Church ever denounce a popular sin ?" And whence came the antislavery martyrs but from these churches? Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy (1837), Charles T. Torrey (1846), John Brown (1859), ar>d Rev- Anthony Bewley (i860), who laid down their lives in devotion to antislavery principles, were of evangelical churches. The imprisonment and inhuman branding (S. S., slave- stealef) of Captain Jonathan Walker, of Massachusetts, at Pensacola, *A writer of a political tract, over the signature of Junius (supposed to be Calvin Colton), said: "Nearly all the practical abolitionists and, with scarcely an exception, all the abolition preachers, lecturers, and missionaries, are religious men. Religion every-where is the high and holy sanction relied upon to enforce the doctrine." Mr. Oliver Johnson, whose severe arraignment of the churches in the Liberator in 1837 has been quoted, at a more recent date, in the Christian Union of May 7, 1874, under the mellowing influence of later years, said : "The antislavery movement originated in the deepest religious convictions, and derived its main impulse fiom the spirit of Christianity in the hearts of its cham pions. It is important to affirm this because efforts have been made in certain quarters to justify or excuse the hostility to the movement of the great body of ministers and churches in the coun try on the ground of its alleged 'infidel' character and tendency. On this point history must not be perverted nor the truth concealed." Rev. James Freeman Clarke said : "If the churches as organizations stood aloof, being only 'timidly good' as organizations are apt to be, the purest of their body were sure to be found in this great company of 'latter-day saints.' " Again : "Nevertheless from the Christian body came most of those who devoted their lives to the extirpation of this great evil. And Mr. Garrison always maintained that his converts were most likely to be made among those whose consciences had been educated by the Church and the Bible." Hon. George Thompson, in his celebrated debate with Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckenridge, of Ken tucky, on slavery, in Glasgow, 1836, said of the American antislavery reformers : "They are universally men and women of religious principles, and, in most instances, of unquestioned piety." He had never known any benevolent enterprise carried forward more in dependence upon divine direction and divine aid than the abolition cause in the United States, ANTI-GARRISONIANS. 471 in 1840; the mobbing of Dr. Bailey, editor of the National Era, Washington, D. C, in 1848; and of Dr. John S. Prettyman, editor of a Republican paper in Delaware, in 1859; anc^ the murderous assault upon Hon. Charles Sumner, the incorruptible senator, deserve sharp denunciation; but Thomas Garrett (1848), who suf fered in Delaware ; Rev. John G. Fee and Miss Delia Webster, in Kentucky ; Revs. Daniel Worth and Silas M'Kenney, in Texas ; Rev. Dr. Nelson and Messrs. Thompson and Burr (students for the ministry), and Work, in Missouri ; and " Parson " Brownlow in Tennessee, well-known victims of slave-holding vengeance, were ministers or communicants of evangelical churches no less devoted to the cause of the slave. The Garrison party, withdrawing from all political relations and diverted in purpose by complex social and skeptical hobbies, be came a small contracted sphere that could not grow, notwithstand ing the most assiduous efforts to bring to their platform every-thing that could draw and impress an audience. Many attended their anniversaries to witness the gladiatorial sport, for they were fierce tournaments. But the movement did not expand. It lacked moral cohesion ; was repellant and chilling rather than attractive and vital izing. " Their orators were of every kind : rough men and shrill-voiced women, polished speakers from the universities, stammering fugi tives from slavery, philosophers and fanatics, atheists and Christian ministers, wise men who had been made mad by oppression, and babes in intellect, to whom God had revealed some of the noblest truths. They murdered the king's English ; they uttered glaring fallacies ; the blows aimed at evil often glanced aside and hit good men. Invective was, perhaps, the too-frequent staple of their argu ment ; and any difference of opinion would be apt to turn their weapons against each other. The Church militant often became a Church termagant." * But the newly organized party, retaining the doctrine of political action against slavery, formerly advocated by Garrison, gradually grew. Hundreds of ministers and thousands of the laity left pro- slavery churches and organized churches on a strict antislaVery basis. Ministerial antislavery conventions were held, and Christian anti- slavery conventions, large influential bodies, and wholly by the anti-Garrison party. Simultaneously with them, and mutually con tributing to each other, started the Liberty Party (1840), the Free *Rev. James Freeman Clarke, D D., in North American Review, January, 1875, p. 54. 472 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Soil Party (1848), and the Republican Party (1854), all the out growth, in and out of the churches, of the antislavery spirit. A few collateral facts should be added to complete the story. The culminating events of the antislavery movement and the emancipation of the slaves, sketched in the next period, in the nature of the case political measures, effected by civil agencies, were not accomplished without the permeating and extensively control ling influence of the churches. The ecclesiastical conferences, associations and conventions throughout the North, from 1 850 to the close of the civil war, passed numerous resolutions bearing upon national issues, such as the compromise measures of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Bill, the Dred Scott Decision, the Kansas and Nebraska schemes, etc. The Congressional records show numerous petitions and remon strances of individual churches, of ministers and ecclesiastical bodies, bearing upon these great questions. The religious press entered into the contest, conspicuous among which was the Inde pendent, edited by Revs. Leonard Bacon, D.D., J. P. Thompson, D.D., R. S. Storrs, D.D., and Henry Ward Beecher. Uncle Tom s Cabin, and kindred works, imbued with fervid religious sentiment, moved the masses. The very boldness of the projects of the slave power awakened revulsion and intensified antislavery action. Memorials numerously signed by clergymen from the Middle and Western States poured into Congress, and one hundred and twenty- five separate remonstrances within a few months came from the ministers of the six New England States. There came a mammoth memorial, two hundred feet long, bearing the names of three thou sand and fifty New England clergymen,* so ingeniously engrossed as to preserve the original signature and heading of each petition, protesting " in the name of Almighty God," against the proposed extension of the domain of slavery in the territory of the United States. On its presentation to the Senate Hon. Edward Everett apologetically alluded to it as " a somewhat voluminous document." Hon. Stephen A. Douglas characterized it as " informal and mon strous," and Hon. John M. Mason, of Virginia, and Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, poured out their indignation against the political parsons, and prognosticated evil omens from such participation in political action by the Christian clergy. Hon. Samuel Houston, *This idea originated with Mrs. H. B. Stowe, who suggested it to Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D.D., editor of the Congregationalist, through whose agency the heading was prepared at a meeting of Boston ministers, and the names were obtained. None except the Roman Catholic clergy refused to sign it. THE SABBATH REFORM. 413 with characteristic magnanimity, declared that he saw in the paper nothing informal nor monstrous, and that "this memorial, signed by three thousand and fifty ministers of the living God, is evidence that the people are deeply moved." And Hon. Charles Sumner, then fresh in his seat in the Senate, thanked the ministers for their interposition, adding: "In the days of the Revolution John Adams, yearning for independence, said, ' Let the pulpits thunder against oppression,' and the pulpits thundered. The time has come for them to thunder again." Section 3.— The Satfbatli Reform. The subject of the observance of the Sabbath prominently occu pied the attention of the churches after the opening of this century. During the period of general infidelity and demoralization of man ners, at the close of the last century, this sacred institution suffered serious harm. In the new communities along the frontier the Sabbath was generally disregarded and often practically unknown. The first missionaries in western New York, Ohio, Michigan, and other new States, testified that the Sabbath was only a day of amusement, spent in horse-racing and dissipation ; that stores were opened as on other days, and that it was not distinguishable from other days, except, perhaps, by an excess of wickedness. In the older States, although there were few instances of open excesses or public trade, yet there was a serious disregard of the sacredness of the day, and a growing laxity in its observance. Even the general government was party to its public desecration. The action of Congress deserves to be recapitulated. An eminent divine who passed through that period has left a sketch of the action : Mail Carrying. By a law passed in 1810 the Postmaster-General considered himself bound to compel the deputy postmasters, at offices where a mail arrived on the Sabbath, to keep open on that day for the delivery of letters. It seems, however, that he had some scruples of conscience on the subject, for he directed the carriers of the mail to pass as quietly as possible through the country, " without announcing their arrival or departure by the sounding of horns or trumpets, or in any other way calculated to draw off the attention of the people from their devotions." Post masters were required to keep their offices open only one hour after the arrival of the mail on the Sabbath ; but if it arrived during public worship that hour should be immediately after. At the next session of Congress the people from different parts of the country sent up remonstrances, first against the carrying of the mail on the Sabbath, and, 474 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. secondly, against requiring postmasters to open their offices for the delivery of let ters on that day. These remonstrances were referred to the proper committee, who reported in favor of carrying the mail and opening offices. In 1812, 181 5 and 1817 similar remonstrances called forth similar reports. In 1812 and 1815 the reason assigned for not repealing the law was the peculiar state of the country, it being engaged in war, and it was deemed a work of necessity. The report of 181 5 was presented before the news of peace arrived. Mr. Meigs, the Postmaster- General, assigned as a reason for carrying the mails on the Sabbath the astounding argument that, if they were not carried " they would be delayed one seventh of the time." A member of Congress said " public convenience required it." In 1817 the Postmaster-General assigned the following remarkable reason for carrying mails on the Sabbath: "The contents of the mail," he said, "are not confined to public dispatches nor to subjects of private business or pleasure. The same mail which transports such matters conveys supplies to those in want, consolation to the afflicted, and to the pious evangelical correspondence ; and thus, performing works of charity, it may be regarded as doing good on the Sabbath day." During this year the committee reported that while it was necessary to transport mails on the Sabbath it was not needful that offices should be kept open for the delivery of letters. Here the matter rested until 1825, when a law was passed more rigid than any that had previously been enacted. It required that all post-offices at which mails arrived on the Sabbath should be kept open during the whole of that day. In 1829 petitions were presented from all parts of the Union praying for the repeal of that law. In March, 1830, Hon. Richard M. Johnson presented his famous report, drawn forth by the petitions of 1829, respecting which it has been said, "Satan never accomplished a greater temporary victory over the Sabbath, through any agency, in any country, than was accomplished by this report, if we except the abolition of the Sabbath in France during the reign of infidelity." A minor ity of the committee presented at the same time an able report advocating better views, but Mr. Johnson's sent a thrill of horror through the land. It called forth a fuller expression of public opinion than was ever had before on this subject, from the press and pulpit and legislative halls. Laws requiring the transportation of the mail on the Sabbath were regarded by many as unconstitutional. Almost every State in the Union prohibits its citizens from keeping their shops open and from engaging in secular labors on the Sabbath. The laws of Congress, it was said, conflicted with the rights of the States.* The Churches Speak. During the first thirty years of this century the various ecclesi astical bodies often passed stirring resolutions in regard to the Sabbath, expressing their views and stimulating the Christian pub lic to exert their influence in its behalf. As early as 1812 a society was organized in Connecticut " For the Promotion of Morals," before which Rev. Lyman Beecher preached one of his remarkable sermons. This Society had a twofold object — to promote the observance of the Sabbath and a temperance reform. In 1814 the *See The Half Century, by Rev. Emerson Davis, D.D. Boston. 1851. Tappan & Whittemore. Pp. 184, 185, 186. HONORS TO LAFAYETTE. 478 General Association of Congregational churches in Connecticut sent out an "Address" on the sanctification of the Sabbath, and prepared and circulated a petition to Congress against fhe transpor tation and opening of the mails on the Lord's day. The following year the General Association of Massachusetts took similar action in regard to the mails. From 1812 to 18 19 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church repeatedly engaged in discussions on this subject, and petitions were drawn up and sent to the people for signatures and then forwarded to Congress, praying for the repeal of the laws requiring the conveyance of the mail on the Sabbath. In 1827 Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring and a few other gentlemen attempted to hold a public meeting in the City Hall, New York city, for the promotion of a better observance of the Sabbath. Able speakers were engaged, but long before the time for the meeting the place was preoccupied by those who had taken alarm at the supposed invasion of their rights. When Dr. Spring and his friends entered the hall they found the rabble passing resolutions advis ing the "ministers to mind their business," etc. Dr. Spring says : We were marked men. The excited multitude looked daggers at us. They would not listen to us. Our persons were in danger and we left the hall. . . Other efforts were made, but without success. Even the most glaring Sabbath nuisances could not be abated, while the abetters of such efforts met a storm of reproach from the press." When General Lafayette visited this country in 1824 public mil itary honors were paid to him on the Lord's day. The General Association of Massachusetts at its next session passed resolutions presenting their views of the importance of the Christian Sabbath, their painful apprehensions in witnessing the growing indifference to the sanctity of the day, and especially the public and repeated violations of it in paying honors to General Lafayette. Organization. In 1828 a "General Union for the Observance of the Sabbath" was organized in New York city, Rev. M. Bruen, secretary, and Hon. Arthur Tappan, treasurer. This Society was immediately recommended by the various religious bodies to the sympathy of the churches. The report of the Postmaster-General, in 1829, in favor of Sunday mails, to which reference has been made, aroused a strong feeling of indignation, and excited the churches to more earnest measures for preserving the Sabbath from profanation. From 1830 to 1840 no special organized efforts were put forth to 476 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. promote the observance of the Sabbath. About 1840 the radical abolitionists, who received the designation of " Comeouters," began to assail the churches, the Bible, and the Sabbath as bulwarks of slavery, and sought their overthrow. They held several anti-Sab bath conventions, in which the most violent language was used in denouncing the Lord's day, shocking the moral sense of the Chris tian public. But these things had an influence to quicken the friends of the Sabbath into action. During the year 1842 Rev. Justin Ed wards, D.D., who for seven years had acted a leading part in con ducting and organizing the temperance reformation, and had just closed a six years' presidency of Andover Theological Seminary, devoted himself especially to the promotion of temperance, the observance of the Sabbath, and the proper treatment of the Bible. On the 27th of June, 1842, in Andover, Mass., Dr. Edwards formed a Sabbath association. On the 29th he was at Westborough, Mass., attending the General Association of Massachusetts, and procuring the passage of resolutions on temperance, the Sabbath, and the Bible. On the 31st he was at New Haven, raising funds for the Sabbath cause ; then at Saratoga and at Mr. Edward C. Dele- van's, at Ballston ; then at Utica, then at Rochester, holding a Sab bath convention ; then successively at Geneva, Auburn, Albany, Troy, Boston, and other parts of New England, conferring with gentlemen as to providing funds, and otherwise exerting his power ful agency for the cause of the Sabbath, to which he devoted seven years of his public life.* On the 4th of April, 1843, The American and Foreign Sabbath Union was formed in Boston, Chief-Justice Williams, of Connecticut, pres ident ; Dr. Justin Edwards, secretary. A year after Dr. Edwards reported that he had visited ten States, had traveled 12,000 miles, had held five general Sabbath conventions, and had addressed twenty-five different ecclesiastical bodies. On the 27th of November, 1844, a National Sabbath Convention was held in Baltimore, attended by upward of seventeen hundred delegates from eleven different States, Hon. John Quincy Adams presiding. This convention adopted with great unanimity twenty resolutions expressive of their sense of the sacredness, the divine authority, the obligations, and the benefits of the Sabbath, and also three able and forcible public appeals for the true and proper * Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D. By Rev. Wm. A. Hallock. American Tract Society. Pp. 448-451. SABBATH CONVENTIONS. 411 observance of the day — one to the people of the United States, one to all Canal Commissioners, and one to railroad directors. Within the first three years of Dr. Edwards's labors fifteen general Sabbath conventions were held, of which seven were State conventions, each attended by from one hundred to five hundred delegates.- On the adjournment of the National Convention, at Baltimore, Dr. Edwards entered upon one of those extensive and laborious tours for which he had become noted in other departments of reform, and by which he exerted so effective an influence. During his connection with this Society as its secretary, Dr. Edwards prepared a valuable series of Permanent Sabbath Docu ments, the first of which was issued in 1844, exhibiting "the ends for which the Sabbath was appointed," the reasons why it should be kept, the benefits of observing it, and the evils which, by laws that no one can annul or evade, must come upon those who profane it. The second appeared in 1845, upon "The change from the seventh to the first day of the week; " the third, in 1847, entitled, "The Sabbath a family institution;" the fourth, in 1848, showing "The proper mode of keeping the Sabbath." The fifth, and last, was upon "The developments of Providence in regard to the Sab bath," and was published the following year. In 1846 Dr. Edwards prepared the Sabbath Manual, which was stereotyped in several languages and very widely circulated through the country. Mr. Edward C. Delevan, of Albany, had one hundred thousand copies printed and circulated among the stockholders and travelers on the New York Central Railroad from Albany to Buffalo, to prepare the way for the discontinuance of railroad travel on the Sabbath. The American Tract Society co-operated in this work, circulating the Sabbath Manual in English, German, Spanish, and French, to the surprising number of one million, one hundred and seventy-five thousand copies.* Dr. Edwards's last report was made in May, 1850, in which he stated that he had traveled more than forty-eight thousand miles through twenty-five of the United States. "About forty railroad companies," he says, " stop the running of their cars on the Sab bath on about four thousand miles of roads. The communities through which they pass, and whose right to the stillness and quiet of the day had for years been grossly violated by the screaming and rumbling of cars in time of public worship, are now free from the nuisance, and are permitted to enjoy their rights and privileges without molestation." * Life of Rev. Justin Edwards, p. 496. 478 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER V. ORGANIC CHANGES IN PROTESTANT CHURCHES. SEVERAL important ecclesiastical movements occurred during this period. The schisms occasioned by Arian and Socinian tendencies will be sketched in the next chapter. Those which will be here noticed were caused almost entirely by differences occasioned by questions of policy or polity. The Methodist Episcopal Church experienced the greatest number of these schisms. The Reformed Methodist Church had its origin in Vermont, in 1814, under the leadership of Rev. Messrs. Elijah Bailey and Ezra Amiden, and grew entirely out of questions of polity — a protest against Episco- pacy. Rev. Pliny Britt, for some years a successful minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New England, joined the movement, and, after spending about forty years in that body, a short time before his death returned to the mother Church. This denomina tion has never numbered more than five thousand members, and has existed chiefly in Massachusetts, Vermont, northern New York and Ohio. A colored secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church, originating near the close of the last century, in Philadelphia, under the leadership of Rev. Richard Allen, became more fully organized in 1 8 16, and took the name of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Allen was elected and ordained as the first bishop, and served until his death in 1831, when he was followed in the episcopal office by Rev. M. Brown. Since i860 this body has grown very rapidly. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church originated in the city of New York in 1820, in a secession from the Methodist Epis copal Church, and in 1821 the first Annual Conference, consisting of 22 ministers, was held in New York city. In 1836 Rev. Christopher Rush was elected Superintendent for four years. In 1847 two METHODIST CHURCHES. 479 superintendents were elected. This church also has grown very rapidly since i860. The Stilwellite secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church occurred in New York city in 1820, but never became a large body, and long since disappeared. Opposition to the polity of the Meth odist Episcopal Church was the basis of the movement. Its few churches existed for a while on an independent plan and sub sequently joined the Methodist Protestant Church. The Methodist Protestant Church was formed in 1830 by a secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church. The agitation which culminated in this organization was continued through a half dozen previous years. The objections which were alleged against the Methodist Episcopal Church were its episcopal form of govern ment and the exclusion of the laity from the legislative councils of the Church. Efforts were made to secure a representation in the Conferences, but without avail. In 1824 a meeting of the reformers was held in Baltimore, at which a " Union Society " was formed for the purpose of agitating the question of a change of government. Similar organizations were formed elsewhere, and a periodical was established called the Mutual Rights. In the spring of 1826 the Baltimore Union Society initiated a movement for a general con vention to consider the expediency of petitioning the General Con ference of 1828 for lay representation. The convention was held November, 1827, and the petition was presented, but received an unfavorable answer. The reform movement was opposed, the " Union Societies " were condemned, and, in some places, mem bers were expelled who belonged to them. Thereupon the " Reformers " began to secede in considerable numbers. A conven tion met in Baltimore November 12, 1828, which drew up provis ional articles of association, and November 2, 1830, another convention assembled in the same place and adopted a constitution and Book of Discipline under the name ofthe Methodist Protestant Church. Rev. Francis Waters, D.D., of Baltimore, was president of the convention. The Evangelical Association, sometimes called " German Meth odists " and " Albrights " — noticed in the preceding period — was organized in Pennsylvania, in 1800, by Rev. Jacob Albright, orig inally a convert to Methodism. Gradually societies multiplied and conferences were formed, and in 18 16 a General Conference was held. Since 1843 a General Conference composed of delegates elected by the Annual Conferences among the elders has held quadrennial sessions. 480 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. In 1829 four Primitive Methodist preachers came from England and commenced preaching in New York, Philadelphia, Albany, and some other places. A few churches were organized, but they did not thrive, and the ministers soon identified themselves with other de nominations. In 1842 this Church began to assume a more perma nent form in the West. Several local preachers and laymen came from England and settled at Grant Hill, in Illinois. They have since increased somewhat, but very slowly, numbering at the present time not. more than two Conferences and about 5,000 members. The " True Wesleyan" schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church was occasioned by a dissatisfaction with the polity of the Church and the treatment of the slavery question. No radical differences, since the small secession of Rev. James O'Kelley, in 1793, had ever existed in this denomination in regard to the doctrines, nor have there been until this day, except in a few individual cases. In respect to doctrines Methodism throughout the world is essentially a unit. But dissatisfaction arose in reference to the episcopacy and some cognate features of polity, and during the great anti-slavery agitation a large party demanded the immediate expulsion of all slave-holders from the fellowship of the Church. These questions were pressed very hard. The epithets "abolition" and "pro- slavery " were freely used. The Watchman, published at New York, under the editorship of Rev. LeRoy Sunderland, was the organ of the radical party, and Revs. Orange Scott, Jothan Horton and LeRoy Sunderland were the leaders of this class in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Revs. John Crocker, Hiram Mackee, R. McCurdy and Dr. Timberman, in the Methodist Protestant Church. On the 8th of November, 1842, Revs. Messrs. Scott, Horton and Sunderland withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in the same month the first number of the True Wesleyan, a paper in the interest ofthe movement, was published under the editorship ofthe two former gentlemen. On the first page they set forth the reasons for their withdrawal; namely, that " the Methodist Episcopal Church is not only a slave-holding but a slavery-defending church," and that her " government contains principles which are subversive of the rights both of ministers and laymen." On the 31st of May, 1843, a convention was held in Utica, New York, composed of parties who had been connected with the two beforementioned Methodist bodies, for the purpose of forming a " Wesleyan Methodist Church " free from episcopacy and slavery. After several days of deliberation a " Form of Discipline" was adopted, and six Annual Conferences were organized, chiefly in the Northern and Eastern States, numbering METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. 481 in a short time about 300 ministers and 20,000 members. They have not increased since the first two or three years of their exist ence. But the largest division in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 'the last in this period, was The Southern Methodist Schism. The Methodist Episcopal Church, in common with other churches, suffered much from the agitation of the slavery question. It has been noticed that in the first conferences where slavery existed, in the Northern as well as the Middle and Southern States, the subject was introduced into the legislative body of the Church and every-where freely discussed. Resolutions were passed disapproving of the traf fic in slaves, and requiring that members of the Church should eman cipate them wherever it was allowed by the States. During the prolonged agitation of the subject the laity were allowed to hold slaves but the ministry were prohibited, except when held for pur poses of humanity. At the General Conference of 1840 it was declared by formal resolution that, "under the provisional exception to the general rule of the Church on the subject of slavery, mere ownership of slave property in States or Territories where the laws do not admit of emancipation and permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom con stitutes no legal barrier to the election or ordination of ministers to the various grades of office known in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church." * This resolution, however, it was claimed, was never intended to justify any minister in voluntarily acquiring slave property, nor to overrule what had always been the uniform policy of the Church ; namely, the entire exemption of the episco pacy from all complicity with slavery in any form. The bishops were general superintendents, traveling through the whole Church, and, if slave-holders, they would be unacceptable in the Northern Conferences. Hence the resolution expressly stipulated that its conditions came under " the provisional exception to the general rule of the Church." In January, 1844, Bishop Andrew married a widow who owned slaves bequeathed by a former husband. He made no efforts to free them, but rather took steps to have their freedom placed entirely beyond his power, f In process of time the fact became generally known and excited various comments. It was evident * History ofthe Great Secession. By Rev. C. Elliot, D.D. P. 228. \ Ibid. P. 295. 31 482 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. that his action could not be overlooked. The General Conference assembled in May of that year in the city of New York. It was a large body and its session was one of great interest. After a long debate over Bishop Andrew's case, and a variety of propositions, it was finally voted that he be required to desist from the exercise of the functions of his episcopal office. Immediately after this action the representatives of thirteen Annual Conferences, embraced in the slave-holding States, presented a declaration which set forth their solemn conviction that a contin uance of the jurisdiction of the General Conference over the Annual Conferences thus represented would be inconsistent with the suc cess of the Methodist ministry in the slave-holding States. This declaration was accompanied with a formal protest against the action of the majority in the case of Bishop Andrew, and led to the adoption of a plan of separation by the General Conference. The Church in the South and South-west, in primary assemblies and in Quarterly and Annual Conferences, sustained the declaration of the delegates, and measures were immediately adopted for the assem bling of a convention in May, 1845, at Louisville, Kentucky. By its action the connection of the Southern Conferences with the General Conference was dissolved, and a separate ecclesiastical body was created under the name of the " Methodist Episcopal Church, South." The following year the first General Conference of the Southern Methodist Church was held at Petersburg, Virginia. At the time when this division took place the Methodist Epis copal Church was in the full tide of prosperity, having had an increase during the four previous years of 869 traveling preachers, 1,748 l329- In 1831 the additions to the churches on examination were 15,357; in 1832, 34,160; in 1833,23,546; in 1834, 20,296, amounting in four years to a little more than 93,000. It was in the midst of this remarkable and unprecedented advance of the Church, both in numbers and in enterprise, that signs of approaching danger manifested themselves. The causes ofthe unhappy division were numerous, many of them of long standing and gradual in their operation. The whole subject was ably sketched by Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., in his Religion in America:* * Harper & Brothers. 1856. Pp. 242, 243. 488 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Since the year 1800 there had been going on a constant and very great emi gration 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 preva lent in New England. As they met, however, in their new locations with many Presbyterians, and as their ministers generally preferred the Presbyterian form of government, they united with them in the formation of churches and ecclesiastical judicatories. In 1801 the General Assembly and the General Association of Con necticut * 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 operated beneficially for a number of years, yet as it was extended far beyond its original intention, giving Congregationalists, who had never adopted the standards of doctrine of the Pres byterian 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, it naturally gave rise to dissatisfaction 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 sensi bly felt. In addition to this source of uneasiness was that which arose out of diversity of opinions on points of doctrine. Certain peculiarities of doctrine had become preva lent among the Calvinists of New England, which naturally spread into those por tions of the Presbyterian Church settled by New England men. These peculiarities were not regarded on either side as sufficient to justify any interruption of ministe rial 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 Schools. Within the last ten or twelve years, however, opinions had been advanced by some of the New England clergy which all the Old School and a large portion ofthe 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 inconsistent 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 deficiency of proof, partly from irregularity in the mode of proceeding, and 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 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 had generally preferred voluntary societies, disconnected with church courts, and embracing different religious denominations, for these pur poses. It might seem at first view that this was a subject on which the members of the Church might differ without inconvenience 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 locations of the hundreds of domestic missionaries * At that time the only Association of Congregationalists. OLD AND NEW SCHOOL SCHISM. 489 must sooner or later give character to the Church. On this account this question was regarded as one of great practical importance. It was in the midst of the differences and alienations arising from these various sources that the General Assembly met in 1837. Both parties had come to the conclusion that a separation was desirable ; but though they agreed as to the terms of 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 difficulties in another way. It first abolished the plan of union formed in 1801, and then passed several acts the purport and effect of which were that no Congrega tional Church should hereafter be represented in any Presbyterian judicatory, and that no presbytery or synod, composed partly of Presbyterians and partly of Con gregationalists, should hereafter be considered as a constituent portion of the Pres byterian Church. These acts were defended on the ground that they were nothing more than the legitimate exercise of the executive authority ofthe General Assem bly, 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 as purely Presbyterian bodies, the General Assembly would have been bound by its own acts to recognize them as constituent parts of the Church. But those brethren having assembled in convention at Auburn, N. Y., unanimously resolved that they would consider the plan of union as still in force, its abrogation by the General Assembly to the contrary notwithstanding, and that they would not separate from their Congregational brethren. Accordingly, in 1838, the delegates from the pres byteries contained 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 moderator 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 Penn sylvania 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 Presbyte rian Church in the United States of America." The decision of the judge and jury was in their favor, but when the case was taken before the court in bank — 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 rested, leaving what is called the Old School Assembly in possession of the succession and in the management ofthe seminaries. It may be remarked that this decision has given to that Assembly very little more than what was admitted to be their due by the opposite party— 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 constitute almost the whole sum held in trust by the General Assembly. During the controversies and agitations which prevailed in the Church previous to the separation, the spirit of religion declined, and the revivals, which had been before quite numerous, almost entirely Old School. New School. 96 85 1,243 1,181 192 105 175 43 1,823 1,286 128,043 100,805 33,989 45 $45 ,686 00 490 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ceased. The membership decreased, numbering thirteen thousand less in 1837 than in 1833. In 1837 there were 135 Presbyteries, 2,140 ministers, 280 licentiates, 244 candidates, 2,865 churches, 220,557 communicants. Raised for missions, $163,563 21 ; edu cation, $90,833 88; theological seminaries, $20,431 14; commis sioners, $6,137 85 ! contingent fund, $1,023 41. In the course of the two following years the separation became complete, and the two bodies were known as the Old School and the New School Presbyterian churches. The following table will show the relative strength of these two bodies after the division, in 1839: Presbyteries Ministers Licentiates Candidates Churches Communicants Raised for Domestic Missions $33,989 45 " " Foreign " 51,307 3° " Education 27,41695 12,71800 " " Theological Seminaries 9,663 63 64200 " Tracts, etc 5,11498 " " Commissioners 5,79103 1,23100 " " Contingent 1,15304 1,05200 These bodies remained separate until 1869, when they were happily reunited. In 1822, the Synod of the Associate Reformed Church having been brought, under the leadership of Rev. John M. Mason, D.D., to favor union with the Presbyterian Church, that union took place; but a very considerable minority refused to acquiesce in the measure, and retained a separate existence. In 1831 the Western Foreign Mis sionary Society was organized by the Synod of Pittsburg ; but the General Assembly of 1837 accepted the overtures of the Pittsburg Synod and established the Foreign Missionary Society in New York city. The Assembly of 1838 appointed a Board of Publication, to which were transferred the property and business of the Presbyterian Tract and Sabbath School Book Society, organized a few years before by the Synod of Philadelphia. In 1839 tne fiftieth year of the organization of the General Assembly was celebrated. In 1816 the Board of Missions, later called Domestic Missions, was organized, and in 18 19 a Board of Education to assist candidates for the minis try. The New School Presbyterians preferred to aid the American Home Missionary and the American Education Societies. In 1844 LUTHERAN GENERAL SYNOD. 491 the Board of Domestic Missions added to its duties the work of church erection, though carried on by a special committee. Important Movements Among the Lutherans. The Lutheran Church felt the influence of German Rationalism in the latter part ofthe last and the beginning of the present cent ury, and alarming symptoms of spiritual decay followed. After the opening ofthe century, however, the Church, under the influence of the new tides of spiritual life which were coming in, revived from a state of lamentable indifference and inactivity to a condition of new zeal and devotion. This led to the formation of the General Synod in 1820, from which date a new era in the history and the operations of this Church may be traced. Hitherto the separate synods had no organic connection, and there was but little moral union, for there was no mutual co-operation in building up the Redeemer's kingdom. At this time the Church had no college, no theological seminary, no home or foreign missionary society, no education, church extension, or publication boards — no general agency of any kind. The General Synod became a bond of union — a central power which has proved efficient in promoting the welfare of the Church. At this time (1820) there were 5 synods, 170 ministers, and 35,000 communicants, of whom 135 ministers and 33,000 communicants were represented in the union. 492 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VI. DIVERGENT CURRENTS. Sec. I. Unitarianism. " 2. Universalism. " 3. The Christians. Sec. 4. The Progressive Friends. 5. The New Jerusalem Church. " 6. Millerism. Section 1.— Unitarianism. WHEN this century opened the leaven of Arian and Socinian sentiments traced in previous periods was effectively working in old churches in New England. No open movement had taken place, but it could not be long delayed. The "orthodox party" seemed unaware of the extent of the defection, though there were manifest diversities of belief — two parties — and the terms "evangelical," "liberal," "Calvinist," "Arminian," and "Pelagian" were freely used. The name Unitarian, then comparatively unknown in Amer ica, when first used was felt to be a term of reproach. Channing especially disliked it, but it was gradually forced upon them and at last reluctantly accepted. The earlier fathers of this party had passed away — Dr. Mayhew, in 1766; Drs. Gray and Chauncy, in 1787, and Drs. John Clarke and Jeremy Belknap, in 1798. Others remained, in advanced years : Rev. Daniel Shute, D.D., of Hingham, Mass., 1746-1802. Rev. Gad Hitchcock, D.D., of Pembroke, Mass., 1748-1803. Rev. Simeon Howard, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1 762-1 804. Rev. Samuel West, D.D., of New Bedford, Mass., 1761-1807. Rev. William Symmes, D.D., of North Andover, Mass., 1751-1807. Rev. Samuel West, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1761-1808. Rev. David Barnes, D.D., of Scituate, Mass., 1753-1811. Rev. Henry Cummings, D.D., of Billerica, Mass., 1761-1823. Rev. John Lathrop, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1765-1816. A large and able body of this class of ministers were in full vigor: Rev. Thomas Barnard, D D., of Salem, Mass., 1773-1814. Rev. John Eliot, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1 776-181 3. THE CLASSICAL ERA. 493 Rev. Zedekiah Sanger, D.D., of South Bridgewater, Mass., 1776-1820. Rev. Ezra Ripley, D.D., of Concord, Mass., 1778-1841. Rev. John Prince, LL.D., of Salem, Mass., 1779-1830. Rev. Joseph Motley, of Lynnfield, Mass., 1779-1821. Rev. Aaron Bancroft, D.D., of Worcester, Mass., 1779-1839. Rev. Thomas Thatcher, of Dedham, Mass., 1780-1 8 12. Rev. John Reed, D.D,, of Bridgewater, Mass., 1780-1831. Rev. Charles Stearns, D.D., of Lincoln, Mass., 1781-1826. Rev. William Bentley, D.D., of Salem, Mass., 1782-1819. Rev. Eliphalet Porter, D.D., of Roxbury, Mass., 1 782-1 823. Rev. James Freeman, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1 782-1 835. Rev. Samuel Kendall, D.D., of Weston, Mass., 1783-1814. Rev. Bezaleel Howard, D.D., of Springfield, Mass., 1783-1837. Rev. Noah Worcester, D.D., of Thornton, N. H., 1 786-1 837. Rev. Henry Ware, D.D., of Hingham, Mass., 1787-1845. To the above may be added the following younger ministers : Revs. John Allen, D.D., T. M. Harris, D.D., Peter Eaton, D.D., David C. Saunders, D.D., William Emerson, Nathaniel Thayer, D.D., William Wells, D.D., J. T. Kirkland, D.D, LL.D., Abiel Abbot, D.D., of Massachusetts, and Abiel Abbot, D.D., of Cov entry, Conn. Immediately after the century began new names were enrolled in these ranks, some of whom became very conspicuous: Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, D.D., in 1801. Rev. Joseph Stephens Buckminster, in 1805. Rev. William Ellery Channing, D.D., in 1802. Rev. James Flint, D.D., in 1806. Rev. Nathan Parker, D.D., in 1807. Rev. Andrews Norton, in 1809. Rev. Francis Parkman, D.D., in 181 1. Rev. Edward Everett,* in 1814. The gifted minds of Channing, Buckminster, Kirkland, Emer son, and Ware soon added new features to the "liberal" tendency, giving it greater breadth and higher culture, on account of which they have been said to have "inaugurated the classical era in liberal Christianity." They at first attached little consequence to doc trines. Practicing the motto, Neque teneo neque repcllo, utterly unambitious of polemical distinction and exhibiting no desire to build up a new sect or to revolutionize an old one, they seemed intent upon classical culture and religious esthetics. Devotedly wedded to higher education, they aimed to usher in a golden era of religious "classicism" which should displace the iron * Mr. Everett was in the ministry only a few years. 494 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. era of " Puritan scholasticism." But they were not long allowed to remain in these quiet and congenial employments. The leaven, silently working, was rising to the surface. The great Unitarian controversy was at hand, in which their able pens were to be called into arduous service, and their classical and esthetic culture were to be brought into conflict with invincible logic and Bible truth. Causes Which Hastened the Rupture. The establishment of the Monthly Anthology* in Boston, under the auspices of the new party, in 1 804, and its rival, the Panoplist, in 1805, under Rev. Dr. Morse, of Charlestown; the semi-contro versial discourses delivered before the annual conventions of Con gregational ministers from 1 804 onward, in which- the two parties were alternately represented ; the election of Rev. Henry Ware, of Hingham, understood to be a "decided Arminian and Unitarian," to the Hollis Professorship of Divinity in Harvard College, in 1804; the publication of Rev. Noah Webster's book, entitled Bible News of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in 18 10, placing him outside of the Trinitarian ranks; the interruption of pulpit exchanges between the two factions, introduced by Rev. Messrs. John Codman, of Dor chester, and Samuel Osgood, of Springfield, in 181 1 ; the publication of a pamphlet in Boston, in 1815, by Rev. Dr. Morse, of Charlestown, and intended as an exposure, entitled, American Unitarianism, ora Brief History of the Progress and Present State of Unitarian Churches in America, compiled from documents and information communicated by Rev. James Freeman, D.D., and William Wells, Jr., Esq., of Boston, and from other Unitarian gentlemen in this country, and by Rev. James Belsham, London, and the controversy which grew out of it; Rev. William E. Channing's sermon at the ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks, in Baltimore, in 18 19, which Uni tarians say produced "a more extensive and powerful effect on the religious public than had ever been known in America," and the dis cussions which followed with Rev. Professors Moses Stuart, D.D, and Leonard Woods, D.D., of Andover Theological Seminary, and Samuel H. Miller, D.D., of Princeton College — are some of the more marked events which hastened to a culmination, the move- * In 1804 the Monthly Anthology was established under Unitarian auspices, " as a half literary and half theological magazine." After being published seven years it was suspended, and was followed in 1813 by the Christian Repository, which lasted two years. In 1813 Noah Webster commenced to publish the Christian Disciple, which for six years discouraged controversy. In 1819 it passed into other hands, abandoned "its neutral attitude," and assumed the tone of vig orous theological discussion. The Christian Examiner followed in 1824. CHANGES IN HARVARD. 49S ment which resulted in the distinct existence of the Unitarian denomination in the United States. Two of the most important acts which precipitated the rupture were the election of Revs. Henry Ware and J. T. Kirkland, LL.D., to positions in the faculty of Harvard College. This action was regarded by the " orthodox " party as a perversion of the institu tion from the intention of its founders, and, therefore, a breach of sacred trust. Its founders were Trinitarians and Calvinists.* John Harvard, who bequeathed to it one half of his property, was a deeply religious man, and contemplated nothing else than the pro motion of "evangelical" religion. Mr. Thomas Hollis, also, a wealthy London merchant, founded the professorship of divinity, stipulating that the men chosen to fill the chair should be of "sound and orthodox principles." In 1747 Mr. Daniel Hinchman, of Bos ton, made liberal donations to this professorship, with equally stringent stipulations. Nevertheless,' in 1804, Mr. Ware, an esti mable gentleman, but well known to be Unitarian in his views, was elected to the Hollis Professorship of Divinity, and in 1810 Mr. * Other changes resulting in the complete control of the institution by the Unitarians will be given in the language of one who was in the midst of the scenes. "For the purpose of promot ing and perpetuating Unitarianism in Harvard College repeated alterations have been attempted in the Constitution of Board of Overseers. This board consisted originally of the governor, lieutenant-governor, counselors and senators of the Commonwealth, with the ministers of the Congregational churches in Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, and Dor chester. But as a body constituted after this manner was liable to continual changes, and Uni tarians might not long constitute a majority, an alterati. m was in due time proposed and effected." An act passed in 1810, prepared by the late Chief-Justice Parsons, which he declared to a member of the Legislature he had held in readiness for more than two years, waiting for a safe opportunity to bring it forward, according to which 'the board was to consist of the president of the Senate, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and an elective body of fifteen clergymen and fif teen laymen with power to fill their own vacancies.' By this law Unitarianism was virtually enthroned at Cambridge and the way prepared for its perpetual dominion. It was soon found, however, that what the Legislature could do the Legislature could undo, as, in 1812, the new order of things was totally abolished and the government of the college restored to its former standing. Only two years after, the law of 1810, with some alterations, was revived. "Accord ing to this last enactment, which is still in force, the Board of Overseers consists of the governor, lieutenant-governor, the council, Senate, speaker of the House of Representatives, and an elect ive body of thirty persons having power to fill their own vacancies." The circumstances under which this act was introduced were very extraordinary. The Rev. Dr. Griffin had been for some time pastor of the Congregational church in Boston, and as such, by the express language of the constitution, a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. No notice, however, was taken of him, nor was he apprised of the time or place of any meetings. At length he went unasked and claimed his seat as a member of the Board. His claim was dis puted and the subject referred to a committee, a majority of whom reported in favor of Dr. Griffin. Still his right was not allowed him ; an adjournment was called for to save time, and in the interval the law of which we are speaking was whipped through the Legislature, obviously for the purpose of excluding Dr. Griffin and preventing others of similar sentiments from ever more obtaining seats in the old established way as Overseers of Harvard College."— Spirit ofthe Pilgrims. Sept., 1S29. P. 478- Supposed to have been written by Dr. Wis- ner, of Boston. 496 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Kirkland, an eloquent Boston clergyman, but a decided Socinian, was elevated to the presidency of the college. On the election of Dr. Ware a storm of indignation burst forth in the orthodox churches. Rev. Dr. Spring, of Newburyport, came out in two sermons denouncing the action as a violation of a sacred trust and a triumph of heresy. Dr. Pearson, another professor at Harvard, resigned, and was subsequently elected to a position in the theological seminary started by the orthodox party at Andover a few years later. From that day the moral unity of the Congrega tional churches was broken, and yet there was a general hesitation to take aggressive steps. The sea of strife was before them, the waves yearly rising higher and higher. "It was indeed wonderful that by a kind of consent the storm should gather so slowly. But in truth the parties themselves were unprepared for decisive acts which must estrange parish from parish, neighbor from neighbor, shake the whole system ofthe Commonwealth to its foundations, rend many communities asunder, and bring into families and individual hearts a boundless distress." * But on both sides the preparation went on. Unitarianism Predominant in Boston in 1800. It is difficult at the present time to realize the full extent of the apostasy from orthodoxy in Boston at the beginning of this century. A few facts will help. In the year 1800 only one Congregational church remained true to orthodoxy. None had then taken the name Unitarian, but they were thoroughly permeated with Unita rianism. Even the church which has been excepted, the Old South, occupied a doubtful attitude, and her pastor, Rev. Dr. Eckley, rendered to orthodoxy "only a trembling support." His theology has been described as "equivocal," and, iti the language of Rev. Lyman Beecher, "a large part of the members of that church were shivering in the breeze." There was no other church to repre sent the orthodox Congregational party until the Park Street Church was formed in 1809. There were two Baptist churches, two Epis copalian, and one small Methodist society, all true to the Trinitarian theology. These six churches represented the evangelical theology in the old Puritan metropolis in 1800. On the other hand, there were eight Congregational churches and one Episcopal church that had become Unitarian, and one Universalist, making ten "liberal" churches, so called, to six evangelical, though one of the latter was doubtful. Within the present limits of Boston there were then * Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England, p. 57. DR. GRIFFIN IN BOSTON. 497 only two orthodox Congregational churches and thirteen Unitarian. And within a radius of ten miles around Boston there were then only ten Congregational churches which remained true to orthodoxy when the schism came, while twenty-two went over to Unitarianism. But the number of these organized bodies by no means repre sents the social, civil, and intellectual status of the two parties. In these respects the preponderance was immeasurably in favor of the "liberal" party. So sharply, too, were the lines drawn, and so intense was the feeling about 1812, when Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin, the first pastor of the Park Street Church, delivered his famous " Park Street Lectures," that but few persons dared to enter an "evangelical" house of worship. Social ostracism on account of religious views was often inflicted by the professedly "liberal" party. When Dr. Griffin entered upon his labors, in July, 181 1, the task before him required a stout heart and a bold hand. Boston was second to no other city in the country 'for intelligence and the average wealth of its inhabitants. But the current of the prevail ing thought was so averse to evangelical religion that to raise a voice in its defense was to hazard one's reputation among respect able classes. Dr. Griffin stood up almost alone preaching "the Gospel of the grace of God." "The finger of scorn was pointed at him and he had to breast a tide of misrepresentation and calumny, of opposition and hatred, which would have overwhelmed one who had not the spirituality of an apostle and the strength of a giant." * Dr. Griffin's rare eloquence, boldness, and evangelical warmth attracted many to hear him. On Sabbath evenings in the winter of 1812-13 he delivered his celebrated "Park Street Lect ures " to crowded audiences, many of whom were attracted by curiosity and others by interest in the rising discussions of that period. Elsewhere Dr. Griffin had witnessed great revivals of relig ion under his ministry, but not in Boston. A lifeless inertia and a staring unbelief met him on every side and pressed him down. The cry of "bigotry," " illiberality," and "exclusiveness" was echoed on every breeze. The tide of sentiment in the higher circles was Sternly against evangelical religion. "At that time the evangelical religion was so unpopular that people disguised themselves to attend upon Dr. Griffin's preaching, and could be frequently seen in obscure corners of the church, with caps drawn over their faces and their wrappers turned inside out." f Such was the state of * Biographical sketch of Dr. Griffin in American Quarterly Register. 1840-41. P. 374. t Rev. Nehemiah Adams, D. D., in an address at the anniversary of Union Church, Boston, June 10, 1872.32 498 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. sentiment. The great mass of the old families, the culture, the wealth and influence in the city, were with the "liberal party." This party has ever since relatively waned, and at no time more rapidly than in the last thirty years. The Outbreak. The year 1815 has been designated as marking more distinctly than any other the year when Unitarianism began to assume a tan gible form. At that time the parties arrayed themselves in a more open manner. The publication of "Belsham's Letters" early in that year was followed by a "Review" in the Panoplist in June fol lowing, charging the " liberal " party with heresies and infidelity. Dr. Channing replied in a letter to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher, indig nantly protesting against the aspersions in the Panoplist. This reply was regarded by Professor Andrews Norton as virtually accept ing the name Unitarian, and founding the denomination as a distinct body. It certainly marks the origin of what was known as the "Unitarian Controversy," and drew the lines between the two parties. Dr. Channing's Baltimore sermon, in 1819, revived, enlarged, and intensified the "controversy," and led it out upon more distinctively doctrinal lines. The text ( "Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good") indicates the character of the discourse. It was an able defense of Unitarianism, outspoken in style, making it plain that he was an Arian, and attributing to the death of Christ some direct though undefined influence as a means of the sinner's forgiveness. Several editions of the sermons were published. Pro fessor Moses Stuart, of Andover, reviewed it in a pamphlet of one hundred and eighty pages. Professor Norton replied in the Chris tian Disciple. Other pamphlets, eight in all, followed, between Professors Stuart and Woods, of Andover, and Professors Norton and Ware, of Harvard College. In 1825 the American Unitarian Association was organized as a bond of sympathy and co-operation for their isolated churches, in the propagation of their sentiments by books, tracts, and missions, and to aid feeble parishes. From this date Unitarianism may be said to have had An Organized Existence. In 1 82 1 the famous church property case — that of the First Church in Dedham — was decided by Chief-Justice Parker, establish ing the principle that a church has no civil right apart from the parish ; that the only circumstance which gives a church any legal ORGANIZED UNITARIANISM. 499 character is its connection with some legally constituted parish society; that the secession of a whole church from a parish society would be the extinction of its legal claims, but the body corporate, the parish, would remain, and hence the major voice of the parish is the only legal utterance. The following statement by an eminent divine presents the most concise view that can be given, and one as helpful, perhaps, as any other in forming a candid judgment of the issue: At the opening of this controversy, which, for the sake of a precise date, we may assign to 1810, the whole number of the Congregational churches in Massa chusetts was 361; all of them founded on the old Puritan faith — at least all professedly Trinitarian. In the course of this controversy 96 of these churches passed over to Unitarianism, besides 30 parishes, where the same views predom inated to the exclusion of evangelical preaching from their pulpits, and conse quently the withdrawal of the churches from their meeting-houses; so that 126 places of worship, with their appurtenances of parish and church funds, were lost to the cause of evangelical religion and gained to its opposite. The full amount of this loss and gain cannot be exactly stated, and yet we have the data for a probable estimate.* The General Association of Massachusetts in 1833 appointed a committe of twenty-three gentlemen to investigate the "condition of those churches which have been driven from their houses of worship by town or parish votes, or by measures equivalent to such votes," and to report thereon. After three years of careful inves tigation they presented their report, in which they enumerated 81 "exiled churches" with the amount of "parish funds" left behind when they went into " exile," the amount of church funds, including communion furniture, library, etc., of which they were deprived, the general condition of the meeting-houses from which they were "driven," and also the proportion of members that remained with the parish. The figures combined make a total of parish and church funds of $365,968; the value of the meeting-houses at $3,000 each— "a low estimate "—$243,000 more. Total property surren dered by these 81 churches, or taken away, $608,658. These exiled churches before the separation numbered 5,182 members, of which the exiled portion were 3,900, and those who "tarried at home to divide the spoil" were 1,282— the majority of the parish or congre gation deciding the question against the church. " This statement does not include the funds of 15 out of the 96 old Puritan churches that passed over to the other side without a schism, nor does it take in the orthodox endowments made to Harvard College before Unitarianism was heard of." * Dr. Joseph S. Clark's History of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts, p. 270. 80O CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. When the division was completed it was found that the whole number of Con gregational churches in Massachusetts was 544 (leaving out of the account such as had become extinct or were merged in others), of which 135 were Unitarian and 409 Orthodox.* Dropping those Unitarian churches which were originally founded by the Orthodox, and which came into possession of meeting-houses before the separation took place, and used for evangelical worship until that time, there remain but 24 as the fruit of Unitarian enterprise developed in church exten sion; while the Orthodox during the same period had planted (or re-planted, as the case might be,) 193, and had actually built that number of meeting-houses, which is 67 more than belonged to the whole body of Congregationalists before the sep aration. Thus the two parties stood in the comparative number of their churches when this fraternal strife ceased. The ratio between them was as one to three. In the number of church members the disparity was far greater; from the most relia ble data at command it may be given as one to ten.f The loss of Harvard College by the orthodox Congregational ists was followed by the founding of Andover Theological Seminary, in 1808, and Amherst College in 1821, as bulwarks of Trinitarian theology ; but the theological position of Andover Seminary was so offensive in eastern Massachusetts, where the Unitarian sentiment greatly preponderated, that the Legislature of the State long hesi tated to grant it the power of holding a sufficient amount of funds, and placed them for a season under the direction of Phillips Academy^: and a Board of Visitors. Rev. Dr. D. C. Eddy says: The political power of the State was all thrown into the hands ofthe Unitari ans, and Orthodoxy has scarcely recovered it to this day. To be popular and influ ential in the State it was necessary to be a Unitarian. Rev. Parsons Cooke, in reply to a letter § in the Christian Examiner, J attributed to Chief-Justice Parker, quotes one of the public papers of that period, in which it is remarked that " Any person to attain to any of the honors of this State (Massachusetts) must be a thorough Federalist and Unitarian. If they have a blotch of Democracy or Cal vinism about them they must bid adieu to public honors or to Massachusetts, The Catholics are not more exclusive in Spain than are Mr. Otis and his associates in Boston." Dr. Cooke declares that at the time he wrote, 1829, " The Trinitarian denominations comprised more than three fourths ofthe people ofthe State, while nine tenths of the political influence was in the hands of the Unitarians." IT The Unitarians of that period were very sanguine in their expectations, confident that their views would soon sweep the con tinent. The London Repository** said, "There is reason to expect * This summary was for the year 1840. t Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, by Rev. Joseph S. Clark, D.D. Boston. 1858. Pp. 170, 171, 172. X A school for boys at Andover, Mass. § Bearing date of 1829, 1 Vol. V, p. 279. f General Repository. Vol. IV, p. 374. Address by Rev. D. C. Eddy, D D., before the American Baptist Historical Society, 1864. P. 24. ** Vol. Ill, p. 302. ABLE SUPPORTERS. BOl that in thirty or forty years the whole of Massachusetts will be Unitarian." Such were the proportions of this movement when it assumed its position openly before the country. It had the preponderance of wealth, culture and influence in Boston and in eastern Massa chusetts. It had the oldest, largest and best-endowed college in the land. It had the prestige of a learned and able ministry. Buckminster, who had been idolized as a mental and spiritual prodigy, " a man of chastened but thrilling earnestness," who had attracted crowds within the walls of the old Brattle Street Church, had early departed. Edward Everett, a gentleman of broad and cultivated taste, profound and eloquent, the persuasive preacher, the skillful educator, the astute statesman, the courtly embassador, and the impressive orator ; Kirkland, affable, polished and benig nant, " stripping religion of its stiff and formal costume ; " the elder Ware, honored and revered for eminent talents and high character; the younger Ware, a man of practical earnestness and deep devo tion ; Holley, the brilliant orator ; Channing, a man of ardent sensi bilities, of shining intellect, an impersonation of lucid thought, a pre eminent teacher of ethics and a bold champion of freedom and humanity ; Palfrey, devout, learned, the man of research ; Norton, a rare scholar, of intellectual strength, wide personal influence and intense earnestness ; Pierpont, full of independence, undaunted frankness and poetic fervor ; Sparks, Thacher, Parkman, and many others remained, soon reaching the zenith of their power. In the laity were many old and noble families — the Eliots, the Smiths, the McLeans, the Lymans, the Thorndykes, the Perkinses, the Parkmans, the Boylstons, and many others — who freely poured out their ample treasures. The statesmen, the jurists and the scholars of New England were largely represented in the Unitarian congregations, among whom may be mentioned Parsons, Storey, Parker, Dexter, Lowell and Bowditch. No other religious denomi nation before ever started with such advantages ; and if it were in the power of intellectual abilities, culture, learning, eloquence, wealth and social prestige to give success to religious institutions, they were certain to succeed. The Influence of the Baptists. The relation of the Baptist churches to the Unitarian apostasy should not be overlooked. Baptist writers claim that their denomi nation exerted great influence in restraining its course. One of B02 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. their own number shall tell the story. Rev. Dr. D. C. Eddy says : At the beginning of the present century there were not quite one hundred churches of the Baptist denomination in the State of Massachusetts, the most prominent of which were two in Boston. The first Baptist church was organized in 1665, and it was the third of any denomination constituted in that city. From 1765 to 1807, during much of the Unitarian controversy, Dr. Samuel Slillman, a man of great purity of life and a preacher of unusual eloquence, was pastor of the church. The Second Church, now worshiping in Baldwin Place, was constituted in 1742, and from the first was a very vigorous body. From 1790 to 1825 Dr. Thomas Baldwin was pastor, his ministry covering the most active and demon strative period of the revolution of opinions. Other Baptist churches of more or less note dotted the old Pilgrim Commonwealth. From 1766 to 1805 that sterling champion of Baptist faith, Rev. Hezekiah Smith, was settled over the church in Haverhill. Lucius Bowles was in Salem for a quarter of a century from 1804. Joseph Grafton was at Newton. Other true and faithful men held up Bap tist views during the theological revolution, and, though persecuted, pro scribed and ill-treated through all that period, these men lifted up a standard which was like the sun amid the murky shadows of that dismal night. The steady adherence of Baptists to the Scriptures instead of tradition, and the pertinacity with which they insisted on faith as a condition of church membership and baptism, and the zeal with which they guarded the holy com munion, saved their churches from unconverted members, and while Pedo-Baptist churches fell one by one into the arms of Unitarianism, not one Baptist church for sook its apostolic creed, and not one minister of any note went over to the enemy.* The same may be said ofthe Methodist churches. Drifting. Very soon after it fully started upon its career Unitarianism began to undergo radical changes, for which it has ever since been noted, and which have characterized it as a drift of religious senti ment. The causes producing them were both internal and external. In the earlier period the major sentiment leaned strongly toward the Divine ; but in its subsequent history it has been decidedly marked by tendencies toward the human. The seeds of this departure were sown at the outset. The lead ing feature of the movement was a revolt against ecclesiasticism, protesting against creeds and inquiry into personal belief and expe rience ; the doctrine of the Trinity and its cognate doctrines, as they stand in orthodox theology, were also denied. Agreeing in these negative positions, which close the door of return to evangel ical principles and experiences, and adopting rationalistic methods of scriptural interpretation, the largest liberty of opinion consistent * Historical Address of Rev. D. C. Eddy, D.D., before referred to, on pp 29, 30. RADICAL DIFFERENCES. 803 with this positive dissent was allowed. Such a platform left the door open for the intrusion of doubt. Channing and his associates did not dream that opinions so widely diverged from those they held would within a half century be inculcated in many Unitarian pulpits. In allowing the largest liberty of thought they suspected no danger, trusting that submission to the authority of Christ and the Scriptures, then generally prevalent among them, would suf ficiently conserve the body against dangerous departures. As early as 1825 there were different classes of Unitarians — Arians, Socinians and Sabellians, but not disturbing the general harmony. Other and more radical divisions soon appeared. Almost from the first, from the body itself, we read of its "two wings"— wings of unequal dimensions, causing erratic and uncertain flight. In 1825 the Christian Examiner declared that " those who agreed on the general point of the simple unity of God differed, and should differ in peace ; " that every thing should be tolerated except the phrase, "the eternal Son of God; " that those believed enough who held no more than the humanity of Jesus, who denied the exist ence of the devil, and who regarded the New Testament language in regard to evil spirits to be only the language of popular super stition. The editor was a decided advocate of "rational Christian ity," did not fear to "exalt reason above revelation;" contended that the Scriptures must be made to pass before " the tribunal of human reason," and that "human reason is to decide whether God is such a being as we can safely trust." In 1826 a new editor assumed the control of the Examiner, and boldly declared that his advocacy of religion should be known not merely as "liberal," but pre-eminently as " rational." A few more specimens of opinions which appeared in the Chris tian Examiner at this period will show the earliest stages of the great departure. One writer said that the reasoning of the Epistle to the Hebrews " could not be regarded as of any force at the present day ; " that Paul's reasoning " would not always bear a philosophical scrutiny ; " that the evangelists were " themselves alle- gorists," and had but " reported the words of Christ from memory, and that not always with perfect accuracy." Another denied that the Epistle to the Hebrews was canonical, contended that it was not written by St. Paul, asserting that the author, whoever he was, was " unable to distinguish between realities and figures," and had misapprehended the manner in which the Messiah " sacrificed him self in the cause of God and of mankind." Another, in 1830, deplored the manner in which the Old Testament was used, and the B04 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. importance which was attached to it, declaring that " many pro fessed Christians have nothing but the Hebrew religion," that the Old Testament ought to be comparatively set aside, and that the gospels ought to be regarded as " the great treasury of religion." Another writer was willing to accept Unitarian Christianity because it demanded less than any other system ; accepting Christianity only as the best and highest form in which human intuitions had clothed themselves — more religious than Platonism, purer than Mo hammedanism and more gentle than Judaism. From 1825 to 1838, under Professor Norton, a semi-rationalistic style of criticism was applied to biblical interpretation, in which revelation was degraded from its sacred supremacy. Ralph Waldo Emerson appeared in the pastorate ofthe Second Church in Boston in 1830, as the successor of Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., who had been called to the professorship of pastoral theology at Cambridge. Mr. Emerson belonged to a clerical race — the son of Rev. William Emerson, of the First Church, who had heralded the dawn of Unitarianism, and the eighth generation, in orderly succession, of a consecutive line of New England ministers. In genius and splendor of thought he far outstripped them all, as also in the boldness of his speculations. A lover of nature, full of ideality, simplicity, and poetic beauty, his style has been compared to " The pellucid brook, That glides and ripples and smiles Through wood and mead, through shade and sun." In 1 83 1 he obtained a dismission from his church on account of radical theological differences between him and them in regard to the Lord's Supper and other matters; and there is no account of his ever preaching after that event. From an early period Mr. Emerson manifested great impatience with all " fixed forms of belief," and rejected all limitations upon the freedom of intellectual action. He soon became widely known as a public lecturer, in which capacity, usually before very select audiences, he gave great prominence to an " idealism " which placed him at the head of New England Transcendentalists. In metaphysics the term transcendental has usually been applied to ideas and principles not limited or suggested by experience — the method of ascertaining, a priori, the fundamental principles of TRANSCENDENTALISM. SOS human knowledge, restricted to those conceptions and judgments which are universal and necessary, and which transcend the sphere of knowledge furnished by experience. Hence transcendentalism claims an original intuitional process for obtaining true knowledge of all things, material and immaterial, human and divine, as far as the mind is capable of knowing them. It denies a supernatural revelation, pronounces its miraculous sanctions to be philosophically impossible and absurd, and hence wholly discards the authority of the Scriptures. This doctrine appeared among a class of thinkers that arose among the New England Unitarians at this time. A few persons probably received it with little if any modifications ; but in most minds at all influenced by it there were some modifying elements, on account of which this class of New England Tran scendentalists has been regarded as somewhat peculiar and diversi fied in its character — " a school of idealists." For this reason, presumably, the term transcendental has come to be used for that which is vague and illusory in philosophy. The first meeting of what was later well known as " The Transcendental Club " was held in Boston, at the house of Mr. George Ripley, September 19, .1836 ; present, Messrs. Ripley, R. W. Emerson, F. H. Hedge, Convers Francis, James Freeman Clarke and A. Bronson Alcott. Subse quently Revs. J. S. Dwight, W. H. Channing and C. A. Bartol met with them, and a little later Orestes A. Brownson, and later still Miss Margaret Fuller, Miss Elizabeth Peabody, Theodore Parker, etc., etc. In September, 1836, Mr. Emerson's first book, Nature, was pub lished, and the same year Carlyle's Sartor Resartus ; and Mr. Brownson was lecturing in the Masonic Temple, subsequently the United States Court House. In 1837 Mr. Brownson commenced his Quarterly Review. In 1837 Wendell Phillips bounded into ora torical prominence, and about this time Mr. George Ripley's Philosophical Miscellanies, translations from German philosophy, were published. In July, 1840, the Dial was first printed, a quarterly journal of remarkable brightness, keenness and originality, edited by Mr. Ripley and Miss Fuller, and extending to only sixteen num bers in four brief years. Thenceforth the transcendental views were more widely extended, permeating a considerable class of cultured minds. In 1841 a series of Mr. Emerson's Essays was published. The author might proudly say of these as Bacon said of his own, *' that their matter could not be found in books." It is probable that they would have been at once widely wel comed as a positive addition to literature had it not been for some startling S06 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. paradoxes and audacious statements, which, while they were in direct conflict with the theological beliefs ofthe people, were supported neither by facts nor arguments, but rested on the simple testimony of the author's individual consciousness.* Mr. Emerson's Peculiarities. It is not easy to give a clear and satisfactory digest of Mr. Em erson's views. He never grouped his thoughts together by methods of logic. Insight, not logical processes, was his method. The writer of the article on Mr. Emerson, in Appletons Cyclopedia, says : System in his mind is associated with charlatanism. His largest generalization is "Existence" (a lecture). On this inscrutable theme his conceptions vary with his moods and his experiences. Sometimes it seems to be a man who parts with his personality in being united to God ; sometimes it seems to be God who is impersonal, and who comes to personality only in man, and the real obscurity and vacillation of his metaphysical ideas is increased by the vivid and positive concrete forms in which they are successively clothed. Generally the Divine Being is felt or conceived as a life-imparting influence, divinizing nature and man, and as identical with both. In 1838 Mr. Emerson was invited by the graduating class of the Divinity School at Harvard College to deliver the annual address. While his audience admired and approved many things in his address, not a few were deeply pained by dangerous utterances against the supernatural element of Christianity. This was especially felt by Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., who had an interview with Mr. Emerson on the subject, which was followed by correspondence f and a sermon by Mr. Ware on the Personality of God. * Appleton's Cyclopedia. Article, ''Ralph Waldo Emerson." t Mr. Emerson's letter to Mr. Ware will show the peculiar character of his mind and his tran scendental theories. He says : " I believe I must tell you what I think of my new position. It strikes me very oddly that good and wise men at Cambridge should think of raising me into an object of criticism. I have always been — from my incapacity of methodical writing — ' a chartered libertine,' free to worship and free to rail — lucky when I could make myself understood, but never esteemed near enough to the institutions and mind of society to deserve the notice of masters of literature and religion. I have appreciated fully the advantages of my position, for I well know that there is no scholar less willing or less able to be cl polemic. I could not give account of myself if challenged. I could not possibly give you one of the ' arguments ' you so cruelly hint at on which any doctrine of mine stands; for I do not know what arguments mean in reference to any expression of thought. I delight in telling what I think, but if you ask me how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am the most helpless of mortal men. I do not even see that either of these questions admits of an answer. So that, in the present droll posture of my affairs, when I see myself suddenly raised into the importance of a. heretic, I am very uneasy when I advert to the supposed duties of such a personage, who is to make good his thesis against all comers. I certainly shall do no such thing. I shall read what you and other good men write, as I have always done — glad when you speak my thoughts and skipping the page that has nothing for me. I shall go on ju^t as before, seeing whatever I can and telling what I see ; and, I sup pose, with the same fortune that has hitherto attended me — the joy of finding that my abler and better brothers who work with the sympathy of society, loving and beloved, do now and then unexpectedly confirm my perceptions, and find my nonsense is only their own thought in motley." (See Life of Rev. Henry Ware, Jr. Vol. II, pp. 188-9.) THEODORE PARKER. S07 Mr. Emerson's ideas have exerted a great influence in the Unitarian body and outside of it, and he may be regarded as one of the forerunners of the later " Free Religion " movement. An editorial in the Liberal Christian* said "Mr. Emerson must be regarded as the fountain-head of Rationalism " — meaning all use of reason which discards all testimony not its own — in this country, and especially in Boston. Theodore Parker. Before Dr. Channing's death a young man of remarkable genius and power appeared in this denomination, whose influence was destined to be widely felt, leading many minds to assert their inde pendence of Christ and divine revelation. In 1837 Mr. Theodore Parker became the pastor of a Unitarian church at West Roxbury. According to the usual custom in the denomination, at his ordina tion no questions were asked in regard to his theological opinions. He had been a diligent student of the rationalistic literature of Germany, and had formed views radically subversive of historic Christianity which he hastened to proclaim. In his famous sermon on " The Transient and Permanent in Christianity," at the ordination of Rev. Mr. Shackford in South Boston, May 19, 1841, he rejected and derided the supernatural elements in Scripture history. The Old Testament was treated as " a pile of gorgeous pictures," the New " as filled with mistaken legends and opinions," and Jesus Christ as only such a person as others might be if the hidden divin ity within them were fully revealed. The congregation was aston ished, and looked one to another, but the ordination went on. Boston Unitarianism was stirred ; but freedom and progress had ever been the watchwords, and there was no remedy. Mr. Parker had only advanced a little beyond many of his brethren, but he was practically disowned in various ways. A few years more sufficed to separate him wholly from the denomination, when he boasted that he " had thoroughly broken with the ecclesiastical authority of Christendom." f In 1848 his name appeared in the published list of the clergy in the Unitarian Year Book for the last time. After Mr. Parker appeared as a bold champion of rationalism, a new influence was felt in the Unitarian denomination. Channing, who died in 1842, had been, more than any other man, the leader and prophet of the body, whose beautiful spirit was every-where felt, exerting its sweet, genial, and almost magical influence. But Mr. Parker strode forth into the field Goliath-like, rash, self-willed, *July 1, 1871. t Experience as a Minister. By Theodore Parker. 508 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. without reverence for accumulated wisdom and experience, confi dent of superiority to the past, relying upon his own personal insight — " a direct vision without the correcting testimony of ages." Channing's style was chaste, flowing, direct, elegant— that of "an ethical teacher by nature, a polemic by stress of circumstances." Parker was a natural polemic, scenting the battle from afar and neighing for the conflict. He loved sharp, incisive statements, had a fatal habit of gross exaggeration, often sacrificed truth on the altar of personal conceit, and often in attempts at bold and startling rhetoric. He was a man of moods marked by a double conscious ness, at one time praising Christ as The great friend of all the sons of men, and on another occasion declaring : I have admitted the wisdom of the purpose and undertook to make the ex periment." Social gatherings for mutual conference followed, in which Emerson, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, Frederick H. Hedge, Orestes A. Bronson, and others participated. Mr. Emerson proceeds : I said the only result' of the conversations which Dr. Channing had was to initiate the little quarterly called The Dial, but they had a further consequence in the creation of a society called the "Brook Farm," in 1841. Many of these per sons who had compared their notes around in the libraries of each other upon spec ulative matters became impatient of speculation and wished to put it into practice. Mr. George Ripley, with some of his associates, established a society, of which the principle was that the members should be stockholders, and that while some deposited money others should be allowed to give their labor in different kinds as an equivalent for money. It contained very many and agreeable persons: Mr. George William Curtis, of New York, and his brother, of English Oxford, were members of the family ; from the first also was Theodore Parker, etc., etc. Miss Margaret Fuller, Hawthorne, Rev. William H. Channing, an eminent student of Socialism in France and England, and others soon joined the company. After six or seven years the experiment failed and the farm was sold. Such was the end of the first roman tic, religious, literary, socialistic, transcendental, Unitarian Com munity in New England. It was not a Fourierite community, and yet it was a transitional step, and, in some degree, "a propagative organ of Fourierism," through its periodical, The Harbinger, which scattered broadcast the seeds of Socialism. The Hopedale and Northampton Communities. In April, 1842, the Hopedale Community commenced operations in Milford, Mass., on the "Jones Farm." This movement was another anticipation of Fourierism put forth by Massachusetts. It *See Lecture on the Brook Farm. 636 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. was similar in many respects to Brook Farm and, in its origin, nearly contemporaneous. They enlarged their possessions to about six hundred acres, and admitted new members until the community numbered 300. Their manufactures were known far and near, and eagerly sought for on account of their being exactly as represented. Every one had either to work in the factories or else till the soil. All lights had to be extinguished and every one at home at 9 o'clock. No dogs were permitted in the village, and nobody was allowed to smoke in the street. "As the Brook Farm was the blossom of Unitarianism, so Hopedale was the blossom of Univer salism. Rev. Adin Ballou, the founder, was a relative of Rev. Hosea Ballou, and thus a scion of the royal family of Universalists." It was dissolved in 1858 — a total failure. Cause — unwisdom, and " the old story of general depravity." "The timber he got together was not suitable for building a community." * In the same month that the Hopedale Community commenced its operations, Massachusetts, the mother of systems, reforms and revolutions, anticipated the advent of Fourierism and gave birth to another community at Northampton, the home of Jonathan Edwards. This was an infidel, or at least a Nothingarian, organi zation, and it lived four and a half years.* Such were some of the connecting links between the Owen and the Fourier epochs in American Socialism. .The date of the latter epoch has been fixed in 1842, when the columns of the New York Tribune were opened to the advocacy of Socialistic theories. The exposition of Fourierism in this country had commenced two years before with the publication of the Social Destiny of Man, by Albert Brisbane. Parke Godwin also was one of the earliest of the American expositors of Fourierism, publishing his Popular View of the Doc trines of Charles Fourier, in 1844. From March, 1842, to May, 1843, Mr. Brisbane, in a column devoted to him in the Tribune, beat the drum of Fourierism, and in the summer of 1843 "Phalanxes by the dozen were on the march for the new world of wealth and harmony." Not less than seventeen of these associations were organized in the year 1843, eleven more in 1844, seven more in 1845, one in 1846, one in 1847, one in 1848, one in 1849, ar"d several more from 1850 to 1853 — the latest date of any Socialist organization. On the 5th of October, 1843, Brisbane started an independent Socialistic paper in New York city, called the Phalanx. It was published as a monthly about a year and a half, during which time * For a fuller account of these communities see Noyes's History of American Socialisms, pp. 120-132, 154-160, and tract by Mr. Ballou in 1851, ako a work on Socialism by Ballou. FAILURE. 637 the subscription list of The Present, a magazine which started nearly at the same time as the Phalanx, edited by William H. Channing, and devoted to Socialistic ideas, was transferred to Brisbane. " In the course of a year after this, Brook Farm confessed Fourierism, changed its constitution, assumed the title of the Brook Farm Pha lanx, and on the 14th of June, 1845, commenced publishing the Harbinger, as the successor of the Phalanx and the heir of its sub scription list. . . . The concentrated genius of Unitarianism and Transcendentalism was at Brook Farm. It was the school that trained most of the writers who have created the newspaper and magazine literature of the present time. Their work on the Har binger was their first drill. Fourierism was their first case in court. The Harbinger was published weekly and extended to seven and a half semi-annual volumes, five of which were edited and printed at Brook Farm and the last two and a half at New York, but by Brook Farm men. The issues at Brook Farm extend from June 14, 1845, to October 30, 1847, and at New York from November 6, 1847, to February 10, 1849. The Phalanx and Harbinger together cover a period of more than five years." * Mr. Noyes estimated that 8,641 persons were connected with the 45 communities in the Owen and Fourier groups, the number generally ranging from 100 to 200 in each, but in exceptional cases only 15, and in one as many as 900. The amount of land held, but partially cultivated, was reported at 44,625 acres, an average of about 1,000 acres to each community, not including the extensive tract owned by the New Harmony and McKean County settlements, the former alone comprising 30,000 acres. With such opportunities and means, involving an expenditure of several million dollars, an ample acreage of the best land in the United States, and the distribution of many tons of Socialistic literature, 45 communities of 8,641 persons, under the varying adjustments of two epochs of trial, utterly and disgracefully failed in their experiments. Europe nowhere presents such a list of magnificent experiments, under such favorable conditions, for testing the wild dreams of Socialism as is here given. These quickly succeeding failures were not less conspicuous than the ability and zeal with which the experiments were inaugurated. What a vindication of the conventional usages of Christian society! * History of American Socialisms, by J. H. Noyes, p. 210. 538 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VIII. MORMONISM. Sec. i. The Earliest Phases. i Sec. 3. Organized Mormonism. " 2. Secondary Stages. | Section 1.— Tlie Earliest Phases OF Mormonism grew out of popular superstitions for a time quite prevalent among the more ignorant classes, about one hundred years ago. In the year 1801 certain persons appeared in some parts of Vermont, mostly in Rutland County, claiming to pos sess "St. John's rod," by which roots and herbs could be found which would cure all manner of diseases, and also gold and silver in great abundance. These were claimed to be the rods referred to in Isaiah under which, in the latter day, God would cause his people to pass, when the "latter-day glory" would be revealed. The rods were also the seals with which one hundred and forty-four thousand were to be sealed (Rev. 7) as the servants of God. The lost tribes of Israel- were to be gathered from among all nations by means of these rods : through this agency also vast numbers of the present in habitants of this country who were Israelites, but had lost their pedigree, would be able to trace their Israelitish lineage, and be brought into the New Jerusalem soon to be built in this country. It was further claimed that these rods had power over all enchant ments ; that much gold and silver lay concealed in the earth, held under a spell of enchantment which these rods, in the hands of the right person, would dispel, and that it would be moved under the ground from place to place, and ultimately it would be collected in a common field, where " the latter-day saints" would take and use it in building the " Holy City." Some excellent, sincere people were hallucinated with the story ; and in a number of instances young women in scanty apparel foUowed'the rods all night over the rocks and snow. The whole scheme was finally traced to a gang of coun terfeiters, with one Wingate at the head, who used it as a feint to ORIGIN OF MORMONISM. 539 cover their nefarious operations. He was arrested, but escaped from the hands of justice. About 1827 the world heard the first rumors of "Joe Smith" and his "Golden Bible,'* found "while hunting for minerals" with his " rod." A few years later the Mormons commenced building in Ohio and sent out men to preach the doctrine of the " latter-day saints " and "glory," a new edition, evidently, of that proclaimed in Vermont thirty years before. Gentlemen* of the highest respect ability and excellent judicial talent, contemporary with both dates and familiar with all the localities, carefully traced the connection between the early Vermont delusion and the riper development of Mormonism at that time. They found that Smith's mother was from Rutland County, Vt., the scene of the aforementioned opera tions, and that Sidney Rigdon, Smith's high priest and revealer, was from the same locality where Wingate's counterfeiting operations had been carried on under the cloak of " latter-day glory" theories. Section 2.— Tlie Secondary Stages of the Mormon development were easy and natural. In 181 5 the Smith family moved to Palmyra, and a little later to Manchester, N. Y., where their reputation was bad. A high authority f says : Avoiding honest labor, they employed themselves in digging for hidden treas ures and similar visionary pursuits. They were intemperate and untruthful, and were commonly suspected of sheep-stealing and other offenses. Upward of sixty of the most respectable citizens of Wayne County testified in 1833, under oath, that the Smith family were of immoral, false, and fraudulent character, and that Joseph was the worst of them. These statements are not in general contra dicted by the Mormons. . . . The Mormon writers say that Smith was very poorly educated. He could read with difficulty, wrote an imperfect hand, and had a very limited understanding of the elementary rules of arithmetic. The revela tions, proclamations, letters, and other documents put forth by him in the subse quent part of his career were generally written by others. According to his own account, Smith at about the age of fifteen years began to have visions. On the night of September 21, 1823, the Angel Moroni appeared to him three times, giving him much instruction and informing him that God had a work for him to do, and that a record written upon gold plates, giving an account of the ancient inhabitants of America and the dealings of God with them, was deposited in a particular place in the earth (a hill in Manchester, Ontario *Rev. Laban Clark, D.D., founder of the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and Rev. Tobias Spicer, D. D. , of Rutland, Vt. From Dr. Clark the author of this volume received a full written account of the Vermont transactions, with names, dates, etc., from which the above has been abbreviated. t Appleton's Cyclopedia. 1863. Article, " Mormons." 540 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. County, N. Y.). and with the record two transparent stones in silver bows like spectacles, which were anciently called the urim and thummim, on looking through which the golden plates would become intelligible. On September 22, 1827, the Angel of the Lord placed in Smith's hands the plates and the urim and thummim. . . . From these plates Smith, sitting behind a blanket hung across the room to keep the sacred record from profane eyes, read off, with the aid of the stone spectacles, the Book of Mormon, or Golden Bible, as he sometimes called it, to Oliver Cowdery, who wrote it down as Smith read it. It was printed in 1830, in a volume of several hundred pages. The above is the version of Joseph Smith and the Mormons. From investigations made soon after the appearance of the Book of Mormon the fact is believed to be fully established that the real author of the work was Solomon Spalding, a native of Ashford, Conn., a graduate of Dartmouth College. After preaching a few years he relinquished the ministry, and engaged in business in Cherry Valley, N. Y., whence, in 1809, he removed to Conneaut, Ohio. From Conneaut he removed to Pittsburg, Pa., in 1812, and thence to Amity, Pa., in 1814, where he died, in 1816. He had a strong passion for literary pursuits, especially for writing fictitious stories. In the neighborhood where he resided, in Ohio, there are numerous mounds and ancient fortifications. Being interested in historical antiquities he conceived the idea of writing in the style of a story an account of the origin of the mounds. In doing so he gave it the form of a translation of a lost manuscript purporting to have been found in these mounds and to have been written by one of the ancient race. As early as 181 3 this work was announced in the newspapers as forthcoming, and as containing a translation of the Book of Mormon. Spalding entitled his book Manuscript Found, and intended to pub lish with it, by way of preface or advertisement, a fictitious account of its discovery in a cave in Ohio. His widow,* in a statement made by her in the Boston Journal, May 18, 1839, declares that in 18 12 he placed his manuscript in a printing-office at Pittsburg with which Sidney Rigdon was connected. Rigdon, she says, copied the manuscript, and his possession of the copy was known to all in the printing-office and was often mentioned by himself. Subsequently the original manuscript was returned to the author, who soon after died. His widow preserved it until after the publication of the Book of Mormon, when she sent it to Conneaut, where a public meeting, composed in part of persons who remembered Spalding's work, had requested her to send the manuscript, that it might be * Mrs. Spalding was a very respectable woman, and subsequently married a Mr. Davidson. In 1839 she was living in Monson, Mass. THE BOOK OF MORMON. 541 publicly compared with the Book of Mormon. She says in con clusion : . . . "Thus a historical romance, with the addition of a few pious expressions and extracts from the sacred Scriptures, has been construed into a new Bible and palmed off upon a company of poor, deluded fanatics as divine." Rigdon, after getting possession of a copy of this manuscript, left the printing-office and became a preacher of doctrines similar to those subsequently incorporated into the Book of Mormon. He made a few converts, and in 1829 joined himself with Joseph Smith. It is asserted that by this means Smith became possessed of Mr. Spalding's manuscript, which he read to Cowdery from behind the blanket, with such additions as suited the views of Rigdon and himself. Immediately upon its publication the Book of Mormon was claimed by the widow of Spalding, and also by her brother and other friends, as chiefly his work. * Section 3.— Organized Mormonism. The first Mormon church was organized at Manchester, N. Y., April 6, 1830. A few individuals were ordained, who professed to have power to heal diseases, to cast out devils, to impart the Holy Ghost, and also to speak in unknown tongues. In January, 1831, the whole body, led by Smith, who claimed to be divinely directed, removed to Kirtland, Ohio, which was to be the seat of the New Jerusalem. Converts multiplied here, and, soon desiring a wider field for the growth of the Church, the leaders sought a new location, but did not remove to it until 1838. In the meantime they set up stores, mills, and a bank at Kirtland. Of the latter Smith was president and Rigdon cashier. Notes of doubtful value flooded the country, and Smith and Rigdon were accused of fraudulent dealings, dragged from their beds by a mob, and tarred and feathered. In 1832 Brigham Young, a native of Vermont, joined them. By his talents and shrewdness he became very prominent, being reckoned one of the twelve apostles on the establishment of that office in 1835. A costly temple was erected at Kirtland in 1836, and the following year Orson Hyde and Heber C. Kimball were sent out as missionaries to England. In 1838 the bank at Kirtland failed, and Smith and Rigdon fled to Missouri, where large numbers of Mormons soon collected. Falling into quarrels they were * Appleton's Cyclopedia. 1863. Article " Mormons," which see for further accounts. Also History of Mormonism. By Rev. D. P. Kidder, D.D. 542 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. charged with numerous mischiefs, plundering and burning habita tions, secret assassinations, etc. After various conflicts, in which the militia was called out by the governor, they left the State and settled in Carthage County, Illinois, where they built the city of Nauvoo. Here at one time were 1,500 houses and 15,000 inhabitants. In 1843 Smith claimed to have received a revelation from heaven authorizing polygamy. In attempting to carry out this practice trouble arose, aggrieved parties withdrew, and established a news paper for the purpose of exposing the corruptions of the institution. Smith and a party of his followers attacked and destroyed the office. A conflict arose with the county authorities, Smith and his brother surrendered and were cast into prison, a mob attacked the jail and both of them were killed. In 1845 the Legislature of Illinois revoked the charter of Nauvoo, and the Mormons made preparations to remove to the Rocky Mountains. Early in the year they gathered in considerable numbers at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Those who remained in Nauvoo again became involved in trouble with the surrounding people, and in September, 1845, the city was cannonaded and its inhabitants were driven out. The pioneers reached Utah July 24, 1847, and m the following year the great body of the " Saints " arrived at the Great Salt Lake. Septem ber 9, 1850, Congress established over them a Territorial gov ernment, and Brigham Young was appointed governor by President Fillmore. ROMANISM. 843 CHAPTER IX. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Sec. i. General Progress. " 2. Bishop England and Bishop Hughes. " 3. Lay Trustee Contest. " 4. Common School Contest begun. Sec. 5. Native American movements. " 6. Councils. " 7. Propaganda Funds. " 8. Statistics for 1850. Section 1.— General Progress. THE Roman Catholic Church in the United States was largely re-enforced in 1803 by the acquisition of the vast Territory of Louisiana, then comprising the whole region west of the Mississippi River, and in 1820 by the purchase of Florida. * In these vast areas the Roman Catholic had been the only religion. This Church also received large accessions by the steady tide of emigration from Europe. During the first thirty years of this century the emigrants amounted to one third of a million, or ten thousand annually ; from 1830 to 1840, 59,910 annually ; from 1840-1845 the number increased to 86,067 annually; and from 1845 to 1850, in consequence of the potato famine in Ireland and the serious political disturbances in other European countries, the number suddenly rose to 256,583 annually. The total number of persons in the United States in 1850 who were actually born in foreign lands was 2,244,648. As estimated by prelates of the Church, about three fifths of all the emigrants were originally Roman Catholics, while seven eighths of those from Ireland are estimated to have been of that faith. The low condition of the masses of the European populations, the difficulties experienced in obtaining a comfortable livelihood, their limited social and civil privileges, the appalling slaughter at tending their frequent wars and revolutions, the free and inviting fields of our large public domain, and our liberal civil institutions, * In 1810, seven years after Louisiana was ceded to the United States, her population was 34,311 whites and 42,245 blacks. In 1830, ten years after Florida was annexed, her population was 34,730, of whom 18,335 were whites. 844 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. induced multitudes to come to our shores to improve their con dition. The revolutionary fury of France, a revolt against civil des potism, and the papacy as its supporter, and, therefore, fiercely di rected against the Church, gave the first impulse to emigration at the close of the last century. After the establishment of the Federal Governmenl, guaranteeing religious toleration, the Roman Catholic Church began to show itself in all the States along the Atlantic coast, from which it had before been excluded, while it also extended to the new settlements on the frontier. The foundations of this Church in the Western States were not laid without severe labor. A zealous, self-sacrificing spirit, not excelled by any Protestant pioneers, was exhibited by its emissaries on the wild and broken frontiers. In 1815 Bishop Carroll, the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States, died, greatly beloved and honored, especially by those who knew his devotion to our cause amid the struggles ofthe Revolution. Two important works associated with his episcopacy, the founding of the Jesuit College at Georgetown, D. C, in 1791, and the Daughters of Charity, at Emmettsburg, Md., have been already mentioned. Bishop Carroll's successor was the Most Rev. Leonard Neale, D.D., who had been for some time his coadjutor. Like Bishop Carroll, Bishop Neale was a native of Maryland, and also a member of the Order of the Jesuits. The Jesuits and Other Brotherhoods. " Bishop Carroll was devotedly attached to this illustrious Order and to its members. He never lost hope for its restoration (that is, after its suppression in 1773 by the pope), and at the earliest pos sible moment took measures for this end. Though suppressed throughout Europe, Russia was not included in the application of the decree. The Society continued its existence and labors without interruption in that country. As soon as Bishop Carroll learned this fact, he and his coadjutor, Bishop Neale, applied to Father Gruber, the General, for permission to the members ofthe late Society in the United States to affiliate with the Society in Russia, and renew their vows. Their request was granted, and Bishop Carroll called the ex- Jesuits together in Baltimore, May, 10, 1 805, and at this meeting six members of the old Society were re-admitted into the revived Society, and on the 21st of June Bishop Carroll appointed Rev. Robert Molyneux Superior of the Jesuits in America. The Society was soon augmented by arrivals from Europe, and Bishop Carroll THE fESUITS. 545 transferred Georgetown College to them, and restored to them their former missions in Maryland and Pennsylvania." * The Jesuits. In the year 1845 a book was published in Leipsic, Germany, entitled, Das Innere der Gesellschaft Jesu (The Interior of the Society of Jesus), which excited considerable interest in different parts of Europe. It was the aim of the author to exhibit the principles, regulations and operations of the Jesuits at that time, and his statements were professedly based upon the documents of the Society. This book contains a table prepared from communica tions to the General of the Order. The numbers in all the provinces of Europe and America were as follows : In 1838. In 1844. Increase in 6 years. Priests 1,246 1,645 399 Scholars 934 1,281 347 Laymen 887 1,207 320 Total 3,067 4,133 1,066 In the United States the Jesuits were comprised in two prov inces, Maryland and Missouri, as follows : Jesuits in the United States, January i, 1844. MARYLAND PROVINCE. Ph en s rt "rt 0 H MISSOURI PROVINCE. Ph 1'o U cS>.(Tt ?J 0 H I 15 52 3 22 13 16 zI 2 33 2 3i 26 12 I I I 3 2 4646 1 5433 34 3 3 282i5 2 121 5 116 14 5 1 43 1 1z11 36 5 4617 2968 13 4 13 7 37 3768 '3 7 16 2 3 3 561 56 7 49 95 40 16 St. Charles 33 S 4 1 32 1 3 2 42 3 39 St. Francis Borgia (Washington). 1 6 18 Beyond the Rocky Mountains. . . From other Provinces, Deduct.. From other Provinces, deduct. . . Total 139 24 231 SUMMARY. — Priests, 68 ; Scholars, 68 ; Laymen, 95 ; total Jesuits in the United States, January 1, 1844, 231. In January, 1838, there were 163 Jesuits in this country — 6b 35 * Lives ofthe deceased Roman Catholic Bishops. Vol. I, p. > 546 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. priests, 45 scholars, 58 laymen — an increase in six years of 68: Jesuits. In September, 1803, Bishop Carroll consecrated the Church of the Holy Cross in Boston; and in 1806 he laid the corner-stone of the Cathedral in Baltimore. The Augustinians, in Philadelphia, and the Dominicans, in Ohio, founded flourishing institutions, and with the Jesuits, at Georgetown, and the Sulpitians, at Baltimore, shared the favor and benedictions of their chief pastor. Bishop Neale,. already enfeebled by age and labor's, survived Bishop Carroll only two years. Daughters of Charity. The founding of the Order of the Daughters of Charity in America is credited to Mrs. Seaton, of New York. She was born of Protestant parents, her father, Dr. Bayley, being an eminent physician of New York city, holding the office of Health Physician for the Port. Attending her father in his visits to the Quarantine, at Staten Island, she became much impressed with the suffering con dition of the Irish emigrants, in whose service her father lost his life by contagious disease. A subsequent visit to Italy with a dying husband and the kind attentions of a distinguished Roman Catholic family strongly predisposed her to that faith, and in March, 1805, she united with the Church of St. Peter, in New York city. Soon after she established a school for young ladies in Baltimore, under the auspices of Bishop Carroll. This was followed by the founding of the parent house of the Order of the Daughters of Charity, at Emmettsburg, Md. The Order was soon extended to Philadelphia and elsewhere. In 1834 there were twenty-five branches in seven dioceses, and at the present time it has extended itself throughout the leading cities and towns of the land. New Dioceses. The increase of the Roman Catholic population necessitated the creation of new dioceses and administrators. In 1808, New York, Boston and Bardstown, Ky., were erected into episcopal sees. Then followed, in 1809, Philadelphia; in 1820, Charlestown, S.C.; in 1821, Richmond, Va. ; in 1823, Cincinnati ; in 1824, Mobile; in 1826, St. Louis; in 1832, Detroit; in 1834, Vincennes; in 1837, Dubuque, Little Rock, Nashville and Natchez; in 1843, Pittsburg; in 1844, Milwaukee, Chicago and Hartford, Conn.; in 1846, Oregon City ; in 1847, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland and Galveston. Among those bishops who attained considerable eminence were Bishops Cheverus,, ITINERANT PRIESTS. 547 of Boston; O'Connor, of Pittsburg ; Fenwick, of Cincinnati ; Flaget, of Bardstown, Ky. ; England, of Charleston, S. C. ; and Hughes, of New York. In the earlier days the dioceses were large, the labors of the bishops were arduous, and their travels extensive. A few facts will show the situation. In 1816-1818 the diocese of New York embraced the whole of the States of New York and New Jersey, with a Roman Catholic popu lation of about seventeen thousand.* The Laity s Directory for 1822 gives the following items : The number of Roman Catholic churches in the United States did not much exceed one hundred, thirty nine of which, or more than one third, were in the diocese of Baltimore. It was by a hard struggle, with slow and patient progress, that Romanism invaded the stronghold of the Puritans. The diocese of Boston then comprehended the whole of New England, in which there were six churches. Two of these were in the city of Boston, one in Salem, one in New Bedford, and two in Maine, leaving four of the States without any church. The diocese of New York com prised the whole State of New York and the northern part of New Jersey, and had but seven churches, with nine priests, including the bishop. Two ofthe churches were in New York and the others were in Albany, Utica, Auburn, Newark and Carthage. Under the head of " Clergymen Officiating in the Diocese" the following items are given, which show the laborious and itinerant character of the Romish priests of those days : " Rev. Patrick Kelley, Auburn, Rochester, and other districts in the western part of this State. Rev. Philip Larissy attends regularly at Staten Island and different other congregations along the Hudson River." The Philadelphia diocese embraced Pennsylvania and Delaware, with fifteen churches. The editor of the Directory says that at that time the Roman Cath olics constituted nearly one fifth of the population of Philadelphia. Bardstown, Ky., was at that time the head of a very large diocese comprising 19 churches, which were scattered through the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the Territories of Michigan, and the limitless North-west. The diocese of Louisiana included the whole of ancient Louisiana and the Floridas, and was one of the most flourishing domains of the Church. The diocese of Richmond embraced the entire State of Virginia, with seven churches, and the diocese of Charleston included North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. There was one church in South Car olina, at Charleston, and three in Georgia ; at Savannah, Augusta and Locust Grove. * Extracts from a note-book kept by Bishop Conolley, of New York. S48 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Section 2.— Bishop England and Bishop Hughes. In the year 1820 the Roman Catholic Church in America received an important addition to its working force in the appointment of Rev. John England, D.D., to the see of Charleston. Dr. England has been regarded as one of the most noted prelates of the papal Church in this country. Described as a man of " a vigorous and compre hensive mind, enriched with varied and accurate information, thoroughly trained in priestly duties," and with an experience of twelve years in an active missionary career in Ireland, high expec tations were cherished as to his work in America. Familiar with the political questions of the day, with a personal presence in a high degree prepossessing, a quick insight into human character, a ready wit, and great facility in dealing with questions outside of the immediate province of a minister of religion, he was able to exert the most valuable influence with people of position and authority. His fame increased with his years, until his name became a household word with Roman Catholics of all nations, who regarded him as an able champion of their cause. By Irishmen he was regarded with feelings of intense pride on account of his great qualities of heart and head and his power both of pen and tongue. His noble, generous nature, and his capacity for public affairs won for him many friends outside of his church. On the 30th of December, 1820, Dr. En gland landed in Charleston, S.C., and the following day, being Sun day, he entered upon the work of his mission. In a short time he visited all the principal places of his diocese and inaugurated a vigorous course of instruction among his people. He pursued his labors with great diligence and energy, traveling by public and private conveyances, preaching in churches, private houses, in the open air, and sometimes by invitation in the edifices of other de nominations. He also delivered courses of lectures, prepared cate chisms, established " Book Societies," and started a newspaper. * Bishop England's diocese extended about 800 miles north and south along the coast, and about 300 miles into the interior. Through this territory he often traveled in his carriage, driven by a negro boy, preaching, instructing, administering the sacraments with all the ardor of his priestly zeal, wherever a few Roman Cath olics might be found. Many a strange incident and startling adventure occurred during these journeys. The Annals of the Propagation of the Faith for May, 1838,^" contain a letter from him, characterized by great ability, broad and * The United States Catholic Miscellany, at Charleston, in 1822. t Vol. X, p. 253. DISCUSSIONS ON ROMANISM. 549 comprehensive views, and affording a clearer insight into the prog ress and condition of American Romanism than any thing before published— an able resume of papal struggles in the United States. It was translated and republished * in this country, giving him a national reputation. Returning from Europe in 1842 he contracted a malignant disease in his ministrations to the sick on the vessel, and died soon after he landed in Baltimore, universally lamented. At the time of his death the Roman Catholic population of his diocese was estimated at about eight thousand. Bishop Hughes became the most prominent papal ecclesiastic of this period, and therefore demands extended notice. Born in 1798, in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, when quite young his family moved to this country and settled in the vicinity of Cham- bersburg, Md. Early inclined toward an' ecclesiastical life, with the approval and assistance of his father he entered the Theological Seminary of Mt. St. Mary's, Emmettsburg, Md., where he made such rapid progress that he soon became a teacher. In 1825 he was ordained a priest and appointed to the pastoral charge of St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, which position he filled with such zeal and ability that he was soon recognized as the foremost cham pion of Roman Catholicism in that city. In 1832 Rev. John Breck inridge, D.D., then recognized as one of the ablest leaders of the Presbyterians in America, published in the Philadelphia papers a challenge to discuss the question, " Is the Protestant religion the religion of Christ?" Mr. Hughes accepted the challenge, and the discussion was continued in successive letters in the city papers. Four years later he accepted another challenge from the same gen tleman to an oral discussion of the question, " Is the Catholic religion, in any or all its principles and doctrines, inimical to civil or religious liberty?" In this discussion Mr. Hughes exhibited great ability, extensive attainments, and the superior adroitness and tact in dealing with men for which he subsequently became distinguished. In 1837 Bishop Dubois, of New York, finding himself, from age and infirmities, unequal to the care of his large diocese, requested the appointment of a coadjutor. Mr. Hughes was at once desig nated for that position and was consecrated on the 9th of January, 1838. Three weeks after Bishop Dubois was stricken with paralysis, and Mr. Hughes was constituted administrator of the diocese. On the death of Bishop Dubois, in 1842, the episcopal dignity devolved * In the American Quarterly Register for 1841, occupying fifteen closely printed pages. It will amply repay perusal. SSO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. entirely upon him, and in 1852 he became archbishop. Bishop Hughes was a man of great strength and decision of character, bold, fearless, and independent in spirit, and a skillful diplomatist. He exercised great influence over men, whether in personal inter course or in public discourses to the masses. He controlled mobs as with a wand, and politicians were supple tools in his hands. All his resources were called into use in his new field. When he came to New York his diocese embraced 55,000 square miles, with 40 priests, 20 churches and a large number of stations. There was much opposition to Romanism in the country, and the road to suc cess was not a flowery one. Section 3.— The Lay-Trusteeship Contest. Some dangers from within, in the estimation of the far-seeing ones, more perilous than those from without, seriously threatened the Church. These internal causes of apprehension arose chiefly from the system of lay-trusteeship which, in some of the cities, had been the occasion of long-standing feuds and of public scandal. Certain of the laity braved and defied the authority of their bishops, treated with contempt the discipline of the Church, and ventured to receive and dismiss pastors at their pleasure. Some cases were carried into the civil courts. This early system of trusteeship provided that all church prop erty should be held by a board of three or more trustees, appointed by the people for whose benefit the Society existed, of which no priest, bishop, or ecclesiastic could be one. As early as 1830 Bishop England, in his correspondence with the Propaganda, had complained that this system was one of the greatest obstacles in the way of the Roman Catholic Church in this country. The first Provincial Council, in 1829, instructed the bishops not to consecrate any more churches which would not execute a deed of the property to them. Succeeding councils referred to the matter, endeavoring to remedy the difficulty; but it was not easily reached. The free spirit ofthe country was opposed to it. There were "desperate struggles," "prolonged schisms," "embarrassments which shortened the lives of several bishops," "excommunications of several boards of trus tees," and "the interdiction of churches."* It was necessary that the bishop who found himself embarrassed by such action should be prudent, but firm and determined. In * De Courcey's History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, p. 172. LAY -TRUSTEESHIP. SSI -some instances, either through gentleness of nature or from weari ness of the contest, or from a spirit of conciliation — in hope of healing ugly wounds — some bishops surrendered a portion of their authority, while others of a stronger and sterner nature resolutely resisted all encroachments upon their prerogatives and vanquished the intriguers. Under the mild administration of Bishop Dubois a ¦committee of trustees waited upon him and informed him that they could not conscientiously vote him his salary unless he com plied with their wishes and gave them such clergymen as were acceptable to them. The reply is said to have been characteristic of that meek and venerable man, " Well, gentlemen, you may vote the salary or not, just as seems good to you. I do not need much. I can live in abasement or in a garret; but whether I come up from a basement or down from a garret I will still be your bishop." When Mr. Hughes became administrator of the diocese of New York lay-trusteeship was rampant, and its mismanagement had become disastrous to the financial interests of the city churches, five out of the eight being bankrupt ; St. Peter's owing a debt ¦of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Bishop Dubois was past the age of dealing successfully with these increasing diffi culties ; but Bishop Hughes was equal to the emergency. The churches were all assigned or sold by the sheriff, and passed into the hands of Bishop Hughes, who purchased them in his own right. By skillful management he cleared off the most pressing liabilities, visited Europe the following year, obtained pecuniary aid, and thus settled all the obligations and gained the full con trol of the edifices. Section 4.— -The Common School Contest Com menced. It was not long after Bishop Hughes was elevated to the See of New York before he undertook the work of revolution. He was a man of sufficient courage for great undertakings, and also fertile in expedients. Starting with the allegation that the common schools were a " Protestant monopoly," that the system was " insidious and unfair to Catholics," that the books in use were " replete with sneers and libels against the Catholic Church," and that the teachers by their explanations gave new force to the calumnious sentiments, on these grounds he demanded a division of the school fund in favor of the Roman Catholics. In order to understand the case fully it will be necessary to 652 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. revert to a few facts of previous history. In the year 1805 "The New York Public School Society " was formed for the education of poor and neglected children of the city. It was largely aided by the School Fund of the State. As early as 1823 the question of distributing a portion of that fund to sectarian or church schools came up. The first case related to the Bethel (Baptist) Church, which had obtained a portion of the school fund for its schools. The Public School Society opposed this action, as fatal to the pub lic school system and contrary to the object of the school fund, which was intended to promote, not religious, but civil education. The case was argued before the Legislature, which turned the subject over to the Board of the City Corporation. That board appointed a committee to hear the parties. Notwithstanding, the Episcopalians, the Methodists, the Baptists, and the Roman Catho lics, at that day, sought for a participation in the school fund, just as Archbishop Hughes and his fellow bishops have since done, yet the report of the committee convinced every body of "the im policy and injustice of such a division, except the Catholics." * In 1831 the "Roman Catholic Benevolent Society" obtained through the Sisters of Charity a grant of $1,500, which was there after annually made for more than twenty years by the Corporation of the city for the orphan asylum schools under their care. This, however, did not satisfy them. In 1840 Bishop Hughes appeared upon the scene and commenced the agitation of the common school question. In the autumn of that year, under his advice and direc tion, the Roman Catholics presented to the Corporation of the city a petition, numerously signed, requesting that seven Catholic schools be designated as entitled to participate in the common school fund. The Corporation determined to have the question discussed before the full board, which was done on the nights of October 28 and 29. Bishop Hughes was the champion of the Romanists and several distinguished Protestants spoke on the other side. The Corporation, after visiting and examining all the schools, denied the petition. Nothing daunted, the Romanists carried the case up to the Legislature, and through the management of Hon. John C. Spencer, then Secretary of State, and Hon. Wm. H. Seward, the Governor, who encouraged and directed their application, they came nigh succeeding. The House favored the petition, but the Senate decided against it. This gave a quietus to the matter for a time. To conciliate the Roman Catholics the Public School Society agreed to strike out of the school books all passages to which they * See an address by Hiram Ketchum, Esq., delivered in New York city, July 22, 1853. THE BIBLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. B53 objected, and proposed to have only such portions of the Holy Scriptures read as " are translated in the same way in the Protest ant and Romish versions," but these concessions did not satisfy. The next effort was to have the school system of the State extended to the city of New York. This led to the formation of " Ward Schools," under the direction of officers chosen in each ward, while those of the Public School Society were allowed to remain under its control, the two systems operating side by side. As might have been expected, however, and as was probably designed, experience soon demonstrated that such a plan was attended with many diffi culties. This led the Public School Society to propose to the Legislature to retire from the scene, which was allowed. On the 22d of July, 1853, it transferred its schools and property to the Corporation of the city, to be managed by the Board of Education. This surrender was made after forty-eight years of valuable service to poor and neglected children, and after a long resistance against the demands of the Romish hierarchy, under the leadership of Bishop Hughes. At that time the Bible had been ejected from more than eighty of the public schools in New York city. The Roman ists had not succeeded in obtaining a division of the school fund for the benefit of their sectarian schools, but the disbanding of the Public School Society was a Roman Catholic triumph. In this contest Bishop Hughes managed with consummate tact, persistence and ability, sustaining his cause in the municipal Council and in the Legislature, and teaching the politicians the value of the Roman Catholic vote — a lesson which they soon learned to appreciate. Section 5— HatiYe American and Know-Hothing Movements. The year 1844 was remarkable for the " Popish Riots " which occurred in Philadelphia. The great cry was, "The Bible is in danger; save it from the priests." The immediate cause of this movement was the Roman Catholic requirement that when their children were compelled to read the Bible in the public schools it should be the recognized Catholic version. A fierce spirit raged through the city, one or two Catholic churches were destroyed, and some lives were lost. A Protestant Irish association of Orangemen acted a very prominent part in the affair. About this time also the Native American party was organized, which attracted considerable attention and greatly annoyed the Catholics. S54 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. But thefe were several circumstances which conspired to pro duce these results. Since 1840 Bishop Hughes had been exerting his influence against the Bible in the schools of New York. In October, 1842, a large number of Bibles were burned by the Roman Catholics in Champlain, N. Y., intensely arousing the popular mind. On the 2d of May, 1843, Maria Joaquina had been condemned to death on the Island of Madeira for denying the dogma of transub stantiation. On the 2d of May, 1844, Pope Gregory XVI. had issued a bull against Bibles and the Bible societies. And at. the same time John Rouge, in Germany, was uttering his stern protests against the follies and impostures of Rome. The atmosphere, therefore, was full of anti-papal excitements. Another similar excitement, only more extensive, was aroused about ten years later by the famous Know-Nothing party, with its unreasonable and impracticable measures. This party however, notwithstanding glar ing defects, attracted to it many good men who did not fully approve its measures, and made possible some desirable results in consequence of the dismemberment of old political parties which it effected. It arose out of the spirit of the times, for which Romanists were in part responsible. American Romanism was receiving unprecedented accessions to its numbers and strength, from the quarter of a million of emigrants yearly coming to our shores, and about a quarter of a million of dollars annually received from the several European propagandas; it was clamoring for the exclusion of the Holy Bible from the common schools and the division of the school funds ; and its attitude was felt to be increasingly insolent and defiant. Section 6.— Councils. The First Provincial Council of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States convened in Baltimore October 4, 1829, con sisting of five prelates — Right Rev. Bishops Flaget, of Bardstown, Ky.; England, of Charleston, S. C. ; Fenwick, of Cincinnati ; Rosati, of St. Louis, and Fenwick, of Boston ; four bishops being unable to attend. In their two weeks' session the Council enacted thirty- eight decrees, formed an association for publishing Roman Catholic books, favored the establishment of journals conducted by editors of their faith, recommended the organizing of parochial schools, and ordered the bishops to refuse to consecrate any churches unless the deed of the property was duly executed to them. The Second Provincial Council met in Baltimore October 20, ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNCILS. SS5 1833. It consisted of nine bishops, five members of the second order, and fourteen consulting theologians, among whom was the name of John Hughes, afterward Archbishop of New York, then a young man. This Council remained in session one week. Among the items of business transacted was the establishment of a rule for electing bishops, a recommendation to the pope to establish a mission on the west coast of Africa, near the Equator, a resolution in favor of establishing an ecclesiastical seminary in each diocese conformably to the rules prescribed by the Council of Trent, and the appointment of a committee to revise and expurge the books intended to be used in Catholic schools. At that time the number of ecclesiastics in the United States was 308 ; of whom 72 were American born, 91 were born in Ireland, 73 in France, 13 in Italy, 38 were Belgians, Germans, English and Spanish, and one was a Pole. Of the whole number 170 had been ordained in the United States, 43 were Jesuit priests, 14 were Sulpitians, 10 Dominicans, 12 Lazarists and 3 Augustinians. On the 1 6th of April, 1837, the Third Provincial Council assem bled in Baltimore, and the Fourth met also at the same place on the 17th of May, 1840. At the former no business of special interest was transacted ; in the latter the influence of the Washing tonian movements, then attracting great attention, was seen, the Fathers of the Council very earnestly recommending the formation of temperance societies among their people. One of the most im portant decrees of this Council related to the preservation of church property, to avoid the troubles that existed in some churches grow ing out of the system of lay-trusteeship. Schisms and excom munications had occurred and churches had been interdicted. This Council enacted that the bishops should take in their own names the religious property of their dioceses. Educational institutions, however, were allowed to be held by corporations granted by the States. The Fifth Council met in Baltimore May 14, 1843. One of the most important decrees pronounced the penalty of excommunication ipso facto against those who after having obtained a civil divorce should contract a second marriage. This Council also expressed its disapproval of mixed marriages. The Sixth Provincial Council assembled in Baltimore May 10, 1846, twenty-three bishops sharing in its deliberations. The first decree chose the Virgin Mary as the patroness of the United States, designating her as " the Blessed Virgin, Conceived without Sin." Immediately after the close of the Council tidings arrived of the 556 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. death of Pope Gregory XVI., and very soon after of the election of Pope Pius IX. Great interest was every-where felt in the new pope, and many people entertained high expectations on account of a few generous measures with which he commenced his reign. Public meetings were held in the principal cities, eloquent speeches were delivered, and congratulations were addressed to him. Little was it expected by the most decided Protestants that under his administration the legislation of the Church would turn backward rather than forward, and that dogmas and encyclical utterances worthy of the Middle Ages would be freely proclaimed. The Seventh Council met in Baltimore May 6, 1849, twenty-five bishops being in attendance. By the first decree the Council de clared that the " devotion of the clergy and the faithful of the United States to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was universal ; " by the second, that they would " regard with lively satisfaction the doctrinal definition of that mystery by the sovereign pontiff, if in the judgment of his wisdom he deemed the definition seasonable." These decrees were adopted with the votes of all the members except one, the Bishop of Richmond. In re sponse to the action of this Council the pope divided the United States into six ecclesiastical provinces, with suffragan dioceses, thus inaugurating among the simple republican institutions of the United States a hierarchical organization of bishops and archbishops, with miters and pompous forms. Section 7.— Propaganda Funds. The frequent and moving appeals of the Catholic bishops in the United States to their brethren in Europe, representing the urgent and pressing necessities of their cause here, led to the organization of systematic methods to help forward the papal church by the organization of the great papal propagandas. In the seventeenth century the first institution of this class was established in Rome for raising up and educating young men for the priesthood. In 1822 the great Propaganda, which has since attracted so much at tention, was organized at Lyons, France, for the purpose of raising funds to aid the missions of the Church throughout the world. In 1829 the "Leopold" Society of Austria was founded for the specific purpose of helping the Papal Church in the United States. A large portion of the funds of the Lyons Propaganda was yearly appro priated to this country. In 1828 the amount was distributed as follows : PROPAGANDA FUNDS. 5S7 Francs. To the Bishop of Baltimore 5,000 " ' New York 7,500 ' " Charleston 5,000 Total 1 10,000 Francs. To the Bishop of Cincinnati 20,000 " " " " Detroit 7,500 " " " " Bardstown 20,000 " " " " St. Louis 20,000 " " " " New Orleans. . . . 10,000 " •• " " Mobile 15,000 In 1846 the amount of "alms" distributed* by the Lyons Prop aganda alone to the Catholics in the United States was 660,207 francs— equal in United States money to $124,567 33. It was divided as follows: Francs. To the Bishop of Oregon City 54,56° " " " ""Dubuque 26,784 " " " " Detroit ' 29,760 " " " " Cincinnati 20,590 " " " " Philadelphia 15,872 " " " " Pittsburg 15,872 " " " " Richmond 17,856 •' " " " New York 19,840 " " Mission of Sisters of Mercy, New York City 5,400 " " Bishop of Hartford 9,920 " " " " Nashville 15,872 " " " " Louisville 15.780 " " " " Vincennes (39,680 And Congregation of Holy Cross. ( 14,880 To the Bishop of St. Louis 29,760 Francs. To the Bishop of Milwaukee 11,904 " " " " Little Rock 17,856 " " " " Chicago 37,6g6 " " " " Natchez 18,000 " " " " Texas 49,600 " " " " New Orleans 24,800 " ' Mobile 37,728 " " " " Charleston 39,783 " " Mission of the Lazarists. . . . 30,000 " " " " Society of Jesus — Missouri 11,920 " " " " Society of Jesus — Rocky Mountains 44,900 " " " " Dominicans 3,600 Total 660,207 The following statistics of the receipts of the Lyons Association and the amount appropriated to the United States (see New En glander, 1859) w*u be interesting to close students of religious history : Year. 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 (8 months). 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 Receipts. Francs. 22,91549,48782,259 122,598104,888 254.993267,269300,660 293,083308,937309,947 354,345 404,727 541,675729,867 927,304 Appropriated to the United States. Francs. 6,893 26,00036,20051,700 43.700 103,500 IIO.OOO 121,340 116,970126,470 114,800 98,020 102,850145,670 220,758189,582 Year. Receipts. Appropriated to the United States. Francs. 1838 1,343.640 1839 1,895,682 1840 2,473,578 1841 2,752,214 1842 3,233,486 1843 3,562,088 1844 3,540<003 1845 3.707,564 1846 3.575.775 1847 2,845,691 1848 3.513,688 1849 3,060,516 1850 3,082,729 Francs. 267,559 305,310649,164660,991656,901 795,635771,264 674,868 660,210409,322 501,60353I.60I 478,175 Total 43,662,508 8,977,056 * Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1848, pp. 283, 2S4. SS8 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Here are 8,977,056 francs, or about 1,775,413 dollars, distributed in twenty-nine years by a single papal propaganda for the spread of Romanism in the United States. The amount received from the Leopold Society and all other similar sources has been estimated as high as one quarter of a million of dollars in some years. Section 8.— Statistics for 1850. The Roman Catholic Church in the United States.* dioceses. S.5 ~ 3 Oi" .J. c aj Ms ra ' were increased to nine, and other States followed the example. Since that time divorces have multiplied in all the States, and elopements and runaways have decreased. The ratio of divorces in New England in recent years has been said to exceed those of France pro rata. Another painful fact is the relative decrease of the number of marriages. In Massachusetts, in nineteen years, the ratio was one divorce to 36 marriages ; in the three years following, one to 23 marriages.* Several grave considerations demand attention : 1. In the most liberal view of the matter the increase of divorces during the past thirty years is an ominous symptom, and can but awaken concern for the permanence of social order and the stability of public virtue. 2. In comparing the number of marriages with the number of divorces the financial condition of the country should not be over looked, for it has been noticed that in times of financial embarass- ment, like that following 1873, tne number of marriages has been diminished, while the number of divorces has not been reduced. Also reference should be had to whether additional facilities for obtaining divorces have been granted in any given years. 3. Loose legislation in regard to the matrimonial relation evinces a modification of the moral standard and a change in the type of morals. 4. The mere fact of the increase of divorces does not imply an increase of wickedness, if the causes for which the divorces are granted do not imply immorality. 5. Considered in respect to the question of the progress of morals, the runaways from matrimony and the illegal assumptions * For fuller exhibits see Problem of Religious Progress by the author of this volume. Phil lips & Hunt. New York city. 1881. P. 209-218. Also Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor in Massachusetts. By Col. Carroll D. Wright. 1 880. Pp. 199-235. Also Monday Lect ure, by Rev. S. W. Dike, of Royalston, Vt., in Tremont Temple. Published in full in the Boston Traveller, January 25, 1881. 580 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. of marriage relations, both of which classes of cases were very numerous less than a century ago, should be counted against the divorce cases of our times. Elopements and runaways are now very few as compared with even twenty-five years ago. 6. Laws in regard to marriage have been purified and improved. How much honor and influence are accorded to woman, and how greatly has the sacredness and sweetness of home-life been devel oped throughout Christendom ! Section 5.— Crime. The want of sufficient exact data makes definite comparisons of the present with the past impossible. The public statistics of pre vious periods are scattering and imperfect, and many of those ofthe present time are not sufficiently discriminating to form a definite basis of calculation. Collateral parts, so necessary to an intelligent judgment, are wholly omitted from statistics of criminal jurispru dence, though much improvement is now being made in collecting such data. Since the civil war flagrant crimes have been shock ingly frequent, and the large cities have become centers of crime, where it multiplies and often claims impunity. Nor in large cities only; rural communities have also furnished cases of daring atrocity. Crimes against life and property have seemed to move in waves. The newspapers have freely discoursed of the "Reign of Violence," "The Era of Blood," "The Carnival of Crime," and sounded notes of alarm. Astounding cases of defalcation, forgery and other offenses against trust and honor, involving in crime men of highest respectability, of lofty religious profession, conspicuous in Christian and charitable labors, and pillars of churches, have been the most painful and staggering to public confidence of all recent develop ments. While setting their hands to deeds for which they now lie in penitentiaries they were "repeating every Sabbath the prayers of the Church, singing songs hallowed by the voices of martyrs, giving freely of stolen money to Christian benevolences, and seem ingly delighting in deeds of charity more than in hoarding gold, so tortuous, serpentine and idiotic, under the wiles of evil, have con sciences become." The effect of these oft-repeated defalcations has been fearfully cumulative. Sermons, homilies, scathing editorials, public and social indignations have multiplied, inculcating virtue, protesting against venality, and warning ofthe consequences of dis honesty. Then straightway one supposed to be incorruptible takes APPARENT INCREASE IN CRIME. 58 1 a hand in the unequal game and surprises the public with a fresh example of perfidy and ruin. No theory fully accounts for the increase of crime. Sometimes it is said to be owing to the recent infusion of a large immoral for eign population into the country; but the next moment we hear of some horrid atrocity by a native American of education and good social standing. Then we talk of the cities as the peculiar abodes of crime; but the next day a quiet rural district furnishes a case which for savagery matches any thing perpetrated in the vilest haunts of the large centers. It is impossible to go to the deepest root of homicidal crime, for it "involves some of the most occult and dif ficult problems of mental and moral psychology." Malignant ulcers, horrid deformities, and infectious distempers have always afflicted the highest civilizations, and probably will continue to do so. After such emphatic declarations of these palpable facts of evil it will not be charged that we unduly eulogize our times. It is due that a broad and discriminating analysis of these unfavorable aspects of present society be made in the light of previous times. The scope of this volume calls for this treatment of the case, while it also compels a curtailment of the space devoted to it. If intelli gently done it will appear that the indications are not altogether doleful, but reasonably hopeful ; that some of the dark symptoms are temporary reactions under transient causes ; that others are eddy ing movements in the stream of progress ; others, first, and probably transient, outputtings of new and immature stages of civilization, and that, whatever shadows here and there may darken the picture, its average light and beauty are vastly greater than in former days. Alleviating Facts. There are many weighty considerations which shed an alleviating light upon the situation. First of all, it will not be denied that a large part of what many regard as an increase of crime is apparent rather than real. It is not simply that more crimes are committed, but more are reported. " We read about defalcations and rascalities, but we forget that we skim the whole creation every morning and put the results in our coffee. Years ago a crime had to be of un usual proportions to make its way into an adjoining State. Only the giant crimes could cross the continent. But now we see and know every thing." * "The ubiquitous reporter," says the editor of the Boston Journal (July n, 1879), ">s responsible for the gloomy showing. His note-book and pencil are *Rev. Bisnop C. H. Fowler, D.D., LL.D. 582 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. every-where, and the telegraph is the ready agent for transmitting news to all parts of the world. The scope of the press has vastly broadened of late years, and its facilities for collecting news are immensely multiplied. We have had the curiosity to look back over some early files of ihe Journal, in order to show by comparison the change which has taken place. Selecting an issue of the paper at random, in July, 1850, we find that out of thirty-two columns contained in the paper precisely one third ol a column is taken up with telegraph news, and two thirds of a column with local news, half of the latter space being devoted to an account of tenement-house life on Fort Hill. Of actual news, gathered by reporters and by telegraph, the paper contained hardly more than half a column. The Journal ol that day was not less enterprising than its contemporaries; but journalistic ideas and ideals were altogether different. The newspaper reader then was content with the narrow horizon which his paper supplied him, and troubled himself very little about matters which went on at a distance. The newspaper editor presented news as it happened to come, and when it came, and was not given to making special exertions for procuring it. How different this is from the journalism of to-day, with its net-work of agencies, embracing the most insignificant places and the most remote quarters ofthe world; with its complex facilities and mighty rivalries ; with its special correspondent here, there, and every-where — scouring the desert of Central Asia, exploring Africa, watching the military movements in Zululand, and even going out in quest of a way to the North Pole — we hardly need say. The editor of thirty years ago would have stood aghast at the expenditures for news collecting necessary to a journal of to-day. But we may note in passing that in the scanty space devoted to news in the issue of July, 1850, to which we refer, we find mention of nine crimes." What proportion of crime is apparent and what is actual cannot be satisfactorily answered. Our bureaus of statistics are preparing materials which may at some time assist us. Unquestionably, more crimes are now committed than twenty or thirty years ago. But during this period great changes have taken place in the number and composition of our population. It must be evident to all that as society develops life becomes more intense, and the liability to break down under overstrain in creases in persons naturally frail or ill-balanced ; but such failures do not indicate a general deterioration of morals. An overwrought civilization must exhibit painful features ; a high nervous tension easily slips into derangement, aberration, or enfeebled self-control, and makes men easy victims of temptation and passion to which in a healthy normal condition they would not succumb. An English writer recently said : " Any period of great mental activity will be prolific of crime. The Greeks were sad knaves. . . . The knavery ofthe Italian republics was enormous — hidden from us, however, to some extent by their astounding ruffianism. Macchiavelli, Guic- ciardini, and a host of other writers show how deeply the depravity of actual life had corroded all moral principles." INDICATIONS OF IMPROVEMENT. 583 Another effect of advanced civilization is that the higher the taste is cultivated the fewer pictures do we see which challenge admiration. A nearer inspection of the Fenelons, Madame Guyons, Augustines, etc., presents to us points of criticism which did not arrest attention in their age. Much has been said about the decline of morals in -New En gland. But where is New England? Large sections of the West are essentially New England, but New England without the hood lums. Not far from 600,000 people, born in New England, are now in the portions of the United States outside of New England ; and, in their stead, New England has taken in 800,000 foreign-born people, who have come from different conditions of civilization and culture — enough to change the moral and social aspects of New England villages and cities. Periods of financial straits, depressing business, exposing large masses of unemployed men to fatal allurements, account for the more alarming waves of crime. Sensational accounts of vice spread upon the pages of newspapers, leniency in judicial sentences, fla grant abuse of the pardoning power, eulogies upon the "smartness" of criminals, maudlin sentimentalism interfering with the execution of penalties, etc., etc., have diminished restraints upon crime and perverted the popular moral sense. The addition of fourteen mill ions of foreigners, besides their offspring, since 1845, a number equal to more than one half of the total increase of the population in this period, has been a severe strain upon public morals. Their different type of moral culture, their drinking customs, their holi day Sabbath habits, the infidelity of many, and the socialistic ideas of others, have caused communities where they have largely con gregated to wear aspects very different from former times. The official census of the United States in 1870 showed that while the foreign-born population of New England were twenty per cent, of the whole they furnished seventy-five per cent, of the crime. Nevertheless it is idle to say that the greatest crimes are com mitted by foreign-born criminals. We must confess that sons of our own nursing are among the most flagrant offenders, that mael stroms of vice on our shores speedily engulf newly-arrived emi grants, that we have allowed too many of the offspring of poor Europeans to become waifs, familiar only with brutal indulgences, and that young men from our rural districts too easily become vic tims of city seductions and rapidly descend the terrible gradations of crime. It is also noticeable and encouraging that large portions of our foreign population have improved greatly in morals and 584 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. intelligence since they came among us, purchasing houses and lands, making deposits in savings banks, and promoting the educa tion of their offspring, so that American Romanism exhibits a higher moral type than European Romanism. A misconception often leads to hasty and improper conclusions. Statistics of crime are often accepted without considering the prog ress of criminal legislation, which is constantly increasing the number of crimes cognizable by law. Such figures show an appar ent increase of crime, though much of it is affected by legislation. "Civilization has raised many things formerly considered perhaps as immoral, and as offenses against moral law, into well-defined crimes, and subject to punishment as such. The result is we are constantly increasing the work of criminal courts by giving prosecuting officers new fields to canvass and by adding to the list of offenses defined as crimes. The number of sentences is thus increased compara tively.* The number of offenses designated as crimes by the criminal code of Massachusetts largely exceeds that of other States; for instance, the statutes of Massachusetts comprehended in i860 one hundred and fifty-eight offenses punishable as crimes, while the code of Virginia for the same year recognized but one hundred and eight, or fifty less. The same is true, to a greater or less extent, of nearly if not quite all the other States." f No class of inquiries requires more careful and intelligent dis crimination than those which pertain to the progress of morals. At best such inquiries are beset with great difficulties, for to judge our times is much like judging ourselves. Future judges may modify our best conclusions. So many diverse elements, currents, ebbs and flows enter into the life of any people, and especially of a young nation like ours — an asylum for all nations and with condi tions at times stimulating, intense, and revolutionary in the realm of ideas and customs — that there is liability to err in our conclu sions. First appearances, fancies, and prepossessions should not supplant definite bases of facts. Currents of evil there are, some new, some manifestly increasing, some alarming ; nevertheless we believe that a broad survey of all the conditions of American society indicate a substantial improvement in the average moral purity of the people. * Eleventh Annual Report, Bureau of Statistics of Labor, State of Massachusetts. Jan uary, 1880. P. 193. t Ibid., p. 178. ROMAN CATHOLICISM. 585 CHAPTER II. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Sec. I. General Progress. " 2. The System of Church Tenure. " ' 3. The Common School Contest. " 4. Religious Orders. Sec. 5. Benevolent Institutions. " 6. Educational Institutions. " 7. Growth. Section 1.— General Progress. DURING the last forty years the Roman Catholic Church in the United States received large accessions by foreign emi gration, far exceeding any other time in its history. The stream of emigration, which had slowly advanced during the previous decades, after 1845 was suddenly swollen to enormous proportions. From 1845 to 1855 two and a third times as many emigrants landed on our shores as in the previous fifty-five years, and from 1845 to 1887 nearly ten times as many as from 1790 to 1845. Nearly thirteen million emigrants infused into our population since 1845 is about one third of our total increase since that date. The offspring of these new comers of the first generation, partak ing largely of the ideas, prejudices and customs of their parents, would amount to from one half to three fourths as many more. Three fifths of these foreign-born accessions, it has been estimated, come from Roman Catholic stock. Such a large contribution to the strength of that Church has emboldened its priesthood an 1 led to aggressive movements upon some American institutions. Encouraged by the augmentation of numbers and the flattery of political demagogues, the papal leaders ventured upon a fuller development of the peculiarities of their system than had ever before been made in this country. Roman Catholic "festivals" have become more numerous and prominent, public processions, in some instances led by the priesthood, have appeared on the streets, and pictures, rosaries, crucifixes, images, relics of apochryphal saints, etc., have been obtruded upon public attention. The. cere- 586 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. mony of "baptizing bells" was publicly performed in the city of New York and "indulgences " were openly offered for sale. In the chastisement of offenders and for the purpose of keeping others in subjection, recourse has been had to the whip, to excommunications. with their terrific accompaniments, and a refusal of the rites of burial to the dead — a great advance toward that type of Roman Catholicism long prevalent in Europe. The activity of the Jesuits, and other orders, in bringing forth their peculiarities has at times awakened serious apprehensions in many minds lest European Romanism should be fully and permanently established among us. Hence the Know-Nothing party of 1853-1855, and the legislative enactments bearing against foreigners in some States — movements which sprang out of the jealousy naturally engendered by the bold, defiant, and revolutionary conduct of Roman Catholics. Most of these legal enactments were, however, subsequently repealed after the popular frenzy subsided. Plenary Councils. On the 10th of May, 1852, the first Plenary or National Council assembled in Baltimore, consisting of 6 archbishops, 23 bishops, 40 theologians, and 18 other ecclesiastics. This Council laid down rules for ecclesiastical property, declaring that the administration of boards of trustees should be subject to the approval of the bish ops of the diocese. It condemned secret societies, especially Free Masonry. It dwelt upon the rapid growth of the Church in the United States and stimulated the faithful to meet its wants. It also condemned the system of public schools, where children of all denominations are admitted and religious teaching is excluded. The second Plenary Council was held in Baltimore in 1866 — a very imposing spectacle, comprising 44 mitered prelates, 2 mitered abbots, and 1 procurator. Of these 16 were Americans, 9 Irish, 12 French, 2 Flemish, 3 Spanish, 2 Swiss, I Austrian, and 2 German. Of the 16 American prelates one half were of Irish parentage and nearly all of Irish descent. Archbishop Spaulding presided. The session of this Council was regarded as a great occasion, and unu sual pains were taken to produce a deep impression. There were pompous processions with gorgeous trappings, extraordinary cere monies, and many other things which to the simplicity of the American mind seemed puerile relics of the fast decaying hierarch ical folly of the Old World. This Council gave special attention to the importance of providing for the education and religious culture ARCHBISHOP HUGHES. 687 of the emancipated negroes. Parochial schools, recommended in the previous Council, were commanded wherever possible. The last decree of the Council recommended the erection of fifteen new episcopal dioceses. The third Plenary Council* was held in Baltimore, November 9 to December 7, 1884, the Rev. James Gibbons, D.D., Archbishop of Baltimore, presiding, and was composed of 14 archbishops, 60 bishops, 5 visiting bishops from Canada and Japan, 7 abbots, 1 pre fect apostolic, II monsignors, 18 vicars general, 23 superiors of religious orders, 12 rectors of seminaries, and 90 theologians. Of the foregoing 15 were Jesuits. Of the 74 prelates 24 were born in the United States, 19 in Ireland, 9 in Germany, 7 in France, 4 in British America, 4 in Belgium, 3 in Spain, 1 in Switzerland, 1 in Scot land, and 2 unknown. The Pastoral Address of the Council treated upon the education of the clergy, pastoral rights, Christian education, the Christian home, marriage, literature for the people, the Holy Scriptures, the Catholic press, the Lord's day, forbidden societies, Catholic societies, home and foreign missions, and temperance. The utterances upon the Sabbath and temperance were very emphatic. The Council attracted wide attention, and many of its declarations were pronouncedly anti-Protestant. The death of Archbishop Hughes, the most prominent Roman Catholic prelate of this period, occurred on Sunday evening, Jan uary 3, 1864, after a short illness. The announcement created a profound sensation in New York, where he had been a conspicuous figure in public life. No other ecclesiastic had done so much for the upbuilding of the Church in the United States, except, perhaps, Bishop Carroll. Distinguished by marked ability, he wielded the power of a Wolsey, and, wherever known, produced the impression of an experienced and sagacious man of affairs, a worker of great perseverance and energy, and a prelate of undoubted ambition. His name will ever be associated with the most prosperous period of Roman Catholicism in the United States. Although the Arch bishop of Baltimore outranked him in the hierarchy, yet he was the recognized leader of the Church and its acknowledged champion before the public. His administrative abilities were unequaled. For this reason he was selected by the national Government for an important semi-official mission to Europe in the early period of the late civil war. His great influence over the New York mob in 1863 has been a topic of frequent favorable comment. In a state of * See Memorial Volume of the Third Plenary Council. Baltimore Publishing Company. 1885. Pastoral Letter, pp. 10-30. 588 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. great feebleness from serious physical infirmities he addressed and quieted the enraged masses — the last public act of his life. During the last thirty-five years the Roman Catholic dioceses have considerably increased. At the close of 1850 they numbered 26, and 6 archdioceses. At the close of 1886 there were 12 arch dioceses, 61 dioceses, 9 vicarates apostolic, and 1 cardinal. March J5i i875> Archbishop John McCloskey, of New York city, was created " Cardinal Priest," under the title of Sancta Maria supra Minervam, holding this office until his death, October 10, 1885. In the Con sistory at Rome, June 7, 1886, Pope Leo XIII. created Archbishop Gibbons, of Baltimore, cardinal. Defalcations. Two great instances of pecuniary defalcations by Roman Catho lic officials in high position have attracted much attention in recent years — that of Bishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, amounting to three or four million dollars, financially wrecking many persons, and the other at Lawrence, Mass., in 1883, by the Augustinian Fathers. About thirty years ago Bishop Fitzpatrick gave the priests of Law rence permission to borrow money of parishioners to erect eccle siastical edifices. A form of a bank was instituted, administered by the priests. By high living, the erection of extravagant edifices, incompetent financial management, and over-indulgence on the part of too-confiding parishioners, it became hopelessly insolvent, occasioning serious losses and much scandal. "A Church Debt Society" is now undertaking to make up the losses. Dogma of Immaculate Conception. On the 8th of December, 1854, a new dogma, the Immaculate Conception — that the Virgin Mary was conceived and born without inherited depravity — was added to the Roman Catholic creed. Through many centuries an open question, Aquinas, Bernard, the Dominicans, and others, steadily resisted all attempts to commit the Church in its favor. Ever held in high esteem by the Jesuits, after the resuscitation of their Order, in 18 14, they championed its adoption. Proceeding cautiously, sending circulars to all the bish ops, and obtaining the assent of a large majority of them, the Pope publicly announced the dogma, much to the surprise of the Christian public. The action of the sixth and seventh Provincial Councils* at Baltimore has been elsewhere noticed, the former * Held in 1846 and 1849. PAPAL INFALIBILITY. 589 adopting the " Blessed Virgin, conceived without sin, as the special patroness of the United States," and the latter, with only one dis senting vote, recommending the pope to declare the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The Roman Catholic cleigy of the United States have ever been the devoted advocates of this doctrine, and Mr. De Courcey cites a long list of instances of its recognition by the early founders of Romanism in this country, which is both curious and instructive. The ship which bore Columbus to the New World was the St. Mary of the Conception ; the second island which he discovered was called " La Conception;" the first chapel built by Champlain in Quebec was dedicated " La Conception;" in 1635 the Jesuits dedicated to the Immaculate Conception their adventurous Huron Mission ; Father Le Jeune relates that the next year they consecrated the country in a special manner to " Mary, conceived without sin;" and in 1673 the River Mississippi was baptized with the name " Conception " by its discoverer, James Marquette. Infallibility of the Pope. The Ecumenical Council was held in Rome, 1868-9. On the 13th of September, 1868, a most remarkable document proceeded from the Pope, addressed " to all Protestants and other non-Catho lics," as " those who, while they know the same Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, and glory in the name of Christian, yet do not profess the true faith of Christ, nor hold to, nor follow the communion of the Catholic Church." He exhorted them " to avail themselves of the opportunity of this Council," to "satisfy the longings of their own hearts, and free themselves from that state in which they can not be assured of their own salvation;" to "continually offer fervent prayers to the God of mercy that he would throw down the wall of separation, scatter the darkness of error, and lead them back into the bosom of the Holy Mother, the Church, in which their fathers found the healthful waters of life, in which alone the whole teaching of Jesus Christ is preserved and handed down, and the mysteries of heavenly grace dispensed." " We address these letters to 'all Christians separated from us, and we again and again exhort and conjure them speedily to return unto the one fold of Christ." A few individuals and some religious bodies replied to this let ter, among whom may be cited, as of particular appropriateness and value to American citizens, the action of the Presbyterian General Assembly in the United States. They declared their unhesitating belief in the Apostles' Creed and the doctrines of the first six Gen- 590 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. eral Councils, denying that they were schismatics, declining to accept his invitation, because they held principles which the Council of Trent had pronounced accursed ; among which were — that the Word of God is the only infallible rule of faith and practice ; the right of private judgment ; the universal priesthood of believers ; a denial of the perpetuity of the apostleship, etc. They closed their address with the following noble and appropriate words : While loyalty to Christ, obedience to the Holy Scriptures, consistent respect for the early councils of the Church, and the firm belief that " pure religion is the only foundation of all human society," compel us to withdraw from the fellow ship of the Church of Rome, we, nevertheless, desire to live in charity with all men. We love all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. We cordially recognize as Christian brethren all who worship, trust, and serve him as their God and Saviour according to the inspired Word. And we hope to be united in heaven with all who unite with us on earth in saying, " Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins with his blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." On the 8th of December, 1868, the Ecumenical Council assem bled, all reporters being excluded and its members pledged to secrecy. What was transacted has' not yet been fully disclosed. There have been strange whisperings that eminent jurists in Rome at that time critically studied the laws of the United States, to ascertain what opportunities the field afforded for the Church. Whether the ostensible and avowed object of the Council was the real one has been a matter of conjecture. On the nth of July, 1869, in the Council at Rome, the vote was taken on the celebrated dogma of papal infallibility. We are principally concerned in these pages with the action of the prelates from the United States. The vote was taken in two forms, condi tionally and unconditionally. Eighty-eight prelates voted uncon ditionally against it, of whom four were from the United States ; namely, the archbishop of St. Louis, and the bishops of Pittsburg, Little Rock, and Rochester. Sixty-two voted conditionally against it, of whom four were from the United States ; namely, the arch bishop of New York and the bishops of Oregon City, Monterey, and Savannah. Seventy bishops were absent, of whom three were from the United States; namely, the bishops of Cincinnati, Cleve land, and Bardstown, Ky. Of the fifty-seven bishops in the United States forty-six, or more than four fifths, voted for the dogma of infallibility.* Others have since assented to it. *The following recent utterance of Bishop Ryan, of Philadelphia, is a direct, logical sequence of the dogma of papal infallibility. " We maintain that the Church of Rome is intol erant — that is, that she uses every means in her power to root out heresy. But her intolerance ACQUISITIONS OF ROMANISM, 591 Public Funds. It has not escaped frequent notice by the press that the Roman Catholic officials in New York city have secured for that Church "the lion's share" of such public funds as have been paid out as benevolent appropriations.* From 1861 to 1869, inclusive, $897,039 were given to the Roman Catholic institutions, while all other insti tutions, Protestant, Jewish, etc., received $284,491 33. In The Christian Advocate, January 1, 1880, Dexter A. Hawkins, Esq., gave a later view of the amount of public money and public property bestowed upon the Roman Catholic Church in New York city. He says it obtained from the city donations of real estate to the amount of $3,500,000,! and in eleven years, 1869 to 1879, it is the result of her infallibility. She alone has the right to be intolerant because she alone has the truth. The Church tolerates heretics where she is obliged to do so, but she hates them with a deadly hatred and uses all her powers to annihilate them. If ever the Catholics should become a considerable majority, which in time will surely be the case, then will religious freedom in the Republic of the United States come to an end. Our enemies know how she treated heretics in the Middle Ages and how she treats them to-day where she has the power. We no more think of denying these historic facts than we do of blaming the Holy God and the princes of the Church for what they have thought fit to do " * The following table, incomplete, taken from the New York Times, will serve as a specimen of these appropriations: St. Patrick's Cathedral $32,928 84 Home of the Good Shepherd 95,000 00 Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. . . . 57,080 71 The Institution of Mercy 35, 000 00 Society for the Protection of Roman Catholic Children 30,000 00 Immaculate Conception School 10,00000 Hospital of Sisters of St. Francis. . . 10,000 00 House of Mercy 55, 000 00 House of Mercy, Bloomingdale 20,00000 Parish School of St Lawrence Church 10,000 00 Sistersof Mercy, St. Dominic 10,10620 Society for the Reformation of Juve nile Delinquents 58,000 66 Sisters of Mercy 28,893 00 School of St. Nicholas, Order of St. Dominic 11,80000 St, Nicholas's School 10,000 00 t He specifies the following real estate given by the city of New York to the Roman Catholic Church : " The Cathedral Block and the block in the rear, which has a small brick chapel on it, were obtained from the city as follows: 1. The Church got possession of a lease from the city at a nom inal annual rent. 2. When forfeited for non-payment of this rent the city waived the forfeitures, and on payment by the Church of $83 32 converted the lease into a fee. 3. This lot, eight hundred feet long, running from Fifth to Fourth Avenue, had no frontage on Fifty-first Street, but was cut off from that street by a strip ten inches wide on Fifth Avenue, and five feet six inches wide on Fourth Avenue. The city made an even exchange with the Church of this free hold strip for a much smaller leasehold strip on the block above. This gave the Church the whole block — now, by the extension of Madison Avenue through it, two blocks — and then the city St. Bridget's School 33,540 00 St. Joseph's Church, Asylum, Or phan Asylum, Parish School, Pa rochial School, Male and Female 70,712 64 St. Teresa's School I5>730 00 St. Lawrence Church 15,151 31 St. Mary's School 25,000 00 St. Gabriel's School 16,830 00 St. Andrew's Church 7,008 98 Church of the Immaculate Concep tion 5,ooo 00 School of the Immaculate Conception 10,000 00 Free School of St Vincent de Paul . 25,00000 St. Vincent Hospital and Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum 33, 000 00 Total $730,782 34 592 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. received from the public treasury $5,827,471 19 — an average annual donation of $529,770 10. In 1887 the statement appeared that the disbursements from the State treasury of New York to Roman Catholic institutions during the past twelve years aggregated $8,052,528 48 — an average of nearly $700,000 annually. When the United States census was taken in 1870 the vicar general of the Roman Catholic Church in New York city declined to give to the officials a schedule of the property of that Church in the city, notwithstanding other denominations had promptly given such reports. He would neither give the items nor the aggregate.* To save time and avoid legal entanglement an officer was appointed by census officials to inquire in regard to the property and appraise the value, which was found to amount to about sixty million dollars — considerably more than that of any other religious body. This property, it was concluded, could not have been acquired from so poor a membership in the usual way of gifts, bequests, etc., but had been obtained largely by grants from the State and city gov ernments. Thus, though theoretically there is no State Church, by the votes and influence of the Roman Catholic population this Church has managed to get the lion's share of public donations — a bribe for its political influence. Political Action. The case of Rev. Dr. McGlynn is just now receiving much attention, the old Ultramontane question. All persons acquainted with New York politics and the familiar relations long existing between the Roman Catholic hierarchy in New York and Tammany Hall understand the true inwardness of the archbishop's opposition to Dr. McGlynn. The George Labor movement, with which Dr. McGlynn was identified, was the most formidable threat ever made against Tammany's control over the votes of the majority of work- paid the Church $24,000 for said extension of the avenue, and also gave it $8,928 84 to pay an assessment, thus making substantially a donation of these two blocks — worth now, without buildings, at 1 ast $1,500 000 — and a gift in money of $32,928 84. " The city also gave the Church the block above this, from Fifth to Fourth Avenue, now two blocks, by two leases for ninety-nine years at $1 a year rent each, The-e two blocks, with out buildings, are worth now at least another $1,500,000. The city for $1 a year gave to the archbishop for the ' Sisters of Mercy ' half a block of land on Madison Avenue, between Eighty- first and Eighty-Second Streets. This, without buildings, is worth now at least $200,000. The city for $1 a year gave for the ' Sisters of Charity ' a whole block of land on Lexington Avenue, between Sixty -eighth and Sixty-ninth Streets. This, without buildings, is worth now at least $300,000. ' ' Total, five and a half blocks of land in the best part of the city, worth $3,500,000." * See speech made by Mr. Cowley before the National Club, London. Also editorial in The Methodist (New York city), January 25, 1873. ROMANISM IN AMERICAN POLITICS. 593 ingmen, and particularly the Irish Catholic workingmen of New York, and Tammany had in turn appropriated large sums of money to the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church.* The actual and direct interference in politics of bishops, vicars general, and priests in their ecclesiastical capacity and because of their influence, is one of the facts of the times which is destined to receive more serious attention. In regard to such action we have a recent testimony from right out of the bosom of Rome. Dr. McGlynn says: Recent instances of this, not a few, could be mentioned. It must suffice here merely to refer to the letters and messages of the late Vicar General Quinn, of New York, sent to clergymen to secure their influence as churchmen to defeat constitutional amendments which, even after their adoplion, have been practically overridden and overruled in the interest of Catholic institutions, and to secure the election to the Legislature of such men as Mr. J. W. Husted, because he was willing to favor "generous appropriations; " the instance referred to in this article of the clerical alliance with the Tweed ring; the letter of Monsignor Preston to Joseph O'Donoghue in the late Mayoralty canvass ; the denunciation of one of the candidates and his party from Catholic altars ; the secret prohibition to a priest, who went not as a priest, but as a citizen, to keep his engagement to speak at a political meeting, the chief demerit of which speech was clearly in the fact that the movement it was intended to help was likely to bring disaster upon the Tammany ally of the ecclesiastical machine; the abuse of the confes sional in forbidding men under penalty of refusal of absolution to attend the meetings of one political party; and last, and worst of all, the effort of an arch bishop in the late election to defeat at the polls, by the abuse of his eccfesiastical position, the call for a constitutional convention which, as the result proved, was demanded by an overwhelming majority of all those who voted on the question — an effort in full keeping with the action of the same archbishop, when Bishop of Newark, in sending to the Catholic pastors of New Jersey a secret confidential letter, telling them to "instruct " their people how they " must " vote upon certain proposed constitutional amendments, giving minute details as to the striking out of certain clauses, and suggesting that for greater surety it might be better that the Catholic voters should strike out all the clauses. The heinousness of this action will be better understood when it is mentioned that the object of the pro posed amendments was to protect the public treasury, and to prevent the people of counties and towns from being oppressed and robbed by railroad and other corporations.! Here are presented two leading features of an Established Church— ecclesiastical institutions supported by the city, and poli tics^ controlled by ecclesiastical influence. It only remains to add two more ; namely, the mantle of civil authority and protection * We cannot enter very much into this case for want of space and because it is too soon to judge what will come out of it. For a full statement of the history of the case the reader is referred to The Independent (New York), August 4, 1887. t North American Review, August, 1887, pp. 201-2. 38 594 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. thrown over a single denomination, and a military force at the com mand of that denomination, and there will be no occasion to look elsewhere to find a State religion. The first of these two remain ing requisites was disclosed in the overhauling of the lunatic asylum and other charitable institutions in New York city. The American Protestant * relates the story : We need not go to Rome to find a State religion. The overhauling of the lunatic asylum and other charitable institutions reveals a state of corruption and sectarian ism that is very startling. The Catholics hold the rule in these institutions, and out of the thousands scarcely one can be found who has not the brogue. Laws have been passed by the Legislature for the express purpose of keeping devoted and earnest missionaries from laboring among the destitute, the criminal and the lowly. Where Protestants are allowed to work among our charitable institutions great honor is put upon the Catholic worship— comfortable chapels are provided, and the pall of authority is thrown over it — while Protestants are left to shift for themselves. The Tombs is a good illustration of this. A fine chapel is fitted up for Catholic worship, the prisoners are marched into a room where stands an altar, with the paraphernalia of worship, and music lends its attractions. Protest ants hold their meetings in the narrow gallery that runs around the prison. The prisoners remain in their cells. A few peep out of the iron grating. Those who choose lie in bed, read newspapers or novels, draw down their blinds, and show the utmost contempt for public worship. The officials are not even respectful. Without music, without attention, without even an audience in sight, the minister opens his services. He is liable to constant interruption, not only from the cells, but from the coming and going of officers, the loud call for prisoners and the opening and slamming of the iron doors. The order, decency and accommodation afforded to the Catholic worship, and the neglect and contempt thrown upon the Protestant service, show the difference between a State religion and one that is tolerated in New York. They obtained control of the chaplaincies of Bellevue Hospital, Blackwell's Island, Hart's Island, Randall's Island and Ward's Island institutions, a considerable number of Jesuit priests occupy ing positions in them. The education on Hart's Island and the school-ship Mercury has been declared to be " as sectarian as it is possible for the commissioners of public charities to allow and for an eminent Jesuit to effect." On Blackwell's Island the Jesu itical pressure is felt in the lunatic hospital, the Work-house, the Penitentiary and the Charitable Hospital, and these Jesuit chap lains are supported chiefly by Protestant taxpayers. The last requisite of a State Church — a military force at the command of a single denomination — was obtained by the organi zation of " Roman Catholic regiments " in the State of New York, composed wholly of members of that Church. Late in 1872 the * January n, 1873. Boston, Mass. ROMAN CATHOLIC REGIMENTS. 595 New York Daily Witness called attention to the formation of " mil itary bands of the papal Church " in that State — a gross and alarm ing perversion of the military system from its original purpose — and the fault of the authorities, authorizing regiments to be con stituted for admission to which it was prerequisite that the applicant should be a Roman Catholic. No well-regulated State pretending to recognize religious equality can recognize the formation of denominational military companies. The Christian World* spoke out emphatically on the subject, and against the marching on Sun day in the streets of New York city of 2,000 men belonging to the " Emmet Zouaves," " Wolf-Tone Guards," and " Emerald Guards" in uniform, though without arms, preceded by bands of music. Section 2.-— The System of Church Tenure. This was one of the most important movements in the Roman Catholic Church in the early part of this period. In a chapter in the previous period the earlier efforts of Bishop Hughes to reform the system of lay trusteeship were related. Bishop Hughes still persisted in this work, purging from the system of church tenure all limitations conflicting with the fundamental principles ofthe hier archy — complete ecclesiastical control. At that early date, when the Roman Catholics were comparatively weak in numbers and influence, it was not deemed prudent to request the State legis latures to embody such principles in legal enactments ; they therefore first attempted to reach the difficulty by ecclesiastical action. Under the skillful leadership of Bishop Hughes, the Plen ary Council in 1852 adopted canons to effect this object, not directly asking for the titles of the churches, but deciding that no priest should be sent to a church which had not placed its title-deed in the hands of its bishops, thus compelling the surrender under the threat of withholding the means of grace. This action, attributed to Bishop Hughes, has been called the most important act of his life. Dr. Bailey, in his funeral discourse at the decease of Bishop Hughes, said that but for this action " the whole future of the Cath olic Church in this country would have been paralyzed." Bishop Hughes was a man of consummate prudence as well as of strong nerve, and so carefully administered the law as to save all his churches. A few congregations withstood the canon for some time. As late as 1855 the St. Louis Church, Buffalo, was in con- * February, 1873. 596 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. flict with its bishop. Intent upon success, other expedients were adopted. The first step in the scheme, the ecclesiastical, had been taken, and another remained. The aid of the civil power was next invoked. Under the forms of the civil law an effort was made to induce the reluctant congregations to vest their property in the hands of their bishop. During the session of the New York Assembly, in 1853, Hon. Mr. Taber introduced into the Senate a specious document intended to exactly meet the case. It was entitled, "An act to authorize the incorporation of Roman Catholic congregations or societies." It provided that, " Any officer or officers, person or per sons, being citizens of the State, who, according to the discipline and usage of the Roman Catholic Church, may be designated to represent any Roman Catholic congregation or society in holding and managing the temporalities thereof, may become incorporated as the trustee or trustees of such congregation or society," etc. This bill, it will be noticed, provided that a single officer or person might constitute the corporation, so that the bishop of the diocese might be chosen the trustee and become incorporated as such. For this Bishop Hughes had been for years struggling, intending thus to acquire the control of all the church edifices, parsonages, and ceme teries, so that even Christian burial would depend upon his will and word. But " the Taber Bill " failed to receive the approval of the Legislature ; and with that failed what was intended to be the initiatory step, to be followed up in other States of the Union, cloth ing the Roman Catholic hierarchy with unlimited possessions and power. Under the influence of the famous " Know-Nothing " movement, during the years 1854 and 1855, radical legislative action took place in several States relating to the holding of church property. The much-discussed " Church Tenure Bill " was passed in New York by an overwhelming majority, after the able advocacy of Senators Putnam, Brooks, Whitney, etc. The bill required all denominations to hold their property by boards of trustees, from which priests and bishops should be excluded. A similar law was passed in Michigan, and came also before the Legislature of Pennsylvania, the only State in the Union which had previously, unwittingly, as is believed, passed a law which gave to three Roman Catholic bishops of that Commonwealth all the power over ecclesiastical property with which the Plenary Council at Baltimore had resolved to invest all bishops. About the same time the legislatures of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and some other States took conserva- CONTROL OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 597 tive action. Many Roman Catholics, particularly Germans, favored it. But the New York law was repealed eight years later. A Sharp Contest. Bishop Hughes was absent at Rome when this subject was before the Legislature of New York, in 1853. Cm his return he found that Hon. Erastus Brooks had spoken in the State Senate of an enor mous amount of church property of which "John Hughes was the legal owner, supposed to be worth at current values nearly five mill ions of dollars." Thereupon the bishop penned a long and jesting letter, professing his " astonishment at finding himself so very rich," and promising, if the Senator would find the property for him, to build and endow a public library in New York at an expense of two million dollars, to be called the Erastus Brooks Library. A long correspondence ensued. The Senator produced a list of deeds duly recorded vesting a large amount of real estate in the arch-prelate, with such comments as were requisite to show that they sustained the position he had taken. The bishop was driven into close quar ters, out of which he attempted to escape by the most transparent subterfuges. At one time he said he owned it, " not as plain John Hughes, but as Archbishop " Another time he said that "the property belonged to God," and that he, poor man, " did not even own the furniture of the house he lived in ; " and yet he was con tinually selling and mortgaging God's property, as if it were " Mr. J. Hughes's estate." The public were convinced that the bishop was the legal owner of the property notwithstanding his quibbles. The necessity, therefore, came to be felt by Protestants to fix a limit to the accumulations of real estate by the Church of Rome in this country as in some European countries, where there are rigid limitations, impartially enforced, sustained by public sentiment. The Church of Rome, seeing the chance in this country — a chance denied in some portions of Europe — was buying up all the land it could in city and country, and many fears were entertained that peril might come to important public interests from such accumu lations. It was felt that the law of self-preservation and the law of freedom demanded that such dangers should be made impossible by wise and timely legislation. Limiting statutes, bearing alike upon all religious bodies, were therefore enacted,* in the years 1856 and 1857, by the legislatures of New York, Connecticut, and Ohio. A * In some instances, however, these limitations were subsequently repealed. 598 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. writer in Putnam's Magazine for July, 1869, estimated the landed estate then held or controlled by the five Roman Catholic prelates in the State of New York to be worth from thirty to fifty million dollars. But Mr. James Parton, in the Atlantic Monthly for April, 1868, estimated that in the archdiocese of New York alone at fifty million dollars. In 1866 the late Bishop Fitzpatrick and others presented a peti tion to the Massachusetts Legislature, asking for an " Act authoriz ing the several Roman Catholic churches or congregations in the Commonwealth to assume corporate powers with the same rights to hold property and estate which religious parishes have by law, and that such corporate powers in every case shall be vested in the Roman Catholic bishop, the vicar-general of the diocese in which such church or congregation may be, the pastor of such church or congre gation for the time being, and two laymen thereof, to be appointed by the said bishop, vicar-general, and pastor, or a majority of them." The petition was referred to the Committee of " Parishes and Re ligious Societies," of which Rev. Samuel M. Worcester, D.D., was the chairman. After due deliberation the committee, by a unani mous vote, reported adversely on the petition. In their very able report they say : By this arrangement the congregational or society corporations would " in every case " be merely nominal. The real corporation would be composed of three ecclesiastics and the two laymen of their choice, the members of the congregational body having no vote in the appointment of their nominal representatives. In short, the congregational corporation would have no corporate powers whatever. No such anomalous bodies, we affirm with all confidence, can ever be created or legal ized by an act of the Legislature. They would be contrary to the whole theory and practice of our civil and religious institutions. Bishop Gilmour, of Cleveland, O., in January, 1873, issued a " Pastoral " in which the following declaration appeared, demanding that all the ecclesiastical property should hereafter be conveyed to himself: Hereafter there are and will be no trustees. The bishop is the only trustee in the diocese, and in his name all property is held. Under no circumstances will we allow laymen to hold church property, or in any way control it. Titles to church property, whether in the form of deeds or land contracts, shall be made directly to the bishop, "his heirs and assigns,'' without qualification or condition. Nearly all the troubles we have noticed in the diocese have arisen from a failure to strictly comply with the orders laid down in the " Rules and regulations for the adminis tration of the temporal affairs of the church in the diocese." We hereby require every priest to have a copy of them, read and explain them to their congregations, then follow them. EDUCATION AND THE CHURCH. 599 Section 3.— The Common School Contest has been one of the most important struggles which American Romanism has aroused in the United States. The origin of the movement in the city of New York was related in the chapter on Romanism in the previous period. After the Common School Society transferred their property to the city, all of the schools came under the control of the Board of Education, with local officers chosen in the several wards. This occurred in 1853, at which time the Bible had been excluded from eighty schools in New York city. Thus was successfully inaugurated a great struggle which was destined to shake many other communities. But the Roman Catholics were not satisfied with what they had gained. They had protested against the schools as sectarian because the Bible was read in them, and it had been excluded. They next complained that the schools were " godless," " atheistical," " infidel." As early as 1853 Bishop Hughes said : Experience has since shown that the new system, although administered with as much impartiality as could be expected under the circumstances, is one which, as excluding all religious instruction, is most fatal to the morals and religious prin ciples of our children, and that our only recourse is to establish schools of our own, where sound religious instruction shall be imparted at the same time with secular instruction. In this single sentence the next line of action was indicated. It was a blow aimed at the public school system, and could not fail to arouse intense indignation. The Journal of Commerce came out with a stirring article, in which these lines occurred : Now the question is, Are our public schools still to be tampered with, at the instigation of Romish priests? And how far is this pusillanimous compliance with their demands on the part of our School Commissioners to be carried ? Shall the whole school system be first sacrificed and then Romanized ? The object of this crusade against our public schools is, first, to bring them into contempt and suspi cion as irreligious and ungodly, and, next, to build up Romish schools on their ruins. After a long, exciting contest, the action ofthe Cincinnati Board of Education excluding the Bible from the public schools was taken on the ist of November, 1869. On the 20th of the same month the New York Tablet (Catholic) said : If this has been done with a view to reconciling Catholics to the common school system its purpose will not be realized. It does not meet nor in any degree lessen our objection to the public school system, etc. On the 25th of December it said: We hold education to be a function of the Church, not of the State; and in our case we do not and will not accept the State as educator. 600 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. On the nth of December the Freeman's Journal said : The Catholic solution of this muddle about Bible or no Bible in schools is, ''Hands off." No State taxation or donation to any schools. You look to your children and we will look to ours. We don't want you to be taxed for Catholic schools. We do not want to be taxed for Protestant or for godless schools. Let ihe public school system go to where it came from — the devil. Parochial Schools. Next, Roman Catholic children were taken from the public schools and collected into parochial schools, and the demand was made that a portion of the public school money raised by taxation should be paid over to them — not that the portion of that money raised from their own people should be divided to them, which would have been quite small, but that they might receive in propor tion to the number of children they could muster. In 1853 tms demand for a portion ofthe public school money was made in eight different States — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, and California. If they had suc ceeded in these demands they would have gained two important objects : First, they would have drawn large sums from Protestant purses to support Roman Catholic schools ; and, second, they would have effected a partial union of Church and State — an object dear to every Romanist. The money ofthe State would have been devoted to the payment of sectarian teachers, all of whom impart religious instruction. It was also expected that if they succeeded in this object all other religious denominations would ask their share of the public school money. Thus the funds provided in common for all, being dissipated among the different sects, the common school system itself must perish. But this demand was not ac ceded to. Up to 1863 there was no sectarian instruction in the public reformatory and charitable institutions of New York. All denom inations shared without jealousy in the work in an unsectarian way. But in the spring of 1863, at the instance of Rev. Dr. Ives, a per vert to Romanism from the Protestant Episcopal Church, a charter was obtained for a " Roman Catholic Protectorate" for destitute or unfortunate children, to be supported by a public tax. All its officers and instructors were to be of one faith, the Roman Catholic, and they were to receive annually $110, instead of $70 per capita as before. This was another triumph. This action against the com mon school system was greatly quickened by the celebrated Ency clical Letter and the Syllabus of Errors which it condemned, issued THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 601 by the pope in 1865. Among the so-called errors " condemned," the following were conspicuous : The entire direction of public schools in which the youth of Christian States are educated may and must appertain to the civil power, and belong to it so far that no other authority shall be recognized as having any right to interfere in the discipline of the schools, the arrangements of the studies, etc. The most advantageous conditions of civil society require that popular schools open without distinction to all children of the people, and public establishments designed to teach young people letters and good discipline and to impart to them education, should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority and interference, and should be fully subjected to the civil and political powers for the teaching of mat ters and opinions common to the times. The foregoing principles, fundamental to the educational system of the United States, were condemned as "errors" by the pope, and the Roman Catholics of our country were counseled to oppose them. On the 12th day of M ty, 1869, the "tax levy" law for New York city was passed by the Legislature, allowing "an annual amount, equal to twenty per cent, of the excise moneys received for said city for 1868, to be distributed for the support of schools educating chil dren gratuitously in that city." Under this law there was appro priated to sectarian schools about $250,000, of which the Roman Catholics received about $200,000, while all other institutions, Prot estant and Jewish, received only about $50,000. It should be stated that nearly all Protestants declined to receive these funds, protest ing not only against the unequal distribution proposed, but against the principle recognized in the "Bill" of appropriating money to sectarian schools, as fatal to the common school system. The peo ple found themselves taxed for the support of sectarian education — ¦ the Roman Catholic faith being taught in their schools. The State and the Church were virtually united. A powerful agitation fol lowed, and through the vigorous efforts of Francis Lieber, LL.D., and the Union League Club this law was repealed in April, 1870. This demand for the distribution ofthe school money was intro duced after the session ofthe Plenary Council in Baltimore in 1852. It has been general, open and persistent, chiefly in large cities, though sometimes the efforts have been temporarily suspended. In many of the cities the Roman Catholics have provided schools of their own in which nuns, monks, etc., are employed as teachers, and many have been the petitions for the public money for their support. In March, 1870, the Tablet said : There is no help but in dividing the public schools, or in abandoning the sys tem altogether. 602 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. In their periodicals and lectures the common schools have been ridiculed and denounced as "pits of destruction" and "public soup- houses where our children eat with wooden spoons." The editor of the Freeman's Journal said, "Every such school is an insult to the religion and virtue of our people." And a Roman Catholic orator said, "The prototype of our school system is seen in the institutions of paganism." As early as i860 over fifty thousand Roman Catholic children had been gathered in parochial schools. In 1870 the number had increased fivefold. In numerous cases, like that of the Bishop of Cleveland in 1873, pastorals have been issued commanding Catholic parents to transfer their children from the public to the parochial schools, threatening, in case of non-compliance, the withholding of the sacraments from said parents. In 1875 Bishop McQuaid said, in Worcester, Mass.: "We are going to have a desperate struggle on this question all over this country for the next generation." The last Plenary Council avowed " the determination to es tablish all over the country a great system of parochial schools in opposition to the public schools, and it is made the most urgent duty of the priests every-where, under threat of expulsion, to found such schools."* Dr. McGlynn says: The hope is not concealed that when the so-called "Catholic vote'' shall be come larger, the politicians may be induced to appropriate, through State legisla ture or local governments, all the funds necessary for the support of these schools. This has already been accomplished in Poughkeepsie, New Haven, and elsewhere, and for a brief period during the offensive and defensive alliance between a certain set of priests and the Tammany Ring of the days of Tweed, Connolly and Sweeney, an appropriation procured by a legislative trick and fraud, under the man agement of Peter B. Sweeney, awarded several hundred thousand dollars to the parochial schools of New York city. . . . The extraordinary zeal manifested for the getting up of these sectarian schools and institutions is, first of all, prompted by jealousy and rivalry of our public schools and institutions, and by the desire to keep children and other beneficiaries from the latter; and, secondly, by the desire to make employment for and give comfortable homes to the rapidly-increasing hosts of monks and nuns, who make so-called education and so-called charity their regular business, for which a very common experience shows that they have but little qualification beyond their professional stamp and garb. It is not risking much to say that if there were no public schools there would be very few parochial schools ; and the Catholic children, for all the churchmen would do for them, would grow up in brutish ignorance of letters ; and a commonplace of churchmen here would be the doctrine taught by the Jesuits in Italy, in their periodical maga zine, the Civilta Cattolica, that the people do not need to learn to read ; that all they do need is bread and the catechism, the latter of which they could manage to know something of even without knowing how to read. A confirmation of this is *See also paragraphs 428, 429 of the Second Plenary Council. THE ENTERING WEDGE. 603 to be found in the very general illiteracy in countries where churches and church men have been exceedingly abundant and have exercised temporal control. It is a remarkable fact that in Italy, France, and other so-called Catholic countries, in spite of the hostility to the government schools, the clergy do not establish paro chial schools. The ecclesiastical authorities of Italy, while willing enough to im pose on our Catholic people of America so heavy a burden, do not dare to try to impose a similar burden upon their people nearer home. — North American Review. August, 1887. P 199. Within a few months the Catholic Review has said : There is no longer a school question for Catholics. It is closed. The door of discussion, which was slightly ajar prior to 1884, was closed, locked, bolted and barred by the Plenary Council held in that year, which directed that Christian schools should be maintained by all the parishes in the United States not prevented by extreme poverty from carrying them on. That decree is law for priests and people. In the New York Legislature, January, 1887, a bill was intro duced by Hon. Michael C. Murphy which provided that, The schools established and maintained by the New York Catholic Protectory shad participate in the distribution of common school funds, in the same man ner and degree as the common schools of the City and County of New York. A plain demand for sectarian appropriations and the destruction of the common school system. The bill failed, but it is a key to the purposes of the Roman Catholic Church. In August, 1887, the Roman Catholics in Lowell, Mass., applied to the School Board of the city for a supply of school-books for their parochial schools, on the plea that they are bought by money raised by tax for the free use of pupils. In Maiden, Mass., in the same month, the Roman Catholics asked the city authorities to grant them the use of public school-rooms for their parochial schools. In each case the reply was made that the Constitution of Massachusetts forbids the use of money raised for school purposes for any denominational schools. Later, the request was made in Maiden that the unoccupied rooms might be leased to them for a compensation. The issue is still pending. Is it the thin edge of the wedge ? Will the compensation be fixed, in time, at a merely nominal fee? And in some future partisan contest, or in some other unlooked for emergency, will the fee be remitted by un scrupulous politicians for the sake of Roman Catholic support? These inquiries have been started. This parochial school policy has been widely adopted in all the larger cities and towns, and in many of the smaller communities of the United States. Statistics, confessedly incomplete, given in 604 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Sadlier's Roman Catholic Almanac, give the number of pupils in their parochial schools in Pupils. Schools. i860 57-DH 660 1870 257,600 1,214 1880 423.383 1885 492.949 2.631 1886* 537725 2,697 Section 4.— The Religious Orders. The monastic and conventual orders of the Old World have been transplanted into the United States, and monks, nuns, religious houses and fraternities have already become numerous, assiduously toiling in the religious, philanthropic and educational work of the Church. As instructors in parochial schools, seminaries and col leges, they carry out the educational policy of the hierarchy. Dur ing the last thirty-five years these orders have rapidly multiplied, and through them the seeds of the effete civilization of papal Europe are being sown in American soil. They constitute too large an element in the Roman Catholic Church to be omitted in any exhibit of its strength or to be ignored by the citizens of the United States. In 1876 Mr. J. O'Kane Murray f gave a table of 27 male religious orders, 24 of which reported 228 houses, and 21 of which reported 2,714 members. He also gave a table of 23 female orders, 17 of which had 541 religious houses (convents, etc.,) and 21 had 9,488 members. But they have increased very greatly since 1876. Sadlier's Catholic Directory, Almanac and Ordo, for 1887, gives a list of 24 " orders " of " priests," 11 of " brothers," and JJ of " sis ters and nuns" — total, 112 in the United States. Six of the afore-mentioned orders were introduced into the present limits of the United States prior to 1800; 9 between 1800 and 1840, and the remainder since 1840. They exist in every State in the Union. The statistics are given here in considerable fullness, as a legiti mate part of a true representation of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, showing how widely and thoroughly it is organizing its forces, and concentrating its influence upon its people, to hold and utilize them in their ranks. They deserve close atten tion and study. * Year Book for 1887. t History ofthe Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Pp. 384, 415. STRENGTH OF AMERICAN ROMANISM. 605 Religious Orders and Communities in the United States. Priests. Augustinians. Benedictines. Capuchins.Carmelites. Dominicans, Fathers of the Society of Mary. Franciscans (Conventual). Franciscans, Holy Cross, Priests ofthe. Holy Ghost, Fathers of the. Jesuits.Lazarists. Mercy, Priests of. Missionary Fathers ofthe Sacred Heart. Oblates. Passionists. Paulists. Precious Blood. Redemptorists. 20. Resurrection, Congregations of the. 21. Servites. 22. St. Viateur. 23. Sulpicians. 24. Trappists. Brothers. Alexian Brothers, or Cellites. Brothers of Charity. Brothers of the Christian Schools. Brothers of Good Works. Brothers of Mary. Brothers ofthe Third Order of St. Francis. 7. Brothers of St. Viateur. 8. Brothers of the Sacred Heart. 9. Brothers ofthe Holy Cross. 10. Franciscan Brothers. n. Xavierian Brothers. Nuns and Sisters. 23- 24. 25- 26.27. 28.29. 3°-3»-32- 33-34- 35- 36. 37*38.39- Benedictine.Carmelite. Daughters of Charity. Daughters ofthe Cross. Dominican.Felician Sisters. Franciscan Nuns ofthe Immaculate Conception Franciscan Sisters, or Sisters of St. Francis. Franciscan Sisters of Charity. Gray Nuns. Hospital Sisters of St. Francis. Ladies of the Sacred Heart. Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary. Little Sisters ofthe Poor. Marianite Sisters. Missionary Sisters of the 3d Order of St. Francis Oblate Sisters of Providence. Perpetual Adoration, Poor Clares. Poor Handmaids. Presentation Nuns. Religious ofthe Holy Heart of Mary. School Sisters of Notre Dame. School Sisters of St. Francis. Servite Sisters. Sister-Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Sisters of Bon Secours. Sisters of Charity. Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Sisters of Chanty of St. Augustine. Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. Sisters of Charity ofthe B. V. M. Sisters of Christian Charity. Sisters of Divine Providence. Sisters of Loretto. Sisters of Mary. Sisters of Mercy. Sisters of Notre Dame. Sisters of our Lady of Charity, Mother of Mercy. Total in the three classes 40. Sisters of our Lady of Charity of the Good Shep'd. 41. Sisters of our Lady of Mercy. 42. Sisters of Peace. 43. Sisters of Providence. 44. Sisters of St. Agnes. 45. Sisters of St. Ann. 46. Sisters of St. Clara. 47. Sisters of St. Dominic. 4S. Sisters of St. Frances of Joliet. 40. Sisters of St. Joseph. 50. Sisters of St. Mary. 51. Sisters of St. Nazianz. 52. Sisters ofthe Congregation of Notre Dame. 53. Sisters ofthe Good Shepherd. 54. Sisters ofthe Holy Child Jesus. 55. Sisters ofthe Holy Cross. 56. Sisters ofthe Holy Family. 57. Sisters ofthe Holy Family of Nazareth. 58. Sisters ofthe Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. 59. Sisters of tlie Humility of Mary. 60. Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 61. Sisters ofthe Incarnate Word. 62. Sisters ofthe Most Holy and Im. Heart of Mary. 63. Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic. 64. Sistersof the Order ot St. Francis of Assisium. 65. Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. 66. Sisters ofthe Precious Blood. 67. Sisters of the Presentation. 68. Sisters ofthe Sacred Heart of Mary. 69. Sisters ofthe Second Order of St. Dominic. 70. Sisters ofthe Third Order of Mount Carmel. 71. Sisters of the Third Ord^r of St. Dominic. 72. Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. 73. Sisters of the 3d Order of St. Francis of Assisium. 74. St. Mary's Sisters (Servants ofthe Divine Heart). 75. Ursulines. 76. Ursuline Sisters. 77. Visitation Nuns. 606 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Convents, Monasteries, etc * DIOCESES. Baltimore Boston Chicago Cincinnati . . . Milwaukee. ... New Orleans. . . New York..*. . . . Oregon City. . Philadelphia St. Louis. San Francisco. Santa F6 Albany , Alton Brooklyn Buffalo , Burlington. Charleston.Cleveland , Columbus Covington Davenport Detroit , Dubuque Erie Fort Wayne Galveston Grand Rapids. Grass Valley. . . Green Bay Harrisburg Hartford Helena Kansas City.. . . La Crosse Leavenworth . , Little Rock Louisville Female. Male. rt °"w C S pSs O ° UK i/jZfc S^ mis pm 3° 603 12 269 24 S°4 1 34 86 3 27 18 1,112 6 3T4 10 1,248 3 79 3= 497 2 33 30 1,911 15 309 7 82 1 26 i,°53 4 155 91 703 6 89 7 153 3 60 7 70 1 22 12 590 b 74 12 471 2 "97 8 680 1 67 46 604 0 120 11 74 4 78 23 79i 0 5° 5 192 1 21 18 1 4 6 165 1 15 12 166 1 26 20 37° 1 60 •4 2 19 643 .s 206 8 89 12 I 11 61 I 5 8 162 2 18 12 103 28 370 I 4 3 54 21 182 3 60 2 193 1 27 8 299 5 60 9 74 2 30 j 1 091 6 99 DIOCESES. Manchester Marquette Mobile Monterey Nashville Natchez NatchitochesNesqually Newark Ogdensburg Omaha Peoria Pittsburg, etc Portland Providence Richmond Rochester San Antonio Savannah Scranton Springfield St. Augustine St. Paul Trenton Vancouver's Isle. Vincennes Wheeling Wilmington Arizona Brownville Colorado Dakota Idaho North Carolina... North Minnesota. Indian Territory. Total 928 Female. uK I23 6282 71 84 175 550 H3 =45 139 75 140790156 4569 140 Male. .a => 4-. o «£ :66 in - w s'Jg 28 ¦7 38 5 140 4136 191 6 Here are 928 female conventual houses, three dioceses not reporting, with 20,126 sisters, novices, etc., 144 houses not reporting the number of sisters; also 166 monastic or male religious houses, 23 dioceses not giving this item, with 3,094 brothers, etc., 10 houses not reporting the number of brothers. The sisterhood of St. Joseph in the United States and Canada is supposed to be one of the largest religious communities of women in this country, having a membership of 2,213, and 5^,553 pupils. In the United States and Canada it has 2,543 sisters, in charge of 60 academies and 249 parochial schools, in which are enrolled 64,075 pupils, and also 50 charitable institutions, f The Catholic Year Book for 1884 gives a clear view of the relig ious orders in the Diocese of Cleveland. One hundred and twenty- * It is not claimed that this table is complete, but it is as full and accurate as the data furnished make it possible. The data are given in a great variety of forms by the different dioceses, and, in some cases, are either wholly or partially omitted. See Catholic Year-Book for 1887. t The Pilot, May 28, 1887. RELIGIOUS HOUSES. 607 five parochial schools, with an attendance of about 22,000 pupils, are under the following teachers : Ursuline Sisters 57 Sisters of St. Joseph 14 Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary. 23 Sisters of Notre Dame 70 Sisters of the Humility of Mary 20 Sisters of St. Francis 35 Total, 236 sisters and 18 brothers. hospitals and asylums. Sisters of the Holy Cross 3 Sisters of St. Agnes 3 Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, n Brothers of Mary 17 Franciscan Brothers 1 Lay teachers 103 Besides these, 194 sisters are in charge of The Diocese of Pittsburg and Allegheny reported 16,552 pupils in parochial schools taught by: Sisters of St. Joseph 9 Sisters of St. Agnes 7 Brothers of Mary 10 Brothers, Franciscan 4 Lay teachers 16 Sisters of Mercy 75 Sisters of Charity 50 Sisters of St. Francis 34 Sisters, Benedictine 15 Sisters of Divine Providence 7 Sisters of Notre Dame 10 Total, 207 sisters and 14 brothers. Others are employed in academies, select schools, asylums and hospitals, making in all, 526 sisters and 130 brothers reported in this Diocese. The Diocese of Newark reported 62 parochial schools, with 20,000 pupils, taught by : Sisters of Charity 191 Sisters of St. Joseph 18 Sisters of St. Benedict 15 Sisters of Charity 14 Sisters of Notre Dame 12 Sisters of St. Francis 18 Sisters of St. Dominic 22 Brothers of Christian Schools 14 Brothers of Mary 2 Lay teachers 38 Total, 292 sisters and 16 brothers in parochial schools. In all situations in the Diocese, 713 sisters and 27 brothers. In 1886, 28 brothers and 866 sisters were reported in this diocese. A few other data will be found helpful, as examples of the lead ing houses of some of the female orders : Mother-house of the Sisters of Charity. Mount St. Vincent-on-the-Hudson, New York city. Mother Ambrosia Sweeney, Superior. The community numbers at present 935 members ; 842 professed sisters, 85 novices, 8 postulants. There are 103 independent establishments in the States of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.* Convent of School Sisters of Notre Dame. Mother-house and Novi tiate, Milwaukee, Wis. Venerable Mother Mary Caroline, Commissary-General of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in America. Religious in Mother-house, 108 ; novices, 78 ; postulants, 60, preparatory course, 25. Number of branch houses in two provinces, eastern and western, 177 ; total number of sisters 1,627, having * Sadlier's Catholic Almanac, 1887, p. 107. 608 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. under their charge 47,888 parochial children, 1,538 orphans, and 3,465 pupils in institutes and high schools.* A Mother-house and Novitiate of the Fra?iciscan Sisters of Charity, at Silver Lake, Wis. Religious, 87 ; novices. 40; postulants, 42. These Sisters con duct 29 parochial schools, two of which are in other States. Mother-house and Novitiate of the Sisters of St. Agnes, Fond du Lac, Wis. Religious, 133; novices, 15; postulants, 25. They conduct 36 schools in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, Kansas, New York and Dakota Territory.* Mother-house and Novitiate of the School Sisters of St. Francis, at New Cassel, Fond du Lac, Wis. Religious, 166 ; candidates, 24. These Sisters conduct two academies in Minnesota and Dakota, and 37 parochial schools in Wis consin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Idaho and Washington Territory. The com munity steadily employs from 25 to 30 Sisters in preparing all kinds of embroidered church vestments and ornaments. Mother-house and Novitiate of Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dom inic, Sinsinawa Mound, Grant County, Wis. Sisters, 270 ; novices, 25. Number of branch houses in the country, 22. Besides these five "Mother-houses" in the Diocese of Milwaukee there are convents of Sisters of St. Dominic, of Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisium, of Sisters of Mercy, and several male religious houses, making 13 religious houses in all. These are specimens which will help the reader to understand the magnitude of this movement of Romanism in all parts of the United States. The Jesuits. The most conspicuous of these orders in its influence is that of the Jesuits. Among the strange vicissitudes of its history it has ever been noted for its unfaltering devotion to the Church. Of its past history, its peculiar principles, its tactics, the abilities and accomplishments of its distinguished members, the extent of its missions, and the influence it has exerted with courts and cabinets, nothing need here be said. We have elsewhere noticed that three Jesuits, Carroll, Dubourg and Neale, became American bishops. They founded Georgetown College. The property of the Order obtained in the colonial era remained intact — sufficient to support thirty persons. Thirteen Jesuits, "nearly all broken with age," on the resuscitation, of the Order renewed their vows, and Father Robert Molineaux was appointed Superior for the United States. At the session of the Provincial Council, in 1833, the pope was re quested to confide the Indian tribes living beyond the limits of the fixed dioceses to the care of this Order. At that time, of the 308 * Sadlier's Catholic Almanac, 1887, p. 92. ROMAN CATHOLIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 609 Roman Catholic ecclesiastics in the United States forty-three are said to have been Jesuits, twenty-five of whom were graduates of the Georgetown Jesuit College. As late as 1853, of the 162 priests who had been ordained within the Diocese of Baltimore seventy-two * were Jesuits, mostly graduates from said college. In 1850 in the Province of Maryland the Jesuits numbered, priests, 70; scholastics, 60 ; total, 130, employed in different insti tutions or missions. The Jesuits of this province directed fifty churches in the Dioceses of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Pitts burg and Richmond, including the Indian missions in the State of Maine. The vice-Province of Missouri, the fathers of which were furnished by Maryland, in 1823, numbered in 1850, priests, 75 ; scholastics, 56; lay brothers, 83; total, 214. Its priests directed twenty-eight churches in the dioceses of St. Louis, Louisville, Cin cinnati, Milwaukee and Chicago, and sixteen churches or stations among the Indians in the Territories. A " mission " dependent on the Province of France, and lying partly in Canada, had in the State of New York in the same year twenty-one priests who directed the diocesan seminary, St. John's College, and several churches in the dioceses of New York, Albany and Buffalo. At the same time the Province of Lyons had a mission in the Southern States, employing twenty-two " fathers " in the dioceses of New Orleans and Mobile, where they conducted St. Charles College at Grand Coteau, the School of Jesus, in New Orleans, and Spring Hill College, near Mobile. The Roman Catholic Year Book for 1887 has been carefully searched for statistics of this Order, but the data are given in an imperfect and confusing manner ; at least it seems so to an outside party. Combining all we have been able to find, we have, Jesuits in bishops' councils, 15; in pastoral work, 286; professors in col legiate and novitiate institutions, 353; lay brothers, 76 ; and novi tiates, 59. Some of these are evidently duplicated, professors in colleges often having charge of churches. In another table, pre pared with equal care, the number of professors in Jesuit colleges is eighty more than the number just given. Section 5.— Benevolent Institutions. American Romanism has numerous hospitals, asylums and " homes," under the care of members of the various religious orders. In 1870, 131 orphan asylums were reported, in 86 of which there * De Courcey's History of the Catholic Church, pp. 552-354. 39 610 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. were 11,321 orphans, and 10 asylums for "infants," in five of which were 572 infants. There were nine " homes " for destitute persons, with 414 inmates; 12 homes for fallen women, with 1,447 m~ mates, and 61 hospitals under the care of "sisters," in 14 of which during a single year were 7,595 patients. In the foregoing 222 benevolent houses there were 21,353 beneficiaries. In addition to these, infirmaries, retreats for the insane, deaf and dumb, indus trial schools, protectories for boys and girls, " benevolent societies," etc., are reported. In 1874 there were 311 hospitals and asylums; in 1875, 214 asylums and 96 hospitals ; in 1885, 449 charitable insti tutions were reported. Statistics culled with laborious care from Sadlier's Almanac for 1886 show 154 hospitals with 30,087 inmates, 320 asylums with 39,983 inmates, and 19,791 orphans cared for. These figures, probably, approximate nearly to the exact number. May not Protestants learn something from these facts? Charitable Institutions. DIOCESES. Baltimore Boston Chicago Cincinnati . . . Milwaukee . . . New Orleans. New York Oregon City.. Philadelphia..Saint Louis . . San Francisco Santa F6 Albany Alton Brooklyn Buffalo Burlington . . . Charleston . .. Cleveland .... Columbus Covington. . . . Davenport.. . . Detroit Dubuque Erie Fort Wayne. . Galveston Grand Rapids Grass Valley. . Green Bay . . . Harrisburg... . Hartford Helena. . . Kansas City. . La Crosse Leavenworth..Little Rock..., Louisville .... Hospit'ls. B "" 3 o 1,627 2,3001,0004,576 100 i,9952,512 "48 425935242 Asylums, Ref uges, Homes, &c ffl U-. o rt ft 2,2661,312 588 2,407 11,618 1,800i,t6q i,755 60 1,611 3.°9* i,354 9645 1,027 466 140*35 280 116 OU 465950275611 288 1,510 1,671 i,*32 658 1,100 60 1,561 2,089 226 793292 90 135125 280 116 5° 103 DIOCESES. 936 640 Manchester Marquette Mobile Monterey, etc Nashville Natchez Natchitoches Nesqually Newark Ogdensburg Omaha Peoria Pittsburg, etc Portland Providence Richmond Rochester San Antonio Savannah Scranton Springfield St. Augustine St. Paul's Trenton Vancouver Vincennes Wheeling Wilmington Arizona Brownville Colorado Dakota Idaho North Carolina. . North Minnesota. Indian Territory. . Total , Hospit'ls. ,0 v £ " 3 o Asylums, Ref uges, Homes, &c. a 75 415 154 30,087 — in 3 cd v 83& 100300150 13s 1,006 667 96 240 187 410 no 52 200 '478 5045 384 5°91 320 39,983 00 70 to 100 300 i5ona 135 583 83 240 107 435 no 52 200 iqo 5°45 260 50 9i JESUIT COLLEGES. 611 Section 6.— Educational Institutions. It would be a very difficult task to give a full sketch of the educational work of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States without unduly extending this volume. Only a few leading points can be noticed. The first college of this denomination was founded by the Jesuits at Georgetown, D. C, in 1789. In 1791 the St. Mary's Seminary of St. Sulpice, a theological school, was established in Baltimore, Md. ; in 1819, St. Joseph's College, at Bardstown, Ky. ; in 1820, the second Jesuit College, the St. Louis University; in 1830, another Jesuit institution, the St. Joseph's College, at Spring Hill, Ala.; and, in 1831, St. Charles College, at Ellicott, Md. One college was founded prior to 1800, four from 1800 to 1840, and the remainder of the 88 colleges now existing were founded since 1840. Many of them are only foundations for colleges, but they all comprise over fourteen thousand students in the preparatory and collegiate departments, with 1,041 professors. The Jesuit colleges number 26, with 433 professors and 5,258 students. The founding of the colleges mentioned in the next two tables, all but five since 1840, has involved large expenditures of labor and money, and evinces the tremendous energy with which the ad vances of this church are pushed. Jesuit Colleges. NAME OF INSTITUTION. St. Toseph's College St. Ignatius College Santa Clara College College of the Sacred Heart St. Mary's College St, Ignatius College College of Immaculate Conception St. Charles College Sacred Heart of Jesus Loyola College Boston College College of the Holy Cross Detroit College St. Louis University Creighton College St. Peter's College Las Vegas College Cannisius' College St. John's College College of St. Francis Xavier St. Xavier College St. Joseph's College Marquette College College of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.. Georgetown College Gonzaga College Total, 26 Jesuit Colleges. WHERE LOCATED. Spring Hill, Ala San Francisco, Cal. Santa Clara, Cal Denver, Col St. Mary's, Kan Chicago, 111 New Orleans, La Grand Coteau, La Woodstock, Md Baltimore, Md Boston, Mass Worcester, Mass Detroit, Mich St. Louis, Mo , Omaha, Neb Jersey City, N.J Santa Fe, N. Mex Buffalo, N. Y Fordham, N. Y New York ciiy, N. Y. . Cincinnati, O Philadelphia, Pa Milwaukee, Wis Prairie du Chien, Wis.. Georgetown, D. C Washington, D. C Brotherhood holding Supervision. S.J.. Pro fessors. Stu dents. 168 670250 359119120132 93 362 253125 250 300 47i , 275 150126"5 216 5.'58 612 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Other Roman Catholic Colleges. NAME OF INSTITUTION. St. Patrick's College St. Patrick's College St. Mary's College Sacred Heart College St. Vincent's College Franciscan College, etc Pio Nono College St. Viateur College St. Joseph's College St. Francis's College St. Meinrad^ College University of Notre Dame St. Bonaventure's College St. Joseph's College St. Benedict's College Cecillian College St. Joseph's College St. Mary's College Jefferson College Thibodeaux College St. Charles College St. Mary's College Rock Hill College Mt. St. Joseph's College St. T homas Aquinas College Aloysius' College St. John's University St. Vincent's College College of Redemptorist Fathers College of Christian Brothers Seton Hall College St. Benedict's College Manhattan College St. Louis College College of St. John the Baptist St. Francis's College Niagara University St. Joseph's College St. Bonaventure's College St. Mary's College St. Michael's College Catholic College of Columbus St. Joseph's College St. Michael's College. Augustinian College La Salle College Col. of Cong' n of Most Holy Redeemer.. St. Vincent s Seminary and College St. Francis's College Holy Ghost College Christian Brothers College St. Mary's University St. Joseph's College St. Mary's Co! lege St. Patrick's College College of St. Lawrence of Brundusium.. College of Our Lady of Sacred Heart Pio Nono College St. Joseph's College Holy Angels College WHERE LOCATED. Total, 60 Colleges Add 26 Jesuit Colleges. Aggregate for 86 R. C. Colleges. . Sacramento, Cal Stockton. Cal St. Mary's, Cal... . San Francisco, Cal.. Los Angeles, Cal Santa Barbara, Cal., Macon, Ga Bourbonnais, III.. .. Teutopolis, IU Quincy, 111 ... .* St. Meinrad, lnd Notre Dame, lnd Terre Haute, lnd Dubuque, Ia Atchison, Kan Cecillian, Ky Bardbtown, Ky St. Mary's, Ky St. James Parish, La., La. Ellicott City, Md Emmettsburg, Md Ellicott, Md Carrollton, Md Cambridgeport, Mass. Helena, Mont Collegeville, Minn...., Cape Girardeau, Mo. . . Kansas City, Mo St. Louis, Mo , South Orange, N. J. . . Newark, N. J New York City, N. Y. Brooklyn, N. Y '.'. Suspension Bridge, N. Y. Buffalo, N. Y Allegany, N. Y St. Mary's, N. C Santa Fe, N. Mex Columbus, O Cincinnati, O Portland, Ore Villanova, Pa Philadelphia, Pa North East, Pa Beatty's, Pa Loretto, Pa , Pittsburg, Pa- Memphis, Tenn Galveston, Tex Victoria, Tex San Antonio, Tex Walla Walla, Wash Mt. Calvary, Wis Watertown, Wis ; St. Francis, Wis , Burlington, Vt Vancouver's Isle. Brotherhood holding Supervision. Ch. Bros Bros, of Mary, Ch. Bros Ch. Bros C. M 0. S.F Pro fessors. C. S. C... O. S. F... O. S. F... O. S. B.. C. S. C... O. M.C.. O. S. B. S. M. C.S. Ch. Bros Xavierian Br, O. S. B.... C. M C.S. S. R. Ch. Bros.. O. S. B Br. Ch. Schs. C. M O. S. F.... CM Ch. Bros... O. S. F.... O. S. B.... Ch. Bros... C. S. C. O. S. A . . . Ch. Bros.. C. S. S. P . O.S. B.... O. S. F.... O. S. Sp... Ch. Bros . . Bros, of Mary. O. M. C. O. S. C. Stu dents. 608433 *5° 250650 90 70 200 168 135 77 500103 69 125 109 io3 ico 120 60 185 125 130 7570 70 219 170 40 300 90 1192 73 66 '5°300107 225 i55 35 200 40 200 15° 7 " 2. The Shakers. " 3. The Progressive Friends. " 4. The New Jerusalem Church. " 5. Universalism. Sec. 6. Unitarianism. " 7. Free Religion. 8. Multiform Skepticism. 9. The Latest Socialism. " 10. Mormonism. Section 1.— The Jews. IN 1825 Judge Mordecai Noah started a Jewish colony at Niag ara Falls, but it did not succeed. Jewish Sunday-schools were introduced in Philadelphia in 1838 by Isaac Leeser. A Reform congregation was organized in Baltimore, Md., in 1842, and at New York city the Temple Emanuel in 1845. A Rabbinical Con ference was held in Philadelphia in 1869. A Union of American Hebrew Congregations was established in 1873, and two years later a Hebrew college was founded in Cincinnati, O. The first Ameri can Russo-Jewish agricultural colony in America was settled at Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, La. In 1882 a large emigration of persecuted Russian Jews came to the United States. A Jewish authority says : * There are now in America one third of a million (in round numbers) of persons born of Jewish parents, including a small number of Judaized Christians, about as many as there are Christianized Jews. Most of them live in large cities. A minority of them is scattered all over the country. Their numerical relation to the general population is one to 1 50. Wherever they live together in sufficient num bers they have established congregations, benevolent societies, lodges, young men's associations and clubs. The number of the so-called infidels or indifferents, per sons who take no interest in Jewish organizations, is very small, except among those who live in towns where no Jewish society exists, and a number of eccentric persons in larger places who, in consequence of the prevailing anti-Christian sen timent, especially among foreigners, are anti-religious, hence also anti-Jewish, some few even to the point of atheism. The number of those "outsiders" is in proportion much smaller among Jews than among Christian-born persons who * The American fews' Annual, Cincinnati, 1884. fEWS, SHAKERS, PROGRESSIVE FRIENDS. 62S abandon the Church. On the whole, the American Jew is as proud of his religion as he is of his country, and is as loyal to the cause as he is a law-abiding citizen. The number of Jewish congregations in this country is over two hundred and fifty, half of their number, and among these the largest congregations of the United States, form the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, established in 1873. Every congregation supports a house of worship, a Sabbath-school for the young, a burial-ground, and some benevolent institution. Generally the house of worship is called " The Temple ; " only in some cases it is yet called "The Syna gogue," or alsoZ>z> Schut, and almost every temple is connected with school-rooms where the young are instructed twice or more times a week in religion, Jewish history and the Hebrew language. Some of those temples, as in New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, St, Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco, are gorgeous and magnificent monumental structures. In general almost all temples and synagogues built since i860 are prominent and costly structures, in proportion to the size and wealth of the cities and towns in which they stand. On the evening and morning of every Sabbath and biblical holiday the temples are open for divine service and religious instruction, open and free to all, Jew and Gentile. In some temples there are prayer-meetings every Sabbath afternoon and evening, twice every day, or at least Monday and Thursday mornings. Section 2.— Shakers. When Spiritualism broke out in New York the Shakers were greatly elated with hopes of a large increase of converts to Shaker- ism. They anticipated that Spiritualism would prepare the public for the adoption of their doctrines. But their increase has not met their expectations, only three societies having been organ ized in about three quarters of a century, and the growth of those previously existing has been slow. Since 1870 they have pub lished the Shaker and Shakeress, a monthly, at Mount Lebanon. N. Y. According to the United States census for 1870 they num bered about 9,000, living in 18 communities: 3 in New York, 4 in Massachusetts, 2 in New Hampshire, 2 in Maine, 1 in Connecticut, 4 in Ohio, and 2 in Kentucky. Section 3.— Progressive Friends. This body, formerly called Hicksite Quakers, because the follow ers of Elias Hicks, in a schism effected by him in the body of Friends in 1827, have been distinguished from the "Orthodox Friends " by holding Arian and Socinian doctrines. Soon after 1850 they attempted to organize into yearly meetings under the name of Progressive Friends — a name first adopted at a convention held in Selma, O., in September, 1852. Prior to this time the Gen- 40 626 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. esee, Ohio and Indiana yearly meetings of the Hicksite Friends had been distracted by the agitation of the slavery question, and considerable minorities had seceded and organized at Green Plain, O., and Waterloo, N. Y., under the designation of Congregational Friends. Subsequently there were other organizations elsewhere, somewhat varying in character, but in later years under the two names, Progressive Friends and Friends of Human Progress, all ex cept the Orthodox Friends have been comprised. The Ortho dox Friends are now estimated as having 600 churches, 500 ministers, and 70,000 members. The non-affiliating Orthodox, including the " Wilberite" bodies, are estimated to have 100 churches and 12,000 members,, and the Hicksite Friends about 23,000 members. Section 4.— The Hew Jerusalem Church. The Minutes of the New Jerusalem Church in the United States for 1887 show the following: States. Illinois Maine Maryland Rhode Island and Massa chusetts Michigan Minnesota New Jersey and New York Georgia Florida Arkansas Michigan New Hampshire Wisconsin Ohio 600 300271 1,636 192 60 659 605 States. Pennsylvania California Connecticut Kansas Colorado Iowa , District of Columbia Delaware Indiana Missouri Virginia Texas Total , 128 S 115 500 116 50 45 5,034 Section 5.— Universalism. In the declining years of Rev. Hosea Ballou, D.D,, modifications became apparent in some of the leading doctrines of the Universal ist denomination, occasioning him much anxiety. The question of the moral connection between the present and the future life was constantly obtruded upon him by his brethren in correspondence, in sermons, and in the periodicals of the denomination, in opposition UNIVERSALISM. 62? to Mr. Ballou's favorite dogma of the immediate holiness and hap piness of all at death. This was the great question in dispute among the Universalists from 1845101855. Mr. Ballou endeavored to stem the tide setting in, but in vain. Great respect was entertained for him, and the brethren were kind and conciliatory, though fast breaking away from his guidance. The point in question, as held by him, was the most distinctive point of difference between the Universalists and the Unitarians, and he deprecated the surrender of his post mortem view as showing, as he declared, "An inclination in some of the professed preachers of Universalism to adopt some of the peculiar opinions of our Unitarian fraternity." The present type of Universalist belief in reference to the future condition of the wicked has been a matter of some uncertainty in many minds outside of that denomination. Attempted statements have often shown a want of patient, clear discrimination on both sides, and this denomination has doubtless been sometimes misrepre sented, and arguments directed against them have, therefore, often fallen powerless, being misdirected. Probably no Universalist minis ters now hold or preach Mr. Ballou's "death and glory" doctrine, and few of their intelligent laymen cherish it. Most Universalists hold to a state of discipline after death for the wicked, some of whom dislike to be called Restorationists, and all are careful not to use the term punishment in speaking of the post mortem condition. There are those, however, the more progressive wing of the body, who hold that the soul after death retains its moral identity, with germs of virtue and piety ; that some will enter upon the future life more advantageously than others, because of a better character in this life ; but that all will progress upward forever. In the Liberal Christian (Unitarian) April 4, 1871, the editor says : The essential difference between Unitarian and Universalist opinions on the subject of universal salvation in our day is mainly only one of perspective. The Universalists make universal salvation the foreground, the first and most emphatic doctrine in their scheme; the Unitarians generally receiving it, keep it in the background or give it only a relative and secondary place in their minds and their preaching. Both denominations are getting very near together in their ideas of future retribution on its punitive side, as a disciplinary and reformatory process— a state in which the soul continues under unchangeable and spiritual laws to work out its salvation through suffering. We know no barriers betwee7i the two bodies except those of dissimilar historic origin atid organization. Within the last thirty-five years there have been manifest efforts to organize this denomination more fully, to promete a practical religious life among the people, to make them more devout, and to 628 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. introduce various forms of social worship, such as prayer and con ference meetings. Religious activities, formerly unknown among them, have been inaugurated in their leading churches, chiefly in the larger communities, and frequent desires are expressed to make their religious theories practicable forces in the denomination and in the world. Universalist Ministers N THE United Sta' ¦ES.* States. 1835- 1840. 1851. i860. 1870. 1880. 1886. 2932 25 67 2 14 6933 40 109 8 10 6024 40 142 4 16 46 27 41 126 5 15 40 15 34 107 3 17 49 2341 133 8 18 169 139 269243 286356 260 425 216 409 272 457 Total in United States 308 512 642 685 625 729 673 Note, — This denomination has 4 colleges, with 279 students, and 2 theological seminaries, with 42 stu dents. They also have a publishing house in Boston, whose sales amount to about $50,000 annually. Universat.tst Parishes in the United States. States. 1835- 1840. 1851. i860. 1870. 1880. 1886.+ IOI 72 80 90 5 45 100 81 92 131 7 27 130 70 150 108 10 33 139 78 82 168 1227 892960 105 5 16 91 35 64 H5 8 18 99 36 62 m 11 19 Total in New England 393'260 438415 5015&8 506 758 3°4 613 331625 338596 Total in the United States % 653 853 1,069 1,264 917 956 934 The Year Book for 1887 gives (Canada deducted): families, 38,117 ; church edifices, 780; churches, 687 ; valuation, $7,370,027; members, 34,987; ministers in fellowship, 673; Sunday-schools, 628 ; lay preachers, 20; Sunday-school members, 53,226; assets of publishing house, Boston, Mass., $65,000. Section 6.— Unitarianism. After 1845 the rationalistic tendencies engendered in this denom ination ripened under the fostering influence of materialistic and transcendental philosophy. Neither the transcendentalism of Mr. * Each Year Book gives the statistics of the previous year. t Deducting Canada, Year Book oi 1887. % Year Book, 1887. UNITARIANISM. 629 Ralph Waldo Emerson nor the bold radicalism of Theodore Parker, however, awakened much open sympathy, while in fact the leaders of the denomination felt embarrassed by the extreme departure of the latter, because he was generally recognized by the public as a Unitarian. They were unwilling to accept him as a representative. The American Unitarian Association, therefore, in 1853, attempted to relieve themselves of the embarrassment they felt on this account by making an elaborate statement of belief, not for the purpose of binding others, but to vindicate themselves. The document was of great perspicuity and was both a negative and a positive* state ment. A very considerable departure from original Unitarianism was perceived in the followers of Emerson and Parker. The club of Boston transcendentalists, the Brook Farm Community at West Roxbury, and the supporters of the Dial and the Harbinger, em bracing many able, brilliant and cultured writers, all the offspring of Unitarianism, passed over to the extremes of unbelief, and in the body itself marked symptoms of radical departures appeared. This might have been expected, for a perceptible drift of rationalistic ideas characterized the denomination from its inception. Unitarian ism in England sprung up, simultaneously with deism, out of the rising spirit of free inquiry, partaking largely of that spirit. The same influence appeared in Mayhew and his associates in the middle of the last century, and still later Freeman, Hollis, Sewall, Norton, Emerson and Parker floated rapidly down on the swelling current. This drift has continued to our time, until the humanitarian or rationalistic wing is now supposed to represent the major part of the denomination. Professor John Fiske recently said : f " Forty years ago Theodore Parker was virtually driven out of the Unitarian Church for saying the same sort of things which may be heard to-day from half the Unitarian pulpits in New England." In the days of Buckminster, and the earlier days of Channing, this tendency was not so perceptible. But the period was a peculiar one. The outbreak had not then occurred, and all were cautious. Skirmishing and reconnoitering constituted the order of action. Buckminster lived in the transitional period of the movement, when it was passing out from the scholastic into the classical type. Charming in style and affluent in learning, the mouthpiece of the refined and cultured classes of Boston aristocracy, he was recognized as a Liberal Christian, but was nevertheless called "the conservative * The author had fully intended to insert it in these pages, but the crowded condition of the work excludes it. t North American Review. March, 1882. P. 260. 6S0 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. liberal churchman of the old regime, and as little prone to radicalism as any bishop in the Parliament of England."* Neither Buckmin ster nor Channing had any sympathy with the radicalism of the eighteenth century, and they were decidedly opposed to the French Revolutionary school — to the materialism and infidelity of both English and French radicals, who have recently been extolled as "saints" by Mr. O. B. Frothingham. And yet while these men had similar conservative tendencies Channing was a bold champion of reform and progress. Buckminster was more aristocratic — "the pet of Boston aristocracy" — with more of the elements of an iconoclast ; Channing was more Democratic, and though he could hardly be called a revolutionist, yet he was a man of ideas, and an innovator. A prominent Unitarian, writing in the Christian Examiner, in 1865, said of Channing: "Within his Arian theology and conservative affinities, he bore the seeds of all the new ideas which have given such life, and, at times, threatened such mischief, to the Unitarian body." He was " the father of Unitarian Rationalism in Amer ica" — the leader of the ideal school that passed over into transcen dentalism. At the time of Mr. Theodore Parker's death, only six years after the publication of the famous statement of Unitarian principles, in 1853, marked divergencies were apparent in the denomination, occa sioning deep concern in some minds and serious forecastings in others. This was probably the occasion of the remarkable sermon of Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D., of New York, on the "Broad Church," which attracted general attention. It seems to have been the design of the sermon to prepare the way for preserving the unity of the denomination, and also for enlarging and building up a broad cath olic church out of the scattered fragments of Liberal Christians in various parts of the country. This was one of the most noticeable features of Unitarian policy in the last days of Dr. Bellows — to lay the foundations of their denomination so broad that men of all shades of sentiment, from the highest Arians and the most reverent supernaturalists to those who deny the Divine personality and the peculiar claims of Christianity, might dwell harmoniously together. The Universalists, the Christians and the, Progressive Friends were invited to the union. Detached congregations meeting occasion ally as lyceums, some rejecting the Scriptures as the rule of faith and practice, in whose articles of association in one or two instances even the name of God f did not appear, were added to their list of * Christian Examiner. 1865. P. 34. tRev. A. D. Mayo, D.D., in the Liberal Christian, in 1870. THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE. 631 societies, and others, who, not accepting Christianity as commonly understood, preferred not to assume the name, were invited to their liberal fellowship. They hoped to find a cement strong enough to unite and hold together these diverse elements, but the effort sorely tried the chemistry of the ecclesiastical experimenters. The organization of the National Conference was effected in 1865. Its object was to "combine scattered religious bodies, to infuse into them a common life, and to devise and set in operation means for greater growth and efficiency." Whether they could succeed in organizing such a body was a serious question with many Unitarians, representing as they did those extreme Congregational ideas of individuality and independency, which had produced very strong disinclination to associated efforts and a keen suspicion of all ecclesiastical ties. At the close of the Conference the leaders felt that they had been quite successful, although the task had called into requisition the most skillful management. The way for the adoption of the Preamble and Constitution was prepared by first mutually entering into the following agreement : That all resolutions passed in the Convention should be binding upon the indi vidual members only to the extent in which they commended themselves to their individual consciences. * As the session of the Conference in 1870 approached, a great amount of feeling was manifested in the denomination, leading to sharp controversies. The immediate cause was the organization of the "Free Religious Association" in Boston, in 1867, by prominent Unitarian ministers, in which the most radical tendencies came to a head — a protest against the action of the Conference at Syracuse, in 1866. It was asserted by Rev. E. H. Sears \ that the National Conference had received into its fellowship many who held with Theodore Parker and the Tubingen critics that the New Testament is not an infallible rule of faith and practice ; that the Fourth Gospel is a forgery of the second century; that the whole framework of narrative in the New Testament called miracle is false and mythical ; that such a being as Jesus Christ, as he is presented in the New Testament, never existed on this earth ; and, moreover, that there were professedly Unitarian pulpits which teach that God is not a conscious personality; \ that he has never revealed himself, and that * Christian Examiner. 1866. P. 294. t Religious Monthly Magazine. 1870. Vol. I, p. 318. X Their Cambridge Divinity School was also sending out young men as ministers who were skeptics of the most extreme type. Rev. Dr. James W. Thompson mentions that an eminent clergyman, speaking of a young graduate of the Divinity School, said : "He don't believe in much of any thing — in Christianity, in personal immortality, or in a personal God — but he is a. 632 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the belief in a Divine Revelation had been more harmful than bene ficial to humanity. Rev. O. B. Frothingham in a public discourse* said: "God is only an abstract force or goodness, and has never revealed himself, but remains a shadow or silence." Rev. Samuel Longfellow f said : "What Jesus was and what he did we never can know." "He was only a mythologic demi-god," "a hideous idol." Rev. J. L. Hatch \ said : "Jesus of Nazareth, as given in the New Testament, is offen sive to me in the extreme." Rev. Thomas Vickers, § at the dedi cation of the new First Unitarian Church in Cincinnati, read extracts from the Koran, the Analects of Confucius, the Vedas, the Old and New Testaments and from Lowell's 'Cathedra." Similar quotations might be produced from the writings of Revs. W. J. Potter, David A. Wasson, John Weiss, and many others whose names long ap peared in the Unitarian Year Book as ministers of the denomina tion. In the "List" were four hundred names, of whom Rev. E. H. Sears said, from one fourth to one third are supposed to accept the results of the Tubingen critics. Such extraordinary utterances from so many Unitarian clergy awakened an unusual interest, as the National Conference in 1870 approached, on account ofthe purpose of a large number to commit the denomination to a fuller declaration of "allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ," and of others to resist such action. The desired amendment was carried by a vote of 266 yeas to 33 nays, nearly two hundred delegates present not voting. This action afforded satisfaction to the conservative wing, because they felt that it committed the Conference distinctly to Christianity, and allowed the largest liberty consistent with this Christian limitation. The Radicals, however, felt quite easy about it, claiming that the resolution could be construed to mean the Transcendental concep tion of Christ as well as the Historic Christ. The dissensions in the Unitarian denomination arise from The Different Schools of Thought embraced within its folds and their constantly increasing divergence. In their more general features, these schools have been classified under two heads — the transcendental and the historical. pure-minded young man of good talents, and I think that somewhere in the West he may do good." Mr. Thompson then remarks : " It is to be hoped that he may do good wherever he goes; but, in the name of truth, let not such a teacher be registered in your Year Book as a Unitarian minister." — Religious Monthly Magazine, February, 1870. *Hoiticultural Hall Lecture, Boston, January, 1870. t Radical. Vol. II, p. 524. \Ibid. Vol. Ill, p. 524. % Liberal Christian. November, 1870. DR. BELLOWS' S EXPLANATION. 633 The transcendental school of Unitarians is a protest against what they regard as " the narrowness of the orthodox theory of revelation," which claims that God once spoke to men, but for ages has ceased to speak them. They affirm as the basis of their theory the perpetual immanence of God, his constant indwelling in men ; hence a constant inspiration from the Infinite Spirit, and the veracity and authority of the individual intuitions ofthe human mind, as the interpreters of the Divine mind. The historical school believe in revelation. But on the one hand, against orthodoxy, they contend that inspiration and revelation are not entirely facts of the past, leaving a form of exact words vouched for by miracles, etc., wholly documentary and scholastic in charac ter; but that THE WORD has not surrendered his prerogative of revelation since the sacred books were penned, and hence they hold to a positive revelation in Scripture and the divine manifestation in all history. On the other hand, against the transcendental school, they contend that it is inconsistent to look to individual intuitions for absolute truth, and at the same time to slight the revelations of God in the more aggregated forms in which they present themselves in history ; that if God is with us now he has been with the fathers of all previous generations; that if we would know him truly we must study his entire revelations to the race, and look through all the chosen ages for especial gifts of illumination and grace, as well as to the gifted minds of our own age. The doctrinal position of this body undoubtedly appears very strange to many Christian people, and it is, therefore, due that Dr. Bellows's frank explanation and ingenious defense as given in the Liberal Christian* should be here presented. He said: There is a certain valued and valuable portion of the Unitarian communion, "the extreme right," ministers and laymen thoroughly Unitarian in their theology, who have lost interest and faith in the denomination, from dissatisfaction with its general and necessary policy; a policy which they complain of as disrespectful to Christianity, as injurious to our Christian reputation, an ecclesiastical mistake, a denominational weakness. This policy originated with those who have been anx ious to reduce the Christian faith to its lowest terms, and it is a source of grief to many Christian men that the Unitarian denomination is more devoted to liberty than to Christian faith. For doubtless this is what the Christian world is saying of us : " The Unita rians haven't faith enough in the Gospel of Christ to make a positive and historical profession of faith in it a condition of fellowship. They allow any body that calls himself a Christian to use their name and enjoy their prestige, no matter whether he be a disbeliever in the Christian miracles and records or even in the historical * July 21, 1871. 634 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. existence of such a person as Jesus Christ. Nay, he may be a Pantheist or an Atheist, and if he calls himself a Christian, and is not immoral in life, he may join the Unitarian Conference and claim as good an ecclesiastical standing as the most conservative believer.'' This is all true, and the orthodox world does not see it any more clearly than we do. Nor can it see half as plainly as we feel all the weakness, all the prejudice, all the pain the position costs and involves. And yet, claiming to be among the most conservative of the Unitarians, if that word means any thing, we hold and are prepared to defend this extreme ground. For we feel that there must be some portion of the Christian Church content to occupy the most exposed and storm-driven outposts, furthest north toward the snows, furthest east toward the ocean ; an Eddystone light-house, over which dreadful waves are always breaking; a last haven, where stores and comfort and refuge are offered to voyagers in search of the Pole. Creeds and articles of religion have so often cramped and galled noble minds and tender consciences that, without denying their convenience and advantages, there must be some Christian body that will bear the odium and disintegration and lose all the immediate profit of a definite statement and profession of faith, in order to show and maintain the independence which Christian faith can bear, and to vindicate the rights and claims of the private conscience and the individual intellect. Accordingly, whenever the attempt has been made to put any yoke upon congregational or private liberty of opinion in the Unitarian body it has always failed. Latest Utterances. In the purpose of doing the fullest justice to this denomination, we also add, as one of its latest statements, the following, from the pen of Rev. M. J. Savage, of Boston, in the Christian Register, October 23, 1885 : Unitarianism has points of agreement with Orthodoxy, with Science, with the Ethical Culture Movement, with Agnosticism, with Materialism, with Spiritualism, with Free Religion, with the Religion of Humanity. And yet it is neither of these alone ; and we believe it is more and better, or else we are not Unitarians by any right of intelligent conviction and earnest purpose. . . . We are theistic, and we are humanitarian ; we are scientific, and we are ethical ; we are religious ; we believe in church and in worship. But what we are after now is a definition. 1. We believe in freedom of thought. This freedom is based on faith, and that faith is grounded in the past experience of man. We believe that human history justifies both the faith and the freedom. . . . 2. We believe in a progressive revelation. We hold that all truth is of God, as all light is of the sun. And as the day begins with a twilight, and broadens and lifts gradually and naturally toward noon, so do we believe in the advance of spiritual knowledge. The prophet, the seer, the inspired man, is only the lofty mountain peak that first catches 'and reflects the light, while the mists and shadows still creep over and obscure the valleys. The inspiration thus is as natural as the lack of it. . . . We hold the man of Nazareth in supreme reverence, because we believe him to have been the supremest soul that has walked among men. We hold the Bible above all other books, because we believe it to be the loftiest peak in the world's religious literature. . . . 3. We believe that all truth is one. This springs of necessity out of our belief 'FREE RELIGION." 635 in one God and Father of all, who is above and in and through all. For this reason we are not particular to draw the lines very carefully between secular truth and sacred. . . . 4. We believe in a good destiny for all men. This follows necessarily from the type of theism that we hold. That power and wisdom and goodness are the heart of things — this is our faith. And, if this is so, then no evil can ultimately be the destiny of any single soul. . . . This, then, is Unitarianism: a church, religious, worshipful, sharing more or less the characteristics of all other organizations that try to help on the world, but marked off from the churches by its belief in free thought, the progressive nature of revelation, the belief that all truth that touches the life of man is equally sacred, and a trust in the divine destiny of all souls. . . . In 1886 a considerable stir was occasioned because the Western Unitarian Conference declined to adopt resolutions declaring itself either a Christian or a theistic body, and several ministers and churches withdrew because of this action. At its meeting in 1887 the Conference adopted a resolution which only slightly modified its previous action. Unitarian Societies. States and Sections. 1830. 1840. 1850. i860. 1870. 1880. 1886.* 12 n 3 147 2 2 15 19 150 1513 5 165 j t 14 15 3 163 22 20 18 6 176 4 2 19 23 5 176 4 2 20 26 5 179 5 2 177 2 12 2 194 17 206 17 11 199 2626 3 226 62 37 3 229 76 27 3 237 86 Middle " 28 4 16 36 40 55 102 106 118 193 230 246 254 328 335 355 The Unitarians have two Theological Schools, at Meadville, Pa., and Cambridge, Mass., with 40 students. In 1886 eight students graduated. The receipts of the American Unitarian Association from all sources, from 1825 to 1880, amount to $1,883,529 03, of which sum $83,768 91 was appropriated to its single foreign mission in India — an average of $3,083 42 yearly since it was founded in 1855. The average annual sales of books, tracts, etc., during the ten years, 1870 to 1880, was $8,697 29. Section 7.—" Free Religion." During this period modern skepticism received important acces sions from professedly religious sources. The departure from prim- * Year Book for 1887. 636 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. itive New England theology, which produced Unitarianism, con tained within itself the elements of another departure of no mean proportions. If the former was a semi-subsidence of faith the latter was an apostasy into the most radical unbelief. The Transcendental Club, the Dial, the Brook Farm Community and the Harbinger were the first fruits ; but others rapidly appeared, for the germ of ration alism had been sown in the body, and a bold spirit, in whom the fatal seed had fully ripened, was in the field, sowing it broadcast in thousands of hearts. Theodore Parker. In 1848 Theodore Parker's name appeared for the last time in the published list of the Unitarian clergy. He claimed that he had broken away from all ecclesiasticism, as he had also from the "Lord ship of Jesus," and from supernatural religion. In November, 1852, he took his large congregation into Music Hall, where multitudes of personal admirers and strangers hung upon his words. He was an ardent advocate of temperance, antislavery, and other reforms, which considerably enlarged the scope of his influence and made his rad icalism in religion still more dangerous. The Committee of the American Unitarian Association, alarmed at his growing influence, embarrassed by finding him regarded as a Unitarian, and unwilling to be held responsible for his utterances, warned the public against him. They protested against " his excessive radicalism and irrever ence," " treating the Holy Oracles and the endeared forms of our holy religion with contempt." Although now squarely outside of that denomination, he continued to exert a powerful influence over large numbers, especially of the younger minds who remained within it, contending for what he sometimes called " Free Unitarianism," which proved to be the first stage of the " Free Religious" move ment of a few years later. By " Free Unitarianism," Parker meant neither Arianism nor Socinianism, but Unitarianism delivered from all the elements of the old theology, such as a supernatural revela tion and the " Lordship of Christ," both of which implied limitations of faith. In Mr. Parker the rationalistic and transcendental tendencies of his times were singularly combined. His logical faculty being only feebly developed, he afforded abundant evidences of logical inconsistency, and there was an almost entire absence of strict logical processes in his arguments. His reasoning was a species of dogmatizing. His ideality was large, and he was eminently an intui- tionalist, although not purely so, as was Mr. Emerson. His doctrine MR. PARKER'S UTTERANCES. 637 of intuitions was the corner-stone of his system. Believing in the original dignity and purity of human nature, and. in the veracity of its intuitions, he regarded the intuitive power as absolute, and hence he proclaimed an absolute religion, having its sources in the human soul. He accepted Christ only as a man ; the highest representative of absolute religion, because possessing the power of intuition in a higher degree than any other man ever did. Yet even " He was not exempt from errors." Historical Christianity Mr. Parker rejected as a growth out of the corruptions of the ages, with " dogmas repulsive to the moral intuitions." He contended that the Bible was to be read and criticised on the natural ground of all other his tories, being, like them, colored with the misconceptions of the times in which it was recorded. Even the teachings of Jesus, he con tended, were mixed with the imperfect local elements of his age and race, and that by the power of intuition every human soul could clearly recognize all that is absolutely good and true in the instruc tions of Jesus, the prophets and apostles, they being inspired only like other men. Miracles he did not consider an a priori impossibility, because God is a being of unlimited power; but the accounts of mira cles are open to criticism, and the evidence of miracles in all history, sacred or profane, ancient, mediaeval, or those of modern Spiritualism, is very defective ; and even if they could be substantiated, no essen tial connection could be demonstrated between them and spiritual truths, for such truths come by intuition and appeal to intuition. During his last years Mr. Parker devoted himself to what he intended should be the great work of his life — an account of the development of religion through all nations. He died May 10, i860, and left the work in a fragmentary condition. Many very radical utterances from Mr. Parker might be quoted. Speaking of Christ as a teacher, he said : I do not know that he did not teach some errors along with it. I care not if he did.*. . . . He (Jesus) is the greatest person of the ages ; the proudest achievement of the human race. He taught the absolute religion, love to God and m.in. That God has yet greater men in store I doubt not.t .... If Jesus were ever mis taken, as the evangelists make it appear, then it is a part of Christianity to avoid his mistakes as well as to accept his truths. J As early as 1852, when his congregation left the Melodeon for the Music Hall, he said : I take not the Bible for my master, nor yet the Church, nor even Jesus of Naz areth, for my master. ... He (Jesus) is my best historic ideal of human great- * Speeches, Addresses and Occasional Sermons. By Theodore Parker. Boston, Horace B. Fuller, 1871. P. 16. \ Ibid., p. si. \Ibid., p. z8. 638 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ness ; not without errors, nor without the stain of his times, and I presume, of course, not without sins ; for men without sins exist in the dreams of girls, not in real fact. You never saw such a one, nor I, and I presume we never shall. While Messrs. Parker, Emerson, and their associates, were exert ing so great an influence for radical ideas, the major part of the Unitarian party for a short time became more conservative, express ing itself decidedly in favor of supernaturalism, evincing a more denominational character and publishing the formal statement of faith, thus seeking to vindicate itself against all suspicions of com plicity with them. It was in allusion to this action that Mr. Parker, not long before his death, declared that the Unitarian body had "become a sect, hide-bound, bridled with its creed, harnessed to an old, lumbering, crazy chariot, urged with sharp goads by near sighted drivers along the dusty and broken pavement of tradition, noisy and shouting, but going nowhere." * This language shows how completely Mr. Parker was separated from his former Unitarian friends before he died. Immediately after Mr. Parker's death the public mind was occupied with the exciting scenes and great responsibilities of the civil war, and rationalistic ideas made little perceptible progress. Mr. Emerson was still upon the platform as a lecturer, but his topics were chiefly of a national or a practical character. Before the war closed, however, in 1864, Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, of New York city, delivered a dis course before the Alumni of Cambridge Divinity School on the "Religion of Nature," which attracted much attention on account of its radical positions. A great personal admirer of Mr. Parker, this discourse marked him as Parker's successor in the apostleship of doubt — a distinction which his later career justified. A Break. The preamble adopted at the National Conference of Unitarian Churches in 1865, elsewhere referred to, expressing the least possible statement of Christian faith, was resolutely opposed by a large minority. At the next meeting of the Conference, at Syracuse, Rev. F. E. Abbott introduced a resolution to repeal the preamble, which was voted down. The adoption of the phrase "Lord Jesus Christ" aroused a sharp debate; but the conservatives were victo rious. The defeated party comprised some ofthe younger ministers of recognized ability and culture. At the close of the Conference the disaffected ones were simultaneously prompted to think of * Experience as a Minister. By Theodore Parker. Boston, i860. P. 108. THE FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION. 639 organizing some kind of a "club" or association, in which their extreme opinions could be represented. The result was the organ ization of the Free Religious Association. Its first meeting was held in Boston, May 28 and 29, 1867, in response to a call issued by Revs. O. B. Frothingham, Wm. J. Potter and Rowland Conner, the two former of Unitarian and the latter of Universalist ante cedents. A considerable number of religious radicals came together, claiming that the "time had come for a new religious departure." The first president was Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, of New York city. The objects of the Association as set forth in the first article of the Constitution are, "to promote the interests of pure religion, to encourage the scientific study of theology, and to increase fellow ship in the spirit." In the first meeting Mr. F. E. Abbott said : We profess no especial discipleship to Jesus. We are disciples only of the Spirit and the Truth wherever they are found. We acknowledge no authority, whether in thought or action, but the intrinsic authority of truth, righteousness and love. To this we bow most reverently. We utterly discard that principle of authority upon which all organized "Christian" churches are built, and take our stand on the ground of spiritual freedom — free religion. * Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson was also present, and said: We are all very sensible, it is forced on us every day, of the feeling that the churches are outgrown ; that the creeds are outgrown ; that a technical theology no longer suits us.t Shortly after the organization of this Association the "Radical Club" came into existence in Boston. Two periodical organs were published, The Radical, in Boston, and The Index, first in Toledo, O., but later in Boston. The Index has disappeared and The Radical is "twice dead." The Free Religious Association continues to exist, and held its twentieth anniversary in May, 1887, at which Mr. Abram W. Stevens, of Cambridge, argued that its policy was better than "the myths of Christianity." Rev. Minot J. Savage said: Toward a man like Theodore Parker, for instance, the sentiment has changed — to-day his portrait is one of the most honored in the Unitarian Building. Al though he left us we have marched on, and to-day are around him, and are ready to accept all his beliefs, and if he were here to-day some of us would like him to take a few steps in advance. Here are some extracts from a layman's letter which will indicate some of the changes quite well. "I do not like to hear of 'Channing' Unitarianism. I used to dislike to read of Theodore Parker saying that he could approach God without the mediation of Christ. To-day I read Parker's * Report of the First Meeting of the Free Religious Association. P. 37. f Ibid. Pp. 52, 53. 640 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. prayers to my Sunday-school class, and I recently read one of his sermons, and it was greatly admired by the audience. I think I am a representative Unitarian." Now let me show you some of the changes. We are gradually drifting away from the old idea that the Bible has any particular significance or authority. We have no reliance on any historic person like Christ. Section 8.— Multiform Skepticism. Riddle (Bampton Lecture, 1852,) gives the following phases of infidelity in our times: 1, Rationalism ; 2, Spiritualism ; 3, Naturalism ; 4, Deism ; 5, Pantheism ; 6, Atheism. Pearson in his Prize Essay* on Infidelity, its Aspects, Causes and Agencies, classifies the forms of modern infidelity as follows: 1, Atheism, or the denial of the Divine existence ; 2, Pantheism, or the denial of the Divine personality ; 3, Naturalism, or the denial of the Divine government ; 4, Spiritualism, or the denial of the Divine redemption ; 5, Indifferentism, or the denial of man's responsibility ; and, 6, Formalism, or the denial of the power of godliness. Professor Christlieb {Evangelical Alliance Essay, 1873,) says: The chief systematic tendencies of modern infidelity may be comprised under these three heads: Unchristian philosophy, destructive historical criticism, and antimiraculous natural science. It will be evident to all readers that it will be impossible within the limits of this volume to unfold at length the skeptical tendencies of our times. Brief sketches of a few American phases must suffice. Spiritism. The Spiritistic transition in the unchristianized elements of our population, so noticeable after 1850 that it properly claims a place in this last period, had its slight beginnings as early as 1830. That is the date, given by the author of the Autobiography of a Shaker \ as the year of his conversion by "the agency of spirits," as he claims, from an Owenite Materialist and Socialist to a Spiritualist of the Shaker order. This writer affirms that from 1837 to 1844, while no spiritualistic phenomenon appeared in the outer world, they abounded in all the Shaker communities, with dozens of mediums, and that they foretold the coming manifestations about to attract so much attention. The seership of Andrew Jackson Davis dates in 1844, and the famous "rappings" at Rochester, N. Y., in 1849. * London, i860. + Atlantic Monthly, April, 1869. SPIRITISM. 64 1 Robert Owen in his last days, and later his son, Robert Dale Owen, became influential representatives of that faith. Many of the orig inal communists, phrenologists, mesmerists, and other radical doubt ers, found their way into the camp of the Spiritists, where they still plotted against Christianity with the professed aid of invisi ble allies. The town of Arcadia, Wayne County, N. Y., as early as 1847 became noted for strange spiritualistic phenomena — Rochester, in 1849; ana" m '850 "the Fox girls" appeared in New York city. Immediately following this event the alleged spiritual manifestations spread, and became the topic of extensive discussions in all circles of society. Large audiences gathered on Sundays and other days to hear and see the strange things. Converts were made in large numbers. The Spiritual Register for 1859 estimated the number of actual Spiritualists in America at 1,500,000, besides 4,000,000 more partly converted to the belief. The United States Census, however, gave much smaller figures. i860. 1870. Organizations 95 Edifices 17 22 Sittings 6,275 6,970 Value of Property $7, 500 $100,150 Many Spiritualists, however, have never been associated under any organization, and they have little data for any estimates as to their numbers. The Banner of Light, established in 1857, has been their leading journal. Besides the Fox girls, D. D. Howe, the Davenport Brothers, Koons of Ohio, Florence Cook and the Holmeses were prominent mediums. Many persons eminent in science, philosophy, literature and statesmanship have become avowed converts to Spiritism, or have admitted the phenomena so far as to think there may be a new force not hitherto recognized by science ; others have boldly asserted that all the manifestations are attributable to physical agencies ; and others still have explained them on the ground of im posture or coincidence. The cabinet tricks have been reproduced by ordinary performers, and professional prestidigitators have skillfully imitated the marvels of so-called Spiritism, without the slightest pretense of aid from spirits. Numerous gross spiritualistic frauds have been exposed. During the last ten or fifteen years this delu sion has rapidly declined, and it now commands little attention or respect in intelligent circles ; but multitudes have been religiously, socially and intellectually wrecked by its influence. 41 642 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Prof. Huxley has said : Spiritualism, even if all that is told of it be true, is a matter with which science has no possible concern. The only good of a demonstration of the truth of Spirit ualism would be to furnish an additional argument against suicide. " Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a medium hired at a guinea a seance.'' Doubts from Misapprehensions of Science. The legitimate and laudable study of the sciences, particularly natural science, disclosing many errors in previously-accepted ideas undermining theories supposed to be taught by Christianity, has led to the reconstruction of some important phases and even de partments of knowledge, and unsettled some minds in the truth of revealed religion. Superficially, perhaps, or, at least, undis- criminatingly, predicating their faith upon the assumption that cer tain theories pertaining to the material universe are biblical, and that it is the province of the Bible to teach authoritatively on such points, when they have found that the progress of natural science lias disclosed the inconsistency and absurdity of those theories, their confidence in the Bible has been impaired. Very many in the first revulsion following such discoveries rejected Christianity, while others struggled on with an enfeebled faith. But men are learning to understand better what are the functions of revealed religion as related to natural science ; that the first chapters of Genesis give us only the grand outlines ofthe first ages or stages of creation, leaving the scientific details untouched, and that the correspondencies in these leading features of the creative processes with the clearly- ascertained facts of nature are so great and convincing as to over shadow all the supposed discrepancies in regard to the details. "These outlines," says Professor Guyot, "were sufficient for the moral purposes of the book ; the scientific details are for us to investigate." "There is so much that the most recent readings of science," says Professor Dana, "have for the first time explained, that the idea of man as the author becomes utterly incomprehensible. By proving the record true, science pronounces it divine ; for who could have cor rectly narrated the secrets of eternity but God himself?" Such testi monies as to the assured results of the teachings of science, by men whose names are enrolled with almost every noted scientific associa tion in the world have inspired the flagging confidence in the "old records," and it has now become evident that doubts of this class have seen their most vigorous days. PHASES OF SKEPTICISM. 643 German Rationalism. The foreign source often referred to, which has contributed to the spread of skepticism during the last thirty-five years, has been European Rationalism, received through European literature eagerly devoured by American scholars, and the large accessions of German population since 1848. The failure of the German revolu tions (1848-1852) led to a large emigration to this country. Dur ing the three years following 185 1 it averaged 163,000 Germans yearly, against 68,000 yearly during the five previous years. From 1851 to 1870 Germany sent 1,689,236 emigrants to our shores, while France sent only 114,107. Since 1870 the German emigra tion has been as large relatively as in the previous twenty years. These German emigrants, settling largely by themselves, have strenuously maintained German customs and ideas, setting at defiance our Sabbaths, sustaining beer-gardens, infidel clubs and periodicals, many of them inculcating radical communistic theories and in various other ways antagonizing evangelical Christianity. Odd Phases. American skepticism is disguised under such new names, in later years, that no one term can designate its multiform phases. The terms "infidel," "deist," and "atheist" are now almost obsolete, and " Radical," "Liberal," "Free Religionist," arid other covert appellations have taken their place, in deference to the Christian sentiment now more dominant than ever before. And yet the opposition to Christianity is not hidden, for Spiritist rostrums, Socialistic and Liberal leagues, Radical clubs, Free Religious asso ciations, Liberal tract societies, Paine Memorial Hall addresses, the Investigator, the Banner of Liglit, the Index, the Crucible, the Relig- io-Philosophical Journal, etc., etc., are all warring against the Church and the great principles of revealed religion. Nine years ago a writer familiar with modern infidelity said : Some of the foremost, noisiest skeptics during the last twenty-five years have been Spiritists, like Wright, Denton, Davis, Finney, and scores of others. When Joseph Barker closed his last infidel lectures in America, some fifteen years ago, he advised his friends to affiliate with Spiritists, as their best allies against the Bible and the Church. His advice was largely accepted. Skeptical advocates, like Sea ver, of the Boston Investigator, rinding no halls or audiences of their own, gladly accepted Spiritist platforms. Many Spiritists at first protested against being saddled by these infidel speakers. When Finney first lectured for Boston Spiritists his blasphemy nearly emptied the hall before he closed ; but now Denton * * Since deceased. 644 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. and others of like skeptical mania can pour out their ribaldry against the Bible and the Church by the hour, and elicit roars of laughter and rounds of loud applause. About twenty-five years ago Nichols, Andrews, Warren, Brisbane, Clapp and others, forming a socialist coterie in New York, engrafted Spiritism wilh the philos ophy of "individual sovereignty," in opposition to all objective authority in society, government, and religion. " Free-love " was one of the first outcroppings of this philosophy. Again Spiritists protested, but it was against the inevitable destiny of their cause. The free-love element at last rode into power, and in 1870 Mrs. Woodhull took the chair of all that was left of the American Spiritist Convention. A speaker in that convention denounced all legislators, laws, law-abiding men and institutions, and cried, "Down with them ! We mean rebellion." . . . Several speakers proposed to substitute " affinity " for marriage. Two noted lecturers boasted of being illegitimate children and cursed matrimony. Various Spiritist conventions have passed resolutions utterly ignoring all Christian stand ards of social, civil, moral, and religious authority. Added to numerous other proois of the teachings and practical results of Spiritism are the appalling facts — thousands of homes wrecked, thousands of husbands and wives sundered, thou sands of children made worse than homeless orphans, thousands of souls shat tered in taith and hope, thousands driven into the rayless night of atheism, and thousands fallen into the lower deeps pf demoralization. While there are some Spiritists who claim a belief in harmony with the Bible, some claiming high moral ground, some well cultured, well educated, and other wise well balanced, some scientists and philosophers of no little repute, some honest, unsophisticated, and uninitiated, on the other hand, a large majority of Spiritist leaders, writers, lecturers and mediums are in the dangerous direction already indicated. The heads of nearly all the free-love cliques are noted Spirit ists, and talk as though the great mission of the dead were to come back and open a Pandemonium of new-fangled harlots and libertines. Rev. William Fishbough. formerly scribe of Andrew Jackson Davis, says, Spiritism "attacks all that is vital in religion, the barrier to vice and social disorder, and threatens all the chief bonds of society." The eminent Mrs. Richmond says, Spiritists " deny Christianity and all other supports of law and order. We have as advocates the offscourings of society. It has been the cloak of all debasing acts, a vehicle for all debasing the ories. We are made to incite or justify every crime in the decalogue, and ha\e become the confederates in every scheme of imposture." While the so-called Liberals and other classes of skeptics do not indorse all the theories and coarse, crude expressions of Spiritists; they have some of the same leading aims and ends in view.t Section 9.— Tlie Latest Socialism. At the present time there are two socialistic communities in Iowa — the Icarian, at Corning, in Adams County, and the Inspirationists, at Amana. The former had its origin in France, settled in a body in Nauvoo, 111., but moved to Iowa in 1854. The founder was Etienne Cabet. Like many other communistic bodies, it had no religious t The Anti-Skeptic, Boston, January, 1878, p. t, etc. SOCIALISTIC ANARCHISM. 643 forms, was essentially atheistic, and Sunday was a day of amuse ment. Their property, a farm of 3,000 acres, was owned in com mon, and for a while they dwelt together harmoniously, until the more progressive elements arrayed themselves against the con servatives, and they separated into the " Icarians" and the " New Icarians." "Highly ethereal ideas" were cherished, but a millen nial era looked for did not come. Weary under long disappoint ments, one after another withdrew, and the remainder are seeking a purchaser for their property, that they may wind up the concern and go to California. In a short time this experiment will be known only in history. The other body, the Inspirationists, possess 25,000 acres of land and have a population of 1,500, divided into seven villages, and employed in farming and manufacturing. Each family has its house, and all cook and eat together in "centrals;" but the men and women eat apart. At the head of the organization is a woman who is supposed by the members to speak by direct " inspiration of God." They came from Germany to the State of New York in 1 841, and moved to Iowa in 1856. The Society owes its origin to an ignorant servant-maid who for many years was the " inspired oracle " at Amana. Not the Bible, but direct commands from God, are the basis of action. The Sioux City Journal says : Amusements generally are forbidden ; even photographs and pictures are not allowed. Their rules of daily life are very strict and severe, enjoining abstinence. penitence, and deep devotion. This Society is successful financially, to say the least. The members are good citizens, pay their taxes, avoid litigation, and if they find happiness in complying with their rigid rules of government, who can say them nay ? Socialistic Anarchism. Under this designation we have the most radical divergence from faith in our times. It has its root in the baldest atheism. The great mass of our emigrant population are " wage work ers," without capital, and mostly destitute of education and culture ; densely ignorant. As to self-government, they have had no oppor tunity to acquire that difficult art. Foreign Roman Catholics on our shores rapidly unlearn the churchly lesson of obedience, and the element of wholesome reverence and fear rapidly declining among Protestants is, we apprehend, not being conserved by a growth of conscience. Many of these new comers are refugees from countries where both the Church and the State are term-sym bols of oppression; where a hatred of Christianity is generated in the depths of the soul, and a radical jealousy of civil control inclines 646 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. to revolution and anarchy. The New World hastily invests these classes, fired with revulsion against all constituted authority, with the privileges and prerogatives of citizenship. Without police sur veillance they are allowed to hold meetings, to discuss and denounce abuses, authorities and institutions. They may organize, plot and threaten the overthrow of the most vital interests, and no one inter feres until a fatal blow is struck. They may poison the atmosphere of thought with the most revolutionizing theories, may debauch public sentiment, may enfeeble the foundations of government, and all with impunity. Said Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D.* : One half of our workers are wage workers ; one third of our population, in cluding the vast majority of our wage workers, are either of foreign birth or chil dren of foreign-born parents. They are restless and are growing more so. There is no power in any Church to which they owe allegiance adequate to prevent an outbreak. There is no power in the State, no police, no military capable of quell ing it. Large numbers of them acknowledge no fealty to any religion which teaches them the duty or endows them with the power of self-restraint. The churches too often address, not their conscience, but their imagination. The schools address not their conscience, but their intellect. Men who have been taught that moral order is despotism and modern property is theft, find themselves in a country where the only support of order is an enlightened conscience, and the only protection of property is an enlightened self-interest, and neither their con science nor their self-interest is enlightened. Believing that property is theft, they believe that spoliation is redress ; believing that the world's wealth is their inherit ance, of which they have been too long unjustly deprived, they are ready with no gentle voice to demand of society, " Give me the portion of goods that faileth to me ; " and we maybe sure that if it were given to them itwould soon be spent in riotous living, not followed by repentance and a request for employment as hired servants. These very threatening elements in our population, so anxiously engrossing public attention, present a serious problem in our national life, the solution of which only the future historian can record. Section 10.— Mormonism, whose origin was sketched in the previous period, has become an ecclesiastical despotism of immense strength. Attention has recently been called to the strange theological phases of Mormonism heretofore not much considered. Rev. A. E. Winship.f who extensively and closely studied Mormonism dur ing a long period spent in Utah, says : * Century, November, 1885. t Late Secretary of the New West Education Commission, now editor of the Journal of Education, Boston, Mass. THEOLOGY OF MORMONISM. 647 They teach that God is a man ; that he has numerous wives by whom he has peo pled space with an infinite number of spirits that have existed cycles of ages, prac tically from all eternity. These have all knowledge in the abstract, but none in the concrete, knowing what might be rather than what is. It is a state of perpetual unrest. They can only be transformed into human souls, with the eternal possibility of a soul, through birth. Christ was a favorite son by a favorite wife, but birth into human life was the only way he could come into the enjoyment of the real life. These spirits are all the sons of God, but can only realize and enjoy their sonship through birth. They are every-where present. They are about every one of us pleading to be born. " I was once a spirit pleading to be born," I heard an elder say at a funeral. " If our ears were spiritually open, we could hear them pleading piteously to be born. The highest privilege and possibility of humanity is to liberate these spirits." Women are taught this from the cradle. I heard it preached to a church full of people, the majority of whom were young. The inevitable tendency is the early marriage of the girls. It seems too damnable to be true, but true it is, that they use this philosophy to reconcile the wife to the much-married state of her husband, that he may not be limited in the possibilities of releasing the sons of God from the imprisonment of spirithood. This theory, in its fruitage, is the reigning vice of the entire system. It magnifies animalism by means of the most sacred instincts of woman's nature. Heaven itself is viewed as the place for the limitless gratification of the passions, without the limitations of the flesh. . . . " Gentiles," said Orson Pratt, "who have lived virtuous, upright, truthful lives, obedient to all the light they have received, will be admitted to heaven, but they can only be bachelor angels serving the saints." Eradicate polygamy and leave Mormonism, and you have the system with the disease "struck in." The condition would be much like that ofthe child with scarlet fever, suffering from some experience that drove the flush from the skin into the blood. The only remedy will be one that purifies the life blood of the people, until they scale off polygamy as a dead and unwelcome attachment. . . . Law cannot directly purify the system of the " blood poison ; " they must have different mental diet, must breathe a changed moral atmosphere, must have new inspir ations, before we can hope for the ultimate restoration of the life of Utah to honesty, loyalty and purity. The Mormon population of 138,000 is dominated by 28,838 offi cials, or more than one for every five persons, with all the threads of authority gathered into the hands of its president. It is more than a Church ; it is a State, and is controlled by its head in all temporal, social, political and religious matters, by a power claiming an infallibil ity unequaled by the Pope of Rome. The political pretensions of Mormonism are more and more eclipsing the religious. Visions of an earthly empire now dazzle the eyes of its leaders, and they are endeavoring to set up a kingdom * which shall extend throughout the valleys of Utah, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and Nevada. Bishop Lunt has freely uttered the designs of Mor monism in the following lines : * Address before the Home Missionary Society, iu June, 1881. 648 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Like a grain of mustard-seed was the truth planted in Zion ; and it is destined to spread through all the world. Our Church has been organized only fifty years, and yet behold its wealth and power. This is our year of jubilee. We look for ward with perfect confidence to the day when we will hold the reins of the United States Government. That is our present temporal aim; after that we expect to control the continent. . . . We do not care for these territorial officials sent out to govern us. They are nobodies here. We do not recognize them, neither do we fear any practical interference by Congress. We intend to have Utah recognized as a State. To-day we hold the balance of political power in Idaho, we rule Utah absolutely, and in a very short time we will hold the balance of power in Arizona and Wyoming. A few months ago President Snow, of St. George, set out with a band of priests for an extensive tour through Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Arizona, to proselyte. We also expect to send missionaries to some parts of Nevada, and we design to plant colonies in Washington Ter ritory. In the past six months we have sent more than 3,000 of our people down through the Sevier Valley to settle in Arizona, and the movement still progresses. All this will build up for us a political power which will in time compel the homage of the demagogues of the country. Our vote is solid, and will remain so. It will be thrown where the most good will be accomplished for the Church. Then, in some great political crisis, the two present political parties will bid for our support. Utah will then be admitted as a polygamous State, and the other Territories we have peacefully subjugated will be admitted also. We will then hold the balance of power and will dictate to the country. In time our principles, which are of sacred origin, will spread throughout the United States. We possess the ability to turn the political scale in any particular community we desire. Our people are obedient. When they are called by the Church they promptly obey. They sell their houses, lands and stock, and remove to any part of the country the Church may direct them to. You can imagine the results which wisdom may bring about with the assistance of a Church organization like ours. Hon. Schuyler Colfax, in an article in the Advance* said : With Utah overwhelmingly dominated by the Mormon Theocracy of their established Church, and wielding also, as they already claim, the balance of power in the adjoining Territories, this Turkish barbarism may control the half-dozen new States of our interior, and, by the power of their senators and representatives in both branches of Congress, may even dictate to the nation itself. Mormonism is a great colonizer. By a thoroughly-worked col onization system, drafting and distributing its people under her sovereign behest, she has already gained an area of 350,000 square miles in the Rocky Mountain region, which is being gradually occu pied. To facilitate this work in 1849, a " Perpetual Emigration Fund " was founded to aid in bringing converts from Europe. These have not been few. In the first ten years after the fund was instituted the Mormon immigrants numbered about 7,500; from 1859 to 1869, 20,000; from 1879 to 1884, the number exceeded 12,000. * August 24, 1882. EDUCATION IN UTAH. 649 The Mormon problem severely taxes our statesmen and reform ers. Political, educational and religious solutions have all been deeply pondered. Laws for the suppression of polygamy, the se questration of its wealth, the disablement of the hierarchy, have been proposed ; but no clearing light yet dawns upon the vexed question. Local school education supervised by priest trained Mormons, and governmental education controlled by agents politically appointed, will, we fear, both be ineffectual. The school movement should be free to all, inculcating the best science ; loyal to the Bible, but with out fanaticism ; spiritual, but not superstitious ; permeated with the true spirit of reform, but not revolutionary ; with ethics dominating theology. The New West Education Commission, organized in Chicago, in 1879, 's wisely directing such a work. The Congregationalists were the pioneers in Christian anti-Mor mon work, Rev. Norman McLeod their first missionary to Salt Lake, in December, 1864. The Episcopalians followed two years later under Bishop Tuttle. In 1869 the Presbyterians, in 1870 the Methodists, and a little later the Roman Catholics appeared in the field. The Baptists came in 1872, though not obtaining a perma nent footing until 1881, and the Lutherans in 1883. Each denomi nation has founded schools and academies. The opposition of the Mormons to these Churches has been bitter and unrelenting, and all the gains have been quite recent. Within twenty years, probably, one million of dollars have been expended by the Protestant churches of the United States for the regeneration of Utah. Schools. Teachers. Pupils. Presbyterian 31 54 1 ,900 Congregational 28 49 ',75° Methodist , 10 15 806 Episcopalians 5 25 763 Total 74 H3 5>219 Thirty-four churches have been gathered, with a membership of 1,648. Nearly 5,000 children are in Sunday-schools. Including the wives of ministers, and other women devoted to missionary work, the total force of laborers cannot fall below 300. The latest statistics of Mormonism give their number at 138,000, of whom 132,700 are in Utah and Idaho ; in Arizona, 4,953 ; in Col orado, 1,578 ; and several hundreds in Wyoming, New Mexico and Nevada. Of those in Utah 24,000 are Scandinavians. The vast majority have but one wife, the polygamous Mormons in Utah not exceeding 2,500. 6SO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Delenda est Christianitas Is the first and the last motto of all radical doubters. Glancing back for a moment over these successive waves of opposition to the kingdom of Christ in America, one is struck first of all by the fact that none of them were of American origin. The successive types of unbelief and misbelief which have arisen and prevailed in Europe have in every case determined the suc cessive types of unbelief and misbelief in America. In most cases the first effectual introduction of a new type has been due to Europeans coming to our shores. Thus, our first popular infidelity was directly due to European soldiery, and to such emigrants as Thomas Paine. The great New England defection was, to a certain extent, pioneered by British Socinians, and decidedly aided by the coming of Joseph Priestly and John Murray. The communistic crusade was preached by Owen in person, and seconded by scores of such foreign-born adju tants as G. H. and F. W. Evans, Fanny Wright and A. J. Macdonald. The phrenological revival of naturalism was introduced by a pupil of Gall and dissem inated by the labors of Prussian Spurzheim and Scotch Combe. Mother Ann Lee, whom England gave us, was the early forerunner of American " Spiritualism," while the ghost of Scandinavian Swedenborg appearing to Andrew Jackson Davis in a grave-yard near Poughkeepsie, in 1844, so affected the deliria of that "seer" and the whole system of his followers that the historian of American Socialisms declares " Spriritualism is Swedenborgianism Americanized." Finally the tran sition of the " Free Religionists " from a professedly scriptural Unitarianism to an open repudiation of all positive revelation was an effect of German speculation and criticism, mediated partly by such men as Follen, more effectively by Amer ican students and tourists abroad, most potently of all by the writings of Germans and of admirers of German literature. Thus all these threatening surges of Anti christian thought and effort have come to us from European seas ; not one arose in our hemisphere. Like other peoples, we have erred in the sphere of religion ; but our admitted errors, as in the case of the wild excrescences of Mormonism, Millerism, and Shakerism, are all in the direction of superstition rather than in that of unbelief. America has given the Old World valuable theological specula tions, admirable defenses of the faith, precious revival influences, memorable exhibitions of international charity; but she has never cursed humanity with a new form of infidelity. Confining our view to the present, it is a striking and a cheering fact that no form of infidelity among us can boast of a single champion of cosmopolitan or even of national reputation. We have no Strauss, no Renan, not even a Carl Vogt. We never have had. The nearest approach to it we ever had was the forceful Unitarian preacher who ministered to the " Twenty-eighth Congregational Society," in Boston, from 1845 t0 l859. Even he had not the requisite learning or genius to enable him to propound a solitary new difficulty to the Christian schol arship of his age. We have infidel litterateurs of respectable attainments and all-too-wide influence, but in all the ranks of American unbelievers the Christian apologist of learning and ability can nowhere find a foeman worthy of his steel.* *Rev. W. F. Warren, D.D., LL.D., in Evangelical Alliance Volume. Harper Brothers. 1874. Pp. 251-2. RECKLESS DECLARA TIONS. 681 CHAPTER IV. CONVERGENT CURRENTS Sec. i. From Atheism to Theism. " 2. From Science vs. the Bible, to Sci ence with the Bible. " 3. From Christ Discarded to Christ Honored. " 4. From Negative to Biblical Ethics. Sec. 5. From the Poverty of Skepticism to the Wealth of Christianity. " 6. From Defiant Discourtesy to Patron izing Respect. " 7. From Scholastic to Vital Truth. " 8. Vibratory Movements. THE great advance in scientific and philosophic thought in this century found men every-where speculatively unprepared, and unable at once to rightly estimate the import and tendencies of the new discoveries. Some vaguely queried as to what would be the fate of the old faiths and ideals in which men had long lived, while others hailed the new developments as harbingers of a revolu tion which would rid the world of its old notions. One sanguine doubter loudly boasted that " before long science would conduct God to the frontier and bow him out with thanks for his provisional services." Down almost to our times bold and reckless decla rations of the decay of Christian theology have been current in popular literature. It has been freely asserted that the evangelical theology " has lost its hold upon the intellect of the age," that " thinking men are at their wits' end to know what is truth ; " that " Protestantism is a generator of skepticism ; " * that " a collapse of religious belief, of the most complete and tremendous kind, is apparently now at hand ; " f that " traditionary creeds are losing their hold;" that "an intellectual revolution is sweeping over the world, breaking down established opinions and dissolving founda tions on which historical faiths have been built;" that "science, history and philosophy have created universal uncertainty," % and that " the latter half of the nineteenth century will be known to future historians, as especially the era of the decomposition of orthodoxies." § *Rev. F. C. Ewer, D.D. X James Anthony Froude. t Professor Goldwin Smith, LL.D. § Professor John Fiske. 6S2 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. This style of talk has been popular in free-thinking circles, and many people have easily accepted the utterances as from wise, far-seeing men, without troubling themselves to inquire closely into the state of the case. To the monstrous conceptions of " advanced science," so called — " thought without a thinker, religion without a God, automata with duties, impersonal immortality," etc. — they have yielded, at least, a quasi acceptance. With some, faith has given place to credulity — faith in miracles to faith in magic. The drift toward agnosticism and materialism has been a palpable phenomenon of the times. But " the new wine of science has seriously strained the old mental bottles." There are clear indications that skepticism has reached the point at which it is sadly oppressed with weariness and self-distrust, and is furnishing results of ultimate analysis which, wittingly or unwittingly, are valuable contributions to the vindica tion of Christian truth, and may yet help to. a renaissance of faith in souls in which it has lapsed. Critical procedures have been instituted which have recognized and guarded the fullest rights of scientific investigation and the moral and religious nature, and have cleared away the confusion and misunderstanding into which both had fallen. In this work Lotze* has had no superior. " The gust has now largely blown over, at least among thinkers. We have not had a cosmological manifesto from the British Association for eleven years. Criticism has shown that the perennial questions of life remain what they always have been, and that the old solutions are still the best that can be offered." f Many are the examples of indiscreet and unscientific haste in adopting objections to Christianity. Apparent difficulties have been eagerly seized, accepted, and proclaimed as real faults. Enrolled in the arsenal of unbelief, without even waiting for the christening; and, echoed with loud-mouthed voices, they have gone forth upon their destructive work never to be recalled. Infidelity never corrects her blunders, for it would have little else to do. Men have discovered that a little time unfolds clues which solve the diffi culties sometimes appearing in the province of faith. Faith has learned to hold her ground until profounder research dissipates the mists in which shallow knowledge sometimes enshrouds the truth. As an example : At one time German Rationalists claimed that St. Luke erred concerning Lysanias ; but an inscription has since been dis covered near Baalbec proving that there were two persons of that * His Microcosmus is the master-piece in this field. t Professor B. P. Bowne, LL.D., in Independent, Nov 5, 1885. INFLUENCE OF RADICAL PHILOSOPHY. 053 name, father and son. Daniel's supposed contradictions of profane history in regard to Belshazzar are reconciled by a document exhumed in our day from the soil of Mesopotamia by an En glish gentleman. So also have the obscurities in regard to "Sargon, King of Assyria," and the "taxing" of Cyrenius (Luke 2. 2.) been solved by late discoveries. Section l.-From Atheism to Theism. Fifteen or twenty years ago the tendency of scientific thought was strongly toward materialism. That there has since been a change is a common confession, even in the ranks of eminent thinkers. Professor John Fiske says : * In my apprehension it is a very serious mistake, though a very common one, to suppose that the tendency of modern philosophic thought is toward materialism. On the contrary, it seems to me that the course of modern philosophy is distinctly in the opposite direction, and that materialism is hopelessly behind the age, so that it argues a much more superficial mind, and a much more imperfect education, to agree with Biichner to-day than to have agreed with La Mettrie a hundred years ago. The moment the first trace of conscious intelligence is introduced we have a set of phenomena which materialism can in no wise account for. The latest and ripest philosophic speculation, therefore, as Professor Huxley once remarked to me, leaves the gulf between mind and matter quite as wide and impassable as it appeared in the time of Descartes. Materialism is thus more than ever dis credited by the dominant philosophy of our time, and it will no doubt continue to be more and more discredited with each future advance in philosophic speculation, though he thinks there will always be a certain amount of materialism current in the world. There will always be a class of excellent people in the world with a fair capacity for understanding scientific generalizations, but without a head for philosophy; and this class will produce the Biichners and La Mettries of the future as it has produced them in the past and present. The philosophy of the future will not be materialistic. . . . While the doctrine of evolution has enormously increased our knowledge of the phenomenal universe, it really leaves all ultimate questions as much open for discussion as they ever were. It is a noticeable fact that amid all the divergencies of modern thought from the old religious and theological centers, causing deep concern in some minds, there have been very marked reverse ten dencies, largely from out the camp of free thought, confirming and establishing the old truths. Some forms of radical philosophy have exerted an important and relatively ennobling influence upon rationalistic theology, and upon the currents of modern thought. It is a significant fact, cited by Kuntz, that while Kant's philosophy * North American Review, March, 1882, pp. 262, 264, 266. 634 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. stood altogether outside of Christianity, and upon the same ground with theological rationalism, yet " by digging deep into this ground it brought out a much superior one, of whose existence vulgar rationalism had no idea," " saved philosophy from superficial self- sufficiency and quackery," "led it out upon an arena of unp'aralleled mental conflict," and thus unintentionally "became a school-master leading to Christ in manifold ways." The ideas of God, freedom and immortality Kant acknowledged as " postulates of the practical reason," and the basis of "all religion whose contents are above the moral law." Nor is Kant the only philosopher whose writings have served the cause of faith. The best forms of modern philosophy have modified radical doubt, and caused the lines of true speculation to converge toward the lines of Christian truth. It is remarkable how much less of real atheism and Pantheism exists than formerly. More than in other days, they appear in speculative forms, tenta tively put forth in connection with efforts to explore the Infinite. Even Hartman leans strongly toward theism, though not avowing it, for he speaks of " One Absolute Subject," " One Identical Sub ject." Skeptical philosophy often unwittingly recognizes the exist ence of the Supreme Deity, though imperfectly, and far from meas uring up to the Christian standard. The god of scientific theism — a force, personal or impersonal, behind natural phenomena — is indeed not such a being as the Christian theist worships; but such a recognition of Deity is far in advance of the blank atheism and the atheistic theory of chance current a century ago. "I am no atheist," protested Comte warmly to a visitor two years before his death; "my attitude is that of belief; if not, I should have no right to treat of these matters. If you will have a theory of existence, an intelligent Will is the best you can have." * Kant said, " The great whole would sink into an abyss of nothing, if we did not admit something originally and independently exter nal to this infinite contingent, and as the cause of its origin." Herbert Spencer, professedly discarding the usually accepted idea of God, sometimes falls back upon anthropomorphic conceptions of Deity, and speaks f of the " Incomprehensible Existence," the " Unknown Cause," the " Inconceivable Greatness." Herbert Spencer invests the Unknowable with all the metaphysical attri butes of God, though he comes short of the Christian idea of a distinct personal Deity. But his Unknowable " is one, not many ; the real, as opposed to the apparent ; a power and a fundamental * Christian Examiner, July, 1857. t First Principles, p. 96. FROM ATHEISM TO THEISM. 6SS cause ; persistent and unchangeable ; omnipresent in space and eternal in time." How rich his affirmations! Professor Tyndall says,* "The idea of a Creative Power is as necessary to the pro duction of a single original form as to that of a multitude." Pro fessor John Fiske has said, j- "Provided we bear in mind the symbolic character of our word, we may say, ' God is a Spirit.' " And Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson, after long exploring the dreamy solitude of Pantheism, came to be, in the estimation of his intimate friend, Mr. Alcott, a " Christian .theist." Heinholtz has boldly declared that the progress of science, as a whole, must be judged " bv the measure in which the recognition and knowledge of a causative connection embracing all phenomena has advanced." That great generator in modern science, nowhere questioned, the persistence of force, leads directly up to the Divine, for all power, in the last analysis, is will. Gove shows the issue of the conserva tion of energy. He says : " In all phenomena, the more closely they are investigated, the more we are convinced that, humanly speaking, neither matter nor force can be created or annihilated, and that an essential cause is unattainable. Causation is the will, creation the act, of God." The essayist Whipple quoted Professor Agassiz as saying : My experience in prolonged scientific investigation convinces me that a belief in God, a God who is behind and within the chaos of unguessed facts, beyond the present vanishing point of human knowledge, adds a wonderful stimulus to the man who attempts to penetrate the region of the unknown. For myself, I may say that I never now make the preparation for penetrating into some small province of nature hitherto undiscovered without breathing a prayer to the Being who hides his secrets from me only to lure me on to the unfolding of them. The charm of a supposed new discovery has beguiled many minds. They have seemed to see facts in the light of preconceived notions. The true philosophical method has often been ignored ; extended generalizations made without a sufficient basis of facts; and new theories wildly and rashly advanced. Unwise disputes between science and theology have been introduced. Scientific men have sometimes proclaimed new theories, invented to dispose of the supernatural ; and theologians have attempted to disprove the new theory on grounds of Scripture exposition, forgetting that scientific hypotheses must be disproved on the ground of science alone, and that when the new theory has attained the rank of a scientific verity, and not till then, is it necessary to compare it with * Belfast Address. t Cosmic Philosophy. Vol. II, p. 449. 656 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the teachings of Revelation. These mistakes have been widely made in the discussion of the theory of evolution. In the form in which the theory of evolution was first promul gated, involving the spontaneous generation of being, and utterly eliminating the idea of an infinite Creator, it excited alarm, and the atmosphere was full of fierce controversy. This radical phase strug gled hard for scientific recognition, but it seems to have failed in this form. Dr. Montgomery, one of its expounders in the Science Monthly, said : The disciples of science are every-where at work to raise to the dignity of a consistent theory what is promiscuously held on the strength of much good evi dence, though, also, in reliance upon the eventual verification of much vague fore shadowing. Though it is incumbent upon us evolutionists to prove our opinion, yet it must be admitted that at present we are far from having established a con nected chain of evidence in support of it. Mr. Tyndall in his celebrated address before the British Asso ciation said : Either let us open our doors fully to the conception of creative acts, or, aban doning them, let us radically change our notions of matter. Again he says : * There is not a shadow of evidence of spontaneous generation. There is, on the contrary, overwhelming evidence against it. . I am led inexorably to the conclusion that in the lowest, as in the highest organized creatures, the method of nature is that life shall be the issue of antecedent life. Mr. Darwin, at least in his maturer thought, distinctly recog nized the Creator, and traced back the series of developments to this original source of life. He said :f Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants have descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide. I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have lived on this earth have each descended from some one primordial form into which life was first breathed. It is not the theory of Mr. Darwin, but that of Herbert Spencer or Haeckel — not evolution, but transformism or "monism" — which arrays itself against theism. It is this "monism," a "single principle of things," a materialistic force, governed by laws inhering in itself, out of which the universe of radical unbelief is evolved — "the homogeneous begetting the heterogeneous, which is concentrated, and co-ordinated, and differentiated, and segregated, and hereditated, * Lecture on the " Origin of Life " before the Royal Institute of London. t " Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection." EVOLUTION CONSIDERED. 6S7 and environed, until at last we get the universe as it is, which we are invited to believe is solely and purely a materialistic universe." When pressed by the inquiry, "Whence this monism endowed with such possibilities ?" Haeckel points to "spontaneous generation," as "crystals form in the mother-liquor," which he confesses is "an assumption required by the demand of the human understanding for causation,"* and leaving still open the palpable inquiries, Whence "the mother-liquor?" and who made it capable of spontane ously generating such monera — and thence such a universe as this ? Multitudes of the best philosophic minds, after treating with candor and careful scrutiny these hypotheses, join with Cowper : Defend me, therefore, common sense, say I, From reveries so airy — from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up ! One of the very latest scientific testimonies of the highest rank is that of Professor Hartmann, of the University of Berlin, in his Anthropoid Apes. \ He shows that the differences between these apes and man are greater than their resemblances. He says : Man cannot have descended from any of the fossil species which have hitherto come to the notice of scientific inquirers, nor yet from any species of apes now extant. A supposed progenitor of our race is necessarily completely hypothetical, and all attempts hitherto made to construct even a doubtful representation of its characteristics are based upon the trifling play of fancy. Even if the assumed ancestral type should really be discovered in some geological stratum, yet research will have to overcome immense difficulties if it is to explain the development of the understanding and speech, and the growth of independent local intelligence. Evolution has evidently reached its limit in attempting to ac count for the origin of man, and believers in Genesis are resting in the assurance that his creation was exceptional, as a " son of God." This question has received much attention of late years, and Mr. Darwin's name has been the most prominent of all, as its pro- pounder and special advocate. What many have called Darwinism is, strictly speaking, an attempt to ascertain the rationale, the law of evolution. It presupposes evolution ; but it is an endeavor to show how evolution works by "natural selection," etc. It has been truly said : Evolution is older than Darwin : the French naturalist, La Marck, taught it long ago ; Diderot taught it ; not a few Christian scientists have long taught it. * Evolution of Man. By Haeckel. Vol. II, p. 31. fKegan, Paul & Co. International Scientific Series. London, 1885. 42 638 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Before Darwin was heard of, our own able biblical scholar, Professor Tayler Lewis, taught it, by biblical exegesis, as implied in the Mosaic Cosmology. He was a Darwinist before Darwin. Mivart, an earnest Roman Catholic, shows that the great early Christian "fathers," Augustine, etc., taught evolution as God's pro gramme of the natural world. Wallace, who really preceded Darwin in what is called Darwinism, contends for Christian " orthodoxy " respecting the creation, especially of man, and shows that Darwinism must be supplemented by doctrines which sustain the old ideas of intelligent causality. Christian teachers have, in fine, erred in taking upon themselves too much the onus of the debate on these subjects. * Section 2.— From Science ys. the Bible to Science witn tne Bible. History shows the mutabilities of science. Many scientific books and charts of fifteen and twenty years ago, are of little value to-day. In the British Museum, and in the Academy of Science, in Paris, the natural history specimens have been unwittingly arranged ac cording to the order given in the first chapter of Genesis. Eminent scientists like Cuvier, Sir John Herschell, Dr. Whewell, Guiot, Dana, etc., etc., accept the word of God as a safe guide as to the order of creation. Hon. William E. Gladstone says the order in Genesis " may be taken as a demonstrated conclusion and an estab lished fact." A recent writer in the London Christian shows the great con trast in sentiment in the British Scientific Association, at its meet ing last year in Birmingham, as compared with its meeting in that city in 1865. At that time radical skepticism prevailed. Radical evolution ideas were rampant, and God and revelation were sup posed to be eliminated from the world. At the late meeting, how ever, Sir Wm. Dawson, the President, was a Christian, and in his address he strongly vindicated the Bible. The leading members of the Section on Geology were of pronounced religious views. In the Section on Anthropology, where especially skepticism predominated in 1865, the President, Sir George Campbell, declared that the Bible teaching as to the origin of man was the only firm ground. William Carruthers, who presided in the Section on Biology, was an ardent Christian. On Sunday a large number of members met for devo tional exercises, and Sir Wm. Dawson urged scientific men to apply the same intelligence and earnestness to the study of the Scriptures that they do to that of Nature. The last twenty years shows a strong drift from skepticism toward the acceptance of revelation. *Rev. Abel Stevens, D.D., LL.D. THE SCRIPTURES VINDICATED. 639 The Bible, so severely assailed and sharply scrutinized by nat ural scientists during the last forty years, is emerging from the stern ordeal with brightening evidences of vindication. Tested from a new quarter, by developments new, often immature, and frequently self-destructive, a little time has been required to mature the questions and bring them to a proper understanding. But there has been no difficulty in adjusting well ascertained results to the great cycle of truth of which God is the center, and all is in har mony with him. We are learning that modern thought does not destroy any thing essential in the old faiths,* but invests them with a more beauteous light. The period of violent attacks upon the Bible by natural science, and violent defense, has gone by. The period of ingenious compromises and concessions between religion and science has also passed. We have now reached the time when the question is hardly asked whether religion and science can be harmonized, but rather how both can be used in the rational inter pretation of the universe. The main body of scientists at the pres ent day are firm believers in Christianity, and the latest results of natural science have no warmer advocates than are to be found among Christian believers. The varied and protracted inquiries into the nature of biblical inspiration show a deepening conviction of some peculiar Divine element, and consequently a peculiar value attached to the Sacred Scriptures ; and the elaborate comparison of the Bible with other great religious books is a substantial concession of its high charac ter, and has demonstrated its matchless superiority. Professor Bowen, of Harvard College, quotes Hartmann as saying, "The germs of all revealed religion are to be found in the heated fancies of the mystics, these fancies being due to inspiration from the Uncon scious," and then adds, "The evidence adduced goes far enough to confirm a text of Scripture, which he unconsciously labors to estab lish, that, ' The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.'" f Some of the specific doctrines of revelation have received ample confirmation from the best and strongest developments of modern thought. Kant's "sharp criticism of pure reason, his deep knowl edge of human weakness and depravity, revealed in his doctrine of the radical evil, and his categorical imperative of the moral law, were *See Old Faiths in a New Light. By Rev. Newman Smyth, D.D. Charles Scribner & Sons. 1879. t Philosophical Lectures P. 456. 660 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. all adapted to produce in profound minds a despair of themselves, and a want which Christianity alone could fully satisfy." * Rev. H. W. Beecher saidrf From a new quarter, namely, science itself, in the theory that is now held, and is likely to be more widely held, of the origin of man, the doctrine of universal sin fulness is assumed and believed, not as a dogma, but as a conceded universal fact. . Unexpectedly from right out of the camp of science comes a belief in the doc trine which underlies the whole truth of religion — the doctrine ofthe universal lost condition of man. The modern doctrine of the solidarity of the race also confirms this Bible truth. In his Data of Ethics Herbert Spencer gives to the world the results of his investigation into the foundations of morality. These inquiries he conducted independently of the New Testament, with reference to the facts and laws of human nature. By his own pecu liar processes of reasoning, he develops a practical rule of morality which is simply a restatement of the Christian law. How far he may have been unable to divest himself of New Testament ideas, and was unconsciously led by them in his investigations, can, of course, never be determined ; but this distinguished living sociologist unde signedly bears his testimony to the rationale of moral principles inculcated by Jesus Christ. Nor can he resist the acknowledgment that the conclusion he has reached is "a rationalized version of the ethical principles of the current creed" — in short, a verification of Christ's teachings. The latest developments of physical and psychological science and the later interpretations of Scripture have augmented the vol ume of testimony in favor of the doctrine of personal immortality. The greatest names in modern philosophy, Bacon, Descartes, Leib nitz, Locke, Kant, Hamilton, and even Hartmann, are subscribed in its support. Could there be a clearer though undesigned recognition of the doctrine of personal accountability to God than the rapid and widely extended multiplication of oaths and obligations, and their substitution in modern society in the place of former physical methods of binding men ? Kant's famous line, " The starry heavens above me, the moral law within me," and his "categorical impera tive of the moral law," have placed this doctrine on an unshaken foundation with thinking men. Modern skepticism, talking of duty, responsibility, " the sacred obligation of truth," and the duty of * Kurtz. t Sermon on "Christianity Changing Yet Unchanged." P. 33. EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 661 respecting the beliefs of others, has also unwittingly conceded this great principle. Sometimes, perhaps, these phases contain only half truths, but when did classical antiquity or the skepticism of the previous century allow as much? Section 3.— From Clirist Discarded to Christ Honored. The skepticism prevalent from fifty to one hundred and fifty years ago was noted for its scornful rejection of Christ. It freely poured out aspersions and anathemas upon the Redeemer. " Crush the wretch," the favorite motto of Voltaire, with which he led the assaults against Christianity, was the watchword all along the vast lines of the infidel hosts. But how changed now the style of allu sion to Christ among the most radical skeptics ! And even where the higher claims of Christ are not accepted, how much of lofty encomium is bestowed upon him, and how studied the effort to exalt him to the highest possible degree, often indulging in language which, perhaps sometimes unwittingly, acknowledges his Supreme Deity ! The philosophers have attentively studied Christ and uttered remarkable acknowledgments. Rousseau said, " If Socrates lived and died like a philosopher, Jesus lived and died like a God ; " Richter, " He is one who with his pierced hands rased empires from their foundations and turned the stream of history from its old channels;" Kant, "One of those names before which the heavens bow;" Fichte, " His followers are nations and generations ; " Schil ling, "He is the turning-point of the world's history;" Hegel, "The person in whose self-consciousness the unity of the Divine and human first appear; " Strauss, " He is the highest model of religion within the reach of our thought ; " Renan, "A matchless man, so grand that though all must be judged from a purely scientific point of view, I would not gainsay those who, struck with the exceptional character of his work, call him God ; " again, " Even to-day ration alism does not look at him closely, except on its knees ; " Chan ning, " Jesus is not a fiction. He is still the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world;" Parker, "There is God in the heart of this youth. The philosophers, the poets, the prophets, the rabbis — he rises above them all," and De Wette, "Only this I know; in no other is there salvation except in the name of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and for the human race there is nothing higher than the God-man realized in him and the kingdom of God planted in him." Schilling, after years of ranging between the idealistic and real- 662 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. istic systems, near the close of his life, while in conversation with a friend, said he had hoped to be able to give to the world a treatise upon the harmony between Revelation and philosophy. His friend asked what would be the key-note of the harmony. Taking down a copy of the Greek Testament he read Rom. u. 36, " For of him (Christ), and through him, and to him, are all things ; to whom be glory forever. Amen." "This," said Schilling, "is the foundation and last word of philosophy — the key-note of the harmony between philosophy and revelation." Among some non-trinitarians there has been a perceptible advance toward the recognition of the Deity of Christ. While some have descended to purely humanitarian grounds, others have risen to higher conceptions, and it is now generally agreed that the Arian view is a thing of the past. Its former advocates have advanced to the Sabellian or the Logos theories, and some to the orthodox doctrine. That estimable Unitarian clergyman, Rev. E. H. Sears,* said : Essential Divinity in Christ is not a person separated from the Father, an other person, but consubstantial with the Father, and revealing the whole God head in one glorious person. Rev. Samuel P. Putnam, D.D., a Unitarian clergyman of the highest character, said : Not much is accomplished when it is proved that Jesus is not God. When we do this, he ceases to be a central fact, a leader, a Saviour. Only God in his infini tude can be these ; only he can satisfy our innermost needs. No finite being, however perfect and glorious, can do it. t Rev. James W. Thompson, D.D., of the same class, said::): Glorying in the regal majesty and dominion of his Lord, does some raptured saint, with his ear near to God, hear a voice from the excellent glory addressing the Son : " Thy throne, O God ! is for ever and ever ; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom ; thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity ; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows"? Even so. Amen. Laudate Dominum. We rejoice ; we exult ; we give thanks ; we chant our response with the Church, and say, "God of God, light of light, very God of very God ;" not homoiousian with the Arians, but homoousian with the Athanasians, and none shall receive a heavier meaning from those divinely loaded words than we. Rev. J. C. Kimball, § another able minister and writer of the same denomination, said : *These gentlemen, it should be said, nevertheless decidedly dissent from trinitarianism. Their utterances are introduced in no controversial spirit, but as indicating a drift of thought in a cer tain class of minds. f Religious Monthly Magazine. February, 1874, pp. 134-136. X Christian Examiner, March, 1856, p. 185. § Christian Examiner, January, 1867. ETHICS OF CHRISTIANITY. 663 All past experience shows that to attack the Trinity, or what is now becoming the chief point in the doctrine, the Deity of Christ, in its logical side, is utterly in vain. It is clung to in the face of the clearest demonstrations of its untruth. It somehow feeds the soul, gives it the fullness of the divine nature, and what avails it to prove by argument that food is dust and ashes, when millions of beings are using it every clay, and finding it gives them grandest health and strength ? Section 4.— From negative to Biblical Ethics. The ethics of Christianity were never before so widely accepted in the current literature, the common belief, and the actual life of the race. They are sifted into all departments of knowledge. New Testament morals are universally conceded and dominant, not because of civil or ecclesiastical authority, as in some former times, but from rational convictions of their essential rightfulness. And the ethical theory that man has a religious nature, with religious needs, a conscious dependence upon the Divine Being, and a neces sity for worship ; in short, that in the constitution of man there is a foundation for religion, is now confessed by the greatest thinkers, as the result of careful, scientific analysis. David Strauss, after years of wild, destructive criticism, in his last book declared that in the fields both of positive and of natural theology there exist valid grounds for the deepest and purest piety, which, " under its twofold aspect of utter dependence and utter reliance, constitutes the inmost core of all the manifestations of religion." While we may question whether such an answer can be given from his stand-point, we never theless rejoice to see so sturdy a critic acknowledge a sure ground of personal piety and spiritual consolation. It was the ground of Schleiermacher in his great and successful contest with the mate rialists and pantheists, and on which we hope many may yet be led into " all truth." Thomas Carlyle, notwithstanding his avowed Pantheism, denial of miracle, authoritative revelation, etc., often opened his heart widely and uttered his profounder convictions in harmony with great truths of Divine revelation. On one occasion, in a company of scientific gentlemen who were airing the most radical views of evolution, they challenged him to give his opinion of the origin of man, under the supposition that he sympathized with them, and was not trammeled by religious scruples. Gathering himself up and speaking in atone that silenced laughter, Mr. Carlyle replied, " Gen tlemen, you may make man a little higher than the tadpoles. I hold with the prophet David, ' Thou madest him a little lower than the 664 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. angels' " He stoutly asserted the Divine government ofthe world, and appealed to it constantly as the surest reality in the universe ; he emphatically insisted upon the moral law and the eternal dis tinction between right and wrong, and gloried in himself as " a preacher of the kingdom of Divine righteousness." George Eliot never wholly rid herself of the vital truths of her early religious training. In her earlier revulsion, which was very radical, she was conscious of the hollowness and insufficiency of infidelity, and said, " It is the quackery of infidelity to suppose that it has a nostrum for all mankind, and to say to all and singular, ' Swallow my opinions and you shall be whole.' " A little further on in life, while in the heyday of her unbelief, she wrote to Miss Hennel that she should like to work out a paper "on the superiority of the consolations of philosophy to those of so-called religion." Still later she distrusted this substitute, and shrank from all attempts to unsettle the religious beliefs of men. In a letter to Madame Bodichou, in 1862, she said: Pray don't ever ask me again not to rob a man of his religious belief, as if you thought my mind tended to such robbery. I have too profound a conviction of the efficacy that lies in all sincere faith to have any negative propagandism in me. In fact, I have very little sympathy with Free-thinkers as a class, and have lost all interest in mere antagonism to religious doctrines. In the last part of her life The Imitation of Christ was one of her favorite books, read and re-read, and the Bible was a part of her daily reading. Section 5.— From the Poverty of Skepticism to the "Wealth of Christianity. These distinct recognitions of the fundamental ethical ideas of Christianity are establishing it more and more firmly, and no skep ticism, no change of institutions, no revolution, nothing developed by philosophy, from Descartes to Spencer and Hartmann, can change the eternal fact inherent in man's nature of utter dependence upon God for spiritual repose and consolation. Thus is Christianity being continually vindicated on some new basis, according to the changing phases of knowledge, and more impregnably established in candid minds. Some of the more courageous skeptics have attempted to push their theories to ultimate practical results, in order to show that their systems are capable of meeting the deeper needs of humanity. But their efforts have only led to constrained or implied confessions. INSUFFICIENCY OF MATERIALISM. 663 A writer in the Westminster Review for October, 1872, set for him self the task of estimating the capacity of the current materialistic philosophy to console and elevate human life. Its incentives and comforts to cultivated minds were portrayed with feeble, vanishing touches ; the necessities of the common heart of humanity were overlooked, and the article closed with seemingly conscious dissatis faction. On any purely materialistic basis, life loses its noblest aims and ideals, self-sacrifice its significance and impulse, and virtue becomes an empty, unreal thing. None more than materialists believe in " the order of things," but they shrink from carrying their theories to practical results. Thus reduced, the theories of Schopenhauer and Hartmann would eclipse the universe. Their direct sociological bearings, so deterio rating and destructive in practical life, have disclosed to many minds their true character. Dr. Strauss, as we have seen, lived to see the unsatisfactory character of his theories, as evident from his " Ein Bekenntniss " (A Confession), though his recantation was only par tial. Thoreau, a beautiful writer and an ardent worshiper of Nature, in one of his peculiar moods, complained of the failure of his pan theistic worship to satisfy the deepest needs of his consciousness, and expressed the sadness of his inner life in these plaintive lines ; Amid such boundless wealth without, I only still am poor within ; The birds have sung their summer out, But still my spring does not begin. With characteristic frankness, Mr. O. B. Frothingham, one of the most cultured leaders in " Free Religious " doubt, said of the system he had championed : The new faith cannot compete with the old, in what are commonly called " benev olent enterprises." It would not, probably, if it were as rich and capable as the old faith is. Not because the Radicals are stingy, as has been over and again asserted, but because they cannot accept the principle on which these exercises are conducted, and no other principle is yet in working order. No original work is yet possible. . . . The new methods of charity — reasonable, scientific, practical — have not yet been devised. . . . The new faith will exhibit its charity when it finds an object which makes to it a commanding appeal.* A little later Mr. Frothingham terminated his labors in New York city, " deliberately announcing his dissatisfaction with his own teachings, whether in himself or in others." \ * A discourse on the " Living Faith." New York city, 1871. t New York Evening Post, 1879. 666 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Full of significance are also these lines of Matthew Arnold : The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating to the breath Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another ! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain ; And we are here, as on a darkling plain, Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorance armies close by night." Professor Youmans, eminent as a scientific evolutionist, recently said, that while there were $54,000,000 invested in churches in New York city : If there is a scientific society in New York that owns a roof or shelter we do not know of it. Religious people every-where are pouring out their money in behalf of all manner of religious enterprises, in quantities that are without prece dent, and that, we take it, is very solid proof, in this money-grabbing age, of the reality of their faith and the intensity of their enthusiasm. The churches include within their ranks the large majority of the best classes of citizens ; and their teachings are accepted by thinkers who do not " advance " with evolutionists, but who have quite as much learning, quite as high intellectual capacity, and quite as much skill in determining the respective values of the new doctrines. The religion that the advanced thinkers turn over to the antiquary is the mainstay and bulwark of our civilization ; it is the one great force that stems the tide of demoralizing and disintegrating influences that threaten social order, and it is the sole guarantee that mankind has of progress, elevation and liberty in this world, to say nothing of the promise it makes of better and higher things in the impenetrable hereafter. Frederick Harrison, who has ranked as a distinguished disciple of Comte, has shown the inadequacy of the agnosticism of Herbert Spencer as a religion: " In the hour of pain, danger and death," says Mr. Harrison, " can any one think of the Unknowable, hope any thing of the Unknowable, or find any conso lation therein ? . . . A mother wrung with agony for the loss of her child, or the wife crushed by the death of her children's father, or the helpless and the oppressed, the poor and the needy, men, women and children, in sorrow, doubt and want, long ing for something to comfort them and to guide them — something to believe in, to hope for, to love and to worship — they come to our philosopher, and they say, ' Your men of science have routed our priests and have silenced our old teachers. CHRISTIANITY COMPELS RESPECT. 667 What religious faith do you give us in its place?' And the philosopher replies (.his full heart bleeding for them), and he says, ' Think ofthe Unknowable ! ' The same objection is open to Comte's religion of Humanity. It is no consolation in the hour of death to think of the Impersonal Humanity." Section 6— From Defiant Discourtesy to a Patron izing Respect. Another converging tendency is a manifest change in the dress, form and spirit of modern skepticism, showing the modifying influ ence of Christianity. The defiant spirit of the Diderots and the Paines has almost wholly disappeared. What naturalist now spec ulates like D'Holback? What historian discourses likeVolney? And what metaphysician dogmatizes like Helvetius? Infidelity has greatly accommodated itself to Christian phraseology ; has accepted, in the form of half truths, fundamentals of the Christian system which a century ago were scouted, and has become more rational and religious in its manner. However deceptive its attitude in these accommodated forms, the fact itself is a substantial conces sion in favor of Christianity and of the need of its faith. " Infi delity can now deny a personal God, and at the same time, as by a double consciousness, breathe out the devotional language of the Bible in ' spurious religiosity.' It adorns itself with religious sen timents, and with ' words which belong by right to faith alone.' It talks of prayer, permeates literature with a self-conscious devout- ness, breathes heavenly aspirations, wails languidly over the evils of the world, talks wonderfully of the All-Father, and even sings David's psalms." * What a peculiar power is this in Christianity, that even " its deadly foes and traducers borrow its speech and trade upon its cap ital. This borrowing and wearing in public view the insignia of the divine kingdom obscures somewhat the distinction between the body of faith and the body of unbelief, renders Christianity less conspicuous by reason of her very triumphs, and, forsooth, perils somewhat her hold upon undiscriminating minds." + But it is her glory that, as a living power, she has so wrought upon her great enemy as, by constraint, to change it so far into her own image. The solid central truths of Christianity have compelled these things. While these changes have been going on, the aggregate of skeptical gain has been nothing. Not a single great concession has been made by Christianity to unbelief; but "the life of Jesus is still * The Light : Is it Waning ? Boston, 1879. t Ibid. 668 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. majestic and divine — the insoluble enigma to the cold critic, but attractive and comprehensible to the humble believer." " It would take a good octavo to contain merely the titles of the works thst the last forty years have produced in favor ofthe divine foundations of Christianity. The war has been carried into the enemy's camp, and the leading skeptical writers are more busied just now with defending their own ground than with advances upon the Church." * Nor have these converging tendencies been wholly from with out the fold of Christianity. From within the fold of " orthodoxy " there have been movements which have been bringing Protestantism nearer the center and core of truth. Section 7.— From Scholastic to Vital Truth. It must be confessed that Christian truth has formerly been too much in bondage to arbitrary systems and dialectical forms, com promising its purity, and investing it with qualities which do not belong to the truth " as it is in Jesus." A liberating and purging process has been greatly needed, delivering it from human construc tions which have been only misconstructions, and presenting it in those purer and simpler forms in which it was originally presented by the Great Teacher and the apostles. This purification of theology, under the modifying influence of modern culture and the increasing spirituality in the churches, has sometimes been mistaken for disin tegration and decay. But the changes have chiefly related to out ward expression, not to central truths; while some things once mag^ nified are now minified, and others once in the background have been brought to the front. A rehabilitating and restating process has been going on, not only in theology, but in medicine, in states manship, in political economy, in education, in general science, and as we have noticed, even in skepticism. While there has been such great progress in all departments of knowledge, in philology, in biblical interpretation, it would be positively discreditable to the churches not to make restatements of Christian doctrine. That they have done so is to their credit. And how greatly has theology been sweetened and made attrac tive and helpful, by discarding the old repellent features of Cal vinism. The phrases, " The American Theology," " The Theology of our Age and Country," occasionally appearing among us, imply some- * Rev. Bishop John F. Hurst, D.D. GROWTH OF VITAL RELIGION. 669 thing peculiar in the religious thought of the United States. It cannot have escaped the notice of wide observers, that there is apparent in the current religious ideas of American Christians, what maybe denominated a concensus of opinions upon the more practical and experimental views of Christianity, in strking contrast with the concensus of religious opinions one hundred and fifty years ago. Then it was Calvinistic, now it is of a decidedly Arminian type. It would not be possible in less than a volume to trace the processes by which this transition has been effected ; but so prominent a phase of religious thought must not be wholly omitted. About a dozen years ago an eminent theologian,* in accounting for this transition, said, " It was born in a powerful revival of religion toward the mid dle of the last century. It may be dated from the profound and devout speculations of the pure and venerable Jonathan Edwards and his successors, who manfully grappled with the problems of Christian metaphysics." To this he added that, " more recent importations of vast stores of European learning, etc., have also contributed." This is all true so far as it goes. Edwards had a line of suc cessors — Bellamy, Smalley, Backus, Hopkins, Burton, Emmons, etc., under whom Calvinism of the 'olden time was gradually modified in the old Puritan churches ; but the doctrinal revulsion from Calvinism was manifold. With some it was a revolt from Christianity to infi delity; with others, from "orthodoxy," as evangelical theology was styled, to Unitarianism, Universalism, etc., already sketched in this volume, f and falsely called in the last century "Arminianism," but strictly Pelagianism; and with others still the broadest and deepest revulsion led to Methodist Arminianism. There can be no true history of American theological thought without the recognition of the Arminian revolution which has largely eliminated the Augustinian theology, and which is of permanent historical interest, because it has been attended with a general resus citation of spiritual life and activity, and because it seems destined to give permanent character to American religious thought. As for the Edwardean metaphysics, they have been gradually outgrown and widely repudiated, and the Edwardean "awakening" was local and temporary. The latter had disastrously reacted before Arminian Methodism reached America and began its work, which has lasted and grown until the present time. Whitefield, though a Calvinist, was not a theologian, and labored only to revive the life of the churches. The Arminian Methodist preachers followed closely in * Dr. Philip Schaff, in an Inaugural Address. t See chapter on " Diverse Currents." 670 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. his tracks, revolutionizing the religious thought, and the condition of the country, from Maine to Georgia. The Calvinistic reaction commenced before the introduction of Methodism — a sporadic revolt, personal and local, from the " horribile decretum " — with tendencies to radically opposite and dangerous heresies, which were stigmatized as "Arminianism " — distorting and caricaturing the purely evangelical system of the great Dutch the ologian — a mistake exposed at a later period by Rev. Professor Moses Stuart, D.D. Meanwhile the Arminian banner was successfully carried forward all over the land, in a series of moral and spiritual triumphs and transformations, effectually leavening American Prot estantism. Calvin's Institutes are now seldom accepted as a the ological standard. The religious sentiment of the country recog nizes Calvinism as effete, notwithstanding the occasional ratification of the Westminster Catechism, while the Edwardean fatalism has been the refuge of infidelity — Buckle, Mill, and the Materialists fortifying themselves with it. An eminent Congregational authority* said : There has been a prolonged controversy, commencing with Edwards in the middle of the last century, and ending a century later with the accepted distinction between the " Theology of the Intellect and the Theology of the Feelings." Edwards, in his Treatise on the Will, established the faith that there is a Divine government which plans and controls all events, securing in the realm of moral beings the certainty of results without natural necessity — a certainty not inconsistent with freedom. He, as a theologian, discriminated between general justice and retribu tive justice, showing how the former may be sustained while the latter is waived. Samuel Hopkins, born about a score of years later, developed the idea of respon sibility as pertaining to character, rather than to our nature, in the strict sense of the word. Then followed two men ot opposite extremes — Burton and Emmons — each having his disciples. Asa Burton, as leader in the advocacy of the "Taste Scheme," made his the ology accord with the poetry of Watts : " So, on a tree divinely fair, Grew the forbidden food ; Our mother took the poison there, And tainted all her blood." Nathaniel Emmons, denying not only the moral character of passive states, but also the permanency of any individual choice, sought to limit responsibility to a succession of exercises. Then followed the Old School and the New School war, led by Dr. Taylor, of New Haven, and Dr. Tyler, of East Windsor, more recently of Hartford. * Rev. Christopher Cushing, D.D., Editor of the Congregational Quarterly, in the issue of October, 1876. LIBERTY RESULTING FROM CONTROVERSY. 671 Dr. Cushing also says : Our controversy with the Unitarians served to fix the limitations of our thought as to the Divine nature. We are now careful to state that we do not use the word " Person " in its relation to the Trinity in its ordinary sense, but rather in a tech nical sense — not as synonymous with being, but rather to indicate a distinction which the Scriptures reveal but which they do not analytically explain. We avoid the use of language which would suggest a belief in three Gods, or expose us to the charge of believing that one is three and three are one. While rejecting the Sabel lian idea of a modal Trinity, a Trinity of mere manifestation, inadequate to explain the representations of Scripture, we accept the triune nature of the Godhead as a revealed fact, without attempting to decide whether the Trinity pertains to the sub stance or only to the attributes of the Infinite Being whom we worship as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Careful lest we seem to know too much, we accept the scriptural teachings as a matter of faith. The foregoing controversies were all of the gravest character, involving the most eminent talents and engrossing attention to a remarkable degree through many decades. These great " doctrinal crises," says Dr. Cushing, " have been attended with incidental evils, but on the whole they have resulted in great good, giving definiteness and distinctness to our views." As the result of our controversies we have gained the largest liberty. With these philosophical differences the oneness of our faith remains. We believe in a Divine Governor, revealed as a Triune Being ; that he controls all events and that he sustains his law by infinite sanctions ; that man, while possessed of amiable natural virtues, is yet by nature entirely sinful, and as such is exposed to the pen alty of the Divine law ; that through the vicarious sufferings and death of Christ man has the offer of pardon, and that the Holy Spirit is sent into the world to renew and sanctify the soul ; that if man resists the Spirit and rejects the Saviour he seals his own doom, and if he yields and believes he makes his eternal salvation sure. Call these doctrines Calvinistic, Edwardean, Scriptural, or what you please, they are the doctrines of our denomination, and they are in some respects dis tinctive. ... From all the doctrinal contests through which we have passed we have come out with a liberalized faith, but with the faith of the fathers still, the faith once delivered to the saints. It is not the minimum of truth which is essential to salvation, but that glorious system of truths which, in its consistency and coherence, is as resplendent as the great white throne. From various causes restatements of doctrine have been numer ous, all indicating progress in thought, but showing a tenacious adherence to the old vital centers of truth. The doctrine of atone ment is still firmly held by the body of evangelical Protestantism as vicarious and substitutional, though no longer preached as a ran som of war or a commercial equivalent ; and Christ is now seldom portrayed as a culprit " shrinking under the bolts of his Father's 672 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. personal wrath," and " sinking to the misery of the damned." Lit eral fire and brimstone as the final portion of lost souls is now gen erally discarded, although held by restorationists and evangelicals alike until within the present century* The doctrine of the Trinity no longer savors of Tritheism. The six creative periods are now interpreted by only a few scholars as six literal days. The theory of literal verbal inspiration has few advocates, the best divines hav ing adopted the dynamic view. Very considerable modifications in the principles and methods of biblical interpretation have taken place, opening more natural and satisfactory views of the Divine Word. These are a few of the more noticeable changes. With these modifications, however, the central thought in each doctrine is retained. Take the great working doctrines of Chris tianity, strip off the husks, and state them in their simplest forms : there is a personal Deity ; God is the supreme Sovereign of the universe ; he is a Being of infinite perfections ; he is the ultimate source of life ; a mysterious Threeness, so distinct as to justify the use of three different names and personal pronouns, is united in the oneness of the Godhead ; the Bible is the divinely inspired book ; it is so inspired as to be the authoritative rule of faith and practice ; the soul is immaterial and immortal ; man is a moral being and accountable to God ; he is so depraved and weak that he cannot save himself and must have a Divine Saviour ; he must be spirit ually changed in order to rise into harmony with holiness; whatever education or culture may do, the Holy Spirit is the efficient agent in effecting this change ; supreme Deity was embodied in the person Christ Jesus ; the death and resurrection of Christ is the sole basis of pardon and ground of hope for sinners; the effects of faith in Christ are the love of God shed abroad in the heart and a new life ; Christ will personally come the second time ; he will raise the dead ; there will be a day of future general judgment and a state of fixed ness of character, involving endless retribution and reward in the future world. These vital centers of the doctrines of Chris tianity are held, with little dissent, by all the denominations of evan gelical Protestantism. The exceptions are rare as compared with the whole number, and there is no prospect of much change in these essential elements. Christianity is losing nothing of its inherent original self — only that which human imperfection, subtlety and folly have attached to it, trammeling and falsifying it. These modifications and restatements have invested it with greater power. *See Discourses on the Prophecies. By Rev. Elhanan Winchester. 1800. Vol. II, pp. 86, 13 1, 132. THE SWEEP OF THE PENDULUM. 673 Section 8.— Vibratory Movements. In all these discussions we should not overlook what Professor Austin Phelps, D.D., has denominated the "vibratory progress in religious beliefs." He says : The world's advances in great ideas commonly imitate the movement of a pend ulum. Conquest of a great principle is rarely made, and held fast in its healthy and balanced mean, till the human mind has swung forth and back between its cor relative extremes. Often successive vibrations occur before the popular faith grav itates to the exact truth and rests there. Indeed, exact truth, rounded with astro nomical precision, without an excrescence or a bulge anywhere, is never realized in popular thought on a subject vital to the world's progress. Approximations to the perfect crystal globe are all that our mental laboratory achieves. This vibratory phenomenon has been amply illustrated in the history of religious beliefs. . . . In some things the extreme begets an extreme. Luther and his compeers swung loose from some-truths. An iconoclastic faith is rarely an eclectic and well-balanced faith. The destructive force is not commonly the rebuilding force. In the vision of St. John the angels who were commissioned to devastate sea and land did that, and nothing else. They bore in their hands nothing but the golden vials of the wrath of God. Moral revolutions tend to the same insulation of service. The men who pull down are not the men who build up, and with the evil some good is left in ruins. After speaking of the remarkable religious and missionary activ ities ofthe age, he mentions some adverse tendencies : Do not the signs of our times indicate that this busy, mercurial style of Chris tian activity needs to be weighted with more consolidated thinking? Central doc trines of our faith seem to be jostled out of place underneath. Though not sunk out of sight, they lie inert and loose. They can support none but a rickety super structure. The structure we are building leans out of plumb, like the tower of Pisa. It is not their fault, but their misfortune, rather, that our laity, on whom we rely for leadership in Christian enterprise, no longer hold the independent convic tions which their fathers had, the fruit of their own theological reading and reflec tions. Said one of them at a juncture of affairs at which his official position called for an opinion of a doctrine in theology, "The clergy must take care of that; I go with the majority." Did he not represent the attitude of multitudes of intelligent and earnest laymen ? Yet in the present drift of the age what other attitude can they hold ? We all need the constructive and tonic influences of solitude. So much solitude, so much character. We specially need a new infusion of theological thinking among the leaders of our laity. We need a class of laymen who will take time to think out for themselves the fundamentals of the faith they profess. Few they might be in numbers, but an unconscious aristocracy in power over popular thought. Without some such auxiliaries to the clergy to steady the popular faith, we may by and by find our churches quaking in secret at phantoms of doubt which they dare not speak of, and yet cannot get rid of. This is the peril of a " missionary age," which is that and nothing more. Worse relapses follow most splendid advances. Does not the pendulum now need the touch of an unseen Hand.? 43 674 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. But we need not quake or croak with pessimistic fears. The tower of Pisa leans a long while without toppling over. While the Church remains in her form ative age, the look of her condition will be that of transitionary movement. Much of her vitality will go to rectifying abuses, repressing inordinate tastes and re-ad justing mistaken or exaggerated belief. Opinion will traverse wide spaces from extreme to extreme. The movement will often resemble the ponderous swing o the pendulum of an astronomical clock of huge dimensions. Her character will seem to consist of tendencies rather than of fixed qualities and consolidated prin ciples. t These tendencies will be variable, now to one extreme, then to its antipodes. The popular faith may never appear to repose securely at the one spot at which lies the exact and balanced truth. Yet such a look of things should quicken the courage of thinking men. It is cheering to know that no extreme has the inheritance of longevity. Error does not belong to a long-lived species. It carries in its bosom a momentum toward decay. Its doom is to die in the process of the popular recoil to its opposite. Every transi tion from end to end may bring popular thought under a more potent magnetism from absolute truth. Truth, pure and simple, is the resultant of intemperate advances and indignant rebounds. Only by such oscillatory progress does the pop ular mind seem able to achieve final and complete mastery of great ideas. Resume". Instead of inferring, as some have done, that the aforementioned modifications indicate an alarming decay of faith, we conclude that faith has extended her empire in the realm of the highest thought. Some lights have flickered and others have gone out, but vastly more lamps have been lighted where they never burned before. While shedding the worn-out garments of technical expression the Christian standards have advanced. Faith in humanity, in God, in Christ's supreme Deity, and in the doctrinal and ethical system of Christianity, is increasing. Rightly interpreted, the phenomena we have considered mean that Christian ideas have so grown and developed that the old forms and terminology are no longer ade quate to express them. It is one of the most hopeful indications of the times that, under the progress of philological study and bib- lie tl interpretation, the "true light is more fully breaking out of God's word," and that the rays of truth, no longer refracted by prisms of human dialectics, are converging in beauteous, self-authen ticating forms — the best vindication of eternal Wisdom. Cx PI i^ Fi /TV SHOWING THE RATIO OP OHXJK.OH ^ooom:m:ox>jlTIon To the Population over 10 years of age. With th*? proportion of such church accommodation furnished by each ofthe largest four denominations within each State, and by each of the largest eight denominations within the United States. Compiled from the Social Statistics of the United States BY FRANCIS A. WALKER. Nona. — The Interior squares represent the proportion of the population which ia provided for by the aggregate sittings tn churches of all denominations. The blank interval between tbe inner and outer squares represents the population for which no church accommodation is provided. Where the aggregate church accommodation equate or exceeds the population over 10 years of age tbe blank interval disappears* THE UNITED STATES Methodist Baptist Presbyterian Roman Catholic Congregational Episcopal Lutheran Christian Dutch Reformed Universalist Mormon All other Denomi nations ALABAMA ARKANSAS CALIFORNIA CONNECTICUT DELAWARE FLORIDA GEORGIA ILLINOIS INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY LOUISIANA MAINE MARYLAND MASSACHUSETTS MICHIGAN MINNESOTA MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI NEBRASKA NEVADA NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY NEW YORK NORTH CAROLINA OHIO OREGON PENNSYLVANIA RHODE ISLAND SOUTH CAROLINA TENNESSEE TEXAS VERMONT VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WISCONSIN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA N-WEST TERRITORIES S-WEST TERRITORIES L.B.Folger Sc.Cln. DIVISIONS IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 673 CHAPTER V. LIFE IN THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES. Sec. i. Organic Relations, j Sec. 3. Revivals. 2. Lay Activity. ] " 4. Spirituality. Section 1.— Organic Relations. DURING this period the schisms, so numerous in the previous period, were few, and a number of denominations effected substantial reunions under the growing spirit of true catholicity. These will soon be noticed. A few schisms first demand attention. In 1858 the New School Presbyterian Church experienced a defection of its Southern adherents. Owing to a dissatisfaction with the action of the Assembly on the slavery question, the pre vious year, the complaining parties withdrew, and organized what was called the "United Synod," at Knoxville, Tenn., April 2, 1858. It consisted of 100 ministers and about 200 churches, widely scat tered over the Southern States. This Synod preserved its organ ization until August 24, 1864, when it was merged into the General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church, organized in 1861. The last division in the American churches, occasioned by the question of slavery, was effected in the Old School Presbyterian Church. The character of this agitation has been already set forth, and the immediate causes of the separation were not unlike those already described in other schisms of this class. Neither the anti- slavery sentiment of the Northern members nor the pro-slavery sentiment of the Southern members could be satisfied with any utterances which could be adopted by the General Assembly. Mutual alienations were rapidly accomplishing their work, prepar ing the way for an open rupture. In this condition the civil war came on. Dr. Gillett says : A very considerable portion of the strength of the Presbyterian Church was within the limits of those States which, in i86r, seced-rl from the Federal Union ; and upon the Assembly of that year the long deferred question of slavery pressed with the weight of an avalanche. The General Assembly could not evade 676 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the issue. It might, indee.l, decline to recognize loyalty to an established govern ment as a Christian virtue, but if it did so, its course would be repudiated by the great mass of its Northern constituents. No longer blinded by zeal to maintain its Southern alliance — the prospects and advantages of the continuance of which were more than questionable — the Assembly vindicated its loyalty, and manifested its repugnance to a rebellion initiated in the interests of slavery, by appropriate resolutions, which were passed by a vote of 156 yeas to 66 nays. The result of this action was the secession of the Southern churches and presbyteries, almost in a body, and the formation of the Southern General Assem bly. The membership of the residuary portion of the Church was thus greatly reduced, and in 1863, according to the report of that year, the Church numbered only 127 presbyteries and 227,575 members. * This was a decrease, by schism, of 44 presbyteries and 65,352 members since i860. The Reformed Episcopal Church had its origin in New York city, December 2, 1873, in the withdrawal of Rev. George D. Cum mins, D.D., assistant bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Kentucky, from that denomination. Mr. Cummins was elected the first bishop of the new organization. This denomination, under the leadership of broad catholic clergymen, has met with a very friendly recognition by all denominations of Christians, but its growth has been slow. In 1858-9 a small secession took place from the Meth odist Episcopal Church in Western New York, from which The Free Methodist Church was organized. The Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church was formed by the amicable separation of colored members from the Cumbetland Presbyterian Church. In 1872 the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was formed by the peaceful separation of the colored members ofthe Methodist Epis copal Church, South. The movement was planned in a perfectly friendly way by the white portion ofthe Church, believing that the colored people would be happier, and work more effectively, if organ ized by themselves. The Union American Methodist Episcopal Church (Colored) has very recently come into existence, but it has been impossible to collect much information in regard to it. The Bible Christians in two forms — Bryanites and non-Bryan ites, but Methodists in theology — have come into existence here since 1850, an importation from England, where they originated. There are a few bodies called Independent Methodists and Congregational Meth odists, sporadic in origin, Arminian in doctrine, but Congregational in polity, with only slight organic relations, existing chiefly in Balti more and the South. They have come into being since 1850. The Christian Union Churches were organized in 1864, by Rev. * History of the Presbyterian Church. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. Vol. II, p. 569. TENDENCY TO UNITY. 611 J. F. Given, D.D., editor of the Christian Witness, published at Cen- terburg, Ohio. Its local churches are independent in government, but it has a General Council which meets every four years. It recog nizes no creed or discipline but the Bible, and practices all modes of baptism. It now claims about 125,000 members. It exists chiefly in the West. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have been brought here by emigration chiefly since 1850, and have organized churches in Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere, some of them affiliating with Presbyterian and others with Congregational bodies. The Ger man Evangelical Synod of North America (Prussian Union), formed chieflyof German-speaking people, has appeared in this country within the last twenty years, numbering now 65,000 members. The Friends of the Temple (Hoffmann's followers) are a small body recently or ganized among Germans. The Greek Catholics are found in Alaska. The Christians have recently been classified among the evangelical denominations. In 1854 the American Christian Convention passed resolutions on slavery offensive to its Southern members, who withdrew and organized the Southern Christian Convention, Rev. W. B. Wellons, D.D., President. Since the civil war the Northern and Southern Baptist Conven tions have remained separate, the Southern Convention declining at first the fraternal overtures of the Northern Convention ; but of late years the relations have become more friendly. The Southern Convention censured the American Baptist Home Missionary Society for arranging, without consultation with the Southern Baptist Boards, to appoint ministers and missionaries to preach and raise churches within the bounds of the Southern Associations, and the Virginia Associations advised their churches to decline any fel lowship or co-operation with such laborers. A large number of colored Baptist churches in the South separated from the Southern Associations and organized independent associations. The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, separated in 1844 on account of slavery, have remained apart since the close of the war, with at first slight recog nition of each other, but with more friendly relations, and even quite active efforts for reunion, in later years. The Methodist Episcopal Church promptly entered the South, as the field was opened during and since the war, effecting organizations every-where. At the same time the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has grown very rapidly since 1865. Warm fraternal relations now exist between the two great Baptist and the two great Methodist bodies, North and South, and a deep substantial union of hearts is progressing. 678 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Unification. During the latter part of this period a new and very striking tendency has been manifested in many of the religious bodies. The spirit of schism which prevailed in the previous period has almost wholly departed, and Christian believers are rapidly becoming of one heart and mind. The first movement of this kind took place between the Associate Reformed and the Associate Presbyterian churches. After being separated for more than three quarters of a century, in May, 1858, they united upon a common basis, under the name of the United Presbyterian Church of North America. A small number on each side protested against the union. In i860 the new body numbered 4 synods, 43 presbyteries, 447 ministers, 674 congregations, and not far from 60,000 communicants. The Associate Reformed Synod of the South still maintains a separate existence. In 1875 a plan of co-operation with the United Presbyterian Church of North America was adopted, but no steps were taken toward union. It has Erskine College, and a theologi cal school at Due West, S. C. The Associate Synod of North America consists of a body of Presbyterians who refused to enter into union with the Associate Reformed Synod, in 1858, in the formation of the United Presby terian Church of North America. They exist chiefly in Iowa and Indiana. In 1867 a union was effected between several of the smaller Methodist bodies, resulting in the organization of The Methodist Church. About the same time, the subject ofthe reunion of the two lead ing Presbyterian bodies, the Old School and the New School, began to be agitated, ending in a most happy reorganization of the two in one large and prosperous denomination, after thirty years of separation. The question of reunion, after pending several years, was favorably decided in 1869 by the almost unanimous action of the two bodies, and in 1870 the united Church numbered 259 presbyteries, 4,238 ministers, 4,526 churches and 446,561 * commu nicants. The impressive occasion ofthe reunion was thus described : It was a sublime scene when the final ceremony of the occasion occurred, at Pittsburg, on November 12. The two Assemblies met at their respective places in the morning for devotional exercises, and at ldst formally dissolved — thus * This denomination has received a new impulse of growth since the happy reunion, having in 1887, 28 synods, 5,654 ministers, 6,436 churches and 696,767 communicants. GROWTH OF FRATERNAL FEELING. 679 ending, it is to be hoped forev«r, their separate and antagonistic careers. After this act, each Assembly fell into marching order, and moved in procession to the street fronting the First Presbyterian Church, where the Old and New School Commis sioners greeted one another and locked arms amid the grateful shouts of an immense throng of people, the clapping of hands and waving of handkerchiefs. The procession then marched to the Third Presbyterian Church, where a grand union meeting was held". Telegrams flew over the wires to all parts of the country, and to the Presbyterians across the Atlantic. At the meeting the Holy Scriptures were read, prayers were offered, hymns of joy sung, and addresses de livered by leading men — the two moderators of the late respective Assemblies, Drs. Jacobus and Fowler, clasping each other's hands in the name of the reunited churches. Not only chief clergymen, but chief laymen, like Judge Strong, Senator Drake and Hon. William E. Dodge, shared in the addresses. The relative growth of the two bodies during the period of separation will be seen by the following table : OLD SCHOOL. NEW SCHOOL. 1839 1869* 1839 1869 96 1,8231,243 128,043 143 2,740 2,381 258,903 85 1,286I,l8l 100,850 H3 1,6311,848 172,560 Other movements toward reunion have been started between the reunited Presbyterians in the North, the Southern Presbyterian Church, the Reformed churches and several smaller Presbyterian churches. The different branches of Methodism are gravitating slowly, but surely, toward each other, and the great Centennial Con ference at Baltimore, in December, 1884, comprising representatives of the entire Methodist family of churches on the American conti nent, clearly foreshadowed a future possibility. The Free Will Baptists, the Christians, the Congregationalists, etc., exhibit strong tendencies to unite. Among all of these bodies the spirit of fra ternity is improving, and the prospect of organic unity brightens. Not only has there been great progress toward organic unity, but the moral unity of the denominations is becoming clearer and stronger every year. We have noticed, during the first fifty years of this century, twenty-two schisms in the churches of the United States, a few occasioned by departures from evangelical theology, and * Besides the secession ofthe Southern Presbyterian Church in 1861. 680 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. a much larger number caused by disagreements on questions of eccle siastical polity and policy. But since 1850 a new tendency has developed, only a few schisms occurring, all quite small, and caused by questions of policy. One of the most marked indi cations of the times is the coming together of religious bodies in Christian fellowship upon a common platform of organization, or of labor, or both, incalculably increasing the moral unity of Chris tianity. Christians are learning that they are one in the substance of their faith and in the spirit of their endeavors ; that all else is of minor consequence ; and that Christian unity is not so much outward uniformity, or the utterance of the same scholastic statement of faith, or combination in one visible body and under one name, as oneness in spirit. This growing unity is one of the exponent facts of the age, an expression of a deepening charity and growing catholicity, more and more apparent through Protestant Christendom in each decade of the century, effecting a moral, if not an ecclesiastical, unification of Protestantism — a real " communion of saints." The world is learning that the true unity of Christianity is based upon spiritual character, not upon dogmas, ordinances or ecclesiastical forms. America began historically with many colonizing religious sects, having their origin in Europe ; and all through the first half of this century, under the unrestrained operation bf the exercise of the right of private judgment, the disintegrating tendency wrought many divisions, over a score of new churches being brought into existence; but since 1850 we have reached the period of riper and maturer effects — the development of the spirit of unity. This aug ments the power of the Church, for the spirit of unity and concord in vites the world to the recognition of Christ. It was this that led Rev. Dr. J. Dorner, of Berlin, when in this country in 1873, to say that here, " Without laws, without the aid of worldly power (union with the State), Christianity has won for itself a power over souls. The proof is the respectful tone in which the American press speaks of religious matters." Section 2. — Lay Activity. Primitive Christianity infused a spirit of intense activity into the laity of the Church. After ten days of continuous joint services of the apostles and the laity, the morning of the memorable Pente cost found the whole body together, in an expectant attitude, and the three thousand converts of that day were steadfast in doctrine, LAY ACTIVITY. 681 fellowship and service. A layman was the chosen agent in opening the eyes of St. Paul, and pious women were commended by him as "helpers in Christ Jesus." In the course of time, the spirit of ecclesiasticism dominated the Church, denying that the laity may come directly to God, concentrat ing all spiritual functions in an imperious hierarchy, and supplanting spiritual life with imposing forms and elaborate ceremonials. After long, dark centuries, the Reformation broke the power of exclusive ecclesiasticism, and proclaimed anew the apostolic doctrine, every man his own priest. The deliverance was not at once complete. Even in Protestant bodies, the laity remained in partial bondage to ecclesiastical limitations. Immature at first, Protestantism has been a growth, under embarrassments from within and from without, but in each succeeding century the rigid bonds of ecclesiasticism have loosened, and the laity have come into a fuller exercise of their spiritual privileges. The Friends and the Moravians, thrusting out their members into active religious labor, contributed new impulses to this move ment ; but the Wesleyan reformation, calling out all converts in testimony for Christ, and bringing into the field a large number of lay preachers and exhorters, greatly augmented and strengthened it. The new life imparted to the American churches since the great revival of 1800 has brought Christian men and women into still greater prominence in moral and religious enterprises. One hun dred years ago, and, in some sections and churches, until some time after the opening of this century, prayer-meetings were rarely held, and there was little or no exercise of the gifts of the laity in religious meetings. Rev. Dr. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., in his semi-centennial sermon, said, " Meetings for prayer among the brethren of the church had been unknown during the life of its mem bers." The little band of twenty-eight redoubtable champions of " orthodoxy," who left the Old South Church, Boston, to form the Park Street Church, in 1808, met several times for consultation, before one of them had courage to open his mouth in vocal prayer in the midst of his brethren.* Rev. John Fiske, of New Braintree, Mass., in his semi-centennial discourse, said he had been eleven years pastor of that church, before he heard the first word of prayer from any of his members, and that this was not an uncommon fact. Since that time what a change ! The prayer-meeting is now almost universal, and holds a very conspicuous place in religious services. * Park Street Church Memorial Volume. 682 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. City Missions, in a previous chapter, were noticed as one of the agencies which came into being in this country in the first half of this century. In the great revival of 1 830-1 832, under the leadership of Mr. Har lan Page, in New York city, a new interest was awakened in per sonal efforts for the salvation of men, out of which came into opera tion paid and unpaid agencies, " Tract Missionaries," etc., in the large cities. Since 1850 City Missions have received a stronger impulse. Few cities are now without these agencies. The five missionaries of the Boston City Missionary Society, prior to 1850, have been multiplied fivefold. Labors and Results for the Year 1885. Missionaries 25 Visits made by missionaries 57444 Different families visited 13,210 Visits to the sick 7,723 Funerals attended 64 Papers and tracts distributed 204,356 Bibles given to the destitute 485 Testaments given to children and others 956 Persons induced to attend public worship on Sunday 564 Children gathered into Sunday-schools 1,267 Children gathered into public-schools 30 Chapel and neighborhood meetings held 2,196 Persons hopefully converted 68 Persons furnished employment 643 Families afforded pecuniary aid 1,866 Number of times such aid was afforded 8,304 Garments given to the poor 9,289 Temperance pledges obtained 103 In New York city in 1850 a well-devised system of street preach ing was arranged, and carried on for some time. Then followed the Young Men's Christian Association, thrusting out young men in Christian labors. From 1857 onward, noon-day prayer-meetings became common for business men. During. the war these agencies multiplied. In 1866 the New York City Mission Society entered upon a new era of evangelization. City mission documents and papers were circulated, followed by a general advance along the lines of religious activity. Within six years over $300,000 were raised for the general work, and $100,000 more were put into mission chapels. There now exist 118 Protestant missions where Sabbath-schools, preaching, and other religious and moral services are regularly car ried on. About fifty missions are permanently established in THE VOLUME ENTERPRISE. 683 commodious buildings. More than a million and a half of dollars have been invested in mission chapels. The city missionaries regularly employed in New York city are said to exceed 250, whose annual visits have been reported at 800,000. Besides these there are hun dreds of unpaid tract visitors, poor visitors, etc. Results of Fifty-eight Years. Years of missionary labor 1,440 Missionary visits 2,718,302 Tracts in English and other languages distributed 53,676,740 Bibles and Testaments supplied to the destitute 96,014 Books loaned and given 233,222 Children gathered into Sabbath-schools 122,577 Children gathered into day schools 24,679 Persons gathered into Bible classes 17.924 Persons induced to attend church 283,704 Temperance pledges obtained 60,286 Religious meetings held 140,668 Persons restored to church fellowship 3,295 Converts united with evangelical churches 146,892 The total amount expended in fifty-eight years $1,421,088 75 In addition to the above sum, expended in the regular missionary operations of the Society, more than $200,000 has been raised for building chapels and churches. A high authority states that the city missionaries of New York city hold more than one thousand prayer-meetings every week among the neglected classes. These two leading city mission socie ties are given as typical examples of the work going on in all our cities, where Christianity is grappling with the great evils of the world in their densest strongholds, as in no previous century. Colportage. The labors of this agency have been expended among non- worshipers in the older communities and in the sparsely settled dis tricts of the South and West. It originated with the American Tract Society, as a union measure, with no denominational limita tions, and founded no churches. But it has since been employed by some denominations, for the circulation of their literature in connection with religious labor. The salaries have offered no worldly inducements, and the labors performed have involved such sacrifices and trials as only deeply consecrated hearts can endure. Colportage has opened a great field of lay activity, in which many not of the first order of talent or the best educational culture, but earnestly desiring to do good, have accomplished grand results. 684 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. This system of labor commenced in May, 1841. For a few years previous, what was known as the " Volume Enterprise," an opera tion somewhat similar in character, had been carried on, but it did not reach the destitute classes, and tract distribution had been chiefly confined to the large towns and cities. The new movement was a combination of both of these, and the men who were first employed had been providentially * prepared for the new work in the " Volume Enterprise." In 1850 the eleven colporteurs of the American Tract Society, in 1841, had increased to 508. The first German employed in this line of work was Legee Ritty, a converted Roman Catholic. Super intending agencies were established in leading commercial centers, and the colporteurs went from house to house, selling books wherever practicable, supplying gratuitously the poor, holding religious con versation and offering prayer, conducting religious meetings, form ing Sunday-schools, promoting temperance, and reporting their work systematically. A large portion of these colporteurs were pious students fitting for the Gospel ministry. The American Tract Society gives the following summary f of colportage for forty- six years : Time employed, months 67,881 Number of volumes sold 1 2,074,039 Number of volumes granted 3.083,974 Number of public meetings addressed, etc 449,389 Number of families destitute of all religious books except the Bible 1,124,890 Number of Protestant families destitute of the Bible 671,960 Number of families of Roman Catholics visited 1,714,840 Number of Protestant families habitually neglecting evan gelical preaching 1,888,740 Number of families conversed with on personal religion or prayed with 7.55°>°'95 Number of. family visits 13,419,508 * When colportage was introduced there were those who looked upon it with fear and suspicion, sending out, as it did, unordained laymen into the work of laboring for souls. At the " Delibera tive Meeting," held in the Broadway Tabernacle in 1842, when the question of adopting the system of colportage was under discussion, a. preacher who was present took the negative, on the ground that it would be introducing a new, untried, and irresponsible class of laborers, who, with a zeal not according to knowledge, might work great mischief among the people and injure the cause of Christ. An honored pastor of New York city was passing out of the house when the suggestion was made. Waiting till the close of the speech, he returned to the pulpit, opened the Bible, read the reply of Moses to the demand of the impetuous and envious Joshua, that he should forbid the unlicensed Eldad and Medad from prophesying in the camp : "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them ; " and without a word of comment closed the book. That apt reply silenced opposing arguments and gave the sanction of the Holy Scripture to this effort to bring all the followers of Christ into active efforts in his service. \ See Report for 1S87. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS. 683 The Presbyterian Board of Publication has employed colporteurs whose aggregate services in a single year have been equal to 1,329 years. During seventeen years 1,553,958 families were visited, of whom 587,548 were conversed and prayed with. In thirty-one years 1,206,962 volumes and 92,650,709 pages of tracts were given away. The Baptist Publication Board has performed a similar work by its colporteurs. This system illustrates not only the consecration of lay-talent to Christian work, but also the employment of the press as a means of correcting the evils of a corrupt literature. These tracts and volumes, in all modern languages, have been the first means of Christian contact with the throngs of emigrants coming to our shores. Young Men's Christian Associations. These institutions had their origin in a desire to promote the spiritual and temporal good of young men ; to rescue them from the foils of evil, to shield them from temptation, to furnish them Christian society and recreation, to impart intellectual stimulus, and to associate them together for religious fellowship and evangel istic effort. The beginning of these organizations was quiet and unostentatious — a growth from certain temporary and provisional arrangements in behalf of young men in London. In the heart of that city, in the counting-house of George Hitchcock & Co., drapers, was a young man, George Williams, who came into their employ from the tender and loving influences of a Christian home in the country, and felt the need of moral and religious aids to keep him in the midst of temptations incident to his new situation. By the consent of his employers a half hour each day was allowed for any of the clerks to meet in one of the counting-rooms for mutual im provement. After a little while Mr. Hitchcock himself attended their meetings, and the influence for good was so manifest that other establishments were invited to co-operate with them. The promotion of personal piety was the distinct object of these meet ings. On the 6th of June, 1844, young men from several business houses came together at No 72 St. Paul's Church-yard, and re solved to organize themselves into a " Society for Improving the Spiritual Condition of Young Men Engaged in the Drapery and other trades." Mr. Williams was the first president, and subse quently came to be head of the firm in whose rooms the Association originated. To the religious character of this Association its founders soon added the idea of intellectual improvement, and for 686 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. that purpose established libraries and instituted debates. They also inaugurated the Exeter Hall Lectures to Young Men, since famous throughout the world. The Society also instituted Sunday Bible classes, and employed its members in general Sunday-school and Ragged School work. It adopted a regular system of tract dis tribution, and in 1851, the year ofthe first universal Exhibition, its members distributed no less than 352,000 tracts among visitors to the World's Fair, and held 1,550 public and social religious services in the metropolis. On the 13th of December, 185 1, the first Young Men's Christian Association was organized in Montreal, Canada, and on the 1st of the same month the first in the United States was founded in Bos ton. Neither of these two cities knew any thing of the action of the other until both had secured complete organizations. The cir cumstances connected with the movement in Boston were as follows. A young man by the name of George M. Vanderlip (since a director in the Young Men's Christian Association in New York city) sailed from Boston, 185 1, for an extended tour on the Continent of Europe as a correspondent of the Watchman and Reflector. In a visit to the Young Men's Christian Association in London he was impressed with the value of such an institution for America, and wrote an ex tended account of it. Captain T. V. Sullivan, a ship-master, and a member of the Harvard Street Baptist Church, in Boston, while in that port the same year also visited the Association and became interested in its work. On his return home he talked freely of this new institution. The testimonies of these two gentlemen awakened such an interest in the subject that a meeting was called in the Old South Chapel, which resulted in the organization of the Boston Asso ciation. Hon. Francis O. Watts was the first president. He has been followed by Hon. Charles Theodore Russell, Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Edward S. Tobey, Hon. Jacob Sleeper, Russell Sturgis, and others. Similar associations rapidly followed in New York city, Buffalo, Washington, D. C; Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, etc. The first National Convention was held in Buffalo, N. Y., June 7, 1854, thirty-five delegates attending, and a voluntary confederacy was formed, with a central committee and annual conventions. During the civil war these associations were weakened by the loss of the Southern members, and the destruction of some branches in the North by enlistment. After the close of the war they grew rapidly, and the annual conventions became occasions of great interest. Revivals of religion often followed their sessions. Young Men's THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. 687 Christian Associations have been organized on all the continents. They numbered in all the world, in 1867, 966 associations; in 1872, 1,344; in 1884, 2,896.* The membership of the associations in this country is generally larger than in Great Britain, and very much larger than on the Con tinent of Europe, having here taken a stronger hold upon the popular heart. This may be accounted for in part from the differ ence in the social relations of employers and employes in the two hemispheres. In the Old World the employe is directly under the control of the employer, being boarded by him, especially appren tices and minors, whil'e the American employer lets his employe loose at six P. M. to seek such influences as he pleases. Eighty-two associations in the United States and Canada have buildings valued at $3,532,855. Six hundred and eight associations reported their current expenses last year, $687, 587. There are 191 associ ations in colleges and academies. As many as three thousand situations have been found for young men in one year by a single association and from 2,000 to 3,500 hopeful conversions have been reported in one year by the National Executive Committee. The Boston Young Men's Christian Association distributed eleven tons of Dublin Tracts in one year. The Christian Commission. The following summary has been given : The great rebellion, though it threatened the very existence of the confederacy of associations (Young Men's), was really the occasion of marvelously developing its energy and usefulness. The convention had been appointed for St. Louis, in the spring of 1861, but the outbreak of the war prevented its meeting. The com- * Europe. Great Britain and Ireland . . . 515 Austria 7 France 72 Germany 543 Belgium 22 Holland 362 Spain 15 Italy 16 Switzerland 269 Denmark 43 Russia 8 Sweden T9 Hungary 4 European Turkey i Total, Continent 1,381 Asia. India . Japan . Asiatic Turkey . Syria Total . Madagascar. . . South Africa. Total. Asia. Africa. Australia New Zealand Tasmania Sandwich Islands. Oceanica. Total . South America West Indies United States and British America. '9 33 4 3 9-9 688 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. mittee therefore called a convention in New York, in the month of November, to see if the agencies of the Association could not in some way come to the aid of the country in that fearful struggle. The result was the formation of the Christian Commission. All the world knows the history of its labors, which gleam like golden broidery on the ensanguined robe of war, like the silver lining on the somber clouds of fate, irradiating the gleam of battle by glimpses of the heavenly light of love and charity. The agents of this Commission carried at once the bread that perishes and the Bread of Life, and healed the wounds both of the body and the soul. They nursed the sick back to life, and by their hallowed ministrations quick ened in the soul aspirations for that higher life that is undying. The Christian artil lery of the battle field — the coffee- wagon and supply trains of the Commission — suc cored many a wounded warrior whose bruised body the deadly enginery of war had well-nigh crushed to death. These plumeless heroes of Christian chivalry ex hibited a valor as dauntless often as his who led the victorious charge or covered the disastrous retreat. By their gentle ministrations to the stricken and the dying, amid the carnage of the battle field and in the hospitals, they have laid the nation under obligations of gratitude which should never be forgotten. From November. 1861, to May, 1866, this Commission disbursed, both for the benefit of the patriot soldiers of the Union and for the rebel wounded that fell into our hands, the sum of $6,291,107. We employed 4,859 agents,* working without recompense, an ag gregate of 185,652 days. These agents held 136,650 religious services and wrote 92,321 letters for the soldiers. They gave away 1,466,748 Bibles (in whole or in part) 1,370,953 hymn-books, 8,603,434 books or pamphlets, 18,189,863 newspapers and magazines, and 30,368,998 pages of religious tracts. They also greatly assisted in the opreations of the Sanitary Commission, which expended in the same time $4,924,048, making an aggregate, by the two, of $11,215,155, poured out as a free-will offering by a grateful country for the moral and physical welfare of its brave defenders. The world had never before seen such an example of colossal liberality.'' t Woman's Work. During the present period woman's talent has been more largely employed in the churches. In the Protestant Episcopal Church^ thirteen orders of sisterhoods have been instituted, the oldest in 1865, having under their care hospitals, boarding and day schools, infirmaries, houses for the aged, shelter for reputable girls and for babies, dispensaries, work-rooms for ecclesiastical embroidery, orphan asylums, parochial and city missionary work, visitation of prisons, etc. Among the Lutherans are orders of deaconesses. Much similar work, though not elaborately organized, is performed by other denominations. A few years ago, a Methodist Ladies' and Pastors' ¦ Union, with head-quarters in Philadelphia, and auxiliaries in several States, was organized, but it has since been merged into the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. * A very considerable number of whom were laymen. t Methodist Quarterly Review, Oct., 1869. Pp. 592-3. X Church Almanac, 1886. Pp. 29, 30. WORK OF CHRISTIAN WOMEN. 689 Home and Foreign Missionary societies now exist in almost all the denominations, and women constitute more than half of the foreign missionaries of the American churches. Fifty years ago the female voice was heard in religious assembles only among the Friends and the Methodists. From its origin Methodism bade woman speak of Christ, and in a few instances Methodist women have appeared as preachers of the Gospel. The question of woman in the pulpit and the pastorate has awakened much discussion and inquiry, but nature seems to settle the matter, few women inclining to put themselves in these relations. The Young Women's Christian Associations are another depart ment of labor for the Christian women of the nation. The Society of Christian Endeavor, comprising young men and women, the last instituted in this class of lay agencies, and existing almost entirely in the Congregational churches, has come rapidly into favor and become extensively organized. It has reached national proportions and is proving a very potential instrumentality for good. It enlists the members in religious labor, in social meet ings, and personal effort for the salvation of men. Lay Preaching. This subject has recently assumed considerable prominence in some of the churches. The Methodist denomination, almost from the first, has favored it. The first formal and effective organization of lay preaching, as a recognized branch of Christian effort, was developed under John Wesley in an early period of the great relig ious movement which he inaugurated. In Methodism it comprised two classes, exhorters and local preachers, both regularly licensed by specific ecclesiastical authorities, the one only to hold meetings for exhortation and prayer, the other to preach the Gospel. These classes became very useful in England, bringing into exercise new gifts which developed into the regular ministry, and also as the agencies through which religious work was extended and introduced into new localities. It was by local preachers from England (Philip Embury, Robert Strawbridge, and Captain Webb) that Methodism was introduced into America. In all parts of the world where this denomination has extended its activities, organized lay preaching has been a leading feature of its evangelizing movements. Meth odism in the whole world has almost 80,000 local preachers. Other religious bodies have favored something of this kind as a necessity to meet the religious demands of the times. Lay evan- 44 690 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. gelists, under the names of Bible readers, prayer leaders, colporteurs, etc., have been employed in very considerable numbers. In some churches, in which formal official sanction has not been given to lay preaching, earnest Christian laymen, sometimes of high rank and culture, actuated by convictions of duty, have gone forth holding religious services and modestly proclaiming the Word of Life wherever congregations could be gathered. This subject occupied the attention of a large company of lay workers, who assembled in a convention in New York city, Mr. George H. Stuart, of Philadel phia, presiding. Series of " lay sermons " have been delivered in some churches under the direction of the pastor. A Congregational Association in Missouri, in 1873,* after much deliberation, author ized " deacons " to preach, approving their appointment first for local work, and recommending that they be examined by the pastor ofthe church where they belong, and a committee of the District Association, and then ordained for their work. Mr. Dwight L. Moody is the most conspicuous example of lay preaching in modern times. The question, as to how far the laity should be made prominent in the various departments of Christian work, has awakened some discussion. Its voluntary and spontaneous character, springing out of the increasing vital forces of the churches, has enlisted for it much sympathy and respect, leading wise and thoughtful men to consult as to the best methods of adjusting the churches to the new demands. Some have gladly accepted the new movements of lay co-operation in practical religious labors, as a timely and desirable relief for the over-burdened pastorates, while others, more conserva tive, have feared that it may lessen the respect and the demand for an ordained clergy. In the Presbyterian Review,\ Professor Mor ris, of Lake Seminary, in an elaborate article, met this clerical apprehension, contending that the necessity for the Church, the Sabbath, and the clergy, is generic and permanent, and that, there fore, Christian minds will always gravitate toward them by a natural law. In June, 1871, the Interior (Presbyterian) had an editorial on " Lay Preaching," in which it said : That the Church must have some direct share in the evangelization of the world, other than that which it has through the ministers ordained and supported by it, is according to a conviction very generally entertained. It is justly felt that, besides exerting a healthful influence in society in a general way, each believer should be a messenger of salvation to those who have no saving knowledge of Christ. And that local church in which the laity have no impulsion to evangelistic * See New York Observer, May, 1873. \ April, 1871. S UND A Y-SCHOOLS. 69 1 labors is properly regarded as coming very far short of the ideal of a truly Chris tian organization. This current idea is at the bottom of the usage, more in vogue than formerly, of multiplying prayer-meetings, which are conducted largely by the laity, instead, as in former times, of multiplying preaching services. In the Methodist Quarterly Review for January, 1873, Rev. Abel Stevens, LL.D., in an able article on " The Priesthood of the Peo ple," declared that the question — " How can the laity be brought into more effective co-operation with the min istry in the life and work of the Church ? " is one of the greatest practical problems of modern Christianity, It has been discussed in sessions of the Evangelical Alli ance; it was the chief thesis in a convention, gathered from all parts ofthe country, not long since, in New York, and is an incessant topic in our religious journals. Nearly all evangelical denominations seem to be awaking to its urgency. In the New York Convention it assumed, perhaps, a somewhat " radical " form. Its supreme importance renders it desirable that it should be cautiously treated ; but any just treatment of it from the stand-point ofthe Reformers and the Apostolic Church will appear radical, if not heretical, to the confused vision of our times. We cannot fail, however, to perceive at a glance that, if rightly developed, it may become an epochal idea of modern as it was of ancient Church history. Sunday-Schools present one of the most important departments of lay activity. The Church of the nineteenth century has distinctly apprehended the truth that neither theoretical faith nor personal religious expe rience can be safely and symmetrically built upon a foundation of ignorance. To save the Church from an unsightly, abnormal piety, from infidelity, superstition, fetichism and priestly impostures, a broad and wisely directed religious education is necessary. The system of Sunday-schools instituted one hundred years ago, and so widely introduced in the first part of this century, since 1 850 has received great enlargement of scope and a fuller development of power. It has been crystallized into more perfect form and embodies more vital and enduring forces. Changes in the con ditions it is intended to meet may open new avenues and call for new measures, for the work is progressive, and so also must be the institution. The Church and the Sunday-school are both in transitu, advancing toward a grand consummation ; but no feature of the religious record of the present century is more marvelous or more commendable than the Sunday-school work. In the year 1826 the American Sunday-School Union recom mended a uniform system of lessons, but denominational fences were too high to allow its general adoption. Forty-six years of struggle and toil, leveling the mountains and filling the valleys, prepared 692 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. the way, in 1872, for this millennial achievement. A system of inter change of opinions, comparing measures, was necessary. From 1820 to 1832 local Sunday-school conventions were held in New England, and, at the latter date, by the instigation ofthe American Sunday-School Union, a non-denominational convention of two hundred and twenty delegates was held in New York city. Another was held in 1833, in Philadelphia, recommending a system of uniform lessons. The third national convention did not meet until 1859, 'n Philadelphia. Others followed, in Newark, N. J., and in Indian apolis, lnd. The first international convention met in Baltimore, in 1875, followed by others in Atlanta, Ga., in 1878 ; in Toronto, in 1881 ; in Louisville, Ky., in 1884 ; and in Chicago, in 1887. These conventions have aroused enthusiasm, dispelled bigotry, brought Christians into closer affiliation, and shown them how much they have in common. The uniform system of teaching is believed to have been first projected, in 1866, by Rev. John H. Vincent, D.D. The Berean Series followed in 1870, and the International in 1873.* The first. Chautauqua Assembly was organized by Dr. Vincent in 1874, bring ing together teachers and workers for systematic, training, pointing out lines of work and study, and making a large contribution toward a higher popular education. It is the parent of numerous other assemblies, from Fryeburg, Maine, to Monterey, Cal., and from Florida to the Thousand Islands. Tens of thousands of Sunday- school workers have been inspired and instructed, millions of Sunday-school scholars have been touched, and the Sunday-school work of the whole country has been placed upon a higher plane of thoroughness and efficiency by this system of assemblies. Thus a new era of biblical study has been inaugurated, of which Dr. Vin cent is the instaurator and prophet. The Sunday-school has attained its highest development in England and the United States, these two countries aggregating nearly thirteen millions of scholars, or more than four fifths of the entire enrollment of all countries. Continental Christianity has never shown much interest in Sunday-schools, because the Reforma tion of the sixteenth century had nearly expended its force when this new form of evangelism appeared, while insular churches were * A special committee, consisting of Revs. John H. Vincent, D.D., Edward Eggleston, D.D., and B. F. Jacobs, Esq., of Chicago, having been appointed to make arrangements for the Sunday-school Convention to be held in Indianapolis in 1872, met in New York city in 1871 and decided upon a uniform lesson system, and presented it to the Convention, by which it was adopted. This measure has given a vast impulse to Sunday-school literature and work all over the world. DIAGRAM I. 1780 ONE HUNDRED YEARS OP SUNDAY-SCHOOL PROGRESS. 1800 1830 1880 12. 680.267. 1. 115. 360. SUNDAY-SCHOOL STATISTICS. 693 just awakening to new life under the inspiration of the Wesleyan reformation of the eighteenth century. Robert Raikes and his coadjutors did not dream of the possibilities of the germ they planted. The mustard seed has become a tree. Statistics of Sunday-School Scholars. In whole world. In British Isles. In United States. In rest of the world In 1780. . . 1810. . . 300,000 1830... 1,689,693 1,019,693 570,000 100,000 1880. . . 12,680,267 4.615,453 6,949.454 1,115,360 1887... 15,000,000 No such religious force existed one hundred years ago. It is the product almost wholly of the nineteenth century. Section 3.— Revivals. After the subsidence of the Millerite excitement of 1840-1845, many who had implicitly accepted the dogmas of Mr. Miller, and supposed them taught in the Bible, were staggered in confidence, and did not recover so as to become reliable for Christian service ; public confidence outside of the churches was impaired, and much ridicule was cast upon religion. From 1843 to 1%j7 the accessions to the churches were few, in more than, half the years not equal to the depletion by death and discipline. Spiritual movements were slow, heavy and sluggish. Only a few isolated revivals could be cited in these twelve years. In the winter of 1857-8 the tide turned, and a glorious inflow was realized. Seldom since its origin has Christianity achieved equal results. Beginning with the leading city of the Union it extended throughout the land, leaving few cities, towns or villages unvisited. It occurred at a time of great financial distress, in which the worldly hopes of many had been frustrated and men's minds were easily turned to a serious consideration of religious duties. The revival greatly enlarged its scope soon after the opening of the year 1858, but the way had been preparing through several previous months. The beginning was small and humble, and, as in all divine operations, at a point unlooked for by human wisdom. Mr. J. C. Lanphere, a devoted city missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church, in New York city, while pursuing his regular rounds of duty, inquired in spirit, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? " Imme diately it occurred to him that a union prayer-meeting of business 694 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. men, from twelve to one o'clock, midday, would help the cause of religion and introduce its influence into important circles. He accordingly made the arrangements, and announced a meeting to be held in the vestry of the Fulton Street Church, on the 22d of Sep tember, 1857, at twelve o'clock M. It was a new idea — the little fire that kindled a great matter. * Thus began a radical, far-reach ing and substantial movement, one of the most remarkable revivals of a century full of wonders of grace. The " business men's prayer-meetings," " union prayer-meet ings," were adopted elsewhere, in other churches, in New York city, in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Albany, Boston, and in all the cities, towns and villages of the country. The interest became deep and general. Immense numbers professed conversion. The revival was the universal topic. For the first time in history the secular papers published whole pages of revival intelligence, such was the popular demand. No extraordinary agencies were employed. The revival was not carried forward by flaming evangelists. No sermons were preached except at the regular Sunday services. Prayer-meetings and lay efforts were the chief agencies, and the exercises were of the most simple and direct character. It was estimated that in one week 50,000 \ persons professed conversion, and that during the whole revival 300,000 were added to the churches. From 1857 to 1859, 38,000 were added to the Congregational churches, and from November, 1857, to November, 1858, the increase of the Methodist Episcopal Church was 136,036 communicants. The distinctive doctrinal phase of this revival was the unity and the priesthood of believers. After the revival came the exciting year i860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States, and the South revolted from the Union, followed by the terrible civil war. The attention of the people was called from aggressive religious efforts and engrossed with the anxieties and duties of the national struggle. Large numbers of the communicants of the churches, in the North and in the South, called from their homes into the armies, perished in battle or by disease, or were demoralized and lost from the churches, by the deleterious influences of camp-life. Many churches through out the vast region traversed by the contending armies were broken up and destroyed. Numerous ecclesiastical bodies in those regions, unable to hold a session for several years, were seriously disorgan- * See Power of Prayer. By Rev. Dr. Prime, late editor of the New York Oberver. t Repurt on the State of Religion to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, May, 1858. REVIVALS. 69B ized and enfeebled. The Protestant Episcopal Church suffered much, as did also the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, etc. The statistics of that period show a great decline in membership. The territory of the Baltimore and East Baltimore Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church was traversed, retraversed and devastated by the scourge of war. In i860 these Conferences re ported a church membership of 81,155, but in 1865 only 58,762 — a decrease of 22,393 members. From i860 to 1864 the communi cants in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the whole country decreased 66,127. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, lost several hundred thousand. After the war came the demoralizing influences incident to a post bellum period. Gross immorality, crime, luxury, extravagance, reckless pecuniary ventures, intemperance, etc., characterized the period. So alarming became the symptoms that the newspapers often spoke of the " Carnival of Crime." But the war taught some good religious lessons. It was noticed that some rationalistic tend encies were perceptibly restrained ; that a deeper sense of dependence upon God was apparent in the nation, and that there was a clearer recognition of God's providence in the affairs of nations and indi viduals, in minds previously skeptical in regard to such matters. With the return of peace there soon came a new impulse of spiritual life and power in large areas. Revivals of religion became more common than in former decades, and in many individual churches a good average religious interest extended quite uniformly through the year, and year after year, with little variation. On the whole, in a large number of churches, the spirituality has been bet ter sustained than formerly, and piety less spasmodic — one of the hopeful signs of the times. Throughout this entire period, the lay activity of the churches has steadily grown, fostered and sustained by the Young Men's Christian Associations introduced into this country in 185 1, by the peculiar character of the revival measures °f 1857, '58, and by the Christian Commission during the war, all of which have been bringing back into the actual life of the church universal a practical realization of the principle of the priesthood of believers. From 1874 to 1877 there were great revivals under Messrs. Moody, Sankey, Pentecost, etc., in which vast assemblies in the leading cities were powerfully swayed, and large numbers were added to the churches. Considered in respect to the dogmatic aspects, Mr. Moody's revivals were characterized by the doctrine of imputed righteousness, in some hands excessively and unfortunately presented. 696 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Mr. Moody's work was supplemented by the religious temperance reform, under Francis Murphy and the Reform clubs, and by the Woman's Christian Temperance unions — all very powerful agencies and all together widely and deeply affecting the country. As a whole the decade 1870 to 1880 was one of the best spiritually, judged by its results, in the history of American Christianity. The growth was actually and relatively greater than in any other decade — an increase of 3,392,567 communicants in the evangelical churches. In the two previous decades, 1850 to 1870, the increase was 3,143,408 ; and in the first five decad.es of this century, 1800 to 1850, it was 3,165,116. From 1877 to 1882 was a period of some spiritual decline, but since 1883 there has been an improvement, and from 1884 to 1887 the churches have been rapidly advancing. In this last period the most distinctive evangelistic laborer has been Rev. Samuel P. Jones, of Georgia, more recently aided by Rev. Samuel W. Small, of the same State. This work has been conspicuously marked as not only a revival, but also a reformation. Human agency and responsibility have been pungently emphasized, and the ethical phases of the Gospel have had supreme prominence. The dogmatic peculiarity that has characterized this work has been such a vital union with Christ as will develop from within outwardly, not a putative, but a genuine righteousness. Section 4.— Spirituality. As compared with almost the whole of the last century the present shows a great gain in spirituality. Especially during the last thirty-five years, the churches as a whole have exhibited a considerable advance in this vital element of religious life. The Holy Spirit is more intelligently and widely recognized in religious work, as the efficient and necessary dependence of the Church, than in any former period for long centuries. As a consequence there is a deeper awakening of the religious consciousness, a wider expan sion of religious experience, a more joyful and triumphant type of piety, and more enduring, heroic zeal. During the present century, American Christianity has fully attested its deep vitality by its ex traordinary self-organizing power, its local and national societies for home, foreign and city missions, for the publication and distribution of Bibles and tracts, for promoting Sunday-schools, for the benefit of seamen, for the Sabbath and temperance reforms, for the advance ment of education, etc., etc. ; comprising all conceivable forms of UNIVERSAL PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS. 697 benevolence, enlisting an array of workers outnumbering the largest armies of ancient or modern times. The last quarter of a century has witnessed no decline in these agencies, but rather an increase. The progress of pecuniary benev olence also, so much in advance of the first half of the century, and incalculably transcending the previous centuries, both actually and relatively, shows the overmastering power of Christian love in human hearts, the breaking down of selfishness, and a spirit of prac tical sacrifice for the good of others — a crucial test of spiritual gain. The growing expansion and practical working of the principle of the universal priesthood of believers — another sign of increasing spirituality — has been noticed at length. There is, indeed, much superficiality among lay-workers. In the almost infinite number of these way-side laborers it is not strange that some are not profound thinkers, mature saints, or discreet actors. May not the same allega tions be made against the clergy? This improvement in spirituality of which we speak, in the churches as a whole, is not without drawbacks. Some local com munities have suffered religious decline ; some churches have died out ; some are in a condition which occasions anxiety ; cases of moral collapse and ruin have occurred in men of high religious position ; some attempts at reform have proved futile ; some abuses survive the most faithful denunciations ; outbursts of religious enthusiasm have left some individuals and communities almost barren of spirit ual fruitage, and the spirit of worldliness has often dominated churches. All these things and many more exist with mischievous tendencies — imperfections incidental to human agents. Some won der that such things can exist in connection with a divine and holy religion ; others, that imperfect human agents do not exhibit more of these defects ; and others still, that Christianity can endure so much imperfection and still stand and work so powerfully. It is because of its inherent conserving power and its divine vitality. A healthy body throws off large quantities of devitalized matter, resists malaria, heals wounds, and grows strong under heavy strains. There is, doubtless, much " rootless piety," some excessive cul tivation of sentiment, a sensational popularization of sacred things, and " floods of namby-pamby talk ; " but they are slight blemishes on the great mass of true piety, and much less offensive than the whine, the nasal twang, the cant, the rant, the abnormal ecstasy, the jerking, the selfish exclusiveness, the superstition, and the torpid inactivity which characterized much of the piety of other days. 698 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Religion is less sanctimonious, has less of " holy tone," but is not less genuine and worthy of respect — rather more so on that account. There is relatively more " well-noted " piety, more intelligent relig ious affection, more faithful testimony for Christ. The purely voluntary conditions of American Christianity, and the plowing and sowing of the common soil of humanity by the churches in larger areas than ever before, should not be overlooked. Without the steadying or sustaining influence of a hierarchy, or a civil power, in times of fluctuation and decline, and with no overshadow ing formalism throwing its concealing mantle over irregularities, barrenness and defects, we have a type of piety higher in elements of personal godliness than has been furnished in any other age under prelatical or civil dependence. Modifications. The influence of religion is, doubtless, less marked in some por tions of the land than at some former times because it has more fully conquered its position, and the contrast between the Church and the world is less perceptible because Christianity has largely transformed Christendom morally, intellectually and socially ; and, therefore, it does not look so bright on the new background as on the old. Christianity greatly " ha,s softened and shaded the world to her own likeness." The moral change in American society within one hundred years is very great. There is less of physical demonstration and exceptional spas modic fervor; but such phenomena do not measure Christianity. Paroxysms startle attention, but do not indicate moral progress. The mind of Christendom is rising and going forth in good works. Never before was the moral consciousness of the churches so quick ened or their exertions so fruitful. A century and a half ago the outlook for Christianity was dreary enough, its spirituality only a feeble flame, and its aggressive power reduced to a minimum. Since then it has reached the greatest known maximum since the apos tolic age. From that period down to the middle of the last century, if we except some remarkable examples among the Moravians, and short periods among the Puritans and the Presbyterians in Scotland, all in very limited areas, the world has known nothing of such spiritual activities as have been developed on this continent within this century, and chiefly within the last thirty-five years. Piety has come out of the cloisters and gone forth among the masses, in imita tion of " Him who went about doing good." No previous age can parallel in magnitude, in grandeur, in intelligent apprehension, the THE LIVING CHURCH. 699 religious activities of this age. The significance is a deepening religious vitality, a powerful underlying religious force. The in crease of almost twelve millions of communicants in the evangelical churches of the United States in eighty-six years is a convincing crucial test. Words of Wise Caution from an eminent and eloquent thinker, Rev. Professor Austin Phelps, D.D., will be appreciated : Perils are looming up on the not distant horizon which are the natural product of an age of vigilant and inventive expansion. We are lapsing into an unthoughtful style of religious life. The meditative graces seem to be waning. A man is estimated by what he gives rather than by what he is. Wealth is assuming an undue importance in the worth of individuals and of churches. Gold is, morally, as well as by troy weight, a heavy metal. The outlook is ominous when, in any large fraternity of believers, the leaders take their leadership by right of property rather than by right of mind. It is never so in heroic ages. We need to learn by heart Sir William Hamilton's aphorism, " There is nothing great in this world but man, and nothing great in man but mind." From such a condition of things one peril often comes without premonition. It is a break, one or many, in the solidity of that groundwork of belief which must always underlie permanent growth. Great action must be built on great thought. Breadth of expansion must be grounded in profound beliefs. Diffusive force must spring from concentrated character. A man can do only to the limit of what he is. Beyond that all is makeshift. Christ, reigning over a territory hitherto unrivaled in extent ; great benevolences, awakened and sustained by a deeper religious devotion ; rapidly multiplying home, city, and foreign mission sta tions, the outcome of intelligent consecration ; magnificent depart ments of Christian labor, many of them heretofore unknown, and none of them ever before so numerous, so vast, or so restlessly active ; the great heart of the Church pulsating with an unequaled velocity; the fires of evangelism burning with unwonted brightness on multiplied altars ; and a religious literature such as has character ized no other age, eminently practical, intensely fervid and richly evangelical, emanating from her presses ; all conspire to show that more than ever before God has a living Church within the churches, towering amid them all in its mightiness — the strength, the support, the central life of all ; and that an increasing number of true believers are " walking' with him in white," a grand constellation of light and purity — a bright Milky Way from earth to heaven. 700 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VI. EVANGELIZING AND ILLUMINATING AGENCIES. Sec. i. Foreign Missions. " 2. Home Missions. " 3. Progress and Test of Pecuniary Be nevolences. Sec. 4. Religious Publication Agencies. 1. Religious Periodicals. 2. Religious Publication Houses. " 5. Higher Education and the Churches. Section 1.— Foreign Missions. THE present century is pre-eminently "The Missionary Age." For long centuries little distinctively foreign mission work was done, and the territory of Christendom was not much enlarged. But how wonderful the enlargement of the area of Christianity and the number of its converts during this century — one of the brightest periods in the history of God's kingdom. The American Foreign Missionary societies were generated by the quickened spiritual life pervading the churches since the great revival of 1800. In their inception Christian missions were the spontaneous, impulsive action of vital spiritual forces, manifested first in isolated efforts of indi viduals and local churches, before the great national societies were organized. The work has wonderfully expanded, and the " grain of mustard seed " is rapidly growing to a tree of stately proportions. Providence has wrought in friendly co-operation with the expand ing zeal of the churches, and openings for Christian work, never before so grand and inspiring, have been entered in lands only nom inally Christian, and also amid the dense shadows of utter heathen ism, large harvests every-where awaiting the reapers. Notwithstanding the unparalleled demands for Christian labor in our own rapidly-extending domains, in our multiplying hetero geneous populations, the churches of the United States have recognized their obligations to the whole world, and Christian work is every-where a unit. The cosmopolitan character of the United States has given our foreign missionaries favor in the eyes of all nations, and a ready access to lands long closed to Christ and his Church. The magnificent continents of Asia and Africa and the WOMEN IN FOREIGN MISSION WORK. 701 teeming islands of the Pacific have been penetrated on all sides, and the missions of American churches now dot the map of the world. Only condensed summaries of the work of these societies can be here given. Women's Foreign Missionary Societies. From the beginning ofthe foreign missionary movements Chris tian women have shared in the toils and perils of the work. A carefully-prepared table of missionary statistics in the Missionary Herald of October, 1870, shows that the number of female mission ary "helpers," American and European, in the employ of the vari ous missionary societies of the world was 2,267 — only thirty-seven less than the number of male missionaries. From 1823 to 1872 the number of female assistants annually employed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions has ranged from 65 to 205, while the male missionaries sent out, ordained and unor dained, ranged from 81 to 184. The statistics of other societies also show that Christian women have borne a prominent part in the labors and triumphs of the missionary cause. Mount Holyoke Female Seminary claims among her graduates 150 foreign mission aries, and Wellesley College, a much younger institution, claims 21 missionaries. It has been long apparent that one of the greatest hinderances of Christian missions in many pagan lands, particularly in Asia, has been the rigid customs of society, restricting and depressing women, so that few female converts have thus far been won to Christianity, and these at great sacrifices. Pagan women, until quite recently, have remained almost wholly unreached and unblest. Gradually the conviction gained ground that efforts specifically in their behalf must be put forth, and that female missionary societies, organized for the purpose of sending Christian women into the foreign fields, would be promotive of good results. This rising conviction culminated in the organization ofthe "Woman's Union Missionary Society," in New York city, in January, 1861. As its name indicates, this organization was com posed of ladies from various religious bodies. It has zealously and successfully prosecuted its work. Its receipts from the beginning have amounted to $779,552. The next in order was the " Woman's Board of Missions " (Congregational), which was organized October 27, 1868, and was followed immediately by the "Woman's Board of Missions for the Interior," another Congregational Society, at Chicago, on the 7th of November, 1868. These two societies have 702 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. been multiplied until more than twenty foreign missionary societies of ladies now exist in the churches of the United States, as follows : FROM REPORTS FOR 1885. 1 aa0 "o c «.2« a 'fi < -v ca pa rtc 0 1 ¦Sjg £ * OJ " 5 § OOO CO 'p. D 0, 186118681868 1873l86g1S78 187918701870187218701877 1870 1871 52 120 5° 3>67°1,406 102 1,327 1,506 102 489294 1,189i,363 369 469 5«9 141 97 =5 5*4 20 1,213 "3 259528327 4998 43 4 5916 2 124 61 7 34 '4 27 "98 35 78 20Q 58 2,88l 225 6 1 102 48 15 62 203 21 1 152 98 3 47 5.772 522 47 53 57 107 log'47 1,6 i 1879 18811875 1871 1873 9 190 43 193 49 7 1875 3°3454302 86 S329 6 2 9 20 5 11 175 1870 15,866 3.454 578 785 1,142 15.165 Total Receipts of Women's Foreign Missionary Boards. Woman's Union Congregational, East Congregational, West Methodist Episcopal Presbyterian, Philadelphia Presbyterian, NewYork city. . . . Presbyterian, North-west, Presbyterian, Albany and Troy. Baptist, East Baptist, West Protestant Episcopal Reformed (Dutch) Church.... United Brethren Methodist Episcopal, South. . . . 1861 1868 1868 186918701870187018721870187118711875 1875 1878 $119,827 20,495 $473,221 688,134 169,364 505,246567,394 166,194 207,560 45.341 281,100 104,841 67,27835-309 15,000 20,319 $246,687 841,781 276,446 1,066,338 692,765 208,771371,005 55,i65 378,753160,191115,005119,613 69,755 232,144 $1,026,239 1,550,410 450,903 1,661,5851,250,165 374,966 578,565 100,506 659,863 244,031182,283 154,972 84,755 252,463 Total . 140,322 $3,436,361 $4,834,419 ,571,706 Note. — There are about a dozen other woman's boards very recently organized, a statement of whose receipts we have been unable to obtain. Most of the above receipts are included in those of the various denominational boards, but not all. * In a few instances the receipts are limited at 1885, and in a few others 1887 are included, FOREIGN MISSIONS OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 70S Eight and a half millions of dollars raised by the women's boards for foreign missions in the brief period of their organization is a most encouraging fact. An exhibit of the foreign missionary work of all the churches is a desideratum ; and it will be given in such a way that the inquirer may easily ascertain what our churches are doing on each continent and in each country. Foreign Missions of the Evangelical Churches of the United States. (Almost wholly from reports for 1887.) EUROPE. Stations. Laborers. C U rt bi §0 E S E § 0 "> O c ^ "0 1-sRc/3•5 S •3 — rt .- 0 gw COUNTRIES. s .£ rt0 if) FOREIGN MISSION ARIES. NATIVE HELPERS. 0 .3'rt 0 H DENOMINATIONAL G '56 T3.5-a O rt_ft BOARDS. 1 5 1I I 22 4 II 101 I 4 1 1 111 2 1 1 22 2g 2 4 1 J3 62 8 3 12 101 10 I - 10 12 158 1,081 89 31 1.2432,300 109 800 59 A. B. C. F. M. Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. 4 6 4 11 = 5 Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. 3 4 16 23 Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. Disciples. Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. 4 9 4 13 Disciples.Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. Evangelical Association. 829 24 68 21 1 18,710 5,0108,831 638 17 7 141 1,081 3 306 4,396 211 9,7*9 602 418 100 14,00731,064 5.296 8,489 202483 600 78 205181 1 1 40 5912 8 5° 4S log 12 Methodist Episcopal Ch. United Brethren. 1 Southern Presbyterian. 13 2 Protestant Episcopal. 1 8 23 14 37*5 234 10 2 85 460 2431 4 25 Am, Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. Italy 2 121 3 20 40 2 65 3 '5 7° Methodist Episcopal Ch. Southern Presbyterian. Southern Baptist Con. 27 42 Methodist Episcopal Ch. Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. 71 2 2 9 33 4 I | :6 4Sj 3329 2 6l 8 Seventh-Day Adventist. 6 1 58 24 3 138 A. B. C. F. M. Am. Bapt. Miss'n y Un. Methodist Episcopal Ch. Am. Bapt. Miss'n'y Un. 14 Methodist Episcopal Ch. Evangelical Association. 2 10 1 Seventh-Day Adventist. Turkey in Europe 16 3 5 30 4 A. B. C. F. M, 203 2,125 4i 34 245 396 i,=73 H5042 1,123 NOTE.— All the above missions credited to the American Baptist Missionary Union are supported, as they have been for some years, in part by that board. All of the above missions receive pecuniary aid from the churches of the United States. Some European divines object to the classification of the above missions among our " Foreign " Missions ; but they are evangelizing movements originated and fostered by churches in the United States, among papal and lapsed rationalistic populations not reached by the Euro pean churches. 704 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. ASIA. Stations. COUNTRIES. Laborers. foreignMISSION ARIES. CTj P. 1-1 ~ NATIVE HELPERS. O o ex, DENOMINATIONAL BOARDS. Western Asia. Western Turkey Central Turkey Eastern Turkey Persia Syria Syria Syria and Turkey Asia Minor Total India, Burmah, Siam etc. Burmah Assam Siam India Telugus Maratha Madura Arcot, Ami, etc North India South India. Repalli, G untur, etc Rajahmundey, etc Orissa, etc Orissa, etc Hurdar and Bilaspur. . . . Sialcot Gurdaspur, etc Roorkee, etc Bisrampore, East Indie-- Ceylon Total China. Hong Kong Foochow Shause North China Bangkok, etc. Canton, Peking, etc Foochow, etc Central China North China West China Shanghai Shanghai, etc Shanghai, Suchow, etc.. Amoy. . ._ Shanghai... Canton, Shanghai, etc. . . Canton, Shanghai, etc... Shanghai Total Thibet Korea Korea I TO 40 II7 5 !3 3T4 86 240 83 47 32 7 206l I50 51 36 36 l6 DENOMINATIONAL T3 QJ *MO >.a3 i—l . -J n a. ft BOARDS. Japan. Kiota, Kiha, etc. Niigota, North Japan... . Yokohama, Tokio, etc.. Yokohama, Tokio, etc.. 4 i 55222 I I I IIIII 50 5 17 45 4 4832 33 1 2 18 2 7 1912 69 33 1 I 2 I 39 2 132457 22 20 99 4 51 120 9759 262? 11 2e2 3,465 104 529 2,204 2,178 252837 146 275 82 300 50 175 242 56 471 I42 132 44 A. B. C. F. M. A. B. C. F. M. 36 13 2871 15 Baptist Missionary Un. Methodist Episcopal Ch. Presbyterian Church. Protestant Episcopal Ch. Reformed (Dutch) Ch. Nagasaki, Yokohama, etc. Nagasaki, Yokohama,etc. "7 48 1 5 4 12 Evangelical Association. Cumberland Presbyter'n. Tokio 2 Tokio 5 3 1 9 35 Total 29 237 210 2,606 89 533 173 843 5" 632 155 5,479 538 7,^90 10,597 120,890 1,087 100,560 Total Asia AFRICA. West Africa. 3 51 11 13 1 2263 4 3 1111 7 7 1 55 58 38 7 8 2 3 4484 I IO 8 54° 2,656 657 Protestant Episcopal Ch. 1 1 2 27 57 Methodist Episcopal Ch. Baptist Missionary Un. 43 3 87 284 122 i57 Ev. Luth. Gennl Synod. Presbyterian Church. United Brethren. West Central Africa. 5 55 17 2 9 4 20 4 6 it 10 38 16 50 34 16 5 10 134 6 2 277 149 257 33 1,184 90 138 20 126284 A. B. C. F. M. Lagos, Abbeokuta, etc.. . 7 Baptist Missionary Un. Southern Baptist. Methodist Episcopal. Gaboon, Corsica, etc 523 18 10 3 16 688 1,544 50 685 43i 100 688 Presbyterian Church. United Brethren. 23 1 Bapt. For. Con. Colored, East Central Africa. 4 4 112 A. B. C. F. M. South Africa. Moravians. Free Methodist Church. 12 17 80 255 1 41 10 10 6 Friends. 17 20 7 43 9 232 119 218 20 2,256 866 2,042 3t5oo 2,029 i»443 5,2°3 5.600 Friends. A. B. C F. M. Egypt Un. Pres. Ch. of N. A. Friends, Total Africa 138 81 57 788 15,426 16,920 POLYNESIA. I 3 1 33 1 7 T 66 126 4,98.55.741 10,852 2,500 Seventh-Day Adventist. 13 11 35 A. B. C. F. M. A. B. C. F. M. 5 33 8 13 11 35 67 2,500 * Here inserted because the direct fruitage of missions. 45 706 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. NORTH AMERICA. COUNTRIES, ETC. Greenland Labrador Total North American In dians. * Delaw's, Cherokees, etc. Alaska Senecas, Dakotas j Chippewas, etc f Alaska I lnd. Ter., Santee, etc. ( Nebraska, Dakota N.Y., Mich., Montana ( Wis., Wash. Ter., etc. f Indian Territory Indian Territory In Eleven Tribes 1 ndian Territory Indian Territory Warm Springs, Oregon. Indian Territory, etc... Yankton, Santee \ Green Bay, etc f Total Indians.. . . Chinese in California and Oregon. * Total Chinese inAmerica Mexico. Northern Mexico Western Mexico Mexico, Pueblo, etc. . . Southern and Northern Border Central Saltillo, Rio de Grande etc Tampico, etc Hidalgo, Pueblo, etc. . . Total Mexico Central America.! Guatemala Moskito Court Total Stations. 9 5324 no 77 Laborers. foreign mission aries. a ft 169 NATIVE HELPERS. rt ft "5 60 8378 5650 17 181 83 13 139107 43 43 56 484 rt 3 go6-2 449 450 i,5t9 348 1,8 134 8,4171,74 4,7"3 926 76 650990 23,226 24 150 48 286 375 4=64 1,4374.3*4 1,573 !,77+ 34035o 220 I5I 3,490 364 376 ¦,958 6S5 «75422 697 779 1,274 :,T92 620 140 5i9 175 600 30 379 26 545 DENOMINATIONAL BOARDS. Moravians.Moravians. Moravians. Moravians.Pres. General Assembly. Pres. Home Mission B'd. A. F. M. Association. Methodist Episcopal Ch. Methodist Episcopal Ch. Meth. Epis'l. Ch., South. Southern Presbyterian. Southern Baptist Con. Northern Bap't H. Mis. U. Pres. Ch. of N. A. Friends. Cumberland Pres. Ch. Protestant Epis'l Ch. U. Pres. Ch. ofN. A. Methodist Episcopal Ch. United Brethren. Presbyterian Church. American Mis.Associa'n. Protestant Epis'l Ch. Reformed Pres. Cov'ter. Baptist Home Mis. B'd. Baptist Home Mis. B'd. A. B. C. F. M. A. B. C. F. M. Methodist Episcopal Ch. Presbyterian Church. Meth. Epis'l Ch., South. Meth. Epis'l Ch., South. Southern Presbyterian. Southern Baptist Con. Cumberland Presby'n. Friends.Asso'ate Ref d Syn., S. Protestant Epis'l Ch. Presbyterian Church. Moravians. * Among pagan population in our own country. t Among population originally pagan or papal. FOREIGN MISSIONS OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 707 NORTH AMERICA— Continued. Stations. Laborers. 1 .S S .2 ¦ n U P •= J3 sUE s E-2O w u T3 ttJ2 O ra u Am .s.s""-3u Ph COUNTRIES. "G Oh c .2 i 3 FOREIGN'MISSION ARIES. NATIVE HELPERS. u0rt0 DENOMINATIONAL -0 c 6 IO 26 I 6198 - i rt" ft X) .5*rt "20 « a BOARDS. West Indies. * Hayti 2 I I7 14 47 5551 6 858 373 734 22 15,851 251 750 15° 11,613 * Protestant Epis'l Ch. African Meth. Epis. Ch. Friends. Moravians. Hayti 52 I 29 9 3 768 East and West W. I Total West Indies. n 61 7 30 780 960 16,980 12,764 Total N. America. 181 823 447 253 168 i,4i9 2,472 56,629 26,214 SOUTH AMERICA. Brazil. 1 9 2 1 4 3 2 1 1 1 2 1 r5 3 37 1.895 217 175 208 = 37 898 449 2566 293 8,324 518 I48 80 125 80 1,204 260 59 180 T.943 Seventh-Day Adventist. Presbyterian Church. M. E. Church, South. Southern Baptist, Southern Presbyterian. Southern Presbyterian. Methodist Episcopal Ch. Presbyterian Church. Reformed (German) Ch. Presbyterian Church. 684 12 8 22 3 1 2 18 10 4 51 6 29 4 60 1114 7 7 117 29 1 33 5 4 15 Argentine Republic. Chili 48 IO 6 Chili Guiana. 2 66 3 2 5 25 367 IO 27 433 Total South America 28 84 100 37 IS 454 715 12,724 4*547 RECAPITULATION. COUNTRIES. Europe Asia Africa North America. South America. Polynesia Aggregate Stations. 709 LO 2,125 2,606 255823 8433 5.926 FOREIGN MISSION ARIES. 1267 tt O. ffi I26l NATIVE HELPERS. 1128 396 5,479 788 1,419 454 35 8,571 t,273 7,690i,i~ 2,469 7'5 67 3.398 g c E 2 o "< U "5,542120,890 15.42656,62912,724 10,852 332,063 P-g ^123 100,560 l6,C)20 26,214 4,597 2,500 15**9*4 Note. — The varied methods of tabulating the different classes of laborers, and also of reporting stations andout-stationsby the various missionary boards, make it impossible to combine the data with entire satis faction. Some ofthe smaller boards do not report these items clearly. But the above may be accepted as a close approximation to accurate results. The Moravian missions given in this table are not supported exclusively by the Moravian churches of the United States, but they so largely participate in the missions as to require recognition in the table. The Indians and Chinese in America, though not in foreign lands, are nevertheless legitimate subjects of foreign mission work, being pagans. * Among population originally pagan or papal. Receipts of the Foreign Missionary Societies of the United States from the Origin of Each.* American Board C. F. M American Baptist Missionaiy Union Methodist Episcopal Protestant Episcopal Presbyterian Board || Southern Baptist American Foreign Church Union (chiefly foreign) § Reformed Church (Dutch) with A. B. C. F. M. until 1857 Evangelical Lutheran Tf Evangelical Association United Biethren United Presbyterian Southern Presbyterian Reformed Presbyterian Disciples Free-will Baptist Methodist Episcopal, South (partly estimated) to 1819. 5162,430 43,78o Total $206,210 $745,718 $2,885,839 $5,087,922 1820 to 1829. $664,247 81,471 1830 to 1839. $1,684,751 591,230 I95,4°3 227,816 186,639 1840 to 1849. $2,550,277 769,265 330,213309,026784,750 65,886 246,505 20,000 12,000 IS50 to 1859. $3,140,811 1,061,608 785,357 559,435 1,772,873 276,263 608,424 41,111 35,000 30,00044,402 ,427,284 1S60 10 1869. $4,519,112 1,429,1491,505,550 709,200 2,372,552 238,365 829,164568,424 80,000 62,000 161,101 400, 331 54,767 512,929,715 1870 to i88o.f $5,243,137 2,753.977 3,773,887 1,270,731 4,885,241 404,428 518,613 701,576 165,000 145,000 345,i5o609,298 483,174 92,732 33,177 9)21,425,121 l88l to 18874 $4,488,112 2,327,239 2,756,251 916,246 4,744,533 472,411 129,625 413,290257,0 85,000 200,000616,610 498,570 93,000 185,565 126,000 719,439 $19,028,980 Total: 1810 to 18S7. $22,452,877 9°57,7ig9,346,661 3,992.454 14,746,588 1,457,353 2,404,331 1,724,401 557,o8g 334,000 750,653 1,626,239I,033,5H i"85,732 218,742466,362 2,719,439 $73,074,151 Note. — Add to the above $2,501,707, received by Woman's Foreign Missionary Societies, known not to have been included in the receipts of the parent boards, and we have a total of $75,575,858. There are also some smaller boards which are not included, because the data cannot be obtained. Complete returns from 1881 to 1887 would make about twenty-one millions, or an average of three millions annually. * In a few cases the earlier receipts have not been ascertained. t This period comprises eleven years. X Several are for 1 881 to 1886. 1 For many years the New School Presbyterians contributed to the American Board of Christian Foreign Missions, but not since 1870. § Formerly more largely foreign than of late years. If Estimated by a leading official of that denomination. Since 1880 the figures include other Lutheran bodies. o CO s < I Co 2 FOREIGN MISSIONS OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 709 Foreign Missions of the Churches of the United States. Comparative Table. MISSIONS, ETC. Missions Ordained Missionaries ) Foreign and National \ " Lay Laborers Total Laborers Communicants Scholars in Day and Boarding Schools. 1850.* 77 438S29 1,267 47,266 29,210 129 1,792 4,167 5,959 205.132 65,825 1887. 175 2395 9,832 13,398 332,060 151,914 Comparative View of Receipts. Total average yearly receipts in each decade, 1810-1819. " " " 1820-1829. " " " 1830-1839. 1 840-1 849. " " " 1850-1859. " " " 1860-1869, " " 1870-1880. 1881-1887. Total receipts of all the foreign missionary societies of the United States, from. . . . 1810-1887. . 1 2, t3 $20,621 74,571 288,583 508,792 842,728 ,307,412 200,000 000,000 t75,544,9°4 From the foregoing tables it appears that the number of foreign missions supported by the churches of the United States have increased in the last 37 years, 1850-1887, as follows: Number of missions, from 77 to 175, or more than twofold. Number of ordained missionaries, from 438 to 2,395, or over fivefold . Number of lay helpers, from 829 to 9,832, or twelvefold. Number of laborers, from 1,267 to 13,398, or over tenfold. Number of communicants, from 47,466 to 332,063, or sevenfold. Number of day-school scholars, from 29,210 to 151,914, or fivefold. In the six years, 1880 to 1886, the mission communicants have increased 126,931, or 60 percent.; the mission day-school scholars increased 86,189, or 130 per cent.; the total laborers increased 7,391, or 124 per cent. The average yearly receipts since 1880 have increased about one million dollars over the average for the previous decade, and they are nearly seven times as large as the average from 1840 to 1850. *For tables from which these columns are derived see Problem of Religious Progress. By the author of this volume. Phillips & Hunt. New York city. 1881. Pp. 5S0-5S2. t Adding what some of the women's boards and other boards receive, which are not included in the totals in the tables. 710 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Section 2-Eonie Missions. The unparalleled increase of the population since 1790 has created extraordinary demands upon the Christian activity and liberality of the American churches. With an average yearly gain many times larger than that of any European country, new villages and cities springing up as by magic, and the inhabitants spreading out over an immense territorial area, it has been incumbent upon the churches to furnish these new communities with the facilities for religious watchcare and instruction. Large masses of ignorant and unevangelized people from other lands — Papists and Rationalists from Europe, and heathen from Asia — have crowded to our shores, and the utmost diligence and labor have been required to preserve the land from misrule and moral ruin. The moral and religious necessities of the country, therefore, have been very great. How have they been met ? The great revivals of religion extending throughout the land at the opening of the nineteenth century, and followed by successive waves of spiritual impulse in the subsequent decades, prepared the churches of the United States to appreciate the necessities of the situation, and inspired them with the requisite spirit of self-sacrifice. In a previous chapter the organization of numerous home mission ary societies was noticed, as one of the immediate fruits of the new revival age. As the years have passed they have multiplied and increased in efficiency, and thousands of localities have felt their blessed influence. In reviewing the century, we cannot fail to rec ognize the profound significance of those movements of Providence which prepared the way in the American churches by which the nation has been religiously permeated and strengthened, and been able to bear so well the severe strain which has come upon it, from the large exotic and heterogeneous masses that have been absorbed in its population. The close of the late civil war devolved upon the American churches new duties to a large class of the population, which had before been almost wholly excluded from their efforts. The freed men of the South became the beneficiaries of their sympathy. -In emancipating the slaves, the nation assumed the relation of guardian to the emancipated, involving the obligation to provide for and protect them. In this important relation their physical wants were to be cared for, their civil and personal rights protected, and the means of intellectual improvement afforded. This work was first committed to the Freedmen's Bureau — a provisional measure organ- WORK AMONG THE FREEDMEN. 71 1 ized by the United States Government, which subserved a valuable but temporary purpose. In the suspension of its functions, the churches of Christ recognized a providential call too obvious and imperative to be unheeded, summoning them to supplement its work with higher and more spiritual agencies. All the leading denomi nations entered zealously into this work, organizing societies or boards through which their benefactions were collected and appropriated. It was at first supposed by many that the colored population of the South, paralyzed by the terrible sufferings of the war, would be considerably diminished in numbers. But the Census has dispelled this illusion, showing an increase from 4,441,750 in i860 to 4,895,264 in 1870, and 6,578,151 in 1880— a remarkable gain. A race which could increase so rapidly during the terrible scourge of the civil war and the severe hardships following it, so far from being destined to an easy extinction, must rather be regarded as entitled to high con sideration, and to the most intelligent and generous provision for its pressing needs. These few facts shed floods of light upon the im portance and urgency ofthe educational work among the freedmen. The full record of these labors would fill many pages with the most significant statistics and evidences of astonishing results. The toils and triumphs of the American Home Missionary societies are without a parallel in ancient or modern times. They are here pre sented in brief summaries, for the glory of God and the encourage ment of his Church. Work of American Home Missionary Societies. home missionary boards— American Home Mission Society. . . Presbyterian Board 11 " Southern " ** Cumberland.... u " Reformed " " United Methodist Episcopal Church Domestic Mission Methodist Episcopal Church Domestic Mission — South American Missionary Association. . Protestant Methodist* Wesleyan Methodist* Free Methodist* Two African Method't Epis. Churches* Colored Methodist* Baptist Home Missionary Society " kk " Southern 43 0-£ ZS •2 CV. 2 5w 1.447i,43S 18s 16 2,508 413 117 702 185 2,990 +2,113 500 16 ™5 +2,537 +700 124 1,628 426 HOME MISSIONARY BOARDS- Baptist — u Free-Will* " Seventh-Day* , Protestestant Episcopal Church American Church Missionary Society Lutheran Board Disciples Young Men's Christian Association. ., American Bible Society ** Tract Society Seamen's Friend Society American Sunday-School Union Reformed (Dutch) Church " ('German) ¦" Evangelical Association * United Brethren * Total 8,482 13,367 £S5 492 4097 359190 40 .2 cy 11 3< E££ t55° 126 121 +270t92C *3- * All do a large amount of Domestic Mission work, but no exact data tabulated. T Approximate number, the exact number not being given in reports. X Number of associations reporting. 712 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The following partial summaries of the Home Missionary and Colportage work, full of instructive significance, will be pondered with pleasure and profit : RELIGIOUS visits. By missionaries of the Baptist Home Missionary Society in forty-five years (1840-1885) 2,367,151 By agents or colporteurs of Baptist Publication Society in sixty-one years (1824-1885) 890,574 By colporleurs of American Tract Society in forty-five years (1841— '85) 13,148,659 By colporteurs of American Bible Society in nineteen years (1866-1885) 12,291,460 By colporteurs of Presbyterian Board of Publication (1855-1885) 2,879,589 Total visits 3I-577.433 PRAYER-MEETINGS HELD. By missionaries of Baptist Home Missionary Society in forty-five years (1840-1885) 520,051 By colporteurs of the Baptist Board of Publication in thirty-one years (1854-1885) 70,788 By colporteurs of the American Tract Society in 44 years (1841-1885). 439,247 Total by agents of three boards 1,030,086 ADDITIONS TO CHURCHES BY PROFESSION OF FAITH. By missionaries of American Home Missionary Society in fifty-nine years (1826-1885) 326,862 By missionaries of Presbyterian Home Mission Board in fifteen years (1870-1885) ' 115.304 By missionaries of A. B. H. M. Society in fifty-three years (1832-1885). 97,919 Total additions by agents of three boards 545,106 YEARS OF LABOR PERFORMED. By missionaries of American Home Missionary Society in fifty-nine years 38,81 1 By missionaries of Baptist H. M. Society in fifty-three years (incomplete). 7,357 By missionaries of Presbyterian Board of Home Missions in fifteen years. 1 3,95 1 By colporteurs of Presbyterian Board of Publication in thirty-five years. 1,329 By agents and colporteurs of Baptist Board of Publication in forty-five years (incomplete) 1,029 By colporteurs of American Tract Society in forty-nine years 5,55° Total by agents of six boards 67,327 These are only partial exhibits of the spiritual activities and benevolence of the American churches during the century. If the full statistics could be gathered they would thrill and amaze us. What we have here gathered are highly significant, and indicate religious activities of incalculable proportions, almost wholly un known until within the last eighty-five years. They are unmistaka ble evidences of the deep spiritual vitality of the modern churches and their ardent aggressive force. CO Receipts of the Home Missionary Societies of the United States from the Origin of Each.* 2 I'-o Societies. Presbyterian, Old School Board " New School " American Home Missionary Society Methodist Episcopal Domestic Protestant " " American Church Missionary Society Reformed Church (Dutch) American Baptist Home Mission Seamen's Friend Society \ American Missionary Association \ Evangelical Association § United Brethren §, Southern Baptist Domestic Young Men's Christian Associations | . . . . Disciples United Presbyterian Church Southern Presbyterian Board Cumberland Presbyterian (last 9 years). . . Free-Will Baptist Meth. E. Church, South (estimated) Lutherans Freedmen's Aid Societies:^ Methodist Episcopal Presbyterian United Presbyterian Aggregate. $105 6563 643 173 010 $233,826 1830 to 1839. $860,599 724,231 390,806 108,184 31,661 134,534 94,697 1840 to 1,107 660 320 64 243 172 51 482 852 426 613297 444 12S112 000 .2,342,712 $3,062,354 1850 to $1,012,281 612,658 1,746,9631,576,714 463,204 139,490 441,762 254,914 421,249 120,000 88,804 266,356 908,000 27,714 8,080,109 ^1,190,657 1,178,0171,975,878 3,OII,IOO 754,507 453,097 202,534 1,149,161 430,766 1,829,624 24S.OOO 322,201 495,020 7,384,218 84,410 186,801 117,728 1870 to 1880.T t$4.3i4,327 3,H9,5842,907.6351,827,724 517.690 308,516 2,330,585 689,796 3,743,"3 580,000693,291258,279 6,773,082 650,078 369,661 457,633 209,287 **8g3,9i8 ^503,671 i. +-124,284 $21,015,719 $31,272,154 $3,666,186 2,847,2102,505,848 1,187,904 133,158 217,143 2,256,656 378,234 3,257,567 630,616494,225 455,399 7,850,000 410,500 296,890495,788 184-734103,900 1,061,495 221,905951,403 703-356 176.556 $27,556,673 1820 to 1887. 513,334,850 11,586,89111,164.539 4,762,136 1,103,945 963,642 6,556.1422,020,5359.302,665 1,626,616 1,598,521 1,601,256 22,165,000 1,372,702 853,352 1,076,149 394,021373.827 4,o6l,495 747,835 1,845,3121,207,037 300,840 $100,019,308 NOTE. — The above is by no means a full exhibit. The Reformed Presbyterians, the Reformed German, the Moravian, the Protestant, Free Wesleyan and African Methodist churches, the Disciples, the Christians, the Adventists, and, in short, all denominations do much home missionary work which cannot be tabulated in any form. * The earliest receipts of some boards cannot be ascertained. + United in 1869. X Chiefly domestic. § Estimated by a leading official. 1 Including Christian Commission. H The Freedmen's work of most Churches is included with the Domestic Mission work. ** For thirteen years. tt For eleven years. XX For fourteen years. 714 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Comparative View of Receipts. Total average yearly receipts in each decade : Inclusive. Inclusive. 1820 to 1829 $23,382 i860 to 1869 $2,101,571 1830" 1839 234,271 1870" 1880 2,842,923 1840 " 1849 306,235 l88l " 1887 4,000,000* 1850 " 1859 8o8,OIO Total receipts of all the Home Missionary Boards as per pre ceding table, $100,019,308. Section 3.— Progress and Test of Pecuniary Benevolences. It is not possible to make a full and complete exhibit of the prog ress of the pecuniary benevolences of the American churches. The necessary data have never been tabulated and probably could not now be collected, but we know enough to assure us that there have been great advances — triumphs of Christian love over the natural selfishness of the human heart — one of the crucial tests of real religious progress. Eor can we now appreciate the stern conflicts with covetousness encountered by the founders of the foreign and home missionary societies in the first half of this century. How low was the standard of giving, and how few the number of the givers ! The story of the penuriousness in those days seems almost incredible. Dr. Harris's magnificent prize essay on " Mammon," published in 1836, opened the eyes of many in regard to giving, and led the van of a large number of books, sermons and tracts on systematic beneficence, which have exerted a powerful influence for good. But the battle has not been fully fought. The receipts of the foreign and home missionary societies which we have tabulated in the preceding pages will help us to judge of the progress which has been made. Total Average Yearly Receipts. Foreign Missions.* Home Missions.t Total. 1850 $675,000 $557,123 $1,232,123 i860 1,075,070 1,450,479 2,525,549 1870 I,753,7o6 2,472,246 4,225,952 1880 2,600,000 3,389,845 5,989,845 1886 3,000,000 4,000,000 7,000,000 * Exactly $3,936,667, but some figures which could not be obtained would make the amount fully four millions. t As given in preceding tables in this chapter. There is, however, very much money expended for domestic mission work, for city missions, etc., which is not tabulated or included above. CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 7 IS Actual Increase. Foreign Missions. Home Missions. Total. 1850 to i860 $400,070 $983,356 1,293,426 i860 to 1870 678,636 1,021,767 1,700,403 1870 to 1880 846,294 917,604 1,763,893 Relative Increase. Foreign Missions. Home Missions. Total. 1850 to i860 59 per cent. 160 per cent. 105 per cent. i860 to 1870 63 per cent. 70 per cent. 67 per cent. 1870 to 1880 48 per cent. 37 per cent. 41 per cent. We look with much satisfaction upon these amounts raised for these two great benevolences, so far transcending any thing of the kind ever before raised for such purposes. The increase of the offerings for foreign missions in thirty years was about four-fold and for home missions about six-fold. Since 1880 the annual receipts for foreign missions have reached about $3,000,000, and for home missions, $4,000,000, making a total of $7,000,000, against $6,000,000 in 1880. But when we come to compare these figures with the member ship of the evangelical churches raising the above amounts, and also the wealth they represent, we see no occasion for boasting, but rather for humiliation. Let us, then, look at two pro rata tests. The Membership Test. Average paid for foreign and home Inhabitants missions for each Members. per member. member. 1850 3,529,988 6.57 35 cents. i860 5.240,554 6.00 48 " 1870 ¦ 6,673.396 5.78 63 " 1880 10,065,963 5 .00 59J " 1886 12,132,000* .... 57lT5" That our gifts for foreign and home missions in the last thirty- six years have ranged from thirty-five to sixty-three cents for each communicant is certainly not very gratifying. Many have given munificent sums, but multitudes of communicants have given nothing, or only a few dimes, and those spasmodically. The average has been shamefully small. The total wealth of the United States has been officially re ported as follows : The Wealth Test. 1850 $7,135,780,228 1870 $30,068,518,507 i860 16,159,616,068 1880 43,642,000,000 * Approximate number. 716 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. What share of the above wealth is held by the members of the evangelical churches represented in the afore-mentioned missionary boards ? I have submitted this inquiry to many thoughtful persons, and they all agree that it should be estimated at their pro rata share numerically. For instance, if the communicants of these churches in 1880 were one fifth of the whole population of the country their wealth may be safely estimated at one fifth of the total wealth. This would be a moderate estimate ; probably it is too low. Dividing by the afore-mentioned figures, 6.57 in 1850, 6. in i860, 5.78 in 1870 and 5. in 1880 would give an estimate ofthe wealth of these churches in these different years, which cannot be regarded as excessive, as follows : Total Pro Rata Wealth of the Evangelical Churches. 1850 $1,084,593,490 1870 $5,202,164,274 i860 2,693,269,344 1880 8,728,500,000 Figuring on this basis how infinitesimal do our offerings for foreign and home missions appear ! The evangelical Christians of the United States gave for foreign and home missions, in 1850, one mill and one tenth ($0.0011) on a dollar of their aggregate wealth; in i860, nine tenths of a mill ($0.0009); in 1870, eight tenths of a mill ($0.0008); in 1880, six and one half tenths of a mill ($0.00065). The total amounts raised for these causes increased from $1,232,123 in 1850, to $5,989,845 in 1880, or nearly five-fold — an interesting and impressive increase ; but it does not keep pace with the immense increase of the wealth of the churches, which has advanced a little over eight and one half fold. Even if these offer ings had increased as much relatively as the aggregate wealth, and $10,500,000 had been raised for foreign and home missions, it would have been only at the rate of one mill and one tenth on a dollar of the wealth in the hands of these churches. While God is providentially opening the world for the Gospel as never before, while he is pouring into the lap of his Church pecu niary resources as never before, and while, as never before, the Holy Spirit is prompting devoted young Christians in our colleges and seminaries to cry, " Here am I, send me " into the field — making a clear case of large opportunities and great possibilities — neverthe less, with all the great advances in the aggregates of our benevo lent contributions, we are relatively dwindling, criminally falling short of our high calling. Style, and luxury, and accumulations have increased manifold more than the benevolent offerings; their exac- THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. Ill tions have been allowed by Christian people, and relatively only paltry pittances have been doled out, to advance the glorious king dom of Him — the rightful owner of every penny and every rood of our possessions, and of every possibility of our being. When will the churches appreciate the rare opportunities of these times, live less selfishly, and take a larger share in the great work of evangelization ? Section 4.— Religions Publication Agencies. The press has become one of the most potent factors in modern progress. To what an extent has evangelical Christianity recog nized this agency and employed it in its service? The answer to this inquiry divides itself into two parts — periodical literature and volume publication. i. Religious Periodicals. An able writer has said : Among the elements which determine the characteristics of a people no branch of social statistics occupies a more important place than that which exhibits the numbers, variety and difference of newspapers and other periodicals. Composing as they do a part of the reading of all, they furnish nearly the whole of the reading which the greater number, whether from inclination or necessity, permit them selves to enjoy ; and it was in virtue of this fact that the most philosophical of British statesmen signalized "newspaper circulations" as a more important instrument of the popular intelligence than was generally imagined in his day. The writers of these papers, he added, "are indeed, for the greater part, either unknown or in contempt, but they are like a battery in which the stroke of any one ball produces no effect, but the amount of continued repetition is decisive. Let us only suffer any person to tell his story morning and evening but for a twelvemonth and he will become our master." And if such was the idea of Burke respecting the influence of the public press it is equally true that the quality and dissemination of its fugitive sheets may be said to stand as an exponent at once of the intelligence and domestic economy of our people. It was in this view that Lord John Russell, in his great speech on Parliamentary Reform, delivered in the year 1822, cited the multiplication and improvement of newspapers as gratifying evidences of the augmented wealth and expanding culture of the middle classes of Great Britain. And it was in this view also that a great Greek scholar was accustomed to say that a single newspaper published in the age of Pericles (had that age produced any such phenomenon) would, if handed down to us, be a better index of Athenian life and manners than can now be found in any existing memorials of the Grecian civilization. The newspaper and periodical press, now covering so wide *. field of activity in every department of thought, has won its way to the commanding position it occupies from very small beginnings. Taking its origin in Italy, and under a form bearing some resemblance to that of modern times, capable of being traced to the sixteenth century, the newspaper has in our day enlarged equally the area 718 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. of its diffusion and the character of its contents, while the celerity with which it is disseminated equalizes throughout large tracts of country the conditions of that popular intelligence which makes up an enlightened public opinion." Criticism. Most of the religious newspapers maintain a high religious and intellectual character, and are very potential in their influence upon the public conscience. That some of them are not liable to the criticism of being " gossipy, scrappy, volatile, with extensive shal lows of watery and tepid romancing, neither cold nor hot in a lit erary or a Christian sense," we would not dare to affirm. They often have "paying and paid-for attractions," and may or may not be worse for that. And if they have some " semi-secular and quasi- religious" articles, instead of those exclusively devotional and spiritual, it must be confessed they show practical wisdom, and will be quite as well adapted to help their readers in the religio-secular affairs of life. Too often articles curious and nondescript, flagrant and saucy, ill-tempered and slanderous, frolicsome and foolish, and others, olipods of almost any thing remotely related, if at all related, to Christianity, have appeared in the religious journals, impairing their influence, lowering their dignity, and suggesting the query whether some professedly religious papers ought not to designate, by special captions, the departments intended to be considered as religious. Nevertheless, allowing for healthy criticisms, the religious journalism of the United States is confessedly one of the most powerful and beneficent agencies of moral and religious progress. In no country has the influence ofthe press been more sensibly witnessed or more widely extended than in the United States. The earliest newspaper on the continent of North America was the Boston News Letter, whose publication commenced April 24, 1 704. In 1720 there were seven newspapers in the American colonies; in 1775, 35; in 1800, about 200; in 1810, 359; in 1840, 1,631; in 1850, 2,526; in 1870, 5,871; in 1880. 11,314. Ofthe latter 8,633 are published weekly. An account of the origin of the religious periodicals has been elsewhere related. f In 1828 there were 34 religious newspapers; in 1835, 90; in 1850, 191 ; in 1870, 4o7 ; in 1880, 553. The United States Census gives the number of religious period icals of the country, but does not specify the denominations to which they belong. * United States Census Report, i860. Vol. on Mortality, etc., p. 319. t See Period II, Chapter III, of this volume. DEDUCTIONS. 719 Periodicals and Newspapers. 1850. 1870. 1880. 1887. Religious 191 407 553 691 All others 2,526 5,464 10,761 14,015 Total 2,717 5,871 11,314 14,706* Copies Published in a Single Year, f 1850. 1870. Religious 33,645,484 125,950,496 All others 392,764,492 1,382,597,754 Total 426,409,976 1,508,548,250 Regular Circulation in a Single Year.| 1850. 1870. Religious 1,071,657 4,764,358 All others 4,111,360 16,078,117 Total 5,183,017 20,842,475 Deductions. In 1850 there were 1.45 copies of religious periodicals issued for each inhabitant; in 1870 there were 3.26 copies. In 1850 there were 16.93 copies of all other periodicals issued for each inhabitant ; in 1870 there were 35.85 copies. The latter increased m per cent. relatively, and the religious periodicals 125 per cent, relatively. This gain may not seem large, and yet it is a very considerable average increase for every inhabitant, against all others — secular, scientific, medical, educational, etc., etc. And it should not be over looked that the issues of the secular press are largely daily, twice daily (morning and evening), tri-weekly and semi-weekly, repeating themselves two, three, six, seven, and even twelve times each week, and, therefore, count very largely against those of the religious press, none of which are published oftener than once each week.§ The relative gain, then, of the issues of the religious periodicals over the others has not been small. The next advance movement must be what has already been loudly called for in some quarters — daily religious newspapers. Taking next into consideration the circulation of these papers, or the number of regular subscribers, we find a still greater rela tive increase of the religious periodicals. In 1850 the circula- * American Newspaper Directory. New York. George P. Rowell & Co. 1887. Preface. t For these items we have no later data. X I°id- % The daily tri-weekly arid semi-weekly issues of the secular press, in 1870, amounted to 856,384,338, leaving only 526,213,316 of the weekly issues. 720 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. tion of the secular periodicals was one for 5§ inhabitants, in 1870 one for 2-| inhabitants. In 1850 the circulation of the religious periodicals was one for 2i-| inhabitants, in 1870 one for 8j% inhab itants. The increase in the circulation ofthe secular press was 2.86 per cent, from 1850 to 1870, while the increase in the circulation of the religious press was 3.45 per cent. It is not a small gain for twenty years. It should not be forgotten that in the year 1800 there were 200 secular papers in the country and not one religious paper. That the religious public are now sending out more than one hundred and twenty-five millions of copies of religious period icals annually in the United States is an occasion for encourage ment and devout thanksgiving to God. The number ofthe periodicals positively arrayed against Chris tianity is very small — less than thirty — with a circulation not amounting to 125,000, or one twenty-fifth as large as the total cir culation of the religious press. The Roman Catholic periodicals number y6, with a circulation of 586,058, or about one-sixth part of the circulation of the whole religious press. The Methodist press alone numbers yj, with a circulation of 591,605. Besides this, it has been an occasion of frequent remark within a few years that Christianity is now commanding the attention and respect of the secular press as never before, notwithstanding their occasional sneers at religion. Not many years ago religious matters were almost wholly ignored by the secular press. When the lead ing papers in New York city, the Times, Herald, World and Tribune, in the great revival of 1857 and 1858, reported whole pages of revival intelligence, it awakened surprise and remark. But the papers only met a demand in the public mind and showed how deep and gen eral was the religious interest. Since that time reports ofthe most spiritual movements of the churches have been more common. Revivals of religion, the number of conversions and baptisms, abstracts of sermons and whole sermons, missionary intelligence, and reports of conferences, associations and assemblies, are gath ered up by eager reporters and crowded into the columns of the secular papers. Whole columns of religious intelligence are com mon in the Saturday's and Monday's issues. These things all show that Christianity is identifying itself with the advancing intelligence of the age, and that Christ is fast ascending the thrones of power and influence the world over. The American Newspaper Annual* for 1885, which contains the list of all the periodicals in the United States which insert advertise- *N. W. Ayer & Son, Newspaper Advertising Agents, Philadelphia, Pa. RELIGIOUS PUBLICATION HOUSES. 721 ments, gives 522 religious periodicals of this class, which we have collated and tabulated, with the circulation of each as given in that volume ; Religious Periodicals. DENOMINATIONS. Atheist (The Investigator) Advent Baptist, all kinds Christian Congregational Disciple Episcopalian Evangelical Association Evangelical and non-sectarian. Friends Jewish Lutheran, all branches. Mennonite Methodist, all branches Moravian U 5,42o 6,175 378,98: 6,550 141,2;105,168 86,696 48,500 527,921 27,10084,000 37.71? 16,300 591,605 2,750 DENOMINATIONS. Mormon Presbyterian, all branches. Roman Catholic Reformed Dutch Church . . . Reformed German Church. Radical. (Index) Shakers Spiritualist Swedenborgian United Brethren Unitarian Universalist Winebrennarian Aggregate. U 3,850 204,536 586.058 38,85030,950 2,650 3,500 37,4oo 6,716 20,55012,133 34,800 3,750 3,051,906 Classified. Non-Christian ... Roman Catholic. Non-Evangelical . 20 133,320 7 76 5(31,605 II 19 63,679 Evangelical Total Protestant. , 2,263,302 2,326,981 6464 2. The Religious Publication Houses. The publication houses of any country exert a great influence upon its character. The sphere of a publisher's influence is not restricted to the limits of a parish or a literary club, or the precincts of a college, or the boundaries of a nation. " The ancient Roman Empire was not so broad as the field traversed by the books of many modern publishing houses. They sway an amount of mind which cannot be estimated, and under their control have been, in no inconsiderable degree, private character, public institutions, govern ment, law, religion, and, indeed, all the dearest and most profound interests of society." Will the churches of Christ subsidize this engine of such immense power, and employ it in the service of his kingdom ? This pro. found inquiry once engrossed the attention of far-seeing men and led to frequent anxious consultations as to the means and measures for its accomplishment. It has now been in a good degree favor ably answered. The increase in the circulation of religious books during the last century has been incalculable. The impulse which has contributed 722 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. to this result has been threefold — improvements in the art of print ing, the increase and more general diffusion of wealth, and the new spirit of religious enterprise that has pervaded the churches. The principal advance has been within the last sixty years. The extent of the book trade in this country seventy-five years ago may be judged from the following fact : The paper manufactured and used {ox book printing in 1810 was about 70,000 reams, equal in weight and size of that now used to about 30,000 reams, a considerable part of which was used for spelling-books and other small books.* Estimated at $3 50 per ream it would amount to $245,000, and its. weight was about 630 tons, which is about the quantity now used in a single year by two great religious houses — the American Bible and Tract societies. In the year 1826, 17 religious books were noticed in the columns of the New York Observer, under the- head of "New Publications;" in 1835, the number was 24; in 1841 the number was 125 works published by the trade, besides those issued by the religious houses; in 1848 there were 168 of this class. Now, besides religious publication houses, there are numerous and extensive establishments of an individual and pri vate character, engaged in sending forth almost exclusively relig ious publications. These religious publication societies are intimately connected with the missionary work, both foreign and domestic. They have been characterized as " the right arm of the missionary enterprise." The domestic missionary who wisely pursues his work will avail himself of their aid. He will employ Bibles, tracts, Sunday-school books and other religious publications as appropriate means both of salvation and edification. A part of these societies have carried on a system of missionary colportage, in which the distribution of relig ious books and tracts has been united with personal religious con versation and prayer in the families of remote and destitute local ities. To furnish a religious literature to the world in an age like ours is a stupendous undertaking, and has required large wisdom, steady zeal and great liberality. The work has been nobly begun, with sublime determination that an evangelical literature of sterling worth, in the English language, shall be made " the heritage of the reading world," and that both way-side and fire-side preaching, through oral and printed truth, shall supplement the more formal proclamation of the Gospel. We here give a summary of the pecuniary receipts of these agencies : "* History of the Art of Printing. By Isaiah Thomas. ro OJ '-0. S0S ft? Receipts of the Religious Publication Houses op the Evangelical Churches ofthe United States, from all Sources, from the Origin of Each. Aggregate Publication Houses. 1790 to 1829. 1830 to 1839. 1840 to 1849. 1850 to 1859. i860 to 1869. 1870* to 1880. 1881 to 1887. 1790 to 1S87. $1,200,000 $1,300,000 $i,73i,74i $4,608,677 $10,309,766 $15,672,138 $13,857,520 $48,697,842 687,023 972,106 1,670,058 3,598,480 5.696,205 6,666,407 3,953,252 23,243,531 57,107 23,036 22,014 178,676 283,717 358,830 211,736 1,279,720 American Tract Society, Boston, 1814. 85,379 187,343 349,335 653,289 1,259,535 177,933 Defunct. 2,712,814 American Tract Society, N. Y., 1824.. 145,860 844,088 1,472,822 3,777,213 3,956,338 5,318,634 2,396,196 19,652,007 American Sunday-School Union, 1824. 199,558 900,817 1,004,879 2,268,855 2,798.626 1,942,913 755,105 10.444,570 10,235 67,216 170,328 496,271 1,461,566 4,192,563 2,816,046 9,214,225 951,957 332,292 1,196,535 361,476 [ 2,423,965 1,845,354 7,ni,579 94,490 150,000 225,920500,000 378,554 418,402 1,073,686 1,274,318 141,779 808,349 28,042 3,853,317 1.558,937 American and Foreign Bible Soc, 1836 320,714 Evangelical Association, 1842 40,306 107,369 389,608 1,546,750 1,403,787 3,487,820 326,974285,308 558,099 347,158 106,566 1,002,770 358.512 957,925 2,345,768 990,998 657,572 359,o62237,456 156,338 339,495 191,944269,159 144,791 433,824 329,g6o Free-Will Baptist, 1826 1,000,000 Reformed Church (Dutch) § 382,053 590,162 669,153 Methodist Episcopal, South ; Lutheran, f Esti - 12 houses; Reformed German, Morav mated on ian, Seventh-Day Baptists, Wesleyan partial Methodist, Protestant Methodist, Af -j data [ 6,000,000 rican Methodist, Disciples, Southern from Baptist, Free Methodist, and some some of _ them. - $2,385,162 $4:539,og6 $7,187,403 $18,382,317 $30,119,595 $42,169,863 $30,402,980 $144,392,068 Note. — Not a perfectly exact table, but the best tabulation that can be made. All of the above denominational houses comprise Sunday-school and Tract departments, and most of them do much home missionary work. * This period includes eleven years. t Receipts of Methodist Book Concerns from 1790 to 1843, estimated on partial data ; but since the latter date exactly reported. X Cannot obtain figures prior to 1850. § Cannot obtain figures prior to 1870. [ The American and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Union are now merged into other boards. 724 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Comparative View of Receipts. Average Annual Receipts in Each Decade. Inclusive. Inclusive. r8oo to 1829 $79,505 i860 to 1869 $3,011,959 1830 " 1839 453,909 1870 " I880 3,833,624 1840 " 1849 718,740 1881 " 1887 5,000,000 1850 " 1859 1,838,231 The exact figures, in the last period, as per table, are $4,343,426 ; but the large publishing house of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the twelve Lutheran publishing houses, the Reformed (Ger man) Church, the Disciples, the Second Adventists, etc., etc., are not included in the column for 1881-1887, being given only in the aggregate. The total yearly average for 1881 to 1887 cannot fall below $5,000,000, but would probably considerably exceed that sum. Some amounts given in response to our inquiries have been given only in aggregates. Grand total for all the decades, $144,392,068. Section 5.— Higher Education and the Churches. In our sketches of the Colonial Era the origin of the educa tional institutions of the country was narrated, showing that these great agencies of enlightenment and culture grew out of the relig ious life of the people, and largely as direct results of the organ ization of the churches. The influence of the churches upon scholarship and culture, and the share of the churches in founding and maintaining institutions of learning, is a topic so directly related to the history of Christianity as to call for extended notice in these pages. A religion that fails to identify itself with intelligence, science and the best progress of the age can have no hold upon the future. It is the mission of Christianity to enlighten. It has been freely asserted of late that the churches, especially the evangelical churches, are perceptibly losing their hold upon the intellect and scholarship of the age ; that few young men in the colleges are Christians in the usual acceptation of the term ; that denomina tional colleges are relatively declining, and that they are destined to be superseded by State universities and other large institutions founded by individual munificence. What are the facts? By referring to pages 436-7 the reader will find statistics of the colleges for 1830 of the most reliable character, from which the following table is compiled : DATA CONCERNING COLLEGES. 125 Colleges in the United States in 1830. DENOMINATIONS. Congregational Presbyterian Baptist Protestant Episcopal Reformed (Dutch and German) Methodist Episcopal * Unitarian Roman Catholic Total Denominational Non-denominational Aggregate Founded before 1800. 5 3 1 2 2 11 15 6 Founded between 1800 and 1830. 20 8 28 Total in 1830. 94 5 22 1 4 35 14 49 Pro fessors. 5339 16 34 16 12 20 I90 85 275 Students for the Degree of A. B. 1,047 517 196 203 287 172 247 2,669 913 3,582 Here are 49 colleges in 1830, with 275 professors and 3,582 students. From 1800 to 1830 the colleges increased 28, of which number 20 were denominational and 8 undenominational. In 1800 the denominational colleges were 71.5 per cent, of the whole; in 1830 71.5 per cent, of the whole, and at the latter date these de nominational colleges had 74.6 per cent, of all students in colleges. For the data concerning the colleges in i884,f the latest availa ble, we are indebted to the very able reports of General Eaton,:}: Com missioner of Education at Washington, D. C. Collating from his report, we have a satisfactory basis for a comparison with the year 1830 — a sufficiently long interval to indicate quite clearly the educational tendency of the century. Changing the phraseology for the reasons indicated below, and * These two colleges, under Revs. H. B. Bascom and Dr. Martin Ruter, did not become per manent Methodist colleges. The Wesleyan University, founded at Middletown, Conn., in 1S31, was the first permanent Methodist college. t The author regrets that the report for 1885 did not come to hand in season to be used in this comparison. X In using General Eaton's reports we have discarded the terms ' ' sectarian " and ' ' non-sectarian " sometimes used, because not expressing what they are intended to express, and consequently put ting most of the colleges in a false light. It is well known that no ecclesiastical tests in either admitting, disciplining, advancing or graduating students are used by any of the colleges, unless it be in some of the Roman Catholic colleges. In all the colleges of the Protestant churches no questions are asked in regard to religious belief, and students are at liberty to select the place of worship which accords with their denominational predilections just as freely as in purely State colleges. Harvard College, reported as " non-sectarian," is no more so than over two hundred others reported as sustaining denominational relations ; for Harvard, during more than half a century, has been under the direction of a " Board of Fellows " all of whom have been Unitarians except one elected within a few years ; and, besides, the Theological School of Harvard College is usually mentioned in the Unitarian Year Book as a Unitarian institution. Yale, Columbia, Williams and many other colleges also reported by General Eaton as ' ' non-sectarian " recently were reported as Congregational, Episcopal, etc. But there has been no severance in their denomina tional relations. 726 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. using the terms denominational and undenominational, we have on the one hand the colleges of the churches, comprising those closely related to the churches in origin, sympathy and patronage, some of which are organically held by ecclesiastical bodies, and, on the other hand, those which sustain no denominational relations. This classification fully and fairly covers the question, What are the churches doing for collegiate education, and how far are they iden tified with advanced intellectual culture ? In carrying out this classification the advantage of any doubt in regard to institutions not fully known is given to the undenominational list. Of the 61 colleges classified in the following table as undenomi national, 23 are State institutions, some of them founded before the disruption of the union between the Church and State ; four, city institutions ; three, military ; two, agricultural ; one, deaf mute ; and the remainder are not clearly indicated as to their character. Nearly half of the latter are under the presidency of evangelical divines. Eight of the State and city institutions have clergymen for presidents, and many of the professors and students are active evangelical communicants. General Eaton's report for 1883-4 gives 370 colleges and universities. In 1870 he gave a large number ; but he has probably since that time found that some of them should be classified in a different table. With the aid of the Year Books of the denominations we have carefully examined the list, and as signed to the churches those marked " unsectarian " which are properly denominational in their origin, affiliation, patronage, etc. We give the following carefully classified table : Colleges and Universities in the United States — 1884. DENOMINATIONAL RE LATIONS. Baptist (all kinds) Congregational Christian and Disciple * Episcopal Evangelical Association Friend Hebrew Lutheran Methodist (all kinds) Mormon Presbyterian (all kinds) Reformed (German and Dutch) Seventh-Day Advent j=> bo SJia 'o ZU 45 26 V5H, no" 3 S S • 332 317 140 99 M V- 7 102 5.54 39 7 v ,0 - »S 3,7=83,108 ',326 S07 '37 331 11 860 4,9384,060 449 denominational re lations. Swedenborgian. . . United Brethren. Unitarian Universalist Total Non-Roman Catholic. Roman Catholic Total Denominational. Undenominational . Aggregate . ii tn-So5 S.S 3 W) oi.S.S 0a,V 0 tii fc.S c/. - 0 *¦> ¦}. V 1 0 & O bit 2.5 Volumesin Libraries of Institu tions. 00, \% O bo 2.5 cs 0c W r 0(J \% O bJD 2.5 0&,0 bil Theological Seminaries... 19 24 27 11 81 43 1 2,532 1,864 722 2 3 42 11 431769 119 25 19 26 58 151 103 82 394 1 46i975 101,660 1 s 14 4 24 $157,000 577,000 65,000 99 *7 35 $330,000 1,101,000 308,500 186,000 5 2 Classical Seminaries Young Ladies' Seminaries. 4| 55,350 i| 3i3°° 83 5.549 i,3T9 6 207,285 709,000 $1,925,500 18 * These institutions did not become permanent. All the Methodist colleges now existing were founded after 1830. t Four colleges, but students not reported. X For fuller summary exhibit see page 123 of the Year Book. 728 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. The Disciples (Year Book, 1885,*) give less full information, but they report 42 institutions ; 30 bearing the name College, 4 University, the rest Institutes, etc., with 4,709 students regularly matriculated. From the Baptist Year Bookf for 1886 we condense the follow ing table: Regular Baptist Institutions (North and South). fS.S Value of W . bb n.S CLASSIFICATION. 0 c u O 0 .2 £ *. 0 a a JS 5 0 3 a. Buildings 0 £ '3 0 3 a O C u 4} c S 0 £ 3 a .a t Sg. P« $ K« OJ V« ses s * s« li s« 3 1^ 0 B *j a a 4-. c ^ S-a H-, c ¦s^ C *_, 0. 2; in 2 Grounds. z 2 6 45 445 $608,577 $1,603,251 97,250,.... Colleges and Universities. . . 2Q 277 1 4,482 1 3,52o,o39 4,348,683 3 235.859 ! Seminaries for Female Ed'n. 27 261 2 3^38 2 1.620,200 I 510,000 23 33,700 s Seminaries and Academies.. 44 262 1 4,841 1 1,274,200 2 548,336 2Q 26,981 14 Institutions for Colored and •9 151 3.420 1 690,500 I 206.000 14 18,230 Total "5 996 4 16,426 5 $7<7I3i7I6 4 $7,236,270 69 412,02c 25 Methodist Episcopal Church. J r.S S.S Value of „ M ? = 1 nts be ns ing. CLASSIFICATION. 0 c 0 O £ "5 O dents. istitutio t Report Buildings O £ 3 a *o a c S 0 £ 'z: 0 3 a 4-1 w Studt the ing. tutio eport E.s OJ S^ and 3« § 0 S^ s s P rt 0 5 5a zjjj M O 2 *-' 0 — 1 0 6-0 — 0 K. O &. 2 IS) 2 Grounds. 2 L595 89,359 20c > 195 I22i,374 70,000. 60c ) 260 70,000 1,60; 1,400 163,000- 40c ) 240 25,000 3i 27 3,027 4,129 "693,811 1,556 "514,299 127 "22,127 71 144.8l7 807 "65,815 400 "21,400 12 14I,II2 50 "2,050 200 l6i7,ooe ) "7,152 "1,325,631 Baptist,4 Regular, North l Baptist, Regular, South5. Total. Baptist, Free-Will 6 Baptist, Seventh-day 7 Baptist, Seventh-day German 4. Baptist, Six-Principle 4 Baptist, Anti-Mission4 Total Baptist. Congregational 8 Disciple, or Campbellite 4 Dutch Reformed 9 Dunker * Episcopal, Protestant 10 Evangelical Association n Friend (Evangelical) (estimated by Friends). , German Reformed 8 Lutheran 8 , Mennonite 8 , Moravian 8 , Methodist Episcopal 13 Methodist Episcopal, South 15 Methodist Episcopal, African 15 . . . Methodist Episcopal, African Zion ] Methodist Protestant 16 Methodist Wesleyan 15 Methodist Primitive 15 Methodist Reformed 15 Methodist Stillwellite 16 Total Methodist l6l7,ooo 1 In some cases, probably, congregations are reported instead of Church organizations. 2 Local preach ers and licentiates not included. 3 Some Churches include baptized children, but not many. 4 Baptist Almanac, 1851. 5 Divided on the basis of the two General Conventions which, since the schism in 1845, have not affiliated, as is also the case with the Methodist Episcopal Churches, North and South, and the Presbyterian. eFree-Will Baptist Register, for 1851. 'Seventh-day Baptist Manual, for 1852. 'Chris tian Almanac, 1850, and Dr. Baird's Christian Retrospect and Register. s Christian Retrospect and Register, by Dr. Baird. 10 Church Almanac. " Official document, number of churches estimated. 12 Ministers added with members to make the total communicants, as with the Methodist bodies, because of peculiarities of Church polity. 13 Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1850. 14 According to the polity of the Methodist Churches it is necessary to add the number of preachers to the number of members in order to get the total communicants, because they are not reckoned into the number of com municants in the local churches, as with other denominations. 15 Fox and Hoyt's Ecclesiastical Regis ter. 16 The Methodist Minutes do not report the number of Church organizations. The United States Census for 1850 gave 14,861 church edifices (all kinds of Methodists). The organizations or societies con siderably exceed the edifices, hence the above number is partly estimated. " Besides 10,599 local preachers. EVIDENCES OF GROWTH. 13S Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1870.— Continued. DENOMINATIONS. Church Organiza tions or Congrega- Ministers. Communi cants. Presbyterian, Old School ' Presbyterian, New School 2 Presbyterian, Reformed General Synod of, in North America.3 Presbyterian, Reformed Synod of, in North America3. Presbyterian, Associate 4 Presbyterian, Associate Reformed4 Presbyterian, Cumberland 5 Presbyterian, other small bodies (estimated) 2,595 1,568 63 50 214 332500 1,9261,473 43 33 120 219450 207,754 139,797 6,8006,000 18, ooo 26,34075,000 8,000 Total Presbyterian. Second Advent ° Schwenkfelder4 United Brethren ' Several small bodies (estimated). 5,322 500 100 4,264 450 75 487,691 40,000 800 "50,450 11,000 Aggregate . 43,°72 25,655 3,529,98S ^Minutes of General Assembly, Old School, 1850. 2 Minutes of General Assembly, New School,. 1850. 3 Rev. R. Baird, D.D., in American and Foreign Christian Union, vol. II, pp. 77, 78. 4 Fox and Hoyt's Ecclesiastical Register. 5 Christian Retrospect and Register, by Rev. Robert Baird, D.D. fi Estimated by Revs. J. Litch and J. V. Hines. 7 Official sources. Number of churches estimated. 8 Having a polity like the Methodist churches it is necessary to add the number of preachers to the number of members in order to get the total communicants, because they are not reckoned into the number of communicants in the local churches, as with most other denominations. We have here evidence of remarkable growth of 40,000 churches, 23,000 ministers, and nearly 3,200,000 members in fifty years, or8oo> churches and 600,000 members annually. The next period takes us to 1870, through the revulsion following the Millerite excitement, the severe spiritual distractions and the demoralization of the civil war, the trying period of foreign immigration, and the insidious and, to many minds, fatal influence of Spiritualism and other forms of skepticism. What do the statistics for 1870 show? Churches, Ministers, and Communicants, 1870. DENOMINATIONS. Church Organiza tions x or Congrega tions. Baptist,2 Regular, North3., Baptist, Regular, South3... Baptist, Regular, Colored 3. Total North and South. 5,857 io,777 811 '17,445 Ministers.1 4,1126,331 375 10,818 Communi cants.1 495,099 790,252125,142 1,410,493 1 See references (i, 2, 3) under previous table. ''¦Baptist Year Book, 1871. 3 For the division see explanation under table V, reference 5. 4 In 1870 the United States Census reported 3,061 less church organizations of the Regular Baptists than their Year Book gave. See Compendium of Census, 1870, p. 517, note. 736 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1870. — Continued. DENOMINATIONS. Baptist, Free-Will ' Baptist, Free-Will, minor bodies ' . Baptist, Seventh-day 2 Baptist, Seventh-day, German 3. . . . Baptist, Six-Principle 3 Total Baptist. Congregational 5 Disciple, or Campbellite6 Dunker 3 Episcopal, Protestant8.. Evangelical Association 2 Friend,11 Evangelical . . . Lutheran,12 General Synod Lutheran, General Council Lutheran, General Synod of North America. . Lutheran, other Synods Total Lutheran. Mennonite 14. Moravian15. . Methodist Episcopal 16 Methodist Episcopal, South 16 Methodist Episcopal. African " Methodist Episcopal Church, African Zion " Methodist, Protestant " Methodist, Wesleyan " Methodist, Free 16 Methodist, Primitive11 Methodist, Welsh Calvinistic ls Methodist, Reformed 3 Methodist, Congregational ,9 "The Methodist Church " 2C Total Methodist. Presbyterian, General Assembly zl Presbyterian, General Assembly, South 2I Presbyterian, United of North America21 Presbyterian, Reformed, Synod 22 Presbyterian, Reformed, Synod, General 2!. . . . Presbyterian, Reformed, Ass. Synod of South2 Presbyterian, Cumberland 21 Presbyterian, Free Synod -' Presbyterian, minor bodies 3 Total Presbyterian Church Or ganizationsor Cong'ns. i,355 174 732022 "19,094 3,121 '2,478 300 '2,752 98i5 392 7997 99S214 1,183 3,392 270 72 "2 5 27S 526 469 729 S7 60 1,600 8,471 Ministers. I,Il6 "86 20 12,040 3,194 2,200 250 2,803 587 591527121 6S6 1,925 325 66 9,1932,922 560 694 423 250 12S 2020 100 766 15,076 4,238 840 553 S6 1,116 60 6,893 Communi cants. 65,605 8,549 7,609 2,0003,000 1,497,256 306,518 450,000 40,000 207,762 ¦"73,566 57,405 91,720 129,516 16,662 150,640 13338,538 39,100 7,634 °i.376,327 10598,35o102oo,s6o 10i64,69i 1072,423 102O,25O 107,S66 102,O2O 2,0003,000 6,000 1054,562 "2,499,052 446,561 82,01469,805 8,5776,0004,500 80,000 6,000 10,000 713,457 1 Free-Will Baptist Register, 1871. 3 Official statement to the author. 3 Estimated. 4 United States Census gave 15,829 Baptist Churches of all kinds. 6 Congregational Quarterly, 1871. 6 Estimate of leading officials. Number of churches from United States Census, 1870. ' Congregations or parishes. 8 Church Almanac, 1871. e United States Census, 1870. 10Ministers added with members to make the full number of communicants. See explanation under tables III and V. ^Friends' Review, 1871. 12 New York Observer Year Book, 1871. 13 Includes baptized children in some synods. 14 Professor Schem, 1867. "Official statement. ^Annual Minutes, 1870. xl Methodist Almanac, 1871. ^Apple- ton's Annual Cyclopedia, 1870. 19 New York Observer Year Book, 1871. 20 Minutes of said Church, 1871. 21 Official Minutes, 1870. 22 For 1866. MORE RECENT GROWTH. 131 Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1870. — Continued. DENOMINATIONS. Church Or ganizations or Cong'ns. Ministers. Communi cants. Reformed Church (late Dutch) ¦ 464 1,179 225 "1,445 400 493 526 881 350 61,44496,728 ¦56,000 Reformed Church (late German) ' Second Advent 2 Second Advent, Seventh-day2 "118,936 30,00020,000 Winebrennarian, or Church of God 6 minor bodies not well known. Bible Christian, Schwenkfelder, German Evangelical Church Union, River Brethren, Bible Union ' 70, 148 47,609 6,673,396 1 New York Observer Year Book, 1871. 2 Estimated by Revs. J. Litch and J. V. Hines. 3 Official statement to the author. ^United States Census, 1870. 6 Ministers added with members to make the'full number of communicants. See explanation under tables III and V. 6 Baptist Year Book. 'Estimated. In the two decades (i 850-1870) the number of the churches increased nearly 37,000; the ministers, 22,000, and the communi cants over 3,100,000, or about as much as in the previous fifty years — a most surprising fact. We are now prepared to see what will be the progress from 1870 to 1880. Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1880. l EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS. Baptist,3 Regular, North2.. . Baptist, Regular, South2 . . . Baptist, Regular, Colored2. Total. Baptist, Free-Will 4 Baptist, Free-Will, minor bodies4 Baptist, Anti-Mission2 Baptist, Seventh-day 6 Baptist, Seventh-day, German (estimated). Baptist, Six-Principle 2 Total Baptist Congregational (Orthodox)6 Disciple ' Dunker8 Episcopal, Protestant 9 Episcopal Reformed 10 Evangelical Association " Friend, Evangelical8 (partly estimated). Church Or Members or ganizations Ministers. Communi or Cong's. cants. 6,782 5,280 608,556 13,827 8,227 1,026,413 5,451 3,08g 661,358 26,060 16,596 2,296.327 1,432 1,213 78,01225,0OO 900 400 40,000 94 110 8,539 25 3,000 20 12 2,000 28,531 18,331 2,452,87s 3,743 3,654 384,332 5,100 3,782 591,821 250 200 60,000 3,ooo 3,432 338,333 100 9,448 i,477 893 112,197 392 200 60,000 1 The Year Books for 1881 contain the statistics for 1880, but some of the Annual Minutes oi tbe churches give the statistics for the given year. 2 Baptist Year Book for 1881. 3 Divided on the basis of the two General Conventions, North and South, which are as separate as the Methodist and the Pres byterian Churches, North and South. The colored associations are also independent of the others. 4 Free-Will Baptist Register for 1881. 5 Minutes of Convention for 1880. fi Official Statistics, 1881. 7 Rev. F. W. Green, Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Disciples. 8 Estimated. 9 Churc). i Almanac for 1881. Another A Imanac a few more. >° Statistics published after late conven tion "Almanac Evangelical Association, 1801. 47 738 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1880 — Continued. EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS. Church Or ganizations or Cong'ns. Ministers. Members or Communi cants. Lutheran,1 General Council Lutheran, General Synod, South. , Lutheran, General Synod, North. Lutheran, Independent Lutheran, Synodical Conference. . Total Lutheran. Methodist Episcopal ! Methodist Episcopal, South 4 Methodist Episcopal, African 5 Methodist Episcopal, African Zion 6 Methodist Episcopal, Colored ' Methodist, Congregational s Methodist, Free 9 Methodist, Primitive 9 Methodist, Protestant 10 Methodist, Reformed (estimated) Methodist, Union American n Methodist, Wesleyan in the United States11 Total Methodist. Mennonite (estimated). Moravian 13 Presbyterian, General Assembly 14 Presbyterian, General Assembly, South14 Presbyterian, United of North America14. .. Presbyterian, Cumberland 14 Presbyterian, Synod of, Reformed 14 Presbyterian, General Synod of, Reformed 16. Presbyterian, Welsh Calvinistic 16 Presbyterian, Associate Synod of South ". . . . Presbyterian, other bodies (estimated) Total Presbyterian. 1,151 214 1,285 9T3 1,990 624 122 841369 ,176 184,974 18,223 123,813 69,353 554,505 5,553 3,132 12,096 3,887 i,738 1,800 638 225 260 52 1,385 101 400 950,868 3i, 755,oi8 832,189 387,566300,000 112,938 13,75012,318 3,369 135,000 3,000 2,250 17,087 l22g,278 300 5.4891,928 813 2,457 U7 50 137112 22,582 350 94 5,041 1,060 684 1.386 in 32 100 33,574,485 50,000 9.491 578,671 120,028 82,119 in 863 io,473 6,800 11,000 6,686 10,000 937,640 80,208 155,857 70,00015,570 157,835 30,000 25,000 Aggregate i 97,090 69,870 10,065.963 'Lutheran Church Almanac, 1881. These statistics probably involve some errors. 2 To December, 1880. 3 Including ministers, because not reckoned elsewhere as communicants, and also probationers. See explanation under table III. 4 Almanac of Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for 1S81. 6 Official Report for 1880. 6 Furnished by Rev. R. G. Dyson, a prominent minister of said Church. 7 Methodist Almanac, 1881. « Methodist Congregational. * Minutes for 1880. 10 Furnished for 1880 by a leading minister. " Minutes of said Church for 1879. n Church organizations of the Methodist Churches are not published in the Minutes, and therefore cannot be accurately gathered. The United States Census re ported 25,278 for all Methodist bodies in 1870. It is a moderate estimate to suppose that they havesince in creased 4,000. One branch of Methodism has increased its church edifices 3,700 since 1870. 13 Official sta tistics, 1881. '« Official Minutes, 1880. 1S Furnished by Rev. David Steele, D.D., Philadelphia. "Report of the Second Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, p. 063. " Almanac ofthe Reformed Church, 1881. "Estimated by leading Advent officials. '"Almanac of United Brethren, 1881. s0Baptist Year Book, 1881. Reformed Church (Dutch)14 Reformed Church (German)17 Second Advent ls Second Advent, Seventh-day 14 United Brethren in Christ 19 Winebrennarian, or Church of God 20 Ger. Evan. Un., Bible Christians, Schwenkfelder, Bible Union, River Brethren, little known (estimated).. 11,103 5IO 1,405 800 640 4,524 400 8,538 544748 600 144 2,196 350 GROWTH MAINTAINED. 739 The remarkable growth of the previous periods seems not to have fallen off in the years since 1870, for the gain from 1870 to 1 880 was equal to that of the first fifty years of the century, carrying the numbers of the evangelical communicants in the United States up to ten millions — an increase of about twenty-sevenfold since 1800. It is impossible to obtain more than partial returns for 1887. The figures given in the yearbooks for 1887 were collected in 1886, and some of them in 1885, as the compilers have informed the author of this volume. He has availed himself of every Year Book and all the ecclesiastical Minutes for 1887, and has tabulated the data under the heading 1886, the date actually represented, though in a few cases he was obliged to insert those of previous years, not withstanding laborious efforts to get later data had failed. Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 18 DENOMINATIONS. Churches or Congrega tions.2 Ministers. Local Preachers. Communi cants. I. — Adventist. 1. Original " Evangelical " Adventist 3 91 2,500 787IOO 14 107 1,000 199 •5 .... 11,000 75,00022,357 5,000 3,492 7,348 14.346 8,828 1,321 6,273 7,5425,562 134,577 681,585 1,065,170 985,815 II. — Baptist. 1. Regular Baptist, North °. 30,522 1,542 2,200 108 900 17 19,377 1,291 500 120 400 15 .... 2,732,570 82,323 1,000 13,19013,000 8,7333,5oo 45,ooo 6,329 4. Free-Will Baptist 5 6. Other Free Baptist Associations 7. . 2,200 1 As far as possible the statistics are from the year books and Minutes of 1887, but strictly they repre sent the year 1886. In a few instances they are from the official books of 1886, 1885 and 1884. 2 In some instances the year books say congregations, but in most cases the figures represent organized churches. In the Methodist bodies they represent church edifices, the number of church organizations not being reported. 3 Estimated by a prominent official in the denomination. 4 Estimated by the editor of the World's Crisis. 5 Official Year Book for 1887. 6 Rev. J. Nicum, of Syracuse, N. Y. 7 Free-Will Baptist Year Book for 1887. e Rev. W. P. Hale, editor of the Messenger. 9 Official minutes for 1886. 10 Estimated. No minutes. n Baptist Year Book for 1S87. 740 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1886. — Continued. DENOMINATIONS. Churches or Congrega tions. Ministers. Local Preachers. Communi cants. KINDRED BAPTIST BODIES. 5,800 450 300 550 3,500 1,900 400 500 615,500 75,OO0 30,000 3. Winebrennarian, or Ch. of Gods. . Total Baptist and kindred bodies. III. — Christian. 42,389 [ i,755 28,003 1,344] 3,729,745 20,000 i,755 1,500 4,277 3,450 76 1,344 1,200 4,0903,850 65 142,000125,000 436,379415,605 IV. — Christian Union Churches 8 V. — Congregational ' VI. — Episcopalian. 3,526 600 3,915 500 423,605 70,000 VII. — Friends. 2. Wilberite Friends 9 600 553 i,449 360 1,835 2,006 1,923 500 689 910 180 993 1,094 813 VIII. — German Evang. Church Union.10 IX. — Lutheran.7 60,000 138,988 29,683 258,408297,631 7,573 12,01310,951 50 3,990 12,075 4,434 1,882 2,000 1,729 60 12,813 5,989 9,760 2,750 4,024 50 930,830 2,002,4521,066,377 475,000 350,000 166,729 X.— Methodist. 2. Methodist Episcopal, South,11 3. African Methodist Episcopal 13. . . . 4. African Methodist Episcopal Zion1'2 5. Colored Methodist Episcopal Ia. . . . ' 23,"4 22,180 35,388 4,081,558 1 Estimated by a prominent official in the denomination. ,J Estimated by Rev. James Quinter, of Huntingdon, Pa. 3 Estimated by Rev. J. R. H. Latchan, of Findlay, 0. ' Estimated by Rev. C. H. A van der Swissen, Zionsville, Lehigh County, Pa. B Official Minutes for 1886. 6 Estimated by Rev H. J. Duckworth, Centerburg, O. ' Official Year Book for 1887. e Estimated by Rev. Bishop Nicholson for 1885. "Estimated by D. P.. UpdegrafT, of Mt. Pleasant, O. Hicksites omitted. 10 Partly Year Book 1887 and partly estimated by Rev. Dr. G. A. Zimmerman, of Chicago, 111. " Minutes for 1886. >'' Methodist Year Book for 1887. 13 The Independent and Rev. J. Nicum estimated a little higher. 14 Letter from Rev. Bishop E. Williams. , LATEST OBTAINABLE DATA. 741 Churches, Ministers and Communicani 'S, 1886. — Continued. DENOMINATIONS. Churches or Congrega tions. Ministers. Local Preachers. Communi cants. 7. Protestant Methodist ' 1,713 275 35 495 93 60 4,332 1,808 61 85 1,570 20O 30 514 280 53 50 i,378 1,069 94 "5 '488 890613 128,709 8,0005,000 16,82618,260 5,0022,500 185,103132,508 10,250 7,700 8. Congregational Methodist '' 9. Independent Methodist 3 10. Free Methodist Church 4 11. "Wesleyan Methodist 5 13. Reformed Methodist 1 KINDRED METHOniST BODIES. 1. United Brethren 6 Total Methodist and kindred bodies.. XI. — Presbyterian. 32,071 6,436 2,236 885 2,540 119 54 116 175 400 547 13 1,481 27,542 5,654 1,116 736 1,563 200 103 328684 , 300 547 8 802 37,379 4,601,416 696,767 150,398 94,641 145,146 15,000 10,832 6,800 7,015 9,563 25,000 85,543 564 183,980 3. United Presbyterian Ch. of N. A.6. 5. Cumberland Presbyter'n, Colored, 9. • 7. General Synod of Reformed Pres.7 . 8. Associate Ref'd Syn. of the South 4. kindred presbyterian bodies. 1. Reformed (late Dutch) Church 6. . 2. True Reformed Dutch Church 10. . . 3. Reformed (late German) Church 6. . Total Presbyterian and kindred bodies . XII. — SCHWEl^KFELDER 8 15,002 6 11,241 10 1,431,249 850 35,000 XIII. — Other small bodies. Bible Union, River Brethren, Colored Methodist Protestant, etc., etc., etc. . H2,744 83,845 12,132,651 1 Rev. F. F. Tagg, Baltimore. Md. 2 For 1887 by Rev. S. C. McDaniel, of Georgia. 3 Independent, May 19, 1887. 4 Official Minutes for 1886. 6 Minutes for 7 Estimated. No Minutes. 8 Rev. J. Nicum, of Syracuse, N. Y. rian Church for 1887. 10 Rev. R. Brinkerhoff, New York city. Recapitulation. B Official Year Book for "* Minutes of Cumberland Presbyte- YEAR. Churches or Congrega- Ministers. Communicants. 1775-1800. 1850.1870.1880.1886. 1,918 3,o3o 43,072 70,14897,090 "2,744 i,435 2,651 25,555 47,609 69,870 83,854 364,872 3,529,988 6,673,396 10,065,96312,132,651 Note.— There are also 37,379 local preachers, and a large number of licentiates in all other denomina tions, not included among the ministers. 742 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. INCREASE. 1800-1886 109,714 churches. 1800-1886 81,203 ministers. 1800-1886 11,767,779 communicants. Increase of Communicants by Periods. Average yearly. 1800-1850, 50 years 3,165,116 63,302 1350-1870,20 " 3,143,408 I57.i7<» 1870-1880, 10 " 3,392,587 339,258 1880-1886, 6 " 2,066,698 344.449 All persons familiar with the history of Christianity will agree that the above exhibit of religious progress cannot be paralleled in the history of God's kingdom in any land or any age. It is all the more remarkable because only about ninety years ago it was a com mon boast of infidels that " Christianity would not survive two generations " in this country. Instead of that, Christianity, since then, has achieved her grandest triumph. How often has the prog ress of Christianity in the apostolic age been cited as a marvel of growth which the Church of our times should emulate. Such per sons forget that the growth of the Churches of the United States in this century has far transcended that of the first Christian cent uries. Eminent students of history have made the following estimate of the number of nominal Christians: Close of the first century 500,000 Close of the second century 2,000,000 Close of the third century 5,000,000 Close of the fourth century 10,000,000 Close of the fifth century 15,000,000 Close of the sixth century 20,000,000 Close of the seventh century. . . .25,000,000 Close of the eighth century 30,000,000 Close of the ninth century 40,000,000 If the communicants in the foregoing table were multiplied by three and a half (Rev. Dr. R. Baird used four as the multiple) we would have a fair estimate of the number of adherents of evangel ical Christianity in our country. This would give us, in 1800, 1,277,052; 1886, 42,564,278— an increase of 41,287,226, or more than in the whole world at the close of the first nine centuries of the Christian era. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake." Section 2.— The Population Test. In a country of such marvelous growth, where so many things so luxuriantly flourish, there are strong competing forces, and Chris tianity is subjected to severe crucial tests. The population test is one of the most legitimate as well as one DIAGRAM IV. GROWTH OF CITY POPULATIONS COMPARED WITH TOTAL POPULATION OF UNITED STATES. 1840 I860. l\ Mr- US \\o l\-n \*i -U^ \* sl\r' ml lo V %\\» \a i860. oil l o TJ| \C0 \* 3 \'° \s. Z \a v» — 1 \ T| IS M 12 ol 1* 31 \-< —1 !>¦ ml 1 2 col \-< • 1 Ito 1870. 1 V \t* \^ 1 IB 1 1* \o 1 l01 1880. 1 \ THE POPULATION TEST. 743 of the severest. If Christianity would fulfill its long avowed pre dictions of the conquest of this world for Christ, it must not only keep pace with the growth of the population, but also gain upon it. What country has made such an advance in its population as the United States during this century? History furnishes no parallel. To follow up the growth and expansion of the popu lation in so large an area; to furnish them with religious influences, and to make such a lodgment of Christian truth in their hearts as to hold them to Christianity, is a task of no small magnitude, especially when the additions to the population come from such diverse sources, and are hostile to the prevailing type of religion in the land. i.— The Large Cities. A marked tendency of the population to accumulate in large centers has been perceptible during the last fifty years. Notwith standing the inhabitants have been spreading out into new terri tories, filling up vast solitudes with active, industrious, organized communities, so that from 1790 to 1880 the thirteen original States increased threefold, and nine great Territories with a million of people are now rapidly maturing to the condition of States, at the same time the growth of the city populations has been even more wonderful. At the opening of this century, only six cities of 8,000 inhabitants and upward were registered in our national census. In 1880 they numbered 286. In the last census, the " Fifty Principal Cities,"* all with populations exceeding 35,000, and one half exceeding 63,000, and located in all parts ofthe country, are tabu lated. We have constructed similar tables ofthe same cities f for 1840, 1850, i860 and lHjo.X Forty years is a sufficiently long period for testing the growth of the populations and the churches in them. Analyzed and classified the statistics afford valuable instruction. I — Urban Populations of 8,000 Inhabitants and Upward. DATE. 18001840.1850. i860. 1870.1880. Number of Cities. Population. Percentage of the total population of the United States. 6 44 85 141 226 286 210,873 1,453.994 2,897,586 5,072,2568,071,875 11,318,547 3.9 per cent. 8.5 " " 12.5 " " 16.1 " " 20.9 " " 22.5 " " * See Compendium of United States Census, r88o. P. 542, etc + San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, and a few others which did not exist in 1840, or were only small hamlets, are introduced at ldter dates. X These tables are too bulky for insertion in this volume, but the summaries are used. 744 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. II. — Urban and Rural Populations Compared. PERIOD. 50 Principal Cities. Other Cities of 8,000 inhab'ts. Population outside of all cities of 8,000 Number of this class. Population. inhabitants and up ward. 1,325,622 2,417,699 2,937,489 5,686,897 7,794,503 35 91 176 236 15,615,459 20,294,290 1850 479,887 1,034,767 2,384,978 3,524,044 i860 26,371,065 1870 30,486,496 38,837,236 1880 III.— Proportion of the Above Populations to the Whole Popula tion of the United States. 1840.1850.i860.1870.1880. IV. — Actual Increase in Population. 1840-50.1850-60.1860-70.1870-80. 1,092,0771,519,790 1,749,080 2,107,606 554,880 1,350,211 1,139,066 4,678,8316,076,7754,"5,43i 8,350,740 V. — Relative Increase. 1840-50. 1850-60. 1S60-70. 1870-80. 78. percent. 62.8 " " 44.4 " " 37-4 " " 106 per cent. 130 " 43 " " 29 per cent. 29 " " 15 " •' 27 " " An examination of the foregoing tables will disclose some important facts. 1. — Great and rapid increase of city populations. The popula tion ofthe "Fifty Principal Cities" has increased since 1 840 from one and one third millions to seven and three fourth millions (see Table IL), or from "J.J per cent, of the whole population ofthe country to 15.5 per cent. The other cities of 8,000 inhabitants and upward increased from less than half a million in 1850 to three and a half millions in 1880, or from 2.1 to 7 per cent, of the whole population of the United States. 2. — The cities held their growth during the period of the civil war (see Table III.), while the rural population relatively declined. With the exception of the war period the relative increase of the rural populations was quite uniform. 3. — The relative increase of both classes of cities declined each decade (see Table V.) notwithstanding their large actual increase. The larger bases on which the percentage is calculated account in part for this showing, but not altogether. The actual increase is less, compared with the bases on which the gain is made. DIAGRAM V. SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF THE FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN THE FIFTY PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE U. S. 1850 \ V \* \ x* V^ I860 Vs SO Yi Vs y \j, \5o \«?. V3> \f" V* \Ct. \« \8. V* 1870 \* \* V2, \w \fA \-^ V Y Vi 1 \"** \v* 1 Y3> M> \s> \<* 1 \tP V 1 \<5 \ I \* \ 1 \ \ 1 \ \ IRRO \ \ \ * About 8o per cent, more than the foreign born in all the cities. In some cities more than ioo per cent, additional. FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION. 745 4- — The rural population increased 4,678,831 from 1840 to 1850; but from 1870 to 1880 it gained 8,350,740. But this class of popu lation is all the time concentrating in newly forming centers, soon to be added to the list of city populations, thus enhancing the interest in the great problem of the cities. Foreign Elements. Another important element entering into the problem of the cities is the exceptionally large proportion of the foreign-born pop ulation. If the population were homogeneous, of common race, ideas, customs, language, etc., the task of molding them morally and religiously would be much easier. But we find them of every conceivable nationality, of all shades of religion and no religion, and a very large share of them acknowledging allegiance to a foreign pontiff. The tables * ofthe foreign-born populations of the " Fifty Principal Cities " show that there are inhabitants from : Africa (not specified) in 40 cities. Asia " " "30 " Atlantic Islands " 33 " Australia " 47 " Austria " 50 " Belgium " 46 " Bohemia " 46 " British America " 50 " Central America "22 " China " 46 " Cuba " 41 " Denmark " 50 " Europe (not specified) "42 " France " 50 " German Empire "50 " England " 50 " Ireland "50 " Scotland " 50 " Wales "50 " Greece " 32 " Greenland " 12 " Holland in 50 cities. Hungary " 46 " India " 45 " Italy "49 " Japan " 16 " Luxemburg " 34 " Malta " 20 " Mexico " 40 " Norway " 48 " Pacific Islands " 24 " Poland " 50 " Portugal " 33 " Russia " 50 " Sandwich Islands " 32 " South America " 49 " Spain "48 " Sweden " 50 " Switzerland " 50 " Turkey " 33 " West Indies " 47 " What more striking exhibit of the wide distribution of the most diverse elements in our large cities ! What a polyglot population ! The natives of fourteen of the localities are in every one ofthe 50 principal cities ; those of 15 other localities are in between 40 and 50 of the cities ; and the natives of only five localities are in less than half of the 50 cities. The foreign-born population of this * Census of 1880, Vol. I, pp. 546-551. 746 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. country has been collated in the census only since 1850. From these sources we have derived the following exhibit : h% . X v ; 0 -. DATE. eign-born to the whole cc'3 .too a c 0 4> S3S In the 50 prin In the whole population outside of the 50 cities. S- ft cipal cities. country. Cn fe, 1850 710,784 2,264,602 1850 37.1 per cent. 9 per cent. i860 1,436,122 4,138,697 i860 38.3 " ¦' *3 1870 1,950,192 5,566,546 1870 34-r 14 1870 11 u ll 1880 Si33°i343 6,697,943 1880 29.8 " " 13 1880... .10 " " In addition to those born in foreign lands there are those who sustain the closest relations to foreign customs and ideas, one or both of whose parents were foreign-born. The United States cen sus for 1880 gave the number of this class for only New York city, 39 per cent., which, with those actually born in foreign lands, made 80.1 percent, either foreign-born or one or both of whose parents were foreign-born. The Massachusetts census for 1885 gave these two classes in the whole State at 53.6 per cent, of the whole popu lation, or almost twice as large as the foreign-born alone (27.13 p^r cent.). It also gave the following : Boston Cambridge. Fall River.. Lawrence . . Lowell Holyoke.. . . Foreign-born. 34.14 per cent. 32.16 " " 49.16 " " 43-9940.37 ' 49-77 ' Foreign -bom, and one or both parents foreign- born. 67.02 per cent. 64.6 " 81.3 " 77-4 68.4 " 82.7 " New Bedford Salem Worcester 65^ towns and cities in Massachusetts Foreign-born. Foreign-born, and one or both parents foreign- born. 30.71 per cent. 27.06 u " 29.51 " " 51.3 percent. 55-2 " " 59-7 " 65.1 " " The foreign element of Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and San Francisco will rank with New York city. In these, and possibly in some other cities, the foreign-born, and those one or both of whose parents are foreign-born, may be safely estimated at twice the number of the foreign-born ; in others, at 80 per cent, more than the foreign-born. The latter will be a safe rule for most large cities. This will give in the " 50 principal cities" 4,194,617 as the foreign increment, or nearly 54 per cent, of their total population, and shows the difficulty with which the churches have to contend. We next inquire how have the evangelical churches competed with the population in the cities ? It is a matter of regret that only a few of the denominations publish their statistics in such a form as to make them available for comparisons, covering a period of forty years in these fifty cities. We are confined to the following: the COMMUNICANTS AND POPULATION. 747 Presbyterians, embracing the Old School and New School while separated, and the Southern body since its secession in 1861 ; the Methodist Episcopal and the Methodist Episcopal, South, the Con gregationalists and the Reformed (late Dutch) Church ; which, for the sake of convenience, we will call six denominations. The points of comparison are the churches, the ministers, and the communicants, which will be considered as a whole. How have these religious bodies jointly competed with the population ? 18401850, i860187018S01886 1840 1850 i860 1870 1880 Churches. 657 870 1,114 1.450I-7I4 Ministers. 899 1.3991,824 2.195 2,616 Communicants. 104,706 157,933 222,625 298,474 414,184496.694 Inhabitants to one Church. Inhabitants to one Minister 3,6804,526 5,104 5.375 2,686 2,8123. H7 3,551 Inhabitants to one communic't. 12.67 15-3°17-33 19.0518.81 The above table shows a steady falling behind the increase of the population in each decade, and in every point of comparison, except that since 1870 the communicants have made a slight gain on the inhabitants — the fruitage ofthe large city mission and Young Men's Christian Association work. It is not possible, we think, to find in any previous centuries anything which corresponded to the city missions of our times. City missions, the growth of the last seventy years in the United States, now exist in large numbers in all our cities, and the Young Men's Christian associations, the Young Woman's Christian associations, the Woman's Christian Temperance unions, and a host of other similar agencies, are actively cultivating the field — all entirely unknown in other centuries. As late as 1861 the Wesleyan chapels in London were only sixteen. Since 1861 they have erected 64 chapels, with accommodations ranging from 1,000 to 1,104 sittings each, and 97 more whose sittings do not exceed 650 each. In Boston,* in 1820, there were only 18 evangelical churches, or one to 3,248 inhabitants ; in 1880 there were 137, or one in 2,656 inhabitants. But even in Boston there are sections with few Protestant services. * Taking in both periods the present area of Boston. 748 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Though there can be no' comparison with the population in 1886 yet the rate of increase keeps up and runs a little ahead of that from 1870 to 1880. In the last six years the average yearly increase in churches was 11 more, in ministers 33 more, and communicants 2,177 more than the yearly increase in the previous decade; the increase in communicants being 82,510 from 1880 to 1886,* to 115,710 in the 10 previous years. The statistics indicate that the present decade, like the last, is hopeful for evangelical Christianity in the large cities. Were it possible to add to the statistics of the six Protestant bodies those of the Lutherans, the Baptists, the African Methodists in the South, the case would look still brighter ; for these denominations, whose statistics are not available for this investigation, are among the most flourishing of all. It now looks as though the efforts for city evangelization, which have been slowly organizing, are beginning to develop encouraging results. Will not our denominations be inspired to greater efforts to thoroughly cap ture and hold these strongholds, and make them intense centers of Christ's spiritual kingdom ? 2 — In New England. All eyes have been turned with much interest to this great emigrating and immigrating section, and grave inquiries have been made in regard to the religious prospects. In 1880 about 600,000 New England-born people were scattered in the United States out side of New England, and about 800,000 foreign-born inhabitants had come to more than fill their places, not to speak of 80 per cent. more, the offspring in the first degree of the latter class, most of whom are Roman Catholics. What is the statistical exhibit of the evangelical churches ? One point of comparison, the communicants, will suffice. Evangelical Communicants and the Population in New England. 1850. i860. 1870. 1880. 72,294 49,632 44,329 124,899 18,22075,710 81,275 50,958 46,334 153,572 22,732 96,817 80,178 50,37149,504 175,326 26,426 107,169 86,894 53,51855,988 213,288 33,542 123,934 385,084 451,688 488,974 567,164 2,728,116 3,135,283 3,487,924 4,010,436 * And some of the figures are really for 1885. PROPORTION IN NEW ENGLAND. Inhabitants to One Communicant. 749 1850. i860. 1870. 1880. 8.076.41 7.08 7.968.09 4-89 7-73 6-396.80 8.017.68 4-75 7.82 6.316.67 8.318.22 5-oi 7.48 6.46 5-94 8-358.24 5.02 7.06 6.94 7.18 7-02 It appears that the communicants in the evangelical churches in New England kept pace with the population from 1850 to 1880, notwithstanding the large foreign accessions. The foreign-born in 1880 amounted to 20 per cent, of the whole population, and in Massachusetts to 25 per cent. In 1880 the foreign-born in Con necticut were 20 per cent., and in Rhode Island 26 per cent, of the whole population. In 1885 it had risen to 27 per cent, in Massachu setts. Few States now have a larger pro rata foreign element than Massachusetts, and this is chiefly Irish and French Roman Catholics. People in other sections can hardly realize the difficulty of the task in New England. In 1880 only one State exceeded Massachu setts, relatively, in its foreign-born population. Wisconsin had 31 per cent. New York and Michigan ranked a little lower than Mas sachusetts, having 24 per cent. Then follow Illinois, 19 per cent. ; Iowa, 16 per cent.; Pennsylvania, 13 per cent. ; Ohio, 12 per cent. Going South, Louisiana has 5.7 per cent., Kentucky 3.3 per cent., Tennessee 1 per cent., and Georgia seven tenths of one per cent. How different the task in these States ! Further on we will notice that in 1850 the Roman Catholics estimated their population in New England * at only 100,000, but now it was reckoned at over 1,100,000 — an elevenfold Roman Catholic increase, while the whole population had gained only 47 per cent. Under such circumstances the progress of the evangel ical churches is remarkable. How many evangelical churches have been founded in the West by people who have gone forth from this section ! And what generous contributions of money have been made by those who remain in New England to aid the evangelizing work in the West ! 3— In the Whole Country. It would be gratifying to examine into the relative growth of these churches in other sections of the country ; but many churches * See table in the latter part of this chapter. 7SO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. in other sections have never published their statistics in such a form as to make it possible to produce a thorough tabulation and com parison with the population in limited areas. We, therefore, next take the country as a whole. The relative growth will be exhibited by the following table : population. Churches. Ministers. Communicants . 1800 5,305,925 1850 23,191,876 1870 38,558,371 1880 50,152,866 1886 *58,420,ooo 3,030 43,07270,148 97,ogo 112,744 2.651 25,655 47,609 69,87083,845 364,872 3,529,988 6,673,396 10,065,96312,132,651 1800 one church in 1,751 inhabitants. 1850 one church in 538 inhabitants. 1870 one church in 549 inhabitants. 1800 one minister in 2,001 inhabitants. 1850 one minister in goo inhabitants. 1870 one minister in 809 inhabitants. 1800. .one communicant in 14.50 inhabitants. 1850 .one communicant in 6.57 inhabitants. 1870. .one communicant in 5.7S inhabitants. 1880 one church in 1886 one church in 18S0 one minister in 1886 one minister in 516 inhabitants. 518 innabitants. 718 inhabitants. 692 inhabitants. 1880. .one communicant in 5. inhabitants. 1886. .one communicant in 4.8 inhabitants. From 1800 to 1880 the population increased 9.46 fold, the com municants 27.52 fold. From 1800 to 1886 the population increased 11. 01 fold, the com municants 33.3 fold. From 1850 to 1880 the population increased 116 per cent., the communicants 184 per cent. From 1850 to 1886 the population increased 152 per cent., the communicants- 243 per cent. While in the cities and in New England, the localities in which the foreign elements of our population have so largely concentrated, the struggle has been severe, in the nation as a whole, evangelical Protestantism has wonderfully outrun the population. Section 3.— Tlie Interdenominational Test. Three classes of churches, popularly distinguished as the " evan gelical," the " liberal " and the Roman Catholic, may be said to be, in a qualified sense, competing bodies, because representing either radically different polities or divergent theologies. * Estimated by Government Actuary Elliot, for June 30, 1886. INTERDENOMINATIONAL COMPARISON. 751 i— The "Evangelical" and the "Liberal" Churches are at such great disparity in numbers that we have hesitated to make a comparison lest it should seem invidious. The briefest exhibit is therefore given of the Unitarian and the Universalist bodies, the most important * of their class, which are best com pared by their churches or " parishes." 1850. 1886. Increase or Decrease. Universalist f 1,069 954 Decrease, 115 Unitarian % 246 335 Increase, 89 Total 1,315 1,289 Decrease, 26 Evangelical 43,072 112,744 Increase, 69,872 2.— The Evangelical Protestant and the Roman Catholic Bodies Compared. (1.) In the Cities. — The large foreign increment in the population of the cities, coming chiefly from Roman Catholic countries, has afforded Romanism a rare opportunity for growth in the leading centers. Its churches, priests, monks, nuns, hospitals, asylums and parochial schools have increased in the cities far more than in the rural towns. It has substantial and imposing church edifices and cathedrals, and is subsidizing the press in its interest. Only two points of definite comparison, however, can be used with the Prot estant bodies in the cities — the churches and the clergy. These, while confessedly unsatisfactory, may serve some purpose. The Roman Catholic Church and Six § Protestant Bodies in the Fifty Principal Cities. Churches. CLERGY.il Roman Catholic. Six Protestant Churches. Roman Catholic. Six Protestant Churches. 1850 170 312 495676 831 657 870 1,114 1,450 1,714 336565 1,0311,562I,8g2 899 1,3991,824 1 860 1870 1880 2,1952,616 1886 From the preceding table it is evident that the increase of the Roman Catholic churches and clergy, considered relatively, is much greater than those of the six Protestant bodies. It is not diffi cult to account for it, by the transference of her people in large * Besides these there were probably not more than 100 churches of all others of this class in 1850, and scarcely 200 in 1886. + See also Chapter III, Section 5, in this period. X See also Chapter III, Section 6, in this period. § As explained on page 747. | Full tables of the Roman Catholic clergy and churches will be found on pp. 622-623. 732 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. aggregates from Europe to America. The actual increase from 1850 to 1886, in the number of the Roman Catholic churches, was 561 to 1,057 increase in the six Protestant bodies, and the Roman Catholic clergy increased 1,556 to 1,717 increase in the six Protest ant denominations, leaving out of the account more than sixty other Protestant bodies. Furthermore, it has been before noticed that in these cities, in 1 870, Romanism had one church in 1 1 ,489 of the total inhabitants, and, in 1880, one in 11,530 — a slight relative decrease. It should also be stated that from 1850 to 1880 the foreign-born in these cities increased three and a half-fold ; the Roman Catholic churches less than fourfold, and the priests about four and a half fold — not much more than the foreign-born increment, not to reckon those of the second degree foreign. While the Roman Catholics had in 1880 one church in 11,530 ofthe total inhabitants the six Protestant bodies had one in 5,375 ofthe total inhabitants, leaving over sixty Protestant bodies unreckoned. There are, however, some large sections of some great cities with no Protestant churches, or almost none, owing to the removal of the Protestant church-going population to new sections. There are also other serious consider ations entering into the case, which will readily suggest themselves to all minds, and must now be left out of our crowded space. (2) In New England we have a striking example of Protestant territory invaded by Romanism, as will be seen by the following statistical exhibit : 1850. DIOCESES. 0.0 S 11 2 oiV J! u3 O -0 rt c — .2 a« .£¦55 0 "c3 .— in .5 « o^5 bs. I <6 'i-a rt 0 < I JS 0 cic — £ — rt 0 05 £ 0 c „.S«.- S 0 U ¦ 1 -C 3 « §¦ g g Hi 60 11 63 12 3 80,000* 20,000* Hartford 7 Total 71 75 7 I I 3 1886. Boston Ijurlington. . Hartford. . . Manchester. PortlandProvidence. , Springfield. . Total . 312 45 156 47 57 104141 S62 157 72 133 43 5255 90 602 17 '00 29 8 16 14 144 75 2 18 1 30 14 '3S 50 1 225 37 16 64 20 14 17 21 2o,o66 3.658 13.384 4.600 3,671 9,000 7,330 61,709 41 400.0001 35.ooo| 175,0008 150,000s 90.000s I56,ooo§I55,ooo§ 1,161,000 -"-Fo t Archbishop. X '886. § 1884. DIAGRAM VI. EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTISM, ROMANISM, AND THE POPULATION IN NEW ENGLAND, 1850 AND 1880. Total Population, 2,728,116. Evangelical Church Population, 1,347,794* Unclassified. B.O. 1850. 100,000 Total Population, 4,010,436. Evangelical Church Population,1,985,074.* Boman Catholic Population, 1,161,000. Unclassified. 1880. * These numbers are obtained by multiplying the enrolled communicants by three and a half. t Comprising their whole families. DIAGRAM Vll. ILLUSTRATING THE RELATIVE PROGRESS OF THE EVAN GELICAL AND ROMAN CATHOLIC POPULATIONS AND THE WHOLE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 1800. TOTAL POP., 5,308,483 CLASSIFIED POPULATIONS. Boman Catholic. Evangelical. 1800 100,000 1,277,052 1850 1,614,000 12,354,968 1870 4,600,000 23,356,886 1880 6,367,330 35,230,870 1886 7,200,000 42,646,279 TOTAL POP., 23,191,876. TOTAL PTJP., 38.558,371. TOTAL POP., 50,152,866. TOTAL POP., 58,420,000. REMARKABLE GROWTH OF ROMANISM. 753 A glance at the above table will be sufficient to convey to any mind the remarkable growth of Romanism in New England, where in 1800 there was only one Roman Catholic church, except a few small ones among the Indians in remote parts of Maine. The great changes in the population already alluded to — 600,000 New England-born persons removed and living in other parts of the United States, in 1880, and about 800,000 immigrants occupying their places, with nearly as many more who are foreign in the second degree — easily account for the situation. With all this disadvan tage Protestantism, as has been seen on a previous page, has held its own with the population and also largely aided in evangelizing other sections of the country. (3.) In the West the page is reversed, and we have a striking example of the territory of Romanism invaded by Protestantism. It has been well said that it is one of the marvels of the age that the United States is not a Roman Catholic country. In the opening chapters, we noticed how, at the beginning, Romanism possessed all British America, Central America, Mexico, New Mex ico, California, Texas, and the Gulf line to Florida, the Mississippi valley and the vast area beyond. The only religious occupancy of those great regions was Roman Catholic, and that Church held the right of way from the Blue Ridge to the Pacific. Maryland, also, at the first was a Roman Catholic colony, dividing the Protest ant colonies in the North from those in the South. This French and Spanish cordon at one time bid fair, with the aid of the aborig ines who had been attached to the papal standard, to destroy the Protestant colonies. Until near the close of the last century scarcely a Protestant existed within those extensive domains. What is the situation to-day? Instead of Roman Catholic pre ponderance in this great region, there are single Protestant denom inations that outrank it. Each of the two leading Methodist Episcopal bodies separately, and the two leading Presbyterian churches jointly, exceed it. In the afore-described field these bodies exist as follows : Churches. Clergy. Roman Catholic 4,477 3,285 Methodist Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal, South 13.99° 14,668 Presbyterian General Assemblies, North and South 5,103 3,4^0 But there are points in the West where the Roman Catholic Church presents great strength and exerts immense power. (4.) In the Whole Country .—The phenomenal growth of Roman ism in this country causes periodical alarm in some minds. The 48 734 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. remarkable elevenfold reduplication of the total population in eighty-six years excites our wonder, but Romanism has far exceeded that — rising as high as seventy-twofold. In 1850 it stood about one fourteenth of the population, and in 1870 about one eighth. Those, however, who pause at this point, or who make their calculations cover the whole period of eighty-six years without inspecting the intervening periods, are misled. In the following table three leading points of comparison are placed side by side. But inasmuch as the Roman Catholic " popu lation," as given in their year books, comprises their entire adher ents, the adherents of the evangelical churches are put in the same form, multiplying the communicants by three and a half.* 1800.1850.1870.1880. r886. YEAR. 1800.1850.1870.1880.1886. Churches. Roman Catholic. 1.2453.912 5,856 6,910 Evangel ical. 3.030 43.072 70,148 97.090 112,744 Inhabitants to one Church. Roman Catholic. 18,627 9,856 8,5648,454 Evangel ical. 1,751 538 549516518 Clergy. Roman Catholic Priests. 5° 1,302 3,966 6,402 7.658 Evangel ical Ministers. 2,651 25,655 47,60969,870 83,845 Inhabitants to one Clergyman. Roman Catholic Priests. 106,118 I7.8I2 9,722 7,8347,627 Evangel ical Ministers. 2,OOI 900 809 718 692 Church Population. Roman Catholic. 100,000 I,6l4,O00 4,600,000 6,367,330 7,200,000 Evangelical. 1,277,052 12,354,958 23,356,886 35,230,870 42,646,279 Percentage of the Whole Population. Roman Catholic. 1.8 per cent. 6.9 per cent. 1 1.9 per cent. 12.6 per cent. 12.3 per cent. Evangelical. 24 per cent. 53.2 per cent. 60.5 per cent. 70.5 per cent. 73 per cent. In the foregoing exhibits the growth of the Roman Catholic Church, both actually and relatively, is seen to be very large from 1800 to 1870. From 1850 to 1870, the period ofthe large Irish emigration, were the years of its greatest growth, since which time it has received less re-enforcement by emigration, the Scandinavian countries having contributed a larger quota than formerly. The year 1870 marks the point from which the Roman Catholic Church in this country has made relatively smaller numerical progress. The leaders seem to be aware of this, and, are therefore, more energet ically pushing their schools, hospitals, asylums, and various religious orders, that they may hold their people more closely in the midst of Rev. R. Baird, D.D., multiplied by four. DIAGRAM VIII. RELATIVE ROMAN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT INCREASE IN THE WHOLE UNITED STATES. Increase of Churches. Increase of Clergymen. Evangelical Protestant. o I o omCO Roman Catholic. To CO omCO m O tococo l_L Evangelical Protestant. m°lIn I o oinco Roman Catholic. DIAGRAM IX. RELATIVE GROWTH AND STATUS OF EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTISM AND ROMANISM COMPARED WITH THE POPULATION OF THE U. S. Total Population. 66 per cent. Evangelical Prot. Population. 89 per cent. Boman Catholic Population. 187 per cent. Total Population. Evangel. Prot. Pop'n. Rom. Cath. Pop'n. 52 per cent. 79 per cent. 56 per cent. Total Popula'n. Evan. Prot. Pop'n. R. C. Pop'n. Total Population. Evan. Prot. Pop'n. R. C. Pop'n. Total Population. Evan. Prot. Population. R. C. Pop'n. 23,191,876. 12,354,958.* 1,614,000. 38,558,371. 23,356,886.* 4,600,000. 58,420,000. 42,646,279.* 7,200,000. CO01 o UY > H<> H l» CO ¦ CO * These numbers are obtained by multiplying the enrolled communicants by three and a half. A STEADY ADVANCE. 785 the powerful abrasions from which they are suffering under the influence of the Protestant civilization. The evangelical churches have advanced more relatively since 1870 than before. Comparing, we have the following striking figures : Increase of Churches. 1850-1870, Roman Catholic 1,944 1870-1886, Roman Catholic 1,054 890 less than in the previous period. 1850-1870, Evangelical Protestant 27,076 1870-1886, Evangelical Protestant 41,596 14,520 more than in the previous period. Increase of Clergy. 1850-1870, Roman Catholic 2,436 1870-1886, Roman Catholic 1,256 1,180 less than in the previous period. 1850-1870, Evangelical Protestant 21,954 1870-1886, Evangelical Protestant 36,236 14,282 more than in the previous period. Increase of the Church Population. 1 850-1870, Roman Catholic 2,986,000 1 870-1 886, Roman Catholic 2,600,000 386,000 less than in the previous period. 1850-1870, Evangelical Protestant 11,001,928 1870-1886, Evangelical Protestant 19,289,393 8,287,465 more than in the previous period. Per Cent, of the Whole Population. In 1870, Roman Catholics 11.9 per cent, of the population. In 1880, Roman Catholics 12.6 per cent, of the population. In 1886, Roman Catholics 12.3 per cent, of the population. In 1886, .4 of 1 per cent, more than in 1870, and .3 of 1 per cent, less than in 1880. In 1870, Evangelical Protestants 60.5 per cent, of the population. In 1&50, Evangelical Protestants 70.5 per cent of the population. In 1S86, Evangelical Protestants 73 per cent, of the population. In r886, 12.5 per cent, more than in 1870, and 2.5 per cent, more than in 1880. We have put in as compact and succinct a form as possible these great facts of religious progress, withholding extended amplification. Who can fail to be impressed with the exhibits? Some persons will ' doubtless reiterate heavy allegations against Christianity, and flip pantly ignore the statistics of its progress as " only mathematics," " liable to be very deceptive," and " having no relation to religious matters." But we are accustomed to apply figures to all departments of science, to political, moral and social life. Moral tendencies are often summarized in statistical tables, then analyzed, and conclusions deduced. The numerical exhibits of religious denominations, care fully combined and analyzed, represent the existence and operation of spiritual forces, but each in its own sphere. 7S6 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VIII. REVIEW AND OUTLOOK-PENDING PROBLEMS. The Problem of the Population. The Spirit of Free Inquiry. Modern Revolutionizina; Tendencies. The New Functions of Public Opinion. The Civil Problem. The Problem of Protestantism. FROM lofty hill-battlement or city towers, ancient watchmen scanned outlying fields and reported indications of safety or alarm. From elevated hill-tops and observatories, generals watch the progress of great battles and direct the movements of the contending forces. History is the philosopher's tower of observation, from whose serene summit epochs are marked, crises discovered, tidal move ments traced, beacon-lights discerned, and national destinies prog nosticated. Many have been the inquiries, at home and abroad, as to the prospects of American Christianity and the American Republic. The attention of European divines and statesmen has been thought fully directed toward the United States, closely studying the in stitutions and scrutinizing their progress. Regarding them as experimental, and apprehensive that their own are seriously defect ive, they watch with deepest interest the practical working of our civil and ecclesiastical polities. Favored with unequal natural ad vantages, embodying the highest moral and religious principles in its life, and bearing the impress of lofty providential purposes, the nation has become " a spectacle to angels and to men." From the extended survey which this Volume has taken, we now analyze a few points in the politico-religious situation and tenden cies, and make inquiry as to the prospects. The thoughtful student of the field has discerned Many Problems, Civil, Social, Economic, Moral and Religions, involved in onr Rational Life, upon the favorable solution of which our hopes depend. The Negro Problem, the Indian Problem, the Mormon Problem, the Chinese Problem, the Capital and Labor Problem, the Poverty Prob- PROBLEMS IN OUR NATIONAL LIFE. 151 lem, the Drink Problem, the Illiteracy Problem, etc., etc., all en gage much attention, and each, in the estimation of specialists, is of great importance. Most of them have been already treated, in a historical way, in the preceding pages, others are of secondary rele vancy in this volume, and the lines of discussion in others are yet immature. At this stage in the volume, the author, after a severe and unexpected compression in the last two hundred and fifty pages, finds himself compelled to narrow the range of these final inquiries, and selects six problems, which, in respect to wide scope and vital importance to the life of the churches and the nation, seem to him most fitting. THE PROBLEM OF THE POPULATION is one of the most familiar. From the beginning, we have been a mixed nation of alien peoples, of diverse educations, customs and motives, of many bloods and conflicting theories. The God-fearing foundeis of New England and the no less intensely Protestant set tlers of New York brought the best brain, muscle and education of Britain and Holland. William Penn and the Quakers came teaching lessons of peace and good will. The Huguenots, a people of pure, unquenchable faith and lofty ideals and purposes, came to decorate our homes and churches, and a goodly number have adorned Amer ican statesmanship and jurisprudence. The cavaliers of Old England brought to the Middle and Southern colonies sentiments of family pride, aristocratic privilege and lordly prerogative. Florida and the South-west received their early impress from the gay and chiv alrous emigrants of Andalusia and the Pyrenees. French civilization skirted our northern border and penetrated the Mississippi Valley. Many from the abject and criminal classes of the Old World came bound by humiliating terms of indentured servitude, and Africa yielded up multitudes of her dusky children to a bondage most heartless and rigorous. Such were the strangely varied forces converging in our colonial life. Could such diverse peoples blend into national unity? In working out this answer, our fathers were illumined and cheered by the lessons of history speaking of brave deeds done by aliens to the nations in whose pages their heroism is recorded. One of the most obvious facts in our nation's life is the remarka ble increase of its inhabitants. We have no record of any country, in ancient or modern times, which has had such a growth. Let us notice our growth, in comparison with some modern European countries prior to 1850. 7B8 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Spain, in in years (1723-1834), increased in population T6U65 of one per cent, per annum. France, in 89 years (1762-185 1), increased -/^ of one per cent. per annum. Austria, in 59 years (1792-185 1), increased -$fo of one per cent. per annum. Great Britain, in 50 years (1801 — 1851), increased one and -ffo per cent, per annum. Russia, in 67 years (1783-1850), increased one and ^% per cent. per annum. Turkey (European), in 43 years (1 801-1843), increased one and ~A2o~ Per cent- Per annum. Prussia, in 63 years (1786-1849), increased two and ^ per cent. per annum. The United States, in 60 years (1790-1850), increased eight and tYjj per cent, per annum. The relative annual increase of the United States was nearly three times that of Prussia, notwithstanding the large addition to her population by the partition of Poland ; more than four times that of Russia ; five and a half times that of Great Britain ; nearly nine times that of Austria ; more than eleven times that of France ; and more than twelve times that of Spain. If these calculations were brought down to the present time, with proper allowances for the territorial changes that have taken place among European nations, particularly France, Germany and Austria, during the last twenty years, the results would doubtless be still more favorable to the United States; for our largest accessions from European emi gration have come since 1850. As early as the year 1827, a gentleman from Ohio visiting New England said, "There is not a native-born citizen in our State that is as old as I am (forty-five years), and yet our population exceeds 800000 ; and, more than all, at the present time Ohio is the greatest emigrating State in the Union."* In 1790 the population beyond the Alleghanies amounted by actual enumeration to not far from 100,000; in 1830 it was nearly 400,000 ; and in 1870, 21,000,000; in 1880 it was nearly 27,000,000. In 1790 the center ofthe population of the United States was at York, Pennsylvania, 92 miles from Philadelphia, and 48 miles from Baltimore; in 1840 it had crossed the Alleghanies; in 1850 it moved beyond the " Pan-handle " of Virginia; in i860 it reached the Scioto River, and in 1870 it had reached the vicinity of Cincinnati ; in 1880 it had dropped a little * American Quarterly Register, 1827 and 1828, p. 13. DIAGRAM X. ILLUSTRATING THE GROWTH OF IMMIGRATION FROM 1790 TO 1885. 1790 -I83S. 35 YEARS 269.691 IMMIGRANTS. 2.944,833 IMMIGRANTS. INCREASE OF POPULATION. 759 to the southward— to a point eight miles west by south from Cincin nati and about a mile from the south bank of the Ohio River, in Ken tucky — a total increase of more than 46,000,000 of people in 90 years. Such a vast increase of population creates extraordinary moral and religious demands. Christianity is called upon to supply these multiplying millions with religious facilities, watchcare and instruc tion ; and if it would be faithful to its professions and promises, and achieve its long-predicted triumphs, it must not only keep pace with the growth of the population, but gain upon it. Only a system of unusual vitality and indefinite expansiveness can accomplish such results. HETEROGENEOUS MASSES. Another element enters into the problem, enhancing its difficul ties. If this extraordinary increase of the population were only natural and homogeneous, the work of religiously instructing and molding it would be much easier. But the major portion is ex otic and heterogeneous — large composite foreign masses — bringing among us prejudices against the religion, the religious institutions, and the customs of their adopted country. According to Mr. O'Kane Murray,* of the total population of thirty-eight and a half millions in 1870, twenty-four and a half mill ions were the products of immigration and the acquisition of new territory — the Roman Catholic territories South arid West. One of the most noticeable features of our national life is the large commingling of diverse nationalities, and one of the pending problems is whether we can realize the grand ideal of our national motto, e pluribus unum, not merely civilly, but also morally and religiously. Upon an Anglo-Saxon foundation, the very best, we fancy, on which to build up a vigorous, independent, liberty-loving people, we are adding large composite layers from Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Scandinavia, Africa, Asia, and our own aboriginal inhabitants. Will the cement be strong enough to compact and hold them in working unity? Confessedly, this is a severe test of the civil, educational and working forces of the nation. In the last three decades, the foreign-born population has trebled, while the native-born has increased only twofold, f The statistics * See pp. 610-621. t The United States Census furnishes the following- statistics : FOREIGN-BORN. NATIVE-BORN. !8So 2,210,839 2O0Sr,O37 ^860 4,'36,'75 27,307,146 1870 5,567,220 32,991,151 1880 6,679,943 43,472,923 760 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. of emigration are very impressive, but do not tell the whole story of the foreign increment. The offspring * of the foreign-born, of the first generation at least, should be added, and the accessions by the addition of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, .New Mexico and Cali fornia, almost all of whose inhabitants were Roman Catholics. The following table will show the iMMIGRATION.t PERIODS. Inclusive. 1790-1790 1800-1809 1810-1819 1820-1824 1825-1829 1830-1834 , 1835-1839 1840-1844 , 1845-1849 1850-1854 1855-1859 1860-1864 , 1865-1869! 1870-1874 1875-1879 1880-1884 1884-1887 1790-1887I 5 year periods. 10 year periods, 20 year periods Divided at the year 1845. 10 years. £50,000 10 years. X 70 ,000 10 years. X 1 1 4,000 35,6gl 100,295230,442 307.739 400,031 1,027,306 1,917,527 881,796 696,687 1,347,589 1,886,501 855,634 3,037,594 1,218,913 50,00070,000 114,000 5 years. 35,691 330,737 707,770 2,944,833 1,578,483 3,234,0903,893,228 1.218,913 10 years. 50,000 184,000 5 years. 35,691 1,038,507 55 years. 1,307,507 4,523,296 7,127,318 3 years. 1,218,913 43 years. 12,870,243 I4,I77,747 14,177-747 14,177,747 14,177,747 An inspection of the foregoing table shows that the immigra tion came in larger waves after the year 1845, following the " potato famine " in Ireland and the failure of several attempted revolutions in Europe, from 1848-1852. From 1845 to 1854 inclusive, 2,944,833 immigrants came, two and a fourth times as many as in the previous fifty-five years. During the financial stringency of 1857-8 and the late civil war, the number was reduced to 1,578,483; yet the ten years, 1855 to 1864, showed an excess over the fifty-five years just mentioned. From 1865 to 1874, the number went up to 3,234,090, and from 1875 to 1884, to 3,893,228 ; and in the little more than * Those one or both of whose parents are foreign-born (including those actually born in for eign lands) number about fourteen millions. t Prior to 1856 foreign visitors in the United States were not reckoned out, but were counted as immigrants. This, however, will not materially change the figures. X Estimated by government officials. § From 1832 to 1866 the year ends with December 31 ; but since 1866 it ends June 30. | Down to June 30, 1887. DIAGRAM XI. OUR LEADING EURO- RELATIVE IMMIGRATION FROM F PEAN COUNTRIES. iR?n-an 1830-40. -n \ ID \ C3 \ 2 \ E5 / m / > / •z. 1 o / 1840-50.1850-60. \ oomza 1 -** 1 CT 1 z r i 1860-70. / z< / CD \ — \ — \ > zo tn mom z 1870-80. \ I 1880-85. / 1 NATIONALITY OF IMMIGRANTS. 761 forty-three years, from June 30, 1845 to 1887, 12,870,243 immigrants entered the United States, or almost ten times as many as in the 55 years from 1790 to 1844 inclusive. Had the population remained homogeneous, or as much so as from 1790 to 1845, the moral and religious task would have been much easier. The total population in 1845 was calculated at 19,896,574, and in 1887 at about 60,000,000, * an increase in 40 years of about 40,000,000, during which time the foreign contribution has been 12,870,243, or nearly one third of the total increase. The off spring of these foreign-born are doubtless nearly as many more. We are interested to know from what countries these people came, and how the average yearly immigration from given countries compared with the total immigration in each year, and also in the whole period of 65 years. The following table gives the average percentage of the total immigration from the leading countries year by year: Nationality of Immigrants. periods. 1821-1830 1831-1840 1841-1850 1851-1860 1861-1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 Total yearly average — 1820-1 Ireland. Per cent. 35'3634.61 45-57 35-18 18.51 17.71 159317-95 18.2815.6210.4810.5611. 17 "•35 14.28 9.849.68 13.50 13-7313.20 18.63 Germany. Per 4 25 2536 3330353121 1919 2120 17 2234 31 32 3834 •71 ¦44 .36 .62•32 89 5450 82 12 S9 .00¦85 -37 ¦57 .66.76 .28 •95 .50 26.90 British America. 58 27 45 28 48 SO 20 "¦73 12.2413-4716.95 19.6421.25 23-54 13.2212.81 11.88 13-1310 55 11.20 Great Britain. Per cent. 17.48 12.65 15-5816.31 26.3623-7720.13 19.76 20.21 18.9316.3416.67 15-39 20.2613.41 13-10 13-0512.63 14.2914.65 17.04 Norway and Sweden. Per cent. .06 .20 .81 .80 4-77 6.62 7i97 IS 13 9743 10 43 11.7511-50 11.8710.22 9-438.70 6-55 Aggregate 80.32 per cent., leaving from all the rest of the world 19.68 per cent. These exotic masses have come from all over the world and could hardly have been more heterogeneous. British America, Mexico Central and South America, have contributed liberally ; the * Government Actuary Elliot gave the number for June 30, 18S7, at 59,893,000. 762 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. British Isles and Continental Europe sent vast multitudes ; Africa and Asia, especially Eastern Asia, furnished a large contingent ; and the West Indies have done their part. Taking the figures of the whole immigration for a single year (1881), 720,045, the percentage from each of the foreign countries was — Per cent, of the whole. British America 13-22 Mexico 0.034 Central and South America 0.016 West Indies 0.14 Total, America - 13 -41 Islands of Atlantic 0.179 Islands of Pacific 0.126 Not specified o .02 Per cent, of the whole. Great Britain 13- 10 Ireland 9-84 Total, British Isles 22 . 94 Germany 34-66 Norway and Sweden 11 . 50 Total, Continental Europe 60.42 China 2.86 Total, Asia 2.88 Africa 0.005 From 1820 to 1885, inclusive, 26.90 per cent, of the immigration came from Germany, and 18.63 per cent, from Ireland. In two decades, 1840 to i85o, the Irish ranged from 35.18 per cent, to 45.57 per cent, of the whole. Since i860 it has never exceeded 18.51 per cent., and in 6 years it fell below 12 percent. For 28 years, between 1840 and 1885, the German immigration ranged from 30.89 per cent, to 36.62 per cent, of the whole. In 14 years it ranged between 20 and 30 per cent., and in only 3 years did it fall below 20 per cent, ofthe whole.* Prior to the Irish famine, 1846-47, probably the numerical majority of the Irish in the United States were Protestants from the North of Ireland, as were most of the Irishmen who figured in the Revolution, though Rev. Bishop England claimed f them as Roman Catholics. Prior to the potato famine the great bulk of the Irish immigrants to this country were " from the upper walks of life — younger sons of landlords, reduced proprietors and tenant farmers, and tradesmen of the more substantial sort." \ But after this event, hundreds of thousands of the poorest and most ignorant classes crowded to our shores. Since 1845, probably seven eighths of the Irish immigrants have been Roman Catholics, so that the Papal Church in this country bears a decidedly Irish impress, and has come to be widely regarded as an Irish Church. Judged by their names, ofthe j6 archbishops and bishops to-day, only 17 bear German names, 7 French, 5 Spanish, and only 6 indicate a native English-American extraction — a total of 35 against 41 of either * German newspapers are published in most of the States. Tobias Brother's German News paper Directory has a list of So religious German newspapers. tin his great letter to the Lyons Propaganda. X Westminster Review, June, 1887, p. 349. IRISH AND GERMAN ROMANISTS. 763 Irish birth or blood. The proportion of the Irish communicants has been intelligently estimated as " doubtless much greater than this division of the episcopal honors would indicate." One of the threatening aspects of the case is the existence " in our great cities, and in large areas of the agricultural districts of great States, of vast agglomerations of men of one foreign nationality preserving almost entire their manners, language and traditions, and, by virtue of their numbers, making even the public schools in many places use a foreign tongue as the common vehicle of instruction, and producing the strange spectacle of native Americans of totally different stock actually taking on the speech and characteristics of other nationalities." Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn says: It has been avowed to me by a German clergyman of this city, who flattered himself that Great Britain and Ireland were almost exhausted as sources of emigra tion, that Germany, wilh her 45,000,000, would continue year after year to pour hundreds of thousands of her people on our shores. This insane hope is cherished chiefly in Wisconsin and in the Valley of the Northern Mississippi. The ears of American boys born of German parents are boxed by the religious teacher in parochial schools in St. Louis, for the heinous offense of speaking the common language of America — the English — and a clerical superintendent, to reproach an American boy of German parents for manliness and independence, can find no better words to do justice to his reprobation than to say, " Du bist ein Amerikaner" (You are an American) ! There is a wide-spread and persistent effort, with scarcely any attempt to conceal it, to Germanize the Catholic Church in the North-west. The means toward the attainment of this is to multiply German church schools and German parishes, and to make the multiplication of the latter an excuse and a justification for the appointment, with the aid of German cardinals in Rome, of German-speaking bishops. A feeling of race discontent is working among the German Cath olics, and a growing jealousy of the Irish, on account of their pre ponderance in the Church. Not long ago complaint was made to Rome which called forth a decision from the Propaganda that the German Catholics must be treated as equal to the Irish. The peti tion sent to Rome, among many other things, asked that all new comers from Europe be assigned to churches of their own language ; that the bishops and priests be instructed that they must not en deavor to suppress or root out the language, manners, customs, ways and modes of worship of the Germans or other nationalities, etc. All such movements obstruct the hoped-for assimilation of our for eign populations into a homogeneous mass. During the colonial era the accessions to the population were chiefly Protestant,' and the social and civil foundations of the col onies were laid upon the Bible, and the conscience quickened and 764 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. enlightened by it. In this respect the United States have been different from other less stable American governments, in Mexico, and Central and South America. But the large majority of those who have come in the last forty years are of a different class. Not im pelled by religious convictions to seek a friendly asylum, but actuated by secular motives, they are largely antagonizing forces, either in pur pose or in fact, endangering the morals, the religion and the civil insti tutions of the land. Coming in crowds, pouring into the large cities and Territories often like new and distinct nationalities, keeping up Old World customs, introducing their crude opinions into elections and often controlling them, they have set aside the American Sab bath, opened Sunday theaters, beer-gardens, infidel clubs, and com munistic societies, inaugurating mobocracy, and copiously filling up the ranks of the social outcasts. Such are the heterogeneous elements that have been entering into our population. How composite the mass American Chris tianity has been called to mold and transform ! How diverse the civilizations, the religious ideas, the social customs, the culture and no-culture of these new-comers ! Among them, viewed from a secular point of observation, are very valuable elements. Viewed from a high moral and religious stand-point there are many indi viduals and some quite large classes who have proved desirable additions to our population. With liberal allowance for such, it will, nevertheless, not be denied that, as a whole, these heterogeneous masses with habits, sympathies, political and religious predilections, so unlike and largely antagonistic to those of the native population, have weighed heavily against us. Three fifths of the European immigrants have come from Roman Catholic, and many from infidel or Rationalistic and communistic, stock. The process of reaching these masses and assimilating them to evangelical truth is necessarily slow, and for a long period they must count against evangelical Christianity, in all numerical comparisons. The evangelical churches receive few accessions from these classes, but the Roman Catholic Church has been im mensely re-enforced. How grievously have morals been de bauched, pauperism, insanity and crime augmented, and moral progress retarded by these exotic masses! How materially have they changed the aspect of our cities and large villages, and what outlays of charitable offerings, and of religious faith, zeal and effort, have they made necessary ! The problem of city ameliora tion and salvation has been inconceivably enhanced in difficulty, and its solution indefinitely postponed, by large and continual ad- VICTORIES OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. 765 ditions of these pauper and criminal classes, as too many of them have been. With low habits and ideas, retaining supreme allegiance to a foreign pontiff, or controlled by radical, rationalistic, materialistic, or communistic theories, two questions have been often anxiously asked, constituting practical problems in our national life — Can Old World subjects be transformed into Neiv World citizens ? Can relig ion and morality endure the severe strain, and the virtue and intel ligence of the people be preserved? Is American Christianity equal to her part in this great task? Do the actual developments in the life of the nation indicate favor able results? We believe they do. Every-where outside of the slums of the large cities these adopted fellow-citizens have been steadily improving in character, in intelligence, and in social and temporal condition. Many of them already worthily occupy re sponsible positions in the States and in the nation, and as a whole they are learning to appreciate the duties of American citizenship more rapidly than had been anticipated in the earlier stages of the solution of this problem. Dr. Dorner, of Germany, after a visit to this country, said : Out of the mixed people of America is growing a new homogeneous race, full of fire and energy, full of youthful force and enterprise. Christianity has there con quered a new land. Another writer has said : Colonizing races, nascent languages and periods of agitation, have been the favorites of Christianity. The New World, therefore, furnishes a fresh strategic position on which Christianity is destined to show, and is already showing, her mas terly policy and power. If the struggles necessitated by the urgent and perilous condi tions cited in the preceding paragraphs suggest to some minds, as to the mind of Hon. Edmund Burke, " a perilous and dancing bal ance," and if to some our chances sometimes seem " dissolving chances," nevertheless, to high Christian faith our country is " the ridge of destiny," where Christianity has already won some of its oreatest triumphs, and is destined to achieve still grander victories in the future. But an arduous task is still before us, calling for the best intel ligence, stanch virtue, ceaseless vigilance, heroic faith and action. Closely connected with this problem is another which has been thrust upon us, partly by the spirit of the times and partly as an infection from European thought, through European literature and immigration. 766 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. THE SPIRIT OF FREE INQUIRY. This influence has operated by more subtle but not less potent processes. It has been in the atmosphere of the times; and among the American people, every-where yielding to the supremacy of public opinion, it has devolved peculiar responsibilities upon Chris tianity, subjecting it to severe tests. A strong tendency to unlimited inquiry has pre-eminently characterized modern times. " The most stupendous thought ever conceived by man," says Bancroft, " such as had never been dared by Socrates or the Academy, by Aristotle or the Stoics, took pos session of Descartes on a November night, in his meditations on the banks of the Danube. His own mind separated itself from every thing besides, and in the consciousness of its own freedom stood over against all tradition, all received opinion, all knowledge, all existence except itself, thus asserting the principle of individu ality as the keynote of all coming philosophy and political institu tions. Nothing was to be received by man which did not convince his own reason. Luther opened up a new world, in which every man was his own priest, his own intercessor ; Descartes opened a new world, in which every man was his own philosopher." * Luther preceded Descartes one hundred years, inaugurating the revolt against despotism and furnishing the inspiration for later and more advanced movements. Both were bold reformers — the one against the despotism of an absolute hierarchy, and the other against the despotism of scholasticism. And yet there were radical differences in the two revolts. " The one was the method of con tinuity and gradual reform, the other of an instantaneous, complete and thorough revolution. The principle of Luther waked up a superstitious world, " asleep in the lap of legends old," but did not renounce all external authority. It used drags and anchors to check too rapid a progress and to secure its moorings. So it escaped premature conflicts. By the principle of Descartes the individual man, at once and altogether, stood aloof from king, Church, universities, public opinion, traditional science, all external authority and all other beings, and, turning every intruder out of the inner temple of the mind, kept guard at its portals, to bar the entry of every belief that had not first obtained a passport from himself." f In the history of Protestantism this new spirit has been marked by hesitation, circumspection, moderation and gradual progress ; * History of the United States. By Hon. George Bancroft. Boston. Little & Brown. Vol. IX, p. 500. t Ibid. THE SPIRIT OF FREE INQUIRY. 161 elsewhere it has been reckless and defiant. In France free thought became " speculative, skeptical, and impassioned. This modern Prometheus, as it broke its chains, started up with revenge against the ecclesiastical terrorism which for centuries had sequestered the rights of mind." * Henceforth it every-where actively assailed Christianity and invaded all departments of science, politics, morals and religion. By some persons the spirit of free inquiry has been regarded as an unmitigated evil, in its inception and in all its tendencies. But such is not the verdict of history. It sprang out of the root prin ciples of the Reformation, partaking of its spirit and aims. The leading principles in both movements were germane, and in their legitimate, unperverted operations each seems to have been intended by Providence to supplement the other — the one a protest against hierarchical assumptions and intolerance, and the other against the not less rigid intolerance of mediaeval scholasticism in theology, science, and general inquiry. As revolts against the enslavement of the religious and intellectual powers, their mission was one of universal emancipation. Each had its legitimate sphere. Descartes, the powerful promoter of the purely rational system, recognized an act ol faith at the basis of all processes ofthe intel lect, and proclaimed, " God, the first, the most certain, and the best of all truths," claiming that " if God is not, the most regular exercise of thought may deceive us, and that our reason can afford us no guaranty." He confessed that " all the force of proof depends on a belief in God which precedes it, and that without this belief man is doomed to irremediable doubt." The spirit of free inquiry, then, in its origin was not irreverent and reckless, not discarding faith in God. But it was a revolt against the intellectual intolerance engendered amid the damps and darkness of the Middle Ages. This is the mission upon which it was sent forth by " Him who is the head over all things unto his Church," to deliver his truth from the curse of dogmatism, to dissolve the rigid and perverted forms into which it had been wrouo-ht by the iron logic of mediaeval schoolmen, and to restore it to the simple, practical, and vital forms in which the Great Teacher and his apostles originally presented it. This is still its mission, and none the less because it has been perverted in the interest of unbelief. But even as an opposing force, many incidental benefits have accrued to the cause of truth, under the wise overrulings of * History of tlie United States. By Hon. George Bancroft. Boston. Little & Brown. Vol. IX, p. 500. 768 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Him who is the supreme source of truth. The emancipation of mind from intolerance and old-time superstitions is now a rapid world-wide tendency, in which many forces, both of faith and unbelief, wittingly or unwittingly, are participating. The spirit of free inquiry was gradually developed in Europe during our colonial era, and assailed the American mind with terrible force, and in most radical forms, at the time when our nation entered upon its organized existence. Liberty was the favorite national motto, and in some of its phases a mad passion. A spirit of reckless independence and boldness prevailed, of which we have now faint conception, that did not hesitate to break away from all old ideas and methods, and to venture upon any experi ments, however rash, in the direction of freedom. Under such pre disposing circumstances, the contagion took and widely spread, dominating large sections of the country and large classes of edu cated minds. This desolating wave was measurably turned back by the great revival of religion pervading the land from 1800 to 1803. It came again, in two successive waves of socialism, in 1826 and 1842 ; and since then it has repeated itself, in the varying forms of rationalism, spiritism, communism, materialism, and agnosticism. How far can the spirit of free inquiry be carried, without sacri ficing true Christianity and impairing the life of the American Republic? From the palpable indications of the situation, it seems that the solution of this problem is assigned under Providence as a special task to the American people. Here, more fully than else where, exist the conditions necessary to its solution. We have no arbitrary institutions ; no hierarchical absolutism interferes ; no old conservative institutions hinder or bias ; every thing is voluntary ; the new is held in special favor; the intelligence of the popular mind affords an opportunity nowhere else found ; and the intense vitality and deep spirituality of American piety — the best conservator of truth and of national life — favor a satisfactory solution. It is an occasion for thanksgiving that American Christianity, in a very good degree, is conscious of her responsibility in this matter, and the perils attending the solution of the problem. She has girded herself for the task; has grown, deepened, expanded, and become more spiritual in the midst of the ordeal, and is already rejoicing in that freedom into which Providence has mysteriously led her. Moreover, right out of the camps of free thought, modern phi losophy and science, manifold convergent currents * have flowed, bearing upon their bosom not only implied and incidental, but even * See chapter on Convergent Currents, pp. 651-674. UN TRAMMELED THOUGHT. 769 strong formal confirmations and attestations of the great funda mental principles and facts of the Christian system. Another problem stands closely related to the preceding. MODERN REVOLUTIONIZING TENDENCIES. During the past century an immense impulse has been given to the human intellect, and it has exhibited a force and boldness unknown before. So constant and wonderful has been the progress that wetiow talk freely of "the march of mind." It is an age of sublime energy in thought and action. " Onward " is the universal motto, all along the vast lines of human inquiry and enterprise. The great revolutions in America, Mexico, France, Italy, and Spain ; the vast campaigns and achievements of the first Napoleon, of the American civil war, and the Franco-Prussian contest ; military, civil, and political affairs conducted on grander scales ; the discovery of electricity, steam and their manifold applications ; the progress of the sciences ; the freedom of the press ; the new facilities for travel and exploration ; the great Emancipation Acts in the West Indies, Russia, the United States, and Brazil ; the throwing open of our broad and fertile domain to the cramped-up and impoverished mill ions of Europe ; the extension of education to the masses, and the formation and new functions of public opinion, are some of the marked events — both evidences and factors of extraordinary progress. While this spirit has been abroad, we have seen a steady decline in reverence for whatever of tradition or precedent or institution has come down to us from the past. Questions long regarded as settled have been re-examined, and nothing is now tolerated simply because hallowed in other days. There is a growing disbelief in the supernatural. The former ages trembled with superstitious awe at the sight of an eclipse, and regarded earthquakes as tokens of divine vengeance or as presaging the overthrow of kingdoms. But now mathematicians handle eclipses with a surprising familiarity, accurately calculating their periods ; and earthquakes are regarded as only the effects of certain natural laws. Every thing, however spiritual, is subjected to natural tests. The revolutionary spirit has entered every department of thought and action, boldly assailing long-accepted theories of law and government, political economy, art, science, agriculture, theology, biblical interpretation, and eccle siastical polity. Many principles, usages, and institutions, once sacred and venerable, are discarded and obsolete. Thought is in tense and bold, projecting changes and movements vaster and more radical than ever before dreamed. 49 770 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. One feature of this tendency is entirely new. It is popular and experimental. Great and sacred questions have been brought into the arena of public investigation. Never before were the people expected to have an independent opinion about such matters. The common soil of humanity, for the first time in all the ages, has been surveyed and plowed and sown.* The problem now pending is whether more of wheat or of tares will be harvested ; whether in the end it will be productive of faith or of doubt, of genuine piety or of ungodliness. In the United States, unlike the old countries, there are no conserving forces in the constitution of society, holding men to the old faiths. Here are no old institutions, hereditary nobilities, State Churches, etc., but every thing is new — communities, governments, and institutions, and any number of new projects, trial schemes, and prophecies of newer and stranger things to come. All things stimulate to theorizing. The new is held at a high premium, and the old at a heavy depreciation. In such times men find it easy to break away from the old faiths, and a supernatural system like Christianity is subjected to searching examination. Under our peculiar circumstances American Chris tianity has experienced severer tests than European Christianity, with its old conserving institutions environing and sustaining it. Here the conflict is purely between truth and spiritual vitality, on the one hand, and the most insidious forms of modern doubt on the other. How is the conflict progressing and what are the indications ? There are reasons for thanksgiving ; for truth is coming to be seen in its simplicity and purity. It is being divested f of the husks of scholasticism and delivered from the spirit of dogmatism ; it is steadily gaining, and becoming more beautiful and attractive ; the unity of Christian faith and the moral unity of the Churches are increasing, and spiritual vitality % is deepening and strengthening The spirituality of the American churches is many fold greater than one hundred years ago. But the problem is still our appointed task, and waits fuller solution. Thus far we have considered three elements, all of them largely extrinsic— assailing and testing our national life from without: the successive heterogeneous foreign layers with which its population has been built up ; the spirit of unlimited free inquiry, which during * Christianity and Modern Thought. American Unitarian Association. Boston 1872 Lecture by Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D. P. r7. fSee pp. 668-672. 1 See pp. 6^6-699.' INTRINSIC ELEMENTS. 771 more than a century has engendered distrust of the old safeguards of government, morals and religion ; and the kindred spirit of revo lution, which has made men eager and rash in casting away these safeguards, even though without adequate provisional substitutes. Each of these elements, in themselves unsolved problems, and, therefore, experimental, has entered into our national life chiefly from without. It remains to examine the internal situation ; some intrinsic problems, vitally affecting the nation from within. Some of these conditions have been experimental to a large degree. We have been testing the purely voluntary principle. This has been incident ally alluded to already, but it demands more extended notice. It is as yet an unsolved problem whether a nation can set itself up, poise itself, and maintain its self-poise, throwing its citizens upon purely voluntary conditions, in religion, morals and citizenship, and at the same time permanently conserve itself and the public good. Never before has the voluntary principle had such free, unlimited scope in all departments of life as among us. Those small Italian republics, so often cited, which have lived long enough to claim some degree of success, have been indeed organically free in civil affairs ; yet in social, public and religious life they have been domi nated by old established nobilities and the papal priesthood. But among us these arbitrary conditions of absolutism are wanting, and we are thrown out upon the purely voluntary principle in religion, in social and public life, and in civil economy. Let us notice the practical difficulties attending each. A radical aspect of the voluntary principle presents itself in the social and public life of the American people. We dwell in a coun try which every-where yields to the supremacy of public opinion. THE NEW FUNCTIONS OF PUBLIC OPINION constitute a problem of social and public life — a problem because it belongs to recent times, and has been only imperfectly tested. The world has been rapidly passing from under the tutelage of authority ; and a force hitherto but little known has risen up and exercised the functions of empire. Almost by a single leap it has come to the throne. Even monarchical rulers feel its power, consult and bow down to it, while in this country it has seized the helm and directs the ship of state. One hundred years ago this young nation, impul sive, frisky, venturesome, with its vast and complicated interests, started out upon its career, under the supreme dominion of public opin ion. Nothino- is more irresponsible, or liable to be more capricious 772 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. or destructive ; and yet in such untried hands were to be held the election of rulers, and the enactment and enforcement of laws upon which the social and political welfare depends. The inevitable concomitants of such a condition of society are independence of thought and tenacity of sentiment. In such a land, there can be no supreme individual power, in either the Church or the State. The transfer of such high prerogatives, from an author itative individual head, into the hands of irresponsible popular ma jorities, must be, at first, experimental, and always attended with peril. Many wise men still regard it an unsolved problem, or at least a problem whose solution they fear will bring results of doubt ful desirability. It is patent that its success must depend upon two cardinal elements widely diffused among the people — intelligence and virtue. We have reason for thanksgiving that, on the whole, the indi cations are hopeful. We have had some popular outbreaks, some tumultuous mobs, some wild demonstrations; but nothing in the last two decades like those of the first decades after the national government was formed, when organized rebellions occurred ; one, Exeter, N. H. ; another, the Shay Rebellion, in Massachusetts ; the Hartford Convention revolt, in Connecticut, and several whiskey rebellions in Pennsylvania — none of them among rabbles of low for eigners, but in the ranks of intelligent citizens. Self-poise is one of the best tests of moral progress. How much greater the self-control of the American people now than from seventy to one hundred years ago ! A standing army is now little better than a mockery, for men with elevated ideas need no overawing forces to restrain them. Squads of Bohemians and Anarchists from other shores are not types of American citizens. And what great moral reforms have been effected in this cent ury, in the United States, under the operation ofthe new functions of public opinion, greater than in any of the previous Christian cent uries ! Slavery, untouched through all the ages and existing almost every-where a century ago, thoroughly domesticated and intrenched in the United States by statutory and constitutional guaranties, and politically dominating* the entire land, has been abolished. Duel ing, an old-time custom of Anglo-Saxon people, prevalent all over the North as well as the South when this century opened, has almost wholly disappeared. Intemperance, until long after this century began the universal American vice even among clergymen, deacons, the best citizens and statesmen, and impairing no man's social stand- * See pp. 562-570. ADVANCE IN SENTIMENT. 113 ing, has been greatly reduced in the breadth of its sway and in its virulence. It has been brought under the ban of popular con demnation, and the use of alcohol as a beverage, for the first time in all the ages, has received a staggering blow from the verdict of the best and most advanced science— a verdict which can never be set aside or reversed, because founded upon the base lines of irrefraga ble scientific facts. The total exclusion of intoxicating beverages from large classes of people, and the reduction of the per capita con sumption of alcohol (calculating the liquors of sixty years ago and those also of the present time on the basis of the pure alcohol con tained in them) to about one third the amount consumed sixty years* ago, is a great moral gain. Not to speak of other re forms, or of the oscillating movements in some reforms, these three mammoth evils, which none of the previous ages perceptibly touched, which came down to the people of this century venerable and hoary with antiquity, intrenched in custom, avarice, lust, and also largely among us in law, and before which the virtues and relig ion of previous centuries only feebly protested and then succumbed, have been boldly encountered in our day, two of them wholly abol ished, and the other crippled as never before, and made the center of a burning focus of the mightiest reform forces ever enlisted. All these things have been accomplished by voluntary moral agencies, operating under the regimen of public opinion. The other aspect of the voluntary principle is seen in our civil polity, and may be denominated THE CIVIL PROBLEM. Can Christianity effectually conserve the moral and religious in terests of a State which is not merely organically separated from the Church, but which is without religious ideas in its constitution — a merely man-made compact? Chief Justice Story said, "It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs whether any free o-overnment 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." In the organization of our federal Constitution two distinct yet in a certain superficial sense agreeing elements united, f The his toric element, represented by the religious mind, recognized politi cal equality in the State, but held that the State was for the gov erned, and, like the Church, God's ordinance — the major vote * See pp 571-575- t ^ee Dr' Bushnell's Sermon on the disaster at Bull Run. 774 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. designating rulers, but not conferring authority, God being the only spring of authority. The other element, following Rousseau's the ory which finds the foundation of all government in " a social com pact " no higher than man, supposed that somehow man could create authority over man ; that the consent of the governed would oblige obedience ; and overlooked the fact that an obligation implies a moral nature related to a throne of law and order above the range of mere humanity. These two parties agreed in many things but said them always in a different sense— the one in the religious, the other in the atheistic. Agreeing in the letter of the Constitution, nevertheless they have ever since struggled in the womb of the nation. Our national history has been a series of experiments with com pacts, reserved rights, the sovereignty of the States, etc. Our civil war grew out of these things, Slavery being the proximate cause ; but questions of State rights constituted the root trouble, and the nation was nearly overwhelmed in " a swamp of godless political platitudes" in trying to maintain a government without moral ideas, and to rally a loyal feeling around institutions which, in the view of some, are only human compacts without Divine authority. One thing was fortunate. While the nation stood organically before the world in this atheistical attitude, there was all along, in the latent convictions of the people, a deep sense of morally bind ing authority and a practical recognition of God and Christianity, in proclamations, chaplaincies, etc., which has, in some measure, sanctified and preserved the nation. The national heart has been wiser, deeper, and nearer to God than the letter ofthe Constitution. Could this condition be maintained, what is wanting in the letter being made up in the spirit, it might be hoped that the nation would be preserved and accomplish its high destiny, the hope being based upon the religious substratum of the popular heart. The question, then, to be solved, was whether these religious ele ments, which supplemented those omissions in the letter of the civil Constitution would gradually wear away, letting down the nation to the level of the atheistical doctrines recognized by the framers of the Constitution. Should such a moral deterioration ofthe popular heart take place, the inevitable effect must be latitudinarianism, law lessness, and ruin. The condition of the country at the beginning of the late civil war is still fresh in adult minds. The imbecile and treacherous plea against "coercion," in a message of the Chief Magistrate, and the strong party echoing their applauding responses in the North as THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE. 113 well as in the South, were legitimate practical sequences of the doc trine that all authority is derived from the "social compact," and nearly proved the nation's ruin. Convictions of moral obligation and loyalty, which no political platitudes could ever have inspired, rallied and saved the nation. Measures have sometimes been attempted in Congress which have awakened in some minds fears in regard to the perpetu ity of the Republic ; but in a little while we have heard from the the people and learned the state of the popular heart — that the peo ple propose to maintain an orderly self-government, public justice and a reign of law which exalteth a nation. The life of the nation flows from deeper and purer fountains than the hearts of dema gogues. The foundations of our institutions are deeper and more stable than written compacts. They are in the hearts of the people. The solution of this problem in the future will evidently be deter mined by the condition of the people. If public virtue loses its sanctity and force, law and government will lose their authority and power. There is nothing in the political theory of the federal Con stitution alone that can save the nation. Its hope is in the under lying moral and religious life and intelligence of the people. How long it will take to fully solve this problem of a civil gov ernment depending upon the voluntary action of the people, with none of the conserving absolutism which, in some measure, has existed in almost all preceding governments back to the beginning of time, we cannot tell ; nor can we anticipate what new and severe tests of our strength we may yet be subjected to ; but thus far we have exceeded the expectations of the founders of the government, who often, during the decade following the adoption of the Con stitution, expressed the gravest apprehension of speedy ruin ; and we have also disappointed the frequent predictions of disaster by European monarchists who have had no confidence in the durability of our political institutions. This brings us to consider THE PROBLEM OF PROTESTANTISM. This form of Christianity constitutes the largest and the chief mold ing religious force of the country, and in the fullest sense of the term is a voluntary religion. Protestantism has been on trial from two causes— imperfections which it brought with it out of Romanism, and peculiarities belonging to itself, never before so fully tested. As to the imperfections which it brought out of Romanism, it is fully admitted that Protestantism never claimed to be a perfect 776 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. system, much less a finality. Some kind of sifting, modification, and restatement, has ever been felt to be a necessity, to relieve it from the relics of popery and from unreasonable and unscriptural features, that true apostolic Christianity, so long lost out of the life of the Church, may be brought back, and the Church be more fully adapted to control the popular mind. Relics of popery appear less in the churches of the United States than in European communions; but even here they manifest themselves somewhat, in excessive ritu alism, in an undue spirit of ecclesiasticism, and in certain dogmatic tendencies which widen the breach between Christianity and the public mind. Protestantism is yet in process of development. As a reformation, a revolt against old errors, it was not wholly purged at the outset, and therefore still has its reactions and incidental evils. Doubts, experiments, and possibly disorders, are inevitable in such a process. The work of modification and restatement, which has been gradually going on in connection with the spirit of free inquiry and the advancement of general intelligence, has been a task of the most delicate and difficult character, testing her stability, the wisdom and piety of her adherents, and her hold upon the confidence and respect of the masses. We have seen Protestantism in our country wholly divorced from the State, receiving from fluctuating outward sources only vol untary support, losing thereby the prestige, aid and influence which the State imparts, and liable, therefore, to detach from itself large masses of people. The question arises whether purely spiritual voluntary churches can maintain their public influence and perpetu ate themselves. Protestant divines and statesmen in Europe, ac customed to the conserving influence of the State, and pressed with the question of" Disestablishment," study with deepest interest the progress of American Christianity in its purely voluntary conditions. But there is another aspect of the voluntary principle besides the outward support — the vital feature of Protestantism is its in ternal spiritual exercises, between the individual soul and its God, with no priestly or hierarchical dependence. Under Romanism religion is chiefly dependent upon priestly functions. Under Prot estantism it is a purely personal thing. It passes from under the exclusive control of priestly functions and prerogatives into irrepressible conflicts with individual lusts and worldly influences. Instead of pompous rituals, each individual soul is thrown upon its God and the deep realities of its inner life. The scourge of the hierarchy disappears, but the struggle with sense and self goes on. Still recognizing the Church as divine, and a necessity as a brother- THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. Ill hood and a guide, Protestantism at the same time presses with pow erful intensity upon each individual the fact of his personal responsi bility : that he must bear the burden of his own guilt to the foot of the cross, that he must seek for himself access to God through the Great High Priest that hath " passed into the heavens," and in the spirit of adoption, begotten in his heart by the Holy Ghost, find a satisfaction sweeter, higher, and more abiding than can be imparted by priestly absolution or benediction. Until the rise of Protestantism, religion under such conditions had been unknown since the times of the earlier Christianity, except among small classes of persons. What was to be the effect of these purely voluntary religious conditions among large masses of people ? It was predicted that, dependent upon the fluctuations of individual affections and vacillating individual wills, religion would be charac terized by inconstancy and alternations, until its influence would be utterly wasted. In Europe, Protestantism has been tested only under the latter conditions — the voluntary spiritual action, this being supplemented by the union of the Church and State. Such, too, was the situation of American Protestantism during the colonial era ; but after the Revolution the bonds were sundered, and, exter nally and internally, it adjusted itself to wholly voluntary conditions, and has had to undergo both the trial of the transition and the operation of the voluntary principle in all its relations. This problem is still in course of solution. What are the indi cations? From a careful study of the history of American Prot estantism, we have risen up to declare the conviction that the purely voluntary are the best, the purest, and most favorable conditions for the religious life of any people, and that in no other land and in no other age has Christianity made such real and extensive progress as in the United States during the past eighty-seven years. As evidence of this we cite the existence of 112,744 church organizations of the evangelical denominations, with 83,854 min isters and 37,379 local preachers, and 12,132,651 communicants, where there were only 3,030 churches, 2,651 ministers, and 364,872 communicants in 1800— an increase of 109,714 churches, 81,203 min isters, and 11,767,779 members in eighty-six years, or a 33.3 fold in crease of the members, while the population increased only 11.01 fold. The erection of church edifices to the value of, probably, five hundred millions of dollars, the support of public worship in which 83,854 ministers of the Gospel participate, the corresponding num ber of Sunday-schools, the expenditure of $145,000,000 in religious publications, $100,000,000 for home missions, and $75,000,000 for 778 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. foreign missions, all within the century, and three fourths of it within the last forty years, and these entire amounts, raised by purely voluntary methods, are monumental evidences of the success of the voluntary principle. Besides this, the founding, of our colleges, 370 in number, with 33,000 students pursuing the collegiate course of study for the degree of A.B., and 79 per cent, of them in denom inational colleges, is one more of many other evidences of the suc cessful working of Christianity, wholly independent of the State. Dr. Dorner, after visiting this country in 1873, said : Columbus was encouraged by the hope that the new land would serve the honor of our Redeemer. That is not accomplished in the sense of Columbus — through the conversion of heathen — but in a far higher sense. The discovery of America has a connection in time and spirit with the Reformation, for, as it were, a new land arose from out the sea to serve as a bulwark and a reserve for the Church of the Reformation. The Americans feel already that they have a special mission, namely, to march in their fresh, earnest way, into the fight against the skeptical and the superstitious, at the same time showing Christianity in a new light, as a living force, which needs no outward human aid in order to make itself respected, but which free spirits most need. It is a ground for thanksgiving that in every great emergency the popular heart has instinctively apprehended the necessities of the nation and faithfully responded. Demagogues have never been able to lead the people far astray, and the prospect for the future constancy and devotion of the people to right is better than in any former periods. It certainly will be so, if Christians and good citizens faithfully exert their influence to maintain morals, religion and intelligence — the impregnable foundations of all enduring insti tutions. Living and doing thus, we shall prove that the six prob lems noticed will be satisfactorily solved, and we shall find that they represent six working factors of the highest and most glorious devel opment of national life and character this world has hitherto seen. May we not believe that the composite character of our popula tion, in which so many bloods mingle, will be the means of build ing up a superior type of physical development and strength ; that building our young institutions and our fresh intellectual life with materials which have endured the rigid scrutiny of free inquiry, and the sifting and winnowing of the revolutionary spirit of the times, we shall exhibit an advanced type of national life ; that our religion and virtue, as purely voluntary products, entirely uncon strained and unhampered, the only true conditions of genuine good ness, will develop into the highest type of character ; that the new functions of public opinion, controlling and directing social and THE MISSION OF AMERICA. 119 public life, will prove the providential opening through which God's kingdom, will gain a willing ascendency in all hearts and over all institutions; and that our nation, without the formal recognition of Deity in the letter of its civil Constitution, but with more than the letter — the love of God and the love of virtue — in the hearts of the people, shall be found to be indeed builded upon the deepest, the best and the most enduring of all foundations ? Such are some of the conditions under which these United States have entered upon their career. They have been of the most grave and solemn character, new in history, and, as a whole, unknown in national life. Never before was there such a battle field for humanity. Never were the elements of good and evil set forth against each other in a grander arena. Thrown upon conditions purely experimental, entirely voluntary, free from either the tram mels or conserving force of old institutions, from the nature of the case the conflict must be mighty, exciting, at times, alarm; but, when successful, the loftiest exultations of triumph. Over the boundless fields of this country the majestic unfoldings of Prov idence are witnessed, forecasting the future developments of the race, in those higher conditions toward which humanity is here surely ad vancing. This nation is the happy heir of modern history. The current of our national life broadens, deepens, and speeds on with in creasing swiftness. Check it we would not, master it we cannot, but guide it we may. And who will think it less noble because it has some sediment at the bottom, or bears some wrecks on its surface, or leave some ruins on its shores? Let us thank God that we are permitted to live in such an age of achievement and progress. Let us consecrate our best powers and resources to the carrying forward of these grand move ments. Good people, one and all, and always, should march at the head of the advancing column and direct its course. To modestly retire to the rear or follow at a distance is not a mark of humility, but of recreancy to our high calling. Disappointment and despondency are abroad, and there are sad bodings over some movements. Many fear that certain valued results of the late civil war are fatally imperilled, if not irrecover ably lost ; but the auguries teach that a rising public sentiment, is steadily advancing to the demand that the freedmen shall enjoy all their rights under the Constitution, and that, town by town, county by county, State by State, they will yet be lifted into the full priv ileges and immunities of citizenship. Thus by profounder, more subtle, but not less certain processes, ends will be reached which 780 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. mere proclamations, armies and constitutions could never make actual. Others lament the corruption and lawlessness of the large cities, forgetting that aggregates of humanity have always exhibited hideous concentrations of vice ; that in our days cities have become what they never were before — intense centers of moral and religious force, and that never until the present century were there such agencies for good as city missions, now organized in manifold forms. Others, seeing Mormonism lifting her beastly, defiant head, are alarmed, forgetting that it is, after all, only a local ulcer ; that the advancing sentiment of the world's civilization is every-where focus ing against polygamy ; that this old vice has already disappeared from vast areas where it prevailed when this century opened, and that with such a broad, dense environment Mormonism can have no sure lease ofthe future. The specter of Romanism flits continually before the vision of others, causing grave fears ; but they forget that Romanism in playing her best card by transferring her adherents from other lands has lost more than she has gained ; that Roman ism has already lost much of her hideous character ; that it is not a question of choice on her part, but an inevitable necessity, that she must be still more radically modified and improved, and that all such changes will bring her nearer to the likeness of apostolic Chris tianity. Let us not forget that God's kingdom is fostered by a beneficent Providence whose scope is too vast for finite thought ; whose strategy is too profound for us to fathom, and too broad to be measured by a nation or a decade ; whose movements are sometimes by mighty armies, sometimes by great migrations, and sometimes by the silent sifting of ideas ; whose deadly foes are often made unwitting but effective servants ; whose skies may be overcast with clouds, but whose darkest clouds are always under a brightly shining sun. If there are any grounds for grave apprehensions, there certainly should be no trailing of banners nor folding of arms. The Prov idence under whom we work helps those who toil in faith. To the front, then, Christian men and virtuous citizens, in every good work. March and toil in the fore-gleams of brighter days, shouting back to the advancing multitudes : " THE MORNING COMETH!" INDEX. 781 INDEX Abbott, Rev. Abiel, D.D., 210, 444, 493. F. E., 638, 639. Rev. Lyman, D.D. ,646 Samuel, 439. Abenakis, 52, etc., 55, 56. Abolition in Rhode Island, Conn., etc., 360. societies, early, 355. Abolitionist \ 7 Vie, 468. Academies, 239, 240, Acadia, 56, 332. Act of Uniformity, 121. Actuary, Mr. Elliot, the, 750. Adams, Hon. John, 205, 320, 351, 473. Hon. John Quincy, 113, 263, 476. Hon. Samuel, 259. Rev. Nehemiah, D.D., 497. Addison, reference to, 138. Address to Pius IX. by Presbyterians, 590. Adulteration of Liquors, 447. Africa, opened, 363. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2S6. Slavery in Colonies, 222. etc. Age of Reason, Paine's, 315, 316. Agassiz, Professor, 655. Agitations, 260. Agnosticism, inadequacy of, 666. Agreements in Colonial Charters, 86. Ahatsistari, 59. Aikin, Robert, 350, 419, Alarm in Canada, 63. Albright, Rev. Jacob, 286, 479. Alcohol and Science 572. Alcott, Mr. , 655. Alden, J. W., 469. Alexander, Rev. Dr. Archibald, 144, 370. Rev Charles, D.D., 238. Algonquin, 52, 69, 173. Aliens, 757, etc. Allen, Rev. C. H., 295. Rev. John, D.D., 493. Rev. Richard. 286, 478. Allison, Rev. Patrick, D.D., 281. Alouez, Claudius, 70. Altham, John, 67. American and Foreign Bible Society, 420. and Foreign Christian Union, 405, 406. Board C. F. M., 411, etc. Education Society, 431. Home Missionary Society, 39s, 396, 403. Jews' Annual y 624. Missionary Association, 406. Protestant, 594. Protestant Society, 405. Quarterly Register, 121, 128, 130, 132, 1S3, 253, 254, 255, 287, 294, 298, 377, 378. 39C 392, 397, 42S, 429- 43*. 435. 437. 439. 5'8, 549, 730. 758. . Sunday-School Union, 427, 691, etc. Temperance Society, 396. American Tract Society, 394, 6S4. Amherst College, revivals in, 377. Amsterdam, Classis of, 87. Anabaptists, 115. Anarchists, 645, 646. Ancre, Marechal, 124. Anderson, Rev. J<>hn, D.D., 281, 438. Andover Manual, 218. Review. 177, etc. Theological Seminary, 411, 412, 500. Andrew, Rev. Bishop J. O , D.D., 481. Andrews, Hon. John A., 572. Stephen Pearl, 5^4. Rev. William, 187. Andros, in" Boston, 36, 109. Anglo Saxon Blood, 30. Saxon League, 156. Annals 0/ Propaganda, 121. Anthropoid Apes, 657. Anti-Burgher Synod, 40. Antislavery and the Churches, 448-473. in the Colonial Era, 224, 228. Reform, 365. Seed-Sowing, 355, 360. Anti-Synodalia, 200. Appleton, Rev. Jesse, D.D., 444. Rev. Nathaniel, 205. Appleton's Cyclopedia, 197, 506, 539, 541. Architecture, Church, 158. Argyll, Captain, 90, 127. Arianism, 145, 194, 196, 503, 662. Arkansas, The, 74, 76. Arminianism, 204, 208, 300, 669. Arnan, Rev. Robert, 282. Arnold, Benedict, 53. Matthew, 665. Artillery, Election Day, 262. Asbury, Rev. Bishop Francis, 38, 42, 26S, 286, 3552, 426. Asia, missions in. 705. Associate Reformed Church, 40, 490. Reform Synod, 679. Synod of North America, 678. Asylum in America, 125. Athanasian Creed, The, 205. Atheism, 3T9 etc, 653, 774. Atlantic Monthly, 640. Attitude, the Unitarian, 303. Augustinians, 588. Augustus Caesar, 126. Austria, increase of population in, 758. Axley, Rev. James, 389. Aztec Priesthood, 17. Babcock, Rev. Rufus, D.D., 38, 147. Backu-, Rev. Aziel, D.D., 146. Rev. Charles D.D., 251. History 0/ Baptists, no. Bacon, Benjamin C, 455. 284, 7S£ CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Bacon, Rev. David, 401. Lord, 28. Laws of Maryland, 95. Rev. Leonard, D.D., 116, 151, 434, 472. Badger, Rev. Joseph, 298, 349, 382. Bailey, Dr. Joshua, 471. Baird, Rev. Robert, D.D., 255, 256, 282, 324, 405, 420, 447, 487, 48s, 4S9, 742. Balboa, 14, 17. Balch, Rev. Hezekiah, 294. Rev. James, 294. Rev. Dr. Stephen B., 282. Baldwin, Ebenezer, 339. Balfour, Rev. Walter, 510. Ballou, Rev. Adin, 307, 536. Rev. Hosea, D.D., 211, 218, 307, 510. Baltimore, Catholics in, 328. Lord, 67. Ballot for church members only, 101. Bampton Lectures, Riddle's, 640. Bancroft, Rev, Aaron, D.D., 302. Hon. George, LL.D., 23, 31, 46, 56, 57, 60, 64, 78, 85. 87, 88, 89, 96, 100, 101, 256, 275, 277, 766, 767. Bangs, Rev. Nathan, D.D., 349, 382, 386, 399, 464. Banishment, laws for, 104. Banner of Light, The, 641. Baptsm of children, 151, 163. Baptist Church, growth of. 373. Church and Abolition, 465. Clergy, 254. Education Society, 432. Ministers, 283, 285. Missionary Union, 413, etc. Publication Society, 422. Schism, 482, etc. Baptists, 105, 139, 254, 255, 256, 483. and Unitarians, 501. Anti-Mission, 483. German, 42. German Seventh-day, 42. History of by Benedict, in, 117. in Maine, 38, in. in Swansea, Mass, nt. in the Revolution, 283. in the West, 293, 294, ^8^. in Virginia, in, 147, laws against, 114. persecuted, 38, 117. Seventh-day, 38. Six-Principle, 38. Southern. 677. statistics of, 283, 728, 734, 735, 739. the first in Massachusetts, 37. Baptizo and Bible Society, 421. Barclay, Rev. Thomas, 187. Barnard, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 492. Barnes, Rev. David, D.D., 492. Rev. Thomas, 210, 211. Barrel of Rum, 157. Bartlett, William, 412, 439. Bartol. Rev. C. A., D.D., 505. Barrow, Dr., born, 27. Barrows, Rev. S. J., D.D., 27, 28. Barry Commodore, 326. Baxter, Rev. Dr. G. A., 370. Bayards, The, ^3- Bayley, Rev. Bishop, 178. Beecher, Rev. Edward, D. D., 434. Rev. H. W., 472, 660. Rev. Lyman, D.D,, 323, 442," 444. 474, 496. Beers, Hon. S. P., 354. Belief, Religious, 94. Belknap, Rev. Jeremy, D.D., 306, 353, 356. Bell, Jonathan, 165. Bells, Church, 159, 160. Bellamy, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 146, 213, 251, 426. Bellows, Rev. H. W., D.D., 630, 770. Belsham, Rev. James, 494. Benedict's History of Baptists 93, 120. Benevolence, Pecuniary, 714-717. tested, 715, 716. Benevolent Organizations, 398-440. Benezet, Anthony, 227, 228. Bennett, Judge, 295. Benneville, George De, 209. Benton, Hon. Thomas H., 566. Bentley, Rev. William, D.D., 302, 493. Berean Lessons, 692. Berkeley, Sir William, 92, 231. Bewley, Rev. Anthony, 470. Biard, the Jesuit, 191. Bible, Eliot's Indian, 131, 177, 180. Christians, 676. denounced, 467. excluded, 599. in Schools, 554. Readers, 690. Roman Catholic, 335. Societies, 364 417, 419. the, and Science, 658, 660. the English recognized, 28. vindicated, 658. Bibles, 350. and Congress, 350. burned, 554. Biblical Repository, 424. Bibliotheca Sacra, 134. Biddle, John, 196. Bigot, James, 56. Vincent, 55. Bill of Rights, Massachusetts, 157. Birney, Hon. J. G., 451. Bishop of London, 97, 134-136. Bishops, Non-juring, 134, Blackburn, Rev. Dr. Gideon, 294. Blair, Rev. James, D.D., 92, 134, 242, 243. Blue Laws, 115, 116, 265. Board of Education of Massachusetts, 235. Bockholdt, John, 115. Boehm, Rev. Mr., 286. Revs. John and Philip, 41. Bogardus, Rev. Everardus, 38. Boiling Prisoners, 124. Bolingbroke, Lord, 195. Bonaparte's Movements, 364. Bond-maids, 222 Book Cono-rn, Methodist, 421. Southern, Methodist, 424. Book of Common Prayer, 97. Hook of Mormon, 540. Books, Roman Catholic, 335. given to Harvard College, 242. Bonne, General, 292. Boston Baptists in, in. churches in, 747. City Missions, 408 409, first church in, 129. Journal, 540, 581. Memorial History of, 109, 175, 176, 178, 193. Ministers in Virginia, 128. Recorder, 425, 448. revival in, 143 Romanism in, 333. INDEX. 783 Boyle Robert, 243. Boudinot, Hon. Elias, 3^ 399, 420. Bourdon, Sieur, 64. Bowditch, Henry I., M. D , 572. Bowdoins, The, 33. Bowles, Rev. Lucius, 502. Bowman, Rev. Elisha, B., 381, 387. Bowne, Rev. George, 453. Rev. Richard, 181. Professor B. P., LL.D., 652, 653, 659. Brace, Rev. Joab D.D., 252. Braddock, General, 290. Bradford, Hon. Alden, LL.D., 205, 207, 208,302. Gamaliel, M. D., 36, 444 Brainerd, Rev. David, 144, 184, 187, 251. Brainerd, Rev. John, 146, 189. Brattle Street Church, Boston, 165. Brebeuf, Jean de, 47, 50, etc. Breckenridge, Rev. R. J., D.D., 461, 549, Brandt, Robert, 95, Bressani, Joseph, 63. Brewster, Margaret, 114. Brisbane, Albert, 536 Bristol Academy, 239. Bristow, Rev. Dr., 247. British Scientific Association, 658. Britt, Rev. Pliny, 478. Broad Church, 630. Bronson, Orestes A., LL.D., 505, 535. Brook Farm, 535. Community, 629. Brooks, Hon. Erastus, 597. Rev. E. G., D.D., 513. Brotherhoods, 604. Brown, Rev. J. A., D.D , 134. John, 470. Nicholas, 249. University, 249. Brownelle, Rev. T. C, D.D. LL.D., 445. Brownlee, Rev. W. C, D.D., 405. Brownlow, Parson, 471. Brum, Moses, 439. Brunot, Hon. Felix R., 318. Brunson, Rev. A., 388, 392, 394. Brutality, 344, 345. Bryant quoted, t6, 19, 24. Buckminster, Rev. J. S., 277, 493. Buckland, Richard, 92. Buckner, Rev. J. Conrad, 270. Buddington, Rev. Dr.. 150. Buell, Rev. David, D.D., 354. Rev. Samuel, 282, 146. Buffun, Arnold. 455. Burgess, Rev. Bishop, 194, 30T, 198, 206. Burgher Synod, 40. Bundling, 218. Burke, Hon, Edmund, 262, 523, 717, 765. Burk's History of Virginia, 89, 90, 117, 126, 128, 243. Burling, William, 226. Burnett, Bishop, 114. Burr, Rev. Aaron, 246. Burton, Rev. Asa, D.D., 67, 251. Robert, 28. Bushnell, Rev. Horace, D.D., 773- Byrne, Rev. Stephen, 617. Cabot, 14, 24. Calaboza, The, 390. Calhoun, Hon. J. C, 448, 5&>, 5^- California, 22, 79, Calvert, Cecil, 67. Calvert, Sir George, 67. Calvin and Loyola Meet, 57. Calvin's Catechism, 167. Calvinism, 204, 21 r, 300, 669. Improved, 210. Calvinistic Methodists, 2rr. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Church, 13c, 131. Camp, Hon. David N., 234, 239. Campbell, Rev. Thomas, 485. Sir George, 658. Campbellites, 485. Canada ceded, 58. Cancer, Father Louis, 19. Canterbury, Archbishop of, 97. Cap of Liberty, 321, 322. Capital Offenses, 104, 122. Cardenas, Bishop of, 334. Carey, Mathew, 335. Carlyle, 509, 663. Carmelite Nuns, 335. Caron, Le, 50. Carrick, Rev. Samuel. Carroll, Bishop, 58, 95, 119, 326-8, 544. Daniel, 119. Cartier, 14, 17, 44, 45. Cartwright, Peter, Rev., 299, 348, Case, Rev. W illiam, 387. Cathay, The Fair, 15. Catechism, 31, 90, 133, 164, 167, 171, 196, 204, Catholic Almanac, 615, 616. Bible, 335. Bishops, Lives of, 95, 328. Church History, Murray, 616. Hierarchy in United States, 327, 328. Indians 322, 323. Missions, 621. Statistics. 556-558, 585-623, 751-755, Syn* id, The First, 330. 7^elegraph, The, 616. Uniojz, 7Vie, 616. World. The, 615, 616. Catholics and Quakers, 121. and the Revolution, 81, 326. Backslidden, 615. in Maryland, 68, 119. in the West, 336. Cavaliers, 30, 757. Celt, The, 616. Celtic Element in the Population of the United States, 620. Century, quoted. 221, 222. Centennial of Temperance Reform, 5^4. Chamberlain, Dea , 165. Champlain, 17, 44, 45, 47, 49 59. Channing, Rev. W. E., LL.D , 444, 494, 535. 661. Channing, Rev. W. H., 505, 507, 535. Chapels. Wesleyan, 747. Chapin, Rev. Calvin, D.D., 252, 412, 445. Charity, Daughters of, 546. Charities of Roman Catholic Church, 609- 611. Charles I., 27. II., 32, 107, 138. Charlestown, Massachusetts, First Church, 150. Charlevoix, 55, 78. Charter Governments, 85. Charter of Maryland Colony, 68. Charters Lost in 1688, 85. Chartres, Fort, fall of, 291. Chase, Hon. Salmon P., 460. Chastity, 578, etc. Chaudiere, Falls of St., 54. 784 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Chauncy, Rev. Charles, D.D., 205, 206, 241, 263, 306. Chautauqua Assembly, The, 692. Cheever, Ezekiel. 240. Rev. G. B.. D.D., 447, 469. Chersonesus, Aura. 15. Cheverus, Bishop, 329, 333, etc. Chicatabut, 176. Chickering, Rev. J. W., D.D., 443. Child, Hon, Linus, 572. Children Baptized, 151, 152. Chimneys in Churches, 158. Chippeways, The, 69, 70, 71. Christ discarded and honored, 508, 661, 662. " Christo et Ecclesiai^ 435. Christian Advocate, 425, 591. Alliance, 406. Beginnings in the West, 383, etc. Commission, 687. 695. Disciple, The, 424, 494. Examiner, The, 424, 494, 503, 654. 662. Freeman, The, 511. Intelligencer, 71ie, 425, 453. Register, The, 508, 634. Retrospect and Register, 420. Spectator, The, 374. 375, 424. Union Churches, 676. Union, 7Vie. 455, 618. Witness, The, 678. World, 595. Christians, The. 285, 515, 517, 678. Christianity, Growth of, 731, 742. Christlieh, Rev. Prof.. 640. Church and State, 82-124, 273, 277. Attendance, 90. Bells, 159, 160. Legislation for, 91. of Englmd in Maine, 88. of England in Maryland, 95. of England in New York, 98. of God, 484. Property, Roman Catholic, 597, 598. Statistics, 256, 733-755. Tenure, 595, etc. Churches Desecrated, 266. in Boston, 747. in Cities, 747. Independent, 83. in New York, 254, 255. in Utah, 649. " Liberal," 751. of New England, 105. Organic Changes in, 478-491. Organized, 35, 43. Churchman, High, 83, Cincinnati founded, 295. Citizenship of Church Members, 101. City Missions, 408-410, 682, 747. Populations, 623, 743-748, 751. Cities, Romanism in, 621, etc. Civil War, The, 571, 687, 688, 694. Clapp, Rev. Thomas, 166, 245. Clarendon, Lord, 27. Clark, John, no. Rev. Joseph S., D. D., 278, 386, 499, 500. Rev. Laban, D.D., 539. Clarke, Rev. James Freeman, D.D., 470, 471. Rev. Philip, 209. Rev. Samuel, D.D., 197. Clarkson, Hon. Thomas, 227. Classis of Amsterdam, 87, 97, 120. Clayborne, 67. Clergy, Episcopal in New York, 97. Immoral, 149. in England, 121, etc. in New England, 472. Legislation for, 91, etc. Patriotic, 261, etc. Cleveland, Charles, 408, Clothing, 344. Coan, Rev. Titus, 251. Cobb, Rev. Sylvanus, 211, 511. Cobbett, Rev. Thomas, 163, 212. Codding, Ichabod, 460. Codman, Rev. John, 494. Coetus, formed, 41. Coffin, Joshua, 455. Coke, Bishop Thomas, 284, 352. Cold Water Army, 447. Coleman, Benjamin, 183. Elihu, 226. Coleridge, 509. Colfax, Hon. S., 648 College of William and Mary, 135. Revivals, 376-378. Statistics, 250, 435-437, 611, etc., 724-729- Colleges, Admission to, 239. Curriculum in, 249, 250. in Colonies, 240-250. Collins, 195. Collier, Rev. William, 445. Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 676. Methodist Churches, 676. Colonists, Character of, 34, 35, 127. Colony, Russo-Jewish, 624. Colportage, 683-685. Columbia College, 246, 247. Columbian Star, The, 422. Columbus, 13, 14, 23. Combe, 509, 530. Comeouters, 467, 529. Common Schools Started, 230, etc. Contest, 551, etc., 599-603. Commentaries, Storey's, 84. Communicants, Statistics of, 733-755. Compact, 85, 98. Company, The London, 85, 90, 91, 127. Mississppi, 291. Ohio, 291. Royal African, 223. Transylvania, 291. Virginia, 128. West India, 87, 97, 133. Comte, quoted, 654. u Conception River," 74. Confederacy, Southern, 568. The Iroquois, 58, 59. Confederation, The Old, 565. Congregational Churches, Growth of, 373. Churches in Massachusetts, 499. Churches in the Revolution, 267, 278. Ministers, 278. Mission Early in Virginia, 116. Publication Society, 423. Quarterly, 103, 113, 114, 131, 155, 25I 252 424, 460, 466. Congregationalist, 7Vie, quoted, 123, 124, 577. Congregationalists, 139. and Slavery, 359, 360, 459, 460, etc. in the West, 297, 298, 384, etc. Congregationalism founded in America, 36, etc. in New England, 253-256. in New Jersey, 37. Congress and Bibles, 350, 419 and Liquors, 347. INDEX. 785 Congress and Toleration, 326. Prayer in, 266. Connecticut Colony Government, 85, 102, ro3. Evangelical Magazine, 411, 424. Gazette, 223. Home Missions, 400. Conscience and Liberty, 87, etc., 94, 97, etc. Constitution of United States, 272 467, 563 568. Constitutions of Early Colonies, 83-86. Consumption of Liquors, 447. Convent, First in Quebec, 47. Conventicle Act, The, 121. Convergent Currents, 651-676. Conversion of Indians by Jesuits, 77, 174. Cook, Rev. Samuel, D. D., 263. Cooke, Rev. Parsons, D. D., 500. Cooper, Rev. Ezekiel, 421. Rev. Myles, 247. Thomas, Dr., 319, 320, 523, 524. Cornelius, Rev. Elias, D.D., 376, 384, 399, 431, 435- Corruption of Manners, 212, etc. Cortez, 17, 22. Cost of Living, 344, etc. Council of Virginia, 126, 129, Councils, Roman Catholic, 554-556, 586. Counter Appeal, 463. Cotton, Rev. John, D.D., 29, 177, 181, 199. Rev. Rowland, 181. Couture, 59. Cox, Rev. S. H., D.D., 402. Craighead, Rev. John, 265. Rev. Thomas B., 295, 368. Crawford, Rev. James, 295. Crime, 580, etc., 695. Crocker, Rev. John, 480. Cromwell, 27, 94, 177. Crooks, Rev. Dr., 282. Culmination of Intemperance, 440, etc. Cumberland Presbyterians, 368, 487. Cummings, Rev. Charles, 294. Rev. Bishop George B., D.D., 676. Cummings, Rev. Henry, D.D., 492. Cunningham, Abner, 319. Curtis, Hon. George Ticknor, 84. Hon. George W., 570. Rev. Richard, 384. Cushing, Rev. Christopher, D.D., 670, etc. Matthew, 247. Cushman, Robert, 173. Customs, Religious, 153, etc. Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, LL.D., 291, 297. Rev. Timothy, D.D., 245. Cyrenius, 653. Dablon, Rev. Father, 55. Dagg, Rev. J. L., D.D., 423- Daggett, Rev. Naphtali, D.D., 146, 245. Dale, Sir Thomas, 89, 127. Dana, Professor, 642. Dane, Hon. Nathan. 443. Danforth, Rev. Samuel, 137. Daniel, Anthony, 47. Dartmouth College, 144, 192, 248, 249, 287, 377. Lord, 192, 268. Darwin, quoted, 656, 657. Daughaday, Rev. George, 426. Davenport, Rev. James, 143. Rev. John, 202, 244. Nathaniel, 219. Davidson, Rev. Robert, 264. 50 Davis, Andrew Jackson, 640, 650. Rev. Dr. Emerson, 433, 474. Rev. Noah, 422. Davies, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 118, 146, etc., 225, 226, 246, 316. Dawson, Sir William, 658. Day, Stephen, 131. Deaconesses, 688. Dean, Rev. Paul, 307, 512. Dearborn, General, 316. Death Penalties, 122, 123. De Courcy, quoted, 68, 94, 95, 119, 336, 550. Deerfield Academy, 239. Defalcations, Roman Catholic, 588. Defaming the Clergy, 91. Deism, English, 195, 196. De Kalb, 331. Delaware Indians, 187. Lord, 89, 126. Lutherans in, 133. Settled, 32. " Delenda est Christianitas," 650. Delevan, Hon. E. C, 445, 477. Democratic Societies, 273. Dennison, Rev. C. W., 457. Denominational Test, 750-756. Derby Academy, 239. Derry Presbyterians, 213. Descartes, 28, 194, 766, 767. De Soto, 14, 16, 17. D'Estang, Count, 333. Detroit Morals, 381, 382, 392 394. Devil, The, Complimented, 20. De Wette, 509, 661. De Witt, Rev. Dr. Thomas, 146. Dexter, Hon. Samuel, LL.D., 207, 443. Rev. H. M., D D., 123, 124, 472. Dial, The, 535, 629. D'Iberville, 75. Dickens, Charles, 416. Rev. John, 421. Dickey, Rev. James, 451. Dickinson, Rev. Jonathan, 207, 245. Digging for Money, 220. Dike, Rev. S. W.,579. Dioceses, Roman Catholic, 546, 547. Disciples, 485. Discipline, History of. at New Haven, 116. Discoverers, 26, 74. Disestablishment, 83, 776. Dissent, in New York Colony, 97, 98. Dissenters excluded from Virginia, 117, 11S. Distilled Liquors, Origin of, 440. Distillery, Deacon Giles's, 447. Disorder at Ordinations, 151. Divergent Currents, 194-21T, 300-312, 492, etc., 624, etc. Divorce, 555, 578, etc. Dix, Rev. Dr., 97. Doak, Rev. Dr. j. M., 294. Rev. Dr. Samuel, 294. Dobbin, Rev. Dr., 417. Doctrinal Restatement, 671, 672. Documents, Colonial, 98. Doddridge, Rev. Dr., 135. Dodge, Rev. William E.,679. Dominicans, The, 19. Dominie, The, 154. Doolittle, Hon. Mark, 445. Dorner, Dr. J., 680, 765, 778. Doubting Thomases, 523. Dougan, Governor, 97. Douglass, Hon. S. A., 472. 786 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Dow, Rev. Lorenzo, 387. Dowling, Rev. John, D.D., 520. Drake, Sir Francis, 22. Dred Scott Decision, 472, 567. Drew, Rev. J. A., 445. Drifting, 502, 503. Drinking Habits, 212-214. Druellettes, Father Gabriel, 52, 54, 55. Dubois, Bishop, 329, 549. Dubourg, Bishop, 329. Duche, Rev. Jacob, D.D., 266, 311. Dudley, Governor, 106. Duelling, 342, 772. Duffield, Rev. George, D.D., 146, 281. Dummer Academy, 239. William, 183. Dunkers, The, 42, 285. Dunster, Rev. Henry, 175, 241. Durb n, Rev. J. P., D.D., 428. Dutch Church, 31, 38, 87, 136. Colonies, Religion in, 133. Dominies, 213. Language in New York Colony, 278. Republic, 27. Dwight, Rev. Timothy, D.D., LL.D., 196, 201, 244, 245, 314, 3rS, 3*9, etc., 418. E Earthquake in New England, 139. East, Route to the, 13. Eastburn, Rev. Joseph, 415, Eaton, Gen., Report, 612, 730. Rev. Peter, D.D.,493. Eckley, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 306. Rev. Samuel, D.D., 496. Eddy, Rev. D. C, D.D., 500, 502. Edgar, Henry, 534. Education, Agencies of, 426, etc. and Romanism, 611, etc. Christian, 229, etc. in Colonies, 230, etc. in West, 396, etc., 433, 434. in Utah, 649. of Ministry , 430. Edward III., 171. VI., 167. Edwardean Revival, 202. Edwards, Rev. B. B., D.D., 431, 435. Rev. Jonathan, 140, 204, 218, 246, 306, 360, 669. Works of, 141. Rev. Justin, D.D., 399, 444, 476, 477, 575. Eggleston, Rev. Edward, 221, 222, 692. Elder, Rev. John, 281 Election Day in Colonies, 262. Eliot, George, 663, 664. Rev. John, 54, 131, 174-183, '93, 225, 492. Elliott, Rev. Charles, D.D., 358, 481. Ellis, Rev. George E., D.I)., 175, 178. Ellsworth, Hon. Oliver, 251. Hon. W. W., 434. Emancipati >n, 452, 562-570, 769. Emancipator, The, 457, 469. Embassy to Canada, 328. Embury, Philip, 43, 689. Emelyn's Inquiry, 205. Emerson's History of First Church, Boston, 129, 132. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 504, 506, 509, 535, 629, 639, 655. Rev. William, 493, 504. Emigration, Early Anglo-American, 147, 291. Emmons, Rev. Nathaniel, 402, 670. Emory, Rev. Bishop John, D.D., 463. England, Rev. Bishop, 81, 121,327, 548, etc., 615, 6r8, 762. English Church, 91. English Enter Florida, 78. Episcopal Board of Missions, 414. Episcopal Church and the Revolution, 1 79, Clergy, 254. Founded, 35, 36, 274. in Delaware, 96. in Maryland, 135. in New England, 109. in New York Colony, 120, 136. in Southern Colonies, 134, 139, etc. Record, 279. Reformed Church, 676. Ethics, Negative and Biblical, 663, 664. Evangelical Alliance Volume, 650. Association, The, 286, 479. Knowledge Society, 423. Evangelizing Agencies, 700, etc. Evarts, Jeremiah, 399, 418, 442, 444. Everett, Edward, Hon., 302, 444, 458, 472,493, 501. Evolution, 656. Ewer, Rev. F. C, D.D., 651. Ewing, Rev. John, D.D. ,280. Exeter Hall Lectures, The, 686. Exhibition, The World's, 686. Exiled Churches, The, 499. French Clergy, 329, 330. Exploit, Bold, 70. P Faith, extended, 674. Iconoclastic, 673. Falls of St. Mary, 70. Family, The, 341. Fast Days, 130, 171, 349. Fee, Rev. J. G., 471. Felt, Joseph B., 199. Fichte, 661. Fifty Cities, 743, etc. Finley, Rev. Dr. Robert, 371. Rev. J. B., D.D., 295. Rev. Samuel, D.D., 143. Finney, Rev. Charles G. , D.D., 374, 460. Fisher, Prof essor, LL. D. , 194. Fisk, ProfessoTjohn, 651, 653, 655. Rev. Ezra, 384. Rev. John, 169,681. Rev. Wilbur, D.D., 445, 462. Fitch, Hon. James, 244. Fitzpatrick, Rev. Bishop, 598. Five Nations, 58, 59. Flaget, Rev. Bishop, 329, 335, 554. Flagg, Rev. Ebenezer, 155. Fletcher, Colonel Benjamin, 35, 98. Flint, Rev. James, D.D., 493. Flogging Servants, 222. Florida, 18, 78, 291. Foot Stoves, 159. Foreign-born People, 256, 745 etc 759. Forbes, Rev. Eli, D.D., 188. Forest, Rev. Nathan, 269. Foster, Stephen S.,460. Four Days' -Meetings, 375. Fourierism, 366, 534, etc. Fouseca, Bishop of, 16. Fowler, Rev. Bishop C. H., LL.D., 581. Fox, George, 39. INDEX. 787 Fox Girls, 641. Fox River, 73. Framers of the Constitution, 317. France Aids the Colonies, 326, 327. Increase of Population, 758. Franchise in the Colonies, 199. Franciscans, The, 19, 20, 21, etc., 46, 50, 79. Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 317, 326, 351. Freedmen, The, 7ro, 711. Freedom, Religious, 68, 83, 96, 97. Free Inquiry, 766, 768. Methodist Church, The, 676. Religion, 509, 635-639. Soil Party, 472. Will Baptists, The, 211, 285, 414, 461, 483. Freeman, Rev. Bernardus, 186. Rev. James, D.D., 3or, 303, 493, 494. Freeman's fournal, 600, 602, 618. Frelinghuysen, Hon. T., 445. French and Indian War, 77, 145, 172, 195. Civilization, 757. Discoveries, etc., 44-77. Infidelity, 3i3? etc., Skeptics and Tracts, 417. Friends, 39, 228, 285. Progressive, the, 517, 625. The, and Slavery, 225, 226, 459. Frobisher, Captain, 25. Frothingham, Octavius B., 524, 630, 632, 638, 639, 665. Froude, James Anthony, 651. Fugitive Slave Law, 567. Fuller, Margaret, 505, 535. Thomas, 27 Fulton Street Prayer Meetings, 694. Funeral Customs, 212, 214. G Gallipolis, Ohio, 348. Gannett, W. C, 204. Garnishing, 346. Garrettson, Rev. Freeborn, 269. Garrison, William Lloyd, 451, 452, 453, 456, etc., 529. Gay, Rev. Dr. Ebenezer, 205, 206. Gazette, The Boston, 280. Genealogical Dictionary, 256. General Assembly Missions, 414. Genesis and Geology, 642. Genet, M., 273, 32T-323. Genius of Universal Emancipation^ The, 450. Geology and Genesis, 642. Georgetown College, 329, etc. Georgia Settled, 139. German Catholics, 81, 615, 763. Evangelical Synod, 677. Newspapers, 762. Reformed Church. 41. Seventh-Day Baptists, 42, 285. Gibbon, Edward, 195. Gibbons, Rev. Archhishop, 587. Gibson, Rev. Tobias, 296, 387. Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 25. Rev. Michael, 295. Gillett's, Rev. Dr. E. H., History of Presby terian Church, 39, 120, 136, 137, 144, 147. 323, 372, 382, 3»5, 462, 522, 676. Gilmour. Rev. Bishop, 598. Girls, Education of, 234. Given, Rev. A. F., D.D., 677. Glen, Rev. James 310, 311. Gloria in Excelsis, 14. Godwin, Parke, 536. Golden Bible, The, 539. Goodell, Rev. William, 445, 45r, 452. Goodrich, Rev. Dr. C, 377. Rev. Dr. Elihu, 277. Gookin, Daniel, T79. Gough, John B, 447. Governments, Colonial, 83-87. Graduates of Colleges, 250. Graham's History of United States, 116. Graham, Isabella, 427. Rev. William, 265. Grammar, Indian, 67. Schools, 233. Granby Prison, 345. Grand Orient, The, 318. Great Britain, Population of, 758. Greek Catholics, 677. Green, Rev. Dr. Archibald, 374. Rev. Dr. Ashbel, 265, 287, 374. Rev. Beriah, 457. Greenwood's History of King's Chapel, 302. Grier, Rev. James, z8r. Griffin, Rev. E. D., D.D., 371, 374, 408, 497. Griffith's Annals, 95, 145. Grillet, Rev. Stephen, 524. Gross, Rev. J. D., 41. Growth of Churches, 732-755. Gruber, Rev. Jacob, 449. Gutzlaff. 364. Guyot, Professor A., LL.D , 642. Half-way Covenant, The, 108, 138, 140, 150, etc., 200, etc.. 300. Hall, Gordon, 411, 412. Rev. James, D.D., 265, 288, 384. Hallock, Rev. Dr. William A., 418, 445. Hamilton, Hon. Alexander, 247, 317. Hampden and Sidney College, 249. Hancock, Hon. John, 207. Harbinger, The, 537, 629. Harmer, General, 2gr. Harper, Hon. James, 445. Hart, Rev. Dr. Levi, 251. Rev. Luther, 374. Hartley, David, 197. Hartman, Professor, 654, 657, 659. Harvard College, 130, 131, 241, 242, 495. Harvard, Rev. John, 241. Harris, Rev. T. M., D.D., 493. Harrison, Frederick, 666. Haven, Hon. Samuel, 444. Hawkins, Dexter A., 591. John, 446. Hawks, Rev. F. L., D.D., 68, 90-93, 94, 95, ri6-n8, 127, 128, 135, 136, 145, 267, 431, 432. Hawley, Rev. Gideon, 188. Hebrew College, 624. Heck, Paul and Barbara, 43. Hecker, Rev. J. T., 615, 616. Hedding, Rev. Bishop Elijah, D.D., 463. Hedge, Rev. Dr. F. H., 535. Rev. Dr. Moses, 370. Hegel quoted, 661. Henderson, Rev. Dr. Robert, 294. Henry, Patrick, IT7, 147, 316. Heresies, Laws Against. 106. Herrick, Miss Elizabeth, 452. Heterogeneous People, 759, etc. Hewett, Rev. Nathaniel, 445. 788 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Hicks, Rev. Elias, 449, 625. Hicksites, 517. Higginson, T. W., 317. Hildreth's History quoted, 100, 104, 105, 131, 297. Hinchman, David, 495. Hines, Rev. J. V., 519. Hitchcock, Rev. Gad, D.D., 492. Hoar, Rev. Leonard, 241. Hobbes, 28, 195. Hollis Professorship, 495. Thomas, 242, 438, 495. Holley, Rev. Dr., 522. Holmes, Obadiah, no. Holyoke, Rev. Edward, 241. Home Missions, 395, 396, 399, etc., 401, 403, 4°7- Homoousianity, 662. Hopedale Community, 535. Hopkins, Rev. Dr. Samuel, 205, 228, 251, 359. Governor Edward, 234. Horribile Decretum, 670. Horton, Rev. Jothan, 464, 480. Hospital, The First in Quebec, 47. Houston, Hon. Samuel, 472. Hour-glass, i6r. Howe, Mr. D. D., 641. Hubbard, Hon. Samuel, 445. Hudson, Henry, 31. Hughes, Archbishop John, 548, 54g, 551, 552, 554, 587, 596, etc. , 615 ¦ Huguenots, 19, 20, 31, 32, 33, 39, 757. Hull, Rev. Hope, 288. Hume, David, 195. Humphrey, Rev. Dr. H., 377, 378, 442. Hunt, Rev. Thomas P., 445. Huntington, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 210, 307. Lady, 211. Hurons, The, 49-52, 69. Massacre of the, 51. Hurst, Rev. Bishop John F., 668. Hutchinson, Ann, 112, 114, 131. Governor, 227. Huxley, Professor, 653. Hyde, Orson. 541. Hymns and Tunes, 164, 165. Iconoclasts, 29. Illinois Indians, 69. Illuminati, The, 318, 320. Immaculate Conception, 72, 73. 555, 556, 588, etc. Immigration, 543, 5; 1, 583. 585, 620, 643, 710, 760-762. Imprisonment for Debt. 344. Indentured Servitude, 220-222. Independence, Scotch Declaration of, 283. Independent, The, 472, 593. Independent Methodists 676. Independents, 28, 29, 88, 100. Index, The, 204, 3r7, 639. Indian Bible, 131, 177. Church Constituted, 179. Communities in Massachusetts, 179, 185. Emigration, 185, 193. Language, 180. Magistrates, 180. Massacres, 20, 56, 80, 91, 120, 121 128, 364. Missions, 133, 144, 172-193, 332-335, 404,414- Population, 173. Powwows, 178. 182. Questions to Eliot, 176. Indians and Strong Liquors, 193. and the Jesuits, 190, etc. Christian, in Virginia, 126. Condition of the, 174. Education of, 128, 177, etc., 191, etc. English Society for Education of, 176, etc. in Albany Church, 186. in France, 44 in New England, 256. Praying, 181, 18.', etc. Infallibility, Papal', 589. Infidelity, 287, 313-323, 393, 394, 521, etc, 525, 526, 529. Inimicus Libellus, 92. Instrumental Music, 165. Inspirationists, 646. Insubordination, Civil, 339, 340. Intemperance, 347, 441, etc., 772. Interior, The, 690. Intolerance, 108-124. Iowa, First Churches in, 395. Irish Catholics in Pennsylvania, 81. Irish World, The, 619. Iroquois, The. 58, etc., 63, 69, 188. Isabella, Queen, 13, 14. Italian Republics, 771. Iverson, Hon. Mr.) 562. Jackson's Centenary of Methodism, 417. Jacobins, The, 273, 32c -323. Jacobs, Mr. B. F., 692. Jamestown Founded, 27, 28. Jarratt, Rev, .Devereux, 148, etc., 267, 348. Jay, Hon. John, 33, 321-323, 331. . . Jayme, Louis. 80. Jefferson, Hon. Thomas, 243, 302, 316, 523. Jenks, Rev. William, D.D., 444. Jerks, The, 369. Jesuits, The, 18, 45, 46, 47, 48, 52, 54, 55, 58- 66, 72, 76, 80, 81. 106, 119, 120, 121, 172, 190, etc., 230, 328, 336, 544, 545, 608. Jews, The, 43, 286, 416, 624, Jogues, Father Isaac, 53, 60, 63, 64, 65, 70, 186. Johnson, Ben, 28. Oliver, 455, 456, 46g, 470. Rev. Samuel, D.D., 246. Sir William, 188. Jones, Rev. Abner, 516. Rev. Samuel P., 696. Joselyn, Rev. S. S., 460. fournql of Commerce, 599. of the Times, 454. Juarez, 19. Jubilee Volume of American Tract Society, 419- Judson, Rev. Adoniram, 411-413. Judgment, the. Future, 305, etc' K Kansas-Nebraska Trouble, 472, 567, Kant's Philosophy, 653, 654, 659, 660, 661. Keith, Mr. George, 226. Kendall, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 4g3. Kent, Chancellor, 323. Kentucky, Morals, Religion, etc., 323, 334, 382, 394, Ketchum, Hon. Hiram, 552. Kidd, Captain. 2tg. Kidder, Rev. Dr. D. P , 428. Kidnapping in England, 221. INDEX. 789 Kimball, Heber C, 541. Rev. J. C, 662. King's Chapel, 36, 301. College, 246. Mountain Affair, 272. Kirkland Rev. Dr. J. T., 444, 493. Rev. Samuel, 188. Kittery, Baptists in, in. Kitto's fournal, etc., 417. Knapp, Isaac, 455. Rev. Jacob, 374, 446. Kneeland, Abner, 211, 459, 528. Know-Nothings, 553, 586, 596. Kobler, Rev. John, 296. Labasas, 19. Lafayette, General, 475. Laidlie, Rev. Dr. Archibald, 146. Langdon, Rev. Samuel. D.D., 241, 263. Lanphere, Mr. J. C , 693. La Salle, 74, 75, 289. Lathrop, Rev. John, D.D., 203, 492. Latin School, The Boston, 233. Laws of Connecticut, 106. of Massachusetts Colony, 106. Penal, in Virginia, 89. Lay Agencies, 680, etc. Trusteeship Contest, 550-553, 555. Leavitt, Rev. Dr. Joshua, 445, 457, 469, Lectures .on Revivals, Sprague's, 371, 374. Lee, General Charles, 316. Mother Ann, 312. Rev. Jesse, 358, 426, 458, 515. Legislation, Early on Religion, 89-108. Leicester Academy, 239. Le Moyne, Simon, 186. Lessing, 509. Lewis, Professor Tayler, 658. Liberal Christian, The, 507, 627, 632, 633. Liberator, The, 454, 455, 467, 529. Liberty of Conscience, 87-89. Religious, 93, 94, 274. Lieber, Hon. Francis, LL.D., 601. Life, The Religious in Colonies, 125-152. Lilies of France, 77. Limitations of Early Charters, 86-88. Lincoln, Abraham, 568. Hon. Solomon, 206. Lindsay, Rev. John, 463. Vindication, 301, 302. Liquors, Consumption of, 447, 572, 575, 773. At Funerals, 212, 213. Litch, Rev. Josiah, 519. Litchfield Enquirer, The, 354. Literature, Infidel, 315. Livingston, Rev. Dr. J. H., 39, 146, 438. Local Preachers, 689, 739, 740. Lock, John, 121. Rev. Samuel, LL.D., 241. Logan County, Kentucky, 348. "Log College," The, 143, etc., 245. London, Bishop of, 134, 135. Company, 85, 90, 91, 127. Repository, The, 500. Londonderry, N. H., 32, 40. Long Sermons and Prayers, 165, 166, 167. Lord, Rev. John, 374, 375. Lotteries, 218, 219. Lotze, Professor, 652. Louis XIV., 71, 75- Louisiana, 75, 291, 381, 543. Lovejoy, Rev. E. P., 470. Low, Rev. Benjamin, 383. " Low Countries," Laws of, 90. Loyola, Army of, 47. Lumpkin, Hon, J. H., 445. Lundy, Benjamin, 449. Lunt, Bishop, 647. Lusson, St., Daumont de, 71. Luther, ig4, 229, 766. Lutherans, 32, 34, 41, 42, 119, 133, 134, 254, 255. 256, 285, 414, 491. Lyman, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 412. Lyons Propaganda, 327. Lysanias, 652. M Mackemie, Rev. Francis, 39, 120, 136. Madison, Hon. James, 273, 317. Rev. Bishop, 316. Magee, Rev. John, 296, 368. Rev. James, 368. Magoun, Rev. Dr., 239, 240, 250. Maguire, Hon. J. F., 615. Mail Carriers, 342. Mail, The and the Sabbath, 473, 474. Maine lnvadtdby Jesuits, 52. Law, 571. Maiden, Town of, 106, 603. Mandarin Grandeur, 69. Manhattan Island, 31. Manning, James, 249. Marechal, Rev Ambrose, 329. Marietta, Ohio, Settled, 297. Marquette, James, 71, 72, etc., 289. Marshal, Chief Justice, 35g. Martial Spirit, 264, etc. Martyrdom of Brebeuf, 51. of Jogues, 65. Marriage, 154, 163, 579, 580. Maryland Settled, 66, etc., 84, 93, 94, 96, 135, 139, T45- Mason, Hon. Jeremiah, 251. Rev. Dr. John M., 282, 438. Hon. R. M., of Virginia, 472, 562. Massachusetts Bay Colony, 29, 85, 88, 100, 101. Historical Society Collections, 121, 356. Home Missionary Society, 402, 410. Missionary Magazine, 411, 424. Massacre 01 the Hurons, 51. Materialism, 530, 654, etc. Materialistic Adventists, 520. Mather, Rev. Dr. Cotton, 131, 139, 176, 178, 179, 180, 20T, 202, 225. Increase, D.D., 137, 139, 201, 241. Mather's Magnalia, 239. Mattignon, Rev. Father, 333. May, Rev. Samuel J., 451, 452. Mayhew, Rev. Jonathan, D.D., 197, 205, 209, 210, 242, 259, 263. Mayhews. The, 175-183. Mayo, Rev. Dr. A.D., 630. McCalla, Rev. M., D.D., 486. McClintock, Rev. Dr. John, 426. McCloskey, Rev. Cardinal, 588. McGee, Revs. John and William, 368. McGlynn. Rev. Dr. Edward, 592, 602, 763. McKendree, Rev. Bishop, 369. McLend, Rev. Norman, 649. McMaster's Popular History, 238, 243, 324, 343-346. McQuaid, Rev. Bishop, 602, 616. McTyeire, Rev. Bishop, D,D., 43, 297, McWhorter, Rev. Dr. A., 401. 790 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Meacham, Joseph, 312. Meade, Rev. Bishop William, D. D., 92, 128, 134, 148, 149, 209, 217, 307, 316, 404, 423, S2i. Meeting Houses, 156-159. Mennonites, 32, 34, 42, 139, 285. Merrick, Judge William M., 617. Merritt, Rev. Timothy, 445, 514. "Messepi, The," 71. Methodism and Abolition, 358, 462, etc. and Theology, 669. in America, 42, 43. in St. Louis, 390, 391. in the West, 295, etc., 386, etc. Methodist, The, quoted, 592. Book Concern, 421, etc., 723. Economy, 403. Episcopal African Church, 478. Episcopal Church formed, 284. Episcopal Church, South, 414, 481. Home Missions, 403. Magazine, 369. Missionary Society, 404, 414. Protestant Church, 479. Quarterly Review, 424, 508, 528, 6S8, 691. Republican, 284. The and the Puritan, 480. Methodists and the Revolution, 268, etc. Metternich, Prince, 562. Mexico, Missions in, 706. Midnight Cry, The, 5ig. Milburn, Rev. W. H., D.D., 2g3. Millard, Rev. David, 517. Milledoler, Rev. Dr. Philip, 282. Miller, Rev. Dr. Samuel, 286, 370, 401, 4g4. Millerism, 518-520, 693. Mills, Rev. Jedediah, 251. Rev. Samuel, 265. Rev. Thornton A , 434. Samuel J., 377, 382, 411. Ministerial Dress, 153. Influence, 155. Ministers as Educators, 155. Congregational, 278. Education of, 250-252, 429, etc Epi-copal, 279, 280, 388. in 1770, 256. Statistics of, 733-755. The Baptist, 283. Missionaries, Female, 701. M issionary Societies formed, 364. Woman's, 701, etc. Missionary Herald, 424, 701. Missionaries, Papal, 45, etc. Missions, Baptist, 413. Episcopal, 414. Foreign 410, etc, 700-709. Free-Will Baptist, 414. Home, 710-714. in Asia, 704-5. Indian, 172-193, 414. in Europe, 703. in North America, 706, etc. in Polynesia, 705. in South America, 707. Lutheran, 414. Methodist, 414. Mexican, 706. of the World, 415. Spanish, 17, etc. Mississippi Company, 290, 291. Missouri Compromise, 567. Mitchell, Rev. Jonathan, 131. Mivart quoted, 658. Mobs and Abolition, 457. Molyneaux, Rev. Robert, 544. Monthly Anthology, The, 494. Montreal, 46-49. Monts, De, 45. Moody, Rev. Dwight L., 690, 695. Moor, Mr. Joshua, 192. Moore, Rev. Thoroughgood, 187. Rev. Thomas, 281. Moorfields, The, 142. Moot, Moot Meetings, etc., 156. Morals, 77, 128, 132, 138, 140, 141, 212-22S, 337-35°, 381, etc., 392, etc., 561-584. Moravians and the Indians, 187, 190. The, 32, 34, 42, 255, 256, 285, 292, 293. Morgan, Morgan, 148. Mormon, Book of 5 \o, 541. Mormonism, 538-542, 646-648, 649, 780. Morning Star, 'The, 425. Morris, Hon. Gouverneur, 524. Hon Robert, 524. Rev. Bishop T. A., D.D., 391. Morrison, 363. Morton, Hon. Marcus, 445. Morse, Rev. Dr. Jedediah. 205, 494. Motley, Rev. Joseph, 493. Mudge, Rev. Enoch, 309. < Mullen, Rev. Robert, D.D., 618. Murphy, Mr. Francis 696. Murray, Rev. John, 209, 304-309, 510. J. O'Kane, 604, 619, 759. Music, Church, 165. IV Nantes. Edict of, 33. Nassau Hall, 246. Natchez, First Church in, 387. Natick, Massachusetts, Settlement of, 17S-181, 193- National Temperance Society, 573. Natural Religion, 195. Naturalism, 530. Nauvoo, 542. Navigation, 363. Neale, Rev. Bishop Leonard, 330, etc., 544. Negroes, Condition of, 570. Netherlands Missionary Society, 364, Nevins, Rev. Dr., 376. Newcomb, Stillman J., 455. Newcomb's Cyclopedia, 411-413. New Divinity, 369. New England First Fruits, 131, 234. Founders of, 29. Puritan, The, 425. Romanism in, 332, etc., 752. Rum, 440. Settled, 129. Statistics of, 748, 749, 752. New Englander, The, -2-1,0, 242. Newgate Prison, 345. New Hampshire Colony, 84. New Harmony, 531. New Haven Col ny, 103. New Jersey Colony. 31, 84, g6. New Jerusalem Church, I he, 310, 311, ci8 626. ' New Life, The, 363-380, etc. New Lights, The, 203 204. New Measures, 374, 375. New Netherlands, 31. Ceded to England, 120. New Orleans, 76, 289. INDEX. 791 New Salem Academy, 23g. Newspapers, 238, 340,425, 717, etc. New West Education Commission, 64g. New York City Churches, 286. Missions, 409, 410. Evangelist, The, 425. Historical Society Collections, g7. Jesuits in, 58-66. Observer, 425, ogo. Tribune, 536. Nicholet, Jean, 6g. Nisbet, Rev. Dr. Charles, 281. Noah, Judge Mordecai, 624. Nonantum Hill, 175. Normandy, The Mariners of, 44. North American Review, The, 167, 5g3, 62g, °53- Norton, Rev. Andrews, 4g3, 4g8. Noyes, J. Humphrey, 531, 532, 533, 537. Oakes, Rev. Urian, 241. Observer, The New York, 165. Occum, Rev. Samson, 189, igi, ig2. Oglethorpe, Governor, I3g. Ohio Company, 291. Growth of, 758. O'Kelley, Rev. James, 284, 515 Old Churches of Virginia, t,^, 02. Old South Church, Boston, 36. Old World Institutions, 125. Oneidas, Mission to, 188. Opinion, Public, 771, 772. Orders of Monks and Nuns, 335, 604-5. Ordinations, 88, 157. Organic Relations of Churches, 675, etc. Osgood, Rev. Samuel, D.D, 494. Otheman, Rev. Bartholomew, 463. Otterbein, Rev. William, 38, 286. Outward Religion, 151. Owen, Robert, 486, 527, etc., 530, 578. Robert Dale, 641. Padilla, Rev. Father, 21. Paganism and the State, 82. Page, Mr. Harlan, 682. Paine, Thomas, 317, 320, 323, 341, 349, 523- 525- Palatines, The, 34. Palfrey's History of New England, 113. Palisades, The, 157. Palmer, Blind, 525. Panoplist, The, 420, 424, 442, 4g4, 4g8. Papal Funds, 18. Power Broken, 364. Parish System, Rights, etc., 102, 108, 4gg. Parker, Chief Justice, 498. Hon. Isaac, 443. Rev. Nathan, D.D., 493. Theodore, 212, etc., 470, 505 507-509, 629, etc., 636, etc., 661. Parkman, Francis, 47, 53, 54, 63, 64, 72, 77, 493. Park Street Church, Boston, 408, 497, 681. Parochial Schools, 600, 604. Parsons, Chief Justice, 356. Pastorates, Long, 155. Peabody, Miss Elizabeth, 505. Rev. Oliver, 180. Pearson on Infidelity, 640. Rev. Dr. Eliphale't, 430, 431. Pedicord, Rev. Caleb, 269. Pelagianism, 204. Penal Laws, 89, 90, 123, 345, 346. Penn, William, 32, 39, 221, 224. Pennsylvania, 32, 81, 84, g6, 136, 139. Persecution by Papists, 390. Periodicals, 424, 717. Personality of God, 506, Pessimism, 674. Peters, Hon. J. S., LL.D., 116, 226. Hugh, 117. Rev. S. A., 115, 265. Pews in Churches, 159. Phalanx, The, 536, 5, 7. Phelps, Rev. Dr. A. A., 460,470. Rev. Professor Austin, D.D., 577, 673, 695. Phillips Academy, 23g. John, 435. Wendell, 505. Phrenology, 509, 530, 650. Physicians, 154, 155. Pictures of Slavery, 453. Pierpont, Rev. James, 140. Rev. John, 445, 447. Piety, Decline of, 137. Rootless, 697. Pilot, The, 606. Pioneer Preachers, 388. Pitch-pipes Voted, 157. Plenary Council, 586-7. Plymouth Colony, 27, 29, 85, 99, 173. Pocahontas. 128, Poles. Protestant, 34. Pond, Rev. Enoch, D.D., 520. Population, Colonial, 81, 256. Problem of, 757. Roman Catholic, 614-622. Rural, 744. Post Bellum Periods, 337, etc., 572. Post, Rev. Frederick, 292. Pormont, Philemon, 237. Porter, Rev. Dr. Ebenezer, 251, 418, 442. Rev. Dr. Eliphalet, 444, 493. Potter, Rev. W. J., 632. Powder, Kegs of 158. " Power of Prayer, The," 694. Powwows, Indian, 178, 182. " Practical Infidelity Portrayed," 526. Prayer in Congress, 266, 317. Prayer-Meetings, 694, 712. Prayers, Long, 161, 165, 166. 167. Prentice, Rev. Professor George, D.D.. 508. Presbyterians and Foreign Missions, 414. and Home Missions, 401. and Publication Work, 424. and Slavery, 357, 358, 461. and the Revolution, 270, 280-283. Cumberland, 487. Growth of, 294, 295, 373, 384, 385. Irish and Scotch and Swiss, 32, 40, 137. Old School and New School, 487-489, 675, 679, 680. Persecuted, 118, 120. Reformed, 40, 487. Statistics, 282, 733, 735, 736-741. the first in United States, 39, 136. Prescott, quoted, 13. Pressed to Death, 124. Priests, Roman Catholic, 81, 622, 623, 751. Priesthood of Believers, 691, 697. Priestley, Rev. Dr. Joseph, 302, 523. Prima mail labes, 196. Prime, Rev. Dr. N. S., 442. 792 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Prime, Rev. S. Irenasus, D.D., 694. Prince, Rev. Dr. John, 493. Rev. Thomas, 132, 183. Princeton College, 144, 245, 246. Problems, 125, 126, 757-780. Progress of Ideas, 154. Prohibition of Saloons, 574. Propaganda, Papal, 327, 548, 556, 557, 615. Protestant, The, 453. Beginnings, 23, 2;, 125. Bloodshed, 20. Missions, 172-193. Statistics, 733, etc., 775-778. Proudfit, Rev. Dr. James, 282. Provost, Rev. Dr. Samuel, 279. Publication Houses, 421, etc., 717. Public Opinion, 771, 772. Pulpits, Old, 159. Pulpit, the, and the Revolution, 253. Puritans, 27, 28, 83, 122, 124, I2g-I33. Putnam, General, 2gi, 297. Rev. Dr. S. P., 662. a Quaint Stories, 25, 26, 92, 107. Quakers, The, 32, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117. 120, •36, 139, 736, etc. Quarter Millennial Anniversary, 97. Quebec Founded, 45, etc. Queen Anne's War, 55. Quitman, General, 568. H Racon Printing Office, 196. Catechism, 196. Radical, The, 639. Raikes, Mr. Robert, 426. Rale, Sebastian, 57, 121. Ramsay, 238. Randall, Rev. Benjamin, 285. Randolph, Hon. Edmund, 272, 273, 316, 565. Hon. Peyton, 266. Rapp, George, 530 Rawson, Edward, 177. Rev. Grindall, 168. Rebellion, Shay's, 272. The Whiskey, 273. Rebellions in the United States, 772. Recollects, the First Three, 46. Reed, Rev. John, D.D., 4g3. Reform Clubs, 696. Reformation, Protestant, 14, 24, 125. Reformed Associate Church, 282. Church, 38, 41,. 87, 97, 146, 254, 26g, 285. Church Manual, 270. Messenger, 425. Methodist Church, 478. Presbyterian Church, 40. Reforms, 351-360, 440, etc Reitter, Rev. E. A., 615. Religion and Antislavery, 357, etc. Decline of, 181, 138. in Colonial Churches, 87, 88, 125-152. Religious Belief, 94. Benevolence, 714. etc. Customs, 153, etc. Intelligencer, 425. Limitations, 87, 88, 276. Monthly Magazine, 509, 632, 662. Orders, 604, etc., Renan, quoted, 661. Republican Methodists, 284, 516. Republicanism, the germ of, 98. Republics, the Italian, 771. Restorationism, 307, etc., 514, 627. Retribution, Future, 305, etc. Reunion of Churches, 678, 679. Reverence, 152 Revivals, 287, 288, 693-696. in Colleges, 248, 249, 376-378. in 1800, 367-379. in New England, 132, 138, 140, etc., 371, 375. under Edwards, 141, etc., 202, etc., 300. Revolution, The, and morals, 337, etc Cost of the, 261. Revolutionizing Tendencies, 769, 770. Rhode Island Charter, 89. Rice, Rev. Dr. Asaph, 188. Rev. David, 368. Rich, Rev. Caleb, 210, 211, 307. Richards, James, 377, 411, 412. Rigdon, Sidney, 540, 541. Ripley, Mr. George, 505. Rev. Dr. Ezra, 324 493. Robinson, One-Eyed, 143. Rev. John, 173. Rodgers, Rev. John, D.D., 146, 265, 2S0. " Rogue's Harbor," 348. Roman Catholic Bishops, Lives of, 524. Regiments, 594. Total Abstinence Union, 573. Roman Catholic Church, 13, 325-336, 543, 558, 586, etc., 622. and the Indians, ^35- Estimates, 615-616. Funds, 591. Growth of, 614-623. in Baltimore, Maryland, 135, 145. in Boston, 333. in Kentucky, 334. in New England, Large Cities, 621, etc. Losses, 618-621. New York City, 331. Property, 591, 592, 595, 598. Property in United States, 614. Romanism in the West, 753, 336, 380, etc., 390. Statistics of, 558, 614. 751. " Ruling Elders," 102. Rum, 184, 212, 440. Rupp, Daniel, 484. Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 227, etc., 352, etc., 441, etc. " Sabba Day Houses," i5g. Sailor's Magazine, 415.' Sainte Familie, 48. Salaries of Ministers, 156.. San Francisco, 22, 80. • Sanger, Rev. Dr. Zedekiah, 4g3. Santa Fe-, 22, 70, 7g. Sargeant, Rev. John, 184, 185. Saunders, Rev. Dr. David C, 4g3. Savage, Rev. M. J., 634, 639. Schaff, Rev. Dr. Philip, 669. Scheme, Papal, 66. Schenectady Indians, 186. Schilling, 661. Schisms, 465, 478-490, 675, etc. Schliermacher, 663. Schmucker. Rev. Dr., 120. Scholastic and Vital Truth, 668-672. Schools, 47, 95, 171, 229, 233-240. Schwenkfelders. The, 41. INDEX. 193 Science, 642, 658-660. Scolding Punished, g2. Scott, Rev. Orange, 385, 462, 463, 470, 480. Seabury, Rev. Bishop, 27g. Seaman's Progress of Nations, 139, 256. Seamen's Societies, 415. Sears, Rev. E. H., 631, 632,6^2, Seaton, Mrs., 546. Separatists, 28, 2g, 83, 144, 483. Sermons, 154, 165, 166, 262. Servitude, Indentured, 221, 222. Seventh Day Baptists, 42, 285, 483. Sewall, Hon. S., 166, 183, 207, 206. Thomas, M.D., 447. Seward, Hon. William H., 552. Shaftesbury, Lord, 195. Shakers, 62^. _ Shakespeare, 27. Shaw, Chief Justice, 356. Shay's Rebellion, 272. Shea, J. G., 55, 78. 80, 94, 336. Shepherd, Rev. Thomas, 29, 130, 176. Sherman, Hon. Roger, 317, Shute, Rev. Dr. Daniel, 492. Siegvolck, Paul, 209. Singing in Churches, 161, etc., 164, 165. Sisterhoods, 546, 604-8. Six Nations, The, 51, 187, 188. Skepticism, 195, 196, 521, etc., 640, etc , 664, etc., 667. Slat-r, Mr. Samuel, 427. Slaughter of Huguenots, ^. Slavery, 27, 222, etc., 256, 359, 448-473, 526, .675-677, 772, 774- Sleeper, Hon. Jacob, 443. Small, Rev. Sam. W., 6g3. Smalley, Rev. Dr., 251, 252. Smallpox, i3g. Smith, Hon. John Cotton, 445. Joe, 539-542, Professor Goldwin, 651. Rev. Cotton Mather, 265. Rev. Dr. Samuel Stanhope, 281. Rev. John Blair, 281, 265. Smyth, Rev. Dr. Newman, 65g. Snell, Rev. Dr., 374. Snow's History of Boston, -232. Social Condition, 343-346. Socialism, 527, etc., 530, etc., 644, etc. Socinians and Socinianism, 195, 196, 503. Society P. G. F. P., 36. South Church, Boston, 200. Southern Col nies, 330, 334. Sounding Board, 159. Spaulding, Rev. Bishop, D.D. , 617-619. Spencer, Herbert, 656, 660. Hon. John C , 552. Rev. Elihu, 189. Spicer, Rev. Tobias, 53g. Spirit of the Pilgrims, 495. Spiritism, 640, etc. Spiritual Register, The, 641. Spirituality, 696-699. Sprague's Annals, .46, 182, 189, 243, 302, 306. Spring, Rev. Dr. Gardner, 378, 419, 475, 576. Rev. Samuel, D.D. , 399, 412. Sproatt, Rev. James, 281. St. Augustine, 18, 20, 78. St. Domingo, 330. St. Genevieve, 81. St. John's Rod, 538. St. Louis, 385, 390. St. Mary's University, 32g. Stack, William, 213. Stamford, Rev. Dr. John, 41 7. Stamp Act, 260. Standard of France, 72. of Judgment, 121-124. " Standing Order," The, no. State and Church Sundered, 273-277. .. Basis of in New England, 101. Statistics of Churches in 1775, 255-6. Later, 732-755, Stanton, Hon. Edwin M., 460. Stevens, Rev. Abel, LL.D., 284, 387, 3g5, 416, 417,421,426,463,658,691.' Stewart, Alvan, 450. Stillwellites, 47g. Stockbridge Mission, 183, etc. Stocks, Punishment in the, 92. Stoddard, Rev. Solomon, D.D., 138, 150, 201, 204. Stomach Plates, 447. Stool of Repentance, 163. Story, Hon. Joseph, LL.D., 84, etc., 773. Storrs, Rev. Dr. R. S., 681. Rev. George, 458, 463, 519, 520. Stoves in Churches, 158, etc. Stow, Rev. Baron, 4.3. Stowe, Mrs. H. B., 472. Strauss, quoted, sog, 661, 663, 665. Strawbridge, Rev. Robert, 43, 689. Streeter Rev. Adam, 210,211. Rev. Sebastian, 510. Strong, Rev. Dr. Nathan, 210, 306. Stuart, George H., 60. Rev. Professor Moses, D. D. , 494, 520, 670. Students, Pious, 130, 437, 730. Stuyvesant, Governor, 43, 120. Styles, Rev. Dr. Ezra, 245, 250, 253, 360. Sumner, Hon. Charles, 471, 473. Sunday Afternoon, The, 731. Sunday Committee in New York, 575. Documents, 477 Schools, etc., 168-170,426, 427, 428, 42g, 691, 693- The, 92, 152, 164, 214, 214-217, 340, 365, 473-477, 575, 577- Sunderland, Le Roy, 463, 464, 480. Superstitions in the Colonies, 219, 220. Swedenb >rg, Emanuel, 310, 311. Swedenborgians, 518, 626. Syllabus of Errors, 600. Synagogue, 43, 286. Synod, 40, 118, 131, 150. T Taber, Hon. Mr. , 596. Table of Discoveries, etc., 26. Tablet, The, 599, 601, 618, Taney, Hon. Roger B., 449. Tappan, Hon. Arthur, 457. John, 445. Tarbox, Rev. Dr. Increase, 151, 214, 218, 43i- " Tate and Brady," 162. Taxes for Religion, 91, 93, 95. 97, 98. Taylor, Rev. Dr. N., 670. Rev. Edward T., 416. Teachers, 102, 153. Temperance, 351, etc., 354, 365, 440-448, 555, 57^574- Tennant, Rev. Gilbert, 202, 246. Rev. William, 143, 264, 281. Territories, The, 289, etc. 794 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. Tests, Religious, 276, etc. Texas, First Churches in, 395. Thanksgivings, 130, 166, 171. Thatcher, Rev. Daniel; 288. Rev. Peter, 151. Thayer, Rev. Dr. Nathaniel, 493. Rev. John, 333. Theaters, 342. Theological Seminaries, 329, 430, 437, etc. , 437- 439, 73Q- Theology, Purification of, £68. Thirty Years' War, The, 27. Thompson, Hon. George, 463, 466, 470. Rev. Dr. J. P., 103, 472. Thoreau, quoted, 665. Throat Epidemic, 139. Thurston, Rev. David, 460. Times, New York, 591. Todd, Rev. John, 146. Toleration, Religious, 35, 94, 107. Tories and "Whigs, 337. Torrey, Rev. Charles T. , 468, 470. Tortures by Indians, 61, etc., 65. Total Abstinence, 446. Town Meetings in New England, 156, 157. 1'ract Magazine, 425. Tract Societies, 364, 416, etc., 477. Transcendentalists, 504-506, 629, 633. Transylvania Company, The, 291. University, 323, 522. Treadwell, Governor John, 412. Treat, Rev. Samuel, 181. Tree of Liberty, 321, 32 . Tribune, The A'ew York, 536. Trinity, The, 196, 304, 672, 671. True Reformed Dutch Church, I he, 486. Trumbull, Dr. Jonathan, 138. Governor, 579. J. Hammond, 168-170. T?-umpet, 7 he, 307, 511. Tuckerman, Rev. j., D.D., 445, 493. Tunkers, 'I he, 42. T uns, The, 156. Turner, Rev. Richard, 288. Twining, Rev. Dr. C. F., 731. Tyler. Rev. Dr. Bennett, 371, 670. Tyndall, Professor, 655, 656. Tything-Men, 161, 162. Ueerweg, 194. Ultramontanism in America, 592. Uncas, 178. Unchastity in Colonies, 217, 218. Unitarianism, 196-208, 302, 303, 498, 628-635. in Boston, 492, 496, 497. Statistics of, 635. Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, 676. Meetings, 299 Plan of, 386, 488. United Brethren, 38, 286. United Presbyterian Church of North America, 079. United States Gazetteer, 295. Unity of Churches, 679. Universalism, 209, 304, etc., 510-515, 626-628. Universalist, The, 307. u University of Henrico,' 230. of Pennsylvania, 249. Upheaval in Europe, 24, Usher, Archbishop, 28. Utah, Churches in, 649. Vaill, Rev. Joseph, 400. Vanderlip, George M., 686. Verbi Dei Minister, 154. Vexilla Regis, 71. Vibratory Movements, 673. Vickers, Rev. Thomas, 632. Villeinage, 220, 222. Vincennes Founded, 81. Vincent, Rev. John H., D.D., 692. Vinton, Rev. J. A., 103. Virginia Colony, 30, 84. Colony Legislation in, 89-93. Company, 128. Council, 126, 129; Indians in, 189. Religion in, 126-128, 134, 145, 147-150. Sons of, 243. Visits, Religious, 712. Voltaire, 374, 417, 661, 697. Voluntary Principle, 83. Voyages, English, 24-27. Spanish, 13-20. W Waban, 175, 180. Wabash region, 290. Waddell, Rev. James, 281. Wadsworth, Rev. Benjamin, 241. Wages, 344, 645, 646. Walker, Rev. Jesse, 381, 387, 389, 390. Walworth, Hon. R. H., LL.D., 445. Ware, John, M.D., 444. Rev. Henry, D.D., 20S, 439, 493, 494, 5P4- 506. Warren, J. Collins, M.D., 443, 535. Rev. W. F., D.D., LL.D., 523, 530, 650. Washington and Lee University, 249. General, 249, 284, 328, 340, 341, 565. Washingtonian Reform, Ihe, 446. Watchma?i. 7 he, 425, 480, 686. Waters, Rev. Francis, D.D., 479. Watertown, Massachusetts, Church in, 130. Watts, Hon. Francis O., 686. Wayne, General, 291. Wealth, Increase of, 699. of Churches, 716. of United States, 715. Webb, Captain, 43, 689. Webster, Miss Delia, 471. Rev. Noah, 494. Weld, Theodore D., 450, 466, Wells, Rev. William, D.D., 493. Wentworth, Governor, 248. Wesley and Temperance, 351, etc. Followers of, 42. Rev. John, 42, 43, 190, 226, 228,268, 309, 4.6, 426. Wesleyan Books, 421. Journal, 425. Quarterly Review, 464, Revival, 416. Schism, 465. West India Company, 31, 87, 97, 133. Rum, 440, West, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 185, 492. The, 292, 753. Western Reserve, 292 Westfield Academy, 239. Westminster Assembly, 105. Review, 762. Whatcoat, Rev. Bishop, 284. Whedon, Rev. Dr., D.D., 463. INDEX. 795 Whelan, Rev. Father, 331, 334. Wheelock, Rev. Dr. Eleazar, 189, 191, 192, 248, 251- Rev. John, 248. Whining Tones, 152. Whipple, Edwin P., 133, 655. Whisky Rebellion, 273. Whitaker, Rev. Alexander, 127, 128, Rev. James, 312. White, Andrew, 66, etc. Hon. Joseph, 238. Rev. Bishop William, 266, 279, 426. Whitefield, Rev. Gsorge, 43, 140, 142, etc., 144, 202, 206, 211, 226. Whittemore, Rev. Thomas, 307, 510. Whittier, quoted, 359. Wickenden, Rev. William, 120. Wigglesworth, Edward, 163. Wilberforce, Bishop, 172. Willard, Rev. Samuel, 241. William and Mary, 85, 135. William and Mary College, 135, 230, etc., 242, 243, 3l6, 521- Williams College, 411. Williams, Roger, 112, 113, 123, 240. Wilson, Hon. Henry, 355, 357, 3X, 45J. Winans, Rev. Dr. William, 38S. Winchester, Rev. Elhanan, 304- 3C9, 510, 672. Winebrennerians, 484, etc. Winship, Rev. A. E., 646. Winslow, Edward, 177. Winsor, Justin, LL.D., 109. Winthrop, Governor, 29, 106. Winthrop's fournal, 128, 132, 133. Wisconsin, First Churches in, 395. River, The, 70, 73. Wise, Rev. Daniel, D.D., 428. Witherspoon, Rev. Dr. John, 246, 264. Witchcraft, 219, 224, 104. Witness, New York Daily, 595. Wolfe, General, 290. Wood, Rev. Aaron, 386. Woods, Rev. Leonard, D.D., 444, 494. Woman's Christian 1 emperance Union, 573, 696. Work, 688, 689. Women's Crusade, 573. Missions, 701, 702. Women Ducked, 92 Worcester, Rev. Dr. Noah, 493. Rev. Dr. Samuel, 311, 412, 443, 444, 518, 598. World's Temperance Convention, 447. Worship, Attendance on, 216, etc. Freedom of in New York, 97. Neglect of Punished, 116. Puritan, 161, etc. Yale College, no, 244, etc , 301. Infidelity in, 319, 320. Revivals in, 376, etc. Rules of, 245. Yale, Rev. Cyrus, 444. Elihu, 244. Yancey, Hon. Mr., 568. Yearly Meetings, 39. Years of Labor, 712. Yeomans, Professor, 666. Young, Brigham, 542. Rev. Benjamin, 386, 387. Rev. Jacob, 381. 387. Men's Christian Association', 685-687, 6gs, 747- Women's Christian Association, 68g, 747. Youth's Companion, 7 he, 425. Zeisberger, Rev. DaviJ. 203. Zion's Herald, quoted, 3og, 425, 463. Watchman, 463. YALE UNIVERSITY _. a39002 00268728itb ,..;¦•¦ ¦1 ;-¦:¦:¦ •>.v.r-^--~. iK^SSsKv. ¦:.;¦-: I • " ¦Ife